#and at least 2 unidentified brands

[haemosexuality]

my face when my mom walked into my room and im sorting all my pencils by color and type while watching spongebob conspiracy theories on youtube

[nightingaelic]

Things that are Now Fallout Canon

(according to the Special LIVE Report from Galaxy News that preceded the Fallout TV series' teaser trailer release on December 2, 2023)

Vault 33, the focus vault of the Fallout television series, is located beneath Santa Monica, California. It's also implied to be very, very expensive to get into.

Bottle and Cappy, the mascots for Nuka-Cola and its theme park, Nuka-World, were about to embark on a seventeen-movie-long series of animated films before the bombs fell.

The sinking of the RMS Titanic happened in Fallout's alternate universe. The news announcer jokes about the world going down like the infamous ship, including the deadly lack of lifeboats.

Camels exist in this universe, too! The news announcer actually fucks this one up, because he says dromedary camels have two humps - dromedary camels have one hump, while Bactrian camels have two. Or maybe we'll get a sound bite from Todd Howard in a few months where he claims the camel breed names are swapped in Fallout, who knows.

Pets were not allowed in the commercially-advertised vaults. The news announcer regrettably informs listeners that they can't bring their cats, dogs, or even fish with them due to logistical concerns and safety hazards, but they are more than welcome to purchase Vault-Tec-branded gravestones and hold pet funerals before they move underground. Hypothetically-speaking, it wouldn't surprise me if people tried to smuggle their animals in, anyway.

Someone stole the Fallout universe's original moon landing flag from the Museum of Technology in Washington, D.C. - another headline report, with no further details. It was in the same exhibit as the Virgo II lunar lander, which stayed put for at least 200 years.

Vault Boy was named "World's Sexiest Man" in 2077 (when the report is being aired) - no word about which publication or organization bestowed this title upon an animated mascot.

Vault-Tec trademarked the thumbs-up emoji in the Fallout universe - which is very much in character for the company, but something about there being emojis in the world at all hit me wrong.

Vault-Tec instituted a "breeder search program" alongside vault placement purchases, and encouraged polyamory to get people to procreate (and buy more vault spots). I'll admit that this one seems plausible but shaky, because by this point in the report the news announcer is losing his mind while stalling for the vault door to open, and he might just be making shit up.

Nuka-Cola ran its own version of the Pizza Hut "BOOK IT!" reading program, called "ZAP IT!" Kids were required to read over 10,000 books to win rewards. If we use picture books for the math, and allow for five minutes to read each book, that's about 833 hours (34 straight days) of reading to get some soda.

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville and the ancient Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus both exist in the Fallout universe.

Resulting Thoughts

"The ghoul" in the show is possibly named Howard - unsure if that's a first or last name. In the teaser trailer, Walton Goggins (who plays the ghoul) is shown dressed like a Hollywood cowboy on the day of the Great War, riding a horse to try to escape the nuclear bombs that hit Los Angeles with an unidentified child. Meanwhile, the Galaxy News headlines report that a box office hit called "The Man From Deadhorse" is getting a sequel, which is currently filming at California Crest Studios, and the news announcer says the film is "Howard-led." Whether the ghoul is the lead actor, we don't know, but it seems like a solid enough hint at his origins.

I'm glad that the show is going to delve more into the idea of the haves and have-nots, what with vault entrance being both selective and expensive. The most recent games in the series don't talk about this enough, in my opinion.

This isn't specific to the show adaptation, but it's becoming more noticeable to me that the Fallout series is crawling forward in terms of relating to modernity. I'm not sure how to feel about this - for example, I don't really mind if the soundtrack of Fallout 76 features the Beach Boys and other 1960s songs when it used to be strictly limited to 1930s and 40s music. On the other hand, I thought that using a news announcer that sounds more like a modern podcast host than a Transatlantic-accented journalist was an odd choice, and as I said above, I really did not like the idea that pre-war America knows what an emoji is. I'll get over it, but I'm anticipating that there will be some more artistic choices in the adaptation (and future games) that rub me and others the wrong way because they don't fit our definition of what Fallout "is." I'm not saying anything new, people have been arguing about that forever.

Overall, I'm excited. We're probably not getting a new Fallout game until 2030, so I might as well try to enjoy this. I will be keeping my bingo cards handy, though.

Anyway, I transcribed the damn report because I'm very normal. Feel free to use!

Fallout - A Special LIVE Report from Galaxy News

with occasional commentary from yours truly

[An upbeat, strings-led orchestral jingle plays, and black-and-white picture focuses on a spinning, silver globe. The globe is being circled by a vintage toy rocket. The words "GALAXY NEWS" fly in, and are quickly wiped and replaced by script declaring "Vault-Tec Presents..." The picture is circle-wiped and transitions to a high view of a vault entrance, with no visible script or markings to indicate which vault it is. The large, circular vault door is closed, and the access bridge to the door is not connected. A timer counting down from 60 minutes is overlaid in the bottom left corner, just above the Galaxy News globe logo and a signal tower graphic next to the word "LIVE." News headlines scroll along the bottom of the screen, the first of which reads "GALAXY NEWS SIGNS 10-YEAR PARTNERSHIP DEAL WITH VAULT-TEC." The headlines are separated by small lightning bolt graphics. The music continues throughout, and a male news announcer's voice cuts in.]

Good morning! Or, afternoon! Or evening, depending on where in the world you are. If you're just tuning in with us now, you're in for a treat. Welcome to the unveiling of Vault 33, one of the flagship vaults of Vault-Tec's arsenal of vaults.

[The second scrolling headline reads "VAULT-TEC VOTED AMERICAN COMPANY WITH BRIGHTEST FUTURE."]

Galaxy News is here live with an exclusive look at the next generation of apocalypse-proof, purpose-built luxury housing, sponsored by our friends at Vault-Tec. Vault-Tec: Revolutionizing safety for an uncertain future.

[The third scrolling headline reads "ROBCO INTERPLANETARY PROBE PROBES DEEPER INTO SPACE THAN ANY PROBE HAS PROBED BEFORE."]

If you're a regular viewer of our programming, we consider you an astute, engaged citizen, doing your part to stay informed on the latest news impacting this beautiful country of ours, and so it will be no surprise to you that we are on the precipice of a nuclear armageddon. But, fear not, Vault-Tec is building the ultimate shelter-in-place solution for the more doomsday-savvy customer: A veritable ark meticulously designed to weather the geopolitical storm surely headed our way any day now. And for the first time on live broadcast, the fine folks at Vault-Tec will be giving you a tour of their newest product unveiling, from the comfort of your home.

[The announcer takes a break, and the music swells. The vault remains closed, and no activity whatsoever is visible around it. It might as well be a static image. The fourth scrolling headline reads "NUKA-WORLD BREAKS ATTENDANCE RECORD FOR FOURTH STRAIGHT YEAR. GALACTIC ZONE GIVEN CREDIT FOR INCREASED NUMBERS." The initial song ends, and a new strings song with a more staccato rhythm begins. The news announcer returns.]

Welcome, once again, to Vault 33, nestled in the coastal west side of sunny Los Angeles County, and minutes from the yet-to-be-destroyed, bustling downtown promenade. Should nuclear annihilation one day come for this quiet beach-side town, you can take comfort in knowing you are safely buried deep, deep below what numerous trade publications once called "one of the best places to live." Right now, ladies and gentlemen, what you're looking at is peace of mind. Billions and billions of dollars and decades of R&D funneled into the high-grade protection engineering that only Vault-Tec can bring you.

[The fifth scrolling headline reads "WE ASKED OUR VIEWERS TO ANSWER A SIMPLE QUESTION: WHAT IS THE GREATEST NATION ON EARTH AND WHY IS IT AMERICA? HEAR THE RESULTS TONIGHT AT 10PM EST." At this point, the news announcer starts to sound less formal and more excited.]

Aren't we a bunch of lucky ducks! Vault-Tec has tapped us into their closed loop security feed to bring you a sneak peek behind a vault entrance airlock. That large, fortified steel blast door you see there is the only thing standing between you and the rads.

[The sixth scrolling headline reads "UNITED STATES AGAIN ACCUSED OF ATMOSPHERIC COUNTER-ESPIONAGE BY THE REDS."]

Very soon - very soon, I'm told - Arnold? Are we - yeah - and we're very soon, and we're very soon. Very, very soon, I'm told, that gear door will open, and Galaxy News will be on the ground to give you all a walking tour of the facilities! Including the accommodations one might expect in a state-of-the-art, modern residence thanks to a partnership with RobCo Industries and some of your shelf-stable forever favorites like BlamCo and Sugar Bombs! There's nowhere to hide from explosive good taste! Boom!

[The news announcer disappears again, and the strings conclude and are replaced with a meandering clarinet-led number. Several scrolling headlines go by: "U.S. RENEWS DEFENSE CONTRACT WITH WEST TEK, HERALDS VALUE OF POWER ARMOR IN ALL THEATERS OF WAR." "ESPIONAGE THREAT SUBDUED IN DOMESTIC URANIUM MINES." "PRESIDENT DECLARES NUCLEAR STOCKPILE 'SAFE ENOUGH.'" "BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENCES SETS DOOMSDAY CLOCK TO HALF A NANOSECOND TO MIDNIGHT." "ATLAS OBSERVATORY CHRISTENS NEW TELESCOPE, RE-COMMITTING TO A NON-VIOLENT PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE." The song ends, a new one begins, and the news announcer returns. The vault still hasn't opened, and he's dropped what was left of his professional tone.]

And we are... stalled out. We're still... having technical difficulties. You know, sometimes things go bad and there's just no way you can plan. It's kind of like what's happening with the world right now, there's no way you could've been born into the world and know how you were going to end - know how the world would end. How will the world end, in fire or in ice? Well, it turns out -

[laughter]

It turns out it's gonna be fire...

[The twelfth scrolling headline reads "CHRISTMAS TOY TRENDS: RETAILERS REPORT SHORTAGE OF POWER ARMOR FIGURINES."]

Arnold! What's that? Okay. Yes.

[sound of paper pages being flipped through]

Okay. Arnold just handed me a fun fact. We're gonna do fun facts, fun facts.

[The thirteenth scrolling headline reads "NUKA-COLA QUANTUM GETS FDA APPROVAL, FOUND TO CONTAIN 'HEALTHY AMOUNT OF RADIATION."]

Fun fact about the construction of these massive vaults: They use concrete. Hm. That hardly counts as a fun fact, Arnold. Now is there an update on when the door... the door's gonna be open? Arnold? I'm sorry, is there an update on the door? Is there an update on the crane? Is it a crane problem, or a door problem? Is it a pr- is it a crane problem, or a door problem? Arnold? Arnold! Arnie!

[sigh]

Okay...

[The news announcer gives up, and a song with a lot of muted trumpet comes in to serenade more scrolling headlines. "NO ONE'S BEATING THIS DEADHORSE. 'THE MAN FROM DEADHORSE' TOPS BOX OFFICE. A SEQUEL IS ALREADY IN THE WORKS AT CALIFORNIA CREST STUDIOS." "ATLAS WEATHER EXPERIMENT BELIEVED TO BE THE CAUSE OF UNEXPECTED SNOW FLURRY IN LOS ANGELES." "DEVELOPING: REDS CONTINUES TO DENY EXISTENCE OF STEALTH SUBMARINES, US INTELLIGENCE SUGGESTS OTHERWISE." Woodwinds replace the trumpet, and the news announcer returns, pivoting to an unrehearsed sales pitch for his sponsor.]

If you have the money, please - please, guys - get a Vault-Tec vault. Get in there! Think of it as a life raft, a bit. Our country is the Titanic, and these vaults are the life rafts - right? - attached to the side of it.

[The seventeenth scrolling headline reads "NUKA-COLA MASCOTS 'BOTTLE AND CAPPY' TO APPEAR IN ANIMATED FILM FROM CALIFORNIA CREST STUDIOS. WILL BE THE FIRST IN A SEVENTEEN PICTURE DEAL BETWEEN THE COMPANIES."]

Now, were there enough life rafts on the Titanic? If you remember - no, no there weren't enough, and so many, many people died, and so, it's a nice allegory actually, because they're not going to die in the freezing ocean, which would be - actually, it's a little faster to die by fire than it is by drowning in the cold, so it is kind of an advantage to be dying now, th- rather than on the Titanic, the RMS Titanic.

[The eighteenth scrolling headline reads "SUPPLY LINES FOR RED FORCES BREAKING DOWN." Sort of like this announcer. He pivots again.]

Now - can you call a survivor of a nuclear holocaust a person, anymore? I don't know. Their brain is going to be cottage cheese, and they will be crawling... crawling on the ground, stuffing sand in their mouth, their blind eyes melted out, like the white of an egg, just dripping and dribbling out of their eye sockets.

[The nineteenth scrolling headline reads "VAULT-TEC ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF VAULT 33 UNDER SANTA MONICA, CA."]

They raise their face towards their... god... and scream, "Nooooo! Whyyyyyy! What did it all mean?" It turns out it didn't mean much if you didn't get a spot in a Vault-Tec vault."

[The twentieth scrolling headline reads "MILITARY UNITS SENT TO QUELL UNREST IN SEVERAL STATES."]

"Now, let's talk about the luxury interiors of Vault-Tec vaults. We have camel leather. You've heard of cow leather. Probably. Camel leather is a great deal softer, isn't it? It comes from the camel, who keep their water on their backs in a hump. Sometimes two, if they're a dromedary. Now, let's talk about camel leather and why it is more supple, and why it is cooler to the touch, and we can talk about it forever but what you want is luxury, what you need is safety: Where you go is Vault-Tec. That's it.

[I feel like I need to point out that dromedary camels only have one hump, and no camels store water in their humps: It's actually just fat up there that they can live off of while traversing deserts. Regardless, the announcer is gone again. The scrolling headlines remain. "NUKA CORP SPINS OFF ATOMIC RESEARCH ARM INTO SEPARATE CORPORATE ENTITY AFTER SEC APPROV." "SUPER DUPER MART ANNOUNCES RECALL OF BLAMCO MAC & CHEESE FOR TRACE AMOUNTS OF DAIRY." "VAULT-TEC STOCKS SOAR AS US ECONOMY BECOMES FEAR-BASED." "BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND LASERS TAKE DOWN NATIONWIDE WEAPONS SMUGGLING RING." Another woodwind-heavy song starts up, and so does our announcer.]

Um... Arnold?

[throat clearing]

Arnie! Can we- do- do we have a- can we start a clock? Can we - is there, like, anything we can do? I feel like people need something to hold onto, there's a lot of empty air. There's a lot of dead air, here. People need something to hold onto, people are freaking out, and I'm freaking out because I like to have - I like to bring people comfort - uh, in, in this crazy time. There's, there's only a few things you can predict -

[laughter]

In - in the world, and uh, I thought that opening the vault on time would be one of those things.

[The twenty-fifth scrolling headline reads "MILITARY SETS THREAT LEVEL OF POSSIBLE BIOLOGICAL WEAPON ATTACK FROM REDS TO HIGH."]

I was kind of counting on it as a - a thing that would bring some amount of normalcy, some amount of comfort. Something happening the way it's supposed to in a world that feels like it has been turned upside down by evil. But, unfortunately that is not the case. Here we are. Another thing we don't know. Another thing we have to grapple with.

[The twenty-sixth scrolling headline reads "TEDDY FEAR MANUFACTURER SETTLES CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT, DENIES TOY BEAR CAUSES SLEEP PARALYSIS NIGHTMARES IN CHILDREN."]

This particular vault and these technical difficulties that we're having right now have absolutely nothing to do with the product that you will buy when you buy a Vault-Tec vault. Now, Vault-Tec vault living is living the dream, and it's the only way to safety unless you're... the President of the United States, or something like that, and you have a mountain in Colorado to go under and direct the events of the world. Not many of us are that, there's only one of those... uh, and his various and sundry advisors, I'm sure they'll be fine, but you won't! You won't be fine!

[The twenty-seventh scrolling headline reads "WERE TEDDY FEAR BEARS MISUNDERSTOOD? ONE PSYCHOLOGIST THINKS SO."]

If a vault is out of your price range, there are lower-cost alternatives to purchasing a spot with Vault-Tec. They don't sound... good, if you ask me. Anti-radiation pills? Good luck with that. Not sure how anti-radiation pills will hold up against temperatures rivaling the surface of the sun, for example. But maybe that's just me!

[He's gone again. We're 15 minutes into the countdown, and the woodwinds have really started to outdo their own whimsy, at this point. Headlines continue. "TEDDY FEARS SKYROCKET IN POPULARITY AND PRICE DUE TO SCARCITY CAUSED BY RECALL." "VAULT-TEC ANNOUNCES NEWLY AVAILABLE SINGLE VAULT SPACES FOR SALE." "THIS YEAR'S FALLOUT SUIT DESIGN FEATURES ENHANCED PROTECTION, 20% MORE ZIPPERS." The whimsical woodwinds finish up and a bouncy, brassy horn piece takes over. This summons the announcer.]

When you see that vault, it's all gonna be worth it, fellas. It's all gonna be worth it when you see that vault. Now kids, you're probably wondering: Can I bring my pet doggy, or my pet kitty, into the vault? You can't. Unfortunately... it's a hazard in so many different ways. Uh... tch, uh, their hair can get caught in the ventilation system, you'll have endless problems, where do you put their waste? Where do you put... their food? So many, so many problems, so... we have specially-made Vault-Tec gravestones.

[The thirty-first scrolling headline reads "VIRGO II LUNAR LANDER NOW ON DISPLAY AT MUSEUM OF TECHNOLOGY IN WASHINGTON, D.C."]

We have specially-made Vault-Tec pet gravestones for your children to have many funerals for their pets before you go into your Vault-Tec vault. Memorialize your pets now with Vault-Tec mini pet gravestones! Dig a hole in the sand, put the pet in there, and put that gravestone - and it's got a space where you can write the pet's name - right before you go in the vault, no pets in the vault. Not even fish. No, not even fish.

[The thirty-second scrolling headline reads "FLAG FROM VIRGO II LUNAR LANDING STOLEN FROM MUSEUM OF TECHNOLOGY." The news announcer is really getting aggravated.]

What is happening? What is - Arnie! What is - what is happening? Okay - okay! Alright!

[The music and the headlines fill the space again. "NUKA-WORLD TO RAISE TICKET PRICES FOR UPCOMING SEASON, EXPECTING AN 'EXPLOSIVE' YEAR." "GWINNETT ANNOUNCES NEW PALE ALE SO PALE IT'S TRANSPARENT." "HAPPY NATIONAL SOCK HOP DAY!" "VAULT BOY NAMED WORLD'S SEXIEST MAN." The news announcer tries again, attempting to play up the complete inactivity happening onscreen.]

So much is happening here, we've got... the crane, as you can see, it's - it's about to be lowered, and I'm told - and I'm told... the weather. The inclement weather is - keep - I think the weather... there's a pressure cha- it needs to be - yes, of course. The pressure needs to be right to open the vault, or else the differential pressure between underground and overground will cause... a, uh... uh, the furniture to, uh...

[The thirty-seventh scrolling headline reads "VAULT-TEC REGISTERS TRADEMARK ON THE THUMBS UP EMOJI." This one made me physically recoil.]

L- Look... get a Vault-Tec vault. If you can't afford a whole vault for your family, that's fine. Buy time in a timeshare, one of our timeshares. And it's not the kind of timeshare you're going to regret, this is one that's not a scam, because you can look down at your intact body in a Vault-Tec vault and say, "Look at me! I'm whole!"

[The thirty-eighth scrolling headline reads "NUKA-COLA PATRIOTICALLY SALUTES SUCCESS OF NEWEST FLAVOR LAUNCH - NUKA-COLA VICTORY. EXCLUSIVE REDESIGN COMING NEXT YEAR WITH 'A TASTE AS SWEET AS FREEDOM.'"]

Stay whole in a Vault-Tec vault! Keep it together, meaning your corporeal form! Keep it together in a Vault-Tec vault! You'll be skipping around in a workout area, and... check out those barbells! Why not work those biceps while you're down here? What if there's an emergency, and somebody breaches your Vault-Tec vault door? Well, you're gonna want to be in shape to fight off that rageful beast!

[At this point the scrolling headlines loop back to the beginning.]

Now, is it a human? If you kill it, will its soul go to heaven or hell? Don't worry about it! Just get it out, because even its presence in your Vault-Tec vault could kill you and your entire family! These people are irradiated. It's not healthy, right? It's like putting your hand on a radiator. Don't do it.

[Music break. That vault still isn't opening. The song ends, and the news announcer clears his throat.]

We don't... have the exact scoop yet, ladies and gentlemen, so Arnie, why don't we put some music on while we wait for the skinny?

[noticeable pause]

I- I- I- I- don't know what song, put on anything, I'm dying up here.

[The next song opens with energetic trumpets that sound like they're charging through a movie theater snack stand. It's followed by a big band track that seems to re-energize the announcer.]

And, if you're just joining us, we're preparing to head inside the latest and greatest product offering from Vault-Tec. Vault 33, a pristine subterranean society purpose-built for America's best and brightest to wait out the nuclear fallout. There's no telling what will remain once this global conflict reaches its inevitable conclusion: That's why it's important for patriots like you to purchase a guaranteed spot in America's future. It's up to you to keep our golden society going, propagating forth until we have the ranks to repopulate the world outside.

"What if I don't have a partner or family right now?" you may be asking. "Don't give up on love so soon!" I say. Where better to meet eligible partners than in a cherry-picked community of like-minded individuals? If you find you need a bit more assistance, Vault-Tec has breeder search programs to help you find the one, or the two, or the three, four, five! Vault-Tec is a very open society, so go ahead and purchase that single vault space, and that single may become a double before you know it! And what better place to find someone to love, than safe underground?

