#Though you are welcome to request map updates later if you would like!

[asking-paradise]

Kaby: What is Uncharted Road?

Uncharted Road is one of those high mysteriosity dungeons that, normally, you only enter while going through other mystery dungeons. You go through a few floors of Uncharted Road, and then return back to whatever dungeon you were in the middle of.

...which, makes this weird, if this is Uncharted Road, because it has spawned as its own dungeon.

Maybe it has become strong enough to become its own dungeon...? I hope not, honestly. An actual dungeon in Paradise would still be really bad...

Yeah... hopefully this is some sort of odd fluke.

[Floor Map unlocked!]

[ajaxwrites]

Genshin Impact Fanfic Rec List

(because this is my most current obsession~~)

The Narwhal of Dihua Marsh by GreyLiliy

Childe hears of a strong Adeptus living at the Wangshu Inn. Despite warnings from Zhongli that fighting Xiao would be a deathly mistake, Childe seeks out the Adeptus living in the Dihua Marsh eager for a proper fight.

However, Childe severely underestimates his opponent, and the consequences of his actions may keep him from returning home to Snezhnaya.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: This fic is interesting primarily because it's not necessarily what you would call an easy story to read. The content can surprisingly get quite heavy as the relationship between Childe and Zhongli isn't healthy and it becomes increasingly obvious as the story progresses. You swing between wanting to separate the two and also desperately wishing that they'll work out because there is something there. The story snowballs from what seems like an innocuous, if stupid and rash, decision on Childe's part to a complicated mess that you can’t help but be enthralled in. I went in expecting your typical romance and ended up in something that was more complex than I expected but also beautifully thought provoking.

Entirely Out of Spite by Bgtea

"Welcome to a new user experience! You have triggered this interface with the keywords, ‘Stupid game! Stupid devs! I want my f*****g money back!’ You are now bound to the character Tartaglia, the Eleventh Harbinger of the Fatui, codename: Childe! We hope you have an enjoyable user experience and we welcome you once again to Genshin Impact 2.0!”

Those are some of the first words Ajax, starving college student extraordinaire, has the misfortune of hearing upon waking up in a brave new world from what he's fairly sure is a very, very fatal accident involving water and a shit ton of electricity.

Okay, so he's not dead. That's good. But what's this about him being stuck playing the character Tartaglia? Tartaglia, as in the shitty, one-dimensional, cartoonish villain who met his untimely, gruesome death in the first act of the original game?

Fuck that noise. Like hell Ajax is going to share that fate.

And so begins one man's journey to unfuck himself.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Whenever this updates, I squeal. If you’re a fan of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System or just transmigration/reincarnation plots in general, you’re going to love it. Bgtea does a beautiful job in balancing humor with the trauma that comes with the whole reincarnation plotline. The whole of it is beautiful written and watching Childe/Ajax interact with the other characters (and the perspective of those characters) is a delight! 

the sister by glassdrachma

The tragic and unexpected death of Zhongli-xiansheng of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor occurred to the sorrow of many and the deep skepticism of a few.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: glassdrachma has a gift for humor and romance. In short, Zhongli fakes his death for plot reasons and comes back as Jianlao, the bereaved twin sister. Shenanigans ensue, featuring overprotective Liyue-ians (?), chaotic gremlin Venti, and Kexing. Very light hearted, good for the soul.

The White Cicada Society by clementinesgulag

After his little brother is bundled back to Snezhnaya, Childe makes good on his promise to the traveller and takes the first boat out of Liyue Harbor. Any sense of homecoming lasts about as long as an uncooked steak in front of Xiangling, however, when his boat sinks, grounding him back in the mainland.

It's just as well, because the next morning, a body is found in the Northland Bank. A visit from a fellow Harbinger reveals a far more insidious plot than anything Childe could concoct with a god of the vortex and twenty minutes without supervision. The murders aren’t limited to the one Bank. They’ve been trailing down the Liyue border, getting closer and closer to the city. The Tsaritsa has a new mission for him: to figure out who, or what is targeting Fatui forces.

Against his best wishes, Childe is forced to see Zhongli again at the morgue. It becomes clear that he’s going to need a guide, and Childe resolves to quash his pride, and their differences to request his help to navigate Liyue and solve the case.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: A diamond in the rough that I slept on and then stumbled back to by accident. I had it marked for later on AO3 and forgot about it for like a good week to my utter self-disgust. It. Is. So. Damn. Good! The mystery is intriguing but I live for the realistic portrayal of the aftermath of the whole gnosis plotline. The betrayal, the bitterness, but ah, the sexual tension. The harbinger interactions in this fic make it gold though.

Lungs full of Roses by SecretlyACatLady

Childe had always assumed that he would die young. He had accepted that a long time ago, ever since he accepted the mantle of a Fatui Harbinger. However, he always thought that he would die in a glorious fight, his body broken but spirit relishing the strong opponent that had bested him. He was okay with that type of death.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Fate had decided to add one last insult to injury, because, here Childe was, dying because he had fallen in love with the ex-Geo Archon. The same Archon who seemed to have discarded him like an old toy ever since the Osial Incident. --- In which divine beings are cruel and a cursed Childe starts preparing for his inevitable death because no Archon could ever love a mortal.

…Right?

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: The fic that started it all for me, the one that sucked me into the fandom. This fic is heartbreaking. We always do love a hanahaki plotline but something about the way it frames the disease and the shame that comes with it...I highly recommend giving it a read. The angst is real I tell you.

The Bride of The Golden Dragon by Erika_Bee

“You’re to be sent on a special mission, Tartaglia.”

The young man’s eyes gleamed in interest. “How special?” He asked as he wiped the blood off his daggers.

His superior grinned. “Special enough to put your name in Snezhnaya’s history books.”

—

In which the Archon War ravaged the land of Liyue and to ensure the people’s survival, the God of Geo established the Harvester Contract: One bride per village, every year, in exchange for protection and a good harvest.

Or: Childe is sent on an undercover mission to kill the Geo Archon, but things don’t go as planned.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Don’t let the title scare you off--this isn’t one of those fics where they feminize one of the male characters and reduce their personality to a mindless submissive bobblehead to the point that I want to throw my laptop out of the window. Not that there’s anything wrong if you like that kind of thing, just not my cup of tea. This fic though---READ IT! There’s just something refreshing about the writing and the plot, the way that Childe’s character reads off the page. I live for the interactions between the characters and how the author has mapped the relationships. Warning that recent chapters have swerved decided into NSFW territory though.

the brothers grim by izabellwit

Left in an unfamiliar land with a mission he never wanted, a young Kaeya lies, survives, and somehow finds a family in the process.

Or: How Kaeya came to Dawn Winery, and why he left it. Includes lore, sibling bickering, found family struggles, and a more in-depth look at the years between Kaeya’s arrival and Crepus’s death.

Ships: N/A

Notes: Ahh, little Kaeya. Cheeky ass little shit that’s too angsty and adorable for his own good. I don’t have words for this fic. It makes my heart warm but also makes me want to weep because god, this fic covers exactly how traumatic Kaeya’s situation is and why child soldiers/spies just shouldn’t be. And the dynamic he has with Diluc and Crepus--do me a favor and read it. Screams found family.

the wind through the mountain tops by glassdrachma

Boredom brings Barbatos of Mondstadt to bother a certain ex-Archon of the Earth.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: A light-hearted, humorous and fluffy as hell piece. Short word is that Venti comes to Liyue for some fun, causes chaos, accidentally plays matchmaker, and steals some vegetables. A get-together fic for Childe and Zhongli that includes a surprisingly self-aware (if blunt and snarky) Zhongli and jealous Childe that gets increasingly flustered.

melt (speak or forever hold your peace) by anatakana

Falling into bed with Diluc was an unbelievably bad idea given their tumultuous shared history, but Kaeya’s impulsive urge to amuse himself knew no bounds.

It’s all fun and games until emotions got involved.

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: THIS IS NSFW. With plot though? This is THE FIC that got me shipping the two (though the game did a good job on its own). The angst is real here and we love the sheer gal of both of these two stupid men.

Cascading (In a good way) by Hubbleablubble

Kaeya is a fascinating annoyance.

(Or: A series of events in which Albedo gets to know Kaeya, and they slowly go from strangers to acquaintances to something more.)

Ships: Albedo/Kaeya

Notes: Sweet fic. Not my typical ship pairing. Loved the Khaenri’ah mentions. Kaeya is Trans FTM here though it’s only briefly mentioned. There is also an incomplete sequel (as of May 2021) featuring an Overprotective Big Brother Diluc on a warpath giving shovel talks to everyone except apparently Albedo that’s also worth reading.

The Language of Flowers by Jules (Penwyn)

Kaeya Alberich has made a habit of lying—after all, the only truths he’s ever spoken cost him everything—but there are only so many lies a man can tell before the truth comes spilling out.

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: Hanahaki! Except not! Basically, Kaeya pukes up flowers that say the truth whenever he lies. Cue, angst! Lovely and quick read--love Kaeya’s voice here.

i know i'm where i'm meant to go by paperclips (pastel_paperclips)

"Childe," Zhongli says suddenly. "I am enjoying myself greatly."

Childe’s face breaks into a grin. "Then-"

Zhongli gasps, grabbing his wrist and tugging him over to an unsuspecting peddler with a cart full of rocks. "Is that an intrusive igneous pegmatite formed in the Inazuma regions?"

Childe’s grin smooths into a small, adoring smile. He has all the time in the world to figure the other man out.

OR: Finding the Geo Archon is on Childe's to-do list but hanging out with Zhongli is significantly more fun.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Childe, you idiot. Humorous and funny, very light hearted. Makes you wonder if Childe has an IQ. He’s too busy pining/lovesick to realize that he told his target that he’s going to kill him for his gnosis. Zhongli and Liyue remain confused on how Childe still DOES NOT get it but half-ass hiding his Archon status anyway.

the bird without wings by Anonymous

"Kaeya!" someone yells. Small arms wrap around his waist tightly, red hair spilling out of the ponytail, and Kaeya's heart almost stops.

He's talked his way out of all types of situations. From placating international disputes to buttering up his informants, he's always had a quick response to everything.

But for once, Kaeya is speechless. He stares down at the boy with puffy cheeks, slightly crooked teeth and sparkling bright eyes.

Eight year old Diluc beams back.

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: Diluc gets de-aged and Kaeya gets angsty. The interactions between the two are heartwarming and will induce tears. Childe makes a brief appearence that *chef’s kiss*

call me "lover boy" by Anonymous

Zhongli turns back, eyes bright with amusement, a stray lilypad still stuck in his hair, and Childe thinks, wow. I want to kiss him stupid.

Childe's not into the whole "swooning maiden patiently waiting for his beloved to swoop down and smooch the daylights out of him" thing. Nah, that's not his style. He's Tartaglia, eleventh of the Fatui harbingers, and he's going to kiss Zhongli right now.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: FUNNY AS HELL. Childe is straight up just trying to plant one on Zhongli but fate and people just keep interfering. It’s a weird trope aversion where the character is actively trying to confess rather than avoiding it but life gets in the way. 

springtime in snezh-nya-ya by miaomaomei

Tartaglia’s body moves before he can even think about it. He arches his back and flattens his ears against his head, baring his teeth in a hiss. Considering he barely even reaches Scaramouche's knees — Scaramouche, of all people! The guy is practically the size of a fourteen-year-old — he doubts that he is cutting as imposing a figure as he hopes.

It isn't a surprise, though. No one could become a Fatui Harbinger if they were scared of a little cat.

OR

Tartaglia is turned into a cat and he goes to Zhongli for help. It goes about as well as expected.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: TOO ADORABLE FOR WORDS. This is just pure fluff I swear. Love how Childe is written and the interactions between the two are just ahhhh. A balm on the soul.

Melt by tanktrilby

“My name is Diluc,” he says. A scowl naturally furrows his brow, and Kaeya looks like he wants to laugh.

He’s looking at him through his lashes again, blue eyes teasing and warm. “Diluc,” he says. “A knight in overalls isn’t quite where I thought my preferences would lie, but here we are.”

(or: Kaeya loses his memories and makes some assumptions. Diluc can't honestly tell him that he's wrong.)

Ships: Diluc/Kaeya

Notes: As the summary says, Kaeya loses his memories. Diluc plays babysitter for plot reasons. Meanwhile, Kaeya freaks out and has an essential crisis because his instincts freak him out which = angst. Simultaneously, sort of love confessions? 

you are cordially invited by ktenologious

When the Traveler receives a mysterious invitation from a Snezhnayan businessman, they seek out help from the only Snezhnayan they are on good terms with. They decide it is a wonderful idea to go to this business party in the middle of the ocean because, well, what could be better entertainment than watching a Fatui Harbinger at work? It is too bad Childe couldn't come with them...

Meanwhile, the Tsaritsa needs someone to track down the source of a brand new drug at a party on a cruise; it just so happens that she has two Harbingers who specialize in causing chaos and sinking ships. Scaramouche is a sadist and loves this, and Tartaglia... Well, Tartaglia just wants to know why is he the one in the dress again.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe, sort of Diluc/Kaeya & Scaramouche/Childe

Notes: Features a crossdressing Childe and Kaeya for plot reasons. Funny as hell. Love Fatui dynamics/interactions. Highly recommend. Go read it. I’m serious. It’s so beautiful, I can’t. Also Zhongli is so love-sick and jealous, it’s hilarious.

The Road to Snezhnaya by paranoid_fridge

Everything's done and over. Now, Zhongli only needs to adjust to living like an ordinary mortal. Or that is what he thinks until a familiar face shows up in Liyue. Teucer comes looking for his brother who failed to return to Snezhnaya on the Fatui ships. And as Childe's declared "friend", Zhongli must help Teucer find him.

Or: Teucer drags Zhongli on a cross-country goose chase looking for Childe. Zhongli just happens to find a bit more along the way.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: I have no words for this fic outside of the fact that it is clear that Teucer has the only functioning brain and should be Best Man because he obviously did all the work here. Features an oblivious Childe and overprotective Zhongli, plus bystander Kaeya that is getting allll of the gossip. And also the most destructive group of children ever.

basket of knives by oronine

“I just want to be loved,” Childe says to himself, to whoever is listening. “Is that too much to ask?”

They are on the roof once more, this time Childe’s foot touches the edge of the building as he daydreams of something that cannot be. The sky is blank and cloudy and perhaps Lumine fears it’ll all end when he takes a step.

“Not at all,” she says. It’s still the truth.

Contrary to popular belief, Childe hates his family but loves them all the same.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: TW for suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, self-harm, depression, etc. Not a light read by any definition. Set in a modern AU, not in the genshin impact universe. Features a Childe that is Not Okay, good friend but also probably traumatized friend Lumine (and her brother Aether), and Zhongli. Family dynamic is messed up as hell and explores mental health quite well in my opinion. I’m not sure how healthy necessarily Childe’s relationships are but I think that’s a given considering the context and how derailed his mental health is in this fic. Definitely angst as heavy, made me tear up quite a bit. Read, but pay attention to the content/trigger warnings as it does get quite explicit.

Bane of All Evil by tzitzimeme

When Chongyun unintentionally offends Liyue's second most powerful adepti, he vows to mend the thorny relationship between Adeptus Xiao and human exorcists-- even though no one has succeeded in currying Xiao's favor for over a thousand years.

His best friend Xingqiu offers to come alone, mainly because he's worried about what kind of trouble Chongyun will run into. Along the way, they receive help from others: Xiangling packs them meals for their journeys, while Zhongli gives them advice on what demons to track.

Childe is just there because he thinks the whole thing is hilarious.

Ships: Chongyun/Xinqiu

Notes: JFKLFJS I LOVE THIS. I love Chongyun’s characterization and the interaction between all the characters. The dynamic between Chongyun, Xingqiu, and Xiangling are to die for. Also, this line: “Stuck-up Persnickety Bastard.” Random note but Xiao throws Chongyun off a balcony yet is also 100% a softie.

Talks about Nothing by tzitzimeme

In which Zhongli unlocks the Memory of Dust, only to find out:

1. Guizhong is 100% alive (just disembodied) within it, 2. Guizhong has been watching over him this whole time, and 3. Guizhong is very excited by the prospect of Zhongli getting a cute Snezhnayan boyfriend.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe, Venti/Xiao

Notes: The pure judgment that Guizhong unleashes on Zhongli (as well as her sass in general) is pure comedic gold. The dynamic between Xiao and Venti are also adorable. Meanwhile, Childe misunderstands and also just wants to know what the fuck is going on.

xi wangmu by tzitzimeme

Xiangling scales entire mountains to satisfy the palettes of her two pickiest customers.

(Or, two men who are emotionally stunted by their own immortality inadvertantly turn an overly enthusiastic chef into their messenger pigeon.)

Ships: Zhongli/Xiao (?)

Notes: Not sure if it reads romantic exactly, can definitely be read as platonic. The fic boils down to Xiangling trying to expose Xiao to variety because just eating plain almond tofu is a no no. Zhongli gives advice/uses Xiangling as a messenger pigeon. Backstory is explored!

Falling (Fallen) by asinglecrow

It’s only when Childe finds himself in front of Zhongli, a spear protruding from his stomach, that he thinks oh I might have fucked up.

Or: The worst (best) day of Childe's life.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Funny and lighthearted! Gets sort of NSFW with passing mention of mpreg but otherwise, it’s just pure humor/fluff. Get-together fic featuring deadpan dragon Zhongli and Childe that is just done with everything. 

the louvre by morisuke

Here in Liyue, the air is filled with the ocean, and the sun shines through the mountains like it’s flowing through a crack in the sky. Here in Liyue, there is a man with no wallet at a vending machine that is going to waste the rest of his day showing a stranger around their school campus for a pocket sized can of iced coffee.

It’s interesting here in Liyue, Childe thinks.

or

Where Childe flirts with a stranger at a campus vending machine.

Ships: Zhongli/Childe

Notes: Set in a modern/college AU. This is a relatively quiet, soft kind of story. Childe comes to Liyue because reasons and falls in love quietly. It’s more of a snippet of life type of fic that’s sweet and peaceful. Love the change that comes over Childe as he finds a home.

[mackeydoodledoo]

Inferno

Pairing: Sylvie Brett x Quinn Maxs (Fem! Paramedic)

Summary: You’re living life with Firehouse 51. But, you begin to feel feelings for your Paramedic-in-charge; Sylvie Brett. You don’t know how to tell her, understanding the history of her past relationships. Most of all, you don’t want her seeing you differently, should you tell her. You only told your fellow paramedic; Gianna Mackey and your best friend and firefighter; Stella Kidd. However, you beg them both to not tell Brett. However, once Hermann’s fill-in comes in, you believe you’ve waited too long to tell Brett how you really feel about her.

Warning: Chicago Fire Season 9 Episode 9: Escape Route spoilers

A/N: Quinn Maxs is my OC for Chicago Fire! Enjoy my first Sylvie Brett imagine!!

Theme: “MAYDAY” - coldrain/Ryo (Fire Force Opening 2)

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

As you close your locker and bid Hermann a farewell and to enjoy his vacation you pass by Brett, but a familiar face.... Grainger.... 

"Hey, I remember you, Y/n Y/l/n right?" He asks, smiling 

Hiding your emotions well, you casually salute three fingers to him before hearing the alarm go off. 

"Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61, structure fire," 

As you heard the address you head to 61 to deploy for the call. 

"Hey why don't you ride shotgun Y/l/N," Mackey suggests, smiling 

"Sure, thanks Mackey," you say, opening the passenger side door 

"Mackey wanted to ride back?" Sylvie asks 

"Yeah, I guess so," you sigh, not looking at her 

"Hey, are you alright? You've seemed to be moping for a little bit." Sylvie asks 

"Oh I'm fine, a little tired. Lack of sleep," You lie 

You were kind of accurate but also very inaccurate. You realized when Sylvie and Grainger were flirting before the call. 

"Tell you what, why not tonight after shift I treat you to Molly's?" She suggests 

"You sure?" You ask 

"Totally," Brett smiles 

81, Squad 3 and 61 arrive at the fire. You notice Grainger giving orders out already however, Casey angrily tells him to wait for his orders. Both you and Sylvie watch that unfold but you think nothing of it as Casey is Captain. But you're assuming 40 doesn't have a captain. 

After the call, 61 running a severely burned mother to Med, you voluntarily hopped in the back, to avoid Brett seeing your emotions become unfolded. Although they could hear you, you were crying on the inside. 

Brett's POV "Hey Mackey do you think Y/l/n is okay?" She asks 

"What makes you think that?" Mackey replies back 

"On our way to the call earlier she wasn't very talkative like she usually is," she says, "I just wanna know if she's talked to you about anything." 

"Nope, she's been quiet about that," Mackey says

Y/n’s POV You lay down on your bed in the quiet area of 51, contemplating life choices. With a handful of Med runs n such, nothing happened out of the ordinary. 

"You doing okay kid?" Stella comes over 

"Well aside from my jealousy of Grainger easily wooing Brett, I'm fine," you sigh 

"You need to tell her before anything happens Y/n," she replies, "You're going to regret it once you decide to tell her when its too late." 

"She is inviting me out to Molly's after shift if that means anything.." you say 

"That’s the perfect time to do it" Stella smiles before walking away

Once the end of shift came and you make your leave. You try to avoid Brett as much as possible. 

"Y/l/n!" Brett calls 

You silently sigh to yourself but put on a happy face for her. 

"You ready to go love?" She asks, slinging her arm around yours as she drags you along 

"For sure," you force a smile 

"Hey why don't you join us later, once your done with inventory?" Sylvie suggests to Grainger 

"I'd love to," Grainger smiles 

On the inside you were freaking out. But you also believed this was the time to tell her, as Stella says. 

