#I’ve played like nearly 60 hours in a week

[puckpocketed]

24/12/2023 - San Jose Sharks vs Vancouver Canucks

The Summer I Fell For Hockey - Hunger.

On the last day before the NHL goes on break for Christmas, my body decides it's had enough of being healthy. I come down with a pounding headache and am wracked with the phantom sensation of all my muscles being squeezed simultaneously. Going against the advice of friends and family, I end up necking two Panadol. I peel myself some oranges, make my peace with being one of those hockey guys who has more than one live feed open at a time, and settle in for the games. It’s a truly outrageous day for hockey, it turns out, and I don’t regret pushing through the pain at all.  Not one but two Michigan goals are scored, out of the less-than dozen ever recorded in the NHL; my Kraken win another match (though, that’s not outrageous so much as just plain wonderful); and of course, the Dallas Stars somehow manage to rob the Nashville Predators of a regulation win by scoring twice within the last 13 seconds of third period. But I don’t want to write about any of that. I know there’s a lot to say — maybe one day I’ll even get around to saying it — but it’s my summer memoir and today I want to talk about the Sharks.

I operate at all times with a low-level desire to mention the Sharks. They slip into all the writing I do about hockey, like how someone with a crush always finds a way to bring up the object of their desire. But crystallising how I feel about the San Jose Sharks has come so much slower than it has with my other team. The passing affection is easy; that’s been there since I saw their teal jerseys, silly cartoon shark biting through a hockey stick; but all the rest? It’s come as a slow, spreading honey-drip. 

And so, a full post-game is only now happening after what was a marathon 60 minutes of hope and heartbreak against the Canucks. That’s all Sharks games, I’ve concluded (at least, this season). Every time I’ve watched, no matter how far down they were, I’ve never really believed they were completely out of it. Which some might say is stupid of me given that they’re the absolute bottom of the league standings. But I’ve supported worse performing teams — I waded through the Shanghai Dragons’ 42-game loss streak after all. And the Sharks don’t feel anything like the Dragons.

The Vancouver Canucks are at the top of the top of the entire league, hovering equal first or tied second depending on the matches played. This can’t be stressed enough. David, meet Goliath; and tough titties if you left the slingshot at home, we’re playing for keeps this time. Within two minutes of the puck drop, the Canucks score off an absolute cannon blast from Kuzmenko, which only happens because of a no-look pass that fell into the wrong hands. Kuzmenko scores again off the Canucks’ power play not long after, and we know it’s a Sharks game now because they’re going to be playing catch up from here on out.

The LA Kings nearly shut them out the week before this match. I watched most of that game from behind my hands. So many failed dump-and-chase attacks, failed rushes, failed battles along the boards. An impossibly strong defence from the Kings, as I came to find out later; hockey built on denying a clean attack through the neutral zone. It was a slaughter. Yet at no point did it ever look like the Sharks were done.

I have to leave the Canucks game for less than half an hour. When I come back my Sharks are somehow miraculously even with them at 2-2. It terrifies and thrills me all at once. It seems such a simple concept; thinking there’s always a chance you can win and playing like you mean it. I mean, it’s always true. When my friends and I watch esports we like to say that while not every game is ‘winnable’, every game is ‘throwable’. No matter how far ahead a team is, there is always a non-zero chance they’ll throw it away.

But saying something and living it are two very different things. I think the Sharks live it, and I think they’ve somehow made it fundamental to their hockey. This doesn’t mean never faltering or feeling demoralised after losing a lead — that’s normal, that’s competition — what it means is working and working at the problem anyway, and continuing to work at it until the last second of the game. 

 This is hardly a unique trait; plenty of teams refuse to give up, and you could make the argument that this is a marker of a good team, that it’s a requirement to climb. Here, you could bring up the Stars vs Preds game. But it’s easy to keep going if you’ve got ample proof that it’s going to work out, that it’s worked out before. The Stars put on an excellent show, dug deep and didn’t stop playing, no one’s saying they didn’t. But it must be so much easier if you’re them, and you have a pretty good record on comebacks, and you’re already doing so well in the division standings. When you already know you’re good, that drive is resting on something solid, that faith has already been rewarded — but what if you’re the Sharks? Where does the faith come from then? I think it becomes something else once you’ve left it too long, morphs into something that’s got mass and pull, that breathes and is alive. Players and coaches and casters might call it ‘grit’ or ‘stubbornness’. I’ve begun to think of it as hunger.

During the LA Kings game, I held my breath as the minutes to the end of third period ticked down, I waited for them to flag. I waited for them to fall apart. They sort of did, I’m not going to deny that; giving up a shorthanded goal on the power play while their net was empty. It hurt to watch. But then, in the last 90 seconds of the match, MacDonald slammed it into the back of the Kings’ net from the blue line. The cheer I let out, the cheers that came from the sparse crowd in attendance at the Shark Tank; they didn’t feel like cheers from people who knew the game was over — even with the 4-1 scoreboard and 1:19 left of the game. The cameras cut to fans standing up in their seats, screaming as the home goal horn sounded for the first time that night. The players squared up for the ensuing faceoff after casual celebrations; they didn’t look happy to simply not get shut out. They were still out for more.

The Canucks bring the score back in line during second period: two goals in a row, spaced about five minutes apart. Were I watching the Kraken, at this point we might’ve broken out the memes in preparation for a loss — but I’m watching the Sharks, and all I do is press closer to my screen and clench my teeth. The Sharks aren’t done yet, I tell myself and my blog and the perhaps three other people hanging out in the live tag, to resounding agreement. I think we all actually believe ourselves. The Sharks players must believe it, too, from the way Zetterlund answers the Canucks with a goal of his own. 3-4 isn’t the insurmountable gap that 2-4 was, and winning the match still feels like a shimmering possibility, despite the chasm between the Sharks and Canucks’ place in the standings.

The game goes on. We trade another goal. It’s 4-5 halfway through third period — a gorgeous tip-in from MacDonald — and the stress begins to fracture my belief. My painkillers aren’t quite enough to keep the edge off the pain, and it’s distracting, and I just want the game to be over. “THEYRE STILL IN IT!!” writes one of my Sharks mutuals under one of my live posts, followed by three shark emojis. I breathe, refocus, I push through the pain. I watch my Sharks go hard in the last five minutes of the match; and even as they get scored on twice, I want to believe in them. I believe right up until the final buzzer. The next time they play, I’ll still believe in them.

Commentary on the San Jose Sharks that isn’t “they suck right now” is pretty hard to come by. Occasionally though, if you listen well during broadcasts, if you sift through the pundits on Youtube, if you leaf through enough articles, you’ll find a thread that they all have in common, the thing that everyone can say about the Sharks: you might win, but they won’t make it easy. The Canucks win 4-7. The Sharks didn’t make it easy.

A few weeks ago, the Sharks beat the Jets, who were close to the top of the Western conference, 2-1. Before that, they came back against the Red Wings, overcame the Islanders, nearly caught the Rangers and the Golden Knights. What I’ve learned about the Sharks, what’s finally crystalised my admiration for them, is this: the Sharks might be at the bottom of the league, but if you give even an inch they’ll swallow you whole.

I come to every Sharks game ready for something interesting to happen, ready to see them fight until the very end. Taking my cues from the Sharks, I arrive and I’m always, always hungry. If they can carry this with them into the future, into better management and a more developed roster, I think one day we’ll eat.

The Sharks are circling, ever circling — and eventually they’ll have blood.

[tickletastic]

PRNDL

Fandom: The Society

Ship: Harry/Allie

Summary: Its been three years of fugitive and somehow Allie has managed to hide the fact that she can't drive... until now. Day seven of Miya and Mia's Tickletober: playtime!

Allie was only mildly embarrassed when she confided in Will, on the eve of the annual game of fugitive, that she had never in fact learned how to drive. She was far too embarrassed to share with Harry, who had given her the shiny keys to one of his mom’s untouched cars, eyes bright as he promised she wouldn’t be able to catch him. She feared that he may be right when Will hysterically attempted to explain the gas pedal and the brake to her in the middle of the driveway at 4am. She thought she understood, kind of, but it didn’t stop her nervousness from clouding her need to win the competition.

Nearly 24 hours later, she finds herself in a sleek, black Rolls Royce, waiting for Harry to blow the horn. He introduces the rules, as he has for the past two years, and reminds the group of the teams, which had been pinned up at city hall for going on three weeks. He smiles a cheeky, private smile in Allie’s direction before letting the horn off, bolting off to hide. 

The mandatory few seconds go by and Allie watches as the cars around her rip down the road, off to hunt their prey. She stalls, looking around at the emptiness that has become in the last minute or so, before putting her foot on the gas. She jolts forward with the car’s speed as it tears down the road, going from 0 to 60 in less than 10 seconds. The speed scares her enough to take her foot off entirely until she is comfortably coasting at a moderate 20mph. She realizes she’s going slow, but she’s too scared to go any faster. Surely she’ll still be able to find someone. 

She spends an entire twenty minutes slowly coasting, having only traveled a total of two blocks. She’s realising now that she’s never had to go through being on the ‘it’ end of fugitive, and it’s a lot harder than just running and curling up somewhere dark. 

She slows to a stop, deciding that she can walk faster than she’s comfortable driving at, grabbing the flashlight Harry had told her was stored in the glove box.

Allie wonders, as she walks down the well-lit street, how they’ve managed to keep the lights on for as long as they have. The game, played on the last day of summer every year, would’ve been kind of eerie in the dark. Suddenly, she hears a rustle in the twigs behind her and turns quickly, but sees nothing there. She stands still, skeptical that someone isn’t hiding in the bushes, until she sees a car turn on the street, their headlights illuminating her and everything around her, and her eyes fall on Harry’s face in the bushes.

“You asshole,” Allie yells, stomping over to him, “you would’ve scared the crap out of me!”

“And that’s my fault, how?” Harry laughs, stepping out from behind the bush, “aren’t you supposed to be in a car anyway? I’ve been waiting like an hour for you to drive past.”

Allie cheeks dust pink, her hands suddenly seemingly incredibly interesting to her. “I, uh- Harry, I don’t know how to drive.”

Harry bursts out laughing, sputtering out between breaths, asking Allie why she hadn’t just told him, saying that he would have taught her years ago, that he would have even given her one of the cars in his driveway. When he looks up, Allie is blushing to her ears, expression caught between embarrassment and frustration. Harry tries to gather himself, panting a little as he catches his breath.

“Hey,” he says, grabbing Allie in a hug, “you could’ve just asked me to teach you.”’

“Maybe I didn’t want some asshole to teach me how to drive,” Allie teases, jokingly fighting out of Harry’s hug. Harry holds fast until Allie starts pinching his ribs and he yelps, bringing them both to the ground. He recovers quickly during their continued wrestling, and gets Allie pinned. 

“Bad choice, Allie,” Harry grins mischievously, a brush stroke away from a smirk. “This is what happens when you get caught by a fugitive instead of the other way around.” 

Harry’s fingers make quick work teasing Allie’s ribs, and she’s quick to start giggling, shaking her head and desperately trying to grab Harry’s hands. She snorts when Harry pinches her bottom ribs, arching her back off the ground. She’s trashing everywhere, legs kicking, arms grappling for Harry’s. 

He spiders his fingers over Allie’s collarbones and her giggles get shrill while she tries to block his fingers with her shoulders. “Hahaharry nohoho! Ihihit tihihickles! Ihiht tickles! I’m sohohory!”

“Well,” Harry says, making a show of leaning his chin on his fist, “I don’t think I’m satisfied.”

His fingers spider down to her tummy and she screeches, hiccuping and snorting when she writhes in the grass. Harry drills into her hips and squeezes the skin above her belly button, relishing in how hard she laughs and shouts each time. Eventually he slows down, letting up and rolling onto his side in the grass next to her. 

“You alright, Allie?”

She rolls onto her side to face him, leaning on her elbow. She leans forward and kisses him, tangling the fingers of her free hand in his hair. “I am, but you’re evil,” she laughs when they part. 

