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centeris2 · 4 years ago

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Shillings and Halloween

(repost so it shows up in the tags) Thanks to Jade @pandoriasbox for documenting dailys in detail and helping with numbers, and thanks to Abbie Starwatcher for the Starstable Database.

Disclaimer: this is not about star coins or star coin only items like the horse, this is solely about shilling costs of event items available in the shop. When I say ‘event items’ I am referring to new items that can be purchased with shillings.

TL;DR - This year’s Halloween was great, but the shillings cost for the outfits was too much and should match up better to what can realistically be earned during an event’s duration.

So the Positive Things: Halloween was excellent this year, chef kisses all around. I would have liked a slightly higher spawn rate for the falling items and Galloper Thompson, but overall? The event was wonderful, I hope it comes back next year so I can see what I missed. I could have a whole post about the things I liked about it, but that’s not what this is.

And now to the title and point: The Shillings.

Events are designed to get people online every day. This is achieved by giving people attainable rewards to work for. You don’t have to spend hours grinding golden pumpkins and waiting for soul shard tornados; if you get on for a bit every day and do the 5 quick golden pumpkins and the soul shard races, you will be able to get the trade in items within the event time. But the new sets in the shop this Halloween were well outside the realm of “realistically attainable”. It was not possible to earn enough shillings by doing the event activities, races, chores, and dailys every day, something that takes 4 or more hours. Doing every daily for a week will net you 27,904 shillings, meaning you can earn 55,808 shillings during the two week event, but the items in the shop were 147,000 shillings. You need over 5 weeks of getting on for 3 - 5 hours every day to get enough shillings to buy the sets. If a game is going to add new event items for sale with the in-game currency, it needs to be something a player could feasibly get in that event time frame. That just makes sense to me, I don’t know how else to say that other than look at the numbers. If it takes you 5 and a half weeks of constant work to get the items in an event that only lasts two weeks then it should be changed. Here are a few options:

The event lasts longer (still expects a player to dedicate possibly hundreds of hours on an event for a month or more, not realistic, especially for kids in school and people with jobs)

Lower item prices

Release fewer items, limit it to only one set instead of two

Make shillings easier to reliably obtain (no chance or luck involved)

Make it easier to save up money so you can save up for events, most likely by removing or increasing the shilling cap. (Nothing killed me more than getting that “you’ve hit shilling limit!” and losing shillings to the void for no good reason, and planning out my dailys to make sure I hit the 10k cap exactly so I wouldn’t waste a single shilling trying to get those 10k items.)

I’m not saying I want it to be easy or asking for free stuff, I want it to be possible without driving yourself crazy. People will work for things unless it’s something practically impossible to earn, you just have to give them the opportunity.

[Main point over, beyond this is personal experience, numbers, and comparing to past events, so you can stop here if you don’t care about the details! I’ll be sending this to SSO, but if you agree or have your own thoughts, be sure to send them to SSO! The more feedback they get, the more likely they are to change things.]

I say “practically” because I actually did it. I sold saved up items (dig rewards, items from previous events, etc), woke up at 5:30am for the first champ and stayed online until the last champ at 11pm, and did everything I could to get shillings. If I hadn’t been as lucky in champs or with high score rewards I would not have been able to do it. You shouldn’t have to spend 10 - 18 hours a day for almost two weeks getting lucky in order to get enough in-game currency to buy the event items. What I did was an outlier and not something SSO should expect players to do. I spent easily over 150 hours in game over the span of two weeks, took part in over 120 champs, got lucky with 8 - 12 daily high scores a day, and was graced by the universe with some weekly high scores and a monthly high score. I am not a good example of what the average sso player is like.

Now for Numbers! Weekly shilling earnings from dailys = 27,904 (average 3,986 a day)

Halloween: 147,000 shillings total for the new sets 1 new clothing set = 44,000 shillings 1 new tack set without accessories = 26,000 shillings 1 new tack set with leg wraps and saddlebag = 29,500 1 full matching clothing and tack set = 73,500

Additional ways of earning (and ‘storing’) shillings: - Championships can earn you 0 to 8,500 shillings in a day (0 if you don’t enter or fail every champ you enter, 8,500 if you win first in all 17 champs and sell the ribbons). That’s 0 to 59,500 shillings a week. Not viable for busy servers or lower level players. - Daily high scores pay 100 shillings per race, weekly high scores 500, and monthly 1500. I’m not about to count how many high score races there are but it can make a lot. Not reliable for lower level players or busy servers. - Archaeology will get you shillings so long as you dig something, but that can be as little as 2 shillings (1 for the dig, 1 selling the item). In Epona you can find 4 gold digs a day. The trade in value has a huge range, between like 355 and 2,000 shillings. You can dig in Epona and Dino all day, but after the first or second pass the dig spawns drop in value and unless you are trying to get that last couple hundred shillings it probably won’t be worth your time (especially if you’ve already spent hours doing dailys). Not an option for people who haven’t finished archaeology (Epona is far superior to Dino), but very handy you have it.

How does Halloween compare to other events? Things have gradually been getting more expensive, but usually there is one set, or a month or more to get it (Winter Village), or it returns without new items (Cloud Kingdom. Came twice in two months as well). What makes this Halloween different is the sheer amount vs the time frame. For more math, the entire Caramel and Cream set, including the accessory leg wraps and saddle bags, is 91,777 shillings. It’s a lot, but you can make that much in a little over 3 weeks, well within the time frame of the event. Personally I think it should be a little lower, the saddle bag being 9,999 shillings seems like way too much for a statless item (and not even a new model).

For those curious - Star Coins The Halloween event had plenty of star coin only items that people could buy, and there are always people who will spend the star coins for the new outfit rather than work for it. SSO provided plenty of opportunities for people to spend star coins. They didn’t need to include the clothes and tack in the shop in the “for whales only” category. New Horse - 950 star coins New Pet - 350 star coins Each new tack set was 260 star coins (295 including matching leg wraps and saddle bag) Will-o’-whiskers clothes: 440 Crimson Count clothes: 520 Full Will-o’-whiskers clothes+tack: 735 star coins Full Crimson Count clothes+tack: 815 New Masks were 25 star coins per mask And then all the previous items, like the previous horses, pets, outfits, and powders.

If you read all the way wow. I’m impressed. I wish I had something to give you but I am VERY tired. I don’t really have a good way to wrap this up in a beautiful Conclusion, since I made my point way earlier, so celebrate getting here with this:

#sso #star stable #starstable #star stable online #starstableonline #tumblr plz just post this in the tags

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awhilesince · 4 years ago

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Friday, 1 June 1832

8 1/4

12 50/..

fine morning Fahrenheit 59 1/2 at 8 1/4 – down at 9 25/.. Mrs M– (Milne) came in about 1/4 hour – we both looked serious and I with arched lips and as she acknowledged as if I felt deeply and too much she said she had something to say to me so said I I have to you and I began said that after a nights reflection I doubted that I could make her happy and that the she could make me so yet I doubted her being steady doubted her constancy and then I should be miserable past my strength of endurance I knew a great deal about her owned that π (Mariana) knewing my partiality had told me much for my good hoped I was not always sso bad as I seemed hinted that I was peculiarly situated towards her that she was the last towards whom I could do an unprincipled thing (she understood me that I could not amuse myself for the moment should be miserable ever afterwards I believe she would willingly try me for curiositys ssake) and perhaps this was more for the sake of of others than for her own – she said perhaps I was right she could not be constant she should be very sorry to add to my unhappiness she did not know how it was she thought she could not help it but she thought I despised her declared but etc etc but it was a great consolation she thought me right she said something about not leaving William and I said if sure of my being made really happy should I think so legitimate anxiety no stumbling block however I suspect that if my say had not prevented hers she would have told me a very different tale she would have run off with me or got me into the scrape and laughed at me if she could I pretended her influence was overwhelming and certainly looked and acted the part of passion well enough perhaps to her hearts content I said indeed it was no joke to me no said she with satisfied air I see it is not but we kissed rather fervently and think I played my backward game inimitably what a woman she is! she would be bad with any man and try me too rather than not ��

breakfast at 10 1/2 – and till 2 1/2 up and downstairs and dawdling away the morning reading a few pages of the natural history of enthusiasm, and wrote 3 pages of 1/2 sheet note paper to ‘Mr and Mrs Duffin Micklegate York’ (after having talked over the last years annoyance about luggage with Mrs N– (Norcliffe) and Charlotte and Mrs M– (Milne) to propose going to them for a couple of days if they could take me in – but not fixing any time Mrs N– (Norcliffe) having offered my leaving the imperials etc at her house in Petergate – Mrs Milne took my note and went in the gig at 2 1/2 –

I had been in and out of her room by stealth several times and had abundance of kisses as empassioned as I could be in the humour to take them she said in her light way ‘I think you had better take me yes thought I but I knew you too well I had again this morning stuck to the tale of πs (Marianna’s) immaculateness but when Mrs Milne wished me happy said that was more than I expected and owned that πs (Mariana’s) conduct had ruined my happiness and that as for Mrs M Milne I should neither be happy with or without her luckily for me there was humbug enough in all that –

the 1/2 hour bell had just rung at 3 1/2 when a man was seen running up to the house – what was the matter – come for a ladder – the keeper had shot a man in a tree – all in alarm – soon learnt it was George – shot in the head – was dying – prepared for the worst – he was soon brought up and laid on a bed in the dressing room downstairs – but the wound did not seem to me so bad as to be decidedly alarming – by 4 3/4 Mr Cobb and his son arrived – no wound of any consequence but from one grain of shot that had entered the socket of the left – (small shot – at the distance of) about 30 yards in the top of a high tree near a carrion crows nest – the keeper shooting at the old birds – this one shot must have pierced the socket from the stupor, and insensibility, and the catching convulsive clothes picking motions of the hands and arms – this always taking place in cases of apoplexy and any pressure on the brain from extravasated blood or otherwise – saw Mr Cobb – (dinner at about or near 5) – he seemed alarmed – said the chances were far greater against them for – but he (George) would be better or worse before morning – took 10 oz. ounces blood from the right arm, and about 9 two dozen leeches applied to the wounded (the left) temple – the pulse at first very faint, gradually rather quicker till it became pretty good, and then quicker than that by 11 p.m. – fever would not come on – the change – the harm would not be apparent in the constitution of 12 hours – the eye was fomented with lukewarm water till the leeches were put on and afterwards, so that by 11 tho’ the stupor continued the poor fellow looked more himself – yet the catchings continued at intervals as before – he had thrown up his dinner soon after being brought home – and been sick 2 or 3 times afterwards – once brought up blood which his lip being shop he had probably swallowed – he had given a few tea spoonfuls of warm strong brandy and water before Mr Cobb came – but he did not swallow well – Tonight (about 10) he had swallowed some medicine well – Mr Cobb left his son to stay all night who has a little bed in the room and 1 or 2 of the servants sitting up with him – he has only once (and that tonight) attempted some inarticulate word since being taken down from the tree – coffee at the usual hour – then tea –

came to my room at 11 – wrote all the above of today till 12 1/2 – kind letter this morning 3 pages and ends from Miss H– (Hobart) nothing particular – as I had not written to Lady S (Stuart) she Lady S (Stuart) feared she had said too much against my dame de compagnie scheme Miss H (Hobart) thought it might suit me and therefore begged me to please myself did not see why I should not – finish morning – rain came on at 2, and rainy afternoon and evening Fahrenheit 63° now at 12 1/2 tonight –

reference number: SH:7/ML/E/15/0075

#annelistercodebreaker #annelister #june1832 #mrsmilne #mariana

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writingonjorvik · 5 years ago

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Can We Discuss Quest Frequency?

Ok, before we start, did y’all not want 5000 SC? Because I’ve had a giveaway running since Monday and only one person has entered?! Seriously? Y’all get on it.

But on a serious note, we’re going to be talking about the results from this poll, and like always the poll will continue to run after this analysis is out. But I wanted to do this today because of the changes that came out to the Horse Market.

So to start, I can get why SSO would want to stop having the Horse Market. By being stationary, it makes these horses accessible and it gives SSO somewhere where they can always fit more horses instead of terraforming more of the environment and I can appreciate that. It also means there’s not this continuing source of EXP that will continue to push veteran players to levels unavailable to everyone else, but that’s also got its own problems and we’re going to break into that.

So to start, now that the horse market is done, that’s a lot of exp that’s now unavailable to new players, meaning access to players for those higher levels is going to be harder, if possible (there was a lot of horse market exp over the years). But this also highlights the problems in SSO’s leveling system. With a lowered pool of exp, there’s a wider gap in player level and with things like championships were a level 22 player can race a level 5 (I did), that’s not a fair matching system, and there’s less to do to close it. I mean, there’s a whole other topic here about championships being seriously improved by making more groups and only putting in same level players to make the races fair. But exp access and SSO’s apparent fear of giving it out/increasing level caps isn’t really the point of this.

No, I think the bigger issue with removing the horse market is it means less people are going to get on, which is bad for an MMO. MMOs are, despite the about a quarter of y’all according to my other poll running right now, advertised on having a lot of players. And SSO already has a low player retention compared to other MMOs (400,000 of 12,000,000 before accounting for multiple accounts). But to remove a bi-weekly event removes another reason for players to get on.

Start with the basics of this survey.

Two thirds of y’all said you got on daily when you had quests.

But that drops down to only 6.4% when there aren’t quests. That’s an insane drop! Nearly half of y’all said if you don’t have quests you only get on when you have something to do. That’s not a frequency, that’s a guess and it could be anywhere in a wide spectrum of times. But it does mean that the more often SSO puts out quests, the more often that is.

I’m gonna go through these next three quick.

To be fair, I think the original wording of the last one might have skewed my data. I didn’t mean how often should SSO make new events or how often should they repeat (duh, holiday events should happen once a year), I meant how often should one be happening. Regardless, I’m going to use the data as it was collected.

A massive amount of y’all think story quests need to be happening more often, and considering that SSO is a story driven game, I don’t disagree. I think the majority “Quarterly” release here is fair, and it is something SSO seems to be working towards. But that shouldn’t be the only quests! Over 70% of y’all think smaller side quests need to me added at least monthly, if not more often. And y’all think events should be running quarterly to monthly in a pretty big majority.

