#NOTE MY EDIT: THIS IS WHAT I MEAN SCANNERS HAVE IT SO HARD

[ohyesididnotjustdothat]

Fixed the missing pages!!

KinnPorsche Send Off Photo Book right here Thank your fandom scanners and editors because I could NEVER do this regularly--they are truly some of our strongest soldiers (Speaking of edits, you all have blanket permission to use these for edits if you want. Go nuts)

EDIT: I now see the orientations reverted to their original when I uploaded them. Pls ignore that--I'm already dying 🙃🙃🙃🙃

[geeking-n-tweaking]

Dating Garrett McNeill - SFW alphabet

{ note: barely proofread bc I wrote this quickly in my post-superstore haze!! also if it’s ooc for garrett sorry— I tried >:p

edit: it’s been proofreading to the best of my abilities now, there shouldn’t be any more typos!!

warnings: some passing mentions of racism, ableism & fatphobia (like, once)

reader: no gender is mentioned for the reader!!, Cloud 9 employee reader}

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

At first, Garrett was hesitant to be touchy with you. Sure, he flirts a lot, and he’s had a couple of sexual relationships, but… a genuine connection with someone is hard to come by. After the whole on-and-off friends-with-benefits dynamic he had with Dina, he’s trying to take things at his own pace the second time around. Finding love in the workplace isn’t impossible (I mean look at Jonah and Amy) but it is shaky ground for Garrett.

And yeah, he’s a bit nervous to climb the whole relationship ladder with you instead of just hook ups…but you were different.

You’re sweet, smart, you thought he was funny and you were pretty witty yourself. You were confident but not abrasive… he could go on. Most of all, you’re interested in him for him— not just his body.

Slowly but surely, he starts warming up to being physically affectionate… on your first date, when you kept missing the little smear of sauce on your cheek from dinner, he leaned across the table to wipe it off for you. His thumb lingered against your skin a bit…it was a small gesture, but it made his stomach flutter. Touching you made him feel warm, and giddy (not that he would tell anyone that.)

On your second date, he bumped his hand into yours when you both reached for some popcorn in the theatre. You both glanced at each other out of the corner of your eyes, smiling sheepishly.

He tried to play it cool but a few minutes later, (once the popcorn was finished) he brushed his hand against yours on the armrest. You took the hint and held his hand, which made him absurdly happy.

By your third date, he’s worked up to having his arm around you or his hand on your thigh… 🤭

It will take time for him to do these things at work or around his friends, but eventually he’ll be able to comfortably do more domestic things around others like brush hair out of your face or give you chaste kisses hello/goodbye when you clock in/out.

…

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

The title of Garrett’s Best Friend is widely sought after, Randy held it for YEARS until Jonah snatched it up. (At work, you and Jonah still compete for the spot of Garrett’s #1 .)

You became friends when you started working at Cloud 9, along with Jonah and Mateo. He showed you around the store a bit and he gave you the whole spiel about who’s who, which made you feel more comfortable since the other new hires weren’t having the best first day.

Garrett was easy to get along with. Being close friends with him means hanging out whenever you can!

You usually swing by costumer service for fake reasons, like returning pens that didn’t belong to him so that you could talk during your shift. You liked listening to his announcements, and sometimes wrote quips for him to read on the intercom, slipping little in-jokes into his scripts to try to make him break.

The two of you would come up with little pranks to pull on Glenn, or games for your coworkers to play during boring days. Cart Racing, Scanner Wars, Customer Safari, you name it…

You’d keep each other in the loop about gossip and speculate about the goings on in the store. Who is the secret shopper? Would Mateo and Eric be a good couple? Is the cereal bar just Zephra buttering up the Cloud 9 staff? It’s all getting talked about.

You go together to any coworker events like Emma’s quinceañera and Amy’s Golden Globes party. (((Of course, you hang out outside of work too, often casual hangouts (which could include Jonah & Randy) like binging tv shows, gaming, going out to eat etc!)))

…

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

He would like to hold you close on the couch while watching tv, it makes him feel more comfortable and sometimes his warmth and gentle touch is enough to make you drift off to sleep which he thinks is very cute <3 He would have one arm around you while you’re curled into his side with your head on your chest.

In bed, he would want to spoon until you fall asleep (of course he would be the big spoon :3) His chin would be tucked into the space between your neck & shoulder, and his arms would be wrapped around your middle.

…

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

He’s not necessarily known for his long term relationships, I feel like at first he would be scared to rush into things and would be overwhelmed by the idea of settling down with you. He wants to treat you right, and to make sure he’s really in love before he makes a commitment like that.

He does want a future with you but would date you for at least 3 years before even talking about marriage…just to make sure. He’s seen how marriage to the wrong person can make people miserable (Amy & Adam—) so he just wants to take it slow.

He’s pretty competent with cooking and cleaning.

He can make a few really solid meals, something hearty and comforting that still takes skill to pull of. I feel like he would be really proud of making a good pasta dish like fettuccine Alfredo, spaghetti carbonara, baked macaroni and cheese…

(It’s unclear to me if he really is Swedish & Norwegian or if he was just messing with Glenn, but just in case: he cooks prinskorv (sausages) around Christmas, and makes amazing lapskaus (stew.))

The two of you try to split the labour, like ‘you make dinner/I wash the dishes’ arrangements. In general he makes sure that he keeps tidy enough, though some tasks are more difficult to do if they are very high to like dusting cabinets or down low like washing the floors so you compromise.

…

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

As he says, it’s best to just rip off the bandaid, he wouldn’t wait weeks or months after deciding that.

He’d make sure to tell you in person, not through text or over the phone because you deserve more than that.

He would want it to be in private, so he wouldn’t take you out on ‘one last date’, he would probably sit you down at his place and explain that he doesn’t think he doesn’t think the two of you should be together anymore.

He also would have pre-packed the things you gave him/he borrowed from you through the relationship so that you can take them back. He wouldn’t cry in front of you, or maybe at all, but he would tell you he’s sorry that it didn’t work out and wish you well. :(

…

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Commitment is intimidating to Garrett. It’s not that he doesn’t want to have a committed relationship, it’s just that he hasn’t had much luck with it before. When he was at his lowest points, he thought that he might never get to have a long term partner because he just wasn’t good at keeping them around. Since meeting you, he’s changed his tune. He absolutely wants to be committed to you, it just takes a while for him to accept that and carry it out.

He wants things to happen naturally and not feel forced, and it’s been going pretty well so far! The two of you started as friends and had an organic connection, slowly you grew closer until eventually there were stronger feelings there, you went on a few dates and ended up really enjoying them, and now you’re…together. It’s the exact situation that he would want!

That being said he wouldn’t want to even talk about marrying you until he was sure you were going to last. 3 years in he finally breached the conversation, and found out that you would be interested in marriage too! It would take a while for him to propose, maybe a year or 2 after that conversation… he likes to take it slow :)

…

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

I feel like in general his touch is pretty soft but not light necessarily. By that I mean, he’s not an aggressive or grabby guy, but he’s not the type to skim his fingers across your skin— it’s a full, direct touch.

Though if you’re needing some deeper pressure for relaxation or grounding, he’s the man to go to. He gives good, enveloping, solid hugs. He’ll rub your shoulders in a deep massage. He can hold and squeeze your hand tightly. It’s all up to what you need in the moment :)

Emotionally, yes I think he’s gentle. He likes to take things slow with you, and won’t push you or himself to do things that aren’t well thought out or truly wanted. He’s a bit shy about it, it’s not “manly” to be seen as gentle, but that’s really how he is. He’s a good guy with a big heart, it just takes some time for him to show it.

…

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Garrett does like hugs! In public, he goes for more of a ‘side-hug’, to seem more casual. (He also likes having his arms around you do show that you’re taken 🙈)

In private, he likes long, squishy hugs.

If he’s hugging you, he’s fully wrapping his arms around you and holding you close to him. He’ll hug you for as long as you want/need and it feels safe and comfortable. He’s not crushing you or anything, but his arms are strong, and his chest is solid and you feel little compared to him.

If you’re hugging him, it usually because he’s tired or stressed. He likes to bury his face into your chest and breathe in your scent. Just hold him close and let him listen to your heartbeat as he starts to calm down…

…

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

It would take Garrett a while to say it to you, to him, it’s a big deal to tell someone he loves them. I would say probably 2 or 3 months… if that seems long to you, sorry, but that’s the time that he needs!

When he does tell you, it’s in a quiet moment. Maybe the two of you are getting ready for bed, and he sees you doing your skincare, or brushing your teeth— something simple. He just watches you, thinking about how beautiful you are, how much he likes spending time with you.

When you’re done, you turn around to face him. You tease him for staring at you, and ask him what’s up.

“Nothing, I just… I love you.”

…

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Garrett would pretend that he’s not jealous even though he is. Logically, he knows that he doesn’t have to worry about any of his coworkers sweeping you off your feet. I mean, what do they have that he doesn’t?

It’s the customers that he doesn’t always trust. Sometimes you’ll be giggling at one of their jokes while scanning their groceries, or having some friendly banter about how much it sucks to work retail.

(((Sandra (who’s bagging groceries) will tell you that you have to tell Garrett what you did, even though you obviously did NOT cheat on him.)))

He doesn’t like other people making you laugh :(

He would get pretty jealous if he thought a customer was funnier than him, especially if it’s a regular. He’s a sulky kind of jealous, and would be passive agressive about it. “I guess everything’s just hilarious today.” if it happened a lot. If you confront him about it he would totally deny. “Hah…I’m not jealous, okay? I’m funny, I’m a funny guy… it’s kind of my thing, so…”

…

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

I think he would be a pretty good kisser. He’s really receptive to you, and is good at gauging the mood. He can tell if it’s going to be slow and soft, or if you want to kick it up a notch.

I feel like he’s got some sort of secret technique down, but he’ll NEVER tell anyone because it sounds so dorky. Works like a charm though!

His lips are nice and soft, and his moustache/beard sometimes tickles or scratches your face :) He likes to kiss your lips most of all, but sometimes he’ll hold your hand and kiss the back of it or your knuckles <3 If things are escalating between you he’ll kiss your neck, and he likes the same from you. He also loves when you kiss his cheek around others!!

…

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

Garrett is not amazing with kids.

Not really little kids, at least… he can…kind of handle babies, I mean he and Dina did run an impromptu daycare in the middle of the store. He thinks his coworkers’ children are cute…Rose, Parker, Harmonica, whoever.

But to truly feel comfortable with a child they have to be at least, like, 5 years old. By then they can play games and entertain themselves without too much input from him.

Overall, he’s better suited to talk to teenagers, as seen with the horny teen guy at Emma’s quinceañera (😭) and Sandra’s son Tony.

…

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

He’s not really a morning person, if he can he loves to sleep in. He’ll hold you close in bed and ask for just 5 more minutes because he really doesn’t want to go to work. His morning voice is all gravely and cute so you indulge him if you have some time to spare.

When you finally convince him to get up, he grumbles and lazily pulls on his clothes.

You do your little morning routine together and if there’s enough time have a simple breakfast, like toast or cereal. If you like having a coffee/tea in the morning you guys can stop somewhere on your way to work, or get something from the cafeteria after you clock in :)

…

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

If the two of you aren’t dating, you’ll spend nights up late texting and sending memes back and forth. I feel like he’s the type to send you tons of Instagram reels that you gotta grade like it’s homework🫡

If you’re a gamer, you might spend a couple of hours playing whatever new game the two of you are into, but you’ll almost certainly log off before he does to catch some shut eye.

If you’re into it, he’ll call you (FaceTime, Skype, Discord, whatever) so you can talk more personally and “hang out” from home. Maybe you even fall asleep on the phone with him… who knows? 😇

If you do live together, it’s more quiet. I think Garrett likes to unwind after work and have a chill night at home on an average day. Make some dinner, watch some tv, something lowkey.

…

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

It would take him a while to start getting more vulnerable with you and telling you personal information. About 4 months into the relationship he would finally start opening up to you and dropping the facade of the “cool guy.” He would tell you about his childhood, his family life, his past relationships… slowly over the course of your months and years together more and more would he revealed about his secrets, dreams, fears, etc.

…

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

He doesn’t get angry with you easily, or often. Working in customer service has really taught him how to be patient.

He has answered hundreds of stupid questions, argued with rude costumers, and explained the same concept multiple times…He has patience with people he doesn’t even know or like, so he’ll go above and beyond for you (because he loves you.)

If he does eventually get frustrated with you he’ll probably just tell you that you’ll talk about it later and leave :/

When he calms down he’ll speak clearly about whatever the issue was, and hopefully resolve it.

…

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

He can’t easily recall tons of things you told him about your life before you started working at Cloud 9, like what high school you went to or all the names of your childhood pets…but Garrett tries extra hard to remember things that you’re particularly passionate about.

Your favourite music, movies, books etc. He likes to bring up these things in conversation, to show that he was listening. Like, “hey, did you see the new episode last night?” or “so how was the last chapter of that book?”

If you’ve been dating for a while, he’ll make you playlists of music that you like, or artists that sound similar :)

He knows your favourite/ comfort food and cooks/orders it for you when you’re sick or upset.

He remembers more of your likes than dislikes, but he does listen to your rants and pick up on your pet peeves. (Sometimes the best way to bond with someone is hating the same thing!)

…

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

I think his favourite moment with you was during the tornado— yes I know that’s weird but hear me out. It was a scary situation for everyone, and just as Jonah and Amy comforted each other, you and Garrett stuck by each other’s side the entire time. It kind of made him realize like… this is it, this is his person. And he doesn’t say that to you, I mean, you’re stressed enough as it is without him dropping the whole “you are the only person in this world I want to be with” bomb… it sounds crazy but it’s totally true, when he thinks about his favourite moment with you, it would be him holding you while everything around him tumbled to the ground…in all the chaos, the only constant was you. <33

…

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Garrett is protective of you, especially if he becomes jealous. He doesn’t want to feel like he could lose you to someone else, so if he can he’ll try to limit your interaction with them. If he sees a costumer is flirting with you, he’ll page you to costumer service, or announce there’s something to clean up in a different isle so you have to leave.

He would want you to be a little jealous too, just to show that you really care :)

If we’re taking protection more literally, he wouldn’t like, go back into an active fire to save you 💀 he would yell at you to evacuate and wheel his ass outta there. But if it was a situation where something was going to hit you, like a car, he would definitely push you out of the way.

As for you protecting him, be careful… you don’t want it to come off as if you have to babysit him, even though he’s disabled he can do shit for himself. He’s a grown man after all, he’ll manage. Even if you’re not trying to imply that he can’t, he could interpret it that way. Maybe he needs to learn to accept more help from others, there’s two sides to the coin here. To be safe, just ask him if he needs help or backup when something intense is happening.

…

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Don’t expect Jonah-levels of effort, there will be no glow in the dark stars on your ceiling as a grand gesture of love. HOWEVER, Garrett can be sweet in his own, subtler ways.

He’ll slip little notes/jokes into your locker or lunch bag at work to make you smile. Nothing overly romantic but maybe some silly quote from a tv show the two of you are watching together, or something he wants to talk to you about on your break like “remind me to tell you about the new bunker in Dead Chaser 4.”

Sometimes he’ll buy you an extra snack or drink from break room vending machines, especially if you’ve had a rough day. After your shift he’ll drop you off at your car… over all he tries to distract you from how boring work is, and that doesn’t always involve store-wide employee games.

When dating he’ll take you to that movie that you’ve been wanting to see, or the new bar you’ve been meaning to check out. He knows you and will pay attention to what you like & loves showing you that he remembers!!

For an anniversary, he could go either way. If you wanted something fancier and more traditional— you know, nice dinner, candles, some sort of shiny jewelry— he’ll do it for you. If you wanna do something more out there, like axe throwing or something… fuck it, he’s in.

As for gifts he’s not big into handmade stuff, but he will splurge on your gifts! He’ll buy you the next edition of the series you’re into (could be movies, games, books/comics/manga, whatever!!) that you’ve been trying to save up for. Collectors items for your chosen media will also be his go to, another Funko Pop for your shelf, or Lego environment. Basically supporting your little nerd hobbies :)

…

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

You love Garrett, but he’s not perfect. Here are some of his bad habits….

⁃ He spends too much money on shoes

⁃ (He’s totally the type to lowball people and haggle on Facebook Marketplace for them)

⁃ He double texts you a lot and floods your dms with memes (like he did with Colleen)

⁃ He’s a loud gamer, and competitive. expect some shouting when he loses, and especially when he’s playing online because if his teammates let him down he’ll let them have it

⁃ (He also stays up really late doing it 😭)

⁃ He is passive aggressive, and avoids his issues until it all bubbles up. Obviously he’s sarcastic and sometimes that can get him into trouble if you’re not in the mood for it. Especially if the two of you are in an argument and he lets slip some sort of passive aggressive remark that he had been holding in until now

⁃ Does not take criticism well, either brushes it off or interprets it very personally

⁃ And when you hurt his feelings he won’t tell you until he’s at his breaking point, he lets it stew!! :(

⁃ Not good at being sentimental at first, and genuinely showing his emotions to you is going to be difficult when you’re first starting out… he will act very nonchalant about your relationship at first because he wants to seem cool…give it time

…

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Throughout his life, Garrett has received snide remarks about the way he looks. Some of them have been truly awful, like slights about being black, or being a wheelchair user. Even though race and physical abilities are horrible things for someone to discriminate against, he’s accepted that the world is unfortunately full of bigots and that it will happen sometimes. (Make no mistake, he will stand up for himself, but he’s not like enraged about it.) He cannot change these things about himself, and he wouldn’t even if he could, they are apart of him (but do not define him) and he’s proud of that.

People (mostly family) have commented about his weight, but even that doesn’t bother him anymore. There’s nothing wrong with being a bigger guy, and he keeps himself healthy (yes, it’s possible to be plus sized and fit!!) so it’s all water off a duck’s back.

By now, Garrett is pretty comfortable with his appearance. When he was younger he probably was more insecure about it, as all teenagers were, but he’s 40 now and he’s become more secure in himself since then.

…Except for his chin. Or, lack thereof? Seriously, after he shaved his beard off he was really insecure about it so just don’t say anything about it until it grows back.

…

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

‘Incomplete’ is a bit strong….Garrett can handle being on his own, sometimes he even prefers it. He doesn’t need to be in a relationship to be fulfilled, so he won’t fall apart without one or anything.

However, before the two of you were together there was some…loneliness on his part. He fell into bit of a rut, working, coming home, playing video games, ordering pizza for dinner… rinse and repeat.

Dating you introduced a fresh variable into his life, and it excited him that you brought new opportunities and experiences. Even if the two of you fell into a routine, it was way better to share that with you.

So, yes, he does feel more ‘whole’ since being with you and some of that would be lost if you were to (god forbid) break up.

…

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

He mentioned to Colleen that he’s an anime fan, I feel like he’s the type to watch all of One Piece…not because he fully loves it, but because of the sunk cost fallacy! He’s invested too much time in it now to give up. Also, he loved Naruto when he was in high school— it’s just a right of passage.

…

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

Garrett needs balance. He doesn’t want someone who’s too clingy, but he doesn’t want to feel neglected. He doesn’t want someone that’s ignorant, but you can’t be a know it all. He doesn’t want someone who’s boring, but you shouldn’t be funnier than him! It’s going to be hard to find the happy medium at first…

He’s learned from the Nikki situation (the transphobic protester from s1), and is keeping his morals in check; he’ll do his homework on you to make sure you share his values, bigotry is inexcusable.

Most of all, he doesn’t want an off and on relationship with you, he’s done it before and it’s exhausting. Don’t give him mixed signals like Dina, don’t ghost him like Colleen, just be honest with him about what you want and you’ll figure it out together!

…

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

He’s a bit of a night owl, I can totally see him staying up till like, 5 am or pulling all nighters to grind on a video game.

When he does finally get to sleep, he needs it to be completely dark and has blackout curtains for this reason. He likes it to be cool so he keeps a fan on, it doubles as white noise for him so it’s a win.

He would like to sleep on his stomach because it’s the most comfortable position (fight me) but it’s horrible for his back so he sleeps on his side.

He has a king size bed, and sleeps in the middle, but if he’s with you then he’s on the left.

As for cuddling, he doesn’t like your limbs to be all tangled up throughout the night because he overheats easily, but is the type to spoon you to sleep if that’s what you like. He’s a heavy sleeper for sure and definitely snores a bit (but totally denies it) :)

…

{ note: and that’s it!! not sure how to tag properly but I did my best with it :) }

[redtoondevils]

(FNAF-SB Ruin.) Sun's AR world headcannon.

So, I've been thinking of a headcannon of mine, with what I think about Sun's 'Reality' that other people would have the same idea. While Moondrop has full control of Sundrop's body.

Sun's soul still exists within Moon. In the AR world, things are Inverted, but it connects to the real world. My theory is that, while Moondrop was taking control, roaming around and stuff like that. Sun could SEE what was happening.

And when Cassie shines the light into Moon's eye's it's gotten so sensitive now, because that's what Sun is seeing also. It would look like a really bright light, because possibly the effects of the AR is confusing the reality of what Sun sees.

Furthermore, proves their body being connected, when Sun tries to force Moon to look at the light, to stun him in hopes to pop back out again. But he can't, because in reality, their actual body is broken. That's the general observation.

So, the head cannon, when Cassie put's on the Vanni mask, she can hear things and experiences flashbacks of Gregory's past, (And other eventful thing that's happened in the Pizza Plex.) If that is the case, it's no wonder that Vanessa had literally lost her mind.

By keeping the mask on. It also lets you see heat vision, and invisible pathways that nobody can see with the naked eye. With that noted, at that part where Sun was able to phase through the planks that was blocking the opening of the bridge, does that mean that his 'Nap' gave him abilities?

While torturing him, at the same time obviously. His perception in the reality world is warped, (In the AR reality.) He could only seeheat vision, while he is under control. The AR was mentally tormenting him, that he almost forgot where he is.

But he is aware of what he is doing, and what's going on around him. But he finds it hard/Difficult to understand the people that he's looking at, and to distinguish the environment that he is in.

Honestly, you'd almost forget yourself, and not to be able to understand reality while knowing that there is no chance of anyone helping you. Even to hear you. The people may see what is wrong with you. You are malfunctioning. But they won't know what is happening with you. That must be scary. Whenever he walks up to an employee as Moon.

He may be attacking them, he may be malfunctioning on the spot, but when he calls out, they can't hear him. I also head cannon-(This is sad.) That when Sun 'Calles' out, it controls Moon in that same voice.

And he could be calling out..."Help me." Or "Kids, I can hear the kids!" Then he starts to walk around in circles, and the employees would say, "The attendant might be broken." then at that point, he realizes it's pointless to call for help. That's why when he sees only heat vision, he can't what person it is that he's talking to.

And accidently harms them, because his scanner is broken. He can't distinguish people's faces anymore. The only way that he could recognize who it is, is by hearing their voice. But at the same time, feels disorientated with the voices he could hear. That would make it harder for him to understand.

With the heat vision, would make it easier for him to see people, but difficult to find his way around. That makes Sun technically X ray blind. And Moon normally seeing-Likely half blind. Just difficult to concentrate. Thus, making both of them confused with the worlds that they are in, and how they understand it.

Edit: I just thought of it, this would make the most sense with their eye functioning. Sun is X ray blind in the AR reality. Sun is half blind in his Moon's eye. (Right eye.) Moon is half blind in his Sun eye (Left eye.) As Eclipse, (Both eyes on.) They can see normally.

That's my head cannon about how Sun may be seeing and Experiencing AR reality. Very much how the VANNY system works.

[wanderinginksplot]

Clone Trooper Rambles

Everyday life, invisible clone troopers. Read more here.

Haunted

I was sitting on my bed, typing away, when a weird noise came from the bathroom. It was a kind of clattering scrape and my mind immediately informed me that there was nothing in the bathroom that would make that noise even if it was falling from a shelf or counter.

If I hadn’t been on a roll, I may have gone to check it out, but I was working hard on a story and didn’t really want to take a break to investigate. Still, my concentration wasn’t going to last forever, not with the tremendous amount of liquid I had consumed with dinner. I yawned and stretched, noting that I would have to go to bed soon before I went to use the restroom. 

When I came back out of the bathroom, I took a step toward my bed and froze. My comforter and sheet had been pulled neatly back to expose my pillow.

I hadn’t spoken aloud about my intention to go to bed, and - no matter how hard I tried - I could not remember getting anything ready for bedtime. I nervously glanced around the room, looking for anything amiss, but didn’t find anything. Instead, I just grabbed my laptop and retreated to the empty living room.

Granted, the living room was only empty of fully corporeal people. There were clone troopers galore in the space, and they turned to stare at me, shocked in a way that was strange, considering that I lived there.

“We didn’t expect to see you for a couple of hours,” Trapper said with a chuckle. “Everything okay?”

“Uh… sure,” I hedged, wanting to avoid the mocking for now. “Everything is fine, I just wanted to relocate out here for a little while.”

“Bantha fodder,” Comet scoffed. “You never write out here if you can help it. We all know you think we’re loud.”

“Maybe I think that because you are loud?” I returned incredulously.

“Exactly,” Tech said with a sage nod. “That’s why you do most of your writing in your room. Why are you out here?”

“I... No, I’m not going to tell you. You’ll just mock me,” I said, doing my best to sound firm rather than pouty.

“Probably,” Rex agreed easily. “Tell us anyway.”

I sighed. “I think this place might be haunted.”

“Haunted?”

The word was echoed from a few spots around the room, each with no small amount of disbelief and laughter. 

I couldn’t exactly blame them, either. The house certainly didn’t look haunted, not all decorated for the holidays. Strings of lights glistened around windows, plates of cookies were piled around, and the fully decorated tree even threw off an artificial pine smell due to some scent sticks we had bought.

“Yeah, haunted,” I confirmed, already bracing for the worst. 

“What makes you think that?” Tech asked, ever the logical one.

I briefly told them what I had experienced. After telling them about the comforter, they did seem to take things a little more seriously.

“Could it possible be the Joker?” Trapper asked, easing his fingers closer to the grip of his blaster.

I felt myself pale a bit. “I don’t think so, unless he managed to learn how to interact with corporeal things as a non-corporeal being. And if he did learn how to do that, I would have to catch up with all of you guys later because I would be immediately leaving.”

“So you don’t think it’s the Joker, but someone definitely moved your bedspread,” Trapper summarized, and I nodded my agreement.

“You do realize that you could have thirty troopers here in seconds if you really need backup,” Comet said. It was more of a question than a suggestion, but I shook my head anyway. 

“I don’t need a bunch of troopers here to call me crazy. I already have you guys.”

“And what do you want us to do?” Rex asked with a frown.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe just tell me if something or someone is coming up behind me? Also avenge my death if whatever it is kills me.”

“Kills you?” Tech asked. “Why would a spirit want to kill you?”

“A couple of reasons,” I explained, considering the question carefully. “Maybe they’re angry that they’re dead and are taking it out on the living. Or they could just be trying to communicate and something goes wrong. Or they’re trying to possess my body to finish whatever business they have left on earth.”

Trapper shivered. “Okay, I’m getting the creeps now, too. Are you going to be okay?”

“I think I need to go to bed,” I said honestly. “I’m too tired to get much else done today, and no ghost is keeping me from sleep.”

“Maybe we should set up an in-room guard watch,” Rex lowly suggested to Comet, who nodded. 

“I think that would be best, Captain.”

“I’ll take first watch,” Tech volunteered. “If I can get proof of the supernatural, it could be a great advancement for science.”

“...and you’ll keep her from getting eaten by a ghost, right?” Trapper asked after an uncomfortable pause.

“Oh,” Tech said, adjusting his goggles. “I suppose.”

I stood and walked back to my bedroom door. “Goodbye, everyone.”

“Don’t you mean goodnight?” Rex asked.

I glanced back at Tech, who was setting up some kind of additional scanner in his vambrace, and shrugged. “Do I?”

With that, I went to get ready for bed, bidding Tech and an unknown spirit goodnight before I dropped off to sleep.

---

A/N - I wrote this while half-asleep myself and did zero editing, so I apologize for any mistakes!

Previous | Next | Masterlist 

[proudtoehaver]

Emergency Care

A Finnpoe fic inspired by @lunaaltare‘s gorgeous piece of fanart. An edited and much improved version of what I posted last night (which has since gone poof into the dark, blue yonder).

Can also be read on AO3.

“You’ve got to stop doing this,” Finn says as he runs the medical scanner down Poe’s chest. “It’s the third time this month I’m seeing you in the med bay.”  

“What you’re saying is that we can’t keep meeting in this way?” Poe quips, his voice slightly slurred by the painkiller Finn administered when he arrived. His legs are swinging slightly back and forth as he sits slouched on the edge of the examination table, shirtless, arm bandaged and his pants torn down along one side.  

“This isn’t funny Poe.” Finn looks down at the screen of his scanner. “You were lucky this time, damn lucky. All you have is bruising and a few cuts, but that crash could have killed you. Easily.”  

He takes a stylus from the breast pocket of his doctor’s vest and taps it arhythmically against the edge of his datapad. His mouth is dry in anticipation of what he’s going to do next. He has been putting it off, downplaying how serious this is, but he can’t do it anymore. Not after this. It was sheer dumb luck that saved Poe’s life in that speeder bike crash, next time he might be less lucky. Or the time after that, or the one after that. Because this has been happening so many times now that Finn knows that there’ll be a next time.  

“In fact, I’m making a referral to one of the psychiatrists.”  

There, he’s said it.  

“What!”  

Suddenly Poe’s words are not the least bit slurred and he’s straightens up rapid, grimacing in pain.  

“You heard me,” Finn says flatly.  

His heart is hammering in his chest. He doesn’t want to do this, have no idea what it might do to their relationship. But he fears not doing it even more, because there may then not be any relationship then, because there will be no Poe.  

“I don’t know what’s going on Poe, but it can’t continue. You keep showing up here because you’ve got hurt and that-” His voice breaks. “That can’t go on. I have no idea what’s happening inside your head, but at this point I’m going to have to assume you’re doing it on purpose. That if not consciously, then subconsciously, you’re trying to get yourself... badly hurt.”  

