#Concrete batching plan

[atlas-industries]

Characteristics of concrete batching plant - Atlas Industries

Atlas make concrete batching plants are important part of equipment list.Key of characteristics of concrete batching plants. The body of the compact concrete batch plant by Atlas. Read major component of the concrete mixer for sale.

[twstddream]

Prologue: Trapped in the book with Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas

It was just one of those nights. The branches of the tree outside tapping your window had lulled you into a disquieting state of mind. Grim had already long since fallen asleep, his paws occasionally smacking your face from his tossing and turning. You know what a night like this means. The sheets were wrangling you tighter and tighter in their grasp the more you twisted and rolled around. The room all at once alternated between being far too hot, scorching and searing your body from under the covers, to dropping to freezing temperatures; threatening to bathe you in unforgiving cold. It was too much. This is your punishment for staying awake. Dreaming was inevitable; your resolve would eventually break. And the cracks were starting to form.

As with any of these prophetic dreams of yours, it starts with a tug in your chest, like your very soul is being handled and hurtled across a space unconfined by the rules and logic that your world (well, your original world, anyway) follows and holds so dearly. Screaming queens, brooding lions, and silver-tongued merfolk have haunted your rest since your arrival in Twisted Wonderland. The parallels between these "historic" moments and the frenzying situations that your dear friends have endured have become a spectral guilt that haunts and befuddles you. When the next batch of dreams (and troubles) began, you opted to use these dreams as a means to tackle the next inevitable Overblot (the pattern was pretty easy to pick up on.) Plans of a coup, the poisoning of an innocent youth, and the crushing weight of grief-filled sabotage were far too great a problem for you to solve. However, a seeded feeling of rage blooms in your soul; you love your friends, old, new, and friends yet-to-be. But these struggles should never have escalated to this level, these kids should have never been made to suffer as they did. But a selfish, spiteful part of you claws its way to your throat, releasing itself as a strangled cry and harrowing thought of "But why do I have to deal with it?". You're not proud of these thoughts, but you can't fault yourself for having them. There are plenty of authority figures that could solve these larger-than-life problems, or at least prevent feelings bubbling over into concrete plans and motives. All of these possible avenues for help, and yet it's humble old you who is elected as the pointman; scouting out the (literal) charged fields of ardor and contempt for life that bleeds out as ink does from a busted quill. All of this is placed upon your crumbling shoulders, and yet you're not even allowed to dream in peace. The forceful draw of your soul slowly degrades into a weightless sensation, this indelible force delicately discarding your body and laying you parallel to the ground. What seems like water ripples below you; but you know better. The blots of ink closing in on your form and bleeding into the surface you lay on aren't the heavy force that water is. It's not nearly as sage or inspiriting. It ebbs and flows in a way that consumes all it touches, leaving nothing but a depthless emptiness that embitters all who tread near. And when the tide flows in, you're swallowed whole; pushed through the ground you thought to be a safe-haven.

 These glimpses of that past are hard to describe. It's like looking through a mirror, the surface ripples with ink as the scene changes before you, but you're also trapped. Akin to a mime trapped in their box, you're confined to these four walls, if you can even call them that; pressing your hand against these transparent walls results in a disgusting squelch, with thick gooey strings of ink connecting to your fingers and palm. A majority of it slips and splatters onto the ground (again, you're not sure what to call it) below. The texture is wet but not sticky, and of that you're thankful; you'd hate to have the frigid, thick substance cling to your hands for the remainder of the dream. Returning your attention to the scene playing before you, flashes of a decrepit town illuminated by an all-consuming moon floods your vision. Rustic lanterns line the cobblestone streets, seldom providing even a dim glow from the strange flames trapped inside. As what can be described as none other than monsters march into view and head towards what you can assume is the town plaza, tugging along a scarecrow sat atop a straw horse. From the equestrian throne the scarecrow does move, swiping an offered torch from an awestruck witch.  Brilliant flames engulf the living scarecrow, wherein an immaculately dressed… Skeleton emerges? Eh, not the strangest thing you've seen in these dreams. Time flashes forward as he slinks away from the adoring crowd vying for his attention. The apparent Mayor of this town accidentally comes to his rescue with the promise of awards for the swarming crowd. A very esteemed tradition, you suppose.

The surface to your right projects the image of this supposed king lamenting his woes; singing of his isolation among his town, the dull life this crown of his has brought him. Though, he doesn't seem to be as alone as he believes, as a yipping ghost of a dog nips at his heels, seeking to comfort its owner. A bonus to your omnipresent view of their world allows you to also spot a patchworked ragdoll watching from behind a, frankly, oversized tombstone. This Pumpkin King, Jack, you fathom a guess of his name, seems to be blind to what's in front of him. Though, that's not his fault, not at all. It seems his heart (does he even have one?) is guarded, tired of the infinite compliments and praise thrown his way. But not being noticed in the way he wishes. This ragdoll woman seems too afraid to reach out to him any farther than a simple comfort. These incredibly professional diagnoses of the situation seem far simpler than any other problem you've faced before. This Jack gentleman seems well-adjusted and- oh he just stole countless objects from the North Pole. Cool. How'd he even get there? And oh! He's studying Christmas, neat. Could've done without the theft, in your opinion. But he seems happy. Good for him.. And he just ordered the kidnapping of Santa Claus. Spectacular. Squinting your eyes shut, only one thought comes to mind 'Gods above can I please just solve the problems of a normal person for once?' And yet it seems you've angered the divine powers that be, for the box of mirrors and ink you've been trapped in for the past ten minutes starts to shake violently, throwing you off-kilter and forcing your forehead to slam into the glossy surface in front of you, shattering it upon impact. 

As with any of these prophetic dreams of yours, it ends with a hypnic jerk. But the fickle gods above were not finished with you. Because apparently the spiral hill surrounded by tombstones and the esoteric town crowded with citizens you can't even begin to describe wasn't enough. So fate bestowed upon you one last parting gift in the form of fervent devotion.

-------

The void around you is immediately illuminated by an ignited flame, your form is being cradled gently by a figure, the proximity providing a delicious warmth and a blooming sensation spouting from your chest. The soft brush of his gloved fingers trail up and down your arms as he leans in even closer to speak. His ashen-white hair tickles your cheek as he leans towards your ear, his ministrations halting, instead turning into a soft grip.

"Good evening, lovely. A kiss for this fine meeting."

His voice is boy-ish, yet oozing with the conviction and confidence of royalty. His lips purse themselves against the tip of your ear, giving you a gentle kiss. And in a flash he pulls his face away from yours, but still hovers over your frame. This stranger seems as open as a book, as his face pinches from a self-imposed question, his furrowed brow tightens above his sunglasses. It seems straightforward; he seems straightforward, but something lurks behind those round sunglasses of his, something that tells you to run. But it's those same spectacles that draw you in, surrendering yourself to his delicate hold. Soaking in this gentle affection can't be so bad, right? Basking in a hug this tender from a stranger couldn't possibly be wrong, could it?

 Rash. Foolhardy. Sympathetic. Those are the words you'd use to describe the hugs and holds you've received from the denizens of NRC. Affection to placate you, but mostly to soothe the giver. The hugs from your friends, your close friends, are few and far between. You can't fault them for shying away from showing affection, especially to someone considered just a friend by most. It's been so long since you've been held just for the sake of being held, cradled with a gentle care only because someone wishes to. And perhaps that slight romanticization of basic needs being met is what leads you to deflate in this complete strangers' grasp. What you'd do for some head scritches right about now…

His voice breaks the relaxed silence.

"Tell me, do you happen to know of Halloween?"

Of course you do. NRC loves Halloween. Your home-world loved Halloween. You love Halloween. Yet in spite of the truth, your body mechanically shakes its head into the man's chest.

His barely-there hold grows manic, he's desperate and clawing at you, digging his slender fingers and pointed nails into your shoulder. Your breath staggers as he draws blood through your shirt. The sound of tearing leather and sensation of blood dripping down his hand must be what snaps him out of this manic state. He slowly retracts his hands from you, making a show of his retreating bloodied gloves, conveying a silent promise. You find you miss the warmth.

"... You don't? Ah, we can't have that."

"Halloween means terror,"  he continues, skeletal gloved hands flying to cup his own cheeks.

"Halloween means admiration." With hands climbing down to grasp at his chest he gives a large smirk, allowing you a glimpse of his missing teeth. Cute.

"Halloween means nightmares." Once again he matches his words with a display; this time raising his hands high, and flexing his fingers, mimicking a clawed hand. His smirk somehow grew, his face squeezing to what must be uncomfortable lengths . Unclenching his fingers, he extends not just his arm, but his whole body towards you, beckoning you to take his outstretched hand. After a moment passes with no response from your end, his manic grin softens to something smaller, something affable. Though you wish you could see his eyes. His arm and hand stays invited to you, but the pressure to accept has lessened considerably.

"Until this night has run its course, I shall teach you…" the boy looks through you, beyond your corporeal form and gazes adoringly into the blackness behind you.

"This is Halloween." The words tumble from his lips, but he doesn't seem to notice that he's speaking at all.

"This too is Halloween.." Whatever has a hold on his mind takes over his body as well, as he broadens his arms outwards, palms facing upwards and shoulders held taut; the spitting image of a prophet.

"Yes, this is…" at once he advances towards you, catching you in his arms and holding you impossibly tight. His arms easily wrap around your neck, and he grips the opposite wrist with his hands, securing you further into his clutch. He pulls his arms and elbows in such a way that your neck must be craned up to feel comfortable. Just as he wanted; as his round sunglasses slid down his nose enough to reveal his eyes. The beautiful orange entranced your whole being, sparks flying and flickering in those eyes of his, reminding you of the concealed flames hidden inside a Jack O Lantern. The closeness of his face doesn't bother you, even as the tip of his nose pokes the bridge of yours, and even as the whisper of his breath dances on your lips.

"It must be…" Ever closer he leans, his rounded sunglasses fogging from the excited breath exhaled between you two.

"This is Halloween!" The blink of his eyes sends you tumbling backwards and downwards as the solid ground beneath the both of you dissipates. His grip on you loosened from the surprise, only able to barely graze your fingertips as you fell at an accelerated pace. That small touch however, felt like an eternity. A silent promise conveyed to see you again. You know he wants to meet again, the terror and worry in his eyes directed towards you says it all. With his eyes finally disclosed to you, he becomes as easy to read as a book.

Yes. You will meet again. This is Halloween, afterall. And Halloween promises horror. Halloween promises devotion. Halloween promises miracles.

Folding your hands and pressing them to your chest, you feel yourself being to smile. It's simply meant to be.

[eriexplosion]

Okay so one thing I've noticed about the way Tech is discussed is terminology. And I've pointed it out before, but as far as I've heard, no one has actually ever called him dead - even in sentences where it would be reasonable to use it. It's always he sacrificed himself or he's gone or he's lost.

For a long, LONG while, none of the databank entries for the batch were updated all the way through the end of season 2. But I checked today and once the trailer dropped, they had been updated! And for the first time, I saw Tech referred to as 'killed' on an official anything. Specifically, Hunter's character page.

But, what's interesting is... this is the only place that refers to it like that. On Hunter's page, it says Tech was killed.

On Echo and Wreckers, it says he's 'Lost'

And on Omega and Tech's it says he 'sacrificed himself'

And we know that these euphemisms aren't needed! They can just write that he was killed, they just did it on Hunter's page! But they use the kind of sideways language anyway - it's almost like Hunter's saying Tech was actually killed was an oversight or even a representation of how he assumes it went down, because it's the only place in 10 months I've found that actually says he was killed. And that's... weird.

Because it's actually not unusual that even if a character is planned to return, in the interim, everyone just says they're dead. They really triple down on it a lot of times, yeah that guy is totally dead and gone, never coming back. Whether he was dead OR alive, there should be no problem saying it upfront, but if he was dead why on Earth would everyone be avoiding the word like this, to the point that the first time he's referred to as Killed in anything official it's on one databank page for an entirely different character? I have never seen that happen for a dead guy.

Also, Tech's entry is the vaguest of them all. He Sacrificed Himself and Plummeted out of Sight. I mean yeah, yeah he did do that, in the strictest sense.

But what's interesting about using sacrifice here in particular is that there's one other place that it's used.

Ventress' updated databank entry.

Pre-Monday, this entry said that she gave her life for Quinlan, as soon as we find out she's alive though it gets updated to 'sacrificed herself' making it immediately clear that sacrificed doesn't necessarily mean dead for good.

What does all this mean? Maybe nothing! Maybe it's all just coincidence that it's referred to this way. But after 10 months of dodging around a clear answer and reusing the same shot of him falling rather than giving us a single concrete indication that he's actually dead? It's fishy.

[jq37]

Seeing you describe your opinion on Wish (the movie itself) as "def do have oh boy" just has me curious now. What is it?

OK, so I let this sit in my inbox for a while because I planned to see Wish and I figured that it would be more fair to wait until I had a full picture of what the movie was before I started talking about it and...yeahhhhhhh having seen it my opinion has not changed. It's just intensified. 

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW (lol, this got past 7k words)

And, fair warning, it's pretty critical so if you don't want to read something critical about this movie then this is your exit.

tl;dr: I think the movie Wish fails at basically everything it sets out to do and it's an absolutely awful 100th Anniversary movie for Disney. 