"Have you been doing okay y/l/n? You're not as talkative as you usually are," Sylvie asks 

"Just a long day, like I said this morning Brett, I have had a lack of sleep," you sigh, "Hey I'm gonna get a drink from Stella do you want anything?" 

"Just a beer," Sylvie smiles 

You smile back, you realize that's the first time you've smiled around Brett. 

"Have you told her yet Y/n?” Stella asks, coming over to you 

"No," you sigh, "I don't know. You are right by telling her now but I’m just so-" 

You notice Stella looking over your shoulder, "Grainger is there isn't he?..." 

Stella nods, "Sorry Y/n." 

"Two beers," you request, "Might as well be a peace offering." 

"Are you gonna stick around?" She asks 

"I'm just gonna give them the beers and pretty much lie," you say, "Hey, I'll text you if anything happens." 

Stella nods, in approval to your plan. She walks over and gets the beers. You slip her a $10 tip. 

"Half of it is working in a full house, the other is... Well, being my Partner in Crime," you smile as you shake off your sadness and force a smile onto your face as you put the beers between the two supposed lovebirds. 

"For me?" Grainger smiles 

"That's a thanks for today, Welcome to 51," You forcefully smile 

My god I want to leave! You begin to feel an inferno build up inside of you. You wanted to punch him in the face but that would not look good on a report. 

"Hey, I just remembered I left something at the station. I'm going to run and go grab it and I’m gonna call it a night," you lie, "see you later Boss." 

You take your jacket and your helmet and make your leave, putting on your helmet and then gloves. You first make your stop to your apartment, which wasn't too far from Molly's. Grabbing a backpack that would be big enough to store clothes in and essentials. You leave everything clean. As if no one was there. You make haste getting out of your apartment and to your motorcycle, making another leave.

You knock on the door to Boden's office. Which he looks up and greets you how he always does. 

"Chief I need to talk to you, if you have a minute," you say, sitting in a chair 

"What is it Y/l/n?" He asks 

"I know you’re probably not one to listen to somebody's relationship life but um.." You stammer, figuring out how to tell him, "I don't know who else to turn to but only two other people know; Mackey and Kidd. I told them-I told them I really like Brett. However, I’m beginning to see her attraction towards our fill-in Lieutenant; Grainger. But the point is, I'm beginning to feel jealous. On the call this morning I was barely in it until either Mackey or Brett brought me back. I'm not sure if I've ever requested to take time off work. But, I feel that this is the time to. I don't want my emotions getting the best of me again Chief." 

"Who else knows about this kind of request?" Boden asks 

"Just you and me sir," you reply 

"I appreciate the heads up Y/l/n and I appreciate your need to work with your emotions," he says, "How long do you want me to make you absent for?" 

"One month," you request 

"That's um... That's quite a big request Y/l/n," He sighs 

"I understand that completely Chief, but Brett and Mackey are doing an excellent job as a two-person Ambo team, I strongly believe they can do the work in my absence," you say 

"If you strongly believe it then so do I," He says, adjusting something on his laptop, "Is there anything else you need?" 

"Yes," You sigh, "Don't tell Brett anything of what I told you in this moment. I don't want her feeling guilt over this when she and Mackey have lives to save. But if she does happen to ask, just tell her that I have a family emergency. If-if that's too much I can-" 

"It's okay Y/l/n," Boden says, "Go clear your head." 

"Thanks Chief," you smile, making your exit

You stop at a gas station to fill up on your motorcycle and eat before your long drive. As you wait for the gas to fill your tank, you hold your phone up to your ear. 

"Hey, Stella, it's me," you start 

"Hey kid. You doing okay? What's the update?" She asks 

"Well, I first went to my apartment to get some things. I then went to the station and requested the Chief for some days off." You say 

"How long?" She asks 

"A month," you say 

"A MON- oh, sorry. A month?" Stella says 

"Yeah," you say, "I told Boden that Brett and Mackey and manage without me. It's not like I'm leaving 51." 

"That's true," Stella sighs 

"Hey, can you pass the word to Mackey too? I told her about this whole thing too," you say, "But neither of you tell Brett. I'm not having her feel guilty over this. This is for me." 

"Got it kid, I gotta get back to work. Call me if you wanna talk at all," Stella says 

"Noted, bye." You say, hanging up the phone as the gas had just filled up 

As you pull off into a parking spot, you make another call. 

"Hey, it's me," you smile, "Do you have any space in your house for me to stay in for now? You do? Okay, I'll be there in... God, 3-4 hours. Pull off into a hotel for the night? No, I'm good thanks. I'll make the drive. So long as I'm not in the city anymore. Thanks man, I'll try to keep you posted." 

You put your helmet back on and set up your maps into the destination and ride off into the night. Though, you really only made stops at 24-hour gas stations.

Brett's POV The next morning at 51, Brett comes into the station right next to Grainger however, split once they go to their respective engines. 

"Hey where's Y/l/n?" Sylvie asks Mackey when she noticed she's not in the ambo 

"Family emergency," Mackey replies, clearly lying 

"Oh... She didn't tell me," Brett sighs 

"She was in a rush, she only figured out last night," Mackey adds 

She walks over to Stella, "Hey did Y/l/n tell you-" 

"She has a family emergency," Stella says, exactly the same story as Mackey 

"She told you too?" Brett asks, "How come she didn't tell me?" 

Stella looks at Brett, feeling bad she has to lie to her best friend. However, it was for the best for both you and Brett. 

"Who didn't tell you what?" Grainger comes up behind Brett and hugs her 

"One of my paramedics had a family emergency and didn't tell me," Brett says 

"Well let's not worry about that right now," Grainger smiles as he gives Brett a cheek kiss 

"If you guys kiss I’m gonna puke," Stella gags as she walks to the common room, Mackey following

Stella's POV "You're doing a great job Mackey," Kidd says, high-fiving her 

"I'd never tell someone's personal info, unless they told me I could. This isn't one of those times," Mackey smiles 

"Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61, Battalion 25, multiple hostile situation at 600 E Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60611" 

"That's Navy Pier," Stella realizes

51 deploys to the coordinates that are set in and by the time they get there, different firehouses and police stations are lined at the entrance. 

"Voight, talk to me," Boden demands as he walks with them 

"Seems like there's more than one perpetrator in this situation," Voight explains, "No casualties thus far, but possible injuries."

Y/n's POV As you get yourself some coffee you pull up the Chicago news radio on your phone. 

"This just in, a multiple hostage situation is currently happening at Navy Pier. All civilians near the vicinity must evacuate immediately." The news reporter explains, "All CPD departments and multiple CFD houses are here at the scene. 

"Sounds like one crazy adventure," your sister says, "glad your home and away from that." 

"Sis, I'm worried," you sigh 

"Is it about that Brett girl?" She asks, "forget her. She's missing one hell of an opportunity." 

"Thing is I don't know if she's Bisexual." You state 

"Even if she is and still sees you differently, she's missing out on a cool little sister," she says, messing up your hair, "I have to head out for work, if you're going out just lock the door and you remember where the spare key is?" 

"I do sis," you smile 

"See you later," she smiles and she closes the door 

You turn back to your phone for the love broadcast of the situation back across Lake Michigan. Your sister was pretty much right on the edge of Michigan, great view of the lake. However, you look out to the window and hope, your house is doing okay. You wish you saw the situation happen from right across it but it was too wide for you to see it happen with your eyes. You sigh, wishing you could leave already. However, you realize your sister has a power boat. You quickly write down a note saying you'll be back and that you're borrowing her power boat. With no sailing experience, turnout gear or medic supplies. Only your bag and communicator, you rush out the door.

"Where's Y/l/n?!" Brett demands Mackey 

"Brett you're so blind, Y/n is so into you!" Stella says, blurring out, "She left because she didn't want you to press her into talking to you about it. She didn't want you to see her any different if she told you. Let alone questioning if you like girls and you're beginning to go with hot-shot Grainger over there, so she wanted to get her mind off of her emotions." 

Brett stands there, dumbfounded. Why didn't you tell her. 

"Stella!" You call into your walkie 

"Y/n?" Stella calls back 

"On your six!" You say, smiling, "can't stay away." 

She runs up to you and gives you a big bear hug. 

"Listen up 51, I'm no commanding officer but I do sure know the place on the back of my hand. Captain Casey and Chief Boden... With your permission may I give the orders?" You ask through the walkie 

"Yes ma'am," Casey answers 

"What's your plan Y/l/n?" Chief Boden asks

"Okay, I scouted the perimeter and there's only, assuming they're away from the windows. Squad 3 you take the Northside, you try to get CPD officers into the building to clear the field for you. Engine 51, to Grainger with any room you have, get your hoses ready should any form of fire start. Truck 81, if shots are fired, move in, get as many civilians out as you can. I'll move in with you guys and give extra arms to help." You announce 

You take a giant breath as you finish out your speech. Stella, Brett and Mackey look at you in awe as you've never taken initiative before. 

"Y/l/n, I thought I have you on vacation," Boden comes up to you, "And you're not usually one to give orders." 

"Apparently can't stay away sir," you sigh, adjusting your belt, "And I know this place all too well." 

"Very well Y/l/n," Boden smiles, "You heard the lady men." 

You watch Squad 3 and follow Truck 81 as you meet up with Burgess and Ruzek. 

"You're gonna need this," Burgess heads you a 9 milimeter 

"Thanks..." you say, taking it and concealing it 

You hear screaming and gunshots. And hear a blaze begin. 

"Grainger fire! I don't know where it is! Find it!" You demand 

"You got it kid," he says 

"Move in!" The muffled walkie screams as you, along with 81, Burgess, Ruzek and many other CPD officers barge into the building, ringing shots, killing nearly all the perpetrators. 

"Hey kiddo it's okay it's okay," you tell her, checking for any signs of injury 

"Y/l/n!" Kim yells, you immediately shield the kid as a shot rings out 

You let out a strangled scream as your arm is bleeding; a severe gunshot wound. It didn't go into your skin and damage your bone however, the bullet made a real "good" indent in your skin as it rang out. Kim pulls the trigger on her glock 17 and kills the guy immediately. Kim helps you cover your wound as you still hold onto the kid, hoping any parental unit would claim her. 

"Mommy," the girl cries 

You turn over and see the mom, on the ground. You hand the kid over to Kim as you go to help Severide and Casey. You all get her onto the board to get her to 61. 

"Brett, Mackey need the Ambo ready," you speak into your walkie 

"Hey Burgess, you can let the girl into the ambo," you say as she helps the little girl into the back 

"Aren't you coming with us?" Brett asks 

"Can't, I have to take my sisters' power boat back across Lake Michigan," you sigh, "My sister is a doctor over at her local hospital, I'll drive myself over there." 

"You're gonna bleed out, you need to get to med," Brett demands, calmly 

"I can take care of myself Brett, don't worry about me I'll be fine." You say, trying to walk away 

"Y/n!" Brett yells your first name

You never heard Brett call you by your first name. You shake it off before settling back to your stoic self.

"Let me go, please," you say calmly, "I'm only gone for a month." 

"Did you tell Stella and Mackey to lie to me?" She asks you 

"I didn't want you worrying about me," you sigh, "Besides, I'm going to be fine." 

She lets go of you as you walk back to your sisters boat. She felt tears welding into her eyes. 

"Brett, we gotta go," Mackey calls out 

Mackey shuts the doors as Brett hops into the driver's seat and activates the sirens. 

You arrive to your sisters workplace as a nurse rushes over to you. 

"What happened?!" She asks 

"Zoomed across Lake Michigan and helped my firehouse, but unfortunately I got grazed," you sigh 

"Y/n?!" Your sister calls out to you, "oh my god Y/n you took my power boat?!" 

You nod, "They needed my help." 

"You have never changed," she laughs, "I can check you out."

Once your sister had stitched up your wound she discharged you from the hospital. Once you get back to your sisters place, you open your Chicago news app. The first article that comes up is the one from earlier. 

"Firehouse 51 paramedic makes a chief-status plan while on this call today," The news reporter says, "According to 51s' Captain Matt Casey, it was an astounding plan. Girl's a hero." 

You sigh as you don't really feel like a hero, just another day as a paramedic.

Your sister comes home late at night however, doesn't find you anywhere. 

"Called Chief Boden and told him I changed my mind on my one month vacation, I'm heading back to 51 right now." Your sister read aloud, "Bought you something that’s in the fridge for taking care of me for a short time."

You park your motorcycle in one of the street parking slots as you keep your helmet on for secrecy. Without knowing it was you, Brett walks past you. Once you get to your locker, you try to make a quick haste to get yourself ready. 

"In a rush?" Stella smiles 

She comes up to you and gives you a big bear hug. 

"Missed you kid," she smiles 

Before you could say anything else you hear arguing from afar. You and Stella go to the garage and notice Brett and Grainger arguing. 

"So you led me on?" He asks 

"Not exactly, I wasn't aware of Quinn's feelings and I wasn't sure how to process it," Brett starts, "I just-" 

"Just what Sylvie?" He asks, angrily 

You notice she's beginning to falter. 

"Y/n left, and for what?" He asks her, "She isn't a Lieutenant, Captain, or Chief! What makes her so special?! I don't think you made the right choice of making her on your paramedic team. How are YOU even the paramedic-in-charge?" 

You've had enough, "HEY!" 

They both turn to you, Brett almost crying years of joy. You place a gentle hand onto her shoulder, reassuring her that you'll settle this. 

"You have NO RIGHT to question her position as Paramedic-in-Charge Mr. Hot shot Lieutenant." You spat in his face 

He was about to open his mouth to say something else, but closes it when you give him the look of: 'oh I'm not done mister!'. 

"She’s one of the GREATEST PICs I have ever worked with in my years of being in the Fire Department service. She’s one of the VERY few, that I am honored to be working with, one I come to know and love." You continue, "You question that position? And for what? The most beautiful Paramedic is beginning to question herself and what SHE wants? No, one should always be supportive. No matter what, you should leave my guy." 

"Hate to tell you rookie, I'm not leaving yet," he tries to sound smug 

"Oh you're leaving alright buddy," Hermann says, walking into the firehouse 

He doesn't say anything else but give you one last look of disgust before leaving. You let out a breath of relief. Stella and Mackey applaud for you. 

"You stood up for me?" Brett asks, looks at you, "Don't you hate me for hurting you?" 

"Brett," you smile, "I never did hate you. I left so I could clear my head." 

She smiles as she hugs you, "my god oh how I've missed you." 

Your head drops down and rests on Brett's shoulder for your head to be cradled. 

"I'm sorry Sylvs," you call her by her nickname, "You remember how I used to act... I didn't want that happening again." 

"You could've just talked to me love," Brett whispers

After shift you head over to Molly's with Stella. 

"How's your arm kid?" She asks 

"Hurts but my sister stair to be careful, and then just have someone at med undo the stitches." You say 

"That's good, that's good," Stella states, "You know, Brett was worried sick on that call this morning." 

"Really?" You ask, leaning in towards Stella 

"Speak of the Devil, there she is," Stella smiles, waving her over 

"You look great Quinn," Brett smiles 

"You look beautiful Sylvs," you smile back, sipping your whiskey 

Stella looks at you, a look you know too well. That says, "go get your girl!" 

You make fun if her look and then turn your attention to Brett. 

"So Brett, how you been doing the last couple of days?" You ask 

"Worrying about you," she sighs 

You nearly choke on your drink as that though has never crossed your mind. You only thought that Sylvie had eyes for Grainger. Of all people, she worries about you.

“Really?” You ask, clearing your throat, “Why’s that?”

“you didn’t talk to me before heading off to your sister’s,” She says, “Also for telling Stella and Mackey to lie to me.”

“I didn’t want you to worry about me,” You say, “I wasn’t about to have my emotions get the best of me again.”

“You remember last time?” Sylvie asks

“Of course I do,” You say

“Do you want to get out of here?” Sylvie asks, “I know you don’t want that kind of thing to be talked about in public.”

“Sure,” You smile

You get a glance at Stella and she gives you a face of ‘go get your woman girl!’

Once the both of you reach your apartment, you follow Sylvie into hers.

“Remember that time I helped you calm down?” She finally asks

You nod, “I never did.”

“As soon as I touched you, you instantly calmed down,” She explains, “So, if what happened between us the other night affected your emotions, how come you didn’t tell me sooner?”

“Because I wasn’t sure if you were also into girls,” You confess, “You’re THE Sylvie Brett, one of the greatest people I’ve come to know and love in my life. And I’m just... Me... A paramedic with anger issues.”

“And I love you,” Sylvie confesses

Realizing what she had just said to you made her cheeks heat up. You look at her the same way. You gently press her against the doorframe to her room and place your lips along hers, building that inferno in your heart that burns for her.

[my-soul-sings]

just my luck: chapter 1

Fandom: Wannabe Challenge Characters: Taehee x Reader 

Summary (placeholder): Having been cursed to live a life filled with misfortunes, moving to a new city to start anew was, as expected, a difficult process. But things start to change after you encounter a mysterious doctor who seems to know you even though you’ve never met him before. 

Notes:

Will contain spoilers for Taehee’s Story. 

The ‘Reader’ character will be left unnamed, and there are no mentions of ‘y/n’.

Taehee is trained in western medicine here, instead of oriental medicine.

The reader character will not be based on the in-game MC, other than her looks. The differences are because personally I think the in-game MC and Taehee’s personality don’t really match somehow.

This is basically my version of events of how Taehee and MC meet again. The details and events in this are not true to the game, other than Taehee’s backstory. 

For now it’ll be here on tumblr (if and until I move it to AO3) and i’ll be using the tag #justmyluck on the blog for chapter updates. 

***

The rain was loud in your ears. Cars whizzed by you, water splashing beneath the tires and onto the pavement as they went by, and people hurried about with their umbrellas that did little to keep them dry in this torrential weather. 

You stood still in the middle of the hustle and bustle, your luggage by your side and your broken umbrella hanging limp and useless in your hand. The cold rainwater seeped into your clothes, and you shivered as a chill ran down your spine when the strong wind blew against your frame. 

You could feel odd stares being directed your way, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care. Your phone battery had been depleted, which meant you could no longer refer to Poogle Maps to get to where your new apartment was. You had already waited for the past hour trying to hail a cab to no avail, and no one was accepting your request on the Duber app. 

As if moving wasn’t stressful enough already, all of this just had to happen. But you weren’t surprised in the least—it was just another typical day in your unfortunate life. 

For as long as you could remember, you had terrible luck. At first it was trivial things like always getting the shitty prizes in a lucky draw no matter how many times you spun the wheel, and always losing in games of chance against friends. No matter where you went or what you did, it seemed you were doomed to consistently draw the short end of the stick. 

Your luck seemed to only get worse as you grew older. Injuries grew increasingly common, and more severe. You didn’t think there were so many ways a person could get hurt—you had to learn it the hard way, from slipping on a banana peel, getting knocked down by someone who accidentally ran straight into you, getting hit by stray soccer balls or baseballs in school… The events were countless. 

Your classmates used to joke that you had been cursed by a witch when you were younger. Sometimes you found yourself wondering if that was true after all. There was only so much bad luck one person could have in their life, and you seemed to be attracting a never-ending supply of it. 

You’d hoped that maybe things would change after moving to this new neighbourhood. You had even specifically asked for an apartment that had ‘good feng-shui’, hoping that would make some kind of difference.

It didn’t. You hadn’t even arrived in your new home yet, but you could already tell that things weren’t going to change. If you had been cursed by a witch or been fated to suffer neverending misfortune, then moving to a new neighbourhood to start afresh wasn’t going to change anything. 

With a sigh and a shiver, you decided to shake yourself out of your low spirits. No point dwelling on these things, you may as well hurry to your apartment before something worse happened. So you picked up the handle of your luggage and continued trudging on, your feet making squelching sounds with each step from the water that had filled your shoes. You’d get home one way or another, and a little rain wasn’t about to stop you.

Just as you finished that thought, the handle of your luggage broke, and the whole thing tumbled straight into a muddy puddle, sending specks of mud flying and staining your jeans.

It took everything in you to suppress a frustrated scream when you dipped your fingers into the dirty waters to pick up your luggage again. 

***

By the time you arrived at the apartment building, you looked like you had been to hell and back. 

But hey, at least you had come out alive, right?

Your landlord had been surprised to see you drenched from head to toe, and she had kindly offered a fresh towel and some hot tea for you after inviting you into her home. She was a kind elderly lady, and her warm welcome brightened your mood considerably. The tea had felt extra warm as you made small talk with her before taking the key to your apartment. 

But then your mood sank right back down to rock-bottom when you realised that you had to carry your heavy luggage up five whole flights of stairs, because it just so happened that the elevator wasn’t working. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone you could ask for help—certainly not the sweet old landlady. You felt bad to bother any of your neighbours too. 

So an hour and one rough tumble down the stairs later, you miraculously made it all the way up to your door. You would be jumping for joy if your arms didn’t feel like they were about to fall off. All you wanted to do was take a hot shower, lie down and get some sleep. Maybe take some painkillers before that too, because you could feel a migraine coming up. 

The apartment smelled a little musty when you entered, but otherwise, everything looked great. It was bare, seeing as there was some delay in the delivery of your furniture, but it was clean. There weren’t any bugs that you could see from a quick survey of the rooms, so that was good enough in your book. 

Looking around your simple studio apartment, you smiled to yourself, glad that you had finally made it here despite the many hiccups along the way. Nothing could dampen your spirits now; moving here marked the beginning of a new chapter in your life, and you were ready for your new job that would be starting in two weeks. 