He can’t say ‘killed’, even if that’s what he’s thinking. He just can’t. That thought is too frightening.  

“No! Finn. That's- that's not what-” Poe slides off the examination table and cross to stand in front of Finn, a soft, tiny smile on his lips.  

Nope, this is not going to work, Finn decides even as he feels his determination falter and crack. Not this time. It’s too serious. If he doesn’t act now, next time it might be Poe’s cold body on that-  

Squaring his shoulders and setting his jaw he breaks off that line of thought. He’s not going there. And neither is Poe.  

“Save it. I’m your doctor, this is my prescription.”

Poe's smile disappears

“Finn, listen. Please. It's- it’s really, really not what’s going on here. I can see what it might look like to you, from the outside. I really can now that you’ve brought it up, but that’s not it. I promise.”  

Finn shakes his head.  

“Not good enough. Sorry.”  

He doesn't miss the pleading note in Poe’s voice, recalls all too vividly how forcefully he himself had rejected the idea that he had needed professional help with the issues that his life in the First Order had left him with. How stubbornly he had denied that there was anything wrong until he was near collapse. If Poe hadn’t been there to catch him then he might not have survived it. So even if there had been nothing else, returning that favor would be the least he could do.  

But there is so much more. The way Poe looking at him makes him feel. The way Finn’s heart starts to race a little too fast when his gets ‘that smile’ from Poe. The late nights they spend in each other’s quarters, playing games, watching old holovids, or just talking. And all the many more things that he would like but tries not to think of because it could wreck the easy peace they find in each other, but that doesn’t stop him from wanting them.  

So though his heart keeps beating wildly in his chest Finn brings up the referral file on the datapad and begins to write.  

Poe grabs his hand stalling him.  

“Finn,” he says softly.  

His fingers are warms and strong against Finn’s skin. And Finn can see the scrapes on the knuckles the superficial cut along the back of his hand. It hardens his resolve once more.  

“No.” Finn pulls his hand away and star writing again.  

“Please. It’s not what you think.”  

“No?” Finn says, mostly to keep Poe talking so he won’t try to stop him again, but still somewhere deep down hoping that Poe can present him with an acceptable explanation for all this. Though he can’t for the death of him think of what that could be.  

“No.”  

He stops writing and looks at the file. He knows he shouldn’t, that doing so increases the likelihood that he won’t complete it at all. But Poe sounds so convincing and part of Finn wants to be convinced.  

“Okay then, you have exactly 10 seconds to tell me what it is and convince me why I shouldn’t refer you.”  

He shouldn’t do this, shouldn’t give Poe this chance, but isn't it the least he can do? Give the man a chance to explain himself. Ten seconds, he can give him that much. And if he isn’t convinced he’ll complete and send that file.  

“It’s not so easy to say,” Poe stalls.  

“Ten,” Finn starts counting, as much a reminder to himself that he will continue when he gets to zero as a sign to Poe that he means this. All of it.  

“Oh, come on!”  

“Nine.”  

“I've been trying for ages and can’t-”  

“Eight.”  

“Find a good way and you-”  

“Seven.”  

“Expect me to just-”  

“Six.  

“Blurt it out?”  

“Five.  

“Okay, okay, okay.”  

“Four.”  

“I love you.”  

“Thr- What?”  

His mind can’t parse the words.

He tries again, then a third time. On the fourth they make sense. 'I': personal pronoun, singular, first person. 'Love': verb, meaning to have affection for, to adore. 'You': personal pronoun, singular, second person. I. Love. You.  

He knows he should have an emotional reaction to this, to those words, but right now all he can feel is confusion. The words themselves make sense and he should be over the moon, he has wanted to hear them from Poe mouth for as long as he can remember. But they’re so incongruent with the situation, so entirely unexpected, that for several long seconds he just stares dumbfounded at Poe.  

“You heard what I said,” Poe says, looking down at his feet, shifting uneasily.  

“Right. That makes no sense.”  

Poe’s gaze snaps back up, a surprised and injured look on his face.  

“How does me loving you not make sense? Come on, you’re smart, funny, capable. Gorgeous as hell. A doctor. How does me being heads over heals for you not make sense?”  

The mild outrage in Poe’s voice and on his face is sort of endearing. He seems genuine upset at the thought that Finn might not think it makes sense for Poe to love him. Kinda cute really.  

But not the point.  

Finn folds his arms.  

“So clearly you did not mean love in the fraternal, brothers in arms, kinda a way then?” he says, to buy himself time to process, but also as confirmation. That Poe really means what Finn thinks he does, what he wants it to mean.  

“No. I mean, that too, but no.”  

“Still doesn’t make sense,” Finn says, shaking his head. “Not that part about you loving me, but this has what to do with you constantly getting hurt?”  

“It was an accident. I mean this, the crash. I hadn’t planned it. There was an unexpected branch and the horizontal stabilizers wasn’t up to making a rapid dive.”  

“So you planned some of the other things? Is that what you’re trying to tell me? This isn’t really convincing me not to refer you, you know?”  

A sharp and noticeable red splotch crawls up Poe’s neck.  

“I mean, not planned exactly. Maybe... took advantage of? Stuff that’s already happened?”  

“Such as?”  

“Remember when I spilled my soup and scalded my leg?”  

“Yes.”  

“Well, if you hadn’t been on duty then I probably would just have taken care of it myself.”  

“But since I was on duty you came here?”  

“Yes.”  

“Why?”  

Poe squirms.  

“So you’d look after me?”  

Finn sinks back against the wall and scrubs one hand over his face.  

“Let me get this straight. You may or may not have become slightly more accident prone than usual, but mostly you’ve been using the accidents you do have to come here so you could get my attention? Did I get that right?”  

“When you say it like that it sounds pretty dumb.”  

“It is! Have you ever considered asking me out for caf like a normal person?”  

“I wasn’t sure how.”  

“You weren’t-” Finn laughs. He can’t not laugh. The whole situation is to damn absurd and a tidal wave of relief adds to his giddiness. Poe looks at him uncertainly before he starts chuckling himself.  

When they both quiet down once more Finn goes on, “How about ‘Hey Finn, I really fancy you. Would you like to grab a cup of caf in the mess after your shift?’ How does that sound for you?”  

“What would you say to that?”  

Finn crosses his arms and grins.  

“Try it and see.” He’s not letting Poe off the hook, no matter how relieved he’s feeling that it wasn’t what he thought it was. He’s going to get a proper question out of Poe even if it’s the last thing he does.  

“Erm.” Poe clears his throat, looking both embarrassed, wide eyed and more than a little scared. “Finn?”  

“Yes.”  

“Would you maybe, later, after your shift ends, consider having caf with me?” The last five words are said in such a rush they sound almost like one.  

“Was that so hard?” Finn asks. He knows he’s being a little bit mean not giving Poe a straight answer right away, but dammit Poe has had him worry about him for weeks and over nothing apparently. Finn deserves just a little revenge for that.  

“Maybe, depends on what your answer is?”  

Poe looks so thoroughly miserable and apologetic that Finn decides to abandon any further procrastination with an answer.  

“Yes.”  

“Yes?”  

“Yes.”  

Poe breaks into a wide grin. Finn feels his heart skip a beat.  

“Great!”  

“Now get dressed and get out. I have patients who are not lovelorn nerf herders to attend to.”  

“I really didn’t mean to crash that speeder bike.”  

“I’m sure you didn’t. You can tell me all about all the other things you didn’t mean to do that landed you in my surgery over caf later.”  

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?” Poe says as he pulls his shirt back on with some difficulty due to the stiffness of his muscles.  

“Not in a million years. It’s your own fault, you could have found a saner way of courting me.”  

“Well, since you mention it I’m going to have to find a new way.”  

“If it involves my profession in any way I’m dumping you again.”  

“Fair enough. And Finn?”  

“Yes.”  

Poe takes Finn’s hand in his own, raises it to his lips and kisses his knuckles before letting it go again.  

Shaking his head Finn snorts and smiles.  

“Get out would you.”  

“Your wish is my command,” Poe grandly declares.  

“Then I command you to stop getting injured. I have enough on my hands without your antics.”  

“As you wish.”  

Finn lets Poe have the last word. For now. There’ll be plenty to say for both of them later.  

[closedlcxac]

The Writer’s Gauntlet. Entry No.3

“A book is a dream that you hold in your hand” -- Neil Gaiman

Building the Tool Kit (Cont.)

Now that you have places with ample amounts of references, it maybe starting to become clear that a handful of these are indispensable. You may want to amass a collection of your own. This one is going to be a little longer than the other two but, let’s jump right in.

By now have a number of books you may find critical to your research and to your writing. Even though you can use them there is the one issue, you can’t mark them, write notes in them, or tab them. This is the one critical flaw in using books that are on loan. There is value in ownership of your reference material.

However, outright purchase of any reference material is very expensive. The books can range in price, the smallest can cost about 20 USD to as much as 60 USD. This is painful especially if you are on a limited budget, which can be wiped away in 1-2 purchases. There is a fine line between what you should really spend your money on and what would be better to rent/loan. Below I will cover some tips and tricks of what makes a ‘buy & own” or a “save & loan”.

“Buy & Own” vs. “Save & Loan”

Humans can naturally be impulsive and often times we can make rash decisions be it financial, physical, emotional, etc. The same can be said when you are just starting to build that writer’s toolkit. There is a lot of stuff out there, you have found websites, free lectures and workshops, even notes from classes. As I stated above, there are some disadvantages and so we look for solutions. Logically we go to a bookstore and BOOM its like we hit the mother-load. Every subject, every reference, we could possibly want/need and couldn’t find elsewhere. A garden of Eden but that garden is riddled with thorns, called price tags. The questions that now hit you; is it even worth it? Can I afford it? Will I really use it if I buy it? Here is what you need to consider:

Slow down...Don’t buy the first this you spy:  Sometime we see things and we just have to get them. I have done this more often than I care to admit. In this increasingly materialistic and fast-paced society we fall into this trap, ‘IF I DON’T GET IT NOW ITS GONE FOREVER’. This isn’t the case, and it is important to break this mentality. You will want to remember two key things when you looking for references to hold on to.*** NOTE: Remember that pen/pencil and notebook I mentioned you to have? This is where it is about to earn its keep.

1. Do I use more than ~60-75% of the content within this book?

If the answer is no, then it will be more effective to loan this book. If there are sections that are critical to you for use as references you can come up with novel solutions. Using a scanner, or printer you can create a copy of the sections you want. One that you can write on, take notes, on and highlight. Staple it together, hole punch it, and put i in your folder/binder for later use. ***Label these print-outs so that if you need to you can find the book again.

If the answer is yes, be sure you read it/skim it so that  you really know, reading some of the passages my reveal to you if you should even consider getting this book. Never judge a book by its cover. If it covers the kinds of subjects/topic you need effectively (I mean effectively that you will regularly use it). It may be one to bring in as part of the toolkit.

2.  Is this the cheapest I can get this for?

Don’t buy at the first place you go take the time to shop around. There are plenty of places to get this books and you may save a lot of money doing it.

Abebooks

Alibris

Amazon

Amazon Smile (donate to your favorite charity while you shop)

Barnes & Noble

Ebay

Local Bookstore(New & Used)

Thrift/Second-Hand Store

There are many other places I am sure that I am not referencing but, these are just a couple of places that come to mind. All vary in prices, available stock, and quality of stores. Be on the look out for books that go on clearance or sales and discounts. Be sure to write down the ISBN, Title and Author to track down these books later. ISBN is the most important while the Title and Author can be used to track down information and as confirmation. 

What is an ISBN and how to use it.

The International Standard Book Number, or ISBN for 10-13 digit ID unique to each book. This number is used by publishers, booksellers (new and used), as well libraries. If you don’t have a title or author but the ISBN you are almost guaranteed to find this book. It is the like book’s dog-tags. There are two systems in currently, ISBN 10 and 13. The only difference is ISBN 10 was utilized until DEC 2006, and ISBN 13 is used from JAN 2007 to present. As the name implies this is an ‘INTERNATIONAL’ standard which, means that it is a global identifier for the book. Additionally ISBNs are placed on other forms of media including e-Books! The ISBN #  is located on the back of the book above/below the bar-code or within the book on the same page as you will find the publishing data.

Need proof? Search this ISBN in a search engine and tell me what you get. I will personally respond telling you if you got it right.

                                       ISBN (10): 1-58297-312-1

 ***NOTE: This is a book a recommend getting your hands on.

Digital (E-books) v. Analog (Physical Copies)

This is the last section of this Entry. Here we will go over the advantages and disadvantages of two formats of books, E-books or physical copies.

Price: One of the greatest disadvantages to new physical copies of literature or any other media is the cost. Physical editions can some times cost x2-x5 more that the E-book copy. You get more bang for your buck with E-books which won’t come to you with damages, or missing pages if you are trying to thrifty and buy used. You could get 3-10 e-books vs  one or two high-end physical copies. The only disadvantage to E-books is that you will need at least a computer which can reads e-books, or a ‘reader’ (i.e. Nook or Kindle, etc.). This can be a steep cost. My personal Kindle cost me about 600 USD for 64GB and, thankfully it was a gift for school. You will also need to invest in accessories, such as charging cables, power blocks (for on the go), cases and screen-protectors (A MUST WITH THIS KIND OF EXPENSE).

Accessibility: Both tend to be fairly accessible, you can carry a book anywhere with you, at any time of day. The same can be an e-book reader but, an ‘reader’ can carry more than one book without getting heavier. However, a physical copy doesn’t require you to have access to a cloud where a ‘reader’ may require it to function for getting books from your library. Also, battery life. You have a limited amount of time to use a ‘reader’ compared to a book. So long as you have a light source you can read physical book. This isn’t the case with a ‘reader’, and if you forget to charge it then you are out of luck till you can.

Utility: With both, you can highlight and bookmark pages but, you may not be able to write physical notes, simplifying or explaining passages within e-book readers. This is where a physical book shines. If you are not adverse to adding notes to the pages of books you purchased (understandably some are reluctant to do so...I sometimes am as well), it can make it easier than having to re-read entire passages every time you need to look it up.

Storage: Books are lovely to have but, they take up space and you need shelves, lots of shelves. Additionally books are stupid heavy and if you need to move. It is a pain to haul a box of books, especially if you filled on large box in an attempt to save boxes and money (I have done this before). You also need sturdy shelves and they need to be safe from water. While a ‘reader’ also needs to be kept safe from water, storage will not be as imperative. With a large enough Micro SD, USB, or Hard drive you can have tens of books without needing invest in additional storage space or the hardware that comes with it. An entire library could be at your finger tips.

These are just some of the things to consider when you start gather up your own little horde of books that can remain at home with you. Thursday I will post a list of general books I believe that you should have as part of your psychical Toolkit. Additionally I will post an example of all the books that I use for my fantasy writing, were I got them, cost, and of course the title, author, and ISBN for everything. That way if people want they can track down these books for themselves also. 

[mysticdragonkid]

Premiere Pro Cs4 Download

Adobe Premiere Pro is part of these download collections: Video Editors, Edit MP4, Edit 3GP, Edit MPEG. Adobe Premiere Pro was reviewed by Elena Opris. If you purchased from the web, you will also be given a download link specifically for the Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro CS4 installer. Download those files to a folder on your computer and double click on the.exe. The files will self-extract and the installer will launch automatically.

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With the release of macOS 10.13 High Sierra, you’re probably wondering whether your Adobe software will work in the new Mac operating system.

With every macOS upgrade, full information about compatibility is typically not available on the day the new system is released or even shortly after. More information emerges over time, especially as Apple, Adobe, and other software developers test with the final public release and produce updates with fixes. I’ll update this article as new information comes out.

If you use your Mac to run a business or another activity where you can’t afford to lose productivity, do not upgrade to High Sierra until you’ve made plans to fully recover your previous configuration if things don’t work out. (That applies to any operating system upgrade on any device.) Wait until you are confident that all of your software and hardware is compatible, then back up everything, then upgrade.

To make the best use of my time and yours, I focus on verified reports or reports acknowledged by Adobe, and generally avoid repeating random anecdotes. But I do mention my own experiences.

The next section is about recent Creative Cloud versions. If you’re looking for information about older versions, jump to:

Official statements and verified reports

Note: On October 18, 2017, Adobe announced the 2018 release of Creative Cloud applications and made them available for download. These are the most compatible with High Sierra.

Adobe typically publishes compatibility information after they have had a chance to test with the version actually released to the public, so expect this section to be updated over time. Here is what’s known so far:

High Sierra compatibility FAQ

Adobe has posted a document covering High Sierra compatibility with Adobe Creative Cloud applications in general (macOS High Sierra (10.13) compatibility FAQ Creative Cloud). It links to a number of application-specific documents which I’ve also linked to below.

Adobe Photoshop

The Photoshop team posted the document Photoshop and High Sierra macOS 10.13 listing the issues they’re aware of.

If the High Sierra upgrade converted your boot volume’s file system to the new APFS file system, in Photoshop CC 2017 or earlier you won’t be able to assign your boot volume as a scratch disk in the Scratch Disks section of the Preferences dialog box. This is fixed in the 2018 release of Photoshop CC.

For Photoshop CC 2017 or earlier, if you have an HFS+ volume mounted, such as a partition or external drive, you can still assign that. Just keep in mind that a scratch disk should be both large and fast. Even though the list of scratch drives is blank in Preferences, Photoshop doesn’t display an error, and continues to work. There’s also a Scratch Disk settings dialog box you can pop up by pressing the Command and Option keys as Photoshop starts up; that does list an APFS boot drive (as Startup, not as its volume name) and appears to allow it there. This may mean Photoshop is able to use the APFS boot drive anyway, but isn’t reporting it properly in the Scratch Disks section of the Preferences dialog box. It is unlikely that this will be fixed for versions of Photoshop earlier than CC 2018.

Adobe Lightroom Classic CC

The Lightroom team has posted a compatibility document (Lightroom and High Sierra macOS v10.13). However, it lists only one issue; to see other issues discovered and being discussed visit the official Lightroom Classic CC Feedback page. If you are running Lightroom 1–5, you may also want to review the Adobe compatibility document for macOS Sierra (Lightroom and Sierra macOS 10.12), because older versions of Lightroom have several known compatibility problems with macOS 10.12 Sierra and later.

Victoria Bampton (the “Lightroom Queen”) also has information (Lightroom and macOS High Sierra Compatibility), about current and older versions of Lightroom. Some of the issues may be fixed in Lightroom Classic CC.

Some Lightroom presets may fail to sort in alphabetical order in High Sierra; Adobe has acknowledged this issue at feedback.photoshop.com. This is at least partially fixed in Lightroom 6.13 and in Lightroom Classic CC (7).

For a few users (not all), Lightroom 6/CC 2015 crashes on launch in High Sierra. Some have been able to resolve this by adjusting permissions on the Lightroom application folder.

The panel and filmstrip areas may black out at times. This is apparently related to macOS graphics issues. macOS 10.13.2 should fix most of the occurrences, and for other versions the Lightroom team has attempted to work around the problem as much as possible. To best avoid the problem, Adobe says:

…make sure your macOS is updated to at least macOS Sierra 10.12 and at least Lightroom Classic 7.0 or Lightroom 6.13. The best combo to avoid this issue is being on macOS High Sierra 10.13 and Lightroom Classic 7.1 or Lightroom 6.13. The team has worked pretty hard with Apple to get this issue to stop appearing with macOS Sierra 10.12 and macOS High Sierra 10.13. Improvements were made in 10.12 and iterated upon for 10.13.

Adobe Illustrator CC 2017

The Illustrator team posted a compatibility document (Illustrator and High Sierra). It lists issues with APFS, color management default settings, and GPU rendering. Some of those problems are fixed in the 2018 release of Adobe Illustrator CC.

Adobe InDesign CC 2017

The InDesign team has posted a compatibility document (InDesign and High Sierra compatibility).

There was a widely reported visual problem with the mouse pointer in Adobe InDesign on High Sierra. Investigation by Adobe and Apple revealed this to be an Apple bug. It’s fixed in the macOS 10.13 Supplemental Update which became available on October 5, 2017. Install it from the Mac App Store, Updates tab; or from the link above.

Adobe Premiere Pro

While there’s no published document about High Sierra compatibility that I know of, an Adobe representative said, in a post on the Adobe Forums:

I talked to product management. You should be good to go with macOS High Sierra right now. As an editor, I would not change the OS if I was in the middle of an important project, however.

While not specific to High Sierra, one issue that may affect Mac users is that in Premiere Pro CC 12.1 or later, Adobe no longer supports Apple QuickTime 7 era codecs that were deprecated by Apple back in 2013. However, those codecs still turn up in a lot of places so people (like me) are finding problems with those clips may no longer work properly in Premiere Pro. The only workaround at this time is to use the Creative Cloud desktop application to uninstall Premiere Pro CC 12.1 and reinstall version 12.0.1.

Adobe After Effects

The After Effects team has posted a compatibility document (Known issues in After Effects CC (15.1)).

Older versions of Adobe software (CS3–CS6)

Adobe software older than the Creative Cloud (CC) versions are not officially supported on macOS 10.13 High Sierra. That doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t work; it just means that if those old versions have any new issues related to macOS 10.13 High Sierra, there won’t be any updates to address them (in other words, the only version with the High Sierra fixes will be the current version).

I have upgraded my test Mac to the release version of High Sierra. Based on some quick tests I did, Adobe applications before CS6 do not run as smoothly as they did in earlier versions of macOS/OS X. The CS3–CS5 applications seem particularly risky to me.

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There are more hoops to jump through to get the installers to work (see below), and I’m having trouble getting some installers to accept serial numbers they accepted in Sierra. While I can install and run Photoshop CS3 and CS4, some of the older CS3/CS4 applications like Illustrator and InDesign aren’t starting up properly for me. CS5 applications run better, but some were crashing after I quit normally. High Sierra is the first macOS version where I really think it’s time for CS3–CS5 users to move on; the code in CS3 is a decade old at this point.

Photoshop CS3 can at least install and start up in macOS 10.13 High Sierra.

Adobe doesn’t test older (pre-Creative Cloud) software for compatibility because covering all of the features for multiple older versions would require extensive testing, and I also don’t have time to verify everything from importing to editing to printing. If you still depend on those old versions for serious production or need information about a specific feature (especially “does it work with my printer/tablet/scanner etc.”), you need to set up a test system to verify your workflow on High Sierra before upgrading your production system (see How to test macOS 10.13 High Sierra yourself below). And if your tests determine that your programs won’t run well under High Sierra but you want to upgrade, consider maintaining a system on a spare hard drive or partition just to run an older version of macOS for those applications.

Many older applications have problems in High Sierra simply because over the years, Apple has changed so much of the code in OS X/macOS. Even Apple’s own professional software is affected; older versions of Apple Final Cut Pro, Motion, Compressor, Logic Pro, and MainStage won’t run in High Sierra (see About Apple Pro Apps and macOS High Sierra).

With that in mind, here are some notes about getting older Adobe software to run in High Sierra.

Installing and activating older Adobe software on High Sierra

As in Sierra and earlier, older Adobe applications are able to launch only after you run the Apple installer for Java for OS X 2015-001. If you see the alert below, clicking More Info takes you directly to the Apple download page for that software. Java for OS X 2015-001 isn’t the most current version of Java for Mac, so be aware that installing it may introduce incompatibilities or security vulnerabilities.

Be prepared to uninstall and reinstall if needed. Adobe applications were already installed when I upgraded my test Mac to High Sierra. After the upgrade, some older Adobe applications had licensing errors. I was able to fix these by uninstalling and reinstalling those applications, and the lesson here is to always make sure you have all of the information you need (such as license keys or registration numbers) to reinstall any of your key software. You may also need to reset Adobe licensing files on your Mac (see Registration servers, update servers, and activation servers below).

If you can’t find your old Adobe installers, you may be able to download them from a page on the Adobe web site (Adobe software and other downloads) which has links to many older versions of Adobe Creative Suite applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator, along with Lightroom and more.

macOS Gatekeeper may prevent older Adobe installers or software from starting: Gatekeeper is an Apple security feature (added in Mountain Lion) that helps prevent malicious applications from running. If you run Adobe installers or software released before Gatekeeper, you should know what to do if Gatekeeper prevents Adobe software from starting. Adobe covers that in this tech note: Error “has not been signed by a recognized distributor” Launch Adobe applications Mac OS. The short answer is to bypass the error by right-clicking the application icon, then choose Open from the context menu. Depending on the Mac you use, instead of right-clicking you can also Control-click, or if you have a trackpad set up for two-finger secondary click you can do it that way instead.

“Installer Failed to Initialize” error, or installer failing to run. Some Adobe installers may fail to launch silently, or with the error “We’ve encountered the following issue. Installer failed to initialize. This could be due to a missing file. Please download Adobe Support Advisor to detect the problem.”

Unfortunately, Adobe Support Advisor no longer exists, but there is an immediate workaround that should get the installer going:

Right-click (or Control-click) the installer and choose Show Package Contents.

In the Install window that opens in the Finder, go to the Contents/MacOS folder, and in there, double-click Install. That will open the Terminal application, some lines of code will automatically run, and the actual Installer should successfully launch.

Make a note of this workaround, because any pre-CC installers are unlikely to be updated.

The error message is documented in an Adobe help page:Installing Creative Suite on macOS 10.12 (Sierra). But I found that the same workaround helped when the Photoshop CS3 installer silently failed after I double-clicked it.

Registration servers, update servers, and activation servers. If you get a message saying that a registration or update server is not available in an old Adobe application, that won’t stop the application itself from working so it’s not much of a concern. However, being unable to reach an activation server may keep an application in a trial period with an expiration date. If you’re trying to install a CS3 application, you will probably need to get a new serial number that doesn’t require activation, because Adobe retired the activation server. You can get that at this Adobe page: Activation or connection error CS3, Acrobat 8. For help with Adobe licensing and activation problems, see the Adobe help pages Activation and deactivation troubleshooting and Troubleshoot activation limit reached or sign-in failed errors.

Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS2) compatibility

There is no way to run Adobe CS2 software on macOS 10.13 High Sierra. The only option is to use a newer version of the software.

The question of CS2 compatibility comes up during every recent Mac system upgrade. Some users moving up from older Macs running 10.6.8 or earlier to new Macs with the latest OS version may still be using the Creative Suite 2 (CS2) version of Adobe software, such as Adobe Photoshop CS2. As with the last several major Mac system upgrades, macOS 10.13 High Sierra requires that software be written for the Intel processors that have been running Macs for over 10 years. But CS2 applications were written for the PowerPC processors that ran older Macs. The last version of Mac OS X to run PowerPC software was OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.

Other ways High Sierra may affect Adobe software

A few more changes in High Sierra have potential implications for Adobe users.

APFS (Apple File System)

The file system is the part of the OS that keeps track of all your files. This is such a fundamental function that when that changes, there is great potential for big problems if the transition isn’t handled 100% properly. High Sierra is built on top of the new Apple File System (APFS), which is designed around security, reliability, and the ability to work across macOS, iOS, tvOS and watchOS. APFS will eventually replace the decades-old HFS+, but for now, High Sierra can work with APFS or HFS+.

If your Mac’s system volume is on a solid-state drive (SSD), the High Sierra installer converts its file system to APFS; this is not optional. At this time, upgrading to High Sierra will not convert system volumes based on hard drives or Fusion drives, but that’s expected to happen in a later release.

I haven’t had obvious problems installing or using older Adobe software on the APFS volume that’s created by default, but some of the random glitches I’ve seen in CS3–CS5 applications may be related to APFS. Some Adobe features that involve a folder or drive location (such as the scratch disk feature of Photoshop) may not work properly with APFS. Also, the Illustrator CC tech note linked above notes errors you may encounter related to APFS.

When APFS was originally made available to developers for testing, it was case-sensitive. This raised concerns about Adobe application compatibility because most Adobe installers do not work on case-sensitive file systems. But during the beta period, Apple developed a case-insensitive version of APFS, and that is the version that the final installer for High Sierra uses when it converts a boot volume to APFS. Maybe that’s why many old and current Adobe installers still work in High Sierra.

If you have trouble using a feature that interacts with the file system, it could be related to an incompatibility with APFS.

HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format)

Apple added support for the HEIF format in High Sierra. One reason is because it uses less space to save photos at the same quality level as JPEG. Because HEIF is a container format, it can use a single document to store image-related data such as the burst sequences captured by smartphones for animations, focus stacking, and exposure stacking, as well as extra channels and metadata — in other words, it’s a great way to store Live Photos, HDR images, and the depth map from an iPhone camera.

The 2018 release of Photoshop CC adds support for HEIF; this requires macOS 10.13 High Sierra. Specifically, you can load an HEIF depth map into the Lens Blur filter. Lightroom Classic CC 7.4 also adds HEIF support.

HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) and H.265

HEVC/H.265 provides more efficient encoding of high resolution video than today’s H.264 standard, especially for 4K resolution and up. HEVC can cut video file size by half without losing perceptible quality. My understanding is that Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Media Encoder, and other Adobe video applications already have support for HEVC/H.265.

Even if you have the software to encode/decode HEVC/H.265, you also need fast enough hardware because it’s very processor-intensive. Older Macs can’t handle it, but the processors in newer Macs and iOS devices have hardware acceleration for HEVC/H.265 and HEIF.

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External GPU support

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In macOS 10.13.4, Apple added support for external graphics processing units, called external GPUs or eGPUs. The idea is that you put a powerful graphics card inside a box and connect it to your Mac using Thunderbolt, and that upgrades the graphics capabilities of your Mac.

Some applications may not support an eGPU automatically, so if there is an application that you’re especially interested in accelerating with an eGPU, contact the developer to see if their application fully supports an eGPU. At this time, there is no official word from Adobe on which applications work with an eGPU or when compatibility updates will be available. Also, be aware that some eGPU solutions can accelerate only an external display.

eGPU support should help address a big complaint about Macs: You can’t upgrade the graphics hardware of any Mac, unless it’s a Mac Pro. But with an eGPU, you can. The reason eGPUs are practical now is because of the data capacity and throughput that’s finally possible with Thunderbolt 3. It’s enough to smoothly drive a large display at a high resolution.