Please stay tuned as we prepare to bring the crew, and the world at large, inside our Vault-Tec facility.

"But what if I don't have the money for a vault right now?" you may be thinking. You should never let not having the funds today stop you from reaching your dreams. You can always pay tomorrow, into perpetuity. Vault-Tec is reportedly constructing financial packages that allow for customers to continue payments on select economy vaults, in the event of total societal extinction. So don't worry, purchase away! Vault-Tec upholds traditional American values, and they believe no one should be excluded from the pursuit of life, liberty, and debt.

[Music break, wherein the song concludes and switches to something more pensive and staccato.]

A- Alright? Yes? Arnold is telling me - yes? We are moments away! Moments away - from having some kind of movement here. I'll believe that when I see it. Sorry Arnie, but your credibility with me could not be any lower at this point.

Let's talk about the amenities in these concrete miracles. Radiation King will be providing television sets, modern kitchen appliances.

[throat clearing]

The sofas will be... I'm sorry, do we know who makes the sofas? I'm sorry, do we - do we know who makes the sofas? Do we know who makes the sofas? Arnold, do we know who makes the sofas?

[Arnold does not reply. The announcer is miffed.]

What else is new. Yeah.

[Dejection turns to anger immediately.]

If you could please just give me something? If you could please just give me something to update? I'm sitting here with nothing! I'm sitting here... with nothing! This isn't my job! I'm a journalist! I report things, I don't... vamp! Is there even a - is, is there a clue? Is there, do the crane people - have the crane people chimed in? Have the door people chimed in? Is it all one person?

[Arnold presumably says some inaudible form of "I don't know." This does not please the news announcer.]

Well maybe con- maybe connect yourself to them. You should get yourself a radio. Get yourself a radio, Arnold. That's your job, to communicate with me the facts about what's going on, and it's my job to communicate to the people who are watching - we're trying to save their lives - you know, and this isn't advertising for me. This is a product I believe in!

Arnold, what do you do? What skills do you - are you somebody's son? Are you - are you somebody's kid, or something?

[Arnold can finally be heard, somewhat garbled from distance or technology: "My uncle is, uh, is the general manager of Galaxy News, your employer." The news announcer considers this.]

Your uncle is the manager of Galaxy New - mmm. Well, that explains how you got this internship. I'm sorry for everything I said, but... you can understand my frustration, here.

[The music concludes, but the announcer keeps going.]

The, uh, vault foreman is out here, and he is, uh, uh, doing hand signals. Ooh, yes, it's going to be a while, let's play some music for the people, Arnie.

[A new song starts. We're nearly 30 minutes into the countdown before the song switches over and the news announcer starts up again.]

All right folks, we have an update! They've got eyes on the gatekeeper out walking the grounds. It appears he was attempting to retrace his steps after misplacing the key and his wallet - still no word on the key itself, please stand by for more on the wallet, as this story continues to unfold.

Still on standby as we wait for the situation in the vault to resolve, but folks, there is plenty to get the American public up to speed on in the meantime. World news stories! Breaking, breaking news from the international desk. Peace negotiations between America and her adversaries crumbled in Anchorage, Alaska, this past weekend, a city recently liberated from foreign occupation, leading experts to believe nuclear war is indeed on the horizon. One more reason, America, to tune into the presentation Vault-Tec has for us today. Preparation, resilience, and smart spending are the only way our precious republic makes it through that long, dark night.

[This revelation approximates the date of the broadcast, which is happening not long after the Battle of Anchorage. The clash in Alaska officially ended on January 10, 2077: This news bulletin proves that attempted peace negotiations followed, then failed.]

Going the way of the dinosaurs has never felt this fun! If only the dinosaurs had Vault-Tec technology. Now, the dinosaurs died because... a meteor came from space, right? They had nothing to do with it. We have everything to do with our own demise. It's almost like… people are a virus that is destroying the Earth, we're a planet-killing virus. And people do say, "Oh, well, you know, well, the cockroaches... will outlive us and the the aardvarks or whatever will outlive us." Well, they won't. They're going to die too, because this is the real deal, guys. This is the end. So if you're not underground, I don't know what you're doing.

I wonder how we'll evolve. Will we develop a different kind of skin, some kind of leathery, plastic skin to fight off the nuclear fire? Who knows, but the only way to find out is to purchase a Vault-Tec vault, or a space in one of our timeshares.

[Music break again. It's a rather lively waltz.]

For those gathered around their Radiation King TV sets today, thank you for your patience. Rome wasn't built in a day!

[laughter]

Very soon you will witness… one of the greatest modern advances since the Virgo II moon landing - you won't want to miss this, the future of you and your future children depends on it.

[Exasperation sets in.]

Honestly, who wrote this copy?

[Arnold presumably raises his hand.]

You did, Arnold? Well, that's not surprising. It leaves… yes, well, it leaves a lot to be desired. They couldn't hire a professional writer? You look like you're 15 years old.

[Arnold inaudibly corrects him.]

You're 23? Yeah, well, 23-year-olds look like they're 15 now, still too young. What could you know about the - what could you possibly know about the written word, Arnold? Goddamn it. What could you - what do you know about writing and oratory? Nothing, I'll answer y- for you, nothing. The lack of professionalism - myself not included - disgusts me. The lack of professionalism disgusts me, Arnold!

Speaking of nuclear fire, you should see the muffin tray they left out for me. People want a blueberry mu- you want a muffin, okay? A muffin. Not a little squirt of dough, with a little powdered su- give me a muffin, give me a real thing, okay? Give me some snacks! You're going to give me some coffee? Good. I need a snack, to balance it. I'm not the only person in the world who needs a little bit of fat in their stomach when they eat a... big haul of caffeine.

[throat clearing]

Stand by as we wait for the situation in the vault to resolve.

[The music does some flourishes, then finishes.]

Ladies and gentlemen, it's official: We're experiencing some technical difficulties. And before we can open the vault - Vault 33, our flagship vault, full of the, uh, finest luxury items available to mankind, a- as of now - maybe we could put something on to keep people company while we figure out the technical difficulties. Sorry, these difficulties of course have nothing to do with Vault-Tec's vault tech. In- in- indeed…

Look, I need to have a whole cigarette right now. Just put on the song. Where are my smokes?

[The music starts up again while the announcer burns through a cigarette at the speed of a Corvega.]

Well, well, well! Here we are again! Ladies and gentlemen, we're dealing with a hiccup. Now, hiccups... might seem like a momentary stoppage, but this is a big hiccup. It's like God is hiccuping.

Vault-Tec is reporting that there's only one gatekeeper and one key on this vault model. The keys for these vaults are one of one, it fits like a glove, but it's - it's - these - these locks are very, very complicated.

God, it's so good to be on the other side of this. I don't think people know. People really don't know what's coming, and that's probably good. If you haven't watched… if you haven't watched the news up to this point, don't pick it up. Don't… just try and stay ignorant, uh, really don't find out what's going to happen because… it's bad, um, it's over.

[laughter]

The Earth is a slaughterhouse, and we are cattle!

[laughter]

We- we'll go back into, uh, a society resembling Bronze Age Mesopotamia. That's where we're going. It's not fun. Um... disease is… really prominent, um… we don't treat women well - let's just face it, it's - they - we don't treat them well now, but back then… oof. Rough. Rough treatment of women. You think we're racist now?

It's going to get bad. Where you want to be is underground. Vault-Tec vaults.

[A really tinny muted trumpet rises to its occasion as he disappears again for a bit.]

You know what else is great about Vault-Tec vaults? The air purification system. Let's talk about air. You need air to breathe, I need air to breathe, we need air to breathe. Vault-Tec's got it in spades! We've got oxygen candles straight from our finest nuclear submarines that you can burn, that turn nitrogen and carbon dioxide into oxygen molecules. Perfectly breathable, perfectly safe for your children, and your children's children, and your children's children's children in case we're there for three sweaty generations of sweaty living underground! In a fresh vault!

In fact, we put a family in a vault for 10 years and let them out just to see how it would go… and here they are now! "We loved it, uh… We loved it! That was great!" Uh… that's - I'm making it up! I'm making that up. I am imagining what could happen if I had more information about the vaults, but I don't have that information, so I'm making it up! Ha! Vault-Tec vaults, yes. Say yes to the tech!

[The music saves us for a bit.]

Unfortunately, we are back, the vault hasn't opened, and we have had absolutely no movement towards the vault opening, so! Hope you enjoyed that music. I know I was tapping my feet. Let's get back into it, where are we?

The US government has been quietly testing T-60 power armor suits as part of their long-standing defense contract with West Tek, following up the T-45 and T-51 efforts in the ongoing war with the People's Liberation Army.

[hisses through teeth]

How about that? How about that. The Man from Deadhorse gallops to a fast start at the box office! The Howard-led western is said to be the next smash for California Crest Studios.

[So the ghoul's name is probably Howard Something, or Something Howard. Interesting, but the announcer doesn't care and decides to throw another tantrum.]

Am I crazy or is this taking forever? I don't think I'm crazy, but I feel crazy! In fact, I might be the only person involved in this whole production who hasn't lost his mind! I'm looking at you, Arnie, I'm looking at you!

[Looking at Arnie yields nothing, again.]

"You don't know what to do, you don't know what to do." You idiot! I can't even get the word- I can't even get the information from you. Worthless!

[grunt of rage]

It's just me and Arnie here, I'm in hell, he's sitting there smiling at me, I'm in absolute hell!

Do you have a spot, Arnie? Do you have a spot in a vault? Oh! You do! What vault is that?

[long pause]

Oh, that's the one I'm in. Oh. Dear God.

[deep breath]

I guess we should get to know each other.

Ladies and gentlemen, we don't even know what's wrong here… but I can assure you that what isn't wrong is Vault-Tec technology, this has nothing to do with Vault-Tec's patented lock technology and everything to do with stupid people and human error. If you're this inefficient at work, what is home li- do - how do you wipe yourself?

[Uncalled-for, news announcer man.]

Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy this music while we figure out what's going on.

[Musical break number who knows. Just over 11 minutes remain on the countdown.]

In other sponsored news, Nuka-Cola is celebrating the success of one of their newest flavor launches, Nuka-Cola Victory, with an exclusive redesign release later next year. Students that read over 10,000 books can be part of the ZAP IT! Program, rewarding literacy with sugar!

[deep breath]

I don't like Nuka-Cola. Personally... I don't like Nuka-Cola. Too sweet. I don't drink it. But it's popular, I have stocks in it, I invest - I invest in it. I don't drink it. It's the way the world is. Just because it's popular, doesn't mean it's good, just because it's good, doesn't mean it's popular. A can of Nuka-Cola, what is that, it's energy slowed down, right? It's the energy of the universe slowed down, right? What are we, what am I? We are energy slowed down into the form of a human being. All that's about to stop.

[laughter]

All that's about to stop! All that's about to go away! Maybe there's life on other planets. Maybe there's not. Are they going to come save us, no! If I were on another planet, and I came here, I would have an endless belly laugh at our folly, I mean, the folly of man! It's funny, there's so much written about the "folly of man." I mean, read Moby-Dick. Read… uh… what di- what happened with the - the wax wings, the wax wing guy? Wax wing man, Mr. Wax Wings, Daedalus. What's his name?

[Arnold hazards a guess we can hear: "Shakespeare?"]

Arnold, Shakespeare? Arnold, Arnold, good god… Shakespeare? Where did you go - you went to one of these hippie schools...

[Arnold tries again: "I think it was Icarus?" The announcer is ecstatic.]

Icarus! Icarus. Wow! You are good for something. Wow, Arnie!

Now, Icarus, he was close to the sun. In a Vault-Tec vault, you'll be as far from it as possible. You will be up to 50 feet underground, in a Vault-Tec vault, safe and sound in the knowledge that the wax on your wings will not be anywhere close to anything that will make it melt, except our new Vault-Tec oven!

[The horns come in again.]

Where are you f- what's your family situation? Do you have kids or…

[Arnold probably shakes his head.]

No kids? Good for you.

[laughter]

Are you single?

[Arnold: "Yeah."]

Ahh, yeah. I wouldn't recommend going into a vault single. You might want to lock someone down and take you in there - if only to help you fight - and, uh, survive, it's good to have a partner. Yeah… oof!

Anyway, glad I'm safe and secure in my vault! Um… I'm in the tax bracket that kind of... automatically gets a vault, so, sorry everybody. Uh… I'll be, uh, doing this thing called surviving, while you are all burning.

[deep breath]

What's the point of any of this? What's the point of any of this? Nobody - nobody listening to this can afford one of these things. Everybody listening to this is about to turn into an idea!

[laughter]

Instead of a being! But, here we are! Let's whoop it up! Let's whoop it up! It's a big parade… for the end of mankind! It's a big parade! Here's the final celebration, Arnie! Here we are!

Let's stake our claim in a dying planet! Let's plant our flag in a dead rock, and see how we feel. Let's see how we feel after the flag is planted, Arnie.

[a deep sigh]

I don't know how much longer I can do this, man.

[another deep breath]

My voice hurts, I'm thirsty, we're out of water, the muffins they laid out at the top of the day are dry and old, I feel dry and I feel old.

I give up! I give up.

[chuckles]

What's the point of this? I mean, what's the point of anything? I'm... I'm broken.

[Emotion creeps in.]

I'm broken. I'm changed. I am broken and I have changed. I…

[one more deep breath]

Thanks to you, Arnie. Thanks to you, man. Thanks, you're the best, yeah, thanks to you, pal. Thanks to you, buddy boy. You are just awful. You disgust me. Yeah, I'm just - I'm sorry. I'm - I'm just… I'm fried, man. I'm - I'm fried, pal. I'm fried. Dead. Gravestone, dead. Oh yeah, that's, okay.

Oh, god. Where are we in the process of the door opening?

[Arnold: "Yeah, it's over."]

What?

[A record scratch stops the music. Two minutes remain on the countdown.]

What's that? Oh!

[The announcer clears his throat, and the music changes to a triumphant fanfare.]

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm getting word. Ladies and gentlemen... I've gotten word that we are star- we are starting, ladies and gentlemen. It's happening! Here we are! Here we are, we got it, we got it, and now…

N- and now, this afternoon is unlike any other afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It was the morning, now it's the afternoon - here we go! The crane is loweri- Here we go!

[relieved laughter]

Okay! Really close to the time where I can go, and get out of here! The crane is lowering, it is happening, the tumblers are tumbling! The crane is lowering, the tumblers are tumbling, we are… go! We're going! It's opening! It's opening!

[The static image of the vault has not changed in the slightest bit.]

You try doing this! You try doing this, Arnie! You try filling the time! Next time we'll switch places, Arnie, and you can try it! Oh boy, oh boy, here we go, thank god we're doing it and it's happening. I see motion, I see- I see Vault-Tec… I am convinced! Guys, this is great, it's been great, Arnie? It's been great. Arnie, it's been great. You know, I hope we are in the same vault. I'd like to spend the rest of my life with you, Arnie.

[slightly unhinged laughter]

As long as this happens right now, I am fine with spending the rest of my life with you! As long as the vault opens right now. The fact that nuclear fire could fall from the sky at any moment has made this broadcast that much more important. Thank you, thank you so much for joining us!

[adultswim2021]

Freaknik: The Musical | March 7, 2010 - 11:30PM | Special

Whither That Crook’d ‘Sipp? 

Freaknik: the Musical! A special that I’m ill-equipped to truly go deep on because 1) I am a cracker-ass and 2) I live in a hell of my own making and sometimes it's far too difficult to tune out. Oh well! I’ll give it a shot, yuh know? See what happens! Also: I pledge to not google anything about this, so I will be speaking from my threadbare knowledge of the subject at hand.

Freaknik is based on a real-life recurring block party, or outdoor music fest, or something like that, held, uh, probably annually in, I’m guessing, Atlanta, Georgia. It probably has rap stuff going on and people probably have a lotta fun listening to live music and attempting to find sex partners among it's many attendees. I have gleaned this from the special itself, as well as the fact that when you search for this to see if it’s playing on any streaming services you’ll instead find a documentary called “Freaknik: a big party that happens” or something like that. 

This special follows a likable rap group who are down on their luck. They intend to travel to the big event so they can compete in some battle of the bands type thing. The party is happening because Freaknik, a ghostly personification of the party itself, has sprung back to life. I forget how. He’s a black ghost with money signs all over himself and hes real charismatic. He embodies good times, blackness, and above all, love. We see him going on a publicity tour, while a council of hater-ass black establishment figures (including mostly unidentified-but recognizable figures like Oprah, Jesse Jackson, Bill Cosby, and Al Sharpton) all scheme to stop Freaknik once and for all. 

The rap group have little adventures along the way, such as a memorable stop at a white frat. They tangle with a rival rap group, who look just like them. They meet a car full ‘o bitches and a brand new bong. One of the "bitches" is a character from That Crook’d ‘Sipp, but with a different name. There is almost no continuity between the two specials, just reused assets. That’s probably a best case scenario for That Crook’d ‘Sipp, which is maybe one of my least favorite things I’ve ever watched on Adult Swim. This is far from the worst thing. In fact, it’s fairly solid. 

That Crook’d ‘Sipp felt like it was speaking an alien language, and was borderline incomprehensible. This doesn’t feel that way. But, and I mean this in a non-insulting way, this show doesn’t feel like it’s for me. It’s a flavor I have a bit of a shallow distaste for. This is ultimately a good thing! I like when shows get on the air that are very specific and meant to appeal to a certain segment of the population.

I could quibble with the humor here and there, but I don’t think this special was designed with specifically pleasing me in mind. So why don’t I focus on the positive, instead? In fact, why doesn't everyone do this when faced with stuff that's not specifically for them? Okay , here I go: the characters are colorful! A lot of the drawings are great, funny, and cartoony! Even when it felt like it was about to veer into broad, stereotypical humor, it still pleasantly surprised me by aiming higher! It wasn’t boring, and a lot of the songs were pretty goddamn great! 

I actively enjoyed three moments in particular. One was the bit where Tyra Banks goes undercover as a corpse. This was a parody of the time she went undercover as an obese person utilizing a fat suit. (whoops, I googled this, just because I thought maybe I was confusing her with the episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air where Will did that. Wait, wasn’t she on that show? Aw, geez!)

Moment two: the frat bros, who have their party shut down by the cops (you’ll hear famous white people Andy Sandburg and Bill Hader in this scene). When the cops leave, they lament being targeted by them, but then one says “I kinda like cops though, because they found the guy that killed my mom.” This right here is my favorite line in the show. 

The other part I liked, which I recalled from watching this way back when, was the scene where Al Sharpton is watching the news report that he died in his home after being struck by lightning. He looks around quizzically and then it happens. A lotta really fun cartoon gags like that are in this! I respect it!

Not my favorite thing to air on Adult Swim; not by a long shot. But the more I think about this show, especially its final act, the more I think that this special is pretty undervalued and underseen, and that’s a real shame. I honestly think that Adult Swim really should try to bring this back at some capacity. Maybe repeat it with a special promotion? Maybe a sequel? Maybe there’s a reason for it's absence that has nothing to do with Adult Swim or their parent company. But I think if they pushed this back out into the world and tried to get more eyes on it, only good things would come. 

MAIL BAG: 

From KON:

The funniest thing I ever said in my life was about Freaknik: The Musical. The special aired on the same night as the Oscars that year, the year that The Hurt Locker FAMOUSLY upset Avatar and won best picture. When the winner was announced, at one point they cut to James Cameron looking pissed. I said, "he's mad because he's missing Freaknik." Thank you, thank you

BIG LOL. I really do hope that he DVR’d it. And that he didn’t get it on DVD, because the DVD looks like shit. I hope he DVR'd it, or had a 1080p webrip from cartoonchaos on his seedbox.

THANK you for your neon knome review. As one of five people on planet earth who actually likes the problem solverz I'm glad to see another fan out there. Granted, PS was nowhere near as good as Neon Knome (even one of Ben Jones' own friends said it was 'too shouty'), but it's definitely not like, "Consistently and infamously ranked the worst cartoon of all time among a large amount of people" bad. Most of the hate seems to be from people who hate the brash art style and think the colors hurt their eyes, and from people who think that Alfe is annoying. I'll give them the latter, but like you said the style is very deliberate and I like how... 'visceral', it is, for lack of a better word. I unironically feel it was just too ahead of it's time and aired on the wrong network. This was when tumblr normies were geeking out over Adventure time, so something like this freaked them the F out and it stuck cause of word of mouth. Kinda like how Freddy Got Fingered was called 'the worst movie of all time' until pretty recently. I think if Neon Knome came out 15 years later, on [AS] in it's original form, people would love it. Cruelty Squad has like 10,000 positive reviews on Steam and it's just as visually abrasive/experimental as this is.

Thanks! Hopefully Criterion Channel will add Problem Solverz to it’s line-up so we can properly reassess it’s place in the culture at large. It does feel like if it got deleted by Zaslav that nobody in the world (except you and me, I guess) would stick up for it. People all snarkily saying “at least he got this one right”. The snark would be off the charts. The snark charts.

[humanrightsupdates]

Russia: Human Rights Defender Oleg Orlov faces criminal charges on “discreditation of the Russian army”

On 21 March 2023, Russian law enforcement authorities launched a criminal case against human rights defender Oleg Orlov for repeated “public actions aimed at discrediting the use of Russian Federation armed forces to protect the interests of the Russian Federation” a criminal offence, envisioned by the Article 280.3, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The latest targetting of the human rights defender is in relation to his Facebook post from November 2022. The maximum penalty for a repeated offence is a prison sentence up to 3 years. The authorities placed the human rights defender under a travel restriction for unidentified period of time.