When I say it fails at everything, I mean EVERYTHING*. I'm going to break this into sections for organizational purposes. 

*The one thing I'll give it a slight pass on is the art style which I don't love but also wasn't like make or break for me. I would have preferred true 2D or a better implementation of the blended 2D/3D style, but if the movie was otherwise of the quality of something like Spiderverse or Puss in Boots, the animation wouldn't have bothered me. Like, I watched S1 of The Dragon Prince with no problem. I can forgive janky animation--and it wasn't even super janky. Just odd. What I can't forgive is literally everything else about the movie. 

Characters

How is this movie so full of characters and yet devoid of characters that matter? There are a million characters in this movie and basically only two of them matter: The King and Asha. But neither of them are compelling in any meaningful way.

There's a lot of to do about the last batch of Disney protags being very same-y in a quirky, all fluff and no substance way and I don't really buy into that. I don't think that Raps, Anna, Moana, and Mirabel are palate swapped carbon copies of each other. They have unique backgrounds and struggles and motivations. I feel like they're all quirky, sure. But they all also have an identity BEYOND being quirky. 

I do NOT get that with Asha. I don't feel like I have a good idea of what makes her tick at all. Like, she's kind. She wants her grandpa to get his wish. She wants to be the King's apprentice so she can help people. The queen (we'll get to her) exposits to us that she cares about people. But being kind isn't in itself an entire personality. The way Mulan is kind (defying the law to spare her father the ravages of war in his old age) isn't the same way as the way Cinderella is kind (making clothes for her mouse friends and protecting them from the cat). Asha just has a generalized want to help people, which is an admirable trait, but doesn't give us much to latch onto. It's so telling to me that in a movie called "Wish" our main character's wish is just, "To have more than just this" And yes, Disney princesses wanting "more" is literally their whole thing, but it's always more specific than that. Mirabel wants to prove herself to her family. Rapunzel wants to experience life beyond her tower. Even Snow White--the Disney princess with the flimsiest story--wants to find her true love. That's a concrete motivation! Asha doesn't feel real to me as a character. It feels like the thing that drives her is that the plot needs to happen and that's it. 

The other important character in the movie is King Magnifico who was supposed to be a return to form for Disney in introducing another classic villain but he just fails at that so hard. The idea that he could stand toe to toe with any of the OGs like Lady Tremaine or Scar or even the latest villains like Dr. Facillier or Mother Gothel is laughable. He just doesn't have any gravitas. And his characterization is so odd. You can tell that they were trying to give him a "reasonable man doing unreasonable things for a good reason” backstory (both because of some images in the film and some stuff in interviews I read) but then they just...don't actually give the backstory? Like, they imply that the backstory exists but I don't remember them going into it at all. Which like, he doesn't NEED a tragic backstory. He can just be doing what he's doing because he's evil. Ursula didn't need a reason to want to rule the seas. She's just a boss bitch and she wants power. I don't need to dissect that any further. BUT if you tell me there’s a reason your villain is doing something, I need to see that reason. I don't understand why they would include that in the movie, just to do nothing with it. 

Beyond that, he's written in such a weird way. Like, despite the "maybe he has a point" angle they seem to want to go with, he's very obviously a self-absorbed ruler--like he'll say things like, "Yeah, I am super handsome" to his wife--which immediately dumps him into the camp villain category. But he's doing the controlling things he does in the movie of his own accord to get people to stick to the status quo he set up. Fine. That's a fine thing for a camp villain to be doing. But then, at a certain point in the movie, he just uses a forbidden magic evil book (which he has for some reason) that just fills him with evil, green magic and makes him 100% unhinged all of a sudden. And that's just...boring? Like, anything interesting you might have been able to do before that point about power and control and how sometimes you make a wrong choice with good intentions is just gone at that point. It sucks because there were a lot of right answers here. You could just make him evil because he's evil. That works. You could have him be seriously convinced that what he's doing is right and be willing to do whatever he needs to do to keep things that way. That works. You could say that he started out trying to be morally upright and then slid into enjoying the praise and control just a bit too much--and I think maybe that's what they were going for. But it does not come across that way. He just seems like a dick to the point where you're kinda questioning how he's pulling any of this off. Asha asks him one question and he flies off the handle. How does everyone not know he's an asshole if it takes so little to fluster him?

So I don't like our main hero or villain. But there are still SO MANY CHARACTERS in this movie. 

You've got Asha's SEVEN FRIENDS. Yes, SEVEN. they're based off of the seven dwarves, which is cute enough but do you know what happens when you give the hero seven sidekick characters? None of them get developed at all and you have to treat them like a unit. Only two of them matter at all--Dahlia (her best friend and the one who actually does more than just make dumb jokes or, worse, nothing at all) and Simon (the one who betrays them--more on that later). There is no story reason for them to have shoved in this many sidekicks. Especially since she also has…

Her animal sidekick, Valentino. Who is a very cute goat until he gets sprinkled with stardust and boom. He can talk. Which immediately made me like him less. Flounder he aint. The whole joke with him is that he's a baby goat with a rich, deep, baritone voice. That's it. Almost every joke he makes is either about that or his butt. Boo. 

Then, there's the Queen--Queen Amaya--who is such a NOTHING character. There's no effort made to build up her relationship with the king so that her flipping on him later has an emotional impact. I have no idea what she cares about or desires. When she shows up, she's basically acting like the king's secretary, which is weird. I don't think that's what a queen does. There's a moment during a later song when she joins the "revolution" and it just has zero impact because again, it's like, I don't know who you are in any significant way! She seems nice, and I would love to live somewhere ruled by someone boring and benign, but that makes for an awful movie character. 

I almost wrote "lastly, there's the star" because I totally forgot about Asha's mom and grandpa. They're in this movie too but even though Asha's whole motivation at the start of the movie is getting her grandpa's wish granted, we never get a good idea of what their relationship is. They have like, one quick scene at the top which tells us nothing, then they're in a crowd scene later, then Asha has dinner with them later the same day and that's it. And, again, we get nothing significant. Compared to something like Mulan where you have a good idea of what Mulan's relationship is with every member of her family by the time the military order comes in or Encanto where between the musical number at the top and the first group scene, you get an entire picture, this is really weak. Again, so weak that I completely forgot that they were even in this movie. 

And NOW lastly, there's the star. Who is like, cute enough but he really makes me annoyed because I've seen the original concepts and they would have been so much more interesting! That's the case for the queen too, so I'll talk about both of them together here. 

I am sorry to inform you if you didn't already know but the queen was originally supposed to be evil too.

She was supposed to be a part of an evil power couple with Magnifico and how dope would that have been? We've never gotten that from Disney before. Imagine! Disney Villain Song Duet! A Hot couples costume for next Halloween! An actual relationship that's developed in this movie! But nope. They unflavor-blasted her into the paper thin, placeholder of a character we have in the movie. 

And the Star went through a couple of concepts. One, was the spirit of her dead grandpa, taking a younger form, which isn't my fave one but it at least would give her a relationship with this person who is supposedly an important person in her life, something we don't have in the movie right now. My favorite alternate concept is that originally, the Star was supposed to be her celestial love interest. And listen, anyone who's followed me for long enough knows that I am a big advocate for platonic relationships and FRONTING platonic relationships. I don't think that a story needs a romantic relationship to be compelling and I think forcing one in almost always makes it worse. But there is NO central relationship in this movie to carry it. Asha has too many friends for any one of them to make a serious impact so it's not a friendship story. Her mom and grandpa are nothing characters, so it's not a family story. She interacts with the star a lot, but that's basically just her talking to herself because the start doesn’t talk. So nothing is really there to latch onto. If they'd decided to go with the romance angle, it would have forced them to focus on at least ONE relationship and it would have been a nice way to throwback to classic Disney movies from the past. Much better than just sticking her with SEVEN WHOLE USELESS FRIENDS. Literally, all they provide is backup vocals in the fight song. Special Dishonorable Mention to Gabo. Man I hate that dude. 

So, to recap this section, Asha's personality is only sketched out in the loosest possible way, King Magnifico is entirely half-baked, and there are so many side characters that no one can form meaningful relationships with each other. And it's really a shame because (1) they very easily could have pared down the cast and (2) very recently Disney put out Encanto which handles a large cast beautifully. There are a ton of Madrigals but I can tell you what the deal of each and every one is. This could have been done well and they fumbled so hard. 

Concept

OK, so next up is the general plot and concept. This story takes place in the city of Rosas which is ruled by King Magnifco. It is supposedly a paradise, but much like a YA dystopian novel, it has a twist: When you turn 18, Magnifico takes your wish away from you and puts in in his wish room with the promise that it might be granted at one of the monthly wish granting ceremonies. Once your wish is taken from you, you are "unburdened" and you're "free" from having to pursue it. You don't even remember what it was. 

There's a kernel of something interesting there. A ruler making his subjects docile, placid zombies that won't challenge him by taking away their ambition? That's interesting. People willingly giving away a part of their heart to dull the pain of trying and failing? Interesting. Someone doing this with no ill intent, but rather genuinely thinking that this half-existence is better than the heartbreak of the alternative? Interesting!

But the actual implementation of this idea? Ughhhhhh. 

So first off, just logistically, Magnifico grants one wish a month more or less (Asha says once a month and in his villain song, he said he granted 14 wishes "last year"). So like, realistically, most of these people have to know their wishes will never be granted, right? Because of like...how math works? Asha acts like it's a big shock when she learns that most wishes won't be granted but like girl...math. 

Secondly, there are two moments that are meant to imply that having your wish taken away turns you into a shell of yourself. Asha's friend (who betrays her) Simon is said to be all sleepy and more boring since he turned 18 and had his wish taken. And then, later in the movie, we see two new residents have their wishes taken, and they look a little disturbed after it happens. But, here's the thing. NO ONE ELSE IN THE MOVIE ACTS LIKE THAT. Asha's mom and grandpa act like normal people. So do all the other characters. It’s not consistent enough to establish that this is what’s on the line. Does taking your wish away make you a robot or not?

And does everyone just have one wish? I know I could fill a full sheet of paper, front and back, with things that matter very dearly to me. If you took away my wish to write for TV someday, that would still leave my wishes to travel the world and get a comic book adaptation of one of my novels and a whole lot of other things! Does taking your main wish away make you lose your ability to form new wishes? Logistically, how does any of this work? And you can't just say, "It's a metaphor. Don't think too hard about it," because there's a scene where the citizens start asking these questions. Like, "What happens if we have a new wish than from when we initially made it?" As if having unnamed side characters ask the questions first will alleviate the need to answer them. It's not lamp shading at that point. You're just being lazy. 

Also, this is more a me thinking about the implications too hard than an actual plot problem but if he's taking the wishes at 18 I feel like a lot of peoples' greatest desire at that stage in their life is, "I want a romantic partner." And if the central conceit of this premise is that once your wish is taken, you stop wanting to pursue it then the city of Rosas is gonna have a population Collapse problem very soon. 

The characters--especially Asha--get so emotional about wishes. It's like they're giving a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic speech every time they talk about it (except MLP has MUCH better writing). It's bizarre to see Asha's mom get her wish back and be like, "Oh my wish. My precious wish!" when she doesn't act any differently than a normal person before or after she has it back (Sidenote: She says this and she's holding the wish ball but we never see what that wish is and that's maddening. Why do I know what the dream of every patron in the Snuggly Duckling is, but they didn't show that? Ridic.) It almost is like, being in contact with a wish ball is a quasi-religious experience that drives the characters’ actions (Asha and the King are both totally enraptured while singing together in the Wish Room), but because we, the audience, are very much not in contact with the wish balls, we're not getting ANY of that. 

Anyway, to recap this section: the central premise of how wishes work and how taking them affects people is not treated consistently or explained well, which makes the stakes feel very undefined and sloppy. 

Pacing

This has to be its own section, because it's the thing that baffled me most when I watched this movie. So, here's the setup. Asha is going to interview for the internship with the king. She wants to help people and she has the secondary motive of wanting to try and get her 100-year-old grandpa's wish granted because he's not getting any younger. 

Here is the entire sequence: Asha is led into the interview by Queen Amaya. Asha is awkward but makes a good enough first impression that Magnifico is moved to show her the wish room (for some reason). They sing a duet about the wishes where they’re both dazzled by the Wish balls. During the song, Asha finds her Grandpa's wish and after the song, she asks him to grant it. He looks at the wish and says while she has good intentions, it's too dangerous to grant--as are most wishes. She asks why not give them back then and he immediately flies off the handle and starts ranting about how HE decides which wishes get granted and what everyone deserves! 

Their first meeting and him showing his true colors happens in the SAME SCENE. It's like 7-10 minutes and they just RUSH through all of that. And it's like, why? Did they really need to get to that dumbass star song (we'll get to that) faster? 

I know that he isn't a twist villain so we don't need to keep the fact that he’s the bad guy under wraps. And, the way the story is structured, she needs to learn what he's doing before she can rebel against him. But it's not gonna be a big, impactful moment if you're rushing from beat to beat like this is an essay that's due in twenty minutes and you started five minutes ago. 

