#afterquake

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for abandoning my party in the middle of a notoriously tough dungeon?

i (26m) was playing ffxiv and had just unlocked a new dungeon. all my friends were asleep and i was too excited to wait, so i decided to go against my social anxiety and run it with randos.

the scant handful times i'd run dungeons with randos before went great - earlier that day after another dungeon i'd even gotten player commendations from two of the players in a party i was healing for - so i was more or less confident this time would be fine as well.

boy oh boy was i wrong...

i got matched with three players we will simply call tank, healer, and dps (age and gender unknown for all three). i went in as a bard (all my other jobs were too underlevelled), filling the remaining dps role.

things went awry almost as soon as we set foot in that dungeon. i died in the first room to some enemies that aggro'd on me and ganged up on me. the rest of the party left the room pretty much immediately after all enemies were dead.

i politely asked to be resurrected, to which healer reluctantly complied. they told me to "just rez next time", which would've sent me to the beginning of the dungeon. in hindsight that would've prolly been fine since it was only the first room.

after i caught up to the others i once again got swarmed with monsters. this is gonna be a pattern if you couldn't tell. after i'd died to this pattern a couple times tank yelled at me for "constantly pulling everything ffs".

for those who don't know, tanks (at least in this game) have a special ability that basically acts as an aggro magnet. i have a strong suspicion tank wasn't using said ability considering how often i got swarmed, but we'll never know for sure.

now the mid boss was where it truly went to shit. no matter how much of a distance i kept from that damn thing, no matter how well i evaded its aoe attacks, i just kept dying over and over again. one time the rest of the party even got sent back somehow. i'm not sure how.

and why did i keep dying you may ask? because healer never healed me. not once after they resurrected me at the beginning did i notice my hp go up aside from when i used hi-potions or my one (1) healing spell, both of which have a very long cooldown. i think they were glued to tank the entire time, completely neglecting me and dps.

and yet, i was the one taking the blame for everything. for pulling the enemies tank should've pulled. for constantly dying, which i couldn't help because healer never once touched me after that first resurrection.

it was really starting to affect me so after i let my dead body be sent back to the beginning of the dungeon i finally put my foot down and left the dungeon. this disbanded the party, not only kicking everyone from the dungeon, but likely also penalizing all 4 of us because of my actions.

i will clarify that this wasn't just any old dungeon; it was aurum vale. it's a dungeon you need to be at least level 47 for. while i don't know much about it myself, judging by the way my friends talk about it the semi-universal verdict is that it sucks major balls. it' would's not be a fun dungeon to have to redo, that's for sure.

i was on the verge of tears for well over 30 minutes afterwards, both from the emotional afterquakes of fear and anger but also from the guilt of abandoning these people like that.

so, am i the asshole? am i too sensitive? should i just have sucked it up and kept going?

tldr; i felt like my party of randos were blaming me for being the weakest link while doing their own jobs poorly, and decided to prioritize my own feelings by leaving the dungeon, dissolving the party and forcing the others to start all over again

Oh no. Oh honey. I am so sorry Aurum Vale is just like that. I'm gonna put the poll here and some extra INFO/advice under a readmore because it's a bit long, but please read on before voting.

First: don't let leaving bother you too much, it didn't kick everyone from the dungeon, that's not how it works. If one person leaves, the queue just refills the party with a new person and the dungeon continues like normal, or everyone else now has the option to leave without penalty.

Aurum Vale's first room is a motherfucker--basically it's an older design with lots of wandering monsters, so on the first room especially you need to hug the left hand wall as tight as you can to aggro as little as possible. Let the tank go first and grab aggro on mobs. Don't pull for the tank, especially at this level range. Let them do their job. I can't say for sure whether they had their aggro-generating stance on, could go either way, but I can see why they got annoyed at someone pulling stuff they weren't ready for yet. While wall-to-wall pulling is pretty standard in this game, that's the tank's call to make, not the dps's--and some of these older dungeons with funky level syncing or enemy pacing make wall-to-walling more difficult and not for everyone.

(BTW, as an aside, tank stance works as a personal buff, not a magnet--they do still need to hit things to grab their aggro, sometimes more than once if someone else has already established on them. If they already have a pack they're working on and you grab something way on the other side of the room, you'll have to bring it over to them so they can take it off you!)

