#also the three hours is a ballpark i have no idea

[hectorthedoggo]

the weed idea has spiraled and now there's a third character playlist help

I have never been sleep deprived so y'all are going to see a more insane side of me now ;)

[thedawningofthehour]

Galios making splinter seem like the abusive parent was an odd favorite line because like yeah you don’t like it when someone calls your parent abusive but it also opens the can of worms that no matter how much I hate draxum he’s still a better parent than splinter in a way

I know that physical abuse being frequent in Asian parenting cultures is somewhat of a stereotype, and Japan at least recently outlawed corporal punishment altogether, so I do try to be mindful about not playing into stereotypes. But at the same time, Splinter is shown to physically discipline them. It's played for laughs in the show, but still-he never does it to April, so he's well aware that he shouldn't be hitting other people's kids.

And I also have to factor in, Splinter's older than the average parent of teenagers. I've been ballparking his DOB somewhere around 1960-65, which would make him around sixty now, so he was raised in the 60s and 70s. And raised by his grandfather, no less, who would have been born around 1920 at the latest. Grandpa Sho would have grown up in pre-WWII Japan, in a relatively rural area in a very traditional family, and was probably more than a little resistant to modernization. He definitely used physical discipline while raising his daughter and then his grandson, because That Is The Way To Rear Children. That doesn't mean he was a bad father or anything-especially when you factor in the generational trauma and Hamato Family Fear-Mongering stuff, like, he'd been told his entire life that if he and his descendants didn't unquestionably carry out their 'duties' then the world would literally end. This man watched his daughter die to somehow protect the world from the Shredder, and he never questioned that. He wouldn't have shied away from physical discipline.

I talked about this a little bit with some people in the last chapter, but the thing with Splinter using the same methods on his sons-even if he objected to the way his grandfather disciplined him, even if he never wanted to hurt his own sons, he probably didn't know what else to do. Yoshi was an only child, as was Atsuko, and it doesn't sound like he had a relationship with his bio father or any half-siblings or cousins he might have had through him. Lou was partying and fucking and doing drugs in Hollywood from early adulthood to his mid-thirties, when Big Mama abducted him for the Nexus. He never wanted kids, never planned on them or thought about how he'd parent. He has no experience with children. No other parents or pediatricians to answer his questions, no resources, can't even drop them off with a babysitter to get an hour to himself.

Not to even mention that his kids are genetically enhanced super soldiers and he has to worry about shit that no other parent would. Like, ideally yes you would sit down with your toddler and explain to him that he needs to be careful when playing with his little brothers. Splinter has no idea how to phrase that in a way a toddler could understand. He's gotten three hours of sleep in the last week, is wondering where he's going to get more food because he has enough for exactly two more meals if he doesn't eat himself, one of his other kids is already crying for him and he still has to patch where Raph put Leo through the drywall, and if the next time Raph does that he's just a little more forceful, or if he does it with Donnie-if he doesn't stop this now, one of his kids could end up getting killed.

So he hits him. He hates it, he cries afterwards, but Raph gets the message.

[muerteporfavor]

Vacation Update:

I wanted to talk about where I went on vacation (now that I am safely home and am not doxxing myself by doing so)

I went to the Silver Scream Convention created by the band Ice Nine Kills. It was truly magical. I did not have the privilege of going to the first year's convention last year however I have a lot of thoughts on this year's convention from an analysis point of view I guess?

Let me start by talking about a panel that will put everything I am about to say about the convention in context. The Spooktacular panel. There is a documentary style movie coming out (I believe the Los Angeles premiere is happening with all the cast on the 28th of September and then there is a Texas premiere with some of the cast at some point but I don't know when or where in Texas. They are also hoping for a theatrical release but I don't know when or if that will actually happen as it is only in talks.)

Spooktacular is a documentary film for the first ever haunted house to ever grace the country. It's title was Spooky World and was first unveiled in 1991. (Random tidbit: I got a free signed movie poster by the ex-owner/mastermind behind Spooky World plus the director and some guy who had a big hand in the filming process.) Prior to this Halloween themepark (think Disney World but for horror is a common comparison) there were only haunted hayrides. There were also celebrities of Horror/Halloween (including Elvira or Alice Copper, the latter who called spooky world to be there) who made appearances. To wrap this background up let's just say the owner had a 130,000$ loan (I swear he said 150,000$ at the panel but a source online who interviewed him claims 110,000 plus $20,000 in interest so its ballpark somewhere in there.) he had to pay back in like 5 years. And he paid it back in either (I can't remember which) a week and a half or two and a half weeks. Both of which is insanely impressive. (If you want to learn more about the former spooky world search up spooky world Berlin MA on youtube, the owner sold the attraction in 2005 and now it is in New Hampshire.)

Now. With all that being said, I think the Silver Scream Con is going to be the new Spooky World.

The Con just did their second year and it was confirmed by Ryan J. Downey, the host of all panels and Q&As, that the attendance number doubled last year's count. The first panel of the Con (Assault and Batteries with Alex Vincent and Christine Elise) had to add three rows of chairs more before the panel began because there were more guests than they anticipated. The line to see Dead Meat and get a picture/autograph was so long that it spanned the small vendor room from front to back at times. For the other booths in the vendor room it was a lot easier to wait in line so Dead Meat would be an outlier. I also heard from another guest that for the signings in the additional area (labelled Living Room in the schematic) that you'd wait about two hours to meet either Ulrich, Charnas (and company depending on the day), Todd, and Jericho. Personally, I only passed through the room but it was definitely very crowded and busy. (I also heard from another guest that the panel room for Dead Meat's panel was so crowded and hot that they ended up leaving because it caused them to struggle with breathing. This is not a sleight or even a universal experience it is a comment I mention to illustrate how massive this con is. I don't want anyone to think this Con was a Tanacon blunder or something. It wasn't they had plenty of space to do what they needed to do but it was clear that they might soon out grow the venue if their growth continues on the same trajectory.)

Pictured below is the schematic Silver Scream Con posted to their instagram so you can get a rough idea of the space (although I would not say it is necessarily true to size at all, it is a good idea of how things were set up)

Not only that, it taps into a previously untapped market just like Spooky World. The world of horror and alternative music (metal, punk, etc) has always been intrinsically intertwined. Most alternative people love horror whether its for the way the genre speaks to the fears of the time or the way the genre is constantly evolving. Previously, if you wanted to gather as an alternative music lover you'd go to a festival or a concert or any number of underground shows. Meanwhile if you are a horror lover you have, in recent history, always had conventions to go to. Spencer Charnas/ Ice Nine Kills artfully bring both worlds together in a clash that really tears the line between fantasy and reality (in regards to their two recent albums: Silver Scream and then Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood where Charnas is the lead protagonist of the album concepts as a killer out for blood and does it through the killers we all know and love.) As far as I know this has never been done before, and if it has, it is nothing in comparison to what Ice Nine Kills and team is doing now. Right now they are making history in a big way.

For a moment I would like to pivot to their concert. At Silver Scream Con they always have a concert where they bring special guests to perform with them plus a couple of opener bands. (This year, I can't speak for last year, Dead Meat James played the Sax during IT is The End and Leah Voysey (actress, from Terrifer, Clown Cafe Host) performed during Grave Mistake. The lines for the concert spanned blocks even when it was divvied up in threes (General Admit being the longest multiple blocks, then you had Psychos Only Access [special subscription for Ice Nine Kills] and their RIP vip line.) The line for general admit was so long I showed up 45 minutes early and missed the first opening act in its entirety while I waited to be let into the City Hall Lynn Auditorium building. (Which actually was disappointing because it was Funeral Portrait.) The line was so massive a guy coming through in a taxi rolled down his window and asked the line who we were seeing because he was so impressed by the line and immediately decided to look them up.

Anyway,

All this to say, I can't wait to see how Ice Nine Kills and staff deal with how explosive they are becoming and I will not be surprised if looking into a new venue for the Convention is in their future.

Cheers for now!

Muerte Por Favor.

[littlewalken]

Jul 14

The tank got cleaned out, someone had to have eaten Bluefish fins and all, but they didn't touch Sunshine's corpse. So we're not buying any more fish until the move and we're getting rid of the common pleco before he eats anyone else.

Our next move now has a ballpark but that ballpark is still under construction and isn't showing or anything for at least two weeks and you have to factor in a month of rain earlier this year and now Arizona is coming to visit.

We're also in the 'you get your power turned off at random times because you're poor' lottery, we have a solar generator for the fridge as compensation.

It's only Holiday in Cambodia when it's not happening to White People. Brothers, the acceptable lyric change for anyone not Jello is 'brothers', it still conveys the original idea, keeps the rhythm, and for fuck's sake if now is not a great time to be singing Holiday in Cambodia I don't know what it. But don't be a dick and sing it in Cambodian neighborhoods unless a local punk band starts it.

And if the AI clause in the SAG strike doesn't scare you then what the hell is wrong with you? (we pay you for 1 day of work and get to use your likeness for free forever) You don't have to be a famous Hollywood star for that to frighten you.

When I was working that one day's pay was $60 gross. If we did not qualify for rent assistance that would have meant three weeks just to pay rent. It was the turn of the century and already they were stopping overtime and shit for non union because if they only kept us 6 hours they didn't have to feed us. And after 9-11 you couldn't bring lunch with you because heaven forbid you were going to blow up Warner Bros with a PB&J.

Most of the seat filling work I did was $5 an hour under the table cash. But if you could walk to KTLA, were over 18, and bland looking enough you could make $20 a session pretending to be interested in what Judge Judy was doing. Yeah, got that job because of my skin color and I wouldn't just sit there staring off in to space like the people they were wanting to replace. Turn of the century court shows fed me for several years until the seizures got out of control and a doctor said quit.

Today's movies suck ass because studios would rather pay CEOs than writers. They think AI can write better. It can't even tweet properly.

Now that the fall schedule will be animation I hope to hell that the assholes who cancelled Infinity Train and all the other shows are shitting themselves.

[izzyweber1]

Entry 8

Your overall reflections on the internship and your studies.

My studies over the last three years are hard to summarise. There have been many highs and even a few lows but majority of my time at Holmesglen has been very enjoyable and memories that I will cherish for the rest of my life. Reflecting on who I was and the work I was producing in my first years to now is extraordinary. I have grown so much and  I never would have thought I would be where I am today, I would have never thought that I could get to where I am today and I am so thankful for all the staff and classmates that have helped shape me into the person and employee I am three years later. From not being able to attend class in person for majority of my first two years due to covid, I was able to find new ways to keep motivated and still produce work to a high quality. (Smith & Suby-Long, 2019) states that reflecting and sharing own experiences can help to identify times of leadership, authenticity and resilience. I think from going into uni with no ATAR and no real idea of what I wanted to do, other than my love for sport has shown me how I can use my voice in this space as a women, that I can work hard towards my goals and that nothing can stop me from doing what I want to do. 

To summarise, my internship at Ballpark has helped me to prepare myself for my future career objectives and my own professional development. Through the challenges faced, skills gained, and lessons learnt I am now able to reflect on some of the amazing opportunities and work I created. It has allowed me to find my passion and what I want to do in the future, while also helped me gain confidence in the sport industry and add great experience to my resume. It is proven that during university, immersive internships in your chosen field of study are essential to successful outcomes after graduation (Colleges of distinction, 2017). This internship has put me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to develop and practice being in new environments to further help me become the professional I want to be. Throughout the 228 hours I got to work at one of Australia’s biggest media organisations, meet new people, face new challenges and gain a whole great deal of experience within the industry, which will hold me in good stead to find my future job and to reach my career goals. 

References:

Colleges of distinction. (2017). The importance of internships in college. https://collegesofdistinction.com/advice/the-importance-of-internships-in-college/.

Smith, D., & Suby-Long, S. (2019). Women leaders and narratives: the power of reflecting on purpose and career. Advancing women in leadership, 13(20), 1-11. 

[felassan]

Jon Renish (Foundation Technical Director @ BioWare, working on DA4) recently did a Twitch stream where he played through some DAO. Although he works on DA, this is his first time playing through DAO. He’s playing through it looking at random details from a dev perspective as he’s currently working on DA4 and therefore wants to know more about the previous games.

On the stream he mentioned some tidbits on the development of DA4. There were also some insights and anecdotes about the development of DAO and similar. It’s a 3 hour stream so I collected them here in case that’s of use to anyone (for example not everyone can watch streams which don’t have subtitles/captions). The stream is a fun/interesting watch though, so if you’re curious or able to watch I recc doing so. 😊 The rest of this post is under a cut for length.