While Apple was probably driven to add eGPU support to address the needs of augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) developers, eGPUs should open up more graphics acceleration options for photographers, designers, and video editors. For example, instead of having to buy a 15-inch MacBook Pro just to get discrete graphics, you should be able to carry a thin, light 13-inch MacBook Pro around town, and then back at the office plug it into an external GPU that gives it a graphics card more powerful than anything found on a laptop.

Phasing out support for 32-bit applications

Quickbooks 2005 crack serial keygen download. Apple has said that High Sierra is the last version of macOS that will run 32-bit applications “without compromise.” (They may still run in macOS 10.14 Mojave, which Apple has confirmed as the last version of macOS that will run 32-bit applications at all, but Apple won’t promise an optimal experience with them.) Most Mac applications have been written for 64-bit processing for some time now, so if your applications are up to date you may not have any issues here. But if you’ve been holding on to some old 32-bit applications for as long as possible, you won’t be able to run them in the macOS upgrade that comes after High Sierra.

How do you know if you’re running 32-bit applications? Click the Apple menu, choose About This Mac, and click System Report. Now, in the System Information window that opens, click the Applications category, and then (after a slight delay on some systems) look for the 64-Bit (Intel) column. On smaller displays you might need to scroll the list to the right.

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To find out if all your software is 64-bit compatible, check the Applications section in System Information.

How to test macOS 10.13 High Sierra yourself

64-bit

While online compatibility lists are useful, the advice of others can only go so far because it may not reveal problems related to the specific combination of applications and hardware you use. A better way is to test the new macOS upgrade yourself. But be careful: You want to test the new OS without compromising your current working production system, and you have to pay attention to licensing and activation issues. To understand how to do that, read another article I’ve written: How to test a macOS upgrade with your Adobe software

Wondering what High Sierra is all about?

For the most in-depth review you’ll probably find anywhere, read the macOS 10.13 High Sierra review at Ars Technica. As with every major release of the Mac operating system, the Ars Technica review not only evaluates the visible features that Apple promotes, but goes under the surface to explain changes to some of the underlying technologies in macOS and how they affect your Mac experience.

As usual, I will probably wait a few months to upgrade my production Mac to High Sierra. That will give Apple, Adobe, and other developers to release any necessary updates needed to make everything work smoothly together.

This article was originally posted on September 25, 2017 but continues to be updated as new information emerges.

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Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Overview

Adobe Premiere Pro is an imposing video editing application which can be used for enhancing the videos professionally. Adobe Premiere Pro has got a very illustrious history when it comes to video editing. This impressive video editing application is used by the broadcasting giants like CNN and BBC etc. Adobe Premiere Pro has come up in many versions since its 1st release and the one we are reviewing today is Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. You can also download Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 has got many worth-mentioning innovations and the most important one of them is that it supports AVHCD files and it has also radically changed the way it outputs. It has got a Speech Recognition feature and it has also got Transcribe button located at the bottom of the user interface. By pressing the Transcribe button the audio tracks will be analyzed and will be converted into text. Various different effects can be applied on multiple clips present in your timeline. All in all Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is an imposing application which can eb used for editing your videos efficiently. You can also download Adobe After Effects CS5.

Features of Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

Below are some noticeable features which you’ll experience after Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 free download.

Impressive video editing application which can be used for enhancing the videos.

Used by the broadcasting giants CNN and BBC etc.

Supports AHVCD files and changed the way it outputs.

Got a Speech Recognition feature.

Got Transcribe button located at the bottom of the interface.

Can analyze the audio tracks and convert them into text.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Technical Setup Details

Software Full Name: Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Download Free

Setup File Name: Adobe_Premiere_Pro_CS4_Final.zip

Full Setup Size: 1.2 GB

Setup Type: Offline Installer / Full Standalone Setup

Compatibility Architecture: 32 Bit (x86) / 64 Bit (x64)

Latest Version Release Added On: 10th Dec 2017

Developers: Adobe

System Requirements For Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

Before you start Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 free download, make sure your PC meets minimum system requirements.

Operating System: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10

Memory (RAM): 2 GB of RAM required.

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Processor: 2 GHz Intel Pentium processor or later.

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Dragnet - Ch2- The Detective

Hello. Here’s the second chapter of Dragnet. A million flowers and thanks to @lucidink for helping me edit. 

Chapter 2 – The Detective

 An open book rested on his chest as the first rays of dawn filtered through the blinds, stealing him from the elusive and vacillating hours of sleep. He laid in absolute stillness—the hand over the book��dressed in tailored pants, a white shirt and a slightly loosened tie; a posture that to any outsider would resemble that of a dead man in his funerary and elegant tranquility.

But he did open his eyes, and dreams about cases, numbers and suspicions dissipated from his view and memory. Just as he had conquered (through relentless forbiddance against what he perceived to be his faults) the crags of rigorous discipline—that is, through a carefully designed routine that allotted brains and muscle the time and energy demanded, needed—the trivial merited the same type of sharpness and obsessive precision. Setting the book aside, he stood and fixed the wrinkles on the covers of his bed. The bedroom’s décor was minimalistic: a bed, bare walls, an old sofa and a nightstand to hold books and cigarettes.

Like most mornings, he went to the kitchen to prepare himself a modest breakfast and ate while watching the MWPSB sanctioned news on a holographic screen.

So, they decided to keep the media in the dark about the case, he thought, when a commercial for hue-clearing vitamins interrupted his train of thought.

After putting the kitchen back to its tidy state, he headed for the other room in his apartment. As a detective, he had become aware early on of the paradoxical nature of his job; at once rigid and fluid; requiring a sharp memory and an ability to forget. He had wondered back then—when he was younger—if he’d ever be able to develop what Masaoka called a “detective’s intuition.” Not the habit to predict that hindered so many inspectors, but the ability to smell and to follow that smell.

The door opened to a smaller room with a desk and three tall bookcases replete with paper books. On the wall hung a large board with notes and drawings—spirals, waves, lines—over pictures, names, numbers, coordinates and maps. He sat at the desk where stacks of files stood in irregular towers. Other documents were placed carefully on the floor in a calculated arrangement, discernible only to him. When he managed to find free time or in his off days, he’d sit to read on a cushioned green seat nestled between the shelves: it was his favorite place in the apartment.

It was as though this room held what he rarely allowed himself out of it: the pangs and sparks of random inspiration, the license to be more visceral than rational for a while and, even at times, the short flashes of madness that came with lucidity. Doubtless, it was his discipline that kept that chimera controlled and his Psycho-Pass clean: he could dwell without letting his thoughts seize him and drag him down.

Many of the paper books he owned—most well-thumbed; the oldest failing to hold together—had come from his father and grandparents’ library. Even though he never met his father, he could piece the man together, the ghost of him, by sorting through his literary collection, the only legacy left of him. But most of his collection had come through Sasayama and his connections (to whom or what, he didn’t care to know): random titles—both local and translated to Japanese—that told stories in more ways than words. There was the big fat dictionary with different dates scribbled on its end papers (the oldest one dating to 2015); the mystery novel that had pages chewed off by some animal and the love dedications written on poetry books with aging pages. What surprised him the most was the notion that there was still a market for such rarities, not only virtually obsolete, but the type that could cloud your hue.

Patiently, he began to study the files; his personal observations for the cases of the MWPSB. Soon after, it was time to shower and head to work.

-

“We’re back where we started. The suspect says she was given hue-clearing drugs and sent to work at a factory for a measly salary. She’s an unregistered and latent criminal. There’s no lead as to who the seller is and there’s no match for the name she gave us.” Ginoza summarized in a humdrum tone, impatient with the delay of the closing in this case.

“Five days after she was taken into custody, the body of an unregistered man was found in a small textile factory in a different part of the city. The cause of death is still to be determined, but—” Kogami clicked a button and a picture of the holo projection of the body appeared on the screen, “the open sores found around his neck and his bloated extremities point to a reaction to a certain type of chemical ingested. We still haven’t determined if it’s an adverse reaction to the drug. As for the woman, it doesn’t make sense that if she was up to her ears in illegal hue-clearing drugs, her Psycho-Pass would suddenly cloud. There must be something we’re overlooking.”

“What you’re overlooking here is that the drugs she was given may have been counterfeit,” Sasayama muttered through his teeth, trying to lit up his cigarette.

“Sasayama! Didn’t I tell you not to smoke here?”

“Okay, okay, Gino-san! Calm down, will ya? Don’t want to kill your little cactus with those pitch-dark vibes of yours,” Sasayama replied, a little startled by the loud reprimand, putting out the cigarette.

“If the drugs are counterfeit, then how do you explain the fact that she worked undetected for a whole month? As soon as she’d come out of the abolition block the cymatic scanners would’ve detected her,” Kogami countered.

“There’s two possibilities: the sellers use a hook dose that’s effective temporarily, then replace the dose with a counterfeit. Or, second, the drugs have some sort of expiration date that renders them useless after a while.” Sasayama replied, with his usual overconfident satisfaction, smirking.

“But what’s the point of selling drugs that don’t work?” Kogami asked.

“That’s the question, Ko.” Sasayama said, smile wide now. “I’m sure from the business point of view there must be something to be gained.”

Kogami held his chin in his hand, deep in thought. But it doesn’t make sense, even from the business point of view.

“Don’t think so hard, Inspector. Your Psycho-Pass may cloud,” Yayoi softly told Kogami. “Also, there’s still the matter of how these drugs are being transported undetected to different places in the city and if there are additional unauthorized people working elsewhere. And we don’t even have a sample of the drug to have Shion analyze it.”

“If people realize that unregistered or illegal aliens are working alongside them, it could cause a Psycho-hazard. Not to mention the fact that most of them may be latent criminals. Hordes of criminals could be walking the streets amongst healthy citizens.” Ginoza turned to look at the screen behind him. On it, there was the image of a woman in her forties, sitting in an interrogation room, still dressed in the factory uniform. Her hands were wringing her shirt nervously and she appeared distressed. “Still, let’s not rule out that the defect in the drug could be a mistake on the part of the manufacturers.”

“Could be. But even if that’s true, there’s still an organization that’s in the business of drugging unregistered people and putting them to work or even killing them,” Masaoka said, receiving in reply a glacial stare from his son.

“We checked the logs of the factory and they followed the hiring protocol. Since her Psycho-Pass was clear, they didn’t pay attention to some irregularities, like her birth date. I don’t think we’ll get much more than that since the Ministry of Economy isn’t willing to cooperate,” Ginoza said.

Let’s focus then on the possible routes they’re using to transport the drugs between abolition blocks. Look for reports of hues suddenly clouding and transpose them onto the city map for now,” Kogami ordered.

By force of habit, in stressful days like this one—days in which they could not even say they were stalemate, since no opponent or game had been identified—Kogami and Sasayama ended up having a smoke in the balcony of their floor. The golden city around them shone as the sunset mirrored on the buildings circumambient. It almost seemed like this city could never be dark.

“So, what’s new with you, Ko?” Sasayama asked casually, attempting to have a talk that carried some semblance of levity, after a whole afternoon of grim faces.  

“I was just thinking…” Kogami said, taking a drag while hunching over the glass panel of the balustrade, “it’s evident that they wouldn’t risk moving the drugs on the streets of the city, even if they were using the drug themselves. It’s too unstable and their hues could suddenly cloud. If they know about the side effects, that’s even a bigger reason not to use them.” Sasayama rolled his eyes hearing him speak. “You know, on the night I lost my dominator I met—”

“Oh, you’re still on that? All we’ve achieved so far with these underground crackdowns is stir up the pot for a bunch of maladjusted teenagers and crash their little parties. But we may have found new rave enforcer material, for sure!” He grinned mischievously. “Don’t tell Kunizuka that I said that. She already wants to murder me.”

“And we didn’t find any trace of the drug,” Kogami continued, still engrossed in his thoughts.

“True, but we found lots of alcohol that got confiscated and are probably being consumed by old man Masaoka as we speak, the undefeated champion of the ancient game of ‘elbow-raising,’ if you know what I mean,” he said, half-laughing.

Kogami was finally dragged out of his thoughts.

“Don’t worry, he’ll call when he’s ready to share his loot. He always does anyway.” He snickered, amused.

“Yeah, but you stopped joining us after that night.” He looked at him from the corner of his eye, his wide grin biting the cigarette in his mouth. “The fateful night in the enforcers’ lounge when you got so drunk you were slurring your words and tried to wrestle me because I beat you at Mahjong.”

“Because you cheated,” Kogami replied in a serious tone, exhaling smoke.

“And the arguing with old Masaoka about women, and beauty and death and all that nonsense? You two wouldn’t shut up!” he laughed. “I’d never peg you for the philosophical yet violent type of drunk.”

“You won’t ever let me forget it,” he muttered in a low complain, averting his eyes.

“Don’t worry, you are a karaoke legend now in the enforcers’ lounge. After all, it did take three men to rip the microphone off your paws and even after that, they were terrified that you might bite them!” Sasayama was now bending over the balustrade, laughing shamelessly.

“And you still expect me to come back?” Kogami said, red in the face but it was unclear if from embarrassment or irritation. “Forget it. I’m never drinking again.”

“Don’t blame the alcohol, Ko. Sake is one of those poisons that makes you dance on the line between lucidity and foolishness. It’s your own fault you went down the path of foolishness.”

“Says the person who ended up throwing up in the bathroom,” Kogami sneered.

“Well, when it comes to my vices, I can’t help but be foolish. I’m… what do you call it? A hedonist. I live for sake and—“

“Women. Yeah, we’ve heard it all before a thousand times. Half the time getting shitfaced and the other half getting slapped by the women you supposedly revere,” Kogami said, trying to bite back.

“Supposedly? Okay, now this is personal. One day, Kogami Shinya, you will understand! All your drunk talk about beauty and women is nothing but abstract cynicism that you use to keep people at bay; crap you’ve read in your books,” Sasayama said, and even though both knew he was teasing, there was an unmistakable sting in his words.

“You’re crossing the line, Enforcer.” Now Kogami was pissed off. He put out his cigarette and threw it in the garbage can, walking away.

“Hey! You’re still the most liked Inspector of Division 1!” Sasayama shouted to him as the glass doors closed. Kogami gave him a sarcastic thumbs-up gesture without looking back.

“Shit. I always hit his sore spots without meaning to,” Sasayama mused with a shrug, unconcerned.

Leaning back on the chair of his station, arms on the back of his head and a cigarette in his mouth, Kogami Shinya was absorbedly staring at his computer screen. Everyone had already left and, though he was tired, he knew that if he went home he wouldn’t catch any sleep. A map of the city of Tokyo flashed back at him from the screen.

Illegal hue-clearing drugs sold to unregistered latent criminals wanting to work. Two cases in different parts of the city seemingly related to the drug. Worked for months… but then their Psycho-Pass clouded. The drugs stopped working. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have loyal consumers than kill them with the product? That sure throws whatever prospects of new customers out of the window. This doesn’t appear to be the classical drug crime confined to the abolition blocks either.

The face of a young woman talking about tunnels appeared in his mind.

“This is a tunnel that hasn’t been mapped yet.”

He sat up on his chair.

It would make sense for the sellers to use the old tunnels to transport the drugs. That woman was familiar with the tunnels and understood the marks on the floor; maybe even made them herself.

He typed some words into his computer and the website for the MLIT blinked in front of him.

Those old structures stopped being used more than 25 years ago as the city went an infrastructural remodeling under the Toyohisa construction company per commission of the MLIT. According to the company, those tunnels have been perpetually closed or destroyed. No common citizen, even less someone in an abolition block would have access to that information. Unless the old tunnels weren’t destroyed and someone was…mapping them out for criminal use.

The face of the girl was becoming more and more vivid in his mind.

What was her name? Could she be involved with…?

He brought his hand to his forehead and closed his eyes to recall what he saw before she kicked his dominator.

 Tsu…Tsugawa… no. Tsubaki? Tsumita? Tsu… Tsu…

He remembered those incandescent golden-brown eyes, staring at him with anger.

“Tsunemori!” He spat out loud, typing away in his computer.

“Tsunemori. Age 20 to 24. Female. Short. Dark hair.”

He skimmed through various pictures in the citizen database of Sibyl. Quickly scrolling through blonde, brunette, long haired, freckled women until, finally, there was her.

Or at least, someone that looked like her.

No, it was her. As he remembered: short brown hair and two locks falling along her cheeks framing a pale face. But her countenance was decidedly different; softer, even innocent. The faint trace of a smile still rested on her lips, as if someone had said something amusing seconds before snapping the picture. The sparkle in her brown eyes held something delightful, hopeful.

Her doe-eyed look would certainly fool him on a different day, had he not been on the receiving end of her fierceness. Her profile read:

Tsunemori, Akane. Age 22 Graduated from Hongou Higher Education. 2112. Currently employed at Fioira Restaurant. Roppongi.

 Wait, this punk works at a restaurant in broad daylight?

Her boot brushed the dusty wooden floor while her body laid suspended in a hammock in a dim shop. A small monkey eating a piece of fruit sat on her stomach as she played with its hair, captivated by the animal—a real one, not a drone pet. In the corners of the room, old artifacts in disuse laid accumulated in random piles that could fall at the slam of a door. The only thing suggesting that this was something akin to a shop, were the two run-down barber chairs with peeling leather cushions and the old mirrors facing them, so old, that you’d think you were looking at yourself as through a thin fog.

“Well, you look much better than the last time I saw you,” Tanaka-san said as he entered his shop, sending a serious glance at the intruder romancing his monkey.

He was a bald old man with a few unruly wisps of white hair hanging from behind his ears; he had the habit of licking his fingers and stroking them to set them down. Dressed in an odd attire—something not uncommon to those living in abolition blocks—he wore sweatpants and sneakers under a dilapidated kimono that had been feasted on by hungry moths.

He unrolled a piece of cloth over a small table and began to organize his tools: the straight razor, the comb, the shave brush, the scissors. He cleaned the relics in the same ceremonial fashion that Akane had seen in those who, anachronistic and useless in Sibyl’s world, strived to preserve a sort of pride in their bygone knowledge.

“Well, I can’t be sad forever, right? Also, Salsa makes me happy,” she answered to his concern, her finger caressing behind the ear of the little monkey who hooted agreeably.

“You should know, that monkey eats better than me nowadays,” the old man said, glaring at the hairy face that stared at him, chewing open-mouthed.

“No worries, Tanaka-San. I also brought something for you.”

She moved her hip to grab the container on her side and the monkey quickly gobbled up what was left of his fruit, hoping to be treated to this banquet too, raising his arms to make a reservation.

“No, Salsa! This is for me!” the old man quickly snatched the container, hiding it from the monkey.

“The best ramen in all of Tokyo!” Akane said eagerly, hoping to reanimate the spirits of the grim old man. She stretched her arm to retrieve the fruit container from a chair and gave another piece to Salsa.

“So, is Ryota coming or what?” the old man said, taking out his metal chopsticks from a drawer and sitting down to eat.

“Yeah, he should be here soon.”

“Good. There’s a group of unregistered that needs to be moved.”

[ladystylestores]

TikTok and 53 other iOS apps still snoop your sensitive clipboard data

In March, researchers uncovered a troubling privacy grab by more than four dozen iOS apps including TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media and video-sharing phenomenon that has taken the Internet by storm. Despite TikTok vowing to curb the practice, it continues to access some of Apple users’ most sensitive data, which can include passwords, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, account-reset links, and personal messages. Another 53 apps identified in March haven’t stopped either.

The privacy invasion is the result of the apps repeatedly reading any text that happens to reside in clipboards, which computers and other devices use to store data that has been cut or copied from things like password managers and email programs. With no clear reason for doing so, researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk found, the apps deliberately called an iOS programming interface that retrieves text from users’ clipboards.

Universal snooping

In many cases, the covert reading isn’t limited to data stored on the local device. In the event the iPhone or iPad uses the same Apple ID as other Apple devices and are within roughly 10 feet of each other, all of them share a universal clipboard, meaning contents can be copied from the app of one device and pasted into an app running on a separate device.

That leaves open the possibility that an app on an iPhone will read sensitive data on the clipboards of other connected devices. This could include bitcoin addresses, passwords, or email messages that are temporarily stored on the clipboard of a nearby Mac or iPad. Despite running on a separate device, the iOS apps can easily read the sensitive data stored on the other machines.

“It’s very, very dangerous,” Mysk said in an interview on Friday, referring to the apps’ indiscriminate reading of clipboard data. “These apps are reading clipboards, and there’s no reason to do this. An app that doest have a text field to enter text has no reason to read clipboard text.”

The video below demonstrates universal clipboard reading:

KlipboardSpy: How malicious apps on iPhone and iPad abuse the Universal Clipboard on your Mac.

Back in the news

While Haj Bakry and Mysk published their research in March, the invasive apps made headlines again this week with the developer beta release of iOS 14. A novel feature Apple added provides a banner warning every time an app reads clipboard contents. As large numbers of people began testing the beta release, they quickly came to appreciate just how many apps engage in the practice and just how often they do it.

This YouTube video, which has racked up more than 87,000 views since it was posted on Tuesday, shows a small sample of the apps triggering the new warning

iOS14 Catches Apps Spying on Your Clipboard

TikTok in the spotlight

Recent headlines have focused particular attention on TikTok, in large part because of its massive base of active users (reported to be 800 million, with an estimated 104 million iOS installs in the first half of 2018 alone, making it the most downloaded app for that period).

TikTok’s continued snooping has gotten extra scrutiny for other reasons. When called out in March, the video-sharing provider told UK publication The Telegraph it would end the practice in the coming weeks. Mysk said that the app never stopped the monitoring. What’s more, a Wednesday Twitter thread revealed that the clipboard reading occurred each time a user entered a punctuation mark or tapped the space bar while composing a comment. That means the clipboard reading can happen every second or so, a much more aggressive pace than documented in the March research, which found monitoring happened when the app was opened or reopened.

To reproduce: 1. Have something on your clipboard. Eg copy some text from Notes or a website 2. Open TikTok and start typing in any text field 3. You learn from iOS 14 beta each time an app “pastes” – but in this instance I didn’t request it, and none of that text appears in UI

— Jeremy Burge (@jeremyburge) June 24, 2020

In a statement, TikTok representatives wrote:

Following the beta release of iOS14 on June 22, users saw notifications while using a number of popular apps. For TikTok, this was triggered by a feature designed to identify repetitive, spammy behavior. We have already submitted an updated version of the app to the App Store removing the anti-spam feature to eliminate any potential confusion.

TikTok is committed to protecting users’ privacy and being transparent about how our app works. We look forward to welcoming outside experts to our Transparency Center later this year.

On background, a spokesperson said that TikTok for Android never implemented the anti-spam feature.

I sent follow-up questions asking (1) if the TikTok version for Android monitored clipboards for any other reason, (2) if any clipboard text was uploaded from the device, and (3) why TikTok didn’t remove the monitoring as promised in March. The spokesperson has yet to respond. This post will be updated if a reply comes later.

Not just TikTok

In all, the researchers found the following iOS apps were reading users’ clipboard data every time the app was opened with no clear reason for doing so:

News

ABC News — com.abcnews.ABCNews

Al Jazeera English — ajenglishiphone

CBC News — ca.cbc.CBCNews

CBS News — com.H443NM7F8H.CBSNews

CNBC — com.nbcuni.cnbc.cnbcrtipad

Fox News — com.foxnews.foxnews

News Break — com.particlenews.newsbreak

New York Times — com.nytimes.NYTimes

NPR — org.npr.nprnews

ntv Nachrichten — de.n-tv.n-tvmobil

Reuters — com.thomsonreuters.Reuters

Russia Today — com.rt.RTNewsEnglish

Stern Nachrichten — de.grunerundjahr.sternneu

The Economist — com.economist.lamarr

The Huffington Post — com.huffingtonpost.HuffingtonPost

The Wall Street Journal — com.dowjones.WSJ.ipad

Vice News — com.vice.news.VICE-News

Games

8 Ball Pool

— com.miniclip.8ballpoolmult

AMAZE!!! — com.amaze.game

Bejeweled — com.ea.ios.bejeweledskies

Block Puzzle —Game.BlockPuzzle

Classic Bejeweled — com.popcap.ios.Bej3

Classic Bejeweled HD —com.popcap.ios.Bej3HD

FlipTheGun — com.playgendary.flipgun

Fruit Ninja — com.halfbrick.FruitNinjaLite

Golfmasters — com.playgendary.sportmasterstwo

Letter Soup — com.candywriter.apollo7

Love Nikki — com.elex.nikki

My Emma — com.crazylabs.myemma

Plants vs. Zombies

Heroes — com.ea.ios.pvzheroes

Pooking – Billiards City — com.pool.club.billiards.city

PUBG Mobile — com.tencent.ig

Tomb of the Mask — com.happymagenta.fromcore

Tomb of the Mask: Color — com.happymagenta.totm2

Total Party Kill — com.adventureislands.totalpartykill

Watermarbling — com.hydro.dipping

Social Networking

TikTok — com.zhiliaoapp.musically

ToTalk — totalk.gofeiyu.com

Tok — com.SimpleDate.Tok

Truecaller — com.truesoftware.TrueCallerOther

Viber — com.viber

Weibo — com.sina.weibo

Zoosk — com.zoosk.Zoosk

Other

10% Happier: Meditation —com.changecollective.tenpercenthappier

5-0 Radio Police Scanner — com.smartestapple.50radiofree

Accuweather — com.yourcompany.TestWithCustomTabs

AliExpress Shopping App — com.alibaba.iAliexpress

Bed Bath & Beyond — com.digby.bedbathbeyond

Dazn — com.dazn.theApp

Hotels.com — com.hotels.HotelsNearMe

Hotel Tonight — com.hoteltonight.prod

Overstock — com.overstock.app

Pigment – Adult Coloring Book — com.pixite.pigment

Recolor Coloring Book to Color — com.sumoing.ReColor

Sky Ticket — de.sky.skyonline

The Weather Network — com.theweathernetwork.weathereyeiphone

Shortly after the report was published, 10% Happier: Meditation and Hotel Tonight promised to stop the behavior and quickly followed through. TikTik also promised to stop but has never done so, Mysk said. None of the other apps has stopped either, he said.

Clipboard reading done right

In some cases, clipboard reading can make apps much more useful. The UPS iPhone app, for instance, pulls text from the clipboard and in the event the text matches the characteristics of a tracking number, the app prompts the user to track the corresponding package. Google Chrome also pulls text and, in the event it’s a URL, will prompt the user to browse to it. The Pixelmator photo editor reads data only if it’s an image. If it is, Pixelmator will prompt the user to open it for editing. In all three cases, the data reading has a clear use case and is transparent.

TikTok and the other offending apps, by contrast, access the clipboard for no clear reason and with no indication they are doing so. For many apps, it’s hard to see any legitimate performance or usability reason for the access. Mysk said that Apple plans to credit his and Haj Bakry’s research as a catalyst for the new clipboard notification put into iOS 14.

The clipboard reading Haj Bakry and Mysk reported raises concerns that likely extend to those using Android and possibly other operating systems. Mysk said that clipboard reading in Android apps is “even worse” than iOS because the OS APIs are so much more lenient. Until version 10, for instance, Android allowed apps running in the background to read the clipboard. iOS apps, by contrast, can read or query clipboards only when active (that is, running in the foreground).

Mysk said that Apple’s notification feature is a good start but, ultimately, Apple and Google should do more. One possibility is to make clipboard access a standard permission, just as access to a mic or camera is now. Another possibility is to require app developers to disclose precisely what clipboard data is accessed and what the app does with it.

For now, users should remain aware that any data stored in the clipboard—despite it being inconspicuous to the naked eye—can be regularly accessed by apps that in many cases aren’t even installed locally on the device. When in doubt, flush the clipboard data by copying a character, word, or other piece of innocuous data.

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[t-baba]

How to Install WordPress

What You'll Be Creating

So you want a WordPress site?

That’s great. WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system (or CMS), and for good reason.

With WordPress, you can get yourself a flexible, scalable, and user-friendly website. The software itself is free, and all you have to pay for is the hosting you’ll put it on.

But before you can start, there is one thing you’ll have to do, and that’s set up WordPress. This puts a lot of people off: they think it’s tricky, or long-winded, or requires writing code.

None of these are true. You have two options for installing WordPress, both of which are designed to be quick and easy. I’ll show you how to do both of them in this guide.

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Options for Installing WordPress

There are two ways of installing WordPress: manually, or with the click of a button.

For most non-techies, the click of a button option is the preferred one. But just in case you prefer the more thorough way, I’m going to help you to do it manually too.

Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Automatic Installation

Pros:

It’s easy.

It works.

Cons:

Your hosting provider might add some extra code or plugins, which could cause you problems in the long run or might just annoy you. For most people, this isn’t an issue.

A poor hosting provider might not install the latest version of WordPress. A good one will. (Hint: you should only go with a good one.)

If your hosting provider doesn’t provide cPanel (or something like it) as part of your package, you might not have access to an auto-installer (which is why this is an important criterion when choosing hosting).

Manual Installation

Pros:

You get a clean installation with no extra code or plugins.

Cons:

It takes longer.

It’s not as easy.

Sometimes it doesn’t work properly (although that’s normally due to user error).

For 90% of website owners, the automatic installation is absolutely fine. It’s only if you’re planning to customize the code on your site that you may have issues.

If you fancy trying your hand at manual installation, read through the instructions below and give it a go. But if you prefer an easy life, go with the automatic option.

Installing WordPress with Siteground

If your hosting account is with Siteground, you’ll be pleased to know that installing WordPress is quick and easy, and doesn’t require any technical skills.

Log into your Siteground account and click on Websites to go to the Websites screen.

Click the New Website button at the top of the screen.

