#byte sized one shot

[silkenblankets]

A bronze and leather machine, best of its kind, carefully crafted and encompassing a uniquely steampunk look. By now, they're an antique, passed down from its original creator, tweaked by his child, taught by a grandchild, upgraded and refurbished by a great-grandchild, left to gather dust in the corner of an antique shop after they could find no next of kin.

For the first few months, they explore the other antiques, they wish to chat with customers and fix any out of tune music box or chipped vase. Gradually, their metal and leather frame begins grinding against itself, losing mobility.

Two years after arriving, they're most often mistaken as a statue, a frozen artifact of a bronze and steam era. Sometimes a child will poke at the shining steel pocket in their back, a tiny flash of static giving just enough power for a brief crackle of a voice box in their chest.

Until they wake within a cozy home; with warm lighting from large open windows and a shining wooden floor fitted with a little gray rug. Someone smiles, massaging oil into their stuck joints. Little by little, they begin to move again.

"Well aren't you a curious little guy!"

The human is very kind, letting the machine explore and giving them a few days to adapt. The human sits them down after those few days, explaining that they want to do some maintenance on them; they're more than happy to oblige.

That is, until they begin to feel the human's hands, attaching wires and adding more sensations. They're confused, looking back to ask why. The human just laughs, tickling the machine and making them emulate something resembling a giggle. In the midst of their laughter, it sharply turns to a screeching sound. The human is holding a few torn wires, watching them hit the floor with a tight fist and sputter a million questions about the bad feeling, the horrible- evil feeling.

More.

They couldn't see.

What was human doing?

They wanted to scream, but their voice was muted as its wires became twisted into a useless knot in their neck. Human was murmuring gentle words, their shivering body making such a ruckus with all its parts clinking against one another; they couldn't hear a single thing.

Their back panel was shut tight, a warm hand rubbed their head and began to guide the jittering mess through a door.

It was raining outside, every drop of water that slipped in between their bronze and leather shell felt burning, slipping between stretched out seams and cracking metal. They flinched and twisted as the feeling covered them, like a box of nails forced into every exposed crevasse. Human held their hand, giving a cold, robotic rub over the soft backing of it. They felt like falling to their knees and screaming as loud as they could, but the ground was wet, and burned their feet as it seeped through the metal soles. They couldn't scream if they wanted to, anyway.

The rain's pitter-patter was out of sync with their clitter-clatter. Human raised his voice.

"Sure is nice. I knew you'd like it."

Their body tensed and twitched in response, unable to move how they wanted. Everything gave out, hitting the ground with one arm held up by Human's hand. Laying on hot coals, their hearing cut in and out, sensations becoming erratic.

Shutting down.

"Useless."

Left in a scrapyard, an arm and both legs taken. Leather stripped from their body.

"Well isn't this a curious little thing..."

Something was tickling at their back, and something clicked into place. Their head jerked up, screaming in agony as their remaining arm clawed at thin air. Unable to hear the frantic voice trying to reassure them, they continued to thrash until their screaming turned to soft cries.

Their vision blurred, becoming focused as those mystery hands worked. Everything was tainted with a strange snow overlay, they'd need replacements for their eyes. Looking down, they found where all the strange have-not sensations came from; also discovering they were suspended. Their head was turned to one side, then the next, then pushed forward.

"... Okay, was that the right one? I'm sorry I scared you."

They turned to look at the Human, much different from the other; a little crooked smile with shining, kind eyes in a darker shade of brown.

"He-llo."

"Hi buddy. Don't worry, I'll find some limbs for you in a bit. Do you know where you came from?"

They hesitated, giving a stiff nod.

"Oh- can you tell me your name? Do you have one?"

They shook their head. "N-o name."

"Can I call you..." "Bud-dy." "You wanna be Buddy?" "... Bu-ddy. Ye-s."

Human's smile seemed to grow.

"Okay, Buddy."

-🤖

[might-be-tiny-gt]

Last year I wrote a story about a streamer who shrinks based on chat donations. I meant it as a one shot, but guys…. GUYSSSSS.

I think about this story ‘s universe a lot. I have lore notes just collecting dust and I need to share it or I might go absolutely mad XD Made these visuals charts to get the basics across but if you’re interested in my lore and semantic ramblings, feel free to read below the cut.

Consider this my unofficial pitch bible for Down Played.

General premise: Monica Diaz is Twitch streamer with steadily growing fan base. Her tag is MiniMushroom and her aesthetic is cottage core. She loves all things magical and tiny, especially toadstool mushrooms, that’s the image most associated with her “brand.” She’s approached by a mysterious benefactor who has developed technology specifically for Monica to test and utilize for her streams. It’s called Byte-Syzed Tech and it connects to a user’s twitch stream and based on the user’s preferences, gives the audience the ability to change the user’s height. The one shot I wrote takes place during Monica’s first live use of Byte-Syzed tech on stream. If I were to develop this into a full story I’d probably go back a bit and start around when Monica is first approached about using Byte-Syzed tech then continue to follow Monica adjusting to using Byte-Syzed more often. How she deals with the size change on camera, off camera, how her social and personal life are affected, all that good stuff. I think it would like a slice of life feel good kinda story.

Characters:

- Monica - Main character and primary user of Byte-Syzed tech. Surprisingly enough, she’s actually a law school grad who probably would have put her degree to use if she didn’t accidentally gain a massive following on twitch. Funny how life works out. She stands at 6’4 and always was fascinated with the idea of being small (Basically, she’s a g/t nerd who doesn’t know what g/t is) so being gifted Byte-Syzed and being able to use it on stream is kinda a dream come true.

- Kim - Monica’s girlfriend, roommate, and stream moderator. Kim and Monica were high school sweethearts but drifted apart in college due to personal matters in Kim’s life including having to drop out of college. Kim and Monica rekindled their relationship a few years later and Kim cites Monica and her encouragement as a big reason why she’s been able to get her life back together. She’s currently back in college working on getting her degree in Mathematics.

- The Twitch Team- Moni hosts solo streams but also very often collabs with three of her online friends. Ariel (@Lifeisthebubbles), a Vtuber who is the only one Moni has met in person. Corey (@McDonuts) an NB asmrist on youtube who started streaming games for fun. And Phin (@UrguyPhin) Corey's bf and the competitive gamer of the four. All three of them were streaming with Monica when she first used Byte-Syzed and have since gotten used to pausing their games so an ever shrinking Monica can adjust her set up.

- The Benefactors- Keeping their (Plural, there are two of them) exact identity to myself for the time being, but basically they’re mad scientists with the best intentions. Their antics have garnered attention across the internet as they have created and gifted inventions to up and coming online creators that seem to defy all laws of physics. Anti Gravity chambers, a literal money tree, a mask the morphs the wearer’s face, and now the Byte-Syzed size changing tech. Despite their inventions going viral, their identities have remained hidden. So what is their deal? They’re just big fans of these creators and for lack of drawing skills have gifted them weird inventions instead. Nerds… Due to the nature of Byte-Syzed and the possible effects it can have on the human body, Monica and Kim remain in close contact with them.

How Byte-Syzed Works in Universe: This I wrote tons of notes about when I first thought of the idea. Byte-Syzed can be divided into three key components; The program, the arm band monitor, and the sync suit.

The Program is installed on the user’s computer and connects directly to the arm band monitor and sync suit. The program has user friendly set up that allows the user to input the direction of height change (Shrink or Grow), The minimum or maximum height change, How height change occurs (By views, chat commands, donations, etc.), and rate of height change (How much height is gained or lost with each instance of viewer interaction.) EX: If height is based on donations, the user can set it up so they lose 1 inch for every 10 dollars donated. They can set the minimum height to 6 inches, so once they’ve received enough donations that they have shrunk down to 6 inches, Byte-Syzed will hold at that height. More donations may come in after, but the height will remain at 6 inches for the duration of the stream.)

The Arm Band Monitor, is the device the physically changes the user’s height after connecting to the Byte-Syzed Program. It also monitors and display’s the user’s current height and vitals. All data collected from the arm band will then be saved and can be referenced later if the band is connected to the computer. The arm band must be kept on at all times during active use and active reset of Byte-Syzed. Active use is the time in which Byte-Syzed is being used in a stream and the user’s height is actively changing. Active reset refers to time after the stream has ended and the user is either set at their new current height or in the process of returning to their normal height. After a stream has ended the user will remain at their changed height until they press the reset button on the monitor. Once the reset button is active, the user will return to their normal height at 1.5 times the amount of time it took to change to their current changed height. EX: A user has finished a stream that was 4 hours. They hit the reset button which will return them to normal over the course of 6 hours. (4x1.5=6) This only applies for time Byte-Syzed was in use, not how long a size change occurred. EX: If the user’s stream was 4 hours, but they reached their minimum height in 3 hours, the reset function will account for the 4 hours the stream lasted. This is a safety procedure to reduce stress on the user’s body. Note: If the reset button is not pressed, the user will remain at their changed height for a period of 12 hours. After 12 hours, the reset function will kick in automatically.

The Synchronized Suit or Sync Suit is directly connected to the Byte-Syzed program and will grow and shrink with the user at the same rate as the user. Normal clothing can be worn above it but they will not change size with the user, only the sync suit. The sync suit Monica received came with the suit, shoes, and a headset with a built in microphone to keep audio input even over the course of her size changing. More sync suits are in the process of being designed and produced, with the goal of making sync suits that resemble everyday clothing like t shirts or skirts.

Fun Story Ideas:

- Origin story. How Monica met the benefactors and was gifted Byte-Syzed, her and Kim’s gripes about using it, actually going through with it and the pros and cons she noticed, the end of her first size changing stream and dealing with being tiny in her own room and her girlfriend’s hands. Etc etc

- Monica finished a late night stream using byte Syzed and forgets to press reset when she goes to sleep so instead of growing back over the course of the night she wakes up at her tiny size. After realizing her mistake she begins the growth process but now has to do it while attempting to do her regular day time activities.

- Monica is approached by a doll company to collaborate on a new doll based on her, only issue, their studio is several hours away and they want her to model at both her full height and at the height of the dolls. After some consideration Monica and Kim decide to take a road trip to the studio and use Byte Syzed at the studio under Kim’s careful supervision. What could go wrong?

- Months have passed and Kim and Monica have grown well adjusted to the major size difference between them after Monica finishes a byte syze stream, however curiosity has gotten the best of her and Kim wonders what it would be like to be the tiny one for a change.

If you have read this far, you have my eternal gratitude. Thanks for reading this far, I really hope you liked it XD Maybe if time and motivation allows I can flesh the story out.

[encyclopediacr]

Last month at the wiki — January 2024

Every month, we highlight significant work done in the previous month by our editing community at Encyclopedia Exandria.

To start, here's a selection of ten articles created in January. You can find more of our newest articles at the 50 newest pages report.

Unabridged, group of immortals in Hale

Toren Gevni, Unabridged in Newfaire

Iomene, empress of Oldfaire

Cullet, lung disease in Newfaire

Reva the Revenant, player character of Jasmine Bhullar for the DOOM Eternal One-Shot

Ishto, paladin of the Lawbearer from Aeshanadoor

Schlond's Embrace, alcoholic drink

Critical Role: Sick Day, special live stream

For the Queen, card-based game

Anatithenai, location in Hale

This month was quieter on new article creation. The Critical Role channel had a quieter month on that front as well, so it is not unexpected. But, work on the wiki is not limited to new articles!

On the less visible end of things, a significant number of articles for people and characters were updated with short descriptions. These are the descriptions that appear in the suggested articles in the search bar and aim to help identify articles so that you may better arrive where you wish to go.

Matching the new article for Reva, the article for Mancubus the Mancubus was similarly overhauled and is no longer mostly empty sections. Work on coverage for the DOOM Eternal One-Shot continues, so look out for more updates on that in the February round-up next month!

Our Midst glossary was restructured and greatly expanded. Just in time for its third and final season. Between the season two roundtable tonight and the season premiere next week, it's a good time to remind everyone that we cover Midst and its part of our regular stable of updates.

As always, if you wish to contribute to the wiki or to help out, feel free! It doesn't fit well into these monthly roundups, but the past couple of months, we've had some contributions from new editors that we're immensely grateful for. We welcome typo and grammar fixes, updating outdated material, article expansions, and edits of any byte size.

[mxeve0]

Miguel O'Hara X Fem Reader

Warnings: Deep wounds, blood, death, angst >:), grief

Small bit of context: You have a 6 yr old daughter named Charley and we're starting just after your cannon event, which is where you lose your husband :)

A Second Chance

Part•1

You slid down the outside wall of the headquarters operating theatre, bringing your knees up to your chest. Your daughter had a broken arm and rib, which had punctured her lung, and your husband...you could have been faster. You should have been faster. With the advanced technology of this universe, there was little to no chance that Charley wouldn't survive, but there was nothing that could be done about bringing back your husband. Your mind was rushing with ways you could have saved him if you had done just the slightest thing differently. It would have been so easy, so why couldn't you have done it in the moment.

The theatre doors swung open and you shot up, maybe a little too quickly as you began to go light headed. The surgeon-spiderman that was leading the operation rushed up to you, helping you steady yourself.