You had a good feeling about all this somehow, despite dripping wet all over your floor and even though your sides hurt from falling down the stairs together with your luggage earlier. 

Cursed or not, you were excited about living here already. 

***

Two days later, your furniture still had not arrived. You had to make do with the sleeping bag you’d packed in your luggage for contingencies such as this. The moving company wasn’t getting back to you even though you had sent them a string of emails asking for updates. You hoped it was just a lack of staff around on the weekends, and that someone would get back to you by Monday.

Apart from that, there weren’t any major problems. Everything in the apartment was working fine. You had made sure to check everything to make sure you wouldn’t suffer some kind of freak accident in your own home—it had happened before, when the ceiling fan in the living room fell just when you left to take a drink. (Looking at it from another angle, you had been incredibly lucky with that close shave.)

The only issue left was the fever that you had woken up to that morning, definitely because you had been caught in the rain. Thankfully, the landlady had informed you that there was a clinic just across the street, so you made plans to go after forcing yourself to eat half of an apple. You didn’t have an appetite but you’d probably faint on the way if you went on an empty stomach, and ending up in the hospital was definitely not on your to-do list here. 

It was warm out when you stepped out of your apartment building. The sun was up, and the temperature was just right. Perfect for a walk. You’d probably enjoy it better if your head wasn’t pounding so much. 

It wasn’t too difficult to find the clinic. Like the landlady said, it was right across the street, a mere five minutes’ walk from your apartment. And then right down the street was a convenience store too. You’d go pick up some snacks and ready-made foods later — it’d be too tiresome to cook while sick.

The clinic wasn’t too full, thankfully. There were maybe about four to five people inside when you arrived, and after registering at the counter you took a seat and checked your phone. You hadn’t had the energy to reply to anything yesterday, so it seemed that your phone had blown up while you were gone.

The messages were mainly from Seohee, your best friend. You saw multiple missed calls and messages from her, and from what you could glean from the message previews, she had been worried because you just went MIA without updating her on your whereabouts. She had been worried from the start when she heard that you were going to live alone in a new city, without anyone accompanying you. 

Grimacing, you swiped right to open the chat, and you typed a quick message to assure her that you were doing fine and adjusting great, casually omitting the part where you had fallen sick and your furniture hadn’t arrived yet. No need to worry her, she had enough things on her plate to manage. 

The other messages were from random group chats that you didn’t have the energy to read at the moment, so you locked your phone and closed your eyes momentarily, leaning back in your seat and resting your head against the wall. The doctors seemed to be taking a while…

About half an hour later, your number was called. Finally. 

You stood up a bit too quickly, and black spots promptly appeared in your vision while your head started to spin. A nod was all you could manage when the receptionist pointed to one of the rooms down the hallway, while you took hesitant steps forward and tried to steady yourself. Eventually the dizziness subsided and your head cleared up a bit when you read the name written on the door plate: Dr. Taehee Kim. 

You repeated the name a few times in your head. It had a nice ring to it. You knocked twice on the wooden door and pushed down on the door handle to enter.

“Good morning.” You heard a deep, male voice, and your first thought was that you liked it. There was a soothing quality to it, and maybe it was an exaggeration but your headache seemed to lessen just from hearing him speak. 

You looked up, wearing a polite smile and returning the morning greeting. Or at least, you were about to, but then your voice caught in your throat and you found yourself staring into the eyes of who was quite possibly the most gorgeous man you had ever seen. He had thick, wavy black locks parted to the side, and a pair of deep set, dark grey-ish green eyes—a colour you had never seen before. His complexion was fair and otherwise flawless, and you could tell from his defined jawline and broad shoulders that he worked out regularly too. He looked handsome enough to be a model, and you couldn’t help but stare with widened eyes, while heat began to gather in your face. Whether it was from the fever, or because of him, you couldn’t tell. 

But getting to see such a handsome doctor… today had to be your lucky day. For once. 

The only thing was, it seemed to be the exact opposite for him. Contrary to the tone of his greeting, he now looked like he had just seen a ghost. He sprang to his feet the moment he saw you, and his chair rolled backwards until it hit the wall behind him with a loud thump. His eyes were blown wide, lips parted as he stared at you, searching your face for something… You didn’t know what, exactly. 

The normal thing to do now would be to sit in the empty chair next to his desk and for him to do his job, but you couldn’t bring yourself to move a single step. Not when he was looking at you like this, as if he had a million things to say but couldn’t. So you stood there, feet glued to the spot by the door as you stared back, blinking and confused. 

He spoke again after the tense silence stretched on for much longer than you’d have liked. 

“Is… Is it really you? Am I dreaming? Is this… real?”

In the silence of the room, his shaky whisper rang loud and clear in your ears. 

Affection. Sadness. Longing. They were unmistakable in his wavering voice, in his eyes that were starting to glisten with what seemed like tears. 

The only problem was, you didn’t understand why. Much less why it was being directed to you. You were missing something here, or maybe it was him. You didn’t know. Your head hurt, and you just wanted some medicine, and then to go home to sleep this fever off. 

But now your doctor was walking towards you, each footstep ringing in your ears as he drew closer and closer, his perplexed expression remaining the same. And for some reason you couldn’t tear your eyes away from his, much less find the strength to push him away when he stood an arm’s length away and gently held you by the shoulders. Even the way he tried to hold you was strange — his hands were shaking and his palms were barely brushing against your shoulders, hesitant and afraid. 

Maybe you had spoken too soon. It probably wasn’t a lucky day at all—when would you learn? Now you were stuck in an office with a weirdo who was getting way too emotional over a simple consultation.

“A-Are you… okay?” The words came out as a timid squeak, and you watched as he blinked, though his eyes didn’t lose the glass-like quality to them. The ceiling light was reflecting off his eyes, and they seemed to be glistening with fresh tears.

“I never thought… I… I can’t believe it’s- it’s- H-How could this happen?” 

You flinched when you felt something brush against your cheek, and it took a few seconds for you to realise that the back of his hand was ghosting over your skin. 

Belatedly, your fight-or-flight response finally kicked in and you pushed his hand away, putting your hands out to make him step back and put some much-needed distance between you. Handsome or not, this guy was getting downright creepy and inappropriate.

“Look, I don’t know who you are, and I think you’ve got the wrong person. I’ll just go to another clinic-” You turned around, ready to hightail it out of his office, when you felt his hand on your wrist, holding you in place. 

“No, wait. Please- Please wait. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, this is all my fault.”

A voice pounded in your head then. An image flashed in your mind, one of a man who didn’t belong in this time period. He was dressed in traditional clothes, and he was holding you with tears streaming down his face. You couldn’t quite make out his face from the blurred picture that came and went like lightning, but the sound of his voice was the same as this doctor’s desperate plea. 

Then dizziness hit you once more, but this time it didn’t subside. The last thing you remembered before your vision turned black was the sound of him calling your name. 

***

A/N: I will be leaving this on tumblr for now, I’ll probably start posting on AO3 when I have more chapters ready to post. :) I’d love to hear your thoughts on this first chapter and thank you for reading! :)

[secretadventuresociety]

Episode 27 Recap

What’s up SASholes?! I’m Bren; resident SAStorian and note-taker extraordinaire. Welcome to Episode 27: Under New Management.

The Xarus Problem

We last left off with Kess staring down her jilted ‘lover’ (I mean, if you can call an arranged husband a lover), Xarus, who had just revealed he now owns her childhood home. Well, I say home. I guess childhood MANSION is technically more correct. Anyway, as this red-headed scum delights in Kess’ confusion, a flock of guards file in behind him all dressed in black; anticipating an attack. True to form, Pearce leans over to Kess and asks if he should shoot him, and she waves him away, blowing the whole thing off as a joke. Turns out that ole Xarus lost his humor in a tragic Born-Without-A-Soul accident, so he stares back flatly and invites the group to dinner; suggesting the trio clean up beforehand.

Kess loudly announces that her mother (Norse), Zev, Kü, and Pearce are going to… help… brush her hair? And Xarus just accepts it?? So the definitely-not-suspect group file up to Kess’ bedroom, led by Norse. The party takes in their spotless lavish surroundings in a mixture of disgust and disbelief-- and then they find their destination. The room might as well be adorned with a neon sign reading ‘Messy Kessy’. The colors inside are dark and earthy, with flora and drawings of fauna littering the walls, lit by a majestic bay window. In an awkward silence, Kü compares the living space to the shit-covered walls of his cavern home, then switches gears to ask if all fathers come with so much tension.

Norse gently explains that Xarus isn’t Kess’ father, but was her husband-to-be, who recently took over the house and the super-secret ‘family business’. Surprise-- Kess’ family is a band of merry Robin Hoods who keep Mardosta eating with silver spoons. Despite being there the whole time— Norse doesn’t quite understand how the boring, ginger-haired square of a man grew the balls to overthrow their reign of thievery; but she momentarily morphs into fantasy Vin Diesel (not actually, I know it’s a little weird ‘cause technically she’s a changeling and very much COULD do that) and tells Kess they can handle it As A Family.

An Iris by Any Other Name

After assuring The Nobodies aren’t going to kill Xarus in his sleep, Mama Shadowmore pulls Kess aside and leads her to the family greenhouse. It smells overwhelmingly like smoke, and as they enter, Kess sees hundreds of her black and white flowers. You know the ones. Norse then tells her how they tried to cover Kess’ absence, the way she would go into the greenhouse to just sit somewhere that smelled like her daughter (OUCH, dude), and all about the first night she saw one of the Irises appear. From that night on, Norse and Kess’ father Arthur would sit and wait for a flower to bloom; knowing somehow it was connected to their daughter’s safety. Now, if you thought your teeth were rotting out from the sweetness already-- that’s when Kess hugs her mom for the first time in years, and sometime during the embrace, Norse drops her high elf facade and embraces her daughter in all her changeling glory before Kess grows a flower just for her. Touching stuff. You crying yet? No? Just me?

Dry those eyes, though, because now we’re on to some shenanigans. As Kess and her mom are off repairing their relationship, Pearce and Kü attempt to make themselves at home. After grabbing a drink with Zev, the pair stake out a guest bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. Pearce ushers Kü inside and offers to guard the door as he showers, which the kobold has CERTAINLY done before. Tons of times. In his underground home. Despite this setback, Kü figures out the tub quickly, but the challenge becomes when he needs to drain the water. He finds a bucket, remembers that the toilet gets rid of its own fluid, and scoops up the grimy bathwater like a scaly Mickey Mouse. But that’s not all. Getting to the bottom of the tub, he notices a chain floating in the dregs and hauls out a crowbar to liberate it.

Pearce, hearing a sudden thump and fearing a sneak attack, manhandles his way into the bathroom and finds a wet Kü who laments about the ‘necklace’ at the bottom of the tub. The gunslinger quickly realizes it’s a chain for the drain (heh, a rhyme) and shoves Kü out. He then takes a pile of Zev’s clothes he found and dresses, appalled at the deep-v tunic and skin tight leather pants he is now sporting. Being his only choice, he chastely covers his bare chest and spikes his hair, coming out of the bathroom to help Kü shine his helmet. Yes, that helmet. Pearce is making Mother’s skull GLEAM. Kess, after realizing she could just change her form in lieu of ACTUALLY bathing, brings Kü a long silk tunic to replace his dress and steals a white button-up from her dad for Pearce. Now they’re Awkward Dinner Party ready!

Evil Exes, Amirite?

In case you’ve forgotten, Kess has a Brady-Bunch-worthy family. She runs into her dad, and later all three of her brothers: Zev, his twin Voss, and Rook. However, these aren’t all of the introductions the party is subjected to. As they enter the dining room in what I can only imagine is Oh My God They’re So Hot Slow Motion (with Kess donning her owl, Tibbins, for intimidation), they lay eyes on an unfamiliar and unimpressed elven woman who Xarus introduces as Sienna-- his current fiance. Well, he sure did move on fast. Between Sienna’s eye rolls, Kü’s harried feasting, and EVERYONE’S overwhelming discomfort, Xarus describes how he grew suspicious when Kess disappeared. After a little digging, he found out about the family’s arrangement with the city’s mayor, Vendreth; how he caught her criminal parents and promised them protection if they used their forces to help his failing city thrive.

Kess doesn’t see any issue, but Xarus laments that the townspeople have no idea who is running the show. It’s a clear threat, as Kess realizes the denizens would run them out of Mardosta if they knew the truth. Happy with himself and his mind games, Xarus invites his elven mistress to retire to their chambers with him…. if you know what I mean. She emotionlessly agrees, and the two leave the family alone. The Nobodies excitedly chatter about their exploits; no adventure going untold. Kü even introduces his mother, Marrow, and spends a moment praising Norse for being a good mother too. Pearce changes the subject to their treasure map, showing it briefly to Voss. He has no idea what the X’s could mean, but implores them to keep him updated. Norse then asks how long the party is staying-- enticing them with an upcoming festival that is SURE to have stickmeat. Kess proposes they stay for a while, saying they could make use of the family library and also figure out what the X closest to Mardosta hides.

Pearce not-so-subtly asks about the family’s trading habits, mostly trying to gauge if they have any dealings with his absent father. Turns out this ain’t an arms race, it’s a goddamn scene, and with routes halted in Larsham and Evercrest, the business has slowed down to a trickle. Kess breaks the business talk with a proposal for her companions and her siblings to go out on the town, and so they all prepare for a night in Mardosta. Pearce grabs his gun, Kess raids Rook’s training room for daggers (noticing a hefty potion collection), and everyone bundles up for the biting weather as they walk to the docks.

The Return of Nice Ghost

Kü spots a stationary boat in the water, with a rumpled dragonborn climbing out of it. Sus. As they get closer, they notice that it’s not a boat at all, but a disguised opening to a meeting spot called ‘The Underfrost’. Kess leads them down the cavernous tunnel lined with torches until they reach the bottom. Once there, they feast their eyes on merchants, a bar, and an imposing fighting pit-- all teeming with figures of all races. Kü jumps on the chance to, as he so eloquently describes it, ‘fuck shit up’; racing off with Voss and Zev in tow to sign up to battle. Kess instructs Pearce to place bets for the both of them as she grabs drinks… which turns out to be a monumentally bad idea. Pearce throws down 500 gold on Kü for himself but-- without express instructions from the druid-- dumps out her bag and wagers all of her 1,275 pieces of gold.

It turns out Kü is the next challenger to face… get this… Dickius Muscular. Is it his fantasy God-given name or a stage moniker? The world may never know. In any case, fervent hands push him toward the pit-- one attempting to remove his helmet. In retribution, Kü bites the tip of the offending person’s pinkie off, keeping his adornment as he summons a flood of shadows from it to cover him in armor. Thus the fight begins, and the massive goliath Dick...ius attacks our boy Kücifer with a mace in a blinding rage. Kü retaliates with his Bonemerang-- and when that does less damage that he expected, he summons Nice Ghost to keep him company. The spectral being chases after the goliath relentlessly; booping him any time he can come close. Dickius flees from the spectre, pursuing Kü-- who wreaths himself in shadow and disappears. Out of the darkness comes two fireballs, liberated from the kobold’s dwindling necklace.

Amazingly, this blast does not take his opponent out-- so Kü chugs a health potion as his vision suddenly goes green. He smells smoke and hears Mother in his head, asking to take a turn. He can do nothing but stare at Dickius as the shadows leave Kü to snake around the goliath and squeeze. Though deeply in pain, Dickius breaks free and heaves one last attack at Kü-- rendering him unconscious and sending Nice Ghost back into oblivion. With that, Kess rushes in to heal her friend, momentarily pissed at Pearce for losing all her money. Back on his feet, Kü shakily requests to be taken to bed, and the gunslinger scoops him up like a child and carries him; only to be repaid with a flow of vomit down his back as the kobold recovers slowly from his trauma. Still, Pearce keeps his composure and reassures Kü that he fought well, but begs him to try to sleep.

The Scream Heard ‘Round the Mansion

The group groggily returns to the family home and branches off to their respective rooms. Pearce gently lays Kü down and tucks him into bed before searching for a piece of paper and a writing utensil to pen a short note. He slips 200 gold into it and scrawls ‘I’m sorry’ onto the page. He slips out of the guest room to try and find Kess’ door-- and the one he picks, unbeknownst to him, is her parents’. However, our boy tried his best, so he returns to Kü; watching him as he sleeps. This dad-like worry Pearce has got going on makes me SOFT, y’all. I need MORE.

Kess, however, forgoes sleep for a time and instead grabs a bottle of wine from the kitchen. She takes it to the greenhouse and attempts to grow her second flower of the day-- which she has never done before. It takes a little more effort, but it does sprout, and she pleadingly asks to speak with the friend she grows them for. She waits, but no answer comes. Kess finishes the wine and stumbles up to her room, leaving the window open for good measure. She and Kü are sleeping soundly while Pearce fitfully wakes up from his perch on the sleeper sofa every so often to watch Kü’s chest rise and fall (PASS ME THE TISSUES). During one of his half-awake moments, Pearce watches the candle in the room extinguish and simultaneously hears a scream coming from downstairs.

Leaving the passed out kobold, Pearce takes off, only to be intercepted by Kess, who we all know has the passive perception of a dog waiting for you to drop that pepperoni on your pizza, Karen. She pulls him into the stairwell and they end up at the opening of Xarus’ chambers-- Sienna standing speechless in the doorway. When she ends up being less than helpful, the duo slip into the room, immediately laying eyes on the lifeless body of Kess’ failed groom. I wish I could say I was at all upset about this revelation, but I would be lying to you, dear readers. However, we now have a murder mystery on our hands! WHODUNNIT?!

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

TL;DR

Our heroes attended a dinner party more uncomfortable than all of my family reunions put together. Talk about second-hand anxiety!

Kü is the Underfrost Fighting Pit Champion in my heart and I hope he gets a rematch against… *checks notes* the Goliath’s dick.

RIP, Xarus— ex-fiancé and stick in the mud. See you in hell.

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

Kess’ed Be and catch the next session over at twitch.tv/lochness on July 21st at 7:30CST/8:30EST! AND if you’d like to watch THIS episode, you can find it at the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyi5JkW-SNY

[exhausted-joy]

INTO THE WOODS [YANDERE!JIMIN] [03]

CHAPTER THREE.

SYNOPSIS: Park Jimin is your needy, clingy, summer camp cabinmate that both creeps you out and makes you regret ever trying to be socially engaged during your summer break. After submitting truckloads of request forms to switch cabins and getting rejected, you realize that you must swallow your pride and get comfy with your new cabinmate. He hates it and so do you—at least, that’s what you thought. 

NOTE: This fic is now being co-written with the lovely @/Luciole on Quotev! Please show her some support, she is amazing. (-:

Want to be the first to know when I update? Add yourself to the tag list!

━━━━━━━━━

It’s amazing to think that you can memorize a tree based on the unique pattern of its bark just by seeing it a few times. 

“Jimin, haven’t we seen this tree before? I swear we have.” 

The boy glances up at you with an almost deadpan look, and lets out an inaudible exasperated sigh. His usual lack of response only unnerves you further, and although you would normally just accept that he was capable of nothing but one-syllable comments, while wandering around cluelessly in an extremely dense forest in the sweltering summer heat, his communicative malfunctions made you want to shake him until he’d spew out a proper, or at least mildly helpful reply.

Opting for another intense stare at the map, you exhale forcefully in a half-groan, half-sigh, your arms and the map along with them shaking as you did so. After trying and failing to convince yourself that there must be some correct information of any kind on the crumpled piece of paper, notably for the fiftieth time in an hour, you were about as helpless as the time you wrote your first chemistry test.

Jimin, on the other hand, looks completely unbothered, if not even disinterested. If you were being honest, you were growing tired of taking the initiative on everything. Maybe if Jimin had spoken up, none of this would have happened. It was your first time at this camp and your roommate’s been coming here since presumably his younger days, so you expected him to know these trails like the back of his hand. However, you weren’t going voice your bitter thoughts just yet; you didn’t really know Jimin like that and you definitely weren’t down to getting shanked in the middle of nowhere. 

Folding the useless map up, you shove it into your back pocket and cross your arms. Maybe you just needed to retrace your steps. How far away could the camp possibly be? It’s not like you were wandering for miles and miles - at least, that’s what it felt like. Turning around to face the direction which you came from, you can’t help but furrow your eyebrows as you glance past Jimin’s unkempt head of black hair. The gears in your brain turn and grip onto each other so forcefully you could swear you are feeling the blood rush to your head and past your cheekbones, making your face a flushed mess. But you can’t help it, no matter how hard you try, what angle you look at it from and what little definite impressions of your trek this far you call to mind, the green behind you still appears the same as the one in front of you, and your heart beats a bit quicker as a slight uproar of panic tightens your chest.

“This is hopeless,” you mutter, screwing your eyes shut and sinking into a crouch. You let your fingers comb through your hair nervously.

You raise your head and shoot your supposed treasure hunt partner an evenly hopeful and defeated look. “You’ve been to this camp before, right Jimin?”

His heart threatens to pound through his ribcage the way your eyes search his. He puts a little more effort than usual into maintaining his stoic impression and only musters you as if not quite sure just what you want from him. Keeping his intense gaze locked on yours, he soaks his lips and furrows his eyebrows before shrugging nonchalantly.

“...Every summer, yeah.” 

A small flicker of hope ignites in your chest and you quickly rise back up to a standing position. With a newly revived gleam in your eyes, you beam at Jimin, the thought of getting away from the miles upon miles of trees that surround you taking you to a happy place. 