But it’s not just about quests being more often, it’s about continuing to have something to do.

Nearly 90% of entrants said quests need to be longer than a day. It’s not just about things coming out more often, it’s about continuing to have something to do. And whether you think events, general, or story quests need to be longer respectively, length is the fourth biggest priority for all interests in new quests, bigger than new areas to explore.

Y’all didn’t really see to care about seeing new things outside of areas to explore, and since SSO’s also pretty big on exploration, kinda makes since. But based on y’all’s results, you care more about worldbuilding in story and generally having fun for a longer period of time than needing new assets, which for a game, is great! If you’re fine with reusing assets, that should mean less development time for the devs. They largely need to write story, not create new set pieces.

But it can also be repetitive and y’all agreed resoundingly on that.

You guys want dailies back, though with some updates. Dailies having a story purpose was behind dailies being fair and having a balanced progression and then having a reward for finishing them. Dailies like your popular favorites, any of the druid quests, the Rescue Ranch, or the Kalters, where they take a fair amount of time and immediately reward you with something for doing the daily, like a quest, a horse, or a new area.

What I think is frustrating is that nearly all of you either said fishing or the Sunfield Hens as your least favorite dailies, but SSO makes jokes about it. Sure, having a reward like an achievement makes these dailies more bearable, but there’s still a stupid amount of slog and y’all still said you hated these dailies even after those achievements were out. For SSO to hold these two (a super minority of all of their dailies) as the standard that dailies are and the reason they don’t add more is, frankly, just nonsense. Further, the fact that they have done nothing to make these more enjoyable is beyond me. Just rebalance them. Make the hens stay still longer. Take away the “Good try” in fishing. Besides the point.

The overwhelming evidence from y’all’s feedback is that while quality matters, having something, even minute, is better than nothing. And for a game that runs itself on the idea of having people online, it is in their best interest to have something to do for their players, a reason to get online, even for a fractional amount of time.

Look, quests obviously take time to make and I never think quests should be put out at a rate that makes them poor or puts crunch on the devs, but if the majority of your game is focused around story, then more story should be added. If that’s padded for a month by a fun, unique daily (like the Sun Circle was), most of y’all are fine with that. It’s a reason to get on and be playing this game we all love, even if it’s not for hours on end. And until SSO gives us easier access to making secondary characters (which they really should will all these branching stories), then they need to encourage more people to be getting on their accounts more often.

And that’s all the time I have to break this down. The data is all available, so y’all extrapolate what you can and I’m going to think about how cool a daily where a randomly generated horse appears at the rescue ranch every week and you have to take care of them, or rival group dailies where to max you have to make peace with both (like between the Bobcats and Bulldogz) but until then helping one looses favor in the other, or organizing the library to find books on Jorvik’s magic and past with Linda. There’s so much there and it doesn’t have to be big or complicated and still be able to add on the game.

#woj analysis #sso #star stable #starstable #star stable online #starstableonline

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ginnyzero · 5 years ago

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Completely Harmless Ch. 3

Completely Harmless An SSO SilverGlade Re-imagining Story (Or Fix it Fan Salt fic) By Ginny O.

When Lily and her friends wanted to buy horses and were directed to the Silverglade Manor and its myriad of problems, they didn’t expect to start a revolution. They were just a bunch a stable girls. Completely harmless. Right?

A/N: Things are only canon if I say they’re canon. Pre-Saving the Moorland Stables compliant for the most part. Posted in its entirety on my website. Posted in 2000 to 4000 word bits here. Rated T for Swearing Word Count 177,577

Chapter Three Forming a Club

That evening, when four girls rushed out to coo over the new horses, as the first to be excited about the Jorvik Warmblood Sports, they were the first invited to join the new club. There was Elsa, Brittany, Theresa, and Stacy. That made 13 club members and while Melody muttered about it being unlucky, Lily thought it was a fine number.

That night at their bunks, Lily warned them in a low voice about the Baroness’ expectations for their uniform. But no one seemed upset, it wasn’t pink. So, they pooled their money and the next morning right after breakfast, they went and registered their club with the Club Manager.

Then, all ten girls, ambushed Thomas again.

Justin saw them, bent over and tried not to bust his gut laughing.

“Mr. Moorland, Mr. Moorland,” they said speaking over each other.

“Girls, girls!” Thomas held up a hand. “One at a time.”

Lily spoke first then. “Mr. Moorland, our friends they want to buy horses too. And the horses at the Equestrian Center are ever so friendly and so nice that I hoped to take them over to have a look if that’s okay with you. If those horses aren’t bought, something awful is going to happen. I just know it.”

Thomas face turned dismayed.

“There’s too many of them this year, you see,” Regina explained.

“Too many?” He breathed. “What has she been up to?”

“And Mr. Moorland,” Grace said. “Poor Tyra, she’s plum overwhelmed she is. With no one but her and maybe Pauline and Linn to clean out the stables. But Linn might be needed at the Arena early.”

Jennifer smiled. “We thought we’d go and help.”

Thomas sputtered. He looked back and forth between all the girls and if Lily didn’t know better, she thought he was about to cry. “Why girls, that’s, that’s the nicest thing that I ever did hear. You go on. I’ll phone Linda and tell her that you’re coming. She’ll be so pleased.”

“Thank you, Mr. Moorland,” they chorused and headed in a large group at a trot.

Lily made certain to wave at a very baffled Tan and Loretta.

So, they were a large group that showed up at the manor with the early morning sun beating down on their black helmets and hard to tell apart in their red orange t-shirts.

Linda waved at them and rubbed her forehead. “Um, well, hi! Uh, I wasn’t expecting a horde. Mr. Moorland said a few.”

“A few is more than three,” Elsa said in a monotone type of voice.

Jennifer made a point to look around at all the people leading their horses about or riding through the manor grounds from one place to another.

Linda smiled broadly. “Well, I appreciate it. I do. Judy and the girls know where everything is.”

Tyra rounded the corner of the stable. Her jaw dropped. “You, you came back!”

“We said we would,” Abigail beamed at her.

Behind her, Linn and Pauline almost ran into her back.

Lily waved the paper. “And we have paperwork!”

Pauline squealed and hugged Linn jumping up and down.

“Pauline, can’t breathe,” Linn mock gasped.

Tyra lit up. “Well, we keep all our equipment in this shed by the back wall.”

“She calls it a shed,” Linn rolled her eyes.

“So, if we can get all the outside chores done quickly, the inside will be done that much faster!” Tyra said and then glared at Linn. “For this place, it’s a shed.”

“Well, where should we put the horses?”

“Hmm, better keep them in the garden area for now,” Tyra gestured.

“These four want their own horses,” Regina put her arms around two of the four new girls. “So, we’ll go take care of that.”

Tyra nodded and the rest of them headed off towards the back wall, where there was as Tyra said a smaller building. It was not by any definition of the term a shed. It was based on a small Roman temple and there was a big engine right behind it.

“This is our tool shed cum hay dryer. If one of you can get some oil from the big drum behind the table near the transport,” Tyra started.

“On it!” One girl saluted, grabbed the oil can and ran off.

“I’ll help,” said another and ran after her. “It’ll be heavy.” They ran between what looked like a string of greek revival houses strung together to make an inn or something and the stable wall.

“And if we move this dry hay over to the stables, we can heave it up to the top floor.”

More girls volunteered.

Tyra opened the door and passed armfuls of shovels, pitchforks, buckets filled with hoof picks and brushes to the girls. “These really should be moved to the tack room, but it’s not secure. Once these are out, we can fill this back up with hay and let the hay dryer do its job while we clean.”

Hoses were dragged out.

Buckets got filled. They pitchforked, they shoveled, they cleaned the stable down to the floor, made sure every feed rack and water trough was filled and the horses brushed out and their hooves cleaned. They pulled out the mats, and hung them on the fence of the Northern Paddock. They had to cross a bridge to do it, but they couldn’t have the mats out in front of the Manor, now could they? They hosed them down, and left them to dry. The hose actually went that far, a miracle. They had to crank it out.

All the while they talked about the Equestrian Center and what they wanted out of their club. They didn’t have a choice about the uniforms, purple it was for colors. But they couldn’t decide on a name.

“They had to take the good ones.” Regina scowled.

“Something will turn up,” Lily said and wiped her brow with the back of her arm. “It always does.”

By the time they were finished with everything, the mats had dried so they were able to return them to the stables and put out fresh hay from they had they’d just thrown up into the loft!

The thirteen girls looked over the stable in satisfaction. It hadn’t been so clean in months.

“I think we can be proud to have horses in here again,” Linn said.

Her phone buzzed. She groaned. “Ugh, Sabine. She wants someone to time her at the Arena. Later!”

“I think we should be Silver something.”

“Foxes?”

“Do you see any foxes around here?”

“Silver is a good idea. I think the Baroness would like that,” Tyra said. “Uh, have you told her yet?”

“Um, no, we wanted to have a name.”

“And uniforms.”

“And uniforms,” several agreed.

“I mean, not to be pushy on her, but it might be better if we looked ready to follow her rules.”

“That’s actually a great idea.” Tyra nodded. “So, have you talked to Mr. Moorland about switching stables?”

“We told Mr. Moorland we were helping.”

“One thing at a time!”

Jennifer clapped her hands. “Recon!” She said.

“Um, she means we need a tour. See what we have to work with to make this a premiere riding club.”

“Ohhh,” Tyra nodded slowly. “All right, gotcha. Well, we have the best space for club meetings, the Baroness lets the Silverglade Club use her rooftop mezzanine garden. If it’s cold or too rainy, we can camp out in her library.”

“Books!” One girl squealed.

“Let me show you!” Tyra raised her arm and pointed. “Vamanos!”

They walked in a big group past the front the huge manor and around the corner.

One girl gasped. “Why, why is the fountain dry?”

“Bad pipes,” Pauline sighed. “Really, really bad pipes.”

There was a large empty reflecting fountain between the manor and the other large building.

“That’s the winery itself, there’s supposed to be a tapas bar, tourist shop type of thing in it. But um, staffing troubles. Underneath is all the controls for the machines and the kegged wine. Plus the really good stuff from other vineyards and the best Silverglade vintages in a temperature and humidity controlled safe. They take it very seriously.” Tyra said.

“What’s that?” Grace asked pointing at yet another building that was again sort of near the back wall of the manor.

“Oh, well, it’s supposed to, um, not sure.” Tyra scratched her head. “Pauline?”

“Gazebo?”

“Looks like a temple to me,” Theresa said.

“Well, no one uses it.” Tyra shrugged. “Could be anything. Here we are,” she said. She opened a side door. It led to a side foyer that had beautiful doors leading off in all three directions, they all had glass and were probably locked, and the staircase. She led them up a stair case that turned every ten steps.

The girls oohed and aahed at the view.

“Why does no one use this?”

“There was some noise about making it a full service restaurant, but nothing ever came of it.” Pauline said.

Lily leaned against the north east corner and looked out. “You said GED was here illegally? Why can they pump then?”

“The Baroness contacted her son Aaron,” Tyra explained.

“Because Anastasia isn’t good for anything,” Pauline muttered.

“And he hasn’t gotten back yet. And she’s so busy, she can’t go check on him herself.”

“He’s a bit useless if you ask me.” Pauline added.

Lily frowned. She turned around and rested her elbows on the roof edge. “If we’re going to make this the best stable in the area, then we’re going to have to get things moving around here.”

“Oh come on, Lily. What can we do?” Grace rolled her eyes.

“Get some chairs up here for one,” Stacy said.

“We told Mr. Moorland that we were going to help the Baroness out. We didn’t say how long that would take.” Lily said.

“No more Loretta!” Abigail shouted.

“And after a couple of days, we can sweet talk him into letting us leave so not to wear out the horses going to and fro,” Regina pointed out. “By then, we can make ourselves indispensable to the Baroness.”

“Find a mechanic. Find a gardener. Find a bartender and a chef,” Lily pressed her fingers down on her hand. “Get in touch with Aaron and find out what’s going on with those rigs.”

“Find out what is going on with those rigs period,” Regina said. “They’re in our territory now.”

Grace groaned. “We are going to get so in much trouble.”

“Look, we’re a bunch of airheaded stable girls helping out,” Abigail fluttered her eyelashes. “We’re nothing but a bunch of school aged teenagers. What harm could we be?”

Regina cracked her knuckles.

Grace sighed.

“All right. But I want a plan,” Jennifer said. “A good one.”

“Step one,” Lily said. “Find out where we can buy the uniform that the Baroness wants.”

“And definitely get some muck pants and new t-shirts for cleaning out,” Abigail made a face.

Tyra raised her phone. “It’s at a shop in Silverglade Village.”

“Does this Silverglade Village have an actual café,” Stacy asked.

“Yep,” Pauline grinned.

“Then have Linn meet us there and let’s do lunch!” Lily said.

“To the horses!” Jennifer pointed and charged away.

The four new girls took the camp horses back to Moorland before swinging back to meet them on the outskirts of Silverglade village at an outdoor café. They claimed the chairs and pushed tables together hunching over their pizza slices and sodas. They bent their heads over their phones and tried to hash out a plan.

“So, we need to go to Jorvik City. Easy.” Tyra said. “Buy a bus pass and leave from Fort Pinta. Aaron and Anastasia will have the contacts to get us the people we need to start getting the Manor tip top.”

“Tickety boo,” Grace said.

“And if we’re wearing the uniform,” Theresa said.

“He won’t question.”

“We can’t all go.”

“Well, before we get uniformed up. We really should check out this oil field they’ve got going in the paddock.”

Pauline picked mushrooms off her pizza slices and ate them. “Steve’s got a great second hand shop. Pick up an inoffensive t-shirt that doesn’t scream shoot me now from fifty feet away.”

The girls all groaned.

“And like you said, we’re stable girls looking for lost horses.” Pauline smirked.

They finished their food and had ice cream before cleaning their fingers off and going shopping.

“You said inoffensive?” Elsa raised her brow. She held up a pair of raspberry and magenta abstract camo pants. “How is this inoffensive?”

“They’re cheap,” Tyra pointed out.

Elsa dropped them and shuddered.

