#MAGNETS MAKE MACHINES GO CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!

[pussymasterdooku]

leadmetothegarden -> somekindofcosmicrearrangement

i love you grease in your hair dot mp3

[inklore]

if it's one thing your girl is great at it's making a million different google docs full of lists full of resources, ideas, etc that will help future me when it comes to posting fics.

fic titles are literally one of the biggest lists i have and not even in a perfect world where i write ten fics a day would i ever be able to use all of these, and i don't like to see things go to waste, and i know there's people out there that struggle with titles as much as i do. so i hope this list comes in handy for someone!

i don't think i need to say this but just in case: no one owns fic titles, anyone can use these, a dozen people or one or none. these are literally just words and letters. no one owns them. sharing is caring, enjoy lovies!

★ — ONE WORD.

overboard 

runaway 

repercussions 

sledgehammer 

stargazing 

symmetry 

deathless 

honey 

retrograde 

stitches 

gravity 

helpline 

hollow 

suffer 

pushing 

warrant 

want 

wonder 

emotions 

nonchalant 

lavender 

daydream 

nosebleed 

jigsaw 

static 

float 

limbs 

hologram 

careless 

lush 

rotting 

phonograph 

hypnotic 

splinters 

magnetic 

wasted 

lithium 

dealer 

she

candles 

sabotage 

secrets

better

crescendo

deny

phenomenon

nights

guilty

move

criminal

blue

rise

thirsty

strangers

clockwork

closer

hectic

change

somebody

more

misery

like

sour

lowkey

peaches

she

nervous

sympathy

scars

disappear

melody

gemini

cruel

persona

supernatural

nectar

obsessed

casual

tryant

xo

dare

honestly

yummy

out

paradise

nuts

groin

heaven

lost

stardust

tangerine

monolith

lunch

pov

perfume

dealer

tough

arson

★ — TWO WORDS.

hush hush

night away

heart stop

stone heart

waiting for

black rose

sad kids

spine breaker

look here

autumn leaves

for you

spring day

love maze

bad decisions

take two

wild flower

blue side

rainy days

face off

slow dancing

polar night

like crazy

club heaven

deeper water

romantic devil

hold me

angel eyes

picture you

after midnight

twilight zone

drain me

sorry sorry

pretty please

how sweet

bubble gum

empty box

love therapy

play me

red velvet 

cherry bullet 

midnight guest 

cherry wish 

code words

ghost walk

bad intentions 

atlas hands 

broken crown 

crystallized words 

filthy pride 

fresh eyes 

heavy feet 

hungry ghosts 

imaginary paintings 

neon jungle 

perfect storm 

slow hands 

stop signs 

sad farewells 

untranslated stars 

after hours 

bad liar 

bonfire heart 

bruised lips 

cherry bomb 

damaged goods 

dead end 

fire away 

gunpowder hourglass 

lonely together 

lost language 

old moons 

one dance 

paper knees 

sleepy eyes 

stolen dance 

vice city 

artificial heart 

cry baby 

daylight fading 

dream awake 

empty bottle 

exit wounds 

ghost orchards 

moving stones 

paper walls 

oceans away 

playing fiction 

something wild 

wild thoughts 

everybody’s fool 

eyes closed 

storms incarnate 

writing tragedies 

stereo driver 

soul searching 

party’s over 

backseat driving 

fearful heart 

backwards directions 

nosebleed seats 

high hopes 

lovers rock

wet dream 

selfish soul 

washed away 

rose rogue 

midnight sun 

teenage fantasy 

wandering romance 

sure thing 

wildest dreams 

rock candy

losing momentum 

ruin you 

heart holiday 

sink her 

cut splinters 

hot mess 

frozen devotion 

little star 

blind faith 

favorite crime 

romantic homicide 

those eyes 

play pretend 

plot line 

pretty poison 

intimidate you 

pretty face 

strawberry kisses 

lovers rock 

worlds apart 

desperate/separate ways 

those eyes 

the blonde 

loving machine 

spill blood

someone’s someone

★ — THREE WORDS.

got my number

happy without me

not over you

crazy for you

back to you

flame of love

just one day

let me know

hold me tight

make it right

closer than this

love me again

still with you

out of love

never let go

love in space

ready to bleed 

bleed for love

between the bars 

can’t be still

cold morning mist 

in cold blood

matter of time 

piece by piece 

ship to wreck 

taut with love 

waste a moment 

can’t see straight 

down and out 

in a blackout 

just like fire 

notes on tenderness 

across the room

fire with fire 

going half-mad

loving to ruins 

rust to gold

send my love 

talking in code 

cradling a dream 

cut to black 

dear to me 

run me dry 

dancing with demons 

kiss and tell 

if you care 

the cry out 

steal this night 

just for now 

heart on fire 

hold my head 

nobody but you 

simple and plain

a familiar sound 

fool for you 

drown your memory 

falling into you 

just like heaven 

warm like beaches 

love that stings 

rotting in places 

moves on you 

save your tears 

a single tear 

light my cigarette 

long nights, daydreams 

boys like you 

love me forever 

hands on me 

like a phonograph 

taking over me 

dug so deep 

touch the ground 

heart shaped box 

where’s my love

tears of gold

lover of mine 

love me wrong

kiss or kill 

exes and why’s 

love is easy 

stupid in love 

easy to love

lost with you 

glimpse of us 

keep you safe 

death with dignity 

just like heaven 

heart of glass 

baby i’m yours 

pull my strings 

★ — FOUR+ WORDS.

love me a little

happy without me

you can't hold my heart

wishing on a star

give it to me

around the world in a day

waste it on me

this mess is yours

feeling like i do 

on a war path 

blood on the surface 

corner of the sky 

do the divine love 

drinking the corinthian sun 

everything is laced in (add word) 

lost in the moment 

in the nick of time 

mouth like a pomegranate 

the bones you’re made of 

when the mania speaks 

all desire & no thought 

blue in the face 

collapsing and relapsing 

middle of the night 

sail to the sun 

lay down your arms 

falling into the sky 

take me where your heart is 

she’s like the bad weather 

kill for your love 

the cigarette and the smoker 

the match and the fuse 

saint, i’m a sinner 

when the sky comes falling 

pretty little hand in mine 

even when the sun don’t shine

staring at the sun / sunset 

tangled up with you all night 

paper airplanes flying 

maybe i’m a fool 

tastes like rock candy 

blood in a lemon

(a) heart ready to die 

fate is losing its patience 

at least we feel alive 

death for your secrets 

someone’s gonna ruin you 

dancing in a crowded room 

smell you on my clothes 

always taste like you 

leave me wanting more 

hunger for (insert here) 

swim before you drown 

put your hands on me 

drink my (these) tears and cry 

i’d sleep all day just to dream of you 

so high we never stood a chance 

i’d break down anytime for you 

maybe i’m wrong, or maybe it’s true 

i only breathe so that i breathe with you

a worn out cassette 

lips on my cold neck 

talking in my sleep 

make me feel like someone else 

locked inside your heart 

hooked on her flesh 

it’s bloody and raw 

the angel of small death 

just a couple sinners 

smiles cover your heart 

charmer and the snake 

stuck on your thumb 

if i killed someone for you 

dancing with your ghost 

i miss you, i’m sorry 

woman of the hour 

shut up and look pretty 

queen of the night 

devil in a dress 

the thought of you 

to be your lover 

falling over you 

just like a movie 

love on the line 

[lkfarrout]

Routine (family fic)

No ships/romance, just angst.

Summary: something I thought was likely to happen in the week it took Stan to get his memory back

Warnings: light angst, minimal swearing

For Stan Pines, it was the same routine every morning for the last twenty-or-so years: shower, suit, fez, lights, open sign, merchandise, cash register, don't forget to smile, no refunds, etc, etc. But before all of that, somewhere in the haze between the first sip of coffee and the hot water on his face, he always found himself in the basement. There wasn't a real reason for it. It wasn't like he could make much progress that early in the day, but he always went down anyway. Maybe it was just to make sure it was still there. That his twin was still gone. That he hadn't woken from what was simply a horrible nightmare.

On this particular morning, Stan wasn't even sure what day it was, but it didn't matter. The warm summer air told him the shack would be busy and he didn't have any time to waste.

His head hurt like a bitch. Like a bad hangover. He trudged down the hallway in his slippers, stepping over boards and other debris. Must have been a party last night. Gotta tell Soos to clean this up.

The smell of cheap instant coffee filled the kitchen, and Stan squinted at the fridge door. There was a drawing of him magnet-ed to it, and not a great one. Like a kid drew it. Covered in glitter and stickers. "Our Hero," it said. Huh, probably someone's idea of a joke.

The sun was barely peaking over the horizon, bathing the giftshop in soft orange light. Beep, beep, beep. He had learned years ago to put the wrong combination in sometimes, to keep the buttons from wearing unevenly and giving away the real combination. Beep, beep, beep.

"Stanley?"

His mug fell from his grip and shattered on the floor. Coffee seeped into the floorboards and under the vending machine. That name. Stan didn't dare move.

A large hand grabbed his shoulder. "Where are you going?"

With the corner of his eyes, Stan counted the fingers.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

One two three four five six.

Onetwothreefourfivesix.

With a deep inhale and one swift motion, Stan flipped around and grasped the face of the man behind him desperately with both hands.

He whispered, "Standford?"

