#cropped because they had stuff on the floor detailing the location

[asclepiusangel]

I am the Hanzo main now

[lazzledazzler]

Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

[oftenderweapons]

Dirty ABCs | Seokjin and Angel

Grab your water because this is getting thirsty!

Pairing: Seokjin x reader/OC (Angel)

Wordcount: 2.3k

Genre: headcanons, smut, fluff

Rating: 18+, minors dni

Trigger warnings: Cockwarming, Cumshots (face, mouth, chest), Creampie, Cumeating, Bondage, Saint Andrew‘s Cross, Impact play, Nipple and clit spanking, Riding crop, Objectification, Body tray (using body as a food tray), Submission (slave) and domination, Discipline and punishment, Deegradation, Pinning, Masturbation, Oral sex, Sex toys (vibrator, nipple pumps, clamps, wrist restraints, cockrings). Mentions of threesome, mild exhibitionism and teasing in public.

Edited by Goddess Almighty, Queen Of My Heart, @joheunsaram, this is all for you, muffin 😘🥰

Here’s my masterlist

Enjoy 💜✨

Aftercare: For Seokjin, aftercare is mostly a way for him to calm down and for Angel to take care of him emotionally. Angel is usually okay after a scene as long as Seokjin isn’t feeling guilty or dirty or distant. So it’s mostly her performing aftercare on him, while he prefers staying on the receiving end, getting his body scrubbed and his hair washed, or being fed while being held. He really likes being hugged while talking. He’s also into cockwarming after sex, since he feels like he’s being protected and that he’s reconnecting with his vanilla side.

Body part: TITS. Jin loves the entirety of Angel, but he has a thing for her chest. And her face. She’s so beautiful, and so clean-faced. He loves being the only one who sees her pretty face crumble in pleasure when she cums for him. Now, Angel loves Seokjin’s hands and lips. He loves watching his lips kiss and suck at any part of her body.

Cum: Seokjin loves to cum inside Angel’s mouth. When he’s feeling especially naughty, he wants to cum on her face, then get inside her and see her ecstatic expression covered in his semen as he coaxes an orgasm out of her. Angel likes cumming on his cock, mostly because of how whiny he gets when she squeezes him with her cunt; plus, once she discovers she can cum without him touching her clit, just ramming inside her, she decides that’s her new favourite way to orgasm.

Dirty secret: Seokjin wants to tie Angel up to a Saint Andrew’s Cross and use a riding crop to spank her clit and nipples. Of course he has plans to make that happen, he just needs to figure out a couple more details. Like whether he should buy a cross and then turn it into… a coffee-table? Angel wants Seokjin to use her body as a food tray, ignoring her entirely while he eats, only to turn her around and fuck her against the table once he’s done. She wants to be treated like a slave just once. Just to try.

Experience: Jin has had a couple of partners before Angel, but he never went that far. He’s always been a freak, but way too restrained to try things out. Only with Angel he realised he could get what he wanted without feeling like he was disrespecting his partner. Angel has had maybe two partners. Maybe just one — the guy who cheated on her with a girl they had a threesome with. He was a freak through and through, and it only felt natural for Angel to join him, but she’s always been a bit of a freak — and she has always known that.

Favourite position: MIS-SIO-NA-RY. For both of them. A soft go-to for romantic sex and a hard and fast jackhammering. Though there is some debate on cowgirl — especially once Seokjin starts shoving Angel on his cock.

Goofy: these two can be major goofs when having sex. It’s pretty common for them to start laughing when something is extremely out of character, but they have a special look they exchange to make sure that laughing is okay at that moment. Such an agreement came after the mood was ruined by inappropriate cackling, so they found a way to look for the other’s permission. Once one of them starts laughing, the other one follows suit. After releasing tension by chuckling, the sex turns very playful, the best expression of Angel and Seokjin’s genuine friendship and companionship.

Hair: Seokjin keeps things neat, but he doesn’t put too much effort on that. He prefers staying as natural as possible, with some trimming when the situation gets out of hand. Angel trims her hair short, she has a specific electric razor to make sure it doesn’t get long but also so she can shave comfortably and safely.

Intimacy: Seokjin aims at intimacy mostly during aftercare, when he needs to feel Angel extra close and loving. Also, on romantic nights. Sometimes he just needs to go vanilla-galore all over her, and spoil her and just… treat her like a goddess. During soft lovemaking, these two just say ‘I love you’ a lot. Most of their intimacy is unspoken and really physical rather than verbal.

Jack off: Well, there are cases where it’s strictly necessary. Though Angel does it a bit more than Jin, he still is a pro at it. He actually prefers when she’s around to do it for him, or can “assist”. He just wants to cum on her tits or her mouth. Or her face. Angel just uses toys when Seokjin is away. Or sometimes when he’s around but is feeling lazy and is not in the mood and she needs to get laid: she simply picks up her small, efficient vibrator and gets stuff done. Though sometimes Seokjin changes his mind…

Kink: Ooh… Seokjin is learning how to actually dominate. However, he already knows a couple things, like punishments, discipline, degradation and impact play. He sorts of assumes he’s into restraints too, but he’s still trying to figure that out. Angel truly enjoys power dynamics, and she absolutely adores subbing for Seokjin, especially since her ex never had the kind of authority that Jin can muster and impose on her so easily. She likes being pinned and degraded by Seokjin. She finds it extremely exciting when he grabs her and uses her a little, when he doesn’t give her a chance to fight back. She likes feeling overwhelmed by him, like she’s finally unraveling him from that polished outside that he curates so expertly. She loves being the only one that gets to feel the beastly part of him on her own body. Truth is, she’s even more proud of being the one who lets him liberate himself and finally embrace his true passion and pleasure.

Location: Their home because Seokjin is shy. But as long as there’s a flat surface and a lock on the door, he’s game. Actually — the flat surface is not truly necessary. Just wait and see. Anyway, Seokjin is super glad that Angel is almost always ready when he wants to get dirty. Most of the time he’s the one dictating when and where, and Angel is entirely okay with that. Saturday night in their apartment is code for “do not disturb, we’re smashing. Maybe across the kitchen floor so absolutely do not enter”. If they’re out in public, there’s a very low chance of Angel teasing him. If she does, she’s very subtle, and in a rather private public place. Think of a hand on his thigh while he’s driving with her somewhere. Blowing him in the bathroom of a rooftop restaurant.

Motivation: The easiest way for Seokjin to get horny is seeing Angel showing off her boobs. If she's going around the house in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts (no bra), consider her busy for the next two hours minimum. She's most definitely trying to get fucked. Sometimes she might even forgo the shirt too. Seokjin can't stand her being stressed, because of her being moody and hard to deal with, he'd much rather get some dopamine and oxytocin running through her by fucking her against the kitchen table. Especially if she's being exceedingly argumentative. However, if she's truly stressed and tired, then expect him to take the lead and try to relax her as… as deep as he can. Angel's greatest weakness is watching Jin doing the housekeeping. Cooking is excellent for sex on the counter. The laundry is freaking amazing for sex on the washing machine — even better if the machine is running. But the absolute best is when he's using the mop for the floors and she can drop her clothes and scold him for not cleaning properly. It always drives him mad and subsequently leads to Angel getting fucked exactly the way she wants.

No: Third parties in the room. Angel absolutely doesn't want to share. It's mostly due to her past experiences rather than Seokjin himself. That's her only strong no. Seokjin supports her fully and he has no interest in adding anyone to their mix. Angel is more than enough to deal with. Jin has a couple hard No’s, mostly linked with Angel teasing him in public, but also her flirting with other people. She’s rather cheeky and he gets a bit mad when she gets too comfortable with his friends. On more sexual terms, he’s still exploring; however, he already knows he’s not okay with anything considered strictly hardcore.

Oral: sloppy, hungry, fast. That's the way Seokjin wants it done. Yes he's fucking hung, but he doesn't care how much Angel takes in her mouth (throat, actually), he rewards the enthusiasm. He appreciates plenty of sucking, and encourages Angel in pumping his balls in her mouth. Angel goes insane with oral sex. I mean, have you seen his mouth? Meow, purrfect. He can make a kitty purr for sure. Angel's most definitely.

Pace: The fastest, the furiousest. This man is a fucking train. He won't stop. Till he's broken Angel through and through. Though some slow rolling of hips is used to tease and arouse and torture, and eventually to please on calmer, sweeter nights. Nevertheless, they both prefer to go as hard as possible. If they don't break they're not done yet.

Quickie: strictly limited to emergencies, but they love them. They can't have casual quickies because they usually turn on multiple rounds and torture, so they must be on a schedule, like ten minutes left before one or both of them has an appointment or has to leave. Usually that happens with Angel bent over or pinned to the wall while Seokjin goes wild all over her.

Risk: Depends. Usually no. If Angel's been naughty enough, well, Seokjin can consider. It's mostly about restaurant bathrooms, car back seats, and some very mild inappropriate touching on lifts, think of Angel standing before him, discreetly rubbing her ass against his crotch. Oh, and one backstage storage room. Once. Never gonna happen ever again.

Stamina: if I had to rate it, I'd say 8/10 solid. The point is burning out, not burning steady. The goal is running out of energy, so they don't hold back, they do their thing for however long that takes. But Seokjin can most definitely handle multiple rounds. His record is probably four, but he doesn't like going there often. Foreplay and one or two rounds is more than enough for him

Toy: a big yes for Angel. For Seokjin too once he gets used to the idea of them. Angel likes vibrators, the more unusual the better. It needs to do something that a dick can’t do, so no dildos. A big yes for breast-toys (her boobies are hella sensitive). She’s also a fan of restraints (mostly hand ones but not exclusively) and impact toys. A big toy freak. Seokjin embraces her love for cockrings (especially vibrating ones).

Unfair: Seokjin? Yes. Very. Angel won’t get to cum unless he has tortured her for at least twenty minutes. Sometimes he sets a timer and edges her until it rings. Sometimes he keeps her tied up while he cums over her body — her chest especially. He likes reminding her consistently that he is superior to her as long as the scene is going. But once it’s over, he is quick to remind her she’s his partner, his equal, and anything that happened during the scene was just an act.

Volume: Angel is super quiet. She can exercise incredible volume control — and she is particularly encouraged to do so by the fact that Seokjin can be extremely shy about his moans and grunts, keeping them on the low. Especially when going vanilla, she really needs to pay attention to spot his little whines. At some point in their relationship, she admits she wouldn’t mind him controlling himself a bit less, vocally speaking, and from there on Seokjin gets gradually less shy, finally being the loud, messy man he is in his everyday life.

Wild card: Seokjin practices impact play on pillows when Angel is not at home. Mostly to make sure his game gets really safe and good before he uses any new toy on her. Once he learns how to use a riding crop, Angel can’t stop asking for it for weeks.

X-Ray: Girth? Considerable. Length? Excessive. The combo makes it impossible to take him without a stretch. He’s a grower. Angel’s power is all in her boobs. Her ass is on the flat side, but Seokjin wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yearning: Seokjin is the usual two-rounds-on-Saturday-night kind of dude when he first gets intimate with Angel, but mostly because he thinks that’s the way it’s supposed to be. He wants it a lot more. Once they start exploring, he feels free to ask for foreplay or sex pretty much whenever he wants to. Angel is up for daily masturbation/oral sex. They either end up going kinky on Saturday night, or doing the nasty mid-week and go for some fond, soft vanilla once Saturday night rolls in. Still, they’re not the kind to go two or three nights in a row: too exhausting.

Zzz: Angel gets sleepy during aftercare, but she tries to stay up as long as possible if Seokjin doesn’t feel okay. Sometimes he notices she’s sleepy and reassures her she can fall asleep, since the greatest comfort for him is knowing that no matter how cruel he was to her during playtime, she loves him and feels safe to sleep in his arms. Oh, and he’s clingy. He spoons.