“So that must mean you know this place pretty well then, huh? Do you know where we are?” Your question doesn’t exactly catch Jimin off guard, per say, but it somehow makes him feel hesitant to answer. Of course, he knew the woods like they were the back of his hand. Where else could he have run off to when the bullying got particularly nasty? The forest is his refuge, his own little safety blanket - it was a part of him. But for some reason, he feels that if he leads you out of the labyrinth of trees and back to camp, his time with you will be cut short and things will go back to you only talking to him because you have to. He didn’t like the idea of that at all, and he hates the painful twinge of his heart when you aren’t paying attention to only him. 

How could Jimin pass this opportunity up? Simple; he can’t. And he doesn’t. 

“I don’t know.” He replies after a few moments of silence and strongly resisting the urge to smirk at his scheme. 

And just like that you are sent back into the dark spiral of unknowingness. You consciously breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth as calmly as possible with closed eyes, yet you wind up sucking in as much air as your lungs can hold in a shaky gasp just to cough it out half a second later as if it was laced with acid.

Watching your unsuccessful attempts at calming yourself down, Jimin feels his heart drop. Of course, he wanted to stay with you for as long as possible, but seeing you in a state like this was worse than not having the chance to spend possibly the day with you… 

But what if there was a middle way? Could he spend time with you while also somehow leading the way back to camp? It sounded stupid, even in his head - how could he possibly pull off a stunt like that? Something had to go wrong, something had to happen and he just had to jump in and save the day. Glancing at your trembling form, he bites his lip and shuffles his foot in the sticks and leaves that blanket the forest floor. 

And suddenly, there was an arm around your shoulder and a warm form wrapped around your own. You jump at the sudden contact, quickly zipping your lips closed before an embarrassing squeak could escape. Jimin’s hands awkwardly pat your back while your face is squished against his chest. While the gentle embrace does distract you from your previous trauma, it instead replaces it with utter confusion and shock. 

Was Jimin actually trying to comfort you right now? It was bad enough that you were lost in the woods with him, and now you have somehow broken him? 

Clueless as to how to handle the situation you simply stand there, welcoming Jimin’s awkward back-patting and admittedly nice warmth as a useful way of slowly calming yourself down. Your previously tensed muscles relax allowing you to just concentrate on the slight shifting of your head every time his chest inflates with breath.

Ten seconds and two awkward pats later he slowly peels away to step back a small pace and look at you.You feel slightly chilly at the missing feeling of warmth.

“They’ll probably notice we’re missing...”

The ‘probably’ drives a pang of insecurity through your heart, but you wipe it away quickly. You had already allowed yourself enough drama today.

“Yeah, you’re right.” You straighten your spine. “We’d best stay here, it’ll make it easier to find us if we keep to one spot.” 

Jimin nods silently in agreement, his dark eyes scoping out the very green clearing. It was better than nothing; he’d have half a day sooner than none with you any time, little as it may be.

Meanwhile you shift uncomfortably on the spot. Lord knows how long you have to wait for someone from camp to notice two of so many participants missing.

Deciding to lean against the nearest tree, you carefully muster Jimin out of the corner of your eye, not wanting to be too obvious or creepy. He doesn’t seem panicked at all, his face almost automatically re-assumes his usual passive expression.

You decide you’d just have to pass the time, so you slide down the tree trunk to a sit. Jimin hesitantly follows your example, seating himself across from you, and once again the most awkward of silences settles. Not that you’re not used to it by now.

The summer heat is still sweltering, so you opt to fan yourself with your hands while you ponder on starting a scientific research on how it was possible for someone to survive these cooking temperatures dressed in several layers of black clothing, and even though you are dying of fluid-loss by sweat in the shadow of your tree Jimin barely seems affected in all his hooded glory.

You stare at him, sitting barely three feet across. He stares back at you. You both look away. No one says a word.

Maybe you should scratch your last will into the trunk of a tree in case you have too much time on your hands. You heave out a sigh, and the wind almost seems to mimic you when a light breeze ruffles the trees.

“I guess we’ll have to uhm- pass the time somehow”, he pokes aimlessly at a pile of leaves with a stick. “You know, until they find us…”

After stuttering out the words, Jimin has to strongly resist the urge to pat himself on the shoulder. He’d actually talked to you- by himself not to mention.

His voice is barely audible and some of the words got stuck in his throat, yet you have to keep your eyes from widening to the size of saucers. The most antisocial person you’d ever known just tried, even if poorly, to start a conversation with you, and considering you were literally deep into the woods you weren’t one to miss a chance at possible human interaction.

“Yeah,” you follow his example and look around the forest floor for a stick, “So uh, for how long have you been coming to this camp exactly…?”

Jimin runs a hand through his messy black hair. He doesn’t answer right away, though he listens intently to every word.

━━━━━━━━━

It would be safe to say that your plan failed pretty epicly.

It’s currently just past dusk, and still no sign of anyone beside you and Jimin.

Speaking of whom, to your great surprise he’d actually managed to start a small campfire inside a ring of stones he found somewhere off between the trees. When asking him where he’d learned it, he only scrutinized you for a moment before solemnly answering “Camp.”.

You still sit across from him, only there’s a fire between you now.

Jimin speaks up. “...You should sleep.” You shoot him a quizzical look but his face stays passive as always.

“Yeah…” you mutter tiredly. “But what about you?”

He looks up at you in almost puzzled admiration. Not only had you just considered his existence, but you genuinely seemed to care cared for his well being- and he decides he likes it.

“I don’t sleep much.”

In any other circumstance his monotone replies would strain your nerves to infinity and beyond, but at the moment you’re just too tired to care.

You bring your head down to rest on your folded hands and shift on the dry leaves, for what must be the twentieth time, before finding a mildly comfortable position without having any stick or root poke at your back and creating any more bruises than you already have from the less than enjoyable day you had gone through.

Yet, somehow, while laying in the middle of the fallen leaves and grass, with your back to the small pile of burning wood your not so antisocial cabin mate had somehow crafted, you couldn’t help but quietly sigh in what seemed like content. You feel a certain tiredness surge through you, numbing your limbs as well as your senses, like that after spending a long day playing outside and climbing trees as a child.

In any other given moment it would seem crazy to think about a day lost in the woods as enjoyable, but as the small fire spreads warmth across your back it is the last thought that shoots through your mind before you become too weak to keep your eyelids from fluttering shut.

Just when your mind is about to go blank and give itself away to the sweet promise of sleep, you feel a soft fabric being placed over your torso in a blanket-like fashion, enveloping you with its comforting scent reminiscent of home. All your muscles relax and your conscious tiredly shuts down as you slowly descend into the welcoming arms of slumber. 

Through your sleep hazy stupor, you hear Jimin rustling around a little bit away and, soon after, you think you can almost hear the familiar faint tapping of an electronic keyboard drifting through the comfortable silence. 

But this time, as you somewhat contentedly lay on your bed of itchy sticks and stones, you are strangely okay with it. 

--

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| MASTERLIST |

[darielquinta]

The Info Cookie Ep. 1 4/28 - 5/11

Hello my cookies, welcome back to another video from yours truly. I hope you are doing great today. In today’s blog, I am going to report on Nintendo Switch News that occurred these past 2 weeks. We’ll also talk about other competing consoles, but mainly I’d like to focus on Nintendo in general. On the first blog, we have 4 big news stories for you to enjoy. Wait what? Another AAA series may get ported to the Nintendo Switch?  Is this new (and high quality) information and screenshots for Super Mario Maker 2 that we have here? All of these questions and more will be answered in the next paragraphs. So, without further ado, sit back and enjoy the show.

Our second story has something to do with a popular series that may be coming on the Switch. Borderlands, the series in question, has received a lot of popularity recently for its new title in the series, Borderlands 3, getting a trailer. 

On Twitter, someone asked the CEO of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, if the Borderlands series will ever arrive on the Nintendo Switch. The CEO responded saying that he would love to see them get ported on the Switch. 

Someone then replied to his tweet and asked Randy how he and his team could try and make that happen, with Randy going on to say, “You are welcome to campaign with 2k Games and Nintendo. They all know we’re supportive, but [we] have to focus our attention elsewhere.” I have never played a Borderlands game, but if it were to ever come to the Nintendo Switch, I would most likely pick it up. Does this confirm the possibility of Borderlands on the console? No, but it does seem like they aren’t disregarding the possibility. Borderlands 2 was on the PS Vita, meaning that it has been on a portable console before.

Our third story is about Nintendo’s Financial Results Briefing. As you may know, the fiscal year for Nintendo and other companies ended on March of this year. 

Regarding the sales for the Nintendo Switch, it seems to pick up speed and have yet to peak.

 Its Console Sales Pace is moving at a rate similar to the 3DS. They talked about games that have released already and information on them, like Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe selling 2.5 million units and Yoshi’s Crafted World having a more feminine audience than other Switch titles. They also mentioned the future 1st party games coming to the Nintendo Switch, like Pokemon Sword and Shield, Super Mario Maker 2, and others. They also re-confirmed that titles like Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Animal Crossing are slated for this year. This might not entirely kill off the rumor that Animal Crossing is delayed though, as Fire Emblem and Yoshi were slated for last year, but instead released this year. Overall, their Financial Results Briefing is worth a read.

In our fourth story, we have news on the new Stardew Valley update. 

Update 1.4 will include “a new farm map called Four Corners that's perfect for the much requested ‘separate money’ option in multiplayer.” ConcernedApe tweeted recently about how its new update will add a new map, which can be accessed by creating a new world. This map has multiplayer in mind, but you can still play in singleplayer. If you don’t want to create an entirely new world but still want the separate money feature, you can split or rejoin the money at Mayor Lewis’ house. Whenever I play multiplayer with my brother, I hate how we have to share the money we earn, so with this, it makes multiplayer a bit better. As for release date, there isn’t an exact date, but we do know that PC players will be the first to receive it, then following console (as well as Switch) and mobile players. The PS4 and Xbox One still haven’t received Version 1.3 so it may be a while before they have it in their hands.

Our final news story is about Super Mario Maker 2 and all the information thrown at us this week. 

On Monday, in-store promotional flyers were shown, which included screenshots of the game. Before, this photo with the cute panda puppet was used as new information, but it was blurry. 

Now we have a collection of close-ups to the flyer. These images show a lot of information about Super Mario Maker 2, like what the gameplay and enemies look like. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 任天堂 (@nintendo_jp) on Apr 30, 2019 at 7:56pm PDT

We also received a new trailer from Nintendo Japan’s Instagram, which shows Mario’s evolution through the three Japanese eras. The video is a minute long and you should check out SwitchForce’s video explaining it in the description below. Super Mario Maker 2 releases on June 28th and if pre-ordered in Japan you receive one year of Nintendo Online and a stylus. That’s a pretty good deal if I do say so myself.

Thanks for reading this blog. Check out my YouTube channel and other videos. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy, and I’ll see you all later!

[greyssharing]

Assaultcube hack

#ASSAULTCUBE HACK INSTALL#

#ASSAULTCUBE HACK SOFTWARE#

#ASSAULTCUBE HACK PC#

#ASSAULTCUBE HACK FREE#

However, suggestions and comments are welcome and greatly appreciated I will not be accepting requests or anything like that. This thread will be updated from time to time to include more cheats. My decision on whether to release them for windows would mostly count on the level of demand from people. If you want the Windows versions of the cheats, please let me know by posting in this thread. I may release Windows versions of the cheats when I have the time, or when I feel like it. The cheats released in this thread are only Macintosh Compatible. The cheats released here are all made extremely easy to use. This thread is for Macintosh users who want to cheat in AssaultCube but do not know anything about C++ or modifying the source code. compiling will be a tad difficult.Hello all.

#ASSAULTCUBE HACK PC#

but since i only have a rpi2 as my PC at the moment.

#ASSAULTCUBE HACK SOFTWARE#

unless we can look at the software render it uses and get some ideas from there. i dont have a x86 pc with me so i cant cross compile or what ever they call it. I tried using both libs and still segfault. Libvorbisfile.so.3 => /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libvorbisfile.so.3 (0x76d5c000) Libopenal.so.1 => /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libopenal.so.1 (0x76d6c000) i see assault cube does go in order from video to sound in the startup procces: I did check what assaultcube needed this is what i think we should take a look at. but it did produce a lib file called:libGLU.so.1 its not a symlink. I don't know what's wrong yet.įor some reason when i compile glues. It worked fine with Raspbian (February, 2015).

#ASSAULTCUBE HACK INSTALL#

But I'd try it with libGLU first.ĮDIT: I did a fresh install of latest Rapsbian (May, 2015) and I now get a segfault with glshim and bloboats (my test case for glshim). here is the start up script for yaĪC_OPTIONS="-home=$ is a portability hack, keyword "wrapper script"Ĭode: Select all ldd symbols: If it doesn't come with debug symbols you have to compile it yourself with debug symbols enabled. "/usr/games/assaultcube": not in executable format: File format not recognized This GDB was configured as "arm-linux-gnueabihf".įor bug reporting instructions, please see: There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

#ASSAULTCUBE HACK FREE#

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later I tried it anyways but got ~ $ gdb assaultcubeĬopyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This will give you a basic idea what the problem could be. Read map packages/maps/official/ac_snow.cgz rev 6 (75 milliseconds)Ĭode: Select all (gdb) bt # bt is short for "backtrace" GlXGetProcAddress: glMultiTexCoord3fARB not found. It renders in sdl and mesa? what? if any one else can help me with glshim that would be nice the make part gives me errors! Sound: OpenAL Soft / OpenAL Soft (OpenAL Community) Renderer: Software Rasterizer (Mesa Project) Using home directory: /home/pi/.assaultcube_v1.104 I cant get glshim to work but look at ~/glshim $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/pi/glshim/lib LIBGL_FB=1 assaultcube I guess i can give it a shot i will report back! You may be able to make it work with glshim though, a shim which translates OpenGL calls to OpenGL ES so the GPU is being used. Assault Cube would need to be ported as well to make use of the GPU. The OpenArena port in the PiStore has been ported to OpenGL ES to make use of the Pi's GPU. Hiradur wrote:It probably software rendered if it's so slow = the graphics are all calculated on the GPU.

[nitewrighter]

@zeespazz I got u.

Previous Omnic!Genji Posts: 1, 2, 3

---

“Now the second anything feels wrong, let me know and we’ll scrap the mission. No questions asked---I mean of course we’ll need to analyze what went wrong later but---” Mercy exhaled, “Are you sure about this?” she glanced up at him.

Genji glanced down at the serial numbers on his breastplate, 63NJ1, then back at Mercy. He gave a single nod. “Your heart rate is elevated,” he noted, “Are you afraid?”

“A little, but more excited,” said Mercy, scrolling through her notes on her tablet, “I’ve made plenty of requests to explore decommissioned Omniums before, but...” she sighed, “Overwatch isn’t too fond of allocating resources to my expeditions, I mean, I could easily go on my own but... they insist on providing an armed escort.”

“You’re welcome, by the way,” McCree said from the front seat, “And for the record I still think this is a terrible idea. Not too late to turn the car around and grab some Rikimaru.”

Something tugged at the corner of Mercy’s mouth, “I thought Jesse McCree wasn’t afraid of anything,” she said, folding her arms.

“Jesse McCree isn’t afraid of anything, Jesse McCree just also happens to not be a dumbass,” said McCree. He shook his head. “This is how all the sci-fi horror movies start, you know?”

“It’s not going to reactivate. We’re just going to look for some clues about how they built Genji, and the other Omnic in the ‘Shinobi’ series. 4AN70 was it?”

Genji nodded.

“That’s all,” said Mercy, turning back to McCree.

“...Did he have to come?” said McCree, giving a wary glance to Genji in the rearview mirror.

“I wish to see the omnium for myself, without control from its God AI,” said Genji, looking out the window.

“And we know the the omnium isn’t going to suddenly reactivate itself because he’s there because...?” McCree trailed off on the question.

“Because the god AI, along with the fusion core, is quarantined in a bunker 600 hundred feet underground and several hundred miles away,” said Mercy.

“Mmm,” McCree seemed unconvinced as the omnium came into view. They passed a lonely UN checkpoint, Mercy and McCree showed some identification, and they were waved through. It was another few minutes before they pulled up to the outer wall of the Omnium and stepped out of the car. It was a sprawling ruin of gigantic metal forms, now overtaken by nature since its deactivation for 22 years. McCree walked around the car and put something into Mercy’s hands. She glanced down and saw it was an unusual, but still vaguely pistol-shaped gun.

“Jack insisted,” said McCree, “EMP Charge-Pulsefire rounds,” he gave a glance to Genji, “In case he... you know,” McCree made a waving motion next to his head.

 Mercy’s mouth dropped open and her brow furrowed.

“It won’t kill him!” said McCree, “Just knock him out...well... knock him out long enough for us to lug him back to the lab and get him properly restrained but---” He noted the look on Mercy’s face, “Look, it’s just a precaution, no one said you’ll actually be using it. It’s just in case.”

“I think it’s a good precaution to have,” said Genji.

“What?” said Mercy.

“There could be some God AI failsafe within the omnium we still don’t know about. If anything overcomes my current programming, I would rather be temporarily decommissioned than harm or kill either of you against my will.”

Mercy glanced back down at the gun and sighed. “Fine,” she conceded. McCree handed her a holster and she fastened it around her waist and holstered the gun. 

Genji was already walking, stopping and pausing at various arches and beams of metal, simply staring at them. It was an overcast but thankfully dry day, gray, but not too cold. In a way it looked nice between the gray of metal and the greenery flooding over it.

“Kind of creepy, isn’t it?” said McCree, watching as Genji stared at several disassembled omnic frames overgrowing with ferns.

“He’s neural mapping,” said Mercy. Her eyes narrowed at McCree as they walked after Genji through the omnium. “Jack specifically requested I carry an EMP blaster?” 

“Well, look, you’d be able to notice if he was acting funny faster than anyone---” McCree started.

“Jesse,” Mercy said his name flatly. 

McCree took a deep breath. “Look we know this case is... unusual for you,” said McCree.

“What do you mean by ‘unusual?’”

“Well the official word is that... you’re imprinted on each other,” said McCree.

“Impri--Imprinted? We’re not ducklings!” said Mercy.

“Look, he saved your life when you were like... 5 and you apparently represent a major... software update for him? I dunno the specifics of it... Point is, there’s a definite compromise for both of you, but at this point you’re both too high-value to Overwatch to pull out of whatever...” McCree gestured at the Omnium, “This is.”

Mercy was frowning.

“Look, this is just full disclosure,” said McCree as they passed under several steel arches and into the maze-like interior corridors of the omnium. 

Mercy scoffed. “If Jack has a better way of figuring out the limits of Crisis-Era programming, he’s welcome to give me any suggestions,” she said with far more bitterness than she initially thought she had in her, she cleared her throat, “As far as ‘compromise’ goes, I’d be happy to submit myself for a psych exam in terms of my relationship to the 63NJ1 project, though I suggest he bring up such a subject with me before my armed escort. Seeing as you’re in such good correspondence, could you let him know that?” She began walking forward briskly.

“You mean he didn’t--?” McCree started and then paled, “Look--Merce--I thought you already--shit.” Mercy was already angrily outpacing him, “I’ll uh...I’ll check the perimeter then?” He cleared his throat and walked off.

“Imprinted,” she muttered under her breath with gritted teeth, seething.

“Your heart rate is---” Genji started as Mercy walked past him.

“Elevated. I know,” said Mercy, continuing to push forward. She looked around and glanced back at Genji, whose own visor seemed to be...scanning? “Is any of this familiar?” she asked, lifting up a disembodied omnic arm from a conveyer belt and turning it over, examining it before setting it down again.

“We’re programmed with the original floor plans of most omniums so that we can easily adapt to use the environment strategically in the instance our omnium is attacked,” said Genji. He turned his head and started walking again and walked into a large building that was filled with partially collapsed conveyer belts and rather intimidating looking machinery.

“This is where most of the frames for the bipedal models were made,” said Genji, “...I wasn’t made here.”

“No?” said Mercy.

Genji shook his head. “Prototypes were deeper in. Should we wait for your armed escort?”

“McCree can take care of himself, and so can I,” said Mercy, “He has our location on the comms. He’ll come if we need anything.”

“You seemed angry with him,” said Genji, turning his attention back to scanning around.

“It’s just some silly administrative things,” said Mercy, waving a hand.

“Have I made things... difficult for you?” said Genji.

“What?” said Mercy, “No--it’s not your fault. Just... finding an omnic of your combined age and advancement raises... a lot of questions--and--and there’s lot we’re still trying to understand,” she took out her tablet and was scrolling through her notes as they moved through the omnium, while Genji’s eyes had trailed upward, “...and a lot of people are afraid because you were built during the crisis and because of that they think that just because you’ve moved on from your previous programming that that’s a sign that you’re--” there was a large creaking overhead and Genji suddenly took Mercy about the waist and yanked her out of the way as a massive 6-axis robotic arm came crashing down from the ceiling in the spot where she had been previously standing, “...d-dangerous,” Mercy managed to finish her sentence with Genji’s arm still around her waist.

“My apologies. I was mostly running memory and neural mapping scans. I probably should have better scanned the structural integrity of this sector,” said Genji, venting excess heat from his systems. 

“No--that was--um--” Mercy patted his shoulder and he set her down, “Thank you,” she said.

“Telling you your heart rate is elevated would be redundant at this point, I take it?” said Genji.

Mercy smiled. “We should... probably keep moving,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear.