His brother returned the gesture, playfully grabbing Stan's face and chuckling, "Yes, it's me, Stan."

Stanley choked on his words, he couldn't even think straight.

"How- how did you get here? I never, I- I couldn't fix it." His eyes began to fill with tears and he held on tighter to Stanford's face.

Ford pulled him into a tight hug, which was eagerly reciprocated.

"You did fix it, Stan," he reassured his brother, "You brought me back, you just forgot."

Stan pulled back and looked at Ford, confused.

Ford continued, "You were doing so well last night, I don't know what happened."

"But... I couldn't even find the other journals," Stan insisted.

Ford nodded, "I know, Dipper found them, remember?"

"...Dipper? Ain't that the name of Shermie's grandbaby? I think I was at the birth. How long ago was that?"

"Yes, the twins, Dipper and Mabel." Standford's tone was soft and reassuring, "They live here, they're up in the attic right now."

Stan groaned and rubbed his eyes, "Darn kids, they keep breakin' that window up there."

"Yes!" Ford exclaimed and grabbed Stan by the shoulders excitedly, "They keep breaking the window!"

Stan looked at his twin like he was crazy. "What, are you rootin' for em or something? You're the one that gave her the crossbow." He rolled his eyes, annoyed.

Stanford laughed, "I sure did." He embraced Stan in a hug once again.

"How's your headache today?" he asked.

"Still bad," Stan replied. He looked down at the wet floor and laughed, "I could use another coffee."

[kaijuposting]

Jaegers of Pacific Rim: What do we know about them?

There's actually a fair amount of lore about Pacific Rim's jaegers, though most of it isn't actually in the movie itself. A lot of it has been scattered in places like Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, & Monsters, Tales From Year Zero, Travis Beacham's blog, and the Pacific Rim novelization.

Note that I will not be including information from either Pacific Rim: Uprising or Pacific Rim: The Black. Uprising didn't really add anything, and The Black's take on jaegers can easily be summed up as "simplified the concept to make a cartoon for children."

So what is there to know about jaegers, besides the fact that they're piloted by two people with their brains connected via computer?

Here's a fun fact: underneath the hull (which may or may not be pure iron), jaegers have "muscle strands" and liquid data transfer technology. Tendo Choi refers to them in the film when describing Lady Danger's repairs and upgrades:

Solid iron hull, no alloys. Forty engine blocks per muscle strand. Hyper-torque driver for every limb and a new fluid synapse system.

The novelization by Alex Irvine makes frequent references to this liquid data transfer tech. For example:

The Jaeger’s joints squealed and began to freeze up from loss of lubricant through the holes Knifehead had torn in it. Its liquid-circuit neural architecture was misfiring like crazy. (Page 29.)

He had enough fiber-optic and fluid-core cabling to get the bandwidth he needed. (Page 94.)

Newt soldered together a series of leads using the copper contact pins and short fluid-core cables. (Page 96.)

Unfortunately I haven't found anything more about the "muscle strands" and what they might be made of, but I do find it interesting that jaegers apparently have some sort of artificial muscle system going on, especially considering Newt's personnel dossier in the novel mentioned him pioneering research in artificial tissue replication at MIT.

The novelization also mentions that the pilots' drivesuits have a kind of recording device for their experiences while drifting:

This armored outer layer included a Drift recorder that automatically preserved sensory impressions. (Page 16.)

It was connected through a silver half-torus that looked like a travel pillow but was in fact a four-dimensional quantum recorder that would provide a full record of the Drift. (Page 96.)

This is certainly... quite the concept. Perhaps the PPDC has legitimate reasons for looking through the memories and feelings of their pilots, but let's not pretend this doesn't enable horrific levels of privacy invasion.

I must note, though, I haven't seen mention of a recording system anywhere outside of the novel. Travis Beacham doesn't mention it on his blog, and it never comes up in either Tales From Year Zero or Tales From The Drift, both written by him. Whether there just wasn't any occasion to mention it or whether this piece of worldbuilding fell by the wayside in Beacham's mind is currently impossible to determine.

Speaking of the drivesuits, let's talk about those more. The novelization includes a few paragraphs outlining how the pilots' drivesuits work. It's a two-layer deal:

The first layer, the circuity suit, was like a wetsuit threaded with a mesh of synaptic processors. The pattern of processor relays looked like circuitry on the outside of the suit, gleaming gold against its smooth black polymer material. These artificial synapses transmitted commands to the Jaeger’s motor systems as fast as the pilot’s brain could generate them, with lag times close to zero. The synaptic processor array also transmitted pain signals to the pilots when their Jaeger was damaged.

...

The second layer was a sealed polycarbonate shell with full life support and magnetic interfaces at spine, feet, and all major limb joints. It relayed neural signals both incoming and outgoing. This armored outer layer included a Drift recorder that automatically preserved sensory impressions.

...

The outer armored layer of the drivesuit also kept pilots locked into the Conn-Pod’s Pilot Motion Rig, a command platform with geared locks for the Rangers’ boots, cabled extensors that attached to each suit gauntlet, and a full-spectrum neural transference plate, called the feedback cradle, that locked from the Motion Rig to the spine of each Ranger’s suit. At the front of the motion rig stood a command console, but most of a Ranger’s commands were issued either by voice or through interaction with the holographic heads-up display projected into the space in front of the pilots’ faces. (Page 16.)

Now let's talk about the pons system. According to the novelization:

The basics of the Pons were simple. You needed an interface on each end, so neuro signals from the two brains could reach the central bridge. You needed a processor capable of organizing and merging the two sets of signals. You needed an output so the data generated by the Drift could be recorded, monitored, and analyzed. That was it. (Page 96.)

This is pretty consistent with other depictions of the drift, recording device aside. (Again, the 4D quantum recorder never comes up anywhere outside of the novel.)

The development of the pons system as we know it is depicted in Tales From Year Zero, which goes into further detail on what happened after Trespasser's attack on San Francisco. In this comic, a jaeger can be difficult to move if improbably calibrated. Stacker Pentecost testing out a single arm describes the experience as feeling like his hand is stuck in wet concrete; Doctor Caitlin Lightcap explains that it's resistance from the datastream because the interface isn't calibrated to Pentecost's neural profile. (I'm guessing that this is the kind of calibration the film refers to when Tendo Choi calls out Lady Danger's left and right hemispheres being calibrated.)

According to Travis Beacham's blog, solo piloting a jaeger for a short time is possible, though highly risky. While it won't cause lasting damage if the pilot survives the encounter, the neural overload that accumulates the longer a pilot goes on can be deadly. In this post he says:

It won't kill you right away. May take five minutes. May take twenty. No telling. But it gets more difficult the longer you try. And at some point it catches up with you. You won't last a whole fight start-to-finish. Stacker and Raleigh managed to get it done and unplug before hitting that wall.

In this post he says:

It starts off fine, but it's a steep curve from fine to dead. Most people can last five minutes. Far fewer can last thirty. Nobody can last a whole fight.

Next, let's talk about the size and weight of jaegers. Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, & Monsters lists off the sizes and weights of various jaegers. The heights of the jaegers it lists (which, to be clear, are not all of them) range from 224 feet to 280 feet. Their weights range from 1850 tons to 7890 tons. Worth noting, the heaviest jaegers (Romeo Blue and Horizon Brave) were among the Mark-1s, and it seems that these heavy builds didn't last long given that another Mark-1, Coyote Tango, weighed 2312 tons.

And on the topic of jaeger specs, each jaeger in Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, & Monsters is listed with a (fictional) power core and operating system. For example, Crimson Typhoon is powered by the Midnight Orb 9 power core, and runs on the Tri-Sun Plasma Gate OS.

Where the novelization's combat asset dossiers covers the same jaegers, this information lines up - with the exception of Lady Danger. PR:MMM says that Lady Danger's OS is Blue Spark 4.1; the novelization's dossier says it's BLPK 4.1.

PR:MMM also seems to have an incomplete list of the jaegers' armaments; for example, it lists the I-22 Plasmacaster under Weaponry, and "jet kick" under Power Moves. Meanwhile, the novelization presents its armaments thus:

I-22 Plasmacaster Twin Fist gripping claws, left arm only Enhanced balance systems and leg-integral Thrust Kickers Enhanced combat-strike armature on all limbs

The novel's dossiers list between 2-4 features in the jaegers' armaments sections.

Now let's move on to jaeger power cores. As many of you probably already know, Mark-1-3 jaegers were outfitted with nuclear power cores. However, this posed a risk of cancer for pilots, especially during the early days. To combat this, pilots were given the (fictional) anti-radiation drug, Metharocin. (We see Stacker Pentecost take Metharocin in the film.)

The Mark-4s and beyond were fitted with alternative fuel sources, although their exact nature isn't always clear. Striker Eureka's XIG supercell chamber implies some sort of giant cell batteries, but it's a little harder to guess what Crimson Typhoon's Midnight Orb 9 might be, aside from round.

Back on the topic of nuclear cores, though, the novelization contains a little paragraph about the inventor of Lady Danger's power core, which I found entertaining:

The old nuclear vortex turbine lifted away from the reactor housing. The reactor itself was a proprietary design, brainchild of an engineer who left Westinghouse when they wouldn’t let him use his lab to explore portable nuclear miniaturization tech. He’d landed with one of the contractors the PPDC brought in at its founding, and his small reactors powered many of the first three generations of Jaegers. (Page 182.)

