#Giant Cursive Letters: Not Ship

[dawnhypermarket]

Running circles in conversation, just like before

[aroseyetbloomedwrites]

Maddox - A Scene in Character Analysis

    “Wait! That’s my boat, someone help!”

    Sure enough, there was a wooden carrier drifting far out of range, trailing ties and ropes in it’s gentle wake. From the pier, a lalafell shaking and pointing and pulling at his hair as he watched it. There were crates still piled on the raft, likely one of the large ships docked far out of port could scoop it up and return the goods but that could take half the day. 

     Not to mention, how damn daft did the hands have to be to tie it so shoddy that it runs away?

    Maddox pulls his axe free with a sigh, lets a sharp end embed in the deck and sends the lalafell fulms into the air, startled at the sound while he hits the water. There probably was time to at least unfasten his sabatons, but the metal, while sturdy, blessedly light-and he, absurdly strong. The weight of his coat proved more hindrance than the pauldron at his shoulders or metal on his feet and fingers. But, as he twisted wet rope around his arm in layers, grateful for the protection as he heaved backwards on the rope (and knows it would have cut into his skin otherwise), purposeful in his one arm stroke, and power behind every kick of his leg, nearly beats his head against the wood of the dock as the momentum brings he and the raft back to it for all his focus had been so bent upon swimming. 

     Breathing heavily, exerted and muscles certainly aching, manages to heave himself back onto the deck with mostly sturdy legs. Water darkens the brown leather of his coat, and his white scarf is limp against his chest. Water streams in unrestrained rivulets from the joints of his sabatons and arm guards. The muscle of his arm holding the ties strains to keep the raft moored along the dock. The knot he ties to the cleat is sure, secure and somewhat ungiving. Maddox gives the line a tug to test its hold, sighs and then stands while giving his shoulder a good flex and several rolls to loosen the muscle back up. Then, turns the bright ember of his eyes on one gawking merchant running from stern to bow to account for the wares. He even pulls off a sack to check for water damage, and a small crate to inspect too. All while Maddox stands there, staring down his nose at him, expectant as he rings out his scarf and dries under the Limsan sun. 

     The merchant begins to twitch where he stands before he can take it no more and turns around, arms held out and leaning back against his crate. Maddox does not move, more or less, puts his hips on his hands and quirks a brow.

     “A-ah yes! I suppose you’d be expecting something…”

     “It’s not every day you have someone jump into the ocean for you to save some of your livelihood, since well, whoever you sailed with couldn’t do the job proper like.”

     The merchant wipes sweat from his forehead, looks around to see the crowd that had gathered only to watch were dispersing with the excitement concluded; no more giants flailing in the water, hauling rafts like a breathing freighter. He begins to pat down his colorful tunic, feels the belt at his sides and comes back empty handed. Maddox gives him a lip curled snarl for his efforts.

     “Ah! Wait! I have an idea!” The merchant jumps to it, gesturing at the box he had pulled off the raft. Ducking around so he wouldn’t have to look at a glowering face marked by one sharp object or another, a man who knew the other end of a weapon well enough… 

     The merchant's back was turned to him as he shuffled through some belongings, more or less just prying open a crate.

    “I noticed you were dressed mighty fine.”

    No doubt, wanting to weasel out of payment. 

    “Aye,” Maddox intones, his bemusement becoming apparent then, “off the back of the last bloke what tried and shortchange me, my good man.” 

    The lalafell jumps, turns about fast and holds up his hands… was that panicked flailing supposed to put him at ease…? 

    “Hear, hear, I am not trying to get off scott free. You see, I was just woefully unprepared for any… incidents…”

    Maddox rolls his eyes, the shining metal of his gauntlets cross over his broad chest. An ul’dahn without a coin purse? Not likely. The cloth he wore was nice, though, not the nicest he’s ever seen a rich man wear. Finger’s decked out in half the gems he’s seen a syndicate thug wear. Up and coming? Maybe he wasn’t lying, but that wasn’t his problem. A service was provided, and he would be compensated. though...he was interested though in whatever the guy was peddling in padded crates. It wasn’t the first time he’d done a deed for goods instead of gil, not his favorite but he wasn’t about to press a civilian in broad daylight. 

    Turns out to be a bottle of alcohol. That gets a frown, because the worth of liquor is questionable at best. However this bottle has thick glass, metallic foil around the bottle head and cork shimmers in the light, firm and tight. The label is illegible for sprawling cursive he never had the chance to learn, ah but wasn’t that gold-leaf lettering rather pretty? Not to mention, the shit-eating grin on the lalafell, like this was something to be proud of, like it might be something of his pride, and joy? 

    The bottle is smaller in his hand compared to how it looked when held in both of the lalafells.

    “Better’n any wine you’ve ever had, if you’ve ever had any, I’d say!” 

    Maddox turns the bottle this way, and that-lets the sun catch the gold lines as he admires it. 

    “I’d say you’re right, little man.” 

     And then, completely lacking decorum, flips the bottle into the air, catches it low on the neck in his hand while the lalafell panics and darts forward beneath it as if to catch it. Upon seeing it safe, keels over and groans, little hand over his heart-no doubt pounding like a fish out of water. Maddox grins wide then, sharp toothed and crooked. No, the wine had a price tag to it if that reaction gave him any clue. He holds the bottle upside down by the neck, taps the butt of it against his temple in thought while the merchant twitches and grimaces far below.

     “Aye, aye…’ he chuckles, the sound but a deep rumble as he shakes his head, ‘I’ll accept it this time. You’re lucky I’m so nice.”