---

“Goddamn compartmentalization,” muttered McCree, angrily clicking through texts on his comm with one hand, the other on the handle of his gun as he walked the perimeter of the omnium. “Goddamn omniums...” he said looking around, listening to the ancient rumbles and creaks of metallic structures under the wind and rain and weight of nature overtaking it. Industrial ruins had their own charm, in a desolate ‘hundreds or thousands died here during the crisis’ sort of way. The Omnium itself was a patchwork of steel and cement, latticed with I-Beams and arcs of rusting steel, the ground itself decorated with collapsed components of the roof and the twisted frames of destroyed Omnics. McCree scrambled up a pile of broken chunks of cement threaded through with rusted steel cables to gain a vantage point.

“Perimeter’s looking clear,” he put a finger to his ear and spoke over the comms, “How are things looking your e--” he stopped himself when something pale caught his eye.

“Jesse? Did you cut out?” Mercy spoke over the comms as Jesse walked toward what looked like a bullseye of white chalk in one of the cement walls of the omnium. “Jesse?” Mercy said again as McCree reached a hand out and felt one of the indents of the cement, dead center of the bullseye. It didn’t have the impact of a bullet, he glanced up and saw dozens of bullseyes placed at varying locations all over the omnium. He ran a finger to the white lines of the bullseye and brought his hand away, rubbing white powder between his fingertips. Fresh chalk. Whoever was doing target practice, they were doing it recently. He put a hand to his ear. “Merce? We’re regrouping.” 

---

“What? What did you see?” said Mercy, following Genji as he continued walking through the omnium. 

“Nothing yet,” McCree said over the comms, “And hopefully nothing while we get our asses out of---”

“Here,” Genji stopped in front of several large arcing metallic structures, “I was made here.” He stepped forward through a corridor lined by steel cables.

“...I’ll call you back,” said Mercy.

“What part of ‘regrouping’ did you not understa---?!” McCree was cut off as Mercy clicked out of the comm channel and hurried after Genji. She followed Genji into a chamber that had apparently been heavily gutted by Overwatch following the shutdown of the Omnium, but Genji was pacing around it, running his hand along the steel walls, his visor scanning the environment. His visor flickered and he turned on his heel and looked at her. “You should---” he trailed off and put two fingers to his temple, “I can remember. I can show you, if you’d like.”

Mercy nodded and rifled through her pockets before pulling out a chord and plugging it into her tablet. She brought the other end of the chord up to Genji’s temple and he guided her hand to the port.

“I’m coming to your location,” McCree spoke over the comm but Mercy all but tuned him out as a window opened on the tablet screen and she saw a darkened room. She was looking through Genji’s optical receptors from the moment of his creation. First there were several hundred lines of code rapidly running down the window, then they cleared away as the optical receptors activated to a darkened chamber. There was a grating binary noise and Mercy flinched back from her own screen slightly as the binary screech nearly blew out her tablet’s speakers.

“Is that the God AI?” asked Mercy.

“It was... um... talking to me,” said Genji, “It would take about 45 minutes to say what it said to me in a human language. It was telling me my purpose. Telling me the consequences of failing to fulfill said purpose.” The binary screeching continued and Mercy turned down the volume on her tablet.

“The voice of god,” she said in a slight huff, her ear still ringing from the binary screech.

“Of course it would also be written into my base programming but I suppose the additional audio memory was seen as necessary in my creation,” Genji continued, “I was, after all, designed in the image of human martial classes, at least as efficiently as the god AI saw---”

His head turned sharply as Mercy turned her attention back down her tablet, watching as the God AI almost lovingly knit together synthetic muscles over a carbon fiber frame. A whistling was suddenly heard in the air. Mercy’s brow furrowed and she turned her head toward her tablet, wondering if the high pitched noise was feedback from the video playing. 

“We need to move,” said Genji.

“What--?” Mercy had barely glanced up from the tablet when Genji suddenly tackled her from the waist as another whistle was heard overhead, then a breaking sound against the wall of the chamber. Genji covered her as best he could as bright blue shards shot around the chamber, some sparking off of his armor.

“What was that--?” Mercy started as he unplugged the wire from his temple and hauled her to her feet.

“Move!” said Genji as something whistled past Mercy’s face, rifling through her hair and grazing her cheekbone before planting itself among the many metal cables along the corridor leading into the chamber. Mercy barely got a good look at it before Genji yanked her forward by the wrist and they were both sprinting down the hall.

“Was that an arrow!?” said Mercy.

“He’s here. It’s not safe for you,” said Genji.

“’He?’” said Mercy, “You don’t mean--?” Genji took a sharp turn and they found themselves taking cover in a large iron tube that had probably been meant for smelting bastion unit parts.

“Unit 4AN70,” said Genji, “He shouldn’t be--” He stopped himself and reached forward, tucking some of Mercy’s hair back to reveal bleeding cut that trailed along her cheekbone and notched one of her ears. His fingers traced along the cut on her face and he brought it away, looking at her blood on his fingertips. Her own hand went to her face and she wiped off some of her blood as he turned his head and looked out. “Stay here,” he said, stepping out of the tube.

“No--” Mercy stepped after him but he put up a hand to stop her.

“It’s not safe,” Genji spoke more insistently. He ducked and an arrow embedded itself in the cement wall next to him. Mercy glanced up to see a figure standing among the upper ruins of the omnium. He was broader built than Genji, with several loose wires trailing from the back of his head, tied back with one thick yellow wire. He carried a bow.

“Genji,” Mercy said, “You said Unit 4AN70 destroyed you---it’s not safe for you eith--” she was cut off by the sound of a peacemaker firing and something sparked off of Unit 4AN70′s chestplate and he turned and ran off toward the direction of the fire.

“See this is why you regroup when I say ‘Regroup!’” said McCree over the comms, “63N or Genji or whatever the hell you call yourself---get Merce out of here.”

“But---” Mercy started.

“This mission is scrubbed,” said McCree, “I’m giving you an opening to go.” 

“Going up against Unit 4AN70 alone is inadvisable,” said Genji, “He is a highly capable---”

“I know,” said McCree, “Don’t make me regret this any more than I already am.”

“No, we need to plan this ou---” Mercy started but Genji had already grabbed her wrist and was running.

“We can’t leave him!” Mercy was saying, stumbling after Genji with her wrist gripped in his hand.

“He told me to get you out---”

“Genji!” Mercy planted her heels in the dirt and Genji was forced to stop running to keep from dislocating her shoulder.

“We need to keep---” Genji turned to face her but saw that she had drawn the EMP-equipped blaster from her belt and was pointing with it back in the general direction of 4AN70 and McCree.

“We can stop him,” said Mercy, holstering the blaster, “Can you get me to him fast enough?”

Genji looked to the blaster at her side, then to the determined look in her eyes. He gestured to his back and gave a single nod.

---

“Shit--” an arrow glanced off the steel beam over McCree’s head as he sprinted through the Omnium’s ruins with 4AN70 hot on his heels. Another arrow whistled past his ear as he ducked and slid through the dirt beneath a low-hanging collapsed I-beam, “Shit,” McCree said again, “Shit-Shit-shit---” Several arrows planted themselves in the dirt behind him as he slid before he stumbled to his feet again and regained his sprint. He glanced over his shoulder as he ran and fanned the hammer on his peacemaker. The hybrid cupronickel-pulsefire rounds sparked against the chestplate of 4AN70 and slowed him, but he nocked another arrow as McCree reloaded.

Two seconds, thought McCree as the bowstring was drawn taught. Instinctively he drew a flashbang grenade from his belt and threw it. There was a burst of yellow light and 4AN70, stunned loosed the arrow. It tore past McCree’s black serape as he narrowly dipped from its path, and McCree drew his peacemaker.

“Draw,” he said as 4AN70 was nocking another arrow.

Everything seemed to slow down. McCree could go for the eyes. They usually were the weakest point on an omnic. Of course, that also raised the possibility of pissing off the omnic assassin unit more.

 McCree fired and and a peacemaker round struck the upper tip of the bow.

 The taut string whipped back and 4AN70 flinched back at the snap of his bowstring. The Omnic looked down at the broken string of the bow, then his eye flicked back up to McCree.

“Okay,” McCree said slowly, keeping his gun fixed on the omnic, “I don’t want to have to... deactivate or disassemble you or whatever Merce would call it,” he held out a steadying hand and started slowly backing away from 4AN70, “We’re just here to look through the Omnium, and now we’re leav--”

4AN70 leapt forward and McCree fired his peacemaker. It sparked across the side of the Omnic’s head as he tackled him. In one second McCree was flat on the ground with the Omnic straddling him, McCree had his peacemaker on the Omnic’s temple as 4AN70 had the point of an arrow against McCree’s jugular vein.

“...I don’t want to kill you,” McCree said.

“I see little to gain from killing you,” 4AN70 replied.

“That’s... probably an insult, huh?” said McCree.

 Neither moved their weapon from the other’s head or neck.

“How is there a 63NJ1 Unit with you?” 4AN70 demanded, “All data of his design should have ceased existence with the shutdown of the omnium.”

“We didn’t build him. We rebuilt him,” said McCree, “Well... Mercy rebuilt him.”

“That explains why his programming has been seeing the same progressive decay as when we last fought,” said 4AN70, “That is the only reason why you and this ‘Mercy’ still live.”

“I am actually functioning at peak capacity,” Genji’s voice was heard and 4AN70 looked up, bringing his arrow away from McCree’s neck in the process. A bright blue EMP-charge pulsefire round struck 4AN70 in the shoulder. 4AN70 convulsed as a bright blue light suddenly burst off of him before falling limp off to McCree’s side. McCree turned his head to see Genji perched on a crooked I-beam, with Mercy riding piggyback. The side of her face was bleeding and she was still pointing her EMP blaster at 4AN70.

“Are you all right?” she called to McCree as Genji easily leapt across several more ceiling beams before landing in front of him.

“Yeah,” said McCree, sitting up and rolling his shoulders, “Yeah I’m okay.”

“Good,” said Mercy, slipping off of Genji’s back and holding out a hand to McCree. She awkwardly ran a hand through her hair. “I’m... sorry,” she said, “About everything.”

McCree shrugged. “Blackwatch. I’ve had plenty of missions go way more ass-up from bad compartmentalization and short tempers than this one. Sorry you had to hear the imprinting thing from me. ‘Least you remembered the blaster better than I did.”

“Yes well...” Mercy holstered the blaster and wiped some more blood off of her face, “In spite of everything, I’d say it was more of a success than anticipated.”

“So...” McCree looked between Genji and 4AN70, “Family, then?”

“Of a sort,” said Genji.

“We should get him back to the lab,” said Mercy, stepping over to 4AN70 and looking him over, “He could fill in a lot of the gaps about the Omnium’s process in programming Genji... and if there’s any other assassin units out there...” 

“Okay, maybe I hit my head a little too hard when he tackled me, but did you just say you want to take the angry murderbot back with us?” said McCree.

“We need to talk,” said Genji, easily lifting up 4AN70′s limp form into a fireman carry. 

“You want to talk... to the robot that destroyed you,” said McCree, pressing his hands together in front himself.

“Do you think it’s any safer just leaving him here?” said Mercy as Genji started walking off with 4AN70.

McCree sighed and picked up 4AN70′s bow. “We’re just full of good ideas today, aren’t we?” he said, walking after them as they made their way back towards the entrance of the omnium.

[ssnakey-b]

FF8 Translarison, Part 1: Back to... university?

Hello everybody and welcome to the first part of my comparative look at the English and French translations of Final Fantasy VIII! And yes, I have decided to call it “Translarison”. Because it's a TRANSLAtion compARISON, you see. BTW, I shall use “Translarison” as a tag if you want to search for these specific posts more easily.

The main reason why I wanted to do this was that, being French, I obviously grew up with the French version of the game but a few years ago, out of curiosity, I played through the game in English after hearing about some minor differences, and discovered that there were a lot more than what I'd been told, to the point that certain characters, scenes and even subplots come across completely differently.

On top of that, I just found some of the different choices in translation conventions very interesting, and possibly quite telling of cultural differences, so comparing the two fascinated me.

I also found it interesting that in some aspects, the French version seems to be based off the original Japanese scripts, yet in others, it seems too close to the English one to be a coincidence. It's weird, to the point if I wonder if the translator(s) used both versions as sources (assuming the English translation was already finished while the French one was being worked on). But then, there are also a lot of things that don’t match either (especially when it comes to names), so it’s also interesting to see when the translator took some liberties.

Gonna tell you now, maybe it's just out of nostalgia but overall, I do prefer the French one as the characters generally come out better in my opinion, but there are parts where I like the English one better, and I will of course point those out.

Now, let me explain how I intend to work on this thing. Although this is sort of a Let's Play as I will go through the game and comment on it, it won't be a complete one as I will focus specifically on translation differences and analyse the most interesting ones (as it would get tedious to do so for every line of dialogue where all I'd have to say is “they pretty much say the thing, except in French), so I will skip around. I may give my opinions on random moments from the game if I feel particularly strongly about them, but like I said, it won’t be the focus. If you do want to know my thoughts on every bit of the game, you can read a more traditional Let’s Play I wrote here: http://officialfan.proboards.com/thread/536741/french-version-final-fantasy-finale

I do intend to be as thorough as possible and highlight stuff from side-quests, but obviously I won't be able to cover everything considering there are parts where you need to split the party up and you can't change it until way later. Hm... maybe I could go through those again with different configurations as bonus content. NOT A PROMISE.

It is also important to note that I am an amateur doing this for fun. I apologize in advance if some of my interpretations are a bit off. I can however guarantee that my schedule will never slip as my schedule is “whenever I feel like it”. Keep in mind I'm doing this on my free time and it takes a lot of time to go through it, especially since I have to go through it twice for this.

One last thing before we begin: do not hesitate to ask questions. I just realized I didn't have an “ask” button active on my blog, so I activate just for this, but of course you can also ask me stuff any other way you'd like. Oh, and feel free to request me looking at specific stuff from the game. As much of a ridiculous fanboy as I am for this game, even I don't remember or know everything about it (which is why it remains so fascinating so many years later!), and I probably won't think of re-visiting locations on my own if they aren't tied to a side-quest.

Right, that's enough blabbering, let's get to the actual game!

Nothing to say about the opening cutscene as it is still in English even in the French version, so let’s head straight for the infirmary. Not much different so far, though I do find this bit interesting. When Quistis arrives, in the English version, she says:

But in the French version, she says:

Which translates to “Good lord! I knew it would end badly”. You get the same idea in both versions, that Quistis is used to Squall and Seifer fighting and getting into trouble, I just find it interesting that one version chose to specifically name the characters, whereas the other chose to focus more on Quistis lamenting her students’ behaviour. I should also point out that logically, Quistis must have picked up Seifer first, so the French version makes a bit more sense because, well... of course you knew it’d be him, you must already be aware of what happened.

Also, note how the French version doesn’t have quotation marks. While I think it looks better without them, I can see why the English version does that as it shows more explicitly that the names aren’t part of the dialogue.

The conversation between the two in the hallway is very similar in both versions but there is one thing I find funny:

There’s a line in the English version where Squall says “I am more complex than you think” which is pretty much word-for-word the same in French, but Quistis’ reaction is different. In the English version, she just asks him to tell her more about himself, while the French one, she uses the above line. You see, “complexé” is a word that pretty much means “hung up”, so she’s teasing him about his attitude.

I really like this dynamic between the two because whereas the characters’ angst is usually glorified in other FF games, here Quistis is seeing right through him (with her Laser Eyes!) and is having none of his crap. Also, it’s one of the few times the characters are being a bit more rude than in the English one. Not that Quistis is really being mean, but you get the idea.

On an unrelated note, I never noticed it before but as they pass by, there’s a dude who checks out Quistis and two girls look at Squall and then giggle to themselves. I love little details like that.

Next, we get to the classroom. Still only minor differences, like Quistis saying that “it won’t be a surprise to anyone” that the field test is this afternoon whereas the English version has her mention there have been rumours, which kind of implies that they just drop on the kids that they’re gonna partake in a genuine battle at the last minute.

As any seasoned FF8 player knows, the first thing to do is to pick up our trusty Guardian Forces, Shiva and...

... Golgotha?! Yes, here is the first renaming of the game. Give it a round of applause! It’s an odd one, seemingly a reference to the hill Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on. I guess it’s because the creature has a vaguely crucifix-like shape when it spreads its wings. I have to admit Quetzalcoatl is more fitting as it is a reptilian-looking flying creature, so it’s close to a winged serpent, but I guess Golgotha is less of a pain to pronounce, and it actually fits with the character limit.

Not much else of note aside from the fact that in the Garden Square forum, Almasy is misspelled as Almassy. And considering how much of an ass Seifer is, it seems fitting. Also, one of the students uses the initials J.I in the English version whereas they use O.S. in the French one, and I don’t know why.

Quistis tells us to meet her at the front gate, we leave and bump into Selphie, setting up the romance between the two. Oh wait, no. Don’t know if it was intentional, but I always loved that they played with the old “bump into each other at school” cliché by NOT having the two characters get romantically involved. And it goes to show how overdone it was that even my 11-years-old self was aware of it.

I prefer when Squall is slightly less antisocial so I have him give Selphie a short tour of Balamb Garden University. Yes, Balamb Garden University. In what is in my opinion one of the more interesting minor changes, the Gardens are referred to as universities. And although the other two retain their original names, B-Garden is indeed known as Balamb Garden University (and yes, they keep the name in English), or BGU for short.

I realize that when you think about it, it doesn’t really make sense since they teach children below college age and in fact, considering the max age to apply for SeeD is 20, they wouldn’t have that many college-age students, but I like the more academic-sounding name. Come to think of it, Balamb Garden Academy would probably make more sense. Oh well.

Not that much different regarding the map but I wanted to show off the fact that even on pre-rendered stuff, the text usually is translated, which again is a nice attention to detail (although accents are omitted for some reason, which makes me think perhaps the graphics were updated using a non-European keyboard).

Well, time to look around good old Balamb Garden University. First stop, the quad (or campus, in French), for two odd changes. First, there’s a generic male student who explains that all members of the festival committee have been dispatched around the world. In the English version, he then explains that in spite of Selphie’s enthusiasm, it doesn’t seem likely it’s gonna happen:

But in the French version, he instead says that their task is to solve armed and political conflicts:

And on the same screen is one of the weirder changes. In the English version,Selphie asks Squall if he’s interested in what she’s doing. In the French one, though, she asks if he’s interested in her. But more bizarrely, in the French version, instead of the generic “Interested/not interested” choices, the first option is “a little bit (physically)”.

And in both versions, she then tells him that in that case, he should join the festival committee. Naughty French Selphie, using sex-appeal to get new members! But now, get ready to have your mind blown as we head for the cafeteria and we meet the Disciplinary Committee, because..

.

... French Fujin can actually use her adult words! In fact, pretty much none of the language tics found in the English version have made it to the French one, so Raijin doesn’t go “ya know?” all the time either and indeed, French Squall doesn’t say “Whatever” either.

And frankly, good riddance as far as I’m concerned. I assume it’s something the English translator(s) added and I hate it. It might be funny for five minutes, but it completely kills characterization and I hate losing development for the sake of “OH! HE SAID IT! IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER AND NOT ANNOYING AT ALL THE MORE YOU DO IT!”

But if you thought THAT was crazy, hold on to your underwear because here comes another bombshell:

BOOM!! Hot dogs have been replaced with pretzels! Or as we like to call it where they actually come from (and yes, I do live in France but my region also has them as a local dish), bretzels. With a B. Apparently, in the original Japanese, it was a special kind of bread instead. No idea how many more localizations there are. It’s a bit weird that they went with pretzels too, as it’s very specific to some areas of Europe, whereas hot-dogs are also famous here (which lends credence to my theory that the French version was made independently from the English one).

Anyway, take a minute to pick up the shattered pieces of your world and let’s continue. You know these faculty guys with their rice hats? Well for starters, they’re referred to as “templier” (which means “templar”) in the French version. Also, there’s one hanging around the library and when you talk to him, in the English version, he calls Squall a “problem child” whereas in the French version, he calls him “the famous Squall”.

I kind of like the English version a little bit more, if only for how bluntly tactless the guy is being (why, he’s almost as bad as Squall!), and yeah... “problem child” is putting it lightly.

Inside the library is another small change that I find amusing. You know this short-haired girl near the draw point?

Well, in the French version, she says she wishes they had “olé-olé” books, which... is a term that can’t really be translated directly but basically means “naughty” or “smutty”. So yeah, if you thought the English version was being too subtle for you when she said she likes “romance novels”, you can rest assured she absolutely means the Harlequin kind of “romance”.

But enough lolligagging, let’s head for the Fire Cavern, which in French has become the Mines de Soufre, or Sulfur Mines. And here we already have one of the most interesting changes in the game. You know how in the English version, there is this dialogue:

Well, in the French version, it goes like this:

That’s right, the French version goes in a completely different direction, almost the exact opposite, in fact. Now, I remember reading that in the Japanese version, Quistis says something very similar to the English one and Squall thinks to himself “you’re a TEACHER”, meaning he doesn’t approve of how lightly she’s taking her role, so it’s probably a misinterpretation on the French translator’s part, but I love that version.

For starters, I think it speaks volume about Quistis. It highlights her insecurities about being a teacher, and students questioning her credibility due to her young age and lack of experience, while being oblivious to the fact that... yeah, being all alone with an attractive woman about their age , whose weapon of choice is a whip, would distract quite a few students. Hell, it seems to suggest she doesn’t even realize how absurdly beautiful she is. In every version, she deflects it by saying she’s only joking, but still, it seems there is more truth to it than she lets on.