And it really makes you wonder, if Asha can blow the whole lid off this conspiracy within ten minutes of meeting this guy, why is this not happening more often? Between how obviously smarmy the King is, how paltry the wish granting system is, and how easily Asha was able to start asking questions and get him to blow his top (something that happens again later when the citizens start asking question–it literally drives him into his villain song) I don't believe that this wouldn't have happened earlier (Sidenote: Finding out that it HAD happened earlier and that Asha is the latest in a line of failed apprentices who questioned him? More interesting premise). 

So to recap: I have no idea why this movie is paced like this but it's not doing it any favors. 

Humor

Humor is very subjective so you can take this with a huge grain of salt but I think this is a deeply unfunny movie. 

The jokes fall into about three main categories:

(1) Quirky Humor: This is like Asha babbling and tripping over her words. The scene in the trailer where she's like, "Is my face drooping?" is a good example. It's not really a joke but it's clearly an attempt at humor that I don't think meets the mark. It's also in the songs with, for instance, the animals or the King saying slang that doesn't match how they talk or you'd expect them to talk at all and it just feels deeply incongruent, not funny. 

(2) Referential Humor: This is probably what bothered me the most because it was just so so very eye-roll inducing. And listen, I love a good reference. Enchanted is my favorite movie of all time. I don’t begrudge them for putting a few references in their 100th Anniversary movie. But ugh. There is a scene after the king's gone crazy where he's destroying wish bubbles for power and he's like, looking at the wishes and making a quip before he crushes them. And for the second one he goes, "Oh you want a nanny for your kids? Definitely  POPPING this one!" And he might as well have looked at the camera and said, "Get it? Get it?" and it took 6 months off my lifespan. (Sidenote: He he does a direct ref with the first two wish bubbles--Peter Pan and Mary Poppins–and then he just makes a general ref to the concept of true love with the last one and it's like, come on at least rule of threes this if you're gonna do it. Commit to your awful bit!)

(3) Kiddie Humor: This is where things get especially subjective because maybe a little kid would find this stuff really funny and they are a part of the target audience so that's valid. But it doesn't add much substance to the movie. This is like the goat being like, "I found a secret passage with my butt" or leading a chicken choir or singing the line, "So that's where all the balls of gas come from" while sticking his butt in the air--a lot of these have to do with the goat and his butt now that I think about it. 

I think I only laughed at one thing in the movie that was meant to be at least partially funny--when the Queen interrupts the fight song and everyone is like "Oh shit, we're busted!" before she starts singing along. 

So to recap: Sometimes a movie has a weak story but it's super funny and that makes up for it. This is not one of those movies.

Music

This is the one thing I already knew before I watched this movie: The music in this movie is bad. 

Like, fullstop, no qualifications bad. Not bad for a Disney movie. Not bad for this story. Just bad.

I was a little confused by the choice to pick a pop artist instead of someone who specializes in musical theater style music for this project, but a more pop-y musical doesn't automatically mean a worse musical. Sure, maybe it's a weird choice to pay homage to the past 100 years of Disney movies, but it could be good. I love Six the Musical.

But that's the problem. The songs aren't just unfitting. They're not just un-Disney. They're fully BAD. They feel so half-baked and God, I've never been so assaulted by slant rhymes in my life. Like, this bothers me to the point where I have to go through the entire tracklist. I can't just make a blanket statement, I have to show you what I mean:

1) Welcome to Rosas: This whole song sounds like someone listened to “Where you Are” from Moana (the "consider the coconut" song), “Belle” from Beauty and the Beast, and “The Family Madrigal” from Encanto and was like, "I could do that". And then they couldn't. It's not really catchy and it's pretty repetitive. Super forgettable. 

Worst Line: Honestly, this song is too boring to have a worst line. 

2) At All Costs: This is the duet that Asha and Magnifico sing. Before I saw the movie, I thought it was going to be Asha singing about a wish and Magnifico singing to his wife to set up the eventual rift between them but that was before I realized that this movie doesn't believe in relationship building. Some of the movie's worst musical sins are on display here. Turns of phrases that seem like they were written by AI and bizarre syntax. 

Like what does, "You pull me in, like some kind of wind" mean? That's not what wind does. Why would anyone ever say, "Felt this? No, I haven't" instead of "I haven't felt this?" That's so awkward. 

Worst Line: "Leave you here, I don't wanna. I wanna [promise as one does]." My feelings about this line could be a whole other essay, but I've been writing this for 2 hours already so I have to move on. 

3) This Wish: This is the big "I Want" song and it fails on several levels. It fails in comparison to all the songs it’s standing in the shadow of--like the last “I Want” song we got is, I believe, “Waiting on a Miracle” and man! How can you not feel for Mirabel after watching her go through everything she goes through at the start of the movie and it getting topped with her being excluded from the family portrait? You see all the build up (including the implied build up from before the movie started) and you see why it's all bubbled up to the point where she has no choice but to sing about it! With Asha, there isn't a whole lifetime of angst that's bubbling up to make her sing this song. Everything that's happened to her has happened over the hour of like eight hours tops. She meets the king, finds out about the king, realizes the whole system is bad, and then gets into an argument with her family who's drunk the Kool-Aid and doesn't wanna hear what she has to say (which makes no impact on us because we have no idea what their relationship is). That's it. It doesn't feel like the movie has earned the song.

And then with “Waiting for a Miracle” the music itself is plaintive and soaring. Like, I just paused writing to listen to it and I couldn't help but sing along and pour a little of my actual IRL "I Want" energy into it. It's a song that feels very real. “This Wish” isn't any of that. And it's not the actresses' fault! She's pouring her whole heart into it and she consistently does all movie. But the song is just, bland. Like I said, "I want to have more than this" is too weak a hook to hang your whole song on–especially when it’s the song that’s supposed to be the thesis of your whole movie.  

Worst Line: "So I look up at the stars to guide me/And throw caution to every warning sign." That's not a thing people say and also it doesn't mean anything. If anything, it sounds like she's saying that she's being extra cautious at the warning signs! You can't just throw words together haphazardly and expect them to retain their meaning!

4) I'm a Star: This is, imo, the worst song on the whole track. A friend of mine described it as sounding like a song from a preschool science show and that's exactly it, but there's more to it than that. 

First of all, a big part of the reason this song exists is to set up the fact that humans are made of stardust because that's a plot point in the climax. But there didn't need to be a song about that. That would be like if Frozen 2 had a song about how water has memory. But like, OK. If the song was a bop, it wouldn't matter that it was superfluous. Haus of Holbein in Six does NOT need to be there, but I enjoy it! I do NOT enjoy this song however. 

This is something I alluded to earlier, but this soundtrack in general and this song specifically sounds like it's trying to do LMM's schtick but poorly. And I know some people don't like his whole style of music (I personally like it) but love him or hate him, his style without his skill? Awful. The presentation of fun facts in the middle of a fun song makes me think of his "Look it Up" in “Shiny” or "That's true" in “A Winter's Ball”. And there's a part where a turtle (we'll get to the talking animals) sings "See we're all just little nebulae in a nursery/From supernovas now we've grown into our history/We're taking whys right out of mystery, closure/Now we're taking in all the star exposure" And it really sounds like someone doing their best to emulate Lin's flow in things like Mirabel's aside to Mariano in “The Family Madrigal” or any number of songs I could name from Hamilton. But it just falls so flat here. It sounds so preschool and cheesy. And not preschool in a fun way. Backyardigans would never. 

Also, this song is sung by a bunch of talking animals (the Star gives them the ability to talk) and I find them so obnoxious. They say stuff like, "Did we just blow your mind?" with the "boom" sound effect and I hate it. Maybe kids will like them, I dunno. I refuse to get into it further. 

Worst Line: This song completely misuses the word allegory, which I hate, and it rhymes it with "excitatory" which I hate more (and I am saying this as someone who has made peace with the fact that Schwartz rhymes "nasty" with "flabbergasty" in Disenchanted) but there is only one line in this song that can be considered the true worst line because it's my least favorite line in the whole movie. A dumbass, stoner-sounding deer named Bambi (boo) sings, "Ooh, I'm a star! Watch out world, here I are"

They rhyme the word star--not a hard word to rhyme at all--with HERE I ARE. 

I firmly believe someone should go to jail for that. 

5) This is The Thanks I Get?!: This is the much anticipated and extremely disappointing villain song. There's just no gravitas and it's not clever enough to be very fun. It's just kinda bopping along which is eh, kind of fun at best, but like everything else in this movie, doesn't leave an impact. A musical number doesn't have to be obviously sinister like “Be Prepared” or, the holy (unholy?) grail, “Hellfire”, to be impactful. “Mother Knows Best” is bright and filled with false cheer but it still works because we can see the manipulation that Gothel is doing and she spins Raps around in mental circles to keep her docile. This is just an egotistical rant--and not even in a fun, Gaston kind of way! (Sidenote: Gaston is a good example of a villain who is preening and pompous and kind fo campy, but who you see why he’s beloved AND he can be menacing when the scene calls for it). 

Also, it's so full of weird slang that Magnifico doesn't use at any other point in the movie. "Peep the name", "Ungrateful much", "Mmm, are you sure you're not the prob?" It's like he suddenly got possessed by Urban Dictionary. It's bizarre. 

It also comes weirdly late in the movie, which isn't a complaint, just an observation. 

Worst Line: I think "peep the name" is my least fave but, because I already said that, the opening lines of this song are, "I can't help it if mirrors love my face. It's genetics! Yeah, I got these genes from outer space" and that's such a weird thing to say. I got these genes from outer space? He wasn't even there for the star song so what the hell does he mean by that?

6) Knowing What I Know Now: I feel like this is the song that had the most potential. But for all its build, it never builds to anything. It starts and ends so abruptly (which is the case for multiple songs on this list). We don't really get to know any of the characters well except for Asha so them joining the revolution has no impact. The Queen turning on Magnifico really doesn't have much impact. 

(There's a line in this song where a character sings, "I was sweet but now I'm something else" which is so funny because we literally know nothing about her except that she surprises people when she's in a room which, lmao, me too. Fully forgot you were in this movie, girl). 

Worst Line: "The good in him, I've watched it melt". There's technically nothing wrong with this line but I hate it because melting with regard to emotion is never, "Oh, his goodness is melting". It just hits the ear so wrong. You can watch the good in him disappear or fade or vanish. Not melt. Hearts melt. 

There's also a reprise and a credits song but I have talked about the music for too long as is so to sum up, there is not a single song on this list that I will ever purposefully listen to for enjoyment ever again and there are a few lines that I feel calls for someone being forced to go to whatever the musical version of the Hague is to explain themselves. 

MISC

This is just a section for things that annoyed me that didn't fit anywhere else. 

There's a moment where Asha sees Star which is a star that has fallen to earth and is shaped like a star and she's not able to put together than he's a star until she looks up at a ball of yarn that's tangled in the trees and sees that the yarn is shaped like a star...which again, Star is ALSO shaped like a star! Baffling. 

Gabo at one point makes a comment to the effect of, "Wishing on a Star? Grow up Asha, this isn't a fairy tale." And it's like, dude shut up. Your king is a sorcerer. This movie isn't funny enough to pull off that kind of wink to the audience. 

The actual funniest part of the movie is when a talking mouse (not a thing that usually exists in this world) runs onto the Queen's shoulder during a big speech in front of a crowd and not only does no one notice, but she has no stronger reaction than if a messenger was telling her that her dinner was ready. And not in an underreaction for the purposes of a joke way. Like, in a they forgot to write in a reaction for her way. It's so unintentionally hilarious. 

They specifically set this in the real world–off the coast of the Iberan Peninsula–but I didn’t get any of that influence in any significant way here. It could have been any generic island town. Rosas sounds like a Spanish name and “Welcome to Rosas” there is some dancing that looks like traditional Spanish dancing. But on a whole, it feels pretty bland. When I think about studying abroad in Spain, one of the big things I think about are all the moments with food–patatas con bravas, pan con tomatae, paella, and so so much coffee. The only food I remember from this movie are the novelty cookies Dahlia is always baking. Which is wild to me because their last big musical was Encanto and you could feel the cultural influences in every scene and it was seamless. This wouldn’t even bother me if that hadn’t made a point to set it in a specific part of the real world and call it out. 

A lot of the dialogue is super expository in a way that both makes me think the writers think we’re stupid and that they realized at certain points that they forgot to establish things but instead of fixing the script they just shoved in a line. Like, to the first point, there’s a part where Magnifico crushes a wish and it’s very clear that he’s getting a high from it. But instead of letting the moment stand he’s like, “Oh yes. Who knew crushing wishes would feel so good? I must continue to crush wishes so I keep feeling this good feeling,” and it’s like…why did you need to say all of that? Old Power Rangers episodes have their villains monologue less than that!

This movie opens on a storybook–just like Snow White–and it has a voice over of Asha narrating the history of Rosas as the pages flip. Not a bad idea–until you push into the scene and realize she’s telling all of this to…her grandpa? Who is 100 years old and lived through all of this? What? Why not have that scene be a kid flashback and the story is being told to her? Or have her be doing the little kid thing of telling a story to an adult? Either way, that would help establish their relationship which is ostensibly very important to this movie. Or, wild thought, just have her be telling this story to kids! Like Mirabel explaining all the Madrigal gifts in Encanto! Like, if you’re gonna take cues from that movie, at least go all the way so your movie makes sense. 