[holdmecloser-gandydancer]

read here or on ao3!

Being a Regulator was one of the worst jobs Killian had ever decided to take. Don’t get her wrong, she knew that the purpose she served was great; she totally believed in doing everything in her power to keep the world safe, but it was so incredibly lonely. A good portion of Killian’s job description involved being prepared to kill any of her colleagues at a given moment. Didn’t exactly make for the most fun office relationships.

It was scary to think that at any moment, anyone in the Bureau could make a break against their procedures and require - well – regulation. When the Director had first approached about employment, Killian didn’t think much about it.

Okay, so my duties would be to stop people who use these things that you’re looking for?

In very simple terms, yes.

Great. When do I start?

Are you certain, Killian? This is going to be a highly dangerous job.

Listen, Madam Director, it beats the current gig I got so I’m in.

As the Bureau grew and turned into something much grander and more professional, Killian began to excel. She proved herself time and time again to be the most competent Regulator that the Bureau had. But it was that fact that she grappled with most.

Killian tried to keep a neutral face when she entered the Director’s office. She was being sent down planetside, though the details of the mission hadn’t yet been revealed to her.

“Killian, thank you for coming so quickly. As you know, your services are needed,” The Director’s face looked troubled and far away. “It’s Brian.” Killian let out a sharp, exasperated laugh.

“No way, Brian? Magic Brian? Director, surely there’s some kind of mistake! He wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Killian thought of the highly complimentary, dramatic drow she’d met her first day on the base. They had both been in the first crop of employees and they had become fast friends. Everyone had taken to calling him Magic Brian because he was simply too bombastic to have such a plain name. And he was one of the most accomplished arcanists any of the Bureau employees had seen.

“Killian, I wish that were the case. Unfortunately, during his reconnaissance mission to locate the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet, he began to turn his back on the Bureau. Rather than seeking the Gauntlet for the good of the organization, we have it on good authority that he has started to seek it out for personal gain. In fact, we believe that he has,” the Director paused for a moment, considering her words carefully. “We believe he has hostages of sorts. It’s vital that you get down there, deal with him, and if you can, retrieve the Gauntlet.” Killian’s stomach fell. Regulating was one thing. That was her job, one she was very good at. But the idea of having to actually handle one of the relics herself? It scared her more than she cared to say.

“And I’m going alone?”

“Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be another option. Leeman is in the midst of preparing for a reclaiming mission himself and I don’t feel comfortable sending another Seeker down because I do fear that would put you in a hard position. Furthermore, I don’t believe the other Regulators are capable yet, frankly.” Killian’s thoughts rushed to Carey Fangbattle and to Boyland. Her regulator team. She was the unofficial captain, she supposed. She’d been at the Bureau for a few months longer than the two of them. And she also understood the Director’s unspoken addendum. She didn’t want to send more Regulators than necessary in case Killian herself had to be dealt with. Killian clenched her jaw, hoping no hesitation showed on her face.

“I’ll go get suited up and meet you and Avi at the hangar.”

“Actually, it’s just going to be Avi. He’s now going to be the sole one in charge of the Bureau’s transportation needs. The Millers have been working on adjustments to our system that make it easier to be manned by a single operator.”

“Oh shit, good for him.”

“Yes, he’s proven himself to be quite competent.” Lucretia reached into her desk and retrieved parchment and an inkwell. Killian turned to leave the Director’s office. “Oh, and Killian?”

“Yes, Madam Director?” the Director pressed her lips into a tight line.

“Don’t disclose the details of this to anyone yet. I know this is likely going to hit everyone hard and I frankly don’t want you to have to deal with that. I’ll figure out how to break the news.” Killian nodded and exited the office.

 

Late in the night she returned from the ruins of Phandalin, Killian found herself in the voidfish’s chambers. There had been a miraculous amount of excitement at the fact that a relic had been recovered and that the Bureau’s Reclaimer team had grown by three. Killian had done her best to slip away, sight unseen after she debriefed with the Director. She didn’t exactly feel like celebrating.

Instead, she felt like sitting on the ground in front of the voidfish’s tank, basking in its gentle light. She knew that Brian's Rites of Remembrance had been hastily done since the Director informed the Bureau of his treason. Traitors don’t get honor. But they do get grief, Killian thought to herself. She knew that Brian was too far gone by the time she reached him. She knew that he’d been ready to kill her with no second thought. She knew that he’d betrayed the Bureau and that betrayals wouldn’t stand in the organization. But all those facts didn’t keep her heart from twinging at the thought of Brian’s life just being wiped from memory.

“How’re you holding up?” Killian turned and saw Johann stride out from the shadows of the large room. She sighed and shrugged. Johann gazed at the voidfish for a moment before sitting on the ground beside her. They sat in silence for a while until a squeak by the doorway caused them both to turn around. Avi gave a meek wave before entering the room.

“Hey Avi,” Killian murmured quietly. He said nothing as he sat on Killian’s other side. The trio’s gazed up at the voidfish.

“Killian,” Avi began suddenly, “How was he?”

“He wasn’t himself. Not at all. I don’t know if that made it easier or harder, to be honest. I'm just glad that it wasn’t me who did him in.”

“Right, it was one of the new guys?” Johann turned to look at Killian for a moment. She nodded.

“Yeah, that new wizard, Taako, I think. I just still can’t believe he’s gone.” Killian didn’t tell anyone about the fact that she didn’t land a single hit on Magic Brian or his stupid fucking spider. She went running as soon as she could.

Avi tilted his head back and frowned. “Shit. His fiancé.” The trio grimaced. They all had lovely and ornate invitations in their own dormitories to Brian’s wedding. But at least the voidfish was supposed to handle all the messy things for the non-inoculated.

“I'm gonna miss that son of a bitch.” Johann mused quietly.

“Me too.” A gravitas-filled voice made the trio turn. The Director stood in the doorway, flanked by Carey and Boyland. They approached, staying mostly silent. Carey squeezed Killian’s shoulder and the six of them stayed in the voidfish’s chambers for some time.

 

Killian really did her best to keep from getting close to her coworkers, especially after what she was forced to do in Wave Echo Cave. It was terrifying to think that someday someone could be her coworker and then her assignment the very next day. Annoyingly, though, Carey Fangbattle seemed determined to break through Killian’s walls. She had done her best to get Killian to open up about her past, her fears, and everything in-between. Killian did her best to keep the dragonborn woman at arm’s length but the rogue was persistent.

“So, what was your deal before the Bureau?” she had asked one day while the pair was sparring. Boyland was home visiting family.

“Uh, you know, typical stuff. Pretty small family, we’re from a town outside of Neverwinter. They’re mostly all fighters so I took up that mantle. It was a pretty basic choice. What about you?”

“Heh, less basic than that. Small family too, just my parents, my brother, and me. He became a bard and I became a rogue. Our parents hate both these paths for both of us,” Carey chuckled after dodging a particularly swift sideswipe from Killian. “But you can’t ever seem to please barbarians, you know?” Killian laughed stepped out of the way of a deft roll Carey did. They continued sparring and joking for hours.

 

Killian found herself back in the voidfish’s chambers after she heard about Leeman Kessler and again after she heard about Captain Captain Bane. She hadn’t been particularly close to either of them be she saw that both these losses hurt Avi and Lucretia, respectively. Both times, she found herself surrounded by the five others who’d come together after the death of Magic Brian. They never coordinated it or spoke about it but something about basking in the company of each other in the glow of the voidfish gave them all a comfort none of them would admit to needing. At one point, Carey began to slip in beside Killian, forcing Avi to scoot to the orc’s other side. The rest of them changed position pretty frequently, depending on when they arrived. The Director eventually began siting on the floor with the five of them. When they were all in their unofficial ceremony for Captain Captain Bane, everyone had the courtesy to ignore the few tears shed by the Director.

 

Killian began to grow closer to Carey which scared the orc. It wasn’t that she didn’t love all the joy that the rogue brought her. That wasn’t it at all. But she couldn’t help but think about the fact that part of both their job descriptions involved being prepared to destroy their colleagues at any given moment. It wasn’t that Killian didn’t want to grow closer to Carey. If she was being honest, she’d love nothing more. She was just terrified.

 

Five of them gathered after Killian and Carey returned from the Miller’s lab. Boyland’s Rites ceremony wouldn’t be performed for some time. None of them were prepared to write out every detail of the man who’d brightened their days countless times.

They’d all already gathered after learning of the passing of Maureen Miller, but this time was different.

Maureen Miller and Lucas Miller would not receive Rites, though that didn’t stop the group from mourning them. Killian and Carey had quietly agreed to keep up the charade Magnus had set up in the lab. They both intended on interrogating him about it, but this was not the place to unwind it.

Truthfully, all of them were openly crying. Their tears were mostly quiet but they traced bright, shiny paths down their faces in the glow of the tank.

“Fucking Boyland. Him and his fucking cigars,” Carey said, leaning against Killian. She said nothing, instead choosing to wrap a protective arm around the dragonborn woman.

“I just can’t stop thinking about all his kids,” Avi’s face was unusually solemn. He retrieved his flask from his pocket and took a swig from it before passing it to Johann.

“Well, I mean, I understand that he was using a relic but,” Johann took a swig and passed the flask to Killian “Lucas was just a kid. I can’t believe that the Miller line is just… gone.”

Killian drank from the flask and passed it to Carey. “I can’t believe all the sketchy shit he was doing in that lab.” Carey gulped down some Brandywine and tentatively passed the flask to the Director.

“Grief is one hell of a drug,” the Director said hollowly, draining the remainder of the flask. “He was destroyed by the loss of his mother. Losing a loved one makes you do terrible things, especially if you think you could get them back.” She slid the flask back to Avi. The four others in the chamber glanced at the Director but said nothing. She was a woman who seemed to be haunted by griefs none of them could ever imagine.

 

Killian let her guard down at last. She let Carey inside her walls and was truthfully never happier. There was still an ever-present stripe of fear in Killian’s heart but somehow, when Carey was in her arms, it didn’t matter so much. Killian decided to appreciate and love Carey while she was alive rather than wait until she was despairing in front of a cryptic fish with an assortment of her closest friends and confidants.

 

After the day of Story and Song, after the Hunger had been defeated, after the base had been cleaned up, after a world of revelations had come to light, Killian and Carey found themselves in the voidfish’s chambers. Well, what used to be the voidfish’s chambers. Fisher was no longer there, the tank was shattered, and there was a noticeable absence in the room. They still sat in the spots they’d become so used to sitting in, though the room was far darker than it used to be. They both had their head in their hands when they heard familiar footsteps pad into the room. Avi practically collapsed next to Killian. She wrapped an arm around her friend and pulled him in close. None of them could speak. What could you say?

“I can’t believe it. In his last fucking act he just –“ Avi broke his sentence off and shook his head. He reached into his pocket and fished out his flask, dented but still functional. He held it up in a toasting motion and took a deep drink. Killian grabbed it from him and followed suit before passing it to Carey. Like a ghost, the Director, Lucretia, the woman they all suddenly knew in ways they never expected, appeared at Carey’s side. She wordlessly and unceremoniously sat down, taking the flask.

“How are you all doing?” she asked after a sip of Brandywine.

“Uh, not fucking great.” Avi reached out for the flask with one hand, scrubbing tears away with the other.

“Yeah, Madam Director, it’s been a bit of a day,” Carey said hoarsely before burying her face into Killian’s side.

“Please don’t call me that.”

“Well, how are you doing, Lucretia?” Killian asked after a moment of silence. Lucretia barked out a humorless laugh.

“Shitty.”

