#I might do a big post explaining some stuff on the base Handlers

[get-rammed]

Because I'm thinking about him.

Have some Record Scratch AU DJ Music Man headcanons.

- Going with the implied lore of the game, DJMM was not designed in house, and was instead bought. His AI is a lot more straightforward and simple, but still pretty advanced and has some learning capabilites.

- DJMM doesn't have a voice, but he can play beats and noises at certain frequencies to give himself a voice. It's kind of harsh to listen to, but staff who work with him frequently have adjusted and can understand him without issue.

- Building off that, DJMM will emit certain noises and songs when he's trying to indicate distress or get the attention of his Handlers.

- DJMM has two Handlers. Their job is to more or less to keep people off of him, do small things, and just watch for signs of malfunction. They don't do much else besides repair and make sure he's charged for the day.

- DJMM does most of the clean up in his area throughout the day.

- DJMM is petty. It was a learned habit that has worked it's way into his coding. He will remember anyone that slighted him.

- DJMM is also very polite to everyone else. The animatronics enjoy stopping by him during the night for a chat. They can more easily understand his beat language so he doesn't have to stress himself out forming full words

- The only animatronic DJMM isn't super fond of is Roxanne, but it's more so because he would do sea shanties with Foxy, and it doesn't feel the same with Roxanne. She hasn't told him about Foxy still in with her. She hasn't told anyone.

- DJMM has a number of access ports around the building. They more or less use DJMM's cleaning functions around the Pizzaplex.

- The 'Bouncer Mode' is still an experimental function within DJMM, and completely forbidden to be used. Staff have no idea what it could do, but assume it's a territory protection mode. But don't know how wide that territory extends to.

- DJMM is aware of the mode, knows what it can do, but tells staff he doesn't know what it does. He more or less just doesn't want to scare anyone. Though he can access the programing to see what it does, he can't activate it.

- Despite his size, DJMM is pretty mindful of the humans and bots around him.

- Has the ability to save his songs onto flash drives or disc's if someone really vibes with one he just made. Just gotta go up and ask a Handler and they'll get one printed out right away.

- DJMM is quite fond of Freddy as he is friendly and goes out of his way to come and see DJMM

[zaraegis]

Over 2k Words of Elaborate Undertale Headcanons

There are like, a lot of these, and getting them into words was kinda hard

that is why it took so long

also this is five pages in Word so longpost under cut

firstly: the Void and inventories-this is largely adopted from scrollingdown’s headcanons

there is a place, or nonplace, or metaphysical state of (non)existence, called the Void. the Void is not real. Like, that’s its defining feature; it’s where paradox flotsam and reset timelines and things that aren’t real go. The universe’s garbage bin and error handler and general catchall for things that need to exist for causality reasons but don’t. And where all sorts of various random nonsense are, because everything in the Void can change, and interact with other things in the Void, including itself, and twist and change or just not affect things it normally would.

That includes all the laws of physics and common sense.

The Void is where all the deleted/dummied out rooms are, along with the Gaster followers.

It’s also the location of inventories, and the ultimate source of all magic, which leaks into the world in lines and nodes and monster souls, and the souls of humans who’ve spent enough time around monsters or in areas charged enough with the kind of magic monster souls give off/have to gain magical ability.

Inventorying something is the process of using some DT and some magic/soul power to mess the metaphysical ‘tags’ of an object, dropping it into the Void. The DT is vitally important, as it forms into an 'anchor’, keeping the Voided item from changing properties and 'encoding’ a way of fixing the corrupted metaphysics and dropping the item back into reality at will, allowing the DT to be reused at any time.

The inventory-user 'claims’ a small bit of the Void with their DT, allowing for a certain number of inventory slots. The maximum size of an item that can fit in a slot, the number of identical items that can go into the same slot, and other inventory properties vary depending on the person.

The Box System is artificial inventories, which link to the soul of whoever is using the box to help them access their items.

Putting people in inventories is possible but requires a great deal of trust; the Annoying Dog suddenly being in Frisk’s inventory was probably a bad experience! Suddenly, there is a DOG in their SOUL VOID POCKET DIMENSION and it’s not even stasised it’s awake like a party member! And it stole Toriel’s phone and took it to the Void.

The Underground is less real than the Surface, allowing Frisk/Chara to SAVE and LOAD much easier and giving a lower threshold to the ability to use magic; post-pacifist Frisk probably went a few days unable to SAVE, not because of a lack of determination but rather because all their magic was tied up in keeping their inventory working, especially without Charrator helping them.

I had to include the Charrator pun it’s so amazingly bad.

The least real area in the Underground is Waterfall, which is kind of an eldritch location. There’s the giant plank structure nobody lives in, the Temmies which are reached by phasing through a wall and walking on air, all those deleted rooms and stuff, the echo flowers including the room full of them that creeps Papyrus out so much be pretends to be a voicemail, the alien geometries of the map (look up a map of Waterfall sometime; the Disproportionately Small Gap room connects two horizontally distant rooms…with a horizontally tiny room), the weird hydrology, Gerson who leans on the fourth wall all the time and has infinite cloudy glasses implied to have belonged to a fallen human, the weird puzzle rooms like the dog artifact, the dog that gets IN THE PLAYER’S INVENTORY WHAT THE HECK and gives you some kind of…inventory virus item?? where using it fills your inventory with more dog residue items and sometimes edible items that aren’t inventory virus items??

anyway…more weird Waterfall stuff…Gaster is here, for some reason, in a hallway that is usually not there-like you normally just, skip that hallway, walking from one end of it to the other without crossing the intervening space. The disappearing water is bizarre; nothing leaves the Underground so where is the water going?  The plaques about monster history are just scattered at basically random, what the heck, why are they not all clustered on a wall or in a museum? What’s with the random abandoned statue that looks a lot like a Boss Monster that’s supposed to be holding something and is surrounded by shattered statue bits? It sorta maybe looks like a memorial statue, like the one that was in the CORE that Mettaton got rid of, but it’s just abandoned in Waterfall? Three of the four ghost monsters we see are definitely from or currently living in Waterfall, and ghosts are really weird.

And, finally: What’s with the giant black abyss in the middle of Waterfall? It’s like someone punched a hole through it into the black edges of the Void.

Or maybe that’s exactly what they did.

Gaster’s followers mention a risk of Alphys going the same way he did-which would be a really odd risk if the CORE is the creation Gaster fell into, as Alphys doesn’t really have much to do with the CORE.

It’s more likely to be something inventory-box related; Alphys links Frisk’s phone to two separate box systems, and she works with DT.

So: Alphys invented the box system. Gaster nominated her for his successor, stole most of the credit for her work, and created Something based on the box system, and it punched a hole in spacetime in the middle of Waterfall and took a significant and semi-randomly-distributed chunk of Waterfall out. 

But why would he do that?

Maybe he was hiding something. Something big, and terrible, and he wanted people not in on his dark secret anyway to be unable to find out, and his attempts to erase it from the minds of others went horribly, horribly right.

In the True lab, there is a weird machine at one point. The weird machine has, as part of its design, what looks like a dark red SOUL-like the colour Frisk’s, and presumably Chara’s, flickers to during invincibility frames.

At no point does anyone in the game acknowledge that it looks like a SOUL.

It’s entirely possible that that SOUL is Chara’s, stolen by Gaster and used as part of the CORE-the part that intersects with the True Lab.

It’s not being used to break the barrier-probably for good reason; at the end of the Asriel fight, when he breaks the barrier, he notably says he’ll break it then let everyone go free, but lets all the souls go free as he breaks the barrier, as if doing so is a required part of the process.