Like... I have literally just met this character, and I love him. I want him to meet Newt Geiszler, you know? >:3

Apparently, escape pods were a new feature to Mark-3 jaegers. Text in the novelization says, "New to the Mark III is an automated escape-pod system capable of ejecting each Ranger individually." (Page 240.)

Finally, jaegers were always meant to be more than just machines. Their designs and movements were meant to convey personality and character. Pacific Rim: Man, Machines, & Monsters says:

Del Toro insisted the Jaegers be characters in and of themselves, not simply giant versions of their pilots. Del Toro told his designers, "It should be as painful for you to see a Jaeger get injured as it is for you to see the pilot [get hurt.]" (Page 56.)

Their weathered skins are inspired by combat-worn vehicles from the Iraq War and World War II battleships and bombers. They look believable and their design echoes human anatomy, but only to a point. "At the end of the day, what you want is for them to look cool," says Francisco Ruiz Velasco. "It's a summer movie, so you want to see some eye candy." Del Toro replies, "I, however, believe in 'eye protein,' which is high-end design with a high narrative content." (Page 57.)

THE JAEGER FROM DOWN UNDER is the only Mark 5, the most modern and best all-around athlete of the Jaegers. He's also the most brutal of the Jaeger force. Del Toro calls him "sort of brawler, like a bar fighter." (Page 64.)

And that is about all the info I could scrounge up and summarize in a post. I think there's a lot of interesting stuff here - like, I feel that the liquid circuit and muscle tissue stuff gives jaegers an eerily organic quality that could be played for some pretty interesting angles. And I also find it interesting that jaegers were meant to embody their own sort of character and personality, rather than just being simple combat machines or extensions of their pilots - it's a great example of a piece of media choosing thematic correctness over technical correctness, which when you get right down to it, is sort of what Pacific Rim is really all about.

[unmotivatedwrit3r]

Of Cold Weather and Holiday Shopping

jason todd x reader

(A/N): This is a fic for @citrinesparkles as a part of a batfam holiday fic exchange we did with @glorified-red,@quillsareswords , and @birdy-bat-writes!

Citi! Happy Holidays!! It’s me (again).

Not sure if you’re tired of my writing yet, but I had the best time writing this fic. Established relationship is so fun to write, and I did much more worldbuilding than I had any right to but I hope you love it!

wc: ~1200

warnings: reference to chronic pain (jason) and one kind-of curse word; so fluffy it will rot your teeth

~~

“Jay, they don’t have the brand of cinnamon we usually buy, will this one work?” 

Jason turns around from where he was reading through your shopping list. You both have come to the conclusion that putting a magnetic notepad on the fridge to spontaneously add things you need when you think of them works best. Two years into this method, you change the notepad by season. Jason usually remembers to grab it or take a photo as you walk out the door. The paper he’s holding today has evergreen trees dusted with snow around the border of it.  

You hold the spice out to him as he reaches for it, watching amused as he squints at the label for a couple seconds before he hands it back. 

“Yeah, should work.” 

“Phew,” you tease, tossing it in the cart, “it’s passed the Todd test.” 

Jason sticks his tongue out before grabbing a jar of cloves—this time of your usual brand. 

“I’ll have you you that if it’s the wrong kind, Alfred will know, and he’s finally letting me make the molasses cookies so-” 

“It has to be perfect. I know, hun, I was just teasing.” You take Jason’s hand in yours and pull it up to your cheek. “He let you do it because he trusts you. He’s going to love them.” You pause, eyes roaming his face. “And I’ve got you, so we’ve got this.” 

“Yeah we do.” 

Jason squeezes your hand then lets go to return to the cart. 

“We should grab another dozen eggs.” 

“I’ll get the orange juice and meet you there?” you ask, motioning towards the other end of the refrigerated section. Produce and snacks are already sitting in the cart: the weekly items on your shopping list. Jason nods. 

“If you grab another bag of tiny marshmallows, we can meet at the register.” 

“Ooh I forgot about those, yeah. Meet you there.” 

Jason’s standing right outside the self checkout when you get there, and you hold up a bag of doritos as you walk towards him. 

“I got distracted.” 

“I see that,” Jason responds, an amused smile on his face as you add the three things you’re holding to the cart. “You remembered the juice though, so it’s a step up from last time.” 

You spin around to face him, dramatic outrage on your face. “Says the guy who got so distracted by nice dark chocolate last time that we nearly forgot bread.”

Jason shrugs. “Peppermint dark chocolate, doritos. Not the same thing.” 

“Pfft,” you say as the two of you move to the self checkout machine, “says you.” 

After check out, you drop your bags off in your car and walk across the other parking lot. It’s much easier to park at the supermarket than fight crazy Gothamites holiday shopping in the big mall parking lot. 

You’ve shared an apartment in central Gotham for the past few years now, but neither of you have conceded to gloves during the winter months. Instead, you have one set of hands linked together, tucked in Jason’s pocket. You love his jacket; it’s warm and heavy and the pockets are lined. And it was a gift to him from Bruce the first Christmas you spent with Jason’s entire family. 

When you get inside, Jason pauses, his other hand coming to your shoulder as he flexes his right knee. You unlink the hand in his pocket and put your hand over his; to no surprise, it’s cold. 

“You alright, love?” Jason nods, straightening his knee out again with a heavy breath. 

“I should’ve taken your advice and worn the brace because damn I can feel it in the cold.” Jason takes his hand off your shoulder and twists it to hold yours again instead. 

“Did you want to stop for another one? There’s a sports store in here somewhere, they’d have one.” 

“Nah,” Jason says, tugging at your arm as he walks forward, “you’re all the support I need.” You snort out a laugh. 

“I forget sometimes how holiday shopping turns you into a sap. You’re cheesy, love, but you know I’m going to bug you about this for the rest of winter right?”

“Yeah I know.” There’s only warm fondness in his tone and Jason turns to give you a quick kiss. It’s just a couple seconds, but you can feel the still clinging winter chill defrosting nonetheless. 

There’s not much to buy at the mall—that’s your justification for going to the grocery store first. Well, that and the 27 degree temperature outside. You’re not too worried about the perishables, but you stop into Target to pick up something you’d ordered to the store (for Jason, so you shove it in your coat pocket as soon as it’s in your grasp) and head to an art store. 

The Wayne family Secret Santa is a holiday tradition, and you’d been a part of it for two years so far; this year is the third. Alfred is always good to make sure no one gets themselves or their partners. You all do generally get a gift for everyone every year, but because there are so many of them, those are small. The Secret Santa gifts are larger and everyone shares a wishlist to be consulted for that purpose. Only Bruce and Alfred don’t participate, though Bruce doesn’t mostly because he likes to buy gifts for his kids (and their partners, you found out) and Alfred because he runs it and also everyone gets him gifts. You love Alfred. You and Jason found a spice rack for him this year you’re hoping he’ll love. 

This year, your gift receiver is Damian, so you stop into the art store to pick up the package you’d ordered for him there. Jason, who is gifting to Steph this year, has his gift already. It’s in the pile of “to be wrapped” things sitting in your living room. 

You make a stop in a Bath and Bodyworks type store to grab a couple small things for Cass and Steph (joint spa day gift for two of them—your idea) and Barnes & Noble to grab a book for Duke before heading back out into the cold. You slide into the driver’s seat before Jason can and hold your hand out for the keys, eyebrows raised in a challenge. Jason, wisely, sits in the passenger seat, bags on his lap. 

You pull into the parking garage that caters to your apartment and grab the grocery bags from the trunk. Jason’s next to you when you close it, and he’s holding his hand out, the five bags from the mall in his other one. You laugh and grab his hand. 

“Hey, look,” he says, nudging you. You look up from where you were locking the car. The streetlights are wrapped in multi-colored lights, lit up in the 5 o'clock darkness. You lean your head so it hits against Jason. 

“Hey.” He turns to look at you. “I love you.” A smile spreads across Jason's face. 

“I love you too, babe.” 

You pull him away from the cold outside, heading towards your apartment. He’ll take tonight off patrol, you’d both decided a couple days ago. Tonight, it’s baking cookies and music in the background. 

And you’re finally wrapping that pile of presents in the living room. 

[cephalonserotonin]

Devstream 180 Notes

This is a long one, folks.

brought to you by creative lead Rebb Executive Producer Dick Wolf

New dojo contest to kick off a transition to cross-save dojo world… see forum post

Pride Campaign 2024

is active now until the end of June! a new glyph, display, and wings in lovely rainbows!

Jade Shadows update coming June 18!

features a new cinematic quest: Jade Shadows. It picks up after The New War (so it's got TNW as a prerequisite) where the storyline of the Stalker left off. Rebb and the crew request that folks not spoil the quest for others after playing it. Use spoiler tags if possible! Quest runtime ~ 25 min There's a teaser for the story quest, featuring the Stalker hanging upside down like a bat:

New Warframe: Jade!

Pablo describes her as a support frame. Her passive is two aura mod slots which is kind of crazy ngl

Her kit briefly summarized:

1: throws a little mote with an AOE effect of healing for allies and increasing damage taken to enemies

2: cycle through various squad buffs. The UI art for these is really gorgeous

3: a debuff: enemies in her sight are slowed and lose armor. You also revive any dead allies in your vision.