Oleg Orlov is a human rights defender and council member of Human Rights Defence Centre “Memorial” (HRDC “Memorial”) that was established after the Russian authorities shut down Human Rights Centre “Memorial.” The human rights defender is also the head of the HRDC "Memorial" "Hot Spots" programme, that was established by the Human Rights Centre “Memorial” in 1990, which works in zones of mass conflict that may escalate into armed conflict, as well as in post-conflict situations, researching the observance of human rights and international humanitarian law. In 2009, he was awarded the Sakharov Prize in the category of “For Freedom of Thought” and in 2012, the award of the Moscow Helsinki Group in the category “For historical contribution into the protection of human rights and human rights movement.”

On 23 March 2023 at approximately 7am Moscow time, Oleg Orlov’s apartment was raided by law enforcement, and he was brought in for questioning. The raids and questionings are sanctioned in the framework of an investigation against “unidentified staff members” of “Memorial” – concerning the “revival of Nazism” a criminal offence envisioned under Article 354.1 Part 2.B of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. At least eight other former representatives of International “Memorial” and Human Rights Centre “Memorial” were targeted with raids and questionings. During the raid, the law enforcement authorities seized Oleg Orlov’s laptop, 3 hard drives, a number of falsh drives, a phone, “Memorial” branded stickers, a pin badge with “No War” sign, and a book on Crimes committed during the first Chechen War.

On the same day, after the raid, the representatives of the Investigative Committee brought human rights defender Oleg Orlov the Investigative Department in the Tverskoy District in Moscow. Russian law enforcement authorities launched a criminal case against human rights defender Oleg Orlov for repeated “public actions aimed at discreditation of the use of Russian Federation armed forces to protect the interests of the Russian Federation” a criminal offence envisioned by the Article 280.3, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The human rights defender is being charged for his Facebook post dated 14 November 2022, for a translation of an article titled “They Wanted Facism – They Got It” published in the French media outlet “Mediapart.” The article discussed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Oleg Orlov’s colleagues reported that he was released from the interrogation but he will remain a witness in the investigation concerning the “revival of Nazism” – which was the initial reason why he was brought into questioning on 21 March 2023.

The investigation stated that the human rights defender had a “criminal intent” when he published the Facebook post. Moreover, according to the study made by the Forensic Expertise Centre (ECC) of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 9 December 2022, Oleg Orlov in his Facebook post described the activities of Russian military forces as “related to genocide, killings, destruction of economy and infrastructure” and “directed at existing Constitutional order.” During the questioning, the human rights defender stated that he published his own opinion about the events in the Russian Federation and the world. He refused to provide further details to the investigation, citing Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which sets out that no one shall be forced to testify against themselves.

Since the introduction of the discreditation laws, Oleg Orlov has been charged two times. On 30 March 2022, the Tverskoy City Court charged Oleg Orlov with “discreditation” for protesting against the war. The human rights defender held a picket in Moscow city centre with a poster saying “Crazy Putin pushes the world into a nuclear war.” He was convicted on 17 May 2022, after Oleg Orlov appealed it in the Moscow City Court. On 12 May 2022, the Tverskoy City Court once again charged Oleg Orlov with “discreditation” for his anti-war protests; this time the human rights defender was arreasted with a poster saying “USSR 1945 – a country that combated facism. Russia 2022 – a country where facism won.” Oleg Orlov was charged under Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation. He was officially convicted on 28 June 2022, after Oleg Orlov appealed it in the Moscow City Court.

Front Line Defenders condemns the continued persecution of human rights defender Oleg Orlov, for his peaceful and legitimate human rights work. Front Line Defenders urges that the expansion of the Russian Federation's Criminal Code with a set of articles against “discreditation” and “fakes” against the Russian military fosters censorship in the country and is being disproportionately used to target human rights defenders and journalists.

Front Line Defenders calls upon the Russian authorities to:

Cease all persecution of human rights defender Oleg Orlov for his legitimate and peaceful human rights work;

Repeal the set of Articles of the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federattion that are designed to target so-called “discreditation” and “fakes” against the actions of the Russian military as they limit freedom of speech and are being used by the authorities to disproportionately target human rights defenders and journalists;

Cease targeting all human rights defenders in Russia and guarantee in all circumstances that they can carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals.

[jonnnysuh]

Never Not - Park Jinyoung

Pairing: idol!Jinyoung x gender neutral reader

Summary: Your bad day is turned around when your childhood best friend, Jinyoung, returns to your hometown and takes you on a tour of your favourite memories together.

Genre: angst, fluff, friends to lovers

Warnings: suggested sexual experience

Word Count: 4.3k

Requested by: Anon

A/N: Hi guysssss. I took a small break from tumblr bc I got super busy with work. I haven’t written something like this in a while, but I actually loved how it turned out. I recommend listening to Never Not by Lauv to get into the mood <33

Effort was hard to make these days. Even the way you walked had an unmistakable slouch. Your exhaustive strides were just a shallow reminder that there used to be a hop in your step. Five more minutes and you were free from the shackles of work. Free to figure out what to make for dinner, and appease the gurgles of your stomach.The seconds on the point of sale system didn't seem to move fast enough as you folded the customer's final item and shoved it into a bag.

When you were a kid, no one told you how exhausting being an adult was, and thus it became something to look forward to. You were so caught up on getting that first kiss, sneaking out to go to parties, seeing people that your parents didn't approve of, that you didn't realize that life didn't slow down from there. It was like you blinked, and you were no longer 16. Instead, you were twenty-something perpetually feeling like life was just an endless pit of "what ifs" and building up the courage to make something of yourself. Another mindless "Have a good day." escaped your lips as you bid a customer bye for the nth time that day. You wondered how many of your years would waste away telling others to have a good day, when you yourself hadn't had one in a while.

You pressed your fingers against your temple to sooth a small growing headache. Working in retail for as long as you had, you knew that the s-curved line of people didn't stop for your discomfort. With a fake smile on your face, you welcomed the next few customers as your eyes wandered around the store looking for the person who was going to take over for the next hour. Fifteen minutes past the hour, your replacement finally came. Externally, you wanted to scream and ask them what took you so long? but you knew that would only make you as good as the worst customer. Graciously, you nodded at them, before walking away to the back room to fetch your things and head out.

...

You stood against the wall at the bus shelter shivering from the cool summer breeze that was disguising just how rapidly autumn was truly coming. Today probably wasn't the best day to forget your coat.  You rubbed your arms for warmth, taking micro footsteps in place.  The pain in your feet made you romanticize the comfort of the sturdy old bus seats as a place of rest. You felt your phone in your pocket vibrate, but you let it ring out. You were determined to get a seat on this bus. A deep sigh escaped you as you surveyed the density of the crowd on the platform- the ride home was definitely going to be longer than usual. When the bus arrived, you queued behind a long line of people. Your phone rang a second time, at this point the crowd was getting larger and you knew you weren't going to get a seat on this bus.

PRIVATE CALLER 

"Hello?" you pressed your phone to your ear. Sometimes your mother used phone booths to reach you, so you expected her voice to be on the other end of the line. "I'm offended I had to call you twice for you to pick up."  The voice was much deeper, and the delivery much more lighthearted than anything that would've came out of your mother.  The absence of a greeting was distinct and direct, but no matter, you knew exactly who this was.

You felt the tenseness of your shoulders drop with just the sound of this voice. "If I had definitely known it was you, I wouldn't have picked up, Mr. Private caller." you jest with the phone  pressed between your ear and the crook of your shoulder.

"You know, I was gonna suggest that I pick you up, but just for that comment, I change my mind."

You poke your tongue at your cheek, coyly. For all the changes that occurred in your life, for some reason you could depend on Jinyoung's quick wit and humour to hit the spot even after all this time.

"That's fine, I just finished work so I was thinking of just going home anyways."  You had no idea he was even back in South Korea. Last you heard, he was on tour somewhere in North America. More than that, you couldn't even remember when the last time you actually talked was. You were curious about what he was up to these days, but you you knew any hint of urgency in your voice would lead to incessant teasing on his part. The line progressed slightly, but you still didn't feel any closer to the entrance of the bus.

  "I'm about to get on a bus home." 

"Well, don't get on." 

"If I don't get on then you're gonna have to repay me for the fare I paid to even get here." You eyed the bus reaching its capacity, and stepped aside. You twisted your fingers in hope that he was being 100% serious, otherwise you were going to have to wait out for the 6:30pm bus.

"I can't believe the cost of your attention is only $2. Do better." the voice quipped. 

"Okay, Jinyoung I guess I'll just get on, then." you threatened, although you had no intention of boarding the departing bus.

"Fine, fine. I'll pay for your fare. Just wait for me."

...

The sky had darkened tenfold since you hung up from Jinyoung's impromptu call. The streetlights glowed gold against the lavender backdrop of the sky. You sat on the bus shelter bench, swinging your feet back and forth as you waited for him. If he took even a minute longer, you vowed to somehow become the president of the Park Jinyoung hate club. Of course, you wouldn't actually, but the idea became more appealing the longer you waited. 

You weren't one to go on spontaneous outings- at least not since your teenage years. Recently, you followed the strict routine of work, home, sleep, and to stray from it seemed pointless. But the fact that he even thought of you when he came back home to South Korea was still not something you could wrap your head around.

In the distance, a glow of headlights appeared, stopping perfectly adjacent to your bus stop. The window rolled down, and there appeared Jinyoung's face in all its glory. To say all the words in your vocabulary disappeared would be an understatement. A part of you doubted he would even follow through. Without missing a beat, he returned a look to you. "You just gonna stare at me, or are you gonna get in the car?"

...

Your backpack was sitting atop your lap, bouncing with the movement of the car. Jinyoung hung one hand over the steering wheel. The orange and purple of the sky twisting, and creating a brand new colour that only seemed to grace the skies at this hour. The music was unidentifiable, but the volume was low enough that you didn't even bother trying to figure it out.

"So what'd you do today?" he asked. 

"I worked, I told you that." you replied, matter-of-factly.

"And how was it?"

"I honestly can't tell the difference between this week and last week. Or even last month. Same old, same old. Annoying customers, stale lunch, forgot my jacket at home even though it's 15 fucking degrees outside." 

"Do you still work at that clothing store you started at when we were 20?"

  Your eyes shifted, following the ever-changing scenery of the highway. No idea where he was bringing you, and yet you were brought to comfort by Jinyoung's habits.  You knew he didn't have a drug deal, or a random party planned.  Jinyoung was always the type to be home before midnight. He was a self-proclaimed goody-two-shoes, but you weren't completely fooled. You knew he could bend the rules if it seemed to serve him.

  "That exact same one."

 "Anything else?"

  You looked at him, the shock settling in that he was really right next to you-- no longer just a figure on a billboard that you used to know. The changes of his physicality were subtle; his face was more defined, but his cheeks still carried the baby fat that had been there since childhood. The shadow of his facial hair loomed on his smooth skin. The mole on the top of his lip, not necessarily gone, but faded. He looked older, but the aura of his presence remained the same.

"And then I was dumb enough to get into a car with a stranger because he said he'd give me $2."

Jinyoung side eyed you, causing you to erupt in laughter. His glare was also unchanging. "Stranger? Your memory's fading already?" He shook his head disappointedly. "I thought you still had a few good years left."

  "Oh yeahhhhhh. Sorry Jinyoungie. Didn't recognize you with all the fame." you pinched and pulled on his ear- both things a relic of your grade school years. When you were kids, you never let him forget the age gap. Granted, it was only 3 days, but that gave you the freedom to refer to him however you pleased, while he was stuck with the honorifics.

As you let go, the curve of his ear flushed red. "OWW.” he cried, swatting your hand away. “You’re lucky I’m driving otherwise I would pull your hair.”

Being raised with Jinyoung meant that you were inseparable but kind of in the worst way. If Jinyoung got  a good mark on a test, his parents would immediately flaunt it to yours. If you wanted to sneak out, he was on your tail telling you to go back home. And if he knew you liked someone, then that person would know soon enough by the words of Jinyoung. All of that warranted ear pulling, and if you did something in retaliation he would pull your hair.

He was one of the few people in your life, who encapsulated a certain time of your life.  The time in your life when you were young, and the world felt so big and everything was possible.

  The car rocked back and forth as it shifted into the elevated ramp of a parking lot. Your eyes widened as you realized where you were.  He lingered in his seat before popping his seatbelt off and exiting the car. You followed him, swinging the passenger door open.

  "So you randomly called me because you wanted to hang out at the...convenience store?" you gestured to the old, orangey building. The bricks were chipped, and the fluorescent lights illuminated the outside through the big glass window.  You remember the days when you and Jinyoung would sit on the parking blocks and split a bag of chips until you were chased off the property by the owner. He pulled on the store door, pressing his back to it and letting you enter first. 

"Well, I wasn't going to come here until you started yanking my ears. That's when I knew you were hungry."

Without stopping, you weaved through the store until you reached aisle 3- the snack aisle had become a home to you and Jinyoung when you were growing up. In grade school, you were both fearful of what was beyond the boundaries of your home and school so you indulged in after school snacks at the convenience to talk about the latest happenings in your life. As you aged, it became the place of solace after exams, or the meetup location for last minute plans.

  He picked up a package of gummy worms, and shook them in your face. "Do you remember what happened the last time we ate theseeee?" Jinyoung smirked. For a moment, you were taken aback by how much he had grown. In your teens, you and Jinyoung met eye to eye. Now, you felt like you had to look up at him in order to be taken seriously.

  You crossed your arms, "Yeah, we ate them in the parking lot and you made me confess who I had a crush on." 

"Chan, right?" 

You nodded, with a sulk as you reminisced. "That wasn't fair."

 "Why? Do you still have a crush on him?" 

"I haven't thought about him in so long. You really think I'd have a lingering crush on a guy I haven't seen in years?"

Jinyoung shrugged, and shifted his feet. "You had a huge crush on him, though. You even stared at him like this." He rested his palm to his cheek, letting out a deep sigh while trying to maintain an enamoured expression. You snorted, hitting him on the chest. "You'd write his name all over your notebooks AND you bullied me into giving you one of my new ones." he added.

You let out a belly laugh. "And then I wrote his name all over that one too."

Jinyoung rolled his eyes. "They were premium quality notebooks. My aunt sent me them from the states!"

 "You had a kabillion of them. Besides, you pestered me for-like-ever to know who I liked, but you never even told me who you had a crush on." You grabbed the bag of gummy worms from his hand and placed it in your shopping basket. Your attention shifted, as you realized you should be in search of your favourite chocolates. You knew that you were far too old to be eating junk food for dinner, but there was something familiar about being hyped up on food that you knew would rot your insides. Your eyes landed on the top row of the wall, and before you could grab your favourite chocolates, Jinyoung stripped it from the wall and dropped it into the basket. He piled on a bag of sour cream and onion chips, and then you both ventured to the drink refrigerators.

  Both of you stared deeply at your drink options. On each level of the fridge, stood several different colourful drinks. If you knew Jinyoung, then you knew he would pick a Coke- it was something he swore by in your younger years. You hummed, mentally deciding between an iced tea or a vitamin water.  You weren't sure why it bothered you when Jinyoung picked up a Sprite, but you tried to hide your dismay. With an ice tea in hand, and a basket full of both of your favourite things, you made your way to the cashier.

  At the last moment, Jinyoung placed a bright yellow umbrella on the checkout counter. He looked down at you, surely, “You never know when it’s gonna rain.”

...

The following car ride to your next destination only lasted about 3 minutes before he parked on the side of the road and dragged you down the street, with the plastic bag full of your foods in hand. 

"I should've known you were going to bring me here." you said, strolling down the familiar gravel pathway towards your elementary school. All colour in the sky had disappeared now, finding it hard to see anything but the outline of each other and some features.

  Both of you settled on the grass field, onlooking the tall school building that was the foundation of your formal years. As soon as you opened the bag of chips, you found yourselves deep in conversation, talking about what life had been for him the last few years. You couldn't help but be in awe when he explained the rush he got when he got on stage, and how he got anxiety when he thought he wasn’t doing his best.  The candidacy of his thoughts drew you in and you were surprised that he trusted you with his secrets. 

All these years, you had always wondered what he was up to, if he was living a life far better than the one he left at home.  To everyone else, he was this huge pop star that had travelled the world 3 times over, but to you, he was your best friend who left home at 16. You had seen him through the bad hair phases, the adolescent temper tantrums, the voice cracks, and the questionable fashion choices both your parents had put you in.

  He leaned back on his arms as he gazed at the school. "Are you afraid of change?" You were silent for a moment as you thought. "On a scale of 1-10?" you rocked your head back and forth. "It's a 15."

Jinyoung raised his eyebrows. You held your legs to your chest, and looked at him. "Why?"

He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it and looked smugly in the other direction. "Heyyy." you poked him repeatedly. "You can't just ask me that and not tell me why."

He enclosed his hand around your finger, forcing your poking to come to a halt. It felt like he was studying your face. Never in your life had you ever felt like you were under the scope of Jinyoung's gaze. The darkness of the sky acted as a mask, hiding your blushing face.

"It was the last thing I asked you before I left." he admitted. "I asked you that when things were about to change big time for us… I always wondered if you resented me for leaving you behind."

  The last day before Jinyoung left to become a full-time trainee, you two snuck on to this very same field. Both of you ran across the grass, picking up dandelions; believing that if you gathered enough and blew on them, that they would fuel your wishes.

  “You thought I could resent you?” He nodded. “Well, for starters, I hate your guts.” You replied sarcastically, causing him to look at the ground with embarrassment and your face softened at the sight of it.

  “You know what I wished for on all of those dandelions, Jinyoung?”

 “Not to fail the math exam.” Even in a soft moment, he couldn’t help but be sly. “No!” You exclaimed. 

“Well, you should’ve. You got a 48.” He sensed your killer look on him. “So what’d you wish for?”

You played with your fingers. You thought you’d take this secret to the grave. “I wished that you’d be successful in whatever you chose to do.” His eyes enlarged, alarmed at your confession. “but maybe I should’ve wished for the math thing.”

  Jinyoung giggled, inching closer to you so your legs were pressed against each other. 

“What did you wish for?” You asked. He smiled with the side of his mouth, shaking his head. 

“I wished that I’d always find my way back home.” “Oh goddd.” You gagged. “you’re so corny.”

 “What about you, huh? You used your wish on me!” he bellowed, his voice echoing against the school playground. 

“Hey, I might just be the reason why you’re famous.” You fought back.

You flipped your phone over, 7:53, the brightness of it only barely illuminating the dark. You thought about what you would be doing at this moment if you weren’t here, if he hadn’t picked you up.  Mmm probably falling asleep to a tv show. Probably dreading tomorrow. Probably not as happy.

"But what did I say? You know… the first time you asked me that question?” You couldn’t even begin to imagine how 16-year-old you answered.

  "You said you were excited to see who we were going to become.” The words of your younger self were so hopeful, yet your current self felt hopeless. Your expression sank, and Jinyoung offered a small smile to revive it. He felt guilty having asked you the question in the first place.

You sat in silence for a bit, dwelling on the excitement for life that you once had. Where was it? And how could you get it back?

“I feel like I’ve let myself down. I don’t even know who I am now.”

Jinyoung blinked slowly, watching his childhood best friend crumble. He rested a hand on your shoulder.  "I just look at you, and in so many ways you're the same. I still know what makes you laugh, and the way you say things. I can still pick out your favourite snacks, and know you’re gonna pull my ears when I do something to piss you off.” he yanked on yours softly. "Everything about you feels just how I left you. I feel my youth when I'm with you. But at the same time I’m comforted by how much you’ve changed.”

“I don’t think I’ve changed much.”

“You don’t see it, do you?” You shook your head no. “Do you remember how scared you were to even leave the house when we were kids? Now you live on your own. You never took anything seriously back then, but you’re now one of the hardest working people I know…” his voice softened. “And you let yourself be vulnerable with me when it used to take hours to drag it out of you.” You laid on his shoulder, and he rested his head on top of yours, snuggling closer. “You fear change, yet you’re changing right before your own eyes. And maybe one day, I’ll come back here, and I won’t even be able to recognize who you’ve become.” You sniffled, the idea of Jinyoung not remembering you broke your heart. You held your chest. “But if that day does come, it’ll be okay. Because I know that the person that you’ve become will have it all figured out.  I’ll always be rooting for every single version of yourself even if it doesn’t include me.” You sobbed quietly, interlocking your fingers with his. He held your hand tightly, rubbing his thumb against the back of your hand. For once, there was an action not done out of habit or relic. It was an action evoked just for this moment, and it was a change that you didn’t mind.

…

Jinyoung held your hand, leading you down a narrow road a few minutes away. The sound of crickets, barking dogs, and distant vehicles could be heard as you stood in the middle of the road of your childhood neighbourhood.

  You hadn’t been here since you moved in 2016. You looked up at the large modern house that sat on what used to be two lots. Yours and Jinyoung’s childhood homes were purchased by a wealthy business man and demolished to build the business man’s dream home. You stared at the foreign house that sat on the place of your childhood dreams and frustrations.

  Jinyoung placed his hands on your shoulders and stopped you at the exact halfway point between what was once his house and your house. You rubbed your arms as a gust of wind rushed by. Without thinking, Jinyoung slipped off his hoodie and placed it on top of your shoulders.

“I remember racing you down this street.” You piped up, pointing down the end of the road. Jinyoung always won that race. No one was faster than him on this street.