You’ll then be prompted for which domain you want to use with your site. You can use one of the following:

a new domain, which you register with Siteground

an existing domain which you already have registered and pointing at your Siteground account

a temporary domain, meaning you can test the new site and then set up the domain once it’s ready

Select the option you want to use and click the Select button beneath it. If you select existing domain, you’ll need to type the domain name into the field that appears. If you’re setting up a new domain, you’ll be given the option to register it with Siteground. If  you select a temporary domain, that will appear on the screen.

Click the Continue button to go to the Add New Website screen.

Find the Start New Website box and click the Select button. You’ll be given a choice of apps to use for your new site. Click on Select in the WordPress box.

You’ll then be prompted to type in your login details.

Type in your email address and the password you want to use and click the Continue button.

You’ll then be given the option to add SG Site Scanner to your site. If you want to sign up for that, click Add. If not, click Finish.

The system will then start work creating your site.

And that’s it! The next screen you will see will have details of your new WordPress site.

From here you can view your site or log in to manage it. Check out our complete guide to making a site with WordPress to learn how to add content to your site and get it working for you.

WordPress

How to Make a WordPress Website

Rachel McCollin

Installing WordPress in CPanel

If you’re with a different hosting provider, they’ll probably provide you with an auto-installer that you access via cPanel or via their dashboard. 

First, you’ll need to access your control panel with your hosting provider. This is normally called cPanel, although some providers give it a name of their own.

If you’re not sure how to get to this, check the email you received when you set up your hosting account. It should contain a link to cPanel. And if that fails, ask your hosting provider to tell you or google ‘access cPanel [my hosting provider]’.

You should find a section called Autoinstallers. In that section you’re looking for an icon with the word WordPress beneath it. If you can’t find that, you’ll need to use Softaculous instead.

Let me start by demonstrating the process with the dedicated WordPress installer.

Installing WordPress With the WordPress Auto-Installer

Click on the WordPress logo. This will take you to a set of screens for installing WordPress.

If the Install tab isn’t already open, click on it.

Now complete the fields as below.

Version: Leave this as the default.

Protocol: If you have SSL already set up for your site (some providers give you this when you register the domain), select https://. If not or if in doubt, select https://. Note that SSL makes your site more secure and is worth using if possible.

Choose Domain: If you have more than one domain registered, choose the one you want to use.

In Directory: Leave this blank.

Site Name: Enter the name of your site. You can change this later.

Site Description: Your tagline. Again, you can change this later.

Enable Multisite: Leave this unchecked. Some auto-installers don’t have this: don’t worry if you can’t see it.

Admin Username: Type in the username you want to use. Don’t use admin as this isn’t very secure. You can’t change this later, so make sure it’s what you intend to use forever.

Admin Password: Type in the password you want to use. Use something different from your username, with a few upper-case letters and numbers for extra security. You want to make it as hard as possible for people to get into your site. You can change your password later via the WordPress admin screens, to make it more secure.

Admin Email: Type in the email address you want to use for any emails relating to your site. This isn’t publicly displayed.

Select Language: Choose your language.

Select Plugins: Leave all of these unchecked. This will only be an option with some hosting providers: don’t worry if it isn’t there.

WordPress Starter: Uncheck this. Again, this is specific to some hosting providers and you might not have it.

If there are any other options, just leave them unchecked. And ignore any advanced settings: you don’t need to worry about them.

Once you’ve filled out the fields, click the Install button.

The auto-installer will take some time to set up your new WordPress site, and then you’ll be taken to a screen with details of your new site. There will be a link to the site itself and a link to your dashboard. In the screenshot below, I’ve installed WordPress in a subdirectory.

Congratulations, you now have a WordPress site!

Installing WordPress With Softaculous

If your cPanel doesn’t have a dedicated WordPress installer, you can use Softaculous instead. Follow these steps:

Click on the Softaculous icon in cPanel.

From the menu on the left, select WordPress.

Click the WordPress icon at the top of the screen.

Follow the steps in the previous section.

In fact, the WordPress auto-installer is nothing more than a shortcut to the Softaculous installer. So the process is the same.

Once you’ve done that, you can follow the link to your shiny new site and start getting it ready.

Installing WordPress Manually

Alternatively, you can use the "famous five-minute install" to install WordPress manually.

To install WordPress manually, you’ll need:

A web browser.

An FTP client. This will let you upload files to the server where your website is hosted. Personally, I use Coda, a code editing application with an FTP client included, but if you just need FTP, you can choose from our list of the top five FTP clients out there.

Access to your server to create databases—your hosting provider will likely provide you with a tool called phpMyAdmin to do this. If in doubt, ask them!

Note that you won’t need an FTP client if you’re running WordPress locally—that is if you're running it on your computer instead of on the internet.

To install WordPress, you’ll need to follow three steps:

Create a database on your server.

Download WordPress and copy it to your server.

Run the WordPress installation.

Create a Database

The database will hold all of your site’s content, and without it, WordPress and your WordPress site won’t work. You can create yours in one of two ways, depending on your hosting provider’s setup:

via your hosting admin screens

using phpMyAdmin

With my hosting provider, I use their admin screens to create a database, so let’s look at that first.

Using Your Hosting Admin to Create a Database

In your hosting admin screens, find an option called databases, SQL databases, or similar. The exact name will vary depending on your provider.

For example, here’s the screen I use:

If you’re using a similar admin screen, follow these steps:

Give your database a name and type it in the field.

Click on Create Database.

You’ll then be asked to enter a password for the new user associated with this database. Choose a password, type it in, and click OK.

Make a note of the database name, username, and password. You’ll need these later.

And, that’s it—your database is ready!

Using phpMyAdmin to Create a Database

If your hosting provider gives you phpMyAdmin as part of your package, or you’re using MAMP to install WordPress locally, you can use this to create your database.

In your hosting admin screens or the MAMP welcome screen, click the link to phpMyAdmin, which might look something like this:

The phpMyAdmin welcome screen will open. Click on the Databases tab at the top left to open the databases screen:

In the Create Database field, type the name of your database.

Click the Create button.

And with that, your database will be created. Make a note of the database name for later. The username and password will default to root.

Step 1 is done—and that’s the trickiest part. It’s plain sailing from here on in!

Download and Upload WordPress

Now you need to download the latest version of WordPress.

Go to the WordPress download page.

Click the Download WordPress button to download a zip file containing all of the WordPress files to your computer.

Unzip the file on your computer in exactly the same way you would normally unzip any other file. You’ll now have a folder called wordpress with all of the WordPress files in it. Make a note of where that folder is.

Next, you need to upload WordPress to your server.

Open your FTP client. Sign in to the FTP on your server using the FTP login details your hosting provider gave you when you created your account. If you’re not sure about these, ask them. You’ll need the server address, your username, and the password.

In your FTP client, find the wordpress folder on your local machine and the public_html folder on your server. You should be able to see the two of them side by side. As an example, here’s mine in Coda:

Note that my folder on the remote server is empty because I’m installing WordPress in a subdirectory. Yours will have other files in there—ignore those.

Now drag the contents of the wordpress folder (not the folder itself) to your public_html folder. Your FTP client will copy the files to your server.

Wait for the files to finish copying. Now you’re ready for the third and final stage: running the WordPress installation.

Run the WordPress Installation

Your database and files are in place, and you’re ready to install WordPress!

Open your browser and go to your website. You’ll see the first WordPress installation screen.

You should have all this information noted down from when you were creating your database. Click Let’s Go!

On the next screen, input your database name, username, and password. If you’re working locally, the username and password will default to root. Otherwise, they’ll be what you specified when you created your database.

Leave the Database Host and Table Prefix fields as they are (note: if in any doubt, ask your host for what to enter as the Database Host, as this can vary between hosting providers—assuming they haven’t already let you know in a previous email when you initially signed up for their services) and click Submit.

Next, you’ll see my favorite screen—the one that tells you WordPress is ready to install. Well done!

Note: If you’re in the US, it will say ‘All right sparky!’ I’m in the UK, so it uses the more sedate ‘sunshine’. I prefer ‘sparky’ to be honest.

Click Run the install to access the site details screen.

Finally, enter your site details: the site title, your username and password, and email address. If you want Google to find your site, leave the Privacy box checked. Click Install WordPress.

WordPress will be installed, and you’ll see a success screen. Hurray!

Now you can log in to your site by clicking the Log In button and entering the credentials you provided when you were installing WordPress.

This will take you to the WordPress dashboard.

Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed WordPress and can now start managing your site!

Installing WordPress isn’t as tricky as you may think. By following the advice above, you can get yourself a brand new site with the world’s favorite CMS. Enjoy!

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by Rachel McCollin via Envato Tuts+ Code https://ift.tt/3ewc73h

[carridine-blog]

The Perfect Stereoscope

This post features a collection of images that I’ve labelled “stereoscopes” over the years.  Some are conventionally, some are unconventionally stereoscopes.  Before jumping in I wanted to offer the chance to appreciate the perfect stereoscope.  This stereoscopic image was constructed of no less than ten individual photographs.  They were combined in photo-editing software and together compose an image both visually pleasing and analogically philosophical.

Stereoscopes:  How to Make a Finger Hotdog

A stereoscope allows the perception of three-dimensions from two dimensional images.  How it works: two images show the same thing from slightly different points of view mimicking binocular vision.  One image for each eye.  The two images unite in the mind and create the perception of depth.  Many people people have difficulty seeing the desired effect.  This most often turns out to be because they have difficulty allowing their eyes to see independently one from the other. If you have trouble see the depth here is a brief how-to do that.

1. 2. 3.

Starting simple:

This shape is excerpted from this larger one.  I like the image because the high contrast makes it almost calligraphic which makes the sudden appearance of three dimensions all the more dramatic.  Calligmagic!

You can make stereoscopic images simply starting with a video clip.  A panning shot traveling roughly 10 centimeters (the space between the eyes) will provide the two images needed.  Take screen captures until you find the ones that work.  Here’s one I did of a bust of Dante I saw in a little cabinet in a big antiques place.

The following caption is a bit repetitive but repetition is good for learning, no?  The difference in the screen grabs in the next one though

  Here is the possibility of seeing William Blake’s life mask in three dimensions without being in its actual presence. I constructed this stereo-image by screen-grabbing two images from a video featuring the mask.  The video camera was moving just enough during the shot to provide these two aspects. The two slightly different aspects simulate views from two different eyes.   The video is for Patti Smith’s cover of “Smells like Teen Spirit.”

  Here is a stereoscope or comic strip I made with  Blake’s Lifemask and two of Messerschmidt’s sculptures.

This is from a post originally named “to stay near the well spring.”

Commenting on an old my post of mine,  Nick Mullins said, “Looking through artists’ websites, I sometimes see a thumbnail that looks really interesting, but when I click on it to get the full-sized image, I find that the real image is nothing like what I thought I was seeing in the thumbnail. Sometimes I have gone back and tried to do a sketch from what I thought I saw in the thumbnail. Your discussion of the fish that became a man in a tarp reminded me of that. Sometimes an accident of vision is more interesting than the reality.”

(Here’s an elaboration of what I replied to him:) Yes my efforts have always included either accident or collaboration — you get to new places faster. Plus, employing accidents it’s easier to appreciate what others might see in my work.  It’s only in recent years that I’ve realized that what I simply straight-forwardly produce is a new place to a person seeing it for the first time. It was the most obvious thing but it hit me like a thunderbolt.

Generally I like to think that the accident or other kind of unexpected input points us to a reality we wouldn’t have conceived without it. I don’t mean that in any mystical way. I mean in just the same way a new sound of music will direct our attention to or express a mood we’ve never heard expressed before. Novelty and re-cognition are wrapped up together. Our ability to invent ways to express our experience, to share our experience, always lags behind experience itself. When someone finds a way to say something new about something true, its like a gift we already possess.

I totally get the thumbnail experience. Very often I screen capture a thumbnail at the resolution I like it and then blow it up in photoshop.   The resolution might be fuzzy but most times it retains the thing I saw in it.

It’s true of my own work. I like to work really small: I tend to make less marks and their interrelations are clearer. Then when I blow it up — used to be on xerox machines or cameras, now it’s scanners mostly — I work to catch the rhythms evident in the little one. Yeah, without projectors, cameras, etc., most of my work would be postage stamp sized.

Speaking of stamp-sized:

The first image in this post, which I’ve renamed “At the Waterfall”  is based on this one here. This one is reproduced at it’s original size.  I got the larger image from this small source by a kind of divination.   I used to use this process all the time.  It combines the two things we just talked about: seeing things in small things and seeing things accidentally. The larger image is a painting mind you: I started with a penciled-in grid and painted all those little dots myself.  So there.  The smaller image is from a photo from a black and white newspaper which I hand-colored and amended with pen. It is hard to tell now but the original photo was of a boy staring at the camera from behind a fence. The fragment I used shows (or used to show) his fingers poking through chain links in the fence.

  Stereoscope: Artaud et le Momo.

  William Blake and Robert Crumb:  Neither Two Nor One

Blake illustrates a passage in Dante’s Inferno, Canto 25 describing a six legged snake attacking a thief,  which Dante modeled after a passage in Ovid’s Metamorphosis.

Inferno XXV 58-69.

“Ivy was never so rooted to a tree as the horrid beast entwined it’s own limbs round the others; then, as if they had been of hot wax, they stuck together and mixed their colors, and neither the one nor the other now seemed what it was at first: even as in advance of the flame a dark color moves across the paper, which is not yet black and the white dies away. The other two were looking on, and each cried, “oh me, Agnello, how you change! Lo, you are already neither two nor one!“.”

Charles S. Singleton translation

“So never did the barbed ivy bind/ A tree up, as the reptile hideous/ Upon another’s limbs its own entwined;/ They clave together, — hot wax cleaveth thus, — / And interfused their colors in such wise/ That neither now appeared the same to us: / Just as in burning paper doth uprise / Along before the flame a color brown / Which is not black as yet, and the white dies. / The other two each shouted, looking on, / “O me, Agnello, how thou alterest! / Lo, thou’rt already neither two nor one!”

Melville Best Anderson translation

Style: visual identity & equivalence

I made this post card to send to James Kochalka when his daily comic AMERICAN ELF  reached the ten year mark. My image is based on a photo of Kochalka and his kids and on a somewhat famous painting by someone else.

Here’re the same elements presented as a comparison, bits of multiply reproduced (degraded) GUERNICA and grid paper atop pages from Kochalka’s THE HORRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT COMICS.   This is from a series of photographs I took: videotaped collages I made while I was designing a previous version of this web site (no longer extant.)

And here again a comparison involving the GUERNICA baby: this time posed against Minnie, Vinny,  and some Mayan Glyphs.  I appreciate glyphs, especially with regard to their foreignness. I am always looking to achieve in my drawing and writing the formal quality I appreciate most readily in markings that are illegible to me.

And finally, GUERNICA baby and some grafitti I copied from a barrier on the side of southbound Route 17, around Allendale, NJ. (Graffiti no longer extant, except in the series of photos I took.  I believe this tag says or originally said, “Messiah.”)

Another Stereoscope: Bill and Lynda B.

Stereoscope juxtaposing Plate XI from William Blake’s ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOOK OF JOB (1826) and Panel 2, page 74 from Lynda Barry’s THE FREDDIE STORIES (1999).  Separated by 173 years, sharing a similar vision.  I’m sure Lynda Barry has seen this image of Blake’s.   Does that make her’s a copy of  his?  Not necessarily. Blake himself found the poses and compositions for his divine visions in reproductions of Renaissance Masterworks.

I find this likeness wonderful and marvelous.  I have notes for an essay I’d like to put up as a permanent page here. For now, though, I will suggest the direction the essay would take with a quote from Paul Piehler’s THE VISIONARY LANDSCAPE (pps 19-20):

“The major poets of medieval visionary allegory regard themselves as part of a cumulative tradition, in which each allegorist recapitulates, refines and develops the thought and imagery of his [sic] predecessors, exploring new dimensions of traditional topics, and, most important, attempting to integrate earlier thought and imagery pertaining to the topic into a coherent whole …”

Is 173 years a long time? A bit too long, I guess, for any one of us to endure.   Whatever the number of years, Blake seems irrevocably long ago, from the age of revolution, the mythical time of our era’s origin. His words, images and ideas shine through history like a dead star.  He has, it seems,  joined history — that flat offensive significance of human life which the living are barred from entering.

Meanwhile, Lynda Barry has such a knack for the voices of adolescence and childhood she seems to resurrect a reader’s own past.   The memories she stirs live again.

That makes THE FREDDIE STORIES all the more a marvel: in it Freddie undergoes a “journey to the underworld” which employs imagery familiar from Dante’s journey, even Virgil’s journey. But she builds Freddie’s journey of ” psychic redemption” out of such recognizable, contemporary stuff that she invites us to our own inside of a visionary landscape that has floated along with people for thousands of years.

Style Coloring Page.

“The deeper the influence of the formal, decorative element upon the method of representation, the more probable it becomes that formal elements attain an emotional value.  An association between these two forms of art is established which leads, on the one hand to the conventionalization of representative design, on the other to the imputation of significance into formal elements.  It is quite arbitrary to assume a one-sided development from the representative to the formal or vice versa, or even to speak of a gradual transformation of a representative form into a conventional one, because the artistic presentation itself can proceed only on the basis of the technically developed forms…”

— Franz Boas, “Representative Art,” pps. 82-83 Primitive Art (1927)

  Stereoscope: Blake of the Shtetl.

Here is a stereoscope I’ve had in my possession for over 10 years. On the right is an illustration by Maurice Sendak (1928-2012).  It is one of Sendak’s illustrations for Herman Melville’s PIERRE. Under the image is a caption that reads, “an unbidden, most miserable presentiment.”    On the left is a doodle from a private letter by Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) an artist to whom William Blake admitted a debt.  In the Tate Gallery’s catalog of Fuseli’s work this drawing is titled “Caricature of the Artist Leaving Italy.”  The naming of Sendak as the “Shtetl Blake” I take from Margalit Fox in her obituary of Sendak in today’s New York Times. (May 8th, 2012)

  Blake:  Stereoscope as Comic Strip.

These are plates 9 & 10 from William Blake’s little book FOR THE SEXES: The Gates of Paradise.  I grabbed them off of the wonderful site The Blake Archive.   One way to read them is as adjacent comic book panels: ‘this happens and then this happens.’  Another is to read them as slightly different views on the same thing, as in a stereoscope.  Another possibility is that they are completely unrelated.

  One day in the maze …

the rat met the minotaur.

Seriously though

Style and Stereoscope.

Human creators do not have access to the atomic level (artists anyway) and must discover their own smallest building block.  Each must innovate an idiosyncratic [mark] to which a life’s work can be devoted. Rilke speaks of it in terms of Cezanne, Rodin, and his own poetry: “Somehow I too must discover the smallest constituent element, the cell of my art, the tangible immaterial means of expressing everything…”  After this discovery the artist is free to become a laborer and to spend every minute of life working at “expressing everything.”

I figured I might as well post one of my favorite all time comparison lessons on that style discovery.   Above are two well known paintings by Van Gogh.  One is painted by the artist we know Van Gogh becomes and one is painted before Van Gogh fully realized that transformation.   I think the chief difference between these two paintings is how each painting relates to itself.  The difference between these two painting styles is in the relation between what the painting conveys and how it is rendered. In the first, the smoking skull image, an idea of something is conveyed, however vaguely, without regard to how it is rendered.  The idea is communicated then we notice how it is communicated, the calligraphy in which it is written.  In the second one, the sunflower, what the painting conveys is conveyed through how it is rendered.   It contains no abstract-able message by which we can paraphrase it and do without the painting.  The painting is all.   I like to think that both paintings have the same thing to say.  They are both Van Gogh expressing something, but only in the second painting is the artist mature enough to say what he means.  In that maturity he became capable of “expressing everything.”

When Worlds Collage.

This is a collage in white grease pencil (china marker) of drawings I copied from Lynda Barry and Robert Fludd.    I chose Fludd’s drawing, which I saw for the first time on the front of a book catalog, because it uses the phrase “mundus imaginabilis.”  I mistook his drawing  as a diagram of Sufi mystic experience which I had just been reading about in books by Henry Corbin.  It turns out that Fludd’s ideas were a bit different but by the time I found that out, the drawing had been made.   I combined the drawing of the mundus imaginabilis (which now that I think of it may be the mundus imaginalis in Corbin) with drawings from Lynda Barry because it suited my abiding interest in the difference in accounts of visionary experience in different periods of history.

The Lynda Barry drawings I took from her 100 DEMONS, one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. These panels come from the introduction where she describes the writing exercise which gave rise to the book (and the title of the book): intending nothing, leaving her brush free to record her every stray thought, she captures the demons that enter her mind. If you haven’t read 100 Demons, I’m not sure what you’ve been doing. You must read this book.

I did this drawing initially as a card for my friend Avy’s 30th birthday. I liked it so much that I made three prints of it, giving one to Avy, one to my friend Kat, and one to someone else (OF).

I post this drawing today because I spoke to Kat on the phone and because today, after years of waiting, I received my copy of Lynda Barry’s latest,  THE NEAR SIGHTED MONKEY BOOK.  Years ago, I put my name on a list so that I could have it as soon as it was available but its publication was repeatedly delayed. I kept getting little e-mails from Amazon saying, “Sorry, not yet” and “oop wait a second.”  So the book finally arrives — with $7.50 due COD — and Kat  tells me Kyle bought the book for her a week ago from the bookstore!

Kat and I spent the rest of our conversation talking about writer’s block, ways of breaking it and how Lynda Barry is the coolest.   Always good to talk to you, Kat.

Two without captions.

  And finally here’s a stereoscope of me

A life mask taken when I was 30 years old.  Twenty three years ago.

A Variety Of Stereoscopes The Perfect Stereoscope This post features a collection of images that I've labelled "stereoscopes" over the years. 

[evanvanness]

Week in Ethereum news, annotated edition

Now that Gitcoin grants is over, this is a shill-free intro.  Thanks to those who donated.  Still have a bunch of thank you notes to send, and don’t have contact info for some.  

I’ve been doing the annotated edition the day after, this one is 2 days after.  Not sure what cadence I like.  Perhaps it should be before?

Meanwhile I asked (on Twitter, naturally) whether I should create a separate Twitter account for Week in Ethereum News.  The early vote was solidly yes, but overnight it became no.

Eth1

Latest core devs call. Tim’s notes: lots of ungas talk

Geth v1.9.10 – light client checkpoint oracle, higher propagated transaction cap, bug fixes

Multiaddr, ENR and enodes: network addresses explainer

The notes/call are an interesting read.  They always are, but particularly this week if you think ungas and account versioning are interesting subjects.

Eth2

Latest what’s new in eth2

Latest Eth2 call. Notes from Mamy and Ben

Hsiao-Wei: Attestation aggregation in Eth2

Attestant: understanding the validator lifecycle

Runtime Verification formally verified the eth2 deposit contract

eth2stats

It’s been amusing to me how some parts of the investor community have gotten obsessed with the deposit contract.  Given how many people have been holding their ETH from the sale, I imagine that hitting 7 figures will not be difficult, so I don’t understand the obsession with deploying the deposit contract.  It’s not the limiting factor and never has been.

As I re-read Ben’s What’s New in Eth2, I realize that i’d like the annotated edition to be more like that.  But it’s not.

Layer2

Fuel’s testnet is in open beta, fraud proofs under 1m gas. Using colored coins (!)

Miner challenges Arbitrum is dealing with

How Loopring aims to make its zk rollup transactions composable on layer1

Jordi Baylina’s Iden3 zk rollup slides

Layer2 has been hard so far.  ETH and BTC’s original Raiden and Lightning channel networks have been slow to ship and failed to gain traction. Plasma has mostly fallen by the wayside, though there are teams finally putting Plasma variants into production that may produce interesting lessons.

It’s all rollup this week.  In part because rollup seems to offer an easier environment for app devs, and with less of the problematic “but” problems that Plasma had.  Channel networks are still coming (channels are already here), though I think it’s become clear to everyone that channel networks are quite complicated to get right.

It is a little amusing that Fuel is using colored UTXO coins, a la Bitcoin 2013.

Stuff for developers

Better Solidity debugging: console.log and stack traces

ABDK’s online tools: key of an address, calculate address pre-deploy, RLP encoder/decoder, encode/decode raw signed/unsigned transactions

Securify v2, free security scanner

Auditing your code with Web3j and its EVM

Sam Sun caught a vulnerability in Curve, which was solved by moving front end to a fixed version.

What are Burner Wallet Plugins? Customizing your popup event/economy

How to run your own xDai chain with arbitrary message bridge

web3connect v1beta.26 – a single web3 provider for all wallets

What does Truffle and WalletConnect mean?

a lightweight directory access protocol

Using CREATE2 explainer

Smart contracts on Austin Griffith’s eth.build

AirScript v0.6 and genSTARK v0.7 AirScript compiles to AirAssembly, which genSTARK uses to create a STARK

Lots of tools.  Mostly self-explanatory - good open source projects spin off tools.

Every Solidity developer is excited about better debuggers.  That’s been an issue for awhile.

Ecosystem

Year in Ethereum 2019 by Josh Stark and I

Scalability estimates for Waku (Status’s Whisper alternative)

A style guide for ethereum.org

<obligatory Jeb Bush please clap gif for Year in Ethereum>  And when I say “please clap” I mean “literally hold down the clap button on Medium” so that people see it outside of Eth diehards.

I’ve said it before, but as soon as Status is a viable alternative, I’m planning to delete my other messengers.  Messengers catch on because of “intolerant minorities” (to use Taleb’s phrase) who make others download a new messenger to communicate with them.

Enterprise

Key factors in choosing between Clique, Raft, and IBFT for private chains

Commodity giants consortium (Cargill, ADM, Glencore, Bunge, Dreyfus) chooses Quorum, Orchestrate and Kaleido for their tech stack

Governance and standards

EIP2315: JUMPSUB and RETSUB for simple EVM subroutines

EIP2489: deprecate GAS opcode

EIP2488: deprecate CALLCODE opcode

ERC2477: NFT metadata integrity

The DigixDAO voted for dissolution. TheLAO wants a DigixLAO

Social choice theory and voting on multiple outcomes

What to expect when summoning a MolochDAO

SignalDAO, a signalling DAO for Metacartel/MolochDAO using a Telegram bot doing web3 calls via Abridged SDK

Someone should write a history of DigixDAO.  One of the first big 3 ETH token sales (Augur, Digix, Maker), it just never really happened.  Probably some lessons in there about how early idealists gradually bump up against real world regulartions and with that much money at stake always choose the risk-averse path.  Given how much DGX the founders hold, they’re going to get a nice payday.  But who else remembers when the Digix founders were giving away 1 eth via a Reddit tip bot they created?

Application layer

Set Social Trading is live on mainnet. Automatically copy what your favorite trader is doing.

a URL shortener using ENS + the lightweight director access protocol referenced above in dev tools

How people are using Pepo, crypto’s TikTok

Ethernal: a text-based MUD. die and you lose your items!

There’s now over 100 million Dai

Rocket: get a loan against your NFTs, live on Ropsten testnet

Rho: a spec for a float to fixed automated market maker swap protocol

Synthetix: the state of Synthetix and 2020 roadmap adding ETH as collateral

This was a microcosm of what is happening on Ethereum at the app layer: DeFi, games, payments, and tokenization, and some mismash therein. 

I’m pretty excited about interest rate swaps.  Hope someone builds it.

Tokens/Business/Regulation

Davos was this week, so WEF issued a framework for Central Bank digital currencies in the age of blockchain

An onchain NFT for accredited investors

POAP event NFTs as a sybil-resistant identity layer

Tokenized real estate: purchase to settlement in 15 minutes with RealT

Bitcoiners often say things like “tokenized real estate doesn’t provide any benefits,” and they’re not entirely wrong, but getting to settlement in 15 minutes is a real benefit.

General

How not to critique Ethereum: a guide for Bitcoiners

A curated list of blockchain research papers

Benchmarking Brave vs Chrome/Firefox/Opera for speed and battery use

Chris Dixon: blockchains are computers that make commitments

This first said “a guide for lazy Bitcoiners,” but taking that out was my last edit before pressing send.  Magnanimity is a virtue.

Chris Dixon’s blog post is interesting to me because it’s nice to see people writing again for broader audiences.  In cryptowinter, the hype completely died.  The talent flowing into this space has slowed way down.   This isn’t bad in and of itself - things happen in cycles, no big deal, and it was time to deliver on some of the hype.    But with scalability solutions hitting, tooling much improved, and key management that is ready for mass adoption, it seems like the hype cycle is about to get started.

[avaquet]

A.N.D.R.O.M.E.D.A. Chapter 2- The Arrival

Read on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11882625/chapters/26963214

Edit: The read more link didn’t work, hopefully it does this time, I apologize in advance

Summary:

Sara finally wakes up in Andromeda, but an unexpected event occurred that might make the journey feel like a mistake.

** This chapter is long. About 10k words.

Notes:

~~I watched a person bounce off the ceiling gently. The only things that weren't floating was the medical beds that were connected to the floor and the sides of the walls and up to the ceiling. Thankfully, I stayed in one general place the whole time. More of a horizontal levitation than floating somewhere.~~

*This chapter can be skipped, as it is the same as the beginning of the game but with a few twists and more internal thought and emotion. There is extra dialogue in areas, but the beginning of the game still has the same premise.

634 years later. Date: 0 hour 0 day

Andromeda galaxy, Heleus cluster. Destination: Habitat 7, Eriksson system.

I gasped and jolted up. Light had filled my vision and I was horizontal instead of vertical. It had only felt like a couple of seconds had passed. Were we really here? I saw lights and further away scientists waked up more people. "Holy shit." I muttered. "We made it." Two scientists came over when I tried to stand up. I was excited but also a bit light headed, I had fallen back down onto my pod.

A male scientist grasped my shoulders. "Deep breaths. You're gonna want to take it easy."

The female scientist typed on her datapad.

"I've been taking it easy for 600 years." I tried to retort.

"You mean 634 years?"

"Ryder, Sara. Recon Specialist, Pathfinder Mission Team." She had read from her datapad.