     When Maddox leaves the merchant where he stands on the marina dock, he can tell the man is relieved. Nothing but a towering wall of muscle, metal, and leather straps-an axe half the size of his own body giving his shoulders not a single dip. Jumping the dock and hauling a drifting carrier raft back to post. Nay, the guy knew he’d scraped by being cheeky, but when Maddox rolls the bottle in his hands, metal lined fingers singing against the crystal… He knows it isn’t so bad a trade at all. 

     ‘I’ve already paid my board for the week anyways…’

[the-duke-of-deodorant]

For Picani's birthday thing: Perhaps Emile comes home after a tough session, maybe he's a little emotionally word down or tired. He steps through the dark doorway, takes off his coat, and suddenly all the lights turn on and Remy and all the cartoon therapy and/or sanders sides people are there, with presents and a giant disney-themed cake and suddenly the day seems much less tough

Ahhhh this ask made me smile so much!!

Have some Remile/sides fluff :)

Ship: Platonic Remile+sides (hurt with comfort/fluff)

Warnings: almost mental breakdown, anxiety/overthinking | Characters: LAMP+ Remy and Emile

Word count: 654 (short but really sweet OwO)

Roman and Remy worked together on the cake. Roman had the vision- a red cake with pink and blue tropical flowers and green palm tree leaves, with a mold of Stitch sitting at the top and Happy Birthday Emile written in pink cursive letters, and with that a bunch of fluffy blue cupcakes surrounding it. Remy had the ability to put it together. Although he hadn’t done anything fancy for weddings or anything like that he liked making cakes for fun and had a lot of practice with it. Remy had his hair pinned back behind his ear and sunglasses sitting on the counter across the kitchen in the middle of their mess. The light strained his eyes, but he could see what he was doing better. He could risk messing up something like this.

Patton, Logan, and Virgil helped with decorations. Red, green, pink, and blue balloons lined the walls to match the Lilo and Stitch themed party (Emile’s favorite movie which all of them have seen at least 500 times. A Lilo and Stitch themed party seemed obvious) Virgil let Patton sit on his shoulders to help reach the ceiling as Logan blew up balloons and passed them to Patton so he could tape it up there. Disney music was playing through a small speaker in the kitchen, which happened to be playing Frozen in the moment. Remy’s favorite movie, although he would never want to admit it. After watching it with the sides the music was all he could listen to, and he even got Emile to watch it with him a few times as payback for all the times he was dragged into movie nights. Remy could never admit he could reach the same high notes Elsa could in her songs, even if Emile had heard him once or twice.

All of this while Emile locked himself in the bathroom across from his office with shaking hands.

He knew not to get himself emotionally involved with his patient’s problems. Remy reminded him if he kept doing that his whole career would become exhausting, but he couldn't help it. Emile sat against the wall and blew into the hand covering his mouth until his breathing was normal again. His glasses sat on the tiled floor next to him until he was calm enough to put them on again and his vision was no longer blurred with tears. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He wanted to be calm. He wanted to live his normal life without problems that weren’t his own constantly wrapped around his mind. Especially today. Today of all days was the one that pushed him past his limit.

Emile was hesitant to open the door to the apartment. Of course the sides would see him. They would want to see him on his birthday and they wouldn’t want to see him… like this. His face wasn’t red anymore, so he could easily fake a smile and suck it up for a few hours. It would all be okay.

When the door handle moved Logan raced to turn the light off. Patton practically fell of Virgil’s shoulders and Roman and Remy raced away from their mostly-finished display to hide behind the couch with everyone else. Remy watched the man walk through the door and begin to slide off his count. For the split second it was dark he looked exhausted. Before he could think any more of it the lights turned on and everyone jumped out from behind the couch.

Emile’s face lit up with a genuine smile.

Remy was the first one to be stuck inside of one of Emile’s excited hugs. Emile hid his smile inside Remy’s jacket as his hold got tighter, and Remy started to run his fingers through Emile’s hair when the hug held on for a little longer than what he thought it would. Remy and the sides shared the same smile Picani did.

Taglist: @winterrs-child @remusthedukeofdeodorant @thecatchat @stop-it-anxiety @znikitrash @awkwardandanxiousfander @nowletmeseeyourkezzhands @prox-xima @hela-daughter-of-loki @arcticfrostdoesthings

[megs-writing]

For Picani’s birthday thing: Perhaps Emile comes home after a tough session, maybe he’s a little emotionally worn down or tired. He steps through the dark doorway, takes off his coat, and suddenly all the lights turn on and Remy and all the cartoon therapy and/or sanders sides people are there, with presents and a giant Disney themed cake and suddenly the day seems much less tough. 

Ahhhh this ask made me smile so much!!

Have some Remile/sides fluff :)

Ship: Platonic Remile+sides (hurt with comfort/fluff) Warnings: almost mental breakdown, anxiety/overthinking | Characters: LAMP+ Remy and Emile

Word count: 654 (short but really sweet OwO)

Roman and Remy worked together on the cake. Roman had the vision- a red cake with pink and blue tropical flowers and green palm tree leaves, with a mold of Stitch sitting at the top and Happy Birthday Emile written in pink cursive letters, and with that a bunch of fluffy blue cupcakes surrounding it. Remy had the ability to put it together. Although he hadn’t done anything fancy for weddings or anything like that he liked making cakes for fun and had a lot of practice with it. Remy had his hair pinned back behind his ear and sunglasses sitting on the counter across the kitchen in the middle of their mess. The light strained his eyes, but he could see what he was doing better. He couldn’t risk messing up something like this. 

Patton, Logan, and Virgil helped with decorations. Red, green, pink, and blue balloons lined the walls to match the Lilo and Stitch themed party (Emile’s favorite movie which all of them have seen at least 500 times. A Lilo and Stitch themed party seemed obvious) Virgil let Patton sit on his shoulders to help reach the ceiling as Logan blew up balloons and passed them to Patton so he could tape it up there. Disney music was playing through a small speaker in the kitchen, which happened to be playing Frozen at the moment. Remy’s favorite movie, although he would never want to admit it. After watching it with the sides the music was all he could listen to, and he even got Emile to watch it with him a few times as payback for all the times he was dragged into movie nights. Remy could never admit he could reach the same high notes Elsa could in her songs, even if Emile had heard him once or twice. 