Also, in the epilogue walkaround, all the coffins in Asgore’s basement tomb are open and empty. Chara was taken out of theirs to be buried in the Ruins, so that’s them accounted for; but it’s like all the other fallen humans got up after Asriel broke the barrier and walked away.

My headcanon for both those weirdnesses is that the Barrier was meant to be broken by willing human magicians working together-with all the human souls willing, and at least one alive. And it has a failsafe-smashing it open with only the souls of dead humans would result in it exploding or something and bringing down the cavern roof. So Asriel had to resurrect everyone and use their power to open the Barrier at the same time-and the Barrier would react noticeably and negatively different to the soul of a dead human, such as Chara.

Their SOUL was the only one checked against the Barrier after death, and it was assumed that the process of merging a single human soul with a single boss monster soul, and then the merged soul dying again and having the boss monster part of the soul disintegrate, damaged the soul somehow and made it unfit for breaking the Barrier with. So Gaster 'borrowed’ it for 'research’ and 'scanning’.

And just didn’t give it back, instead integrating it into the CORE.

A process which woke Chara up-and let them haunt anywhere the CORE’s light and power reached.

Gaster realized that he had an angry royal spirit haunting his power generation infrastructure, and this spirit might be able to figure out how to manifest properly and tell on him, or try to murder him. But he had a solution worked out. He’d toss their mind into the Void and make people forget all about them.

His machine was more unstable than he realized. It may have even dragged in beings from the world of Deltarune and given them bizarre powers; I’ve seen theories that the skelebros, or at least Sans, are from Deltarune, which would certainly explain why Sans has a concept of Hell.

Chara was partially forgotten. Most notably, their name was totally erased; nobody except for Flowey/Asriel, raised from the dead by a massive amount of determination (metaphysical inertia, stubbornness made substance, anchors in the Void) ever uses their name, and Frisk (who overpowers Flowey, DT-wise) can fill in the name-shaped hole in reality left behind. Asgore mostly remembers having only a son, and usually doesn’t mention his adopted child because usually he doesn’t consciously remember them. It takes many monsters working together to tell the story of the Royal Siblings in even a short format, since they have to overpower the memory effect.

Chara themself was slammed into unconsciousness and remained unconscious for, possibly, years.

Until Frisk lands on their grave, and a link between their souls is formed, waking Chara up.

(The technicians working on the CORE note that they’re using less of the CORE’s capacity than they have since Alphys became Royal Scientist. Chara feels better than they have since they were alive. And Frisk thinks that wow their ghost buddy narrator sure is draining like half their magic gain. Probably necessary to help with inventory management, SAVE point management, healing at SAVE points, and all those little illusionary head’s-up display and information box things.)

(Nobody except Undyne and Flowey remembers that there didn’t use to be a Waterfall Abyss. Undyne assumes that it’s no big deal, since nobody else cares about it. Flowey’s long since given up trying to make people remember anything about how weird Waterfall used to not be.)

(And the universe tossed a random related thing into the gap of why, exactly, Alphys was royal scientist.)

Incidentally some headcanons that aren’t part of that big headcanon tangle up above-

Mt Ebott isn’t the only place that monsters are sealed away. There might be monsters already living on the surface, from other barriers being broken; or maybe there’s a big road trip in the post-pacifist future of mage humans going around breaking barriers.

Different sealing locations have different monster demographics, different monster species, etc.

Most monster species have few members and little genetic diversity per sealed population, but they do have a lot of magic-based reproductive medical tech etc; using genetic data from members of one species to shuffle genetic data of a member of another species, asari-like, to allow for cross-species reproduction is a commonish thing, as is cross-species offspring carrying.

boss monsters are either a. the result of human-monster hybridization, or b. monsters that usually have litters of kids, not just one, but…big screwed up royalty family tree+terrible luck=toriel and asgore being the last two boss monsters in the Ebott Underground and then having a singleton child

also they’re all lop-eared as babies but most of them grow out of it, toriel and asgore are baby-faced

time on the inside of a barrier tends to pass differently from time outside of the barrier, usually slower (the barriers are meant as time capsules) but eventually the temporal gradient gets too much and it gets faster inside than outside

monsters still live in the underground post-pacifist; it only goes empty during Asriel’s boss fight. at first this is just, gotta get infrastructure and stuff set up, book hotels or whatever, logistics!! you can’t pack up and leave yet, citizens, it’s a whole day’s walk at a dog monster or human’s pace to the nearest town, there are logistics

and then it was like…the surface isn’t that much better, really? not that it’s bad more like the problems the Underground had were…mostly due to being sealed off, and it’s much better now there’s things like trade, and the option to move

and then there were also climate concerns and people going Actually I’ve Lived Here For 200 Years And I Don’t Want To Change or whatever (plus, also, Gyftrot)

and so the Underground became more sparsely populated but not empty. Some of the residents are humans, moved in from the Surface, as well.

all sealed monster populations are really good at things like recycling and so on. like they basically totally obsolete the local recycling plant in like two weeks and that was all setup time.

frisk is mascot not ambassador, asgore is not actually 100% right on what the word ambassador means in English since they’re keeping up on modern English based on what wound up in the trash and that includes phrases like “ambassador animal” so asgore, naturally, assumed the word had become something more like “mascot”

[tamikkogivesbrain]

How to write this quickly...

Up top you might not know what you are looking at. It’s the very FIRST screenshot EVER posted to Social Media. It was accidental and on MySpace. In 2000s sometime. I became super popular on that site. I started to do all these crazy things that people just assumed were part of MySpace. They weren’t. I was BUILDING them! I thought everyone was building things. Everyone had access to the same back door... so I thought it was normal. People were pasting code they would find in conjunction to using the site. I was taking language and scrambling it... and INVENTING new everything. All the time 24/7. It fit to the point where MySpace Intel was actually communicating with me and sending me extra tools not open for public use if I got stuck on an equation or mathematical problem in the back. I still thought this was happening to everyone. I loved MySpace. It was OuterSpace. I was self taught and very absorbent. I eventually got scouted and a conference call was set up. I was using modeling pictures of MySelf to attract people like a website. So the owners did not think the person in the front was the one doing the coding. It was a huge conference call with very important people. They were actually quite rude and condescending on the phone. Not everyone... but this one particular person. Told me I had delusions of grandeur and NO WAY... could someone who looked like me... be that smart. They flew me to California to explain code and build a new widget. I had interns and was simultaneously assigned to an Industry gig. I didn’t know everything was 1 big... BUISNESS. I had a small seminar and explained marketing tools. 1 tool was a telecommunications application that became the TROLLING PROGRAM. That’s used on Twitter & YouTube to gangstalk people for political control. Not what it was intended to do! I built games... FarmVille is still considered the most played game in online Social Media history.

There were glitches in the deal. They were trying to pivot me outside of just tech stuff. I was slated to be VERY FAMOUS. But the details were sketchy and it was my first in person introduction to the inside. I didn’t like it. My handler for the project was Jared Leto’s manager. To become... my handler. The trip was murky after everything. Tech was not in the place it is now. Nobody knows all the exact details because I never talked about it fully. Not even to the Higher Ups. I came home, got jerked around on pay because the person in charge wanted... extra stuff. 🤮.

I was set to launch a new marketing strategy and pulled code.

I also left.

When I left... everybody else left. A month later the site died. They can say it was hacked or numbers blah blah blah... but people on the inside KNOW.