It’s very unclear how Star’s magic works. It seems like he mostly just gives wildlife the ability to talk. I thought he was just granting wishes but he never does that to any of the humans. And I find it hard to believe that the wish of every animal (and mushroom)  in this movie is just to be able to talk.

Easy Fixes

And all of this is compounded by the fact that this isn’t just any random movie or even any random Disney movie. It’s the *100th ANNIVERSARY*. You only get one of those and this is what they wasted it on. My hopes were really high here! I was expecting a lot of love and care to be put into this one, but it just fell absolutely flat. It feels so rote, so by the numbers, so lacking in care. It feels like the shell of an outline of a movie that relies on the fact that we know what a movie of this sort should be and can fill in the blanks. 

And the worst part? The absolute worst part?

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A REALLY EASY MOVIE TO FIX. 

Like, I’m serious. If you watch this movie, you will be able to, off the cuff, name tons of things that would have solved problems without breaking a sweat. 

For instance, just cutting her friend group down from seven to two would have helped immensely. If she, Dahlia, and Simon have a Three Musketeers relationship, then when he betrays her to the king, it actually means something now! 

For a bigger but still obvious change, why not have Asha have an existing relationship with Magnifico? So then this story can be about her losing faith in this relationship she’s had for a long time after she’s seen behind the curtain and become jaded over time and not a 7 minute “Don’t Meet Your Heroes” speedrun.

And making it clear what taking a Wish from a person means–and following through with that portrayal all movie–would all be a game changer. Show that Magnifico’s magical wish granting still leaves the people hollow. Show that Asha is a vibrant, bright person amongst a sea of robotic adults. Show me some worldbuilding! 

Also, just hire a musical theater person to do the music. Seriously I can’t believe I have to say this? How is there not a single good song in this movie? There are DCOMs with more bangers than this. Almost every song in High School Musical is a bop. How are you getting outshone by High School Musical?

And these are just changes that preserve the bulk of the story as is. This movie could have been even better if they’d change the direction to go with some of their scrapped ideas!

This is just a movie that absolutely baffles me. I wouldn’t think it would be possible for a movie with this high of a profile to be this bad. You would think that even accidentally they’d have to get SOMETHING right. But they really don’t. I can’t recommend this movie, even for a fun-bad watch. It’s like eating unsalted saltines while you have dry mouth. Just watch a better movie. And here are three movies I think are more in the spirit of Disney’s 100th anniversary than Wish:

(1) The Princess and the Frog does literally everything that this movie is trying to do but better. You’ve got a movie that used a 2D style in the 3D era. You have integration of cultural elements–in this case New Orleans in the 20s. You have a classic princess story with the classic trappings: romance, villain, fairy godmother. You have a rocking villain song. Hell, you even have a wishing star motif! 

(2) Encanto is the latest Disney movie of the modern era to have that classic Disney magic, imo. It sidesteps a lot of the classic Disney tropes–no princess, no serious romance (Delores and Mariano end up together but it’s very much a side thing), no villain beyond generational trauma–but it still feels musical and magical and full of character and life. It shows that you can keep the big emotions that we expect from Disney even with more modern sensibilities. 

(3) Enchanted is my favorite movie of all time so I’m biased, but I still firmly believe that it stands as a better movie in general and tribute to Disney specifically than Wish. THIS is how you do an homage. The whole plot is a loving roast of all the quirks of classic Disney movies, but it’s also a sincere story that stands on its own. It has references to old movies, but they’re integrated very naturally. And it’s funny enough to get away with things like a character mid-musical number being like, “What the hell is happening? Why is everybody singing?” without it feeling like lazy, “Well that just happened” humor. And the music is so good! 

(A quick note on the music btw: Most of the songs in Enchanted are musical theater style songs but there’s one song near the end called “So Close” which is like a pop ballad. And it totally makes sense why they’d depart from the musical theater style in that moment in context but, even if it was jarring and totally unfitting for the movie, it’s still objectively a strong song. Out of context, it would be a great, sad, romantic song. And if the music in Wish was all like that–good but unfitting–this would confuse me less than it does.)

Anyway, I would shell out a LOT of money for a making of documentary for this movie in the style of the Frozen 2 one because as writer and a fan of a lot of Disney’s past stuff, it is completely beyond my comprehension who a team of accomplished people get together to create the 100th Anniversary project with their vast resources and produce this. It just doesn't feel like a movie with any serious care put into it. Which is separate from quality, btw. I don’t like the movie Raya very much but I think it’s obvious a lot of care went into it and I respect this. Wish feels like a movie that was made to fill some kind of contractual obligation and it makes me sad because I really wanted to like it. 

[whiskeyterrafoxtrot]

I blazed this yesterday, hoping to get some visibility and some support, particularly because we are now planning on and trying to save to leave the country.

Zero sales.

Because the majority of people who talk about "taking action" and "class solidarity" do just that - talk.

If you'd like to prove me wrong, you can purchase the discounted $3 sticker here - https://www.blackbirdparlor.com/product/odin-hates-nazis-sticker/

Pins have also just been ordered and a batch of patches are on the way. You can pre-order those on the website, as well. Your support helps a queer (one trans) pagan disabled couple make concrete plans to get citizenship somewhere outside the USA.

Other work includes:

[saficswrites]

Commissions are OPEN

Do you like Fire Emblem, gay women, supporting artists, or just really enjoy my work?

Because I’m on VGen now, and I need your help to get verified!

Until I’m verified the only method of transaction available to me is paypal, which severely limits what I can write, not the mention I don’t trust that company within a hundred meters of my livelihood.

This is however a necessary step towards me actually making a living doing this hobby that I adore, and I don’t mind writing sfw fics too.

Thus you are all invited to the Safics… something, it’s an event and I have no idea what to name it. 

The way this will work is that I’ll be opening a batch of safe for work commission slots on VGen for a really low price, and if commissioning artists isn’t your thing you can still help out by sharing or reposting this announcement to increase its reach!

These commissions are likely some of the cheapest I’ll ever offer, and for the price-to-word ratio they will probably be far and above the best deal I’ll give outside of other events like this: I am offering 750-1,000 words, fully edited, for $10 USD. The fics could also potentially be longer if they click with me and I get inspired! In that case, there would be no extra cost associated with the commission despite the total word count surpassing 1,000 words.

That’s 75-100 words for every dollar you spend, and that’s not even factoring in the time spent proofreading and editing!

Because of the nature of this being a larger batch of commissions it may take a bit of time to get all off them done, but I promise to keep my prospective clients updated on their fics progress (including letting them know when I’ve started it) so long as VGen offers me the tools to do so, which I’m sure it does.

The current plan is to release four separate batches of three commission slots, but that may fluctuate as the event goes on.

Additionally, how much say you have in the finished product is also completely up to you! 

-Do you want to mostly be surprised after giving me your prompt? I’ll do it without any input.

-Do you want to have a big say in the direction of every aspect of the fic? I can share excerpts or even the entire draft at multiple stages to make sure it’s going a direction you approve of, while also gathering feedback and advice from you to help make it as good as possible.

-Do you want a mix of those two options? Because I can do that too.

I have experience with both extremes of the writing process from my pretty extensive work offering free requests on Tumblr, for anons I didn’t really have much choice in the matter but when possible I would dm the requestor to ask how much involvement they wanted, and in some cases even share the entire fic as I was writing it!

Because it’s only ten bucks and I’m sure there are at least some fees attached, payment IS due up front, but if for whatever reason I find myself unable to complete the prompt adequately you’ll receive a full refund AND get to keep a pdf of the work in progress draft.

Making this experience as good as it possibly can be for the both of us is something I strive for, but that does go both ways. Overworking myself super hard and burning at this stage out would be catastrophic, and it is something I’m wary of, so because of that the amount of hours I work in a given day will be capped to help keep my work life balance reasonable.

To put all the information in one place: you will receive 750-1,000 words that amount to a fully edited realization of your prompt created to the best of my abilities, either as a pdf file or a google doc.

I cannot give any concrete information on how long each fic will take to be ready, both because of the fact these are batch commissions and because I’ve never done something quite like this before, but I do promise to be transparent with you and offer a full refund (so long as I’ve not yet started on your fic) if the wait becomes too much.

Batch comm rules:

Requests must be safe for work, no horny and no over the top violence. Trust me, there’s a reason I will stop accepting Paypal payments the moment I am verified.

I retain the right to reject any request for any reason, even something as asinine as not vibing with it. Forcing myself to create something that doesn’t click with me will result in a final product that neither of us will be happy with and you deserve better from a commission than that.

They gotta be gay. Well not exactly, but Safics is my name for a reason, I’m not super interested in writing mlw or mlm fics, I am completely on board with nblw though. This rule applies much less to platonic fics but I do generally prefer to write stories that are not about men. Also it should go without saying but trans women ARE women and I am completely comfortable writing them, in fact I actually enjoy it!

Because I am underselling myself here tips are appreciated if you really enjoy your fic, but they are in no way necessary much less expected. Positive reviews would be appreciated as well, perhaps even more-so since those are one of the requirements to get verified.

vgen.co/Safics

[fr3sh-tragedies]

You Don't Wanna Know

[Until Dawn] Samantha Giddings x Female Reader

Word Count: 3.52k

Proofread: Yes

Content Warnings: Sam quite literally falls into insanity, mentions of blood, stabbing, knives, language (?), OOC Sam

[A/N]: This was fun to write, ngl, but I also wrote the whole thing fairly quickly in one sitting, so I apologize if it's kind of hard to read. I did read back over it, but I was sleep deprived, so there are probably mistakes.

Enjoy!

Blade in hand, Sam trembled, readying herself to strike the moment the creature lurking in front of her charged. She steadied her breath, her hazel eyes shooting toward Mike. She gave a subtle nod, a signal that he needed to ready himself for when they both took off running. With another puff of air to steel her nerves, Sam lifted her leg and slammed it down, her foot stamping the cold, cracking cement beneath her, echoing throughout the vacant room. A screech rang out unlike anything she or Mike had ever heard. The Wendigo that had been desperately trying to find the two in the room lunged forward toward the blonde. She timed her movements, ducking down when it came too close and managing to hook her arm around its inhumanely thin bicep. Willing her strength into the right spot, she shifted her weight and forced the Wendigo backward with a twist of her body, essentially throwing it to spiral toward the ground behind her.

“Mike, run!” She hollered, briefly glancing back to make sure he did so before her attention returned to the creature now scrambling to get back to its feet. Once regaining its bearings and balance, the Wendigo thrusted itself in Sam’s direction once again. Sam gripped the handle of her knife even tighter and made sure to angle herself to strike. The moment it came towering over her, Sam propelled the blade forward, listening with a grimace as it tore through the skin and thin muscle of the beast’s chest. It staggered backward, unfazed as the sharp steel was pulled out from its cavity, and quickly ran closer yet again, somehow unbothered by the gaping wound now pouring blood by the heart.

Upon seeing that the Wendigo wasn’t going down, Sam panicked, wondering how she could permanently keep it pinned. She couldn’t die here–she had someone she had to get back home to. She needed to be there for her, and she needed to be there for her friends, who had all likely made it back to the lodge and were needing a plan. If she could figure out how to kill these things, she could help the group defend themselves as well.

How could she kill this thing?

How the hell could she kill this thing?

Maybe she couldn’t kill it, but there had to be a way to hold it off long enough to get away.

She studied it as urgently as she could, barely coming up with a half-batched plan as it closed the distance between them. Her hands trembled, and she internally screamed at them to still. As the long, bony fingers of the Wendigo’s hand grasped Sam’s arm, she yelled out, jabbing the beast’s jugular as violently as she could and shoving it backwards. Still gripping her arm, the Wendigo yanked her to the ground as it fell onto its back. Before it could get the upper hand again, Sam shuffled up and gripped the handle with both hands. Planting both knees on either side of the creature’s torso, she dug the knife in further with all the force she could muster, yanking it sideways and slicing the thin muscle of the throat, trying her best to decapitate it. She made it about halfway to the nape of its neck before it screamed out louder in agony, instinctively picking her up and hurling her away in defense.

With a loud howl of pain, Sam slammed against the floor, skidding across the concrete and rolling away for a moment. She hissed as she propped herself up on her elbows, nails digging into her scalp as she tried to clear her vision. Tugging her hand away, she found blood now drizzling down from her fingertips, spilling out and wrapping around her digits like ribbon until it pooled across her palm and the backs of her knuckles. Almost entranced by the way it moved, she wriggled her fingers before clenching them together to form a fist.

The scars on the sides of her hands burst open at the sudden tensing, spilling out into more rivers that joined the staining streaks already there.

Then, upon hearing the echoey gurgling from her attacker, now several feet away, Sam’s head shot up. Her head throbbed harsher at the sudden motion, but she still managed to gain her bearings and assess what was happening ahead of her. The Wendigo, letting out scratchy, broken whines as blood oozed down its form onto the floor, shook and clawed at the skin now torn open on the side of its throat. Aside from the groan when she had been thrown, Sam hadn’t made any noise, meaning the beast ahead had no way of knowing where exactly she was.

She took this as her opportunity, noticing that the Wendigo was struggling to even stumble around, clutching at its throat and letting out another shrill wail. As soon as it collapsed to the floor, Sam turned and slipped against the concrete as she took off toward the direction Mike had gone, wrestling against the urge to look back. Against her better judgment, she clutched the bloodied knife toward her chest, praying she didn’t have to use it again.