If you do die to mobs between bosses, sometimes the best thing to do is just release and respawn! If you get a rez, you'll have a debuff that makes you weaker for a while. Definitely if it's the very first room, releasing is the move most of the time.

As for dying to bosses: was it definitely the mid boss, the cyclops? Because the other two (the plant and the morbol) both have mechanics that make you take slow damage over time unless you eat a fruit to get rid of it. You want to eat a fruit every 2-3 stacks of the debuff that you get because that's where the damage starts to get more severe; before then, the healer can probably handle you.

Basically, it seems like this party mistook inexperience for malice and was rude to you in response. Not healing you, for example, is absolutely inexcusable. You did some things suboptimally that made the dungeon harder for the group, but honestly we were all there once, don't let it get to you too much. Try it again with your friends bearing the stuff I mentioned in mind, and it'll go much better! But as an aside it SUCKS to heal, if you have a more experienced friend you should let them handle it haha

[ontherocks21]

Interlude, Chapter 9 Sneak Peek

“What happened on Naboo, Padmé?”

Her lips part, but whatever responses Padmé’s subconscious had evidently been preparing for this exact moment falter, tripping and crashing into each other in their haste to defend her besieged heart.  All that remains to disrupt the smothering silence is a heaving hiccup of “I don’t know.”

A relentless pressure builds between Padmé’s ribs, making it impossible to breathe, impossible to hide how visibly heartbreak rips her apart at the seams.  Over and over her eyes scan the slips of paper strewn across her desk like wilted petals, her vision blurring with each pass until the angled scrawl becomes impossible to read. Not that she needs the Aurebesh to hear Anakin’s message; it echoes between her ears, each word underscored by her pounding heart.

From now on, I’ll be dying a little bit each day too.

Was this Anakin accepting their last conversation?  Or was this him trying not to? Why did she feel like either answer would be her undoing?

Patient, wary, and still expectant, Dormé’s question hangs in the air, but when Padmé tries to answer it again, her throat closes, misery spilling forth to leave behind an aching mess for anyone to see.

Her fresh wave of grief spurs Dormé into motion.  With swift, confident strokes, her handmaiden keys a command across her datapad’s screen, pausing to mutter, “Come on, come on,” to its glowing surface. A confirmatory beep halts the impatient tapping of her toe, and she exhales once in sharp relief, discarding the device and all formality.

“I had Typho switch to dark protocol,” she explains, reaching across the desk to still Padmé’s shaking hands. “What happened, Padmé?”

Dormé’s touch is an anchor and Padmé clings to it, grateful for any stabilization in the maelstrom.  Gulping down ragged gasps, she searches for words, but they spin and bob beyond her grasp.  Helplessly adrift in heartache’s undertow, she bows her head.  “I don’t even know where to start.”

Cool fingers tighten around hers with a comforting squeeze. “How about the beginning?”

At her Dormé’s encouraging nod, the past week pours out of Padmé like water breaking through a dam.  She leaves nothing out, can’t stop the flood even if she wanted to.  The more she talks - fledgling feelings, stolen kisses, fireside declarations, cavernous confessions - the more Padmé realizes a scary truth.  She had wanted to tell someone, had wanted to share how the sweet little boy who had saved Naboo a decade ago had grown into a mercurially mesmerizing man who wanted nothing more than to save her solitary heart.  When it came to Anakin, bottling up every emotion had wrung her so completely dry, there was no pretense left to keep afloat.

“And now, I’m a wreck.  I can’t eat.  I can’t sleep.  I can’t focus or do anything without thinking about him and…” Padmé trails off at a loss for more than just words.  “You must think I’m crazy,” she whispers.

Somewhere amid her torrential outpouring, Dormé had found a seat at Padmé’s side.  Sliding a comforting arm around her trembling shoulders, her friend waits for a shuddering afterquake to pass.

“I don’t think you’re crazy,” Dormé soothes. “Though I know it might feel that way.” She smiles when Padmé looks up again. “That’s why it’s called falling in love.  You’re not supposed to feel like you’re in control.” 

Padmé’s mouth twitches in a feeble attempt at a return smile.  She knows her friend is only hoping to lift her spirits, but the tears streaming down Padmé’s cheeks bathe her in crushed dreams rather than discovered bliss.  One drop leaps from its cascading rivulet landing with a splash in the center of Anakin’s message.