They did find t-shirts but not muck pants or boots. And they all were able to buy the Silverglade Clan Outfit. Linn’s phone buzzed, Sabine again. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Does that girl ever rest?” She scowled. “Okay, catch up with you later. Tell me how it goes. Tell me everything.”

Pauline volunteered to go with Lily and Regina to Jorvik City. She didn’t have anything to do really.

“And since I’m a known stable girl,” Tyra smirked.

“We’ve got this,” Abigail grinned.

They changed clothes. Though there was some grumbling about not washing things first. And because they were going by bus, they didn’t have to buy the saddles and stuff just yet.

“I want to talk to Anastasia,” Tyra tugged on the satin jacket. “Rumor has it, she and the Baroness had a big row about how she spent her money on too many clothes.”

Lily tugged on her hat. “Sounds fair to me.”

They rode by the roads to Fort Pinta. Tyra pointed out the Golden Fields.

“They used to be filled with golden flowers.”

“What happened?”

“Don’t know,” Tyra shrugged. She waved at a girl near a ruin. “That’s Mary. She herds sheep.”

Lily leaned over. “As in Mary had a little lamb,” she asked.

“Oh, that’s the one.”

Tyra already had a ticket. So, Lily bought ten of them. One for each of the girls going to Moorland camp. They’d already passed her the money to do so. They left their horses at the Fort Pinta stables. Tyra grumbled about what James was charging just for a few hours.

Lily shook her head and they headed to the bus stop.

Tyra pulled out her phone again and started searching. “Okay, so, two figures like Aaron and Anastasia can’t go anywhere without being noticed. They’re a big deal. Almost as big as Anne’s family, or the Ironsaddles. The Winterwells can’t compare. All right, Aaron is at the ice cream shop. And Anastasia, oh, this is good, the mall having coffee with her dog.”

Tyra showed Lily a picture of the dog. It was a teacup pup type in a pink tutu.

“Spoiled,” was all Lily said.

“Aaron probably won’t leave for hours. He loves ice cream,” Tyra confided. “It’s in all the blogs.” She showed Lily Aaron’s blog with almost every third or fourth picture being some ice cream concoction. “If he’s not there, he’ll be in Aideen’s Plaza.”

Lily nodded. She trusted Tyra.

Tyra twisted. “Do you want me to handle Anastasia or do you want to do it?”

“You do know her better.”

“But you’re more of the leader. All you have to do is flatter her and make nice to the dog. She’ll be willing to be played.”

Lily bit her lip. “Okay, new club, want to bring the area up to date and have an image that goes viral?”

“Perfect!” Tyra said.

They raised hands and slapped them together.

Lily thought it over and she had a perfect idea. “We’re going to have to bring back coffee.”

“Make it iced. They’re going to need it.”

Lily cringed.

FOR THE ACCOMPANYING IMAGES PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE MY WATERMARK AND CONTACT INFORMATION. THANK YOU. I get it. Some of you might get excited and want to see this stuff in the game, especially the clothes, tack, and pets. However, the only way I want to see this in the game is if I get paid for it. If I see it in the game and I’m not paid for it, there will be hell to pay. You think I’m salty. I’d be angry. Personally, I’m not going to send this info to SSO. If you do, leave my contact information there! Don’t give them any excuses to steal.

Now, I’ll know you haven’t read this note if you leave me comments about how ‘salty’ I am about the game and if I hate it so much I should do something else. I am doing something else. It’s called Mystic Riders MMORPG Project. Mystic Riders however is a very baby phase game. You can check out our plans on the game dev blog. (Skills, Factions, Professions, Crafting, Mini-Games, 25+ horse breeds!) If you know anyone who would be interested and has money or contacts about game making, direct them to the blog.

#Star Stable #Star Stable Online #SSO #fanfic #Star Stable salt #completely harmless #silverglade reimagined #jorvik reimagined #many nods to ruth westside

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swaglexander-the-great · 6 years ago

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You're not gonna watch endgame?? Why not?

Ok, before I say why, i just want to clarify: my reasons are to do with my opinion. I don’t have anything against other people watching it, or having fun with it, that’s awesome. These are just my personal reasons for not watching it.

I’m tired. I’m just tired of the whole franchise. The cowardice of the directors (not making any heroes LGBTQA+, having the bare minimum of POC heroes and no main Asian heroes [Dr Strange was a great opportunity]), the plotlines (we’ll get to that later), the sloppiness, the forced relationships, the mischaracterization of a lot of individuals. The balance between mistakes/bad conduct and good content has swung negative for me, and I’m just tired

The cowardly plotlines. Everyone is a hero and nobody makes hard decisions. True, they’ll self sacrifice till the cows come home, but sacrifice other people for the greater good? We saw in Infinity war they’d rather kill a bunch of Wakandans indirectly than directly murder one robot man. Having a hero choose to sacrifice others would have been interesting, but instead they were cowardly.

Mistreatment of Thor. This one really is personal, because he’s my fav. Constantly, he gets sidelined, his powers get buffed or nerfed according to the movie, his personality swings like a yo-yo for no reason (I like what Taika did, and I personally headcanon he went a little kooky bc he was by himself adventuring for a few years, but that didn’t get explained), and from what I’ve heard, his pain, depression and grief gets turned into a massive comedy act in Endgame. Making fun of mental health is never ok. Also people constantly wielding his hammer cheapens its purpose to me. He always get sidelined for things he could easily do - take the nuke out of NY in Avengers, for example, easily follow ultron to base in AOU - and it’s all to do with lazy writing, because they don’t know how to do deal with an extremely powerful character. I saw a wonderful post about if he had used the infinity gauntlet instead, and it made far more sense than what I’ve heard happens. (Here it is, I found it)

Bad female characters. Marvel only knows how to write a Black Widow character (sexy fighter). They’ve got better in their stand alone films, but there’s still only 1 major one (Cpt Marvel) and 3 side characters (Valk, Shuri, and Okoye) who are good. There were some in Spiderman too, but i don’t think they’ll play any major roles in Endgame.

I’ve stopped caring about 90% of the characters. Hawkeye sadly never had a character. Neither did Black Widow or Scarlet witch tbh. Tony stopped being a lovable gremlin ages ago. Steve has no character/very bland character in ensemble movies, and will never get a natural ending being in a relationship with Bucky (this was even foreshadowed probably by mistake in Winter Soldier). The Guardians of the Galaxy are very similar to the Avengers’ characters. Vision didn’t have a character either (Avengers Assemble even does him better). Just…I don’t really care about most of them, see 1.

Shock value. I don’t care if someone dies or not. Just make it a good story. I’ve been told endgame has some good twists, but I don’t trust the R*sso Br*th*rs anymore, and see 1.

Sloppy writing. Especially with Infinity war and AOU in mind. The villains were awful, no character, not interesting. The battle at Wakanda was avoidable and actually winnable if they had any competent generals writers (see this). Thor not chopping off Thanos’ arm or head when he 100% could have. Ultron not actually taking over the internet or hijacking all of tony’s tech. The fucking farm. I guess at this point I’m just expecting more of the same frustration. See 1.

It’s a superhero movie. I get it’s meant to be fun, simple and flashy, but that’s not how it’s hyped. It’s presented as something that’s meant to be mind blowing, clever and ground-breaking. It’s probably a good film, but in my opinion it doesn’t deserve the massive hype. They left behind ensemble fun in Avengers 1 (was that even fun or just in-fighting? idek anymore) and see 1.

They got so obsessed with the overarching big bad plotline that they haven’t developed relationships between characters that much. Are half of the Avengers even friends? I don’t know, I’ve never seen them interact. Does Natasha drink with Thor? Do Bucky and Tony just get along now? Dr Strange and Carol? Bruce and Spiderman? idek. See 1. Tbh the whole franchise would have probably worked better as a tv series.

i don’t like giving disney money, they’re satan

so yeah, long post about that. If ya don’t care about my opinion, don’t read, because that’s all this is.

#avengers #endgame #personal #im tired #i'll probably watch deadpool and maybe another thor if taika directs it #cognativeresonance

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kamvkoma · 6 years ago

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hiii 26, 30, or 32 for the prompt thing for stucky :3

its been 84 years and this fill is short n dumb sry

this is a fucking belongs-in-2012-ass au where they live in avengers tower and everything is great and everyone is alive and steve and bucky are in love bc fuck u r*ssos

anyway i did 26 and 32

26. “Progress report: I am missing you to death.”32. “I’ll check in tomorrow if I don’t wake up dead.”

It’s been two weeks since Steve left on a mission, and Bucky has resigned himself to sitting on the couch in his pajamas watching nature documentaries on Netflix and eating a pint of ice cream. It’s not like there’s nothing else for him to do in the Avengers Tower, but mostly everything else requires some form of socialization, which he isn’t always up for.

He has fun hanging out with Clint and Natasha when they’re around, but right now the only ones home are Thor and Tony. Thor can be a little intense for Bucky at times, and Tony won’t stop bugging him about how much he needs some new, state-of-the-art upgrade on his arm.

So he’s holed up comfortably by himself when the phone rings. He checks and is both surprised and elated to see that Steve’s calling him. He hasn’t heard from him at all in these two weeks.

He answers the phone with a teasing “Progress report?”

He hears a soft laugh on the other end of the phone, and his heart clenches. “I miss you to death,” Steve replies.

Bucky can hear the grin in his voice and he matches it with one of his own. “Not exactly what I meant, but I appreciate it.”

“What, not gonna say it back?”

Bucky pretends to think about it. “Hm, I don’t know. I’ve been having a pretty good time without you.” Thank god Steve can’t see how pathetic he looks right now.

“Jerk.” There’s some shuffling on the other end of the line, like Steve is moving around. “And here I am, trying to get back as soon as possible to see you.”

“What’s been keeping you, anyway?” Bucky says, trying for nonchalant despite the way his heart flutters like it does whenever Steve says some dorky, sappy line of his. “You haven’t called at all.”

“Sounds like maybe someone does miss me.”

Bucky huffs and mumbles some half-hearted denials around his next spoonful of ice cream. “Just answer the question, you little punk.”

There’s some more noise on Steve’s end, and distant murmuring, like he’s talking to someone else. A few moments later his voice becomes clearer. “There were some minor complications. We got everything figured out, but the target was seriously underground—and I mean that in a literal way, this is the first time I’ve gotten reception the whole time.”

It’s still a bit strange to talk to Steve about new-age technology like this. Bucky half-wonders if maybe there was reception at some point after all, and Steve was just too much of an old man to figure it out. But no, he’s not alone, so that probably isn’t the case.

“Natasha says hi, by the way,” Steve continues. “She also told me to stop being gross over the phone with you when she can hear us.”

Bucky laughs, his face heating up as he realizes Natasha heard their stupid, immature flirting. “Tell Natasha she can deal. It’s her fault for taking you with her.” He feels an overwhelming swell of affection for the both of them, and tries to stifle it before he really begins to miss them too much.

“Luckily, this should only take a couple more days,” Steve says, as though he knows exactly what Bucky is thinking. “If everything goes well.”

“Sounds like a miracle when you’re involved.” Bucky can’t help the jab, though it’s more so out of worry than anything else. “Just don’t do anything stupid, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah.” The fondness in Steve’s tone is unmistakable. Bucky tries not to think too hard about how much he wishes he could kiss him right now.

There’s more mumbling on Steve’s end, and then he comes back to the phone. “Sorry, Buck. Wish I could talk longer, but I gotta go now.”

Even knowing he only has a few days left before seeing him, he can’t help but feel disappointment at those words. “Just be careful, I’m serious. And call me again soon.”

“I’ll check in tomorrow if I don’t wake up dead.”

Of course he had to give some cheeky line like that. Of course it only makes Bucky miss him a hundred times more.

“You better check in anyway, punk,” he says with a roll of his eyes that he’s sure Steve can sense, even miles and miles away.

Steve laughs. “Love you, Buck.”

He can’t quite keep the raw emotion out of his voice when he says “I love you, too,” and he knows Steve can tell exactly how much he misses him, regardless of what he says.

#awhisperedpromise

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whatdoesshedotothem · 2 years ago