A safe distance away, Sam called out for Mike.

Months after Sam and the others had left the lodge, they finally finished giving their statements to the investigators on the case. As far as she knew, everyone other than Josh had survived, though none of them had talked since they were picked up by the rescue helicopter. Sam had refused help from any of the counselors the police had recommended, not wanting to live through the horrors she had witnessed down in the mines all over again.

Instead, she focused on returning home to her girlfriend, who had no idea of what had been going on the entirety of the time she was gone. She had promised to only be gone for half a week at most, but after all of the interviewing, it had been well over three months. The officers on the case let her make a call to [Y/N] so she could explain the situation, but Sam had kept the details very minimal. The last thing she had wanted was to upset [Y/N] even further. And to her relief, the majority of the details hadn’t been released to the public yet, considering they hadn’t gone down to discover the monsters themselves.

Even when they went down to seek them out, Sam knew most of them wouldn’t survive.

Finally, after an excruciatingly long ride home, Sam had made it. She was quick to stumble up to the front door and let herself in, making a beeline to her shared bedroom with the one she was looking for. Before she got upstairs, however, she snuck into the garage and placed something down, then heading back inside. Briefly, she caught a glance of her reflection in one of the mirrors hung on the wall. She noticed the scar leading from her forehead up past her hairline had started to slowly heal, the one she had earned from her first full battle against a Wendigo. Her hand trailed up to gently let her fingertips graze alone the rough tissue, tracing the shape as she hummed.

For a moment, she considered splitting the scar back open, desperate to relive the thrilling moment she had suffered through down in the mines. She ultimately decided against it, figuring it wouldn’t make a difference. The scars would all still be there, even after they healed. She huffed out a small sigh and started toward the stairs again, finding herself standing in front of the bedroom door for a moment before nudging it open.

Normally, when Sam and [Y/N] saw each other again after being separated for an extended period of time, they’d hug one another tightly and spend the entire day together. Despite this routine, when they finally saw each other then, all Sam could do was wobble forward onto the bed before pulling the smaller girl into her chest. “Sam? Holy shit, you’re back,” [Y/N] whispered, sighing in relief as she tugged the blonde closer and turned her head to listen to her heartbeat. “I was so worried.” Sam grinned at her words, silently stroking her hair for a moment before she gave a response.

“Ah, no need for that. Things just got weird.”

In the back of her mind, Sam knew that “weird” was a severe understatement. However, she had no idea how to put what she had seen into words. She managed to dryly answer [Y/N]’s rapid questions for a bit longer, but ultimately fell asleep in the middle of the one-sided conversation, the exhaustion from the whole ordeal finally kicking in.

Days passed, and it was clear right away that Sam had changed. Instead of being the openly kind, considerate woman [Y/N] had grown to love over the years, she had become cold and distant, growing increasingly defensive and aggressive when anything was mentioned about her trip. How could she have grown hypervigilant over a trip with friends? She wouldn’t open up about anything, no matter what [Y/N] tried. She eventually shrugged it off, however, assuming it was just exhaustion and stress from whatever had taken place while she was gone.

She made it her goal to help Sam relax again. She’d cook her meals, get her clothes and everything ready when she’d shower, let her latch onto her when she would occasionally sleep in, and would practically baby her in some aspects, watching her like a hawk to make sure she didn’t collapse or grow visibly sick from whatever thought might’ve crossed her mind. This lasted quite a while. [Y/N] had been hoping Sam would finally start opening up after some time if she was just given the support and space she needed, though that moment never came.

Desperate, she had even researched possible ways to work through whatever was swarming through Sam’s mind. She reached out to a few licensed therapists here and there, but they weren’t able to do much since Sam wouldn’t cooperate with any of their questions. Nothing seemed to work. She just wanted the woman she fell in love with to come back to her.

As painful as it was to see her lover and best friend slipping away and becoming someone new, [Y/N] eventually respected her wishes and let her be, gradually halting her questions about the trip to the lodge. She couldn’t get into contact with anyone else from the friend group either–and she wondered if it was for the same reason that was causing Sam to treat her so differently as well. She hoped they wouldn’t all shut everyone else out the way the blonde was already doing to her.

The days would all go by the same way: [Y/N] would get up early when Sam would finally let go of her, fix breakfast for the two of them, eat alone in the kitchen, and head out for the day, usually catching a glimpse of Sam sauntering downstairs and sitting down at the table to finally eat. It was like she was running on a survival schedule. She’d only eat and sleep when she absolutely needed to. Anytime she tried to take a nap, she’d end up springing up from the cushions in a cold sweat, always out of breath. It didn’t take long for her to stop trying to rest throughout the day.

During those times, when she wasn’t able to sleep, she’d tap at the scar adoring her forehead then bring her hand back down, picturing the way the waves of her blood had danced against her skin months prior. She’d find herself staring at her palm for hours, losing track of time. It was hard for her to remember to eat when this happened, so she had to be reminded.

[Y/N] would text her at lunch, checking up on her, and hardly ever got a response. She’d carry out the rest of her shift for the day, then head home, always finding Sam blacked out on the sofa in the den or in their shared bedroom, struggling to stay asleep for more than a few minutes. She’d never greet [Y/N] anymore, but she would still make some kind of motion to let her know that she acknowledged her coming back into the house: a small hum, a little nod, or just a simple glance in her direction. Not once did she utter anything.

Then, to end the evening, [Y/N] would prepare dinner or order takeout. To her surprise, Sam would actually sit and eat with her most nights, though she never made conversation.

The two would then trudge up to bed once they finished cleaning up, shower and get changed into their nightwear, and then collapse into a deep slumber the moment they made it under the covers. This repeated for days, which shifted into weeks, and then shifted into months. As the time passed, Sam seemed to get a little less aggressive, though she was still relatively mute. One night, Sam got a call as they sat in the living room, picking at their fast food and watching something random on the TV. She seemed to grow relieved at whatever the caller had told her.

When [Y/N] asked what it was about, Sam simply pocketed her phone and shook her head, returning to her meal. “You don’t wanna know.”

[Y/N] frowned at this, but gave up instantly, forcing herself to push through her sudden nausea and finish her dish. As she took her last bite, she glanced over at Sam, who had put hers down on the coffee table and began to stare blankly at the wall across the room. With a small sigh, [Y/N] stood and picked up both plates, carrying them over to the kitchen to toss the remaining food and rinse off the forks and plates.

As she turned to slide the rack of the dishwasher open, [Y/N] blinked and froze upon seeing Sam wander out into the garage.

The blonde made sure to shut and lock the door behind her once inside the large space, her socks coming into contact with the chilled stone beneath her and hardly doing anything to keep her feet warm. She didn’t mind it though. Instead, she ignored the chill that shot up her spine and waltzed to a loose panel being pressed into place behind the multiple boxes she and [Y/N] had piled up for storage.

She lifted a few boxes, sliding them across the ground after moving them behind her, then wriggling the loose wooden plank from the wall and propping it up against a few heavier boxes a few feet away. Her hand reached inside the dark opening now revealed to her, not flinching so much as once at the feeling of cobwebs grazing her skin and entangling themselves around her fingers. She rummaged around momentarily, but cracked a small smirk upon feeling the thin plastic top of the bag she was searching for.

With a quick tug, she lifted the bag up and towards her chest, lazily moving the panel back into place before turning around and retracing her steps to the door leading back into the house. She flicked her wrist and unlocked the door with ease, pulling the door open and letting herself inside. Barely closing the door behind her, she casually walked into the kitchen, planning to stroll straight past [Y/N] without being noticed.

She was noticed, though. It wasn’t just her presence that was acknowledged.

Instantly, [Y/N]’s eyes trailed down and landed directly on the bag pressed tightly against Sam’s chest. She bristled at the sight of the rusted knife in the bag, coated in dried, flaking blood. Her gaze shot back up to Sam’s, who was now staring blankly at her.

“Sam?” She started cautiously. The blonde had no reply, only blinking at the sound of her name. “What is that?” Still, she was met with a deafening silence.

Finally, fed up with the lack of responses over the months, remembering each time Sam avoided the subject of the lodge, [Y/N] stepped forward and feigned her best look of strength. A newfound sense of anger bubbled up underneath her skin and up her throat. The questions began spilling from her lips before she could stop them. “Sam, what the hell is that? Why do you have it? Has that been here this whole time? Is that from the lodge? Did you fucking kill someone?”

For the first time since she made it home, Sam smiled, though it sent a chill down [Y/N]’s spine. The blonde’s grin only widened as she stepped forward. A sound mimicking a chuckle erupted from her throat, more of a low, broken rumble. She shook her head and lowered her tone as she spoke, adding onto the signs that were triggering alarm bells in [Y/N]’s head. She got her answer, even as Sam gave an indirect one.

“You don’t wanna know.”

She brushed past the trembling girl, calmly heading upstairs and into her office down the hall from the bedroom. There, she found the stand she had purchased shortly after making it home. Her fingers traced the lines of the bag still in her hands, toying with the corners before tugging it open. With a sickening smile, she slid the knife out at a painfully slow speed, marveling at the way the light overhead made the browning blood staining the rusted steel glisten.

A hum of admiration slipped from her lips as she dropped the bag by her feet, lifting the knife up higher to get a better view. With a gentle motion, she lowered it to rest on the wooden stand in front of her. Her feet led her backward enough for her to get a better view.

From the corner of her eye, she could see [Y/N] peering in from the doorway, beads of sweat trickling down her face and neck. Sam beamed at her, motioning for her to come in and stand next to her. Afraid of what would happen if she refused, [Y/N] did as told, hesitantly planting herself beside the blonde, whose hazel eyes were trained on her form. Finally, Sam waved her arm forward, motioning toward the knife.

“You sure you want to know what this is?”

With a loud swallow, [Y/N] nodded. “This is the knife that I used to save myself back at the lodge. I slit open a Wendigo’s throat to survive. Thought I’d keep it as a kind of token of sorts. Anytime I start to feel unsure about something, I can look to this as a source of motivation. It saved me once, it can save me again.”

[Y/N] could only stare ahead, her mind spinning as she struggled not to faint. What was a Wendigo? How would this knife be a token of motivation? How was Sam so disgustingly calm about murdering something? That wasn’t like her at all. She hated seeing the smallest of animals being hurt–how could she just murder one? Was this even the same Sam that she had been waiting for back when she was at the lodge to meet up with her friends? Who was the woman standing by her side?

She had so many questions–too many questions–and she wasn’t sure if she would ever get answers to any of them. Or even if she wanted to.

Finally, she tore her eyes away from the source of her spiking nausea to look up at Sam. Her blood ran cold when she turned to find the blonde staring down at her already, something in her eyes confirming [Y/N]’s fear that she had changed. That stomach-churning smile still painted her lips, though now it seemed far more menacing. A hand slid down to clasp [Y/N]’s, making her yelp and jump at the contact.

She glanced down to find Sam now interlocking their fingers, then back up to find the smile gone.

“What’s wrong, [Y/N]?” Sam questioned, her tone flat and devoid of any emotion.

She leaned down, now uncomfortably close to the smaller girl’s face, seemingly staring dead into her soul. She cocked her head to the side, almost in a mocking motion. “Did you not want to hear about this after all? I sure hope that’s not the case. It’d be a shame. After all, I’m trusting you to keep this little prize of mine between us, and only us. Will you do that for me?”

[Y/N] couldn’t speak, terrified of saying the wrong thing. She screamed at her mind to say something, anything at all. All she could do, however, was stare. She gave a small, almost unnoticeable nod after a torturous string of silence. One in which Sam only stared, unblinking, into her eyes.

Finally, Sam’s lips split into a grin again. It didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Good. Let’s see just how long you can keep that promise.”

[credince--writes]

The Box

Drabble for a Simon 'Ghost' Riley x Reader Fic

Oh, and Roach is your brother.

Total cliffhanger lol, this is a setup for angst.

A/N: I needed a break from homework. I am starting this at 10pm PST. When this playlist I'm listening to ends, the drabble ends.

....

Roach crowded into the table to sit next to Ghost and Soap, pushing the boring tray of his lunch forward as he moved to sit.

It was funny in a way, making him feel like he was in middle school again. Down to the little carton of milk he wasn't sure he'd actually drink. Maybe he would, the lady in line had pushed the cold little box into his hands. The condensation collected on his palm as he felt some kind of responsibility to finish it now- at least for the 'lunch lady'.

"Supposed to go in and see Price later." Soap comments, shoving a forkful of whatever strange combination he had ended up mashing together on his tray.

Ghost makes a noise in acknowledgment, eating methodically-

Everything the man fucking did was methodical. Roach would put money on it every time Ghost sat down to shit he had a plan set in place- bet he was a weird fucker that would tear off two squares exactly, fold over, rinse, and repeat.

Why was he thinking about this?

Maybe he should just drink his milk.

Gaz groaned from behind him, striding up and slithering into their space as he kicked a leg over to join the Sargeants- and Lieutenant in eating. "I think this is one of the stupidest batches of rookies I've seen." He exclaims, before leaning down to inhale his food.

"Don't know their dick from their toes." Soap agrees.