 

Carey and Killian’s wedding was a beautiful affair, but it wasn’t without its more somber moments. The two women had an entire row of empty chairs reserved at the ceremony. They said nothing about their purpose but it didn’t take much energy to determine their purpose.

At one point in the evening, the pair found themselves sitting with Avi and Lucretia.

“And here’s the beautiful couple!” Avi said brightly, wrapping the brides in a tight hug.

“The ceremony was beautiful,” Lucretia delivered a hug to the couple once they detangled from Avi.

“It really was, huh?” Carey squeezed Killian’s hand. Killian’s smile was tinged with sadness.

“Hey um. Thank you both for being here. There’s already too many people missing and I don’t know how it would have been without you both.”

“Killian, I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” Lucretia reached a hand out and squeezed the orc’s arm. Avi looked around and snagged four glasses of champagne off a waiter’s tray. After passing glasses to the three women around him, Avi raised his glass in a toast.

“To Johann and Boyland.”

Carey raised her glass. “To Noelle and Captain Captain Bane.”

Lucretia followed suit. “To Maureen Miller and Magic Brian.”

Killian raised her glass. “Fuck it, to Fisher and Junior.” The four laughed gently before toasting.

Killian was never more grateful for her friends than she was in that moment. So much had been lost in the pursuit of balance, but she was grateful that their memories would remain with her. And she was never so glad to have been finished with a job.

[ink-the-artist]

Its a lot harder to do with traditional art but I'd love to see progress shots of your colored pencil stuff its so neat

I wanted to wait until I had progress shots to show before answering this and I took some as soon as I was starting a new colored pencil illustration, which was the Pepto Bismol one I just posted. Gonna put a keep reading cut here bc this’ll probably be a bit of a long post lol. 

I don’t have any kind of strict process I always follow, I just do whatever works best for each specific drawing, so I kind of just took a pic whenever I finished anything that felt like it could be it’s own “step.” Also keep in mind I worked on this during different days, different times of day, and different locations, so the lighting will be pretty different throughout the pics here which will affect how the colors look and the overall quality of the photos, I did the best I could with the changing lighting.

First step is the graphite sketch. Since I’m focusing on the colored pencil part of the process I didn’t document the process of sketching, just the final outcome

I go over the sketch with a colored pencil, I usually use a lighter color so that the lines you’ll see in the next step are lighter and not going to be noticeable when the drawing is all done, and I’ll go with a color that would be found in the illustration so that it doesn’t look unnatural wherever it may show through (I chose pink because, Pepto Bismol)

then I go over the whole thing with an eraser, only the graphite erases completely while the colored pencil stays, even though it dulls a bit. This is so I can still have a sort of outline to color in without having to worry about graphite mixing with the lighter color pencil colors and muddying everything up (it also just cleans up the sketch a lot which makes everything easier to work with)

then I start putting some of the colors down while also adding some basic detail that I’ll color and shade along later. I also go over the lines again just to make sure everything is shaped correctly, but I’m using the base colors of whatever the object is because I don’t actually want things to have outlines later on

I’m kind of mapping out the colors now as well as shadows

(also I finally found a use for this super bright neon pink colored pencil I have lol)

I’m basically just continuously layering on more color and detail, making sure to go light to dark. I mostly work on everything evenly rather than meticulously finishing one area after another but I was a bit more meticulous with the pepto bismol tablets just because they were the most detailed part of the illustration

I pretty much color the borzoi last because it’s the one white thing in this image and I want it to sort of “reflect” all the colors that will be around it and you can see I’m still adding new colors to the background as I go along

adding some green, Im basically trying to get a black without using black by layering opposing (is that the right word?) colors over each other, it makes it so that the black still looks like a natural part of the image because it’s made up of the colors in it, and it gradients toward the foreground better. I’m also doing the same for the nose and lips of the borzoi

finally putting some more color down on the borzoi, both giving it a base color and making the shading more defined

added the pepto splash before I layer any more color on the background. Also in just about every step here I’m continuously touching up the pepto bismol tablets, maybe a bit too obsessively

adding more colors from the background to the borzoi as well as shading it some more

adding more green (and some dark blue) to the background and floor to darken it some more, and again to the borzoi

I blend some of the lighter areas with orange-yellow, dunno if this is a real technique I just like the kind of glow effect it has and I do it a lot in my drawings (basically layering light colors over dark ones and sort of pressing harder with the strokes to blend/smooth everything together while giving it an almost glowing undertone of that light color)

still layering colors to darken everything up

Only at the very end I use a white colored pencil, I haven’t used it at all so far. I give the borzoi it’s fur texture + its whiskers, basically using the same method as earlier when I blended the yellow into darker colors by pressing harder with the strokes, here the strokes are just fur-shaped. I also add some highlights to the metal bowls, the splash of pepto bismol, and the nose and mouth of the borzoi with white colored pencil and a tiiiiny bit of white gel pen (a really tiny bit, basically a few little dots here and there)

oh and I added the “Pepto Bismol” writing to the pepto bismol tablets (or as close to writing as I could get)

also at some point in this step a mysterious black line appeared on the drawing that I couldn’t get rid of :( but its ok I just removed it in photoshop later lol

then I just take as good a pic as I can and touch it up in photoshop, this is for getting rid of flaws like that weird black line as well as to make the photo resemble what the drawing looks like irl as closely as possible, I’ll usually have the drawing next to me so I can reference it while editing the photo to make sure it looks like the real thing. 

also in this step I usually crop the image both to hide the messy edges and to give it a better composition.

you can see how different all these pics look from each other (in terms of lighting and quality) let alone from the final piece, which is why the editing step is important lol

hope this is helpful!

[sope-and-shine]

Baby Bottles, Potions, and Squabbles

-> Pairing: Yoongi x Reader(ft. Baby Namjoon) -> SFW // Fluff, angst // Fantasy!AU -> Word Count: 4.5k -> Summary: The one rule Yoongi has for his potions lab is to NEVER eat or drink anything that’s down there. But is it really your fault when it had been so clearly labeled as water? -> Warnings: Mild language, baby Namjoon

a/n:  It’s done! I did it! My last February oneshot! Please enjoy.

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“What. Did you? Do?”

In the 5 years that you’ve known Yoongi, you’ve only ever seen him this angry twice before. Once when Namjoon - his apprentice - set his entire herb crop on fire. The second time when he had Seokjin house sit and his twins completely wrecked his home. Both times the blue haired man was absolutely furious, but not as furious as he seems to be now.

You flash him an innocent smile, “I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

“How about the baby wearing Namjoon’s clothes?” He gestures to the baby that rests in your arms, drowned in the multi-colored knit sweater that Namjoon will only ever take off if he’s showering or set on fire.

“What baby?” Yoongi glares and you look at the baby in your arms that he’s referring to and you continue to feign innocence, “Oh! You mean this baby? When did he get there?!”

Yoongi rubs his face with his hands and holds them over his eyes for a moment, trying to find the will to not hit you, “I am not in the mood to play games with you.” He puts his hands down and instead places them on your shoulders to keep you from running away, “Now, tell me what happened to Namjoon.”

With his intense gaze and his tight grip, you can only laugh awkwardly, “Well, you see-”

---

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Joonie?” You ask.

For the past hour you’ve been watching Namjoon trip over himself and fumble with various ingredients you don’t have the stomach for to throw into his pot. You’re used to watching Yoongi do it and there’s definitely a difference in process between the two. Then again, you can’t deny that Namjoon has definitely been getting better and better over the past 4 years. He’d be unstoppable if he’d just figure out how to use a knife properly.

“Of course I do!” The blade of his knife narrowly misses his finger, adding another oddly cut piece of willow root to his pile. He stirs his concoction twice clockwise before dropping them in and stirring four times counter clockwise. He turns up the heat and you watch from a distance on a counter adjacent to his as the once murky, purple liquid changes to a putrid green when it begins to boil.

“The bubbling green mixture says otherwise.” You comment. You hop off the counter to walk up next to him and immediately cover your nose, “This stuff smells disgusting!”

“It’s supposed to!” Namjoon defends, apparently unaffected by the rancid smell that’s leaving the cauldron in front of him.

“Why can’t it smell like, whatever that red one is?” You ask, pointing to the pot on the other side of the room.

He sighs, “Because the red one is different.” It takes him a second, but then he realizes what you said. He pushes you back away from his area and glares, “And stop smelling the potions before you smell the wrong one! Yoongi already doesn’t want you in here.”

“That’s why he sent me to bother you.” You smile, happy to have Yoongi’s permission to be in his lab for once. The blue haired wizard thought it would be good for Namjoon to work under pressure, and your presence was nothing but pressure.

Namjoon shakes his head, “Of course he did.”

The apprentice continues his stirring, adding a few more ingredients that are already prepared for him. He adds water and lowers the heat, letting everything settle before he adds what looks like basil leaves into the concoction as well. It’s after the first leaf hits the potion that it finally blows up in his face. You turn and face away from the blast, covering your nose as smoke billows around you. You hear Namjoon sputter in the background but the smoke that billows around you is too thick to see if he’s okay. 

When the smoke begins to thin and you still hear Namjoon coughing and hacking, you look for something to help him. Before the blast, you remember seeing unopened water bottles somewhere on the counter you were sitting on. Through the partially dense smog, you reach for the counter. You search blindly with your hands for one of the plastic bottles that sit at the back.

“Aha!” You cheer as you find one. You pull it to you and crack it open, turning to find Namjoon in the smoke that still lingers in the room. You use his consistent coughing as a way to help locate him. You place a gentle hand on his shoulder, “Namjoon, you need to drink some water.”

Without a second thought, Namjoon downs the entire bottle. He takes a moment to catch his breath, the smoke finally having cleared out and to the air pockets in the lab for ventilation. When he feels better, Namjoon sighs and looks at the bottle you had handed him. 

His face drops.

“Where did you get this?” He asks.

You point to the collection of bottles, “I got it from the counter. It wasn’t opened.”

Namjoon shakes his head, “That’s not water.”

“What do you mean it’s not water? The seals aren’t broken.” 

“Okay, but Yoongi said it’s not water.” 

“What is it then?” You ask.

He shrugs, “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you “don’t know”?!” You ask again, more frantic.

“I don’t know what it is-! Agh!” Namjoon grabs for his stomach, groaning in pain. He grabs onto the counter in front of him, but crumples to the floor.

“Namjoon!” You reach out to help him back up, but you stop. A bright light emanates from Namjoon’s body and you take a step back, shielding yourself when the light becomes too bright. When the light dims and you can look again, you’re met with a small, lilac haired baby sitting calmly on the floor in the sweater that once belonged to Namjoon.

Namjoon is nowhere to be found.

Fearing the worst, you kneel down and pick up the small infant, “Namjoon…?” You ask.

---

“And that’s what happened.” You finish, explaining the story in detail as you cradle baby Joon in your arms. Yoongi looks far from impressed by your story. If anything, he looks more annoyed than usual. 

The wizard closes his eyes and takes a long, deep breath, “How many times have I told you not to drink what you find in my lab?”

“It was labeled ‘water’ so I drank it!” You defend.

“Don’t. Drink. The liquids. In. My. Lab.” He scolds, emphasizing every word.

“It. Was. Labeled. WATER!” You remind him.

“I can’t deal with you right now!” He scoffs. He reaches out and takes Namjoon from your arms, pulling the newly turned infant into his grasp and holding him out in front of him. He moves him away from you and inspects the damage done to his apprentice. His anger is still evident on his face. The more he glares and holds Namjoon away from him, the more the small infant begins to fuss in his arms. 

And then he wails. 

“Why is he crying?” Yoongi asks.

“Because you’re scaring him!” 

“I’m holding him!”

“You’re yelling.” You don’t bother asking, you take Namjoon back into your arms and hold him to your chest once again, “Hi, Joonie~ You’re okay, I’m here.”