Harry stays frozen in place, staring at her with wide eyes after they had pulled apart. She grins back at him, eyes sparkling. He’s snapped out of his trance when Allie spiders fingers under his chin, pulling back with a squeal. She gets up and runs, giggling as she goes.

“Oh, you’re so gonna get it, Pressman.”

[is-on-its-way]

Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more - 1

Post-Episode: s06e06 How the Ghosts Stole Christmas

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Part of the Scully is a human Series

———

Mulder watched her as she giddily unwrapped her present, and unwrapped his. He let the paper fall, it was an VHS. He took it out of the box and read the label. Scully had stopped unwrapping her gift to watch his face as he read the inscription. It was labeled in Scully’s neat lettering.

August 2, 1972 NYY v BRS Full Doubleheader

“I think thats the right one. I asked Gerry from communications if he could track down the original broadcast but he had no luck. Then I asked the Lone Gunmen, they found it in about fifteen minutes.”

His hand was over his mouth and he was blinking.

“That sounds about right for a government salary.” He said quietly, transfixed, staring down at the tape.

He was transported to two places at once in his head. A car with her two years ago and Fenway Park in 1972 with his dad. It had been a small comment during a long drive with her. 

“Why do you like baseball so much Mulder?” She had asked as they drove through Virginia on the way to a wildlife refuge near the outer banks. There had been reports of a swamp monster that had turned out to be a wild horse entangled in orange safety fencing. He’d been talking about the latest Mets verses Nationals game.

“Its a spiritual experience"

"Like Elvis." Scully said sarcastic

" You don't believe me, but I can tell you about the best game Ive ever been to, it might change your mind.” He glanced at her and she seemed interested so he continued.

“I’ve been a mets fan since I was a kid. My father was a staunch Red Sox fan and I loved to watch him boil in anger whenever I cheered a NY team. But they were the underdogs and I loved an underdog."

She laughed at this revelation.  "Of course you do."

"So back in '86 the Mets at the end of dramatic season of bar brawls, a stampede at Shea stadium which turned the field to mush, a comeback from 3-0 to win a nearly five hour game, and a recorded rap single anthem for the ages, were making their first world series appearance since 1973.

“The year your sister was taken?”

“Yeah.” He nodded “And get this, they were playing the Boston Red Socks. I had to go for posterities sake, to tell my grandchildren I was there. I had to go see my team beat my fathers. So I made my way up to Shea stadium in time for the 6th game.

But they were losing. Bad. Everyone knew the red socks would win by the top of 10th inning. Mets down by three, the clubhouse was being decked out and filled with champagne. If Boston won the game they’d win the world series. Even the scoreboard had flashed CONGRATULATIONS RED SOX! accidentally as the Mets stepped up to bat.

But then Carter, and rookie Mitchell, and Knight came through with singles. As batters came and struck out, Carter ran home, then Mitchell, and the Mets were tied. The NY crowd was screaming so loud, no one, including the guys on the field could hear themselves talking.

Then Wilson hit a ground ball, the first baseman tried in vain to get it and it rolled between his legs. Knight was able to round third and score 6-5 and the Mets… won. 

Keeping them in the world series for a tie breaking 7th game which they also fought a comeback from to win the world series.

Its generally regarded as one of the greatest games in baseball history, and I was there, watching my team, who hadn’t won a world series since the 60’s.

“Did your dad go with you?” She’d asked.

“No, we hadn”t been to a game together since I was 11. Before… everything with my sister. A full double header, his beloved Red socks against the Yankees, in the sweltering August heat. I got a sunburn that lasted a week. Of course I rooted for the yankees. We got heckled by the home crowd and he stood up for me, yelled at them to leave me alone, even though he hated my penchant for NY teams. That was the second best game Ive ever been to.” He shrugged “I guess thats part of the reason I like it so much.” Scully had watched him searching his face for a bit after this. 

He was lost in thought remembering sitting with his dad sharing hotdogs and soda. Jumping up and down with everyone when the Red Socks had won the second game, because he wanted to be a part of the fervour. The happiness on his dads face. That had all gone after Samantha had gone. 

———

“Mulder?” She put a hand on his arm and it brought him out of his reprieve. 

He looked up at her and wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug. 

“I cant believe you remembered that” He said releasing her. “Thank you Scully”

“You’re welcome Mulder” she was searching his face in concern.

“Open yours” he said, she still held her half unwrapped gift.

She opened it and said “oh, Mulder” It was two jars one honey and one bee pollen from a farm in Annapolis. “Thank you” she leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his torso.

“I know a guy named Barry and he makes his own honey near where you grew up in Maryland, among other things I shouldn’t divulge.” She raised her eyebrow and gave him a skeptical look “I figured you can mix the honey in with the bee pollen so it tastes better.”

Scully laughed. His heart leapt, he loved to hear her laugh. 

“Oh wow Mulder, how did we both know to get things from our childhoods?”

“Well I don’t know if you know this Scully but we’re often very in tune with each other.” He said in a sarcastic tone. 

“Even in our delusions apparently.” She said “How many people do you think are buried under those floor boards?”

“Im not sure but Im planning to go back after Christmas to check, in the daylight.” 

She raised her eyebrows looking skeptical, then said “Can I come?” 

He laughed, “You’re not worried we’ll end up shooting each other?”

“Well Mulder that was all in our heads… I think…” She looked confused

“But you want to come pry floorboards up with me?”

“Well, it would be nice to have physical proof that that couple isn't really under there… but if you don’t think I need to be there…” she looked down at her gift.

“No, of course you can come, you’re always invited.” Mulder said brushing his hand on her thigh to catch her attention.

She looked at him and smiled. "I at least want to bring a carbon Monoxide detector and see if we weren't being poisoned."

———

She looked out the window at the hint of deep blue dawn and checked her watch “Oh I have to go!”

“Right you’ve gotta go unwrap presents.” Mulder said his heart dropping in disappointment.

“Yes.” She took his hand as she stood in front of him looking down.

He met her eyes.

“Will you… will you come to dinner later?”

“I don’t think your brother would want…”

“Don’t worry about him, besides my mom said if I wanted to invite you she’d be happy to have you.” She wriggled his hand blushing a bit at divulging something so personal. 

“When did she say that?” He said genuinely curious

“After I was abducted. When I came back. She said you have a standing invitation whenever I wanted.”

Mulder smiled.

“Come on, I promise you fun and probably charades.”

He shook his head “Okay, but I don’t know about the charades.”

“Really? You’ll come?” She smiled

“Yeah” he said standing up and following her to the door. 

“What should I bring?”

“Just you, or whiskey for the whiskey bar.”

“How Irish” Mulder said jovially. 

Scully smiled “4:00 pm, you know the address to my moms.” she said.

“Yes”

They reached the door.

She stood on her tip toes and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “Thank you for my gift”. 

“You're welcome.” He grabbed her hand as she turned “Thank you for mine. Really.”

She smiled at him and slipped out the door. Mulder touched the place she had kissed. He put the tape in the VCR, sat on the couch, and pressed play.

[gasha1k]

been playing a fuckton of Pokémon recently, finally finished Pokémon Legends: Arceus after like a year or whatever of putting it off. I can confidently say that Arceus is one of my favorite Pokémon games, for sure

me and the girls

I’ve been an avid Pokémon gamer since I was an idiot baby toddler infant, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t think that most of these games are lazy cash grabs. they were crazy cool at one point in time—likely long before I was born—but Game Freak is fucking allergic to any kind of lasting innovation, so all of these games are kind of the exact same shit but with a different one-off gimmick, because that apparently justifies paying $60 for some shit that everyone has played every year since the 90’s

hate her ass

Pokémon Legends: Arceus struck me as a $60 tech demo when I first got my hands on it and I kinda resented the game for that. “cool, I just paid like half a week’s groceries to beta test some shit for the next gen. thanks Game Freak!”

but the more I played it, the more fond of it I grew. there were so many points during my playthrough where I legitimately forgot that I was playing a Pokémon game. some of the boss fights had me thinking, “holy shit, this isn’t a Pokémon game, this is a real video game!”

there’s a lot of content in this game, as well. it’s a really cozy and easy Pokémon sandbox, which is all that I’ve wanted from this franchise for years. there are a bunch of issues, but man, the core gameplay loop of Arceus was so addictive and fun that I could look past them pretty confidently

me and my beautiful son that is not my son

I think that if this game spent another year or two baking in the oven, it could’ve been something truly special, like Breath of the Wild, but again, Game Freak is allergic to making good shit. if some of the mechanics were given more depth, it could’ve been a lot better! breeding would’ve been nice!

but regardless of any criticisms I may have, I did finish a complete living dex in this game, because whenever I play a Pokémon game some devil in my soul forces me to do this. it is not my choice

anyways here’s proof of this living dex, not like anyone asked but something about seeing it documented brings me a great deal of personal satisfaction. this includes all the legendaries and mythicals in the game, because luckily for me, I didn’t delete my BDSP save data before selling the game on eBay lol

yeah! awesome! cool! I also finished a SWSH living dex a year or so ago, and that was a fucking quest. SWSH is kind of a really bad game, but I’ve got nearly 200 hours in it so I can say that confidently.

in conclusion, I have been breeding for a shiny Stufful for literally a year and a half and haven’t gotten one yet, so I hate Pokémon and will never play it again <3

[hollyberry06]

All I’ve done the past week when I’ve been home is play My Time at Portia

I started this art a few days ago and finished it last night. My character has changed a bit since, but she’s still rocking the cyan high pony!

[not-so-innocent-bi-sander]

One of these days… man id love to write some words

[escape-from-arcadia]

Zouxie Week 2022: Day 4 - Motorcyles

"She's Beautiful"

Read on AO3

Douxie sat behind Zoe, the two of them precariously balanced on the bike. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he leaned forward slightly, resting his head on her shoulder and tucking his knees up. “Is now a bad time to mention that I’ve never been on one of these before?” She ignited the engine silently with a wave of her wand. “It’s like riding a bike. You were a newspaper delivery boy back in the 40s right?” He nodded as she slipped on a pair of black gloves. “It’s just like that, just a bit different to steer. And lucky for you, you’re not the one steering.” “Still not sure if I should be comforted by that.”

A/N: Late submission because I was in finals purgatory. But I'm back with a short thing for Day 4, and I'm currently writing Day 5.

Word Count: 1693

Tagging: @moppetwithamanbun and @emsprovisions for Zouxie Week 2022!

----

“She’s beautiful.”

“Douxie, are you sure this is a wise idea?”

“Oh, Archie, I’m certain of it. I think I’m in love. I’d pour my life’s savings into her to make sure she’s well and cared for.”

“You’re ‘in love’ with a strange contraption.”

Douxie swept his hand over the leather seat and turned back to a humanoid Archie with an astonished look on his face. “She’s a BMW, thank you very much, Arch. And a beautiful one at that too,” he gushed. He knelt down to examine the motorcycle and all of its nooks and crannies. “The new 1924 BMW R32.”

“There’s a hell of a lot of power in her. She’s got a 494 cc boxer twin. Nice shaft drive too. She can run nearly 60 miles per hour, which is kinda crazy when you think about it. With the new braking system, one should have less trouble stopping her. But you don’t look like the type who’d be able to take her out on the streets and manage not to crash.”

The wizard looked up, laughing. “You sure sound like you know your onions-” He gasped. A woman with short mousy brown hair, a streak of pink tucked behind her ear, and bright blue eyes looked down at him. Her arms were crossed, the sleeves of her shirt rolled up and a cap pulled low over her face. In her pockets were a few different sized wrenches, one of which seemed to be engraved with Elder Futhark runes. Despite her demeanor, she looked at the young man with a friendly smirk.

“Zoe! You work here?” Douxie chatted excitedly as he stood, readjusting his unbuttoned waistcoat. He stumbled upwards, and Archie caught him before he slammed into the young woman. As he stepped forward for a hug, Zoe backed away, raising her grease covered hands cautiously.

“Watch the grease-”

His face fell while Archie cleaned his glasses and put them back on. The latter’s golden eyes widened in disbelief. “Merlin’s beard. It really is you, Ms. Ashildr!”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me, alright?” She rolled her eyes, but there was no bite to her bark. A genuine smile played at the corners of her lips as she looked on at the two before her. “It’s sure been a while, hasn’t it?”