I sat in silence while I was being checked over. Thoughts had still been hazy, my body had felt like it had just woken up directly from sleep paralysis. I was warmer than when I went into cryo, but still a bit chilled.

"Pathfinder Team, eh? The ones finding us a home."

The feeling of fatigue had hit me. I dropped my head and was struggling to keep my eyes open. Everything just seemed so damn foggy. I tried taking slow and deep breaths.

"Can you make it somewhere tropical? Nice warm ocean, summer year-round..."

Maybe they had noticed that everything that they said flew over my head. I tried keeping my eyes up to look at them but failed most attempts.

The male scientist helped me up by my arm. Legs felt like Jell-O. "How about we get her a cup of coffee, first?" The female scientist grabbed my other arm and we walked slowly.

Ugh, coffee. "Do they have anything else?"

"Not a coffee fan?" I shook my head. "Ah. Sorry, Sara. Coffee is the only thing on the menu."

"Energy supplements?" I stumbled a bit and they had caught me.

"Your body just woke up from a 600 year nap. Completely turned off, even most brain functions. Your body would appreciate liquids and easily digestible paste."

So that's why it didn't actually feel like 600 years. How could I dream or even knew time existed without proper brain functions? Yeah okay, I'm waking up. "How long?"

"Until?"

"I can eat properly."

"Depends. Dr. T'Perro will be taking a look at you in the med bay."

"Uh, who?"

"Lexi. Dr. Lexi T'Perro."

"Sounds like an asari name."

"She is an asari."

Well, okay. That makes sense.

We had approached the end of the cryo bay and into the blinding light of the med bay. I had straightened up a bit more and my walking balanced. The giant hologram hadn't changed. Still played the same photos with a voice in the background talking optimistically about golden worlds, Pathfinder Team, Arks, and everything else related to the Initiative. Another person had come by to drop off the coffee and the two scientists sat me down at the med bay table before they walked back to the cryo bay.

As I drank the coffee with disgust, I watched the pictures on the screen flip through again. An image of a waterfall and a small lake surrounded by green, blue, yellow, and purple plants had caught my attention. Seemed peaceful and lovely, but I knew it wasn't Habitat 7, those pictures were different.

"The selection process saw the Andromeda Initiative evaluate thousands of potential habitable planets-" I zoned out the hologram screen voice. I like a good attitude, but it just sounded so fake, annoyingly fake. Like an instrument trying to play the highest note but failing.

The picture had changed from a peaceful sound to an asteroid field of some kind. Now that I thought about it. These aren't the same pictures we saw in the debrief. There was no asteroid field or picture of  that waterfall. Does the VI update as time goes on? How are we getting the updates? Does the Ark have a long range scanner? Was that a planet of some kind or was that asteroid field always there? That looks like an asteroid hitting a planet, but, damn I hope I'm wrong.

I was so lost in thought as I was slumped over the bed, ignoring my coffee, and stared at the vid screen, that I didn't notice the asari walk right past my view and stopped at the foot of the bed. 

"Sara Ryder? Let's get you checked out." I heard her voice, soft spoken and very gentle. Calm.

I looked up at her. "Huh?"

"I said, let's get you checked out." I straightened up as she scanned me. "Look here." The orange glow from her omni tool scan was a bit much for my eyes currently.

People rushed past us. A quick tempo ghosted the room. The sound of footsteps against the floor like large ants playing drums. The room was noisy and incoherent. Colors flashed in my mind, a mix of blue and white swirling frantically, while a yellow splashed into the mix. Like a rushing waterfall being beaten by the sun. Would prefer that sound over this. The vid screen was still talking as well. Not the wake up call I was expecting, but at least I woke up.

Lexi felt under my jaw and around my neck. Made my lower face feel a bit funky. I stretched my jaw afterwards. I looked back over at the vid screen.

"Now you are a part of the first wave of arks arriving in Andromeda: our new home for humanity." Basically, the VI told us not to mess up, or we all die. Great.

Lexi scoffed as she typed in my info into her datapad. "Makes it sound so easy, doesn't it?" She sounded just as annoyed by it. I was glad I wasn't the only one.

I glanced back up at her with a smirk. "I hope not. I signed up for a little adventure before we settle down." I do like adventure. Annoying VIs and people, not so much.

She raised her eyebrows. "Well, buckle up. Sounds like you'll get your wish."

"Really?" She tilted her head. "Yeah? Okay." I hoped for the good adventure and not one filled with death and destruction. Like what happened back in the Milky Way when a reaper attacked the Citadel. Thankfully, I wasn't on the Citadel for that. I want to delve into caves and explore unknown waters. Scan trees and plants. Play in the mud looking for bacteria samples. Finding out the evolutionary history of a planet and the mysteries within the mantle. Running from wild storms in an unknown jungle. Just thinking about all of that caused me to smile deeper.

I noticed more people rushing around, double checking and double taking. Backtracking. Lexi looked down at her datapad while she held up her hand. "Over here, now." I looked at it as she watched me intently. She moved her hand across her body and m eyes followed. "The Pathfinder wants you all on your feet right away. He said 'mission-ready within the hour.'"

"Any idea why?"

"No, but I'm guessing that's where your 'adventure' comes in." She did not seem amused. I purse my lips in response and looked away while she updated her info. "Okay." She walked out of the way over to the nearby console. A man in the opposite bed from me smiled and waved. I smiled back but my attention was at Lexi. "Everything checks out. Just one more thing before I send you on your way... Let's test your SAM implant. SAM, are you monitoring?" My brows furrowed in curiosity. "SAM? Are you online?"

I heard a hologram open behind me. A blue pixelated orb glowed behind me. A male voice, barely monotoned, but obviously computer generated started talking. "Yes, Dr. T'Perro. Good morning, Sara. Are you feeling well?"

"I just need a second to get my bearings. Uh... what's this about my implant?"

Lexi turned around. "A routine check. After being in stasis, we want to make sure the connection's still live."

I tilted my head up in understanding and looked forward again.

"As the team's mission computer, your well-being is my primary concern." SAM assured me.

"Assuming the implants work as advertised. SAM sees what you see-in theory. We won't know for sure until we get you in the field." Oh, that's comforting. "How are you doing, otherwise?"

A bit overwhelmed, tired of talking, tired of sitting, tired in general. I slumped back over and stared at my coffee for a minute before answering. "I'm ready to get to it." Though, I didn't sound enthused.

"Readings confirmed." SAM announced. "I detect an increased level of adrenaline in your system. The neural implant is functioning properly."

I stretched my face and popped my neck. "Probably because of the coffee. Not used to it." I sat the cup down. I hadn't drank all of it, but apparently I drank enough. "Or maybe it's the nerves." I muttered.

Lexi approached me. "You're all done. Let's get you on your way." She placed her hand on my shoulder as I stood up slowly. "Though you may want to hang around while we revive your brother." She pointed at his stasis pod. "It always helps to see a familiar fa-"

The lights around us flickered. A deep and flat noise sounded from the Hyperion. I looked around, heart raced. "I... don't like the sound of that." Eyes widened as I became more alerted. The noise rang throughout the Ark and the lights flickered more.

A loud bang and static sound carried throughout the ship. Suddenly, the Ark seemed like it had been hit. Everyone was knocked off balance and fell to the floor. My hands hit the floor hard and my nose touched the ground. I saw Lexi's datapad fly out of her hands as she fell to her side. My hands throbbed from the impact. 

The Ark shook violently as lights frantically flickered and electrical connections sparked. Some screams were heard. I tried to calm down my rapid breathing, but there's nowhere to run or hide in space. If we were under attack, the Ark had no defenses and 20,000 people in stasis. The shaking made it impossible for anyone to stand up. My hips and knees kept knocking into the floor that caused more pain. I heard a few electrical sockets pop and consoles fried. Glass broke and the sound of violent electricity sparked along the metal walls. Like nails scraping against glass or chalkboard. Colors flashed in my head from the sound. A mix of red and yellow cracking against each other in a battle of dominance.

The Ark seemed to settle for a moment and the lights stabilized. We all tried to get to our feet, but gravity had shifted. A cryo pod came screeching down my way. I flattened myself against the floor, unsure of how to avoid it and then it flew over my head. I realized I was floating. Gravity didn't just shift. It turned off. I was lucky, the pod could've hit me in the head full force.

I grunted as I floated upward. Disorientated. People span around, were upside-down and every which way direction. "What's happening?" Lexi said.

"I don't know. Just hang on!" The man who waved at me earlier was doing violent fast back flips in place in the air, trying to dodge the top of the overhang from the bed. Hopefully he didn't hit his head.

The captain came over the loudspeaker, "Engineering, report!"

Doctors and scientists gave out advice to the floating people.

"Gravity in cryo bay is offline!" Someone replied to the captain.

"I'm almost inside! Hold on!" A familiar feminine voice came over the loudspeaker.

I watched a person bounce off the ceiling gently. The only things that weren't floating was the medical beds that were connected to the floor and the sides of the walls and up to the ceiling. Thankfully, I stayed in one general place the whole time. More of a horizontal levitation than floating somewhere.

I watched as a familiar face came through the door on the other side of the room. Her hair, standing up almost straight, both sides of her head were shaved. As I saw her before, Cora always had her hair to her left side. She swung around the door frame and cautiously got to the console. "This is Cora! I'm at the cryo bay! Brace for a reset..." She had hit a few buttons and everyone came crashing down to the floor. She landed on her feet, and I body slammed into the hard, cold floor from about ten feet up. Pain shot through my body, and I felt some joints pop releasing pressure.

I had landed on my lower body and my forearms and elbows. Everything stung. I made a gasped grunt sound.

"Everyone okay?" Cora looked at us.

"I think so." Lexi looked at me and shrugged.

"What happened?" I breathed out.

Cora walked over to us. "We're not sure. Sensors are scrambled." We slowly stood up. "But it's good to see you're up. Feels like centuries since we spoke."

I planned to comment on her little joke but my dad had taken over the loudspeaker. "This is the Pathfinder. Mission teams, continue preparations. Cora, Ryders, report to the bridge."

"You heard him, let's get-"

"Uh," a scientist calls over from Scott's pod, "we have a problem over here. It's Scott Ryder."

My heart sank immediately. His pod was sparking and obvious damage marks were all over. I felt the lump that had formed in my throat and my body had gotten a large rush of adrenaline. Oh fuck... is he... no. Please, no. My mouth gaped open. I ran over to the pod, followed by Cora and Lexi. I held onto the nearby console, ready for the worst of news.

"What's wrong?" Cora asked.

"I don't know. Have to check it out." Lexi responded.

The scientist held up his hand, "Give it a second for the processor to sync."

"Did the seals break?"

My heart pounded against my chest. My arms and legs shook as it felt like my blood went cold. I felt the burn in my eyes forming tears. My brother... Scott, please! No...

"No. Physical integrity looks good."

I had felt the rush of relief at that moment. My blood felt warm again, but my body still shook and my heart was still screaming.

I wobbled over and swallowed hard.

"Sara." Lexi looked at me.

"Is my brother okay?" I choked out. I let a few scared tears fall when I sniffled.

"Scott's fine. His vitals are strong, but the revival procedure was interrupted." 

"What does that mean?" Before she could answer, I snapped, "When can he wake up?"

"We don't want to rush it. SAM?" She pulled out her omni tool, ready to write down info.

I walked up and ran my fingers across the safer parts of the pod.

"My connection to Scott's implant was suspended. However, his pulse, respiration, and brain activity are all normal." SAM responded. I let out a deep breath and placed my palm on the pod for support.

Lexi had put her hand on my shoulder so I'd stand back up. "To be on the safe side, we'll need to keep him in a low-level coma for a while, then let his body regain consciousness naturally." I continued to look down at his pod. "He'll be fine." She assured me.

My smile was shaky and my tears had dried. "Glad to hear it." I responded as normal as possible.

Cora stepped up. "Thanks, Lexi. Keep us updated. Ryder, I'll wait for you at the door whenever you're ready to go."

I wasn't ready to leave just yet, but Cora walked off.

"How do you want to handle this?" The scientist asked.

Lexi responded, "Keep him in the pod for now. Round the clock monitoring. We don't know if he's in true stasis anymore."

"Right. So parts of the body could be waking up."

"But others aren't. We can't be sure just yet."

I approached the pod again and placed my hand on the outside again. "Scott, please. You're strong. You can do this."

"Don't worry, Ryder. We'll take care of him. He'll make it." Lexi assured me.

I nodded when I stood back up. How many more are in his condition? I need to check some pods. The pod next to Scott's was fine. 

"And if necessary, add boosters to the line. We can't risk pulmonary arrest." Was the last thing I heard from Lexi before I had walked away. I need to continue forward. Especially for Scott.

I headed for the cryo bay to check more pods. A woman checking out the vid screen saw me and said, "It sounds amazing, doesn't it? Right up until you lose gravity."

"Yeah. What do you think happened?"

"Oh, I have no idea. I've dreamed about this my whole life. I sure hope it matches the brochure."

"Are you doubting?"

"Well, we did hit something that we didn't see back in the Milky Way. And Hyperion lost gravity for a moment there."

"True. What's going on over here?"

"Just making sure the information VI is working. You can test it out if you want. Some things have changed since the briefs."

I guess it would be good to refresh my knowledge. I approached the screen and it talked. "Hi, there. I'm Jien Garson, founder of the Andromeda Initiative. I'm here to welcome you to a whole new galaxy. The good news is, the hard part's over. We're here! If you have any questions now, just ask."

I really didn't want to be talking to this thing, but curiosity did spike me. The pictures from the briefs were different, and maybe the VI has status updates I should know about. "Update me on the general info of the Andromeda Initiative."

"The Andromeda Initiative encompasses all colonization efforts, including arks, Pathfinders, outposts, and the central support hub, the Nexus."

I placed two fingers on the bridge of my nose and muttered, "This is not what I meant." I looked back up. "Status update."

"The current location of the Nexus is: unknown. Status of outposts are: unknown."

My brows had furrowed in response. We should've known about the Nexus by now.

I was interrupted by the VI of Garson again. "I'm Jien Garson, founder of the Initiative." I know this by now, I didn't go through seven weeks of training to not know your damn name.

The lady came back over with her omni tool out. "That's not supposed to play."

"I think it's important we take a moment to reflect on the principles that brought all of us together." It continued.

"I think it's important for you to shut up for just a moment." I gritted my teeth.

"It started with a vision of a better future- a vision that you shape." I felt like banging my head against the wall.

"Stop talking."

"Life in Andromeda can be anything we dare to dream, and I'm proud to help make those dreams come true."

"You're a nightmare right now. VI, change topics."

"It's not responding properly. Hold on." The woman responded.

"Drop me a note sometimes. I'd love to hear how we're doing." The VI screen responded.

"You know what?" I raised my voice. "So would I."

"Your current location is Ark Hyperion, housing the human population. Ark Paarchero, the salarian vessel, confirmed departure in 2185." I groaned. This was not the information I was looking for. I chuckled. This is not the droid I'm looking for. "The asari ship, Ark Leusinia, confirmed departure that same year, as did the turian Ark Natanus, embarking in 2185."

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Heyes. You?"

"Sara Ryder. Think this thing will be fixed soon?"

"Gods I hope so. It will be extremely beneficial to people waking up if it wasn't so frustrating right now."

"Yeah, and I need to be ready soon for the Pathfinder."

"The Pathfinder is responsible for exploring and assessing new worlds for outpost placement and settlement." The VI had taken my words to mean a question. All I did was facepalm. "Each ark is led by a Pathfinder who represents their species."

"No, really?" I replied, sarcastically.

"The active-duty Pathfinder assigned to Ark Hyperion is: Alec Ryder. Current duty roster shows you are assigned to the Pathfinder mission team, Specialist Ryder."

"Tell me the current mission status, then."

"At present, Ark Hyperion has arrived in the Heleus Cluster. Further mission updates are offline due to technical difficulties."

"Oh that was helpful."

"As Recon Specialist, you are tasked with supporting the authentication of golden world sites through exploration, mapping and scientific analysis. Currently, you are to report for duty on the command bridge."

"Yes, I know. Is there any new data about the golden worlds?" Like those pictures?

"The selection process saw the Andromeda Initiative evaluate thousands of potential habitable planets within the galaxy." I threw my head back and rolled my eyes in frustration. "After discovering an unusually high ratio of potential candidates or 'golden worlds,' the Heleus Cluster was selected as our destination. Now you are a part of the first wave of arks arriving in Andromeda: our new home for humanity."

"Yes I know! Current data on the golden worlds... please."

"Once the Pathfinder team's assessment is complete, Habitat 7 has been selected as the most likely candidate for colonization."

I groaned. "So, data unknown then? No more, please."

The info wall screen turned back to flipping through pictures. Now that headache is done with, I need to check on the other pods. I sped walked to the cryo bay and scanned the pods for vitals. A man was slumped over coughing, a scientist helping the man to his feet.

"Nice and easy, just take deep breaths." She calmly told him.

"Was I... floating?" He asked.

She nervously laughed. "Had a bit of a hiccup with the gravity."

"What... day... when is it?"

"It's been 600 years. We're in Andromeda."

"Damn. It worked?"

"So far, so good. How do you feel?"

I worked down the line of cryo pods checking vitals. So far everyone seems okay.

"Like I've got the world's worst hangover."

"Lucas Greer, correct?"

"Yeah." 

"They need you on the Pathfinder mission team. Let's get you ready to go."

"So soon?"

"Probably has to do with whatever knocked out the gravity." Shit...

For the rest of that conversation I was out of earshot. Was still going down the line of pods checking each one. Can never be too sure. I approached another conversation between a scientist and a man just out of cryo.

"Woah, that was... weird."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't remember dreaming or anything. One minute I'm in the Milky Way getting ready to sleep, and the next..."

"You're two million light years away."

"No joke- we really flew that far?"

"We really did. Welcome to Andromeda."

"Got any food? I'm starving."

"We'll start you on some liquid protein."

"No pancakes?" I'm more of a waffle person. The little squares hold so much that are so bad for me.

"Your digestive system has't handled solid food in over six centuries. We need to go slow."

"Right. Man, just hearing that out loud, six centuries."

"Yup. All without pancakes."

"What about liquid pancakes?"

"Sorry- it's mushy, milky stuff. Tastes like paste." Ew...

"Well, you're not getting a tip."

I had approached the end of the bay and a pod was sparking. The technician called for support, I scanned it, thankfully no one was in it. Thankfully I wasn't in it, because that was my pod, and it was completely fried. What if... if that was me, I would've been dead. No, no, don't think about it. I'm alive. Now I need to report. I walked out of the cryo bay and back into the med bay.

I bumped into someone. "Sorry I'm-"

"Message from Captain Dunn." She handed me the datapad. "It's regarding the situation." Then promptly walked off to other people.

Seems urgent. I turned on the datapad to read:

Attention Hyperion personnel:

After a 600-year voyage, the good news is we're exactly where we're supposed to be: We have arrived in the Heleus Cluster, Andromeda Galaxy, year 2819. All stasis medical personnel should report to duty immediately. Give the Pathfinder Mission team revival priority, and prep the members for field reconnaissance.

Reports of an unusual celestial phenomenon in the cluster are being investigated. Updates to follow.

Captain Dunn

That took me aback. 2819? Damn. I placed the datapad on the nearby medical bed.

"Did that just happen? The world turned upside down? Is this a dream?"

Oh, Mr. Floaty man. I walked over and crossed my arms. He acknowledged me.

The doctor scanned him. "It left a nasty bump on your head. Let me look."

"First few minutes in Andromeda, and we're already crashing the car." He chuckled

"What? Did you expect this to be easy?"

"No, but I figured any scars could wait 'til we land. Well?"

"Well what?"

"My head, Doc."

"No obvious contusions to your brain. Looks nice and pink."

He sat up immediately. "Wait wha- the cut's that deep?"

The doctor chuckled. "No, just kidding. Checking for a concussion. Your cognitive awareness seems okay."

I chortled. The other man scoffed. "Uh... right. Where'd you get your degree, Doc?"

"Oh, no need. They'll let anyone be a doctor around here. High demand."

"What?" The high pitch in his voice made me snort. He looked over like I was insane.

"Good. Your auditory response seems normal, too."

"Ugh. I need some more coffee. They have more, right?"

"Aren't you on the Pathfinder team?"

"Yeah."

"Then you've probably had enough. No time for pit stops." The doctor looked at me. "Enjoy your nap, Ryder? Don't think I'll need sleep for the rest of m life."

"Maybe another five minutes, or a decade wouldn't have hurt." I responded.

He laughed in response. "Doctor Carlyle. Harry Carlyle."

"Ah, you know me it seems."

"Sara T. Ryder? Yup. Dr. T'Perro checked you out, correct?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Ryder!" Mr. Floaty talked up. "Hell of a wake up call, huh? Wasn't expecting that five minutes after stasis."

"Makes two of us. How's the head?"

"Sore. In pain. Thanks for checking in, though."

"Hang in there, alright?"

"Yeah. You, too."

"Talk to you later, Carlyle."

"Hopefully not because you need a patch. Talk to you later."

It's no surprise to me that people know my name. My dad was an N7 officer, started SAM, and is the Pathfinder of the human ark. The only bad side is, I don't know anyone else here. Damn, that means the only people I can truly talk to is either the Pathfinder or stuck in a coma. That thought had hit hard. As far as I knew, all of my closest friends were in the Milky Way. Talk about a completely new start. I felt intimidated, scared, and challenged. Socializing was not my biggest skill and always made me nervous. Now, around close friends it always felt like I had the confidence level of a bull. Cracking jokes left and right without a care in the world. If someone had looked at me weirdly, then I wouldn't have cared. But now... it felt different. I guess it didn't really sink in exactly how much I had left behind. I imagined Dad would be too busy to talk. Scott is in a damn coma, and all these people... as nice as they seem... I don't know them. And how do they automatically view the Pathfinder's daughter? Daughter of an N7, a genius who made SAM. How do they see me? How much more difficult will socializing be? Finally, how many people will be disappointed to learn my true self?

The thoughts zoned out when I saw a datapad flashing unread underneath a flipped table. I grabbed it and read the following message from Jien Garson:

Hello, Traveler, and welcome to your first day in Andromeda! This is the dawn of a new era for all of us. As you recover from stasis, know that you're in good hands. In a few short hours, you'll be leaving the Hyperion and joining thousands of your fellow colonists as you chose your fortunes and build the new life you've always dreamed about. It's been a long wait- but I promise you it will be worth it.

Jien Garson Founder: Andromeda Initiative

I placed the datapad onto the medical bed. It wasn't something I needed to read, because I could already tell that things weren't going to plan. I walked towards the exit.

"Well, the gravity loss probably means something tripped the generators." There was a conversation between two men in medical beds.

"What would cause it?"

"Something big. The generators are durable. It would take a hell of a lot to overload them."

"Well, on the bright side, no projectile vomiting to worry about. No one's eaten in over 600 years. So, what'd they tell you about the situation?"

"The obvious. Suit up and get ready to go."

"Same here. Did they tell you where we're going?"

"Nope. Just to have the shuttles prepped to fly."

"Man, we're a long way from home. Still getting used to it."

"Where're you from?"

"Toronto."

"Earthborn, huh? Colony man myself. Eden Prime."

"Wasn't there some trouble some time ago? Fighting?"

"Yeah." There was solemnness in his voice. "Lost a few friends. I had figured it was time for a fresh start."

"Well, welcome to your new life, eh?" He had noticed me listening in. "Hey, Ryder. Morning or afternoon?" He yawned. "I don't know."

"I don't know either. Just know its 2819. Want to take bets on what date it would be on Earth?" I responded.

"Hey now, it's too soon for that kind of thinking." The other man said. "Good to see you, though, Ryder." Then he yawned and I involuntarily copied. "Heh. Still waiting for my coffee."

"Seems like the Pathfinder team isn't getting any coffee."

"Oh damn, really? Shame."

"Has to do with figuring out what the hell happened earlier."

"Strange, ain't it? I wonder what the noise was."

"Didn't you get the datapad? Some strange phenomenon."

"Oh, better go check that out, then."

"Yeah, see ya."

"Bye, Ryder."

I was finally at the door to leave and Cora was waiting for me. She asked if I was ready when I had opened the door. When the door had opened, many people came flying down to the left side of the room over by a conduit Everyone had asked what was wrong, I looked over to the smoking conduit as it built up in sound. Then it popped with a fire. Sparks went flying everywhere and the ground shook, I caught myself from falling. Shit.

Cora and I ran over to the front of it. The large conduit over by and higher than the stairs was surrounded with smoke. A woman stood on top of it calling attention to herself. "Whatever hit the ark fried everything! We have to balance the power load, or it could explode!"

"We don't know where the fault is!" One of the technicians beside me responded. People were coughing from the smoke, and so was I.

Cora leaned over and whispered to me, "You have a scanner right? On your omni tool?" I nodded. "Ryder could help find it, she has a scanner!"

"On it!" I took out my omni tool on my left hand and opened the scanner. The orange glow turned to a small screen like an x-ray and a large horizontal grid light came out from the other side of the tool. Cora went to get readings on the second conduit. I saw an outline of an internal component and pressed the scan button on the screen.

SAM responded, "The phase coil is operating normally."

"It has to be here!" I moved the scanner up and found another component.

"There's no indication of a fault in the axial coupling." The omni tool itself provides general information of whatever I scan, but SAM will always provide more analysis and detail from the scans that I do.

Cora yelled across the room to keep looking. I moved over to the right and up a bit to the other side of the conduit. The scanner had read that there was no current present int he compensator relay. It was nonfunctional.

"Relay 2-C shows damage from a temperature spike." SAM analyzed.

"Found it! A bad relay!"

I looked around and all the room was busy frantically typing on consoles, trying to make sure things don't go more wrong. "Ryder!" A technician caught my attention. "Up the stairs, right next to the conduit, is a console. Can you reset the relay there? If I leave this console, the whole cryo bay could go dark!"

Oh shit. I didn't waste any time. I sped up the stairs and to the slight ledge to the console. When I got to the hologram of buttons and readings, aka the console, I took out my omni tool and connected the circular part from my palm to the circular port on the console, allowing SAM to make the necessary repairs to functionality through my device.

"There! It's reset!"

The alarms had turned off and the smoke cleared. People slowly stopped working at various consoles to calm down.

"Rerouting the current..." Various technicians spoke across the room.

"The grid's recovering!"

"It's working!"

"Readings are in the green!"

"Thank god. That could've been the end of everyone in the cryo bay." Shit... that also means Scott...

Cora complimented my efforts. "Now we can get to the tram."

"Tell the captain this won't hold for long." A man shouted as he crossed the room. "We're using duct tape and rubber bands here."

I focused my efforts in continuing forward. My mind couldn't stop thinking about Scott, and the further I traveled from him, the more I wanted to go back and sit with him through it all. The more things seemed to go wrong, the less I wanted to be here in Andromeda. There was no home. No place to curl up. No warm bed, or midnight calls to close friends. I mean, soon we will build a home, we just need to land on Habitat 7 first. Is it wrong that I feel so skeptical about this? We woke up and ten minutes later the Hyperion hit something, then Scott's pod malfunctioned, then one of the conduits controlling the entire damn cryo bay practically explodes. Please, tell me this isn't something to regret.

I was at the top of the stairs and opened the door. A small hallway bled before me. Red lights singing alert painted the reflective grey and white ground and walls. A person was sitting up on the floor, another cared for them. Another person ran across the room to the console on the other side. Even such a small and empty space was frantically trying to fix itself.

Cora scoffed. "That was close. Barely in Andromeda and we're already scrambling."

"The adventure has surely begun." I tried to smile. 

"Not sure your dad will see it that way." She whispered back. She had picked up a datapad tossed away on the floor. "What's this?"

"What does it say?"

"It's a general tracking log. And it doesn't look good." She handed it to me. "Take a look."

Automated logs Report run: 2819, identifier QPA-Z

**Year/event**

(2185) Departure.procedures: confirmed (2185) Stasis.lockdown.engaged: confirmed (2186) Anomalous.comm.sensor.readings: report logged (2347) Trajectory.drift.detected: report logged (2347) Trajectory.course.correction: confirmed (2411) Arks Paarchero/Leusinia/Natanus: condition green (2437) Sensor.array.fault.detected: report logged (2437) Sensor.array.fault.repair: FAILED (2819) Trajectory.destination: confirmed (2819) Destination.location.proximity: confirmed (2819) Stasis.revival.engaged: confirmed (2819) Nexus/Arks Paarchero/Leusinia/Natanus: not detected (2819) Sensor.faultAHOIE;*^IANE**&KFLAJOF*^^ KH (2819) ERROR

"We should head to the bridge." I sat it back down on the floor.

"Agreed." Cora had opened the door that lead to the tram. Since the arks were so huge, trams were made for easier and faster travel across main areas. It's a small room with one main hologram console of a map and a few rows of seats facing the middle. I connected my omni tool to the console and the map popped up on my tiny screen, bold circles in rooms with the name of the room besides it. I pressed the one that said habitation. The tram took off slowly at first.

An uneasy feeling had settled in my core. Everything had felt wrong. Something was going to go horribly wrong. I couldn't shake it. It wasn't my fear for Scott, or whatever we hit, it was just something else.

"Are you alright, Ryder?"

"I can't be the only one, right? Everything just feels off and wrong."

"Well, we did have a rough start and are in a completely new galaxy. It could be that. But, I feel it, too." I sighed and looked down. "Hey, we gotta keep going, right?"

"We have to. Because if we don't, we are technically stuck in a worse situation. Just digging our graves." I watched my feet, when I lifted my toes, it made a slight bump in the shoe. It was some sense of familiarity.

The ride was silent except for the hum of the tram. It stopped as slowly as it started at the end. Cora and I got up and walked out, passing two doors and walked across the main habitation deck. It was more hectic in here than anywhere else. We dodged the runners and had gone up the stairs to the main door that lead to the bridge.

As soon as the door was opened, a man ran across our view yelling for helm control to report. The room was a barrage of flashing lights, scurrying people, and at the helm was my father and the captain looking out the observation window.