"You've gotten bigger," you pointed out, nodding towards her baby bump, which was now very visible.

"I know, look at the size of it," she chuckled, standing on a side so you could see it better. The two of you were silent for a moment before she moved closer to you, her arms outstretched. You walked towards her and let her arms wrap around you. It felt good. It was what you needed right now. "How you feeling?" She asked as she pulled away.

"Well, I don't think I've really processed it yet. Like, I know he's... gone... but part of me thinks it's some kind of joke, like me and Charley are going to go home and he's going to be there trying to cook something without burning the house down. But, he's not," you explained, looking down. Feeling the tears pooling in your eyes, you realised that you really hadn't processed his death; these were the first tears that you had shed since you rushed into the headquarters with Charley passed out in your arms.

"Baby," Jess cooed as she brushed away the tears. The theatre doors swung open again, surgeons rolling your daughter out on the bed. Tears swelled in your eyes again as you looked at her, all battered and bruised. You could have done so much better.

◇─◇──◇──────────◇──◇─◇

You were sprawled out on the sofa in the hospital room they had put you in, with Charley sat at a small table playing on an iPad that Spider-Byte had given her. Peter.B had swung by with Mayday to check up on the pair of you, and somehow the one-year-old found some markers, leaving Charley with a 'dog' that looked more like a cow and an out-of-order rainbow on the cast on her arm.

The door swung open and you sat up, propping yourself up on your elbows. It was Miguel. His eyes wandered over to Charley as he came over to you, a scowl forming on his face as he looked at her numerous bandages and plasters. She looked up at him before waving quickly with her good arm. He nodded at her in response, and you couldn't tell if he was holding back a smile or if that was just how he looked, but you knew better than to ask.

"Well, I've put some Spiders on rotation to look after your universe until you're ready to go back. Don't feel rushed to go back, just go once you're both ready." The two of you remained in silence for a few seconds, the only sound coming from the iPad. "What?"

"No 'How are you doing?' or 'I'm sorry for your loss,' or maybe even a reassuring 'It's going to be okay,'? None of that? Thanks," you spat, maybe a little more harsh than you meant. Miguel stood there for a moment with his hands on his hips.

"Well how are you feeling? Tired, depressed, disoriented? Feeling like you want to give up but you know you can't for her sake?" He hissed, leaning towards you. "There was nothing you could have done about it, it was meant to-" He cut himself off, standing back, his eyes wide.

"What do you mean 'it was meant to happen'?" You demanded, standing from the sofa. "Are you seriously telling me that this was my cannon event? Couldn't you have given me a warning? At least to prepare myself!" Tears pricked in the corners of your eyes, but this time they weren't out of grief. They were burning hot, made from the anger that was boiling up inside of you, and they stung on your cheeks as they fell. You knew the importance of letting cannon events play out; it was a message that had been engraved into the back of your mind since you first joined the Spider Society. But if you could have had some kind of warning of the agony and grief that you were going to go through, perhaps you would be able to handle it better. Maybe you wouldn't have had that stupid argument about buying a new house the night before, which had left the two of you going to bed angry at each other. Perhaps you would have gotten him the more expensive watch he wanted for his birthday, rather than settling for the cheaper one. Maybe you could have been better.

"Mummy?" Charley's small voice called from across the room. You looked over, wiping away a tear. She'd stood up from her seat and was looking over at you, her head tilted. Seeing you cry, she walked over, wrapping her arm around the middle of your thigh. You sat down and pulled her up onto your lap.

"Look, I wish I told you," Miguel started, sitting down on a small orange pouffe. "But no matter how many times you promised me that you wouldn't intervene, there was no way I would be sure that you wouldn't. I'm sorry that he's dead, I know it hurts, but there's nothing that can be done about it now."

"I know," you sighed. He was right, of course. There was no safe way to bring him back. "You just don't have to be so harsh about it." The room fell quiet once again until Charley spoke.

"I want churros," she said, looking up at you with her big baby eyes that perfectly resembled yours.

"Churros? You've never had churros before."

"I know that, that's why I want them," she stated, hopping down from your lap and walking to the door. You smiled softly and got up and followed. Stopping next to Miguel, you asked,

"Do they do churros in the cafeteria?"

"Yeah," he answered as he stood up.

"Come on thennnn," Charley shouted, waving her arm to beckon you over.

◇─◇──◇──────────◇──◇─◇

"Clearly you don't take after me with all this messy eating," you laughed, dipping a napkin into your cup of water. Your daughter had somehow managed to get more of the chocolate sauce around her mouth than actually in her mouth.

"It was good though," she said, food still in her mouth, before abruptly wiping her chocolate-covered fingers on her light yellow shorts.

"Charley!" you groaned, picking up another napkin. The chair behind you scraped along the floor, so you turned around. It was Miguel...again.

"We've set up a room for you and her," he said, nodding to your daughter, who was now holding her hands in the air to avoid getting anything else dirty. "You can, uh, stay as long as you like," he mumbled, turning his gaze to the floor.

"Thank you," you replied, before turning back around to attempt to clean the chocolate from her shorts.

◇─◇──◇─Bonus Scene─◇──◇─◇

"Yeah, sure," Miguel muttered under his breath so that you wouldn't hear him. He stood up and walked away from the cafeteria. Taking the elevator to his office, he let out a sigh that he didn't know he was holding in.

"You're blushing," Lyla suddenly pointed out from behind him, causing Miguel to jump, even though he'd never admit that.

"What do you- no I'm not."

"Mm, yes you are," she argued, a big grin stretching from ear to ear.

"Why would I have any reason to be blushing? It's just...hot."

"Actually it's only 15°, aaaand because you like her. Like come on dude, she's just lost her husband, she doesn't need you trying to fill the gap already," she said, looking at him over the top of her heart-shaped glasses.

"I do not," Miguel stated firmly before exiting the elevator. She stayed by his shoulder as he turned on the screens of his computer, giving the whole room a golden glow.

"It's obvious, like, she has everything you want," she stated, resting her head on her hand.

"And what would that be?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"A child....and a vagina," she replied, quickly whispering the last bit.

"LYLA!" Miguel shouted, waving his hand through her hologram. She laughed as he turned to his computers, the colour of his cheeks deepening.

[indigosabyss]

Canon Event Maintenance Pt. 2

The new, sword-carrying Gwen bowed theatrically, doing a little spin.

"Well~ what did you think?" She asked, "Good intro? I've never had to do my own verbal intro before!"

"It was... fine? I guess?" Margo awkwardly scratched at her neck.

Spider-Ham gave her a thumbs-up the size of his head.

"Fine!" She squealed, "That's high praise from Earth-22191's very own Spider Byte! Best. Day. Ever."

The Spider-Band looked between each other, looked at wildly grinning Gwenpool, and then huddled up together.

"Peter? A word, please?" Hobie asked as all the Spiders surrounded him.

"What? Isn't she great?" Peter B grinned.

"Where did you find a deranged version of me?" Their Gwen demanded, "I thought your Gwen Stacy died!"

"She did."

"What is this, a clone?"

"....Uh... not related to you at all?"

"Impossible. We both have the dyed hair and everything. She's copying me, it's obvious."

"Uh, Ghost Spider, let the record show that I had the pink-tipped hair first." The chipper voice interrupted their little huddle, "You only got pink hair during the Marvel Rising cartoon, which snowballed into..." She froze in her tracks.

"Are- are you okay, mate?" Hobie asked, after the silence had stretched on for too long.

Gwenpool was now jumping up and down, smile even bigger than should be possible. "If you're being influenced by the cartoons, this isn't a comic! This is a movie! Ya girl Gwenpool has gotten onto the big screen! Sorry, sorry, fanfic of a big screen. Got ahead of myself there."

"Can we please get to the Canon Event Speech, Gwen?" Peter asked, looking a little nervous, "Because I can see everyone losing faith quickly and that speech was the only thing that got me to put my faith in you."

"Right, right." Gwenpool agreed, stretching her hand out in front of them, "This is a tale of epic highs and lows. One girl's realization of the flimsy fabric holding together this fictional reality. And how meaningless it is to allow yourself to be beholden to such things like archetypes and canon events!"

"Oh boy." Peni whispered.

"This'll be good." Pavitr snorted, settling into listen.

"That's the attitude! You want a popcorn bag to go along with it?" Gwenpool shot fingerguns at him.

---------

(...lots of jokes. not much action. its true that Spider-Gwen didn't have pink hair until Marvel Rising, while Gwenpool has had it before. Poor Gwen S. is so done with all the Gwen clones, she can't comprehend a Gwen who isn't her. Girlie's lost in the plot.)

[pan-magi]

I'm doing end of the year cleanup on my computer as one does. At least, I do, lmao.

I thought to myself. Damn, I have a lot of Magi shit on my computer.

To understand why I have so much I need to explain that I tend to keep the screenshots I take for gifs, for some reason. They're PNG files so they're massive. I want the best quality so when they're compressed down to gif all the quality isn't shot to hell. After I edit them I load them up and make them a gif in one program or another. It used to be Photoshop but fuck Adobe's subscription model. Now, I use a few different programs.

With me? How about I tell you that me not bothering to delete original screenshots I have a grand total of 30+ GB of Magi content saved on my computer. For another reference, personal photos I've uploaded to computers for over a decade (compared for Magi I've only been making stuff on and off since 2017) is only about 10GB. I don't take many photos in real life but still. Over 3x the amount, lmao.

(Image: a screencap of some file data. The location is marked out. The size is 31.9 GB or 34,296,431,659 bytes. A total of 12,133 files and 148 folders.)

That and considering the series itself (minus Sinbad no Bouken since I still can't get ahold of it), at about 78GB, I have over a hundred gigs on my computer dedicated to Magi. I had no idea it got so out of control.

Anyway, so I should just delete old screenshots because the saved gifs themselves are only about 1/3-1/2 GB. My computer is getting overstuffed and I should admit I have a problem.

While cleaning, I thought about my first Magi gif I did.

My style has chamged. My humor hasn't really lol.

(I'm so sorry about the stretchy. I didn't size stand-alone images right. Shit if you make images exactly 300 in width like I do. Don't remember when the change came in but I hate it XD.)

[maswartz]

Power Rangers Cyber Warriors

(Logo by Elactrolight)

A group of scientists has made an amazing discovery! The existence of an entire parallel plane! This Cyber Plane is made of data and code and reaches all around the planet and even beyond! Following this discovery the scientists create a way to turn matter into data and data into matter in order to traverse to the Cyber Plane. They use this to create avatar forms for themselves in which to better traverse the Cyber Plane. However after they enter they are betrayed by one of their own named Jeffrey who traps them within. Fortunately the scientists had already created five Cyber Cycles to help explore the Cyber Plane. Using the cycles they head out to gather supplies in order to repair their machine and return home. Along the way they are attacked by sentient viruses known as Virons and are forced to utilize their avatar forms to defend themselves. Soon the portal is repaired allowing the scientists to return home. However in their absence Jeffrey raided their lab and stole most of the data. Now calling himself the Web Warlord, Jeffrey uses what he has learned about the Cyber Plane to unleash Data Demons to make the world cower before him. The scientists must now use their technology and knowledge to fight back on the Cyber Plane and in the Material World as the Power Rangers Cyber Warriors!

Power Rangers Cyber Warriors! ONLINE!