Fast Forward:

2017 I was approached by A Global Company. Details were released and a document was sent to me. Paperwork signed by Jeb Bush. Huh?!!! It was wild. But it kind of made everything else fall into place. I exited New York in 2010-11 by choice. For various reasons. Long after MySpace died. Since then it was like walking through the jungle pits of hell and I was always in some crazy ass life happening. One day I will take my time and write a full book. The document was some letter agreeing that I needed to be monitored and targeted for some reason. They couldn’t understand how I knew what I knew or the ability I possessed to predict trends or break existing ones. They thought it was insider trading or espionage of firms.

I’M INDEPENDENT.

So Jeb Bush’s signature was on the bottom. From 2011-2018 & presently... I was gang stalked, harassed, followed, put on a hit list, put on the BLACK MARKET.... and some other crazy shit. All documented.

Because they said it was MyFault that MySpace died. 😶.

Even tho they did not take the advice I gave them to stay alive. They wanted to infiltrate and take over Facebook. Facebook didn’t have the same legs as that current platform MySpace held. MySpace literally... ruled The World and everything coming from it. I heavily urged Them not to do that. I was adamant about Them finding ways to collaborate, not compete. I was watching patterns at the time. Every site I discovered or utilized and incorporated on MySpace was secretly getting bought, shut down, and html coding owned & quietly hoarded by 1 Invisible Unknown Entity- while nobody was paying attention. {🗣I WAS!!!🗣}

Sidebar...

*(Facebook Now Owns MySpace)

I didn’t understand digital politixxx at the time, but I did understand... MACHINE$.

They actually had the first seeds of Social Media Communism at play. I did not know that. I was never political.

2017 introduced Twilight Zone output. Some I am still recovering from. I worked on multi-million dollar projects and was ambushed out of all of them. The group has a name. That name hates President Trump. Once I started to exxxplore rabbit holes... I saw my first picture of Jeb Bush. When I tuned in and started getting educated on the fight, political wars, communism, etc... I cried. Anyone who is the enemy of my enemy deserves MyLoyalty.

The second picture of my legs is recent. Someone fed me a poisoned drink and I literally almost died. A Spiritualist walked over to me and put her hands on my legs as I was losing consciousness. She said... “I can see you. You’re dying. Who did this to You”. I said... , “ Them...”

I made it home and researched what she told me it looked like. It correlated to what happened with the drink and me getting sicker than humanly bearable right after.

It happens. I get targeted. The real life stories that happened in the past 3 years are so fucking disgusting I have to take weeks to meditate MySelf to a Peaceful ground and Pray God continues to hold Me tight.

None of this is fake. None of this is made up. None of this is delusions of grandeur . That’s what was told to me on the phone 15+ years ago. So I wonder if those same people realize that trigger phrase might be the base to a bigger war they keep ignoring.

God Sees All.

May the fall of The Cabal be real. May President Trump continue His Good Works.

It’s A Spiritual Battle.

Always was.

~T. Bea$ty

[verratensduo]

25 days of Christmas Drabbles/day 17 prompt volunteering

This special challenge is by @cherrytrinkets and can be found here.

Tagging my friends @leonhart-ani, @titansealgair (the one I told you I was gonna do), and @starrysparklesandshit, I know you don’t rp Marco anymore but we have talked about these erenxmarco things a lot, though not quite this way.

Tagging @happyslitterbox because Wynter asked :) Also tagging @fieryikkibott, hope you enjoy Felix I can’t forget my friend Ash @totally-not-a-makoto-blog

Fair warning to my followers, this is also a vent type of story I am writing out here, so there will be some shade thrown in a few areas, I will not apologize for this vent styled story.

Drabble Challenge: Yes 25 days of Christmas Day: 17/25 Fandom: Attack on Titan Pairing: ErenxMarco Setting: Modern

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There it was, the soup kitchen. The one Marco had been volunteering with every year since high school. It was such a good place, getting people something warm in their stomachs for the holidays, even if they could not afford it. Such a noble cause, and so easy to work at, all one needed was a food handler’s card issued by the state of New York, then he was set to work here on days he had off, especially during the holiday season. Christmas being only a few weeks away, made it much harder for him to do things without thinking of someone else. Walking towards the kitchen from his car, he could feel the cold December wind as it scratched and clawed at his nose.

Yes the cold was a factor, why he didn’t just walk all the way here despite living just two blocks away. That would have been truly insane to even attempt doing. It would take him forever just to warm up. That would have meant less time to help out around the soup kitchen, and unfortunately there always seemed to be more people out of work and out of a home at this time of year. Maybe they where just more open about it....or maybe he just didn’t notice, which may have just been his bad. He honestly did not know what to think there, but he always tried his hardest to give to those in need. That was one thing about him that really had not changed over the years.

As he walked in he was greeted by the man who ran the soup kitchen’s hardy laugh. He always did that when Marco came inside, it was like a tradition, Marco always noted how the man could make a very convincing Santa.

“Well if it isn’t Dr.Marco Bodt back again despite this being the only day off he has had all week. Damn I will never find another person quite like you.”

Marco chuckled. “Well I love this place, it is such a good place for everyone. And does great things, it’s a good way to spend my day off. Especially this time of year.”

Yes his life as a veterinarian was really busy with long, often times complicated hours he would work in a day, and a week. He was powerless against that, but on a day off he had to do something.

The soup kitchen was a good place to volunteer and do good things for people in his community. Those that were less fortunate than he was definitely needed  this place to. Helping them made all of this worth it. Even with how much it really did not help him relax.

Right to the kitchen where he helped make the first few soups before the hungry started to arrive. Of course he recognized some of them, a few had a pretty bad hand, a few people with bad schizophrenia, unable to get a job because the hallucinations were too much, they could at least eat here, some people had sever claustrophobia could not function in enclosed spaces for long, but they at least got food, and he was proud of them for being able to face their fear to get something to eat. A few others who suffered from some sort of long term mental illness but could not get the mental illness treated for many reasons, from rejected family to the inability to get a job so they could get it treated.

The lack of accessible health care in this nation disgusted Marco. These people were all good people, they deserved a chance to get help and live a somewhat normal life here. He wanted so badly to help them someway, but a lot of them just smiled and told him it was okay, he could do it on his own.

Then his eyes practically popped at the person before him in the serving line. Those emerald green eyes, that signature messy brown hair, the band t-shirt...No doubt, Eren Yeager was the man standing before him.

The German immigrant teen he had known in high school was right there before him. As many of their friends called it, Eren had finally gotten his  naturalized citizen status, then marched off to be a Marine in senior year.

Marco certainly had not been expecting to ever see Eren in the line at a soup kitchen, and based off Eren’s facial expression, he had not expected to run into an old friend here.

“Marco...I...uhhh....I...” Eren had no clue what to say and Marco could tell as he dished up the brunet’s soup and serve it to him. There was a lot on both of their minds now.

“Just go sit down for now Eren, I really want to talk to you after this, so please don’t leave until we get a chance to talk Eren. I definitely don’t think that is a good idea.” Intentions were clear here, Marco wanted to know what and all had gone on in the eight years since he had last seen Eren, especially since the brunet was now seemingly homeless.

“Okay...” There was no real way to argue with Marco, Eren respected him too much, and admired the hard work Marco did far too much to lie to his face. That would not have worked, nor been something he could really do.

It was about an hour of dinner before Marco could finally get out of the kitchen. It was not hard to find Eren. He was just outside, feeding a rather large dog in the back of a car.

Marco’s heart sunk, Eren was living out of a car with a dog. How undignified. What had happened in the past eight years? He had to find out. After taking a deep breath, Marco approached Eren.