All of this while Emile locked himself in the bathroom across from his office with shaking hands. 

He knew not to get himself emotionally involved with his patient’s problems. Remy reminded him if he kept doing that his whole career would become exhausting, but he couldn't help it. Emile sat against the wall and blew into the hand covering his mouth until his breathing was normal again. His glasses sat on the tiled floor next to him until he was calm enough to put them on again and his vision was no longer blurred with tears. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He wanted to be calm. He wanted to live his normal life without problems that weren’t his own constantly wrapped around his mind. Especially today. Today of all days was the one that pushed him past his limit. 

Emile was hesitant to open the door to the apartment. Of course the sides would see him. They would want to see him on his birthday and they wouldn’t want to see him… like this. His face wasn’t red anymore, so he could easily fake a smile and suck it up for a few hours. It would all be okay. 

When the door handle moved Logan raced to turn the light off. Patton practically fell off Virgil’s shoulders and Roman and Remy raced away from their mostly-finished display to hide behind the couch with everyone else. Remy watched the man walk through the door and begin to slide off his count. For the split second it was dark he looked exhausted. Before he could think any more of it the lights turned on and everyone jumped out from behind the couch. 

Emile’s face lit up with a genuine smile. 

Remy was the first one to be stuck inside of one of Emile’s excited hugs. Emile hid his smile inside Remy’s jacket as his hold got tighter, and Remy started to run his fingers through Emile’s hair when the hug held on for a little longer than what he thought it would. Remy and the sides shared the same smile Picani did. 

[eeveevie]

Exchanging letters for the sweet prompts...I'd love for it to be Varric/Bethany if you are inspired!

A collection of short notes and letters from Varric and Bethany from variouspoints of time in the Dragon Age timeline and my storyline for them “Shadowand Light”. 

This was so fun to write 🤗

Varric Tethras x Bethany Hawke 

750 words (under a cut) | Ao3

Kirkwall, 9:31

Varric,

I’ve been reading through the “trash—do not keep��not for use ever” manuscripts that you thought you hid away in your room, and I must say, they have been keeping me entertained while you and Garrett parade around town without me. So much so I am less inclined to guilt trip the two of you for leaving me behind. I don’t know why you thought these stories weren’t worthy enough to be read, but I’ve certainly enjoyed them—surely my opinion is the only one that matters, right? I am not a world-famous author, but my advice to you is to hold onto these ideas, you never know when you’ll need them for a future masterpiece.

-Bethany

Sunshine,

Please stop digging through my garbage. If you’re that bored, why don’t we get lost in the city together and let it show us something interesting? I’m sure it’ll take all of five minutes.

Meet me in the usual spot.

-V 

Kirkwall, 9:34

Sunshine,

There’s this bard in the Hanged Man who has started serenading Isabela with the most pretentious lyrics. Something about how her body ‘is a wonderland’.Seriously, you couldn’t pay me to make this shit up. At least be more creativewhen describing a woman’s body and the things you want to do to it? Am I right?Maybe he should sing to her about using his hands to [redacted]. Or maybe usehis tongue to [redacted]? No woman would be able to resist that. I don’t wantto brag, but I’ve been known to be very talented in all these aspects

[The remainder of the letter is completely torn from the rest of the parchment]

 Varric,

I regret to inform you that your clever attempt in sneaking a smutty fantasy to me did not go as planned. The templars really are diligent in reading these letters, even the ones being received by their most trusted wards. While practically unintelligible…I believe I have a general idea. You’d be surprised at how little I need to get me going.

-Bethany

 The Waking Sea, 9:37

To my most beloved dwarf,

Garrett gifted me the most delicious red wine for my birthday and I must say it is stronger than anything I remember ever having in the Hanged Man. He wouldn’t even tell me which port he picked it up in! But he said I could keep it allllll to myself—and I plan on it. Did I tell you that Isabella has been writing more friend-fiction?

[The words on the page distinctly start to go lopsided, and become very hard to decipher, very unlike Bethany’s usual neat, cursive handwriting]

Even though she has noooo idea about us.. what happened us in the past, in Kirkwall—right? Us. Us. Isabella doesn’t know. She can be very clever that pirate. Captain. She’s a captain now. With a pointy hat. Her stories are very descriptive, I wonder if they would make you blush! Do dwarves blush?

[The letter is unsigned, but there is a small wine stain across the bottom where a signature might have been] 

Haven, 9:41

Sunshine,

Shit’s weird. Shit’s always weird. But you and I know that. And now there’s a giant glowing green hole in the sky. Oh, and mages and templars are fighting—again—yippie! That being said, wherever you are, I hope you are keeping safe. What am I saying? I know you are keeping safe. You’re Bethany Hawke, and can shoot fire out of your hands, and…can mages shoot fire out of their eyes?

I think I’ve had too much to drink.

-V

PS: We have a Qunari now, I guess. He likes flowers and the color pink. It’s weird.

Varric,

No, mages cannot shoot fire out of their eyes.

[Beside this is an obvious doodle by Garrett Hawke depicting Bethany shooting fireballs from her eyes]

Please stop drinking so much, or I will be on the first ship to Ferelden to save you from this so-called Inquisition. While I understand wars are waging and the world is burning, but this whole mess seems to have put a damper on your mood. Because this is incredibly unacceptable, I have enclosed several of my best jokes:

What do you call a group of unorganized cats? A cat-astrophe! How does a squid go into battle? Well-armed!What’s brown and sticky? A stick!