The Warrior with the Slashing Blade! Red Cyber Ranger! Tyler Rose- The lead scientist of the project, it was his research that resulted in the discovery of the Cyber Plane and how to transfer between the planes. He finds himself enjoying fighting more than he expected. When morphed he can channel energy into his blade. Eventually the dreaded Terror Bytes are unleashed who hide a devastating secret, they cannot be destroyed, any attempt simply causes them to reform. However there is said to be a weapon hidden in the Cyber Plane capable of destroying them. Tyler heads to find it alone so as to not attract attention. On his way he encounters a small Cyberbird who joins him. Eventually the pair encounter a Terror Byte. As the battle rages on Tyler tells the Cyberbird to flee and save themselves. This convinces the bird as it glows bright gold and grows in size. The Cyberbird reveals that they are the weapon he seeks and that he just proved himself worthy of its gift. By attaching to his blaster the Cyberbird grants Tyler a golden set of armor and the power to destroy the Terror Bytes. Face Claim: Dallas Liu

The Warrior with the Savage Might! Blue Cyber Ranger! Aaron Connors- Friendly and fun loving. However if you hurt his friends you’ll taste his wrath. When morphed he gains incredible strength. Face Claim: Ben Schwartz

The Warrior with the Striking Spikes! Yellow Cyber Ranger! Brianna Collins- The stabilizing mind in the team. She tends to pull Tyler back when his ideas get beyond his means. When morphed she wields a spiked club. Face Claim: Blu Hunt

The Warrior with the Sonic Howl! Black Cyber Ranger! Bryan Jameson- Arrogant and egotistical. He does care about the others but will never admit it freely. When morphed he can unleash a sonic blast. Face Claim: Bobby Moynihan

The Warrior with the Soaring Wings! Pink Cyber Ranger! Raja Sinclair- Curious and dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. He’s always learning and exploring new subjects. When morphed he gains wings. Face Claim: Danny Pudi

The Warrior with the Burning Spear! Gold Cyber Ranger! The Warrior with the Shocking Ax! Silver Cyber Ranger! Colin Thomas- A scientist who worked on the project until he discovered Jeffrey’s plans at which point Jeffrey sent him to the Cyber Plane with a prototype of the portal. Trapped for months he managed to create two Avatar Forms for himself, Gold and Silver. He finds that while using Silver his temper is unleashed and he can barely control himself. Eventually he manages to escape back to the material plane and joins the other Rangers for a shot at revenge against the Web Warlord. Face Claim: Logan Lerman

The Warrior with the Tearing Jaws! Purple Cyber Ranger! Jessica Bethany (JB) Steele- Daughter of Ryan Steele of the VR Troopers, she is studying at an university in London when she finds out about the Cyber Rangers and their discovery of the Cyber Plane. Believing them to be exploiting and stealing credit for her grandfather’s creation she uses her father’s tech to create an Avatar Form and access the Cyber Plane. She attacks the rangers to try and get them to confess to stealing her grandfather’s work but she does help fight monsters believing that the public shouldn’t suffer because of her grudge. Eventually she learns that Tyler Steele didn’t create the Virtual World but merely discovered it meaning the Rangers are innocent of stealing his work. Humbled she joins them in defending both planes. Face Claim: Jacqueline Scislowski Cyber Cycles: Each Ranger has their own personal Cyber Cycle for use in both planes. Cyber Glasses: Due to its composition the Cyber Plane isn’t fully visible to human eyes so the Rangers create the Cyber Glasses allowing them to see the Cyber Plane fully. In the Material Plane they can be used to detect breaches and track Data Demons. Installing Cyberzords The Rangers create Cyberzords based on their Avatar forms with which to battle the Data Demons when they grow gigantic. Cyberzords Online! Red Samurai Cyberzord- A mighty warrior Blue Monkey Cyberzord- A savage fighter Yellow Oni Cyberzord- A cunning demon Black Dog Cyberzord- A swift beast Pink Pheasant Cyberzord- A soaring flyer The five combine to form the Cyber Warrior Megazord Red- Torso and head Blue- Arms and shoulder Yellow- Leg Black- Leg Pink- Shoulder armor, shoulder and swords Unusually for Rangers the Cyber Rangers can form the megazord at human height. Colin’s created his own Megazord, the Cyber Strike Megazord Gold Dragon forms the armor and weapons Silver Tiger forms the inner body The Cyber Strike Megazord can also form at human height. The seven Cyberzords can combine to form the Super Cyber Megazord. Red- Torso and head Blue- Left arm armor Yellow- Leg Black- Leg Pink- Shoulder wings Gold- Left arm, chest armor, feet and weapons Silver- Right arm

The Cyberbird can combine with the Cyber Warrior Megazord to form the Cyberbird Warrior Megazord Cyberbird- Armor spear and shield The Shark Cyberzord can form a solo megazord armed with a blade. All eight Cyberzords and the Cyberbird can combine to form the Cyber Ultrazord. Red- Torso and head Blue- Left arm Yellow- Leg Black- Leg Pink- Shoulder wings Gold- Right hand Silver- Right arm Purple- Left arm blade Cyberbird- Armor and spear Web Warlord: Jeffrey, now calling himself the Web Warlord has set up a base of operations on the Cyber Plane to avoid authorities. He strikes by sending a Malware Mask into any device connected to the internet. Once the mask manifests in the Material Plane it will attach itself to the first person it comes into contact with turning them into a Data Demon*. This monster can command the Virons.

The Guardian Programs are a trio of powerful programs dedicated to defending the boundary between planes. As a result they’ll attack those who breach the boundary multiple times pitting them against both the Rangers and the Data Demons. In the end they join forces with the Rangers after they save them from an attack from the Web Warlord. Guardian Program Alpha- The leader of the trio, he becomes Tyler’s main rival as he deems him responsible for the breech due to his research. He’ll eliminate any threat to the Cyber Plane with his blade. Eventually upgraded into a red form. Voice Claim: Michael Benyaer Guardian Program Beta- Cool and calculating she strikes with piercing arrows. She admits she has no hatred to her targets but the Cyber Plane must be defended. Eventually upgraded into a purple form. Voice Claim: Kathleen Barr Guardian Program Gamma- The strongest physically of the trio he is smarter than he seems and often catches his enemies off guard when they underestimate him. Those who make that mistake end up pierced by his spear.  Eventually upgraded into a silver form. Voice Claim: Paul Dobson Zenith Warriors: A Cogger on Earth discovers a Malware Mask and is possessed by it. The resulting monster uses the Grid energy within the Cogger to attempt to merge the material and Cyber planes destroying both in the process. The Zenith Rangers join forces with the Cyber Rangers to fight this threat. Morphers: Cyber Badges- Hand held or worn on their clothing. These devices allow those wearing them to detect when the barrier between planes has been breached. Cyber Shield- A wrist worn shield used by Colin to morph. The Cyber Shield allows Colin to switch between his Avatar Forms. Cyber Tag- A smaller badge worn as a necklace by Jessica. She styled it after her father’s Virtualizer and activates it in a similar way. Morphing Call: Install the Warrior Code! Morphing: A field of ranger colored code covers the ranger forming the body suit as their bodies shift to match their Avatar Form. The Cyber Glasses form the visor of their helmet finishing the morph. Location: London, England (Faces by Joekeybladeaura) *Data Demons use the monsters design from Zenkaiger with the bodysuit from Donbrothers Power Rangers Zenith Force Powerverse Power Rangers Armored Swarm

[cheats-for-desmume-wr]

cheats for desmume 100% working 2OCG%

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 To get started with inputting codes, on the Desmume toolbar select "Emulation" as shown in the screen shot above then select "Cheats" and "List". Doing this. In that case, you need to switch to another Nintendo DS emulator, and it is recommended to use DeSmuME as a good alternative. The listed action replay codes. Pokemon Platinum Action Replay codes are cheats that are supported on selective Nintendo DS emulators. For Windows PC, DeSmuMe is a Nintendo DS. 3, 11/01/, Jagged Alliance (U), DeSmuME SVN r, ArtMoney Team ; 4, 10/11/, Sponge Bob Squarepants: Creature From the Krusty Krab (E), DeSmuMe. 9 This manual explains the 'raw' or 'internal' cheat system in desmume. The 'raw' or 'internal' cheats include cheat-finding facilities where you may manually search for and alter the memory positions which work to your advantage. This article will provide a rundown of the cheat searching menu and functions, followed by a pair of examples. Please note that, in post The cheat system described here is referred to as 'raw' or 'internal' cheats. The cheat searching menu can be found in the toolbar under : Emulation Cheats Search. The initial cheat window has the following options:. Select the memory addresses' size for the value you are searching for. Choose the smallest range applicable to the value you're trying to change. If you're trying to change an energy value which maxes out at , choose 1 byte which has a range of 0 to If you're trying to change HP and it maxes out in the game at , choose 2 bytes which has a range of 0 to , etc. It usually is inadvisable to use larger memory sizes than required, as it may have undesirable effects on your game. Select whether the memory address should be signed or unsigned. A signed memory refers to a memory that can include both positive or negative numbers. So if the value you're searching for can be less than zero, it is likely to be a signed memory type. Do note that when choosing a memory as signed, the range is halved in both directions. This option does not work in 0. Select the type of search you would like to perform. In some cases, the exact value you're searching for is unknown - such as hidden, or non-numerical values. Exact searches allow you to enter a known value say, for energy , and then continue with known values. A comparative search allows you to search for an unknown value by comparison - You run an initial search, and in following searches you narrow the possible values down by choosing whether the value increased, decreased, changed in any direction, or remained the same. The following provide theoretical examples for using the cheat searching system in both exact and comparative search modes. Let's assume you are playing a game in which your character currently has health points. What we'll try to do is freeze his health at that value. First thing you'll need to do is figure out the size of the memory address you're attempting to modify. Your character in the game has health points, and that is the highest value it can reach throughout the game. You'll choose "1 byte", unsigned, exact search. Click "search", and enter the health points value in the next window. In this case, it's Click "search again". Close the cheat searching window and keep playing until you get hurt. The character's health points are now no longer at Let's assume they are now at Go back into the search menu, and this time run a search for What actually happened is that in the above search the emulator found all of the addresses that at the time of the search were equal to and saved them. This second search is called a filter search - it goes through the previous found addresses and finds the ones that changed to This essentially weeds out addresses that matched the initial search by coincidence in order to find the desired address. After the second search, the number of results shown should be considerably lower. At this time there are three options: either there is only one result left, there are more than one, or there are none. If there are more than you you'll need to continue getting hurt in the game in order for the health point value to change, and running more filter searches until there is one result left. If it's 1 we're ready to set the value to what we want. If there are no results remaining, either the initial search parameters size, sign were wrong, or one of the searches was run with a wrong value. If there's one result left, continue to the next step. Click "view", and a window with the address and the value will appear. Click the line that holds the current health points value, and click "Add". Change the value in the new window to , add a description if you want, and choose whether you want the value to be frozen or not. If it's frozen, the value will remain at If not, it will simply be set once to the value you chose, but will not be frozen and will be free to change later. Click "Add", and the value should now be frozen at Let's assume you're playing a game in which after your character is hit, he flashes for three seconds during which he is invulnerable like in megaman games. What happens behind the scenes of the game is that when you get hit, some address is set to some value usually 1, but not always that tells the game that right now, your character is invulnerable. What we want to do is make that value always be in the "invulnerable" state. Choosing a memory size for unknown values is trickier because they're, well, unknown. Both of those are 1 byte memory addresses, so you'll first attempt the comparative search with a 1 byte size and if it fails - you'll try with increasing sizes. Don't be alarmed by seeing that there are 0 results. What actually happened is that the emulator just saved all of the addresses of our specified memory size. At this time you'll return to the game and wait for the invulnerability to wear off. When it does, go back to the search menu where you'll be presented with a couple of options. As you don't know how the game saves the invulnerability state, you can't actually know if the value is now higher or lower, so the first two options are irrelevant for this search. What you do know is that the value has changed. Choose "new value is! Click search, and go back to the game. This will usually have very little effect on the amount of values remaining, though. Go to the search menu, hit "view" , click the remaining value, click add, and do not change the value the current value is the state for invulnerability , make sure "frozen" is checked, and click add. Your character is now invulnerable for as long as the cheat is on. Note that FX and LX have the same address, so you have to choose between those two and find out the value which modifies it. Note : in the 1st level "Birds Shooted 2" is needed if you want to continue without shooting to much. Jump to: navigation , search. Views Page Discussion View source History. Personal tools Log in. Contents 1 Foreword 2 The Cheat Menu 2. Zombies U 5. Sasuke U 5. DCT Format 5.

[i-jakeb]

Best apps to kill time on 😻

I've been seeing some posts circulating about popular websites/apps and wanted to make my own version.

These are apps I’m way too addicted to. Am I missing any?

Edit: Sorry for all the time I’ve taken away from your life

Commaful - popular fanfiction, story, and poetry community 👑

Photo Filters - makes my Insta feed look perfect

Spellbinding - super addictive bite-sized stories

Sweatcoin - get paid to walk

Terrarium 🌱 - build the ultimate garden empire

Idle Human - build a human from scratch. for reals.

Palm Reader - get your palm read!

Meditation and Sleep - helps me find happiness and calm!

Choices - get crazy in this role play choose your adventure game!

Fitnesss Coach - your indoor fitness coach, get fit!

Cat Game - cutest cat game ever 😻

Byte - watch the funniest videos on the internet

Weed Factory - grow your weed empire 👿

Idle Construction - build a city!

Tabou: juicy HS stories

Sushi Bar - run your own sushi restaurant and win big

Zooba - zoo battle royale!!!!

BIGO Live - the best live streaming app!

BitLife - a life simulator

Calm - how i deal with my mental health

My Story: go to back to HS in this choose your own adventure

Well - an awesome hypnotherapy app that makes you feel better

Idle Workout -get fit in this virtual workout game!

Draw it - how fast can you draw? So addicting!

Tennis Clash - the best multiplayer game on the app store

Hily - a privacy + safety conscious dating app!

Repair Master 3D - open up some electronics and fix em up!

Perfect Paint - how fast can you paint?

AMAZE - taking mazes to the next level!

Video Editor - an easy video editing app for your phone!

Bake It - bake some masterpiees for your customers!

Yubo - come make friends!

Cold Cases - solve some cold cases!

Go Fish - win trophies by catching hella fish

Golf Orbit - ever play golf on mars?

Basket Throw - just throw the ball into the basket. Easy right?

Gun Gang - build your gang and shoot your way through

Avakin Life - your 3D virtual world

Knock'em All - shoot balls, destroy everything!

Adventure Escape Mysteries - investigate clues and solve the crime!

Drop and Smash - smash it all!!

Bunch - really fun way to play games with friends

Crazy Shopping - spend as much as you can, as fast as you can!

Army Clash - build the biggest army and destroy them all!

Shoot out! - kill the bad guys, save the good guys 🔫

Dental Bling - pull out the rotting teeth

Fam - video parties!