But it also gives Squall more personality, showing that for his cold demeanour, he’s not a robot and he isn’t insensitive to an attractive woman’s charm,and he even shows a bit of a sense of humour. That shows a surprisingly large amount of layers on both characters for such a small bit of dialogue.

Also, the English version makes Quistis come across as more flirtatious, whereas the French one makes her seem more naive, despite her efforts to look like a tough instructor. And this shows one of the major differences between the English and French versions as the kind of romantic subtext between the two is very much downplayed here.

I like that a lot because while many people like to think that Quistis does have romantic feelings for Squall, or at least used to have some, I always found it very refreshing to have two fictional characters of opposite genders who work together and are just friends.

That’s not to say she wouldn’t question her feelings and whether or not they truly are platonic at some point, it seems unlikely that it would never come up, but I find the idea that her relationship with Squall is more friendly or sisterly a lot more interesting than yet another romantic sub-plot.

There isn’t really anything else to mention for the rest of the test so I think I’ll end this part here. And next time, we’ll be taking a look at the assault on Dollet!

I hope you all enjoyed this first part. Please feel free to comment and discuss and once again, do not hesitate to ask questions. Oh and if you liked it, a reblog would be nice to help spread the word. Thank you very much and see you soon!

[novamm66]

Red Sky in the Morning

Chapter 4 – Piss Poor and Proud

*Now Updated*

Kiaya was feeling more herself now that she had some idea of what was immediately in her future. Everything in the immediate past that was not so good but she would obsess about that later. Cassandra had left after showing her where the supplies were located and pointing her to the tavern for food. Everyone still whispered and stared everywhere she went, and the woman behind the bar didn’t ask for any payment. This was good because Kiaya had nothing to pay her with. As she waited to be served, she could feel the eyes of the other patrons on her back and the casual chatter was trying really hard to stay casual. The tavern was starting to feel much more closed in. Kiaya watched her hands tighten on the bar edge until she could tell which knuckles had been broken. The moment the woman returned Kiaya slipped out a side door, bowl and mug in hand.

She pulled the hood of the new-to-her cloak low over her face as she hunched against the back of the building, well out of sight of any passersby on the road. Kiaya ate as slowly as her starving stomach would allow. It was still fast enough that she felt sick when she was finished but it settled after a few deep breathes. As she sipped from her mug, she could hear the villagers and soldiers gossiping about her and the recent events. I’m in trouble, so much trouble. Kiaya started to gently rock back and forth trying to block out the doom in her head.

“You won’t be able to hide forever.”

Kiaya hissed and almost leapt out of her skin. “Maker’s balls Varric, don’t you know you can kill someone by doing that?” Kiaya rubbed her chest as she tried to calm her racing heart. “And what do you mean hiding?”

“You’re tougher than that,” Varric chuckled, “I saw you slip out here and crouching in the bushes to eat is considered hiding where I come from. I wanted to see if you want to watch the show?”

“What show?”

“By now Seeker and Nightingale have finished filling in Curly and Ruffles all about your acceptance. Which means history is about to happen.” Varric waved his hands grandly. “Who wouldn’t want to see that?”

Kiaya snorted, “That’s not usually my first instinct. Usually I run the other way.” She stifled a groan as she climbed to her feet and followed the dwarf.

—-

Varric is right.

Kiaya thought as she watched the flurry of activity that was the beginning of the Inquisition. It was exciting to be here and everyone could feel it. She could see it in the eyes of villagers, overshadowing their fear of the Breach. It was in the straight postures of the soldier's shoulders as word spread about what was going on.

And I’m at the centre of this. Terrifying thought.

Kiaya began to wish she had stayed in the bushes behind the tavern.

“This is insane Varric, it’s too big. I can’t do this. I can’t, I don’t, I… fuck.”

“Yup, that sounds about right. Hawke would say ‘fakes it till you makes it’ and it seems to work for her.”

Kiaya dissolved into nervous giggles at this declaration. The laughter eased the pressure in her chest and helped to clear her thoughts. “Really? The Champion of Kirkwall would say that?”

“Maker only knows why she’s horribly cheesy. I’ve always had to give her better dialogue in the book. She always thought she was funny too, would dissolve into giggles just like that.”

Kiaya smiled warmly to the dwarf at her side. His easy banter had lifted the weight that had started to weigh on her shoulders so that when she saw Cassandra waving her towards the Chantry she didn’t hesitate. “Here we go. See you, Varric. And thanks,” Smiled at the dwarf as she moved towards the doors, Kiaya could feel her fears returning as she joined the Seeker and headed to the back of the Chantry. As if it knew, the mark stirred within her hand almost like it was enjoying the panic pounding in her chest.

“Does it trouble you?” Kiaya jumped when Cassandra spoke. She had been completely absorbed in the pulsing mark on her hand.

“Yes, no, yes.” Kiaya sighed as she fumbled for an answer. “It doesn’t hurt exactly at the moment, it does feel strange though. I wish I knew what it was. Or how I got it.”

“We will find out,” said Cassandra. “What’s important is that you and your mark are now stable, as is the Breach. You’ve given us the gift of time, and Solas believes that a second attempt might succeed, provided the mark has more power. The same level of power used to open the Breach in the first place he thinks. That is not going to be easy to come by.”

Kiaya choked on a laugh and stumbled over her own feet. “You’re telling me. Holy crap, sounds like fun. What harm could there be in powering up something we barely understand and have even less control of?”

Cassandra chuckled. “Hold on to that sense of humour. We are going to need it I feel.”

The doors opened for them and Kiaya crossed the threshold with a grin on her face.

---

Time was passing too slowly for Cullen as he waited with Josephine and Leliana in the War Room. The rush of the public declaration had drained away as they had started to outline the monumental undertaking they had before them.

Everything was questions and not enough answers. It was astounding how far rumour and stories could spread in three days. Maker, there were already requests for the Herald of Andraste before she woke up and they still had no idea if she would help. And once she had agreed, everything had shot forward like a mabari attack wave.

Whatever I think of her methods, Leliana certainly is efficient at getting things started.

Cullen could feel the throbbing of a headache start to build at the base of his skull and pain was starting to shoot down his neck, back and arms. Maker, please, not now. Cullen unconsciously began to rub his neck trying to relieve the building pressure.

Everything depends on her. Cullen’s doubts flared again as he tried to ignore the pain. He had had three days to process events and he still didn’t know what to make of the mage the villagers were calling the Herald of Andraste. He wasn’t sure where that had started although he had his suspicions, and he couldn’t decide if it was a good or bad thing. This woman was a mystery. What she had done at the Breach site had been kept quiet, amazingly. However, unusual magic made Cullen nervous although he wasn’t sure that wasn’t simply leftover distrust.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening to reveal the woman in question with Cassandra, both women looking comfortable and relaxed as they exchanged smiles. That is certainly a mark in your favour if Cass likes you already.  As introduction began, he took the time to really look at the woman who had fallen out of the Fade.

She was almost a hand shorter then Cassandra and a full head shorter than himself.  Her figure was soft, curves more than angles, wider hips and chest with a narrow waist gave her an hourglass figure

Her cheeks flushed pink when their eyes met and Cullen suddenly realized he was staring and snapped his eyes down to the world map that separated them. He listened while she was introduced to Josephine and when he dared to look up again she was smiling politely as she spoke to Leliana, although her eyes were weary.

He thought he was ready when Cassandra began to introduce him to the mage across the table, but he lost his words the moment she looked at him again, and his response came out much harsher then he wished.

“Such as they are. We lost many soldiers in the valley, and I fear we will lose many more before this is all through.” 

---

Kiaya blinked at the bitterness in the words from Commander Cullen. Either he cares deeply about his men or he resents my decision to take the path, or both. Either way, it was enough to clear her head of the anxiety that was fogging her brain. Kiaya squared her shoulders.

“I am pleased to meet you all. I understand the basic idea of what we are going to try and accomplish here. However, before we begin: my belongings... please.”

Leliana smiled as she retrieved a tied bundle of cloth and placed it on the table in front of Kiaya. Kiaya’s fingers hovered over the bundle, itching to tear it apart to search for the locket, however, the interested glint in Leliana’s eyes stayed her hand.

“I am sorry, my Lady...” Josephine’s swallowed nervously, “your robes were mostly destroyed. I had them cleaned however, I am unsure that you will be able to make use of them again. Please, if there is anything that you want that our supply officer can’t provide, let me know. I will do my best to provide..” Josephine smiled warmly across the table at Kiaya.

Leliana was not one to waste an opening. “Shall we start with an easy one? What is your name?”

With as much nerve as she could muster, Kiaya met the woman’s eyes, “By choice, my name is Kiaya Rolinin. By blood, I am Kiaya Trevelyan, bastard child of Lord Trevelyan.”

“Are you sure?” Josephine sounded both shocked and concerned, but Kiaya could find nothing but sincere care in her eyes.

“As sure as I can be. I have only the written word of my mother. I look like him and his other children and he certainly didn’t deny it when we first met. I am confident that I am a Trevelyan. I am also confident that I am not a welcome part of the family. I have never been a Lady.” Kiaya struggled for a smile to soften her words. “I know that my identity will play a role in your plans. I also understand that the name Trevelyan comes with advantages and disadvantages.” Kiaya took a deep breath as her eyes slid from face to face around her. She had given some thought to her next move. Not as much as she would have liked, but then she had only been awake a few hours.

“If you wish to benefit from the Trevelyan name for your cause you can, however, the name Evelyn Trevelyan would carry more weight. She is also out of favour with Lord Trevelyan but not so much that the devout asshole wouldn’t swoon over this Herald of Andraste thing.” Kiaya could feel her face pinching in distaste, and she paused while she stamped it down.

I am willing to take whatever name you wish me to, play whatever role is needed. Although I will not lie if asked a direct question, I will not openly dispute the Herald of Andraste title that seems to have become popular since I am sure it could be useful to you,” she glanced up at the hooded woman across from her, ”if it hasn’t already.” Kiaya spoke very slowly, controlling the tremor in her voice, her hands and her legs. She couldn’t quite hide the slight look of distaste that flashed across her face although she smoothed her features quickly. Her eyes were drawn back to the Commander’s face, which was unreadable as he listened to her speak. She could feel the colour rise in her cheeks and she swallowed, trying to remember her next thought.

“Why were you at the Conclave under another name?” Cassandra asked abruptly, drawing Kiaya’s attention back to the others in the room.

Kiaya chose her words carefully. “It was discovered that there was a contract taken out on Evelyn Trevelyan’s life, and there was a plan in place for during the Conclave. Evelyn is my sister.  Knight-Commander Malcolm and Senior Enchanter Lydia believed I was better... suited to...” Kiaya struggled to find the correct words. “Counter the attempt.” Kiaya breathed slowly. The perfectly controlled faces of those listening to her were starting to rattle her defences a bit. “I was asked to attend in her place with Knight-Commander Malcolm and Senior Enchanter Lydia and I agreed.”

“How were you acquainted with the Knight-Commander of the Ostwick circle? It’s unusual for any mage without rank to be so connected.” The Commander’s words and tone were tight, clipped, and Kiaya couldn’t help give him credit for how little suspicion leaked though the neutral expression he had worn since her entrance.

“I was a resident there for a number of years. In fact, Malcolm was the first templar that I met there. He was...” Kiaya’s choked on a wave of grief as she lost her thoughts for a moment in her memories.

She was called back sharply by Leliana’s voice, “You were not a current resident of the circle then?”

Kiaya blinked slowly while she considered the other redhead across the table. Stay focused. Grieve later. “I was not. I left the protection of the Circle as the Blight struck Ferelden.”

“Was it usual for mages to leave freely from the Ostwick Circle?” Something in Leliana’s face gave Kiaya the feeling that the Nightingale already knew the answers before she asked them. It was starting to spark enough anger in Kiaya to override the panic at being the centre of attention. Maker, she is so fucking smug. Kiaya thought.

Kiaya spoke firmly, narrowing her eyes at the spymaster and returning the smirk with one of her own. “During my time there I became close with Malcolm and Lydia who, as you probably already know, was instrumental in putting what was left of Ostwick circle back together after the mage/templar began.”

“As was Lady Trevelyan, if the rumours are to be believed,” Leliana interjected.

Kiaya was not going to be led in this conversation. Evie was safer far away from all of this and by now, hopefully, the next plan was in motion. “I was familiar with the ideas that the Ostwick party wanted to bring to the Conclave, and I could work with Malcolm to stop any assassins before...”

“You were killed,” Cassandra finished her sentence. “You were using yourself as bait?” Cassandra seemed personally insulted by this idea. “You’re not even... you are a mage.”

Kiaya couldn’t help but grin at the taller woman “And so is she. It wasn’t a perfect plan, but I am more experienced with dodging assassins, so it was the best option.”

She sighed. “I wasn’t at the Conclave with any motive beyond protecting my sister. And that is exactly what I intend to continue to do.” Kiaya motioned to the map and markers spread out impressively before them with her marked hand. It sparked and pulsed right on cue, causing a small gasp to escape Lady Josephine and a sharp intake of breath from the grim Commander. Kiaya mentally laughed at the mark’s dramatic timing but it also seemed to have used the small amount of energy that Kiaya currently possessed. She suddenly felt very sick and dizzy, and her knees shook noticeably, so much so that she had to grip the table edge to keep from pitching over. “This is a threat to everyone and everything. This magic is not friendly.” She tightened the grip of her left hand.

Kiaya’s control was gone, and all she could think about was moving on, getting through this and lying down. Her words tumbled from her.

“The immediate problem before us is what name I am going to be using. The issue with using Evelyn’s name is that we are not sure who paid for the contract, although I have my suspicions. I am sure Lord Trevelyan will appear wanting control of his now valuable youngest daughter,” the venom was clear in Kiaya’s voice, “and the moment he realizes it’s really me... well, that would be a show worth watching but not one I am personally interested in experiencing.”

Kiaya slowly straightened, no longer leaning heavily on the table, although her marked hand didn’t let up the death grip she had on the table. “Evelyn Trevelyan would be the most beneficial, Kiaya Trevelyan would be the most practical maybe, it was my name in the circle. However, that would mean nothing but animosity from the Trevelyan family.”

“Who I am brings nothing to the table. Kiaya Rolinin is a nobody from nowhere. ‘Piss poor and proud’...,” Kiaya’s voice hitched, “As he’d say.”

The room filled with silence as everyone seemed to absorb everything she had said.

Kiaya’s voice was shaking and tired, “Please decide who you want me to be. Then we can move on and fix this hole in the sky and after that,” Kiaya squared her shoulders and raised her chin, meeting everyone’s eye in turn, “We shall see.”

Reblogs are very welcome.

[twdeadfanfic]

Silent, fast, and lethal Pt.1

Daryl Dixon x Reader

*Summary:  The reader is very good at sneaking, moving fast and silent, lethal with her knives. She lost her camp and is wanfering the woods when she finds Maggie and Glenn being attacked by some men and she helps them, sneaking not only on the men but also on Daryl, leaving everyone impressed with her skills, and she’s taken in into the prison. Badass but rather insecure reader and shy, confused Daryl. 

Slow-burn, hurt/comfort, fluff, angst, smoking, language and violence twd style. (Request turned mini-series of eight chapters)

4752 words

Chapters: 1/8

Link to masterlist with more  stories in the info of this blog.

This story will be updated on Monday and Thursday.

Welcome to my new mini-series! I hope you’ll enjoy it! Let me know your thoughts!

…………………………………………………………

You joisted awake, heart beating hard, sitting up and grabbing your knife, looking around wildly. You were sure you had heard a walker getting trapped on the wire around your little camp, making the top cans you had attached to it rattle. You thought you’d even heard its growls. But it’d only been a nightmare. With a sigh, you got up and began to get your scarce things back into your backpack and to untie the wire to take it with you.

You didn’t stay for more than a day at the same place since you lost your camp three days ago, or maybe four. You were starting to lose the track of time. That had been your second camp. The first was a military one, at the beginning of everything, that was overrun by walkers. The people that had survived had taken you with them and after a couple of months on the run, setting camps here and there, you all found a nice spot deep in the woods to set a camp. The area was secluded and not many walkers stumbled into it, there was a stream close and rabbits were abundant. Life was good. Now you knew good things never lasted in this world. Your people were gone, and your nice camp was gone too.

A group of walkers had seemed to come out of nowhere, the bigger group you’d ever seen. You all had fought hard, had fought your best, but it was for nothing. They were too many, and they had overpowered you. You’d taken a look at your fallen friends and at the monsters, and you’d run away from there.

So there you were now, still in the woods, but you knew you couldn’t keep going like that. You were in badly need of supplies and shelter, but you didn’t know where to find them. And if you were honest, you weren’t sure you knew how to leave the woods. You didn’t have a map or a compass, and you were feeling rather lost.

Trying not to despair, you went to check the trap you had settled, finding it had caught a rabbit. You gave thanks to the friend who had taught you to do that, dead now, you would be starving by now if she hadn’t. You hang the rabbit to your belt for later and began walking, the same direction you’d been following for the last couple of days.

You’d been walking for a while through the woods when you heard some voices and noise coming from ahead. You didn’t know what to do, but finally you decided to check it. It could be dangerous, but it could be your chance at finding shelter too. You crouched down and approached, hiding into some bushes, moving silently, in case the people weren’t friendly.

You were pretty good at hiding and sneaking around, at moving without making noise or being noticed, you’d always been. You started doing it as a game when you were a little girl, playing hide and seek, or catch with your friends and also to spy on your parents, soon you were good at moving pretty quickly too. In your teens, it had helped you to sneak in and out of the house without your parents noticing it. As an adult, it came in handy when you began working as a private detective…fancy title to say that you followed and sneaked on people, taking compromising pictures of them for their scorned partners. It wasn’t glamorous, but it paid rent.

Little did you know back then that now it’d be a life savior skill.

From your hiding spot, you saw a young asian man and a young woman with big green eyes on their knees, gagged and with their hands tied to their back. Two men were pointing their guns at them while others went through what you guessed were their bags, full of supplies.

You knew that kind of men. Raiders, murderers, you had encountered people like that before, some even had tried to steal from your people, a couple of times men like that had shown up in your camp, threatening you, but they had never come out of it unharmed or even alive. You’d never been the one to stop them, though, you’d never faced men, only walkers, but you needed to help that couple before the men killed them. You weren’t sure how to do it, though, you only had your knives and they had guns. They’d shoot you on sight.

You thought quick, took a deep breath, and jumped into action. You took a stone and threw it away, making sure to stay hidden. The men looked towards where it had landed, startled by the noise and the rustle of the bushes. When they looked away again, you threw another stone to the same place. The men looked towards the bushes again and that time you saw them talking between them before one of them went to check.

You moved silently, still hidden, until you got behind the man. You only had trained to do this with walkers, but you hoped it’d work the same with men. You made sure the other men weren’t looking and you acted quick, sinking your knife into the man's throat while placing your other hand over his mouth to keep him silent. You held him and made his body lie silently onto the ground, hidden by the bushes, and you moved away again just in time, the other two men looking around and noticing their friend missing.

They moved towards where the other man had disappeared and you waited for your moment. You moved around them, hidden and silent, until you were behind them without them noticing you. Once again you sank one of your knives into the throat of the closer one. The other turned to you and went to aim his gun, but you were fast, thanks to months of training, and you stabbed him and cut his throat before he could shot you.

You looked at the bodies. It was the first time you killed people, and you tried not to overthink it. You thought you should be feeling something, though, but you didn’t. Turning around, you went to the tied up couple, who were looking at you with wide, shocked eyes. “I’m going to help you”, you told them, but before you could go to them you hear someone else coming. Moving fast, you hid again behind a tree just in time to see a dangerous looking man approaching, a crossbow aimed in front of him, wild long hair falling over his eyes as he rushed towards the tied couple.

You thought he was one of the men who was going to kill the couple and so you left your hiding spot quickly but silently, making sure to get behind his back, and raised your knife.

The couple began shaking their heads and making noises that sounded like ‘noes’ through their gags, and so you stopped before stabbing him. Maybe this man wasn’t one of the bad guys? That made the man turn around and he seemed startled to find you there. He was fast too, dropping his crossbow and grabbing your wrist, trying to make you lower your knife. Shit, maybe you should have stabbed him. You lifted your free hand to try to punch him but he grabbed your arm and you only managed to scratch his face, his grip on you strong. He shoved you onto the floor, you landing on your knees, and he grabbed his crossbow before you could react.

“Don’t move!” He shouted to you, moving to free the couple but without stopping aiming at you.

“She helped us!” The woman said as soon as she was ungagged, the man next to her nodding. “Killed the men who got us.”

The man with the wild hair looked from the corpses of the men to you, lowering his crossbow. The woman reached her hand to you and reluctantly you took it, getting up.

“Thank you for saving us.” She told you, giving you a smile, noticing that you were nervous. “I’m Maggie, and this is Glenn, that’s Daryl. We were out scavenging and Daryl’d gone hunting when those men ambushed us.” You just nodded, silent, trying to decide if they were good people or not.

“Are you alone?” Glenn asked you softly and you nodded. “You don’t have a camp or anything?”

“My camp was overrun a couple of days ago…don't think anyone else made it…” You shrugged, feeling a lump in your throat as you were forced to remember it. They looked at each other, seeming to be able to communicate without words, before looking back at you.

“How many walkers have you killed?” Daryl asked you, out of the blue.

“Quite a few, I don’t know, why you care?” You looked at him weirdly.

“And how many people?” Glenn asked, and you guessed if it was a code or something. You were too tired to care.

“Those three.” You nodded to the dead men.

“Why?” It was Daryl again, and you rolled your eyes.