“Eren, thank you for not just taking off like some people would have.” From the looks of things, Eren could at least afford enough to feed the dog and keep gas in the tank.

“Now Eren what happened? The last I heard you met a guy, got engaged, and made the cut for Sergeant.  I was so happy for you, what happened? Please tell me.”

The sigh was expected of Eren as he looked over to Marco. “Well that was two years ago Marco, a lot can change in two years.  Not long after that I got this big guy, his name is Titan.” He patted the dog’s head. “Unfortunately after we got stationed here again post Sergeant advancement, I got one final deployment, so we wound up delaying any form of wedding. I wound up getting PTSD over there, medical discharge. Worst thing they didn’t tell me, the plan i had with tricare did not cover any mental stuff. On top of all that my ex-fiance decided he couldn’t handle it when I woke up screaming at night and broke off the engagement kicking me and Titan here out.”

Marco blinked. “Wait, why didn’t the government help you? I mean, they are the ones who sent you over there, isn’t it there responsibility to make sure you are cared for when you get home.” He made a fist. “And your ex is lucky I can’t get to him.”

“I know that, Mikasa already offered to fly out and kill him, I said no.” Then his eyes flashed with pain. “Oh they have enough money for guns and bombs for their wars for oil, but not enough money to help when we get home, because we aren’t useful anymore then.” A bitter laugh escaped Eren at this point.

Marco felt awful for Eren. Being mistreated that way, but that still didn’t explain why he was out here on the streets, a guy like Eren could have easily gotten any job as far as Marco knew, anyone would be lucky to have Eren as an employee, determined, hard working, and honestly he was attractive, anyone could have easily employed him.

“Oh you know, Holly Wood. With their constant villianization of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is to thank for that.” Bitter anger laced every word as if it were venom on a snake’s fangs.

“I see....” That is when an idea hit. “Why don’t you and Titan come with me? My apartment allows dogs, and I can’t imagine letting you live out of this car for any longer than you already have.”

Surprise evident, Eren smiled a bit. “Are you sure? I mean I am game with it, if you really think Titan and i won’t be a bother.” Marco’s hand had gone to the dog, who sniffed it, then licked his hand, getting a chuckle.

“Of course not, just follow my car okay?”

“Of course.” The drive took at least twenty minutes because of New York traffic, but what else was new? After arriving to the apartment, Eren sat on the couch as Marco sat next to him.

“You know Eren...when I heard you got engaged, yes I was happy for you...but I was just a little bit jealous.” Marco could not hold in some of these old feelings anymore.

Eren was quite, for a good thirty minutes while Marco silently cursed at himself, until the brunet finally spoke again. “Why didn’t you tell me before Marco. If you had, I might not have left.”

“That is exactly why, besides, you and Armin had just broken up. You wanted to follow a dream, I wasn’t going to stop you...do you want to try?” Marco would never force Eren into something he did not want.

“I’d like that, but I can’t bring in money to the house, I wish I could but really right now I am not employable.”  He sighs a bit rubbing behind his head.

“Just leave that to me for now, and first thing is first, we are getting you help with your PTSD.” Marco says giving Eren a quick kiss. 

“I think this just might work out.” Eren mumbled, eyes finally closing.

[davidcarner]

Sarah vs The Unexpected Life, Ch 4, Save You Now

A/N You like this...you really really like this...thank you all so much!  I didn't know if this would get done today, three schools in three days and a lot of personal stuff going on today, but it turned out I need this.  For those of you waiting, we find the Intersect, but you have to pay attention.  Again, I can't thank you all enough, now for bad news.  I don't see anyway I can get a new chapter posted tomorrow, hopefully some time Friday, but I can't promise.  My daughter requires me to be Daddy Uber for a few days.  Sit back, relax, and enjoy Save You Now

Disclaimer:  I don't own Chuck, but I am certain Han always shot first.

Sarah entered the small building of Intersect Games, and was greeted by the receptionist.

“Hello,” the redheaded receptionist said in a thick New Jersey accent.  “How can I help you today?”

“Is Morgan available?” Sarah asked.

“May I ask who’s asking?”

“Sarah Walker, his girlfriend’s boss,” she replied.  The lady nodded, picked up the phone, and punched a few numbers.

“Morgan, a Sarah Walker is here to see-” she held the phone away from her ear.  

“What was that?” Sarah asked, having heard the sound.  Suddenly the door opened, and an out of breath Morgan was standing there, trying to appear professional.

“Daphne,” Morgan said, trying to get his breath.  “Anytime Mrs. Walker shows up, you let her just come right on back.”  Sarah smiled at him and entered down the hallway.  

“Interesting choice to be the receptionist,” Sarah said.

“We got her through a work release program,” Morgan explained.  Sarah looked surprised.  “We were having a cash flow problem early on.  We didn’t have any cash to flow.  So, if we let her work here, her salary was paid by the state.  You should always make sure you have your valuables after you talk to her though,” he said.  Sarah looked at him.  “She was in jail for conning people as a wedding planner.

“What makes you think she’s a pickpocket?” Sarah asked.

“Are there many in the con game that can’t pick someone’s pocket?” Morgan asked.  Sarah had to admit he was probably right.  They came to his office and he offered her a chair. She sat, and he sat across from her at his desk.  A large smile covered his face, and he steepled his fingers together in front of him, bouncing them together.  

“I’m so very glad you came here today to win my approval,” he said.  Sarah gave him a curious look.

“Who says I’m not here to make sure you have my approval,” she countered.  Morgan’s face fell, and Sarah couldn’t help herself and grinned. Morgan laughed.

“Okay, I deserved that,” he said.  “I’ve watched over him for several years, and I’m very protective of him.  Probably overprotective.”  He held up a pad and a list of questions he had made a copy of. “I’m made a questionnaire to make sure he has the right person.  I just don’t want to see him hurt.”  Sarah watched Morgan during his admission.  She thought he was genuine.  A little strange, but genuine.  

“Okay,” she said bouncing a shoulder and grinning.  “Hit me.” Morgan’s eyebrows raised in surprised. He quickly pulled out a pencil, licked the end, and prepared.

“If you’re on a deserted island what type of sandwich would you bring?”  Sarah blinked once, not sure she had heard him right.  Morgan noticed the look on her face.

“Okay, okay, maybe a little much for the first question, toss up, which is better Star Wars or Star Trek?”  Sarah had no idea.

“Who says either should be better than the other, they both have their own redeeming qualities.” Morgan nodded.

“Nice, I like it,” he said, making notes.  “Okay, marathon video game session with boyfriend’s best friend; feelings?” Sarah leaned in close.

“Probably the same that said best friend’s girlfriend feels, and that if we felt like we were being ignored, we might go do something we enjoy, like getting dressed up, drinking, and dancing.  All. Night.  Long.”  Morgan dropped his pencil on the desk and gulped.  Sarah sat back.  “Let’s skip to the big ones, I’m ready.”  Morgan nodded and found one.  He looked up, and locked his gaze on Sarah.

“Bad things I should know,” Morgan said, pencil ready.

“Did CIA wetwork,” she began, Morgan looked up over the paper he was writing on, his eyes huge. He drew his thumb across his throat. Sarah nodded, and Morgan gulped. Sarah smiled to herself and continued. “Father was a con man-”

“Two things, first, no offence meant by the pickpocket remark earlier.”  Sarah nodded it was fine.  “Second, you know I said bad things, right, not cool, impressive, things.”  Sarah smiled.  She shouldn’t be surprised with this reaction, but that meant he’d probably have the same negative reaction about some things.