"We're drifting!" Another man ran past us.

"Flight controls aren't responding!"

This is bad... this is very bad.

I had noticed a strange orange and grey web-like structure across the window that was outside of the ship. The orange glow of the structure pulsated, and the more I looked the more I realized how huge it really was. Millions if not more kilometers of this strange stuff surrounded us, but it wasn't moving, just pulsing, like some sort of trap.

"First priority is stopping these outages!" Captain Dunn ordered.

"Mainline power's been knocked out! We're on reserves, Captain! They won't last!"

This web... was all we could see against the blackness of space. Some energy pockets in the web made it look like dots. This seemed impossible to navigate through. This does not look good...

"What's our position?" My dad walked across the room to stand up by Dunn.

"Unknown- we lost telemetry!" A pilot responded.

"SAM, we need eyes out there." His voice as commanding and monotone as always. Always painted a boring grey.

"Attempting to adjust sensor array." SAM said.

Dunn faced Dad. "Alec, please... you may be Pathfinder, but this is my ship." She retorted.

"Captain, the protocol's clear: in the absence of communication with the Nexus or the other arks, we proceed to our appointed golden world. Solid ground." He emphasized the last bit.

"If it's even out there! Nobody said anything about running into an energy cloud- and that's just a wild guess what we hit!" There was a moment of silence, two pulses emitted from the cloud, brightening up the room for a moment. "Alec, I need to assess the damage. Stop the bleeding. We've got 20,000 people asleep on this ship... Let's give them a chance to wake up."

Cora leaned over to whisper, "Can you blame her?"

It does seem safer. Right now, everyone that's asleep could die from a simple electrical malfunction. We're in the dark. "She's the captain. It does sound safer. And I'd think she gets the final word."

"Well, he might-"

Dad turned around, annoyance in his eyes and pointed at us. "This isn't about having the final word."

Cora straightened up, "Yes, sir."

Dad moved his eyes over to me, a hint of frustration hit me like a wave.

"We're coming through!" The pilot announced.

Everyone looked out the window. Pass the pulsating cloud lie the planet. "My god..." The captain sighed.

The planet had rings around it. When the planet was in full view, the web was gripping it like a hand. Where the web touched the planet, had black and red burn marks around it. Habitat 7 looked dead. My heart felt like it had dropped. The other side of the planet that we could see, that was untouched, looked landable, or seemed, as everything was covered by a thick layer of swirling clouds. I felt my face tense when I felt like crying. Nothing was going to plan.

"Is that our golden world?" Dunn continued.

"That's Habitat 7, 'New Earth' if we're lucky." Dad went up to the hologram console in front of the window to pull up a scan of the planet. "All of our long-range scans told us it was in the green zone. Perfect for human settlement."

"It doesn't even look the same." Cora countered.

"Well, we don't know exactly how bad it is yet. Still seems like the best shot for a new home." I tried to stay positive.

"Maybe." Dunn looked at me. "There's just a lot on the line."

"SAM?" Dad asked.

"The energy from the phenomenon is damping our sensors. Planetary conditions are unknown."

Dad took a minute to think before concluding, "We're marooned. Twenty thousand souls adrift at sea. And when the power runs and stays out... We need to know if that's safe harbor."

"And if it's not?"

"As Pathfinder it will be my job to find an alternative. It's what we trained for. But if this goes well... we're already home."

"All right. Just make it quick."

"Harper, the rest of the team should be awake by now. Have them spin up two shuttles. Planetfall in thirty." 

"Yes, sir." Cora and my dad had left the bridge.

Dunn walked closer to me. "A stubborn one, isn't he?"

"Stubborn runs in the family, I guess. I might've rubbed off on him."

"Just as long as he knows what he's doing. It's not like the cavalry's coming to save the day." Dunn went back to her post. "I need an ETA on our sensor repairs. We're blind out here."

I took a moment to get lost in the view. The black and orange burns sang an ominous choir in my head. The white clouds seemed like a mask to the darkness beneath them, swirling to one center, like the eye of a hurricane. I moved my eyes away. I needed to get moving.

The good thing about these clothes the Initiative gave us, is that it's an okay underarmor. Not the best gear, but neither is the actual armor that they provided. I took the tram over to the shuttle bay.

I sat down in one of the seats, alone, listening to the sound of the tram. A zig-zag dark and light grey paint my mind in tempo of the hum. I had leaned over and rested my elbows on my legs, head dropped down. I let silent tears splash my bare hands. I was scared, anxious, lonely, and regretful. My hands shook and I had felt dizzy. I don't get sick or nauseous easily, but it translates into other feelings to tell me something. Last time I puked was over fifteen years ago, not counting the journey. I gained a phobia of it after watching my brother almost die because some of it got trapped in his lungs. Witnessing a trauma can be just as terrifying as being in it. Scott on the other hand, he doesn't have the phobia. Scott...

What if I stayed in the Milky Way? What if I never joined the military like my dad pressured me to? I never wanted to. I don't want to kill. Defense is fine, but who said that I'd be good at a job like that? Or a job like this? What the hell was I thinking? What if I do something horrible and accidentally kill or allow someone to die? Tears fell faster. I made a face trying to keep it all silent, despite being in an empty room. Despite my mother always telling me that my sensitivity, empathy, sympathy, makes me a stronger person. What if I disappoint Dad? That's when I made a sound. The emotional pain from the what-ifs had hit me. I then regretted every bad thought of dad, every bad word. I love him. I look up to him, and he teaches me a lot. I felt like a damn spoiled brat ever talking back to him.

The tram slowed down. That's when I dried my face. My skin gets flushed easily, but not without reason, crying, even slightly, will cause my face to turn red. Drying my face never hides everything. I stood up and walked out of the tram into the locker room or armory. My locker was up by Scott's and Dad's. I saw Cora on the other side and three other men from earlier suiting up. I started with the armored pants, boots, chest and arm pieces, then the gloves. The hard parts of the armor aren't that resilient nor do they cover much. My waist, back of my thighs, most of my arms were exposed. Well, still covered by the under armor. I went across to the shelf to find the military grade omni tool. Cora came around looking for something as well.

"Scott's going to hate that he missed this." I muttered.

"Are all the Ryders adrenaline junkies?" She stood up.

"It's in our blood. You know, I was born a minute ahead of him." I smiled. "And I have never let him forget it."

Cora patted my shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll pull through."

I backed up. "He has to if he wants to hear the stories."

"So, let's give him one. Oh, and you'll want to find a helmet. And maybe stop at the good luck rock."

"Uh... what?"

"Old superstition of your dad's." She walked over by the door. "Oh and, don't forget to read the Pathfinder Team field manual on that crate over there." She pointed. "Just to brush up on protocol."

I picked up the datapad, short and sweet it read;

Introduction

As a member of the Pathfinder Team, you play a critical role in the Andromeda Initiative's efforts to establish a foothold in the new galaxy. The team has many challenges:

-Golden world site verification -Reconnaissance and mapping of unknown territories (planetary and celestial) -Scientific analysis and discovery of new phenomenon  -Potential first contact with extraterrestrials  -Establishing diplomatic relations with local inhabitants  -General support of settlement outposts

  I looked over at the other two lockers. Scott's was on the end, and Dad's next to his. Scott's locker remains untouched and full. "Get better, Scott. We are all going to need you. It's time for you to actually head out and experience something." I smiled. Scott was stationed at a mass relay his entire time in the military. He wanted to explore so badly but couldn't because of his position. Then Dad's career went south and given an honorable discharge for creating SAM. AI being highly illegal in the Milky Way. Our positions in the military came to a halt. No one trusted us, so we left. What's the point in staying if you're not going to get anywhere? Or, the fact no one trusted us with their lives. Scott and I were only in the military for about a year and a half or so. I got to go on some expeditions and was placed on a peacekeeping force. Was I any good? Hell no. Thankfully, there wasn't much action, and I was only in a couple of battles. I was never an officer or in charge, they put me in a glorified security position and I still hesitated. I know three things; how to shoot a gun, how to put on armor, and how to duck.

Then I looked over at Dad's locker. He's already suited up. Obviously. Why did you put me on the Pathfinder Team? It makes no sense logically. I have almost zero experience, I am young, weak, small, emotional as all hell. Why me? Is it because I'm your daughter and you wanted me to come along? Dad, you're making a horrible decision. Please, don't let me hold you back...

I backed away from the lockers. I walked around to the out of place rock up against the back wall. It was huge and there was a light shining on it. I made a face when I scanned it.

SAM provided an analysis, "Alkali feldspar and quartz. Commonly known as granite."

"A good luck rock? Granite, huh?"

"Your dad was mountain climbing back on Earth. It caught him from falling."

"Wait, the rock caught him from falling, so he took it?"

"Yeah, not sure how he got it out."

"What if someone else falls and there's no rock to catch them?"

"Well, he's a bit superstitious. Even has lucky socks.

"Socks aren't going to kill somebody if they're missing."

"What's done is done, Ryder. And with the way things are going today, we need any luck we can get."

"Wonder why I never knew about this. How long ago was it?" I was jealous that a woman I never even knew existed before the Initiative, knows more about my own father than I do.

"A few years before launch. I don't know exactly when."

I frowned. "Alright." I had turned around to see the other side of the locker bay area, three other men hanging around. Two were by a small radio playing some tunes, and the other was checking out his gear by his locker. He looked at me and nodded. "Ryder. Fisher."

"Hey Fisher, how're things?"

"Eh, just making sure my armor is good. Can never be too sure."

"Ah."

"I uh, heard a rumor that your dad and the captain aren't seeing eye-to-eye on this."

I shrugged. "Dunn wasn't thrilled with the idea for the expedition. My dad persuaded her, as you can see."

"I also heard that you weren't a big fan of it, either."

"Well, this is her ship. I think it's her call."

He chuckled. "You got guts going against the old man. But we are the Pathfinder team, and the team should answer to the Pathfinder. At least that's how I see it. And bonus to your dad for being an N7. He's got the best aim. I'd go wherever he goes."

Yeah, but he still chose me to be on the team, so his logic must've died. "See you on the shuttle, Fisher."

"See ya."

I walked over to the music. It set the tempo for how fast I went, and painted an endless scene in my head. It was techno styled and I felt like nodding my head to it. I might've done that without realizing it.

"Hey, Ryder." The man talking to Greer said.

"Hey, uh..?"

"Kirkland." He scoffed. "We talked a little before launch, or you did at least. Not sure if you know Greer."

Greer waved. "Hey. Your dad say anything about what's going on?"

I shook my head slightly. "He was all business. Prep and ready to go. Those might've been his exact words."

"Short and sweet? Alright, will do."

"I gotta go get my helmet. See you guys on the shuttle." They continued their conversation when I walked past them.

My helmet was on a shelf up by the wall. It had my name on it. I picked it up and checked the fit. I heard the air seal work with my armor. Everything checked out okay when I took it off. I just held it in my hand, I'd put it on before the shuttle launched. "Got it."

"The Pathfinder is now requiring sidearms. I've opened the armaments locker."

My heart dropped. "Are we uh, expecting trouble, SAM?"

"A precaution. Please arm yourself, Ryder."

It's just to be safe. It doesn't mean there's going to be any fighting. Just like we wear helmets in case the air isn't breathable or things go south. It's just to be safe. I had approached the weapons locker on the other side of the room, thankfully this room is small because I've been all over. There was another field manual covering a different topic. It was by a couple of pistols;

**First Contact Protocol**

In the event any member of the Pathfinder Team encounters intelligent alien life, it is imperative that 'first contact' protocols be strictly observed. The Andromeda Initiative holds the principle of peace and cooperation among our highest Ideals. Aggressive action against extraterrestrials is only permitted when hostile intent is clearly demonstrated and Pathfinder team members are at obvious risk of injury or death.

I had to keep telling myself it was just precautions. "Better safe than sorry." I picked up my pistol. It was a cheaper kind of pistol, but it's what we had.

Cora was waiting by the shuttle bay doors. We walked out together. Short hallway, then the shuttle bay, which was huge.

Cora chuckled. "So, just another boring day at the office, huh?"

"Oh you know, just setting foot on planets no human has ever set foot on. The usual. I can't wait."

"I know what you mean. I always wondered what it was like when old Earth explorers crossed the ocean. Only the guide of stars and dead reckoning with them."

"And a map with a little caption off to the side that said, 'Here be dragons.'"

"Well they made it. And maybe we'll finally get to see a dragon."

"Oh man, I hope so."

"I hope we don't get eaten if we do. You ready?"

"As ready as I can be." We walked further into the room. 

We saw Carlyle packing supplies into a crate, but he was also in full armor. "Doctor Carlyle, with everything going on, I'd think the ark needs you more than we do?" Cora stopped with her arms crossed.

He closed the lid and stood up. "Pathfinder wants a medic on hand. And if that's home down there, I'm happy to knock on its door."

I smiled. "I hope so, too. You got a quote ready? 'One small step...'"

He picked up the crate. "I think your dad will be handling that honor." 

Dad had come out of one of the shuttles to make a speech. "All right, team, button up. We leave in five."

Cora stepped forward. "Sir, we broke out the weapons as per request. Anything we should know?"

"Seemed prudent, given the situation. We'll be down a man with Scott out."

I looked away in a frown. Dad had approached me causing me to look back up. 

"I heard what happened. Your brother's strong. He'll make it."

"He wouldn't want us to worry because of him." As much negativity I had with my dad, I still looked up to him. I listened to everything he's told me. Everyday when I was little, I would send him emails because I missed him so much. When he got the chance he would respond. Mom even caught me sleeping in his N7 jacket one night because I had a nightmare. He had taught me a few golden rules;

Mission needs to take priority for the safety of the people.

Always try to save as many people as possible, even if it's just one.

Honesty and truth will always help long term efforts while lying and cover ups will always hurt in long term efforts.

There are exceptions to every rule, use your best judgement.

Dad nodded. "You're right. The mission comes first. Though I doubt your mother would've seen it that way. I promised her I'd get you two here safely." He gave a grin and walked back up into the shuttle as a platform. "Okay team, listen up. I chose each of you for the Pathfinder team, not just because you're talented and passionate. But because you're dreamers, like me. We dream of exploring the unknown, of finding the edge of the map- and then discovering what lies beyond. When people look back on this- and they will- they'll remember that we didn't give up. We kept dreaming. That our first, few faltering steps in Andromeda were the beginning of everything they know. We only get one chance to be first. So, let's go make history." 

His speeches always inspired me. Cora walked onto his shuttle with him and Mr. Floaty lightly punched me in the arm. "I've been waiting 600 years for this." It took me a minute to follow Mr. Floaty to the second shuttle, I was still in awe.

We had put our helmets on when the shuttles launched out. Dunn wishing all of us good luck. Outside of the ship, the pulsing web of energy was practically everywhere, but we had a straight shot to Habitat 7. Fisher was the pilot for my shuttle. Mr. Floaty and I stared out the window. The ark looked like it was tangled in that mess. There was comm chatter between the shuttles up front that I wasn't paying attention to.

"Woah, will you look at that?" Mr. Floaty said. I should really get his name.

"Whatever it is, it caused the Hyperion to get stuck."

"It appears to be an unstable mass of dark energy." SAM analyzed.

"If you say so." He responded.

Dad warned us to stay clear of it. No shit. The shuttle bounced as we went through some of the mass we couldn't avoid, and then switched to cruising speed. The sound of the engines and light push from the sudden change in speeds was familiar.

"Ryder. We didn't have a chance to meet back in the Milky Way. Name's Liam Kosta, security and response specialist."

"Good to meet you, Liam."

"Hard to believe we're finally doing this."

"Yeah. Nerve wrecking, but living the dream."

We began our deceleration to the planet. The shuttle glowed a fiery red and orange, which meant there was still an atmosphere, that's good.

"Here we go..."

It felt like a bumpy session of unwrapping a gift. There was some trouble entering the atmosphere but we made it through.

When the orange cleared... It all looked dead. The sky was grey and white, only mountains without green to them. Fear struck my eyes. It was a nightmare.

"Holy..." Liam was taken aback.

"Shuttle two, are you seeing this?" Cora asked.

"Copy that." I answered. "Looks like hell."

Ionization levels were rising, oxygen below human requirements. It's like the world was shat on. And then-

Liam dropped his arms. "Uh... the mountains are floating." There were pieces of rocks and mountains just floating in the air by the shuttle. They looked like giant arrowheads and spearheads, all sharp, ridged, and jagged. 

Oh no... no, no, no... This can't be right. How? My heart rate increased.

"Look! Port side!"

A large structure, in the shape of a boomerang with half of it underground, and other buildings like it but smaller lay before us. It was a ways away, but, that was advanced engineering. Aliens. "Has anyone seen us?" I ask.

Liam looked at me. "What if they're not friendly?"

Dad answered by quoting part of the field manual.

Something was wrong. The shuttle started shaking and turning, the engines strained. A flash of bright light and Liam and I lost our balance. Alarms and warnings went off on the shuttle. We were on fire. Everything started sparking and electrical pops and small explosions. Another lightning strike hit us. Liam and I fell to the port side window. We were going down. I felt like screaming but held it in.

The window came off. Liam got sucked outside but he was barely holding on to the side of the shuttle. "Whoa!"

I tried to reach over to grab him, but couldn't. "Liam!"

"Ryder!"

We hit a floating rock. Causing the shuttle to explode and send Liam and I flying out the window. Liam was further from me but we were both screaming. Parts of the shuttle came falling with me. I felt the heat from fiery parts pass and hit me. Liam was out of sight. I screamed and flailed. I could feel my whole body shaking and I was surprised I didn't pass out from terror, I almost did. I was falling straight through a section of floating rocks, frantically trying to miss them and get my jump-jet working. My body was spinning in the air as I tried to go feet first.

"Acceleration increasing." SAM warned.

"No shit!"

"Your jump-jet is malfunctioning."

"Please SAM! Get it working!"

"Approaching terminal velocity."

I saw the top of the mountain I was approaching. "SAM!" Here's where I die...

I closed my eyes to prepare, when I felt my jump-jet power on. I still hit the top of the mountain with a lot of force that I felt throughout my body. I rolled down the side, passing over bumps and small cliffs and dead plants. I finally hit the ground with my face and heard a crack from my helmet. I rolled over onto my side, ignoring the searing pain, and saw a large crack across my helmet, leaking air. The air I was breathing, wasn't breathable. "Shit!" I pulled out my omni tool and opened a mini-facturing repair protocol, and a scanner like beam emitted from the tool and I positioned it over my helmet, allowing it to seal the crack and the internal air was stabilized.

I lay there, breathing fast and hard with dry swallows, trying to get the dizziness to pass. My entire body was in pain, I could feel a headache forming, and I was sure I at least bruised half of the bones in my body. I rolled over and shakily stood up. Trembling at my feet, I held my side as I struggled to stand up straight. I was on a large cliff overlooking a dead planet. It was foggy, I was in almost unbearable pain, everything looked dead and the plants that somehow survived looked malformed and dying, huge lightning strikes struck everywhere from cloud to ground. It was all grey and hazy. It looked like a nightmare.

This has to be a nightmare, this has to be! Oh fuck... please just be a nightmare... please! I fell to my knees.

"This... this isn't a nightmare."

Notes:

As I have said before, all rights belong to BioWare.

*You may be wondering if the chapter can be skipped, then why did I put it in? Simple answer, my mother and friends are interested in my fanfic but cannot play the game themselves

[kurtwarren54]

FLYING WITH A BABY – TIPS FOR TRAVELING WITH A BABY

I have so many feelings and thoughts on traveling with a baby. Best piece of advice I could give you: Throw all your expectations out the window, expect the worst, go with the flow, and you will survive. Survival being the key word. Let me be the first to tell you that you could pack and prepare perfectly and your travel experience can still be a challenge. Basically after flying with Otis, my respect level for parents that travel with babies or kids in general went through the roof. I feel like I want to high five every parent I see about to board a plane now because I know just how HARD and challenging the experience can be. That all being said, I am by no means an expert. I will share my tips and tricks below, but know that when it comes to traveling with kids, it’s an unpredictable ride you have to cruise through with them and hope for the best. Be prepared, and know that if things go the absolute worst they can go, you will likely never see these people again. Also, if you don’t have kids and for whatever reason are reading this post, if you see a parent struggling with their little one on the plane, know that the majority of us are working our ASSES off to keep those babies happy and occupied and a little game of peek-a-boo or even just a smile will go a long way for a parent and baby about to have a meltdown. So let’s start at the beginning: PACKING.

WHAT TO PACK FOR BABY WHEN TRAVELING

As far as packing goes, we decided to bring 1 HUGE suitcase for the whole family and this ended up being a huge mistake. Since our bag was overweight we had to pay a lot because of that. So if you learn from our mistakes, weigh your suitcase before you head to the airport!! If you don’t care about dropping cash on suitcases, you can go the route of packing 1 big one to minimize the bags you need to trek around with.

MOM TIP: Pack smaller suitcases so you aren’t charged overweight baggage fees at the airport

I did use these packing cubes to organize all of our clothes inside the suitcase and that is always a game changer. I packed 1 large cube for Otis, 2 for myself, and 2 for Blake. It’s great to be able to keep things organized and easily accessible. I live by packing cubes. I also fold everything using the marie kondo method so I can see everything I have packed. I have used these packing cubes for years that I found on amazon. They have held up through so many trips I could not even count them if I tried. I also recently got these that are personalized with both our names and by color and can be a fun way to easily distinguish whose cube is whose. I have used them a handful of times and they seem to be holding up well.

MOM TIP: Pre-plan baby outfits for each day and fold them up together. This way, each day you just take one folded bundle and it makes dressing baby in the morning easy and stress free so you can enjoy your vacation. I pair a top, bottom, and bib together.

I started packing at least a week before our trip (I am intense like that!) because I was so worried about remembering everything for all of us. I am a 100% extreme intense packer and while it stressed me out beforehand, it keeps me stress free when I reach my destination. Blake and I have our own google doc packing lists that we print out everytime we travel. We always update this list so that we can be sure to always pack the essentials and not forget our toothbrush for instance. Something so simple that if it’s not on the list, maybe we will forget to pack it! 

MOM TIP: Create a spreadsheet list for trips that you can reuse each time you travel. Write down everything down to the smallest details like baby nail clipper because if it’s not written down, chances are that you will forget the most basic essentials.. Like diapers. Add diapers to your list right now!

We packed 3 carry-on bags also. One for Otis, Mom and Dad. Will list what I packed in each below. On top of big suitcases and carry-ons, we needed the rest of our baby gear. We used this nuna car seat bag to pack our carseat and base. Then we took our colugo stroller which comes with a backpack bag which made it easy to pack up and throw on our back if we weren’t using it. We also brought our colugo carrier for the plane and airport. We tried to travel as light as possible but at the end of the day, there is no such thing as traveling light with a baby. But I will say, one thing i love to practice is that I gather everything I want to pack and lay out it. Then I go through a round of edits as I like to call it. I rescan things and see what I need and what can be left home. From the initial packing haul, there are always some things that can be left home so always do a little “edit” of your own packing to see how you can lighten your load. Every bit of space makes a difference when you are packing for an additional family member.

MOM TIP: It’s sneaky but we threw an extra pack of diapers and wipes inside our car seat bag. You aren’t technically supposed to put anything else in there but it fit easily and saved us room in our carry-on. You never know when you will need an emergency stash of diapers and wipes.

PACKING CHECKLIST

Otis Carry-on: I used Otis’ carry-on as mine as well. So I kept my phone and wallet here because I only wanted to have to handle one bag at my feet for both Otis and myself. It’s an important reminder to pack all your medications and baby health items in your carry-on because you always want to be prepared in case of an emergency or your checked bag doesn’t arrive. Another thing to note was that I put all toys into a zipper pouch. This way I could easily access the toy bag and take 1 thing out at a time. I kept books organized in side pockets and kept the other loose toys attached to the bag with the toy straps and then placed in the front pockets. Bottles were placed upright in the side pouch specifically made to hold bottles. I tried to keep this bag super organized so it was easy to access everything while wrangling a wild little baby.

-Packing cubes (that came with the bag): baby medications (Tylenol, motrin, benadryl), baby aquaphor, baby thermometer, baby sunscreen, extra food pouches, wipes, diapers, formula, 1 outfit change, food bib

–2 dr brown bottles: prefilled with water to mix with formula

–Formula container pre-portioned and filled

–Water cup (munchkin miracle 360 cup): prefilled with water

–post-it notes: the cheapest most epic way to entertain a baby

–wet ones wipes: Germs be GONE. I made an effort to do my best sanitation when we sat down. 

-hand sanitizer

–toy straps: MUST HAVE. If you don’t want your toys falling on the dirty airplane floor, BUY THESE NOW.

-toys: baby einstein, wooden shakers, books(this and this), crinkle book, maraca shaker, suction toys 

–nursing cover

-changing pad (loaded with diapers and wipes)

-snacks: puffs in snack dispenser, yogurt melts, + food pouches

-adult snacks: dried fruit + chex mix + oreos (because I always need salty and sweet)

Mom Carry-on: This was everything that I technically should not need at all. It was more of a “just in case bag” that hopefully we would not need to open until we got to our destination. This bag would be stored in the overhead bin. 

-1 outfit + Mom, Dad and Baby: I packed outfits suited for our destination so we would not need to unpack our entiresuitcase to change when we got there.

-Swimsuit Mom, Dad, Baby: I wanted easy access to swimsuits so that we could find it easily without opening our big suitcase and sorting through it.

-Flipflops Mom + Dad

-Mom Makeup: I always try to pack my makeup with me in case my luggage gets lost

-Mom Skincare toiletries: Ditto for keeping skincare with me so its not lost if my luggage gets lost.

-Baby Formula: It’s ESSENTIAL to put this in a carry-on so we have a backup in case we got majorly delayed. We use Enfamil Enspire and I always buy these double boxes.

Dad Carry-on: Blake usually packs a backpack so he can be hands free so he is usually in charge of all the electronics and the snacks we buy at the airport.

-laptops

-camera

-baby monitors (we use nanit with wifi and motorola when we don’t have access to wifi)

-tablet to use as monitor/entertainment

Suitcases

Stroller Backpack from Colugo: We use the colugo stroller and what I love about it is that it’s small enough to fit in the overhead bin in the plane. And comes with the backpack case to make it even more compact.

Nuna Car Seat Bag: This held our carseat and base

Baby Carrier from Colugo: This is essential with a baby so you can be hands free going through security

MOM TIP: Prefill all bottles and water cups at home. TSA will allow you to travel with water for your baby or premade formula or breastmilk bottles. This will allow you to feed baby in an instant and not have to be scrambling to do it on the plane. No one gave us any problems at the airport.

NAVIGATING THE AIRPORT WITH A BABY

I think everything can seem super overwhelming when you are doing it for the first time. When we got to the airport, I actually used my baby carrier to wear Otis while checking our bags and going through security. This was a GAME CHANGER. We also have Global Entry which allows us to go through TSA precheck which also makes things much easier on us while traveling with a baby. I highly recommend looking into TSA precheck if you can and know you have a trip coming up.

Going through security was pretty painless. I didn’t need to remove any of my bottles or formula etc. I just alerted the TSA agent that I had them with me and they took a peek through my bag after it went through the scanner. We folded up our stroller and popped it on the conveyor belt to also go through the scanner. I was also able to keep Otis in my carrier and wear him through the metal detector so that made life super easy not having to readjust holding him and be juggling our bags. 

After we got through security, we put Otis in his stroller to give our backs a break and to allow us both to use the restrooms before getting on the plane.

IN THE AIR WITH A BABY

Obviously being in the plane was the hardest part about traveling with a baby. Never has time seemingly stood still as it did during that first flight with Otis. Before sitting down I used wet wipes to wipe down every possible surface I could see… because obviously Otis put his mouth all over that airplane. Say what you will, I desperately with all my power tried to keep him from touching random things and doing that… but it is what it is. You do your best. Before we even took off, Otis was squirming around since he was already crawling and just wanted to be free from our arms and explore on his own. No can do on an airplane little buddy! It was the moment that made everything sink in… shit. We were stuck on this plane for 6 hours…. and it was going to be the longest 6 hours of our lives. HA! 

MOM TIP: Prep a present! Prep mini bottles of liquor and add a little custom label and pop into your carry-on. Ours said, “Have a great flight. <3 Otis” We did this just in case things went bad and we needed to give our neighbors a little “I’m sorry we have a cranky baby have a drink on us” present. Doesn’t have to be booze, maybe you make a snack bag, something easy. Always nice to be kind to your neighbors

One of the most important tips when flying with baby is making sure to feed them at takeoff and landing. This is to help relieve the pressure in their ears. A flight attendant also told me on our flight that when they pressurize the cabin before take off is also a time you should feed your little ones since that will also affect their ears. I was breastfeeding in a 3 seat row and luckily I had a very sweet woman next to me who was accommodating to the fact we had our baby with us. Not gonna lie, it wasn’t an ideal situation and I am pretty go with the flow nursing on the fly. There just isn’t much space so if we had the choice I would 100% recommend a window seat. 

MOM TIP: If you are nursing, grab a window seat so you can have somewhere to lean and not have to worry about people on both sides of you.

I did everything right… fed during pressurizing the cabin, and during landing… and Otis DEATH cried. It was not as bad taking off as it was landing. He refused my boob. Refused my bottle. HE just screamed bloody murder and it was one of the saddest and most stressful moments. You just feel horrible for your baby, you are trying literally everything to sooth and calm them down, and they are screaming so loud the whole plane can here and your just utterly embarrassed, sad, emotional. The tears were coming for me. I was about to lose it. And then my seat mate looked at Otis and started to play peek a boo. GOD BLESS THAT WOMAN. Like I said earlier, you can do everything right.. And shit still happens. I obviously knew I needed to feed Otis and was doing my best to do so for his ears. Lots of people were also telling me that if I fed him he would feel better while he was screaming but he literally refused every form of food at a certain point so he just cried it out and thankful we were landing and I had a literal angel woman sitting next to me. Just want to keep it real and let you know it’s not always smooth sailing. And if you aren’t a parents and cringe when you see a family coming on a plane… be kind. Because chances are they are just working so hard to survive their journey and doing their best to keep their child and you happy. Just some food for thought.