4: floating and a zappy exalted weapon. It's kind of like Hildryn's four but basically better in every way because you can actually set off large amounts of damage and fly higher and faster. The exalted weapon has synergy with her 1 and 2.

As Pablo mentioned, Jade's abilities provide a lot of combo potential, good for any "min maxers" in the audience.

Jade's three signature weapons: the Cantare throwing knives, the Harmony scythe, and the Evensong bow (a variant on the Dread).

The Ascension game mode: "what if Warframe but up?"

Non-endless There's a giant elevator you have to feed with energy. The team's video crashed so Rebb gave what I'd call an excited 12 year old's description of the game mode instead which I loved:

There's this giant elevator that needs energy to go up. So you have to keep feeding it ionic charges so you rise out of the depths. And as you're feeding, the Corpus are there! *excitable machine gun noises* And then you're like, oh god! And then you have to, like, jump around-- but if you fall out of the elevator, you better hope you're good at parkour, and that you can read the level to get back up! and back up! and back up! And then: you have to make it to the top. But that's not all. Once you get to the top of the elevator, you gotta escape. You gotta make a run for it before the Corpus hold you back! Aahhh! Aah! Ah! …and that's Ascension. :)

Once we finally watch the video preview of the game mode later I think it looks fun. The level looks really neat; I love the graphics of the inside of the elevator. There's a new Jade Light eximus enemy here but I can't really tell any details about it quite yet.

ORDIS IN LARUNDA RELAY!

He's hosting the clan operation Belly of the Beast (featuring above Ascension game mode). In his shop is the Asteria ephemera, which evolves with community participation. Also some arcanes… and a beautiful skin for the Hate.

"If you're a hater, this is for you." Hilariously the arcanes are capped at 42 each because apparently in Gargoyle's Cry certain players went crazy burning themselves out to stock up on arcanes, and the team is trying to prevent that (and players blaming them for their own bad choices, as always). Two full sets each is more than enough, frankly.

Status Rework!

Blast now does a secondary detonation, or if hitting 10 blast procs, creates an AOE explosion. This is exactly what I have been wanting for ages so I, personally, am thrilled.

Magnetic now scales with overguard and shields the same way, and also does a secondary punch of damage (and an electric proc!) once the shield is broken.

Cold should freeze enemies more often now… and came with a free Frost rework! Now Frost's abilities give proper cold procs, thus freezing enemies, which is now standardized across his abilities. His 1 has been buffed and his 3 snowglobe has been modified (to allow shooting from in to out but not out to in). He has a new passive: his armor scales with the number of cold procs enemies have (like the defensive version of Ember).

There's a lot of testing going on right now on the interaction between ragdolling and freezing enemies.

There's a change to damage vulnerability mechanics which I didn't quite follow; seems to be mostly a simplification of the system.

Armor damage attenuation scaling, as mentioned in the last devstream, now has a cap, meaning corrosive procs should be more effective.

Yareli Deluxe

...looks like eldritch coral?

Next round of TennoGen

…finally comes with a Lavos skin, which is plague doctor themed.

Some augments (Protea's is probably OP), decrees (list shown below is incomplete), and arcanes

UI improvements!

In the upgrade screen: duplicate mod config button, indicator for substats, increased mod polarity

Augment list viewer in the abilities screen

Community customization table where you can copy others' fashions. Great news for gamers too unoriginal to make their own fashions, I guess. Coming at first for just Excalibur, Mag, Volt, and Jade.

Quick Access (fast travel wheel) for more areas like the dormizone.

UI autoscaling with resolution (to prevent tiny UI bars for people with huge resolutions), also coming with ability to scale the UI back down.

"Donut numbers" for damage view that do not cover the enemy you are shooting (old way can still be switched back to, called "cloud.")

Awakening quest has a lil fashion preview now!

Loadout hot swaps conveniently directly from the starchart!

QOL!

Cap on adversaries (liches and sisters) at 150. For the sake of database health. The programmer in me is mildly concerned that there was no limit before this.

Semi auto becoming full auto (see last devstream for more detailed description).

Automatic selection of last relic during endless relic cracks.

Streamlining necramech acquisition.

Unifying melee finishers and mercy kills (both with mechanics and appearance).

The return of Heirloom skins: starting with community art this time

First major change (from last year's disastrous heirloom launch) is the heirloom collections will now be released one warframe at a time.

Ember Heirloom is also a purchased fanartist concept!

Two paths to acquire it: a temporary paid path (for money, comes with some plat) and a plat path that will be available until next heirloom launch (and you can purchase the cosmetics individually!)

This is much better than last year's Heirloom launch, which, as aforementioned, caused a lot of community strife.

molten booty

And finally, the TennoCon 2024 schedule:

[spinbitchzu]

Brewing an au where ronin and Cyrus went to the same robotics school when they were younger for uni. Cyrus is this big shot from a super elite stem magnet school and everyone knows hes a genius and he’ll do amazing things. Meanwhile Ronin is trailer trash from shithole, nowhere but also known for being this crazy raw talent who can build anything from scraps. And they’re not enemies or anything, but everyone always compares them, so they’re just generally aware of each other. Ronin has kind of already made up his mind not to like Cyrus because he’s a prep school rich boy, and Cyrus (who's kind of a bossy shit bc hes 18 and a dweeb with an ego) just gets frustrated when Ronin doesn’t follow rules as he understands them.

But sometimes they get paired on projects and that’s complicated because what happens when a guy you’ve already decided is your nemesis makes you laugh and brings you a jasmine tea from the vending machine when you guys work on said project bc you mentioned liking them. So now you’re frenemies? Rivals? something else?

Other stuff ;

Cyrus is highly respected by his classmates, but ronin's better liked

at some point ronin ends up dropping out at some point due to losing his scholarships for being a fuck-up and doing some stupid illegal shit

after that they both miss having someone actually on their level to discuss and bounce ideas off of, but the last time they spoke they fought and both are too proud to reach out for like years

ties with a future timeline in their late thirties where they’re fwbs [terrible idea guys btw]

idk man I just love untouched history festering in the cracks of a relationship they’re both desperately trying to keep no strings attached. As if that was ever going to work

Here’s some concept art to be refined later btw

[bitterfishiesstuff]

SergeantGoggles here. You know what I came for. 😏

🎲 + Huntech

Aye aye cap'in!

39. A tentative kiss (spoilers for season 3, not canon compliant)

Hunter had hoped it wasn't Tech under that helmet. Every fiber of his being prayed as he saw little things that were similar, but not quite right. He should have know he was seeing things. A grieving mind graphing at straws to make connection where there were none.

From one there was suddenly five. Echo, Wrecker, and the regs all fighting chances of Tech. Glimpses of a sick hope that maybe- maybe Tech was one of CX's. Shadows that all had a dull glimmer of something.

A glimmer of nothing.

Each a reg. At first Hunter was disappointed, but quickly he felt sickened by his own greed. Tech didn't deserve that. No one deserved what they went through, but especially Tech. His Ace, his second in command... His husband.

Their war was over now. Omega was safe, as were the boys and the other kids Omega had found on Tantis. She'd even gone with Echo to drop the last of the little commanders off. Something Hunter hasn't wanted, but Crosshair had pointed out she was going with Echo. Either absolutely nothing would happen because he was a stickler for regulations,unless it didn't suit him of course, or they'd obliterate whatever stopped them with their combine bantha shit crazy.

He was right of course. Omega was almost home and she had commed to tell them she had found a suprise. Of course she did. Hunter just hoped it wasn't another hound. Batcher had taken to Crosshair, and it ate like Wrecker.

He wasn't sure he could handle another mouth to feed, especially if it took to Crosshair. The man spoiled Batcher rotten when he could.

He felt the thrum of the engines before anyone. The electro magnetic pulse hitting the atmosphere sent a shiver down his spine. It was a familar feeling, one that meant safety. Family had returned home again.

He feared the day it wouldn't return and they'd said their last good bye to Echo, or the other regs that came around with him.

Today wasn't that day though. The sun shown brightly as Echos ship landed on the small pad. Not Omega driving, she'd have swooped in like Tech and sent leaves flying off the old tree in the public square. Hunter waited in front of the ramp. Not to close, but it didn't matter. Omega would run out to him and Echo would follow in a bit.

The ramp hissed and he smiled, waiting for whatever treasure or curse she'd dragged home this time.

But no one came out. He frowned and took a step forward. What had she found that it was taking longer to greet him? Suddenly he had flash backs to the baby rancor, but no. Echo would *not* have let one of those on board.

Omega's foot steps slowly carried out of the ship, along with the sound of gears and wheels. Truly curious he stepped closer to try and hear her voice.

"I think you should tell him first Omega. I do not wish to startle him-"

He knew that voice. He KNEW that voice like the beat of his own heart, the curve of his vibroblade, the pulse of the havoc.

Hunter ran. He didn't care who was watching or the fact he scared a couple walking near by. He flew up the ramp almost running into a sheepish Omega and-

Tech.

The specialist looked up at him. To most he'd look slightly off balance, but not to Hunter. Concern was foremost, as was worry. There was nervousness, which Hunter could understand. Tech had one eye replaced with a machine, as was an arm. Both legs seemed intact, but he was in a mobility chair.

It didn't matter. Tech was alive and staring at him like he was the ghost.

"Hunter..."

Two steps and Hunter falls to his knees infront of him.

"Tech. Tech I-"

His Ace raise an eyebrow and holds out a hand to him. "That will hurt in a rotation."