Aquapark - race you down the water slide! (and push you off it!)

Jetpack Jump - fly this addicting jetpack!

Scribble Rider - Draw your wheels in this crazy adventure

2048 Balls - how far can you go in this one?

Ball Blast - upgrade those cannons and shoot some balls!

Smash Cars - race and smash some cars!

Taimi - finally a good lgbtq+ dating app

Wired For Youth - get knowledge and learn from interviews and books

Ultrahuman - a very calming meditation app for sleeping

Flex - work out with friends!!

FitnessAI - your personal home workout trainer

Unfold - make your Insta stories awesome

Flip Jump Stack - flip and stack all the way to the cheer tour!

Run Sausage Run! - Avoid the knives and save the sausage

Bee Factory - build and raise your bee empire!!!!

Draw Joust - draw your own cart and crush the other player!

Sniper - are you a good shot? prove it!!

Rolly Legs - race your robot to victory

Let's Be Cops - you're the only good cop in the city. Can you keep the peace?

Good Slice - slice that food!

Go Fish - win trophies by catching hella fish

AmpMe - amp up your phone speakers!

Betternet - a safe, fast VPN to get around bans!

Demolish! - demolish everything!

ASMR Slicing - the most satisfying slicing game

Paint The Cube - paint through a 3D cube maze

Car Restoration - let's restore some cars!

Curvy Punch 3D - swipe to punch!

Line Color - paint the road!

Flip Tumbling - just keep flipping! Parkour!

Baseball Fury - hit that home run!

Summer Buster - play these summer mini games!

Sharpshooter Blitz - your mission, storm the enemy base

Shred - your personal home workout planner

Spiral Roll - dig wood, make spirals, destroy enemies

Tower Run - grow your tower of humans

Foot Clinic - run a foot clinic to fix all types of feet!

Farmer Hero - run your own ranch! step into the farm land!

Jumpero - can you get through this obstacle course?

Sleepzy - Your sleep cycle tracker

Crash Landing - anyone can fly, but landing takes skill

Farmers.io - harvest as much as you can!

Ball Slider - slide that ball!

Blast City - Be the hero the city needs

Fast Driver - It's a race! Can you win?

Magic Woods - chop those trees!

Five Hoops - shoot hoops with millions!

Super Sniper - be the best sniper you can

Sleep - awesome bedtime stories!

Off The Rails - control the train!

Tie Die - make some awesome shirts, bikinis, and more

Woodturning - create your wood masterpiece!

Crowdmaster - blast those enemies away!

Ramp Car Jumping - do some crazy jumps with some crazy cars!

Stunt Truck Jumping - do some crazy stunts in trucks!

Doodle Run - it's a race!

Overtake - a racing game, can you overtake your foes?!

Acrylic Nails - run a virtual nail salon!

Spark - ran easy mobile camera and video editor

Braindom - figure out who's lying, cheating, and married!

Ramp Car Jumping - drive off a ski jump...in a car

Super Salon - run your own salon!

Bullet Rush - shoot everybody!

Itsme - hang out with your BFFs!!

Idle Slice and Dice - the most satisfying game for cutting all kinds of stuff!

9 Months - a pregnancy simulation!

NERF Epic Pranks - epic nerf battle!

Flipper Dunk - pinball meets basketball!

Ibotta - save money on everything you buy!

Wish - the funnest way to shop!

Wishbone - fun game for comparing stuff like hair, celebs, sports

Sticker Stack - epic stickers for you to send!

Celebs - the app that shows you what celeb you look like

Palm Reader - get your palm read!

Yarn - stories that are seriously creepy af

RemNote - the best freenotetaking site for students and professionals

WeBull - get 2 free stocks valued up to $1k!

Sweatcoin - get paid to walk

Idle Human - build a human from scratch. for reals.

Terrarium - build the ultimate garden empire

Spellbinding - super addictive bite-sized stories

You’re welcome 😉

[silkenblankets]

cw: abuse, torture, some body horror, mention of drugs in use

It was quiet, he could only really hear his own breathing. All other sound was hiding behind the door, his body curled up in the back of the small space. He'd covered himself with old jackets and too-small shirts that were abandoned on the ground along with him.

Tucked against his chest was his mangled hand, knuckles spiked at painful angles from healing incorrectly. The bones poked through at some spots, around his thumb and wrist, where the fresh cuts ran deeper and his bones were more crooked.

Watching the door, he bit back his immediate urge to grab the handle and leave. He knew it was locked, trying would only disappoint the man. So he sunk back into the pile of clothing, finding precious comfort in the weight and warmth, but unable to fully rest as the scent of the devil was far too strong even with a musk of time and dirt. Burying his face in his arms and chest, he began to rock himself back and forth.

He wanted to go home, but he didn't even remember where that was. Gaps in his memory were like strings that held him in the damned house despite everything. Step outside, and he would remind him "Everyone's looking for you, they want to put you in a cage for what you did... Remember?" And that one glance of pity for the man, he'd go back inside all over again. For the life of him, he could not remember what he did. He barely remembered his own name, all he knew was this wasn't his house. The other man was not his friend... He didn't know who he was, he didn't even know the other's face.

Footsteps, immediately he lifted his head and pushed the clothing from on top of him. Moving to stand, the door was opened.

He stood a few inches taller, his brunette hair was shoulder length and pulled up into a ponytail, blue eyes looking at the other as he tried to find his footing. His greyed lips curled in an amused smile, reaching out a firm hand to push on the other. "Careful, Ivan... don't want to hurt yourself standing too fast..." He murmured, lifting his hand.

Ivan hesitated, remaining crouched with a small glint of shame in his eyes. Right; under the piles of clothing, he had a makeshift splint on his right leg and a screw in his left foot. They hadn't been able to pry the metal out yet... Not without access to a numbing cream. He couldn't remember where it had come from, but every bite of pain from it gave him chills. Grabbing onto the offered hand, Ivan finally stood upright.

He had a name, it was Jacob. Every time Ivan heard it out loud, it made his chest tighten and heart race. Jacob would laugh it off, he said that was just how you react 'when your crush is in the same room'. He wasn't entirely sure if he did have a crush on the other, maybe they were dating before... Whatever took Ivan's memories.

Those firm hands held onto Ivan, leading him to rest on the floor beside the couch. But he was injured and tired, and despite his instincts screaming for him to sit still, he turned to climb onto the soft furniture.

He got a harsh smack to the cheek, dropping back to the ground. "Can't get blood on this fabric, remember? You'll be fine right there." Jacob reminded sharply, looking at the other with a clear disappointment. Ivan murmured a soft apology, watching Jacob's feet as they turned and walked into the kitchen, reminding him of his hunger. A glass of water and some eggs, maybe bacon if he felt like asking. Fumbling with the arm and side of the couch, he stood on his shaking legs and half-dragged half-hopped to the doorway of the small, dull red kitchen.

As he grabbed the edge of a counter for support, a sudden and heavy weight crushed the screw deeper into his foot. The leg gave out, clinging to the white countertop as tears flooded his vision. In his agony, he could barely make out what the harsh voice was saying.

"Ivan! Why'd you move? I was worried you'd do it again- not to mention the blood. And for what?" Jacob's deceptively sweet-toned voice growled at the ragged blonde. Ivan was too embarrassed to ask for the food, mumbling an apology, slinking back to his spot by the couch, curling up and shivering with loud breaths. Jacob always mentioned 'it', yet another thing Ivan couldn't remember the danger of. Was he dangerous? Everything- everyone seemed mad at him or scared he'd repeat... something he did. How bad was it? Maybe it was better not to know.

In the kitchen, he could hear muffled curses as Jacob pulled a cleaning rag along the length of the blotchy red trail. He paused by Ivan with a loud sigh. "Ivan, dear, would you like something to eat?"

Yes, yes he would. But he was hesitant to say much else, so he nodded with a bit of enthusiasm. Jacob stood and left, returning with two slices of wheat bread with a water bottle filled halfway. Ivan didn't say a word, accepting his meal as exactly what he deserved. He must've been a horrible man; someone screwing into his foot, breaking his leg, smashing his hands again and again before making him use them despite any pain.

Looking up at Jacob, he began to rub his palm. He didn't know how he got a lot of the wounds on him, but he knew that Jacob gave him the cuts along his thumbs and wrists. Before he could leave for work, Ivan had tried to go out. He'd been convinced that he was a kidnapped individual being drugged and held hostage for Jacob's entertainment, came to him after skipping a few of these bland water and bread meals. Jacob was upset, saying 'you only learn if it's shoved down your throat, huh' and insisting he was 'starved into delusions'. Ivan trusted Jacob, he knew more about him than he knew about himself. Like how he learned.

He wouldn't try to do that again, no matter how delusional he became.

As he silently ate, he felt those blue eyes staring at him. Burning through his skull and invading his foggy thoughts, slowly he turned to meet those eyes with his own speckled brown ones. Jacob reached out and stroked his jaw, his smile was more than content as he took in the man before him. It felt wrong, making his muscles tense before his mind caught up and he quickly calmed down. Adjusting so he sat sideways against the couch, he took a long sip of the water he was given, a single ice cube rattled around inside. His palms were pressed against the sides, unable to properly grip the bottle and even still feeling protrusions of bone stabbing into scars and cause a steady, searing pain.

The water was finished in two minutes, he didn't feel all that much better than before, but the cool liquid distracted him from the throbbing pain in his foot and hands. A firm hand stroked his head, and he slowly looked up at Jacob's strange expression. Some mix of amusement and mischief, or perhaps something else entirely. Ivan wasn't the greatest at reading people; he'd question Jacob's tone and he'd get a sharp correction in return. Jacob was never anything but caring and curious, he just had his own way of showing it... Or, well, something like that.

Slowly, Ivan closed his eyes and leaned back against Jacob's legs. He wanted to sleep, desperately so. Unfortunately, it seemed the man's presence alone was somehow giving him insomnia. It was bizarre, maybe there was some forgotten loathing he had for Jacob.

"... Jacob..." He felt the legs behind him shift.

"I said it was fine to call me Jake, Ivan."

Right... "Jake, what... happened?"

Jacob stood, brushing himself off and stepping over Ivan. One of his hands grabbed the sharp, jagged palm of the other. Pulling him from the ground, he ignored the sudden cry of pain once Ivan returned to his feet, pulling him along to a room with low lighting showing off all the torn up and worn down furniture inhabiting it. Ivan slowly looked up at Jacob, head tilted to the side.

He was taken further into the room, his hand pressed flat against a scratched up table. Jacob gave a sudden and sharp press onto the hand, causing Ivan to bite his tongue to keep from yelling. This seemed to please Jacob, running his fingers between the crooked knuckles of the hand. "Used to be a pretty nice spot for you and me... you were so excited to just..." His free hand was raised, the other pulled off of the mangled hand. Something gleamed, at the end of a handle. Suddenly he smashed a hammer into the hand, already rusted from the old blood that had stuck to it.

"... DESTROY it."

Ivan choked out a sob of pain, desperately sucking in breaths to fuel his pained whimpers. His hand recoiled, feeling bones twist and grind against one another, slipping further out of place and cutting through the side of his cuts. His knees gave out, his body crumpled to the ground but his hand remained pinned to the table, being subjected to another hit. It was overwhelming, his body shaking as he kept biting his tongue. Anything to keep from screaming, Jacob hated screaming.

The weapon was finally put down, Ivan's hand felt both numb and burning with pain as he tried catching his breath. Jacob then began to adjust the bones, quite focused as he turned some sideways, forced others up against one another to excess. Ivan couldn't help but scream this time; another harsh stomp on the nail. What did he do to deserve this? How absolutely unforgivable had he been? Did he even deserve the mercy of not knowing every excruciating detail?

His body couldn't take any more of it, his scream had made him lightheaded and he passed out.

When he woke, the first thing to run through his head was just how incredibly painful the position he was in felt. He lay half propped up with something cutting into his back, slowly adjusting to the confined space. A tight gag cut into his face, feeling the dried blood on his chin. The pain almost made him lucid, slowly lifting himself off the spike. every pull with reveal a new bone that Jacob had twisted, now finally forced back into a crude placement that would be 'good enough'. His eyes were wet from it all, and all he had to do to get out of the little cage was reach out, and pinch the little bars on either side of the lock. It would take some wiggling, but it would come off.

First he brushed up against the latch with a limp finger, slowly grasping at the slick nubs he was supposed to pinch. As he began to squeeze the lock, his trembling hands would relocate his wrist's angles, and his knuckles, causing his fingers to slip off. As he gazed outside, he saw Jacob watching with a little smile on his face, holding out two, bright pink pills. "These will make it all better... just open the door..." Once more, his ashen lips would be upturned in that expression that sent shivers down Ivan's spine.

Carefully positioning his tilted fingers, he tried again to squeeze the bars. Something sharply cracked, a tear escaped his eye due to the stabbing sensation, drawing his hand back quickly. Jason just kept smiling, watching intently as the man turned his attention to the gag. It was locked onto his head, there was nothing his broken hands could do. Slowly he curled up, inching closer to the latch. He tried again. And again.

And again.

Again.