“A while?” Douxie waved his hands furiously, causing nearby men examining other motorcycles to cast a glance at the trio. “Zoe, we haven’t seen you since…it must’ve been 1889? In Paris? The tower they put up there! Yes, we visited the new tower, and then we went back across the channel, and we lost track of you..I thought you were still in England! In fact,” he added, pointing to himself and Archie, “we only got here a few weeks ago.”

Archie groaned, “And that is why I’ve been telling him not to try and spend all his meager savings on a motorbike.” He caught a glimpse at the look in the witch and wizard’s eyes and groaned again. Waving them off, he straightened his tie and turned towards the other bikes in the shop. “I’ll take a look around for anything remotely affordable. If not, we’ll just go grocery shopping.” He cast a knowing look over his shoulder. “If you two get into any trouble, I’m expecting salmon for dinner, Douxie.”

While Douxie let out affronted noises of astonishment, Zoe laughed. She took Douxie’s hand into her own, fingers calloused and still covered in grease, guiding him outside of the shop. He felt heat flushing his cheeks, turning his face towards the ground.

Stepping outside into the busy Chicago street, Zoe handed him a blackened cloth to wipe his hands on and stuffed hers into her pockets. He nodded sheepishly, eyes still trained on the ground as he cleaned his hands. She raised an eyebrow. “Not that chatty anymore? Are you really this shy after not having seen me for a few decades, or are you just mad about me making a jab at your driving skills? Or rather,” she chuckled, “the lack thereof.”

“Ha, ha, very funny,” he shot back. He snuck a quick glance. She looked incredibly confident with her arms crossed like that. Very pretty. Her eyes met his. He quickly turned his gaze across the street to a very attention-grabbing and not at all boring law firm office. “And I’m sure you’ve got excellent driving skills.”

“I can get from point A to point B in one piece,” she shrugged, looking at a woman dragging her child away from an ice cream parlor. “I’ve been a menace on the race course.”

With a jolt, Douxie turned to her excitedly. “You’ve been racing?”

She nodded, trying (and failing) to not come off as ridiculously proud. “Raced under the name Xander on a few different Harley-Davidsons. Won a few times too.”

“I missed a lot, haven’t I?” She nodded in response, smiling wryly. His brow furrowed slightly. “It’s been so long, Zoe. I haven’t heard from you in ages.”

“Tell me about it.”

“No, seriously.” She turned and met his gaze. His face was strangely unreadable, unusual for someone as vocal as Douxie about his emotions. There was a strange combination of worry and relief in his eyes, but also something else that Zoe couldn’t quite place. “I haven’t heard from you since before the turn of the century. And during the Great War…Zoe, I wasn’t sure if you were even alive.

Realization struck her across the face. Her joking manner fell away. “Oh, gods. Douxie, I-”

“Arch and I came to the States looking for a fresh start after the war. It’s taken us so long because England is in shambles.” His voice cracked as tears came to his eyes. “The war devastated us. I fought because, for some stupid, stupid reason, I thought I could find you there. I spent years on the battlelines, fighting to survive, not only for England, but also for you. If I made it out of that war alive, I wanted to find you. And yet, I found you here, four, five years later. In the States. Zoe, I almost didn’t recognize you because of your accent. It was your wand that gave it away.

“You couldn’t even be bothered to write a letter? To try and find us?” He was growing angry at this point, years of worry and dread boiling over into frustration. “Why did you disappear after Paris, Zoe? Where were you? Where did you go?”

She knitted her eyebrows, making to argue back, but then she paused. She sighed, nodding and stepping to the side as to let a customer into the motorcycle shop. Her eyes lit up, and she turned back to her old friend.

“How about I take you for a ride?”

“Zoe, don’t change the topic,” he moaned, “please.”

“I’ll explain it to you, if you get on the bike.” A rebellious smile. “We can take the R32.”

-

“To be completely clear, Casperan, if this thing comes back with so much as a scratch, my boss will kill me.”

“I don’t know why you’re telling me this. You’re the one who snuck it out of the shop in the first place. Not to mention that you’re driving.”

Zoe laughed, “Right. And it’s your job to keep us from dying.”

Douxie sat behind Zoe, the two of them precariously balanced on the bike. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he leaned forward slightly, resting his head on her shoulder and tucking his knees up. “Is now a bad time to mention that I’ve never been on one of these before?”

She ignited the engine silently with a wave of her wand. “It’s like riding a bike. You were a newspaper delivery boy back in the 40s right?” He nodded as she slipped on a pair of black gloves. “It’s just like that, just a bit different to steer. And lucky for you, you’re not the one steering.”

“Still not sure if I should be comforted by that.”

The engine sputtered a little, and she made to give it a whack before thinking better of it and tapping it gently with her wand. Pink sparks flew from the metal as the R32 came to life. She looked over her shoulder at him. “Just hold onto me, and everything will be fine.”

He hesitated before finally nodding, and she took off down the street.

It was magical. The bike was made by very human hands, but the speed and the exhilaration of it all brought out a euphoric feeling Douxie hadn’t felt in ages. It was like when he first made fire in his hands from the energy around him. His nerves crackled, and he felt his soul being pulled forward to an unknown destination.

Yet, at long last, he finally felt like he was home.

Zoe masterfully made her way out of the city and onto the roads beyond alongside the Illinois River. For a time, they were quiet, simply basking in the thrill of being on the road together after decades apart. The motorcycle thrummed as they kept driving to the point where the road met the sky.

They’d keep driving, and driving, and driving.

At one point they’d stop, the bike having run out of gas miles ago, fueled only by Zoe’s magic and will.

They sit on the side of the road, looking out over the river. And for hours and hours, they’d talk of the things they’d missed, the moments they had lost, time they could have spent together wasted apart.

Here, where the road met the sky, Douxie would look at Zoe. Her laugh and charm. He was still slightly resentful. But as they spoke and the daylight faded away, he felt his heart warm, the long quiet embers catching aflame once again.

Sure, she had grown into an American accent and slight rasp. Her once long brown hair was cut short. But she still laughed the same way. She still punched his arm playfully and knitted her brows together when he teased her for her height. She still had lightning in her eyes, bright as her wit.

She was beautiful.

[princessbatears]

For Casa Werewolf! ✨ HC Of my Choice: do you have any HCs about family game or movie nights? What do the triplets think of Javi’s movie room? Cause you know he has an epic one with like a legit soda fountain or popcorn machine 👀

Heather, thank you soooo much for sending in this ask! ❤️ Also, many thanks to @aerynwrites for requesting a movie night HC! This was so, so fun to to explore.

🎞 Game/movie night:

Javi’s home has an absolutely incredible media and game room. A giant projector screen on one wall. The most comfortable squishy leather sofas and reclining chairs (with attached tray tables and cupholders, of course). Built-in bookshelves to hold DVDs, Blu-rays and VHS tapes. A pool table AND a board game table.

Then, there are the readily available snack options, like a soda fountain, slushy machine, small wine and beer fridge, vintage-style movie theater popcorn maker, and a stash of various candies.

While your triplets are very physical little beings that don’t like to sit still, they do manage it one night a week to play games or watch movies with you and Javi.

When they’re in the mood for a game, the five of you sit at the gaming table. Drinks have to have lids because wild gesticulating has led to some spills (and not just caused by the kids). Then, whichever child gets to choose this time, does so.

Tallulah’s favorite is Clue/Cluedo. She adores the mystery aspect and everyone gets a thrill when someone finally makes the first guess. “Miss Scarlet in the study with the candlestick!”

Bo’s go-to is Candyland. With his major sweet tooth and love for racing boarding games, it’s no surprise he’s drawn to it. Javi’s also a huge fan of these kinds of games, so he and Bo go all-in to beat each other.

Astrid’s favorite is Pictionary. She’s the artist of the family and everyone wants to be on her team, which is a much-needed confidence boost for her. She makes you all roll a dice to see who the lucky person is because fairness is very important to her. Then, it’s an hour of giggling as the teams attempt to guess what the drawings are supposed to represent.

On the nights the pups want to watch a movie, there’s a plethora of family-friendly ones in Javi’s library. He’s been stocking up ever since you all came into his life.

Of course, he makes sure to introduce ‘National Treasure,’ ‘Paddington 2’, and the ‘Croods’ films. You hadn’t realized Nic Cage had made so many movies for kids.

Pixar and Disney, of course, feature heavily, as do some of the older adventure movies from the 50s and 60s.

Your favorite thing about these nights isn’t the movies themselves, but it’s all of you piling on one of the sofas. You and Javi sit hip-to-hip while the kiddos lay across you, snuggled up together. Knowing there’s only so long left before they outgrow this phase, you treasure every minute of it.

Inevitably, they fall asleep by the end, so warm and safe. You and Javi smile at each other as he picks up the girls, one in each arm, and you cradle Bo to you. Then, you carry them upstairs and tuck them into their beds.

“This is all I’ve ever wanted,” Javi whispers to you nearly every time it happens.

“Me, too,” you smile.

Send me a prompt for my Casa Werewolf series with Javi G! 🐺

Find out more about Javi's romance with the werewolf single mom here!

[anotheruserwithnoname]

Jenna Coleman on audio

This is a followup to my post a few days ago itemizing the various DVD and Blu-ray releases featuring Jenna Coleman. While await word of Jenna’s next series, The Sandman, I thought I’d quickly make note of where you can stream or buy audio works featuring Jenna.

There aren’t that many, but there are a few. Spoiler break first:

* The Secret Garden: Still billed as Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jenna recorded an abridged 60-minute reading of the classic children’s story for AudioGo way back around 2012 or early 2013. It was available briefly on CD before AG folded later in 2013. You can still find the CD, but it’s expensive (Amazon Canada has it for Cdn$45 right now. Otherwise, it’s on Audible and as I reported the other day, in 2016 it was included in a release called Timeless Tales for Kids that can be found at Audible and on CD from outlets such as Book Depository and Amazon.

* Doctor Who: The Time Machine: Around the time Jenna recorded The Secret Garden, she also recorded an original one-hour-long Eleventh Doctor story for AudioGo, in collaboration with Big Finish. The finale of a year-long Destiny of the Doctors story arc that was produced for the 50th anniversary (so released around November 2013), Jenna actually plays a new character in this, not Clara, but also provides the voice of the Eleventh Doctor. Release was nearly cancelled when AudioGo went under a few weeks before the planned issue, but Big Finish white-knighted it and released not only the CD but it was also part of a box set. Today the CD is hard to find, but last I looked you could buy a download of it from Big Finish.

*A Christmas Carol: Concurrent with her appearing in Victoria Series 1 in late 2016, Jenna recorded a role in an audio drama based on the classic. Produced by Audible, no CD release is expected, but most of the places I’ve seen it listed (such as Amazon Canada) have it listed as a free stream. As far as I am aware this is the only audio drama in which Jenna has performed, the others being dramatic readings.

* Pressures, Residential: During the C19 lockdown in 2020, Esquire Magazine sponsored celebrity readings of short stories to raise money UNICEF UK. One of these was a story by Philip Hensher that feels like something that could be an episode of Black Mirror, if not Inside No. 9 or the original Twilight Zone. It’s still available online. It’s pretty good, even if you get startled early by Jenna channelling Malcolm Tucker for a moment.

* The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. Another C19-era project was the all-star collection, Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales. Also featuring fellow Who alumni such as David Tennant and Pearl Mackie, this collection includes 7 or so minutes of Jenna reading one of Potter’s short books. Available on CD and for download. There are a number of similar releases, so be careful to order the one with Jenna in it.

[centrumlumina]

I keep thinking about how time dilation works in video games.

The background here is that I’ve been musing about how I would make a particular game, which involves farming. This is unlikely to ever actually materialise but it’s an interesting thought experiment.

Video games do not run at real speed, because it would be very boring for everything to take as long as it does in real life. Over the course of one day in-game, characters will need to eat, work, rest, etc. without the player getting bored. Let’s say I want a game where 1 day - 24 hours of in game time - takes 15 minutes to play. That is a time dilation factor of 96 - every second of play represents about a minute and a half of in-game time. You might also want events which happen “weekly”, or every few days - something like a market day, or a church service.