Yoongi rolls his eyes as you coo at the baby, “He’s not just going to magically stop crying because yo-” He stops himself when Namjoon’s unbearable wails fade away, “Not another word.”

The infant’s small hands grab onto your shirt, his head nestling into your chest. He seems to be tired from the mixed emotions, and it worries you that he may have real problems that you and Yoongi aren’t able to see from the blast. 

“What are we going to do, Yoongi?” You ask.

Yoongi sighs, “Didn’t I just say not another word?”

You ignore his obvious annoyance with you and continue to voice your concerns, “Namjoon is a baby! What if he has problems and can’t tell us?”

He shakes his head and turns away from you, “Yeah? Well, that’s no thanks to you.” The way he says it is cold. It feels as though he’s demeaning you - and he probably is - but you can’t let his anger get in the way of helping Namjoon.

“Yoongi-!” You attempt to follow after him, but he makes a quick turn on his heel.

“(Y/n)!” He marches towards you, making you stop in your tracks and walk back until you bump into the couch. He stops in front of you - so close to him that you instinctively pull Namjoon as close to your chest as you can. His nose is right in front of your own and he takes a moment before he continues, “I will figure out how to get Namjoon back to normal. You will stay up here, out of my way, and out of trouble.”

“Okay, but I can help!” 

Yoongi rolls his eyes, “You can help by keeping him out of the lab.”

As soon as he’s finished saying his piece, he turns away again. This time, you don’t follow him. You let him walk away to do whatever it is he needs to do to turn Namjoon back to normal, even if it means he’s still angry. In all honesty, you can’t blame him - Namjoon turning into a baby is technically your fault, but how were you supposed to know unopened water bottles labeled water weren’t actually water?

Hopefully if you stay out of his way and let him work through it he’ll calm down.

---

For as long as you’ve known Yoongi, he’s always put himself on the back burner to get his work done. Whether it was to prepare new ingredients for new potions, creating a lesson plan for Namjoon, or assisting Seokjin in grading essays from his own students at the Academy, you’ve become used to his workaholic ways. It’s because of his tendency to overwork himself that you took it upon yourself to start taking care of him in return.

Ever since you first met Yoongi, you’ve always taken notice of his work hours. Too often he’d start his work before dawn and end way into the night. You watched him work himself into the ground for a lot longer than you should have before you started to do small things around his house for him. Sometimes you would wash whatever dishes were in the sink, or you’d organize his spice rack how he likes it when he’s just run out of the energy to do it himself. You’ve thrown his dirty clothes into his washer on more than one occasion, and meals seemed to be the one activity you were always working on just for him.

You decided to make dinner after Yoongi left you alone with baby Namjoon. He’d already spent 5 hours - starting at 4 in the morning before the incident - hunting for Iridescent Dot Frogs, and it was going on another 6 of him attempting to reverse whatever you’d done to Namjoon. Lately, most of your meals or goods deeds have been done out of guilt and as a way to say sorry. And now - with infant Namjoon resting on your hip - you want this meal to be the best one you’ve ever made.

Right as you turn off the front burner, you hear a loud explosion come from Yoongi’s potion lab. The floor beneath you shakes and the dishes above your head rattle. You move fast to push the pan with your meal to the back burner before the quakes send it over the edge of the stove. Your quick actions mixed with the small trembles have Namjoon bouncing in excitement and clapping his hands together.

You chuckle, “You would enjoy that, wouldn’t you? Figures.”

Behind you, you hear the basement door open, signaling that Yoongi is finally leaving his bubble of isolation. You grab three plates from the dish drainer and set them on the counter, “I hope you’re hungry, I made a lot.” 

When you turn around, you catch a big whiff of dust and smoke that emanates off your friend. His once light blue hair is blanketed in soot and you can’t help but cover Namjoon’s nose before his little body has a chance to breathe it in as Yoongi passes. He goes to the sink and grabs his special soap from the cabinet.

You watch him rub the soap into his hair and over his face, waiting for him to turn off the water before you attempt to spark a conversation, “Are you okay?”

His towel stops moving and he turns just enough to peek at you over the cloth, “Do I look okay?”

Your eyes narrow, “You look like you’re alive and not a toddler.” His attitude - while still somewhat valid - was not appreciated.

The wizard simply turns back to his towel and shrugs, “I’m fine.”

“Dinner’s ready. If you want some.”

You set Namjoon on the counter so you can make both his and your plate, moving them to the table before you come back for Joon. You settle him on your lap and alternate between his fork and your fork, all the while ignoring Yoongi just as he ignores you.

You don’t notice how he looks over his shoulder when you trick Namjoon into eating his potatoes. You don’t acknowledge him when he sits down next to you while you make sure Namjoon chews his food all the way through. You don’t notice when he stares at you while you wipe away stray bits of food from Namjoon’s chin. It’s like the domesticity of the situation has him relaxing and finding peace that he’d been needing since the incident even happened.

When he’s finished, Yoongi takes just a bit longer to enjoy the way you coo over the infant on your lap. He allows himself to be selfish for just a moment before he decides he has to get back to work, “Thank you for dinner. I’m going to get back to work.”

It’s the most calm thing he’s said to you all day, and it makes you feel better knowing that he’s begun to calm down - even if you don’t know why. You smile, “Okay. I’ll clean up and give Namjoon a bath. Just let me know if I can bring you anything or go out to grab something.”

“Alright.” 

He returns downstairs, and it’s another 4 hours later before he’s back up.

Despite all the work and effort he put into it, he wasn’t any closer to finding an antidote for Namjoon. His potions just kept blowing up, and if he didn’t get any sleep soon, then he really wouldn’t get anywhere.

When he opens the door to the main floor, he’s surprised to see the lights still on. Usually, you turn off the lights before you go home or before you go to bed. It wasn’t often that you stayed up late for him, and Yoongi really doesn’t want to get into the details of the day with how tired he is.

He goes to the living room to see if you’re up waiting for him, but he stops in his tracks when he sees you passed out on the floor with your arm resting lightly over Namjoon’s torso. You’ve laid out a small blanket, just big enough for the two of you to lay down beside each other, but your knees don’t even rest on the blanket. You look so peaceful laying next to the small infant, and he can’t help but admit how it makes his heart ache.

Knowing you, when you wake up you’ll be in too much pain to do anything. Instead of letting you suffer, he places an enchantment on the blanket underneath you. It slowly expands and bulks up, becoming a plush mattress for you and Namjoon to rest on. He conjures a light blanket to throw over you, moving a hand over to Namjoon’s side to place another enchantment - something to keep him from rolling off in the middle of the night and getting himself hurt.

He admires the image for just a moment before he waves his hand and turns out the light, heading upstairs to get as much rest as he can.

---

It’s been over a week since Namjoon turned into a baby and nothing Yoongi has done has worked. He’s tried several potions to counteract the one Namjoon had drank, but nothing seems to stick. The only hope for Namjoon seems to be the growth into a toddler just the other day.

The whole situation is troublesome, especially with you looking after Namjoon on a daily basis. When it was just you, it was easier to ignore the way he felt. As a teacher, he needs to be focused on his students and not the person that makes him meals on the daily. Now that you’re taking care of a baby in his house 24/7, he can’t seem to concentrate. He’s so out of it that he almost wants to apologize for being an ass and scolding you - but he won’t because he’s that stubborn.

Now, he’s just trying g to get through an especially hectic trip to the market. Normally, he’d be able to slip away from both you and Namjoon since Namjoon would know what he’d need. But with Namjoon being unable to see over the counter and form coherent sentences, he’d have to stick by your side to make sure you don’t get swindled into buying something useless again.

Instead, he enjoys the view of you fixing Namjoon’s sunhat - a fabric hat that you’d purposely shrunk in the dryer so he could wear it outside. The poor kid wears an oversized shirt of his, and it swallows him whole. It’s much different from what the apprentice is normally used to. Especially since he’s resting on your hip instead of walking beside you. 

“Yoongi! Isn’t this that weird fruit you like?” You ask, holding the dark purple Wake Fruit above your head. Unlike the name, the fruit is actually supposed to help you sleep - one reason Yoongi usually forces himself to eat it. He watches Namjoon reach for the fruit with both of his little chubby hands and he can’t stop himself from smiling when you laugh, “Namjoon seems to think it is!”

“You know, Wake Fruits are good for growing babies. I can give you a dozen for $8.” The old woman behind the stall offers, having cut the normal price for a dozen almost in half.

Yoongi is already pulling out his wallet when he hears you try to protest, “What? Are you sure? You don’t have to do that.”

“Please, dear, I’ve been a young mother. You’ll need it.” Her comment makes you blush, but the wizard doesn’t give you time to think about it.

He hands the older woman the cash and accepts the fruit from her, “Thank you very much. We really appreciate it.”

He guides you away from the stand and on route to the next one, a hand placed on the small of your back with Namjoon on your hip between the two of you. Neither of you comment on just how intimate it feels to walk like this, almost as if the tender moment you’re sharing is a real family moment. From stall to stall, the both of you smile and live the dream that neither of you would admit to wanting out loud. 

As you get further along, Yoongi comes to realize that there’s one stand you and Namjoon can’t go to. Not because it’s for wizards only, or because it was full of fragile items. But because the people that enter the tent behind the stand where he needs to purchase his next items were not friendly. He’d taken Namjoon once when he first started out, and the grown adult - at the time - almost wet himself.

“Here.” Yoongi stops at a candy stand and rests the handle of the wagon in your hand. He pulls out the cloak he had stuffed in the corner of the wagon and wraps it around himself. He throws his hood over his head, “I’ll be back in about 10 minutes, just look at what you want and I’ll buy it when I get back.”

“Okay, take your time.” You wave him off, going as far as to use Namjoon’s little baby hand to wave goodbye to him as well.

You spend quite a bit of time looking over the candy selections. There are a lot of candies that Namjoon enjoys but can’t have with him being too young. So, you attempt to find a replacement that a toddler can enjoy.  You don’t pay any mind to what Yoongi had said before about waiting for him, you just continue to point at candies that you'd like and order the appropriate size for who you know will eat it.

When you finally need to pay, you set Namjoon down in the wagon full of groceries. It takes you a second to get him situated, but you get him in a good enough position to get your own wallet pulled out to pay for your items. It takes you even longer, however, to get your packages settled around the bundle of joy that moves without a care.

“C’mon, Joonie, just sit still for a moment.” You beg, trying to settle everything into a stable position.

“Need some help there?” You turn over your shoulder to see a tall man with dark hair hovering next to you, his attention split between you and Namjoon. His smile, although seemingly genuine, puts you off. Especially when he reaches a hand out before you okay him, “Toddlers are just a handful aren’t they?”

Before his hand can even get close, you push his arm away from Namjoon, “That’s quite alright, I got it.”

If he was offended by your action, you don’t notice. He plays it off cool, “Are you sure? I don’t mind helping out. It must be hard doing the parent thing all by yourself.”

“I’m just fine, thank you.” You hope that a verbal reassurance will send him away, but this supposed “casanova” just doesn’t seem to get the hint.

“No, really, I can do this.” He makes another advance towards Namjoon and you’re quick to reach out for the miniature apprentice first.

You don’t care if your groceries fall into the dirt or spill over for everyone to step on. You don’t even care if you drop your wallet. But there’s no way in hell you’re letting this creep lay even a single hand on your friend, “I said I’m fine, thank you.”

“Don’t you think he needs a father figure?” He asks, now clearly agitated.

You shake your head, “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

“As a man I think it is.”

“As the father, I think you need to mind your own damn business.”

Both you and your “admirer” turn to see Yoongi pull the hood of his cloak down, a burlap sack filled with whatever he had bought dangling from his other hand. His expression is easier to read than normal, filled with more anger than you’re used to seeing from him. You always thought the face he made when he was upset with you was hard to handle but this expression is much worse than anything you’ve personally received from him.