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Friday 1 June 1832

8 ¼

12 50

fine morning F59 ½° at 8 ¼ - down at 9 25 - Mrs M- came in about ¼ hour - we both looked serious and I with parched lips and as she acknowledged as if I felt deeply and too much she said she had something to say to me so said I I have to you and I began said that after a night’s reflection I doubted that I could make her happy and that tho’ she could make me so yet I doubted her being steady doubted her constancy and then I should be miserable past my strength of endurance I knew a great deal about her owned that π- knowing my partiality had told me much for my good hoped I was not always sso bad as I seemed hinted that I was peculiarly situated towards her that she was the last towards whom I could do an unprincipled thing (she understood me that I could not amuse myself or the moment should be miserable ever afterwards I believe she would willingly try me for curiosity’s sake) and perhaps this was more for the sake of others than for her own she said perhaps I was right she could not be constant she should be very sorry to add to my unhappiness she did not know how it was she thought she could not help it but she thought I despised her declared not etc etc but it was a great consolation she thought me right she said something about not leaving William and I said if sure of my being made really happy I should think so legitimate an anxiety no stumbling block however I suspect that if my say had not prevented hers she would have told me a very different tale she would have run off with me or got me into the scrape and laughed at me if she could I pretended her influence was overwhelming and certainly looked and acted the part of passion well enough perhaps to her heart’s content I said indeed it was no joke to me no said she with satisfied air I see it is not but we kissed rather fervently and I think I played my backward game inimitably what a woman she is! she would be bad with any man and try me too rather than not. Breakfast at 10 ½ and till 2 ½ up and down stairs dawdling away the morning reading a few pages of the natural history of enthusiasm and wrote 3 pages of ½ sheet note paper to Mr and Mrs Duffin (after having talked over the last year’s annoyance about luggage with Mrs N- and Charlotte and Mrs M-) to propose going to them for a couple of days if they could take me in but not fixing anytime Mrs N- having offered my leaving the imperial’s at her house in Petergate - Mrs Milne took my note and went in the gig at 2 ½ - I had been in and out of her room by stealth several times and had abundance of kisses as empassioned as I could be in the humour to take them she said in her light way ‘I think you had better take me’ yes thought I but I know you too well I had again this morning stuck to the tale of π-‘s immaculateness but when Mrs Milne wished me happy said that was more than I expected and owned that π-‘s conduct had ruined my happiness and that as for Mrs M- I should neither be happy with nor without her luckily for me there was humbug enough in all that the ½ hour bell had just rung at 3 ½ when a man was seen running up to the house - what was the matter come for a ladder - the keeper had shot a man in a tree - all in alarm - soon leant it was George - shot in the head - was dying - prepared for the worst - he was soon brought up and laid on a bad in the dressing room downstairs - but the wound did not seem to me so bad as to be decidedly alarming - by 4 ¾ Mr Cobb and his son arrived - no wound of any consequence but from one grain of shot that had entered the socket of the left - small shot - at the distance of about 30 yards in the top of a high tree near carrion crows nest - the keeper shooting at the old birds - this one shot must have pierced the socket from the stupor and insensibility and the catching convulsive clothes pricking motions of the hands and arms - this always taking place in cases of apoplexy and any pressure on the brain from extravasated blood or otherwise - saw Mr Cobb (dinner at about or near 5) - he seemed alarmed - said the chances were far greater against than for - but he (George) would be better or worse before morning - took 10oz. blood from the right arm, and about 9 two doz. leeches applied to the wounded (the left) temple - the pulse at first very faint, gradually rather quicker till it became pretty good, and then quicker than that by 11 pm - fever would not come on - the change - the harm would not be apparent in the constitution of 12 hours - the eye was fomented with lukewarm water till the leeches were put on and afterwards so that by 11 tho’ the stupor continued the poor fellow looked more himself - yet the catchiness continued at intervals as before - he had thrown up his dinner soon after being brought home and been sick 2 or 3 times afterwards - once brought up blood which his lip being shop he had probably swallowed - he had given a few teaspoonfuls of warm strong brandy and water before Mr Cobb came - but he did not swallow well - tonight (about 10) he had swallowed some medicine well. Mr Cobb left his son to stay all night who has a little bed in the room and 1 or 2 of the servants sitting up with him - he has only once (and that tonight) attempted some inarticulate word since being taken down from the tree - coffee - at the usual hour - then tea - came to my room at 11 - wrote all the above of today till 12 ½ - kind letter this morning 3pp. and ends from Miss H- nothing particular – as I had not written to Lady S- she Lady S- feared she had said too much against my dame de compagnie scheme Miss H- thought it might suit me and therefore begged me to please myself did not see why I should not – finish morning – rain came on at 2, and rainy afternoon and evening F63° now at 12 ½ tonight -

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mimiplaysgames · 7 years ago

Text

Beloved Memories, in Notes (Vol. I)

Fandom: Pre-Birth by Sleep Rating: T Pairing: Terra/Aqua Other characters: Ventus, Master Eraqus Word Count: 5,675 One-shot (part of a series) Fluff / Hurt/Comfort / Mutual Pining

Summary: Aqua and Terra have been friends for a long time, endlessly practicing and studying for the cultivation of their efforts - the title of Keyblade Master. While their relationship has always been comfortable and close, Aqua realizes that the way she has been seeing him has been changing. Now, she is left with trying to define what that means.

AO3 FF.net

A/N: This series will be a supplement to my longform fic, Strength to Protect the Things That Matter. It is designed to be enjoyed by itself, but consider that it also acts as a prequel to that one, too.

For readers of my other fic, this series should enrich that experience, especially those wanting more backstory. That being said, this particular volume will be tied to Chapter 13.

I really hope this is enjoyable! Please send me thoughts. I have ideas for a Volume II (and I promise it will not be as gargantuan as this, lol!). I am taking ideas for more volumes, so if you have any suggestions or questions you want answered about them (or like headcanons), shoot me a message. Anything not already planned as fluff for the main fanfic will be posted as part of this series.

The photographs-in-book scene was written to James Horner’s “Flying Forward in Time,” from We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Tale. Aqua’s gift scene was written to Daniel Licht’s “The Wedding,” from Dexter Season 2/3.

A Tale of Awareness

It was the aroma of the ginger tea and his touch that awoke her.

Aqua had slumped over a desk in the library, on top of an open book when Terra stopped by with some of his own brewed mixture. He rustled through her hair to wake her.

She took a sharp inhale, rubbed her eyes, and found the tea that he offered her. He shook his head gently with a tsk-tsk, as though to say that she was being naughty by sleeping on her studies.

But this was always their flow. Genuine support for each other that hid behind constant teasing.

Aqua gave a slight hum as she drank it, which was strong in the kick of flavor, and she was grateful he brought it to her. Yet this was to be expected. He always brought her tea late at night.

“Where is Ven?” she asked.

“Out slaying some dragon.” He took a seat in front of her.

“I think I’m too tired for your sass, tonight,” she said, her voice raspy.

Terra let out a soft laugh. “In his dreams, tucked away in his bed.” He smiled at her, and this woke her up a little more than the tea did.

He brought a couple of his own books and opened one, although he paid no attention to it.

“Whatever you were reading must have been so exciting,” he said.

Aqua placed her hand on the page she was on and closed the book to reveal a large leather cover with carved designs.

“The Affairs of the Heart,” she read.

“How romantic.” His eyes were focused on the page in front of him, but his attention was clearly somewhere else.

“Like you’d know. Have you even read this one? It’s one of our mandatories.”

Terra looked up at her, his gaze focused and confident. He had that small, adorable smirk she always knew him to carry whenever he was going to start getting cocky.

“Ye heart is delicate and tangible, and thou must lifteth ye Key-sword bequeathed to ye in honor, for thy Key-sword shall ne’er be wielded to perform betwixt lyght and dark,” he said as he enunciated his words in order to sound fancy.

Aqua tried to control her laughter but it came out instead as a snort.

“And all ye Key-sword bless-ed shall journey on behalf of the lyght, yea verily, and bringeth peace instilled upon all thine hearts shared,” he continued as she laughed.

“That sounds pretty much right,” she said.

“I guess so, I think I made half of that up.”

“You want to see what I found?” she asked, her eyes lighting up. She grabbed a book from a stack that she built next to her. Terra took the same mug he offered her and drank a large gulp.

She sifted through the pages and then turned the book towards him.

“Look at this,” she said as she pointed to a specific spice among a list of them.

Terra tried to read the word out loud, but had trouble with it.

“Turmeric,” she corrected. “Apparently, I can make a cake with this.”

He was intrigued. “A spice cake?”

Aqua relished at his interest, always needing an opportunity to share this kind of excitement with him.

“Yes! And look here. There is this interesting spice...” she turned the book back towards her. “Hy-sso-pus. Hyssopus. It seems like I can use this one to mix with others for our meat dishes or something.”

She continued. “Oh! And another one...” She quickly turned some pages. “Annatto.”

“Where would you find all of these?” He set the mug down.

Aqua sighed. “Somewhere out there.” She gestured with her head to the stars outside the large, ornate windows of the library. “It would probably take me years to find them, but I would love to be able to play with them now.”

Terra let out a small half-sigh, half-chuckle. “Maybe when you are allowed to go on your own missions next year, you’ll have the time to search for them.”

Terra was eighteen, while Aqua was seventeen. They had just passed their preliminary exams, and were on their way to take their Mark of Mastery the next year. For now, he was allowed to go on missions by himself because he was older.

Aqua smiled as she leaned onto both of her hands. “You nervous about your first mission?”

Terra let his mouth hang, carefully considering his words.

“We’ll see how I feel tomorrow,” he finally said.

The next morning, Aqua and Ventus waited in the castle foyer, hoping to get a chance to give Terra a good-luck parting.

It seemed like forever before he finally made his way to say good-bye.

“What’s the mission?” Ventus asked excitedly.

Terra held up a small card with some notes. “I have to keep watch over a mother elephant and her calf who are working in an abusive circus.”

“That sounds pretty easy, you got this!” Ventus said, his eyes glistening. He had always thought of Terra as the most amazing person he had ever met.

“I’m sure you’ll do great,” Aqua said. It did sound easy, and she suspected there was probably a lesson behind it as well if the Master chose this for him. “Do you know how long you’ll be gone?”

“Long enough to get the job done,” Terra said as he exhaled slowly.

Which shouldn’t take that long. As he boarded his glider and drifted off to the sky, Aqua took notice of the silence left behind once she couldn’t hear the hum of his flying anymore. It will probably be just a day or two. No big deal.

That presence stayed with her, however. There was suddenly no one to study with her late at night when Ventus was asleep. No one to distract her from those books and start conversations that could sometimes last for hours. She made breakfast for one less person. She sparred more often with Ventus, who was skilled enough to keep up with her.

However, her equal wasn’t there to challenge her when she needed it.

He wasn’t there to joke about her faltering form when she tried to counter his incredibly strong attacks. He wasn’t there to try to psyche her out with his incessant provoking. He wasn’t there to give her earnest praises every time they finished a duel, or discuss techniques to get better.

Ventus teased her as well, but the way it was done with Terra was different. For a friend that she has known since she was eight, growing up with him meant she knew every twitch he showed on his face. It meant she understood him perfectly well, possibly better than he understood himself. They used to be inseparable.

But it wasn’t just that. On the third night he was gone, when she brewed her own tea and didn’t like the taste of it, she caught herself thinking of his deep-blue eyes and strong jawline. I’m being silly. He’ll be back soon. There’s no need for this...

The morning after, she looked outside the window from the foyer, to see him flying back. Her heart beating on her chest and a smile beaming on her face, she ran over to the entrance, but stopped short after what she witnessed.

Terra stormed into the castle, his eyes red. He looked at her for just a moment, a look of complete despair on his face, and he continued on without breaking his stride or saying anything to her.

She followed him to the library.

“Terra, what happened?”

Terra threw some books onto their table, and opened one while he maniacally flipped through some pages.

“I just need to study a little,” he said curtly.

Just like him to get distant and snarky when he got upset.

“What good is studying going to do for you now?” she asked.

“Just... something...” Frustrated, desperate.

“... What happened to the elephants?”

The question made him stop his frantic search through his books, and he took a deep inhale. It looked as though he was trying to stop himself from crying.

“I agreed to work for the circus,” he said, his voice shaking. “I made sure I was tasked at taking care of them. And I did. I took care of her, made sure she was fed and clean. The little one felt comfortable around me and we played everyday.”

He put his hand to his face as he continued. “But the little one was born with very... large ears. Some kids were picking on him during a show, and the mother got so upset.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “She attacked the humans in defense of her baby. I understood why, and I tried to stop her. I tried to help my co-workers stop her, but...”

He turned around and leaned back on the table, his hands splayed out over the surface. “The ringleader decided to separate them. They locked her up in all of these chains. She couldn’t even walk in her cage.” He regained some composure to keep his voice calm. “They made the little one into a clown. To be made fun of every night while he food was thrown at him. He won’t even play with me anymore.”

Aqua didn’t realize her eyes were watering. She walked over to his side, and leaned back on the table with him.

“What kind of monster would do that to a mother?” he said.

“You’re right, he’s a monster.” She knew how sensitive Terra was. He was strong, and he was optimistic about his endeavors, and probably a little too often he would overestimate his abilities. These kinds of events were things that Terra always took so personally.

“They are so lucky they have someone like you to care about them,” she said softly. “You’ll find a way to help them. But you won’t find the answer in these books.”

Terra kept his gaze towards the floor, refusing to look at her. It wasn’t just that he was sensitive. She knew that he often felt embarrassed over his failures, as if it would taint his reputation. Not that he needed to impress her of all people, but it didn’t make sense that he felt he should anyway.

He looked utterly defeated. He whispered, “what is the Master going to say?”

There wasn’t a good answer to that, except to gently put her hand over his. She wanted him to relax, and realized that she was the one who couldn’t when she felt his thumb hold her fingers. The movement made her stomach flutter, as if she yearned for the touch. She missed him, yes, but this much?

She squeezed him a little, which prompted him to turn his hand upward so that she can hold it. His hand was warm, and she saw him lean toward her, although he kept his stare towards the floor.

Her thoughts lingered on his touch. They had held hands before, plenty of times in fact. Mostly to guide each other when they were hiking dangerous terrain, or when they were children so that they wouldn’t get separated.

They actually used to touch each other much more often. They used to wrestle when they played. As they got older though, that became awkward. He would call it less appropriate, and never initiated it again. By that point, they were older and were more interested in perfecting their fighting techniques, so it wasn’t something either of them missed.

It didn’t register to her how long they had been holding hands in silence until she heard the Master walk into the library.

“Terra,” he called out.

Terra quickly slipped his hand out of hers as he faced his Master, his posture erect in military style.

“Yes, Master.” He had wiped any evidence of sadness or anxiety from his voice, as he usually did to appear like he was in control.

“We shall talk in my office,” Eraqus said before leaving the library.

“Yes, sir,” Terra said as he followed.

Aqua leaned on that table by herself, looking at her hand while her heart beat a little harder.

“How did Terra not beat that guy up?” Ventus asked as Aqua filled him in about the ringleader. The two were dusting the hallways of the second floor. Every day there was a chore to do. It couldn’t be helped in a castle so large with so little residents.

“How is he, anyway?” he asked her.

Aqua shook her head. “You know what he’s like. He’s completely wrecked over the calf.”

Terra had been in the Master’s office for quite a while now, and the chores were a distraction when they grew tired of waiting for him. It took a couple of hours before they finally finished, and thought to take a break outside. It was then that they saw him head down the entrance hall and out the front entrance.

“Terra!” Ventus called out, but it was too late as the doors slammed shut. “He didn’t even say goodbye.”

Normally he would, so what happened?

Aqua walked downstairs as Ventus followed, to see the Master standing there.

“Master?” she asked.

“I have instructed Terra to not come back until his mission to free the elephants is complete,” Eraqus said, walking back toward his office as though nothing pressing had happened.

"Sir?” she asked after him.

“He needs to learn to juggle his setbacks. Life is not always going to be easy for him, especially as a Keyblade bearer.” He wrapped his hands behind his back, pensive but strong on his word in a hierarchy where what he said was law. There wasn’t a point to stand up to him.

And an order like that wouldn’t make Terra feel any better about himself.

“You’re such a worry wort,” Ventus said, breaking the silence as she stood there thinking to herself.

“Don’t tell me you aren’t.”

“Just a little, but it’s Terra. He can handle it. I swear, your worrying is going to bite back at you hard one day.”