Problem one comes with animation speed. For things to look “about right” the characters need to "walk” at about actual speed. Maybe they can travel at most three times as far per second as a real person could. But that’s per real world second. In actuality, they are moving at around 1/30 the speed a real person could walk, so it will take a lot longer for them to get anywhere! A five-minute walk across the village will occupy 2.5 hours of in-game time, eating up a significant chunk of their day.

This is a problem I’ve noticed in a lot of games, particularly The Sims and Cities Skylines, where travel times eat up huge chunks of in-game time because the in-game clock doesn’t match the animation speed. But if characters walked at actual in-game speed, they’d be whizzing around, traversing 144 metres in one real-world second - so fast that they’d be very hard for the player to see or select while moving. At that point, their travel between places might as well be instantaneous, not a part of the game at all.

Even more trouble comes in when you think of longer time scales. For a farming game, the cycle of the seasons is going to be important - planting in spring and harvesting in autumn in order to have enough food for the cold winter months. You want a length of “year” which is short enough for the player to feel the change, without being so quick that the seasons blend together. For instance, let’s say that every “day” also counts as a month. Over the course of 12 days - 3 hours of play - the full year will play out, with daylight hours getting longer and shorter, weather moving from cold to hot and back again.

However, this leads to our second problem: if the length of a harvest, on which the village relies to eat over the winter, is only one, perhaps two in-game days, then a minor distraction on that day could lead to disaster. If there is a random event like a fire, or even something as simple as the week’s church service happening to fall on that day, it could massively impact how many workers are available to harvest in a way that is completely disproportionate to the effect a one-day distraction would have in a real-world, month-long harvest season.

And what about longer time scales? It would be great if the player could watch children born in the village grow to adulthood, but to play 20 “years” at our current rate would be 60 hours. Perhaps we add another layer of time compression - every day, all the characters age by 6 months, so a child will be full-grown in about 5 play-hours. But this could have its own problems - if women can get pregnant again every 3 months (because their last child is now an 18-month toddler) they could easily have 2-3 children between harvests, massively increasing the village’s food requirements far faster than the player would be able to increase yields.

Nearly every layer of time compression has the potential to interact strangely with the other layers, and it’s clearly something that takes a lot of tuning to work out the kinks on. I’d be interested if anyone else has any thoughts on this!

[jerry-hornes-foot]

Kinktober ~ Day Five

Anonymous Sex | Double Penetration | Phone Sex

1615 words

18+ only

Steve Harrington x Gender Neutral Reader

Smut

Tags: anonymous sex; hookups; oral sex; handjobs/fingering; anal fingering; bathroom sex; drinking; smoking; not proof read

Any additional tags you would like added please feel free to dm me :)

The fuzzy sound of neon buzzes in your ears as you trudge up the muddy dirt road. This place doesn't look as promising as you'd hoped but it's starting to rain and there's no way you're walking all the way home now. This is, as far as you've been able to gather, the closest bar within walking distance so, for the time being at least, this is going to have to be your local. All you really want to do anyway is meet some people, make some friends. Stop worrying, it'll be fine.

A cursory glance around the room immediately brings to your attention that the average age in this room can't be any lower than 60. Cigar smoke swirls from various dark corners, thickening the already heavy smell of old hops and whisky. You grab yourself a drink from the bar and take a slow walk around the room, scanning the empty tables for a good place to sit.

"I like your t-shirt." A voice calls somewhere behind you.

"Thanks." You reply, horrified at the warm flush you can feel creeping up your cheeks. Signalling into the middle of the room in an attempt to distract from your burning face you continue, with a slight laugh "God it's jumping in here tonight."

Spinning around you find its source. In the occupied booth beside you sits a man, who to your great relief seems to be about your age. He's got a soft face, with a sharp, straight nose, and wide doe-like brown eyes. The top of his head is a thick mass of brown locks, each of which have been swept with extreme care into a very deliberate style. You smile, looking down at your chest for a moment as though unaware of how you are dressed,

He laughs, instantly releasing the tension in your chest, "Tell me about it. It's the only place in town walking distance from my apartment."

"Me too! Whereabouts are you?"

"Just at the back of the hardware store, the one up past the bridge."

"I think I know where you mean," you point your finger in a vague direction, "sorry, I've only been here a week."

He's halfway through a sip of beer but he throws his eyebrows up in exaggerated surprise.

"Oh, really?" He asks, a hand quickly flying over his mouth to wipe the foam away. "You're welcome to join me if you want by the way, if you're not busy."

You talk for an hour or so, every drop of anxiety draining from your body as you listen to this absolute stranger give you a full imaginary tour of the town. You learn that he's lived here his whole life, he had a million jobs in his teenager years all lost to "strange circumstances", and that he was once an athlete (that didn't surprise you, you'd spent a lot of the night admiring his slight, athletic frame). Being with him made you feel strangely relaxed. You even find yourself flirting.

"There's a pool table in the back room if you want to play." He announces, seemingly umprompted.

Before you have a chance to respond he's on his feet. He takes you by the hand and leads you down a small dark corridor to the pool room. Looking down at your clasped hands suddenly, he stares up at you,

"Oh shit, sorry, is this okay?" He asks, awkwardly lifting your hand up to your face so you can see it.

He's stopped just shy of the pool room, so the two of you are almost pressed against each other in the smoky hallway. This close you notice how pretty his eyes are, sparkling even in the grim half-light. There's a sweet smell that floats off him, mingling scents of hairspray and baby powder. You smile at him, pulling his hand back down beside you and tugging him closer,

"Absolutely. Is this okay?" You ask, smoothing a hand up his face and pulling it close to yours.

"Absolutely."

Your faces are pressed hard against each other, kissing so hard it's hard to tell which groans are coming from whose lips. It's not clear at what point you made it into the bathroom, but it doesn't really matter to either of you. Your fingers are tangled in that thick mass of auburn waves, desperately trying to pull his soft lips further into you. You feel a set of fumbling fingertips at your waistband, clumsily trying to undo your jeans without having to relinquish the comfortable hand rest on the small of your back. Eager to keep his lips pressed firmly against yours you slip a hand down and undo your jeans. Immediately you feel his hand appear down your underwear, your hips giving a small involuntary thrust at the sudden sensation. He breaks away from you for a second and stares down at his hand,

"Wow, that didn't take much." A cocky grin is smeared across his face. You grab the back of his neck, wiping the smile away with another firm kiss. His hand against your bare skin is so warm, every action precise and calculated, sending rushes of heat through your whole body. You rock your hips into his movements, moaning hard into his mouth. Reaching a free hand down you make an attempt to undo his jeans but he bats your hand out of the way, moving closer to you and grinding against your thigh. You can feel his hard cock rubbing against the inside of the tight denim and it drives you wild. You feel a tug at your hips as your jeans and underwear are pulled lower. Suddenly his mouth is pulled away from yours, and resituated somewhere far more effective.

Catching a scream between your teeth, painfully aware of how quite it is in the room through the wall, you kick your foot backwards, slamming the heel of your shoe into the base of the sink. Each thrust of his tongue sends shivers down your legs. His fingers are digging hard into your hips, holding you up against the basin. Your fingers feel their way back into his hair and you grip on tightly to ground yourself, focussing hard on the feeling of each soft strand to keep yourself quite as he drives his tongue over your sensitive skin. He's sucking so hard it feels as though your knees are going to give out.

You look down in distress as his lips slip away from you. He's staring up at you, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. Taking his middle middle finger and placing it firmly between your legs, he runs it up the full length of you, sending a shiver up your spine, ending the swift movement with a dramatic flick into his mouth. Keeping his eyes locked with yours he sucks his finger, savouring your taste. Pulling it out of his mouth with a slight pop he leans into you again, tongue tracing stripes of hot tingling pleasure along your skin. A rogue hand slides around your hip and it becomes immediately apparent what he was wetting his finger for. As his finger slips into your hole, every sensation from his mouth become amplified. You bite down on your lip, trembling with the effort it's taking to stay quiet. A flick of his finger and a roll of his tongue, timed to perfection, break your silence. Your knees buckle and you catch yourself on the sink with your elbows, head rolling back as a heavy, gutteral moan breaks from your throat. Looking back down you catch a glimpse of two deep brown eyes peering up at you, before flashing back downwards again.

Your knuckles are white with the force you're using to cling to the edge of the sink. Your head starts to swim, you stare up at the ceiling as your muscles start to twitch. His finger is running in smooth circles behind you, pressing into places you never knew could feel so good, and his head is bobbing with such intensity that you can feel his hair, now wildly dislodged from it's neat style, running over your stomach. Your legs tense as the sensation builds until it is nearly unbearable l, before bursting into a pulsing euphoria that races around your body. His lips stay wrapped around you as you cum, hard.

Your legs feel like jelly. You're still clinging to the sink for dear life. The wide-eyed boy appears in front of you once again and kisses you, you can taste yourself on his lips. He smiles and helps you steady yourself, then heads to the door,

"I'll give you a minute." He says, with a soft smile.

Once you've gathered yourself you wander back you into the pool hall and find him leant against the pool table, cue in hand. That cocky grin is back. Somehow in the time you've been gone his hair has been perfectly sculpted back into place. He tossed you a cue,

"You can break."

You narrow your eyes at him, weakly trying to hide a smile, "I never got to do anything to you."

"I guess you owe me for next time."

"Who says there'll be a next time." You ask, feigning offence.

"Well if you don't want to-"

"Thats not what I said."

You mirror his smug grin and lean over the table to line up your shot. Pulling the cue back you stop and look back up and him, laughing slightly,

"I didn't even ask you your name."

He beams and sidles around the table to stand next to you, pulling himself up to his full height he holds out a formal offer of a handshake,

"Steve Harrington."

[nct-lian]

people who have a crush on lian (outside of the group)

ERIC SOHN, THE BOYZ

duration: april 2020 — present

he actually developed a crush on her after he had watched the music video to her pre-release single, “stay tonight.” he thought she looked SO good and went on to talk about how much he loved that kind of concept on her for weeks on end.

eric obviously knew about her prior to his discovery of the song, having a member that’s been great friends with her for about a year.

he thinks that if kevin would stop hogging lian and actually let her interact with more of the members, he’d be able to “win her over” but according to kevin, she’s his best friend and his best friend only.

do fans know?: yes

fans of both the boyz and nct figured out that eric had a little bit of a crush on her after watching the english line’s episode of the k-pop daebak show with eric nam.

it was the section of which eric nam was reading out all the questions jacob, kevin and eric had sent in for each other, and one of kevin’s questions for eric was, “do you have a crush on my best friend?”

eric nam widened his eyes, “you have a best friend that he has a crush on?” he asked kevin, who was trying not to laugh hysterically at the question that had resurfaced. “he might,” kevin nodded.

“jacob, do you know who he’s talking about?” jacob nodded and suppressed his giggle by lifting the pillow he was hugging tightly to his chest and covering his face with it.

eric held a look on his face that screamed, “i’ve been personally victimized” as he shot his head back and forth between kevin and the other two older men in the room.

“i don’t have a crush on your best friend.. well- you know- like- maybe a celebrity crush.”

kevin cackled, “she’s not a celebrity-” eric nam laughed at that and shrugged his shoulders when eric turned to him for some help. “i don’t even know who’s he’s talking about, don’t look at me!”