When the guy doesn’t answer or even attempts to move, Yoongi makes his own movie to walk in between you and the guy to set his things in the wagon where Namjoon had been. When he’s empty handed, he puts an arm over your shoulder and pulls you closer to him with a firm grip, “As my wife said, she’s fine. And our son having a father figure is none of your business. Do you get it now?”

The way Yoongi asks the guy if he understands is almost cynical. You can hear the underlying threat in his tone, almost as if he were daring the guy to go ahead and just try to pull something. But he seems to have somewhat of a head on his shoulders.

“Yeah, I got it. Sorry, man.” He apologizes, but it’s empty. Emotionless. You don’t even want to think about what he’s thinking.

“Did you already buy the candy you wanted?” Yoongi asks, still watching the man as he disappears further into the crowd.

“Yeah, I did.”

“Good, we’re leaving.”

You weren’t about to question Yoongi about leaving. You definitely don’t have everything on your list, but you have absolutely no desire to stay around.

When you make it back to his house, Yoongi takes charge of putting the groceries you got away while you put Namjoon down for a nap. He assured you that he would go to get the rest later when Seokjin would be out of his classes for the day. He didn’t want you left alone with Namjoon, and for once in the many times that Yoongi had done something like this, you don’t mind one bit.

It’s when you’re pulling the blanket up to the toddlers head that you hear him walk up behind you, “You’re surprisingly good at this.”

“You think so?” You ask, letting your hand linger on Namjoon’s cheek.

“Yeah, I do.”

You stand up all the way and turn around, nodding towards the door for Yoongi to follow. He leaves the door cracked open behind the both of you, that way you can hear Namjoon if he needs you. He follows you all the way to the living room before you both flop down on his couch from exhaustion. 

“Please remind me when Namjoon’s back to normal that children are indeed a gift.” Your day had been filled with nothing but chasing Namjoon around Yoongi’s house and traveling around the market for the entire afternoon. As much fun as you’ve been having with him as an infant, your body is definitely feeling way more exhausted than usual.

“Sure.” 

You close your eyes and tilt your head back, enjoying the silence that comes with Yoongi’s presence. It wasn’t always so calming to you, but the more time that you got to spend with him over the years the more you began to love it. 

Next to you, Yoongi sighs, “I’ve been an ass.” 

You open your eyes and turn your head, finding him staring at the ceiling above him. He’s pouting, and it takes some control to not laugh at him, “Not a total ass. I did kinda deserve the treatment.”

He shakes his head, “Not all of it.” He turns his head to look at you and sighs again, “I should’ve been more understanding.”

“I turned Namjoon into a baby.”

“Namjoon probably would’ve turned himself into a baby.” He says. You both laugh, knowing that there’s more truth than assumptions to his statement. He sits up and turns to face you, “Look, I just want you to know that I’m sorry.”

You sit up next to him and place a hand over his, “I’m sorry too.”

Yoongi takes a moment to stare at your hand over his before he looks back up again, “Maybe when we get Namjoon back to normal I can make it up to you?”

“We?” You ask.

“We.”

[neokad]

Phantasy Star II - The 1989 JRPG that could

(This post is dedicated to @kuukigajan, my best friend, whom motivated me to post here again, so... I hope you'll enjoy this!)

This game. This freaking game.

I'm gonna say it right now: this post will contain massive spoilers about pretty much everything in Phantasy Star 2's story, so if you do plan on experiencing this game fresh, I strongly advise you to not read this post at all beyond the first paragraph, but... here's the gist of it: Phantasy Star II is one of the most important and groundbreaking JRPGs of its time, and I just did not believe this game was from 1989, at ALL. For that and a few other reasons, it has become one of my new favourite games of all time <3 

In fact, I do want to start with the one big flaw of this adventure so that I can just gush about everything else that's brilliant about PSII. I have to be honest: the dungeon design in this game is horrible. Now to be fair, it does make the many places you visit more memorable, but well... there's a rumor floating around that an actual trainee made the layouts for the dungeons - and since this game was a bit rushed for the Genesis's launch, the devs just didn't have time to replace the... stuff he submitted. And let me tell you, this rumor makes sense: PSII's dungeons are too big, too maze-like, too confusing and also FILLED with strong enemies. And in a game where you don't get a way to save anywhere until the midway point, it can make your adventure very frustrating and potentially grindy because of that... Now I wouldn't say that PSII's nearly as bad in this area as say, the original version of Dragon Warrior or ironically the first Phantasy Star, but the dungeons can totally make you feel like the game's harder than it actually is, at least without a map.

Thankfully, you should never feel bad for using any maps or guides with this game! The execs at SEGA at the time made the very smart decision to include a walkthrough with each copy of the game, including maps, tips, secrets and more! Said guide does encourage youto not look at it as much as possible but... it's totally fair to just use this, without any shame!

And that is a great thing, because... with you armed with this piece of paper, Phantasy Star II can finally show you its actual brilliance.

The game's plot starts off a thousand years after the events of the first Phantasy Star game. Since Alis and her party defeated Dark Force, the inhabitants of the Algol solar system - and its three planets of Palma, Motavia and Dezolis - have enjoyed relative peace. However, at a (to my knowledge) unknown point in time, a computer entity known as Mother Brain has started imposing itself onto mostly Motavia. This, over time, has actually given many benefits to the region: the once deserted wasteland was given rain, water and crops, so that it could finally host viable, comfortable civilizations. The citizens that lived here could finally ditch their (arguably) nomadic, harsh lives in favor of comfort, pleasant weather and more. And most importantly, Mother Brain allowed its citizens, save for a few, to ditch their current jobs and live a life of laziness, without any obligations or pressure to do anything other than well, existence. This is reflected many times during the game through NPC dialogue, too!

It is on such a setting that our protagonist, Rolf, wakes up from a strange nightmare. In it, we see Alis batting Dark Force and struggling in doing so, but as soon as he realizes this, Rolf wakes up in cold sweat. He then proceeds to calm his nerves, realizing that no such dramatic events could possible happen to him - after all, he and many others have been under the universal protection and care of Mother Brain, whom at this point, has provided all of their needs for centuries. He then gets out of bed and goes to the central tower, where we works as an agent in case some things do go wrong.

And gone wrong things have! His superior informs him that biological monsters, which had been created and bred in the Mota biosystems laboratory, have gone rogue and infected the regions of Motavia at a rapid rate. Because of this, Rolf is asked to investigate the cause of this phenomenon. Once he gets home to prepare for his journey, he is ambushed by best girl Nei, who has been rescued by him many months ago from the clutches of a serial killer. She does not want to be left alone anymore, and since she is also worried for Rolf's sefety, asks him to accompany him on the mission. Naturally, Rolf accepts.

Here, I do want to bring up Nei in more detail! She's in fact, the first of PSII's brilliant story-gameplay interactions, and here's why! Nei is in fact, a crossbreed experiment between a human and an unknown animal with cat-like features, but here's the thing: this said experiment was a failure. Because of this, Nei is only one years old, and yet her physical and mental age are progressing way more rapidly than they should. And you can feel this effect on the game itself: she needs way less EXP than any other party member in the game to level up, and because of this she will skyrocket in levels way beyond the rest of your crew... with a catch. Because of the nature of the experiment, the genetic code inside of her is slowly being messed up and corrupted, which not only causes her level ups to be less valuable than anyone else's, but it also becomes an important plot point later...  Unfortunately, despite her absolute cuteness, her status as a half-half made her a victim of bullying, racism and so much more, which is... pretty messed up to bring up at the time not gonna lie o_o

Starting up the journey, the party discovers that rogues have destroyed a neighboring city, and it just so happens that their base is situed at Shure, the first dungeon of the game . One assumption I like to make from this scene is that life has become so easy and careless on Motavia that people just went and did crime out of pure boredom, because life just wasn't thrilling enough anymore with Mother Brain doing everything it could for its inhabitants...

However, upon climbing said tower, Rolf and Nei find out multiple dead rogue bodies, whom have been presumably murdered by the many biomonsters roaming the place. They do, however, manage to find some dynamite and most importantly, a letter. This piece of paper informs our heroes that the daughter of a Darum, the very same person that tried to murder Nei months ago, is held captive in another tower, which explains why he turned to crime in the first place. They then decide to do the obvious, which is to rescue daughter Teim in her captivity location. Once they meet up with her, she explains her desire to talk to her father to set things straight and sway him from the life he's been getting into, as well as hide her from the surviving rogue members with the help of a veil. Our group manages to meet up with Darum, but... her daughter asks the party to stay put, as she does not want them to interfere with her as she explains things to her father. However, in the heat of the moment, she forgets to remove her veil, which causes Darum to not recognize her. In his confusion, he murders her own flesh and blood and sits there, stunned, as he watches the reason he caused many untold atrocities... wither away below him. Shocked and going insane by this situation, he sees no other way out... but to commit suicide with the help of a bomb.

It gets worse.

While this scene was tragic and brutal to say the least, it does allow Rolf to cross the previously guarded bridge where Darum was always located, which allows him to investigate his mission further.

I do want to make a sidenote here actually! Phantasy Star II does include eight playable characters, but unlike Rolf and Nei they do not join you at fixed intervals - instead, they will become available in your home town of Paseo once conditions are met. Sadly while they do have a recruitment quote, a few lines and a backstory, they do not have an impact on the main story in any way. This does blow as this means PSII does not have much in character development and interaction, but I did want to mention that there’s more to this game than just Rolf and Nei :P 

Upon exploring the regions of Motavia, the party manages to make its way to the Biosystems lab, and what they find here is horrifying to say the least. The lab is in horrible shape, with cracked floors everywhere. On top of that, there is no one inside the lab anymore, it being completely deserted, save for some horrible-looking creatures being kept insides tubes, decorating the now sinister looking building... Because of this, Rolf deems it safe to pick up the recorder inside the lab, to analyze it and try to find out just what exactly went wrong - if anything at all - to hopefully figure out why the world has been sacked by biomonsters. And sure enough, the gang make its way back to Paseo.  After handing over the recorder to the library located in Paseo’s Central Tower, it is now made clear: the biomonsters were caused by a large amount of energy used in a very short amount of time in those labs, causing them to mutate extremely rapidly. This had the predictable but unfortunate effect of ruining the natural order of the ecosystem, which is why these species are wrecking havoc without control. The librarian giving this information also makes the following connection: this outpour of energy must have come from Climatrol - another lab which regulates the weather of the terraformed planet so that it can sustain its new shape. Following this, Rolf and co. take a few steps to reach Climatrol - and I want to highlight a specific one!

The story somewhat pauses until then, but one of the dungeons you’ll go through is a garbage dump... and one of the treasures is a jet scooter you can use! Sounds cool, right? Well it is, but even such a cool object has been abandoned by the lazy society, since teleportation is much more convenient to them. I just thought it was a really neat detail, that’s all ^_^

Once making their way through the relatively normal Climatrol, something does wait for them at the top of the building... something... unsettling...

This is Neifirst. She was another failed experiment just like Nei, sharing the same biological data as her. However, unlike her sister, her creators tried to kill her on the spot due to her status. This made her enraged against the species that gave her life, and as an act of revenge, decided to unleash this bio catastrophy to slowly wipe us out. This is where another truth is revealed: Nei did not come with Rolf just to protect him, she actually wanted to put a stop to her sister, because while she did dislike being treated like a freak or a monster, she never wanted to hate her species as a whole... It remains that she still wants to stop her sister’s plans, and despite Rolf’s protests, the two engages in a fight. However, due to Neifirst being much stronger, Nei sustains heavy damage and is incapacitated. But, this is where the rest of the party comes in, and thus they finish the job and kill off Neifirst dead in her tracks, Rolf then quickly rushes in to his dear friend’s side, but as he does... it’s too late... Nei is dead.