Aqua gazed out the window of the library four days later, sitting on her usual spot, with the same open book - but unable to concentrate. The day was bright and the sky full of clouds, yet there was no overcast. A good day to spend outside instead of stuffing her mind with words, but she preferred to finished her responsibilities guilt-free. She just wasn’t doing a good job of that.

Ventus sat across from her. The seat directly in front of her was too special, too reserved for Terra, for him to take it. He also had an open book and attempted to finish an essay. Instead, he just fiddled with the pen, and it smacked against the table over and over.

“Ugh, Aqua, save me from myself.” Ventus tossed the pen aside.

“You really need to learn a bit of patience.”

“You really need to learn a bit of patience.” His voice became shrill so he could pass as sounding like a girl. “I should be rewarded for spending at least ten minutes reading this stupid thing. It’s so much better when Master reads things to me.”

He looked at the book she was reading, with its archaic language. “I really don’t look forward to reading that,” he said. A moment of silence, and then he stood up from his chair. “I’m going to train a little.”

“Ven.”

“Just for, like, ten minutes. I can’t stand sitting here any longer.”

Aqua shook her head as he walked away. It meant that her, or in the usual case Terra when he was still around, would have to sit with him at the last minute to finish the essay before the deadline.

Alone, she had nothing else to do but to tend to her book, finding a flow so she could let the words pass by. She didn’t bother to check the time when she heard footsteps behind her.

“You done procrastinating, Ven?” she called out, only to see Terra stand in front of her with a mug of tea, and a large stain on his shirt.

“As you can see,” he said as he pulled on the fabric, “Ven already assaulted me with a hug, with not a care in the world what I was holding.” He gave his usually sheepish smile, in so much better spirits than the last time she saw him.

“Terra!” The surprise was well-welcomed, and she knew she had the goofiest grin across her face. But she didn’t care. “You have to tell me how it went!”

He sat in front of her. Finally, a sense of normalcy.

His response was a smile, and she said, “so it went well?”

He nodded. “I tried to get him out of his shell. I even helped him visit his mother, although I had to cut it short. It was awful, taking him away from her. But eventually, I got him to open up after... well...” he shrugged a little, his eyes darting around like he was about to admit a secret. “Is it bad to get an elephant a little drunk?”

“Terra!”

“It was an accident, I promise.” He held his hand up as if he was vowing. “But it worked,” he added, searching the library for anyone who might have been listening in.

Aqua took the mug he set aside for himself and sipped his tea. Delicious. Things were finally back to where they belong.

“Anyway, they are back together,” he said. “Mother and calf. He became an overnight sensation with a new act we setup together and they are out of the circus and are onward to better show business.”

“That’s so wonderful. What did you guys plan?” She took another sip.

“It wasn’t me, really, it was him. He can fly. Now I can say that I’ve seen just about everything.”

She nearly spit the tea out. “Terra. A flying elephant? Ridiculous.” Always him to be making fun of her even when she seriously needed to hear good news.

Terra’s eyes widened as he laughed out loud. “You don’t believe me?”

“A flying elephant, sure. And I can breathe underwater.”

He leaned forward a bit, his eyes narrowing with a cocky smirk across his face. “Want to bet? I demand you make me that beef pastry I love when I prove you wrong.”

A challenge. She looked him in the eyes. They were determined, full of life, and yearning to succeed. Her stomach gave a flip. Has he always been that beautiful?

That beef pastry he wanted was this ridiculously large fillet steak coated with mushrooms and pancake batter that was terribly easy to ruin or burn. Getting it right was laborious, and it took hours to prepare.

But she was ready, and at this point she even felt like he didn’t even need to ask her.

“Fine. Prove me wrong,” she said. “When you fail, though, you will do all my chores for two weeks.”

“It’s a deal,” he said.

Terra’s triumphant return was not only met with praise from Master Eraqus, but it left a sense of ease within Aqua and Ventus, who were far less antsy with him around.

Sparring with him made her feel as though she was getting back on track, like she was training for her own improvement again. Terra was the complete opposite in fighting style. A warrior bent on using his sheer force to shatter his opponent. She was an acrobat, a mage determined to parry her opponent with mental accuracy and swift counterattacks. Sparring with him always sharpened her sense of evasion, because meeting some of his more broad brute swings directly was never an efficient idea.

After their duel was over, Aqua noticed the amount of sweat dampening his shirt, and the way his muscles moved as he breathed heavily. His hair was messy but it framed his jawline perfectly. His shoulders were broad, but had they always been? He had grown up so much and she knew this, so how was it she was just noticing this? What exactly changed?

The flutter in her stomach became unbearable and she could feel her cheeks getting hot, so she faced away from him and started her own exercises. Flips like a gymnast, with her hands and without, as she traversed from one end of the room to the other in a long line. The blood sent to her brain and the sensation of the air passing by her were enough to re-settle her senses.

At it worked well, until she saw that he watched her do it. Was that something he normally did, observe her practice? Such a strange and tense, yet gentle, stare. They locked eyes and he didn’t falter from the gaze, until he smiled gently and broke the connection.

Days went by and the two of them didn’t lock eyes like that again.

It was much safer to watch him spar with Ventus, like she did on a new day like today, when the Master came in with a sense of urgency.

“Terra, I am sending you on another mission,” he said, holding up a card with some written information. “It is a rescue. You are to go to this world and assist these two fellows from an organization in saving a kidnapped six-year-old orphan girl. She has been missing for a month.”

Aqua gasped. “That’s so horrible.”

Terra couldn’t hide the feeling of anger in his voice. “What kind of people would do-”

“Terra,” the Master interrupted. “Remember what you and I spoke about. Your focus should be on the girl. This world is one devoid of magic, so you mustn’t rely too much on the Keyblade. You are also forbidden from harming the kidnapper.”

Terra took a hard swallow. “Understood, sir,” and bowed his head.

“The same rules from before apply, too. You are not to return here until you have completed your mission,” the Master said with a stern demeanor, though not with cruelty or scorn.

Aqua stood up quickly, not really knowing what she was going to do. Object to the rules? Offer comfort? An orphan girl. So young, too. This would hit Terra really hard, since he was one also before the Master came to adopt him.

Before she said anything, Terra faced his two friends with a forced smile and said, “well, I’m off. Don’t worry about me.” He left so quickly that she didn’t get a chance to say anything.

Aqua put her hand on Ventus’ shoulder, whose facial expression absolutely betrayed any sense of control over his emotions.

“This one will be tricky,” he said quietly.

Each day that followed, Aqua tried to make it pass as normal. On the tenth night he was gone, she sat in the library, with that same book that she could barely finish, and a mug of tea that wasn’t brewed properly.

I can bake very well, but I can’t make a decent cup of tea to save my life.

She tapped her fingers onto the table. I need to know if he’s okay. Who is he with right now? Did he find her?

Is he even taking time to think about me?

Flustered, Aqua marked her place in the book and shut it closed, retiring for the night.

On the twelfth day since he left, Ventus offered the brilliant idea of visiting the waterfall nearby the castle. It was a place with a special memory: it was the first place they took him after he recovered from his sickness when he arrived. And it was Terra’s idea then. He begged her to go with him, his smile so wide it would have been infectious if she wasn’t in such a solemn mood.

But he didn’t allow her to reply to the idea. He just pulled her along with him.

The waterfall was genuinely a picturesque scene. The water rolled over several sloped rock, all smooth from its constant work. There was a cliff that wasn’t too high, where she and Terra taught Ventus to jump off from. The water pooled into a decent sized lake, which further ran down a gentle stream.

But this was the difficult part. No location in this entire world was a safe place where Aqua could be rid of Terra’s memory. Everything here she shared with him. It was probably something Ventus was aware of, too. Which meant that he probably also felt an ache somewhere due to the absence.

Aqua minded her own business sitting atop a boulder by the lake’s shore, Ventus entertaining himself by practicing strokes. She just wasn’t in the right mood to have fun - her mind was too focused on memories of them coming here as children, when they didn’t think about anything in the world that would make them sad. And she was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice -

- when he crept close to her underwater just to grab her by the leg and pull her down with him.

This method worked to distract her. She surfaced with hysterical laughter, and the two splashed water on each other, though it quickly deteriorated into a competition. She won.

When they were done, they left the lakeside to dry themselves.

“I miss him,” she said as she put her shoes back on.

“I miss him, too.” Ventus was putting on his shirt. “I don’t really think this was an easy one for him.”

“I know he’ll be fine,” she said, looking off to the distance. “He’s brave, smart and resourceful. He’ll be able to make that girl feel safe. It just really hurts. It’s so strange not having him here.”

She chuckled out loud as she stood up. “It’s like I’m missing a half of me.”

“Oh. I see.”

Ventus contorted his face into a strange expression. His eyes narrowed, and his smile was wide but he gripped his lower lip with his teeth as it pulled upward toward his nose. Much like he discovered a very scandalous secret.

“What’s that look for?”

“He’s brave, and smart, and resourceful, and strong, and tall, and handsome.” He emulated a girl who is swooning with his hands, and his voice kicked up a pitch with each word that came out of his mouth.

Aqua replied nothing to this except to push him back into the water. Strong, tall, and handsome. It embarrassed her to even consider Terra any of these things, but they were true.

Back at the castle, Aqua took stock of the food in the kitchen’s expansive cabinet space when Ventus bursted through the doors in order to make an announcement.

“Aqua!” he called out in an almost whisper - a quiet announcement. “He’s back! He’s completely passed out in the library.” It was silly that he tried to lower his voice since the library was very far away from the kitchen and there was no way that anyone could hear him from there.

Not that she thought too hard about this. Aqua dumped the food she was counting and ran to the library, noticing that Ventus stayed behind. Probably some nonsense about giving us space. Still, for this she was grateful.

And there, she saw him. Laid out on an ornate white and gold couch, on his side as he draped himself over a fluffy pillow, his face buried in it. A large, wrapped bandage was tightly knotted over his left arm.

She gently walked over to him, and couldn’t help herself but graze over his hair with her hand. Gently, so she didn’t wake him. Her smile was so wide that her cheeks hurt. I’m so glad you’re home.

A brown paper bag sat on the desk they normally shared for studying. The Affairs of the Heart was stuffed with papers and photographs where she had last marked it.

Opening it, she saw the first photograph. Terra smiling, in what looked to be a swamp, with bloodied rags tied around his left arm. He was with a blonde little girl in pigtails by his side, and two mice on his shoulders. She flipped the photo to see the scribble of a six-year-old’s handwriting. My heros. Tera, Bernard, and Ms. Bianca.

The next photo, the girl had jumped up on Terra as she hugged him around his shoulders, her smile brimming wildly. Terra flashed a gorgeous, toothy grin as he hugged back. The kind of smile caught mid-laugh, and the only way he’d ever be caught on camera doing this.

Aqua’s stomach contorted into knots as she stared at the picture. Oh, she’s so adorable. And him...

A clip from a newspaper, with the headline, GIRL KIDNAPPED FROM ORPHANAGE FOUND. The kidnappers, two pawn shop owners, were arrested and charged with child trafficking and attempted child homicide.

A letter from the same girl. Dear Tera, thank you for sayving me and Mr. Tedy. I praid for you and you came. I want to now, am I good enuff to hav perents like you? Love, Penny.

A photograph of Penny and her teddy bear, with an adult man and woman, standing on a street covered in snow. Another letter from her. Dear Tera, thank you for fynding me and Mr. Tedy perents! Now I hav a famili. I will tell them abaut you. You jumped on the alligaters and fell in the water. That meen man held a gun at you. You sayved me from drowning. Plees com visit me soon. I want to tell you abaut my cat. Give your frends the jinjersnaps. Love, Penny.

Aqua had tears running down her face, and she wiped them away. The gingersnaps must have been in the paper bag.

Another newspaper clipping. The headlines read, Wonder Elephant Soars to Fame! Miracle Mammoth Startles World!

A photo of Terra feeding a large elephant some peanuts, and calf with enormously large ears reaching for him with its trunk. She flipped the photo to its back to see Terra’s scratchy and uneven handwriting. Dumbo and his mother.

The last photo. Dumbo in the sky, his ears stretched out as if they were wings. Clearly, she lost the bet. On the back, Terra’s handwriting again. Dumbo. You owe me a steak pastry, exactly the way I like it cooked. P.S. Show Ven.

Aqua laughed in a whisper. He still slept soundly and peacefully on that couch, like he spent a lazy day instead of accomplishing any of these astounding things. Her heart pounded, and her chest swelled with a nervous excitement when she confirmed that yes, he really did seem different this time around.

Aqua set up all the necessary ingredients on the kitchen’s island to make Terra’s favorite dish as Ventus sat on the dining room table, struggling to finish what he called a stupid essay that did nothing for him. She saw him mumble to himself across the bar area, not turning a page for what seemed like an hour.

She heard footsteps, and when she peeked, she saw Terra approach them with a large hula hoop decorated with green and white stripes, and a fabric bag.

“Whoa, what’s that?” Ventus jumped off the dining room table.

“Hello to you, too,” Terra said as he put the fabric bag down on the surface of the bar.

He flipped the hula hoop in the air. “This is for you, Ven. Some of the dancers in the circus taught me how to play with it.”

A small pain twanged in Aqua’s chest at the thought of women flirting with Terra. It probably was fair. There was no denying he became good looking as he aged. That wasn’t exactly what bothered her.

Terra demonstrated some movements with the hoop as he twirled and sweeped with it. And Ventus was so ridiculously excited that it there weren’t words to describe it. Taking the hoop, he tried to imitate the movements, and smacked himself on the face. Next, he tried jumping with the hoop. He threw it into the air and caught it.

“It could be good practice for something. He has way too much energy,” Terra said in a low voice as he sat at the bar.

“You’re hurt?” She gestured over to his bandage.

He waved her concerns away. “Just a flesh wound.” He grabbed the bag and put it in front of him.

“This is for you.” He gave a small smile as he crossed his arms and leaned on the surface of the bar.

“It better be as hypnotizing as that hoop,” she said. She had no expectations when she unraveled it. Probably something that he grabbed on his way back.