I’d provide more, but I think you’re in stitches by now!

-Sunshine

PS: If you ever need us, you have only to ask.

[dc-x-readers]

Soulmates (Leonard Snart x Reader)

Just a cute little (longish?) fic for my favorite thief!

Trigger Warnings: Abuse, and Swearing

You didn’t believe in soulmates, well you sort of did, but not really. The whole thought that the words that were etched onto your body somehow meant that you would be together forever was idiotic. While all your friends gushed about how they dreamed of meeting the one, and imagined what they would say when they heard their words, you sat in the back pretending that you didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.

Maybe you would like soulmates more if your parents had worked out, if your father had gone into a drunken stupor and beat your mother so badly she became paralyzed for the rest of your life. Maybe if your mother didn’t keep you awake at night with the tears she didn’t want to shed in front of you the idea of being with someone forever wouldn’t seem so terrifying. Maybe if the words “I ain’t a hero.” weren’t in big block letters over your heart you would believe in fairytale endings and happily ever after.

But that wasn’t your life, that wasn’t your destiny. You would probably end up with someone as drunk and useless as your father, so you put a wall around your heart. You would be ready when you rejected your soulmate and ran away as fast as you could.

When you turned eighteen the particle accelerator exploded a mere two miles from your lousy apartment, you mother died and you gained superhuman capabilities. You could turn your skin to diamonds, you couldn’t be shattered. It felt like a cosmic metaphor for your life, so you enjoyed you new powers in secret. You didn’t want to become a criminal, nor did you have the patience to become a hero, so you mostly kept your abilities a secret.

Until you were approached by Rip Hunter, proclaiming you as a hero. You decided to join him, because why the hell not? You had nothing keeping you here.

You arrived at the meeting place for you and the rest of the legends, and you were surprised by some familiar faces, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory milled about. You were confused for a second, Leonard Snart? Wasn’t he a criminal? Why wasn’t he getting arrested or something.

“You’re all here. Good.” Rip Hunter exclaimed, “The Legends of Tomorrow.”

“I ain’t a hero.” Leonard Snart said to Rip as the time traveler explained the mission you were about to be on.

You froze, you froze and the world melted away. He said those words, those stupid four words. He was who you were meant to be with? This was not going to happen, not now when you were finally doing something with yourself, you were about to join a team that would make into someone who mattered. You resolved yourself that you wouldn’t speak a word to Leonard Snart, he would never think you were his soulmate.

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

You have been on the ship for a year now and Leonard couldn’t figure out why you hated him so much. Sometimes he would see you speaking in a low tone to Sara or Stien, but everytime Leonard would approach you grew silent. The behaviour was clearly only directed at the Captain, and he had no idea why, it made him so furious that sometimes he wanted to ice you.

Mick had once said it was possible that in Len’s days of crime he could have hurt the Diamond Devil, as you had become dubbed during your crusades through time, but any time Leonard even attempted to ask you would just look at him and shake your head. The you would get up and leave. It was infuriating!

Len was in his quarters aboard the Waverider, getting dressed for their newest mission, which took them to France 1592, and for some God Forsaken reason everyone convinced Leonard to dress for the era, there were too many ruffles! Tights had also been given, but Leonard still held some dignity and put on a pair of pants which could seem old fashioned. While sliding on his shirt he glanced at the cursive script which was written directly over his chest, I’ve got you.

From the day he was discovered what a soulmate meant he would dream of how he would meet his soulmate, how they would ‘get’ him. It was the one thing he looked forward to when he was young, meeting someone who would love him unconditionally. When he was being beaten by his father, a new lesson to learn, Leonard would imagine his soulmate and him doing something domestic, making soup or reading a book together. He never would have thought it could take him this long to meet his soulmate.

Shaking his head Leonard pulled his shirt on, covering his soulmark.

The door to Leonard’s room opened and in you stepped, wearing the traditional clothes of the era, and somehow you made them look so good. It angered Len unreasonably that the clothes hung correctly on you while he looked like someone who crawled out of the trash, you cocked your head as if to ask, You ready to go?

“Ready when you are Devil.” Leonard snorted, and you rolled your eyes before leaving his room.

Leonard followed you out and you could feel him behind you, it was awful. Sharing a home with your soulmate was hard, even though you maintained your views that soulmates caused nothing but destruction of the heart; you couldn’t help but fall for Snart’s little mannerisms. They way he is always methodical, yet aloof. He was a contradiction and it drove you insane.

You and Leonard arrived at the Castle where Vandal Savage was residing, he was holding a ball in his own honor this particular night and yourself and Leonard had scored an invite. You watched in awe as women in giant hooped skirts and men in tights danced gracefully across the ballroom. Everything was so beautiful, it was like a dream.

“I could take a lot of pretty valuable shit.” Leonard mused looking around at the unattended master pieces which would sell as priceless antiques once he returned to your own time. You slapped Leonard gently at his words, and he just gave you his famous grin.

You pointed to where Vandal Savage stood, surrounded by mercenaries and knights, getting to the man seemed to be a lost cause. Still you palmed the knife meant for Kendra nervously ready to strike at any second, but before you could do anything Leonard grabbed your hands and pulled you close to him. You stared at the man wide eyed, what on Earth is he doing?

“Dance.” Leonard commanded. You swallowed the protest in your throat and did as he said, dancing until you could get eyes on Savage. He held you close to him, and you could feel his breath on your cheek, and his hand in yours. You wondered if he could hear how fast and hard your heart was pounding, but by the smirk on his face you thought he could. It was moments like these, moments where the Captain thawed and you were left with Leonard who was cool and cocky and utterly handsome that you regretted not speaking. If you opened your mouth now he would probably get mad at you for not telling him earlier, he may never want to see you again!