This is yet another reason why Phantasy Star II is such an important game: it is, to my knowledge, the very first JRPG in which a major playable character dies permanently. Heck, Rolf even tries to bring her back through the local Clone Lab - because yes, citizens have access to eternal life by cloning their bodies until the end of time - but... since Nei’s genetic code was degenerating rapidly, they could not clone her body anymore. And, since Neifirst was also defeated, it is also impossible to get a fresh code back from anywhere in the world. Nei is dead. And you cannot do anything about it.

But don’t worry! It still gets worse!

But just as you’re about to find a way to fix this, it turns out that Climatrol has collapsed, which caused an immense flood all over the world. Since the government - and by extension, Mother Brain - isn’t happy about this, you are now considered a fugitive, a criminal. You are now the bad guy, and you are wanted for treason. 1989, anyone??

This is where the second brilliant story-gameplay integration of Phantasy Star II happens. Where until now you’ve only fought mutated monsters due to the outbreak, the government has now sent thousands of carious cyborgs and robots against you - and lo and behold, this is now the only thing you are fighting in both the overworld and dungeons, and the previous creatures are now nowhere to be seen. THAT’S REALLY SMART. Now sure, even if you are considered evil to many, you still task yourself with the task of unflooding the planet, and to do so you simply reactivate all four colored dams in the continent. However, upon reactivating the fourth one, your party is suddenly ambushed by a trio of robots sent by the cops, and this time? They succeed in capturing you. Your party is now sent in chains on a hovering satellite, as you are sentenced to slowly wither away and die in there without any trial of any sort, simply because you went against Mother Brain’s dear wishes...

But, something goes amiss. The sattelite starts to malfunction, and is now set to crash on one of the three planets of the Algol system. And despite you all trying to alter its course, it is too late. The satellite crashes onto Palma - the planet of the first Phantasy Star game - and it is gone.

That’s right! The planet in which many players took the time to save with Alis’s gang, to have a huge dungeon crawling adventure, the planet where you defeated Lassic in a glorious fashion. GONE. In only a few seconds. But... what about yourself? Well, you actually died! But a space pirate wandering close to the crash site pulled out your remains and cloned everyone’s body back to life... which makes you technically not yourself, and also dead, for the remainder of the game! ...May I remind you this game was developed in 1989?

Tyler the space pirate then escorts the zombie party back to Paseo, but not for long - you see, your commander, who hasn’t truly approved of Mother Brain’s actions against your group, allows you access to a spaceship. This is a big deal, because space travel as a whole has been banned ten years ago due to a major accident in which Rolf had lost his parents, and thus, the one stationed in Paseo is the last one remaining on the planet. But sure enough, Rolf takes the opportunity and travels to the ice planet of Dezolis, or Dezo.

And honestly? Even though this next part has nothing to do with the main story, it’s probably one of my favourites in the entire game. In this section, you simply must make your way through an abandoned space station, which has not seen use in years. At first, you’d think it was somewhat related to the spaceship incident, but as you explore this space station, you find a bunch of animals and newspapers lying around. You not only find some irrelevant ads about various products, but also news flash about a horrible gas spreading throughout the station, begging every inhabitant to evacuate immediately, which... definitively implies a very bleak fate to the place and its inhabitants o_o 

And on top of this unsettling setting, this is the first time you get to hear “Silent Zone”, my favourite track in the game. While the rest of the soundtrack is very upbeat, catchy and all around excellent, this track in particular is very... sad, desolate, lonely, in spite of it being just as catchy! It all combines for a brilliant example of “show, don’t tell” that really sets the mood perfectly to me <3

Either way, upon exploring more of Dezo - a frigid wasteland with few inhabitants - the party gets to meet up with Noah, a party member from Phantasy Star I! After reawakening from a cryogenic sleep, he then reveals that unlike Paseo and Motavia, Dezo basically never submitted with Mother Brain’s control and benefits simply because they did not want to live a life without any struggles. Unfortunately, this is also where you learn that Paseo came to terms with this *after* being to MB’s whims and as such, you can connect the dots and realize that the satellite crash was no accident after all... it was all planned.

Noah, however, knows about how deeply MB has ruined everything for the inhabitants of Motavia and thus tasks Rolf with collecting eight legendary ancient weapons all throughout Dezo, located within some ruinous, empty, cold dungeons which make for stunning atmosphere and presence, believe me!

Once that’s done, he then entrusts Rolf with the ultimate Sword and, thanks to kinetic abilities, sends him and his troupe to the space station housing Mother Brain. And once there, for the first time in centuries, a human being has met with Mother Brain.

And of course, the computer scoffs at those rebelling against her. She laughs at how they think they’d want a life with struggles, wtihout comfort, without anyone providing their needs, when work and hardship seems so uninviting on a desert wasteland like Motavia, or a frigid hell like Dezo. And yet, after a (pretty difficult!) battle, you emerge victorious! Or do you?

After the victorious outcome, Noah senses some additional presences beyond Mother Brain’s spot, and urges the party to investigate. And then... I don’t think I’ll even explain it in words. Please watch what happens. It is disturbing.

Yeah. We, the humans, were destroying our planet, Earth. Thus, we escaped through this spaceship to avoid extinction, and found the Algo system. It then, to our species, only seemed logical with so few numbers, to instead slowly weaken the population of all three planets with Mother Brain, making it then easy (although a very long process) to get rid of the population and start anew, even if it meant genocide. What I love about this twist ending is not only how it’s presented: the creepy music, the way you did *not* expect it at all, the number of humans on the screen at once, and so on... but also, how you don’t even know for sure how it ends. You don’t know if Rolf, Rudo, Amy, Kain, Hugh, Shir, Anna... if any of them survived. But it looks grim. It looks like we lost. And it looks like everyone we fought and tried to save... will rot until the final days anyway... Phantasy Star II... is important. Sure, I could talk about how the game is challenging due to how both your party members AND the enemies are very capable in battle or the stellar, catchy, memorable soundtrack...   but its story... is stunning. In 1989, we were still used to princesses being saved by armored heroes from dark dragons. We were used to things going all well in the end. But in 1989, Phantasy Star II taught us many things that would become staples in the future of JRPGs:  Yes, your cherished ones may die with you not being able to do anything about it No, you may not be able to save everyone you’d like to. Yes, your actions might make things worse for yourself and everyone else. No, things aren’t quite as black or white as they seem. And no, you might not always win. Phantasy Star II is a masterpiece. It’s a bit hard to approach this game today, but with a guide, this game is a must play. It’s unique. It’s ambitious. It’s chilling. And I adore this game to pieces. Thank you for reading, somehow <3

[lovelyirony]

76 for winteriron or 94 for rhodeytony?? ily and your work ma’am your vibes are immaculate -ambivalentmarvel

thank you! and reminder: please send in the full prompt! 

76.) “If you lay a finger on him, I’ll kill everyone in this room.” 

Tony Stark was not supposed to be a detective. He was not supposed to be a lot of things. But when his father had told him at age seven that all he’d ever be was a disappointment, he decided he might as well do whatever the hell he wanted with his life. 

So. A detective. That had gone over well with his college advisor. 

“Aren’t you...aren’t you Howard’s son?” He had said nervously, readjusting his glasses for about the eighth time in seven minutes. 

“Yes, but I also have a mother. And my mother is very keen on my having some skills of my own. Between you and I, we all know my father is going to hand it over to his business partner.” 

(This all is a very direct lie. His mother could not honestly care less what he does with his life as long as he never looks her in the eye and tells her that boxed wine is good. He’s not going to look her in the eye for quite some time.) 

Being a detective isn’t all film noir and extravagant lifestyle. Sure he gets paid the big bucks. He blends into high society well but is just unknowable enough to put on an old pair of jeans and slink into a coffee shop under the guise of being another guy on his laptop. That’s a skill few possess. 

There’s also the tiny, teensy little detail that he’s one of the only detectives to risk secret-agency-detection because in all honesty the security systems were built by Stark Industries and Howard wasn’t exactly what anyone would call “stellar” at security measures. 

Tony, however, was. 

(Did some side work for SI, you know the drill. Sure his father wasn’t exactly thrilled, but it’s not like there was the PR nightmare of Stark Sr. not being as smart in his old age as people always expected.) 

So when he gets an offer for finding and capturing the Winter Soldier from someone named Natalie? 

Well, he asks if he gets to use his frequent flier miles and packs a bag for DC. 

The Winter Soldier is regarded as a conspiracy theory. A man who is all machine, does the dirty work for an undercover organization, and has a shiny arm that can do a lot of things that Tony dreams about at night. 

He likes conspiracy theories. Enjoys the hell out of solving them. (Roswell was a particularly fun one to crack.) 

So he starts with research. 

There is one thing to be said about the Winter Soldier: 

He’s notoriously bad at hiding his tracks beyond the usual security measures. Restricting camera access, destroying tapes, passing off a flimsy excuse as to why a politician, peacemaker, or civilian that was causing a little too much trouble was suddenly found dead, the coronary reports restricted on a need-to-know basis. 

Don’t make him laugh. 

People talk. They always do, doesn’t matter if it’s been a year or thirty. 

The coroners, the police, the people that surrounded the target. They all nervously whisper about suspecting someone else. 

He gets closer to the location. He can tell by the thrum he holds in himself now, the way sleep doesn’t come as easily. (Although he still gets it. You don’t buy 400 thread count for nothing.) 

Hydra is still in business. Of course it is. 

He pays SHIELD a little visit. 

That organization is about the worst-kept secret in the world. He dresses up in a smart suit, ridiculous glasses, and pastes a cheesy grin on his face. 

He’s in an interview for tech. Gets lost on his way there. The person conducting the interviews has them booked back to back. When a “Mr. Edward Jarvis” does not show up for the interview, the next candidate will come in. 

Of course, he looks like any other employee scurrying around with stacks in his arms. Face is obscured by cameras. He’s bypassed Stark Industries’ security features, and he gets to the file room. 

Holy shit. It’s bad. 

After spending at least two minutes thinking he would die from coughing from all the dust. 

They don’t organize anything. All of the paper files, it seems, have been abandoned as soon as the digitized platform came out. (Which makes sense.) 

He finds the file box on Winter Soldier. Everything, suspiciously, is blacked out. But he finds one name: Alexander Pierce. 

For a man who is about to overtake SHIELD and ruin the entire world, you think he’d have a less consistent schedule. Or that his house would be harder to get into. 

Moral of the story: you can break into the window in an attic. 

Tony is making coffee. 

Pierce stops in his tracks. 

“Who the hell are you?” 

“Why do you have Folgers? You live in a nice neighborhood. You live like this?” Tony asks. He takes a swig of coffee, winces. “God I haven’t had stuff this bad since I was in college. Ew.” 

“If you’re here to kill me, you’ve got yourself in a bigger mess than you know.” 

“No, I don’t think I am,” Tony answers. “Because you? You’re stuck here. With me. You can try to run but to be completely frank, your joint medication by the paper towels speak to your ability to outrun me. There’s also the little fact that I’m not here for the typical reason.” 

“So what, you’re not an enemy of SHIELD?” Pierce asks. 

“Of course I’m not,” Tony says, smiling. “Even like a couple of their agents. But you’re not exactly SHIELD, are you? Some PR talked about one head cut off, two more grow back. I’m not exactly sure if you know how human anatomy works, but...” 

Pierce grins. 

“Oh, then you know about our little project.” 

“Of course I do,” Tony says. “Not so little, though. Didn’t get him operational until 1954? What was that, your birth year? Can’t imagine he’s perfect.” 