But it wasn’t as simple as that. It was a group of things that he would have had to travel far away to find, for the sole purpose of hunting them down for her. A tin can of bright yellow turmeric. A bag full of spicy red annatto. A wooden box of forest green hyssopus.

All proof that he didn’t just put in all this effort into a difficult search for them, but that he was thinking of her as well. She got light-headed at the thought, and her heart beat fast.

There he was leaning on his hand, with this excitable smile on his face. He was anxious to see her reaction. As if he had been looking forward to giving this to her for ages.

Aqua slowed down a shaky laugh to seem in control of her emotions. Her smiled widened. “Terra, you’re amazing.”

There was a twinkle in his eye, as though he wasn’t expecting such a response. He tried to keep a smile, but he was obviously nervous. “Do you really mean that?” he said in a low voice.

Did she really mean it? Yes, Terra was amazing. In the things that he was able to achieve. But in a different way, too. Amazing in all the qualities that he showed to others, to her. Amazing in such a way that she realized it made her wish he would look at her like that every single day.

She glanced over at Ventus. He let the hoop drag on his back while he watched them. He rolled his eyes dramatically, and she was sure she’d hear his taunts later that night.

“Terra, you are back,” the Master’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

Aqua took this opportunity to turn away to focus on the ingredients in front of her, grateful for the opportunity to calm down.

“Terra, you did wonderfully,” she could hear the Master say behind her. “I’m so proud of you.”

She smiled to herself, knowing full well that these kinds of words will make Terra’s spirit soar with pride and a newfound confidence for the rest of the day. A sense that he could achieve what he wanted. He deserved it.

And she, too, wished he kept watching her as she worked, knowing that he instead kept himself busy as he exchanged words with the Master over his journey. Ventus scurried over and exclaimed that he, too, wanted to hear about these wild adventures.

Aqua listened on as she lovingly spiced the raw meat, with the intent of making it absolutely perfect.

This piece includes references to Dumbo (1941) and The Rescuers (1977).

Thank you SO MUCH for reading this loooooong post! It took eight hours of labor, lol. I promise the other volumes will not be as long. Let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions for further one-shots in this universe, shoot me a request.

#terraqua fluff #terraqua fanfiction #kh fanfiction #mutual pining #aqua #terra #ventus #eraqus #strength to protect the things that matter #i listened to whole lotta vanessa carlton when i wrote this #vanessa carlton #incredibly mortified to share this #holy shit #my fic

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hidden-otaku-stuff · 4 years ago

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(1) Hey! So sorry for replying late, a lot has happened these past couple of days D: but I hope you've been doing good! (I say as if I've been gone for months aksjdf) anyway, yeah, they're definitely scary. I think it'll be worth being able to be that soft and open with someone though. And I'm glad it did have a positive impact on you! Even if they were hard you came out stronger or wiser in some way. And thank you, you're so sweet :') So do you hon ❤️

hey honeymoon! sorry for taking my time to respond, i hope everything’s been alright with you!

(2) Terushima really does just seem like a big dork who loves volleyball haha. I feel like his initial vibe would make me not want to interact v much lol but once you get to know him he's actually a good person. and that tongue piercing tho 👀. "that one definitely hurts a lot more than Falling does" then I think I'm good for awhile hahaha. I've already read a sad hospital AU so I'm going to stay FAR away for now. Honestly I wish there was an interesting story behind it but there's not :')

(3) basically I had an art blog and the name of it was kind of a pun with the word "honeydew." but that nickname was already taken and I wanted to be ~original~ sso I didn't want to use it lol. I still liked the honey aspect though and I thought Honeymoon sounded cute. I'm also kind of a secret hopeless romantic and at the time I kept my identity on my art blog a secret, so it kind of felt like an "alter ego" of mine? long story short I liked the nickname and it kinda stuck haha

ok i mean, to be fair, he was super aggressive when he was meeting kiyoko. but i definitely feel like there’s that dorky side to him LMAO.

oooof idk if I can handle any angst rn tbh so i can definitely relate 😭

that’s honestly such a cute story though??? like, that’s literally so freakin’ adorable. what type of art did you use to do? (and honestly girl, this whole blog is on the DL and i tried super hard to keep it hidden from my life LOL).

there’s nothing wrong with being a hopeless romantic though! it gives you a chance to day-dream hehe 💞 what’s your favorite romantic trope? it could be as cliche or non-cliche as you’d like!

(4) "i’m sorry for being a sadistic fk 🥰" 😀 something tells me you're kind of not LOL (really though I know you're sweet and don't actually want to hurt people akdhf) and honestly I'm glad you decided to expand on it! Chapter one is also great as a standalone but I'm so grateful for the rest so far, and you're doing an amazing job with it love 💖 I understand the chara x chara thing. I don't know if I've ever actually shipped anything to the point of me /wanting/ it to be canon

(6) like, it'd be cool if it was, but I don't actually care y'know? unless it was actual romantic tension built up in the movie/book/series. Fanart and fic is what mostly got me lol. I think the HQ fandom is super diverse/creative in its shipping. Not only because of an incredible story with great characters, but great fans and creators as well. And yes! someone else who likes KuroIwa!! I think that ship is really cute (and they're my top 2 faves so I'm biased haha) have you seen neutinya's art?

i swear i’m nice 💞 thank you so much for the love!! 🥺 i’ve been having writer’s block for a bit, and your comments have honestly motivated me to write so much more for it LOL

i definitely agree though, like, i can’t aggressively fight for one ship over another because it’s literally just not canon. it just feels wrong to “shove that agenda”, so to speak. but it’s always interesting to see all the different character combinations. i never would’ve imagined half of the ones out there if not for this fandom LOL

neutinya’s literally why I have a thing for KuroIwa!! LMAO. i really like the art that they put out. same with bright_stars_45 on IG. Their stuff is literally why i ship Bokuaka soooo hard.

(7) (did I skip 5?) I really hope I'm numbering those right it's 12:30 am here lol. anyway, it's probably a good thing you weren't in the fandom then. I don't know how it is now, but it was p chaotic and toxic and there was actually controversy surrounding one of those fics. I'm sorry about you and your sister love :( I don't know if you'd ever want to have a strong one with her but I hope you do if you do! and if not then there will always be people you share that with, blood or not 💕

LOL you did skip 5, but it’s okay bby 💖 it’s not too serious tbh. i’m not really close to my family, so i’ve always believed in the “my family is the one’s i choose, not necessarily the one’s i’m blood-related to” :)

(8) Piglet has always been my fave, but Eeyore and Lumpy are also great. do you have any favorite characters or ones that mean a lot to you? and that's really cool too!! I know being mixed can get super complicated but knowing you have all of those cultures in you in some way is pretty amazing. Honestly I've been undecided for the past 2 years but after everything going on in 2020, I've felt this need to release the truth? no matter what that may be. I know a lot of people say journalism

(9) isn't an honest profession but, and this will sound arrogant, I want to change that. Even if that just means me being an independent journalist while being an editor to make a living, I'm okay with that. Also it can give you the opportunity to travel, and writing has always been my strong suit. socio is so I can have a better understanding of the world and learn to be less biased and more objective and understanding. What about you? :O

my favorite Disney character is honestly Tiana from Princess and the Frog! her hard-working story is hella relatable to me, and it inspired me to be better for myself if that makes sense?

TBH the most annoying part of being mixed is being called eXoTiC by guys who are tryna sleep with me 💀 there’s definitely a lot of fetishization about it lol

i hella respect that! the need to release the truth. journalism is honestly a raw and authentic profession that people underestimate because they read from biased sources or the things they read isn’t accurate. i have mad respect for you for following that career path! if there’s anything i could do to help, lmk love 💖 TBH, i chose business because i wanted to open my own business and i love psych because i love understanding the world and the people in my lives. psycho-analysing is one of my hobbies hehe. so similar as to why you did socio!

(10) and yes!!!! tbh I've always liked theatre but was never really one for the stage. I was in a child friendly version of macbeth in 6th grade and that was it lol. In my senior year of high school I performed a slam poem about my depression and my teacher called me emotionally constipated lmaoo. and because of how hs went down for me I never got to take classes anyway. I started getting into sfx/film makeup though and I really want to do that! I also just love the energy of backstage tbh

(11) this is getting really long akfdjh. but yeah I want to learn more! I'm actually kind of struggling in my stage management class right now because I honestly don't know much about theatre so it's overwhelming. I haven't even seen a lot of shows (I did see The Lion King when I was a kid though!! and a few hs productions). enough about me though, what's your favorite part, or what are some of your best memories? I love seeing that it makes you so happy :D

omg i’m so sorry that your teacher called you that. that’s so inappropriate, especially considering the subject matter. i hope that you’ve had a more positive experience involving your work since then. if you ever want to talk about your struggle, please feel free to reach out, ok?

you must be pretty talented with makeup though! that’s so cool 🤩 i’ve always admired sfx and people who are talented with makeup tbh. what’s your favorite part about it so far?

i was fortunate enough that my hs had a super talented theatre program that i could be a part of. i had the opportunity to be in both tech, management, and on-stage. i honestly really enjoyed being behind-the-scenes in the management part! it was so great seeing a production from start to finish and knowing that i was involved with that process. i’m a huge theatre nerd tbh 😅 i love watching shows like Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, RENT and I’ll routinely watch them haha.

#skye's asks #firebonbon

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spotty-lion · 7 years ago

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Write a nice Christmas scene w/ the squad hangin out and do it Rite Now This Second (pls)

Ugghhhhhhhhhhh

@dizzy-izzy-sso @stormiesquall @sso-eden-dawnvalley @liv-olive @sso-aliarchdotter @rsenak @star-stable-is-awesome @sso-duskhill @twracehorse @esmeraldashadowlord @sso-saturnrider

(Some of these people are only briefly mentioned, but the sentiment is there)

The beeping of Jack’s alarm hadn’t woken him up as it usually did, but there was nothing quite like the scream of Waluigi to jerk someone out of their peaceful slumber. He let out a very loud groan and lifted his face from the pillow. He looked over at Halli at his side, and was a little amused to see that she had grumpily buried herself under the covers. He reached out blindly - he wasn’t in the habit of sleeping with his glasses on - onto the bedside cabinet for his phone. He already knew who it was; he had set the text tone for Zelda specifically because of some story that she had told him ages ago.

Put some pants on, get away from Ydris and open your door, I’m taking you to a Christmas party, his friend had texted.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!! Jack texted back, I don’t wanna socialiiiiiiiiiiiiiise.

The door to the wagon opened and Jack groaned out loud. Zelda appeared above him on the bed and looked down at her friend. ‘I know socialising isn’t your thing,’ she said with arms crossed, 'but it’s Christmas, and I love Christmas, so we’re gonna do some Christmas stuff together.’

The blue haired man sighed loudly and sat up. 'Fine… fuckin’ ass,’ he grumbled as he shoved his glasses on and got out of bed.

A few minutes later, Jack had put on an ugly Christmas jumper - it had white reindeer silhouettes on it with a red and green striped background - and he and Zelda were trotting down the road towards the stables, where everything was lit up with fairy lights and glowing snowmen. Jack felt a little smile tug at his mouth; he did love Christmas.

As they arrived, Jack swung down from his horse and opened the door to Zelda’s house. He hid a small smile as he saw his friends all hanging out. They all waved at him before returning to doing what they had been doing before.

No had invited their significant others, probably to spare Zelda the twinge of jealousy from her boyfriend being in prison.

Izabella was pulling a Christmas cracker with Liv. This was a momentous occasion as neither of them had ever seen a cracker before (because they were American). Eden was taking a picture to send to both of them later on.

Astrid and Louisa were chatting in a corner, while cupping warm mugs of hot chocolate.

Ali, Elsa, Sabrina, Jacky, and Alessa were all sprawled on cushions in the middle of the room, exchanging secrets that weren’t exactly secrets because everyone had suspected them. The eggnog seemed to have gotten to Jacky because she was louder than usual.

Jack made himself comfortable in a squishy armchair that was suddenly moved from the other side of the room to be right next to the table of food - specifically the sausage rolls (or puffdogs apparently, if you’re American). Zelda just looked at Jack as he was stuffing his face with food and shook her head, pleased that he had at least come along for the ride.

The table of food contained the usual Christmas dinner items - the turkey and a few other choices of meats, such as goose and chicken; roast potatoes; mashed potatoes; pigs in blankets, and a bunch of vegetables. There were also dessert items - like sponge cakes and mince pies - and the savoury snacks - like some sandwiches.

Jack was having a very good time munching his way through the different food items.

About half an hour or so passed until Zelda cried out, ‘Game time!’. Jack screamed quietly.

‘Nothing too energetic please, I’ve just eaten,’ Jack groused.

‘Don’t worry, I know,’ his friend said with a smile, patting his head.

Louisa stood up with something in her hands. ‘I made some hats,’ she said and handed one to Zelda and Jack.

In his hands was a cool green top hat with fairy lights wrapped around it. Zelda let out a very high-pitched whine as she looked at her red hat in her hands. ‘I LOVE IT!’ she screeched and immediately shoved the hat on her head.

Jack grinned and placed the hat on top of his head and laughed. ‘It’s fucking great, Louisa, I love it.’

‘So what games are we playing?’ Jacky asked.

‘We’re gonna play Truth or Dare,’ Zelda said.

Everyone groaned.

‘Please,’ Astrid said, voice slurred from the eggnog, ‘that’s not a good game.’ She promptly slumped over on her cushion and fell asleep, snoring obnoxiously loudly.

‘Well, she’s dead,’ Jack said, ‘but she’s right, Z, Truth or Dare is a shitty game, and not a very nice way to find something out about your friends.’

‘Nahh, we’re not gonna have mean shit like that,’ Z said, ‘I won’t even dare you to kiss one of us.’

‘Thank Aideen,’ he grunted.

‘We’ll have cute questions like… “what was your first kiss like?”,’ she said.

Louisa shrugged. ‘I don’t mind.’

‘Me neither,’ Liv said.

Everyone else seemed to agree, so the game was played.

Jack was the first to take his turn and chose dare. He was dared to text Ydris that he had slept with Louisa on a drunken one-night stand. The man laughed out loud. ‘Seeing as both of us are gay, I highly doubt that he’ll believe that.’ He sent the text, doing his best to sound sincere, and the game went on while they waited for an answer.