“I dated Bryce Larkin, in fact, he is the last guy I dated since I started raising Molly.”  Morgan did not looked pleased, but then his eyes narrowed.

“Are you saying he broke up with you because you raised a baby?”  Sarah thought for a second.

“He thought he did, what he didn’t know was I was over him already,” Sarah replied.  Morgan nodded.

“I’m not gonna lie, the Bryce thing hurts you, I have been known to keep things from Chuck that have to do with Bryce,” he said, making notes.

“Like what?” Sarah asked, honestly intrigued.  Morgan thought for a second, and then head nodded like, ‘why not’.

“Five years ago, Bryce emailed Chuck on his birthday, and I deleted the email.  It was something stupid about Zork anyway,” Morgan replied. Sarah looked a little confused. “It was a text based Role Playing Game, or-”

“RPG,” Sarah finished. Morgan’s eyes lit up and he made notes. “Of course sometimes that does mean Rocket Propelled Grenade.”  Morgan was writing quickly, and his eyes were lit up like it was Christmas and he was a kid. “You were saying about the email?”

“Right, I deleted it, and the next day his computer was stolen.  We got another sent to us a few days later, must have been some strange replacement plan.  Listen, I have only one more question on here that matters.”  Sarah looked at him, ready.  “Why him?  He’s no one.” Sarah gave him a look.

“He’s your friend,” she said, sitting up straight in the chair, starting to get upset.  Morgan shrugged.

“Let’s be honest, he got kicked out of Stanford, it took every trick in the book to get him to finish up, he worked at the Buy More foreeevvveer, it took me, ME, Mr. allergic to work, to get him to work on our game, and we’ve only gotten one actually out, the other goes gold next week, and he’s a single dad raising a baby that’s not even his.  Loooooser.” Sarah slammed her hand on the desk, making Morgan jump back.

“That is the kindest, most giving man I have ever met!  He has put his life on hold for his niece!  He took the time to help a child he didn’t even know to get over one of the worst days of her life, when I, her MOTHER, didn’t even know how upset she was. How dare you speak of him like that! I thought you were his…friend….” Sarah noticed Morgan was smiling, glowing, and bouncing.  He ran around the desk and hugged her.  She knew over 100 ways to kill him, and he knew it.  He had done it all to find out exactly how she felt about him.  He let her go, and she was watching him, fighting a grin, afraid he might do it again.

“I’m going to need you to sign a few waivers-”

“You do know I know over 100 ways to kill you?” she asked.  Morgan tossed all the papers over his shoulder.

“Paperwork is very overrated, plus there’s the possibilities of unseen paper cuts,” Morgan said. Sarah stood, bent, and kissed him on the cheek.  Morgan’s eyes got wide and he touched where she had kissed him and looked at her.

“I wish I had someone who cared about me as much as you do him.”

“I think you do,” Morgan answered.  Sarah smiled and started out the door.  “He’s probably asleep in his office.  Clara was teething last night.”  Sarah turned and looked at him.  “He wouldn’t let anyone help. Alex and I offered to watch her so he could sleep, but he refused.  He’s been burning both ends of the candle trying to get the code right and the bugs out so the game can be certified.  He thinks he’s done with it.  Last night was supposed to be his sleep night, but Clara…”  Sarah nodded.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“I completely believe you. Take care of him, Sarah.  He’s a good guy.”

“Morgan, he’s a great guy,” she said smiling, “And, so are you,” and with that, she walked down the hall to Chuck’s office.  As she walked, her phone went off, she looked down, reread the message twice, and rolled her eyes.  She walked into the dark office and saw Chuck, stuffed on a couch that was too short for him.  She bent down in front of him, and for the first time since she met him, he seemed completely at peace.  

How can this guy affect me this much, this quickly?  She couldn’t help herself and ran her fingers through his hair.  There’s been no one to share my life with, so why him? She looked at him and smiled. Why not?  And with that, she made a decision.  She said she could be his baggage handler, and tonight she was going to be that. She pulled her phone out, and shot off another quick text.  

“Morgan,” she said softly, never having moved.

“Yep,” he replied from the hall, where she knew he was listening.

“Do you need him for the game for the rest of the day?”

“Nope.”

“He’s going home, for the day, he needs to sleep, but I need him to get his daughter.  She’s having teething problems.”

“If anything comes up, I’ll call him.”

“Morgan, call me if anything comes up,” she said.  “I know you got my number off his phone.”

“Am I in trouble?” he asked, his voice quaking.

“Are you going to use it wisely?”

“Yes,” he squeaked. Sarah smiled.

“Then no.”  She ran her fingers through Chuck’s curls again. He shifted and she saw him smile. “Chuck,” she said softly.  “Time to get up.”  His eyes opened, and he got the biggest grin on his face.

“Oh, it’s a good dream,” Chuck said.  “You’re so pretty.”  

“How do you know it’s a dream, Chuck?” she asked.

“Because you’re in my office, and you don’t know where I work,” he answered, with a sleepy grin on his face.  “Seriously, the pictures your mom showed me didn’t do you justice, you’re so pretty.” Sarah leaned in close.  Chuck’s grin got bigger.

“Chuck, I’m former CIA, how hard do you think it would be for me to find out where you work and get in here.”

“She’s got you there, buddy,” Morgan yelled from the hall.  The grin on Chuck’s face fell off.  

“I wouldn’t dream Morgan’s here,” he said with a panic on his face.  Sarah still close, grinned.

“I certainly hope not Mr. Bartowski.”

“Uh-oh, I’m in trouble. No one uses Mr. Bartowski unless I’m in trouble or they’re my teacher.”

“Maybe I’ve decided to teach you how to be happy, Chuck,” she said, unable to help herself. Chuck’s brain may have short-circuited with that one.  “As much as I’m enjoying this, I need your keys, we need to go get your daughter.” Chuck came out of his stupor quickly. “She’s fine, teething, and causing a small ruckus.  My daughter is causing a huge ruckus because of said small ruckus.”

“Do we have a problem with those two?” Chuck asked.  Sarah began to stand and offer him a hand to get up off the couch.

“I have it on good authority that some people believe helping others is what makes them tick,” she said, smiling at him.  “So we’d have to be a hypocrite to say anything.  Besides, how much of a problem could a five year old really be?”  Chuck’s face had a look of horror.

“You don’t watch movies, do you?” Sarah kind of shrugged, confused.  “You NEVER say something like that.  It’s like saying, one last mission and then someone dies.  It’s like saying what could go wrong and then you’re shocked when the water pipe breaks in the bathroom and ruins your floor and you have to move out of your house for a minimum of three weeks.”

“What.  Could.  Go. Wrong.” She said.  Chuck nearly fell off the couch in horror.  He covered his head, waiting for the roof to fall on him.

“Protect yourself, Sarah!” he shouted.  She rolled her eyes, grabbed him, and drug him out of the room.

}o{

“I still don’t understand why we’re in my car,” Chuck said.

“Because we need your daughter’s car seat, and yours is bigger,” Sarah replied.

“Why am I not driving?”

“You’re tired.”

“If, I was completely awake?”

“I’m a trained CIA agent.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I’m more qualified to get us all home safer.”

“I think you’re just a bit of a control freak,” he said, grinning.  Sarah shut the car off and turned toward him, a slight grin on her face.

“Would that be so terrible?” she asked softly.  Chuck’s brain seized.

“That’s really not fair,” he wheezed.  She arched an eyebrow, the grin growing.

“Whatever do you mean?” she asked innocently.