“to you!” eric shot back at kevin, implying that he obviously wasn’t going to see her as a celebrity, given their best friend status.

jacob let him himself laugh, “eric, it’s okay, you make it so obvious sometimes.” he reassured his younger member.

eric stuttered over his words and kept shaking his head. “it’s a celebrity crush. no real feelings.” he stated.

the man across from him, again, shrugged his shoulders in confusion. “i still don’t know who we’re talking about?”

kevin apologized and clapped his hands together, “she’s actually schedules to come on this show.” he smiled and threw him a thumbs up. “is she really? oh, i think i know who it is, then.” eric nam made a face and looked at kevin and jacob, who both matched his expression.

then they all looked at eric, “why are you guys looking at me like that? okay, next question.” he smiled in attempt to change the topic. eric obeyed, feeling bad that they were sort of teasing him, while the two others just laughed.

current status: acquaintances (they met through kevin moon)

( FIRST MEETING ) lian had been waiting at the door of kevin’s dormitory for a minute too long, and no matter how many times she knocked, nobody would answer. they were supposed to be going on a walk in order to catch up before their weekly schedules. 

lian pulled out her phone and called kevin through facetime, him answering almost immediately. “kevin, why aren’t you answering? i’ve been knocking nonstop.” 

he rolled his eyes and told her to just come in and that he’ll be a minute because he can’t find any shoes that look good with his outfit. 

she hung up on him and walked inside, greeted with the sight of the boyz’s maknae on the couch. she stopped in her tracks and watched as he scrambled to his feet in panic. “s-sunbaenim, what are you doing here?” eric scratched the back of his neck.

“huh? oh! i’m just waiting for kevin to finish getting ready.” she smiled politely and looked at everything but him, finding the interior of their dorm rather interesting at that moment.

getting uncomfortable with the awkward atmosphere her and eric had created, she yelled out for kevin to hurry up. “moon hyungseo!” she called him by his korean name, knowing that he didn’t like it.

“don’t you dare call me that, bae haneul!” he shot back at her, stumbling out of his room while trying to put on his left shoe.

she chuckled, “hah, jokes on you, i actually like my korean name.” he stuck his tongue out at her, “okay idiot, let’s just go.”

he opened the door for her so she could walk out first, “uhh, bye eric.” lian waved at him with a tight smile before exiting the dorm, kevin following after her.

eric waited for the door to close before he returned her goodbye, giggling like a little schoolboy who’d just received a lolipop.

“she knows my name.” a bright smile replaced the awkward frown on his face.

crush percentage out of 100: 60%

BANG CHAN, STRAY KIDS

duration: unknown — present

chan can remember keeping up with smrookies while he was still a trainee, and he developed some sort of jealousy towards lian. he saw her grow as a person, not just an artist. 

he watched her debut first, he watched her transition from red velvet into nct, he watched her achieve his dreams before he could.

this jealousy overtime somehow turned into feelings, and he had no idea what kind of feelings they exactly were.

he hadn’t ever really experienced feelings like this before, and he was terrified to admit what he thought they were. eventually, chan opened up to someone and it was clear that he had a bit of a crush on her — and a big one.

chan began to update himself on smrookies daily, constantly wanting to know what she was up to and what her debut plans were, especially because of the sudden group change.

even now that they’re great friends, he’s always calling her to see what’s going on and if she needs help with anything.

do fans know?: definitely

no doubt do stays know about his feelings — he was bound to slip up once or twice while live streaming to them.

and that slip up just so happened to be while he was reacting to lian’s “play” music video. everything was going fine — bopping his head to the beat and humming calmly, but he couldn’t stop the blush from spreading onto his cheeks while watching her dance with another guy.

yeah, he was jealous, but that doesn’t mean stays had to know. he hysterically fanned his face, somewhat over exaggerating to play it off. “oh- woah- is the ac not working in here suddenly?” he playfully laughed at the camera facing him.

the song soon ended, and chan was back to reading all of the comments. he read some aloud, some in his head, but he accidentally let one slip through his lips.

“do you have a crush on neullie?” he nearly cursed when he realized the question he had just read to the entire live stream said what it said, allowing himself to sit back in his chair as he watched all the comments flood in.

“well, do you?” “CHAN OMFG-” “christopher bang..”

“guys, come on, of course i don’t.” the viewers definitely wanted to believe him; like, a lot, but they couldn’t.

the way he smiles whenever she was brought up in a conversation, how he looks so incredibly proud when talking about her — it would be a complete lie to believe otherwise.

current status: good friends

( FIRST MEETING ) changed out of the sparkly, sequinned dress she’d been wearing for the last couple of hours and now sitting in a pair of sweats and a zip up, lian couldn’t be happier.

finally out of the uncomfortably tall heels and being able to sit down on a cushy sofa while waiting to leave the venue, lian pulled out her phone to check notifications.

five minutes probably passed before her manager gave her the “okay” to start walking to the exit, the car already waiting for her outside.

leaving the dressing room, she saw taeyong, who decided to tag along with the driver (and taeil) so he could see her. “hey, oppa.” she greeted, grabbing onto his arm and leaning on his shoulder for support.

“did you have fun? were you able to see sunmi-sunbaenim today?” he patted her hand slowly. she nodded and made a noise in confirmation, way too tired to give an audible response.

taeyong chuckled as he made sure to keep her upright while getting closer to the exit.

meanwhile, bang chan was talking with felix a couple feet away. he felt bad watching as taeyong struggled to help lian balance herself on her, for sure, wobbly legs.

he saw how terrific she danced that night, completely dominating the stage with her powerful choreography and her clear vocals.

subtly walking in their direction, he put his hand out the minute taeyong’s arm wasn’t able to hold her up anymore. lian looked like she was sleeping at that point.

chan gracefully caught her in his arms, taeyong apologizing and taking her back into his own. “i’m so sorry-” he bowed.

“no, no, it’s okay. she must be tired- uh- would you like some help?” chan offered a helping hand, but taeyong was sure he had other duties to attend to, being the leader of his group and all.

“no! please, i got it from here. thank you for catching her, though, you have no idea what yuta would have done to me if something happened- uh, i’m getting ahead of myself. have a good night.” he noticed how he began rambling on, but chan paid no mind to it.

laughing and keeping the air light, chan nodded his head and bowed, about to walk away after wishing him a safe trip back to the dorms; but that was when lian decided to wake up from her slumber.

“huh?” she looked at taeyong cluelessly, but chan caught her eye. it was then that she noticed johnny’s grey zip up was halfway down her arms, spaghetti strapped tank top (pretty revealing) on full display.

she hastily pulled the sleeves up and looked at chan awkwardly, bowing to him and proceeding to ask taeyong if they were going home.

taeyong nodded his head and put a hand on her shoulder, “yeah, the car is waiting outside. taeil’s in the backseat with your pillow.” he smiled.

lian’s smiled back with a toothy grin, clapping her hands excitedly as she now knew she would be able to sleep on the way home. again realizing chan was watching, she looked back to him.

“it was nice meeting you!” lian waved her hand at him, grabbing onto taeyong’s arm and gently dragging him towards the door leading outside. he complied, but not without shouting yet another “thank you!” to chan, who was still standing in the same spot.

crush percentage out of 100: 90%

CHOI SOOBIN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER

duration: october 2018 — present

soobin was really able to learn more about the different variety of idols in the industry when he first joined bighit, and that surely included lian. he admired her so much; she became one of the people he looked up to most.

she was the only female member in a group that included eighteen other men, how could he not immediately think the highest of her after finding that out?

he would keep up with her scheduling and make sure to listen in on her radio show appearances so he could stay updated. he even bought all of her solo albums so he could put her photocard in the back of his phone case!

do fans know?: yes

moas aren’t even able to count on their fingers the amount of times soobin has said lian was his ideal type or his #1 crush. like, the first couple appearances he had on camera post debut, her photocard was literally still in his phone case.

“moas are asking if you still have a crush on lian-sunbaenim.” yeonjun nodded his head towards soobin, the members of txt all sitting comfortably on the floor of a practice room.

soobin lightly brushed his hair out of his face as he nodded his head, “yeah, she’s gotten even prettier lately. have you see her new music video?” beomgyu nodded excitedly.

“it’s super good! the album is amazing, as well.” he beamed at the phone that was filming them and clapped his hands.

“yah, don’t get too excited; soobinnie will get jealous~” yeonjun teased. soobin playfully hit his hyung on the shoulder and told him to be less embarrassing, a small blush now resting on his dimpled cheeks.

hueningkai and taehyun both laughed at their leader, agreeing that lian has certainly gotten prettier, if that was even possible. the topic was soon over as they began talking about something else, but moas definitely added that into their list of “soobin fanboying over lian” moments.

look forward to the fifteen million new youtube videos about it!

current status: acquaintances, idol x fan

( FIRST MEETING ) soobin almost jumped straight out of his seat when he noticed the goddess herself, lian, walk into the section him and his group were currently in. he watched her bow to the members of itzy before sitting next to them and placing a fluffy blanket onto her lap.

she had just finished performing, and he was still shaking at how perfect it was played out; the sparkly outfits, the amazing choreography, her powerful vocals yet again never disappointed.

the curfew for underage idols now being hit, soobin and yeonjun both bid goodbye to their younger members as lian, yeji and lia did the same for ryujin, chaeryeong and yuna.

the three girls sitting in front of their section soon ran out of things to talk about while waiting for bts to perform their stage, a comforting silence falling upon them. lian allowed her eyes to wonder around her surroundings and ended up unconsciously turning around and staring right at the two members of txt that were left.

yeonjun seemed to have paid no mind to her lingering gaze, but soobin on the other hand could have sworn his heart dropped out of his ass at that very moment. lian, now shaken out of her thoughts, noticed how creepy she probably looked.

bowing in apology, she quickly turned around to talk with lia once again in order to distract herself from the embarrassment that was currently enveloping her whole.

once he knew lian was too invested in her conversation to notice his quiet squeal, he excitedly began bouncing his legs up and down on the cold floor and repeatedly hit yeonjun’s arm.

“huh, what? what’s wrong?” confusion took over his face, wondering why soobin was practically having a heart attack next to him.

“hyung- she looked at me! right at my face! lianna bae looked at me!” yeonjun couldn’t help but scoff at how incredibly excited soobin seemed to be at such a little thing, but it was cute.

crush percentage out of 100: 78%

KIM TAEHYUNG, BANGTAN SONYEONDAN

duration: somewhere in 2019 — present

taehyung has seen lian here and there whenever he browsed twitter on his secret account, and he’s definitely noticed the constant shipping and dating rumours that went on between their fandoms.

the fanwars, the manips — they’ve all been seen by him at some point in time; but he has to admit that from the manips he’s been able to get a good look at, him and lian would actually make a pretty nice looking couple.

but you didn’t hear that from him tf :)

do fans know?: kind of

the calming beat of lian’s “my friend” played in the background of taehyung’s vlive, the viewers all watching him eat peacefully and answer some of their questions.

“are you a fan of lian?” taehyung slowly read out the question as he tried to slurp some of his soup up at the same time. “yes, i like her music a lot..” he trailed off, once again focusing on finishing his soup.

he ate his last spoonful shortly after, continuing his sentence, “i noticed she likes to experiment a lot.. it’s admirable.” he smiled fondly and switched to another song on his playlist after “my friend” ended.

“uh, she’s also really pretty; she fits my ideal type well.” he allowed himself to giggle, somewhat playing it off so the atmosphere on the stream stayed comfortable.

the topic of lian never reappeared that night, fortunately for him, but when he was chaotically woken up the next morning by jungkook, he saw at least five headlines about how he admitted to having a crush on lian.

current status: friends (?)

( FIRST MEETING ) venturing off and losing his members during isac was never taehyung’s intention, but he was able to see some of his friends, so it wasn’t exactly a bad thing. he met a few idols and befriended them, trading phone numbers with a couple new people before heading off to regroup with his six roommates.

on his way there, however, a girl with green sweatpants and a white long sleeved t-shirt caught his eye. he recognized her as nct’s only female member, who was currently running around with seulgi of red velvet.

if he was being completely honest with himself, he’d love to join in on the fun they looked like they were having, but he instead continued on with his journey towards bts. even after a couple minutes of searching around the large stadium he was still unable to find his members.

eventually giving up on his mission, he just decided to back to wherever he last saw some entertainment. he found himself now engaged in a conversation with johnny suh, looking back at lian every now and then to see if she’s gone anywhere.

after a little while, johnny seemed to have caught on, “why are you staring at lian?” taehyung jumped at the question, shrugging his shoulders awkwardly and turning to fully look at the older male beside him.