Some bone stabbed through the skin, causing him to bleed just a bit more. Shoulders slumped, his head dropped and he watched the ground. He was helpless, even when the relief was so close. Jacob finally got up, his smile faltered as he opened the cage for the helpless Ivan. Roughly grabbing him, he pulled out the shaking body and ran his fingers across the freshly made gash from the old spike. Off to the left of Ivan's lower back, it was making a steady flow of red fall around the man's hips.

Something clicked, Ivan tried to take a look but his head was held down as a knife sunk into the skin around the wound, carving up and around in a pointed arch. Then Jacob began to pry, heaving a muffled scream cut off by the realization that screaming meant more blood in his mouth. Those broken, shifting hands clawed at the floor as the cut-out of skin was peeled from the tissue beneath, Ivan's body writhing and twisting as if trying to scream without a voice.

"You could've gotten out by yourself... such a weak little thing..." He spoke with a purr in his throat, leaving Ivan for a a few minutes.

As he lay there, taking short, jagged breaths, he tried to stand up but only managed to cause more of that burning pain. Jason was back by the time Ivan returned to being limp on the cold wooden floor. A bandage was wrapped around the missing chunk of flesh in his back, something was biting at his tissue and causing his whole body to twitch and thrash from the burning. Salt. Jason had poured salt into the wound before locking it in with the bandage. Haphazardly removing the gag, he offered the pink pills to Ivan.

But Ivan didn't deserve them, turning his head away; much to Jason's chagrin. "Don't you want the pain to go away?"

Ivan mumbled incoherently, spitting out droplets of blood that seeped into the corners of his mouth.

"What did you say?"

"... Don't deserve it..." Ivan whispered, barely speaking loud enough to form the words.

His head was pulled back, the strong hands easily overpowering the shaking body and forcing the pills to the back of his throat. Gagging, his head was allowed to fall forward only when Jason watched the man swallow. Dropping him entirely, he stood. "Ungrateful brat. I should let them lock you up. They'd do far worse than I can." He spat before leaving Ivan alone to shiver in pain and fear, never responding to the brunette. Only when he could no longer hear the footsteps did he spit out the bright pills, eyes wide and unfocused. He felt awful, like everything was spinning, he had chills, the fog in his mind was clearing, he didn't know if he was ready for whatever might be hiding within.

Falling to his side, he shuddered and tried to sit still. He couldn't tell how much time passed wince Jacob left, rolling onto his back...

It felt like ages.

It was ages.

The room was ruined before he ever came here.

Seven hours...

He hated pain. Who learned only by pain?

Eleven...

Jacob broke it. Jacob broke and tore everything. Jacob screwed into his foot so he would 'never run off again'. Who was Jacob?

Fourteen...

... It was him. It was him. Every day it was him. The pain. The monster. What did Ivan do?

Twenty...

He did nothing. He had no one, but no one hated him. Liar.

Still no sleep, had it been a week already?

Jacob stole him. Placed him in a tight trunk. No sedation. Only after his hands and legs were broken.

Someone was approaching.

Ivan lifted his head, seeing the silhouette of him. Jacob. He had water and bread, tossing them at Ivan with a frustrated huff before turning to leave.

"I don't want you doing it again. Listen to me."

He felt a brief rush of anger, but quietly ate his bread as the man left, washing it down with a bit of warm water. It was revolting; he wanted out. Where even was this place? Grasping the wall with palms covered with daggers as they pressed into his skin, he shuffled, he limped, he stumbled, he bit his tongue, and he practically crawled to the boarded side door. He couldn't pry it off, the old dog door was screwed shut. That meant he'd have to climb up the stairs to get to the front door, beginning his pained crawl-shuffle. Claw. Climb. Claw. Climb. Bite tongue. Spit out the blood. Continue.

He had to catch his breath at the top, grasping the door frame as beginning to stand once more. Jason was in the kitchen, he heard something sizzle in a pan as it was put in. Slow shuffle, try not to put too much weight... on either side. Careful, don't drag too much, the screw was almost entirely speared through the limb. He was hunched over, not too much, just trying to hold in every yelp and cry that he instinctively attempted to make. It was so much, everything was just too much all at once. By the time he reached the door, he tried not to cry at the sight of a round handle.

Falling harshly against the frame, his shaking hands fumbled with the knob. The rattling caused a loud series of footsteps, Jacob harshly grabbed the man and yelled at him, slamming him into the wall again and again. Pain. He couldn't hear a thing Jacob said, focused on keeping conscious despite the barrage of bruising. The moment Jacob let go, he slid to a lump on the floor; Jacob left him alone to finish cooking his meal.

Ivan couldn't leave it be. Biting down on the knob, he twisted his head and fell back. The door was wide open; Ivan was scrambling to stand. Jacob hadn't noticed yet.

Falling into the screen door, he smacked the button until it opened, stumbling out onto the street. It seemed like a fine neighborhood, all things considered.

Hearing swift footsteps behind him, he stumbled and tripped over himself, resorting to a desperate crawl as he screamed for help. His voice was hoarse and faded with every other scream, he saw eyes in a window before those firm, unrelenting hands grabbed him, dragging him back into the home.

He couldn't find time to breathe, the heavy weight hitting against his chest was far from merciful. Ivan weakly squeaked as his hair was grabbed, his head being forced into a wall and losing consciousness.

It was tough to make out what was going on, there were more people, all talking to him, touching him, poured over in red and blue lights. All the pain seemed to have a thin later of fabric between the intensity that it was and how he felt it. Just a bit easier to manage. He managed to mumble out his name, tears sprung in his eyes as he choked up with all the confusion surrounding him. A bright box, he was in a bright box. It was screaming, moving swift.

The people all left Jason behind; he finally felt like he could breathe. A crushing weight was pushed aside, and he had hope for a future where he'd never have to experience anything like this again.

...

Felt nice.

-🤖

[giantpredatorymollusk]

Let's talk about the .webp format.

Webp for animations

We will hereby examine the various ways to turn the above clip from Princess Tutu, which I'm uploading as a 600 pixels tall 967,000 byte mp4, into a GIF-style looping animation. The easiest way is obviously to turn each frame into an image and make people page through them. Let's do that, and, to keep things simple, we'll use the Microsoft Paint BMP format, which uses no image compression:

Job done 😌 we now have 187 BMP files that i should be able to share with all of my friends over the internet. Except, wait,

Our clip has gone from 967,000 bytes to 387,773,298 bytes. This is 400 times bigger. If I start a social network where people can share clips and they do it by sending hundreds of BMPs back and forth, I will use up a lot of storage space and bandwidth, and the user experience will probably be somewhat slow. Maybe a less simplistic approach is in order.

I have also created a nice GIF version of the scene. It is not pictured, because it is 3 times Tumblr's maximum GIF size limit:

This saves a lot of hard drive space over the "hundreds of BMPs" approach, but it still yields a fairly large file. The GIF format was created in 1987 and last updated in 1989; it was intended to display simple clip art on computers that looked like this:

One way this makes itself evident is through the limited color palette that each GIF uses. If you don't want to use weird tricks that explode the file size, a GIF can only use 256 distinct colors per file. Here some of them are, plainly visible in a detail shot of my new GIF:

Artful blending of these colors can hide the limited palette a lot of the time, but it seems like a dumb sacrifice to have to make when using such a large file. Anyway: if we want a Tumblrable GIF, we need to put more work in. Let's try shrinking the GIF to 300 pixels tall, cutting the frame rate to 15 per second, and reducing the quality using the gifsicle utility's "lossy" option:

It's here 🥺

It's 6,010,622 bytes (6mb), so it's about 6 times bigger than the original mp4, and looks much worse.

"What was wrong with the original mp4, anyway?" Nothing, except that browsers and image viewers know to play GIFs automatically and loop them, and Tumblr lets you arrange them into a grid. If everyone were to listen to me, I could simply say, "if you rename a .mp4 file to end with .mp4loop instead, it needs to be autoplayed and looped, and can't have sound" and we could just use those instead. But no one listens to me.

Let's continue to try to find technical solutions to this dumb standardization problem. Weren't we supposed to talk about Webp files?

A 6mb Webp file can store the clip at its original resolution and framerate. Evidence

If we reduce the Webp to 300 pixels tall and 15 frames per second like we did with the GIF, it's now 1,902,920 bytes, which is roughly a third of the size that the GIF was. Evidence

So it's obvious that using Webp files allows for much higher quality and/or much smaller files, which is extremely desirable if you're running a website, or if you're a website user that wants things to load quickly. Everyone should want this thing. You may have noticed, though, that I had to link to those Webp files instead of uploading them directly. This is because Tumblr doesn't support uploading them (probably because they don't think you'll have any Webps you'll want to upload from your computer.) Neither do browsers support them particularly well: Despite the fact that the format has been out for 10 years and growing in prominence the whole time, only recent versions of Safari on Apple computers and phones can display Webp files; the browser watchdog website CanIUse estimates that they're available to about 93% of devices. If you're running a social media site, you probably don't want to block 7% of people from seeing animated content. Also, if I try to download them, I soon find out that the Photos app on my Windows 10 laptop has no idea what these files are.

So, websites are strongly incentivized to use the Webp format instead of the GIF format and users are not necessarily going to like it when they do, probably because developers of software like browsers and image viewers don't realize how inefficient GIFs are from website creators' point of view and how they should be replaced. Great job, guys. Are there any other places where Webp images could be used?

Webp for still images

Although Google claims that Webp files are 30% smaller than JPGs, they are actually usually not smaller than JPGs that are created with an advanced encoder like Mozilla's MozJPEG. However, Webps are 26% smaller on average than equivalent PNGs no matter what, which means that they're the naturally preferred format for images with transparency, which means you might as well just use them for everything instead of having both PNGs and JPGs (which are smaller than PNGs but don't support transparency at all), assuming people upgrade their browsers.

The Conclusion

Websites use Webp files so they don't have to distribute larger, lower-quality GIF files (and just plain larger PNGs) to you. One alternate way people have tried to replace the GIF format is: those things labeled "GIF" on Twitter are actually just normal mp4 video files that they try to force browsers to autoplay and loop. Attentive readers will note that this is very similar to the ".mp4loop" replacement for the GIF format that I proposed. However, Twitter's solution only works on Twitter, because if you download one of these "GIFs" you'll get a non-looping video that looks like it should have sound and doesn't, which makes them harder and more confusing to play and share around. But people continue to not listen to me. If you're annoyed at Webp files now, wait until you start seeing the new AVIF, APNG, animated SVG, and HEIF formats. The fact that the term GIF at this point refers not just to a type of binary file but, effectively, to a genre of highly shareable media is fascinating to me; the goal people should have is to create a file type that removes the GIF format's technical limitations while preserving its social capabilities. A coordinated solution to this goal is only difficult because of the need for coordination.

[awpcomics]

Just added to the online store!  From aircel:  China Sea TPB,  leather & lace #2,13, Sapphire # 8,9,  from Antarctic Press: cat shit one vol. 1 # 2,  gold Digger vol. 3 # 91,  gold digger x-mas special # 2, gold digger edge guard # 1, Gold Digger swimsuit #'s 3,4,5,7,9,22,26, luftwaffe 1946 vol.2 # 14, ninja high school v.2 # 9, stargodz #'s 1,2,  Teether long & lonesome road, valkyrie saviors # 1, velvet touch # 4,6, from Black Box : Djinn Hunter # 3,4, from Boom Sudios : Buffy the last vampire slayer # 1,Getting Dizzy # 1,2,  The last witch # 2,3,4,5, from capital comics: Whisper # 1,2, from continuity comics: Captain Power # 1,2, from Dark Horse: Drakuun : rise of the dragon princess # 6, elfquest: final quest special, hellboy & the bprd # 1,2, masters of the universe :revelation # 2,4, rangers of the divide # 1,2, savage hearts # 2, from Dynamite :   die!namite # 2b,2e, Die!namite never dies vol. 3 # 2p,2q,2r,  grumpy cat & pokey # 1g, nyx #3k,  vampirella the dark powers # 1a, from Eternity:  Puppet master : children of puppet master # 2, white devil # 1,2, from Heavy Metal :  Brooklyn Gladiator # 1, Taarna : the last Tarakia # 4,5, from IDW:  Bermuda # 1RI-A,3,locke & key/sandman # 0,1,2, marvel action # 4, marvel action chillers # 1, transformers/my little pony: friendship in disguise # 3,  transformers/my little pony : magic of cybertron # 2a, from Image:  crimson # 1, crimson one shot, Dawn : not to touch the earth # 1, Strangeers in Paradise vol. 3 # 1,3, trover saves the Universe # 1, from London Night Studios: Nightvision # 1, Razor: the darkest night # 1,2,  from Mad Cave  : Becstar # 2,3,4, from Palliard press : XXXenophile  # 1,2, from Scout/Black Caravan:  the Impure # 1,swamp dogs: house of crows # 1, we don't kill spiders # 1, from Vault:  Human remains # 2, last book you'll ever read # 2,3, WitchBlood # 1,2, & from various publishers in no particular order: black hood # 1, byte sized # 1, RWBY/Justice league # 3 , chess masters # 1,michael dooney sketchbook, josie & the pussycats vol.2 # 1, escape from wonderland tpb,trailer park boys:get a comic book # 1,bullet crow # 1, Carmine # 1,emerald city of oz # 1b, independant voices # 2,cinnamon # 1,dragon ball part 4 # 3, beyond the furthest star #1, nightmare theatre #1, mars attacks # 1,search for hu # 1,exalted # 0 signed(con edition), sunnyhaze # 0,comics interview # 59, talespin # 4, oz squad # 1, grrl Scouts # 1, ralph snart adventures # 26, boris adventure magazine # 1, supermodels in the rainforest #2, & Dinosaur Island # 1

[libermachinae]

Fault Lines Under the Living Room

Part IV: Touch - Chapter 11: Ripple

Also on AO3 Summary: They’ve only just arrived at their destination when things start to go wrong. Word Count: 2193

---

“Picking up some light readings,” Drift reported. “Limited tech, similar to Vitrious. You getting anything?”