Dying.

She certainly feels like she is.

“You know,” Dormé says, smoothly rescuing the rest of the jostled papers from their own watery graves.  “Being heartbroken can feel the same way too.”

The soft curve of her mouth thins with sympathy.

“Is it possible to be both?” Padmé asks.

This time Dormé’s nod is solemn.  “Isn’t that what Anakin’s trying to tell you?”

[tealingual]

2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake vocabulary in Finnish

Maanjäristys - earthquake Turkki - Turkey Syyria - Syria Kuudes helmikuuta - February 6th Kaksituhattakaksikymmentäkolme - 2023 Voimakkuus - intensity, strength Magnitudi - magnitude Seitsemän pilkku kahdeksan - 7,8 Jälkijäristys - afterquake (Suur)onnettomuus - (large scale) disaster Hätätila - state of emergency Raunio - ruin Pelastustyö(ntekijä) - rescue work(er) Väliaikainen majoitus - temporary accommodation Teltta - tent Kansainvälinen apu - international aid Vapaaehtoinen - volunteer Avustustarvikkeet - aid equipment Huopa, peitto - blanket Ruoka - food Vesi - water Lahjoitus - donation Uhri - victim Kuollut - dead Ruumis - dead body, corpse Loukkaantunut - injured Kateissa - missing Järistä - to quake, to tremble Romahtaa - to collapse Sortua - to crumble Tuhoutua - to be destroyed Vahingoittua - to be damaged, to be injured Tulvia - to flood Kuolla - to die Olla jumissa, olla loukussa - to be stuck, to be trapped Menettää - to lose Kärsiä - to suffer Haudata - to bury Etsiä - to search Pelastaa - to save, to rescue Raivata - to clear Evakuoida - to evacuate Auttaa - to help, to assist Lahjoittaa - to donate

[sparxemberflame]

Sometimes I think whoever first said

"Better to have loved and lost than to have not loved at all."

Must never have loved. Must never have lived through the same.

Surely they could not or they'd realise the idociy in it.

Surely they cannot have had someone who understood them. Who saw them. Who knew them so incredibly well. Knew every nook and cranny of you, physically, mentally, emotionally. Better than you knew yourself.

And still loved all of it with their with their whole heart.

And then decided that none of that mattered anymore.

Then looked at all of that after years of loving it and said. You are Unworthy.

Whoever said "better than to have not loved at all" must have never Truly experienced the grief of seeing love turn to hate and disgust. Without the slightest hint as to why.

Must never have experienced the horrible loneliness of being Un-Chosen. Of being thrown out and willfully forgotten about by the one that knew you best.

The pain of that. And knowing that you will Never. Ever. Be understood like that again.

Better then not to have loved. Better than not to Know. To still believe someone might come to know you that love might be in your future.

Than to know you have been seen fully as all you are and then discarded with disgust out of some missplaced fear.

I don't think people who haven't been through it and have my disorderly connection to emotions can ever understand the absolute pain the amount of crushed that lives where my chest once was.

It burns. And it stabs. And it has me gasping for breath. It is as I've swallowed knives that were lit aflame and they decided half-way down that my lungs, ribs and heart were the best escape route.

And yet. This is Nothing.

It's only the scars. The afterquakes. Years past the initial damage which was orders of magnitude worse.

Whoever made that quote... It must have been talking just about the losing. The snatch away. Not The Turning. Not the anger and the hatred and the... The unworthiness of it all.

Then again maybe that's just it. To have lost something that hurts that much. It must have mattered even more than it hurts.

[fadinglights]

despite  her  best  efforts,  his  logic  remains  incomprehensible  to  her.  for  a  moment,  she  stays  wide-eyed  and  speechless.  there's  a  sickening  twist  in  her  stomach  that  she  can't  shake,  and  it's  almost  as  if  she  barely  knows  him  at  all.  isn't  it  a  terrifying  feeling  to  love  someone  for  years  only  to  realise  they're  nothing  more  than  a  stranger?  "i  fail  to  see  how  it's  in  our  best  interests."  maybe  it's  in  his  best  interest,  but  she  had  long  believed  they  were  meant  to  be  on  the  same  team.  "this  is  showbiz,  hyun.  no  one  will  remember  a  thing  about  this  next  week."  even  though  it  carries  far  greater  afterquake  than  anything  she  has  endured  before,  she  has  little  doubt  that  it  will  eventually  fade  away  just  like  everything  that  came  prior.  besides,  she  still  fails  to  see  why  she  should  be  punished  for  crimes  she  didn't  commit.  "are  the  stocks  dropping?”  she  fails  to  see  how  her  professional  life  can  interfere  with  his  when  their  careers  are  so  separate,  but  lately  few  things  in  her  life  make  sense.  “why  are  you  more  freaked  out  than  i  am?"