“I remember finding that stray puppy and fighting over who got to keep it.” He responded.

“It should’ve been me.” You bickered. Jinyoung laughed, amused at how you were always one to hold a grudge.

“Do you remember that day when it started raining soooo hard and we had to walk shoulder to shoulder under my umbrella?”

You nodded. “Ya, that was the same day with the gummy worms, you dummy.”

“So do you remember what happened right here?” He pointed at the exact spot you were standing. You racked your head for a memory, but nothing stood out to you clearly. You shook your head no. “We always said bye to one another here...but…?” you trailed off.

He took a step forward, both of you standing directly under the streetlight now. You watched his face light up as he likely played the moment back in his head. “So that day, standing under my umbrella, we were about to go our separate ways. You turned into me.”

He took another step closer, popping open the bright yellow convenience store umbrella and holding it over your heads.

You could see it now. It was drizzling so hard, even your hair wasn’t protected from getting soaked.   You wrapped your hands around the handle, just like how you did back then. Chest to chest, huddled under the umbrella. Jinyoung locked eyes with you, your heart beat faster.

“And you looked at me, and I swear I was going to say everything I wanted to tell you right then and there.” Your mouth opened in shock. “This was the place where I almost told you I loved you.”

You studied the eyes of the boy you watched grow up. He looked scared, but sure. There was no doubt in your mind that Jinyoung meant what he said. He lowered the umbrella, not letting his gaze veer from you.

  Your life was just a build up of what if’s and trying to gain the courage to make something of yourself… but you didn’t want that anymore. With your heart beating out of control, you leaned into him, taking the risk and kissing his lips. He wrapped his arms around your waist, deepening the heat of the kiss.

A round of thunder boomed above you, and little by little, raindrops began to pour from the sky.

You and Jinyoung separated to look up at the sky. “I did say, you never know when it’s gonna rain.”

You both ran for the car, shoulder to shoulder, under the umbrella. From your heads to your toes, you were soaked in the rain, but neither of you cared. You silently thanked the world for every bad thing that happened to you today that led to this.

…

You blinked your eyes awake, surveying the damp clothes strewn across your living room floor, and the heat of the bare body laying next to you on the couch. You stared at your sleepy childhood best friend, a smile spreading across your lips. This was a change you were ready for. 

[the-huntress]

Little Moth - Chapter 2 - A Friend

[Thank you to everyone that has read my story so far. I really hope that you enjoy it. My apologies for the slow burn, but all good things come to those that wait… <3]

Masterlist

Y/N Protagonist, female. Reader X Karl Heisenberg. [18+]

Summary: Awoken by the clang of metal another strange dream haunts you as you make your journey towards the ominous ‘village’, searching for your life-long friend, Leon.

Trigger Warnings: Supernatural violence.

Song Suggestion: ‘Keep Me Alive’ by All We Are.

[Photos are my own] The next 24 hours were a blur; bagel, taxi, airport, flight, layover in airport, Frankfurter infused pretzel, flight to worryingly small airport, ride in the back of a 1980s Toyota pick-up truck (with cages full of chickens and feathers flying about), which took you to the smallest train station you’d ever seen (one platform), two steam trains later, a weakened moment of purchasing unidentified brand of cigarettes with picture of a goat on the front from a man that smells profusely like garlic, and then a moment of mildly suppressed panic at being in a completely unknown to you part of the world with not a word of Romanian to your repertoire.

Standing at what kind of looked like maybe the side of a road-ish, you pulled out the badly printed map, co-ordinates and a compass. You looked up at the sky, despite it being overcast the clouds were still thin enough to be able to see roughly where the sun was sat. It was 2pm, your phone no longer had a hope in hell of working out here signal wise, but at least for now, it could tell you the time, after that it would just be you and the sun.

You couldn’t deny as the treck took you further away from the already very small towns and villages, and further into the countryside and wilderness, that the landscape was incredibly beautiful. Snow-capped mountains, like you’d never seen anywhere but the movies graced the horizon, leafless tree branches began to out-number their more lustrous looking sisters, and yet, dotted amongst the white, a spattering of green, forests and woodlands a-like, untouched by the torrents of snow, as if by some magic. The fresh air in your lungs made you feel powerful somehow, like you were on a path leading to destiny, something inside you was being fulfilled. Even during the time sat alone on the steam train, staring at the hillsides and woodlands as they flew past, catching your own reflection in the glass here and there, you’d felt as if you were heading towards something exciting yet familiar.

The day seemed to go much faster than you’d imagined, but then it was late into the year, the days much shorter. Grateful for the fact that you’d chosen to wear a zip up hoodie under your usual work jacket, you still had to give the tops of your arms a rub with your gloved hands. You’d also prepared with thin leggings under your black combat trousers and worn hiking socks under your military boots. There was still more than enough light to see, but the Village was still not yet in sight. The hike had been challenging, your knee was now starting to protest, both with an ache and with a sharpness too it. Just a little further, you thought, wincing against it.

You stopped dead in your tracks. There was a noise nearby but not anything that you were used to. What was that? A train? There were no train tracks running through this part of the wilderness as far as you knew, you’d hoped not at least, else you’d be kicking yourself in the ass if you could have saved yourself from the pain that you were in after all this time. A rumbling, chundering, rickety sound, drawing closer and closer. A light in the distance, a lantern, two of them, swinging wildly now on the front of a carriage and a man’s face, crazed with panic, and what a man, at least two times the size in both height and girth of anyone that you’d ever met before.

“Run my darling adventurer, run, for it is not safe for you here!” He yelled towards you. But you couldn’t, you were frozen solid, seeing now what he was trying to escape; and you’d thought this man was larger than life. What approached behind him… was unearthly. The wind was thrown out of you as you were yanked by the collar and swung onto the back of the carriage. The man had tossed you up to at least temporary safety, although how stable this thing was you did not know. You stared back towards the rear of the carriage, eyes narrowing on what you now identified as your target. In short, you could see some kind of humanoid being, roughly 8 foot tall, muscles rippling, pale, sallow skin, with patches of thick hair covering various parts of its body, a loin cloth, beady, mean cold gold eyes, pointed ears and a mouth full of needle sharp teeth. Hurtling along in front of it, in its grasp were two humungous beasts, covered in shaggy hair, almost like two huge dogs or bears, but with some of the most nightmarish faces that you’d ever seen. All you could see was that fact that they wanted nothing more than to tear you limb from limb.

You didn’t mess around for shit and your pistol was in your hand before you could say ‘boulder punching bastard’. You fired one, two, three times, each shot tearing through the shoulders of the front two beasts.

“You really think that thing is going to take them down?” Yelled the driver, craning his head around to take a quick glance at you. You grimaced, thrown down to the roof by a sudden jolt, and quickly tore your glance back at your enemies. They were closing the gap.

“Make a quick turn, here, around that rock!” You yelled, pointing ahead. The man began his manoeuvre as you’d instructed, and without question, for which you were grateful, you only had a couple of seconds to act and one shot at this. You pulled the aerosol from your pocket. This wasn’t just any can, this was something that you’d created yourself. Looked like a normal deodorant or spray can for sure except for two minor differences; it was re-fillable, and it had a range of up to 15 feet. You swiped the lighter back from your cap and took aim, lighter in your left hand in front, aerosol in your right hand, the U-turn took your right back past the trio as they came tearing down the slope. The noise wasn’t quite deafening, but it was loud enough, and you’d succeeded. The two hairy beasts were covered in flames and yelping, running frantically and tore off into the forest. HAHA! You laughed, another bump and you were back on the roof, stealing a glance at the man steering who had a grin on his face too. “Trick shot!” You called back.

The wolven giant roared in fury, for he was scorched, but his rage burned savagely more so than any flame that you could create.

“Very good little moth, but we need something bigger for that one. In the carriage, the room below you there is something that will help, you will know it when you see it, retrieve it now.” You nodded, not noticing for a moment what he’d called you, but you didn’t have time to think and ask. You slid down through the small hatch in the roof, just wide enough for your body, some kind of sky light you guessed and fell to the floor. The dwindling sun light now blazing red over the horizon and through the silhouettes of the trees lit the inner carriage just enough for you to take in what was around you; a lot of meat for one thing. You were never any good at hiding your thoughts on your face, but no one was here to see that right now. There were a couple of larger crates, a globe, typewriter, trinket boxes. Parts rolled and rattled, but you knew what you were here for, right in front of you on the bed. You pulled yourself back up through the hatch.

“This it?” You called to him, holding up a hefty and yet ornate bow. It seemed to be built in the way that somewhat resembled a modern-day compound bow but had a more traditional look to its materials and smaller details. “That’s the one’” he called back. “Here, take these.” He went to pass a bundle of arrows without quiver, but as he did so the beast threw itself at the back of the carriage. You yelled, the impact threw you into the arrows, your blood now over a few of the heads, and all at once you were thrown into darkness, your back slamming against the floor of the inside of the carriage. Shaking your head, you realised what had happened, scrambling on the floor and grabbing as many of the spilled arrows up as you could. Blood began to soak the garments covering your right hip. It was just a flesh wound, but deep enough to sting, reminding you of a time in your childhood when you’d crawled through brambles and the thorns had left 12 longs scars down your torso.

Back on your feet, you booted the doors open, throwing them into the beast’s face, both his clawed hands firmly sunk into the wood either side of the carriage, half running, half being dragged along. He reared his head and roared at you, and you roared back, raising the first arrow and taking aim. “FUCK YOU!” You cried out, the arrow sliced through his cheek but this only made him angrier, throwing one arm into the carriage now, half in, the other arm pulled him further, you realised quickly with terror that you were very quickly being pinned against the bed at the back. It grabbed you around your waist, yanking you down onto the floor, roaring madly once again, into your face, the foulest smelling breath hot and slick with spittle. Something crashed off the shelf above you and onto its head, almost like it shot out of place of its own accord, against the natural trajectory of the way of which the carriage was now turning. It threw the beast back out of the carriage and you only had a moment to grab onto a fixture on the wall which held tools in place before you felt the carriage begin to topple and hurtle.

You lost count of how many rolls it took, but when it stopped it was deathly silent, like a veil had been pulled over this part of the woods. Rain began to fall on the deathly branches above in the would-be canopy. You pulled yourself out, scathed and bleeding, but you weren’t done. Good job you’d thought to throw on your light armour mid hike. You looked around at the driver, he didn’t say anything, but he was breathing. “Are you ok, friend?” You asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. He brought his head up and looked up at you. “Yes.” He replied, placing one of his hands over yours. You nodded and started walking to the hulking heap of hair, blood and muscle only meters away. With each step you took you felt the presence of something growing behind you, like a shadow. The sound of metal scraping. “He’s here.” You heard your companion breathe. You had no idea who or what he meant, but right now you had one thing on your mind and that was your kill.

Still closing the gap without a falter, you took three arrows that you had clipped to your bag only moments ago, set their heads ablaze with the fluid and lighter. You set them against the nock, the flames burning bright now in your eyes, and a shower of metal, knives, bullets, scraps came flying down from around you and into the flesh of the beast. They didn’t just stop upon impact, they kept going, embedding themselves further and further into its flesh. It bellowed and swung its arms in pain, standing tall above you, arching it’s back, but still you stood your ground, unblinking, until it fell back down to the ground, writhing now. You leapt up onto its twisting shoulder, taking aim with the bow and let the trio of burning arrows do their work, shattering through the skull, two ending it all at once, and one at an angle coming back halfway out of its blood shot eye.

You stayed there for what seemed like an eternity. Staring and waiting. No thoughts going through your mind, the darkness in you waning back to the parts of your mind where it usually hid, flowing away like black smoke or the tide going out.

Something was calling. Not out loud, but in your head, your heart, something was calling just for you, but without any sound. You looked up towards the carriage, which strangely was now upright again, though in a bit of a mess, your friend there besides it, a little worse for wear, and a glint of light, the reflection of the flames that had begun to grow around you in the darkness just beyond, the crunch of the undergrowth, and whatever it was, was gone.

[junkrxt]

NAME: CYREX “JUNKRAT” KAIZEN GOES BY: JUNKRAT, REX, JUNKER. FACECLAIM: BERK ATAN AGE: 29 PRONOUNS: HE/HIM ZONE OF ORIGIN: ZONE 2 STATUS: MECHANIC @ CHQS & CHAOS JUNKER ON THE DL

TRAITS

+ PRECOCIOUS + SHARP WITTED + SLICK 

- CHAOTIC - DISORDERLY – TUMULTUOUS

HEADCANONS: 

Calloused fingers pick at the wrapping on Rex’s left hand, wet where an unhealed injury lies underneath. A honeyed crimson seeps through the brown-stained brace and the Junker’s stabbing his right thumb into the palm of his hand – stems the flow (so he imagines.) and eases the pain vibrating through his hand as it shakes under irritated tendons. There’s an abundance of cusses slipping from Kaizen’s lips that remind him that it’s his clumsy manner of battling through an uncharted junkpile; sharp is broken metal; like glass at its edges when a hand catches the tip ever so cleanly. He’s surrounded by chaos (that’s how everyone else would see it, at least.) when in fact, it’s an organised catastrophe of scrap and mechanical-potential. He’s sprawled on the roof of a broken vehicle, indented under the weight of the man and his gizmos as he looks at the rising sun above; streams of light reflecting off his steampunk-esque glasses that are strapped to his forehead and shield the rays that have every likelihood to burn his sockets – one of the more horrific of instances for a man who prides on reparations to sustain life.

Black boots thump on the concrete rooftop – Cyrex convinced that his hole-up of a headquarters (the one he doesn’t act like a screwed-on being for.) is on the collapse, every day, something new crops up that he’s tinkering together. Never is anything broken for too long, tarps overhead that form a blockade from overheating, a gentle whir in the background of a refrigerator-like device that he’s storing scraps in. Junkrat is the perfect calibre of a name – though, the tailed creatures that scutter along the floor between overgrown ivy would probably argue against the moniker. Not that Rex sees them as junk, but they’ve got a nice crunch – kind of like bone, some would say. He finds use for that too; perfect sounding alarm for little junk boobytraps that put him on the other end of a Raider’s alert.

Kaizen’s got a favourite rat, she’s called Tess, surname, Tickle.

Distinguished is his attire; braces, ripped, torn and an eyesore of a mechanic in the walls of CHQS. Though unquestionably talented when challenged in the art of techno talk and rather a soloist if it were chalked down to a performance. An old, carcinogenic aroma is distinct enough that it is only outweighed by burnt oil and rubber of the rover’s Rex is known to fasten together; call him a motorhead; will race you to any milestone; all territories and let unforgiving crashes be their end. It’s not obvious with how he behaves that the tinkerer is any gifted in the maintenance department; but he’ll outdo any upgrade with a toothpick and package tape and make it work if that’s the only things available.

BIOGRAPHY

There’s never a need for anything to be fixed if the world remains perfect. Those phrases that cover the ‘if it’s not broken don’t fix it’ never really apply to Amhaven – in Rex’s history, never has.

Never short is the demand for skilled hands; quick fingers that have developed based on a world gone mad.

Goggles on, sparks alight like fireworks spraying directly from the ends of Junkrat’s fingers; he’s constructing. Machinery in brutalised hands and a lazy kind of roll of his head side to side like he’s impatient to finishing this particular project. Always the mechanic, likes to think he’s often the best of them. Anyone else is a lesser – comes to be why he’s always remained fairly isolated, rooted himself in places nobody else dares risk; a building (like most of them in the concrete jungle) on the brink of collapse; perfect headquarters for privacy, to build a retreat from stolen tarps and sticks. Old timber that’s got such rot through it that even woodworm doesn’t want to touch it. Metal, bone and the world at the scrapper’s fingertips; his haven.

Kaizen remembers his early years – sort of, a collection of memories compiled of gathering trinkets and gizmos that he wrestled with concaved vehicles for. Once wore a truck’s steering wheel like it was a new age war accessory – popped out the centre, acted like he was some kind of Havoc (also, a stolen shredded zone one relic of a comic book that he lost in two days to his own fire friendly hands.) Though, it stuck, as did the vision of his first taste in the Junker, Raider clash – he’d never seen a nose pop like a grape til then either, splat; a sound that really buries deep into the core of anyone. Crunch of ivory beneath Ransacker’s boots that had once belonged to his guardians; mentors; parents and fast does Rex learn some things simply cannot be fixed with even the fastest, adroit fingers.

Death’s permanent – no fixing that.

Scrambles away from the wreckage, a slick coating of red that decorates skin and clings like oil to every crevasse. It stains, both physically and mentally and if souls were ever an interest to someone like Junkrat, it probably has a mark there too. If only as a fuel to the man’s vigilance to the way of being a junker; more than just shiny things and scrap metal to be forged and utilised to self-serving purposes, an adaptable lifestyle that Kaizen blossomed into and now – in adulthood, understands rivalry with R&R and all its complications.

Though, the chaos is also welcomed when Cyrex has his gadgets in place like mines on a field. He often watches with botched binoculars in one hand from the rooftop of an abadoned multi-storey, legs swung over the edge with something to snack on in his other hand. It’s like cinema, the way incoming Raiders intend to… raid – so Rex assumes, and there’s just explosions followed by traps that provide all levels of lethality. A kind of wry smile as he throws offchunks of meat into his mouth and chews with amusement as stolen trucks attempt to barrage in and end upturned in a ditch; flames dancing along the dry grass in some mad max-esque carnage.

Friday night entertainment at its finest.

Deserved after a hard working week as recruited mechanic at CHQS – ha.

But yes, he does do that too, snags a spot in the mechanic ranks and enjoys the minimal joyride of liberating labrats whilst he’s maintaining the safety of those traveling between. How he got there – questionable. What isn’t, is how adept he is at doing it. Therefore, the carbuncle that he is in homemade tarp cargos and some form of fabric adoring his torso; a kind of armouring of metal and scrap that seems haphazard in its placement (though entirely logical if Junkrat were to think on it) are certainly, even in Amhaven, not the best of business attire, but it works. The scrapper always remains glad that his only requirement in the building is maintenance; tinkering upgrades that have every kind of ability to be less lackluster, more dangerously eccentric.

Tess Tickle as his right hand lady; lucky charm; never does his tinkering fail.

Until well, sometimes, it does.

And he has to go back and repair it.

Cue the sounds of thunder when he approaches in his jacked rover with enough modifications that would kill half the zone if the vehicle were to explode. Don’t touch it, he’ll probably show you how many uses a screwdriver actually has.

CONNECTIONS

RAMESES "RA" EL AYOUBI | Other half; the Mother to the Rat Pack Collective where Junkrat’s the father. (In Rex’s opinion.) Chaos fuelled duo that has probably been responsible for at least sixty percent of both missing objects and rats that eventually end up in The Collective; living in the shared homebase (the one that’s not on Rex’s rooftop because... Ra says he needs... walls.) within a formerly desolate Chuck ‘E’ Cheese sign. Kaizen’s built a runway for the RPC out of it, a few acquired and repaired neon bulbs very reflective of Z1 in the odd letterings. Yes, Ra and Junkrat (more Junkrat... probably) are this delinquent-like at most times. And yes, they really did argue about walls; their first domestic one could say.  

FURTHER DEPTH

Named his rover/machine of a car, Hyena because, sometimes feral; sometimes doesn’t listen; often acts out and well; makes a lot of noise. 

Will greet you with a wrench in the shoulder, or a spanner to the stomach. Ultimately depends what he has in his hands when you look at him odd. 

Odd does indeed mean just be in his general vicinity. 

On a good day, he might grin and look more like he might either kiss you (not that you’d want to) or ask you to race him and Tess Tickle to the meeting room. Yes, the one he definitely should not be in. 

Almost always covered in grease, oil, lubricant, some other unidentified roadside substance and excess foodstuffs if not all at the same time. 

Don’t mention the smell. He can’t fix that, it’s natural. 

Probably replaces most civility with unpleasantries in regards to verbal communication, otherwise, he’s probably throwing peanuts at someone when waiting for something to boot up and he can work on it.

Generally goes by Junkrat due to many obvious traits, also does carry Tess Tickle around in a lil self-made backpack-like cage with a totally safe exercise wheel to keep her entertained during transport if she wants to go out on days. 

Yes, he talks to the rats, there’s a whole liberated Rat Pack Collective. Where did they all come from? Don’t worry about it. Ask Ra. 

Wears everything out of Mad Max, scraps of brown and dirtied attire that makes him look like a wilderness explorer; totally on brand, absolutely his style, the red stains... don’t recommend asking about those either. 

TBA

QUICK LINKS

THREADS

SELF PARAS

MUSINGS

CHQS

[motleymoose]

Homecoming: Astray, Ch. 2

Chapter 2

Laserfights in the Dust

Fandom: The Mandalorian Characters: The Mandalorian (Din Djarin), Gender-neutral Reader, Unidentified Stormtroopers Words: 1.6k+ Warnings: Laser fights!, Angst???

Summary:

The bounty hunter may have caught me.

That's it. I'm caught and screwed and nothing could make this worse.

...Unless Stormtroopers are thrown into the mix.

Notes:

Heyo! Just an update:

I've several chapters in the works of being tweaked and edited. On that note, I just want to warn you that I'll be editing the first chapter of this part because holy moley I did NOT do the editing I thought I did before I posted it.

Hope you enjoy this installment of Homecoming. Check back this weekend for the last chapter of part 1!

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to read my words. I really really appreciate it!!!

Homecoming Masterlist

The Mandalorian’s ship was of an older gunner class, bulbous and clunky in all the wrong places. I immediately took a shine to it.