After the initial take off, we basically cycled from toy to toy. The main key was not taking more than 1 toy out at a time. We exhausted that 1 toy before pulling out a new one. This way we would keep him as occupied as possible.

MOM TIP: Ask your flight attendant for an empty plastic cup and plastic spoon. They make the most simple toys and were endless entertainment for Otis.

Our last pretty epic toy we would leave till the last resort was post-it notes. This was an epic way to occupy Otis. I would basically stick a few of them all over the chair and let him pick them up, crumble them, re-stick them etc. This kept him VERY occupied for a while. Also it’s such a cheap thing to buy and keep in your bag for the future. 

MOM TIP: Make sure you get some new toys and books for your flight so baby is super stimulated exploring something new instead of an old toy they might lose interest in sooner.

In between wrangling toys, we would make sure that Otis had the meals he needed. To keep things minimally messy, we brought food pouches with us (AND A BIB!) to feed to him. Our favorite pouches that don’t need to be refrigerated are here and here. Not gonna lie, it wasn’t mess free because one time Otis got hold of the packet and squeezed it all over both of us. This is why packing an outfit is always essential when traveling with a baby. But having that quick and easy meal option was great for the plane. Snacks were also essential for keeping his hands and mind busy. I packed his snack cup and pre-filled it with his favorite puffs and had a bag of yogurt melts with me as well.

When we got super desperate, I pulled out our loud sound toys. Good news is the actual plane is loud and the sound didn’t disrupt anyone around us bc I could barely even hear it. This was also when we would pull out our ipad and put on some Puppy Dog Pals or Disney for Otis. He doesn’t really watch but he loves the songs and it was another thing to focus on. I had a super old ipad that I got this kids case for and now have it for prepped for him with kids shows. 

When it came to diaper changes, when we first got on the plane, one of us went to scope out which ones had a changing table. We flew Delta and never had a problem finding a changing table on the plane. I would carry my changing pad equipped with wipes and diapers and Otis and that is it. It was… interesting. HAHA. Our changing table opened up on top of the toilet and it’s just super slippery and your in a tiny space. So if you can, bring some kind of distraction toy with you to make your life easier.

Naps/Sleeping were a particular challenge for us on our flights. Otis is normally the most amazing little sleeper and he just fought it with every fiber of his being on our flights. He isn’t one of those babies that just falls asleep on us anymore because he’s so mobile. So, we got out our trusty baby carrier and Blake walked with him up and down the airplane aisle until he fell asleep. It wasn’t easy, but FINALLY Blake got him to sleep. We got a solid 30 minutes which was better than nothing. You just have to be willing to go with the flow when you are traveling and know that not all your schedules will be met or kept. 

MOM TIP: Wear your baby in a carrier to try to get them to nap. Trust me, better to be seated uncomfortably with a sleeping baby attached to you then wrangling a cranky baby past their naptime.

Basically Blake and I tag teamed everything and switched off often to give each other a break. When we were preparing to land and the plan started its initial descent, we prepped milk for Otis and he took it at first and then started to refuse it. His poor little ears must have been affected by the pressure and he was DEATH CRYING and there was nothing we could do to console him. I tried to breastfeed him, bottle feed him, give him a bottle with water, a straw cup, etc and nothing would work. It was likely the worst part of our trip. I was heartbroken for him to be so uncomfortable and just not be able to help him. It was beyond horrifying and the tears started to stream down my face. And then our kind neighbor started playing peek a boo with Otis. Somehow it got him to start to calm down a little bit. Honestly that part was really hard. You feel completely helpless and honestly embarrassed because your baby is screaming. So many emotions. But I am here to tell you that we all survived. And he left the plane smiling and high fived the captain. 

GETTING OFF THE PLANE WITH A BABY

When our plane arrived at the gate, I put Otis in the carrier so we could easily grab all our bags. It’s always a gamechanger to be hands free. We grabbed all our stuff and then deplaned and changed his diaper right away when we got off. To navigate the rest of the airport, since we knew we were going to have to wait for a rental car etc, we put him in the stroller to get a little break. Of course the minute he hit his car seat in the rental car… OUT. Completely passed out. 

Not gonna lie, after flying with Otis both of us turned to each other and said, “Let’s not fly again soon!” Flying with a baby is next level. It’s 100% a different and much more challenging experience. Gone are the days of face masks, bubbly, and naps on planes. Because I could have used a drink but didn’t even have a safe location to drink it or keep it with wrangling a baby. I legit told Blake to fill a camelback with wine for me next time. I’m only half joking

In all seriousness, I came in with zero expectations and it was absolutely a challenging and stressful experience, but we also did have fun. Watching Otis look out the window, play with post-its and wave to our neighbors on the plane just burst my heart right open. That first day walking into the Four Seasons Maui, grabbing my swimsuit, and letting Otis crawl onto the sand… it’s incredible to be able to share some of our favorite places and experiences with Otis. It’s 500% worth the travel adventure. 

MOM TIP: Make sure you plan a long enough trip so you make the travel day and struggles worth your while! We originally only booked a 4 night stay for our first plane trip and I had wished we added on at least 2 days. 

ADJUSTING TO A NEW TIME ZONE WITH A BABY

On the day we arrived to Maui, we decided to keep Otis up as long as possible to adjust him to our current timezone. There are lots of different schools of thought on how you should adjust your little ones. Some people stay on their home time zone, others adjust. All depends on what works for your baby and your family. Otis is a pretty resilient traveler and doesn’t have sleep problems when we travel to hotels or family etc so we chose to adjust him to the Hawaii time zone.

Basically the key is to keep them up as long as humanly possible as close to their new bedtime as possible. We kept him busy exploring new places in the hotel and went out to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. He was busy eating his pasta and Blake said, “Looks like he is closing his eyes.” The next minute we look over, Otis fell asleep sitting up in his highchair. Poor guy was so exhausted from our travel day that he just passed out. I have NEVER seen him do something like this. It was one of the sweetest little things to witness him snoring at the dinner table. We somehow managed to transfer him to this stroller and he stayed asleep while we ate our dinner. Of course before our check came, he woke up freaking out having a meltdown and Blake had to leave the restaurant with him and bring him to the room while I got the check. We quickly headed to the room and got him down to sleep and he had no problem sleeping through the night. 

FINAL TRAVEL THOUGHTS

Guys, we did it. We survived. And so can you! I think the most important thing to note about traveling with a baby is you really have to let go of any type of expectations. Throw them out the window. If you can find a way to go with the flow, it will make the experience more digestible for the whole family. Yes it might go amazing, no problems, angel sleeping baby that takes their nap… that is goals. Serious travel goals. It could also go terrible with a diaper blowout and some tears shed. Just know that you got this Mamas and the next time you see a parent traveling with their kids, seriously give them a high five because I know most of you are working your butts off to keep those littles happy. Prep as best you can and roll with the punches. Good luck!! If I think about anything else that might be useful will add it to this post.

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[elizabethcariasa]

FLYING WITH A BABY – TIPS FOR TRAVELING WITH A BABY

I have so many feelings and thoughts on traveling with a baby. Best piece of advice I could give you: Throw all your expectations out the window, expect the worst, go with the flow, and you will survive. Survival being the key word. Let me be the first to tell you that you could pack and prepare perfectly and your travel experience can still be a challenge. Basically after flying with Otis, my respect level for parents that travel with babies or kids in general went through the roof. I feel like I want to high five every parent I see about to board a plane now because I know just how HARD and challenging the experience can be. That all being said, I am by no means an expert. I will share my tips and tricks below, but know that when it comes to traveling with kids, it’s an unpredictable ride you have to cruise through with them and hope for the best. Be prepared, and know that if things go the absolute worst they can go, you will likely never see these people again. Also, if you don’t have kids and for whatever reason are reading this post, if you see a parent struggling with their little one on the plane, know that the majority of us are working our ASSES off to keep those babies happy and occupied and a little game of peek-a-boo or even just a smile will go a long way for a parent and baby about to have a meltdown. So let’s start at the beginning: PACKING.

WHAT TO PACK FOR BABY WHEN TRAVELING

As far as packing goes, we decided to bring 1 HUGE suitcase for the whole family and this ended up being a huge mistake. Since our bag was overweight we had to pay a lot because of that. So if you learn from our mistakes, weigh your suitcase before you head to the airport!! If you don’t care about dropping cash on suitcases, you can go the route of packing 1 big one to minimize the bags you need to trek around with.

MOM TIP: Pack smaller suitcases so you aren’t charged overweight baggage fees at the airport

I did use these packing cubes to organize all of our clothes inside the suitcase and that is always a game changer. I packed 1 large cube for Otis, 2 for myself, and 2 for Blake. It’s great to be able to keep things organized and easily accessible. I live by packing cubes. I also fold everything using the marie kondo method so I can see everything I have packed. I have used these packing cubes for years that I found on amazon. They have held up through so many trips I could not even count them if I tried. I also recently got these that are personalized with both our names and by color and can be a fun way to easily distinguish whose cube is whose. I have used them a handful of times and they seem to be holding up well.

MOM TIP: Pre-plan baby outfits for each day and fold them up together. This way, each day you just take one folded bundle and it makes dressing baby in the morning easy and stress free so you can enjoy your vacation. I pair a top, bottom, and bib together.

I started packing at least a week before our trip (I am intense like that!) because I was so worried about remembering everything for all of us. I am a 100% extreme intense packer and while it stressed me out beforehand, it keeps me stress free when I reach my destination. Blake and I have our own google doc packing lists that we print out everytime we travel. We always update this list so that we can be sure to always pack the essentials and not forget our toothbrush for instance. Something so simple that if it’s not on the list, maybe we will forget to pack it! 

MOM TIP: Create a spreadsheet list for trips that you can reuse each time you travel. Write down everything down to the smallest details like baby nail clipper because if it’s not written down, chances are that you will forget the most basic essentials.. Like diapers. Add diapers to your list right now!

We packed 3 carry-on bags also. One for Otis, Mom and Dad. Will list what I packed in each below. On top of big suitcases and carry-ons, we needed the rest of our baby gear. We used this nuna car seat bag to pack our carseat and base. Then we took our colugo stroller which comes with a backpack bag which made it easy to pack up and throw on our back if we weren’t using it. We also brought our colugo carrier for the plane and airport. We tried to travel as light as possible but at the end of the day, there is no such thing as traveling light with a baby. But I will say, one thing i love to practice is that I gather everything I want to pack and lay out it. Then I go through a round of edits as I like to call it. I rescan things and see what I need and what can be left home. From the initial packing haul, there are always some things that can be left home so always do a little “edit” of your own packing to see how you can lighten your load. Every bit of space makes a difference when you are packing for an additional family member.

MOM TIP: It’s sneaky but we threw an extra pack of diapers and wipes inside our car seat bag. You aren’t technically supposed to put anything else in there but it fit easily and saved us room in our carry-on. You never know when you will need an emergency stash of diapers and wipes.

PACKING CHECKLIST

Otis Carry-on: I used Otis’ carry-on as mine as well. So I kept my phone and wallet here because I only wanted to have to handle one bag at my feet for both Otis and myself. It’s an important reminder to pack all your medications and baby health items in your carry-on because you always want to be prepared in case of an emergency or your checked bag doesn’t arrive. Another thing to note was that I put all toys into a zipper pouch. This way I could easily access the toy bag and take 1 thing out at a time. I kept books organized in side pockets and kept the other loose toys attached to the bag with the toy straps and then placed in the front pockets. Bottles were placed upright in the side pouch specifically made to hold bottles. I tried to keep this bag super organized so it was easy to access everything while wrangling a wild little baby.

-Packing cubes (that came with the bag): baby medications (Tylenol, motrin, benadryl), baby aquaphor, baby thermometer, baby sunscreen, extra food pouches, wipes, diapers, formula, 1 outfit change, food bib

–2 dr brown bottles: prefilled with water to mix with formula

–Formula container pre-portioned and filled

–Water cup (munchkin miracle 360 cup): prefilled with water

–post-it notes: the cheapest most epic way to entertain a baby

–wet ones wipes: Germs be GONE. I made an effort to do my best sanitation when we sat down. 

-hand sanitizer

–toy straps: MUST HAVE. If you don’t want your toys falling on the dirty airplane floor, BUY THESE NOW.

-toys: baby einstein, wooden shakers, books(this and this), crinkle book, maraca shaker, suction toys 

–nursing cover

-changing pad (loaded with diapers and wipes)

-snacks: puffs in snack dispenser, yogurt melts, + food pouches

-adult snacks: dried fruit + chex mix + oreos (because I always need salty and sweet)

Mom Carry-on: This was everything that I technically should not need at all. It was more of a “just in case bag” that hopefully we would not need to open until we got to our destination. This bag would be stored in the overhead bin. 

-1 outfit + Mom, Dad and Baby: I packed outfits suited for our destination so we would not need to unpack our entiresuitcase to change when we got there.

-Swimsuit Mom, Dad, Baby: I wanted easy access to swimsuits so that we could find it easily without opening our big suitcase and sorting through it.

-Flipflops Mom + Dad

-Mom Makeup: I always try to pack my makeup with me in case my luggage gets lost

-Mom Skincare toiletries: Ditto for keeping skincare with me so its not lost if my luggage gets lost.

-Baby Formula: It’s ESSENTIAL to put this in a carry-on so we have a backup in case we got majorly delayed. We use Enfamil Enspire and I always buy these double boxes.

Dad Carry-on: Blake usually packs a backpack so he can be hands free so he is usually in charge of all the electronics and the snacks we buy at the airport.

-laptops

-camera

-baby monitors (we use nanit with wifi and motorola when we don’t have access to wifi)

-tablet to use as monitor/entertainment

Suitcases

Stroller Backpack from Colugo: We use the colugo stroller and what I love about it is that it’s small enough to fit in the overhead bin in the plane. And comes with the backpack case to make it even more compact.

Nuna Car Seat Bag: This held our carseat and base

Baby Carrier from Colugo: This is essential with a baby so you can be hands free going through security

MOM TIP: Prefill all bottles and water cups at home. TSA will allow you to travel with water for your baby or premade formula or breastmilk bottles. This will allow you to feed baby in an instant and not have to be scrambling to do it on the plane. No one gave us any problems at the airport.

NAVIGATING THE AIRPORT WITH A BABY

I think everything can seem super overwhelming when you are doing it for the first time. When we got to the airport, I actually used my baby carrier to wear Otis while checking our bags and going through security. This was a GAME CHANGER. We also have Global Entry which allows us to go through TSA precheck which also makes things much easier on us while traveling with a baby. I highly recommend looking into TSA precheck if you can and know you have a trip coming up.

Going through security was pretty painless. I didn’t need to remove any of my bottles or formula etc. I just alerted the TSA agent that I had them with me and they took a peek through my bag after it went through the scanner. We folded up our stroller and popped it on the conveyor belt to also go through the scanner. I was also able to keep Otis in my carrier and wear him through the metal detector so that made life super easy not having to readjust holding him and be juggling our bags. 

After we got through security, we put Otis in his stroller to give our backs a break and to allow us both to use the restrooms before getting on the plane.

IN THE AIR WITH A BABY

Obviously being in the plane was the hardest part about traveling with a baby. Never has time seemingly stood still as it did during that first flight with Otis. Before sitting down I used wet wipes to wipe down every possible surface I could see… because obviously Otis put his mouth all over that airplane. Say what you will, I desperately with all my power tried to keep him from touching random things and doing that… but it is what it is. You do your best. Before we even took off, Otis was squirming around since he was already crawling and just wanted to be free from our arms and explore on his own. No can do on an airplane little buddy! It was the moment that made everything sink in… shit. We were stuck on this plane for 6 hours…. and it was going to be the longest 6 hours of our lives. HA! 

MOM TIP: Prep a present! Prep mini bottles of liquor and add a little custom label and pop into your carry-on. Ours said, “Have a great flight. <3 Otis” We did this just in case things went bad and we needed to give our neighbors a little “I’m sorry we have a cranky baby have a drink on us” present. Doesn’t have to be booze, maybe you make a snack bag, something easy. Always nice to be kind to your neighbors

One of the most important tips when flying with baby is making sure to feed them at takeoff and landing. This is to help relieve the pressure in their ears. A flight attendant also told me on our flight that when they pressurize the cabin before take off is also a time you should feed your little ones since that will also affect their ears. I was breastfeeding in a 3 seat row and luckily I had a very sweet woman next to me who was accommodating to the fact we had our baby with us. Not gonna lie, it wasn’t an ideal situation and I am pretty go with the flow nursing on the fly. There just isn’t much space so if we had the choice I would 100% recommend a window seat. 

MOM TIP: If you are nursing, grab a window seat so you can have somewhere to lean and not have to worry about people on both sides of you.

I did everything right… fed during pressurizing the cabin, and during landing… and Otis DEATH cried. It was not as bad taking off as it was landing. He refused my boob. Refused my bottle. HE just screamed bloody murder and it was one of the saddest and most stressful moments. You just feel horrible for your baby, you are trying literally everything to sooth and calm them down, and they are screaming so loud the whole plane can here and your just utterly embarrassed, sad, emotional. The tears were coming for me. I was about to lose it. And then my seat mate looked at Otis and started to play peek a boo. GOD BLESS THAT WOMAN. Like I said earlier, you can do everything right.. And shit still happens. I obviously knew I needed to feed Otis and was doing my best to do so for his ears. Lots of people were also telling me that if I fed him he would feel better while he was screaming but he literally refused every form of food at a certain point so he just cried it out and thankful we were landing and I had a literal angel woman sitting next to me. Just want to keep it real and let you know it’s not always smooth sailing. And if you aren’t a parents and cringe when you see a family coming on a plane… be kind. Because chances are they are just working so hard to survive their journey and doing their best to keep their child and you happy. Just some food for thought.

After the initial take off, we basically cycled from toy to toy. The main key was not taking more than 1 toy out at a time. We exhausted that 1 toy before pulling out a new one. This way we would keep him as occupied as possible.

MOM TIP: Ask your flight attendant for an empty plastic cup and plastic spoon. They make the most simple toys and were endless entertainment for Otis.

Our last pretty epic toy we would leave till the last resort was post-it notes. This was an epic way to occupy Otis. I would basically stick a few of them all over the chair and let him pick them up, crumble them, re-stick them etc. This kept him VERY occupied for a while. Also it’s such a cheap thing to buy and keep in your bag for the future. 

MOM TIP: Make sure you get some new toys and books for your flight so baby is super stimulated exploring something new instead of an old toy they might lose interest in sooner.

In between wrangling toys, we would make sure that Otis had the meals he needed. To keep things minimally messy, we brought food pouches with us (AND A BIB!) to feed to him. Our favorite pouches that don’t need to be refrigerated are here and here. Not gonna lie, it wasn’t mess free because one time Otis got hold of the packet and squeezed it all over both of us. This is why packing an outfit is always essential when traveling with a baby. But having that quick and easy meal option was great for the plane. Snacks were also essential for keeping his hands and mind busy. I packed his snack cup and pre-filled it with his favorite puffs and had a bag of yogurt melts with me as well.

When we got super desperate, I pulled out our loud sound toys. Good news is the actual plane is loud and the sound didn’t disrupt anyone around us bc I could barely even hear it. This was also when we would pull out our ipad and put on some Puppy Dog Pals or Disney for Otis. He doesn’t really watch but he loves the songs and it was another thing to focus on. I had a super old ipad that I got this kids case for and now have it for prepped for him with kids shows. 

When it came to diaper changes, when we first got on the plane, one of us went to scope out which ones had a changing table. We flew Delta and never had a problem finding a changing table on the plane. I would carry my changing pad equipped with wipes and diapers and Otis and that is it. It was… interesting. HAHA. Our changing table opened up on top of the toilet and it’s just super slippery and your in a tiny space. So if you can, bring some kind of distraction toy with you to make your life easier.

Naps/Sleeping were a particular challenge for us on our flights. Otis is normally the most amazing little sleeper and he just fought it with every fiber of his being on our flights. He isn’t one of those babies that just falls asleep on us anymore because he’s so mobile. So, we got out our trusty baby carrier and Blake walked with him up and down the airplane aisle until he fell asleep. It wasn’t easy, but FINALLY Blake got him to sleep. We got a solid 30 minutes which was better than nothing. You just have to be willing to go with the flow when you are traveling and know that not all your schedules will be met or kept. 

MOM TIP: Wear your baby in a carrier to try to get them to nap. Trust me, better to be seated uncomfortably with a sleeping baby attached to you then wrangling a cranky baby past their naptime.

Basically Blake and I tag teamed everything and switched off often to give each other a break. When we were preparing to land and the plan started its initial descent, we prepped milk for Otis and he took it at first and then started to refuse it. His poor little ears must have been affected by the pressure and he was DEATH CRYING and there was nothing we could do to console him. I tried to breastfeed him, bottle feed him, give him a bottle with water, a straw cup, etc and nothing would work. It was likely the worst part of our trip. I was heartbroken for him to be so uncomfortable and just not be able to help him. It was beyond horrifying and the tears started to stream down my face. And then our kind neighbor started playing peek a boo with Otis. Somehow it got him to start to calm down a little bit. Honestly that part was really hard. You feel completely helpless and honestly embarrassed because your baby is screaming. So many emotions. But I am here to tell you that we all survived. And he left the plane smiling and high fived the captain. 

GETTING OFF THE PLANE WITH A BABY

When our plane arrived at the gate, I put Otis in the carrier so we could easily grab all our bags. It’s always a gamechanger to be hands free. We grabbed all our stuff and then deplaned and changed his diaper right away when we got off. To navigate the rest of the airport, since we knew we were going to have to wait for a rental car etc, we put him in the stroller to get a little break. Of course the minute he hit his car seat in the rental car… OUT. Completely passed out. 

Not gonna lie, after flying with Otis both of us turned to each other and said, “Let’s not fly again soon!” Flying with a baby is next level. It’s 100% a different and much more challenging experience. Gone are the days of face masks, bubbly, and naps on planes. Because I could have used a drink but didn’t even have a safe location to drink it or keep it with wrangling a baby. I legit told Blake to fill a camelback with wine for me next time. I’m only half joking

In all seriousness, I came in with zero expectations and it was absolutely a challenging and stressful experience, but we also did have fun. Watching Otis look out the window, play with post-its and wave to our neighbors on the plane just burst my heart right open. That first day walking into the Four Seasons Maui, grabbing my swimsuit, and letting Otis crawl onto the sand… it’s incredible to be able to share some of our favorite places and experiences with Otis. It’s 500% worth the travel adventure. 

MOM TIP: Make sure you plan a long enough trip so you make the travel day and struggles worth your while! We originally only booked a 4 night stay for our first plane trip and I had wished we added on at least 2 days. 

ADJUSTING TO A NEW TIME ZONE WITH A BABY

On the day we arrived to Maui, we decided to keep Otis up as long as possible to adjust him to our current timezone. There are lots of different schools of thought on how you should adjust your little ones. Some people stay on their home time zone, others adjust. All depends on what works for your baby and your family. Otis is a pretty resilient traveler and doesn’t have sleep problems when we travel to hotels or family etc so we chose to adjust him to the Hawaii time zone.

Basically the key is to keep them up as long as humanly possible as close to their new bedtime as possible. We kept him busy exploring new places in the hotel and went out to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. He was busy eating his pasta and Blake said, “Looks like he is closing his eyes.” The next minute we look over, Otis fell asleep sitting up in his highchair. Poor guy was so exhausted from our travel day that he just passed out. I have NEVER seen him do something like this. It was one of the sweetest little things to witness him snoring at the dinner table. We somehow managed to transfer him to this stroller and he stayed asleep while we ate our dinner. Of course before our check came, he woke up freaking out having a meltdown and Blake had to leave the restaurant with him and bring him to the room while I got the check. We quickly headed to the room and got him down to sleep and he had no problem sleeping through the night. 

FINAL TRAVEL THOUGHTS

Guys, we did it. We survived. And so can you! I think the most important thing to note about traveling with a baby is you really have to let go of any type of expectations. Throw them out the window. If you can find a way to go with the flow, it will make the experience more digestible for the whole family. Yes it might go amazing, no problems, angel sleeping baby that takes their nap… that is goals. Serious travel goals. It could also go terrible with a diaper blowout and some tears shed. Just know that you got this Mamas and the next time you see a parent traveling with their kids, seriously give them a high five because I know most of you are working your butts off to keep those littles happy. Prep as best you can and roll with the punches. Good luck!! If I think about anything else that might be useful will add it to this post.

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[tyrantofthefirmament]

How Starscream and Stormider met

@stormriderofvos​ mun and I were on skype tossing ideas around and wouldn’t you know it, an RP happened. I cleaned it up a bit, formatting wise, and if I tried to edit more it would take even longer to actually post, so here it is. It goes from script style to para as we got more into the narration and flow.

::Time to die, Starscream. Your time to die.::

Starscream turned turned sharply towards the approaching Seeker. ::Really, there were over 600 attempts on my life before the war even started. what makes you think you’ll do any better?::

::Did any of them have twin engines and could do this?:: *Fires a semi-active radar homing missile*

*Transforms and free-falls, then assumes jet-mode facing the missile and fires on it* ::Well, a couple of the less subtle ones::

*She transforms and does a twirl in the fall before her alt mode's cannon pops out of her forearm and starts firing at him*

*He root-modes again, arcing his body gracefully over the shots and returning fire with his blaster, then rolls quickly into his jet mode and charges her with high explosive rounds from his ion cannons ::It’s a pity we never got to dance before the war started.::

*Her optic widens as she dives in her root mode before switching back to her alt mode and continuing her dive with a split S and pulling vertical on full afterburners* ::Like I'd ever want to dance with a cheat like you. You should still be stuck in a lab, not Air Commander.::

*Starscream sees her pull up and climbs sharply inside her turn, throwing clouds of low pressure vapor from his wings.  ::Tsk tsk. Cheating is irrelevant in politics, and verbal sparring likewise ought to be as elegant as dancing. Not some non-sequitur about labs. Besides, an Air Commander needs to be versed in science. If you weren’t assigned a stint in Crystal City, it means the Air Command never envisioned you for any sort of leadership role.:: He fires a missile after her

*She fires flares and chaff, transforming and spinning around in her root mode and firing two missiles at him* ::At least I understand the needs of Vos and Vosnians better than the mech who sold us out to a mudslogging maniac, you traitor.

He root modes and shoots both missiles with his null rays. Even at the slight - and shrinking - distance between them she can probably see his look of fury as he bursts out from between the explosions, still climbing just from his momentum. ::I sold out nothing! I was betrayed! We all were!:: For perhaps the first time in his life he wished they fighting on the ground - tearing out her Spark with his talons would be so much better than shooting her down after an accusation like that.

::Lies! You just wanted more power! I saw the warning signs with Megatron! I'll end you myself!:: *She lunges at him as they descend, reaching to her waist and drawing a pair of swords to hack away at the air commander* ::I HATE you!::

::I wanted this entire planet to have the freedoms we had in Vos, and more! You never had to deal with the Council! You never saw the rust setting in from their castes! They were going to do it to Vos too!:: His talons deflect the first sword strike and he moves in close, robbing her blades of the force they need to cut through his armor. A strike from the other sword throws sparks from his shoulder, and he retaliates with a salvo of kicks directed at her cockpit. ::If you want someone to hate, hate Megatron. I’m going to kill him and regain what he stole. You won’t be there to see it though!::

::I've seen eno-:: *she grunts from the blows to her cockpit before having to block with her own leg. Her optics narrowed* ::Oh, Megatron's going to pay, that's for sure. But I'm going to send you back to the pit where you came from first!:: *she goes for a flurry of strikes with her sword, trying to catch enough of him to go for a kill*

Starscream parries what he can, though several of her slashes draw Energon from his arms and dent his pauldrons. He ripostes with lightning-quick talons going for her wrists and elbows, and the seams on her torso when he can, vulnerable joints that may make her drop a sword or aim her strikes more poorly. ::Megatron’s mine I’m afraid!::

His strikes scratch her plating, some even drawing energon as they get thinner closer to her seams. Starscream's blow to her torso seams manage to slow  her onslaught for a few moments but she just renews herself, even with somewhat less accuracy. ::Not a chance! I'll break you first, you coward, and then I'll break him! You? When I'm done with you, you aren't even going to be a footnote in the history of Vos. If it wasn't for this war, Starscream, I would've dueled you myself. And I would have won! Then I would have your helm placed upon a pike in my throne room, your frame quartered, and displayed in the four corners of Vos as a warning of what happens when you cross us!::

::Cross who exactly? If it wasn’t for this war you’d have no claims whatsoever against me and I’d execute you for treason for even attempting such a thing! On what grounds would you duel me? I’d refuse.:: He blocked a particularly hard strike aimed at his helm, and stuck out one wing so the wind from their freefall pushed him above her, though both Seekers remained locked in combat. ::And quartering? Really? Such vileness doesn’t become our beautiful city. If there’s one blessing in the city’s fall it’s that anarchists like you never turned us into barbarians!::

::At least if I was Air Commander we'd still HAVE a home!:: *She was hoping the strike to Starscream's helm would finish the fight. But that block enraged her. ::I'd fight you on grounds of zero confidence in your ability to lead Vos. An insult on your honor that would be hard to refuse.:: *When he pushed above her the altitude alarms started going off on her HUD. She quickly kicked in the thrusters on her back to slow her descent. Last thing she needed was to turn into a pile of scrap metal on the ground*

He had to laugh at that. ::Political matters such as that aren’t an insult to my honor! You think I never heard that from our own council? Air Commanders need thicker plating than that! Everyone says that about every lord, and if I did accept your ridiculous duel you’d probably whine about me silencing political speech! Who were you anyway, that you’d even have standing to get my attention with such a challenge?:: He waited until his altitude warnings went off - warnings he was accustomed to ignoring - though it annoyed him that she was slowing their descent. He was through messing around. ::Pity you won’t live to wise up about how things work.:: He kicked away from her and fired his remaining missile right into her to drive her into the ground and finish her off. He alt-moded as the shock from the explosion rocked him.