As you were dancing Savage was watching, he recognized the two of you from an incident that came in his past and your future, he knew you were out to kill him, so when he slipped away from the party to climb the highest tower in his castle he knew the two of you would follow. It was idiotic, you played right into the man’s hands, but you had been so caught up in how dreamy Len’s grey eyes were you didn’t think of any other possibilities for Savage’s exit.

He took you down in seconds, sending Leonard out the window with a firm kick, when he turned to you, you let your skin turn to diamond’s nothing he did could hurt you. You rushed to the window where Leonard fell, and somehow- thank the Gods- he was holding the window sill with a white hot grip, reaching down your diamond hand you grabbed his human one. You needed to save him!

“I’ve got you!” You shouted down to him as Vandal tried to hit you with another blow of his sword. You were so focused on the task at hand -saving you soulmate, saving Leonard Snart- that you didn’t notice Leonard’s eyes grow in surprise, you said his three words. You were his!

Pulling Len up was difficult, not that Len was heavy, he was just more dead weight then you could theoretically handle with someone screaming in your ear and jabbing you with swords that would shatter upon contact with your skin. Finally you hauled Len up and he collapsed onto the floor. Vandal Savage had figured out that hurting you was a lost cause, and had run off before Leonard was all the way up.

“You’re my-” Leonard started, and that was when you realised your mistake in speaking.

He knew.

“We don’t have time for this Leonard. We need to get back to the Waverider!” You shouted, taking Leonard's hand in your own diamond one, and rushing down the stairs to the ship. Leonard didn’t say a word as you ran, he had a full speech planned out since he found out what a soulmate was, but his mouth became dry at the thought of even speaking to you, and his mind was blank of everything but the fact that you are his soulmate.

Getting back to the ship was the easy part, getting Leonard to get checked out but Gideon was much harder. He just repeated that he needed to talk to Y/N every time someone suggested a visit to the medbay.

“Fine, I’ll talk with you, if you get checked out.” You replied.

Leonard nodded, and you followed him into the medbay. Gideon began her scan and you just watched each other carefully.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Leonard finally asked.

“I was scared.” You replied curtly. You almost cringed as you say hurt flash through Leonard’s big grey eyes. You never pegged him as someone to care so deeply, especially not about something, that fate or destiny or whatever you wanted to call it, assigned to him.

“Not of you.” You amended, “Well sort of you. I’m just scared of having a soulmate in general. It didn’t- it didn’t end well for my parent’s and I can’t end up like that.”

Leonard stared at you for a minute, letting your words sink in. He understood he guessed. He watched what losing a soulmate had done to his own father. He watched to average suburban dad morph into a drunken monster without the love of a soulmate, and he vowed to himself that he would never be anything like his father. But, that didn’t mean he didn’t want to try something. That he didn’t want to be with his person.

“I love you.” Len blurted out.

You stared at him, “If you’re saying it just because I’m your soulmate-” You stared.

“I’m not! I’ve loved you for so long, I think since the moment I met you.” Len exclaimed surprising himself with his statement, but finding it not to be false. He did love you, which was why seeing you talk to other and not him had riled him so. He wanted you, even before he knew you were meant to be.

“Do-do you promise not to hurt me?” You asked slowly. It felt stupid to ask, out loud the words sounded pathetic, and you couldn’t help but feel like a little kid again sucking your thumb and hoping to sleep in Mommy’s bed so the nightmares would go away.

Leonard stared into your eyes, he grabbed both of your hands in his. His hands were warm and calloused, you liked it, it felt right.

“I will never, ever hurt you.” Len promised his eyes ablaze with passion, he truly believed his sentiments, “we can take this as slow as you need, but I want to try this. I want to be with you.”

You didn’t say anything for a minute, just looked down at your hands, intertwined with Len’s, and letting his words sink in. It made sense that you were afraid, you had every right to be afraid after what you had been though. But you wanted to start something with Len, you wanted to try and be brave. If not for yourself, then for him.

You leaned over and kissed the man in front of you, it was a soft kiss, barely a graze, but sparks flew between you. When you pulled back Len had a dopey smile on his lips and love in his eyes.

Maybe not all soulmates are bad.

[zooman-lavender]

Lavenders Journal

Date: 01/06/2014

Today was very strange, that’s for sure. I was walking around looking at everything that Korea had to offer, hell I had saved for years to go on this trip! I always loved Korean culture and now I was finally here! Then this strange thing ended up happening and I can’t stop thinking about it. I was sitting outside on the little patio area at my hotel. I was looking over the whole city, and there were only a couple clouds in the sky. So I’m sure you could imagine my surprise when the sunlight just, disapeared! I was reading at the time I’m so I put down my book and saw something horrifying. It was a giant, robotic blue arm. Just an arm. It rose up and something blue flew up to the ship as it started to move. I should’ve gotten put my camera but I was too mesmerized by what was unfolding before my eyes. Then I could’ve sworn I saw something super tiny shoot up almost trying to catch up to where the arm was, then as quickly as it appeared, it was nowhere to be seen. I saw I could of dust where it looked like something had hit the ground. I tracked where that spot was and how I could get to it using my skateboard. I figured it would take me maybe twenty minutes, so I ran downstairs at lightning speed with my skateboard and hopped on. I cruised by so many fancy and expensive restaurants, when the smell of the cuisine hit my nose I sighed. “Maybe later.” I said, knowing full well my broke-ass self wasn’t going to get anything if I wanted to get back to beach city. When I had finally arrived, there was a sign with a tall fence. The sign read ‘keep out’ and smaller, newer sign with neat cursive letters.

‘Please.’