“Mother of Moons,” I breathed, drinking in the sight of the Razor Crest. The ship was ancient compared to its neighbors moored in the docking field, her dark gray hull splattered with pocks and burns from laser fire, and carbon residue dulled the once-bright metal. Amazed that she could still fly, I considered the costs and labor associated with keeping something like her up in the air. The bounty hunter must’ve employed a fragging good blackthumb, or at the very least had a mech droid to keep up with all the repairs the ship constantly would need. My fingers itched to caress the control panels and explore the access hubs. Engineering alone would’ve been something to behold.

I was a mechanic through-and-through.

My captor’s gait changed the closer we got to his ship. Weaving in and out of the stacks of crates and barrels awaiting transport into the village, I noted the speeders parked in the path we were taking, not too far away from the Crest. Before I could have a closer look, gloved fingers dug into the tender meat at my shoulder.

“Yours?” he snapped, blaster humming to life and jammed into my kidney.

I shook my head. “I don’t have anyone willing to risk their neck to rescue me. Whoever that is,” I discreetly waggled my eyebrows in the direction of the speedbikes, “probably wants me dead more than you do.”

The pistol’s barrel eased from my back, and I released the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. He accepted the answer I’d given, which was a first in my dealings with bounty hunters. I doubted greatly that he trusted me, but maybe a mutual respect was building in the hour we’d known each other.

With his hand between my shoulder blades, the bounty hunter urged me forward out of the relative safety of the unloaded cargo. I assumed we’d wait out whoever was waiting for us, but apparently the Mandalorian liked to act before he thought.

Shoving hard, the bounty hunter knocked me to my stomach, bound hands barely breaking my fall. Wheezing, I rolled onto my hip to snarl at him just as he raised his blaster and fired over my fragging head.

“Frag!” I screamed unheroically. I automatically flattened in the dust, cuffed hands over my head. Laser beams sliced through the air above me, some coming low enough to singe my hair. Letting instincts take over, I crawled on elbows and knees until I made it under the belly of the Crest. White armored legs dashed by my hiding spot, and I shrunk farther under the ship’s hefty bulk. Even with the Empire collapsed, there were still loyal factions spanning the known galaxy. I wasn’t too surprised at their arrival, only that the Imps still had enough credits to outfit their armies.

I tore my eyes away from the gunfight to look for an escape. Near the landing gear, a square hatch barely large enough to warrant much thought caught my racing mind. Pulling myself into a crouch, I shuffled over to it, using my little dagger to persuade it to open. A few frantic, scrabbling moments later, and I pulled myself up into the crawl space and snapped the panel shut behind me.

Inside the crawl space - no, access shaft, I shimmied on my belly towards the only source of light.

“Please be an access panel, please be an access panel…”

It was not an access panel.

The light was streaming weakly through a rectangular vent in the floor of what must have been the hold, the streaky dark and bright causing my eyes to swim. Turning onto my back, I took a moment to blink, forcing my eyes to adjust to the dim light. When I looked back through the vent grate, I saw a face peering back down at me.

“Oh frag!” I shrieked, dodging clumsily out of the light.

No sound or shouts of alarm followed, and I sucked in my breath and scootched back to the vent.

“Oh. You’re not what I expected.”

Above me lay a slab of carbonite. Inside the carbonite was a face twisted in pain and horror, hands bound in much the same way as mine. Every detail of the being frozen in time was on display, if I wanted to hang around and eyeball her some more. Was the Mandalorian going to do that to me?

Gulping nervously, I turned back to my belly and continued my slow crawl through the carbon dust and wires that lined the access tunnel in equal parts. I strained my eyes as best as I could, feeling them water and sting from the dust my movements stirred up. I couldn’t make out much of anything in the unlit space, but I didn’t want to light a flame in the off-chance the bounty hunter was carrying more than just frozen carbonite. I was going to have to use my other senses to find the crawl hatch into the hold. From there, freedom.

A rustle near my boots startled me out of the vague plan I was beginning to form about escaping. Looking over my shoulder, I could see nothing beyond the little square of light falling from the vent.

“Bugs. Probably just bugs,” I murmured to myself, not at all reassured by the waver in my tone. Exhaling softly, I continued forward.

I didn’t know how much time had passed since I’d entered the ship, but from the sounds happening, or worse yet, not happening outside, it was safe to assume the fight was over and to the victors went the spoils.

But who the victors were was still up for debate.

Urgently, I pushed through a particularly nasty tangle of wiring. Thick and winding and of all colors and sizes, some of the wires looked brand new while others were completely fried. A faint wisp of electrical smoke drifted lazily from a deep, melted gash severing a bundle that looked to be -

“The energy cycler wiring. Shit.” Quickly, I assessed the damage. The cut didn’t seem to go too deep, only about a quarter of the way through the wiring. I didn’t have the tools needed to make a decent repair job, but if I did nothing, the Razor Crest would strand anyone aboard her once the energy cycler ran dry. Which could be anytime as the damage looked like an older wound and I had no way of telling how much power was left in the containment systems.

Rolling onto my side, I awkwardly began to dig out what I had in my jumpsuit pockets that might help. Most of a roll of electotape; collapsible screwdriver base and tip case; handful of assorted plastic ties; hose clamps in various states of rust; thin, carefully folded sheets of aluminum foil; and my prized possession: customized multitool.

Feeling surprisingly lighter after emptying my pockets, I ordered my tools into a neat pile and got to work on the smoking wiring. I made sure to match every split wire with its original end. Using the foil, I connected the loose wires before taping over them with the stretchy black eletotape. Whenever the plastic coating proved to be in the way, I used the sharp cutter edge of my multitool to scrape it away and expose the damaged wiring, thus making it easier to reconnect. The plastic ties and hose clamps, the latter of the hardware being tightened with my collapsible screwdriver, were used to sort and organize the larger bundle into smaller, neater groups.

As I worked, sounds of rustling and rifling interspersed with tiny squeaks and sneezes floated through the air not that far from the soles of my boots. I forced myself to ignore it, hoping that whatever it was would stay well away from me until I was done repairing the wiring harness. I didn’t want to waste time fighting pests when my services could be better used fixing mechanical things.

Another sneeze, a delighted trill, and then the patter of small feet scurrying away alerted me that I was now, hopefully, alone. Tightening one last plastic strap with my teeth, I swiped my forehead with the back of a sooty hand and gazed proudly at my handiwork. Dang, I was good at cobbling together repairs.

A whirring clank shook the metal underneath me, and I jolted straight up, clunking my head painfully against the subflooring. Rubbing at the throbbing lump forming on the top of my head, I cursed myself silently and held my breath, listening.

Heavy boots thudded hollowly above me. Another clanking whir covered up most of the stream of Mando’a being growled above me, and I knew that the bounty hunter had won.

Frag.

Quietly as I could, I untangled myself from the wiring and inched away from the sounds of mumbling and stomping. I’d stowed away before, a long time ago, on a colonizing ship stopping on my backwater planet for refuelling and supplies.

But those had been farmers seeking a better life for themselves, not a warrior from a people more legend than truth, hunting me down for a bounty. I was in deeper kung than I wanted to admit.

The sounds of cursing and stomping disappeared, possibly to another deck, and I let out a heavy, relieved sigh. I didn’t have much time to plan before he ultimately found me, so I needed to come up with something that wasn’t going to get me killed, or worse - frozen in carbonite.

[houkou-nrl]

Time for another New Pokémon Snap deep dive!

To get started, let’s talk about the new Pokémon confirmed in this trailer. There’s a few more than last time, but more significantly, many of them are pretty hard to spot! Like the first trailer, a good few of them are only visible in small photos.

This trailer reveals 29 new Pokémon (yes, you can count fine, hang on), and 1 additional form:

Bulbasaur

Venusaur

Metapod

Raichu (Alolan)

Kangaskhan

Eevee

Vaporeon

Chinchou

Sudowoodo

Espeon

Tyranitar

Celebi

Lotad

Trapinch

Flygon

Cradilly

Luvdisc

Lumineon

Tangrowth

Stoutland

Unfezant

Audino

Frillish

Alomamola

Vivillon (Ocean)

Pancham

Lycanroc (Midnight)

Minior

Sobble

The official site also updated recently. New materials there reveal 2 new Pokémon, and 1 additional form:

Sawsbuck (Summer)

Florges

Trevenant

Just look at all those teeny little photos! As before, I have to thank some friends for helping to ID a couple Pokémon. We’re up to 96 confirmed species.

This trailer also gave us a much better look at some of the difficult-to-spot Pokémon from the previous trailers, such as Inkay and Sandygast. We can also be more certain that the coral is just coral.

And thanks to the site, we’ve also gotten a better look at at least one area only seen in small pieces in the trailers. This oasis, never seen clearly elsewhere, is not quite as mysterious anymore.

That said, a brand new mystery cropped up in this trailer to take the place of those that have been solved. You may have noticed something familiar that happened with the first trailer. And that is...this bug, unidentified, hanging off the backside of the tree near Hoothoot! Definitely a 97th Pokémon, as it doesn’t match any of the others seen yet, but there’s not nearly enough here for a positive identification. The current suspicions are that this is most likely Venomoth, however.

A couple smaller mysteries are also present. A growl can be heard during the trailer’s final scene, with no visual cues for which Pokémon it came from. It sounds likely to be Liepard, already confirmed for the game, but we can’t be sure quite yet. Was a bit of a surprise either way.

And a new NPC can also be spotted in the lab in this trailer, one who is yet to be introduced.

Now then, how about other reveals? We already knew Pokémon food from the original was returning, but the new trailer reveals a proper name for it in this title: Fluffruit. This trailer also reveals the return of the Poké Flute in some form. And a new item, called an Illumina Orb, can reportedly make any Pokémon glow. We still don’t know much about the effects of glowing.

On the subject of the Illumina Phenomenon though, and keeping on track with the mysteries, the website seems to hint at some strange flowers being related to it, and these can be seen all over the third trailer (in addition to showing up a few times in the earlier ones). These flowers have large, prominent crystals in the center and come in multiple colours. It seems like these flowers are what the lab’s crest is modeled after.

Onto other things that came up in the trailer, let’s talk about scores. I didn’t touch on it much last time as it was only seen on the website and not in the trailer, but we got another look at the scoring system for the game, which does some things differently than in the original. For the unfamiliar, the original Pokémon Snap featured the following scoring metrics: Special, Size, Pose, Technique, and Other PKMN.

In New Pokémon Snap, it appears that Technique has been broken up into Direction and Placement and is no longer a multiplier. Same PKMN has been generalized to Other Pokémon and does not need to be the same species. And while the Size bonus appears to be more lenient than the original at first glance, not seen in the trailer is that the Size score is not capped at 1,000. There is also a new scoring metric for Background.

While it’s not seen yet whether the Special pose bonuses will return, it’s possible they’ve been replaced by something new: a system that ranks how rare the behavior captured is. Each Pokémon’s page in the Photodex allows you to assign a photo for each level of rarity, which should lend an extra layer to the replayability that Pokémon Snap is already known for.

Also shown off in the trailer are features for editing the photos you take. You’ll be able to fine tune photos, add filters, and apply stickers. The system is far more robust than you’d expect to be possible for any real photo, but is in line with what we’ve seen in many other games with screenshot modes. ;)

Also teased was a built-in online gallery, available for players with NSO service. The site also reveals that there will be online leaderboards.

And that’s it! There’s a little more information to be found on the site, though I’ve already written about the bulk of it for now. And in just two short months, New Pokémon Snap will be released. Regardless of whether we get more information in that time, we definitely don’t have long left to wait.

[yukiwrites]

Death, a Beginning

HELLO YES of course I would write a sequel to A Spark of Life in a Cursed Body the moment Líf was summonable, so HERE WE ARE!! Watch out for the sin, ye who enters!

______________________________

Part 1 - Part 2

Líf's cursed body returned to how it had always been before Kiran had briefly sparked life into it. Under the command of Hel, Líf strode to battle the parallel Order of Heroes time and again, his body feeling heavier and heavier as he did so.

His legs felt as though they longed to return to the earth; to go to the eternal sleep Hel robbed him of after his death. After all, that would be preferable than to face Kiran again and again, refusing to look at her in the eyes as they stood on opposite sides of the battlefield. He could feel her piercing gaze burning holes into his body -- it made his chest tighten as though his heart could come back to life by simply being under her scrutinizing observation. He couldn't allow that.

He would hold onto the memory of their shared night together and complete his mission as Hel's Commander until the appointed time.

Yes.

Only until the parallel Alfonse, the one that Kiran should give her love to, pierced Líf's unbeating heart with Fólkvangr. Only then he knew he would be granted the eternal rest his mind craved for, if only to distance itself from the body that clamored to be touched by Kiran again. The body and unresting heart that longed to be watched by her; to be close enough to hear her breathing on his skin.

He wanted her to look at him and only him. But he ran from her gaze, for the pressure his weak, reawakened heart suffered from his overwhelming feelings threatened to make all of his convictions crumble. He wanted her embrace, her touch, her heat, her gaze, her damned fidgeting lock of hair. Oh, vengeful, fickle gods! He had been freed from the pains of the living only to revive them the moment she uttered his forsaken name with that alluring voice of hers.

Each new battle increased the weight of his steps, the piercing gaze of Kiran's making Líf's body waver. The day the army of the dead lost Thrasir was the decisive moment for its Commander.

It was finally time for the sweet release, but not before he did his all to at least fulfill the vow he had made to himself, as wavering as that resolve had become in the past few weeks.

He felt Alfonse's sword dig deep into his chest, a smile inadvertently sprouting under his mask. "This is it, then?" He managed to cough out, the entire body feeling numb.

Alfonse, the young man Líf once had been, pressed his lips into a thin line, as though he was holding back his tears. "I couldn't save you; I'm sorry."

Kiran's muffled sobs sounded behind the prince, her body crumpling to the ground. "A-Alfonse...!" She hiccupped, covering her mouth with both hands, tears endlessly streaming down her cheeks. "I made that promise and yet- yet!" she sniffled between sobs, crawling towards Líf as he was slowly dissolving into countless specks of light.

"Do not apologize, Alfonse." Líf felt his eyelids heavy with the approaching dissolution. He knew in his mind that that was what he wanted, but now that it arrived, he was washed over with regret. "You won. You weren't driven by madness," he huffed to the approaching Kiran, gently touching her soaked cheeks. "You weren't unable to save the ones you love." He whispered, the simple action of speaking turning more and more difficult as his body disintegrated.

Alfonse's chin trembled as he squeezed the hilt of his sword. Sharena sobbed in Eir's embrace, unable to watch the scene any further as Kiran gripped the hand Líf had deposited over her cheek.

"Oh, Al-Alfonse!" The Summoner choked on the word, her vision blurry as more and more of Líf's body was consumed by the specks of blue light. "Don't lea-ve... don't leave me again! I've only just found you..." She squeezed her eyes to shoo away the tears, at least wanting to meet his gaze, but to no avail -- they wouldn't nor couldn't stop.

The words flowed out of her mouth without her knowing, as though they came from her very soul.

Líf widened his eyes, barely the only part of him left to disintegrate, his voice not coming out as he wanted to scream Kiran's name.

Darkness surrounded his very being, not mattering whether his eyes were open or closed.

Eyes? Open? How could the Void allow one to have such thoughts? 

Líf had been released into the nothingness -- he was supposed to have finally, truly, achieved death. So why was he able to form conscious thoughts?

Not only that, but as more time passed, the more he could grow conscious of his own body -- he felt the feeling of his limbs return, the tips of his cold fingers in contact with his pitch-black armor. He felt the compulsion to breathe as though he had never forgotten how to -- and, most of all, he felt the foreign, utterly welcome beat coming from inside his chest.

It was faint and scarce, mayhap only once every a long while, but it was definitely there.

His heart was beating again; too faint for it to belong to a living person, but still too much for a dead, cursed one. It was the sensation he only felt during his hastened stay with Kiran; the hold the curse held on his body, mind and heart had weakened to the point of his entire being clamoring to return to where it belonged: beside Kiran.

His body fought against the death that claimed him, refusing to obey what the mind had decided to be the best course of action.

His heart was beating.

Was he alive? It couldn't be!

The eyes that were too heavy just a moment ago shot open, the breath the lungs took burning his insides for it was still a foreign action.

"You're awake." A familiar, highly unlikely voice spoke from the side. Líf's eyes were still getting used to the surroundings; his vision was blurry as though he were a newborn baby getting used to the outside world.

The former Commander of the dead squeezed his eyes, rubbing them with the back of his hand. "Veronica?" He asked with a groan, shaking his head so as to dispel the thick fog grasping his consciousness.

Thrasir, Líf's second-in-command, stood by the door, her crossed arms signaling her slight annoyance. "I've been awake here for a bit, but there's nothing but an empty corridor. The architecture resembles the ones we've seen on the ancient ruins, but this castle looks brand new."

"How long have you been here?" Líf cleared his throat, overly conscious of how his vocal chords trembled as he spoke.

Thrasir bobbed her head to the sides. "Less than five minutes, I'd wager. You appeared a little after I opened my eyes."

"Minutes?" Líf felt his body move, the muscles he'd forgotten he had stretching as he did so. "You've been defeated weeks before I did. Are we in a world where time flows differently?"

"Weeks? Hm." Thrasir took one hand to her chin in thought. "I didn't wander too far since you were still unconscious, so I can't really tell where we are."

"So we've failed to die yet again? What madness is this?" Líf dared to move his body, getting up with difficulty.

He remembered how that felt.

It was the weight of life that hindered his body. His movements didn't flow effortlessly like they did while he was dead. He needed to use his own energy to move, resulting on his limbs cramping as though they needed lubrication.

He felt... alive. Just barely, as though only a thread connected his cursed body to it, but it was certainly the burden of life that weighed his movements.

Not giving either of them the time to come to terms with the new life shining within their death, an overwhelming presence made itself known just in the corridor next to the room they were in. The raw power it exuded made both of them widen their eyes in shock, unbelieving that such an omnipotent being could exist in any of the worlds.

Startled, the former commanders of the dead reached for their weapons, gluing themselves to the wall to form a plan.

The presence threaded closer to them, uttering no sound from its footsteps.

"Prince and princess of a ruined realm..." An otherworldly voice spoke -- one couldn't tell if it belonged to a man or a woman, for it simply rang in their heads as though it could consume them with but a whisper.

Líf felt the faint beating of his heart speed up, the sensation of being pressured by a world-shattering power one that he hadn't felt ever since his life was taken by Hel's scythe. He gripped Sökkvabekkr in his hands, painfully aware that nothing he could possibly ever do would subjugate the being walking towards them.

Even so, because he didn't know what was its intention, he decided to fight for this draft of life that had been granted to him. If he could be alive again, then...

"Know that the heavens have witnessed your battle." A woman-shaped being walked through the open doors, her palms facing her front as though she could all but summon every single particle in this world to obliterate them if she wished.

Thrasir narrowed her eyes, adjusting her tome on her hand. "And you are?"

The woman lifted her chin to assert her superiority, a smirk sprouting at the corners of her lips. "I am called Thórr. In the eyes of mortals, I am seen as the god of war."

The always pleasant smell of the flowers were already making Kiran feel sick of them. The weather was always good and the flowers were always in full bloom inside Ljósálfheimr, the land of dreams. The Summoner sat by what anyone would call an idyllic hill, surrounded by all sorts of beauty, digging her face between her knees, holding her legs as she sighed.

An unidentified amount of time had passed since Líf's demise. To be more precise, a little over six weeks had gone by before Kiran found herself trapped inside the land of dreams, and ever since then, she couldn't tell day from night; weeks from months.

Though that had been the case ever since she witnessed Líf disappear right within her grasp -- time felt meaningless. Even now, in Ljósálfheimr, good and bad dreams seemed to avoid her: both dökkálfar and ljósálfar steered clear of her, as though she were either invisible or inconsequential to their agendas. She saw a few nightmares roaming about, destroying anything they touched, but she barely felt any compulsion to stay away from them.

She just watched as everything happened to her or around her, her own life turning into that of a passive agent: waiting. Simply... waiting.

Kiran had cried until she had no more tears left before she sniffed Hel out of existence with her enhanced Breidablik -- and yet, the void inside her chest ate away at herself with each passing day, refusing to allow her to be whole again after she had truly experienced the happiness she had always sought.

Her world had turned grey, little by little, little by little. Even now, the land of dreams looked dull, the myriad of flowers she used as cushion doing nothing to faze the heart that had given up on trying.

Even the nature of Ljósálfheimr -- one that would show those the dreams they wanted -- could barely scratch the surface of what Kiran truly needed. Whenever her mind wandered to the only one that could bring color back to her eyes, the world would show phantoms of her and Líf walking hand in hand, smiling happily.

It would show her scenes that had never happened before -- at least, not during this time. It showed her pulling him along towards a garden she had found and was eager to show him, followed by the both of them tripping and rolling down a hill, dissolving in laughter at the bottom. The Líf in the memory was the Alfonse he had been before the curse took ahold of him, though they still shared the same loving gaze when directed towards herself. The images of the cursed and the live man would overlap, showing Kiran the passionate night they had shared together before he had practically ran away from her in shame.

"Enough," Kiran covered her face with both hands, quivering her brow as her heart ached. "These aren't good dreams at all..." she choked a soundless sob, though her eyes remained dry since a long while ago.

Not even when a dökkálfar found her did the nightmares they showed manage to rattle her heart -- so what if they kept repeating the day she last touched Líf in a desperate attempt to keep him whole? Her own mind already did that at every waking moment (and she had not slept ever since arriving in the land of dreams), so they had no power over her.