“You know what, I’ve not slept much, and I think I misunderstood what you said,” he said, getting out of the car.  Sarah did as well, and as they both got to the front, she placed her hand on his arm.

“Maybe you didn’t,” she said, as she smiled and headed into the preschool alone.  Chuck was stuck in the parking lot, brain overheating.

“What does she see in me?” he mumbled to himself.

“Same thing Molly does,” Emma said from behind him, scaring Chuck half to death.  He calmed down, and started to ask why she was here when he realized he didn’t have a car seat for Molly.  “You’re a great guy, Chuck.  She’s been waiting for a long time for a great guy.”

“A guy, who breaks down, who’s wallowed in misery for years, a guy who’s out of his league with her?” Emma smiled.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret.  She thinks you’re too good for her.  In fact, if she wasn’t so happy and have her roots planted in her family, home, and job, she’d probably keep everything bottled up inside.”  

“I can’t ever imagine her like that,” Chuck replied, looking at the door Sarah just went through.  He looked back at Emma who shook her head. “What about you, Mom?” he asked with a smile.  “Am I good enough for your girl?”  She walked up to him, and hugged him.

“Chuck, you’re perfect,” she said.  She released the hug and patted his arm to get him to come in with her.  “Listen, Sarah is probably going to want you to fill out paperwork to let the two of us pick up Clara if you need someone else too.”

“I’ve got Morgan and Alex,” Chuck replied, a little surprised.  Emma nodded.

“I know you think the world of Morgan, but is he the best at handling a baby?”  Chuck realized that even though Emma didn’t really know Morgan, that she nailed his friend.  “And if Molly see’s Alex picking up Clara…”

“I asked you this morning if I had a chance against her, and you said no.  I asked Sarah if she’s going to be a problem and she answered, how much of a problem could a five year old be.  Which is the truth?”  Emma smiled.

“Sarah really didn’t answer your question did she?” Emma said and went inside.  Chuck followed, and saw Clara being held by Sarah, and Molly waiting for him.  Molly handed him papers to sign.

“Sarah, what is going on?”

“Chuck you need someone you can trust with your child, and Molly right now is determined to be a big sister.  If you don’t want this, it’s fine, but please don’t think it’s a bother.”

“Sarah, you barely know me.” Sarah smiled at him.

“Chuck, you’re wrong. I know you, we may not have known each other long, but I know you.”  Chuck couldn’t help but grin.  

“Okay, should I,” he began, but paused not wanting to step out of place.

 “The third form is for you to be added to my pickup as well,” Molly said, growing a little impatient. He looked at Sarah, who was trying to hold in a laugh.  She blinked a few times as if that would hold the laughter at bay.  Chuck pressed his lips together, blew out his cheeks, nodded slowly, and then shrugged.  He went through the papers signing them.  Mrs. Wood beamed at Sarah, and Sarah grinned back at her.  Chuck looked down at Molly.

“Don’t you dare try and pull something to get me to pick you up, Missy,” he said pointing at her.

“He’s not joking, Molly,” Sarah said backing him up.  “If you pull something, whatever punishment Chuck says, goes.”  Molly nodded, smiling like she had won the lottery.

“Okay, Mom,” she paused and looked at Chuck.  Chuck had a bad feeling what she was about to say.  “And, Mr. Chuck.”  Chuck let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.  A look at Sarah told him she was wondering the same thing.  “Let’s all go home,” she said, taking Emma’s hand and leading her out the door.  “I’ll ride with Granny and you two can bring the baby.”  Chuck and Sarah shared a look.  

“I guess we’re going,” Chuck said, opening the door for Sarah and Clara.  Sarah shrugged, and took Clara out to the car.  He saw the look on Mrs. Wood’s face.  “You aren’t going to believe me if I tried to explain this would you?”

“Chuck, I don’t think whatever you’d try to explain, you believe anymore,” she said.  “I guess I’ll see the four of your tomorrow?” and with that she turned and went to the other kids, giggling.  Chuck shook his head and headed to the car.  When he got there he saw that Sarah already had Clara buckled in. Chuck joined them in the car.

“I like that seat,” Sarah said.  “Those ones when Molly was a baby were so difficult to fasten sometimes.”

“Sarah,” Chuck began. Sarah let out a breath, knowing what was coming.  “Thank you,” he said softly and reached out and took her hand.  Sarah was surprised, but happy.  She squeezed it, and decided in for a penny, in for a pound.  She leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.  

“It’s my pleasure,” she said.  Chuck couldn’t help but laugh, and the two drove away, happily.

}o{

When they got to Sarah’s they decided to do something easy and had pizza delivered; vegetarian with no olives, of course.  Clara started to fuss, and Chuck started searching for the gel to relieve the pain.

“You trust me?” Sarah asked. Chuck was surprised.

“Yes,” he replied not sure where this was going.  Emma handed Sarah a bag from a local store.  In it was a bottle with little pills.  She picked up Clara, and gave Chuck a chance to read the label.  He shrugged not seeing anything that could hurt her.  Sarah bounced Clara as she softly hummed.  Chuck thought he might fall asleep standing up listening to her it was so soothing.  Molly had disappeared and a terrible racket had come from another room.  Emma went off to see what was going on.  Sarah took one of the tablets, and gently placed it under the tongue of Clara.  In a few seconds she stopped fussing and smiled at Sarah.

“Mama,” she said. Sarah’s eyes got huge as she looked at Chuck.  He just laughed.

“Sarah, it’s no big deal,” he said.  Sarah gave him a look.

“Who’s that?” she asked pointing to Chuck.

“Dada,” Clara answered. Sarah turned toward Chuck, smirking, but when she saw his face, she knew she had messed up.  He wasn’t mad, just sad.

“I’m sorry, Chuck,” she began.  He waved it off, but went over and sat on the couch.  “Clara,” she said turning back to the little girl.  “I’m Aunt Sarah, and that’s your Uncle Chuck.”  Clara yawned, and put her head on Sarah’s shoulder. Emma came out into the room with something Chuck had never seen before.

“Is that a swing?” he asked. Emma smiled.  Sarah got Clara in the swing and turned it on.  Molly came into the room with an old bunny and started to give it to Clara.  “Sweetie, she’s teething and she’ll chew on it.”

“I know, but it’s her turn to have it now.”  Chuck looked at Sarah who shrugged at Chuck but smiled at her daughter.  “Okay,” he relented.  Molly handed the bunny to Clara who inspected it for a minute and then began to chew on the bunny’s ear.  In about 20 seconds, she was asleep.  Sarah turned toward Chuck, which was good, because he had just caught her in a bear hug.

“Thank you,” he said, sounding almost desperate.  “Thank you,” he whispered.  Sarah held him and patted his shoulder.  “I just hate I’ll have to wake her when I leave.”  Sarah pulled back and gave him a look.

“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.  Chuck just stared at her.  “Clara is sleeping with Molly and Emma tonight.”  Chuck looked at Emma as she whispered, “good night,” and took the swing carefully back to her room.  Chuck gulped.

“Sarah,” Chuck began.

“Chuck, I’m going to stop you before you spiral.  Tonight you need sleep.  That’s all this is.  You’re half-crazed and sleep deprived.  Now you can sleep in your old room, which would make the most sense, or you can give me all the reasons why you can’t.”

“I can’t take your bed!”

“Who said you were?” Chuck’s eyebrows raised.  “Chuck we’re two adults, we can sleep in the same bed without having sex.”

 “I’m aware that we won’t be having sex, I just don’t want…” he trailed off, and lowered his head. Sarah took his hand and rubbed it with her thumbs.