Hunter laughs, eyes watering as his other half takes his shaking hand and gives him the stable ground he'd been searching for ever since Tech executed plan 99.

"I'll live." Hunter winces as the words slip out. Tech almost didn't. Tech hadn't. There was no way, but here he was.

Time crawled as Tech bent over stiffly, stopping only a hair breath short of parted lips. They both froze, uncertain if the other would close the gap. Tech pulls back a fraction and Hunter moves forward, still not daring to complete the kiss. As if kissing him would wash him away.

They meet for an instant, both moving as if they'll be stung. Tech reunits them. Kissing Hunter timidly, before parting again.

"We both will."

[captawesomesauce]

It's hard to be my (girl)friend... (GIS Day edition)

Yesterday was GIS day and W went representing her organization which meant she was expected to tell her group what she saw/what she learned, stuff like that. Real show-and-tell stuff.

She has 2 co-workers who recently went to different things, and one basically just said "It was fine," while the other gave a detailed long interactive multi-media presentation.

Here were my helpful tips on what W should talk about when she asked me late last night:

How loud it was.

How badly spaced it was.

Lack of ADA

Traffic sucks

Parking sucks

Out of order machines suck

Most maps people make are ugly maps and they should feel sad

That was the first batch. It was insanely loud in the booth area so no one could actually talk or hear or function. It was insane. There was no way anyone in a wheelchair could participate, the ramps were actually blocked to the stage/seating area!!! Traffic was... a bitch, parking was insane and pricey, and the pay machines didn't even work! The last point... well they had a map gallery and honestly, most of them were awful. Just straight up ugly as fuck and lacking basic information.

W's was nice though.

Everyone loved my mappy dress

Look at my pretty certificate

JPL mentioned Goddard

Did I mention how cute I looked????

W wore her mappy dress and EVERYONE loved it!!! She was the Belle of the Ball for sure. People kept coming up and commenting on how cute it was and how pretty she looked. She also got a certificate for presenting her map which was cool. But mostly her cuteness stole the show lol

Everyone thinks it's cool I work for NASA.

everyone loves my maps

MEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

This basically sums up the whole day lol.

What did I learn? Parking is expensive

What else did I learn? Some people know me by sight, some people know me by name … But bitch I'm famous and everyone knows me!!!!

Parking was $20... that's a lot. But it was funny how many people knew her from her linkedin posts, and many recognized her face, even with a mask on, others saw her name tag and knew who she was. She's an influencer you know :)

What did I learn? Some people are really fucking short and they probably make tiny maps

People don't look the same irl compared to online! Some people we met today were seriously hurting for height lol. They probably make tiny maps.

What did I learn? PCI scores are bullshit

What did I learn? It's cold in the morning hot in the afternoon and I get sleepy ... sleepy and hungry

PCI scores are road quality and they're straight up lies. Absolute lies. They only do one lane in each direction and it's all just a straight up lie. You could have 100s of potholes but if none are in the one lane, it's good to go! LIES!!!

The 2nd point is just straight up TRUTH.

Things to talk about: Crazy ladies and their scarfs

This was an OOF! My crazy magnet went off hardcore with this one lol. W commented on the ladies pretty map scarf, and it got us sucked into the weirdest 5 minutes of the day. She was rambling about this and that and all sorts of strange shit, but the kicker was that she "HAS A PERFECT MEMORY!!!" and never forgets a face or voice and she remembers mine from last year and what we talked about and this and that, and especially how perfect her memory is that it's also a curse because she can never forget any of the bad stuff too and on and on and on.... thing is... we didn't go last year. I've never gone before at all. We just politely nodded and tried to get the fuck away lol... oof.

Things I learned: my dress is longer than I thought it was!!!! And it's ok to wear leggings under it

It was super cold in the morning, and I had no idea if it'd get warmer so I suggested she wear leggings under her dress and she fought me a bit on it because it wouldn't look cute... until she tried it out and realized OH... it is warm and still cute! She even said that she could have sworn the dress only went to her thighs, but no, this thing is almost ankle length lol.

For work:

People like our iotd but like my linked in posts more

Coworker #1 says it was nice

Coworker #2 will present a 6 part docudrama on Hulu with both narration and animation in 3D

I'm still laughing about this but the the first thing is true lol, and I explained the next two points above... W came in somewhere in the middle with her pretty collage she made lol

Things I learned: not enough swag 0/10

Things I learned I spent 20 bucks and didn't get enough swag but I did get a pretty certificate and everyone loves me

Things I learned: red lights are suggestions

The whole point of going to these things is the free stuff you get... there wasn't much... but the certificate and fan's were great. 20 bucks was still a fucking lot.

Oh and red lights... just suggestions! Seriously, it didn't matter if you were walking or driving, you had to be SUPER fucking careful because people kept running the fucking red lights. Not even slowing down, just zoom zoom motherfucker. Sheesh.

well that's it for the recap and fun ones, this one is not as fun:

What did I learn? I have to write "I will not wander off" 300 times in the blackboard

This was a not so good moment yesterday. When W talked to people, and she talked to a lot of them, I stood near her, always in sight and within reach. The moment I stopped to talk to someone, she waited until I was fully involved and then toddled off FAR and out of sight and had her phone on silent as well. That was NOT cool, and NOT acceptable. This was at a public park with a large amount of unhoused people who would wander in and out of the event, so when I realized she was gone, and I couldn't find her anywhere I looked, and she didn't answer her phone... I got worried. It was quite a bit before she decided to walk back from where she was. She didn't say anything, didn't let me know... she was just GONE. That was NOT ok. She's not a child, and I don't treat her as one, which is why I expect better... I don't need to hold her hand 24/7 or know where she is at all times, but a quick hey, I'll be over there, or a knock on my arm and a head tilt to let me know she's going to go exploring...all fine... but to just disappear... not ok.

And that folks, were all of my helpful answers to W's question of what should I tell my coworkers and boss about the event yesterday????

I kinda don't think she used any of them... *shrug*

[hannahssimblr]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jude doesn’t tell me about the email until we’re back in Dublin, and I don’t ask because there are other things to think about. Such as the gaping holes left in the shelves of the apartment now that Claire has taken all of her things away or the letter waiting from NCAD detailing my timetable for my first week back in September. How is September three weeks away already? I toss the envelope onto the kitchen table and sigh as I unfold the letter. 

“Ugh, the thought of going back is so weird,” I say, “You know, like the idea of not being in Mezzotint anymore, of being back to regular classes again, cycling back to Thomas Street every morning. It feels like the kind of thing I did in a different life.”

Jude opens the fridge and takes out one of Claire’s abandoned peach yoghurts, and I eye him sharply as he does it, in two minds whether I should warn him to stay away from her things, which is nonsensical as it’s yoghurt and it expires on the 30th and she won’t be coming back from Sydney to get it anytime soon. “Is Mezzotint an option long-term?” He wonders, and I ask him what he means, “Like, if you wanted to stay on and work for them longer, do you think they’d let that happen?”

“I can’t do that,” I grab a magnet and stick the timetable to the fridge door, “I have to finish college now, it’s the only way I’ll ever get a degree.”

“You can’t drop out?” He says casually.

“No, because of financial aid. They won’t ever fund my education again and I’ll never be able to afford a degree on my own.”

“Woah,” He says, “I didn’t know that. So this is your only shot.”

“Exactly. No pressure, like.”

“Lucky you picked something you like.”

“Yeah and I do like illustration, I think I’m good at it, but, ugh, NCAD, sometimes I just…”

“Judging by the way everyone goes crazy for your work, I’d say you’re more than good at it. I think your murals are the best ones I’ve seen.”

I feel self-conscious, “you’re saying that because you think you have to.”

“Never.”

I start unzipping my weekend bag so I can put some of my dirty clothes into the washing machine. I find my dew soaked shoes to and put them on the windowsill to dry. 

“I’m serious,” Jude is saying as he follows me around the room, “You could really do something with those skills, that’s why I was asking about Mezzotint, I just think that if you wanted to you could make a career out of designing in the way that you’re designing now. Windows, murals, that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, maybe someday.”

“Why does it have to be someday?”

“Because I… That’s just something I’ll do in the future, I don’t know.”

“Evie, you’re so good, I swear you could do it right now.”

I sigh and toss a detergent pod into the drum, “Did you hear that bit I said about having to finish college?”

“I know,” he chews on his lip thoughtfully, “I know, you said that. I understand.”

“Why? What would you do if you were me?”

“I couldn’t say, our situations are different, so,”

“Yeah but if you were in my exact situation. Would you drop out of college and pursue illustration without a degree?”

He shrugs, “I might.”

I scoff, “Okay well, that’s not going to happen, so.”

“I know, I was just saying that if I was literally you, I might make a decision like that. I’m not saying you should, I get what you’re talking about with the financial aid and all of that I…” he breaks off and I look over my shoulder to find a troubled expression on his face. I feel tension leave my shoulders and compassion take a hold of my heart. 

“Is it the long distance?” I ask him, “Are you worried about how we’re going to do it?”

He scratches the back of his head and looks at the floor, “I dunno, I suppose honestly it freaks me out a bit.”

“Yeah, that’s okay,” I abandon the laundry and cross the room to hold his face in my hands, “it freaks me out too, but look, it won’t be that long, and by the time you get a job in London and actually manage to move over there it could be a couple more weeks or months, and really, by then I’ll only have maybe, six months left in NCAD, and there’ll be weeks during the midterm breaks when I can come and visit you, and really, it won’t be bad.”