Trapped in a world where nightmares snatched scoffs out of her and dreams would slowly chip away the remainder of her shattered heart.

Kiran was tired.

So, so very tired.

With a sleight of hand, she summoned Breidablik, which obediently materialized in her hand within a flash of light. The ancient weapon hadn't worked at all ever since she first set foot into Ljósálfheimr, no matter how many times she charged it.

As she stared holes at the fancy-looking gun, her chin trembled. A dream started to dance in front of her, showing happy moments of herself and the Alfonse Líf had been in the past. They were always laughing, their hands never apart from each other.

The thoughts of that Kiran flowed into her from time to time, showing her that there plans of ring-exchanging in the near future... One that never came after Hel invaded.

"... enough...!" Kiran's vision blurred as she slammed the weapon on the ground, scattering petals and disturbing the dream, though being unable to stop it entirely.

She thought she had no more tears to cry.

She thought she could finally at least allow her own self to breathe without hacking a sob and burning her throat with her cries.

Oh, vengeful, fickle gods! She thought she could simply exist without confronting all this pain!

"If only I could-" she sniffled, large teardrops flowing out of her eyes, "if only I could choose which Hero would come next... I would've taken the you from a moment after we became one. It would've been the you who whispered how much you loved me in the stupor of the moment, thinking I hadn't heard you." On her knees and pressing Breidablik on the ground with every ounce of strength she had, Kiran felt the tears trickling down her nose towards the weapon. "Even though I know those words were meant for her," Kiran bobbed her head to herself of the dream, smiling happily at her Alfonse, "I would've still chosen that you." She sobbed, her entire body shaking with grief as she lowered her head to rest it on Breidablik. "Oh, Alfonse!"

The moment her skin and tears touched the ancient weapon, a blinding flash of light emanated from it, engulfing its entirety.

Startled, Kiran fell on her behind, watching as Breidablik levitated and floated just a bit overhead, pointing towards the place the dream was repeating itself as though it were a damaged video file. The Summoner's eyes widened as the light started to focus on the muzzle, redying itself to shoot.

A summoning?!

Thórr and Loki had proposed Thrasir and Líf to join their ranks simply because they had struggled until long after they had failed -- not because they had even gotten closer to winning.

"Was it your power that brought a whisper of life back into us?" Líf asked before he could give his answer, one hand silently clutching his feeble heart.

The god of war simply smirked, ultimately remaining silent. That stole a snicker from the god of mischief beside her. "Isn't she a delight? It's always so amusing to watch her deal with her subjects."

"Subject..." Líf and Thrasir exchanged glances, the answer already etched into their hearts. The former Commander of the dead took a step forward, looking down at the god of war's short stature, though aware that that form was far from her real one. "Thórr, you have my word. I will bind myself to your contract. I will fight for you."

Thrasir nodded beside him, while Thórr’s expression remained impassive, her chin always hanging upwards proudly. Before Líf opened his mouth again, the corners of her lips went up, as though anticipating his words.

"But remember this: I will not bind myself to you for all eternity. I will free myself from you -- I'll serve as proof that the arrogance of the gods has its bounds." He narrowed his eyes menacingly. "I vow this not only for myself, but for another..." He lost his voice by the end of the sentence, pressing his lips into a thin line.

"You are an exemplar Prince." Thórr opened her arms, giving a nod as a greeting of her newest General. Líf barely had the time to reciprocate the gesture before Thórr spoke again, her eyes trailing to someplace above his shoulder. "Perhaps this vow might be fulfilled sooner than one would expect." Her smile grew to the point that it almost went from ear to ear, her face contorting into a nightmarish abomination. She looked up to the ceiling, a presence knocking at the borders of that fabricated world she had made solely for this meeting. "I'll allow!" She pointed upwards, prompting the two royals to follow her gesture with a start.

Loki hummed gingerly as reality distorted itself to open a path to the nothingness that surrounded it. "Oh my, she managed to use it even inside Ljósálfheimr? The rate she keeps getting stronger is simply delicious!"

A tiny ball of light shot through the now open hole, unceremoniously flying straight to Líf, piercing his chest and enveloping him in its warm embrace.

"What manner-" Líf looked at himself in confusion, his surroundings enclosed in a blinding white.

"Alfonse-" Thrasir meant to grab him, but by the time her fingers reached where his hand had been a heartbeat ago, he disappeared. "What is the meaning of this?!"

Thórr and Loki smiled in their own way as the distorted hole returned to normal. "Step forward, Princess. Let us watch their next battle..." Thórr turned on her heel towards the endless corridor preceding the room and left with soundless steps. Loki winked at Thrasir before following along.

"Don't worry, dearie, we'll hear from him soon. Very, very soon."

Breidablik shot straight at the fuzzing dream, a blinding light promptly engulfing it and its surroundings, forcing Kiran to cover her eyes.

For the first time in a long, long while, Kiran felt something akin to hope being sparked into her heart. What was that light? Could... could it be?!

Forcing her eyes to see despite the unfading light, Kiran peeked through her fingers to the shadow that made itself seen from within the summoning grounds. The patch of earth surrounding it had been scorched to ashes and the dream had dissipated with the fog, leaving only the silhouette of a befuddled, familiar man.

"Where... am I-" Líf huffed for breath, his body aching due to the brute force throwing him around between worlds. Narrowing his eyes to see within the thinning mist, the now General of the gods looked around in confusion.

Kiran brought both hands to her mouth in shock, her eyes wide with tears still fresh upon her cheeks. "Al-" she hiccupped, her entire body shaking. "Alfonse?"

Hearing the name he had discarded in that wonderful, loving voice made Líf's legs tremble as he searched for the source. A timely gush of wind did away with the mist, lifting petals, hair and capes alike as their eyes finally met after what seemed to be an eternity apart.

The pale sunlight shone on Kiran's tresses, the draft making them dance as time slowed to a halt. He saw her tender hands clutching in shock; her drenched face gleam in wonder; her unbelieving gaze never leaving his own.

Ahh, Líf didn't even realize he had ran towards her until she was already in his arms, her warmth bringing a shocking, dull ache in his limbs and a surge of energy -- his heart that had been beating at long intervals started thumping with the vigor of a living man, his entire body flaming in response.

"Is that- this isn't another dream, is it?! Oh, tell me this is real!" Kiran sobbed by Líf's febrile chest, fumbling her hands without knowing where to put them.

Líf pulled away for but a second -- enough to peel the mask off of his face -- and dove into Kiran's lips.

"Mmph...!" Surprised by the sudden action as she was midway to a sob, Kiran coughed right as Líf inserted his warm tongue into her mouth, cutting the kiss short. "Hak... hahh..." She panted, grabbling around from Líf's chest to his neck, then his scalp.

Pressing his forehead into hers, Líf gasped for air, quite rusty with all this breathing business. "Forgive me, I... I should not have done that-"

"No, no, nonono," Kiran slowly shook her head, digging her nails into his scalp to bring him closer. Their lips brushed against one another, her tongue impatiently peeking out, eagerly seeking his. "Don't... don't apologize for doing this. Not now," she nipped at his lower lip, then bit it and sucked on it, unwilling to move away, "not ever again."

Líf closed his eyes, unable to keep up with the overwhelming weight of his and Kiran's feelings clashing and mingling. He hugged her tender body tightly, binding her entirety to him as he inserted his tongue into her mouth. Her taste stole a hungry groan out of his throat, his entire body throbbing with the desire to be with her.

He sucked into her lips, dove into her mouth and tasted her unique flavor, his hands securely pressing her into him while she wrapped both arms around his neck, tilting her body downwards. Unwilling to part from the kiss, the couple flopped down on the soft flowers while a phenomenon that hadn't happened ever since Kiran arrived unraveled around them: night fell in an instant, its bright stars and moonlight illuminating their eager bodies.

Dissolving their kiss into smaller ones, Líf huffed as he sucked and licked Kiran's lips, his body inadvertently moving back and forth as her own accompanied from below him.

"Hold me, Alfonse- hold me-" she cupped his face so they could look each other in the eyes. She saw that his red brimmed with life; a warm light deep within glinting with desire. "Show me that this is truly real..." She pecked his lips, pulling him closer so she could kiss his cheeks, then ear and hair.

Inebriated with her taste, warmth and appetite, Líf reciprocated her gestures -- a trail of kisses starting from her lips went down to her cheeks, ear, then to her neck and collarbone. As Kiran moved her hands to grasp Líf's hair, the General slowly stopped, his own, large, hands taking hers out of him so he could lift his body upwards.

Lying down in the middle of his spread knees and watching him tilt his body backwards to as to strip himself of his gloves and cape made Kiran gulp and rub her legs in anticipation.

His red eyes shone in the dim moonlight -- and to be the recipient of such deep, unfazing desire made the Summoner's whole body shiver. Líf placed his mantle on the space right beside Kiran, dutifully claiming her back into his arms to move her to the softer surface before once again diving into a passionate kiss. The Summoner arched her back eagerly as Líf trailed his hands down to her thighs, squishing them between his fingers in delight, reminding himself of how her soft skin felt. He lowered his touch to the back of her knees, pulling her legs upwards and spreading them in front of him as she promptly wrapped them around his waist.

"Kiran, oh, my Kiran..." he bemoaned as he felt her hips moved up and down close to his own, enticing him to hell and back. He took delight in tasting every inch of her skin, kissing and sucking his trail from her lips to her cleavage, leaving marks in his wake. He groped her breasts under her thin tank top, huffing in pleasure as he was once again reminded of how she usually went without a bra.

"Eek-ah...!" Kiran felt a jolt of sensations as his cold yet warm hands lifted her top to reveal her bare chest, her nipples hardening immediately under his touch. Her inebriating voice fogged Líf eyes -- moved by the primal urge to claim the woman he loved, he could barely keep himself from biting the softness of her areolas as he carefully ground them with his teeth.

Another zap of pleasure flooded Kiran's body as Líf licked and sucked on one nipple while rubbing the other one between his fingers. She arched her back upwards, urging him to continue; to take all of herself to him -- to fill her insides with all of him. Panting, Kiran took one hand to her mouth to muffle her moans while the other dug into Líf's head.

Líf felt that he was slowly but surely going crazy -- he rolled his eyes in pleasure as she rubbed her inner thighs into his throbbing erection, hidden within his pants. The taste of her body was immensely different than when he was still dead.

It was addicting.

He wanted to kiss and lick every part of her body and call her his own.

Her bashful, muffled moans echoed inside his head, louder and louder the hungrier his mouth was, filling his entire being with the sole need of pleasing her and uniting with her.

Under Líf's mouth, Kiran's entire body trembled -- she felt the fire of climax hover around her cells, simply looking down at her and refusing to come while it didn't have what it truly wanted; what it truly needed.

"...ease-" She choked a huff, breathing heavily. "P-please, give it to me- I can't-" she rubbed her already wet underwear over his erection -- it was so hard! Was it always that way? Oh, she needed to know -- biting her lower lip in anticipation.

Líf squeezed his eyes shut with the wave of desire that came from her words, wanting more than anything to shove it all in and bring them both the pleasure they wanted.

But he was so hungry.

He was so very hungry for her.

He wanted, he needed, he craved for her taste.

Once again he trailed down his mouth. Towards her bellybutton, then hips and finally reaching her inner thighs. He lifted her miniskirt and pulled down her underwear, tossing it somewhere behind him as he licked his lips in anticipation for his meal.

Spreading her labia to reveal her moist insides, Líf readily dove into her vulva, sucking into her clit with unparalleled thirst.

"Ah-ahh...!" Kiran squeezed her eyes in pleasure, digging her nails into Líf's scalp. She felt the fire of climax spread through her legs towards her innards, enveloping her heart in a hot embrace. The more Líf drank from her, the wetter she became, and the closer climax loomed into her insides, shaking her very core.

Feeling her vaginal opening twitch endlessly with the approaching orgasm, Líf stole a look at her from his position, immediately closing one eye for his erection hurt with lust.

Her flushed face; her shut eyes, her gaping mouth.

Líf wanted it all. He had it all.

She was his.

And he was hers.

"My one and only," he kissed her inner thighs, trailing his lips until her calf as he pulled her closer to him, placing her legs over his shoulder. 

Panting, Kiran's vision was blurry with the approaching orgasm -- she needed just a little bit more to grasp it when Líf stopped his caresses. He freed his bulging erection at last, shuddering a bit when the cold air slapped it before prodding it at her vaginal opening.

"Hahh, hahh..." Kiran huffed, biting her lower lip in anticipation. She hadn't realized she cried tears of pleasure, so no wonder she could barely make out her surroundings. "P-please- give it to me-" she begged once more, rolling her head to the sides in a drunken plea. "I- I... I also love- ahhh...!"

Before she could finish her confession, Líf put it in slowly, enjoying how her inner walls accommodated him once again -- it was as though she had molded herself to him and him only. It was overwhelming to the both of them: Kiran's entire body shook with the orgasm the deeper Líf penetrated until it was all inside; and Líf had to take a moment to blink as his vision had darkened from the rush of emotions and feelings he felt the moment they were finally joined.

Kiran squeezed herself around Líf, her entirety trembling and pulsating as though to keep him inside of her forever. Overwhelmed, Líf slowly bent back down to her, making the penetration feel even deeper to her as she stretched out a long moan.

"I love you," he confessed as he pulled it out with difficulty -- she was sucking him in so much he had to roll his hips to poke at her sensitive spots to allow him out, "I'll always love every bit of you." He slowly put it all back in, enjoying her choked moan as she struggled to handle the pleasure over pleasure she was feeling.

"You- ahh... You stole my-ann..." She tried to speak under his constant rhythm as he went in and out, in and out... He was igniting the fire inside of her once again, not allowing the previous orgasm to cool her down. "My line..."

Líf kissed her cheek and licked her ear as his rhythm accelerated slowly, ever so slowly, driving her crazy. He huffed by her ear, his warm breath tingling on her skin, forcing her to dig her nails onto his back lest she lost herself entirely.

"Only that I, ah, feel that I've beeeen... waiting for you to unlock my heart ah-again..." She sniffled as her body shook with his pounding into her, growing faster and faster. She truly felt that the sole reason for her to be summoned into this world was to meet him; to meet Alfonse as Líf.

It was as though she had a compulsion to be with him the moment they first met; making her soul lurch towards him whenever their eyes met. She was his.

And he was hers.

Líf felt his eyes tingle with emotion, his lower body accelerating his movements to accompany the rush inside his head and heart. "Hahh, hahh... Kiran, my Kiran... it's always been you..." He squeezed his eyes in pleasure, his breathing mingling with hers as their lips brushed on one another within their shared heat.

"Alfonse-" she bemoaned his name over and over again, cupping his head to dive into his kiss at the same time their bodies shook with the climax.

Líf liberated himself inside of her, making Kiran feel the warm fluids streaming down within her amidst the tingling and fogged sensation of the orgasm. Exhausted, the Summoner's hands fell limp on the sides of her head, small moans escaping through her gritted teeth as her insides once again pulsated around Líf.

The General pressed his forehead on hers, his mind a blank while his lower body shuddered, wanting to rise again to claim her until neither of them could take it.

To think that he would only feel complete again after dying and being brought back to life.

It was all so he could meet her again.

It was all so she could meet him again.

Crying tears of pleasure, Kiran held Líf's tender hand that had caressed her cheek and smiled weakly, kissing its palm. She took a short breath to speak, but Líf was faster, resulting in the both of them confessing at the same time:

"I love you." They huffed in the same tone, a wide smile leaving Líf's lips. "Thank you for bringing me back to you."

[lynxfur9]

Healthy Proteins.

Peptide Bound Glutamine Vs Basic Glutamine.

Content

Contact Us Concerning This Innovation.

Legal Use Declaration: Aqua Peptides.

Post Information.

Sarms Discussed.

Freshwater Pearl Sarm Locket > Rosely".

On average it takes 7 working days for the blood examination results to come back from the medical facility, depending on the precise examinations requested. Some specialist examination results might take longer, if examples have to be sent out to a referral research laboratory. If you are signed up to make use of the on the internet services of your local practice, you may have the ability to access your outcomes online. Not eating for 8 to 10 hours prior to blood testing is generally needed. There are 4 phases of protein folding, primary, secondary, tertiary and also quarternary. Individuals getting the therapy required much less insulin, recommending they could still make several of their very own.

The initial NMR experiments obtained will certainly check out the state of the healthy protein as well as it's viability for refresher course at the selected NMR healthy protein focus, acquiring 1D 1H and/or 2D 15N HSQC spectra. When a peptide includes an inner proline, solid ion series because of internal bosom are observed, extending from the proline in the direction of the C terminus. Pieces will only be spotted if they bring at the very least one charge. If this charge is kept on the N terminal fragment, the ion is classified as either a, b or c. If the fee is kept on the C terminal, the ion type is eitherx, y or z. The Hypo Program is the world's first as well as only organized education program.

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C-peptide may be gauged when there is abrupt or persisting hypoglycaemia. Signs and symptoms consist of sweating, palpitations, appetite, complication, visual troubles and also seizures, although these symptoms additionally can occur with various other problems. The C-peptide examination may be made use of in these situations to help determine the source of excess insulin, i.e. whether it is being generated in your body or originating from extreme shot of insulin.

If incapable to send example instantly, freeze at -20 ° C as well as send out at ambient temperature in the blog post. For long-lasting storage (e.g. to batch examples), we advise freezing at -80 ° C.

Lawful Usage Statement: Aqua Peptides.

Hannah has a degree in Human Biology and many years' experience working in laboratories around London. Utilizing this experience, Hannah delights in turning intricate science right into interesting, appealing and easy to absorb items to read. In her spare time, Hannah runs, practices yoga exercise and also enjoys cooking plant based foods. Yet with this comes the concern that they might then be little sufficient to go into the blood stream, as well as the long term effects of this are yet unidentified. Every occasionally, a brand-new skin treatment ingredient goes along as well as guarantees to be the following big point consequently back the clock and also making our skin soft, supple, hydrated, plump as well as younger. Others assure to complete great lines as well as creases, whilst others claim they can lighten locations of pigmentation or aid to reduce the scarring brought on by acne. For adults, 5 ml of blood taken right into a slim gold or rust top tube.

Do peptides make your hair grow?

Peptides, being “smaller proteins,” when applied, cause changes in cell behavior, stimulate follicle growth, and promote natural hair production and improvement of hair color.

AminoA items are natural bio-stimulants gotten with chemical hydrolysis. The manufacturing technique warranties that the end product is of the highest standards and quality. Chemical bodies that have an "amino" team as well as an "acid" group. As they have an alkaline team and an acid group, they can act as an acid or an antacid, relying on the pH of the solution in which they are had. Our unflavored Multi Collagen is the excellent enhancement for soups and full-flavored recipes. You can imagine, after that, a polypeptide particle as a chain made from flat rectangle-shaped plates joined by the Ca atoms.

Write-up Info.

In a beta-pleated sheet, the chains are folded up to make sure that they lie together with each various other. The next layout reveals what is referred to as an "anti-parallel" sheet. All that means is that next-door chains are heading in opposite directions. Provided the means this particular folding occurs, that would certainly appear to be inescapable. Hannah de Gruchy is a freelancer writer who is experts in wellness as well as health. She has an eager rate of interest in the biology of skin as well as enjoys utilizing her words to assist divide the actual science of skincare from the pseudoscience of some skincare brands.

Our 30% peptide blend contains an ingenious shipment system which makes certain that all our peptides can dive deep into the lower layers of the skin for ideal result.

Peptides usually find it hard to reach where they require to be; they are large as well as dislike being around oil so they have a hard time to fit through the small, oil-based spaces in between skin cells.

Use high quality specialist glass and polypropylene vials can reduce this problem.

Collagen and elastin manufacturing is enhanced, fine lines and creases are smoothed as well as the skin's all-natural stores ofhyaluronic acid are elevated.

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Sourced from Bovine-- We resource our collagen solely from Europea livestock which are pasture-raised as well as finished, their diet is 100% GMO cost-free as well as they are likewise without antibiotics and also hormones too. Where this comes in beneficial is when you are comparing tablet computers or blends of collagen, if a 10g offering size claims there is just 1000mg of collagen, after that you can see that there is just 10% collagen in this tablet/sachet.

Sarms Described.

For the blood examination itself, an example of blood will certainly be drawn from your arm as well as it shouldn't take far more than a minute. If you take blood glucose lowering drug you will likely be asked to quit taking these in the run up to the test. Instead of MHC class I, MHC course II molecules do not dissociate at the plasma membrane. The systems that control MHC course II destruction have not been developed yet, but MHC class II particles can be ubiquitinised and after that internalised in an endocytic pathway. Versus Arthritis was developed in 2018 following a merger of Arthritis Care and Arthritis Research UK.

CP1 is an unflavoured powder that conveniently liquifies and also mixes right into any kind of cool or warm beverage, without adding any type of flavour. Each scoop of CP1 gives you with over 90% pure healthy protein, that improves the nutritional profile of any kind of drink, smoothie or other drink. There is no safe level of drug use.Use of any medication always brings some threat-- even medicines can generate unwanted side effects. Polar zippers in between neighbouring beta sheets resulting in the formation of wide and also stiff nanoribbons. The brand-new test is currently in available in many NHS depends on, as well as is now supplied to everyone diagnosed as Type 1 diabetes mellitus for at the very least 3 years in Glasgow as well as Edinburgh. The Exeter group has developed a brand-new urine test for C-peptide, as well as shown that a straightforward blood test when a person is seen in clinic can also accurately measure C-peptide, changing previous methods which were costly as well as taxing. These examinations are currently offered in virtually every hospital in the UK, as well as expense as little as ₤ 10.