“Wasn’t evident? To help your friends.” You shrugged.

They looked at each other, seeming to have another of those silent conversations, and then Maggie nodded.

“We have a place,” Glenn began to explain. “A prison, but it’s a home. We live in there, it’s safe, it’s good. We’re a big group, we take in people who need it. You could come and join us, if you want.”

You probably should have thought it for longer than you did, you didn’t know those people and you could be running right into a trap, but you were painfully aware of how much you needed their help. Besides, they didn’t seem that bad. You nodded and it was settled, they began walking you to their place.

On the way there, Maggie told you a bit more about their community and the prison, but you were impressed anyway when you saw it, with the tall fences protecting it, the sturdy walls, the gardens and amount of people that you could see through the fences. It seemed impossible that a place like that could exist. Glenn noticed your wide, surprised eyes and he smiled, patting your back as they walked you into the prison.

You had to wait in an empty cellblock, in what they called a room but was pretty much a cell, while they talked to Rick, their leader. You’d caught a glimpse of him, he seemed serious and a bit dangerous, but not like a bad guy. You hoped. You took a deep breath, trying to stay calm while you waited.

Maggie came back alone, though you noticed Daryl following her not far. She gave you a smile and you relaxed a bit. “Rick said you can stay. We told him you saved us, that you’re a good one,” she said and you nodded, grateful. “We also told him how you sneaked on those men and on Daryl even, you’re skilled, you’ll be a big help on runs.”

“Thanks.” You murmured, blushing a bit.

“Let’s get you settled, okay?” Maggie patted your shoulder reassuringly. “I’ll show you around, get you some things.”

You thanked her again, you had lost most of your stuff when you ran away from your camp. You remembered the rabbit you had hanging from your belt and you handed it awkwardly to Maggie. At least you got something for those people who were taking you in.

“We’ll use it for tonight’s stew.” Maggie smiled kindly, taking the rabbit. She nodded at Daryl to get closer, noticing he was around, and gave him the rabbit, which he tied to the string he carried around his shoulder and in which he’d tied a few squirrels. He looked at you, but didn’t say anything and he walked away.

Maggie showed you around, and you were amazed at everything they had in that place, the food they grew, their running water. Incredible. You’d gotten pretty lucky. He introduced you to some people as you walked, and it was a bit overwhelming but they were all kind and nice to you. Finally, Maggie walked you to a cell which was to become your very own room. You couldn’t believe it.

“Thank you, really.” You told Maggie as you flopped down onto the bed, bouncing on it. When was the last time you’d sleep on a mattress? Before the apocalypse for sure.

“Do you need anything else?” She asked you kindly, and you shook your head, Maggie had already done enough. “Alright, I’ll leave you to rest for a bit, you can wash if you want, and feel free to use those clothes.” She pointed at the pile that someone had left you over a small bedside table.

“Thanks,” You said, genuinely and still a bit overwhelmed.

“See you for dinner in a couple of hours.” Maggie squeezed your shoulder softly and left you to get used to your new room and the place.

You were going through the clothes you’d been given when you heard a knock on the bars of the cell. You looked up and found Rick standing at the door. You’d been surprised at the leader of this place not talking to you personally, but you guessed he’d trusted Maggie, Glenn, and Daryl, and he’d wanted to give you time to settle down. It seemed it was time to speak now.

Your talk with Rick wasn’t long. He was inquisitive, but not suspicious, firm but also kind. After a few questions, some talk about each other, he welcomed you in, and also invited you to join a group that was going on a run in a couple of days.

Once it was time for dinner, you walked to the area where people were gathering and joined the queue. Two people were serving bowls of stew, and yours was handed by a woman with short, gray hair.

“Hi, you’re the new one, right? I’m Carol.” She greeted as she served the stew.

“Yeah, I’m Y/N, nice to meet you. Thanks for the stew.”

“Thanks for the rabbit, we used for the stew along with some Daryl squirrels.” She told you, and you nodded before leaving so the next person could have his stew.

You looked around at the long tables, people already sitting down. You saw Daryl was eating too, though not there but sat down on the stairs that led to another cellblock, and you thought he was looking at you. You waved at him shyly and he gave you a nod, dropping his gaze to the ground.

Maggie waved at you, signaling you to join her and pointing at an empty seat next to her, Glenn at her other side. Once you sat down she introduced you to his family, his father Hershel and her little sister Beth. They were all nice and kind, taking you in without any fuss, and you felt more than welcomed.

You ended up eating two bowls of stew after they told you it was okay, you hadn’t realized you had been starving until then. After dinner, you helped clean up everything and then you went back to your new room. You light up some candles to illuminate it and sat down on the bed, staring at the wall. You felt…you felt weird. This place was beyond nice, the people were nice, but it felt a bit surreal. And you still couldn’t believe you’d lost your people. That couple of days on the run, concentrated only on surviving, hadn’t allowed you to come to terms with it, and the reality of it all hit you now.

You hugged your knees to your chest, sniffing a bit. You were grateful for this place, you had gotten lucky. You just wished your people had gotten lucky like that too. None of you had ever imagined that such a big herd of walkers could show up out of the blue in your camp. But judging by the walkers you had seen at the outside of the prison fences, they seemed to be drawn to groups of people, and they were more and more each passing day.

You heard a noise close and you looked up, startled, before reminding yourself that you were safe behind fences and walls. It was Daryl, looking at you from outside the cell, and he muttered a sorry and turned around.

“No, wait.” You called after him, rubbing your eyes quick. “Come in.” Daryl seemed hesitant, but finally he walked into your cell, looking at the ground before looking up at you, and then back at the ground. You were waiting for him to say anything, but he didn’t. “You wanted something?” You ventured.

Daryl looked at you, seeming to think it for a couple of seconds before pointing at your arms. “I’m sorry about that.”

You didn’t know what he was talking about, but when you looked at your arms, you noticed some bruises had formed from when’d had grabbed you hard. “Oh…it’s nothing. You thought I was one of the bad guys who was going to kill your friends.” You shrugged, giving Daryl a weak smile, he shouldn’t feel guilty about it. He still seemed serious, chewing on his thumbnail as he looked at your fresh bruises. “Hey, I almost stabbed you after all.” You half-joked.

“Yeah. You’re good, almost got me.” Daryl nodded, and you thought he kind of looked impressed, making you blush. “I didn’t notice you.”

“I’m sorry about that too.” You pointed at the scratches you’d left on his cheek.

“Ain’t nothing. You thought I was going to kill Glenn and Maggie.”

“Yeah…”

For a short moment, none of you said anything, Daryl looking at the floor awkwardly, and you looking at him with curiosity. You hadn’t thought he’d go to apologize, you hadn’t expected it or needed it. He’d seemed dangerous to you at first, and although you were pretty sure he must be a skilled, lethal survivor, you now thought he seemed kind too,  in his awkward way, and rather shy, something that you hadn’t imagined the first time you saw him. You waited for him to say anything else or leave, silent.

“You hunt?” Daryl finally asked without looking up from the floor, taking you by surprise.

“Uh…no.”

“And the rabbit?” He finally looked at you.

“Oh!” Now you realized why he was asking. “No, I caught it with a trap. You hunt, don’t you?”

“Hmm hmm.” Daryl nodded. “I could show you where you could set a trap, if you want, we got a lot of people to feed now.”

“Okay, thanks.” You nodded, and sighed sadly as you thought about the friend who had taught you that and who you’d seen devoured by walkers. You teared up again and you rubbed your eyes, embarrassed.

“You okay?” Daryl asked you, his tone soft and understanding even though he seemed very awkward.

“Yeah…” You nodded. “Just…my people…the ones I lost. They taught me everything I know. How to set traps, what kind of berries and mushrooms you can eat, how to use the knives, everything I know. Yet they’re dead and I’m alive. It’s stupid.”

You would be dead by now if it weren’t for them, who had taken you with them and turned you into a skilled survivor. First one of them had noticed your skill at moving silently, and she had encouraged you to train with her daily, until you were silent as a shadow so walkers wouldn’t notice you, moving quicker than you had ever done.  Another one had trained you with the knives, which you had never used before, several hours each day, until you became rather good with them. Then you started to train on sneaking on walkers to put them down fast and silently, embedding your knives into their skulls before they even turned to look at you.

Your friends had taught you everything you knew about survival, they had made you what you were now, yet they were gone and you were alive. It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t fair.

Daryl looked at you, seeming like he didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry about your people.” He muttered looking away from you again. “But you shouldn’t feel guilty about surviving.”

“Yeah…” You gave him a weak and sad but grateful smile, and Daryl reached out to give you the most awkward, soft pat on your shoulder ever, but you knew he was trying to be comforting, and you were grateful.

You looked at him as he left the cell, tugging a piece of fabric that hung over the bars until it covered the door like a curtain, giving you privacy. You changed clothes and got into the bed, wrapping yourself with the blankets and sheet, finding hard to believe that you were lying down on a real bed, pillow and all.

Your mind was still full of memories of your dead friends and images of them being attacked by the walkers, and you were sure you weren’t going to be able to sleep, but you were so exhausted after three days barely sleeping, and you felt so safe now, that as soon as you closed your eyes you fell fast asleep.

Next day you kept getting used to the new place and the new people. You knew it would take you a bit to learn all the names, and even more to get to know all of those people, but all in all, they seemed nice and you knew you had been lucky to find them.

After lunch, Maggie and Glenn told you about the run they had planned for the next day, and to which you had been asked to join, if you wanted to. It was to a supermarket that they pointed to you in a map, and they hoped it hadn’t been raided yet, at least not completely. You’d be going early in the morning so as to be back before the sun started to go down. Besides Maggie and Glenn, Rick and Daryl were going too, and also Sasha, who was now at the watchtower, and Michonne, a woman whom you didn’t know yet because she’d been out and had arrived yesterday,  late at night, when you were already asleep.

Once Maggie and Glenn explained you everything about their runs, how they worked, and everything you might need, they left you alone and you wandered through the prison yard. Everyone seemed to have chores or a job to do, and you wondered what might be your place there from now on.

You stopped when you saw a woman training with a katana a bit ahead of you. You watched her, mesmerized by her movements and her skill, she was graceful yet lethal, and you didn’t think you’d ever seen anything like that before. You couldn’t help but stare. She stopped when she noticed you, smiling and approaching.

“Hey, you must be the new girl, I’m Michonne.” She greeted.

“Hi, I’m Y/N.”

“Nice to meet you finally, Maggie won’t stop talking about you yesterday when I arrived, saying you’re good with knives and that you saved her and Glenn, that you sneaked on Daryl without him noticing you and what not.” Michone laughed softly and you blushed a bright red at her words.

“I’m not half as good as you are with that katana…” You shrugged, self-conscious.

“Being training for a long while now, and I guess you too.” Michonne gave you another easy smile that helped you feel better. “Rick must be really eager to see if what they say is true, though, he hadn’t gone out on a run in a while now.” She chuckled.

“Well…I hope I won’t disappoint…”

“I’m sure you won’t.” She patted your arm. “Want to train with me for a bit?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay.”

Michonne and you ended up training for longer than any of you had planned, her with her katana and you with your knives. It was fun, and she was fun too, and you found yourself having quite a good time. Both of you ended up the training session panting and sweaty, and you still found it hard to believe that they had running water to wash without having to go to the river, almost like a shower. You weren’t going to lie, you loved it.

That night, though, as you tried to sleep, everything came back to you. Your friends. Your camp. The walkers. The three men you had killed. Every time that you closed your eyes, there were they. You turned and tossed, knowing that you needed to rest for tomorrow’s run, you tried to think on anything else, tried keeping your mind blank, but it was for nothing.

With a frustrated sigh, you got up. Throwing a shirt over your tank top, you decided to go for a walk around the yard. It wasn’t usual that you could walk at night on the open air knowing that you were safe, that you hadn’t to worry about walkers. You hadn’t been wandering through the yard for long when you heard a voice calling you.

“Hey”

You looked around in the darkness and you saw someone sat down on one of the tables, smoking, and soon you realized it was Daryl.

“Hey” You approached him.

“You okay?”        

“Yeah…” You nodded and sat down at the other end of the table. “You couldn’t sleep either?”

“Ain’t tired,” he shrugged.

“You should rest, we have a run early tomorrow.” You said awkwardly, not sure of how to make conversation.

“You too.”

“Yeah…”

Without looking at you, Daryl reached out to pass you the cigarette. You’d never been one for smoking, at least before the world ended, but you took it anyway, muttering thanks and taking a drag before passing it back to Daryl.

“Can’t stop seeing them, every time I try to sleep. My friends.” You said quietly after a little while of silence. “I wonder if I’ll ever stop thinking about the ones I lost. I feel they’re always in my head.”

“You won’t,” Daryl replied, as quietly as you, reaching out to pass you the cigarette again. “At least I didn’t. But it’ll feel different.”

Of course, he had lost people too. Who hadn’t. You looked at him but his expression was unreadable, face half hidden by the darkness and his long hair. You were curious, but you knew better than to ask him about his losses. Nobody liked to think about that. You didn’t want to remind him, and neither did you want to keep thinking about yours.

“Can’t stop thinking about the men I killed either.” You murmured. “I hadn’t killed anyone before.” At first, you hadn’t felt anything, which had unsettled you a bit, but now the fact that you’d killed people, alive people, weighed on you, especially because of the lack of remorse, you still didn’t feel anything of that. Maybe after putting down so many walkers, now you didn’t care about killing people either, maybe murder was now second nature to you. You didn’t know what to say to that.

“You did what you had to,” Daryl replied.

“Did I?” You thought that trying to talk would have been useless, but maybe you could have done something else. “I could have tried and leave them unconscious or… I don’t know.”

“No. They’d have killed you. Probably Glenn and Maggie too. I know men like that.”

“I guess…I just…I don’t know…I don’t feel anything, no remorse, nothing. Maybe I can kill people like nothing now, maybe that’s just what I am, what I’ve become.”

Daryl looked at you at that, frowning. “Ain’t that, you had to do it, told you.”

You nodded, you weren’t sure if you were convinced, but you appreciated Daryl’s words. You passed him the pretty-much-finished cigarette back. “Have you ever killed someone?” You ventured to ask, wondering if it might be too personal.

“Yeah.”

You bit your lip, unsure about keep pressing it. “What happened?”

Daryl didn’t answer. Instead, she stubbed the butt of the cigarette on the stone table and got up. “We gotta sleep.” You nodded and got up too. Daryl walked you to your cellblock, which you weren’t expecting, as if wanting to make sure you were actually okay, before leaving towards his own.

Back in bed, you kept tossing and turning for a bit, but you felt it was easier to relax and eventually, you fell asleep.

................................................................................

And this was the first chapter of my new story! What did you think? Also, was this lenght of chapter too long? If you have a moment, please drop me a comment with your impresions.

As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.

If you want to be tagged (or removed from the tags) let me know!

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[gamerszone2019-blog]

No Man’s Sky Beyond Review - And Beyond The Infinite

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/no-mans-sky-beyond-review-and-beyond-the-infinite/

No Man’s Sky Beyond Review - And Beyond The Infinite

Three years after release, the universe of No Man’s Sky continues to evolve. With each expansion, I spend weeks as a blissful wanderer, seeing an already vast universe become more populous, more beautiful, more capable of sustaining a home for anyone who dared to voyage within it. Beyond, however, is no mere evolution and refinement. It feels like No Man’s Sky approaching its final form, having shed a great deal of what was previously limiting and restrictive. But there’s one new factor specifically that makes the update live up to its name: No Man’s Sky is now a VR title. And it is utterly breathtaking.

It is breathtaking right away, waking up for the first time completely immersed in an alien world literally no one else has ever seen. Everything has a new fascination: the way the flora moves and shifts under harsh weather, the way the ground is pockmarked and windswept, the vast, unknowable vistas stretching across toxic interstellar perdition. It’s all beautiful before you even make the first flight into space.

An incredible amount of additional work has gone into making inhabiting that Exo-Suit even more of an experience. On PS4, you can play in 2D or VR with the DualShock, something that also gives you a Smooth turning option, but two PlayStation Moves are the real way to go. With the Move, your Multi-Tool is strapped to your back, ready to be whipped out more like in Blood & Truth than an ever-present floating gun like in most VR titles. The Analysis visor has you pressing the wand to the side of your head, like you’re Cyclops preparing to fire an Optic Blast. Getting in and out of your ship involves physically pulling the handles, and escaping from a hairy situation with sentinels or the local wildlife with that lightning quick motion adds an even greater layer of tension. Best of all, the menus are mapped to a little hologram in your hands that activates when you point at it. It’s a simple and intuitive implementation of such an elaborate and persistent mechanic.

Still, even with the new perspective and tools at your disposal, it should be said upfront that at its core, No Man’s Sky: Beyond is still, well, No Man’s Sky. Whether you’re in VR or not, many of the early mundanities of the game remain. You have to repair your broken ship, gather a specific resource, create fuel, drop a refiner, and so on. Beyond, however, brings varying kindnesses that welcome you to a new universe instead of prodding you into space with a stick. The UI holds your hand, telling you exactly why you’re collecting these things, what it is you’re trying to do, and exactly how to find what you need. Once you’ve found everything, having an expanded inventory and an absurd amount of space to hold items–each block can hold thousands now–means mining constantly in your travels is worthwhile. There’s always something you can use later, and you have the space to contain it. The game is much more patient and generous with the breadcrumbs that teach you how to play, guiding you into the stratosphere not only painlessly but purposefully.

That extends into the rest of the game once the tutorials stop and the training wheels are all the way off. All of the larger narrative pieces from the previous updates feel organically woven into Beyond. Dialogue and instructions from one mission from the Atlas Path may be rewritten or tweaked to reference Artemis or some new action you can take in Beyond. Direct links have been made where the next logical step in your current mission involves learning more alien language instead of just trying to get your next cell to warp to the next galaxy. The missions and their objectives have a synergy now, where lines of dialogue and specific mission objectives weave narrative strands together. It’s a bit of minor housekeeping No Man’s Sky has needed for a while now. The overarching subtle tale of both exploration and acceptance in the great unknown remains, but it also has quite a bit more meaning now that it’s not your sole purpose in the universe.

When your only task was just to keep hopping from galaxy to galaxy towards the center, there was plenty to see and take in, but you couldn’t really live in the universe because you were so busy trying to survive. The Atlas Path asked some big, existential questions, sure. Artemis helped with that a great deal, giving you an Other to truly work towards understanding and fathoming at least one small mystery of the universe with. But there’s a huge difference between looking at a vast wilderness from a hypothetical distance and trying to figure out the very real challenge of laying down roots there. The latter is a much more fundamental part of Beyond’s gameplay loop. It’s the difference between Next telling you that yes, now you can build bases and here’s how, versus those bases being more of a necessity to sustainably start traversing the universe. The way menus and options are streamlined for you in Beyond make it easier to create, leave, and return to a place of solace and safety, and to depend on a planet, your base, and the resources within. It’s a much stronger experience, and the undercurrent of humanism running throughout the Atlas Path lands much harder as a result. Beyond’s biggest improvements are all in favor of fostering that relationship between players and the universe around them, and that includes its people, playable and non-playable.

No Man’s Sky has long had one of the more positive and welcoming online communities in the gaming landscape, and there was always the worry that removing the barriers between players would invite the worst elements of online play into what’s typically a place of zen. This is far from the case.

The new Anomaly, summonable to any galaxy at any time, is no longer a sparse, glorified save space, but a bustling 16-player hub of activity, full of greetings, proud ship captains, aliens who look upon you with curious eyes, and players more than happy to bring you to the worlds they call home. Just like the first spoken line of the game, so much of the Anomaly’s layout, from its menus to the way it presents the current state of the area, is about reminding you that you’re never fully alone out there. Beyond has made it so much easier to find allies to either assist in their mission or share what you have from your own inventory. Everything you pick up and mine may have a price, but the game quite often reminds you via the descriptions that those items can also be given to others. Clicking an item while on the Anomaly gives you a list of everyone in range that you might possibly hand it off to. Checking mission boards reminds you there are people who may be looking for the same thing you are, and when it’s the other way around, the request shows up in the lower left. During my time with the update, there were good Samaritans everywhere in the Anomaly, giving out extra rare items to whoever wandered into range.

That’s a rather huge and heartening factor, not just because you can now jump in and help strangers shoot things down and collect loot, but because it creates a strong sense of community in what was previously a fairly lonely adventure. The Anomaly feels like the petri dish for No Man’s Sky to develop an actual culture, a place of cooks, pilots, space frontiersmen, and traders looking for the next big score. It feels alive and connected in all the ways the game used to feel isolated and cold. And it does so without overshadowing the fundamental element of peaceful solo exploration if you so desire. That new emphasis on connection is never so obtrusive that it prevents you from performing one simple task or speaking to one specific NPC and leaving, but it also doesn’t feel arduous to connect with another human being the way it did before this update.

There’s still some legwork involved, though. While joining games and having others join yours is a quick and simple matter (and much less finicky than it was in Next) players can occasionally spawn on drastically different locations on the same planet. That said, searching for stranded partners wound up being a weirdly fun adventure all its own.

A much bigger caveat is that for a new player to party up with friends, they still have to get out into space on their own, which makes sense. There’s a lot of ways for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to irrevocably screw up a galaxy by accident, or waste a resource, or piss off a planet’s Sentinels, or ruin your relationship with a species of animals. The tutorials do important work of not just showing you how to play the game, but respect the game. If you want to give a partner some of your resources, you can. But if an objective given by the game tells you to build something, giving them the exact item the game wants won’t clear that objective. That’s a limitation the game is all the better for keeping in place. Choosing to assist someone can’t be the same as beating the game with or for them. If you’re with someone, you’re there for the experience. That’s not all necessarily new for a multiplayer experience, but it does feel rare when the game is pushing you to connect with other people for what tend to be for more mercenary reasons.