“Yeah,” He says, still staring at the rug.

“We did a month apart when you were in Berlin,” I remind him, “and it was hard, but it was also fun, because we got to talk every night on the phone, and send texts and photos, and I learned all about the art of tasteful nudes and got to experience your colourful language detailing all the things you wish you were doing with me, and I think that if we can manage that then we can totally manage this.”

“They were very tasteful nudes,” he concedes, and I laugh at the miserable way he decided to say this. I capture his chin between my thumb and forefinger so that I can tilt his face to mine. “Stop moping, there’s no need to get into a mood over something like this, you know, we’re strong people and we can-’

“One of the movie studios in LA emailed me last night,” He says. 

“Yeah, I remember,” I leave a long pause for him to fill, and when he doesn’t I ask him, “What did they say?”

“They liked my portfolio.”

“Was their advice any good?”

“They didn’t have any, they, uh,” a long pause, “have an internship programme, actually.”

My stomach plummets to the floor. “Do they, yeah?”

“Yeah they told me that they’d like for me to come out to LA and work with them.”

“Oh,” My voice sounds a bit strangled, “so they really liked your work.”

“Guess so.”

“That’s really nice, wow. Nice to hear,” I shrug “…but it’s an internship.”

“Right.”

“So… not paid.”

“I imagine not.”

“So that just doesn’t make sense then,” I turn around and start fiddling with the dials on the washing machine. “Like they can’t really expect you to do that, can they? Like, to work somewhere like that without giving you any money for it, a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?”

He says nothing.

“They can’t really compete with the kind of money you’d be getting in London at all, can they? I mean think about that. Fifty, sixty thousand pounds a year versus nothing. They can’t expect anyone to be interested in something like that, especially, you know, because to live somewhere like LA would be crazy expensive as I can imagine. Wow, what a ridiculous offer.”

“Evie, I don’t have a job in London yet, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to start talking like I do.”

“Yeah, yet,” for some reason I grab the hoover and start vacuuming up crumbs from the ground beneath the oven, “But you will, that place you were waiting on, they’ll get back to you soon.”

“Yeah, maybe they will, but…” he pauses again and I feel a flash of annoyance that takes me by surprise, “But what, like?”

“What if I felt like the internship was too good to pass up? What if I didn’t want to take the risk of waiting for The Brits to hire me and I just considered another opportunity?”

“The other opportunity is really just not realistic,” I argue, “It makes no sense. It’s so far away from here and it won’t even pay you.”

“Yeah but I think it’s more exciting.”

I shake my head. 

“I know that you’re being practical Evie, but there are ways to make this workable.”

“I can’t believe you’re saying this.”

When I turn to him again Jude’s face looks a little wild, and I know immediately what that expression is. Passion. Excitement. Ridiculousness. Whatever is firing off in his brain is the same thing that drove him to cycle his bike like a maniac, crash a wedding party, kiss girls he should never have kissed. “Listen,” He says, “I really think this could be amazing, and I think it could work out, and we can still have everything we want and there’ll never be any compromises.”

“How? I’m going back to college and-”

“You weren’t excited to go,” he blurts out, “You saw that letter on the floor and you were upset to see it there. You don’t seem like you want to go back to NCAD, not really.”

“I-” I break off, “Well-”

“I know how you feel about that place, I know the bad memories it has for you, and you don’t need to go back, I swear, you can just be an illustrator, that’s the beauty of being an artist, you don’t need a degree to be one, and look, if you don’t go back to college then you could come to LA with me and see if we like it, and if not we’ll try somewhere else. You wouldn’t have to live in Dublin, you wouldn’t have to find a new housemate for this apartment.”

“The money, Jude.”

“Who cares about the money?”

“I feel like I’m going insane listening to you. I can’t just up and leave and move to America.” I turn away to scrub the kitchen sink and he moves to lean against a counter and wedge himself back into my eyeline. 

“Well, you objectively can, so.”

“Jude…”

He’s grinning now, “You think I’m crazy.”

“No, I think you’re passionate.”

“So are you.”

“Please…”

“C’mon, don’t be upset, it’s just an idea,” He gently pulls me away from the sink and turns me to face him, and only when he’s holding me by the wrists do I realise I’ve begun trembling. He kisses one palm and then the other, “What is it?”

“I just feel like… this is a lot of information all at once, and a lot of new ideas are being put forward here, I don’t know what to think about it, and I’m worried that if I don’t want to drop out of college then you’re going to go to America anyway.”

“No,” He says, “No, there’s no ultimatum, listen, I know I’m saying all of this stuff right now, but no matter what happens I’ll put us first. The last thing I’m going to do is leave you behind. If you don’t want to go to LA then I don’t want to go either.” I can’t bear to look at his face when he says that in case I can detect a lie in it. “Evie,” tilting my face, “I love you. I love you so much. I don’t want to be anywhere if you’re not going to be nearby, you know that. If you want to stay here and finish college then that’s what you should do, and I’ll be right here with you as you do it.”

“Alright,” and I kiss him, and keep kissing him, and he keeps kissing me back. “Can I have time to think about all of this?” I say when we come up for air, “You know, to really just get my head around it?”

“Yeah of course,” He says, “Whatever time you need.”

“Okay,” I wind my arms around his neck and kiss him even more as we forget about the whole conversation. 

Beginning // Prev // Next

[toonie-selfships]

Smiling cruise

@wulfums, started thinkin after a day of having no or negative thoughts, can finally type something out even if its not what i originally wanted, thought id tag you. so i been ponderin for a short minute and i was like "hm yes, put smiling friends on a cruise ship and write about what theyd get up to". simple ideas like that, youre more than welcome to reblog and add onto this what Lucky64 would be gettin up to

Lucky Charms & Gwimbly would be sharing a room obvi, probably one with a balcony because everything would be paid for by Charms, this is probably after the game ceo finally dies and Charms finally gets their proper earnings of music revenue.

Charms would be up early and awake late, so barely any sleep because they're excited. In the mornings they'd stand on the balcony to watch the sunrise, at night theyre probably on top deck watching the sun set and then probably dancing through the empty decks with their headphones on in the middle of the night to burn left over energy before returning to an already asleep Gwimbly.

Gwimbly would be the sleep late, wake up late type. and probably a bed hog. sometimes hes up earlier but thats a rarity. say this cruise is like 2 weeks or something, 4 out of those 12 days hes awake early.

They'd have a table alone but it'd always be close to Allan & Whatwulfs because they like to hang out and talk whenever they run into eachother. Gwimbly and Allan probably have quiet tension from the whole hose thing, Gwimbly never really forgave him for that. Maybe Charlie, Pim & Glep are also at that table, maybe not, that'd probably depend on you

Lucky carries their headphones and autism bag everywhere they go, especially to actives, they know how crowded and loud things can get sometimes and theyre always prepared. Gwimbly also always double checks to ensure they have their stuff, hes had to be the main escort out of a situation a few times when they first started dating because Charms forgot their stuff. He hates seeing them so distressed when they thought things would be fun and fine.

Charms is usually Gwimblys drink cut off, they dont really like seeing him incredibly drunk unless theyre both shitfaced and Charms cant cut either of them off, but that doesnt happen often, best Charms' gets is tipsy from a few cocktails.

Gwimbly spends alot of time in the arcade, usually at the little duck claw machine (every cruise ive been on had one and i love them) trying to win as many unique ducks for Charms before they can win them themselves, he knows they love random bullshit like that. however gwimbly is in no way a master at it like he claims.

On land days they try to stick with the main group and/or Allan & WW (im just gonna shorten it to ww for whatwulf sometimes or just wulf, lazy like that ✌️). Charms isnt great at directions in new locations and gets stressed easy when they dont know where to go, especially on a time limit.

the two of them collect as many postcards, magnets, keyrings and pins as they can. Lucky has a rather large collection and gwimbly wants to be apart of it.

Gwimbly has definitely fallen into the pools a few times. completely sober.

the two like to spend more time in the 18+ pool areas just to be away from the rowdy kids and parents.

Charms brought their laptop and stuff to still make music since they always love making music on down times. Gwimbly is slowly learning to draw, sure its akin to a 3 year olds but hes doing his best and Charms loves everything he draws no matter what, seeing their face genuinely light up fills him with the confidence to get better.

sometimes gwimbly gets a lil too handsy outside the room but not too much to warrent trouble, he just cant help it, he tries to hold onto charms as much as possible because hes terrified of losing them to homelessness again like the day he lost them after the games fell through.

Gwimbly & Charms participate in costume nights but if its somethin theyre not crazy into then theyre kinda half assing it.