“uh, i can ask her to come over here if you want. i’ll be a wingman,” johnny winked playfully at the fellow idol, and went over to grab lian before taehyung was able to give a solid answer.

“hey, lian, taeyong wants to talk to you.” he grabbed her hand, and began to drag her towards the bts member, who was literally shitting his pants. seulgi on the other hand, was following the two to wherever lian needed to be, not quite ready to leave.

“noona, go away.” johnny lightly pushed seulgi away from lian, being a shot an “i’m incredibly offended, you’re dead to me” look as as she stomped away from them and over to joy and wendy.

lian silently followed johnny to where “taeyong” was but instead she was met with the face of kim taehyung. she looked back up at johnny with confusion written all over her features, but he shrugged his shoulders and walked away as well.

now, they were just standing there awkwardly looking at each other with nothing to say. “uh, hi, you’re not taeyong.” lian laughed to break the ice, taehyung following shortly after. “yeah, i don’t know what he was trying to do here.” lian nodded in agreement.

lian suddenly became aware of all the fans in the audience and the numerous amounts of fansites that probably had their cameras facing directly at her.

she was able to wrap up her conversation with taehyung pretty quickly, making a mental note in her head of the phone number he’d given her so they could talk later.

once taehyung walked away as he’d finally caught sight of yoongi, lian stomped over to the member of nct 127 and roughly pushed johnny into jungwoo, but he was far too strong to be toppled over like she wanted.

“you idiot, why would you do that? that was so awkward, i hate you and i’m not cooking for you ever again.” johnny simply laughed and ruffled her hair, turning back to hyuck, who was also laughing at her.

she huffed as she was engulfed into a hug by yuta, who almost immediately asked what the hell they were talking about over there.

crush percentage out of 100: 40%

[heliosphoenix]

State of the Planet: 2021 edition.

So here we are again.

It’s always such a pleasure.

Once again, I’ve been thinking on how to write the missive for this year for quite some time. It kinda feels like that a lot has happened this past year and I’m not really sure where to begin or how to summarize it all.

Safe to say, 2021 was a year for some people. Not a great year, not a bad year, but a year. It seemed like every week we bounced from a moment of triumph or accomplishment to one of existential horror and may of us head into the New Year rather confused as to not only the internal and external threats to our lives and livelihoods, but not knowing who to trust or what to do going forward.

Despite all that, there were some things that happened in 2021 that undoubtedly pushed humanity in a forward direction and, as per tradition, I will close out the year by listing them.

If 2021 has offended

Think but this, and all is mended.

In Lyon, the first transplant of both arms and shoulders was performed.

The Treaty of the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was signed, it is the first such agreement to comprehensively the development, testing and deployment of nuclear weapons. 

The border between Saudi Arabia and Qatar reopened and Kosovo established diplomatic relations with Israel.

The United States rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. Shell later becomes the first company to be legally mandated to curb their carbon emissions to the standards outlined in the agreement.

Pope Francis met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the first meeting between a Pope and a Grand Ayatollah. 

Raúl Castro resigned as First Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party, bringing the Castro regime to an end.

Leaded petrol was completely phased out of use in road vehicles around the world.

The COP 26 climate conference was held, which saw nations agree to phase out coal power, as well as end deforestation and cut methane emissions by 30% in the next decade.

Magdalena Andersson became the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of Sweden.

Barbados transitioned to a Parliamentary Republic, 55 years after declaring independence.

The 2020 Olympics were held in Tokyo along with the 2020 Euro competition held throughout UEFA nations.

9.15 billion vaccines against COVID-19 have been distributed around the world, with nearly 60% of the global population receiving at least one dose.

Phase 4 of the MCU kicked off with hit shows on Disney+ and blockbuster hits at the theater.

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin made their first crewed spaceflights, while SpaceX launched Inspiration4, the first all-civilian spaceflight and successfully flew a prototype of Starship.

The Perseverance Rover landed on Mars with Helicopter Ingenuity, the first aircraft to fly on Mars. Joining it on the Red Planet is China’s Zhurong rover and the UAE’s Hope orbiter.

The James Webb Space Telescope was (FINALLY) launched to the L2 Lagrange Point where it will peer back in time to the dawn of the Universe.

Michigan Basketball won the Big Ten Season Championship and made a run to the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan Football FINALLY beat Ohio State and also won the Big Ten Championship! As I write this they are hours away from playing their first match in the College Football Playoff against Georgia. Win or lose, this has been a very successful year for the Maize and Blue (though they should try to win).

The above is a snapshot of where I’m at: just over 14 hours to go until the end of 2021. You, dear reader, are in the future. 

Maybe you were aware of some of what transpired above, maybe you weren’t. But all of these things happened and most of them at least were positive things that helped push us forward in a direction that most of us want humanity to go.

That is my main takeaway this year. Despite all the difficulties that were thrown at us by the world, society or life itself, many of us still found a way to keep pushing forward.

Which is why, much like our intrepid rover now roaming the surface of Mars, the word of 2021 is “Perseverance.”

Jack Bauer once said that there are things in this world that are out of our control and that sometimes we like to blame ourselves for them so we can make sense out of them. It’s an understandable impulse; whether it’s the mechanisms of a complex system of government, the variant nature of a virus or a terrifying natural disaster, it’s much easier to blame yourself or others for why things go wrong than accept the alternative: at the end of the day there’s only so much we can do to keep ourselves, our families and our friends safe and prosperous.

There’s a lot of talk these days about “strength”; both in terms of what it is and what it means to have it. But strength isn’t just measured in how violently you can slam someone through a table or how many bullets can you fire out of your gun: true strength comes from recognizing that you are in an adverse situation, maybe one that no one expects you to prevail in, and you still find the courage to press on and determination to succeed.

At the start of the year, no one thought Michigan would be any good. When Jim Harbaugh said that they would beat Ohio State and win the Big Ten or die trying, everyone rolled their eyes and penned their columns about how it was time for Michigan to move on. I admit, your humble author didn’t think it was in the cards this year. But when November turned to December, it was, as Bo said, Michigan again. 

So if Jim Harbaugh can take a squad that went 2-4 and get them through Ohio State, out of Indy with a trophy and end up with a 1-in-4 shot of winning a national championship, just imagine what you could do in this next year if you are determined to make it through.

But all the same, never lose sight of what’s really important as well as who is really important. This is something that I myself lost sight of this past year and this year I’m gonna be better about recognizing those things. Sometimes we get so focused on ourselves and what is available to us that we forget all the people that, without their help and support, we wouldn’t be where we are right now. As The Oracle said; the path of The One is made by The Many.

Remember that what you get by achieving your goals is not as important as who you become in the process. Never fret over the timing of events or how long you perceive your wait to be. The important thing is not that they happen right now, it’s that they happen the right way. As John Lennon once said, Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.

Be at peace with what you cannot change. Have the courage to change what you can change. Seek the wisdom to know which is which. 

To quote Gus Grissom: Do good work. 

If you can do that, you will prosper this year and beyond and you will help others prosper as well.

Happy New Year and I’ll see all of you in 2022.

Helios.

[kuiperblog]

Flying sucks

First, the actionable part: you may find yourself at some point this December trapped on an airplane filled with those infernal screens that constantly play ads on loop for the entire duration of the flight, begging you to insert your credit card to watch a movie or something:

You can, in nearly every case, disable these screens by repeatedly mashing the “reduce brightness” button on your armrest until it gets to 0, at which point the screen turns off. (In cases where there isn’t a screen brightness setting, the same can usually be accomplished by use of the “reduce volume” button.) The beginning-of-flight safety video overrides this, but you can avoid spending several hours with your face several inches away from a screen playing movie trailers on loop. I recommend sharing this information with your seatmates if they’re not making use of the screen, as there’s a high probability they’ll be appreciative to know about it; every time I’ve seen someone start the flight by pulling out a book, I’ve told them about how to turn off the screen, and invariably their response is a mix of relief and gratitude.

With that “life pro tip” out of the way, onto the gripe-posting proper:

While I’ve spent most of the past 2 years in hermit mode, I enjoy being exposed to new locales and over the course of my lifetime have resided in 3 different continents. (For one glorious chapter of my life, I spent several consecutive Q1′s in Australia, dodging winter in the northern hemisphere and living the dream of experiencing an almost-perpetual summer. This is less the result of genius planning on my part, and more a result of the fact that the Australian government wouldn’t approve a visa for longer than 3 consecutive months.)  So as you might imagine, I have spent quite a bit of time on airplanes.

I find that flying in airplanes sucks for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with the conditions of sitting in coach, because no matter how spacious your seat is, there’s no getting around the fact that the air pressure in the cabin is around 4-5 psi, compared to the ~14.7 psi that I’m used to back on the ground. Even high altitude cities like Denver that are famous for having “low air pressure” are around 12.4 psi, and after you spend a few weeks living in a city at that elevation, your body acclimates (I base this statement on having spent over a year of my life living in Boulder, which is actually slightly more elevated than Denver).

The discomfort of changes in pressure (to abnormally low levels) is most directly manifest in the way that your ears “pop,” to which the commonly suggested remedy is that you chew gum, suck on hard candy, or “blow your nose while pinching your nose shut”, which deals with one symptom of the rapid change in air pressure by helping to clear your ear passageway, but doesn’t really do much for the sinuses, nor does it really do much to alleviate the fact that your body is experiencing conditions that it wasn’t really designed for. (Also, there’s the fact that even after the pressure change is over, inflamed sinuses don’t just automatically go back to feeling normal and comfortable.)  I’m not arthritic, but from what I hear, the pressure issues manifest in all sorts of awful ways for people who have joint fluid issues.

There’s also the fact that airplane engines and air flow (and thus, airplane cabins) are really freaking loud, which you might not immediately register since it’s all just a dull drone and our bodies are pretty good at adapting to whatever new “normal” we’re thrust into, but you’ve definitely noticed the loudness of airplanes if you’ve ever put in your earbuds and tried to to listen to music on an airplane, because you have to crank the volume way up to hear anything above the sound of the plane. The volume level inside of airline cabins is around 80 dB, (for comparison, 60 db is an estimate for the typical “office” environment), while 85 db is the point at which OSHA legally mandates that employers provide workers with hearing protection equipment. (The decibel scale is logarithmic.) Also, that 80 dB cabin volume is an approximated average, I’m sure that some aircraft are louder than average, and some parts of the cabin are louder than average depending on how close you are to the engine, and just because OSHA doesn’t legally mandate hearing protection for people spending 6+ hours in a 80 dB environment doesn’t mean it isn’t extremely unpleasant!

The loudness of airline cabins can actually be somewhat mitigated; I couldn’t tell you what brand I wear (I bought the cheapest thing I could find that had good reviews), but if you do an Amazon product search for “ear muffs hearing protection” or “ear muffs noise reduction” you’ll turn up plenty of results for hearing protection devices that look like this and are priced for ~$20 or less:

(One immediate way that the noise dampening manifests: you can wear your earbuds underneath them, and hear your music/podcasts/audiobooks just fine at “normal” volumes.)

In my experience, while these devices do a great job of reducing the volume of lower-frequency sounds (like the thrum of jet engines), they don’t block out higher-frequency noises, like the sound of crying babies. But I’m fine with listening to crying babies on airplanes, because babies who cry on airplanes are my homies, because they, like me, are intensely aware of the fact that human bodies were not designed to spend hours sitting in a cabin subjected to pressure of <5 PSI and volume levels upwards of 80 dB. Given the immense discomfort that this produces, and the lack of experience that babies have with dealing with that level of prolonged discomfort, crying is the most natural reaction a human could have, and I would never begrudge them for loudly protesting that their bodies are being overwhelmed with unfamiliar physical sensations, all of which are telling them “the world isn’t supposed to be like this! your body was not intended to exist in circumstances like the ones you’re currently experiencing, and your tiny little baby ears are ever so fragile!” Also, while I can take comfort in knowing that this will all be over soon, babies don’t have that assurance! For all they know, this could be the new normal! As far as I’m concerned, any time a baby manages to make it through a flight without bawling for the entire duration, it is a heroic accomplishment and far more than could ever be expected of them.