Please note that there’s some paraphrasing on my part, this is not a transcript.  There are also some additions from another dev who featured on the stream to give some commentary. The stream also contains more snippets that at times I couldn’t make out (I tried my best!).

(There is a mention of Cullen’s VA in the text below.)

DA4

Jon said he can talk about things about DA4 that aren’t “consumer-facing”, but he can’t say anything about the game that would be consumer-facing but which isn’t already publicly available. There are several reasons for this. One, that’s not his job, there are people whose job this is and they let each other do their respective roles. Two, BW are a publicly-traded company, so if he said something that could affect that that would be insider trading. Three, they’re not done making DA4 yet, so if he said that they have added [x] to the game and people got all excited about that or pre-ordered on that basis, but [x] ended up being cut, people would be like ‘BioWare lied to us’, when it’s just that things changed during the course of development, as is often the case

He’s glad that fans are excited for the game but notes that fan expectations are always double-edged. It can be really tough as some people started ‘playing’ the game in their heads as soon as they heard of it. That’s fine, he loves that, but he hopes that peoples’ expectations don’t turn into requirements. Clearly BW have alluded to certain characters, like Solas, being in the game, but some fans say things like “If [say] Morrigan isn’t in the game, then, rahhh!” Y’know, there’s a lot of talk about how certain characters have to be in the game, and yeah.

On characters which are quantum (i.e. characters which can die or which can have similar end-states as death in previous games): their being quantum makes it really hard for the devs to work with those characters in subsequent games. The devs naturally aren’t going to put as much effort into characters which could have died previously. A character can have had an amazing appearance throughout/role in a previous game, but if there is a risk of something happening to them and of them being removed [effectively] from the plot, it just doesn’t make sense to have them as a major character in a subsequent game. If a character can, say, sacrifice themselves in some glorious ending, the devs have to make sure that if they use them again, in worldstates where the character didn’t do that, the character is kind of ‘muted’, as the devs don’t want to disrespect the players who made a different choice

A comment in chat expressed a wish for Shale in DA4. Jon’s response is that he has no idea on that front

Bugs don’t come out of crunch, they come out of development in general. Crunch does impact on the quality of a game though. In recent years BW are always really trying to reduce crunch, they’re currently working really hard to bring it down. The best way of doing that is by controlling scope. As creatives it’s tough to balance wanting to make great stuff and be industry-leading with the desire to constantly do extra passes over things they’ve created like the audio, art etc. Their biggest enemy is time, other ways of reducing crunch or time spent in general include iterating tools to make often-repeated processes as time-efficient as possible

I think the following was an observation on the industry in general as opposed to a BW-specific/-exclusive comment: he thinks that as a result of this sort of thing [working to reduce crunch], a lot of games are going to have to be smaller and a lot more focused in scope i.e. the devs will have to focus on hitting the key selling points of that particular game/series as hard as they can, and cut down on branching out sideways/wide on a bunch of random other stuff

Jon doesn’t personally engage in character creators in games, but he knows that for some players that expression is worth a lot of time and focus. BW want to be industry-leading in this kind of stuff as it’s something which is interesting/key/integral to their games

In a way BW have made their own nest of problems what with every DA game being so different to the previous one. Still, he notes that each game has a staunch fanbase that says that their particular favorite game is the best one in the series

He doesn’t want people who think that DA4 isn’t what they want to buy it and be upset - there are so many other great games out there! BW are going to make the game they’re going to make - if some people like it, that’s great, and if some people don’t, that’s cool. Sometimes waiting until reviews are out and/or really seeing beforehand if a game is something that you want [has things/features in it that you want] prior to getting it - as opposed to jumping right in or pre-ordering - is a good idea. Fans don’t always know what they want, but they do know what they like - these are 2 different things

He hopes that whatever they ship for DA4, people go “I enjoyed this experience”, and that then, if there’s additional content for it down the road, people can decide, “do I want this further content?”

On hair: BW are using the new hair technology in the latest version of the Frostbite engine, so they’ll see what they can do! This was said in response to a comment about the hair in the latest FIFA games (as EA make FIFA)

A comment in chat asked about a flying mechanic (griffons). Jon’s response is that flying is such a heavy gameplay mechanic that you can’t put it in a game without everything in the game being built about it (see Anthem)

Relating to the above comment, in DA4 mounted combat would be cool but then they’d have to make the game ‘around’ mounted combat and make the mounted combat feature meaningful

On the underwater concept art: it should not be interpreted as a promise of gameplay. BW have amazing artists who sit down for a couple weeks while they’re in early production and just draw loads and loads of all kinds of stuff. Concept art is like a moodboard or Pinterest board. Elsewhere in the stream he advised, take all the concept art together like a mosaic and ask, ‘what is the overall theme[s] here?’, and to zoom out from individual details. [This stuff echoes PW’s word on concept art]

BW don’t generally write things or the choices as bleak as the choices in DAO were anymore. This is a conscious choice on their part, they want their game to be fun [note: this was said when the side quest in Orzammar where the Warden has the option of convincing a dwarven mother to abandon her young baby to die was being played through. It seems to refer to intensively grimdark choices/beats of this kind]

I think this was more of a general comment on games: SSDs (solid state drives) mean that players will see shorter elevator rides (Mass Effect - was this a reference to the remaster?) and fewer switchback corridors (those are actually loading zones). Generally, these are going to change mechanically the time it takes to do stuff in games

The devs have lots of features on their backlog that they’d like to offer players but each will ofc involve implementation and subsequent maintenance, and each one that is chosen to add is being chosen over something else. And sometimes, it’s hard for them to tell if [x] feature or [y] feature would be better to add to the game

They’re about to work on a giant feature (a pure tooling feature, something that isn’t consumer-facing) that is probably going to take ~2 staff years of effort [I think “staff effort” includes multiple staff working concurrently, so 2 years of staff effort doesn’t = 2 years of time chronologically] to get done in the next few months. They’re investing all this effort across the people working on it because they don’t want their artists and designers etc to have to deal with the problem that it’s going to solve anymore. I’m not sure what this feature is but elsewhere in the stream they referred to tooling and automation and gave the example of, the better your tooling is, the fewer times you have to manually set the camera for a human vs elf vs dwarf position, for dynamically-generated [cinematic?] content and for the first pass to be automated (if this is the case, less time is spent/wasted on redoing it and manually touching it up) [see last bullet point in this section]

He doesn’t know how big DA4 is going to be but said “let’s ballpark and say like most games it’ll be somewhere between 70 and 100 GB”

If we kept our Wardens as the PC throughout all 3 games, at the end they would be so powerful that it’d be a bit like “Let’s just do [thing], I’ve killed gods before, whatever”. He thinks it’s good that they have fresh characters each time in DA in order to reset that power level. Some people want more Commander Shepard in the next Mass Effect and he feels like, ‘what else could you possibly want / what else could that character possibly do after 3 games?’

When asked how much freedom he/they have now to focus on next gen, he said that there’s actually almost no difference on that front. The problems never change. They now have better renderers, better ray-tracing, better graphics cards etc, but they have always made DA games for high- and low-spec PCs, so it’s actually about gameplay systems. The freedom isn’t power-based and them getting access to more cores and more RAM generally isn’t going to change how the games are played. The games still have to be made for hard drives on PC. Dev creativity matters more than power here. The challenge of building a BW game is more about/from managing loads of different plotstates, loads of different art pieces, etc

On the title situation (two): names are the last thing they worry about because names have to go through legal before being approved. Every name, including character names, has to be checked in case it’s a famous person, or associated with something bad, or offensive in a different language due to localization etc

They don’t do face scans of people with big beards

There was also a bit about changes/developments to/in the cinematic design process and associated tooling [?] but I found it too hard to follow sorry >< This bit of commentary begins at timestamp ~ 1:52:45 and continues til ~ 2:00:05 [keep listening through the bit where they pause for a cutscene]

General BW

There’s currently ~350 staff in Edmonton, ~200 in Austin and more elsewhere

He notes that DA games sell pretty well, but relative to EA games in general, they’re a drop in the bucket compared to FIFA

DAI

5% of players of DAI never created a character [Q: does this refer to people who just used the default appearances/presets with no editing, or people who only played multiplayer?]

The mounts don’t actually go faster than running, this is an illusion

I think they said it has 55,000 lines of dialogue. [I’m pretty sure I remember devs elsewhere saying it has 80,000 lines of dialogue]

One of the companions had to have their name changed during development because of legal/translation reasons. It sounds like the original name sounded too close to something offensive

DA2

Back when DA2 was internally code-named “Nug Storm”: this was at the beginning when it was pitched to the team on a set of slides. The image on the slide for that pitch had devil horns, a metal hand and no flesh, it was just made out of fire and flames

DAO

The engine DAO is made on is the third engine that they tried for it during development. [David Gaider has gone into the DAO engine stuff some on Summerfall’s series of DAO playthrough streams]

The cracks on the cracked eluvian asset are modelled after the crack on the Tardis in Doctor Who from around that time, as at the time some devs had been talking about Doctor Who a lot. A dev actually added this factoid to DAO’s entry on TV Tropes but someone else (evidently not a DA dev) came by and deleted it saying that it was too much of a stretch x)

Before the game had its name there was an HTML script that randomly generated possible titles for consideration, it adds verbs and nouns together e.g. “Grim Dark”. One of the craziest possibilities that it once generated that the devs always remember is "Bone Wind”

One of the portraits that’s used for decoration around the world in-game (it’s of a bearded human man) is actually of a specific BW staff member

He played through Stone Prisoner, where Wilhelm’s son Matthias gives exposition in the cellar. Matthias is voiced by GE and this had been pointed out to Jon earlier on. Jon: “I don’t think that character’s voice acting was super strong there”

On the in-game area towards the end of Stone Prisoner: Outdoor areas in games are large and one of the things needed for them is streaming, so different chunks can be ‘streamed in’. There’s a tower [?], and technically the top of the tower was made an outdoor level so that sky stuff could be there, though it didn’t really need to be. The person that made it an outdoor level chose the very smallest chunk size for the terrain mesh, which determines how fine of a streaming they do. So when playing, every time you moved like 4 meters, the game would stream out 50-100 chunks behind you and the same in front of you (this is the bubble around the player of what actually exists). Because it was so small, it was constantly thrashing the CPU and disc to do all the loading. The devs were like “this isn’t going to work”, but they barely had any time. The solution: they made a new level that was outdoor and copied all the sunlight and other settings, but with the largest chunk size. They copy-pasted the entire level from one to the other. The problem with that many chunks then is that there was a giant expanse of flat terrain sticking out of the middle of the tower. They didn’t know if the story was going to involve shots of the outside of the tower for this sequence or not, so they took the terrain deformation tool and bundled all the terrain vertices at the bottom of the tower in a giant clump. So to this day there’s a mess of vertices and twisted terrain at the bottom of the final level that probably no-one has ever seen [not sure though if this anecdote is in reference to a place in that DLC or somewhere elsewhere in the game?]

There were also some tidbits on Anthem, however I didn’t note them down (sorry).

If you think I misheard or misunderstood anything from this stream please let me know and I will edit/fix it. :) 

(Thankyou to some of my friends who explained a tech detail from this to me.)

[source]  <-- current rewatch link

[ahiijny]

an interesting thing I learned today was that global warming might result in a negative leap second sometime in the future

(admittedly the earth's rotation is affected by lots of complicated factors so it might not be that clear-cut, but anyway)

so you may be thinking 'but leap seconds are like a single second? so short! who's going to notice?'

well tbf the impact from these leap seconds is going to be most strongly felt by high precision things like GPS or NTP servers whatever (and the poor devs who have to maintain the software lol) but leap seconds have historically caused unexpected problems in financial markets and all sorts of websites and servers as well, so...

in any case, I find all this really fascinating and pls bear with me while I nerd out a bit about this :P

so normally speaking, the Earth's rotation should be gradually slowing, because the pull of tides from the Moon and so on (though there are other influences too, like fluid flow in the outer core, the movement of Earth's crust, etc. so it's all very complicated)

until recently, the length of a day has been about on average 1-2 milliseconds longer than 24 hours (note that there are seasonal variations though).