Zelda was chosen next and she picked truth. She was asked who she would date if she was into girls. ‘Probably Alex,’ she said, ‘doesn’t mean I got a crush on her though, so any of you who feels like speaking right now, shut your mouths. And if anyone tells Justin, I swear to God.’

During a pause as they decided who would go next, Jack received a text from Ydris, which simply said, Yeah right, like any girl would sleep with you.

Louisa went next and picked truth. She was asked if she had ever lied about being sick to get out of work or school. ‘There was one time when I really didn’t want to present a project in front of the class, and I really didn’t want to.’

‘How fucking pure can you get?’ Jack said.

Truth or Dare went on for about another half an hour and then everyone got bored so they stopped and went back to eating and socialising.

As the evening was winding down, Zelda let out a loud sigh and said, ‘I wish we had some snow, I missed it this year.’

Upon this remark, there was a poof of smoke in the corner and Ydris appeared. Everyone jumped apart from Jack, who was fucking used to it by now.

Without saying a word, the magician waved his arm and a blanket of pure white snow covered the room. Everyone let out happy yells (apart from Astrid, who was still passed out on her cushion). Zelda jumped up and immediately lobbed a snowball at Jack’s head and then Izabella. Both of them yelled indignantly back at her, and Jack retaliated with his own snowball straight to Z’s mouth. She spluttered and spat out some snow, and then a full blown snowball fight began.

Ydris smiled and poofed away.

#myfics #sso #christmas fic #writing request

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love-laika · 7 years ago

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homestuck reread: act 5

sso , as a follow up to this post (jesus christ did i really write that over two weeks ago?), i figured i ought to post my thoughts while rereading act 5 of homestuck. obviously spoilers if you still care about that at this point

when most fans talk about homestuck today, they’re really talking about act 5. its when some of the more infamous aspects (trolls, absurd time shenanigans, ridiculously meta storytelling) come in full force. i also happen to believe it’s probably the best part of the whole story (well so far, i still have to reread act 6). before jumping in, pretty much all of my previous complaints remain.

The trolls are great. That’s really all there is to say on the matter! Seeing how their session plays out is really fun, especially since unlike the kids, it is aggressively abridged. It’s so short, I’m actually curious why Hussie chose to have it be an Intermission rather than Act 5 Act 1... or well, actually given the events leading to Cascade, that might not be true. It’s a nice meta way of signifying how the A and B sessions are intimately tied.

Either way, I thought it’d be fun to examine how I feel about each troll!

Karkat - Everyone’s favorite, really. His ridiculous screaming rants and obsession with feeling important brushes over his intense insecurity. The obsession with hiding his blood (even after Alternia is long gone), insistence on being leader, past/future self-hatred... he’s got a hell of a complex. actually, the story shines a light on how he agonizes over every mistake he’s ever made, to the point where he dissociates his actions from himself by calling past/future him a FUCKING IDIOT or whatever. He’s a good boy

Aradia - On my previous read, I never thought much of Aradia. there wasn’t really anything in particular i disliked about her, she just never stuck. which of course is dumb, and past me is stupid for glossing over her. especially after going god-tier, she’s like... i can’t even really describe it. i guess is just safe to say i like alive aradia a lot because she’s just a little bit crazy

tavros - maybe its my bias towards vriska, but i kind of don’t like tavros. you know, maybe its some sort of reflection of how i feel about myself or something about how his coward schtick is annoying to me. (his raps are fun to read aloud though)

sollux - sollux is a complete asshole (basically to the end if i remember right), but even if he’s written to be unlikeable his position as a snarky jerk fits well within the troll group. though, surprisingly after his introduction he doesn’t do very much because he never interacts with the kids. his bifurcation gimmick though, and how its basically some absurd foreshadowing for act 5 as a whole is just. its so cool.

nepeta - nepeta has always been a favorite troll of mine even though she was basically born to die and plays no real role in the alpha timeline at all. despite this, fans like myself latched onto her because she’s a catgirl duh! the anime is inescapable. nepeta’s just cute bu her death scene makes me really sad... she didn’t deserve it! and being taken out by gamzee is just cruel. i guess this is what fanfiction is for???

kanaya - you know im starting to think my thoughts on all the various trolls were warped by the Vriska Distortion Field. I didn’t give a shit about the rest because vriska is the best!!!!!!!! this time around, i really noticed vriska and kanaya’s relationship sort of blossom all the way through act 5. its kind of touching after she had a pretty rough time in her own game after the Pupa Pan incident. kanaya’s great especially her transitioning from humorless broad to snark extraordinaire. i especially like to read her speech as just the most posh and practiced british accent Because It Makes Her Sound Sophisticated When Shes Saying Really Something Dumb Like Shout Pole

terezi - terezi’s gimmick is just so... so much. the obsession with justice and law (particlarly brutal troll law) makes her just totally silly. she hangs her stuffed animals from her treehouse. the blindness, the licking, H3Y D4V3-ness is a joy to read. it also helps that her harpsichord-led music is some of the best over the entire discography.

vriska - you know how i feel about vriska. you cannot beat her in a troll-off she is simply the 8est there is

equius - i don’t like equius! hes a creep! his gimmick is that hes a sweaty space racist! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! i really don’t understand people that get attahed to him! i wish nepeta got to spend more time separate from him!

gamzee - ah yes the most important character in homestuck. i like gamzee, but

i dont like his position with fans as the fuckin yaoiest boy to ever live when hes actually a horrorcore clown murderer

how long he remains in the story. way longer than he ever should have stayed. i understand he has to do stuff for lord english and all that, but i kind of wished he died on the meteor. oh well!

eridan - ah yes the other space racist. eridan i can actually stand though because he’s basically every shitty boy you’ve ever met. he’s totally desperate and pathetic and then when he gets rejected he gets violent. for such a silly comic, i think it stumbles into something weirdly real there. eridan’s a douche until the very end. i also give him like chavviest voice i can muster. it is a blight on the queens english and i apologize

feferi - i really noticed that feferi is a little bit deeper than i originally thought! i always just thought of her as “the nice girl” but she can be pretty devious and even cruel occasioanlly. She has an interaction with Vriska in what of the Alterniabound flashes is just so... prickly? on both sides.

ANYWAYS when we get back to the kids, I’ll admit I don’t remember a lot of the details. john goes to explore skaia and spends a lot fot ime with vriska. dave builds up a ridiculous amount of money, rose fucks shit up, and jade eventually gets to start breeding frogs after fianlly entering the game. i can’t exactly explain why, but the pacing here just feels better. maybe its variey of environments and general avoidance of pointless distractions, but its a much easier read than the earlier parts. i mean, i guess id hope so after the comic has gone on for 3 years at this point i think. Act 5, in totality is about the same length as all the previous parts combined, but goes by way faster! it kind of sucks that you know, you have to dig through a lot to get to the good parts. but man those parts are really good.

ad then we get to the buidlup to cascade, the parts in doc scratch’s room. I feel like some of the realest shit is right here. vriska’s triumph/death just kills me every time. i kind of take john’s side here on her past. at the very end, when she really starts to show remorse and to wonder who vriska really is breaks my heart. terezi’s end as well. the culmination of their friendship and rivalry coming down to a single choice. kill her, or let her go and doom everyone. its sad in a way very little else is in the story (except maybe dave and rose’s suicide mission). even knowing what happens much later, it just... its so rough yall.

i remember crying reading most of these parts. i have very specific memories of it happening. i wish it was easier to show new people some of these parts because they are just ugh... so choice. im a sucker for it. also there’s the sotry of the troll ancestors, her imperious condescension, lord english, etc etc etc.

i dont have much to say about cascade, a lot has already been said by everyone else. it is almost certainly the climax, even if the story has a ways to go, and its a triumph! It almost feels like it should be the end of the story in some ways because of how it is the culmination of everything that has happened since the very beginning.

thats all i can really say about that without getting bogged down in minutiae. Act 5 is fantastic, period. Now that Lord English is here (or rather, he already was), a new arc begins in Act 6. It’s approximately around here where I caught with the story as it was coming out! I’m really really curious about how I feel about when reading it in one go because it’s also around this time that updates got slower and slower, due to increased production time, then the exceptionally troubled development of Hiveswap.

#homestuck #ll redoes hs

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tellywoodtrash · 7 years ago

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ishqbaaz 30.06.17 lb

plain text version here.

oh omki, your hair. conditioner is a thing. please, use it. 😐😐😐

rudra, what do you mean “samajh nahi aa raha ki shivaay bhaiyya ko kya ho gaya hai?” you know perfectly well. heart attack waale din toh bade dialogue maar raha tha doctor aur pinky ke saamne. 😒😒😒

oh, three months, one heart attack and multiple half-assed suicide attempts later, om is like “hmmmm maybe we shouldn’t have listened to anika’s stupidass fucking plan???? maaaybe, perhaps, shaaayad it was a mistake? 🤔🤔🤔”

i swear to god, stupidity is THE MOST dominant oberoi trait. mann toh karr raha hai in dono ke sarrrr patak doon. 😠😠😠

lmaoooooooo omRu’s bitch faces at pinky’s demands. 😆😆😆

daaaaaaamn, omki ka paara chad raha hai. this gonna be goooooooood. 😊😊😊

“humein jhoot bolna nahi aata, aur agar sach kahenge, toh badtameez kehlaayenge.”

DIAAAAAAAAALOGUE! WAAAAH, MERE SHERRRR! WAAAAAAAAAH! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

aaj omRu ka turn nikla hai, to fuck pinky uppppp. lovingggggg it. go for it boys! KILL HER! 😈😈😈

“shivaay toh aapka beta ban gaya, lekin aap shivaay ki maa nahi ban payi. woh kehte hai, janam dene waale se paalne wala bada hota hai, lekin aapne toh woh bhi galat saabit kar liya.”

DAMNNNNNNNNNNNN OMKARA, YOU ARE FUCKIN’ UNSTOPPABLE TODAY. 😧😧😧😧

KHULE BAAL, AANKHON MEIN RIGHTEOUS ANGER - MERAAAAAAA PURAANA OMKARAAAAAA WAAPASSS AAA GAYA! WOH AAAA GAYAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! MAIN JAANTI THI WOH EK NA EK DIN LAUT AAYEGA! MERI BARSON KI TAPASYA USSE WAAPAS LE AAYI HAI!!!!!!! 😫😫😫😫😫😫

feeling bit like rakhee in karan arjun right now. 😌😌😌

“har insaan ki zindagi mein maa ki jagah alag hoti hai aur biwi ki jagah alag.”

lo. rudra ko bhi yeh baat pata hai. now there’s no excuse. 😕😕😕

“aapko jo karna tha, aapne kar liya choti maa, BAS! AB JO KARNA HAI WOH HUM KARENGE CHOTI MAA, AUR AAPKO BEECH MEIN AANE KI ZAROORAT NAHI HAI. HUM APNE BHAI KO BIKHARNE NAHI DENGE.”

“aaj tak shivaay om aur ru ko sambhaalte aaya hai. lekin ab, om aur ru shivaay ko sambhaalenge. hum apne bhai ko waapas laayenge.”

MIC DROP. OMRU OUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!! 😎😎😎

pfffffffffttt great. was on an all-time high from that scene and saw ragini, and instantly, my buzz has been killed. 😒😒😒

lmaoooooooo, popatttttttt. 😂😂😂

ok, i have a feeling additi has reasonably good comic timing. wish they’d use that more. 😕😕😕

also, is this why shivaay’s opting to spend the night in jail tonight? so he has a reasonable excuse to not hang with ragini? 🤔🤔🤔

#introvertIssues #relatable

girllllllllll, maybe this time, TURN AROUND FIRST? 😐😐😐

lmaoooooooo, can the staff stop being so condescending to poor ragini? 😂😂😂

ok can’t deny i’m loling a little right now at her passive aggressive hammy speech. 😆😆😆

i really hope this is the direction they decide to take her character. i’d love a comic touch to ragini’s villainous side, instead of just INTENSE UNBLINKING PSYCHO. it’s just more entertaining to watch. 😇😇😇

WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKKK IS THIS SHIRT ANIKA??? MATLAB, I GET YOU’RE SAD AND ALL, BUT GIRL. COME ON. 😟😟😟

awww, baby. no cry. he didn’t mean it. jalta hai tumse, bas. he doesn’t look halfffff as fabulous post-breakup as you do. 😪😪😪

tum? kaun tum? OMRU? SAMAR? ADVAY?!?!?! WHO???? 😧😧😧

lo, pooori family colour coordination mein khadi hai shivaay ke swaagat mein. 😐😐😐

damn, hawaalat ki ek raat se shivaay’s calmed down by 400%, and gives no fucks about khaandaan ka naam. 😗😗😗

bloody hell, since episode 1 i’ve been screaming @ TPTB to put his crazy ass in jail. ladka kab ka sudhar gaya hota. 🙄🙄🙄

pft... as if by staying in jail you “solved” that problem. all you did was stay up all night on the super-uncomfortable floor, overthinking about it. you stupid boy. 😑😑😑

chandiniiii? chameli? (i can never remember the name of her chappal. just know it’s something with CH...) 🤔🤔🤔

oh ho shivaay, chappal yahaan hai, toh zaahir si baat hai ki chappal pehehnne waali bhi yahin kahin hogi. 🙄🙄🙄

WAZZZZZZZZZZZZA QUEEEEEEEEEEN! 😍😍😍

dayuuuuumm, that super subtle way he checked her out from bottom to top though. sex eyes 100%. keep it in your pants, billu! 😏😏😏

chandini! i was right! 😊😊😊

also lol, what a set-up, girl! like you came into the house, had a tete-a-tete with the family, and left your chappal there for shivaay to find, and thus make an entry to impress him? matlab, waaah. you’ve become justttttt as extra as patidev. 😂😂😂

tumhaaara gharrrr, mera gharrr, what difference does it maaaake??? youuu bothhh belong to each other, toh in cheezon ke baare mein behas kyun karna? just go into YOUR (collective) bedroom and bang. 😚😚😚

his face, man. his faaaaaaace. i got an ask about this, so i’ll go into greater detail there. 🙂🙂🙂

homegirl has honeddddd her “push shivaay’s buttons” skillz to the max over last three months. 😎😎😎

god this scene has me sitting here like:

OMG IT’S AN ANIRU COLLABORATION. BESTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. 😅😅😅

i am lovingggggggg her calm and composed, sultry deep voice. 😍😍😍

she’s gotta know that it drives patidev craaaazy for her, and is using it on purpose. 😏😏😏

... how did she BUY oberoi mansion if it wasn’t up for sale???? 🤔🤔🤔

lovinggggggg pinky’s outrage. 😈😈😈

anika’s high and mighty manner has shivaay so turned on, it’s not even funny. uska bas chale, he’d have his way with her on the coffee table that she had her foot on 2 seconds ago. 😚😚😚

her confidence and his calm and collected (and thus, most un-shivaay-like) reactions have me feeling this is yet another one of their “collaborations”? 😯😯😯

which... i know doesn’t work at allll, plot-wise... but dude, i am just such a sucker for these two and their role play, i’m not even mad. i’m just so hyped from this scene, i’m sitting here like:

LMAO ANIKA’S FACE AT PINKY LIKE “WHATCHOO GONNA DO ABOUT IT, MUMMEH????” 😈😈😈

yuck, ASR. kya champu hairstyle banaye rakha hai? don’t you know that this is a set of exceptionally amazing hair? 😖😖😖

also that suit. jesus. 🤢🤢🤢 it’s like he strolled off the sets of miami vice. (allahabad vice?)

and is he wearing surma????? maaaan, kahan clean cut hottie arnav, aur kahan yeh jail se choota kaidi look? zameen aur aasmaan ka faraq. 😔😔😔

now can we put an end to the “shivaay is short” jokes? as i suspected, he’s justtttt as tall as arnav! if nothing, shivaay has maybe half an inch ON him, thanks to the gravity-defying floofy hair. 😕😕😕

lmao the firsttttt thing ASR has to say to old friend SSO is a count of how many phones he’s broken. 😆😆😆

may it be noted that ek sau chauhatar (174) is the official number, as per canon. up from in 78 in episode 2.