His smile thins. 

“It’s taken trial and test runs. But he’s perfect now.” 

“Ah, there’s the problem,” Tony says. “Because he probably broke a lot of people, didn’t he Pierce? Probably threw at least one person. I saw the specs for the arm. A lot of power behind that.” 

“And how would you know about the arm?” Pierce asked. “We don’t keep blueprints.” 

“You don’t,” Tony says slowly. “But the creator does. And you should’ve looked a lot carefully at who was behind your little experimental arm, Pierce. You shouldn’t trust a Stark to stay in a lane.” 

His eyes widen. 

Tony loves theatrics. He also likes that he was the one who technically found out about the little quirk. 

“So here’s what you didn’t know,” Tony continues. “Our hypothetical technological inventions have a tracking component on them, just in case we cannot find them in our inventory or database. And even though your scientists did an excellent job at hiding the box and filling it with a truly terrible amount of cookbooks, they did not know about that little feature.” 

Tony pulls out his phone. 

“Your Soldier is in...wow, you’re keeping him local? Pierce, I expected more from you.” 

“What do you want.” 

“I want him,” Tony says. “And I’ll leave you alone.” 

“Absolutely not,” Pierce seethes. “Why would we give you the star of the show?” 

“Because,” Tony says. “Your show sucks, if I’m being completely honest. One branch of Hydra is completely dedicated to the idea of Inhumans and is batshit insane. Another branch is literally only focused on weapons, and another is about this. It’s a shit-show. If there was a show about this I would not give it anything past three seasons.” 

Alexander Pierce looks like he’s going to burst a vein. 

Tony moves on. 

“Along with that if I cannot get him from you, I will be getting him. And if you touch a hair on his head, I will kill you.” 

Alexander Pierce looks mad. Which of course he does. Tony tends to have that effect on people, Rhodey says so. 

“Do you think you can even get out of my house? You think I won’t know your face, know that Tony Stark threatened me? Will anyone even believe you?” 

“Aw Andy, you say the sweetest things,” Tony says smiling. “I told you I was a Stark for two reasons. I’ve already told you the first one, let’s see when you wake up if you can guess the second.” 

“What--” 

And...man down. 

And Pepper told him a taser-pen was “hopefully frivolous” and “why the fuck would you ever make that for a pen you barely you know which coffee cup is yours and you just drink from both.” 

Pierce is left tied up in his kitchen on the floor, Tony admires the window seat for a brief moment, and leaves the files incriminating Pierce along with about sixty to a hundred other people. 

He has a taxi to catch. 

- 

“You know he will probably kill you,” Rhodey says on the phone. “And then I get to give my eulogy and I’m going to tell everyone you secretly liked cheese pizza only.” 

“I will literally commit a war crime against you,” Tony says. “Not even joking. I’ll face Congress if I have to.” 

Rhodey rolls his eyes. 

“You can’t, they’d kick you out.” 

“Oh, just for wearing a ripped up crop top and jean shorts? What, would I be a menace to society?” 

“You’re always a menace,” Rhodey mutters. “Listen, I gotta go. Pepper’s freaking out about your advertisements in the newspaper and the correct grammar.” 

“Bye!” Tony says. 

DC is definitely not Tony’s style. At least, for now. He can’t even enjoy coffee, he has to foil an assassination plot. 

Winter Soldier is not subtle, as he’s said. Neither are the Hydra agents who are just painfully obvious. 

At least this might be done by dinner.

He also faces the Winter Soldier. That’s fun. It’s too early to really be anything but fun. 

He walks right up to him. 

“Do you know someone named Natalie?” Tony asks. 

“What?” Winter Soldier asks. “No. Move or I’ll move you.” 

“Very robotic, ugh,” Tony says, smiling. “No, I have a job to do. You’re not moving me.” 

Winter Soldier lunges. 

Tony sidesteps and throws him off his balance with a cafe chair. 

Their fight takes them to a bridge. 

“You’ve compromised the mission,” Winter Soldier hisses. “Why?” 

“Because I got hired to bring you back,” Tony says. 

“To Hydra?” 

“No,” Tony says. “God no, they’re terrible. No, someone named Natalie wants you rescued.” 

“Natalia,” Winter Soldier murmurs. “How do you know her?” 

“I don’t,” Tony says. “At least, far as I know. I was asked to find you and bring you to her and whoever else is there. So, are you in?” 

He pauses, looks out at the city. 

“How are you gonna get me out of here?” 

“You underestimate the power of tourism,” Tony says. “Let’s go.” 

One “I Visited the Washington” sweatshirt and long hair wrapped into a bun later, Tony is walking out with who appears to be Bucky Barnes. 

“Of course you are,” Tony mutters. “Okay, let’s get to the meeting point.” 

“Are you staying?” Barnes asks. 

Tony cocks his head. “What do you want me for?”

“You just helped me escape from Hydra. You’re most likely near-suicidal. I think you need to stay close.” 

Tony rolls his eyes good-naturedly. 

“I’m not near-suicidal. Of course I’m not. I stick around for a really nice pizza joint. But Natalie--or Natalia, you called her that right?” 

“Natalie’s a fake name.” 

“Of course it is, who names their kid Natalie anymore?” Tony quips. “But besides the point. She probably can do you more good than I can. After all, I don’t ever drink out of the right coffee cup. I am very, insanely doubtful that I am of any help whatsoever.” 

“Fine then,” Barnes says. “I’ll keep an eye on you.” 

“I’m sure you will.” 

Tony doubts this. 

But he drives him to where whoever the hell hired him lives. It’s a nice, upscale apartment. Probably costs about as much as his whole apartment building’s rent in total. 

Of course, the woman who greets them looks gorgeous. Barnes knows her easily enough. 

“Thank you, Stark,” the woman says. 

“What do I actually call you?” Tony asks. “You know my name, I know two of yours.” 

“Call me Natasha,” she says. “And anything else isn’t your business.” 

“Of course not, I would expect a check in the mail otherwise,’ Tony remarks. “So. Barnes is delivered back to you. Expect payment tonight or tomorrow?” 

“Tomorrow at twelve,” she answers. “Afternoon.” 

“See you around,” Tony says, waving. “Barnes, try not to kill anyone right now. Seriously gonna ruin the springtime mood, you know?” 

Bucky Barnes stares after him. 

Natasha smiles. 

“Welcome back, James.” 

He nods. Goes and sits in a chair. 

“You gonna turn my brain back to mush or let me stay?” 

“Stay,” Natasha answers. “I escaped Red Room. I knew I needed to get you.” 

“And why not do it yourself? It’s not like you can’t,” he answers. 

“Because I was confident that Tony could leave more of a...dramatic element to it,” Natasha answers. “And he did. SHIELD is currently reforming all of its employees. One of the ladies who always let me eat strawberry yogurt from the fridge worked for them. He also helped dismantle any chance at regrouping to get you.” 

“Smart,” James answers. “Who is he? Stark?” 

“He’s an asshole, but a skilled detective,” Natasha adds. “Son of Howard Stark. You remember him?” 

“He was supposed to be my next mission,” James says, feeling a bit of the Winter Soldier seep back in. “Guess I won’t have a perfect record.” 

“You don’t have a perfect record, trust me,” Natasha adds. “And I didn’t get you for anything other than a rescue mission. You’re free.” 

-

Being free, James finds, is terrifying. 

Natasha has set him up with his own apartment. He has therapy appointments every Wednesday and Saturday. Grocery shopping is...interesting. 

And he keeps using his past skills to check in on Tony, who is doing well in life, if not a bit...wary. 

He’s assuming you don’t expose the underbelly of at least two secret organizations without gaining some traction. 

He’s gotten takeout four times this week. It’s Thursday. This is sad. 

His therapist also recommends that he gets “friends.” James is not exactly sure how to do that. 

So instead he breaks into Tony’s office. 

“We’re friends now,” he announces as Tony yelps and drops his plate. 

“Oh my god you could’ve just not snuck in!” Tony screeches. “I dropped my rolls!” 

They do become friends after that. Tony decides that James needs to try every single coffee shop that’s ever open. 

(He’s a sucker for iced caramel lattes. They’re good.) 

They both learn how to cook different foods, and try to make noodles. 

“Oh my god we’re both disasters,” Tony says, laughing. He takes a picture of James poking at the disastrous attempt. 

“Take me to pizza?” he asks. 

“Like you have to ask,” Tony says. “Come on.” He smiles at him, amazed by how much he’s changed. He grabs his jacket. 

-

 It is Rhodey who clocks it first. 

“You like him,” he crows. “You like him. You like the assassin!” 

“Ex-assassin,” Tony corrects. “And no. Of course I don’t.” 

“You call him ‘babe’, Tony.” 

“And I call you all sorts of pet names,” Tony argues. 

“Calling me literally the weirdest pet names like ‘honeybear sweetums’ or ‘platypus’ does not count,” Rhodey says. “You do don’t call me babe. Besides, you like hugging him all the time and I guarantee that you like him. Even if he is an ex-assassin and still thinks completing a thousand piece puzzle gives you the same rush of serotonin as jumping out of a car.” 

“He’s fun like that!” Tony protests. “Besides, he doesn’t have a lot of people in his life.” 

“That’s a lie,” Rhodey says. “He regrettably met Steve. Again. And he has Sam. Which I think they are friends. Natasha makes him do things.” 

“Wow your description of friends are so amazing,” Tony deadpans. “It’s like you have some of your one. You sound like a robot.” 

“I’m still right, it’s not like I’m not,” Rhodey says. “You know this. Pepper probably also knows that you like James.” 

- 

He consults Pepper. Clearly she will have some sense. 

“I demand a raise,” she says. “Because I can detect this shit better than you can.” 

“You’re getting a raise but not because of this.” 

“Good,” Pepper says. “Now go organize a nice dinner out or something. Get out of here. I’m rearranging your office desk.” 

Tony groans. He hates it when she does that. 

- 

He supposes they are both right. 

So he also supposes that he might have to take James to a coffee shop and tell him. 

- 

What Tony doesn’t know is that James is gearing up to tell him that he likes him. 

It was brought to his attention by Sam and Natasha. 

“You like him,” Sam says. 

“We’re friends!” 

“Friends don’t write their wedding vows on a napkin,” Natasha remarks. “Go organize a coffee date and tell him. I swear if you don’t tell him I’m going to make you confess at three a.m.” 

“If you get me up at three a.m. I’m violating so many rules,” James says. “Like at least four.” 

“Do five!” Steve yells from the couch. “And tell Rhodey hi for me!” 

“No, he hates you,” James says. 

“Exactly!” 

He sighs, texting Tony. 

hey can u meet me @ clocktower, 7? 

sounds gr8 :) 

Tony doesn’t know why James wants coffee. But he’s happy and definitely only that, ignore his shaking fingers. It’s the caffeine clearly. 

(The caffeine isn’t helping. He knows that.) 

“Hi,” James says. “Thank you for coming to the coffee shop. Tonight.” 

“You’re awkward,” Tony blurts out. “Why are you speaking in fragmentary sentences?” 

“That was at most only one fragmentary sentence.” 

“Oh.” 

They sit for a moment, James goes to get coffee. 

Tony steels himself. 

“You remember how I told you that you probably weren’t going to see a lot of me?” Tony asks. 

“Are you leaving?” James asks, eyes wide. “I’m going with you. Obviously.” 

“No you dumbass, I’m not leaving,” Tony says, taking another sip. “But do you remember?” 

“Clearly,” James says with a snort. 

“Well I was wrong. And we’re friends. And...well. Fuck it. I love you, and not in a like a friendship way. I really, really have been wondering what it’s like to kiss you. And if you don’t feel the same way then just tell me and we’ll be cool just give me like a month.” 

James grins. 