The remaining grammage will be comprised of the additional bulkers, fillers or components. This is a bit of an advertising and marketing term used in the collagen sector, however, it can be handy to comprehend just how much collagen is actually in a serving of an item. If the collagen brand name can not give you with information of where the livestock, poultry or fish are from - move on as well as choose a firm that can. When keeping an eye out for a collagen supplement be sure that you recognize where the pets have come from, as not all collagen coincides.

But https://pharmalabglobal.com/product-category/melanotan-2/ of the therapy will need to be examined in future tests with even more individuals and longer period. The primary function of the test was to check the new therapy for safety and security, but scientists also observed some positive impacts of peptide immunotherapy. However if the entire immune system is compromised, people are extra vulnerable to infections and cancer.

This clumping of hydrophobic molecules is called hydrophobic communication. An example of thioester link is the one between the thiol team of CoA and the carboxylic group of acetic acid in Acetyl CoA. Glycosidic bond undergoes deterioration in a process called glycolysis. It is a hydrolytic procedure in which a water particle is used to damage the glycosidic bond and release the carbohydrate and also various other residues. Based on the stereochemistry of the anomeric carbon or its alignment in space, a glycosidic bond can either be an alpha-bond or a beta-bond. In an O-glycosidic linkage, the carbonyl team of carbohydrates responds with the hydroxyl group of an additional substance. This causes a substance in which the sugar or carb residue is affixed to the oxygen of the other compound, thus the name O-glycosidic bond.

Tumours can typically avoid being targeted by these T Cells by resembling a cell found generally in the body commonly referred to as "self". If a team of T Cells can be motivated to recognise these tumors as foreign as well as not self after that they will attack the tumor as well as supply a reliable treatment versus it. If the result of UCPCR runs out keeping with other professional searching for after that we would certainly recommend repeating the examination specifically if it is unexpectedly low. Patients tipping out boric acid preservative from pee collection tube, in an example taking more than 3 days to reach the research laboratory can lead to unnaturally low outcomes. UCPCR is mainly to be made use of in individuals on insulin treatment to analyze endogenous insulin secretion. Steady for 3 days in Boric acid containers at ambient temperature level.

But unless you're devouring on these on a daily basis, opportunities are you'll have a hard time to get an optimum amount of collagen with diet regimen alone. In light of this, there are some terrific methods to increase your collagen consumption with normal diet plan by taking a genealogical approach as well as eating a genuine food diet plan. to pharma lab global Purchase Sermorelin can improve your collagen consumption with typical food by eating more organ meats, making bone broth as well as making use of points like oxtail, ears as well as trotters.

You will need to quick before a C-peptide blood test if the results will certainly be used to assess hypoglycaemia. Additionally, a suitable blood sample taken throughout a hypoglycaemic episode might be enough.

So scientists are working to selectively target parts of the body immune system believed to be straight in charge of the attack in Kind 1 diabetic issues. There are additionally concerns over whether collagen can make it through the digestion process. Collagen is discovered in and as a result typically originated from pets such as cows, pigs and also fish or other fish and shellfish. Products having collagen are not vegetarian as well as might be unsuitable for people with various other dietary demands. HydroPeptide is the future generation of anti-ageing with sophisticated peptide modern technologies.

AsclepiX Therapeutics, Inc. Doses First Patient in Phase 1/2a Trial of AXT107 Intravitreal Self-Forming Gel Depot Peptide for Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) Proteins and Peptides News Channels - PipelineReview.com

AsclepiX Therapeutics, Inc. Doses First Patient in Phase 1/2a Trial of AXT107 Intravitreal Self-Forming Gel Depot Peptide for Diabetic Macular Edema (DME) Proteins and Peptides News Channels.

Posted: Wed, 06 Jan 2021 09:57:58 GMT [source]

Opt for pasture-raised, European cattle if opting for bovine as well as check that there is no antibiotics or hormonal agents utilized - along with no GMO feeds. Enhances Joint and also Bone Health and wellness-- Collagen replenishes, brings back and also enhances joints and also bones. Supplementing the diet regimen with collagen has actually been shown to raise bone toughness, promote healthy bone turnover as well as decrease the effect of ageing on our skeleton. Purchase AOD- pharmalabglobal.com provide the body with a source of collagen that is incredibly bioavailable, so they can start to work their magic as soon as they're ingested. If diet regimen alone isn't mosting likely to make the cut when it comes to wrecking your collagen consumption after that the issue is intensified when you think about the reality that our all-natural collagen production slows down as we age.

The diffusion pressures set up would certainly suffice to hold the folded structure with each other. You will certainly likewise discover that this specific version has 2 various other particles locked right into it. These are the two particles whose response this enzyme catalyses. The colour coding in the model aids you to track your means around the framework - going through the spectrum from dark blue to wind up at red. It is feasible to have some a lot more challenging folding to make sure that next-door chains are in fact heading parallel. We are getting well past the needs of UK A degree chemistry currently.

NT-proBNP is released into the blood circulation in equivalent total up to the active hormonal agent but is substantially a lot more secure and for this reason forms a good pen of BNP result. N-terminal professional B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is an inactive peptide released together with the active peptide hormone BNP when the walls of the heart are extended or there is pressure overload on the heart e.g. by fluid overload. BNP then acts upon the kidneys creating liquid as well as sodium loss in the urine as well as mild vasodilation so launching the pressure. Proteins are 3-D macromolecules made from at the very least one polypeptide chain.

[menodorasanimeblog]

Black Butler

Title: Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji)

Genre: Dark Comedy, Dark Fantasy, Thriller

TRIGGER WARNINGS: abuse mentions (physical, mental, and sexual), graphic death, murder, slavery mention (please let me know if there are other warnings I should add)

# of Episodes: 36 + 7 OVA (+ Book of Circus (10) + Book of Murder (2) + Book of the Atlantic (movie))

Rating: 6/10

General Description:

“In Victorian-era London lives a thirteen-year-old earl named Ciel Phantomhive, who acquired this position after the events of [Ciel's 10th birthday], when the Phantomhive manor was attacked by unidentified perpetrators and was set ablaze. Ciel, amidst the chaos, discovers his parents... to be dead... The same night he is kidnapped by the attackers and then sold into slavery, where he ends up in the hands of a sadistic, demon-worshipping cult. Ciel then endures endless... abuse at the hands of his captors. Ciel was also heat branded with a mark referred to as the "mark of the beast". One night, during a sacrificial ceremony to summon a demon, instead of forming a contract with the cult members, the demon states that he was summoned by Ciel, therefore he only agrees to form a contract with him, killing all the cultist members in the process.... After the formation of the contract, the demon reveals he will consume Ciel's soul as payment for helping him achieve his goal; revenge on those who brought down the House of Phantomhive. Afterwards Ciel names the demon Sebastian Michaelis, after his deceased pet dog. The duo then return to society as Ciel takes over his now late father's previous position as the queen's watchdog...” (Source)

Best Feature: interesting, less repetitive plot

Greatest Flaw: lack of character development

Favorite Episode: 5 (His Butler, Chance Encounter)

Least Favorite Episode: 25 (Clawed Butler)

Favorite Character: Joker (Book of Circus)

Least Favorite Character: Ciel Phantomhive

Notes:

I really don’t know what to say about this honestly. It’s dark but it’s supposed to be. The second season really annoys me (as much as I adore Alois) because it just feels awkward and out of place. Other than that I enjoyed watching it the first time, I’ve enjoyed the first season in subsequent viewings, and the OVAs are interesting enough.

[grimgrinningghoul]

Phandom Pairing Master List

      Here it is, folks! An updated/updating list of ships from Danny Phantom!

(Updated Mar. 25, 2020)

      The purpose of this list is documentation and, more importantly, reference. Have a ship that you want to share, but don’t know what to tag it as? Well, this list is for you, so you can tag your pairings appropriately! Is there a ship out there that you despise, or are just uncomfortable about? Check this list to see if it has a name, and you can blacklist its tag!

      Here’s how it’s set up: the list is divided into 3 categories. These categories are the Humans, the Ghosts, and the Ghosts/Humans; each category goes through in alphabetical order. Every pairing is either marked with [P] or [R] to indicate platonic or romantic.

      You may notice that there are a decent handful of unnamed pairings; this is simply due to me being unable to find a pre-established name and/or coming up with one at this time. I hope to update this list over time until everything has at least one name.

      Suggestions are more than welcome! Think of a pairing you didn’t see? Got a ship name? Throw them at me, and I’ll add them to the list.

      Now, without further adieu, enjoy!

HUMANS (70)

Dani x Danny [P]: Double Trouble

Dani x Danny [R]: Sue Killer

Dani x Dash [R]: Carbon Copy Quarterback

Dani x Lancer [P]: Copy Grades

Dani x Tucker [R]: Cloned Romantic

Dani x Valerie [R]: Sweet Substitution, Vengeful Babes

Dani x Vlad [P]: Generic Brand, Oatmeal

Dani x Vlad [R]: Cream Cheese

Dani x Wes [R]: Clone Conspiracy

Danny x Dash [R]: Locker Bruise, Swagger Bishie, Teddy Ghost

Danny x Eliot [R]: Nu Goth

Danny x Jack [P]: Family Business

Danny x Jack [R]: The Wrong Sick

Danny x Jazz [P]: -

Danny x Jazz [R]: Sibling Secrets

Danny x Kwan [R]: Phantom Fumble

Danny x Lancer [P]: Assigned Care

Danny x Lancer [R]: Literature Lovers

Danny x Maddie [P]: Family Bonding, Maternal Instincts

Danny x Maddie [R]: Mama’s Boy, Motherly Love

Danny x Pamela [R]: Restrained Romance

Danny x Paulina [R]: Pink Astronaut, Shallow Sapphire

Danny x Sam [R]: Amethyst Ocean, Fake-out Make-out, Going Goth, Lovebirds, Violet Haze

Danny x Star [R]: Astro Physics, Phantom Satellite

Danny x Tucker [P]: Cyberspace

Danny x Tucker [R]: Savant Par

Danny x Valerie [R]: Gray Ghost

Danny x Vlad [P]: Badger Cereal

Danny x Vlad [R]: Endangered Species, Pompous Pep

Danny x Wes [R]: Unidentified Flying Ship (UFS)

Dash x Jazz [R]: Brain Over Brawn

Dash x Kwan [R]: Tight End

Dash x Paulina [R]: Makeup Honor

Dash x Sam [R]: Dumb Founded

Dash x Star [R]: All-Stars

Dash x Vlad [P]: College Fund

Dash x Vlad [R]: Go Packers

Eliot x Sam [R]: Gothic Ruse

Eliot x Tucker [R]: Nu Geek

Freakshow x Danny [R]: Pitched Tent, Publicity Stunt

Freakshow x Jazz [R]: Ghost Envy

Jack x Maddie [R]: Moronic Genius, Brain Cookies

Jack x Jazz [P]: -

Jack x Vlad [P]: -

Jack x Vlad [R]: Pac-Man

Jazz x Lancer [R]: Teacher’s Pet

Jazz x Paulina [P]: Miss Perfect

Jazz x Paulina [R]: Pretty Little Psycho

Jazz x Sam [R]: Kith Kin

Jazz x Tucker [R]: Techno Smarts

Jazz x Vlad [R]: Obsessive Meddler, Psycho Cereal

Kwan x Sam [P]: -

Kwan x Sam [R]: Jock Goth

Kwan x Star [R]: Sports Satellite

Kwan x Tucker [R]: Quacker

Kwan x Vlad [R]: Not So Useful Distraction

Lance Thunder x Lancer [R]: Lance Lancer

Maddie x Pamela [R]: Maternal Rivalry, Posh Scientist

Maddie x Vlad [R]: Spurned Affection

Paulina x Sam [P]: -

Paulina x Sam [R]: Evil Alliance, Fake-Up Make-Out, Goth Princess

Paulina x Star [P]: -

Paulina x Star [R]: Famous Satellite, Shallow Orbit

Paulina x Valerie [R]: Hunter’s Façade

Sam x Tucker [P]: Techno Goth

Sam x Tucker [R]: Ghost’s Absence, Veggie Burger

Sam x Valerie [R]: Hide N’ Seek

Sam x Vlad [R]: Gothic Vampire

Star x Tucker [R]: Twinkle Techno

Tucker x Valerie [R]: Hunter Silly, Tracking Device

Valerie x Vlad [R]: Misplaced Faith, Secret Disaster

__________________________________________________

GHOSTS (52)

Amorpho x Ghost Writer [R]: Tricky Pseudonym

Amorpho x Walker [P]: Undercover Cop

Amorpho x Walker [R]: Tricky Prison

Aragon x Dora [P]: -

Aragon x Dora [R]: Girl In The Tower, Royal Bloodline, Timeless Love

Aragon x Pariah Dark [R]: -

Bertrand x Spectra [R]: Melancholy Assistance

Box Ghost x Lunch Lady [R]: Packaged Food

Box Lunch x Youngblood [P]: -

Box Lunch x Youngblood [R]: Pirate Food

Clockwork x Dan [P]: - House Arrest

Clockwork x Dan [R]: Meddling Minutes

Clockwork x Ghostwriter [R]: History Books

Clockwork x Nocturne [R]: Bed Time, Dream Time

Clockwork x Pariah Dark [R]: Dark Ages

Clockwork x Walker [R]: Doing Time

Dairy King x Lunch Lady [R]: -

Dan x Ghost Writer [R]: Blood Red Ink

Dan x Nocturne [R]: Worst Nightmare

Dan x Pariah Dark [R]: Dark Dark

Desiree x Dora [R]: Royal Wishes

Desiree x Ember [R]: Hot December

Desiree x Pandora [R]: Mythical Wishes

Desiree x Skulker [R]: Traps Desired

Desiree x Spectra [R]: Painful Desires

Desiree x Technus [R]: Talkative Treacherous, Talkative Treachery

Desiree x Walker [R]: Guard Granter

Dora x Lydia [R]: Dragon Tattoo

Dora x Pandora [R]: Dora^2, Panned Doras

Dora x Poindexter [P]: -

Dora x Poindexter [R]: Retro Movie Do, Retro Movie Faire

Ember x Ghost Writer [R]: Burning Pages, Punk Poet, Written Memory

Ember x Johnny [P]: Rebel Youth

Ember x Johnny [R]: Flame’s Shadow

Ember x Kitty [P]: Girl’s Night

Ember x Kitty [R]: Pussycat Dolls

Ember x Skulker [P]: Punk Metal

Ember x Skulker [R]: Hunter’s Flame

Ember x Youngblood [P]: Pirate Sitting

Ember x Youngblood [R]: Punk Rock

Fright Knight x Pariah Dark [R]: All The King’s Men

Ghost Writer x Johnny [R]: Unlucky Author

Ghost Writer x Nocturne [R]: Goodnight Moon

Ghost Writer x Skulker [R]: Gun Magazine

Ghost Writer x Technus [R]: Science Fiction

Ghost Writer x Walker [R]: Penslammeter, Prison Journal

Johnny x Kitty [R]: Black Cat

Nocturne x Pariah Dark [R]: Delusions Of Grandeur

Skulker x Technus [P]: -

Skulker x Technus [R]: Electric Hunter, Generator, Sparks

Spectra x Walker [R]: Insane Asylum, Psyche Ward

Walker x Wulf [R]: Esperanto Code Of Conduct

__________________________________________________

GHOSTS/HUMANS (77)

Amorpho x Danny [R]: Anonymity Park

Aragon x Danny [R]: Royal Pain

Box Ghost x Danny [R]: Boxed Phantom

Clockwork x Danny [P]: Lost Time

Clockwork x Danny [R]: Temporal Trust

Clockwork x Jazz [R]: Timely Intelligence

Dairy King x Vlad [P]: Cheese Head

Dairy King x Vlad [R]: Lactose Intolerance

Dan x Dani [P]: -

Dan x Dani [R]: Young Bloodthirst

Dan x Danny [P]: New Beginnings

Dan x Danny [R]: Enslaved Exemplar, Haunted Past

Dan x Freakshow [R]: Control, Dark Side

Dan x Maddie [P]: -

Dan x Maddie [R]: Oedipus Complex

Dan x Paulina [R]: Pitiful Delusion

Dan x Sam [R]: Evil Goth

Dan x Valerie [R]: Dark Gray

Dan x Vlad [P]: The Imperfect Son

Dan x Vlad [R]: Bitterly Broken, Doubly Evil

Dani x Ember [P]: Kid’s Bop

Dani x Ember [R]: Platinum Punk

Dani x Youngblood [P]: Play Date

Dani x Youngblood [R]: Young Love

DannyF x DannyP [P]: Oreo Cookie, Phriendship, Pitch Pals

DannyF x DannyP [R]: Pitch Pearl, Photogenic Narcissus

Danny x Desiree [R]: Haunting Desire

Danny x Dora [R]: Phantom Dragon

Danny x Ember [P]: Baby Pop

Danny x Ember [R]: Phantom Rocker

Danny x Fright Knight [R]: Halloween Phantom

Danny x Frostbite [P]: -

Danny x Ghost Writer [R]: Iambic Prose

Danny x Johnny 13 [R]: Lucky Accident

Danny x Kitty [R]: Phantom Feline

Danny x Lunch Lady [R]: Ghostly Menu

Danny x Nocturne [P]: Restless Spirit

Danny x Nocturne [R]: Teenage Dream

Danny x Poindexter [P]: Locker Buddies

Danny x Poindexter [R]: Noodle Nerds

Danny x Shadow [R]: Phantom Shadows

Danny x Skulker [P]: Cat and Mouse

Danny x Skulker [R]: Callous Query

Danny x Spectra [R]: Phantom Psychology

Danny x Technus [P]: Voltaic Potential

Danny x Technus [R]: Cosmic Cyborg

Danny x Walker [P]: Space Cadet

Danny x Walker [R]: Ghostly Prisoner, Jailbait, Jailbird

Danny x Wulf [P]: Howling Moon

Danny x Wulf [R]: White Fang

Ember x Freakshow [R]: Dark Fire, The Freak Behind Blue Eyes

Ember x Paulina [R]: Perfect Pitch, Pitch Perfect

Ember x Sam [R]: Indie Rock, Somber Sear

Freakshow x Johnny 13 [R]: Hypnotic Shadows, Spaghetti And Meatballs

Freakshow x Lydia [R]: Circus Freaks

Fright Knight x Vlad [R]: New Master

Ghost Writer x Jazz [P]: Mindful Fiction

Ghost Writer x Jazz [R]: Classic Cliché

Ghost Writer x Sam [P]: Poetic Tale

Ghost Writer x Sam [R]: Purple Prose

Ghost Writer x Vlad [R]: Tireless Dedication

Jazz x Ember [R]: Hypno-Therapy

Jazz x Kitty [R]: Feline Grace

Jazz x Spectra [R]: Psycho Analysis

Jazz x Technus [R]: Techno Babble

Lancer x Spectra [R]: School Spirit

Lunch Lady x Tetslaff [R]: Butch-ers, Steak Sit-Ups

Sam x Undergrowth [P]: Gothic Garden, Green Thumb, Over Goth

Skulker x Vlad [P]: Bounty’s Reward

Skulker x Vlad [R]: Hunter’s Gains

Spectra x Vlad [R]: Misery Motivated

Technus x Tucker [P]: Tech Buddies

Technus x Tucker [R]: PDA, Techno Geeks, Technological Advancement

Technus x Vlad [R]: Mad Scientist

Vlad Masters x Vlad Plasmius [R]: Striking Fear

Vlad x Walker [P]: Tax Evasion

Vlad x Walker [R]: Bail Money

[rocketwerks]

American Tobacco Company South Richmond Complex

AKA, Tom Walker Warehouse Group

400-800 Jefferson Davis Highway

Built, 1926-29 (Re-Drying Plant), 1936 (Stemmery), 1939 (Warehouses & Research Laboratory), 1947 (Boiler House & Garage), 1980s (Research Laboratory additions)

VDHR 127-5832

November 2019 — Stemmery & Re-Drying Plant

A sprawling campus from the Golden Age of Cigarettes.

(Rarely Seen Richmond) — Tobacco Warehouse Scene

Throughout the nineteenth century, most tobacco processing occurred at a local scale, with independent producers maintaining their own supply of tobacco and process for marketing it. As tobacco production centralized near the end of the nineteenth century, producers became increasingly concerned with the need for quality control, in order to ensure that the taste sought by the consumer was at least somewhat consistent throughout a given brand’s production. This was the beginning of the concept known as the “blend;” the combination of tobaccos (and, later, fillers) used to reliably create a particular flavor profile for a given brand of tobacco products. 

(iStock) — A tobacco warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, with barrels of tobacco lined up outside — Harper’s Weekly, Saturday, 5 April 1890

The advent of maintaining a consistent blend and increasing production speed brought about challenges for older production facilities, including those in Richmond mostly clustered in the Shockoe Valley area. Most of these facilities were multi-story, elevator-serviced warehouse buildings that could contain an adequate supply of tobacco on-hand to keep up with the older, slower, cigarette-manufacturing equipment. 

(Evolving Cigarette) — Bonsack Machine, the first automated cigarette maker

However, as newer high-speed cigarette manufacturing machines increased in speed and efficiency, and proprietary blends required a much larger cache of tobacco, including multiple varieties and stages of aging to be on hand, cigarette manufacturers found that their facilities were incapable of holding enough supplies of processed tobacco to maintain production.