Loathsome mozzy eaters (again all what i think would happen ur welcome to change and add things)

Allan probably sleeps early and wakes up early.

ww falls asleep real early and wakes up at the same time as allan to watch the sunrise together.

unintentionally got the balcony room next to lucky64, wave to eachother often. allan probably goes inside early if he hears them getting all googly at eachother or making out.

whenever theyre not in the dining rooms theyre either at the help yourself restaurant or the fancy pay to be at restaurant because allan wants to treat ww.

allan does all the shoretour talks while whatwulf does most of the friendly first interactions.

both probably get a lil tipsy but never overly drunk unlike everyone else (excluding glep and his wife).

allan got the cruise through work most likely.

whatwulf swims the most

both of them also use the 18+ pools to be away from kids #ChildFree.

allan has never seen Charms tic before and probably thinks theyre drunk or something at first before asking them about it, hes slowly learning to get used to it and pay no mind to any unintentional noises.

wulf understands Charms' tourettes well since theyre better friends than them and allan, sometimes he'll help explain them to others when Charms cant themselves.

they def kiss at sunset on leaving day & going home day.

allan seems like he'd enjoy trivia, much like Lucky Charms, they always swap answers with eachother at the end.

whatwulf HAS to see every performance, theyre too good not to see.

whatwulf probably doesnt get sea sick as easily as everyone else due to being an aquatic-ish critter.

whatwulf is also probably a connoisseur of rubber ducks, very appreciative of them when gifted by allan.

shore days the two try to find their own way around unless its really unfamiliar and they get a shoretour.

allan makes sure they both have any autism things they need, if somehow they forget something Charms always has something similar to offer. fidget toy? sorted. earplugs? cleaned daily with interchangeable silicone or the soft foam ones for someone elses keeping.

ww is ALWAYS prepped and goes all out for costume nights, hes always matching with allan to the T no matter what!

sometimes on quiet nights they'll slow dance on the lido deck when no one else is around.

what everyone else is doin (aka charlie, pim, glep + Marge and maybe mr boss + Jason)

literally NOBODY trusts pims with directions and shit, not after Brazil.

Charlie and pim get shitfaced on the regular.

charpim share a room more in the middle of the boat, they dont have a balcony.

100% from work tickets.

glep and marge have their own room on a different floor, opposite side of the boat, balcony.

all 4 of them share a table with mr boss and jason, sometimes allan and whatwulf. pim gets along with gwimbly and no one really talks to charms that much because only allan and whatwulf really know them. pim tries to talk with lucky sometimes though to get to know them. charlie silently questions their tics but never has the balls to ask.

mr boss puts jason in the kidsclubs even though hes 18, jason fuckin loves the kids clubs because who wouldnt? i fuckin loved kids clubs.

mr boss kinda scares lucky sometimes, his random outbursts of actions scare the crap out of them.

glep and marge sometimes get a table to themselves when they want a quiet moment.

charlie fuckin hates being dragged to every single activity by pim. "pim cant we just slow down and play mini golf or something man? my knees are killing me."

pim is always first awake out of everyone in the group, he swims the most too.

charlie rides the waterslides 50 times in a row whenever he can, though hes gotta take big ass breaks between them for his pace maker.

[sarelcon]

I have been remaking Salem from RWBY, I made her originally in 2020 but I know I can do a better job of sewing now. I also decided to make the weird floating orb dude (I call him my Eldritch Gumball Machine).

The dress is still in process, but I absolutely zoomed through some crafting today

I bought a plastic lighting globe cover off of Amazon. I made a base out of EVA foam and used that to hide the battery for the lights that will go inside this. I bashed out a bunch foam spikes and random shapes. I’ll be covering these with foam clay later for texture

I made the hanging parts with more foam. I scrunched up some 1mm foam after heating it. For the tentacles, these are jewelry wire wrapped in 2mm foam. I’ll be covering these with foam clay later.

Here’s a video of the Eldritch Gumball Machine so far with the magnet attachment system being demonstrated. My crazy idea is actually working 😱

[sp4mja]

So I've decided to accept who I am and make a OP x QSMP AU. But before making any art I made a list of possible Devil Fruits each member would have plus some lore

This will be a long and extremely self-indulgent post, so everything regarding this AU is under the cut.

So, both the hispanics and the English speakers are invited to the island, they all range from ex marines to civilians to pirates. The only thing they have in common is that everyone is a devil fruit user, which quickly raises their suspicions about the island.

The logic behind having so many Devil Fruit users together is that the Federation purposefully gathered them all together. Expect for the brazilians and the french, who just happened to stumble upon the island, some of them do have devil fruits but not all.

And that's one of the reasons why the Federation dislike them, as they don't fit in the plan.

Speaking of the Brazilians and the French!

The Brazilians knew each other before the island but very briefly (except for Pac, Mike and Cellbit) since they all made it into the same ship and ended up crashing on Quesadilla island (Felps is not a good navigator and Forever was too worried to actually steer the ship.)

As for the French, they were traveling to a Sky Island on a big ship and they ended up falling from the sky, they didn't particularly know each other before but they grew closer on the ship before the ship fell.

Now, I'm still thinking about some fruits and roles (backstory from the cubitos before the island) but these are my general ideas, feel free to share your thoughts!

Some of my ideas are pretty self-explanatory but ask away if you have any doubts!

● Hispanics:

Luzu — tbh idk something about metals, maybe the smelt-smelt fruit? Maybe even a cyborg

Rubius — .... Wish-Wish fruit?? He grants wishes or something

Mariana — Whisper-Whisper Fruit (Taking into account his rp on tortillaland and integrating it into the qsmp, he should be able to talk to animals. I don't think the animals talk back tho)

Spreen — Bear-bear Fruit Model Black Bear

Missa — Bird-Bird Fruit Model Raven / Revive-Revive Fruit (Debating over this, specially because it would be funny if both Missa and Philza share similar DF, but also skeleton Missa is fun)

Roier — Spider-Spider Fruit Model Latrodectus Hesperus (black widow)

Vegetta — Scroll-Scroll Fruit (He's the wise man of the mountain, I'm sure he uses his knowledge to make powerful scrolls)

Maximus — Clank-Clank Fruit / Magnet-Magnet Fruit (Tbh I want something relating to Max's abilities with machines)

Quackity — String-String Fruit (freaky, the man who pulls the strings)

● English:

Wilbur — Tone-Tone Fruit / Song-Song Fruit (For this one I think going with Uta's power is better, Wilbur is extremely powerful but he is also a whimsical British guy who sings beautiful songs for his daughter to have a good night of sleep)

Fit — Pop-Pop Fruit

Philza — Bird-Bird Fruit Model Crow (Love-Love fruit if I'm feeling a little crazy, he turns Forever into stone sll the time)

Jaiden — Bird-Bird Fruit Model Parrot / Brush-Brush Fruit (As much as I love parrot jaiden, I think she being able to draw bobby after his death but stopping herself from bringing the art to life is extremely angsty and I love it)

Bad — Hollow-Hollow Fruit

Foolish — Shark Fish man. Swim Swim Fruit (I know, he can't swim so he now has a fruit that lets him swim everywhere? Yeah, but also a logia fruit that could help him build fits as well)

Dan — ? (Sorry)

Slime — Jello-Jello Fruit (Following the food themed devil fruits from the Big Mom Pirates, he turns into Jello... Lime flavor, he is sticky, sugary and a little sour, both Mariana and Juana are intrigued)

● Brazilians:

Cellbit — Archeologist and Archivist, former captain of a crew (as much as I would love to give Cellbit a DF, I think it would be charming if he could save Roier from falling into the sea all the time, as well as Felps)

Felps — Calm-Calm Fruit (He makes silent bubbles for Richarlyson everytime he gets overwhelmed, best dad)

Forever — Navigator (Pirate, former marine, he loves travelling and lost his right hand man on the way)

Pac and Mike— Shipwrights (Do not separate. They make the craziest ships on the world. Also criminals with bounties but not necessarily pirates)

● French:

Baguera — Mink Duck (she's a duck, she went to explore the world and oh well)

Etoiles — Woods-Woods Fruit / Arms-Arms Fruit (This one is complicated, he is a cucumber (?) So I thought a extremely powerful fruit like the Woods-Woods one its him, but he is also very dangerous and into weapons, so the other one also fits him? He is a bounty hunter)

Antoine — Stich-Stich fruit (He stiches dirt together, doesn't really use his power but he starts doing it after Pomme gets interested (he makes her clothes!!!))

Kameto — Normal ninja lmao (literally just a ninja, just a guy, he is terrifying)

Pierre — Inventor (Both Marines and Pirates buy his inventions, money is everything)

As for the eggs, I believe they follow the same logic as the seraphims. They were artificially made using human DNA and thats why they are both inteligent and fragile. They are replaceable and the Federation can make more if they find a quicker and cheaper way.

Oh and Cucurucho, I think it would be extremely fucked up if it has the Shadow-Shadow fruit. Imagine Cucurucho taking Cellbit's shadow, creepy.

[timehascomeagain]

It's crazy cuz this whole article is literally the opposing magnetic forces that england is currently crushing through like this understanding that this is a country built on the enslavement of quarter of the entire planet and that's an awkward and not easily fixed thing that must be continuously contended with, and at the same time there is this desire to pretend that going to the convenience shop also means something culturally in the face of that kind of legacy of blood. It's this disgusting glibness regarding the blood money circulating thru this country— we all know that slavery and empire is baked into every english institution and that's a comedically uncomfortable shared truth that we can fall back on to laugh at(!), we know that if there's a statue of a man there is a nonzero chance he owned other human beings which is a funny comment to make(!)— and all the while this country is STILL!!!!!! working in the machine of empire & to act like its imperial history is something to look back on and joke abt its backwardness is to ignore the suffering still being caused by these systems. Lol!