“Just a massive, concentrated energy spike a few degrees northeast,” Rodimus said. “Recent exposure, Cybertronian markers.”

“When’s the last time you took that rig in for a tune-up?”

Ratchet hated having to repeat himself, but either Drift was incapable of recognizing the severity of his ship’s disrepair (unlikely) or he was being even more obstinate than normal. Exchanging their vessels’ specs had revealed the truly horrific condition the ship was in: fuel efficiency half of what it should have been, unreliable pressure seals, thrusters that should not have made it into the air, let alone off a planet. That he had survived transit was a—not a miracle, an insult to probability and reasonable calculation of—

Rodimus put a hand on his shoulder and tried to think calm thoughts. Drift had survived. It didn’t make sense, and maybe the luck would run out now that it had been acknowledged, but—

Ratchet halfheartedly swatted at his hand, more like a firm pat.

No wonder you liked him so much. Morale officer doesn’t suit you. He failed to dislodge Rodimus’ hand and didn’t bother trying again.

“Haven’t had the time.” The sound of flipping switches was followed by a hard smack from Drift’s end, rounded out by imprecise grumbling. Drift’s report had lacked any details on the state of his ship’s user interface, but the variety of language he had spoken to it with, impressive even by Ratchet’s standards, gave the sense that it was functioning at about the same level as everything else: barely.

“Still think it’s an outpost?” Rodimus asked.

“Lot of things it could be,” Drift said, voice accompanied by a few more mechanical noises. “We’d need more info to say for sure. Or a visual.”

Rodimus considered the readouts in front of him. There were more he hadn’t read out, but only because he didn’t know how. Ratchet translated what he could, but they were trying to keep his focus on piloting which meant Rodimus couldn’t spend too long wondering about the more mystifying aspects of his screen. Was that box in the top corner a map, or a graph? He didn’t know, and he had to look away before it overtook their other priorities.

“There are also stockpiles, energon plants, and decoys out there,” Drift went on. “Traps, if you’re really unlucky. Whole lot of empty shacks; lot of boltholes won’t have anyone living in them most of the time.”

“On the move a lot?” Rodimus asked.

“Sure. Only one in a dozen stellar systems will have a planet good for energon harvesting, and then there’s having to be vigilant about competition and enforcers. Sometimes needs will change or new opportunities will open up, and a crew will split up to deal with it.” He sounded annoyed at that, briefly breaking from his researcher-describing-mysterious-outgroup tone.

“Couple Decepticons on holiday accidentally give you the slip?” Rodimus asked, just to keep him there.

“More like an entire platoon,” Drift said, rising to it so quickly that they could only assume he’d been waiting for someone to complain about this to. “I tracked them to their covert thermal operation on a smelter of a planet, got all the way in, only to discover the one mech they’d left behind was their communications specialist—it was a mess. But, that’s the past now.” And just as quickly, the wall was back up. “If our intel’s good and Grit’s got a byte of sense, there should be someone here. Just no idea how many.”

“Sounds like there’s a good chance we’ll get this thing cleaned up quick,” Ratchet said. “So long as we stick together.”

Drift’s Hm’d agreement was more than either had expected. Maybe they were making progress.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Good to go,” Rodimus said, adjusting the items on his screen to focus on the ship’s status. “Defense and surveillance up, and we’re at about descent altitude. Just give us a head’s up when you start improvising, so we can get out of your way.”

He was not supposed to say that. He shot over a grin in response to Ratchet’s disapproval; what point was there in denying the inevitable?

Practicing being a good friend, remember? That means saying no to stupid ideas.

It also means being there to catch him instead of holding him back.

It was the kind of argument that couldn’t be solved with a few pointed thoughts or memories, the kind that they did not have time for now, as the visual feed showed Drift’s ship starting its descent. They set it aside in their own ways: Ratchet simply stopped thinking about it, while Rodimus let himself run through the myriad arguments he would have made simultaneously before reconnecting himself to the present. A moment later and they were ready, Ratchet punching in the commands to follow Drift down.

The planet’s cloudless atmosphere gave them a clear view of the terrain below, its massive, dramatic rock formations contoured by deep shadows. North of them, the average surface elevation increased and smoothed out into tall hills, but where they were going the difference between peaks and valleys created a network of shelves and tunnels that would be perfect to hide a secret base in. And stealth did seem to be one goal of whoever had set up shop down there: besides the sloppy energy output, there were no obvious signs of cyberforming on the planet’s surface. Rodimus was about to suggest that only those who came looking for Cybertronians would ever notice they were here, when a glint in one of the visual feeds caught his attention. He brought the feed to his station and zoomed in. Metal?

The word hit his vocoder as Ratchet shoved them into a dive.

“Turret!”

The energy beam was hot enough to ripple the air around it. Even though Ratchet got them turned away fast enough, the whole shuttle shuddered from the near-miss. Crates and containers rattled in their restraints, and Rodimus was too busy keeping up with Ratchet to think about the sounds of crashing down in the hold. They should have been at a safe distance to avoid detection; how had they been pinpointed so quickly?

“Pull up! Get out of here!” Drift shouted.

No time to wonder about it right now.

“Can’t,” Rodimus said while Ratchet wrestled with the controls. “I’ve got visual; they’re charging up for the next shot. Reversing momentum would have us hovering like an auto-skeet.” If the console would stop bombarding him with warnings, he might have been able to make better estimates about their next move, but a ship this size wasn’t designed to be flown by just two bots with half a processor each. Ratchet was demanding so much of their attention that even reading the words on the screen demanded resources they didn’t have, so he scrubbed the whole thing until all that was left was the visual feed, the twinkle that shone just before the storm. “Diving. Keep on our tail.”

“No, that’s—fine. Aim for cover.”

Ratchet switched off the reverse thrusters and the ship plummeted out of its gentle descent. The entire world rocked nauseatingly as the discordant visual feeds broadcast the tilting horizon and rising ground, and they startled as the second blast singed the air behind them, the crackle of Drift’s failing comms suite not enough to prevent their sparks from clenching down in panic. The rear cameras recovered from the overexposure, and there was the speeder, intact and keeping pace.

“What now?” Drift demanded.

“Evasive maneuvers,” Rodimus said, following the ticker tape of Ratchet’s intentions. “Triple Thunderclash!”

Ratchet twisted hard on the controls and sent the ship spiraling. Rodimus would have been flung across the bridge had they not been secured, but even then struggled to maintain focus as they were thrashed around, over and over. He couldn’t see Drift anymore, or the distant turret: everything was swirls of color, broken up for only a split second as the third blast went wide and passed them by.

Ratchet drew back and pulled them out of the spiral, then hastily steered them aside as the recovered visual feeds revealed an oncoming peak. Landing thrusters were engaged; slightly dazed, Rodimus picked out a promising valley for Ratchet to maneuver them into. Drift reappeared in the rear feed, keeping his distance in case they had to dart again. Not that there would be much room for it, as the canyon walls rose up and enveloped them.

Ratchet brought the shuttle to rest on a wide shelf and sat back, optics dim. The constant, pounding beat of his focus dispersed, and he sunk into pillowy relief, buoyed by Rodimus’ burst of Wow we made its and What kind of gun was thats and I’m alive Ratchet’s alive Drift’s alives. It had been hard, keeping that iron grip on himself while Ratchet put in the work of keeping them alive, but—

“Wouldn’t have seen that shot coming without you,” Ratchet said. Rodimus looked away as he flushed, warm with appreciation and embarrassment; sincerity was an intimacy he was never quite prepared for. He was grateful when Drift’s speeder landed alongside them.

“Everybody intact in there?” Ratchet asked. He thought Rodimus’ embarrassment was amusing, frag him, but was willing to set it aside out of concern for their friend. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t find a way to exploit it later, but for now, Rodimus was safe.

“We made it,” Drift said. “That was more more like a Double Thunderclash.”

“Ratchet was between Thunderclashes and I had to make a best guess.” Rodimus tried to mime the path of the two ships with his hands, twisting his arms as far as his joints would allow. “It’s a Triple Thunderclash because it’s three times cooler than a thing Clash did in some fight,” he explained, since he felt Ratchet wondering.

“Battle of Ambustus Major?” Ratchet asked. Rodimus shrugged and tried not to pout when Ratchet immediately brought up an old vid file of the maneuver.

“Is the ship stable here?” Drift asked, reminding them they were here with a purpose. In the aftermath of such a close call, it was natural to want to ease back for a moment, but Rodimus couldn’t fault Drift for wanting to stay on track. The stakes weren’t any lower just because they’d made it to the surface intact.

“Should be,” Ratchet said, leaning over so he didn’t have to keep relying on Rodimus to funnel through the ship’s readings. “Holding steady for now. We’d probably need to conduct a physical survey to be sure, but I’m not seeing anything troubling from here.” Ratchet wasn’t sure of the composition of this planet, but the lack of dust in the atmosphere suggested it was made of a lot of hard, compact stone, hopefully strong enough to support a spacefaring vessel. They just had to hope that whatever geologic event had formed this shelf hadn’t terribly weakened the wall it was anchored to.

“Good,” Drift said. “The good news from all this is that the turret gives us an idea of where they have their main base; it’d be a waste of fuel to have to drive back and forth a long way. Once I’ve scouted it out and located Grit, you can come in.”

“Okay, and one more time with a plan we’ll actually follow?” Ratchet’s edge emboldened Rodimus. If it had been just him out here, he might have let Drift make all the decisions out of guilt, but the strong presence beside his mind pulsed with gentle encouragement.

Drift sighed.

“Right. Give me a minute.”

Ratchet gave Rodimus a thumbs up. Progress.

Rodimus got up from the captain’s seat and walked to the bow of the bridge, where the narrow viewshield gave him a closer peek onto the planet. The impression he got: rocks. Though the surface was painted mainly by dull shades of brown, down here they started taking on more color, hints of red and green only noticeable against the stark homogeny of everything else.

Why had the Decepticons chosen this planet? Were there fuel reservoirs buried too far below the surface to show up on orbital scanners? How would they have known to come looking for them? If not, if this was just a backwater hideaway, why the powerful defense system? Who was hiding here? And for how long? He itched to pop the hatch open and start exploring, but Ratchet’s presence kept him in place. This world, with its unknown Cybertronian population, confronted them with a new variety of complexity and danger. Though they could be rash in their decision to help Drift, they couldn’t risk being stupid about it.

Ratchet gently nudged him away from that kind of thinking. No one here was stupid. Everyone was trying to do the right thing for the people of Vitrious, the universe at large, and each other.

Rodimus cast a small, grateful smile over his shoulder.

“Okay.” The comms came back to life with Drift’s voice. “I still think this is a bad idea. But I’ve got something.”

[delcat177]

Before New Pokemon Snap

While this game I have waited for for 22 years loads up, before I spend the night playing, I wanna tell tale of my time with the first one.

(The player’s guide is so nostalgic!)

Yon Longe Poste

I was interested in nature photography as a kid. And by interested, I mean kinda really obsessed. My father had been a journalist and had his own interest in nature photography, so after developing some skill on a little plastic snap camera, he did one of the few bond-y things we did when I was a kid and taught me how to use his old 33mm. It was a wonderful thing with a telephoto lens that I’d carry in a case around my neck, snap the lenses back and forth as needed on my daily field ramble. 

Mom had commented on my patience with the snap deal, I would sit by the hummingbird feeder motionless for as long as it took to get shots, and a real field camera took it from the backyard to the woods. I could usually get birds and could always get some Pure Michigan nature, but I was constantly angling for animals--with 24 to 36 shots, depending on how I pooled my allowance, I spent a lot of time hunting for frogs, snakes, turtles, settling for butterflies and my dog. The one time the latter met a big touchy porcupine, I didn’t have my camera and was preoccupied with my poor be’needled boy, and when I went back, it was gone.

So, remembering a family story about how Mom had once found a porcupine chewing on the door because it was trying to get salt out of the wood, I requisitioned a piece of plywood my father promised was extra salty, took the shaker for good measure, and put it back where the needling had happened.

I haunted that spot all summer, but life isn’t as interesting as it can be, and porcupines are nocturnal. It wasn’t safe to be in the woods after dark, we had coyotes, so I took my solace in finding one day that it had, at least, been happily gnawed.