he had prepared himself for the worst with the news, rehearsing out everything he was going to say in response to heejin's reaction to the divorce. but no matter how much preparing he did, he wasn't ready. it was happening, though, and it needed to happen-- at least, that's what he thought in the moment. her words stung him straight through his abdomen. that's what a marriage was, sticking by your partner's side through everything. but if he were to continue his relationship with her, his career would be over, and he would be in ruins. it was a moral dilemma he faced, and he knew there would be no good outcome. "heejin, i don't have a choice. what am i supposed to do, just let everything come crumbling down? this is in both of our best interests." / @fadinglights

[jqce-sev]

@prettytragcdies

It hadn’t been long at all since Jace opened his eyes for the first time since the earthquake. He had slept for a pretty decent amount of time after his surgery, mostly due to the fact that he just didn’t want to face his new reality. Being down one leg was a devastating injury for a nineteen year old wrestler. But somehow, that wasn’t even the worst of what he was dealing with. In the midst of the constant phantom pains tricking him into thinking his leg was still there, the complete depletion of his appetite, and the end of his wrestling career before it even began, there was still something worse. Emily, the girl he was with when everything went down had died just hours before Jace woke up. It was among the first things he was told, and by far the worst.

Thoughts of Emily ran rampant through his mind as he stared up at the blank tile ceilings of his hospital room. The look of pure terror in her eyes when the ground started shaking below them, the tears that fell from those very eyes as things began to get worse and worse. The girl could barely breathe or move, putting her entire fate in the hands of the only other person in the room, who happened to be Jace. But no matter how hard he tried, nothing could calm Emily down. Nothing he said or did was able to get her in a good enough place to be able to leave the building. Just when they thought it was over, the afterquake that did the two of them in hit. Crushing both, and killing one. How was he going to live with himself?

[violasarecool]

sucks that SoR is what it is, bc “the shadow of revan” would’ve been an awesome title for something about the legacy of revan and the afterquakes of two consecutive wars, leaving this dark stain of suffering on the people left trying to rebuild

[mischievousscroundel]

After an earthquake, there is a sizeable chance for a second, smaller, earthquake to follow up. Because the plates have moved into an unstable position and are likely to move again. Afterquakes tend to cause more damage due to the initial earthquake weakening the structures and the afterquake tearing them down

Not a dream

Just when I thought this year could not be any worse, we get hit by more earthquakes

[sujitsinghworld]

#Patan #Durbar #square #afterquake #Nepal #Nepalnow

[graveyardsorbit]

Me and all of los angeles after a 6.4 mag earthquake happened last night, an afterquake happened in the middle of the night and a 7.1 mag just happened:

[lessereviltm-a-blog]

If you heard about the shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, and maybe have seen the videos, please don’t share the video. Don’t say the shooter’s name. NZ Police are working to delete all footages of the videos so the shooters are unknown. They killed people for game. Also, I’m in Wellington, New Zealand. So I’m safe, until further notice because who knows what kind of sick asses out there. Christchurch is just a couple of hours flight from where I am. Christchurch doesn’t deserve this. The city, before the big earthquake that killed hundreds of people and destroyed so many beautiful landscapes and historic landscapes, was absolutely stunning. The go-to main attraction when you visit New Zealand. Not Queenstown, CHRISTCHURCH. The city is still suffering from the afterquake. I don’t know when that’s going to end. But here we are, it suffered another tragedy. Prayers going out to everyone there. Stay safe ❤️

[brokensoundkuci]

Playlist 4/1/19

Alright everyone, here it is! Sorry for the delay, but here is what was played on the show this past Monday night (April 1st). I want to give a big shout out to my friend Scott (host of Madhause Groove) for subbing the show and for playing such an awesome collection of music! Thank you to all of you who tuned in. I will be back next Monday night (April 8th) from 10:00pm to 12:00am. Catch you then!