1-2 milliseconds may not seem like much, but it adds up over time!

in fact, it's the job of the IERS to monitor the difference between UTC (universal coordinated time) and earth's rotation angle (UT1), and decide when to insert a leap second to prevent them from drifting too far apart

the current version of UTC (as defined by the ITU) requires the difference between UTC and UT1 to be no greater than 0.9 seconds. The IERS typically inserts a leap second when the difference grows to 0.6 seconds.

HERE'S A GRAPH

see, the difference between UTC and Earth's actual rotation angle keeps drifting. UT1 keeps falling behind UTC, so those vertical lines are every time the IERS inserted a leap second, to bring UTC and UT1 back closer together

since UTC is ticking faster than UT1 bc of Earth's rotation slowing, we typically need to insert positive leap seconds for when UTC gets too far ahead

positive leap seconds take the form of an extra time second 23:59:60, which happens at the same instant UTC everywhere around the world

historically, we've needed to insert a leap second every 1-2 years or so

it's not very regular tho, bc the Earth's rotation can vary in unpredictable ways. Even earthquakes and the filling of the three gorges dam had a detectable effect on the Earth's rotation.

but what's this? if you look back up at the graph above, you may notice that the graph seems to flatten out near the end there. Why's this happening?

here's ANOTHER GRAPH (with tiny text sorry)

the squiggly green line here shows the deviation in length of day relative to a SI day (i.e. 86400 SI seconds). Look for the ±0 ms baseline on the left vertical axis.

in the 1970s Earth's rotation was in the range of 1-2 ms longer than an SI day

but recently the length of a day has been shortening, and in 2020, there were a large number of days where the length of a day was actually slightly less than 86400 SI seconds! (mostly by less than a millisecond, but still)

2020 had 28 of the shortest days on record since 1960, and days in 2021 are predicted to be even shorter (note that the difference is on the order of milliseconds... but stillllll)

this is actually why we haven't seen any leap seconds recently. The previous one was in 2016. In fact this is the first time since 2003 when we will have had a 256 week period without leap seconds

and this in fact might cause some GPS systems to bug out hehe. In the widely used gpsd package, there was a recently reported bug "GPSD time will jump back 1024 weeks at after week=2180 (23-October-2021)". This bug happened bc the code author wrongly assumed that leap seconds would be more frequent :3

and if the Earth continues to speed up like this, the IERS may need to insert a negative leap second at some point in the future, to bring UT1 and UTC back closer together

this would take the form of the UTC clock going from 23:59:57 to 23:59:58 and then skipping directly to 00:00:00.

in the history of UTC there has never been a negative leap second, so needless to say software ppl aren't too excited at the prospect of this happening :3

so what's causing the earth's spinning to unexpectedly speed up?

there's been some research that suggests changes in the density and circulation of ocean temperature rises might result in a net transfer of mass to higher latitudes. but the predicted time deviation doesn't fully explain the changes we currently see

there's also the idea that ice melt results in water running downhill, resulting in a redistribution of mass closer to its axis of rotation

but at the same time, a redistribution of ocean mass to the equatorial latitudes would result in mass going farther away from Earth's axis of rotation

or maybe it's just Earth's crust and magma and stuff doing weird things again, who knows!

the Earth's rotational axis isn't static either; it can shift, and that might also change the effective rotational inertia

it's probably a complicated combination of a whole bunch of factors

but anyway, why do we even have leap seconds?

well the main motivation for leap seconds was when we switched from solar time to atomic time around the 1950s-ish. So before our clocks became accurate enough to tell the difference, we just said "yo, a second is 1/86400 of the time it takes for the sun to go all the around the sky, by definition" and that's good enough! the length of a day can vary by a few milliseconds from year to year but we wouldn't have been able to tell the difference.

but gradually timekeeping precision requirements grew so eventually in 1967 a second was defined to be "9,192,631,770 periods of the something something something caesium atom" which was way more precise and good for atomic clocks but bad for keeping the clocks in sync with the sun

so the concern was without leap seconds our atomic-clock-based timescale would drift relative the sun and then eventually we'd have solar noon when our clocks said midnight and vice versa

I mean, sure, that probably wouldn't happen for thousands for years, but procrastination is bad, ok?

but still admittedly leap seconds are somewhat controversial and there's plenty of Discourse™ about this, esp. in academic circles and stuff, so if any of you into that kind of thing here's one possible starting point :3

anyway some ppl have made some code to make predictions based on IERS bulletin A, so based on the latest Earth rotation measurements as of 29 July 2021, and whole bunch of (and I quote) "very large, probably unjustified assumptions"...

expect a negative leap second in the ballpark of June 2029 :3

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The Three Strikes Job

leverage 2.14

tara finishing nate’s drink so she wouldn’t have to deal with his bullshit and get him upstairs asap? iconic

- - - - -

Parker: So, is he gonna be okay?

Nate: Uh, they don't know.

Tara: Okay, this guy's a cop. You're thieves.

Nate: I'm not a thief! Bonnano is the cop that we tip off when we need to put the cuffs on a mark

we about to see nate turn a 180 in the next episode

- - - - -

Hardison: That's public corruption. There's practically no files on that thing.

Nate: That's it.

Hardison: No, no, these other two files -- they -- they involve violent criminals. This one -- this - it's government corruption.

Nate: No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. That's it. That's it. Just...Check the shooting. Put up the scene. Okay, so, Bonnano - he goes to a remote location, alone, no backup. That means he knows his attackers and he's not expecting any trouble. Now, what did you just say? You said no files on it? So, Bonnano was keeping this investigation off the books.

Tara: Explains a secret meeting. Off hours, away from any witnesses.

Eliot: Cops are looking in the wrong place

- - - - -

Tara: So, what's our angle here? I haven't been with you guys very long, but taking someone down for attempted murder isn't something you normally do.

Nate: Listen, we come at him like any other mark. We flip over a rock in this guy's backyard, see what jumps out

- - - - -

[Bonnano’s House]

Eliot: Yeah, we're heading in now. You spend your weekends making these things, don't you?

Hardison: Yes, I do, and does anybody appreciate that?

[City Hall]

Parker: I do. I like the costumes. I wish I was there.

[Reelection Campain Event]

Parker, we need someone to sweep the mayor's office while he's here at the fundraiser.

[City Hall]

Parker: Fine. But I never get to do anything fun. (jumps off building)

- - - - -

Hardison: Hey. We are gonna search every inch of this carpet.

Cop: What am I looking for?

Hardison: Fibers, damn it. Fibers. And you -- you go search the bedroom and the bathroom for DNA. Get me a toothbrush, a hairbrush. I don't care if it's a nose trimmer. You bag it, tag it, and send it to the lab.

Cop: Um, th-- this carpet's made of fibers.

Hardison: Well, we're looking for other fibers -- suspicious fibers, fibers of crime. Damn! What'd they teach you at the academy, boy?! On my nerves.

eliot has to hide his smile when attention was turned to him ,,, he was lowkey very amused by hardison’s “fibers” shtick

- - - - -

Tara (walking away): You can handle this. Just feed them a story.

Parker: No, I can't do that. I mean, I can, but Sophie usually walks me through this.

Tara: Okay, take a deep breath. If you're uncomfortable, use it. Make them feel uncomfortable. Here's what you tell them.

Secretary: Who are you?

Parker: Peggy Marwood. Friend of Brad's.

Secretary: You can't just barge in here. Do you have an appointment?

Parker: Yeah, actually, I do. That's what this is all about. I sort of missed my appointment, if you know what I mean. (patting her stomach) Yeah. I, uh, sort of, uh, met Brad at the, uh...

Tara: National Mayors conference.

Parker: ...National Mayors conference...

Tara: In Vegas....

Parker: In Vegas... about six to eight weeks ago. Is that his family? (picks up picture from desk) Oh, they don't have any weird genetic...Things, do they?

Secretary: I'm sorry. The mayor didn't mention anything to me about this.

Tara: All right, now make her think you're gonna leave.

Parker: No problem. I'm just gonna go sit out there with everybody, and I might need a wastebasket, though, 'cause I'm feeling a little (gags) you know what I mean?

Secretary: No! You should wait in here... Okay....In that chair right there, away from everyone who might... see you.

Parker: Thanks. (to Tara) I owe you one.

Tara: Now, see? Trusting me is not so bad (parker smiles and gets up)

that’s very smart ??? iconic

- - - - -

Tara: I don't know. Culpepper doesn't strike me as the type to order a hit, especially on something like a graft case. What's the big deal, you know? You get caught, you go on TV with your wife, you cry, you get re-elected.

Parker: Yeah, it's the American way.

Tara: Exactly.

Hardison: Nah, this guy’s been caught in the middle of a dozen corruption cases. Each time, he's walked away, and somebody else took the fall. This guy does not get caught.

call! america! OUT!!!

- - - - -

Nate: Classic con -- hook, pinch, and flip.

Tara: Hook the mayor with the idea we're gonna build a ballpark here on all this land that he owns.

Nate: That's right, and then pinch him for a bribe to guarantee he gets the action. Hardison tells me he runs a lot of gray money through his re-election campaign, so he'll take the bribe out of his re-election funds.

Tara: Which is a federal offense. All right, so once we nail the mayor for the bribe...

Nate: The flip, right? Yeah, when the heat comes down, whoever shot Bonnano cuts a deal, the mayor goes down

so now we know the hook, pinch, flip

- - - - -

Hardison: You got drafted in the sixth round right out of high school. Had a cup of coffee in the royals organization. Then you bounced around the minors, you bounced around the world, and, as we can see here, you made a very popular commercial for an energy drink in Japan.

Eliot (on screen): Super happy power go!

Hardison: It took me 13 hours.

Eliot: There's only one problem. I don't like baseball.

Hardison: What? E-everybody likes baseball.

Eliot: I don't like baseball, man. All right? I don't like any sport you can't score on defense. Football, hockey, even basketball, but baseball?

Hardison: I'm not even talking to you. (walks away)

Eliot: It's boring. Hey, wait. Can you play the commercial?

Eliot (on screen): Super happy power go

chaotic boyfriends

also this is literally my favorite thing ever ,,, eliot enjoys the video so much

- - - - -

Eliot: Yeah, that's right, run away. Faster you start panicking, the faster I can get out of here. (swings at ball, nearly hits the pitcher)

Pitcher: Whoa!

Eliot: This time with a little more heat.

his bashful lil smile when he realizes he might actually like baseball? he’s baby, your honor

- - - - -

Parker (into phone): Los Beavers me han entristecido con su traicion, Esteban.

Hardison: You speak Spanish?

Parker: Si.

Hardison: Seriously?

another one of parker’s MANY hidden talents

- - - - -

Culpepper: Oh. Oh, be still my heart -- If my heart were somewhere in my pants. This is a thing of beauty.

Aid: He's building a ballpark?

Culpepper: A riverfront ballpark.

two words: y’all NASTY

- - - - -

eliot’s hair in this one is MAJESTIC

- - - - -

[Crowd chanting “Roy” in the background]

Nate: All right, good news, bad news.

Tara: Good news?

Nate: The mayor's hooked. We're in the pinch.

Tara: Bad news?

Nate: I think we lost Eliot until the playoffs.

+ y’all best believe I hc that parker and hardison managed to go to one of their practices/games before the con was over

- - - - -

Eliot: You left early, man. Huh? Bottom of the ninth.

Hardison: Excuse your rudeness. I'm explaining the con. It's very complicated.

Eliot: Really? The mayor gives us a check, and we deposit it in some company you connected back to him. Looks like he's embezzling from his campaign funds. Bottom of the ninth, man. I hit a walk-off single, man. Crowd goes nuts.

Hardison: But that's -- that's not all there is, okay? We got -- there's - there's the Bonnano thing.

Eliot: What? We give Bonnano’s notes to the newspaper, man? They named a sandwich after me at T.J. Philbin's.

Parker: Ohh. Ooh.

Eliot: Huh?

Hardison: I'll give it to you, man. The sandwich thing is pretty cool. Is this a hoagie?

Eliot: No, man, it's a Reuben.

THEY DID THEIR HANDSHAKE!!! we love to see the ot3 in action

+ parker’s wearing a flannel again

- - - - -

Guard: Hey, aren't you Roy Chappell? Yeah, you hit the game-winner yesterday for the beavers. I was there with my kid.

Eliot: I did.

Guard: What are you doing here?

Eliot: It's Triple-A ball, so I got to have a day job, you know? Excuse me. Sorry. (closes door)

Guard (through window): Oh, hey, Roy? You mind? (hands him paper and pen) It's for my kid.