Roach's eyes narrowed on his tray, watching as steam rose from it. The light feeling of its heat against his face as he stared down at it.

A poking to his side broke him from his thoughts, glancing over to see Soap jabbing his arm with a fork before poking at one of his side trays and asking 'you going tae' eat that?'

He sighed, pushed his tray over to him, and watched as the scott scarfed down his food.

.....

You set your laptop down on the coffee table, rising from your seat on the couch to stretch- groan much to loud at the feeling of your muscles stretching pleasantly after slaving against numbers in spreadsheets for what felt like much to long to not be human rights violation.

What were human rights again?

Something about water, maybe.

Probably not about remote work hellscapes.

Rocking back and forth- feeling your weight collect on your toes as you pushed forward up onto the tips of your toes and feeling your ankles pop and crack respectively.

Glancing down at the laptop, then to the doorway, back down to the table, and then stepping forward to leave the room for a moment to grab a glass of anything. Soda- Cherry Pepsi, stick a straw in the glass and watch it swirl in circles with the ice as your hand reached forward, clasping around it and feeling the condensation on your palm.

From your position in the kitchen, you could see what looked like a brown and red box sitting in front of your doorstep. The two windows framing your door blur with colors you couldn't remember being there.

Setting the glass down on the kitchen counter, padding forward, and gingerly pulling the door open to glance out onto the small concrete front porch.

It was a box-

Maybe her neighbor had dropped it off?

Eggs?

No. They couldn't get in the gate-

The gate.

There's a gate.

How did the box get here?

You dropped down into a squat, eyeballing the box until your eyes fell upon a sticker slapped onto the side of the box. Eyes following, reading the typed-out font on the side.

'TO:

GARY'R'SANDERSON

FROM:

M'

You blinked, the feeling of something tense in the back of your throat that screamed something was wrong.

If someone had been here, your doorbell camera would've gone off-

Normally it would be the stray raccoon, maybe even a deer walking a yard triggering it. But why wouldn't it of gone off now? How the hell did this get here?

You stepped back, eyes never leaving the box.

The bottom left corner, on the opposite side of the sticker seemingly had a leak- the cardboard darkened around the red tape haphazardly wrapped around the box multiple times.

You know you shouldn't call him- he's working.

He could get in trouble if you called.

He probably wouldn't even pick up after your argument with him.

No.

This was wrong. Even if it was some stupid fucking prank.

Reaching back, grabbing your phone, and pressing the dial button to call your brother you waited before hanging up and calling again. It would go to voicemail the first time- his phone was on do not disturb unless called twice.

..

Roach leaned back in his seat, eyes scanning over the paper in the manila file reading over the most recent intel on finding his whereabouts.

Price continued to speak on the matter, elaborating on some intentionally vague points in the paperwork where favors for intel had been called in.

Unofficial details.

Then the unmistakable sound of his phone ringing stunned the room into silence. Price stopped and raised an eyebrow at him.

Roach's eyes widened, hands slapping against his pants until he pulled the phone out, not bothering to glance down and read who was calling before muting it.

"Something important, Sargeant?" Price asked, a semi-amused twinkle in his eyes at the calm- but ever-frantic look in Roach's body language as the phone started ringing.

"Must've been a wrong number." He replies.

Price nods, starting back on his readings.

It starts ringing again.

"Shit." Roach hisses, pulling his phone out and standing. Glancing down to see your name displayed on the screen. His eyes narrow, silently cursing your name. Accepting the call as he continued to work his way to the door, trying to squeeze back Soap who wasn't intentionally making it easy for him to leave the room with his chair slid back.

"Hello?" He asked into the mic of the phone.

"Gary, this isn't funny." Your voice- seemingly shaken voice chastised him.

He continued walking. "What? What's funny? I'm at work- you can't call unless it is an emergency-"

"Gary." Your voice stopped him.

Roach stopped, slowly turning and staring at Price. Who's eyes latched to his-

The color must've drained from his face. Something must've screamed the red flag he was feeling in your voice.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"How did this box get here?"

"I need more than that, what is happening?"

"Gary there is a box on the front porch addressed to you."

He's rushing back forward, putting his phone on speaker and planting both of his hands on the table staring that the phone screen.

"Don't take it inside- you didn't take it inside did you? Explain it more- I need more details." He starts working in overdrive- thinking of all of the things that it could mean- a bomb? Could there be a fucking bomb on her porch?

"I- I didn't take it inside. I'm inside now. It's big- it's leaking."

If his grip was any tighter he'd break the table. The whites of his knuckles were whiter than snow.

"It's addressed to me?" He asks.

"To 'GaryRSanderson-" You started "Your middle name isn't R, Gary-, is this a prank?"

"You need to get out of the house- now."

"Hey- this is John." Price steps forward, and his voice is collected, even. "Sweetheart, I need you to tell me who it was from- did the postman drop it off?"

The sound of you running through the house, the jingling of your keys.

"My camera didn't see anyone- the postman can't get in through the gate. I thought this was some prank. What's going on?"

"Do you remember how to get to the base?" John asks.

"Yea, I can get there."

"I need you to go there, we will sort it out from there. Keep talking, was there any more information on the package?"

Roach is frozen in place, the start of panic seeping into his flesh and bones. His muscles were completely tense as he stared down at the phone.

"It- All it said was 'From M'." You started.

It felt like the room dropped ten degrees.

[loverrofmineee]

The Parting Glass - Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal x OC

Summary | AO3

Chapter 1- Brief Flirtations With Landings

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

Thorpe Abbotts was buzzing with a mix of excitement and worry as the first batch of American pilots would be landing later that day. The men and women of East Anglia had been anticipating this day for weeks, hoping that these men would help them to win the war. Sorcha’s bunkmates were included in this group, more on the excited side, as they were eager to meet the new men.

“-and American men are just so handsome in a way that the Brits aren’t. There’s a reason they have all the movie stars you know.” One of the girls, Aileen, spoke with great enthusiasm. She was a petite girl from Northern Ireland who had opted to work at Thorpe Abbotts to meet handsome American men, and also help the war effort.

“I understand that, but Brits have lovely accents that just make everything sound so much better than it is. The way they say darling is just so much more appealing than our boys.” Anika, another bunkmate, was quick to defend her position in the argument that had been going on for at least 10 minutes.

Sorcha remained to herself during her friend's verbal sparring, instead re-reading the most recent letter from her brother. He detailed his most recent mission, as they had just been allowed to start flying a little over a month ago, and the thrill had not worn off yet. Cormack was stationed in Kings Cliffe as a fighter pilot for the 61st Fighter Squadron. His position in combat often worried Sorcha, as was her right as the eldest sibling and the closest thing he had to a mother overseas, but she was glad her brother was enjoying himself, as war tended to leave men more desolate than how they began. A knock against the bunk door caused Sorcha to raise her eyes, to be met with the presence of Major John “Bucky” Egan.

“Morning ladies,” Egan said with an ever-present smirk in his voice.

Aileen, who may or may not have had a crush on the Major since he arrived, was fast to greet him, standing up from her seat, causing an unpleasant sound to emit from the wood scraping against the concrete. “Good morning Major!”

Bucky gave her a short glance over before addressing the rest of the girls, “Mind if I steal Miss Devlin from ya? The brass requested that she be my personal driver today.”

“And why would they do that?” Sorcha questioned giving Bucky a slight glare.

“Because I requested it.”

Bucky had a smug smile on his face after he spoke, enjoying the fact that he was making Sorcha annoyed. Ever since the two had met during Bucky’s first day on base, they continuously engaged in playful banter, seeing how far they could push each other. He enjoyed the challenge and viewed the Devlin girl as a good friend. Sorcha could say the same for Bucky, as he brought out a side of her she had planned to put away during the war but was quickly cracked open again due to the Major’s manner.

“You’re the worst.”

“I don’t think you really mean that. How could you not love a face like this.”

Sorcha just scoffed at the major’s words, gathering her things for the seemingly long day ahead of her. “I’ll see you later girls.”

“As always, it was lovely to see you ladies,” Egan said, shooting the girls a wink, causing a rapid flush to Aileen’s cheeks as she just waved, unable to speak.

The two friends made their way to Bucky’s jeep, given to him due to his status as Air Exec. Sorcha climbed into the driver's seat, barely giving Bucky time to get in before hitting the gas.

“Jesus Devs, it seems like you’re trying to kill me.”

“Now what would I gain from that? No one else lets me drive their cars. If I lose you, I lose all the perks I gain on your behalf.”

Egan chuckled at the girl's words as they drove past the tarmac, soon to be filled with B-17s. In truth, both were looking forward to the amount of airmen landing today. Thorpe Abbotts had felt too empty for their liking, only filled with office staff and higher-ranking officers who had no time for anything other than planning missions. Sorcha understood their positions, as wartime was not a place for days spent lounging about, but she wished they’d at least loosen up a little bit.

“I’m excited to finally meet this Buck you’ve been talking about nonstop for weeks,” Sorcha spoke with a hint of enthusiasm, not trying to start Bucky on a tangent about his best friend that would go on forever. She thought it was cute how much he cared about his friend, friendships like theirs were what men needed during war, someone to have throughout the horrors.

“I think you’ll like him. He’s not as fun as I am,” Egan spoke with a teasing grin, choosing to keep his emotions hidden from the girl, “but he’s a good time. One of the best damn pilots I’ve ever seen.”

“Huglin will be happy to have him then. He’s been like a rubber band just waiting to snap this week,” Sorcha had already experienced the frenzy within the tower as crews took to the skies, casualties and loss alongside them. Colonel Huglin was a strict man, which was a fitting trait for his line of work, but he was strict on promoting no fraternization between the women and men on the base. That rule had been long gone since the beginning, but he liked to remind all new crews about his policy. “, but God bless him for taking the job. Lord knows we need someone like him.”

Bucky nodded in agreement as they watched the planes on the tarmac taking their spots, trying to find Cleven's plane. Sorcha had slowed down as they approached the busy landing strip, but the lack of speed annoyed Bucky, “C’mon Devs, no point in slowing down now. Buck’s fort is right over there.”

Sorcha laughed at her friend's enthusiasm, pushing harder on the gas pedal to get them where they needed to be. As they pulled up in front of Cleven's plane, Bucky practically jumped out of the moving vehicle, “May I remind you of your earlier complaints when you were halfway out of a moving car?” Sorcha chastised the man.

“Time and place Devs!” Egan called with a smirk as he walked up to one of his friends, “DeMarco!”

“Hey, Major!” DeMarco responded, holding the leash of a husky in one of his hands, the dog trailing behind him. The sight of the dog made Sorcha get out of the jeep, eager to meet the pup in front of her.

“Where did you get that dog, Benny?”

DeMarco grinned at Bucky’s question, eager to tell the story, “I won him at craps!”

“You took this baby above 10,000 feet.”

“He’s got a mask,” DeMarco explained, “It cost me three bucks. But boy, does he love to fly.”

Benny’s grip had loosened on the leash, causing the dog to run up to the Devlin girl leaning against the jeep. She was quick to pet it, giving the husky all the attention it wanted. The voice of another pilot caused her to look up, while still petting the dog. “He wouldn’t stop howling.”

“That’s because he’s part wolf.”

“That wolf is part dog.”

Sorcha let out a small bark of laughter at the man's comment. The men's attention had now shifted to the uniformed woman petting the dog, looking to Bucky for an introduction. “Gentleman, this is the lovely Sorcha Devlin,” Egan began, horribly butchering her name, as he wasn’t familiar with Irish pronunciations. “She’s been putting up with me while I’ve been waiting for your crews to arrive.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘putting up’ per say,” Sorcha teased as she rose to greet the men, “I was the one to give him a tour on his first day and now he won’t leave me alone.”

“If that isn't the story of my life.” The other pilot chuckled at the girl's words before walking over to shake her hand, “Major Gale Cleven, pleased to meet you.”

A teasing smile grew on the girl's face as Cleven introduced himself, happy to finally meet the man Bucky had been talking about for weeks. “Ah, so this is the famous Buck I’ve been hearing all about.” She glanced at Egan, watching him shift uncomfortably during the interaction, “I think we’re going to be good friends, Major.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Bucky spoke, looking between his two friends, “It’ll turn out bad for me.”

“Think that highly of us do you Bucky?” Cleven asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice, “I tend to agree with Miss Devlin here.”

“You can call me Devs, practically everyone here does since they tend to mispronounce Irish names.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Devs.” Buck smiled softly at the girl, appreciating that Bucky had found a friend to keep him company while waiting for the crews.

The loud buzzing of a plane broke the silence that fell over the trio, all glancing to see whose fort it was, as if Sorcha had any clue. “Well, there’s Brady,” Bucky spoke, answering the girl's silent question.

Sorcha watched as the plane flew further from the tarmac, seemingly having a mechanical issue on board. The bells signaling emergency personnel rang throughout the field, nurses and Red Cross aids rushed to their ambulances to respond to the situation. The girl couldn’t help but feel stuck in her position, as she had little to no medical training and wouldn’t be of help on the mechanical side, but she could never get used to the feeling of helplessness when it came to situations like this.

“We should head over,” The voice of Bucky snapped the girl out of her thoughts, “You coming, Devs?”