96 phones in a year. that’s almost 2 phones a week. shivaay is single handedly keeping apple’s india market alive. 😌😌😌

ok, i’m a sucker for both these stupid men’s smiles. so here:

snort, meta reference to ASR being out of commission after 8 30 pm. (IPKKND shall air from 8 - 8 30.) 😂😂😂

SO MUCH META. SO MUCH. I AM DYING HERE. 😁😁😁

ok ladkiYAAAN nahi, exactly ONE ladki has said you have kanji aankhein that are satrangi. and she’s your wife. she’s obligated to gas you up. zyaada udne ki zaroorat nahi hai. 🙄🙄🙄

“LET ME SEE”!?!? OMG??????????????? 😧😧😧

UM OK, were our two fav beautiful-eyed sociopaths about to kiss??? I BELIEVE THEY WEREEEEE!!!!!!!!! ANIKA WHO???????? CHANDINI WHAT? HETEROSEXUALITY WHERE????????? 🙃🙃🙃

personal headcanon: they’re college friends, who were bi-curious and experimented... otherwise, explain the totally casual touching (shivaay adjusting advay’s coat, advay’s hand on shivaay’s shoulder drawing him in), and the sex eyes they just made at each other to me. EXPLAIN! YOU CAN’T!!!!!!!!!! 👬🏽👬🏽👬🏽

is advay talking about anika... or HIMSELF???? 😐😐😐

MOAR SOFT SEX EYES. 👀👀👀

oh. so shivaay is fully aware of advay’s “mission”? 😗😗😗

i bet they’re both part of some sort of “4 Lions Men” forum/newsletter thing, where they keep up with each others’ news, and share the latest techniques in grabbing, arm-twisting, throwing aukaat-related insults, how to compel a woman to marry you, etc. 😒😒😒

like... i know ASR is talking about anika, but i can’t help but frame every passive aggressive thing he’s saying about love as a reference to himself. 😌😌😌

(jesus christ i ship this so fucking much.) 💘💘💘

ship name: #YYSinghs (get it? Vaay-Vay.) 😊😊😊

wait is advay pronounced “ad-way” or “ad-why”? if it’s the former, then ship name is #VaayVayOrTheHighway. 🙃🙃🙃

lmao ok advay, that insertion of show name line was a little clunkyyy and forced. try harder, please. 🙄🙄🙄

even your boyfriend shivaay wasn’t impressed. he’s like “kar liya promotion? ab footage khaana bandh kar aur phuttt yahan se. 😒😒😒”

lmaoooo more meta. 😄😄😄

that wink! 😆😆😆

ouff advay, kahaan i want you to make a move on our man here, and here you’re pushing anika on him. 😤😤😤

chalo, tum naa sahi, toh i’ll take her. i’ll try and make my peace with it. 😕😕😕 heterosexuality wins again. ugh. 🙄🙄🙄

daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn omRu. “jo bhi karna hai ab hum karenge”, indeed! I FUCKING LOVE ITTTTTTTT. 😘😘😘

also queen be haq jamaaoing like no one’s business. get it girl. GET ITTTTTTTTT! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

#ishqbaaz #ishqbaaaz #ib episode liveblogs #episode liveblogs #300617 ib lb

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blacklodgemusictx · 6 years ago

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Taking off to Mars...

Bear with me. I haven’t written a music review since covering a Midnight Oil show for my college paper in 2001. Personally, I thought I had a unique perspective as no one else seemed to go to shows while busy being studious, but one response was an anonymous letter to the editor: “No one cares about a date Liz Green had to see a band no one has heard of.” Fair enough, callow youth, fair enough.

Two things you need to know about me:

1.) I live for music - it’s how I relate to other people.

2.) I reside in a town where everything I want to see or do it a minimum of 3 hours in any direction. Every now and then something cool will happen, but there’s usually a 3-5 year gap between these cool occurrences. You want something amazing to happen you either go find it or you make it happen yourself. I made it happen once. And it was stressful … and expensive. So we prefer the seeking.

I had the good fortune to meet an older boy with similar sensibilities. I always bemoaned the fact that there were no songs with my name in them: Elizabeth has too many syllables, Liz not enough. Up until this moment, I’d had to adopt “Beth” by Kiss. He gave me a Hex song with my first AND last name in it, “Elizabeth Green, deep and serene.” So I gave the boy my heart and he gave me his name. Together we go out in to the world looking for the things that set us on fire.

The giving of songs is how I express myself. Though I have a literary side, my degree is in business and my logical side tells me that someone has probably already described the things I’m thinking or feeling and has probably done it a lot more eloquently than I ever could. The right song is out there for every situation... you just have to know where to look.

A fight, the silent treatment from my husband, an uncomfortable car ride: Rush’s “Open Secrets” on my iPod: “I never meant what you’re thinking. That’s not what I meant at all.” A friend dealing with heartache and a lying lover? “The Wreckers” also by Rush. Another friend’s husband passed away. I gave her “Take my Heart” by Caroline’s Spine. “Just in case I lose this race, I’ll always be there watching over you…” Even if the song didn’t quite hit them the way it hit me, to accept the giving of a song is to accept the giver.

Seven months ago, two friends in tow and tickets to see Marty Willson-Piper in hand, we sped toward Fort Worth. We were late. A thing that often happens when work and driving and days of the week get in the way. “It’s ok,” I assured my husband, “There are two openers. We have plenty of time. We won’t miss anything.” Ha. Prepare to eat your words in 3…2…1…

The order was Salim Nourallah, “Laish” (a British band fronted by Danny Green. The band was absent due to the financial constraints of intercontinental travel so I started thinking of Danny as Laish sort of like Bono or Cher), and Marty Willson-Piper - Mr Willson-Piper being the former lead guitarist of the Church - my husband’s favorite band and consequently a band we’d been seeing together since 2002. We only had tickets to that show, but after we were blown away by each performance in Fort Worth, we noticed the tour was EIGHT Texas shows long. NO ONE gives that much love to Texas. No one.

We proceeded to attend three more: Cactus Cafe in Austin and the two shows at the Palo Santo Galactic Headquarters - words that held zero meaning to me until I actually went there: it’s a space Salim set up next to his recording studio in Dallas. The space accommodates about 30 and is the perfect location for comfortable, intimate shows. Palo Santo is the independent record label founded by Salim and the similarly incomparable Sarah Henry.

During this run of shows, I got to talk to Salim both in person and on Facebook. I learned that he was not an “opener” for Marty Willson-Piper, he was the mastermind that made the whole tour happen. I signed up for his mailing list and even if the name is tongue in cheek - The Cult of Nourallah - it’s spot on. Salim is the most charismatic person you will ever meet. If he thinks you should listen to a certain artist or album, it will appear on your chosen music player. If he really did want to start a cult, you’d go buy whatever color shoes he instructed. And he does it all with a calm, quiet, reassuring presence that lets the music speak for itself.

After these shows, I started listening to Salim’s albums. All of them. A lot.

No really… a LOT.

His style is simple, clean and straight forward. The songs are heartfelt and often autobiographical. Though coming from a musical background of performance and recording with his brother Faris, Salim’s solo career began in 2004 with the album “Polaroid” and has spanned the next prolific fifteen years to 2018’s “Somewhere South of Sane.”

I quickly assimilated the music from his albums in to my personal first aid kit of songs. I recently helped a friend through a painful divorce and played Salim’s “It’s Ok to Be Sad” for her. The idea is often something overlooked in adulthood and though it seems simplistic, the act of permission can be profound. It’s ok to be sad. It’s ok to mourn. Things don’t work out.

I ended up giving that friend Salim’s entire “Somewhere South of Sane” vinyl set. SSOS is an album that I digested in pieces myself . The songs feel so personal - the songwriter’s own heartbreak on public display - the act of musical consumption feels like voyeurism. Spying through a window at people hurting each other. It reminded me so much of my own first marriage - at a much too early age - and divorce that it was difficult to hear. I felt well armed in that moment and profoundly grateful that Salim gave me something that I was able to pass on in the name of healing through the acceptance of grief.

While I put my arms around my friend at the local courthouse and held her through the end of her marriage, I struggled in my own personal life with a health scare that could possibly change everything. I held on to Salim’s “Don’t Be Afraid” at this time and probably listened to it twenty times. I’ll try not to be afraid. I’ll try. I’ll try to be brave… still, Salim, keep telling me. It’s nice to hear. Ultimately, after an agonizing length of time (agony and length only felt by the person in it), I learned I was ok. Here I appreciate Salim’s “Goddamn Life” (Hit Parade, 2012.) I’m so in love with my goddamn life. It may be scary and it may hurt at times, but look at the alternative… right?

There’s a certain degree of uncertainty in being a member of the human race. We all secretly think we are doing it differently and most probably wrong. We toil next to each other in silence and the great tragedy is: we’re all doing it pretty much the same, but we don’t know that. To be unsure of this, but to put it in song anyway and then present for the world to hear takes bravery I cannot even comprehend. Trying to describe love is like trying to describe the color blue. You put your song out there with the secret fear: what if that’s not love? What if that’s not blue? What if I’m doing it wrong? What if everyone else sees things differently? What if there’s something wrong with me?

* * *

Fast forward to last weekend - Saturday May the 4th. I had the honor of gathering with Salim and his friends to celebrate with a retrospective show at Palo Santo.

“If I really had to break it down,” Salim told us when announcing the event, “the one that thing that has meant the most to me is writing songs. So it seemed fitting to spend my upcoming birthday not only with my real family but also with my ‘other’ family: my family of songs. I'm sure you've probably heard songwriters refer to their songs being almost like children. It's a hard thing to describe…”

But he does describe it in “Stranger in My Own Skin” (Constellation, 2009), “I’m gonna take some pain and stick it to a tune so you can sing along, get the words all wrong.” And he did. He stuck pain to a lot of tunes. Pain, laughter, love, heart break, friendship, desire, despair, betrayal... He stuck feelings to 15 years worth of tunes and more and on Saturday he indulged us in tastes from each album to commemorate another year of his existence on this planet.

The vibe was laid back and friendly - Palo Santo is like no other place you will ever experience. It’s more like going over to Salim’s house, his face lights up and he says “Here, let me play something for you…”

The configuration was different this time than others I had been in attendance there. Chairs were arranged on three sides, a seat and a guitar against the wall in the middle. When Salim took his place in front of us, the small crowd immediately fell silent - not like fearing the wrath of a teacher chiding students for talking, but more like the anticipation of watching a magician about to perform a magic trick.

And there was a magic trick of a sort: projected on the wall above Salim’s head was suddenly the album cover of “Polaroid.” Salim chatted about this cover and each subsequent one as he told stories about each and sang the songs he chose to represent that album and period in his life. We were instructed to sing along and we did so - almost reverently - with Salim’s guidance.

Set one covered: Polaroid, Beautiful Noise, Snowing in My Heart, Constellation and Hit Parade (2004-2012). We then took a break to share a fabulous cake, chat and sing Salim “Happy Birthday.”

Set two then covered: Friends for Life, Skeleton Closet, The Travoltas, NHD (Salim’s project with Billy Harvey and Alex Dezen) album And the Devil Went up to Portland, and finally Somewhere South of Sane (2012-2018).

Though Salim got to what was supposed to be the final song from SSOS, “Rainbow Dolphins” was then brought up by an audience member. Salim just grinned and assured us he could play that too. And he did.

I didn’t want the evening to end. We all filed out of Palo Santo in to an absolutely beautiful, cool Dallas night. We chatted with each other and eventually goodbyes were said and people began to wander away. I yawned one too many times and may or may not have enjoyed just a touch too much wine. My husband, Doug, eventually took my hand, we thanked Salim and drifted away ourselves.

The magic doesn’t have to end quite yet as Salim has put up part two of the birthday retrospective for sale next weekend (a few tickets remain and can be acquired here: https://www.prekindle.com/event/26257-birthday-retrospective-salim-nourallah-2nd-show-dallas). This was a singularly unique event and though lightning isn't supposed to strike twice, if anyone could make that happen, it is Salim. Next weekend will be just as magical.

Links of interest:

https://www.instagram.com/palosantorecords/

https://www.instagram.com/salimnourallah/

http://salimnourallah.com/

https://palosantotx.com/

https://www.facebook.com/salimnourallah/

https://www.facebook.com/palosantotx/

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bandqcareers · 6 years ago

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