Culpepper: No, I don't mind, man.

Guard: All right. Thanks, Roy.

Hardison: Who are you right now?

Eliot: Hey, man, what do you want me to do?

Hardison: Huh? Seriously?

Eliot: Like a role model.

Hardison: Seriously?

Eliot: What? It's not my fault

HES SO HAPPY

also hardison nobody missed your little smile and thumbs up in the background when the guy approached eliot,,, we see your secret pride for him

this was a great happy eliot + hardison interaction

- - - - -

(nearby agent’s phone rings, Nevin’s answers)

Nevins: Who is it? Who's this?

Hardison: You come in, and we'll kill all the hostages.

Nevins: What hostages?

Hardison: Oh, you thought the mayor was the only one? No, look, we got a whole Sunday school of people up in here. We got old folks, we got nuns, and we got explosives. You come in, you make headlines. (hangs up)

Nevins: We got any eyes in there?

Agent: No.

Nevins: Any cameras?

Agent: Nothing.

Nevins (into radio): All right, we hold! We hold! They're not going anywhere. Call for backup. I want bomb squads, full assault team, snipers. They want to play rough... We play rough

- - - - -

Eliot: Look, he needs a distraction.

Parker: We did just find a box of ammo and explosives. Boom. I'm just saying.

Eliot: The problem is in the delivery.

Hardison: And a detonator.

(Parker and Eliot turn to look at truck)

Hardison: No. Mnh-mnh. No. Mnh-mnh-mnh-mnh. Mnh-mnh. Mnh-mnh. Look, mnh-mnh. Not Lucille. Not Lucille! She all I got left. (Points to Parker, then Eliot) Don't you do it to me. Get that look out your eye.

(Parker and Eliot begin unloading the truck)

Hardison: You ain't got to be so happy about it, Eliot. You always had it in for my van. You always had it in for Lucille. You said she smells. She don't stink. It's just...An odor

parker and eliot were SO in sync when they both turned around at the same time

and also we love to see the ot3 being chaotic and framed together

- - - - -

parker kissed lucielle’s back door before they blew it up she has A HEART YOUR HONOR AND ITS RIGHT THERE FOR US TO SEE

- - - - -

(Hardison directs the van toward the warehouse with remote control)

Hardison: I've always been and forever shall be your friend.

awww baby

also apparently this was a star trek reference

- - - - -

Sterling: Oh, I wouldn't say that. (holds up badge) James Sterling... Interpol. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

what a DOUCHEBAG

[lunar-lair]

Few lil extra details abt the dead Reigen AU just cause I felt like mentioning them:

Reigen also lacks shoes, for,,,,,,obvious reasons. He doesn't really notice, though; it isn't much of a difference for a spirit, ya know?

Fun fact, when he possesses someone for too long-say...5 hours or more, smth like that-blood starts dripping from their right temple. It doesn't hurt; hell, it doesn't even have a source, and normal people can't even see it cause it's Ghost Shit, but I just wanted to give him a version of Dimple's...you know, dimples. It's his giveaway, one of those things that would tip an esper off to a possession outside of spiritual presence.

*Grabs you by the shoulders* dimple can be a parent figure to reigen.

*DIMPLE CAN BE A PARENT FIGURE TO REIGEN*

Like,,,,,,,,,ghost adult, ghost teen, bada bing bada boom u've got urself a tiny ghost family

It's like that concept where Reigen adopts Teruki, kinda, w the personalities, but just. Ghost Time u kno

Also Ekuseri is the central adult ship!! Yaaaayy obscure ships

It's kind of the only option-well, the only semi-popular option-with Reigen out of the picture, and I thought the idea could be fun, especially with the two of them being the only adults among a sea of kids + 1 dead kid.

Speaking of which, they are, indeed, The Local Dads, once Serizawa gets his shit together after Claw. (Though, he sees Reigen as more of an odd-circumstanced friend due to Backstory Reasons, which I'll reveal next; not tonight, though...I'll leave you all wondering a little bit longer ;))

Also speaking of which, in this AU, the Kageyamas step up a little to help out the kids and inegrate Serizawa back into society a little. They're my Replacement Reigen for situations where he would have to be A Adult to do the thing he does in canon, basically.

But you know that galaxy brain idea where the Kageyamas basically adopt Reigen? That but Serizawa

I'm still not sure if he'll just live with the Kageyamas or not? He doesn't have the office now, is all, so I don't know,,,,,,how or where he would. Go to work. Maybe he finds a good convience store job once they've helped him out a little, and he just stays until he finds a good apartment, basically.

Yeah, I think that'll work, we'll go with that

Other notes, Reigen *does* curse a lot in this AU due to that mentioned gang, and he's also about just as excitable as any other tiney Reigen you see floating around

Along with the added sass, Mob gets and makes jokes a little more in this AU due to Reigen helping him figure them out. He's still emotionally dulled at first, and he's still socially awkward, of course, but having a friend his age (spirit or not) helped boost him along a little.

Reigen used to be a little easily annoyed when trying to get Mob to understand a joke, but he's used to walking Mob through them, now.

Reigen himself is actually a little less rude here because Mob was actually able to call him out on it instead of just taking it, too.

They have an *endless* fount of inside jokes. (Mob is very proud of them; usually *he's* the one who can't get the joke, but now it's one only him and Arataka can get.)

Reigen doesn't like possessing people much; he doesn't like the idea of puppeting someone's body around without their permission, and it reminds him just a *little* too much that he's a Whole Ass Ghost, y'know?

But Mob?

That's a whole different ballpark.

Mob lets Reigen possess him a lot to have conversations when it's just hard to talk, when one of them is sad and they just want some Comfort (beyond what laying down together can get them), or when Reigen is hella tired and needs a goddamn nap. (He takes the best ones curled up in the back of Mob's brain, letting him take control while Reigen hides out in his body.)

It's useful for keeping Reigen safe from espers or other ghosts, sometimes, it allows Reigen to fight people for Mob...it's just useful all around.

But due to how often Reigen possesses him, they're really good at fluently switching control, and sometimes it's kinda trippy, cause they both talk to you or each other through Mob's body and his face switches wildly back and forth between Reigen's expression and his own flat one, his voice and Reigen's, and it's just a little Wild. (Mob has complained (jokingly) more than once of aching cheeks after a possession session (yes Reigen came up with that name) due to how much Reigen smiles.

Reigen just smiles back at him and says 'thaaat'ss my job!' all drawn out and happy with a thumb pointing at his chest every time.)

Speaking of Reigen fighting, he's also still got his fighting skills! Again, gang, you know how it is.

Ritsu still doesn't like Reigen, but it's more cause he's jealous and wary of him from what he hears than anything else.

After seeing how close he really is to his brother, though, he warms up quickly enough.

Teruki kinda just thinks Reigen's really cool in this AU instead of like,,,,,admiring him. They just become pretty good friends, vibing and going 'o shit me too!!' when one of them talks about putting up an act and shit.

Teruki kinda becomes Reigen's dumping center for the small circle of bullshit Mob didn't quite get and Reigen becomes Teruki's dumping center in return.

They also sass each other. They sass each other A Lot. Half of their conversations are joking insults; same goes for Ritsu, honestly.

Get the three of them together and they'll just roast each other for an hour, laughing at every other one bc 'oh my God that dug *deep,* absolutely perfect!'

Mob's glad Reigen has people he can be unsensitive with after all those years of dealing with him, genuinely and totally. Reigen's first response has always been something rude, whether he means it or not, and while Mob understood most of that, some of those insults got to Mob even if he didn't really want them to, and over the years, Reigen started doctoring his responses. Now he didn't have to, really, when every insult was a joke.

(You've gotta wonder why he resorts to insults immediately for humor, though, huh? Makes you wonder if he had to see the bright side of some insults, huh?

Just more backstory hints, poking out. ;))

Well that got..........way longer than I intended it to

But here are a lot of the basic foundation points for the series; things that are always applicable, or just general notes on how relationships and things like that go/will be going. I'll probably make another post adding on to this-or maybe even just reblog this one, who knows-as I go along and establish some other general ideas for Mob and Reigen's friendship, more on Tome, etc., but until then, here's my pile!

I'll be making separate posts for all of the plot points/ important things in the AU as I go, too, starting with Reigen's past, whenever I get to it. Hope you're glad I'm dropping hints ;)

[ckret2]

Gigan Invades Earth

I got a request on ko-fi for “something Gigan-Ghidorah,” and I don’t have any freestanding Gigan/Ghidorah fic plans right now, all my current plans are from farther forward in the chronology of the fics I’m currently writing.

So I was like, okay, I’ll just write a few scenes from, uh... like, sixteen fics ahead of where I am right now.

So here’s a few scenes from way ahead of where we currently are! I haven’t edited it because this fic ain’t done and ain’t gonna be for a long time, but enjoy the preview.

###

First contact was made on a Monday at exactly ten in the morning, local Central Zone time—as convenient a time as any for first contact to happen: late enough in the morning that just about everyone was up and about but early enough to ensure the arrival would dominate all but the early morning news broadcasts; and at the start of the work week so that all of the white-collar governmental sorts who were going to have to deal with this were rested from the weekend.

He'd planned it that way.

One moment, the sky above Constitution Plaza in Mexico City was clear; the next moment, a smooth object hurdled down from the sky so fast that passersby didn't even have time to send out panicked messages about their impending doom before it stopped, hovering, seeming to glower down on the National Palace. A thunderclap followed in the wake of its sudden stop, traveling out as a deep rumble across the city.

It sat there, a dark grey and black mass of machinery thrumming in the air, for exactly five minutes: long enough to attract the attention of damn near half the continent but not long enough for the panicking politicians inside the National Palace to start rallying the troops. Then a deep, slightly synthesized-sounding voice boomed out of the ship. It was clearly audible for blocks around in every direction:

"Buenos días. Vengo en son de paz. Llévame hasta tu líder."

Good morning. I come in peace. Take me to your leader.

Astute observers noted two things about the new arrival:

It had a sense of humor.

And it had done its research.

###

"On behalf of Monarch," Serizawa said, his Spanish stilted and slow over the video call, "I am honored that you have invited us to witness this historic occasion. But I don't understand what place Monarch has in a moment of... of interstellar diplomacy."

The video conference was cut into four windows: Serizawa Ishiro, who'd pulled on a button-up shirt for the call but who beneath the frame of the camera was sitting up in bed, still on bed rest from his near-death experience during the Titans' mass awakening; Xochitl Flores Rosales, scientist at Outpost 56-B monitoring Rodan and Ghidorah, and Monarch's official liaison to the Mexican government; a representative of the Mexican government, a stern-looking middle-aged woman with deep frown lines creasing her brown face, someone whom Monarch had never worked with before but who had been available to get on the line with them; and a live feed of the interview being conducted between the flustered Mexican president and the alien.

The alien took up most of Constitution Plaza; even sitting, it towered over the four-story National Palace, and every other nearby building. Footage taken of it standing when it had descended from its ship put it at fully a third taller than Godzilla. It was recognizably bipedal, seemed vaguely avian or reptilian, and called to mind comparisons to penguins, turtles, chicken, and lizards. Fully half of its body was covered in metallic-looking prosthetics or armor—unless that was how its body naturally looked? It was far too soon to know. They didn't even know what planet it came from.

"Unless you called us because of the size of our visitor?" Serizawa ventured. In the fourth screen, muted, cameras set atop the National Palace craned back to look at the alien's head. Its face was shaded beneath the spacecraft the loomed over several city blocks; only the glow of the red goggles-like visor that seemed to serve as its eyes helped illuminate its face. "Despite its scale, I don't think it's wise to count it as a titan."

"But it's already counted itself as a titan," the government representative said.

While Serizawa raised his eyebrows in surprise, Xochitl hurried to pull up a video clip—she'd been in the call longer than Serizawa and had watched more of the interview. "Here," she said. "One of the first questions he answered."

The president's voice was tinny and small as he asked through speakers, "What is your name?"

"Nothing you can pronounce," the alien said, then launched into what was clearly a prepared comment: "But the largest citizens of your planet—you call them 'titan' because they're titanic? I have the most in common with them, and since I'm gigantic—call me Gigan." His metal beak seemed to curve into a smirk.

Serizawa watched silently, hand over his mouth in concentration. Somewhat abashed, he said, "Gigan speaks better Spanish than me."