When I saw the first Nintendo Power previews of Pokemon Snap, I went “ah, yes, a blessing from the gods” and started work on a local Christmas cookie empire (different story entirely) to be ready for the release date. June was four months from my birthday and six from Christmas. I needed to be on LOCK.

And when I finally gave over my $63.59 (state tax was six cents) for this limited, low-poly, rail-ride of a game...

...I absolutely adored it like few things I have ever adored. The only thing missing was Oddish, and I was okay with that, kinda, I guess, if they had to.

I played nonstop. If I got bored with the ambience, which was rarely, I put on one of my sister’s CDs--RENT, usually.

Yes, I was listening to RENT at 12.

Until Mom heard La Vie Boheme.

At any rate, I got every last cent’s worth out of it. I filled my Pokedex. My last Pokemon, pulled from a sneak peak at a player’s guide in Wal-Mart, was Muk. I still have creepypasta/Pokegod theories about how Mewtwo was supposed to be in the game (why 63 Pokemon, not 64??). The Album, where you could save your pictures, let you write a few words on your faves, and I did my best to take funny snaps and caption them. The pun “Karp-E Diem” was used.

My skill increased. I learned how to stop the ride indefinitely at the Charmander section and played with them, throwing them apples and seeing how many consecutive heads I could bonk (I think my record was 7?). Then, with a tip in the NP letters session, I found out you could glitch the game by constantly changing direction in the kart, lagging it from moving, so that events timed to the movement went off early. This is the best way to get the most AMAZING shots of Pikachu riding Articuno without hacking, still.

It must have gone on for a year, at least, before I beat the game.

REALLY beat it.

Pokemon Snap is a limited game. Each Pokemon can have a maximum score assigned to it, a cap where it’s simply absolutely perfect in shot.

And for Mew, the highest-scoring Pokemon in the game and the only Pokemon on the last level, I was consistently getting 9900.

But that wasn’t quite right.

The thing is, Professor Oak reviews your shots and tells you exactly why you did or did not get each bonus. To get all bonuses on Mew, she needs to be in the right pose, (a sequence of item throws, easy), exactly in the center (again, easy) and exactly the right size.

The last part is worth 100 points exactly.

If I could have submitted every photo I had of Mew, I would have cleared it out easily and mindlessly. I would have gotten 10000 points, the only five-digit score in the game, somewhere in the 60 snaps I was allotted for the level. She was right in front of me, all I had to do was click-click-click.

But that’s not how the game worked, and this is where it shines. It’s also where I am very curious to see if it’s going to be the same.

Like I said, Pokemon Snap was a limited game. It’s notoriously difficult to emulate, because it uses some advanced jury-rigging of the N64′s capabilities to call and recognize a photo of a Pokemon. To streamline that, and presumably to allow for this precise experience, the player can only select one photo they took of a Pokemon to be reviewed per play.

I wasn’t just trying to catch the perfect shot.

I was trying to find it out of all the shots I took.

Over and over again, I went through the stage, snapped pictures, pored over my album, selected the single entry what I was sure was just right, went to judging. Over and over again, I heard Professor Oak go “whAt a PItY”, in sound byte form. The CDs became necessary to halt murder.

It took weeks. But one day, from sheer little-kid determination, I got my snap. I JITTERED hearing the “Just right!” byte, held my breath--

10,000 points.

The perfect score.

(This isn’t mine, of course, and also is a 9900--that foot is the real problem, so I’m glad to see I’m not alone)

It automatically saved to my best-score slot. I wish I had taken picture-pictures. I felt pride on a deep, genuine level that like my hummingbirds, I had at last gotten just the right moment, had just the right eye.

I’ve honestly been thinking a lot about my father lately. We didn’t have a great relationship when I was in the house with him, but...being a teenage “daughter” and being an adult son are two different things.

And it didn’t stop at Pokemon Snap. After being kicked out of an evangelical school, I started attending classes for high-schoolers at the community college, and Photography was my first. I ended up taking the class four times and passing it twice--I wasn’t bad at the subject, but rather had a hard time getting transportation to the college to do the course work. I had to withdraw the first and second times, pulled a C on the third, and took it one last time as I was graduating to shine up my GPA since I knew I had a reliable car and I could lock in the A.

My sister and my mom, maybe my dad all thought I might end up a wildlife photographer. I professed the interest, and unprofessed it once I started reading about how harsh locales are in that job. I suspected getting bugs up my nose in 110-degree heat wouldn’t be as fun as the idea sounded. Instead, I leaned toward my librarian interests, and now I’m sitting here developing games and writing.

If I could tell myself back then, before all of it, that photography would never make me a dime, would cost me all my allowance on film, would be one of the albatrosses of my college years, and that technology would make all of the practical experience I learned in development a moot point...

...we would both know it was worth every single moment, one moment at a time.

Hekk.

Maybe I should send Dad some photos.

so is it done installing yet

[practicingmedicine]

Practicing Medicine: Chapter One

(+)1

It was eight o'clock in the morning, and Sheriff McBain had just been shot.

There weren’t no lights, no sirens. No outward signs of urgency anywhere, save for the frantic telephone call I’d received just seconds ago and my own bounding heart rate.

It didn’t take me long to pull on my pants or step into my boots. Even with my shaking body, I moved with a sense of purpose, each action a step in a subconscious routine.

Buckle up my pants, lace my boots, grab my glasses, disconnect my Pip-Boy from the outlet, clip that bad-mama on and get it running…

The black screen turned a vibrant green color as I clicked the power button, lighting up my dark room. These were the words on the screen:

PIP-OS(R) v1.0.3

COPYRIGHT 2075 ROBCO(R)

LOADER V1. 1

EXEC VERSION 41.10

32K RAM SYSTEM

16811 BYTES FREE

HOLLOWTAPE LOADED: “THE-SCIENCE-OF-UNCERTAINTY”

INITIALISING….

SUCCESS!

> STATUS

Battery Level: 100%

Wireless Signal: (?)

Operating Temperature: 90F

> HEALTH

BP: 150/120

SPO2: 100%

Temp: 98.5F

RR: 25

HR: 160

> TIME

Day: 25 September 2279

Time: 08:01

> CLIMATE

Current Temperature: 78F

Atmospheric Pressure: 753 mm

Background Radiation: 0.231 RAD

---

I couldn’t read much, so I wasn’t sure exactly what each of them meant, but I got the gist- I knew exactly what I needed to know. I threw open my door and strode into the hallway, grabbing my father’s white coat off of a hook along the way. I slipped it on over my shoulders as I strode up to the front door, where my faded orange doctor’s-bag lay on its side. Before I threw the strap over my shoulder, I made sure to quickly button my coat and pull my green tie tight around my shirt collar, because my father told me that a doctor should always look his best. I hefted my bag up with one hand and pushed the door open with the other.

The morning sun was bright in my eyes. It was hot outside, about 97 Fahrenheit if my pip-boy was telling me the truth. Not that it mattered- I was used to the heat, and my patient was inside the air-conditioned Bison Steve’s Hotel. I didn’t give it much space in my head.

I started to sprint, skirting the corner of my neighbor’s house and running out into the main square, heavy bag swinging wildly in my aching right hand. As much as I wanted to have time to process all this, to stride up all slow and confident like father had taught me, I didn’t have the time. It could be a matter of seconds deciding whether or not the Sheriff survived.

I was starting to feel kind of dizzy, like you do when you’re fixing to vomit. The Hotel was just up ahead now. The big “Bison Steve’s” sign flickered eerily as I walked up to the double wooden doors, which I pulled on at least three times before I remembered that they were push doors. A rush of cool air washed over my skin as I stepped into the building, and tried to regain my composure. I cleared my throat.

“Alright- Alright y’all, listen up: My name is Isaac Saller, and I am a medic! ” I shouted. There was silence. “‘I’m empty holstered, so please don’t shoot!”

That may have been a bad idea, in retrospect, but it was all that I had planned for an active-shooter type deal. I didn’t deal well with confrontation.

The front hall and the reception desk were abandoned, but the lights were on. I stepped through the next set of propped-open doors and into a dark hallway, where a pretty blonde woman was cowering, holding onto a wall-mounted telephone. Her red face glistened with sweat.

That would be Mrs. McBain.

“Oh my god, Isaac! Come here, quickly- I think my husband is dying!” I power-walked to catch up with her, then tried to keep up a comparable walking pace. Which was kind of hard, given my height; I was still, “between hay and grass ,” my father would have said.

“Could you tell me what happened?” I asked. The words felt so strange to say out loud. I’d practiced what I’d do in a real emergency, but now that it was actually happening, I couldn’t believe that I was actually falling into my routine, just like I did for everything else. Must not have seen any other option.

“Well, the boys- Beagle and my husband, right, they were doing firing drills! But then the shooting stopped and my husband started airing his lungs, just shouting something awful. And when I ran in to see what happened, I saw that Beagle had shot him in the leg!”

And, there was the story. I let out a sigh of relief; here I was worried that I might be dealing with some crazy psychopath! Though, the more I let myself think on it, an idiot like Beagle with a gun started to seem just as dangerous.

“Does he still got the gun?” I asked, approaching one of the four doors to what had to be the firing range. The familiar scent of gunpowder stung my nose as I cracked open the rightmost door, and peered into the massive, open room. I didn’t see nobody, but then again, my vision was so awful that my patient could’ve been right in front of me. Mrs. McBain brushed through the doors.

“No, I made him put it down!” I nodded and entered the room.

As I stepped through the doorway, another smell drifted in after the first- a sharp, metallic smell that hung in the air like some sort of leaking gas. Subtle, and not quite so intimately familiar, but I recognized it right away; the acrid smell of blood rubbed on skin.

“Hey Doc, come on in--the Sheriff is lying over here,” said Deputy Beagle, waving his iron about. I flinched.

“Holster that!” I shouted back, “I’m not going to do anything until-“

“Beagle! You put that thing down right now or I’ll shoot you myself!” Shouted Mrs. McBain. Beagle made a dramatic sigh.

“Fine. But, you know it was an accident, and it ain’t like I’m gonna do it again.” He tossed the gun aside. The cocked, loaded, cold-steel weapon hit the ground hammer-first.

The ensuing, “BANG!” was, no kidding, the second loudest thing I’d ever heard.

“Goddammit!” Beagle shouted, and Mrs. McBain screamed and dropped to a crouch. I just sat, stunned, staring at the gun and trying to think again. It was like my mind was a Television set, and someone had just thrown a brick through the screen; An all-encompassing static crept over my senses.

“Isaac? Isaac, are you alright sweetie ?” asked Mrs. McBain, over the loud ringing in my ears. I nodded.

“I’m okay ,” I lied. I kept nodding.  “I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay…”

“You sure don’t look okay,” said Beagle. He was too close to me, way too close. I took a deep breath and pushed him back a little bit.

“I’m good! Where’s the Sheriff?!” I looked around warily. My eardrums were still bubbling, but I was starting to be able to hear myself think again. I had apparently dropped my medical bag on the floor, but it hadn’t opened up or spilled.

“Jesus kid, can you not turn your head on your neck? Over there, sitting against the support beam!” snapped Beagle, motioning towards the wounded Sheriff with his whole upper body. I felt like yelling back but I didn’t. I just gave him a quick nod and stumbled over to the fallen Sheriff.  

The bright red pool beneath Sheriff McBain’s thigh had already begun to clot into ketchup-like clumps. As I got closer, I could hear him muttering to himself, though I couldn’t understand what about. I dropped to a crouch beside him, opened my bag and rooted through it til I found myself a pair of gloves. I had to work to get them on with how sweaty my hands were.

“Hello, Sheriff! Can you understand me?” I asked. He smiled up at me.

“Hey! You’re Isaac, the um, the Gambling-Place owner’s son. Uh, Casino! Yeah…” He trailed off. In my head, I started going over my ABCs, because apparently my mind was too overwhelmed to do anything but stick to its beaten-path routines.

He could speak, so his Airway was patent. I didn’t have time to properly test his Breathing, but it sounded fast and a little shallow. That was par for the course, which left me with the real problem, his Circulation- that’d be the bleeding.

“Alright, Sheriff, I’m going to take your pants off. Tell me if it hurts much,” I said, unbuttoning and unzipping his trousers. They got snagged up on his shoes, so I started pulling harder. He just laughed as I pulled them off.

“Actually, I don’t feel much of anything in this leg! Just like I got punched, and now it’s burnin’, sorta.”

That was good. It meant that the bone probably hadn’t been fractured, and I wouldn’t need any med-x. I always kept an emergency syringe of the stuff, but I was reluctant to actually use it on anyone.

Once I’d gotten his pants off, I touched his leg. It was cold and wet. I’d assumed shock, based on the bigass blood pool, but I could be dramatic like that; This was solid confirmation. I was going to have to work fast!

As I searched around in my bag for a tourniquet with one hand, I held up the Sheriff’s leg up with my other, so that I could see the wound in the dimly lit firing range. The hole wasn’t big. At least, not the entry- just a red, penny-sized oval near the base of his thigh, surrounded by bruised skin and seeping out blood. Like a bloody little volcano.