I thought it was strange, but still threw myself and my skateboard over the fence. When I walked around, there wasn’t anything that stuck out to me, I thought I heard voices trailing away from where I was, but I dismissed them. Then I found it. It was incredible. I only had an old Nikon camera, but I still took a picture. I still need to print it out, but I’ll do so when I get back to beach city. Anyway, it was a humongous palace-like structure, but still looked very open, almost like a gazebo. I did some research and I found it was called a palenquin. At least I think so, You can never really trust shady websites. But I was careful not to break anything there, as looked almost anicent, forgotten. It had a sense of beauty to it, the way the silk curtains swayed in the warm wind, the moss and plants that had grown over it. I could just sit and stare at it for hours, but then I moved my leg and felt the ground. I instantly jumped up, did an animal take a piss here or something? It hasn’t rained here my whole trip, so that’s not an option. I fully realized then that this was no animal. Whatever had made the ground wet was much bigger than any animal. There were round spots all over, scattered in front of the palenquin. Almost like...tears? Then some sort of fear settled in me. What was I dealing with here? And whatever it was, it sure as hell wasn’t from earth. Anyway, this entry took up a couple pages and I need to save those pages for whatever happens next! I’m so exited! And also a bit scared... but whatever happens I’m going to face it head-on! -Lavender.

[dawnhypermarket]

You're just being paranoid

[jacewilliams1]

The famous quote that da Vinci never said

“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

This Leonardo da Vinci quote is everywhere — aviation books, magazines, websites, Instagram posts, coffee mugs, tee shirts, several science textbooks and some Smithsonian publications. It’s been repeated by the Washington Post newspaper, the Italian ambassador to the United States, and an executive director of The Leonardo museum. I saw it last year in big painted letters on the wall of a California flight school. It’s timeless emotion from a renaissance master of art and science. A flying quotation from maybe the most diversely talented genius ever to have lived, penned 400 years before the Wright Brothers flew. It’s evocatively magical and achingly relatable.

Yet Leonardo da Vinci never said it; and it’s nowhere close to 500 years old.

Yep, it’s fakey fake! Like, totally busted. Now, it’s still a great line. Maybe the best encapsulation of what pilots feel like when we’re stuck on the ground. As I write this during the coronavirus lockdown my eyes are turned skyward, longing to return. But how did this distinctive line come to be credited to the famous Italian polymath with a fascination for flight? And who actually did write it?

I started questioning the quotation’s authenticity over twenty years ago, while trying to nail down the details for a book I was editing. It was slow sledding. Several big aviation books had the line, but none of them cited a reference. None. I soon noticed it never has a date or even a year ascribed to it. This was back when university library catalogs were giant physical card files, Google didn’t exist, and you dialed into the internet on Netscape.

Since I don’t speak Italian, flipping through photos of Leonardo’s original notes didn’t get me anywhere. Reading English translations of his words didn’t uncover the phrase. Leonardo didn’t write books as such, but rather had observational and inspirational notebooks that he wrote in mirror-image cursive with shorthand codes and extensive sketches. There are in total about 13,000 of these pages, originally loose papers of different types and sizes.

Leonardo wrote about birds and flying, but not that famous quote.

Leonardo certainly was obsessed with birds and flying machines, drawing and writing a lot about them over his entire lifetime. He believed a bird flew into his crib as a baby. He swam underwater to study how fish fins worked compared to bird wings. His aerodynamic ideas foreshadow Newton, Galileo, and Bernoulli. He was the first to draw flow fields. Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says Leonardo was “the ultimate genius,” and that “as scientists and explorers we always looked to him as the model.”

One of his famous notebooks, the Codex on the Flight of Birds, is devoted entirely to flight. It was written at the same time (1505-1506) he was painting the Mona Lisa. It contains aerodynamic understandings not equalled for hundreds of years. Elachi believes this codex is “probably the most important document about flight” on Earth. In 2012, a scanned copy of it flew much further, landing on Mars attached to the Curiosity rover. While close inspection of the Codex on the Flight of Birds reveals it was written over old notes, and contains a grocery list as well as other personal notes, our famous line is not there.

Peter Jakab, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, says Leonardo wrote 35,000 words and drew 500 stretches on flying. His last notebook, Manuscript E (circa 1515), has advanced studies of gliding flight and clearly shows how migrating birds use the wind for long range soaring. By then I think Leonardo had given up on mechanical human-powered flight, after a lifetime of never actually making it into the air in any machine. This disconnect from actually “tasting flight” is part of the magic of the quote, that the great master could voice our primal aerial passion before anybody could have experienced it. The general acceptance seems to be that the extraordinary intellect that envisioned so many mechanical possibilities, and could paint so many human emotions, conjured in his mind what flight would feel like, what lingering sweet taste it would leave in our psyche.

The search was frustrating. What if the quote was never in his notebooks? Maybe he wrote it in a letter to someone else? Or maybe was it a bad translation? Or an extrapolation? Or a misunderstanding? But surely not, as the line was quoted so definitively, so often. The only variations seem to be at the start. Sometimes it’s, “For once you have tasted…” other times it’s, “When once you have tasted…” The body of the quotation is remarkably consistent for something supposedly 500 years old, originally written in Italian or Leonardo’s poor Latin.

I found nothing. Neither did some nice folks I talked with at National Geographic magazine years ago, who had contacted one of the world’s leading Leonardo authorities in Italy as part of a long research project, and were told flat out that he did not write it. They were quite confident it was folklore fiction, and privately they sounded a little smug that a Smithsonian publication had recently printed it. I believed them, but how do you prove a negative? And who originally did pen the line?