*The missile alarms went off too late for her to switch into her alt mode. It impacted, shattering her canopy, tearing open metal, and burning the area around the impact, sending her in a spin towards the ground. At her speed she slid for nearly a thousand feet before her momentum gave out. Her swords lay on the ground close to where she impacted. She was unconscious but still very much alive.*

Starscream swooped over the debris trail and landed beside the crashed Seeker. He took two more missiles from his subspace and clipped them to his arms, not looking up when Skywarp appeared beside him with a shattering crack of thunder, reeking of ozone from his teleportation.

“Frag, Starscream I wondered what in the Pit you were doing!” He grinned as he looked over what he thought was his leader’s latest kill. “Took your time, huh?”

“Your concern is noted.” Starscream smirked and stepped aside as Thundercracker landed. “Log it, Thundercracker. That’s 11 today.”

The blue Seeker paused checking the scanner in his arm. “Logged. She’s alive though. Will you finish her?”

Starscream frowned. He’d really wanted to kill her in the air. Either way, he’d shot her down, and perhaps this way was more useful. “Not yet. Bring her.” He commed the nearest Decepticon transport to come pick up a prisoner.

*When she awoke, it'd be after her imprisonment. She checked her pauldrons to make sure the insignia on it was untouched as well as her injuries before taking in her surroundings. The Seeker tries to free her arms, glaring at her shackles in disdain. She vents and conserves her energy. That missile blast still messed with her head earlier*

Light briefly spread across the restrained prisoner as the doors to the room slid open. Starscream stepped through, flanked by his lieutenants, and darkness fell again. Deliberate steps rang out in the cell, and then Starscream stepped into the dim beam of light coming from the ceiling.

His talons caught the light as he traced fresh welds on her frame from where she’d been repaired, though dried Energon still dulled her paint, and one or two gashes still leaked slowly. Starscream flicked some crystalized Energon off his claws with a metallic ringing sound.

“I trust my medical staff revived you well enough? It was a nasty crash.” He smirked.

Stormrider looked to him. Her vibrant purple optics narrowed from the adjustment of light in front of her. If Starscream looked on her pauldrons she still had her former Air Command rank on them, as well as an Autobot badge on the left. "What do you want?”

His smirk vanished, replaced by a pitiless look. “I want answers to some basic questions. How easy or hard that process is is up to you.” He waved a hand and the wall she was secured to transformed outward into a table, so she was lying down. Starscream produced an Energon prod and switched it on. Both Seekers could feel the static from it prickling against their fields. “Now some of these questions, I know the answers to already, so this will be interesting. Kalis. How many of you defectors patrol it now?” It was a mundane question, but it would help him see what he was up against before getting into weightier matters.

An interrogation...so this is how it was going to be. She vented, deeply. She had her honor to uphold. If she could survive a pain greater than a prod, she could last. "Why should I tell you? So you can shoot us down? Not a chance.”

The shock came, not from Starscream’s prod but from Skywarp’s, from the other side, near where Starscream’s missile had hit. The flash of blue light from it lit Starscream’s frown. “I’m afraid that wasn’t what I asked.” Another jolt. Starscream quietly raised his hand and Skywarp backed away. “How many defend Kalis? Give me a number.”

She screamed, twice, it was more than she was expecting mainly due to where they hit; but it wasn't the worst she’s experienced… remembering how awful her turbine blades ruined by acid felt put it in perspective. She'd keep resisting...she wasn't going to break if she could help it. "Frag you, that's how many.”

Starscream feigned surprised. “Frag you? If that’s a number, I’m not familiar with it.” He gave Skywarp a permissive wave. “Let’s count. You let me know when we get to ‘frag you’.” Skywarp hit her again with the prod, repeatedly and with no pattern. This was his element. Thundercracker kept to one side and monitored her vitals, adjusting the prod’s power on the fly to make sure it hurt but never knocked her out.

Her screams continued to fill the room but she continued to take the brunt of their blows. She didn't crack...she refused to. Stormrider refused to sell out the seekers under her. Her talons dug into the table, the sound of scratching metal being added to her howls of pain.

After a while, Thundercracker gave Starscream a signal to stop. Starscream waved Skywarp away again, though the black and purple Seeker prowled behind the swirls of smoke given off by the prod, his red optics glaring from the darkness. Starscream studied his claws. “‘Frag you’ is quite a few it seems.” He leaned over her. “Next question: We have intercepted transmissions regarding an infiltration of Blaster City. When will this take place?”

She was panting, her systems trying to regulate themselves after that onslaught. She looked straight at Starscream with a rather unamused face. "Do I look like the kind to sell out my fellow Vosnians? Is that what you take me for? I wasn't bound to be part of Vos' finest fighters for no reason!" She struggled against her binds. "I, don't, betray, my, allies. Even those mudsloggers, I don't send them to their deaths.”

He let Skywarp hit her with the prod again, then drummed his talons against the edge of her missile wound. “I don’t take you for much, to tell the truth. But it is only because you are Vosnian that I took any interest in you. Your mudslogger allies who were captured along with you? They’re bound for Shockwave. You’d be going there too, except you’re my prisoner.” A dark look flashed in optics when he mentioned Shockwave. He wasn’t going to hand any more of his people over to the maniac responsible for their genocide. “Though honestly,” he continued, crushing the shattered edge of her cockpit in his grip, “you’d never get there, not in one piece. Not on a transport run by those gladiators. They’d pull you apart, rip off your wings - they relish the screams of Seekers.” He let go of her, brushed a few shards of glass away. “We are simply going to torture you like civilized people and then decide whether to kill you quickly, or keep you. But if I don’t get the answers I want, it will be taken out of my hands.” There was a slight urgency in his voice that wasn’t entirely an act. Traitor or not, he didn’t want to see any Seeker handed over to such a fate.

She groaned once more from the hit. She looked at Starscream as he spoke. That look...she saw it...there was something about Shockwave she didn't know and she knew it.  She hissed when he crushed part of her broken canopy.....this was better than the gruesome end he described. "Keep me, for what? To be your pet?" She sounded somewhat insulted, "You should've just killed me back there, Starscream, at least you would've given me a death suitable of a Vosnian elite The four of us all have one thing in common, and that's that we don't even have a fragging home to fight for anymore. So what is the Primus damned point of even bothering to stay alive until the end? What do we get? I'll tell you what we get. Some flat piece of land without even the ruins because that is how thorough our destruction would be at the hands of Megatron!" She actually started to leak fluids from her optics...not from the pain but from this. Violet optics stained with teal fluid as she continued, "I'm either physically dead or dead inside from being the betrayer's slave. You might as well fragging kill me. I'll see you in the pit when you get there and I'll settle the score there." She felt bad for just giving up. It wasn't in her to just lie down and die but she didn't have a choice here.

He slapped her. Hard. Thundercracker gave him a look, warning him not to get emotional. He flexed his talons, taking a moment. Everything in him railed against what she’d just said. Even the thought of giving up filled him with revulsion, and he wanted to tear into her, scream at her that that was no way for the Vosnian elite to talk, to beat her until she fought back. At least to tell her that he and his Trine had nothing in common with her if she’d give up so easily. Anything to avoid hearing how his own failure had broken the spirit of one of his own. But Thundercracker was right - Soundwave monitored all interrogations. He couldn’t exactly give her a pep talk, no matter how violent. Megatron already sensed his divided loyalties - it was why Vos had been taken. It wouldn’t do to even talk about how he would rebuild it this early in the game.

He studied his talons again, forcing his faceplates into a cool smirk. He could play on her hopelessness, repulsive as it was. “If death is all you have to look forward to, I could easily oblige you right here.” He raked his talons across her chest plate over her Spark with a horrible screech of metal. Flicking some fresh Energon from his claws, he continued. “However, unlike you, I don’t give up so easily. Now,” he said smoothly, selecting a pair of wire strippers from a nearby side table, “following from your premise that we - well, you at least - have nothing worth fighting for, you can help me end the war quickly, with far less destruction. Unless this war of attrition suits you, and I assure you, the Decepticons are far more able to outlast your chosen allies. There will be none of you left.”

He sunk his claws into the seam near the power supply to her arm gun and wrenched the plating off, then carefully lifted out a single wire. “Kalis. How many defend it?”

The slap moved her helm, snapping her back into the moment. She was in a state of despair, she couldn't deny that. For all her love of Vos and striving to be Air Commander herself one day. Her spirit was shattered...there was a good bit of the time where the Seeker would be alone, contemplating the loss of her home. The only reason she fought now was one pure, primal reason: revenge.  She wanted Megatron's helm on a pike for what he did. He was far worse of a betrayer than Starscream. How she wanted to reach up and grab his neck cables and tear out Starscream's vocalizer with her own denta. How she wanted to brutalize him for his loss of Vos. But she couldn't...she couldn't move her servos. Starscream opening up the plating around her cannon revealed the etching of acid on the plating within and even traces of it on the weapon itself, clearly from Cybertron's rain that had worked its way in during a flight. "You know I won't sell out a single Vosnian spark, Starscream. I'd rather sell myself to some depraved Iaconian councilor if it would spare my brothers and sisters the pain of death." Despite her ambition...she was still selfless in how she cared for her people.

“There are no Iaconian Councilors anymore. That world has ended. We ended it.” A little Decepticon talking point for Soundwave’s benefit, though it was true. Cybertron could never go back, but its future was still balanced on a knife edge. He placed the the wire strippers on the wire he had teased out from her arm. “And you traitors are going to die either way, but if you give me a number, we’ll beat you faster and with fewer casualties for the rest of the war. A number!” He scraped the wire strippers down the cable, revealing bright metal leading from the pain sensors in her arm.

"I've been pained by acid rain, Starscream. Have you ever had your turbine blades ruined in the pursuit of your foe? Have you ever felt yourself literally eaten away? You don't know the meaning of pain. Do your worst. But I'm never giving up a number of the Vosnians at Kalis. You want an answer, ask something else. But I refuse to sell out my brothers and sisters." She still came off cocky. That smack gave her a bit of her resolve back for the time being. She knew this was going to be painful but she still egged him on. Somehow...she wanted to show that she could still fight, even if she couldn't hit him.

“As a matter of fact I have. My entire squadron had the pleasure of fighting in a storm once, and we were forced to land among the cliffs. It was a week before the storm cleared and we could be rescued. Three of my officers needed their entire engines reconstructed.” He leaned close to her. “So I know pain. And I know how to inflict greater pain.” He gave the wire a small pinch, just a sample of what was to come. “I know who you are, Stormrider. I may have flown in a storm once, but you - you have made it something of a signature, and you weather it well. I would say I’m impressed but all that tells me is you like to seek out punishment. Fortunately that is what I provide, and not just to you.”

He turned to Thundercracker. “Note that the opposition at Kalis numbers ‘frag you’. Use your highest estimate for what that means, and triple our numbers for the assault accordingly. It’s not as efficient as I’d hoped, but it will get the job done. Megatron’s grounders will only be needed for cleanup duty when we’re finished.”

He looked pityingly down at her and shook his head. “You didn’t save anyone by behaving so foolishly. Now, the strike on Blaster City. I need a date.” He shocked the exposed wiring in her arm with the prod, hitting every pain sensor in the limb at once. It would feel as though her arm was being ripped apart and set on fire.

He leaned closer so he could tell her something when she screamed. Provided she wasn’t so stupid as to try not screaming again.

She hissed at the pain from the pinch, servo clenching. So he did know...and he put two and two together on who she was. ...It was only going to get worse for her. And now she felt bad for her troops at Kalis. She knew they were tough, and they'd have support from Autobot pilots, but their inferior fighters could only do so much. The foolish Iaconians had their best fighters at Iacon itself. Her constant requests to only have a squadron moved to Kalis were always denied...no matter how much those maneuverable fighters would make all the difference.

Then came the shock to her wire. Her am spasmed, talons digging into the table as she cried out. Then...Starscream came closer...As she vented audibly, grunting in pain from the shock she'd listen to what he had to say…

She was still resisting, slaggit. Starscream paused, waited until Thundercracker gave him the go-ahead, then jolted her wiring again, harder. When she screamed he hissed in her audial, “If you truly want to end this war we need to talk, but not here, so I need any date next Orn (a 2 week period). I don’t care when.” A Seeker’s scream would hopefully be loud enough to cover that remark even with Soundwave’s sensitive devices.

Straightening up, he demanded loudly: “A day and joor. Now!” He dug his talon into the wire, which he noted had started to melt. It would cause constant pain until it was repaired.

She continued to scream, that talon destroying the table around it. He...wanted her to lie? He wanted to talk to her? She at least owed him as a Vosnian to hear the Air Commander out, even if she didn't particularly care for him. She did scream, loud enough so that it was but a mere whisper in her audial. But the pain in her arm....she couldn't help the occasional screams after that. "The end...of the next orn...I don't know specifics. Not my department…"

Starscream’s wings flared. “Good enough. And if that’s all you know, I’ve no further use for you.”

He stepped back and waved Thundercracker over to her. The blue Seeker cut the melted section of wiring away, effectively numbing her arm, and scanned her processor. He nodded at Starscream.

“I will deal with traitors personally, and I don’t see why Shockwave should have the pleasure,” Starscream snapped at no one in particular as his lieutenants unshackled her arms from the table and re-shackled them behind her back. Skywarp placed a clamp around her wings and shoved her to start walking. Starscream flicked his wing back and down, a clear signal to a Vosnian to keep quiet. His position did provide him a tremendous amount of discretion regarding the fate of prisoners, provided that fate was bad somehow, but this was the first defector they’d captured. He didn’t need any extra attention as they made their way past multiple guards to the elevator out of the holding cells. The elevator, at least was not bugged.

She simply walked. They didn't need to clamp her wings, so she growled at that, so humiliating to be deprived of her ability to control them. She took Starscream's cue and kept her mouth shut. If he was truly wishing to speak...well she wasn't going to throw away an opportunity to know why he did what he did. After in the elevator she looked to Thundercracker and Skywarp. Her friends were killed when Vos was destroyed. Her friends, and her trinemates, never saw it coming. So Stormrider was a lone wolf...odd for a seeker but she seemed to get by with other Vosnian defectors.

“I’ll have my own medical staff see to your wounds, and replace that wire,” Starscream said, regarding her coldly. He was taking a risk, moving her without permission, so hopefully he was right to be intrigued by her. “Though after your little outburst about having nothing to fight for I don’t know why I bother. Perhaps I ought to just finish you off.” His rage over what she’d said had long since cooled, but there was still a big part of him that meant it.

"Well your little slap reminded me why I needed to keep fighting. The last thing I have going for me is to exact what needs to be meted out to you know who." This was a surprise...was he opening up to her? What he said certainly got her attention...but by the same token would he really be so cold? "You wouldn't kill one of your own kind so coldly. Bound? Helpless? Is that really any way for a Vosnian to go out? Especially at the talons of another…"

“I’ll kill whomever I need to kill before this is all over. And someone who thinks they’d rather die because they don’t see a way to take back what we’ve lost is no Vosnian, and deserves no better.” His voice was harsh and clipped, but there was a deep sadness in his optics that he didn’t bother hiding. “But it seems my slap did its work, so I’ll chalk up your lapse in ambition to the shock of being under the prod.” He smirked briefly at his pun, then his hard stare returned. “I expect better, frankly, and mere revenge on you-know-who, on Megatron, is short sighted.” He’d come right out and said it, and we watched for her reaction.

She seemed shocked, confused even, at being told that being told that revenge was short sighted. "I hope you're going to fill me in on that." The larger seeker glanced at the other two again...was she starting to envy him? He still had his trine after all. She didn't speak as much as she wanted, just in case the elevator opened.

He smiled, amused at her shock. “All in good time.” He noticed her looking around, and noticed that Skywarp still looked like he hadn’t had enough of torturing her yet. Starscream angled his wings apologetically at his hot-headed Trine mate. Of the three of them, Skywarp had come the closest to breaking when Vos was destroyed, and he tended to take his pent up rage out on defectors in the air, and anyone unlucky enough to be sent Starscream’s way for questioning. Stormrider was both. He hated her.

Thundercracker noticed Starscream’s movement and edged against his brother-in-arms, a steady presence to soothe Skywarp’s resentment. He could assure Skywarp that Starscream had a plan even when Starscream’s attempts an explaining it to him usually turned into a shouting match. All of that went unsaid, relayed by a look, a canted wing, the touch of a shoulder.

Skywarp simmered down, and just in time. The elevator doors opened into a bigger corridor than what they’d left far below. Dull light struggled in through narrow windows from the smoke-filled skies of Kaon.

“I have quarters here, for my use when I am not in space as I prefer,” Starscream explained, leading the way into the corridor. A couple of the enormous Kaonite gladiators turned to watch the Seekers, but most went about their business. It wasn’t long before they turned and passed several trios of Air Command guards. The last of these stepped away from Starscream’s door and discreetly used their wings to block any view of Starscream’s key code.He entered first and Thundercracker ushered Stormrider in, with Skywarp shuffling in last. Starscream’s quarters were large but nearly empty. He’d made no attempt to personalize them or make them comfortable, since they never would be.

“Get that off of her.” Starscream ordered, indicating the wing clamps, which Thundercracker removed. “An unfortunately necessary display for those ground-pounding thugs of his.”

Once she was free of the infernal clamps her wings stretched, resuming their normal position on her frame. "Thank you. So humiliating to have my wings clipped." She looked around his quarters. "Certainly not what I'd call ornate, but then again, who'd want to live among this rabble?" Stormrider started musing, her servos were still restrained, otherwise she'd start rolling one of them as she started to speak. "So, Megatron, how is my seeking of revenge on him short sighted? He's not immortal, as far as I know. While, granted, his means of going about this war is...disgusting. I don't care for the Autobots either, you'd be surprised at the looks we Vosnians still get from those Iaconian slimeballs.”

“I spend as little time here as possible. The air stinks, as do the inhabitants. But it is where Lord Megatron has decided to build his citadel.” The particular angle of his wings as he sneered the warlord’s name was the equivalent of spitting. He shook his head at her comments about the Autobots. “It doesn’t surprise me. They’ll never have any regard for Seekers. Oh, they love having us fight, but they see us as strutting baubles for their amusement. It’s no better here. Those gladiators are vile, sadistic.” His talons clenched into a fist.

“As I said, you would not likely have even made it to Shockwave’s lab on a transport with them.” The thought made his tanks churn, as did the thought of what Shockwave would do if she had made it… everything about Shockwave. He flicked a wing.

“Anyway, I didn’t merely wish to spare a Vosnian, even a traitor, from a degrading death. At first I did. I figured I’d end up executing you after interrogation, cleanly. However,” he leaned closer to her. “let’s talk about revenge on Megatron. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a start, but you need to look at what happens after.”

"I think I'd rather down a cube of our planet's lovely rain than spend time here." She said lovely with a good deal of sarcasm, of course. Her wings flared in anger when he mentioned Megatron. It seemed he hated the Decepticon leader as much as she did? Maybe she had some common ground with him.

Shockwave...his name kept coming up. She'd have to probe into it. "Well, I figured you wouldn't have bought me here for my health. And frankly, Starscream, our views are the opposite. You may view me as a traitor but we who went to the Autobots after we lost Vos..." She didn't want to anger him too much, not while she was still bound. If her cuffs were off she could at least stop him from slapping her around. "We don't want to be Iaconian slaves either. I've heard them talk," her wings flared again, "how the Iaconian officers want us do dance for them...among other reprehensible actions. Simply use us like things. They don't treat their grounder pilots better either."

That was when Starscream bought up a point...after Megatron was dead. Then what? "You got me, Starscream, I didn't exactly think on what would happen after I was done basically vaporizing the fragging glitch. I was too focused on getting my chance to wrap my talons around his neck, rip fuel lines out of his midsection, and force feed them to him and watch the life fade from his optics.”

Starscream forced his wings to betray nothing as she stopped just short of calling him a traitor. Still, the reproach was there, hanging in the air between them. He let it go unanswered. Now was not the time, and she was likely testing him.

When she spoke of her particular plans for Megatron, however, he grinned. “You do paint a lovely picture. But as tempting as it is to content oneself with such daydreams, even carry them out, it is useless without a goal beyond that.” He stepped closer to her. “And what goals! Not just Vos rebuilt, but Cybertron! Did you truly think simply killing Megatron at any point once the war started would bring peace? Would let you go home and carry on as before? Did you think what Cybertron had before was peace? Only in the way a grave has peace, or some ancient machine rusted over and left in ‘peace’ because it no longer has a purpose. This war was never about Megatron. You think I aligned our forces, committed our armada, to that lump of slag? This conflict was on the wind long before he clawed his way out of the pits. He was the spark, but he is a fool, unfit to finish what he started. The goals of the Decepticons matter, though Megatron contents himself with tearing down whatever he feels was denied him and his caste. Once he’s dead that useless destruction will cease. Free people have no need of such resentment.” He walked to her side, reached under her wing to her bound hands, and released her shackles. Their heavy thud against the floor punctuated his statement, and he stretched up to purr near her audial, “People, once freed, find purpose. I will give them purpose. Killing Megatron is a fine purpose to begin with, a necessary one, and one I will take great pleasure in, but it is only a start.”

"Well, I firmly believed that cutting off the head would kill the beast. At least something to make the war end quickly." She had seen the cities under their enemy. She saw that suffering even extended to Praxus, Iacon, Kalis...unless you were 'upper caste.' "Many of us who left think you DID. Even former supporters of yours. They thought you had some grandiose scheme to succeed and went along with it...but Vos' destruction pushed them over the edge. That's when they stopped believing in you." Her wings flicked in surprise as she let him go...she didn't expect that at all. She bought her talons forward and rubbed the wrist of the one that still had feeling in it. "So, you still want to kill him. What of our home, Starscream? What about Vos? I'm pretty sure that even with the rest of the planet free of that caste slag, we still wouldn't be taken seriously. I see it in the Autobots..." she growled, "sickening."

"What was your plan, then?" Her wings showed her curiosity. Meanwhile she started to wonder if Starscream himself was truly as awful as what she thought before. This actually seemed civil...they had the same goals in mind; though she'd have to admit Starscream planned into the aftermath whilst she was out for short term vengeance.

Her explanation of the defecting Seekers’ feelings washed over him like acid rain, yet he bore it. It was nothing he hadn’t tortured himself with on countless rechargeless nights since the city’s fall. His people’s loss of faith in him, those who'd ever had it, added to his grief, picked and scraped at the edges where his Spark was torn out. The loss of support presented a practical problem too when it came to standing against Megatron, though even he was disgusted at himself for considering that. Still, without such cold calculations he couldn’t win, and then where would Vos be? So he hardened himself, kept working. He could feel later, when Megatron was dead.

His wing flicked down at her doubts. “And that is precisely why I have no intention of letting the Autobots win. They don’t deserve it and they would do nothing for Vos. My plan was, and remains, to use the revolution Megatron started as a means of changing this world, once he is removed as its leader. It is a change I’ve wanted for a long time, since before I was Air Commander, but it had to come from below - from the very mines and pits. No credit would be given to change imposed by one of my caste, nor could it - the Council shut me out on numerous occasions when I brought it up. I was just some pretty Seeker from the other side of the world, ranting about how Cybertron used to be great. I realized it was no longer the Council’s place to change Cybertron, nor their desire, yet change was coming. I waited, sensed the wind. And here was this gladiator, suddenly, who had the people’s audial. He would be useful, though beyond his own rage and a frenzy of destruction, he had no plan for afterwards.” He gave her a pointed look.

“Once this is over,” he continued, giving an airy wave of his talons, “who knows - perhaps I’ll move the capital to Vos. And we will be taken seriously because when I rule this planet, the Star Air Command will be the leading force getting Cybertron back into space as we were before our civilization faltered and we forgot how to be great.”

"I don't want them to win either, but the Autobots seemed to offer me the best chance at dropping a bomb straight up Megatron's aft that could end this war. I took it. Sometimes ambition is selfish yet at the same time, something needed to be done about the Megatron problem." As she listened to him talk further, her wings drooped. It just further confirmed her suspicions ot the side she had left for. Vos was the last bastion of equality on Cybertron but none of them really knew how long it would last before Iacon decided to bring the hammer down on them, to force Seekers to conform to flawed mudslogging ideas. One thing they would always have over a grounder: natural command of the skies.

"You have similar ambitions to myself...I wanted Vos' greatness, grounders and their flawed processors be damned. Yet...your view is admittedly far more ambitious than my own. An entire planet, Starscream...it's bold, daring, my kind of style." She gave him a smirk, the conversation was taking an interesting turn. "Though, how will you ensure their loyalty? I'm sure the rabble here in Kaon would rise against you for killing their leader and Iacon would continue to not take you seriously. Other Autobot cities will come around but I doubt those hedonistic frags ever will.”

Starscream’s wings fanned out wider and higher. It felt good to talk about the future with someone who appreciated ambition. He got a certain thrill in seeing her horizons broaden outward right before his eyes, to the entire planet and beyond.

“Loyalty is not exactly the issue, though there are of course precautions one should take. I believe most of the planet will unite behind me once they see a chance for a glory they’ve never known. Differences will be set aside, just as they were in the aftermath of the Quintesson war, when our newly freed society turned its collective gaze to the space bridges and the stars. But you are correct about the difficulty of those two particular cities. Iacon will not matter - most of the council is dead, and I know where Contrail and Rattrap are. I can have them taken out any time I choose. Besides that, I’m sure you know very well how we are making short work of their armies. Iacon will be broken.” He waved a dismissive hand, then folded it with the other behind his back.

“As for Kaon’s anger over Megatron’s death, who is to say I will deal the killing the blow?” He grinned. “As much as I want to see the Spark fade from his optics with my very own, as leader it may be a pleasure I have to forgo - to delegate.” He nodded towards her. “Your chosen side might just position you to 'drop a bomb straight up his aft' after all. And if I were to avenge such an outrage on our dear lord and master by crushing the remaining grounder forces in Iacon and ending the war on my terms, Kaon’s forces would settle down. They are fools, quickly assuaged by being pointed at something and told to destroy it, and they think that solves their problems.” He clenched his talons as his anger briefly returned. “Look what they did at Crystal City…”

He didn't...did he? Did he just tell her that she would be the one to deal the killing strike against Megatron? She wasn't about to say no...but at the same time it was also her neck on the line.  Yes, the Autobots would take the blame, but at the same time...it's a huge risk to her own spark. Though if Crystal City was any indication if what was to come of Iacon...two kills with a single shot.

She stepped closer to him. "You do have ambition...but what of me? First, being a prisoner already that would certainly draw some suspicion to you if I were to commit the act. Second, it's very much my spark at risk if I do this. As much as I'd appreciate seeing the death of Megatron and Iacon being handled in one fell swoop, I prefer to live to witness it. Third, while as broad a plan this is..." her wings certainly showed her interest, her joy in speaking of this. She wanted in, provided things were done carefully. “I''d like to narrow it down to more specifics."

She offered a servo, with her closeness to Starscream at the moment, and her hate of him subsiding, she wouldn't mind some contact with him. The similarities were striking, and she never had any point prior that spoken with him...nor any desire to do so civilly until now. "After all, we do this for Vos, for our people, and if we do this for the planet, I want a slice of the aftermath.”

Ah, finally, that famous Vosnian ambition showed itself. He’d been right after all, and he smiled at how well this was going.

“My prisoner killing Megatron would certainly draw suspicion, but a brave Autobot who had been in my clutches and escaped during transport - that would be different. And if you were to escape with vital intelligence, about a Decepticon surge at Kalis you learned about while being tortured, and where Megatron is going to be, the Autobots would take notice of you. It would catapult you to prominence.”

He regarded her offered servo but did not take it yet. “As for you living through the whole affair, that is up to you. I can pass you intel and my personal Armada will not attack you, but beyond that these will be real battles, and there are still many to come. When you go up against Megatron, I suggest you have backup, and lots of it. And I suggest you do use bombs, from far away. But the method of his demise will be up to you - I will make you aware of his movements when the time is right.”

Finally he grasped her hand, looking into her optics. “This is a dangerous, long-term plot, Stormrider, but an elegant one to end the war - to win it. Once you are a hero of the Autobots, and I lead the Decepticons to a decisive victory in the name of avenging Megatron,” His wings angled in irritation at the one part of his plan he detested. “I will spare you in the name of Vos and ask you help me rebuild. The Kaonites will just have to accept that. It will be very moving political theater, and it will take the sting of defeat from the Seekers who defected. Vos will be reunited and I will offer the same to Cybertron. As for your slice of the glory, Vos will be the leading influence as our planet turns its gaze to the skies once more. All channels of power will flow through our city, and there will certainly be positions for you to pick from - ambassador, governor, general, whatever suits you.” He smirked. “You can even have your own planet eventually.”

"Well, the Autobots have yet to designate a Vosnian commander...that might give me a chance to take that spot...I can easily coordinate our troops to further our own ends." Our troops...that's something she never thought she'd be saying to Starscream himself, and yet here she was. "I can survive the storms of our world...I somehow survived our encounter. I'm sure I can survive the war."

His optics were met with her own...there was a fire in her optics, that determination to kill Megatron, end the war, and restore Vos. Then the talk of Starscream's plans of expansion, her place in Vos...while she still had ambitions to become more than what she was, with Air Commander as the end result, this offer became far more enticing. "You have a deal." Her talons wrapped around Starscream's servo, she was grinning. Why wouldn't she be? This was the deal of a lifetime.

"Though...perhaps it would also benefit our plans if I stayed with you for a short time? We could also meet from time to time in secret. We wouldn't want that slag headed fool of a 'Lord' or the equally dimwitted Iaconians to know of our plot. I can promise you though, Vosnians will be absent at that final battle for Iacon...dealing with an 'attack' elsewhere.”

((that was as far as we got on skype))