Xochitl laughed weakly. The government rep barely managed to crack a smile.

"And called the titans citizens of our planet," Serizawa went on. "Not animals, or residents—citizens. As fluent as Gigan is, I doubt it's a mistranslation."

"Maybe it misunderstands their status on Earth," the government rep said.

Serizawa said, "Or maybe Gigan is trying to tell us that we misunderstand their status."

The clip continued as Gigan answered another question: "I don't have a gender. I don't reproduce like species on your planet do. But most of you humans respect men more, don't you? So you can refer to me with male grammar."

Serizawa nodded slowly. "Yes, I think he understands how things work on Earth just fine."

Xochitl laughed harder.

"So that's why we thought Monarch should be involved," the government rep said.

"I understand now. We'll offer whatever assistance we can." Serizawa nodded at the clip. "Should we return to the live interview?"

"In a moment," the government rep said. "To get a full understanding of the situation, you should know why Gigan says he's come to Earth."

Serizawa nodded and focused on the clip again.

The president was asking, "Why have you come to Earth? Diplomacy? To trade resources?"

Gigan said, "I want to purchase some real estate."

###

He was in the market for a few acres near the gulf coast of Mexico—"just enough space for me to put my ship down and stretch my legs," he said.

He didn't represent any worlds or governments. He wasn't setting up an embassy. To his knowledge, no one else would be following after him. It was just him, a lone traveler in a lonely part of the galaxy. Most of the major population centers, he said, were way to heck and gone on the other side of the galaxy—and then he moved the conversation onward without elaborating on these alien civilizations.

He wanted to get his land the legal way—the human way. With currency. He reassured them that he understood currency, money, markets, capitalism, yes, all that—they all existed other places, with minor variations. He dealt in money most of the time. He had a job. He said he was an interstellar freelance mediator. When two parties had a conflict, one hired him to resolve the dispute.

He didn't intend to sell the fabulous secrets to interstellar space travel. He had a ballpark idea of how much that info was worth to humans, and he didn't need near that much to buy a few acres. He offered raw materials: enormous hunks of raw iron and gold. He'd harvested a few asteroids on the way into Earth. Effortless for him, impossible for humans.

Yes, he could accept money from the deal. He had a bank account. Or PayPal or Venmo, if they preferred. He also had accounts on YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, and Weibo. When he gave his usernames, the accounts were immediately flooded with thousands of new followers. He mostly lurked, retweeted titan pictures from Monarch, trolled flat earthers by informing them he was an alien currently orbiting Earth, and three weeks ago got in a heated debate on a M*A*S*H subreddit. He started responding to messages from new followers while still speaking with the Mexican president with no outward change in his demeanor or visible Internet connection.

By early afternoon, they had agreed—in concept—to Gigan's proposed sale of metals and purchase of land; in three days they would meet again to give Gigan a list of potential properties for him to choose from.

"And on behalf of the people of Mexico and the entire human race," said the president, reading off a statement that a speechwriter had prepared for him two hours earlier, "I would like to thank you for this peaceful and mutually fruitful first contact—"

"'First contact'?" Gigan cut in.

The president stammered to a stop. After a moment, he said, "Yes, that's... that's our phrase for our first meeting with intelligent alien life."

"I know what it means," Gigan said. "But I'm not your first contact. Some of my friends are already here."

Flabbergasted, the president asked, "Are—are they? Where?"

"I'm sure you've already heard of them," Gigan said. "We're former coworkers. What is it you've been calling them—Ghidrah, Gidora?"

as he asked the question.

And suddenly the entire meeting looked different.

There was something sadistically delighted in Gigan's glowing visor as he basked in the humans' stunned silence. "Speaking of, I meant to visit them before I headed back to orbit," he said. "Do you know if they're at home?"

###

It had been eons since Gigan had last seen the triple threat.

Eons since he'd grabbed himself a space ship and taken off across the galaxy to attempt to track them down.

Eons spent combing back and forth over the same five hundred cubic light-years where their trail went cold, trying to figure out where they'd vanished to—if they'd left that patch of space, or if they were still drifting through space in the heart of an unfallen meteor, or if they had died on some lonely planet...

Until now. Until he'd found traces of their signature in this little solar system. Until he'd found the one populated planet, jacked into the primitive locals' communication system, and found it riddled with pictures and recordings of the trio.

It had been so long since Gigan had seen them, the material of the only physical photo he had of them had long since corroded and crumbled. He'd digitized, reprinted, redigitized, and re-reprinted the image dozens of times, maybe hundreds. He was afraid his own electronic memories of them might have also decayed over time, byte-sized glitches switching 1s for 0s and 0s for 1s until the memories distorted, the images changed, and he forgot what they looked like.

But when he saw them through the humans' news feeds, they looked exactly how he remembered. Even compressed through humans' primitive sound recording processes, they sounded the same.

It had been eons—and now he'd be face to face with them in just a few minutes. He'd left his ship in orbit and was flying down to the island they'd been hanging out on under his own power.

And now he couldn't put off asking himself the question he'd been trying to avoid for millennia:

What if they didn't want to see him?

They were the ones who'd run off, after all—and he'd never found out why. Maybe they hated the sight of him. Maybe they would to try to kill him. Maybe by now they'd completely forgotten about him.

He could see a glint of gold on the island below. Sparks sizzled through his system.

No time left for doubt. He waited until he was low enough to be within hearing range, and bellowed at top volume, "Hey! You worthless, spineless, heartless featherweight! What's the big idea, bailing on me like that?!"

They started, shifting from reclining on top of their folded-up wings to crouched anxiously, long necks whipping around to search for the unexpected noise. It was Lefty who looked up first and spotted Gigan; and faster than Gigan could react, they were launching straight up to meet him in midair.

He'd definitely forgotten how fast they could take off. "Whoa, wait—"

they crashed into him, getting him in the gut with a double head butt; and then tried to grapple him with their claws while he was stunned. He barely managed to weave out of their way.

"You damn loser!" One jaw snapped at him, and another demanded, "Did you come all this way to ride on our coattails some more?!" Lightning crackled over their wings with every flap, the sky quickly clouding over.

"You wish! How's business been without me to handle finances for you, huh?"

They butted a forehead violently against his, static crackling back and forth over their skin. The rattling of their tails was nearly lost in a crackle of thunder.

They were happy to see him.

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

So a while back, @monotonous-minutia did a short yet comprehensive review of every production of Les contes d’Hoffmann they’d seen, and now, in much the same vein and because a) I think about this opera way too much for my own good and b) I’ve actually seen all ten available filmed productions of this opera (and several multiple times), here is my semi-replication but with Les Huguenots instead of Les contes d’Hoffmann.

And yes I am up at 5:30 on a Friday morning DON’T JUDGE ME

The Productions And The Unique Attributes That Come To Mind Immediately:

Sydney 1990: the OG for yours truly that was also Joan Sutherland’s farewell to staged opera so that’s cool

Montpellier 1990: the production that had strikingly-colored sets but gave pretty much everyone a form of one of three or so costumes

Berlin 1991: there is a wall. also it is in German. also pretty much the entire third act is cut for some reason.

Bilbao 1999: the production that had horrible lighting and that’s most of what I remember thinking tbh

Metz 2004: the one that had the monstrosity of a Black and White Checkered Floor and also fucked up the ending very badly and I’m still mad about it almost a year and a half later

Liège 2005: one of only two productions to follow the stage direction of Nevers sailing in on a boat at the end of Act III (the other was Bilbao). fittingly, Nevers looked like a pirate.

Bard Summerscape 2009: the production where the director looked at the libretto and went “this opera isn’t dark and violent ENOUGH” 

Budapest 2017: the one that looks like it was operated entirely with Baroque stage machines and also GIANT WORDS

Paris 2018: what if we set this opera in the future

Genève 2020: what if we set this opera in a movie studio but not consistently and then shipped pretty much everyone with everyone else

Further thoughts under the cut:

Sydney 1990: as mentioned, the first production I ever watched. a great way to hook first-timers. the production is rather heavily cut but in such a way that if you don’t know the opera well it seems to flow quite nicely, cutting about an hour of music. Urbain’s insert rondo is included but slightly cut, the ballet is cut in half, the ball scene is not included. the cast is one of the stronger ones out there: in addition to Sutherland, who still manages to be impressive, both of the other main ladies (Amanda Thane as Valentine and Suzanne Johnston as Urbain) are excellent. the guys are all good too; special mention to John Wegner, who is one of the few Saint-Brises who doesn’t disappoint me. production is traditional, occasionally a bit static, but it works well.

Montpellier 1990: despite my nagging about the costumes and the occasional standing around, probably my favorite overall production. the ball scene is included; neither Urbain’s rondo nor the ballet are. other cuts (remember, this is before the critical edition) are minimal. the most consistently strong leading septet; all of the principals are towards the top of my favorites for their respective roles. production is traditional erring towards minimalist; this works surprisingly well. unfortunately there are no subtitles and the video quality isn’t the greatest.

Berlin 1991: this production is just so confusing to me. cuts are...confusing to say the least. almost all of Act III is cut; all that remains are the first five or so minutes, the nightwatchman’s scene, and the finale, which are fused into an unrelated scene in which a Catholic/Huguenot game of tug-o’-war turns deadly. the ballet, the ball scene, and Urbain’s rondo are all cut. as earlier stated, it is in German, and the translation used has some odd differences (Marcel becomes Raoul’s brother in this staging for no specific reason). Richard Leech’s Raoul, Angela Denning’s Marguérite, and Camille Capasso’s Urbain are all excellent; the rest of the cast is decent but no more. setting seems to be Berlin in the 1960s but references to World War II are continually made through various production elements. the production handles the last two acts surprisingly well but messes with characterization some.

Bilbao 1999: it’s freaking DARK in here did the lighting designer later move to Vienna or something??? ball scene and ballet included; Urbain’s rondo no. one of the lesser-cut productions, actually: it’s in the ballpark of about thirty minutes. cast is mostly unmemorable (which is both a good and bad thing), with the exception of Marcello Giordani as a wonderful Raoul. production is traditional. would help if I could have SEEN MORE OF IT

Metz 2004: the production started off well enough and I had high hopes but things RAPIDLY went south in the final act. the amount of material cut wasn’t so much the issue as what they cut (more on that in a bit), as not much was actually cut. the ballet and Urbain’s rondo were cut; so was the aria portion of the ball scene but not the ballet, which meant (oh God how did I forget about this) we were treated (?) to what was presumably a group of Huguenot TAP DANCERS who were all eventually shot midroutine. total cuts are also around thirty minutes or so. cast once again mostly unmemorable, although Jean-Philippe Marlière is another of the very few who isn’t disappointing as Saint-Bris. speaking of which: the director completely fucked up the ending BY CUTTING THE PART WHERE SAINT-BRIS FINDS VALENTINE GODDAMMIT IT STILL MAKES ME SO ANGRY. production is traditional, except I certainly hope that hideous Black and White Checkered Floor didn’t exist in the 1570s

Liège 2005: pretty production although it also has some lighting issues. nowhere near as egregious as Bilbao, though. one of the more heavily-cut productions: Urbain’s rondo, the ballet, and the ball scene are all cut, as well as a whole lot else, shearing off about 75 minutes of music. cast mostly good: Philippe Rouillon may be my favorite Saint-Bris. I do apologize though for this but I gotta say it: the Raoul and Marcel are terrible. at any rate, the production is traditional. Saint-Bris shoots Valentine at the end, so there’s that.

Bard Summerscape 2009: what??? the??? ever-loving??? hell??? is??? this??? production??? it feels like an extremely violent fever dream. yes, this opera is violent. no, you do NOT need to hammer this into our heads through everything from a mixed martial arts match to onstage sexual violence to a dude getting stabbed with a processional cross. also the production aesthetic is WEIRD. one of the less-cut productions; Urbain’s rondo is not included. cast for the most part holds up admirably; Michael Spyres and Erin Morley are Babies but already great as Raoul and Marguérite. the Saint-Bris is a huge disappointment though (and the poor guy has to sport a hideous tiny beard). I don’t even know what time period this is supposed to take place in. I just don’t know.