The question quietly bugged me for years. The 2007 book Leonardo on Flight by Domenico Laurenza never mentions the line. A whole chapter of the 2008 book Leonardo’s Legacy by science writer Stefan Klein is devoted to da Vinci’s dream of mechanical flight, yet it also never mentions the line. Rather, the book concludes “after thirty years of tireless work, Leonardo’s dream of flying had reverted to what it was in the first days of his research—a flight of the imagination.” And the amazing 2017 biography Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson, drawing on the latest research, didn’t include it anywhere in its over 600 pages. So every time I saw the quote on a tee shirt or Twitter it was a poke to a bit of my brain that knew something wasn’t right, that something was unfinished.

Well, finally the mystery has been solved, thanks to several patient detectives connected via the internet, using the vast search tools of Google Books and other electronic storehouses. People reached out to book authors and asked where ideas and narrative came from, while others sat through dreadful old copies of films. It all came together in the nerdy discussion page of the Wikiquote entry for Leonardo de Vinci, and now we can reveal the author was… drum roll please…

John Hermes Secondari. An American TV writer. In 1965.

John Secondari discussing rockets with Wernher von Braun.

It seemed all a bit underwhelming. A TV writer? But a little more research finds a pretty cool cat. He commanded a tank company in combat during World War II. He wrote romantic novels. An uncredited Frank Sinatra sang “his” song that won an Oscar. The New York Times called Secondari “a dominant figure in the field of the television documentary” in their February 1975 obituary. He had won three Peabody Awards and more than 20 Emmys during a career making quality documentaries. And while John was mostly found behind the camera, there’s pictures of him from a 1958 Walt Disney Television show—smoking a cigarette and discussing rocketry with Wernher von Braun. And he had deep ties to Italy.

Born in Rome in 1919, at five years old Secondari sailed with his mother to Ellis Island for a life in the United States. After getting a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University, he worked as a correspondent for The United Press and CBS News. In 1941 he joined the Army and saw combat in Europe. After the war he rejoined CBS and was head of their Rome bureau. John also wrote several novels. The first one published drew on his knowledge and love of Rome with a title referencing the famous Trevi fountain—Coins in the Fountain. The book was turned into the 1954 movie Three Coins in the Fountain. It won two Oscars: best cinematography and best song. The eponymous song was sung by Frank Sinatra.

At the start of the 1960s Secondari organized ABC-TV’s first documentary unit and went on to produce over 80 documentaries, covering serious subjects with award-winning substance. The Museum of Broadcast Communications’ Encyclopedia of Television (2nd edition, 2013) says Secondari “forged a coherent house style that featured a heavy emphasis on visualization and dramatic voiceover narration.” One of his projects was a series called The Saga of Western Man, highlighting key historical events that drove civilization forward. It was nominated for five Primetime Emmy awards. The New York Times said that to make the past come alive Secondari used “sound effects and animated the screen by treating the camera lens as if it were the eye of an actual witness to the event—scanning , zooming or resting on shadows, furniture, silhouettes, ships and other objects. As much as possible he restricted the acting to off-screen voices, using historically authentic dialogue.”

One of the episodes of The Saga of Western Man was “I, Leonardo Da Vinci.” The credits state it was written, produced and narrated by John H. Secondari, with “the voice of Leonardo da Vinci” played by Fredric March. Its copyright date is 1965 and it was released in 1966 by American Broadcasting. At 16 minutes and 21 seconds into the second reel, after the off-screen Leonardo narration urges people to build his flying machines, claiming after any crash “the hurts will be slight,” over gentle visuals of a wheat field panning up into a clear blue sky, the voice says:

And once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you would return.

That’s it. The first recorded version of what became the quote. There is nothing similar in any of the millions of pre-1965 documents digitized by Google or other archivers. It was written by John H. Secondari, channeling the real ideas and passions of Leonardo as part of a TV documentary. This was a serious project, with Professor Carlo Pedretti of the University of California as the consultant historian, but it did present conjectural concentrations of Leonardo’s ideas. Condensing 13,000 pages of notes into a one hour show is hard. Clearly it’s a great line, compelling, ethereal—even if it’s closer in time to Leonardo DiCaprio than Leonardo da Vinci.

As an additional fact check, I talked with Marissa De Simone Day, Director of Exhibits and Learning at The Leonardo Museum of Creativity and Innovation in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was part of the creation of their outstanding Flight exhibit. If anyone should know about the line, it’s her. She stated, “as far as we know, the quote originated in the script of an educational film by John Secondari which is titled I, Leonardo da Vinci. The script is inspired by Leonardo’s notes in his codexes and narrated as though by Leonardo.”

This spoken line is not exactly as we’ve seen it repeated time after time over the last few decades. It lacks the “forever” and the ending is missing the “always long.” Those parts came to be added in pieces later. The first time the line appeared in print was ten years later, in the May 1975 edition of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. It was quoted as a Leonardo epigraph in The Storms of Windhaven, a science fiction story by George R. R. Martin (yes, that’s Mr. Game of Thrones) and Lisa Tuttle:

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward; for there you have been, and there you long to return.

Now we have the “long to return.” But where did they get the line? A fantastical lost da Vinci codex discovered in George R. R. Martin’s attic? A personal letter from Leonardo delivered through a vortex time portal? Sadly not. Seems the communication was more down to Earth. According to Lisa Tuttle it was the editor of Analog, Ben Bova, who suggested it. An email to Ben revealed that he heard it in a documentary about Leonardo.

It was perfect for the start of a story of human space voyagers who crash-landed on a planet and constructed mechanically simple gliding machines from their wrecked spaceship. The presented-as-historical-fact quotation was read and spread by late seventies hang glider pilots and sky divers. Five years later, a newspaper story in the The Herald Statesman had the compelling headline Hang Glider Died “With His Eyes Turned Skyward.” By the 1980s the power of the line had caught the imagination of the wider aviation world. And then it started being repeated in books and magazines.