Artist - Song - Album/Source:

Kiyoshi Maddox - Porky Pig Artiste Intro - Private Archive

Hollywood Fats - The Groove - Hollywood Fats And The Paladins

 Capt. Beefheart And The Magic Band - Big Eyed Beans To Venus - Clear Spot

Chip Taylor And The New Ukranians - Fuck All The Perfect People - Fuck All The Perfect People

Agent Orange - A Cry For Help In A World Gone Mad - Living In Darkness

Black Flag - TV Party - Damaged

Ramshackle Glory - We Are All Compost In Training - Die The Nightmare

Spot 1019 - This World Owes Me A Buzz - Pitch A Tent

Jello Biafra - Are You Drinking With Me Jesus? - Prairie Home Invasion

 Warren Zevon - My Shit’s Fucked Up - Life’ll Kill You

Washington Squares - You Can’t Kill Me - Washington Squares

Tom Waits - Let Me Get Up On It - Bone Machine

Malcolm McLaren - Fans - Madam Butterfly

Chip Taylor And The New Urkranians - Fuck All The Perfect People Part 2 - Fuck All The Perfect People

Janiva Magness - I Won’t Cry - Bing Lounge

 The Velvet Underground - I’m Gonna Move Right In - The Velvet Underground

Lil Ed And The Imperials - Leaving Here - Rattleshake

Fanny - Hey Bulldog - Fanny Hill

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion - Down On Your Knees - With Mosters And Gods

Abigail Washburn And The Shanghai Restoration Project - Sala - Afterquake

Justin Johnson - Crankin Up The 3-String Shovel - Justin Johnson

Dogfeet - Now I Know - Dogfeet

 Blind Boys Of Alabama / Lou Reed - Help Me Find The Proper Way - David Letterman

Exene Cervenka - Famous Barmaid - Old Wives Tales

Valerie June - Workin’ Woman Blues - Pushing Against A Stone

Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir - Nehemiah’s Misfortune - Ten Thousand

World Entertainment War - Telepathics Anonymous - Telepathics Anonymous

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band - Poor Until Payday - Poor Until Payday

The Dead Milkman - If You Love Someone, Set Them On Fire - Metaphysical Graffiti

JB And The Pickers - Supersoul Theme - Vanishing Point Soundtrack

Big Mama Thorton - Sing Out For Jesus - Vanishing Point Soundtrack

Hollywood Fats - Half Steppin’ - Larger Than Life

  * = New Release (Within 3 Months)

+ = Request

[daandori]

hiii 🌻

nicole my beloved

it’s either one comedy, or else two tragedies, and I don’t mind either way, if I’m together with you it’s a temporary crazy, an afterquaking sanity a magic spell that at some point made everything change

placebo — kenshi yonezu / yojiro noda

send me “hi” and i’ll shuffle my music and give you my favourite lyrics!

[natsutakashi]

hi!

It’s either one comedy, or else two tragedies,

And I don’t mind either way, if I’m together with you

It’s a temporary crazy, an afterquaking sanity

A magic spell that at some point made everything change...

kenshi yonezu feat. yojiro noda - placebo

send me "hi" and ill shuffle my music and give you my favorite line(s) of the song !!

[rose-in-a-fisted-glove]

In my public high school- in New York- the entirety of what was taught about the Holocaust was maybe a quarter of a page in the textbook, at most. It took up the last 10 minutes of a class period. And then the class spent the next three days watching Schindler's List. The Shoah was a joke to our classmates.

But also, that's kind of the least of her point. Kystallnacht or November Pogroms, it's not something safely in the past to be debated over freely. Not only are the afterquakes still here, so is the acute knowledge that the danger has yet to pass.

As I engage in this ongoing debate about the appropriateness of the term “Kristallnacht,” I just learned that my place of work, the Center for Jewish History, was vandalized last night. Shattered glass.

This kind of thing is why I can’t bring myself to care about “Kristallnacht” semantics right now. Anti-Senitism in the USA is growing at an alarming rate; sometimes I’m afraid to go into work for fear of an active shooter (and believe me, we’ve had the training). And like, at this point I’m just happy if a non-Jewish person is aware of the event at all.