For my part, I remained a solitary player, only choosing to put down sparing roots on the most beautiful worlds and never building more than I needed. I’m very much a city boy in real life. In No Man’s Sky, I’m a happy recluse with 40 acres and a species of chubby elephantine space mules I named Horace. I’ve been harvesting eggs and milk from the animals on the strawberry-pink and white world I’ve been calling home for the past year or so. Even as the universe got bigger, I would go to the Anomaly to trade, buy new ships, and hang out with aliens, but home remains solitary. So few of the self-sufficient agrarian aspects of my little home were even possible in previous updates. Beyond has made me feel more empowered to sustain that life, have a place to return to and maintain, and make improving it for the laid-back alien assistants who reside with me much easier to accomplish.

The larger technical problems with Beyond come down to problems with VR platforms in general. Despite the visual beauty, my time with the Oculus version was plagued with flaws and odd bugs and glitches. By comparison, the PSVR version caters to performance. Frame rate and gameplay are pristine there, but at the cost of clarity, especially when it comes to the various screen displays in-game. In addition, the PSVR’s old nemesis, the camera drift, rears its ugly head here, and the Recenter VR Camera option in the Pause menu does less to solve it than it should. As of this writing, however, there have been additional patches every few days, and more and more of these bugs vanish with each one.

These tiny frustrations utterly dissolve away in flight, however. No Man’s Sky’s most consistently powerful experience of seamless space travel nearly reduced me to tears as the upper atmosphere melted away into the silence and deep wonder of the galaxy. It’s the kind of thing I dreamt of as a kid. As part of an expanding experience and seemingly impossibly ever-larger universe, No Man’s Sky continues to deliver on the promise of being a space traveler–and VR assists in making it a more immersive experience.

The drastic improvements made to No Man’s Sky in its Beyond expansion are the new gold standard for how to gracefully cope with a game’s flaws post-release. The game laid the foundation with its release, but it took Beyond to elevate it into something magnificent. Successfully transitioning to VR is a creative victory on its own, but realizing just how full and vibrant and rewarding an experience this game has now become is almost poignant. Beyond represents the courage of convictions, a concept that has not only met the lofty expectations it set forth, but transcended them.

Source : Gamesport

[scummy-writes]

Can i request a Road trip hc with the RFA please☺

This idea is soooo cute! For a general scenario: In each respective RFA member- MC is dating them! I thought it would be cuter that way!( ´ ▽ ` )

You guys can imagine wherever they’re going to! I left it up to yall!

Zen

- At first, he isn’t happy at all. Sure, all of you are going to go somewhere fun! Explore a new place!

-...But in Jumin’s car.

- The jerk wouldn’t even let him drive at first! He had to get it through to him that it would defeat the whole purpose of a road trip if he didn’t get to drive!

- Seven also didn’t help with the ‘I welcome death’ jokes he was spouting when he was trying to ‘support’ Zen driving.

- But after a few arguments, MC and Jaehee even popping in once or twice, Jumin finally agreed to let Zen drive

- Seven tried hijacking the radio, but Zen already filled it with CD’s he burned himself, some sort of mixmash of cheesy songs for him to play for you (ignoring the rest of the people in the car), songs from musicals he had preformed in, and his taste in music

- It...Was a very weird set of CD’s. He tried making a good playlist...He tried.

- Otherwise, the road trip goes pretty well. There’s lots of pitstops thanks to Yoosung and Seven, but Zen just uses the chance to take selfies with you and update his insta.

- (There was an argument, however, when he realized Jumin had donned on a set of noise canceling headphones somewhere along the trip)

Jumin

- He is so confused when you want to take a long road trip with the RFA, let alone with you driving. It takes a lot of convincing, because he doesn’t see why all of you can’t just get on a plane, but eventually with your pleading eyes you get him to agree to it.

- The car is way too fancy, but Seven and Yoosung love it. Zen complains a bit, talking about how he doesn’t want to ride in something so damn expensive, but the others finally get him to shush and enjoy it a bit.

- Jumin sits beside you, a bit anxious the whole time. He trusts your driving, he does! He just doesn’t trust the other drivers. He’s holding your knee for a while, until you get out of the city and on the highway

- And soon, he’s fallen asleep completely. He usually sleeps on the plane and such for business trips! He felt so relaxed, hearing you hum along with the CD’s you brought, he just slipped into sleep.

- It’s really cute, later on, when you wake him up for a pitstop and he’s wildly confused for a moment, before remembering the road trip. Zen’s the one that snaps him to reality pretty quickly about that

- But enjoy trying to get him to try fast food/diner foods. It’s going to take a group effort to get him to eat that.

Jaehee

- Jaehee is probably the most prepped. She tries to drive the whole time, but you often have to interfere so she can get some rest.

- She definitely took Jumin up on the offer of a van from him, because she didn't want to risk her own car having issues after a long trip

- She actually packed some healthy snacks for everyone, but unfortunately no one but the two of you gets control over the radio. Which usually means mainly music from plays/musicals Zen has starred in (Who also belts out the songs much to Jaehee's amusement)

- For Seven she forces a strict No Weird Pranks rule. No pranking the others, no goading the others to fight- He has to be on his best behavior or else he's getting no soda or chips

-The only one who knows how to read maps if the GPS gets you guys lost

- If Jumin complains about Zen, or the places she chooses to eat at (or her lunches she packed), she gives him a very long glare and he slowly shuts up

- She tries to hold hands with you at times, but Seven coos at the both of you and she gets so embarrassed

-Actually enjoys the trip, but suggests next time it just try to be the both of you (and maybe Zen) instead of the rest.

Yoosung

-Next to Jaehee, he is the most prepped. He's got lunches planned (Not a wide variety but he is trying), some sunscreen and sunglasses, bandaids,even a blanket and pillow incase anyone wants to nap!

- He doesn't have a wide selection of music, so he just opted for everyone to bring in a CD of their own to listen to!

- Thankfully, he doesn't have to borrow a car from Jumin- His parents were kind enough to let him borrow the family van, as long as he was careful and fulled it up when he was done! (And if he called his mom every day for a few weeks)

- He drives decently, but sometimes simple road rules get him a bit flustered, so you gently have to remind him that he desperately needs to turn his turn signal on when switching lanes and such

- He really likes driving, and going to rest stops and getting stuff from vending machines, but sometimes he wants to catch a small nap or just rest, so the two of you switch sometimes

- He really likes trying to hold your hand, but sometimes he gets too flustered, so its rare, but when he does he always gets such cute dorky smile on his face

- You do have to keep an eye on Seven. Sometimes he starts trying to get Zen and Jumin to fight, or trick Yoosung, so you may have to threaten no soda if he tries to do too much!

Seven

- Seven, wildly enough, is the only one prepared for the whole thing. Well, in the ‘right’ way.

- He’s got loads of snacks, drinks, tunes, and the all windows rolled down (until both Zen and Jumin complain)

- His CD’s are a mixture of popular, weird, and calm songs. Stuff that everyone can try to enjoy! Well, maybe not Jumin, but he’s a bit interested in what people are listening to nowadays

- He belts out the songs as he drives down in a car Jumin supplied to fit all of them, his hand tangled with yours, sometimes giving you a big cheesy smile when it’s a silly love song that comes on. 

- Only eats at places that serve Dr. Pepper, though. Him and Yoosung are so excited to eat out at fast food places, or good pizza places, and the rest of the group S u f f e r s.

- He does try to trick/prank the others sometimes: Pretending the car is messing up, that someone is tailing them- a lot of silly things until everyone starts complaining

-If Jumin and Zen argue, he jerks the car a bit to get them to hush (and for his own amusement)

-Sometimes, late at night when everyone but the two of you are asleep, he pulls over and wants to step outside and look at the stars with you

I'd like to think they'd all get along well, even Jumin and Zen a bit (only bickering about small things, like Zens constant selfies or Jumin's complaints about the music), and overall they'd have small conversation and laugh a bit, and enjoy wherever they were driving to! More Rfa road trips in the future!!!

[sceawere]

another time pt.1 | alfie solomons

@girllostinthewoods requested reader travelling back in time - will be eventual /alfie, though he’s not in this chapter. i know, i know. patience is a virtue.

You looked up from the array of paper to where the caretaker was checking the windows and closing the cabinets up.

“Sorry, do you need to lock up?”

“No, no, don’t you worry. I’ll be here about another hour, you’ve got time. Just like to get a head start on things”

“Sorry, I know it’s late. I’m finishing off, I promise. I just need to find this one address or I’ll never be able to sleep tonight”

You gave a breathy laugh at the end, pointing to the mess of your folder. He laughed back, dropping the bundle of keys back to the chain on his waist.

“You’ve been here half the day already. Who is it you’re looking for?”

“Umm…a ghost apparently. I’m writing a book about the history of the city, using the stories of the women who lived here. So, I pick one from each century-ish time period and follow them through time, documenting all the changes they lived through, you know? The events they experienced, what they thought of them at the time, uncoloured by what we know now.

Anyway, a historian I met up with pointed me in the direction of someone they thought might be an interesting subject but I’m having trouble actually confirming they existed. I think maybe they mixed up their information somewhere or got confused, I don’t know. It’s all a bit of a mess”

“When was this? Lived in this city my whole life, might be able to help out”

“She’d be about my age in the mid 20’s and that’s where they aimed me at”

He hummed, rocking on his heels.

“Sorry, bit before my time”

“I thought it might be”

“That’s very kind of you to say, dear. Most assume I’m pre-historic”

You laughed at him, shuffling about some papers.

“Anyway, the libraries got some things you won’t find out here if that’s any help”

“Oh?”

“Some of them are restricted, you see. Got times on them,” he let out a noise to show he was trying to think of the word and turned his hand in circles “can’t be released to the public before a certain time. War stuff and the like. Anything with a government project that was hushed at the time. Sometimes it’s just estates wanting things protected for a while, ‘til everyone involved is gone”

“Oh, like the census – 100 years from the time of completion so nobody can use your details”

“Exactly!”

“So…you think maybe she might be hiding in there somewhere?”

“Maybe. I could have a look. Don’t think anyone would be too put out by me confirming or denying their existence as long as I don’t smuggle anything out or the like. Stop you chasing your tail, won’t it?”

“That would be a godsend, actually. You wouldn’t get in trouble?”

“Oh, I’ve done worse and they still let me in every morning. Think they’ve given up on me to be honest”

You pulled your eyebrows together, nodding back at him, not quite sure whether he was joking or not.

“Well, if you could then, yes please!”

“Write me down a name, anything you have. I’ll have a peek”

You flicked quickly through your notebook, swiping pages past until you found the write one.

“Uh, here”

You copied over the bones of the information, enough to sign post him and handed it over.

“Give me a minute, I’ll have to go down to the basement”

“Thank you for this!”

“Oh, no trouble. Nice to be useful”

You smiled as he lumbered off, cleaning away the useless papers from the desk before you while you waited.

-

You were about ready to give up and leave him a note telling him to forget it. He’d been gone the better part of an hour already and it was getting on into the evening. You’d put all the books back, you’d tidied away papers. You’d even fixed some badly filed records. You sighed, dropping your head back over the back of the chair and slumping until it was comfortable enough to stay that way.

“Here you are, don’t know is this is any use”

You threw your head up. Your body followed as he got closer, protesting from the sudden movement after a long period of rest. He turned to your side, holding the sheet of paper you’d given him out where you could both see it. He’d scribbled notes on the reverse and he pointed parts out with his thumb as he spoke.

“See, you had the name wrong I think. And I think you had the right place all along but they’ve changed the name of street the building was on so it didn’t click, see”

“No, sorry, this name”

“Yes, I think that’s who you’re looking for, right age, and the right place. Just a different name. Historian probably mixed two similar women up when they passed them on”

“That’s my name, though”

“What’s your name? Here?”

“No, the name you’ve got there…that’s my name. And my birthday…that’s…this is my info but that years are…”

You pointed to the scribble over the address and furrowed your brow, thoroughly confused. Had you given him your name? You didn’t remember doing it at any point. It wasn’t anywhere on the page you’d given him. You used a generic cheap notepad since you filled them so fast with information that usually ended up not being used anyway. How had he got your name – all of it? And why was your birthday there, just backdated?

“Well, that’s what was on the record. I just copied it down. She’s not an ancestor of yours or something? You named after them?”

“No, I’m not from the city, none of my family are. Halfway across the country actually…why would…”

“Maybe it was a common name”

“That combination exactly?”

“Well, I don’t know…maybe your parents had something they’d seen in their head and they liked it, subconscious you know. Weirder things have happened that way”

“I don’t…thank you for this. I need to…I need to go, though”

“Oh, well. You’re welcome”

You gathered up your bag, glad that you’d packed everything in advance and moved quickly out of the library. Your shoes clacked against the polished tile as you almost jogged through the lobby and out into the night.

You turned the paper over in your hands a dozen times, double checking the info. He’d written an address under the name, some other miscellaneous facts. But again, the bare bones, the details to be fleshed out later.

You sighed, eyes trailing over the street name. You recognised it, the updated one, you’d seen it on maps. There was a tube stop nearby, maybe…it was worth a look. At least to convince yourself you weren’t trapped in some low budget horror flick, about to be confronted by your evil twin from another dimension or something.

“Now shut up. You’re being ridiculous”

You sighed, turned about yourself, and headed for the bus stop.

Some rabid phone searching on the journey home had informed you that the building was being refurbished and was closed for the moment. It had originally been a club, in the 20’s, but had been bought out and turned into a theatre and then offices and then something and then something. An investor on a culture binge had bought it out and refurbed it ‘back to how it was in its hey-day’.

You eyed the date for the grand re-opening. The end of the week. A big 20’s themed party, to celebrate.

You closed the window, tapping the search bar. You needed to find a vintage dress by the end of the week.

-

[pogueman]

The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update

I don’t even understand the concept of Windows 10 Creators Update, which you can download starting Tuesday, April 11.

In 2015, Microsoft (MSFT) announced that Windows 10 would be the last named version of Windows ever. That thereafter, the company wouldn’t release huge megalithic new versions, as it always had before—it would, instead, trickle out improvements and new features as they were ready, piece by piece. “Windows will be delivered as a service, bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner,” the company said.

Well, so much for that. Apparently, we’re back on the annual schedule.

The other baffling element is the name: Creators Update. As it turns out, most of the features that would have justified that title never saw the light of day. Evidently Microsoft figured it couldn’t have them ready in time for its big 2017 update, and abandoned them.

For example, there was supposed to be a cool app that would let you wave your phone around an object and automatically generate a 3-D model of it on the screen. There was supposed to be an app called Groove Music, something along the lines of Apple’s GarageBand. The promised People bar on the taskbar never materialized, either.

So what did make the cut? Lots of stuff that keeps up with other operating systems, and lots of small refinements. Here’s an overview.

Start menu, power, Action Center

A new column in the Start menu. Microsoft has moved the icons for Power (containing the Restart, Shut Down, and Sleep commands), Settings, File Explorer (new desktop window) icon, and Personal (containing “Change account settings,” “Lock,” and “sign out”). Instead of clogging up the main Start menu, they now appear in a special, skinny vertical stack of buttons at its far left. As a result, the main (middle) Start menu column lists only apps. This is good stuff.

Hide the apps. On the other hand, you can hide that list of apps, so that the entire Start menu is made of tiles. (You do that in Settings -> Personalize -> Start.)

Folders in the tiled area of your Start menu. Just drag one tile atop another to create a new folder. You’ve just created a tile that, when clicked, sprouts tiles showing its contents. Another win for common sense.

Control Panel is gone from the Start menu contextual menu. That’s an unenhancement for most people.

Action Center updates. Volume and brightness sliders now appear in the Action Center, saving you a click or two every time you tweak them.

Security

Dynamic lock. If you pair your smartphone (even an iPhone) with your PC using Bluetooth and turn this feature on, then the PC locks automatically when you walk away with your phone. It takes about 30 seconds for the computer to notice that you’re gone, so it’s not what you’d call Fort Knox security. But it’s better than no safety net at all.

Privacy settings for your apps’ access to your location, calendar, typing, and so on are now listed individually. OK, fine.

Design

More control over accent colors (title bars, Start menu, taskbar, action center); for example, you can specify any color you like. You’re no longer limited to a handful of shades.

Downloadable themes (desktop wallpaper photos with associated color schemes) in the Microsoft Store.

Night Light changes the screen tones from blue to warmer ones, on the theory that blue light messes up your sleep juice before bed.

In Settings -> Apps and features, you can now restrict Windows 10 to running apps that came from the Windows Store—and, in theory, have been proven to be safe by Microsoft. (See also: Gatekeeper on the Mac.)

Cortana

Microsoft’s voice assistant now understands your requests for recurring reminders. So you can say, for example, “Remind me every Friday at 5 p.m. to buy the party pizza,” or “Remind me about my anniversary once a year.”

More commands. You can now turn off, lock, restart, or sleep your PC computer with a voice command to Cortana. You can also adjust your computer’s playback volume by voice, and play/pause/skip tracks from the iHeartRadio and TuneIn apps. You can even ask Cortana, “What song is this?”

More apps can respond to Cortana commands, including Netflix (NFLX), Hulu, Twitter (TWTR), Pandora (P), and so on. (Here’s the complete list.) To learn what commands an app can understand, type its name into Cortana.

Full-screen Cortana. Once you’ve left your PC unused for at least 10 seconds, you can say, “Hey, Cortana” to see Cortana’s full-screen mode, where text is big enough to read from across the room.

You can also navigate the Windows 10 setup process by voice.

Edge browser

Save sets of tabs for later re-use.

Tab previews! Point to a tab without clicking to see a miniature of the window it represents. Or click the little down-arrow button to see thumbnails of all of them at once.

No Flash on unknown websites.

You can read ebooks from Microsoft’s new ebooks store (or other ePub-format documents) right in the browser. You can adjust the font, type size, or page color, and even have it read aloud to you.

Other Apps

Paint 3D is one of the few pieces left of the grand 3-D vision that Microsoft originally defined for the Creators Update. It’s a simple app that lets you create 3-D shapes by combining, turning, and resizing basic spheres, cones, rectangles, and so on.

If your PC has a touchscreen, and you have a stylus, you can draw a path in the Maps app; the app tells you its real-world distance.

The new Traffic Check icon in Maps produces an estimate of the driving time to your work address, if you’ve recorded it.

Draw or write on photos and videos in the Photos app, using your finger or a stylus. (If you write on a video, your writing will appear during playback at that spot.)

New filters in the Photos app.

More “Insights” in Sticky Notes. The Sticky Notes app spot data types like fight numbers, email and web addresses, phone numbers, and stock abbreviations. Once those items turn blue, you can click them to produce a related command button. For example, click a phone number to see a Call button, or a date to see an Add Reminder button.

An evolving Settings app. There’s now a page called Apps, where you’ll find all of your programs’ settings. The redesigned System -> Display page has been reorganized. On the Devices -> Bluetooth & Other Devices page, you now get a single screen to manage all of your peripherals.

Maintenance

The Storage Space feature, if you turn it on, monitors your PC and automatically deletes temporary files and empties the Recycle Bin after 30 days.

Centralized troubleshooter. In Settings -> Update & security -> Troubleshoot, Microsoft has assembled icons for all of Windows’s troubleshooting wizards in one place.

A revamped security center, with a one-click Fresh Start button that reinstalls Windows when things are really messed up. (Unfortunately, this new app is called Windows Defender Security Center, which is not the same thing as the regular Windows Defender anti-malware app. Confusing.)

Specify longer work days, of up to 18 hours (“Active hours”), during which Windows will never restart to install an update.

Gaming

Game Mode is supposed to give you better frame rates (smoother game animation) by dedicating more PC resources to your game, but most people report the difference isn’t noticeable.

Beam: you can now broadcast the games you’re playing live to the internet, and interact with your admirers.

Productivity

A new Share menu. Now, if you want to send a page (or other material) to someone else, you have to look for Windows’s special Share icon. There’s no longer a Share panel on the side of the screen, and the Windows+H keystroke is dead.

Copy screenshot. Press Windows key+Shift+S to copy a rectangular area of your screen to your clipboard. (The existing screenshot shortcuts are still around.)

Accessibility upgrades include compatibility with Braille devices; availability of the Narrator during installation (and during the Windows Recovery Environment); and the keyboard shortcut for Narrator is now Ctrl+Windows key+Enter (rather than Windows key+Enter), in hopes of making it less likely that you’ll hit it accidentally.

Better ink. If you have a touchscreen and stylus, you can do more when you write on the screen. For example, you can add more to a drawing you’ve made earlier, you can erase only part of a line, and you get improved onscreen tools like protractor and ruler.

Microsoft says that it has also made zillions of under-the-hood changes: better stability and security, greater options for software companies to exploit Windows’s power.

Download away

So no, Creators Update isn’t nearly as big a deal as Microsoft originally intended—actually, not an especially big deal at all. But even though most of the changes are small, they build on Windows 10, which was already coherent, attractive, and stable.

If you already have Windows 10, Creators Update is free. So download away—even if you wonder why it’s called what it’s called.

More from David Pogue:

Now I get it: Bitcoin

David Pogue tested 47 pill-reminder apps to find the best one

David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app

The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers

I paid $3,000 for my MacBook Pro and got emotional whiplash

Here’s the real money-maker for the Internet of Things

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email.