[itskristal]

JOURNAL 06. LOCATION: SPROUT TOWER

<<Oh my gosh, I have SO much to tell you today--I hope you're sitting down!! Honestly, ever since earning my Zephyr Badge, I feel like EVERYONE around Violet has been treating me better! Is it normal to have your latest Badge pinned to your shirt, or do you think that's too much? I dunno!! My mom gave me a badge case, but is it so wrong to show how proud I am? I mean, Falkner was no joke!!

I think Falkner sees some real potential in me, because he recommended that I take on THE Sprout Tower challenge. You know, it's that tower full of sages who train ALL day...and if you make it to the top and defeat the Elder waiting there, you get a special reward! Well, OF COURSE I wasn't going to say no...but my team was still resting from the Gym battle, sooo...

...I went back to the Ruins of Alph! I know!! Sue me--but they are WAY too cool. I even found a DOME FOSSIL while poking around, and a friendly scientist is offering to revive it for me! It'll take a while, but how cool is that?! I remember watching a special on Cinnabar Island's fossil machine, and now they have one all the way out here in little ol' Johto! Crazy, huh? I'll be back to check on my fossil for SURE.

OH! One of Prof. Elm's assistants also met me in the Pokemon Center to hand off an Egg for me to hatch--isn't that awesome?? Honestly, I have no idea why all this cool stuff is happening to me, but maybe I'm just a magnet for these kinds of things!! Honestly, I just took laps around the city until the Egg hatched--I was sooo afraid that I would drop it! And look what hatched from inside...a new Pokemon!! An absolute cutie!! World, meet TOKI the Togepi. He's shy, so it was hard to get a good picture, but isn't he adorable? Still, I did hand him off to Elm's aide--I'm sure the prof will want to study him, and he'll be under the best care in Johto! Ancient ruins and new Pokemon eggs...how lucky can you get?!

This is turning into such a ramble again, sorry!! But one last thing--I did make it to the top of the Sprout Tower, and I did challenge the Elder and win!! Trouble, Sunny, and Minerva each helped secure another big victory for Kristyn Amagi--they're already starting to add up! Maybe I really AM a champ in the making...? (Either way, I'll be studying this awesome new 'Hidden Machine' tonight!! The Elder said it would help 'light the darkness,' which sounds nice. Especially after getting jumpscared by the Tower's Gastly over and over again. Ugh!! If only I had enough money for more Pokeballs...)

ps: I ALSO ran into that redheaded jerkface at the top of the Tower again!! He won his battle against the Elder too, but he yelled at his Pokemon the whole time and didn't even seem that happy to win.

...Is it weird that part of me feels almost sorry for him? That's weird, right? I don't know--maybe I should finally just go to bed, huh? New journey starts tomorrow...>>

[goodbysunball]

Parched & parcel

Things are getting noticeably heavier and weirder, and we're the better for it. Some metal, finally, paired with some fine Aussie experimental noise and a band that'll make you believe in the dream of NYC again. It's the best season for this kind of stuff, so dive in.

dprk, Shitville Tourist LP (Studio Fabrik)

May I introduce to you Shitville Tourist (title of the year) by dprk, apparently a duo of Nick Dan (xNoBBQx) and Richard Fielding (Severed Heads) with support from a few mates. It feels like a journey in time back to where Twisted Village and Kye once roamed, where the journey largely justified the end product and the listener could take it or end up spending big later. While there is no question this record took me a few listens to unravel, what didn't take much to pique my interest was the gentle loop on "Crazy Little Corkscrew," something that sounds like a lullaby played with a steel drum, being poked and prodded by various electronics over its seven minutes. The track, like all four tracks on here, doesn't really go anywhere over its duration, but floats, writhes, twists and soaks in the sounds being made: pure joy in the noise made by machines. The title track and "Blumen Schmerz" are darker, more cavernous, where synths bleep and blot and drum machines whirr and exhale steam, creating the illusion of life where there is none. The latter has some creepy guitar parts splayed out on the pulsing synth backbone, but the investigation leads to no further conclusions; there is no categorization here. The finale, "Gulag In Space," provides not only another great title but a track nearly worthy of dancing, especially after the mind-fuck of the first three tracks. The beat bounces off all surfaces, as slippery as the rest of the record, but there is a sparkle on "Gulag" that winks at the listener as Shitville Tourist winds down. Something magnetic, or just plain alien, about the whole affair, but whatever it is, the sheer number of times I've played this have more than justified the hefty price tag. Great debut; let's hope for more from these true underground freaks.

Excarnated Entity, Mass Grave Horizon LP (Nuclear Winter)

Greece's Nuclear Winter puts out a ton of releases, so much that I've seemingly looked them over in the last few years. But taking stock, they've been responsible for the physical releases of a number of near-and-dear U.S.-based death metal acts like Blasphematory, the mighty Anhedonist, and now, Excarnated Entity. Excarnated Entity features a former member of Anhedonist, and there's definitely a similar approach to death metal with the two acts: mournful, grandiose but without the heavy-handed use of keyboards or Gregorian chant-like vocals. Excarnated Entity is also singularly focused on the horrors of war - not to be confused with the glorification of such in war metal - and provides ample heft to the incalculable loss of life. The band's demo, also reissued by Nuclear Winter in 2020, was a good primer for their debut LP, but the LP is devastating. The instrumental opener "Abjection" runs an elegant Mournful Congregation-style guitar line into the ground, simultaneously distraught and triumphant, and sets the stage for the rest. For anyone paying attention to the recent death-doom resurgence, Mass Grave Horizon fits right in and sets itself up near the top of that heap. While I think that there's a bit of momentum wasted in the middle section of "Corridor of Flame," that's really the only complaint I can level at the record. Everything else is properly filthy: gurgling vocals over blastbeats slam headfirst into downtuned chugging riffs, and a elegiac solo rises from the cracks in the pointlessly blood-stained soil. It's between "Irradiated Shadows" (the part before the solo, yeesh) and the punishing title track for my favorites here, but there's not a dud in the bunch. It's worth noting that the band does four-minute sprints as well as they can stretch tracks out to twice that length - a versatility that elevates Excarnated Entity above the one-note lifers rehashing the same formula on every track. Bleak, miserable and, given the state of the world, timely death-doom is what you get on Mass Grave Horizon, and if you think you've heard it before, it's worth hearing again in this singularly focused and dimming light.

VoidCeremony, Threads of Unknowing LP (20 Buck Spin)

I've got to give Nic at Repressed Records credit for pushing this one, as anything combining descriptors like "jazz" and "prog" with "metal" usually makes me run for the hills. But, this new VoidCeremony LP is checking all the boxes while flirting with all of the above, while (as Nic notes) throwing in a fretless bass solo on nearly every song to boot. The band plays death metal, firstly, and while there are some space-y outros and instrumentals, everything feels of a piece rather than forcing together disparate parts. The label press mentions that the band plays "with the gliding, controlled chaos and smooth fluidity of a jazz quartet," and that checks out, but I don't smell anything particularly jazzy about the record. Rather, I get a big whiff of Gorguts when listening to this record, another band that seamlessly combined progressive, thrash and death metal with grooves, resulting in something impressively complex without making it feel like a homework assignment. "Writhing in the Facade of Time" probably best displays all of these aspects, from the fading-in tech-death opener, to the sky-scraping guitar solos, to the crushing close of the track before the group's whisked away on a mystical Moog coda. The band shifts from strength to strength without any bloat, and just as importantly, without any clean vocals. Threads of Unknowing is my go-to workout record this year, the fluidity of the drumming providing blastbeat stress and necessary space in equal measure. Strap in, take a trip; whether you buy into the lyrics or overarching theme is up to you, but either way it's one of the most thrilling death metal records of the year.

Weak Signal, War&War LP (12XU)

Cool "reissue" of an album digitally released in 2022, hopefully given a wider reach with the push of 12XU. War&War is Weak Signal's third LP, and it sounds like a band comfortable with themselves, their capabilities and their sound: they can rip off a garage-punk track like "Don't Think About It" and slow things to a simmer on "Consolation" with ease. That the band sounds so self-assured did make this record feel a little too easy the first few times; but, like label mates Lewsberg, the complexity of the tracks shines through on iterative spins. Seemingly small choices like the backing vocal melody on "Names" or the sparkling Cass McCombs guitar on "Spooky Feeling" begin to feel like bold, powerful moves amidst the background of resignation/resilience across the album. The mostly spoken, barely sung vocals paired with the often bluesy guitar lines give the record a rough, workingman feel - which, for me, means that things ain't going your way but what are you gonna do about it - but there's no glory in it, just a general disdain for how things are. It's definitely a bit of a downer, though I think the band would prefer "realist," and two lyrics from the middle of the record seem illustrative of the this approach: "I'm no weirdo/I'm no freak/but things keep happening to me" from "Songworld," and "If you think I care/that's where you're wrong" from "Yr Deal." I don't find that the lyrics convey apathy, rather an infinite patience or aplomb in the face of everything spinning uncontrollably off-axis. War&War feels similar in spirit to what True Widow was doing on the heavy sigh of As High as the Highest Heavens..., though without the depressive bent of that record. A bit of despair creeps in on the cover of Johnny Thunders' "It's Not Enough," which bleeds into the gray, abstract noise of the title track, but the band puts their dukes up again on closer "Who the Hell Are U?," a fitting end to the record to reinforce the group's street savvy instincts. Weak Signal's delivered a doozy, and one of my favorite new-to-me discoveries of the year so far.