The girl just simply nodded her head as she climbed into the vehicle, letting Bucky drive this time. She listened to the men chat idly in the front as they made their way over to the plane in the field, counting the number of uniformed men there were. Sorcha prayed there had been no casualties, as it would likely send the new men into a spiral before they were even in the air. As the Jeep pulled to a stop, she made brief eye contact with one of the men, seemingly talking to his captain. Sorcha offered the man a small smile in hopes of quelling his obvious worries.

“Everyone okay?”

The two men responded with a brief “Sir,” before Bucky called the pilot, whose name was Brady, over. Sorcha suddenly felt an urge, whether it was maternal or sympathetic, to comfort the worried man a few feet away. She hopped out of the Jeep, going unnoticed by the men in the front, and made her way over.

“Hi,” She began, startling the man before her, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pop up like that.”

“Oh- oh no it’s ok, I was just…” The man trailed off, gesturing to the scene around them, obviously caught off guard by the woman in front of him. In an attempt to ease his nerves, Sorcha offered her hand for him to shake, “Apologies for the lack of introduction. I’m Sorcha Devlin, I work over in the tower as a navigation clerk.”

The man’s eyes lit up at her words, “Oh, that’s great. I’m Harry Crosby, but the guys call me Croz, no relation to the singer though. I’m um the navigator in Brady’s crew.”

“So we have something in common then!” Sorcha smiled at Croz, glad she had made him less anxious, “I should be seeing you around the tower then since you’ll be picking up your maps and such from my desk.”

Before Crosby could answer, Bucky slammed on his horn, gaining the pair's attention. “C’mon Devs, no flirting with the crews!”

“I’m not flirting Bucky, or are you just upset that you don’t have my undivided attention for once?”

“You wound me Devs, you truly do.”

Sorcha chuckled to herself and turned back to Croz, who had a questioning look on his face, “Devs?”

“You’re not the only one with their surname as a nickname. Honestly, these boys are lacking creativity.” Bucky’s horn beeped again, signaling that he was ready to leave. “I’ll see you around Croz.”

He gave her a small wave as she jumped back into the Jeep, Bucky taking off almost immediately. “So, making friends with the new guys already. What would Huglin have to say about this?” Egan teased as he drove.

“Oh shove off, the man was clearly going through a lot. Isn’t it part of your job to make the men feel welcome?”

“Not as welcome as a pretty girl would make him feel,” Bucky spoke, the joy of teasing his friend evident in his tone. Instead of responding, Sorcha sent him a sharp glare, not wanting to advance this particular conversation.

The three continued with small talk as they drove back to base, Sorcha learning more about Buck and Bucky through each other's teasing and stories. Buck Cleven was a charming man, to which no one’s surprise, had a girl at home waiting for him. Sorcha found the notion romantic, though she herself could not relate to the feeling. She had sympathy for the women who were forced to wait at home for their significant others to return. Sorcha had already dealt with this on a daily basis, and she had sworn to herself that she would never fall for a pilot. Her sole focus while on base was doing her job properly, and praying that her brother was ok.

As they drove closer to the barracks, Crosby was in the unfortunate position of practically being hit by Bucky’s Jeep, “Wrong side of the road, Lieutenant!” called Egan, reveling in getting to tease the new guys.

“Sir,” Croz started before glancing at Sorcha, adding a curt ma’am to his greeting.

Sorcha returned the smile as Bucky continued to speed away, “Welcome to England boys!”

[spectrechosts]

If Anything Could Ever Be This Good Again - Chapter 5

The Shining Rangers are splintered, and a new team rises from the ashes.

Full Series

Tara dropped a handful of gems into a big cardboard box with a satisfying clink.

"Okay," She said, "That's Canary, Flamingo, Peacock, and Tangerine."

"Huh. Lotta birds in that batch." Said Phoebe, crossing them out on a checklist and looking over a wall of plans. "That rounds out the yellows and pinks."

"And blues."

"What? There should be one more blue besides Azure."

"…You, babe. You're the last one."

"Oh. Right. Then all we're missing is three reds, one more orange, two purples, two greens, and Azure herself." Phoebe said, capping a marker.

"Any leads?" Tara asked, handing her a cup of coffee.

"Nope." Phoebe said, taking the cup in both hands and sipping from it. "Azure hasn't been seen in almost two weeks, HQ is abandoned, Rangers aside from that group you just got have been operating independently if at all."

Tara wrapped her arms around her and rested her chin on her head.

"You know, I don't think I could ever have done this without you."

"My girl says she wants the Shining Rangers destroyed, the Shining Rangers get destroyed."

"How chivalrous. But I mean it, I was just lashing out before I had you on my side and now- Now you have plans, you're like calculating and methodical and-"

"Cold?" Phoebe asked, smiling.

"I wasn't going to say it. Now it's like, we're actually going to do this. And once they're gone we're gonna have like, a better magical girl team. One that tries to fix problems instead of just being cops."

"I'm still not entirely sure how we're going to get that team made. We'll need someone else to get it started, our identities aren't exactly secret. And I think you could have figured out 'stealing their gems so they can't come back later' eventually."

"Mm, I have my moments of brilliance." Tara said. "But while we're on that part of your planning, what uh, what are we doing with them? Because the box is pretty heavy now and I don't know if it's great to just, have a bunch of dubious magical power sources under our bed."

"Hmm. I wanted to save the next step until we had them all, but the stragglers could take a while to round up, and someone could just come take them all back. Maybe we should just deal with the box now and any other gems we pick up we'll figure out as we get them.

"Sounds good to me."

"Ehhhhhhhh yeah fuck it, let's do this."

"Cool. What's the plan?"

~

"This is the plan?" Tara said, shivering in the winter night air of the construction site they had snuck into.

"It's the best I could think of." Phoebe said. "I don't want to risk destroying them, and I don't want anyone finding them."

"So we're just… dumping them in a big hole?"

"Not any big hole. We're dumping them where they're about to lay the foundation for a skyscraper. I saw it in an episode of Columbo, they're gonna be under tonnes of concrete that nobody can dig up without permits."

"Did Columbo dig it up?"

"Well- yes, but he's Columbo. Nobody's gonna dig these up. They have no reason to even think anything is down there."

"Okay, so let's dump 'em"

"Well, hang on." Phoebe said. "We should… Say something? This is a big deal, this is like, the end. We do this and there's no chance of the Shining Rangers ever recovering."

"Okay, um... you go first."

Phoebe thought for a moment. "The Shining Rangers were a bunch of psuedo-cop mean girls, and this city will be better off without them. I don't know where these gems came from, and I guess I never will, but I know that they're more trouble than they're worth. I blame them entirely for all the harm I caused to innocent people after mine broke, and I think that no matter how many villains there are we'll all be safer with them entombed in this pit."

Tara nodded.

"That was nice." She said. "The Shining Rangers suck ass, these gems suck ass, I hope Azure shows up so I can drag her to Venus and leave her there."

"That's all you have to say?"

"Yup. Fuck alllllllllllll of this."

"Okay. Dump it."

Tara upturned the box into the pit, dozens of gemstones disappearing into the depths.

"Hm. Feels anticlimactic."

Phoebe shrugged.

"Azure's still out there, we don't know what she's up to." She said. "I'm gonna find someplace to hide out until this gets filled in, make absolutely sure. You can go wait at home."

"I'll stay, we can wait together." Tara said, stuffing her hands into her pockets for warmth.

"Tara, I'm going to be cold either way. You can go get warm."

"I'll live, babygirl. C'mon."

~

15 months later

"You're not listening to me, I'm telling you that those two are known supervillains!"

"Okay, miss Azure, I don't know who you think Guardians Synth-Metal and Coldwave are-"

"Look at the photos!"

"I'm looking, they don't look that similar in my opinion. Now I know you don't want to hear it but-"

"They look the SAME!"

"-But, the Shining Rangers are no longer recognized by the International Magical Girl Association as the protective force of this municipality-"

"But those two are-"

"Miss, those two saved several busses full of children from a volcano that appeared under their school yesterday morning. Even if I did believe you, which I don't, why would I want to stop them?"

"I- But- But they're villains!" Azure whined.

"And if they do anything villainous, we'll take care of it. Until then, this is Musical Guardian turf and we don't appreciate you harassing our members."

"But-"

"Grindcore, please get her out of here."

"Wh- Jet? Jet you know me! You know I'm right!" She protested, as Musical Guardian Grindcore escorted her from the building. "This isn't over!"

All was quiet at the Musical Guardian front desk, and then once they were sure she was gone Phoebe and Tara poked their heads out from a doorway.

"Thanks for getting rid of her, Hyperpop." Phoebe said.

"No problem." Said Hyperpop. "You guys off to try and talk to the Mushroom Monarch again?"

"Regrettably yes." Tara sighed. "She should've sprouted up a few hours ago, she'll be making her move anytime now."

"I have pamphlets on the environmental benefits of fungal composting at the municipal level!" Phoebe said, eyes sparkling. "This time she'll listen."

"Mm. I see why Azure is so afraid of you two." Hyperpop said, scrolling on her phone.

"I still don't get why we don't deal with her ourselves." Complained Tara.

"Because we're already in an incredibly precarious legal position." Said Phoebe. "Killing people who annoy us undercuts our whole 'nonviolent criminal reform' thing."

"But baaaabe. Just think about it: Venus."

[niobiumao3]

Okay but I love how Phee's immediate reaction to the Batch bailing on Cid is to abscond with them. She's like, feeling it out, super casually discussing it with them, but the second she gets confirmation from Hunter they don't have a concrete plan she strikes while the iron is hot. Three enhanced combat clones and their sister-in-training? Don't mind if I do!

(Sidebar 'Omega needs friends who aren't genetically identical to her' is up there with 'let's just say they might recognize my face' for clone jokes.)

[cross-my-heartt]

Listen...

Y'all I watched the episodes again today and... I have some thoughts regarding the elephant in the room.

Right off the bat, no, I still don't think Tech is dead. If you go to the reaction post I made right after I watched the episodes the first time, you'll see I'm not worried about him being dead at all (which explains the enthusiastic tone of it).

I wondered whether all the 'Tech's not dead' theories I've read here aren't clouding my judgement this time but I don't think that's the case.

In fact, I watched the episodes with my parents and the moment they showed the final scene with Omega on Tantiss, the one where she's looking around the lab and it's clear she's about to see someone she knows, my dad was like 'oh, Tech must be here'. So even from a casual viewer's pov, it doesn't look like our favorite genius is dead at all.

The very tone of the episode didn't suggest it either, it was just a bit too… rushed. Even if they gave his sacrifice the right respect in the moment, it doesn't feel like a character death moment with how things progress around it.

And here's the thing: I did have to hold back tears at some points but it wasn't where I thought it would be. I thought I'd fall apart when they lost Tech but it was in fact after that, when the team is trying to pick up the pieces after Omega wakes up.

So these episodes are meant to be emotional but the emotional impact, the moment you're given time to breathe, are when you sympathize with the people who're currently mourning Tech, not when you're supposed to mourn him.

We see closeups of their reactions, we see their feelings. We see Echo look at Tech's seat instead of getting a simple solo closeup of it. We see Hunter pick up his goggles, not a sad little lingering shot of them on the ground next to a battered body. All of it feels like the show is telling us yes, sympathize with these people, feel their pain, this is real for them... but not necessarily true overall.

The episode does a great job of conveying how the batch feels in those moments and you may argue that's a good way of making the audience grieve, a good way of conveying the gravity of the situation. But to me a character death is supposed to be a little bit more private. We're supposed to experience it for ourselves if it's meant to have any proper lasting impact. And yes, I know a lot of us are still shaken from it but remember: we're very attached to these characters and the show.

People like my dad however aren't as invested and for him, that didn't register as a character death. At all.

So if the writers play their cards right, they get our emotional response to what seems like a very plausible and dramatic character death while also not committing to it by giving any concrete evidence whatsoever.

As a result, those of us who sympathize with the batch or are invested in Tech's character will have the emotional response they're looking for (and our engagement on social media will boost the show's popularity, which is exactly what happened) while more casual viewers, like my dad, are presented with the mystery of 'hey what happened to Tech? oh, look it's Tantiss. is he on Tantiss? oh, not yet. wow I can't wait to find out'.

So honestly if this was the writers' plan all along... well played is all I can say.

[omaano]

I think I got this ask from @the-nerdiest-writer but I cannot see it anywhere outside of my email inbox?

I'm so so glad you like this AU! I will never get over how people seem to enjoy it so much! 💕💕

I am trying to keep the characters varied as much as I can, since I am somewhat limited in how I can depict them in their generally stationary "standing around and just chatting" poses. So originally I didn't even plan on adding any clone wars characters, but then the project grew legs and ran away from me. I tried to write up a list at the end of last year about all the characters I want to include at some point (and here is to hoping that my attention lasts that long 🤞) and I do have Echo-and-Fives on that list (so, yes, I don't know better and want to add even more clones to this! But at the same time I'm also itching to add someone next who wears either different armor or some actual flowy fabric on their person for once!) as well as Omega, because I love her and her potential (and because I really should draw more female characters) although she is more of a suggestion than me having any concrete idea where she would even appear and how and at what age. (It's already weird to have Boba from TBoBF and Rex and Cody as they look in TCW XD just don't think about all that too hard) (Also I haven't yet watched The Bad Batch past episode 7(?) yet? The one where Rex has his first cameo. Like, the most I know about that show is through gifs from here ^^; I'm very bad at catching up with Star Wars shows 😬)

Thank you so much for this ask! ❤️

[manorpunk]

To Seize and Hold - Act III

+++++

Liam starts making more steps towards independence - he goes to see a therapist, but soon leaves in disgust after a tentative diagnosis of “obsessive co-sentiment disorder,” which sounds an awful lot like “caring-about-other-people disorder.” He finishes his future-GED, applies for citizenship, and gets his first job - prep work in a co-packer, making industrial-sized batches of potato salad. The work isn’t great, but Liam finds a strange sense of peace there, surrounded by the hum of machinery and the smell of ground mustard, hidden behind a face mask, hairnet, and earplugs, the solitude, the peaceful oblivion of line assembly.