 “Chuck, look at me,” she said softly.  He raised his head to see her smiling.  “I don’t think tonight will be the last time you’re in my bed, or I’m in your bed, but we certainly aren’t ready for that.”  Chuck blushed furiously.  “Furthermore, while I am very confident in myself, I’m not sure how my ego would handle it you falling asleep in the middle.”  Chuck laughed softly.  “You need sleep.  Tomorrow we’ll take the kids to school, take you home to change, and then you can take me to work.  And, if I have time you can take me to lunch.”

“What if I have something important to do?”

“Morgan already said you didn’t need to do anything.”

“Well, as long as it’s cleared by Morgan,” Chuck replied, grinning.  Sarah led him over to the couch.  She sat down, and patted her lap.  “Lay your head down.”

“Are you-”

“Chuck,” she said a little exasperated, cutting him off.  She did have a smile on her face though.  Chuck did as she asked, and he had to admit it was quite comfortable and quiet and….  Less than a minute later, Sarah heard his breathing change; he was asleep.  “What am I gonna do with you, Chuck?” she asked softly as she played with his curls.  She picked up the remote, found some program to watch with the sound down, and sat there, more content than she had ever remembered being.  She heard soft footsteps.

“Is he okay?” Emma asked. Sarah didn’t even bother trying to hide the fact she was playing with his hair.

“I think he will be,” she said with a smile.  “Mom,” she began.  Emma shook her head and chuckled.

“Sarah, just go with it,” Emma said smiling.  “Why shouldn’t you two be happy?”  Sarah looked at her, and tilted her head as is to say “why not?”  Emma went back to bed and Sarah continued to watch TV.  A few hours later, Chuck began to toss and turn.

“It should have been me,” he mumbled.  “It should have been me!”  Sarah hugged him the best she could.  “Ellie, it should have been me,” he said softly as tears rolled down his cheeks. Sarah shook him to wake him.

“Chuck,” she said softly. He opened his eyes and looked around, and saw her.  He sat up, wordlessly, looked at her for a second, and his eyes threatened to break again. She hugged him, and he sobbed quietly. “You’ve never had a chance to grieve, have you?”  He shook his head on her shoulder.  “Let it out, Chuck,” and he did.  For thirty minutes he cried.  He let out all the hurt, anger, and frustration of ten long years and the loss of his family.  When he was done, he pulled away, a look of embarrassment but gratitude.  

“Sorry, I think your shirt is soaked,” he said, wiping his eye. Sarah laughed, she couldn’t help it. How come in his worst moments he could make her laugh?  She stood up and took his hand.  She led him to the kitchen where another bag was.  She handed it to him and pointed to the bathroom.  He looked down, seemed to almost freeze up again, when she gave him a look and nodded her head toward the bathroom.  She went in her room, changed into a tee shirt and her sleep shorts. She pulled back the covers to the bed, and waited outside the bathroom until the door opened.

“Go pick your side,” she said as she headed to the bathroom.  She stopped, not able to help herself.  “Just remember, this will set a precedent,” she said softly.  She thought she heard Chuck’s brain lock up.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he muttered.

“You’ll enjoy every second of it,” she said as she shut the door.  Chuck went into his old bedroom, got in the bed, and waited.  He wasn’t sure what he should do so he just stared at the ceiling.  Sarah walked in, not even hiding the grin on her face.  She got in her side, and scooted as close as possible, leaned down to his ear, and spoke very softly, her breath hitting his ear.

“Good choice,” she said. Chuck didn’t know if he’d sleep at all tonight.  In five minutes, he was asleep.

}o{

Chuck opened his eyes as the sun came in the window.  He had missed this, there was something about that window, the sun coming in, the blond hair laying on his chest…wait, what?  He looked down, and there was Sarah, wrapped up with him, her head on his chest.  He should probably get up, things would be awkward enough with Molly.  He felt something to his right.  He turned his head and there was Molly watching him.  

“How long until I can call you Daddy?  I would like a little brother to go along with Clara,” she said as she skipped out of the room.  Chuck noticed the weight wasn’t on his chest anymore.  He turned his head slowly to see Sarah looking at him.

“Remember yesterday when you asked if we had a problem with her?”  Chuck nodded his head.  “I think we have a problem.”  

A/N I REALLY like Molly.  Can you tell?  Hope you enjoyed it!

[suzanneshannon]

Getting Acquainted With Svelte, the New Framework on the Block

For the last six years, Vue, Angular, and React have run the world of front-end component frameworks. Google and Facebook have their own sponsored frameworks, but they might leave a bitter taste for anyone who advocates for an open and unbiased web. Vue is another popular framework that has multiple sponsors, but isn’t run by a single corporation, which may be attractive to some folks.

There’s another player in the framework space that’s gaining attention and operates very much in the same spirit as Vue as far adopting an open MIT license: Svelte.

Svelte has been covered here on CSS-Tricks before, like Ollie Williams’ excellent overview of how it can be used to write more convenient, component-based CSS. This article is going to zoom out a bit and provide a little more context about Svelt, as well as how it differentiates itself from other frameworks, and how to implement it in your own projects.

What makes Svelte different?

I can confidently say that Svelte has been the easiest JavaScript component library to learn and start putting to use in a productive way.

— Jeff Delaney, from Svelte Realtime Todo List with Firebase

OK, so Svelte is a JavaScript component library. But so is React. And Angular. And Vue. What makes Svelte stand out from the bunch?

Svelte is trying to do a few things that are different from the rest:

All the code is compiled ahead of time.

There is no virtual DOM.

CSS scoping is baked in.

Let’s break those down a bit because they significantly distinguish Svelte from other front-end frameworks.

All the code is compiled ahead of time.

Svelte is a compiler, meaning that the code in Svelte files gets converted from an easier-to-write hybrid language that mixes HTML, JavaScript, and CSS into lower-level optimized JavaScript, HTML, and CSS files.

This is very similar to the way C# gets compiled down to bytecode, or how Typescript compiles down to JavaScript. But where traditional compilers tend to go down to one language, Svelte mixes all three.

This makes writing code a lot more flexible, and benefits the client (web browser) as the computation is done when the application is built, not on every browser when the web app is visited.

There is no Virtual DOM.

A DOM (or Document Object Model) is an interface that defines the logical structure of a webpage. It takes HTML and converts it to a structure that can be manipulated and accessed. Chris has a classic post that thoroughly explains it.

The Virtual DOM extends the concept of a DOM by creating a “second” DOM in memory. Like the DOM, this is manipulated and accessed by traditional frameworks (e.g. Angular, Vue, and React). At build, this second “virtual” DOM gets consolidated with the actual DOM, allowing the UI to render.

And what about the Shadow DOM? Well, the Shadow DOM is technically part of the “real” DOM, just in the shadows. As such it is a great tool for isolating chunks of code that don’t leak into or conflict with other elements on the page — a little bit like (but at the same time almost nothing like) an iframe. The shadow DOM is sorta the crux for most component-based front-end frameworks because they leverage the siloed nature of the Shadow DOM to serve specific code to specific elements.

While that isn’t exactly a key selling point of Svelte, it is possible to work with the Shadow DOM experimentally. The Shadow DOM hasn’t really quite caught on in progressive web practices, which is a shame, and probably due to the confusion between drafts and lack of support from IE and Edge.

So, where am I going with all this? The difference between Svelte and other JavaScript frameworks is the lack of a Virtual DOM. That’s important because it contributes to faster apps — faster than frameworks using a Virtual DOM. Yes, the Virtual DOM can be super fast because it only updates parts of the DOM when needed, but as applications grow, the impact of a duplicate DOM stored in memory can have an overall negative impact on performance.