Budapest 2017: very pretty production. also largely very boring. one of the more-cut productions, cutting a little over an hour (including the ballet and Urbain’s rondo) but almost paradoxically being one of only three productions to include the full ball scene (the Montpellier and Genève ones are the others) and the post-2011 production that uses the most critical edition material in Act III, including the only filmed production to include Marcel’s Act III aria. Catholics in white, Huguenots in black, the set consists largely of flats with 16th-century images that get raised and lowered; otherwise, the stagehands (and sometimes cast) move around big letters to form certain key words such as Bachus, Amor, the Hungarian word for mercy, etc. at various points in the score. cast is mostly decent. Gabor Bretz is an excellent Marcel. the main issue: there’s no life, no activity, no passion in this production. the Raoul and Valentine have zero chemistry. lot of standing around. it doesn’t feel compelling. in any rate it’s traditional.

Paris 2018: the concept is surprisingly sound albeit somewhat of a head-scratcher when considered on its own. production aesthetic is very minimalist, clean, and bright. about thirty or so minutes are cut, including both ballets (but not the aria in the ball scene) and Urbain’s rondo. one of the most solid overall principal casts. no one can top Lisette Oropesa’s Marguérite. Yosep Kang, particularly given the circumstances surrounding his participation in the production, is excellent and deserves better than what the Parisian public gives him. overall very good musically. the production is set in an imaginary France in the year 2063. it is very interesting.

Genève 2020: the least-cut production of the bunch; it mostly just cuts a bunch of critical-edition Act III material. as previously mentioned: it’s supposed to be set in a movie studio but this is largely pushed into the background for both better and worse. the cast, for the most part, is excellent (will give you one guess who disappointed me in this bunch). John Osborn and Rachel Willis-Sorensen are a phenomenal Raoul/Valentine duo, Michele Pertusi joins them for a thrilling final scene (having expertly navigated his other material), Léa Desandre is the world’s most adorable Urbain. production design is excellent. directorial choices are very interesting, to say the least. the directors apparently woke up and decided to try to establish as many romantic relationships as possible. I am not opposed to it in principle; in fact, I really like a lot of it. however, the directors completely ruined it by trying to put forth the idea that Marcel has a crush on Valentine??? that was just...extremely uncomfortable to watch (also it COMPLETELY missed the point of the duet) but yeah, the production, although weird and confusing in places, is mostly good. setting, specifically I’m not sure about the location but the time period is somewhere between interwar and WWII fashions. so yeah.

anyway, if you’re here now, thanks for reading this unsolicited article! ask me any questions you may have!

[stevesnailbat]

fear of the (un)known | steve harrington

chapter eight : will you call my name?

summary: Grace, or 007 as she had been called, finally escaped Hawkins Lab after seventeen long years. But, freedom is a long harder than she thought it would be to maintain.

warnings: the Russians are here! more mutual pining, a little bit of jealousy, angst

word count: 3.2K

a/n: only four parts left! we’re getting into season 3 details now, so it’ll pick up now :) gif by @harringtown

read the rest HERE!

If there was one thing that Grace despised about living in the cabin, it would be the rules that Hopper tried to set out for her. She was never one for going against the rules, but Hop’s rules for her specifically were—to say the least—ridiculously strict. She couldn’t take sitting in the house for any longer, to be honest. The idea of getting out for the day was a redundant and resounding thought in her mind, ever since the birthday party that Steve threw for her and El.

Grace was dying for some human interaction once again. It wasn’t a need to use her powers anymore, just a need for some kind of conversation that didn’t revolve around some stupid western that Hop and El liked to watch together.

She knew it was wrong to listen and wait for Hop to leave to come out of her room, but she couldn’t lie to his face. She couldn’t look and him and say she would be there to watch over El and the cabin when she wasn’t going to be, it was too hard to lie to him. Grace slipped into a t-shirt and jeans before moving quietly into the kitchen and towards the front door, careful not to disturb El or let her know she was going somewhere. 

Once she got out of the front door as quietly as possible, there was only one place on her mind: the new mall. Grace had seen ads for Starcourt on the TV at least a hundred times, and she was a little too excited to go. She’d talked to Hopper about it a few times, but was shut down every time by the excuse that too many people were there. Steve had mentioned the mall at the birthday, and Grace noted his complaints about working at the ice cream shop and wearing a ’stupid sailor uniform'. She knew she wouldn’t know anyone else there, so she was on a mission to find Steve and see the said uniform with her own eyes.  

It didn’t take long to get to the mall from the cabin, honestly. She wasn’t sure how she got there so easily, but didn’t question her own abilities. Walking into the mall was shocking to her, the amount of people buzzing around the mall was much larger than she expected. Navigating through the sea of people was a challenge, but her mind was only fixed on one thing—finding Steve.

The ice cream shop, Scoops Ahoy!, was quite busy when she walked towards it, but Steve was nowhere to be found behind the counter or in the store. There was just one girl standing behind the counter, her name tag read Robin and she had headphones on, she was intently reading some small book. Before she stepped foot into the actual store, a hand on her arm made her flinch and turn quickly in the owner’s direction. Her stress was eased when she was only faced with Steve and Dustin, both wearing a look of confusion on their faces. Steve had a pair of binoculars in one hand and was nearly sitting inside the large bush he was leaning over. 

“What are you doing here?” Steve asks, concern lacing his words as he let go of her arm. 

“I got bored at home.” Grace shrugs, pointing to the binoculars in his hand. “What’re you doing?"

“That’s—That’s not important.” Steve stammers, taking them off his neck to set them down in front of him. “Grace, you’re gonna get into some deep shit if you stay here. It’s not safe. I can take my lunch and take you back—“

“Oh, so now you’re gonna act like Hop and shove me inside for my whole life?” she snaps with a glare, raising an eyebrow at Steve while Dustin giggles about Steve’s shocked expression. “I don’t need you to babysit me, Steve. I just wanted to get out for a little bit and get some ice cream, no harm in that, right?”

Before Steve can respond, Dustin nudges his arm harshly. Steve groans in annoyance and turns to face the boy, listening as he mumbles something under his breath to him. The two of them aren’t the quietest, so it’s not hard for Grace to overhear something about ‘the Russians’ and ‘helping with the code’. Her eyes go wide at the thought of interacting with Russians again, panic striking through her for a fearful moment. Steve shakes his head rapidly and mumbles something to Dustin about the situation being dangerous, but Dustin only rolls his eyes and turns his attention to Grace again. 

“You know Russian, right?” Dustin questions, a satisfied smile on his lips as she nods at him. “And you’ve worked against them for years—“

“Dustin—“ Steve says, but the glares that both Grace and Dustin shoot him are enough to shut him up.  

“Long story short, we cracked a secret Russian code and we need help finding out what they’re doing. I think you could really help us with this.” Dustin explains quickly. “Do you want to help?”

“I don’t—“

“I’ll help.” she says, cutting Steve off. 

Despite the fear and bad feelings creeping up within her about the situation, she sits down and listens to their explanation. It’s a lot to take in at first, but she Dustin plays the voice recording to her to confirm that they were correct in the translation. Grace repeats exactly what they had assumed, then Dustin tells her that they were scouring the mall for some sign of the evil Russians. She agrees to stay, simply because she’s worried about Steve putting himself into danger once again. "You see anything?” Dustin questions, turning to Steve who was staring through the binoculars he’d brought. "Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for.” Steve says simply, staring through the binoculars.

"Evil Russians.” Dustin replies. 

"Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like.” Steve quips, sighing at Dustin’s vague response. 

"Tall, blond, not smiling.” Dustin explains and Steve hums in response. "Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of thing."

"Right, okay, duffel bags.” Steve mumbles in return, binoculars moving towards the upper level of the mall. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

"What?” Dustin and Grace say together, looking in the direction of Steve’s binoculars to see what he’s looking at. 

"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky.” he nearly whines, frowning as he stares up at them. 

The slightest tinge of jealous pangs in Grace’s chest at the thought of Steve looking at another girl, but she stops herself. It wasn’t her place to tell him who he could pine after, not now at least.

“Now’s not the time, Steve.” Grace sighs, shooting a weak glare in his direction.

"If you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars.” Dustin remarks, grabbing one side of the binoculars out of Steve’s hands.

"Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench.” Steve gripes, continuing his fixation on the couple while resisting Dustin’s grasp.

"Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?” Dustin snaps, tugging the binoculars from Steve’s hands.

"Stop, hey. Stop.” Steve groans, trying to take the strap from his own neck.

"Give me those." Dustin remarks, wrapping the strap of the binoculars around his neck. 

"I don't get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one in front of you.”

There’s a silence that rings between the three of them for a moment. Grace’s heart races and her mind whizzes, trying to rack her brain for what Dustin might have to say in the moment. All she hoped was that he didn’t call her out in front of Steve, or mention her at all. 

"Seriously, if you say Robin again—“ Steve starts.

“Robin.” Dustin interjects.

"No, don't. No."

"Robin, Robin, Robin."

"Stop, no, no, no."

"Robin. Robin. Robin."

“No."

“Robin."

“No! No, man, she's not my type.” Steve stammers, avoiding Grace’s gaze as a blush creeps up on his cheeks. “She's not even…in the ballpark of what my type is, all right?”

“What's your type again? Not awesome?” Dustin implores.

Steve hesitates for another moment, knowing he can’t answer truthfully in front of Grace. He wants to say that his type is specifically the black-haired, green-eyed, sweet lab escapee that’s sitting next to him, but he knows he shouldn’t. He looks in Grace’s direction for a moment, noting the reserved look in her eyes at the mention of another girl. She gives him an unconvincing smile before he looks back to Dustin, rolling his eyes at the boy’s statement. 

“Thank you.” he grumbles, rolling his eyes with a sigh of annoyance. 

The next hour passes by quickly, and before they know it, Robin has the code cracked. They spend the next few hours planning out their next moves, finally whipping up a plan to find where the Russians were meeting. The four of them stake out on the roof of the mall with the singular pair of binoculars, despite the pouring rain that soon ensued after they stepped foot outside. With the help of Robin’s cracked code, they find the entrance the Russians use quite easily. Steve and Dustin argue over the binoculars once the Russians go inside the suspicious storage room, a loud boom that alerts the Russians sounding through the pelting rain. 

They all hide beneath the ledge of the roof, breathing heavily as they get away with the not-so slick spy moves. Grace looks down between her and Steve, noticing her hand interlocked with his—it felt like the right thing to do in the moment. They glance at each other with wide eyes, but don’t say anything as their hands separate. They stand up from the ground and rush towards the door, getting there in just enough time to miss the guard who runs up the stairs. It’s a terrifying moment, and Grace wants nothing more than to use her powers to manipulate the Russians into not seeing them, but it’s too much of a risk.

There isn’t much said between the four of them as they walk nearly miss the bad situation. They walk towards the front of the mall while exchanging a few words about what they’d do next, but were too scared to discuss it in too much detail while they were still in the empty mall. The rain slowed down for a moment, letting them get out to the parking lot without too much trouble. 

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Steve asks Grace, watching her walk away from the three of them and towards the bike rack.

“Home?” she says, looking over to them with a furrowed brow.

“No, I can drive you home—“

“Steve, you don’t have to—“

“I’m not asking, I’m telling.” Steve says, walking towards her to grip onto the handlebars of her bike. “I’ll put the bike in the backseat and drive you home. It’s already dark and it might start pouring again. I don’t want to be responsible if you go missing.”

Grace only looks up at him with a resistant glare, even though she knew he was right. She was already going to be in enough trouble for sneaking out, the least she could do was get a safe ride home. As much as Hopper didn’t like the idea of her and Steve getting involved, he couldn’t say much, considering he was nearly her chauffeur and guardian at this point. 

“Where am I gonna sit?” Dustin groans, narrowing his eyes at Steve.

“You can squeeze in the back with the bike.” he responds, rolling the bike over to the car. 

Dustin gets into the back of the car while mumbling under his breath about being in the back, but never complains too loud. They say goodbye to Robin and leave the mall, heading towards Dustin’s house first. It doesn’t take long to get there, and Dustin is gone from the back seat and running into the house to beat the rain that was starting up again.

The sound of Steve’s fingers drumming on the steering wheel distracted Grace’s thoughts as they drove towards the cabin. She looked over to him as he focused on the road, her gaze floating from his lips to his nose and finally to his hair. His hair had grown out significantly since she’d met him in the winter, but sometime else had changed. 

She hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off the shining, dirty blonde that had recently shown up in his hair for the entirety of the day. They framed his face perfectly, the blonde highlighting the slight tan that he’d gotten from the summer. Even in the dark, Grace could see the moonlight shimmering on the light, slightly damp strands. She couldn’t help but stare, and Steve could feel her eyes on him as he drove. 