This history isn’t static for me. It’s real and breathing and personal and I still can’t believe my grandma—who fled Poland with her family in 1939, and whose stories and experiences form the foundation of my work—is dead.

I’m putting this here for CONTEXT. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why people react certain ways to certain kinds of conversations without context.

[fanbothigh]

Fic: Afterquake

Ok this is really bad and unpolished but I just, I wanted to try my hand again at writing for FH? Especially for Skully cuz I’ve never felt confident in writing any version of him, even this one, but I kinda wanted to tackle the other side of Neoma’s fics? I don’t know man I’m kind of riding the wave here, sorry if it conflicts with headcanons or he’s really out of character. orz

----

Once, when The Skull had been a childform, he had broken the hand of another robot that had pushed Hare into the mud. At the time, he had felt powerful, like a righteous protector, unconquerable when he chose to step in to the affairs of the world around him. That bloom of confidence was quickly stripped away when his father appeared on the scene. It’d be years before Skull understood how what he’d done left his father feeling humiliated, but the anger—the cold, sharp anger and the disapproval in his eyes—that nearly killed Skull then and there.

Ten years later, he got into a fist fight with Shi Carlton at school, and it was like no time had passed at all.

His father, being the vice principal, had sent him home immediately. “We’ll talk later.” Maybe Thadeus knew the waiting would hurt him more than any amount of yelling would. At the time, Skull hadn’t even considered going anywhere else. He just went home and sat in the living room, TV off, staring a dent in his arm plates and thinking I’m an idiot, I’m a goddamn idiot.

Thadeus got home half an hour before school should have let out, likely to cut off Hare and Jacky. He didn’t have to give the order; Skull simply got up and walked into his study, taking the spare seat while Thadeus leaned against the desk, staring him down over his folded arms.

“I’m not going to ask any questions,” Thadeus said quietly. “You’re going to explain to me what happened.”

“He swung first,” Skull muttered, staring at the carpet.

“So I’ve been told.”

Silence.

“He didn’t give me a chance to explain.”

“Then explain it to me.”

Skull balled his fists on his knees. “I…it was misunder--…”

“I don’t even like him. I owe him for fixin’ 'Nessa. He’s an aft, but it’s not like he’s got any other fuckin’ friends, a'right?”

That’s what he’d said to Hare, over a week ago now. He just wouldn’t shut up, joking about Shi being his boyfriend. It rankled on so many levels; the fear, the abhorrence the thought of romance brought up in him, that sick dependence that made even brilliant people like their father turn mad; the suspicion that Shi did like him like that; the potential that that time-bomb would destroy the only friendship he had—

God, he was an idiot. He didn’t know how Carlton had heard what he’d said, maybe Hare had played his words back for him, but he knew that he’d caused this and he was an idiot and Dad knew it too.

Fate intervened, and they tried to ignore it. But Thadeus’ cell phone kept ringing, and on the third round he snatched up and hissed “What,” into the receiver. He paused, then mumbled, “What do you mean you’re in the driveway? I’ve shown you how to—his core?” Thadeus’ fist slammed against the desk’s edge and he swore, shoving the cell back into his pocket. “Walter brought Jack home. He’s having a fit. Stay. There.” And with that, he stormed out of the room.

Jack. In a bizarre twist, he felt a pang of almost-jealousy that even now, when Dad should have been wringing him out, Jack’s problems came first. But it was a chunk in an awful stew of emotions churning inside him, and for a moment Skull just dropped his forehead onto his palms and sat quietly.

Then he panicked.

He couldn’t tell Dad what he’d done. Not now. Even now oil was pulsing in the back of his optics and he couldn’t—would not—

Skull grabbed his car keys and ran for the garage. Vanessa, his precious Vanessa, was waiting for him; she seemed to spring to life as soon as he touched the key to her ignition. They torn backwards out of the drive—Dad was standing in the doorway, shouting something he couldn’t hear.

And he drove away.

No music, no radio, just no thinking, no nothing but driving aimlessly toward the edge of town.

This spot had a nice view. Part of a park or something. Skull pulled over, and leaving the keys in the ignition, got out of the Jeep and sat down next to it, staring out over the city and leaning his head against Vanessa’s chassis, listening to her rumble. It was calming. He was calm.

He wouldn’t cry.