(VDHR) — Rail Cars at the Warehouse Loading Docks, Facing North, Circa 1930s

On October 27, 1910, the American Tobacco Company paid the Manchester Land and Manufacturing Company $25,000 for the 25-acre property bound by the A.C.L. Railroad and the Petersburg Pike. At the same time, arrangements were made with the railroad to allow for the construction of rail spurs off the mainline leading into the property. Construction was begun immediately of 14 new-design, tobacco storage warehouses. The warehouses were sited throughout the property to make the most efficient use of rail access, with spurs extending along a loading dock on one side of each row of warehouses. 

(Digital Forsyth)  — Hogsheads, Packed With Leaf Tobacco, In R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’S Storage Warehouse, 1956

It was stated by the company that the sheds would be “scattered over the large area of land in order to lessen the fire hazard and will consequently render the insurance rate lower than it would be if there were only large warehouse.” It was also said that the design of the storage sheds offered a more satisfactory method of keeping tobacco than the usual warehouse. The capacity of each shed was to be about 1,200 hogsheads allowing a total storage of around 31,000,000 pounds of tobacco.

November 2019 — Warehouse

The individual buildings were a single tall story in height, eliminating the need for elevators and the resulting extra personnel necessitated by all of the additional handling. Their enormous capacity and ease of access were the essential characteristics of their design. The 14 warehouses each enclosed roughly 14,000-square feet and were built in a grid of three rows throughout the property. The wood frame of each building was clad with galvanized iron siding with large louvers open on the bottom to permit circulation of air throughout the interior. The floors were elevated and consisted of soil covered by 4-6 inches of cinders, with concrete aisles.

November 2019 — Warehouse

In 1929, the American Tobacco Company embarked on a half-million dollar expansion program at the Chesterfield Warehouses in South Richmond to increase storage, and thereby, production capabilities of Lucky Strikes. The new buildings were built in the spaces between the existing 1911 buildings to make three continuous rows of warehouse space. New brick bulkhead walls were built at the ends of the existing buildings, to reinforce them, as well as provide better fire protection. The additional warehouses were stated to increase the overall storage capacity from 31,000,000 pounds of tobacco to 50,000,000, making it one of the largest storage plants in the South.

(Érudit) — Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada advertisement promoting tobacco research

As of the construction in 1929, the new building also became the center of leaf research for the American Tobacco Company. Originally based in Brooklyn, New York, the research department of the company was founded in 1911 and included only a few scientists whose job was to study the tobacco leaf to better understand its physical properties and ensure quality control of the tobacco purchased and used by the company. When the research department was moved to Richmond in 1929, it at first consisted of just four chemists; however the department would grow dramatically over the following decade.

(VDHR) — American Tobacco Company Research Laboratory, Front Façade and North Side, Facing Southwest, 1939

By this time, the complex was also now called the Tom Walker Warehouse Group, named after the manager of the facility, T.J. Walker of Richmond. 

In 1938, the Tom Walker complex underwent yet another expansion, this time fueled by the growth and prominence of the research department based there. That year, the American Tobacco Company announced that the facility would be the site of a new, state-of-the-art laboratory for the company research department. American Tobacco Company Research Laboratory

(VDHR) — One of the tobacco analysis laboratories in the new research building of the American Tobacco Company, 1939

The role of the research department in the success of the American Tobacco Company became so vital that in 1938, the company announced it would open a brand new, larger laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment and a great many more researchers. The new laboratory was to accomodate five highly specialized research divisions with roles including control operations of tobacco and original research; analysis of supplies used in all processes and in packaging; tests of the physical properties of processed tobacco and cigarettes; investigation of smoke and the operations having to do with the actual use of smoking tobacco; and biological research, including studies of the effects of smoking. 

(VDHR) — Unidentified Researcher at the American Tobacco Company Research Laboratory, 1952

When completed in 1939, the new research laboratory was considered the most modern and fully equipped tobacco research laboratory in the nation with high-tech equipment and an extensive reference library on tobacco containing nearly 1,700 volumes, considered one of the largest such collections at the time. The laboratory maintained a fulltime staff of one director and assistant director, 29 chemists, 2 engineers, 1 bacteriologist, 1 librarian, 11 technical personnel, and 17 assorted other staff.

(VDHR) — Unidentified Researcher at the American Tobacco Company Research Laboratory, 1952

Research included the investigation of the chemical composition and physical nature of various types of tobacco, and the specific effect of manufacturing processes upon them; investigation of the chemical and physical nature of tobacco smoke; the correlation of composition of smoke with constitutents of tobacco; investigation of the physiological significance of the constituents of the smoke of tobacco products; the development of methods for the scientific control of purchasing, processing, and blending tobaccos; and fabrication of tobacco products.

November 2019 — Research Laboratory

The new lab, as well as its staff, quickly became nationally recognized and awarded for their achievements. In 1941, both the director of the laboratory, Dr. H.H. Hanmer, and assistant director, Dr. W.R Harlan, were appointed as two of the seventeen Virginia scientists to serve as delegates to the Convention of the Alabama Academy of Science, an organization formed to stimulate scientific research in the American South while developing public interest in such work in order to create grants-in-aid for research studies.

(Flickr) — 1951 Old Gold Cigarettes Ad, with TV Announcer & Actor Dennis James

However, by this time, the American public was becoming increasingly aware of the health hazards of smoking tobacco, brought to light by popular reports published by the American Cancer Society and Reader’s Digest.  In 1951, the Lorillard Tobacco Company launched a national campaign claiming that a 1942 Consumer Reports article showed that their cigarette brand, Old Golds, was “lowest in nicotine and tars.” While this was technically true according to statistics included in the article, the point of the article had actually been that differences in tar and nicotine were insignificant when it came to the harmfulness of all cigarettes.

November 2019 — Stemmery & Re-Drying Plant

As opposed to advertising campaigns, such as that by Lorillard, that were more about bending the facts in others’ research efforts for their own benefit, other tobacco companies actually released their own counterargument articles. In 1952, the Liggett & Myers Company widely publicized the results of tests run by Arthur D. Little, Inc., showing that smoking their brand, Chesterfields, “would have no adverse effects on the throat, sinuses or affected organs.” 

November 2019 — Stemmery

In 1953, executives from many of the large tobacco companies arranged a meeting in order to find a way to deal with recent scientific data pointing to the health hazards of cigarettes and plan a counterattack on these studies. The following year, these companies sponsored an industry-wide advertisement disputing evidence that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer.

November 2019 — looking southwest along Kern Street towards Re-drying Plant & Boiler House

In 1955, the American Tobacco Company responded through the completion of a massive expansion of the research laboratory at what was by then known as the South Richmond Complex. The expansion doubled the size of the 1939 building with additional laboratory and research space. The laboratory was expanded with specially-built and -designed equipment used to do chromatography, micro-organic analysis, electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, ultraviolet and infrared spectrophotometry, electronic titrimetry, extraction, refrigerated centrifuging, and low temperature vacuum fractionations. A new radiological laboratory was equipped to use soft radiation-omitting radioisotopes and other facilities included a pilot plant, photographic dark room, cold storage room, drying room, tobacco conditioning rooms, and a library.

November 2019 — Boiler House

Research continued on many of the same subject matters although with an increase in the biological nature of tobacco as it relates to health effects and ramifications. Studies were conducted on how nicotine is formed in the growth of the tobacco plants, the nature of pyrolysis products during the burning of a cigarette, and collection and formation of volatile constituents. One advancement made by the research department at this time was the development of the compound, activated charcoal filter, first used in the company’s Tareyton brand cigarette and the mentholated filter used in Montclair cigarettes. 

November 2019 — Garage

American Tobacco Company was also the first to print tar and nicotine test results on the packages of Carlton brand cigarettes at this time. While these health-related studies were being undertaken in response to the growing national awareness of the hazards of smoking, the American Tobacco research laboratory also continued to conduct research aimed at improving cigarette flavor and composition to retain their existing customers as well.

(World Vector Logo)

In 1994, the American Tobacco Company was acquired by Brown & Williamson, the American arm of the British American Tobacco Company. In 2004, Brown & Williamson merged with the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. (VDHR)

... and then...

November 2019 — City of Richmond seal at the DPU Ops Center

Of the original 25 acres, 14 were carved off to become the City Department of Public Utilities (DPU) Operations Center, occupying the old Research Laboratory, at the corner of Maury and Jeff Davis Highway, and its additions.

Unfortunately, that left the buildings on the 11 other acres to crumble to the state that you see in the warehouse pictures above.

November 2019 — reconstructed Warehouse building at Port City

Enter Port City and a $60 million dollar overhaul of four interconnected brick buildings and 11 former tobacco storage sheds into 291 apartments plus 23 artist studios, creating upscale apartments for workforce housing (Richmond Times-Dispatch). So the good news is that the dilapidated state of affairs along Jeff Davis should be addressed by mid-2020. The even better news is that the developer also plans to do the same for Model Tobacco right next door, which means that this corridor is, at last, getting some much-needed uplift.

(American Tobacco Company, South Richmond Complex is part of the Atlas RVA! Project)

[greywindys]

It’s that time of year again! I, and possibly a good number of you reading this, just spent the whole of 2018 in the Gorillaz fandom. Congratulations! You made it! Because this year...kinda sucked. Not just for the Gorillaz fandom but, if this Washington Post article is any indication, for the rest of the world too. Maybe on an individual level there were moments of light. Maybe Gorillaz was your moment of light. If it was I’m genuinely happy because that means you probably found a way to avoid or ignore all the chaos that went down this year. But overall? Fandom was rife with disappointments, confusion and conflict with some good parts (for me, at least) sprinkled in here and there. Below is a personal reflection on the top 10 significant events in fandom of 2018.

1. Murdoc Goes to Prison

2018 started out peacefully for fandom. We were just finishing up sharing our scans of G-Magazine and theorizing over the next album when we’re treated with this - a nineteen second mocap of a frantic Murdoc accepting a Brit Award with an “oh by the way I’m going to prison.” We didn’t know why or for how long, and, though fans were confused and Murdoc going to prison is a tired, overplayed storyline at this point, it was cherished as any new Gorillaz content, especially animation, is cherished. Memes were made, most notably the #FreeMurdoc hashtag complete with a petition which was acknowledged by creators and caused the first big outburst in fandom for its messy tag. I did what I always do with Murdoc videos and went through the entire thing frame by frame to collect screenshots. Little did I know that this would be the only time I would get to indulge in this beloved past time. Little did I know that I would be wearing the same expression as Murdoc is in this screencap this entire phase.

2. Murdoc hate

Murdoc hate has always existed. It’s also generally accepted. However, when it was confirmed that Murdoc was going to be in prison for an undetermined amount of time and that he may not even speak this phase (thanks a lot, phase 5 plot!) it reached unprecedented levels of viciousness. Some fans took every opportunity to drag him in the main tag, start debates with anyone who might mention one positive thing about him and expressed how they genuinely wanted him to die and/or never come back. It kinda reminded me of this season of MTV’s The Challenge when everyone ganged up on Johnny Bananas. Like, yes he’s an asshole and yes this was probably long overdue but also omg when is there and end point? Is there an end point? It was like some people hated Murdoc more than they liked Gorillaz. For some additional context - this tense environment was born out of an astoundingly severe conflict that happened in spring where three separate fandom storms that had been brewing since late 2017 collided into one huge mess. Discords were raided, friendships were lost, the police were called (I’m not even exaggerating). I won’t go into it more but if you were there, you know what i’m talking about. Murdoc wasn’t the cause of this, but his character was at the center of one of those storms and the canon sending him to prison only reignited the ire towards him. For awhile Murdoc fans weren’t sure were exactly they stood with the greater fandom, and new fans were confused as to why this one green character was the source of so much grief for haters and fans alike. This continued for most of the year (and still continues today), hence why it’s getting a mention now.

3. Ace

Believe it or not Murdoc and Ace are confirmed #friends. You wouldn’t know that from all the Murdoc vs Ace content that sprung out of this year but Ace was the one who joined Murdoc for hot chocolate after he got out of prison, “they go way back” etc etc. Ace was a big deal because it was probably the only time the fandom guessed something correctly this entire year. Jamie began posting cryptic pictures of Noodle with this unidentified man, then another with only the Ace card visible. “It a Powerpuff Girls crossover!” Some people claimed. But that seemed so random? Really? A B-list cartoon villain from a cartoon targeting an entirely different demographic? More likely than you think! Ace never spoke a word and he wasn’t allowed to smoke or have sex. People obsessed over him anyways. To this day I still have no idea who he is or what kind of personality he has or really anything. But he wasn’t a bad guy (more on that later) and he was Murdoc’s friend so he’s alright with me.

4. Messaging Denholm

By now the fandom was fraught with distress on so many levels. We were lost. We needed someone to guide us, to show us the way, to show us the #truth. I don’t know exactly who started this trend but it soon spread around Reddit and other social media sites that Jamie’s son Denholm was replying to dm’s on Instagram and soon, he was graced with a deluge of of inquiries from casual fans and Murdoc stans alike. The thing is though - he actually *did* answer them. Many of us had spoilers re: Murdoc and Ace’s friendship, Murdoc getting out of prison, etc. MONTHS before they happened. I believe he even told us that 2D was fine back in like, June or something. Denholm knew! Eventually we pissed him off but it didn’t stop him from answering. He just answered angrier. It also caused fans to argue more because people started accusing others of photoshopping his responses and nothing can ever be done peacefully here. I haven’t followed up on this story singe the end of summer but I think fans have finally scaled back on the messaging. But I hear he’s working on a Gorillaz documentary for 2019 so...I’m sure we’ll be talking again soon.

5. Noodle

I want to take a moment here to also acknowledge the struggle AMA Gorillaz hosted on, of all places, Youtube. Thankfully, diligent redditors compiled a google doc of all the answers otherwise they would lost thanks to Youtube’s confusing interface. ANYHOW. The answer that stirred up the biggest milieu of debate and confusion came from Noodle. This isn’t exactly my lane - I don’t wade into Noodle issues and I don’t id as part of the LGBT community - so I’m not going to say much here other than, at the very least, this was the second or third time she has officially denied any interest in dating her bandmates.

6. 2D’s journal/2Doc

Okay first of all: 2DOC...jk, jk...jk? But no, honestly, this actually did become a big story this year, much bigger than expected. The release of 2D’s journal was the catalyst here, revealing a number of drawings and images of Murdoc. “Souk Eye,” a song that came with visuals featuring close ups of Murdoc’s face and vaguely romantic lyrics was depicted in 2D’s journal next to yet another drawing of Murdoc. We were confused! 2D didn’t care that Murdoc was gone, right? 2Doc shippers were intrigued. I was hesitant. We were all called delusional. However, “Souk Eye” was later confirmed to be a love song by Damon Albarn, and Murdoc and 2D have both claimed their relationship is “better” since the end of phase 5 (hhMmMmM). Obvi, take this with a grain of salt because it’s Gorillaz but the journal was instrumental in confirming how closely The Now Now (and the entire plot of phase 5, really) was tied to Murdoc and 2D’s relationship, particularly what 2D thinks of Murdoc. Think of it as platonic if you want but they share a closeness on SOME level and the content of 2018, from interviews to the Murdoc chats to the album itself, supports this. I rest my case.

7. Lost theories

Pour one out for all the lost theories. If you were a new fan this year you probably came up with a theory, or you got really invested in a theory. Some examples: HIM from PPG orchestrating the destruction of Gorillaz by possessing 2D and getting Murdoc framed with Ace as a double agent, or Murdoc’s imprisonment being tied to his trouble with EMI from phase 4, or phase 5 being about time travel, or Murdoc crashing Demon Dayz fest and fighting El Mierda on stage, or 2D being the one to frame Murdoc or Murdoc’s inmate number (24602) being a Les Mis reference implying that he’d get a character arc similar to Jean Valjean...you get the idea. But there are dreams that cannot beeee, and there are storms we cannot weather. You can argue about the budget or G-Shock or whatever but the truth is Gorillaz is just disorganized. This is their Brand™.

8. The Murdoc Chatbot

Gorillaz did an interesting thing this year - it let us talk to Murdoc! Sometime around June, he writers decided that the plot of phase 5 would be best spent, not on exploring the band’s dynamic with Murdoc gone or developing Ace’s personality, but on Murdoc! Fandom spent most of the summer following Murdoc’s experience in prison and helping to “free” him via a chatbot you could access through Kik, Instagram or Facebook. Basically, Murdoc was Paddington from Paddington 2, and we the fans were supposed to be the Browns trying to break him out and prove his innocence. Other fans begrudgingly used the chatbot to make fun of him or tell him to die and follow along with the story (it was the only place you could get plot updates). It was a neat idea as well as a funny experience to pretend to be talking to him, and the plot was very engaging at times. It was the chatbot that revealed the very dissatisfying (albeit happy) conclusion that Murdoc is no Paddington and had lied about everything - being framed, El Mierda etc. - but felt really bad about it. His apology was basically this. I’m going to also tag the #FreeMurdoc merchandise debacle, how overpriced it was and how it ended up being pointless anyways because Murdoc wasn’t framed and didn’t need to be “freed” onto this, because it all falls under the same event. Oh, and you got to talk to Noodle sometimes, too. 

9. G-shock ends phase 5

I put “ends phase 5″ in strikethrough because G-Shock on its own is actually pretty cool, and made up for the lack of videos (2 in total) that were released this year. The now Murdoc inclusive band goes to space and starts an alien war! That’s fun! Completely removed from whatever phase 5 was, but fun! (And I say that genuinely) What was messy about G-shock was that it came out of nowhere. The final Murdoc chat, that was SUPPOSED to reveal the ending to the prison arc, hadn’t even happened but suddenly, Murdoc was back to sell watches to aliens with the rest of the band and Ace was gone. But the final chat was delayed by a month and G-Shock came out anyways. Out of this came memes about how phase 5 ended so Gorillaz could try to sell us watches.

10. Cass Browne Tells us the True Plastic Beach Ending

We ended 2018 with not one but two major interviews from the fancast, Hallelujah Monkeyz but I’m choosing to cover their latest interview with Cass Browne, writer of Rise of the Ogre. If you were new this year you probably heard older fans mention ad nauseam how much they missed this guy name Cass. Well, Cass came back and dropped actual bombs about the true ending of phase 3, Murdoc’s lost backstory and the Plastic Beach book he found AND that a sequel to ROTO was planned and dropped. Understandably, this sparked a lot of discussion and also revealed just how important Cass was to the continuity of the Gorillaz storyline. Back then, we had ROTO and Plastic Beach. Today, we have “Murdoc drowns in poop and reunites with the band offscreen”

And that’s the year! And look I’m not saying this because I’m a stan but this was a Murdoc year. He was at the center of like, at least 80% of the angst and joy of fandom and I could make separate “top 10 Murdoc moments” or  “top 10 2Doc moments.” I guess for me, on an individual level, it was an alright year. For one, I actually talked to more people this year and met some really great friends (something I don’t typically do in fandom). I also get to check “write a fanfic” off my bucket list (it’s still a WIP but it’s the first WIP I’ve ever had so I’m counting it). And personally, my life has changed and without getting into too many details I’ve overcome a lot, grown professionally and...I think I can be kinda proud of myself for that. I expect 2019 to be a slower year than this one, and, I think the fandom needs that. Hopefully I’ll still see some of you around because I’m going to be here for at least the next few months while I finish up you know what. 

Honorable mentions: 2D “Dies” of Ligma and other 2D memes, 2D writes The Now Now, Benjamin Clementine says he regrets working with Gorillaz, Noodles old VA confirms Jamie ghosted her and recast Noodle without telling her, Gorillaz delay the final Murdoc chat by a month, Demon Dayz doesn’t get streamed, Music video releases - “Humilty” and “Tranz”, Cyborg Noodle returns with boobs and causes debate, the “Let Ace Speak” petition,

[marklee9161]

How to resolve Garmin GPS losing signals issue?

In the ordinary circumstances, your Garmin GPS device loses its signals, when your GPS device will not work rightly. It can create a big problem for you, if you’re out in an unidentified place. Although satellite signal is the most important thing that you need, often it receives some time to accomplish full single strength, especially when you’re at no coverage location.

If you’re looking to fix your Garmin signal lost problem, you need to understand why it takes place and how can you ignore it to happen. In this troubleshooting guide, we will explain all necessary things related to Garmin satellite signal or Garmin GPS update issues.

What are the main reasons of Garmin keep losing satellite signals?

If you want to solve your Garmin satellite signal problem, you need to do from the starting. First of all, you should know why Garmin is losing satellite signals. It may take place due to the following causes-

1.    Low battery

2.    Damaged device

3.    No available map

4.    Insensitive weather

5.    Device settings

6.    No coverage location

7.    Antenna problem

8.    Using older software

A Troubleshooting Guide for Garmin keeps losing satellite signals

Here are some troubleshooting ways which you can apply in the case you lost satellite signals in your Garmin GPS device. You can solve satellite signals issues with device reset options. In the case of any issues related to Garmin map update, you can call Garmin experts immediately.

 Soft Resetting Process-

Click on “reset” option on your device. You can find out it behind your device or under it. In the series of Garmin Nuvi 300, the reset option is placed below the antenna.

You have to press the reset option for at least ten seconds before releasing it.

Press the power on button for minimum 30 seconds until your GPS device turns on.

Your Soft reset will be done as soon as your device begins.

Hard Reset process-

Turn off your GPS device in the proper ways

Turn on your device, when you press on the upper side of your device.

A Pop up message with “clear user date” option will appear on the screen. Choose “Yes” button and your device will be reset appropriately to its factory setting.

Within a minute of this procedure, your GPS will begin as branded new device. Apart from this, if you have any issues related to Garmin GPS update, you can call Garmin experts instantly. Online experts are available to help you for any difficulty.