“What?” he questions hesitantly, eyes flickering over to meet hers for a short moment. 

She didn’t say anything at first, but leaned over the console to hold a strand of his hair in her fingers. 

“Your hair.” she says simply, twirling the blonde piece between two fingers.

“What—What about it?” he asks, feeling like his heart might just explode from the attention she was paying him.

“It’s different.” she responds, looking from his hair to his flushed cheeks and wide eyes. “Lighter. Did you do it?”

“Did I? No—No. It’s just from the sun.” he lies, earning an incredulous grin from Grace, seeing right through his deception.

“Did you get it done?” she asks again, running her fingers through the ends of his hair.

“You can’t give me shit for it.” he says with a hesitant nod, blushing profusely as she giggles and smiles with satisfaction.

“I won’t tell anyone.” she promises, finally dropping her hand from his hair as she eases back into her seat. “It’s pretty, Steve.”

Steve is disappointed when she drops her hand back into her lap, frowning for a moment at the loss of contact. A shy smile grows on his lips at the compliment, his heart swelling with adoration as he nearly melts at her words. He knew he was in too deep, but words of praise and love from her really solidified the way he was feeling.

His car pulls up to the cabin not long after, but neither of them want to be the first to get out. There’s a feeling of confusion lingering between them, both of them wondering if the other is thinking about the same thing. Steve puts the car in park and opens his door, getting into the back seat to grab the bike. Grace gets out of the passenger seat and walks towards him, taking the bike from his hands when he gets it out of the car. 

“Thanks for taking me home, Steve.” she says, resting the bike on a tree near the cabin.

“Yeah, it’s no problem. Couldn’t leave you to bike all the way out here on your own.” Steve says with a chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “Listen, you do not have to get involved in this situation at all. We—We can take care of it and I don’t want you to get hurt because we’re doing dangerous shit again.”

“Steve, you do remember that I can manipulate people’s minds and protect you with my powers, right?” Grace says, taking a step towards him to cup his cheeks softly. “I’m gonna help, you don’t have a say in that. I want to keep you safe.”

“Y—Yeah, okay. I just—just don’t want you doing anything you don’t want to.” he says breathlessly, taken aback by the feeling of her hands on his skin.

Steve wants nothing more than to lean down and hold her, to kiss her and tell her that he’s so madly in love with her. His eyes flicker from hers and to her lips for a moment, feeling a strong temptation taking over. He can tell she feels it too, as she leans into him even more as he stares down at her lips. As Steve leans in, the front door to the cabin slams open to reveal an angry Hopper in the doorway. 

“Grace, I swear to God—“ Hop starts, but calms himself before saying anything too bold. “Just—Just get up here. You too, Harrington.”

Steve’s eyes go wide at his words, looking to Grace for a moment. She gives him the same curious gaze when they lock eyes, unsure of what was about to happen. They both walk up the stairs, feeling like young teens again getting caught by their parents doing something they weren’t supposed to. Hop doesn’t look too angry, but more annoyed than anything. 

“I’ll deal with you in a minute, go ahead inside.” Hop says to Grace, and she nods quickly before looking at Steve with a sympathetic frown as she walks inside. 

Hopper lets out a loud sigh as the front door closes, finally looking over to Steve. He’s standing at the edge of the porch awkwardly, an uneasy feeling in his chest as Hop looks in his direction. Steve has a hunch about what the conversation will entail, but doesn’t want to accept the words that will come from his mouth. 

“Listen, kid. Hear me out on this.” Hop sighs, leaning against the railing as he speaks. “You’re probably—no, you are already in too deep and won’t listen to me for more than a second, but just hear me out.”

“O—Okay.” is all Steve can muster the courage to say, acting casual as he leans against the railing as well. 

“You can’t get too involved with this girl. She’s only gonna try to destroy everything you have with her once it happens. It’s not by her own will, but her mind is damn good at destroying good things that she actually enjoys.” Hop explains, watching Steve stare at the ground below with a blank stare. “She might like you, but her mind—it doesn’t. I’ve already seen her try to destroy herself multiple times, I just don’t want her to end up hurt because her mind tries to ruin you too.”

“She’s getting better. She can control herself now, it’s not like—like she’s out of control anymore. We haven’t seen her break down or try to hurt herself in months, right?” Steve says, desperately trying to help himself justify his feelings in the moment. 

“That’s right now, though. I know—I can tell she’s getting stronger. Not in just the way that she can control herself, but she’s gaining more power, too. The more she holds back, the more powerful she’s getting. I don’t know what that means for her or what other power she’s building up, but I think it’s best if you stay away.” Hop warns. “Don’t get more involved than you need to.”

Yeah, okay.” Steve sighs defeatedly, pushing off of the porch railing to head down the porch stairs. “I’ll try.”

Hop nods at him and waves goodbye before walking inside. Steve makes his way back to his car, feeling like he’s going to scream or cry or something. He knows he should listen to Hop, he knows the girls and the lab better than anyone else. But, he can’t help how he feels about Grace, and how badly he wants to be with her. It might be terrifying to think about what could happen if Grace loses control, but he doesn’t care enough to fight his feelings anymore. There’s no going back on his feelings now, he’s definitely in too deep for his own good.

tags: @sourapplebaby @harringtown @jxnehxpper @charmed-asylum @heart-eye-harrington @daddystevee @hystericalmedicine @a-magey @lemonypink @karasong @batbatsupermanme @used-avocado @letscici @igotmadskills @mikariell95 @anerroroccurrrrred @blueberrylemontea-fanfic @ilovebucketbarnes @simplesammyx @willowrose99 @charmedtenderness

[myownworstenemyyy]

I, K & U for the fanfic asks? 💕

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

i do, but i don’t feel guilty about it lmao i like reading and writing smut, but i love reading fluff and softness (especially neck kisses and hair tugging 😏)

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

hmmm i actually just came up with one the other day for a future fic, but i don’t wanna give anything away 😬 it’s in the same ballpark as chapter 11 of my All I Wanted series, except like 10x worse 😌 I'm still very fond of that ending even if most people prefer the alternate/happy ending 😂

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

i can't pick just 3 😩 I'll list a few of my faves lol

@bestintheparsec – Lauren’s Healer series was one of the very first Din fics i ever read and I've been hooked on her exquisite writing ever since. the way she captures every core aspect of the characters she writes for is beyond impressive, to say the least 💜

@aerynwrites – this girl can write, the way she comes up with fic ideas and her incredible execution of said ideas in a matter of hours??? i could never omg Aeryn is so talented 💜

@hiscyarika – Abigail’s writing is like straight-up poetry, so raw but also lyrical and smooth, she's going places as a writer for sure and i can't wait to witness all the inevitable success coming her way 💜

@haildoodles-writing – Hail’s writing is like a healing salve for me, the way her voice comes through in everything she writes (and draws, my goodness the talent she exudes) is like nothing I've ever experienced, it's so refreshing 💜

@mrpascals – i always look forward to anything Gabi writes, her words really suck you into the story and you never wanna leave! I'll get the end of one of her fic’s and just...sit there, absorbing all the emotions she’s put onto the page 💜

@forever-rogue – Patricia is the absolute sweetest human being you will ever meet and her writing?? beautiful, spectacular, inimitable, everything she comes up with is pure genius 💜

@tiffdawg – Tiff is such a wonderful writer and an even lovelier person. her writing is flawless, it flows so perfectly and her ability to immerse the reader in the world she’s created is nothing short of spectacular 💜

@scribbledghost – i cannot begin to tell you how much i cherish Ghost’s writing, her words always brings me such comfort and joy, and her kindness is unparalleled 💜

@themandjalorian – Jeni, Jeni, JENI is a treasure, her writing is IMMACULATE and TRUE. mi comadre is pure talent but also so genuine and sweet and thoughtful. her writing feels like coming home 💜

i know i’m missing so many people but every single person that is brave enough to post their fics on this site or anywhere else deserves a standing ovation because that is not easy to do. love y’all 🥰

[tsarifr]

Goal for 2021: Bone Fiend

Or at least getting most of the way there.  Most of this year is going to have me working hard on my master’s degree, so I won’t have as much free time as maybe I’d like.

I do have 10kg worth of projects sat in my lair who are glowering at me so I’m sure at some point I will cave, but once my NotN auctions sell or expire in a few hours, I’ll take stock of what I’ve got, exactly, but current total in my vault is 21kg and 16milt, so... a long way to go!

I think they’re ballparking around the 150kg mark when they do go up for sale?  If anyone has an up to date figure, I’d be interested in that so I have an actual goal, but I’ll start actively hunting for a seller once I hit 100-120kg.

That’s roughly 3kg/week which is... a lot when rl is getting in my way.  But I’ll see what I can do!

Coli is, of course, a staple, although one I haven’t been able to do much of recently.  Fodder is a good money maker.  If I can, I’d like to get back into levelling for other people, too!

Fairgrounds is twenty minutes for 75kt, which is 75kt more than I’d have if I didn’t!

Daily familiar bonding, although honestly that’s more for the 

I do have an adopt shop open, and an art shop I can re-open, so with some luck I might get a few orders there (I tend not to get many, but it’s a nice handful of gems when I do).  Unfortunately no-one ever shows interest in any accents I make so that might be an art stretch too far.

Selling rare drops and hoardselling the rest...

Not sure what else money-making I’ve got, but ideas/suggestions/tips are definitely welcome!  Or, you know, just wish me good luck on this insane endeavour.

Why am I caving and going for a KS fam when I promised myself I never would?

This guy.  Genshu is an osteologist, and now I’ve actually awakened most of my familiars (thank you for the push, Fiona!), I’m getting around to familiar-matching my dragons.  This guy insists that nothing less than a Bone Fiend will do.  Nothing.

So one Bone Fiend for a crochety Ridgie it is.  Eventually.

(Also, barring the Frost Delver and three Fiona fams, my bestiary is otherwise complete... apparently my hoarder’s brain is not as content with not having the KS fams as I thought - just please don’t make me go for a Boolean, brain!)

[judehayward]

lady gaga voice slowly fadin in: ju-Das juda-ah-ah… this depressed goblin bastard is honestly my fav male muse like i dnt typically stick w male muses tht long i struggle bt................. i’ve played him the longest of them all n always seem to return to him. jst cnt stay away. way 2 attached to this absurd little man. it’s nai btw!!!! (josefine on the main). launches right in to jude’s intro without further adieu..... (u can also find his playlist here) 🧙‍🎨

「douglas booth & cis-male」⇾ hayward , jude, the senior radcliffe student’s records show that he is a pisces and 23 years old. he is studying ART, living in moris and can be protective, laidback, nonsensical & apathetic. when i see him i am reminded of wearing a faded smiley face sticker on your forehead while receiving a serious lecture, saying “fuck off” to inanimate objects, lead marbles instead of eyes. ⇽「nai & 23 & gmt & she/her.」

he pinterest:

me in the voice of a card magician performing on the street: round up round up pick a pinterest any pinterest!

ta-da it’s aesthetics:

lead marbles instead of eyes, a stolen hearse careening down the wrong lane, wearing a faded smiley face sticker on your forehead while receiving a serious lecture, bags under the eyes that are so big they could pack enough clothes for a three week vacation, a cigarette wobbling from your bottom lip as you squint against the sunlight, passing out on a stranger’s rooftop, placing sunglasses over the eyes of a biology lab skeleton, gangling around the place like shaggy minus his scooby snacks, saying “fuck off” to inanimate objects

about tha Bitch:

born in sheffield in england, bt they went back and forth between there n san fran a lot

jude was an unhappy accident. his parents never rly used protection bc they were super Liberal n Au Naturel n believed in the pull out method bc… they were maniacs. bt then the ONE time they used a condom in an effort to b safety conscious it broke n hence…. jude was born

they just kind of ran w it bc they had such a passionate relationship tht they were like What The Hell…. may as well! itll be fine we’ll learn to be good parents n love him like normal ppl do

spoiler alert: tht didn’t work out

they were ok to him like they weren’t fully Bad bt they just found him to be a massive burden n hindrance to their plans. pretty absent n irresponsible. they literally….. had sex all day every day n acted like a pair of teenagers. it ws a super weird environment for a kid to grow up in bc he literally had no role models or… guidance or…. anything rly. occasionally they’d joke around w him or pretend they properly knew what grade he was going into but for the most part they just Didn’t Care the way parents shd. they lost his birth certificate n dnt remember what they put as his middle name so he’s jst kind of like hmmmm............. n gives himself a diff one every time ppl ask. past variations hv included: jude pauly hayward, jude maureen hayward, jude van winkle hayward. says all of these w a very straight face

despite this he does hv some nice memories w them. usually he definitely sees them fr holidays. frm being rly young their christmas tradition hs been to get a bunch of chinese food like a Banquet Feast n spend all day smoking n drinking into the early hours. perhaps not the healthiest or most responsible bt 😔 jude rly likes it it’s kind of the one time of yr he feels he has a proper family

they r both suuuuper into the arts. rly good sculptors bt they paint too n they actually own a successful gallery in sheffield n san fran