Svelte takes a different approach and does a lot of these heavy calculations at build time. All that heavy lifting in advance, which allows Svelte to surgically insert changes only where needed.

CSS scoping is baked in.

Svelte has built-in styling, which is essential in other modern frameworks. The different between CSS in Svelte and CSS in other frameworks is that Svelte takes the CSS from each component and spits it out to a separate CSS file on build.

A personal gripe I have with most CSS-in-JS approaches is that it seems like an over-engineered solution. Svelte’s approach keeps things lean, vanilla, and encapsulated — while keeping everything where it should be.

For those who love preprocessors, there are plugins, whether it for Sass, Less or Gulp. But since Svelte is still in its infancy, I would recommend using plain ol’ CSS with a minified CSS framework of your choice so you can utilize Svelte’s handy dandy component scoping. 

You could just as easily keep to your usual styling preferences and completely forgo Svelte’s CSS builder. However, I’d argue that is a massive shame, as Svelte’s solution has been extremely clean and enjoyable, at lease in my experience. But anyone who has to work with IE11 (😬) and even older browsers will know that normalizing styles is a must. This is a good place to stop and check out Ollie’s post because he dives much deeper into Svelte’s styling features and advantages.

How Svelte stacks up to other frameworks

We just looked at what how Svelte has a different approach for compiling, interacting with DOM and writing CSS. You might be wondering: how does Svelte compare to other popular frameworks?

There are plenty of comparisons already out there, but suffice to say that Svelte is pretty darn fast. But speed isn’t the only basis for comparison. Instead, let’s do a side-by-side that looks at a broader overview in a format much loved by the development community: a table!

SvelteVueReact Angular (2+) What is it Compiler Framework Framework Framework First Commit Nov. 16, 2016 Jul. 29, 2013May 24, 2013Sep. 18, 2014 Backing Open source Multiple Sponsors Facebook Google Community¹Small Large Massive Large Satisfaction288% 87% 89% 38%

Svelte is in a strong position considering its late entrance and small community. Developer satisfaction is high, while the big three have been seeing recent declines. The Svelte community is small, but growing, and the code is open source which is a huge plus for the overall web community.

Let’s look at an example of using Svelte

I hope that I have convinced you that Svelte is worth at least a try. If so, let’s fire up the terminal and try a real-world examples of an everyday use case: implementing the Intersection Observer. If you’ve ever run a Lighthouse report, it may have been shouted at you for not using passive scroll events. That may be the most boring sentence I have written in my life, but it’s scores points for performance and isn’t overly complicated to do with the Intersection Observer in Svelte.

Let’s skip all the installation and setup stuff because we can avoid it with REPL, the online editor Svelte uses to demonstrate the framework on its site. The standard “Hello world” boilerplate is in there. Go ahead and download the ZIP file of the app, in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Now, unzip the file and cd into the folder from the terminal and run  npm -i to initialize the project. Once that’s done, do npm run build and you’ll get a copy of your lightweight miniature Svelte “Hello, world!” app.

Now we can get into the actual task of adding the IntersectionObserver.

First, we import the code that has already kindly been written by the Svelte team. It’s in the source code of the svelte.dev git repo (the inner cogs of which make for fascinating reading).

<script> import { onMount } from 'svelte'; export let once = false; export let top = 0; export let bottom = 0; export let left = 0; export let right = 0; let intersecting = false; let container; onMount(() => { if (typeof IntersectionObserver !== 'undefined') { const rootMargin = `${bottom}px ${left}px ${top}px ${right}px`; const observer = new IntersectionObserver(entries => { intersecting = entries[0].isIntersecting; if (intersecting && once) { observer.unobserve(container); } }, { rootMargin }); observer.observe(container); return () => observer.unobserve(container); } function handler() { const bcr = container.getBoundingClientRect(); intersecting = ( (bcr.bottom + bottom) > 0 && (bcr.right + right) > 0 && (bcr.top - top) < window.innerHeight && (bcr.left - left) < window.innerWidth ); if (intersecting && once) { window.removeEventListener('scroll', handler); } } window.addEventListener('scroll', handler); return () => window.removeEventListener('scroll', handler); }); </script> <style> div { width: 100%; height: 100%; } </style> <div bind:this={container}> <slot {intersecting}></slot> </div>

Stick this in a file called IntersectionObserver.svelte in a src/components folder. Then, reference it from the main Svelte file: App.svelte.

import IntersectionObserver from "../components/IntersectionObserver.svelte";

Now that we have the Intersection Observer available as a component, we can wrap other elements with it.

<IntersectionObserver let:intersecting top={400}>  {#if intersecting}     <section>       This message will Show if it is intersecting     </section>   {:else}     <section>       This message won't Show if it is intersecting     </section>  {/if} </IntersectionObserver>

That’s really it! You can see how the Intersection Observer component allows us to use <IntersectionObserver>  like a wrapper and define where the intersection should trigger, which is 400 pixels from the top in this example. As a reminder, this is all being exported as vanilla JavaScript! Super performant, no funny business. We’re sandwiching JavaScript and HTML together which is cool because we can see what the Intersection Observer is directly affecting, leaving no ambiguity and without being penalized for performance.

The OnMount function is necessary to tell Svelte that this code needs to run within the browser, as the Intersection Observer can’t be figured out ahead of time.

We’ll need to add some styling so that we can experience the observer in action, and we can do that directly in your App.svelte file. This might look super familiar if you have worked with any of the other front-end frameworks:

<style>   .somesection {     display: flex;     align-items: center;     justify-content: center;     width: 100%;     height: 100vh;   }      .somesection.even{     background: #ccc;   }            .content{     text-align: center;     width: 350px;   } </style>

Finally, we can copy and paste our Intersection Observer element four times to create more intersections. That gives us a mini web app that reactively adds and removes content as it comes into view — perfect to use with media, like lazy-loading. Check out a demo of the final result and be sure to crack open DevTools to see the Intersection Observer

Some final thoughts

My personal recommendation is to give Svelte a try. We’ve only scratched the surface of the framework in this article, but having converted my personal website to Svelte, I can confidently say that it is a pleasure to work with. It is performant, has a brilliant VSCode linter, and best of all, is easy to use. It may be small and new on the block, but I have a keen feeling that it is the relief from bloated “Goliath” frameworks, the “David” that frontend-ers have been looking for.

So should you use Svelte in a real project? Comparing risk and reward definitely comes into play. The community is smaller than other frameworks, meaning you’re likely to find less support and fewer tutorials to guide your along. At the same time, Svelte is in its third generation, meaning most of the gremlins should have been driven away, leaving a lean and reliable framework.

As with anything new, common sense rules, try it out with something non-commercial, take it for a spin, and see how you go.

Is there anything else? Funny you should ask! There are two co-projects that live in the Svelte Ecosystem: Sapper and Native. Sapper is a framework that utilizes Svelte for building full web applications, including routing, service workers, and all the good stuff you need to get started. I have used it to rebuild my personal website, and so far, I am a fan. Svelte Native is the most experimental of the Svelte projects, a NativeScript mobile app builder that utilizes Svelte under the hood. I confess that is where my knowledge on the subject ends. Luckily, it has a website with further information.

What do you think? Have you given Svelte a try? Do you think it stacks up to other frameworks? Let’s discuss it in the comments!

Based on a mix of Github Contributions, NPM Downloads and StackOverflow topics

State of JS review 2019

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