Which is when I first saw it. I joined the echoing chorus by adding it to my lists of aviation quotes. Now it’s almost everywhere. It’s easy to understand why. The line perfectly describes a human emotion about our favorite obsession. It sounds just like what we think Leonardo sounded like. And fact checking the line used to be nearly impossible. But now we have better tools. It might take a while for the quote’s attribution to be changed, considering how common it’s become. I heard it as part of a theme park ride. It even made it to page 135 of the 2008 National Geographic book Leonardo’s Universe: The Renaissance World of Leonardo Da Vinci. Emails to the authors were unanswered.

It’s my speculation that the enigmatic Mona Lisa smile is Leonardo’s reaction to his most famous flying quote turning out to have been penned by a ghostwriter centuries after his death. The great man did enjoy funny prophecy-riddles. His quote that “winged creatures will support people with their feathers” actually refers not to flying machines, but rather “the feathers used to stuff mattresses.” His line “feathers shall raise men even as they do birds, towards heaven” is finished by “that is by letters written with their quills.”

While we have to let his most repeated quote go, thankfully there are many well researched, 100% authentic quotations that match his amazing aerodynamic sketches. Like this one from the Codex Atlanticus:

A bird is an instrument working according to mathematical law, and it is in the capacity of man to reproduce such an instrument. A man with wings large enough and duly attached might learn to overcome the resistance of the air and raise himself upon it.

The post The famous quote that da Vinci never said appeared first on Air Facts Journal.

from Engineering Blog https://airfactsjournal.com/2020/08/the-famous-quote-that-da-vinci-never-said/

[megs-writing]

For Picani’s birthday thing: Perhaps Emile comes home after a tough session, maybe he’s a little emotionally worn down or tired. He steps through the dark doorway, takes off his coat, and suddenly all the lights turn on and Remy and all the cartoon therapy and/or sanders sides people are there, with presents and a giant Disney themed cake and suddenly the day seems much less tough. 

Ship: Platonic Remile+sides (hurt with comfort/fluff)  Warnings: almost mental breakdown, anxiety/overthinking | Characters: LAMP+ Remy and Emile Word count: 654 (short but really sweet OwO)

Roman and Remy worked together on the cake. Roman had the vision- a red cake with pink and blue tropical flowers and green palm tree leaves, with a mold of Stitch sitting at the top and Happy Birthday Emile written in pink cursive letters, and with that a bunch of fluffy blue cupcakes surrounding it. Remy had the ability to put it together. Although he hadn’t done anything fancy for weddings or anything like that he liked making cakes for fun and had a lot of practice with it. Remy had his hair pinned back behind his ear and sunglasses sitting on the counter across the kitchen in the middle of their mess. The light strained his eyes, but he could see what he was doing better. He couldn’t risk messing up something like this. 

Patton, Logan, and Virgil helped with decorations. Red, green, pink, and blue balloons lined the walls to match the Lilo and Stitch themed party (Emile’s favorite movie which all of them have seen at least 500 times. A Lilo and Stitch themed party seemed obvious) Virgil let Patton sit on his shoulders to help reach the ceiling as Logan blew up balloons and passed them to Patton so he could tape it up there. Disney music was playing through a small speaker in the kitchen, which happened to be playing Frozen at the moment. Remy’s favorite movie, although he would never want to admit it. After watching it with the sides the music was all he could listen to, and he even got Emile to watch it with him a few times as payback for all the times he was dragged into movie nights. Remy could never admit he could reach the same high notes Elsa could in her songs, even if Emile had heard him once or twice. 

All of this while Emile locked himself in the bathroom across from his office with shaking hands. 

He knew not to get himself emotionally involved with his patient’s problems. Remy reminded him if he kept doing that his whole career would become exhausting, but he couldn't help it. Emile sat against the wall and blew into the hand covering his mouth until his breathing was normal again. His glasses sat on the tiled floor next to him until he was calm enough to put them on again and his vision was no longer blurred with tears. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He wanted to be calm. He wanted to live his normal life without problems that weren’t his own constantly wrapped around his mind. Especially today. Today of all days was the one that pushed him past his limit. 

Emile was hesitant to open the door to the apartment. Of course the sides would see him. They would want to see him on his birthday and they wouldn’t want to see him… like this. His face wasn’t red anymore, so he could easily fake a smile and suck it up for a few hours. It would all be okay. 

When the door handle moved Logan raced to turn the light off. Patton practically fell off Virgil’s shoulders and Roman and Remy raced away from their mostly-finished display to hide behind the couch with everyone else. Remy watched the man walk through the door and begin to slide off his count. For the split second it was dark he looked exhausted. Before he could think any more of it the lights turned on and everyone jumped out from behind the couch. 

Emile’s face lit up with a genuine smile. 

Remy was the first one to be stuck inside of one of Emile’s excited hugs. Emile hid his smile inside Remy’s jacket as his hold got tighter, and Remy started to run his fingers through Emile’s hair when the hug held on for a little longer than what he thought it would. Remy and the sides shared the same smile Picani did. 

Taglist: @winterrs-child @remusthedukeofdeodorant @thecatchat @stop-it-anxiety @znikitrash @awkwardandanxiousfander @nowletmeseeyourkezzhands @prox-xima @hela-daughter-of-loki @arcticfrostdoesthings @yalltookmyurlideas @id-rather-go-live-in-a-trash-can @soupgromlin

[dawnhypermarket]

It’s hard to word these things

[dawnhypermarket]

Inquiry

I hope I got the expressions right in this

[dawnhypermarket]

Just a spat, hopefully

[dawnhypermarket]

Strawberry Shortcake

(full skin+commentary below)

qwel you gotta get me on the team! /j

ignore dif sock pattern i changed my mind

[dawnhypermarket]

Those with pinkeye

[dawnhypermarket]