[desertdollranch]

Meet Judith, Chapter 1: The Island

Judith Blalock’s story begins in London, England.

It was in the early springtime in the year 1587 when twelve-year-old Judith first heard the word spoken: Virginia. 

After the first time she encountered it, she began seeing and hearing that name almost everywhere around London. And every time she heard it, she understood more about what it meant.

Virginia was not only a name, but the name of a place. A colony across the ocean, in the new world called America. Two years ago, settlers led by Governor Ralph Lane had tried to establish the first English village on the island of Roanoke. Difficult circumstances had quickly forced the settlers to abandon their colony and leave England without a permanent presence in the colony. Now a man named John White was determined to do it right this time--and he needed people willing to sail to Virginia and help him establish that new settlement. If it was successful, middle class families like Judith’s would have the opportunity to become landed gentry.

Judith’s parents were glad of the chance to leave London. The constant outbreaks of the plague had taken Judith’s three older brothers, all one after the other. She was her parents’ only surviving child, and they were willing to go to great lengths to protect her. 

Judith felt apprehensive about leaving England forever. She had never been more than a few miles from the place she was born. What would it be like in this new world? What new dangers and adventures awaited her? 

The Blalock family boarded the ship to Virginia on May 8th. Judith turned around one more time to look back at England. She wondered if she would ever see her homeland again. 

All of Judith’s fears were immediately swept away by the wind and the waves. This was the most fun she had ever had in her life! She spent all day above deck, reveling in the sunshine and fresh air. 

After nearly three months at sea, the ship arrived at Roanoke island. It was much smaller than she had imagined. The air was hot and humid, and warm summer rains had made the ground muddy. 

This would be Judith’s new home. 

......

Life on Roanoke island was difficult. Growing and making enough food for everyone was a constant hardship. The Secotan people, native to the island, had often been frustrated by how much the previous colonists had relied on their generosity to stay fed. They simply could not, and would not, produce enough food to sustain this new community of immigrants. 

Governor White left the island a few weeks after landing, intending to return from England as soon as possible with more food supplies.

Judith felt as if she were tired and exhausted all the time. With so little to eat, she never had enough energy to finish her chores. 

Supper most nights was always a small slice of bread. Wheat was difficult to grow on the island, and so it had to be rationed until Governor White brought more. 

Winter came quickly and harshly.

December was cold and wet, with rain and snow. The cows stopped producing milk and the chickens stopped laying eggs. Judith was able to gather a few mushrooms that the Secotan had designated as safe to eat.  

Quickly enough, all the mushrooms close by the house had been eaten, and so  on one cold and cloudy morning, Judith had to venture farther into the trees to find more. She followed as much dry land as she could, avoiding the marshy and muddy areas.

Soon, she came upon a clearing. In the clearing was a circle of mushrooms.

How strange, Judith thought. She remembered hearing stories about mushroom rings in England. Some people thought they were portals to the fairy world. Others thought they were gateways into the past that would let one rectify the mistakes one made long ago. 

But Judith remembered that she wasn’t in England any more. There were no fairies here. And if the Secotan thought that mushroom rings were significant, they certainly hadn’t shared any knowledge with the colonists.

Besides, she was was hungry, and she knew these would make a delicious stew. She picked all twelve mushrooms and put them in her basket. 

As she turned to follow the path she had made in the forest, she noticed something else that was very odd. 

Her footprints in the snow were gone. 

She was sure that she had walked here coming in to the forest. No snow had fallen in the short time that she was gathering the mushrooms. She began to worry that she was lost. She tried to put the missing footprints out of her mind and just head back home going the direction she knew that it was. 

But something was wrong in the village. 

It was empty.

There were no people, no animals.

All the houses were overgrown with weeds and vines. Roofs had collapsed and walls had crumbled.

Her own family’s home was in ruins. 

Judith began to panic. Had everyone left the island without her? But how could they have done that in the short time she had been away? 

She walked from house to house, trying to find any clues to explain what had happened. 

All she found was one fencepost with the word “CROATOAN” carved into it.

Croatoan was the island south of Roanoke island. She knew that. But how could they have left so quickly? And why were all the houses in ruins?

She thought perhaps it would be best to visit the Secotan village and ask what they knew. But she didn’t know their language, and she wasn’t sure if any of them spoke English. 

Judith dragged a small rowboat down to the shore. She would have to get to Croatoan on her own. Whatever had happened while she was gone..... the answer must be there. But her efforts at that quickly failed. No matter how hard she rowed the boat, it just kept getting pulled back to shore by the tide. 

She didn’t what to do next. There was no food here, and nothing to keep her warm at night. Leaving the island was impossible. Maybe she would have to beg the Secotan to take her in. 

She began to cry. She wished she had never left England at all. She stared out at the eastern horizon, wishing she could at least see her home from here. Maybe that would be enough to give her hope.

Through her tears, she thought she could see something that might be England. 

But was that--a ship? Approaching the island? 

It was a ship! Had her family and the other settlers returned to find her? 

Or was it a different ship entirely? Judith ran back to the village to gather some dry wood from the crumbled houses. She quickly made a fire on the shore in view of the ship, hoping to get their attention. 

Soon she was on board the new ship, and in the hands of a team of pirates. Most of them were girls not much older than her.

“How did you get to Roanoke island?” the captain asked her.

“With the other colonists from England,” Judith said. 

“Is that true? There haven’t been any colonists living there for seven years,” said the captain. “They left in 1587. I don’t know where they went after that. Maybe back to England.”

Judith explained what had happened to her. The ring of mushrooms, her absence from home for only an hour, and how everyone had disappeared while she was gone.

The captain nodded then shrugged. “Maybe when you stood in the mushroom ring, you entered a doorway leading to seven years in the future,” she said. “I’ve heard of that happening sometimes, especially in the Bermuda triangle. The closer we are to that area, time behaves more strangely.” 

“How do I go back to my time?” asked Judith.

“I’m not sure,” the captain replied. “Why don’t we take you to Croatoan and see what you can find out there?”

The ship turned course and began to head south. The islands were only 60 miles apart. The voyage there wouldn’t be long. Judith stood and watched Roanoke island get smaller and smaller, and then disappear.

In the open water, there was a sudden crash of thunder and lightning. 

The waves rose up and tossed the ship around. Judith was swept overboard. She watched the pirate ship sink as she clung to a piece of wooden debris. 

All through the night, she was carried by the waves. She didn’t know which direction she was going. 

When she woke, the sun was shining down upon her.

She was lying on a sandy seashore. 

She stood up and looked around. Was this Croatoan? 

Looking inland away from the shore, she beheld an enormous mountain in the distance. Around it were scattered quaint villages with houses, and farms, and animals. She could see smoke arising from chimneys, and hear the sound of children playing.

No, this couldn’t be Croatoan island. Was it England? Had she been carried back home? It couldn’t be England, either. That mountain was taller than any she had ever seen. 

She shook the sand from her shoes and her skirts, and began to walk toward the village, finding a narrow winding road leading away from the shore. She was terribly thirsty, and her stomach felt empty. 

A young girl passed her on the road, going the other way. 

“Good morning,” said the girl. 

“Good morning,” Judith replied. “Begging your pardon, but what is the date today?” 

“Today is the 23rd day of April, the feast day of Saint George, who slayed the dragon.”

“And what year, may I ask?”

“The year is 1517.” The girl looked at Judith with a kind smile, and glanced at her wet shoes and skirts. “But I’m sure it’s different where you come from, isn’t it?” 

Judith did not reply. She looked again upon the tall mountain that had not gotten any closer in the hour that she had walked. 

She had traveled back in time, that much was certain. She wasn’t sure how, or when, that had happened. 

But she had gone much too far back. 70 years. Not 7 years! 

What would become of her in this strange place? 

How would she ever find her family now?

.......

[supercasey]

Dumb thoughts on the Child Avatars AU

I dunno, just some dumb ideas I’ve had since I started talking about the AU online/brainstorming about it. (Putting it under a readmore for everyone’s sake)

The “Daisy kidnaps Jon” situation in this AU is Daisy riding her bike to Simon Fairchild’s mansion, holding a water-gun up to both Mike and Jon’s heads, and ordering them to ride with her to the grocery store to buy soda and hang out at a nearby playground for the day. Cue Elias flipping tf out when Jon isn’t at Simon’s place when he goes to pick him up later, Simon being half asleep because he was napping while the kids hung out, and Mike getting soaked by Daisy before he agrees to go with her, and since this happens in, like, late fall or early winter, he gets pneumonia afterwards and can’t hang out for awhile, leading to the kids jokingly saying he’s dead. Btw the only reason the trio was found is because Basira was invited after they made it to the park, and she convinced Daisy to let the boys go home. Daisy literally only kidnapped them because she wanted to play with someone.

Also the Buried!Daisy arc is Daisy getting eaten by a Buried controlled sandbox and Jon jumping in after her. The rest of the kids, who thankfully witnessed this, spent the next three hours digging for them, with Breekon & Hope eventually joining in to help since they were in the area. Daisy and Jon form a trauma bond afterwards and are now best friends.

Jon keeps getting marked by shit and it’s stressing Elias out because hE’S NOT READY FOR THE WATCHER’S CROWN YET!!! He needs more time to prepare, but his son is literally getting marked faster than fucking Sonic.

Speaking of Sonic, seeing as the “Console Wars” (Sega vs Nintendo) are happening during this time period, the kids take the rivalry Very Seriously. The biggest arguments are had between Sasha, Daisy, Julia, and Mike, who are all on Team Sega, and Jon, Martin, Tim, and Danny, who are all on Team Nintendo.

Sasha, close to tears she’s so angry: “Sega DO what NintenDON’T, Tim!!!”

When Martin was born, he only had one thick clump of curly hair that was white, but as he’s grown older and entered the Lonely multiple times, more of his hair has begun to turn white. As of the time of the AU “starting” (so when he’s 8 years old), he looks like he has white highlights in his hair.

Trevor isn’t a fully-fledged Hunt avatar yet, but the girls more or less are, so if you’ve ever watched Wolf Children, that’s pretty much the situation Trevor is currently trapped in. His daughters keeping changing into wolf pups and running wild as he frantically tries to hide their powers from anyone who isn’t Gerry.

(All of the kids secretly know already, even Basira.)

Basira is pretty much the only “normal” kid of the avatar children, save MAYBE for Tim, but he’s been deeply marked by the circus and has a few tiny powers (think S3 Jon as he was figuring out some of his powers, but wasn’t a full-on Archivist just yet).

The season 1 gang (including Danny) are the closest group of friends in the AU, save for Daisy and Basira’s friendship, and they hang out a lot at each other’s homes on the weekends.

Adelard usually brings Jane with him for his “trips” away from the institute, so it’s not unusual for her to be gone for long periods of time. But she always sends postcards and gifts to the institute for everyone!

Helen is three years old, so theoretically she should be able to talk, but she rarely does so, preferring to communicate via giggles and laughter. Only Jon, the Stoker brothers, and Michael can understand her, and they take turns translating for everyone else.

Whenever she’s brought to the institute, Helen takes to toddling around after Jon and Martin, giggling up a storm the whole time. Jon finds it a bit annoying while Martin is endlessly amused by her antics.

A list of the guardian’s/adult’s ages before I fucking forget (as of when the AU “starts” in 1994): Gertrude Robinson - 62, Elias Bouchard “Jonah Magnus” - 51 (200+), Peter Lukas - 55, Simon Fairchild - 83 (300+), Gerard “Gerry” Keay - 30, Michael Shelley - 32, Alfred Grifter - Unknown, Adelard Dekker - 48, Nikola Orsinov - 30ish (100+), Annabelle Cane - 34 (Unknown), Trevor Herbert - 47, Agnes Montague - 25ish (60+), Jude Perry - 35, Jared Hopworth - 29, The Admiral - 10.

The “good” parents all keep trying to set up some kind of PTA meeting so they can actually talk about how to raise these supernatural kids properly, but it keeps going horribly wrong; last time they tried, Alfred Grifter and his band showed up and nearly made Simon go deaf, so no one wants to initiate the next attempt at a meeting.