The exit wound, on the other hand, was massive . A jagged hole right under his ass with flaps of skin hanging loose around it, spitting out a torrential amount of bright red blood with each beat of his bounding heart. Based on the color of the blood and the way that it was coming out, I knew that the bullet had nicked or severed his femoral artery. I also knew that I probably couldn’t repair that with forceps and bandages alone. The best thing I could do would be to stem the bleeding, and get a stimpack as quick as possible.

Of course, that presented a little bit of a problem: See, stimpacks are awful expensive, so carrying them around wasn’t always an option for a man like myself. As of now, I didn’t actually have any of them-things in my jump-bag. Some places ‘round here had one in a box on the wall, but I didn’t see none in here, and I’d have noticed one in the hall if there’d been one. I cursed under my breath.

“Go and get me a stimpack!” I ordered. I had finally found where I kept my tourniquets without actually looking into the bag, though if I had any sort of presence of mind, I would have been embarrassed at how long it had taken me. I pulled his shoe off, and slipped the tourniquet on over his leg.

“I’ll fetch one from the kitchen!” replied Mrs. McBain, and I nodded to let her know I’d heard. Now that I had a stimpack on the way, all I had to do was keep the Sheriff from kickin it until I could apply the damn thing.

Easier said than done.

“Why are you squeezing me? You taking my blood numbers or something?” The Sheriff asked, as I pulled the premade tourniquet tight and started cranking on it. I tried to smile.

“I’m not taking your blood pressure, sir, I’m putting on a tourniquet. It’ll hurt, but you’ll bleed a lot less.” When I couldn’t tighten it anymore, I took out another tourniquet, and fastened it right above the first one, against the base of his thigh. It was a good thing that the Sheriff was thin, or I’d be having some issues about now.

“What are you doing? He could lose his leg that way!” shouted Beagle. When I kept on tightening the second tourniquet, he hit me in the back of the head- not so much to hurt me as to get a reaction out of me. I didn’t give him one. “Hey, are you blind and deaf? I’m talking to you!”

“Stop it Beagle! Isaac is a good… he’s a good kid,” insisted the Sheriff, his voice growing weak. I finished cranking the tourniquet, and touched the Sheriff’s ashen forehead. He looked like he’d stuck his head in a drinking fountain, with how much he was sweating...

“Could you try and talk with me, Sheriff? I’m gonna try some more stuff, try to keep you from going into decompensated shock.”

The Sheriff looked confused. He squinted up at me with teary eyes.

“Shock? You mean, the reason why it don’t hurt? I’m pretty sure I’m already in shock, but I ain’t- I ain’t shocked, you know. Like, I know what’s happened. I got my mind about me ,” he grumbled, tapping his head conspiratorially. I removed a few packets of gauze from my bag and tore them open.

“No, I mean when your organs stop working cause your blood-pressure drops and they ain’t getting enough blood!” Finally, I finished packing the exit wound tight with gauze. I started putting pressure on it.

“Oh. Huh. Well, you doctors ought to stop having so many words that mean- that mean all different things,” the Sheriff replied, his breath passing his lips so quietly that I was worried he might have fallen unconscious. I stopped moving.

“Sheriff?” I asked. When he didn’t respond, I reached into my coat with my free hand, and pulled out a small metal tinderbox full of a reddish powder. I waved it under his nose.

“Wake up, Sheriff!” I shouted. He started coughing and looking around wildly.

“Ah, Jesus Christ, what the hell is that smell?” I slipped the box back in my coat.

“N-H-Four, sir! It’s supposed to keep you awake!”

Of course, it wasn’t doing a very good job at it! Before I was even done speaking, the sheriff had puked all over himself and slumped forward. I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him vigorously.

“Keep them eyes open Sheriff! Stay with me here!” His eyes fluttered.

“You know, I like your voice! It’s like, you talk like a teacher, but then you got your daddy’s cowboy-thing going on, so it’s sort of funny…” he muttered. His head hung limp on his neck. I let him drop to his side, and focused on applying pressure to the wound again.

“Um, Isaac?” I looked over my shoulder. Deputy Beagle was standing above me again, clasping his hands together. I wasn’t so good at reading emotions, but I’d seen enough pre-vomit patients to know that he was feeling sick. He had spoken so quietly, which was strange considering how loud he’d been before. “Isaac, Is he gonna die? I thought that getting shot in the leg didn’t kill people. Why’s he acting like that?” I sighed.

“I sure hope not. But, there’s a big red-pipe in your leg, and if it gets hit, you bleed a lot. I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do if I don’t get a stimpack soon!”

As if on cue, Mrs. McBain came rushing into the room, her dress all bunched up and full of miscellaneous medical supplies. Among the heaps of things I didn’t need, I could see a stimpack poking up.

“Isaac! I brought a bunch of things, I don’t know what’ll help and what won’t, but-”

Suddenly, Mrs. McBain stumbled, and her makeshift pouch came unfurled as she threw out one hand to catch herself.

Aw shit! I dropped everything and ran towards Mrs. McBain, interposing myself between the unsecured, falling medical supplies and the floor. Packaged Band-Aids, bottles of pills and ointments, a pair of scissors- it all went tumbling over me and I didn’t care, until suddenly I saw the fragile old stimpack teetering on the edge. By now, Mrs. McBain was trying to recover, but she was only making matters worse. The supplies were spilling out both sides now, and she was getting dangerously close to just dumping it all on top of me.

The stimpack. That was the focus. I shot out my hand to try to grab it, but I only succeeded in tipping it off it’s balance point, causing it to tumble back into the pouch.

I sat up, and all the supplies that had landed on me spilled back onto the floor.

“Don’t-“ I started, but she had already slipped and let go of the other side of the pouch. I cried out as it all went spilling on the ground.

“The stimpack!” I looked down, and found that through some unchecked reflex, I had caught it on my outstretched thigh. I blinked.

“Huh,” I said, and snatched the needle off my leg. I rushed back over to the Sheriff, who was unconscious and drooling. Beagle was sitting beside him, pressing hard on the entrance with his bloodstained hands and muttering to himself.

“Kurt, you can’t die- I’m, I’m just a deputy, if you die I’ll have to handle this whole town myself, and you know I can’t do that! Please, please don’t you die, please-“ I took a knee beside Beagle and his brother, stimpack in hand. Beagle was crying.

“Am I- am I doing this right?” He asked. I nodded.

“You are doing just stupendously! Just keep doing that!” I replied. I lifted up the sheriff’s leg, tore out all the gauze and probed around with the needle for a minute, until I’d found the deflated husk of his split femoral artery among all of the slick yellow fat and ground-beef looking shit in his leg. I didn’t have much light to work with and it was pretty well buried beneath the gory chaos of the exit, but I knew it when I saw it- despite the tourniquet, the top end was still spritzing out bright red blood with each passing heartbeat. I took my forceps out of my bag, which already had some fishing-line and a hook wrapped around them, and got to suturing the split ends together. The artery kept on pulsing out blood around the edges as I passed my hook and line through it’s thick middle layer.

‘Moment of truth, Isaac,’ I thought, as I squared off my suture. I picked up the stimpack again, prepped the needle with my shaking hands. I took a deep breath.

In the dim light of the firing range, I stuck the pipe.

The freezing cold from the reaction chilled my gloved fingers halfway to the bone. Had it worked? Would it hold? I had no idea. It wasn’t squirting blood no more, so I snipped off the end of the suture and pulled all the fishing line out, then started suturing up his ragged exit-wound, so that the ends of the skin were facing upwards. I didn’t even bother squaring off the end before running a stimpack along the seam. Once his thigh had sewed up along an ugly white line, I pulled all the fishing string out, because otherwise I was just asking for it to get infected. I still had a little stimpack-juice left, so I moved Beagle aside and shot the rest of it into the tiny-little entry wound, to sort out any of the leftover internal damage.

More time passed in silence. I knew it wouldn’t matter, but I loosened and removed the tourniquets to feel like I was doing something. My ears were ringing, blood was soaking into my pants like syrup, but I barely noticed- all that mattered now was if he was going to live, or if he was going to die. I was just going to have to have faith now.

“Is it working?” asked Mrs. McBain. I checked the Sheriff’s pulses, noticed that some warmth had returned to his skin...

Pulse is already stronger , and I can actually get a femoral. I sighed with relief. “It’s working. Pressure’s up.” A few more seconds passed. “I doubt he stopped perfusing to his brain for long, so his head should be fine, if you’re worried about that. He’s gonna need a ton of fluid, though, and he might need some more help with that leg-“ I started, but then Mrs. McBain wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug. Once I was over the initial shock, I hugged her back.

“Thanks,” I murmured. Mrs. McBain laughed.

“You saved my husband, Isaac! You saved his life!”

I nodded and tried to free myself from the asphyxiating hug. Unfortunately, Mrs. McBain was a teensy bit stronger than me. “I don’t even know how to thank you. Do you want caps? We- well, you know we aren’t rich, but we have a tin of caps hidden away under the floorboards!” Still struggling in vain to free myself, I shook my head.

“No- no, Mrs. McBain, I don’t want no caps! I just need you to work with me here for these next couple weeks to get your husband healthy again. I mean, he just caught a bullet, he’s gonna need some help getting back to normal...” I was lying about the caps. I would have loved caps, considering how much I was hurting for supplies. But I also wanted to establish that I didn’t charge for my services, and Mrs. McBain had a way of inadvertently spreading that sort of information.

“Oh, but I can’t just let you go back to work like that- look at you, you’re all filthy!” she said, finally releasing me from the hug. I stumbled back and fell onto my rear. “Why don’t you come over to our house- You can get those clothes washed, and I’ll get you some lunch. And a shower too, what would Penny say if she saw you like this?”

Well, I couldn’t disagree with her on that count. Just hugging Mrs. Mcbain, I’d gotten spots of blood all over her dress. Momma had already had to warn me about tracking blood in the house before...

“Alright,” I said. The ringing in my ears was tolerable now. I was starting to be able to think straight again, even if I was still shaking and sweating like hell. I noticed that Beagle had offered me his hand.

“Um- yes!” I said, pulling off my glove and allowing him to haul me up to my feet. He held on real tight to my hand and looked at me with an expression that I couldn’t parse.

“I owe you one, Isaac. I know that this is my fault, and that I’m not always nice to you, but I- I really do appreciate this. I don’t know what I’d have done without my brother.” I tried out a smile. Beagle smiled back at me, and it almost made me forget how much of a prick he’d been when I was a kid. Almost.

“Water under the bridge, Beagle,” I replied. I thought about winking, but I once made a girl run away from me when I tried to wink at her, so I held off.

“Isaac, sweetie-“ I turned around. Mrs. McBain was standing in the doorway. “The door’s unlocked, why don’t you come back to the house first? We can lay my husband down while you wash up.”

I considered. The sheriff seemed stable enough for that proposal, but no one else seemed to quite understand the extent of what he’d just suffered, or the long road that lay ahead for him. I mean, hell, he’d had his leg blown open, lost a third of his blood, and then had a stimpack injected right into a central artery! There were some things I wanted to take care of before I attended to myself.

“I like that idea, but can I borrow one of you to help me finish sorting out Beagle first?” I asked. Mrs. McBain looked at Beagle.

“Beagle, seeing as how you’re the one who shot him…” she started. Beagle put his hands above his head.

“I’ll handle it, ma’am. What should I do?” I raised my hand.

“We’re gonna try to get him on a mattress, if we can. Start him on some Saline and get him drinking water when he wakes up, the stimpack and his body will sorta work together to replace all that blood he lost. He’s going to be in a lot of pain, so we’ll have to give him morphine when he wakes up. I’ve got powder and IV’s with me,” I said, trying my best to cover all my bases without over-explaining. Mrs. McBain started to walk away.

“Alright! You two do what you have to, I'll be getting the house ready for him.” she said, and disappeared through the doorway. I looked at Beagle.

“He didn’t hurt his back none, right?” I asked. Beagle shook his head. “Good. I’m gonna grab his legs then, you grab his arms- let’s get him on one of them cots over there, then move him from there.”

He nodded. We grabbed a hold of the Sheriff’s limbs.

“Alright. Three, two, one-”

[+]

[matterhunter920]

Ping Online

A faster face and flexing geometry generate more speed and distance from a smaller head that also sets a new standard in forgiveness for an iron its size. PING's longest, most forgiving iron. The maraging steel face flexes to send shots higher and farther. Arccos Caddie Smart Grips come standard. Online Ping, Traceroute, DNS lookup, WHOIS, Port check, Reverse lookup, Proxy checker, Bandwidth meter, Network calculator, Network mask calculator, Country by IP. PING G425 Hybrid Crossover. PING G425 SFT Fairway. PING Women's G Le 2.0 Driver. PING Women's G Le 2.0 Fairway Wood. PING G425 MAX Custom Fairway. Simply copy/paste the URLs and press the button ping blog to get them instantaneously pinged. This online ping tool can send requests up to the number 650 (65.10) at one time. The use of this tool is very easy and hence it ends up saving you a lot of time. Plus you can paste up to 10 URLs at a single time.

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This speed test uses WebSocket technology for accurate measuring your real Internet connection speed. The best server is automatically selected when you start the test. The following parameters are measured when the test is run:

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UPLOAD - the data sending speed to the Internet measured in the same way as in case of download and shown also in Mb/s.

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