(trauma tw) as a result he grew up around a lot of creative n sometimes pretentious ppl. the friends of his parents were more present in his life than his ACTUAL parents bc they were always jetting off to diff countries to scout out new pieces fr their galleries n just have a gd time in beautiful places without…. the annoyance tht ws being responsible n looking after someone. tbh some of his parents friends were rly damaging too bt….i won’t go into that just yet. it doesn’t rly…need properly explaining bc jude never talks abt it anyway n it….is rather triggering so i’ll jst….leav it for now tbh. basically they just were Not Nice n jude had a lot of bad memories he keeps repressed bt he also??? has some gd ones..... it was a strange environment bt he’s a survivor

(death n grief tw) he hd to do community service bc he kind of… hd a bit of a breakdown before the funeral of his elderly neighbour who bsically raised him bc her kids rly didnt care abt her they jst wanted her inheritance?? so he… stole the hearse w her casket still in it n ws jst like… drivin around the place sort of… tryin nt to cry…..KJJFHSFKJGHKFG i mean. it isnt funny its actually sad bt :/ in a very bizarre n jude way. he gt caught n taken in fr questioning bt her son kind of realised hw… broken up abt her death jude ws n had a heart n didnt press charges. regardless he stil hd to do community service bc it ws like taken seriously even tho it ws his first proper offence. doin it rly exhausted n depressed him so when he wsnt doin tht he ws just hibernatin in his room……. this ws like 4 months ago nw............ just some fun lore fr u all

bc of how he ws raised he has a p cultured taste. he luvs classic lit n p much anything artsy. he can play piano 2 n sometimes gets rly high n thinks he’s mozart level gd at composing he’s jst going fking wild on the keys in a trance...... i mean he’s gd bt… chill

he’s rly sarcastic n so deadpan like he’ll say smthn completely ridiculous bt he’ll say it w his whole chest so sincere.... it’s rly hard to tell when he’s joking or serious honestly. has an overflowing secret sketchbook n if he cares abt someone he’ll probably secretly draw them. does NOT share these drawings w the person he hates being openly sentimental. at heart he is jst a very Sad Boy w lots of repressed issues like depression genuinely just does NAT giv him a single break bt he plasters over this w wise cracks n never discusses his emotions ever. he’s actually p decent or at least tries to b. he’s kind of like tht bit in superbad where michael cera gets rly drunk n makes a toast to women like tht energy...........

he has rly bad insomnia so he like never sleeps idk how he’s Alive straight up. please go to bed sir............. he always has rly sleepy eyes n rubs them tiredly mid conversation. he smokes a lot of weed to try n compensate fr this n make him tired bt he still struggles a lot

ANYWAY that aside he’s at radcliffe doing art, focusing on fine art like painting is............... the thing he luvs most...... his style is kind of.......... taking normal things n painting w surreal colours.... he likes A LOT of colour in his paintings which is kind of a stark contrast to his personality bc his world’s so.... washed out n grey............ lovs art n philosophy n literature n photography n music.... 

ummMMMMmm honestly idk i’m blankin on what else to say. ull find him smoking weed reading an american classic or gnawing at his thumbnail n getting charcoal smudges on all his clothes. wandering the streets in plaid pj bottoms n dr martens eating frm a cereal box without care in the world. he’s p broody n scruffy n he’s mostly here fr a laidback time....... doesn’t rly like when ppl take themselves too seriously........ likes strange ppl thinks the world is mde richer by them n likes when ppl can jst bounce back jokes at him without being like erm. u dont make sense mate. bc frankly he can come up w some strange stuff sometimes.............. talking to him cn b like navigating a dark n bendy road without a flashlight....... 

(drugs tw) once did shrooms n woke up naked in the woods curled up in a pile of leaves. to this day he recounts this as his werewolf transformation. hs no idea hw he ended up there n when ppl r like are u not. concerned jude. tht is so strange? he jst shrugs like.............. dunno....................... suppose i’m jst a werewolf upon occasion. so casual abt it. jst truly does Not care abt most things at all..... almost to the point tht it’s concerning (sometimes way past the point tht it’s concerning too :/)

this is the desc on an aesthetic i mde of his style once n sums it up well!! ‘additionally: too many pairs of trousers, a hideous amount of white t-shirts all somewhat stained with charcoal, a jumper so thinly knit it almost looks sheer, chipped teale nail varnish, a cream corduroy jacket with a cigarette hole singed onto the cuff, vintage wiry reading glasses he almost never wears, a freshly rolled cigarette behind his ear, a thrifted t-shirt with a warped bart simpson wearing a stethoscope with the caption ‘bard knwos cardiology’ and two crops hacked that way with kitchen scissors that he sometimes wears to paint.‘

EXPERT at rolling spliffs like jst. mkes them so precise n neat....... it’s his super power. his fav thing to smoke frm is banana flavour papers.................... linking 2 this he’s like. bad w emotions bt he does try..... once his friend (maggie) ws sad so he brought her a spliff wrapped in grape flavoured paper bc it’s her fav fruit n jst like. wordlessly gave it to her. it’s the thought tht counts.....

PLOTS!!!!!

plays bass in a band which cld b a fun connection to get together??? i picture the music being like surf rock type like........... mac demarco...... bt he also luvs elliott smith n glass animals n the cure n metronomy n neutral milk hotel n talking heads n radiohead n mazzy star n wolf alice...................... idk jst like.... within tht ballpark i suppose i imagine it being................

mayb ppl he shares classes w?????? i’d like someone tht does a similar course n they hang out tgether when it comes to trips fr the module to museums or exhibits or wtever................ they both stand in front of paintings analysing it rly wrong n saying stuff like hmmmmmmmmm....... i do declare i see a, uh..... large phallus protruding from the centre of this image...... moves something in me.......... n some elderly person looking at it besides them is like Ergh. sickened n disgraced. leaves w a brow severely furrowed

someone he smokes w on the moris rooftop late at night when he cnt sleep??? mayb they’re up n cnt sleep either fr whtever reason n it’s become an unspoken kind of ritual where they always clamber out n find each other there n jst wordlessly keep them company

jude is kind of like. protective almost to a fault sometimes........... mayb some guy he’s punched......................... if they hurt someone he cares abt........... typically it wld hv been a girl he ws kind of like. affected by his first relationship bc she had a bad home situation n ever since jst wnts..... to Protect it’s kind of like an automatic instinct ingrained in him nw 😔 all sounds very noble n well bt sometimes it cn b a bit of an escalation i wnt lie

perhaps a few hook-ups??? jude doesn’t tend to sleep w ppl he rly knows bc he just..... likes it to b an impersonal thing doesn’t like getting attached fr various reasons so mayb they only kno each other via this OR mayb he bent his rules a bit..... cld either work seamlessly or hv added drama if one side hs mre feelings or whtever

currently living in moris w 2 roommates bt i’d love some neighbours perhaps..... mayb someone tht lives directly nxt door to his room n is like ://// bc he plays music loud n weeds always drifting frm his window n mking their room smell if theirs is open too................. or mayb they get on..... mayb there’s a rly mean seagull tht lands on a branch n poos on pedestrians n they both commentate on it frm their windows like david attenborough...... they’re like he’s at it again. they’ve named him n everything

HONESTLY anything if u have an idea hmu i’d love 2 hear it.......... rubs my hands tgether in excitement to plot up a storm w u all

[sjrresearch]

Thou Art Mortal – Or Why Cataloging Your Wargaming Collections is a Good Idea!

I know it is the holiday season, and things are, of course, supposed to be cheery and bright, but I want to take up a subject that is of importance to us all. What do our loved ones do with our wargaming collections when we go to that big convention in the sky? It is going to happen to all of us, like it or not. And, I have heard some horror stories of distraught spouses throwing up their hands and throwing out collections that took years and thousands of dollars to build.

Then there is the issue of what if the worst happens? Say your house burns down or floods? You have insurance, sure? But do you really know how much your collection is worth? And do you want to leave it in the hands of a non-gamer insurance adjuster who has no idea the man-hours and work you put into those 15mm Napoleonic French Imperial Guard?

Look, we all joke about “Don’t paint your last figure” or “May my spouse never sell my wargaming stuff for what I told them I paid for it.” But let us face it, our spouses are going to have enough to deal with without the pain of having thousands of miniatures or hundreds of books and games to remind them you are not there anymore. 

This article was inspired by an article in Miniature Wargames January 2021 issue by Conrad Kinch, entitled “Don’t Fear the Reaper” (catchy title, no?). In it, he summarizes some ideas and concepts for miniature wargamers about how one should have “the talk” with their spouses about what to do with their collection, as well as where to find a catalog of their collection. He also does a great job of discussing how to have “the talk” with your spouses and directs readers to an incredibly good idea online, the Wargame Collection Calculator. This calculator not only allows you to list your collection but give a ballpark estimate on what they are worth. This is a boon to distraught spouses and/or confused insurance companies! 

Mr. Kinch’s advice is practical and smart, but I also want to discuss how I did it and how you should have a talk with your spouse… and your insurance company! Is this part of the project done? Nope. I still have a lot to catalog and go through, but at 46, I have some time. Better to do it now while you can, then when circumstances do not allow it.

The Talk

This, to me, in some ways, is the hardest part. I have only been married to my current spouse for three years. I love my wife, and I anticipate and pray we will have a long life together. But she is a bit younger than me, and the law of averages says I will probably pass on first. 

The talk consists of two phases:

The talk with the spouse: I waited a year after we got married. And then I showed her the breath of the collection. We talked frankly about it. She has a good idea of where everything is. Or at least where to start looking, and she has a good idea who might be interested in the stuff after I am gone, or where it would be in case we have a bad fire or something? 

Talk to some trusted friends. I mean trusted. I have two or three I have asked to help my wife if the worst happens. They know what to do, and I trust they will work hard to get the best price for her and do their best to dispose of the collection properly. I have seen some horror stories of non-gamer spouses being lowballed or outright robbed by so-called “friends.” 

Formalize it. Lay it out in your will or trust what you want to be done with your collection when you pass on. The more you do now? The better off everyone will be. 

Cataloging Your Stuff and Insuring It

This is the most important step, and it is not something you have to do all in one go. While the Wargame Collection Calculator is nice, an Excel Spreadsheet or Google Sheets doc can probably do everything it does. 

One thing to keep in mind, the insurance information given on the Wargame Collection Calculator site is for British wargamers. Thus, the information is based on British insurance laws. Check the laws in your state and your home or renter’s insurance policies! Call your agent and, if they do not know, ask if they know someone who does. There are many policies out there covering sci-fi fans and their collections. It would not be hard to find one that fits your wargaming collection.  If they offer a collectibles rider, take it. It is worth the little extra for the peace of mind it gives you. One good company for this is the one we are with, USAA! I have insured my collection for quite a bit for a reasonable sum, so I am not sweating a loss if it happens. Some things are irreplaceable, as is the nature of gaming, but insurance is a good idea for the most part.

Even if you insure your stuff, catalog it. If you pass on, it will help with the disposal of the collection for a price that is fair to your spouse? And it allows you to get a snapshot of your collection. I know many wargamers are not big Marie Kondo fans, but it is a cool idea to be able to look at your spreadsheet and say, “Man, I still have this??” An occasional purge of the collection is never a bad idea. 

Conclusion

To sum up, a good wargamer and spouse should be prepared for any eventuality with their collections, be it fire, flood, or their eventual passing. Be good to those you love and to yourself and take steps to make sure that your collection is protected, insured, cataloged, and you have named who you want to help those you love to take care of it, or you have got a detailed list for the insurance adjuster. A little effort can go a long way in these matters.

Till Next Time, Good Gaming!

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At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.

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(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)