Tbh, at this point the Fear rituals are more successful than Elias’s shitty attempts at forming a PTA.

At some point in the AU Gerry, Michael, and Trevor all pitch in to buy a decently big house together, which leads to some serious Shenanigans now that Melanie is around Michael and Trevor’s kids/wards... let’s just say there’s gonna be a lot of knife related accidents.

Gerry taught Melanie how to fight when he took her in and it is the single worst decision he’s ever made in his short, goth life, even if he’ll never admit it. Melanie can now beat the shit out of everyone but Julia and Daisy, and it’s pure chaos every time. Tim puts up a decent fight, but he’s been spoiled on easy wins over his brother all his life. Jon tries and fails to so much as push her. Martin runs away crying before Melanie even throws the first punch. Needless to say, the other kids are very cautious about playing with Melanie now.

None of the kids have an education of any kind except for Mike. I’m serious; the only kid who’s decently educated is being raised by Foxy Grandpa Off His Shits McGee! Julia and Daisy have had some public education but not much, Elias refuses to do anything but home-school Jon yet he sucks shit at math, Tim and Danny don’t even know what a school fucking looks like, Melanie and Jane were too young to go to school when they became avatars, Martin has only recently been allowed near other kids so fuck public school (Peter can do math but Nothing Else), Annabelle fucking forgot to give Sasha any kind of an education outside of Web stuff, and Helen is still a very small child. None of these kids have gone to school for more than a few years at most and dear g-d is that gonna suck for them later down the line.

As a result of this, Basira has taught the other kids a few things when she’s come over and insisted on playing “school” with everyone, but she’s still just a kid and can’t always get them to pay attention during her lessons.

Because of this Rosie, Gerry, Michael, and Gertrude have all started making an effort to more or less home-school all of the kids, which has gone... well enough, I suppose. However, things have recently taken a weird turn since Jon keeps giving everyone the answers to assignments/tests via telepathy.

Jon: Whoa, you can make tea all by yourself, Martin!? Martin: Yeah, I’ve been doing it by myself since I was a toddler. I can also do laundry, mop floors, vacuum, and cook a few things, too! Tim: Wow, that’s really cool, Martin! I wish I could do stuff like that. Gertrude, off to the side: *Gives Peter a horrified look* I’m sorry, but did Martin just say he’s been making tea on his own since he was a toddler? Peter:  ╮(╯ _╰ )╭  Unfortunately, I’m severely depressed.

Yeeeeeeeah, Martin’s in a similar childhood situation to his canon one, but at least there are people actually willing to help him out of it in this universe. Also, Peter will clean himself up at some point here, he’s just still dealing with more or less disowning himself from his family and learning hoe to not be so lonely.

Speaking Of Which, the Lukas family are pretty big antagonists in this AU, primarily through Peter’s mother (I’ll come up with a name for her later if I can’t find it on the wiki), who is trying to kidnap Martin and more or less feed him to the Lonely so Peter will get over his “childish feelings” and return to being her favorite child.

And yes, she DOES accidentally kidnap Jon instead at some point... this kid can literally not avoid getting kidnapped.

I like to think Mike and Julia are really good friends in this AU, being the closest in age and all. They hang out a lot since their dads are both so chill and won’t get upset about it, the two of them mostly just playing video games, watching movies, and biking around their respective neighborhoods together.

(Also they may or may not be responsible for a statement that involves a woman seeing a “flying wolf” passing over London... they’ve yet to confess to it, but Elias is dead certain they’re behind the incident.)

The worms incident is 100% Jane’s secret worm collection getting fucking loose... she was keeping them in the walls “for safe keeping” and No One Fucking Knew, not even Elias, until Jon saw a spider, punched the wall, and Revealed them.

Jon and Tim got their scars because Jane lost control of the worms and they burrowed into the kids. Cue a very panicked 999 call from someone in the institute and Child Services almost getting involved, but Elias managed to cover it up.

Afterwards, Jon is incredibly self-conscious about his worm scars, but Martin tells him “now we both have freckles!” and it honestly makes him feel a little better about the whole thing.

Also Adelard makes an effort to track down a child psychologist/counselor with institute ties so he can get Jane some therapy/help controlling her powers. He loves her to the moon and back, and he’s terrified of her getting traumatized by what she accidentally did.

During the incident, a Notthem gets loose from Artifact Storage and attacks Sasha, but seeing as Sasha is of the Web and the Notthem is connected to a Web artifact, it only manages to really hurt her, but thankfully not kill her. She ends up hospitalized for a few weeks, but comes out fine later on. The table mysteriously disappears afterwards, and no one knows if it was Gertrude or Annabelle’s doing, but either way, the kids never have to deal with a Notthem again.

At some point I wanna get into Jon’s paranoia in season 2 for this AU, but I’m considering changing it from being because of the Jane Prentiss issue to be because of Mr. Spider almost killing him. I dunno how exactly it’ll play out, but I think it has a lot of potential!

Okay, before I end this post full of weird rambling ideas for the AU, I wanna make a list of the powers that the kids have at the time of the story “starting”/the ones they develop down the line because Jonny Sims himself said that all avatars have different powers, and I really wanna infodump on my thoughts for the kids!

Current powers of Jonathan Sims-Bouchard: Can simply know things whenever he wants to (so long as the Eye lets him, but the Eye sometimes keeps him from knowing anything he isn’t mature enough to handle), can compel people to tell him things (the other kids are better at resisting it, and so are other people touched by the Eye), can survive on very little food if he’s fed mostly statements/other people’s trauma, can non-consensually feel the pain and emotions of the people around him, has some weak telepathy powers, and he can subconsciously summon tape recorders.

Future powers of Jonathan Sims-Bouchard: Increased healing abilities, can know most anything if he tries, ability to resist other Eye avatars’ compulsions, can survive purely off of statements/other people’s trauma, can choose whether or not to feel the pain and emotions of the people around him, has much stronger telepathy powers than before, can force himself into people’s minds and read their thoughts, and he can summon tape recorders at will (though some still show up without his knowledge sometimes).

Current powers of Martin Blackwood-Lukas: Can disappear into the Fog for several hours at a time (he cannot be seen by anyone but other Lonely avatars while in the fog), can summon clouds of fog that he can momentarily hide things in (including people), can “banish” most anyone into the fog, and has “Sea Captain Eyes” (he knows where the Tundra is at all times, and can lead someone to it without a map or compass).

Future powers of Martin Blackwood-Lukas: Can change his hair color at will (only to red, white, and a mix of the two colors), can see much better in the Fog and can find anyone he’s pushed into it, can more or less teleport using the Fog, and he has what’s more or less a pocket dimension of fog for storage/hiding his friends from danger (think the inside of Gems in Steven Universe).

Current powers of Tim Stoker-Orsinov: Can make small bipedal toys “come to life” for a few minutes at a time (they can’t talk or communicate; only move around and perform small tasks/dances), can tell when a Notthem is masquerading as someone else, is supernaturally talented at gymnastics, and can dance alongside the creatures of the Stranger without being fully corrupted by them.

Future powers of Tim Stoker-Orsinov: Better control over the powers he already has as well as a high tolerance for the Spiral.

Current powers of Danny Stoker-Orsinov: Can order around creatures of the Stranger against their will, can tell when a Notthem is masquerading as someone else, can dance alongside the creatures of the Stranger without being fully corrupted by them, is supernaturally talented at gymnastics, and can change his voice to anything he likes (not always intentionally, though).

Future powers of Danny Stoker-Orsinov: Can more or less “teleport” to other circus locations by walking into theaters, can now change his voice to whatever he likes with his knowledge and consent, can take over as the Stranger’s ringmaster if necessary, can trigger a mesmerizing dance whenever he’d like, and has a high tolerance for the Spiral.

Current powers of Sasha James-Cane: Can communicate with spiders and have them send messages to other Web avatars, can read minds if she tries really hard, can “trap“ other entities in large webs that she can summon (takes a lot of energy), and she has Spider-Man-like abilities (can walk on walls and ceilings, can carry much more than her weight should allow, etc).

Future powers of Sasha James-Cane: Can now read minds without too much effort, can navigate almost any area that’s being controlled/influenced by the Web, can create webs without nearly as much effort as before, can transform her body to have more arms, legs, and eyes, and she now has venomous fangs (which can thankfully be controlled and/or hidden).

Current powers of Alice “Daisy” Tonner: Can turn into a wolf at will/when she’s especially emotional, can smell blood from several miles away, and has supernatural senses/physical abilities.

Future powers of Alice “Daisy” Tonner: Can now track most any monster she’s hunting once she gets at least one good look at them, can communicate with other Hunters via howling, and can navigate the Buried if needed (though this is very triggering for her and will cause her to pass out afterwards).

Current powers of Julia Montauk: Can turn into a wolf at will/when she’s especially emotional, can smell blood from several miles away, has supernatural senses/physical abilities, can track most any monster if she knows their name, can communicate with other Hunters via howling, and she can shift into a bipedal werewolf when she feels like she’s in danger.

Future powers of Julia Montauk: All of her previous powers have drastically improved, plus she has better control of them now.

Current powers of Basira Hussain: She has common fucking sense, something almost none of the other children have.

Future powers of Basira Hussain: She common sense AND she has a werewolf GF now. :) ((No dating for the babies, not until they’re at least teenagers))

Current powers of Melanie King-Grifter: Can listen to Grifter’s Bone without being damaged in any way, the music of Grifter’s Bone makes her powers exemplified for a period of time after she listens to it, the smell of blood triggers her to become violent, she can summon sharp weapons (knives, swords, etc) from thin air, and she can see a red aura around other people who have been marked by the Slaughter.

Future powers of Melanie King-Grifter: She has much better control of her abilities now, she can perform Grifter’s Bone songs for people and keep them from dying/going feral, and she can now also summon other weapons from thin air (guns, baseball bats, etc).

Current powers of Oliver Banks: Can see people’s deaths a week in advance via his dreams, he sees dark tentacles around people who are going to die soon, can see but not talk to ghosts, and he can smell death on anyone who’s undead/controlling other people’s bodies.

Future powers of Oliver Banks: Can raise the dead and control them to do his bidding (takes a lot of energy), can speak cat (not End related; Admiral related), and he can cause people to die within the week if he touches them in his dreams.

Current powers of Georgie Barker: Can see a “death countdown” over people who are going to die within the next thirty days, doesn’t feel any fear whatsoever, can see but not talk to ghosts, and she sees a dark sludge staining the clothes of people who have been marked by the End.

Future powers of Georgie Barker: Can bring people back to life for a minute or so by touching them (think Pushing Daisies type powers), can speak cat (not End related; Admiral is best cat dad), and she can communicate with ghosts much better now.

Current powers of Jane Prentiss-Dekker: Can summon bugs of most kinds from her mouth and under her fingernails, can communicate with bugs, and can fight off most diseases without any trouble.

Future powers of Jane Prentiss-Dekker: Can now completely control bugs via a hive mind effect, can summon bugs from anywhere on her body, has much stronger healing abilities than Jon, and she can see invisible bugs crawling on the skin of those who the Corruption wants her to get rid of (it’s hard for her not to give in to it’s desires).

Current powers of Mike Crew-Fairchild: Can levitate/fly at will, can summon clouds of any kind (rain, thunder, snow, etc) in any conditions, has much higher resistance to the weather/temperature, and he can “banish” people into the Vast at will.

Future powers of Mike Crew-Fairchild: Same as before, but with slightly better control than he had as a teenager.

Current powers for Helen Richardson-Shelley: Can change the world around her to be more like the Spiral (adding more doors, changing the colors of things, causing hallucinations, etc), can change any door into a doorway into the Spiral, and she can amplify her voice (very hard to control as a baby).

Future powers for Helen Richardson-Shelley: Can now summon doors that lead to the Spiral from thin air, has much better control over her powers and abilities than before, can morph her body to be longer and sharper at will, and she can “banish” people into the endless hallways of the Spiral.

((Holy shit, that took awhile))

Anyways, here’s a playlist I made for the AU, feel free to scream at me for my very weird taste in music: Pinky Swear That You Won’t Go Changing