Bad news comes in from Webersberg. The situation in Liam’s hometown has gotten worse - Remington Weber and his compatriots are in open revolt, and in response, Solomon van Gekkenhuis (Liam’s old friend who has admittedly been very underdeveloped in this outline, but he’s a pseudo-intellectual authoritarian type - “if only everyone would realize how smart and right I am, I could fix everything”) has been appointed as the new temporary manager of Webersberg, and Solomon is now hoping to go along with Bogdan’s “Plan A” of flattening Webersberg and starting over.

Liam thinks about his hometown - the good times, the bad times, its cruelty and compassion, and what would it mean for it to be destroyed. Would it be the act of a tyrannical state, steamrolling over anyone who won’t play by its rules? Or is it the sad but necessary suppression of a bubble of retrograde provincialism? After all, we’re trying to move forward, to leave the madness of the Polycrisis behind us, and there are always some people who won’t like that. But who’s ‘we’ here? Everyone has their own take, but Liam frankly just wishes that nobody had to hurt anyone else.

Jacob is shocked and disappointed by Liam’s take. What’s the matter with you, Liam? Don’t you want revenge? After all the shit they put you through, don’t you want your chance with your thumb on the scales?

No, Liam says, I don’t.

Jacob tries to brush it off, but he’s clearly lost respect for Liam, and Jacob doubles down on the ‘advice’ that Anton gave to him earlier - it’s time to make something of all these kids, teach them to fight, teach them to stay vigilant, and teach them how to listen to him unquestioningly. Liam’s earlier suspicions have been confirmed: he can’t stay here for much longer, he doesn’t want to be a part of this. Jacob was so charming and generous, it was so easy to forget that he’s got the cold, cruel heart of a military commander.

And so, finally, Liam contacts Sunny and tells her everything - the way Jacob not only openly discusses matters of state with his maidboys, but the way he’s turning them into his own little private army. Sunny is pleased - her scheme worked! - and shortly after, Liam’s bank account starts getting dividends from an anonymous fund. Pretty respectful dividends, too. Enough to live off of. He can start looking around for a new place, maybe finally feel like his life is going somewhere. Though it’s hard to think too much about that when, I must repeat, his hometown is about to be shelled to the ground.

Because by this point, it’s going to happen. After getting Liam’s info, Sunny’s response was not to try and de-escalate the situation, but rather, to beat him to the punch. She contacts Bogdan and requests they mobilize the Great Lakes Republic State Guard. We get the climactic scene of Sunny showing up in her mech (of course she has a mech) and ceremonially launching the first rocket into Webersberg to start the assault.

The battle is short and decisive. Webersberg - it started as a mall, then became a bandit fort, then became a small town, and then, in just a few minutes, became a pile of glass and concrete. Casualties are few - most people had evacuated, only Remington’s family held out to the end.

Liam lies down and stares up at the sky as he has one last conversation with Leona (She’s been talking with him the whole time, I forgot to mention. Look, this is a pretty bare-bones outline, if I mentioned someone at the beginning just assume they’ve popped their head up every now and then). She tells him that opportunities to reinvent oneself like this are few and far between, and he should take advantage of it.

But how, Liam asks? What should I do? What should I become?

Leona titters and paces around him. Do you still not get it? Think back, about everything. The restlessness and dissociation that has nagged you your entire life. The way you never felt comfortable in your own body. Didn’t feel comfortable as a straight guy, barely felt comfortable as a gay guy, and felt most comfortable completely hidden behind your protective gear at work. Do you remember what you felt the first time you wore that maid uniform? When you looked in the mirror and felt this deep, wonderful ache, like you were so close to something, and yet just far enough away that you felt like a dismal parody? Like you had just wished upon a monkey’s paw? What do you think that feeling was?

Oh, says Liam Hessian.

Ohhhhhh, says Leona Hessian.

+++++

They say that a good ending to a story is surprising, yet inevitable. In some ways, Leona coming out as a trans woman happens out of nowhere, but at the same time it fits snugly within the story’s themes: America/Usonia’s identity crisis as it transitions out of the Polycrisis parallels Leona’s identity crisis, and damn near everything about Sunny Roosevelt plays off of the universal theme of “public persona vs. internal truth” - there’s something deeply spiritual about vtubers, isn’t there? Voluntarily subsuming oneself into a new identity, like a shaman’s mask, dissolving one’s physical form to become an avatar - a word derived from Sanskirit term which referred to a god descending from the heavens into a corporeal form.

But it’s also for that very reason that it’s hard to make a story that’s ‘about’ Sunny, in the same way that Lord Vetinari was never really the ‘main character’ of any of the Discworld books, no matter how often he appeared. If he was the main character, he would need to have a character arc, but Vetinari is already his consummate self - there is nothing left to transform. Growth and transformation are for mere mortals. But it’s also for those reasons that she works fabulously as a major supporting character - she loves to meddle and she has a skeleton key to the internet, so she always has a reason to get involved in someone else’s business.

Jacob Martin Rider, meanwhile, is pure candy to write (specifically Cosmicandy (another joke for five people)). At first glance he seems completely absurd and impossible, but like… just imagine what T.E. Lawrence would have gotten up to if he lived in an era where queerness was more accepted. I resisted making him the bad guy at first, but it all made too much sense - underneath the charm and flamboyance he burns with spite like a collapsing star. Sort of a peak anti-tenderqueer.

And all this is the beauty of the writing process, I started with “what if there was a vtuber and a cavalry officer in a future-balkanized US” and now I’m here.

Anyway, I have my marching orders. I turned the one-sentence version into the ten-page version, and now it’s time to turn the ten-page version into the hundred-and-fifty-page version.

Shit, did I even mention how the Global Logistics Network plays into all this? Okay, so the GLN is… [the audio slowly fades out and the camera pulls away as I continue rambling about the lore]

[the-crimson]

I’ve been trying to piece together the whole purgatory, protocol AB, shadow virus, dark cucurucho plot and how it all fits together but qsmp lore feels like a puzzle in which we have a bunch of disjointed pieces that we don’t know how to piece together and every time we get new lore, it doesn’t connect anything but reveals another disjointed chunk of the puzzle. So follow me as I try to figure out what pieces we have to try and figure out what it all means. (This is all based on my memory so it may be incorrect in places fee free to correct me)

The first time we see black concrete in the wilds is when the new batch of English and Spanish speakers arrive in the timer dungeon. The landscape atop the dungeon was completely transformed with “trees” made of black concrete that reached for the sky. They look very similar to the way a lot of the shadow virus’s vines curl around buildings are reach for the sky.

The first tickets that were part of Protocol AB were given to Bagi and Carre.

The first instance of black concrete in the spawn area were when the warning was delivered to the eggs and the fled (this concrete was then removed so we only learned of it yesterday during the video but it continues the pattern of messages being delivered through the concrete)

Then Tubbo, Roier, and Slime were given messages/coordinates to the maze via black concrete, Fred leads them there, and we meet dark cucurucho for the first time.

Then (I think this part is a bit fuzzy for me) the eggs start contacting their parents via black concrete. All the eggs send a message.

Then Codeflippa leads Bbh Aypierre and Maximus into the maze where they press the button that triggers Protocol AB and bbh gets his ticket. (Originally thought the books here were potentially dark cucurucho but now that we’ve interacted with the purgatory master it 100% sounds like the eye guy) Everyone gets their tickets over time after this.

Then the massive black and green concrete structures appear and black concrete starts appearing all over the island in places the eggs frequent.

Forever is tasked by cucurucho to go into the nether for some task where he meets Walter Bob and the federation loses contact with him. He is infected with the shadow virus, makes a deal with the dark cucurucho, and comes back after a month.

The island gets even more infected with the black concrete so the federation sends all the residents to a vacation island so the Fed’s can clean up the shadow virus without their interference.

The federation loses contact with the islanders as they are intercepted by an outside force aka the purgatory master who wants them to kill each other for its entertainment.

Ok so how does all this piece together XD

If the tickets were part of Protocol AB, why did Bagi and Carre have tickets before it was activated?

Why did Codeflippa, an entity controlled by the resistance, lead bbh (he is the one the entity in the maze chose to roll the dice and had Dapper’s hat so he’s the important one in this instance) into the maze to trigger protocol AB? Why was Dapper’s hat in the maze? Who was the entity in the maze? If it was the purgatory master, how was he influencing Codeflippa? How did he get there and who is he?

I guess something that has me confused is how protocol AB relates to the federation’s plan to send the islanders to another island temporarily because that seemed a last resort to clean up the shadow virus, not something they’d been planning for over a month. So was Protocol AB sending the islanders away? The tickets would imply so but Bagi and Carre had their tickets before the protocol was activated so is it actually related? Additionally, an outside entity made the players activate protocol AB so is it even a protocol the modern federation has? We saw elements for protocol AB in the nether with Forever but I think that’s it (I might be wrong i can’t remember). So is protocol AB related to sending the islanders away at all? Is Protocol AB something the purgatory master created to trap the islanders once the Fed’s sent them away? Is the purgatory master in cahoots with the resistance or the shadow virus/dark cucurucho? The more I think about it the less sense it makes!

Then we have the shadow virus! Where did that shit come from? Did it get released during the timer dungeon? Is that what the federation had locked away in the freezers? Is that why they had all those people locked away? We’re they all carriers for the virus? It was only after they thawed and woke up that the landscape above was changed with black concrete trees so maybe? Then they brought it back to the main island. Is that why the code eggs were trying to stop the islanders from freeing the new people? Then why was the Fed’s helping the new people? Once they escaped, did the virus incubated a while before gaining enough strength to awaken dark cucurucho - a being fully corrupted by the shadow virus? But why would Fred lead Tubbo into the maze and why did dark cucurucho have a chair along side cucurucho and osito? Why would the egg’s message to flee be delivered via the shadow virus? Who told them to flee? What the hell was up with the room with the wheel and all the egg’s accessories? What are those massive concrete structures???

There are so many questions and with all the events leading up to this being laid bare it just makes me more confused. If u have answers or theories pls throw them my way cuz my brain is just a mush of questions. Every time we learn something new it answers nothing and gives us more questions XD

[tellthatbrokebitch]

i took my love and i took it down, chapters 4/8, 42k

Hopper had told them once, a couple years ago now, to stay away from the quarry when they patrolled. “It’s too dangerous,” he’d said. “All it takes is a stumble, and trust me, you do not want to go over that cliff. Hitting the water from that height is like hitting concrete. No one can survive that fall.”

If Will is being honest with himself – and he was trying to be these days, trying to be better – he knew his choice, knew it before he’d even presented himself with the options. He doesn’t want to become one of them, doesn’t want to be eaten, and he already knows he can’t bring himself to place the gun in his mouth and pull the trigger.

When he tries to take a step towards the cliff, his foot spasms and he follows the motion, dropping to his knees and crawling instead. The view he’s greeted with is both terrifying and beautiful, and his fingers itch to grab a pencil or a brush even as he recoils at the sight of jagged rocks, and the smooth water below, so, so far below.

The groans grow closer.

He closes his eyes and pulls up a vision of his safe place, a time when he was happiest. At first it’s being alone in Castle Byers, but he waves that away. Then it’s his childhood home, with Jonathan and his mom, talking and laughing at the dinner table. That too fades, replaced by the party gathered around the table in the Wheeler’s basement, finishing up the campaign they started before Will’s disappearance. Then it’s the panic attack fort, huddled with El, rocking back and forth and humming under his breath.

Then it coalesces into a different memory, and instantly he knows this is the right one.

In late June, Mike had surprised him by setting up a picnic in his room. He spread blankets across the floor and scrounged up suitably appropriate picnic food. He even managed to find a basket from somewhere. Then he led Will inside with his eyes covered, and yelled ta-da! when it was time for the big reveal.

They’d spent the entire afternoon on the floor, talking and laughing and partaking in Steve’s latest batch of edibles. They had giggly sex, then more serious sex, and then exhausted sex. Mike fell asleep with his head in Will’s lap, wearing one sock and nothing else, and he snored so loudly his room neighbors complained the next day at breakfast. They spent the entire night this way, Will running a reverent hand through slightly greasy black waves and smiling until his cheeks ached, before he too finally fell asleep.

It was the best day of Will’s life.

He clings to that memory as tears spill down his cheeks, and he holds onto that love as every muscle in his body tenses in anticipation.

Just as something brushes against his leg, he throws himself forward and meets open air.

plans are made. relationships are tested. will visits a familiar place. then, another familiar place

between the slides