“You mean to tell me we can finally actually go on a date at that fancy seafood restaurant you’ve been dying to go to?” 

“We could’ve always done that, but yes it will be nice to look at you across,” Tony says. 

James takes his hand, smiling. 

“Can I take you out on Friday then?” 

“I’ll wear my best suit,” Tony says, grinning. 

- 

When they’re asked about how they meet, it’s not exactly like you can say “oh I got assigned to find and capture the love of my life and we also managed to wreck a secret organization” for the origin story. 

So they usually keep telling people they met while on a business call. 

Technically true. 

[sleepless-in-starbucks]

Human Au, One character goes into another character's room looking for him, the closet door is open, first character peeks inside looking for second character, but instead of clothes or the second character they find... something (idk what they found) -pineapple

Alright so there’s a lot of ways this could be seen but the thing I thought first is more or less

Remy and Virgil are roommates for whatever and Virgil needs Remy for smth so he wanders into his room and he’s not there so Virgil checks the closet

Remy’s not there, and while there are some clothes, they’re in a pile on the middle of the closet floor

Lining the walls and sat on the shelves, instead, are… weapons

Guns, knives, some arrows next to what might be a fold-able bow, blow darts, etc.

There’s a box that’s ajar and seemingly holding a dozen IDs sitting next to boomerang and the only outfit that’s hung up is a pressed suit

There are FIVE pairs of sunglasses stacked on top of each other as well and Virgil just wants to know what the FUCK is going on

Remy wanders in a moment later, while Virgil’s still trying to figure out his closet, and he’s just ‘yo babes heard you calling for me- aw, fuck’

Virgil turns to Remy like ‘what??? is this???’

Remy’s ignoring him and just muttering to himself, ‘stupid nosey roommates always get in my closet… no privacy… guess I should lock it but that’s my problem… ugh I liked this one too…’

Virgil, crying in spirit: ‘PLEASE give me some sort of explanation’

Remy: ‘yeah, sure, just uh… oh look! a knife!’

Virgil, a stressed fool, turned around to look, found that, yeah, there were knives but he already knew that, and what was that sudden sting in his arm that can’t be good when did the world starting getting all wobbly and dark-

Virgil wakes up about two hours later sprawled on his bed with a little smiley-faces bandage slapped literally over his hoodie

Checking the spot beneath the hoodie + bandage reveals a little red dot that Virgil knows well enough from when he gets flu shots

He groans

His roommate drugged him after Virgil found his danger closet

Getting up a few minutes later and checking around the apartment finds an unmarked envelope filled with next month’s rent sitting on the table and all of Remy’s things completely gone and packed up- closet definitely included

Great. His ex-roommate drugged him and left after Virgil found his danger closet that is now completely unexplained and will likely never be explained

Well, Virgil can’t let that stand

He wants explanations and by gods he’s going to get them!

Even though Remy’s gone, his presence isn’t completely erased. Virgil remembers him, remembers how he acted and where he went and a few other things

(It’s an anxiety thing, that he knows all this, alright? not stalker-y or creepy or related to the fact that Remy’s cute)

It takes a few weeks, triangulating all the places he went and making calls that are… weird, at the best, and downright life-threatening at worst, but everything just makes Virgil more and more curious until he’s standing in front of an abandoned warehouse that he’s heard mentioned five times in all his calling and is his best lead as to where the hell Remy went

He manages to break in through a window that’s missing its glass pane

Virgil’s confused at first when he finds nothing but a completely empty factory, decorated skillfully with old barrels and rotting planks, but he pokes around a bit and finds a trap door under a couple of marked ‘hazardous material’ containers

(Any other day, any other place? He wouldn’t have even thought of touching them- but here and now, all he could think was ‘where would I hide my secrets? underneath the thing no one would ever touch is probably a good idea’)

He descends the ladder within, dropping into a narrow passage that leads… somewhere

He starts to walk down it when the lights that lined the walls suddenly flickered off, plunging him into complete darkness

Footsteps echo in the hall until five seconds the lights are back on and there are six different people in dark, uniform clothing pointing guns at him

Virgil puts his hands up before they’re even asking him too, confused and unsure of what the hell was happening until there’s a ripple in the ranks, the people getting pushed and nudged to the side as someone presses their way in between them, making their way to the front, and it’s-

“Remy?” Virgil says the minute he sees his former roommate, though he’s- well he’s him but also not, sunglasses there but propped up on top of his head instead of over his eyes, still in ripped jeans and a crop top but their both plain black instead of being bright, garnish colours, a coffee in his hand but in a paper cup instead of a Starbucks one

“You’re- you-” Remy looks confused, brow furrowed, but eventually he just sighs, rubbing his temple before he says, “Drop it, boys, I’ll handle it”

The people with guns obey immediately, squinting suspiciously at Virgil as they holster their guns and shuffle away. Remy’s still looking at Virgil like he doesn’t belong there (which he doesn’t, he really doesn’t)

“How’d you find me, babes?” Remy asked, finally, after the silence stretched for a while. “There are some people who would kill to get here, though I don’t really think that’s up your alley.”

“I made a lot of calls.” Virgil answered hesitantly. He didn’t like implication that he had done something impossibly hard. “And triangulated a few locations. Just… small stuff.”

“Trust me, that ain’t small. Why were you trying to find this place?”

“I wanted to know why my roommate had a closet full of weapons and convenient knock-out drugs on hand.” Virgil snapped, annoyed.

Remy half-shrugged. “Fair enough.” He turned, already starting to walk away. “Come on.”

Virgil didn’t bother asking why Remy wanted him to follow or where they were going or what was happening or anything, really, because something told him he’d figure it out soon enough

They eventually reached the end of the hallway, and Virgil had to bite back a gasp of pure shock when he saw the room they entered

The place seemed to be a fully set up agency; the room they immediately entered had smoothed rock floors that were covered in various desks and screens, lights attached to the walls and laid within the floor as well, hallways carved into the walls leading elsewhere

Most of the desks were occupied by people dressed identically to those who had held Virgil up in the hallway, working diligently in their plain outfits, guns clearly hanging against their hips and making Virgil more than a little nervous.

“Welcome… to Nowhere.” Remy said, waving at the room before turning to grin at Virgil. “We call it that because, legally, this place? It exists nowhere. The warehouse over it doesn’t even exist- not if you looked for it solely through google maps and government records, anyways.”

“Doesn’t that seem a little suspicious?”

Remy shrugged. “Google maps makes mistakes. Government systems glitch. and if anyone happens to notice, well… most of them don’t have the luck of having had been roommate’s with one of the people who know this place is real.”

Virgil knew he paled at that. “I… hate that.”

Remy nodded. “Not surprised… come on! To my office!”

Virgil felt odd, shuffling past the desks with all the workers staring untrustingly at him as Remy whistled and more or less skipped by, taking them down another hall before ushering Virgil into one of the rooms branching off of it

The room was like the rest of the place- stone walls and floors- but with only one chair in it, set up before a desk + wall of monitors and screens paired with three keyboards and two computer mice.

“Have a seat.” Remy says, sitting himself on one of the outcroppings of stone sticking out of the wall. “We have a lot to talk about.”

And I won’t go further but basically the idea is that Remy’s part of a secret organization, one that’s entrenched in enough secrets it doesn’t even have a NAME. Virgil finding the place is a feat, so, of course, he can never leave. Like it not, he’s part of this place now.

Casting is basically

Virgil: Was just some random person, now works at Nowhere because they’d probably kill him if he didn’t. Doesn’t have an actual job in the agency, just works what Remy works.

Remy: Technical support/hacker. Keeps the agency a secret and deals with all the online stuff. Goes into the field when needed (hence having an arsenal) but he’s more of a stay-at-home man. Sometimes gets apartments when he needs them, but he’s bad at keeping the company secret, so it’s not often

Roman: Remy’s field partner when he goes out. I don’t have many more details for him except that he and Remy are highkey crushing on each other, which causes problems for the sake that a) Roman thinks Remy and Virgil are together/getting together, b) Virgil thinks Remy and Roman are together/getting together, c) Remy thinks they’re both cute but not interested in him. It’s called a convoluted love triangle except they ALL get together because that’s the only thing I write hscbjch

And,,,,, that’s all I have. Hope you like it shdcfbsjdfcsd

[lady-wallace]

No Deals (Febuwhump alt 5.: “Hostage Situation”)

For the @febuwhump​ alternate prompt #5: “Hostage Situation”

Fandom: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

Synopsis: Giorno and Narancia are taken as hostages. But Bucciarati doesn't deal with anyone who threatens his famiglia.

This is my last Febuwhump story for the month, thanks to everyone who has read and commented and liked/reblogged and stuff! I had a lot of fun doing these ^_^

If you enjoyed the stories, please consider checking out my ko-fi! I do art and fic commissions or if you just want to buy me a coffee, you can request a doodle :)

~~~~~~~

Read on Ao3

Read on FF.net

~~~~~~~

Giorno tested the ropes for the hundredth time, but they were still not moving. And thanks to the dampening power of the stand their captive had, he could not simply use Gold Experience to change the ropes into vines and escape.

Narancia grunted, tied to a chair behind him so that they were back to back. He shifted, hitting Giorno's chair with his own. He didn't seem to be having any better luck.

"I can't believe we let this happen!" Narancia moaned. "Bucciarati's going to kill us for this! It was supposed to just be a simple reconnaissance mission!"

Giorno sighed. Narancia was right, this was definitely not one of their better moments. Though with their enemy's Stand ability, he supposed they couldn't entirely be blamed either. Narancia would have seen them approaching if Aerosmith's radar hadn't suddenly cut out. And by then it was too late for Giorno to realize that he couldn't use his ability either.

The door to the room they had been put in creaked open and in strode the Stand user and two of his men. Narancia wrenched himself around to see, and Giorno straightened up, glaring defiantly. The Stand user met his gaze, nonplussed.

"So, Don Giovanna," he said mockingly, striding up to the teen and making a point to get into his personal space. "When do you think Bucciarati will be here?"

Giorno continued to glare, not giving an answer.

The Stand user reached out and grabbed his collar, wrenching him forward until his bound arms began to sing with pain. "You do realize what will happen to you if he doesn't return my man to me, right?"

Giorno pressed his lips together into a thin line. They'd taken one of this man's operation captive to grill for information on a new, reportedly very dangerous, drug ring that had cropped up. They had gotten the information they had needed. At least some of it. After finding out the location of their base of operations, Giorno and Narancia had gone on a reconnaissance mission, but now they were captured and the ringleader they were going after thought he could hold them for ransom until Bucciarati returned his own captive.

Giorno didn't know what conversation had already happened, but he met the man's eyes firmly. "We don't make deals with drug peddlers."

The man slapped him across the face.

"You asshole!" Narancia snapped.

"You think Bucciarati has a choice? You're the Don of Passione now, Giorno Giovanna. He's not going to give you up." Giorno looked up, licking his split lip and feeling the sting spreading across his cheek. "You're actually worth something."

"And your man is compromised, therefor worth nothing," Giorno informed him. "How do you think we found you? Why do you want him back?"

The man seethed before he bit back his anger. "That's none of your business."

"Because he's the only one who can manufacture the drugs, correct?" Giorno continued. "He's told us that already." The man's eyes blew wide and he seethed even more. "If you think for a second that Bucciarati and I don't have an agreement that keeping him away from you isn't more important than saving my life you're wrong."

The hand grabbed his collar again and the man got into his face, spit flying and hitting Giorno's cheek. "You insolent little upstart! I'll send you back to Bucciarati in pieces!"

"Eat shit!" Narancia snapped. "You don't know anything about our team!"

"Give me the phone," the ringleader snapped, holding out his hand as one of his men handed him a mobile phone. He dialed a number and after a few seconds snapped, "Bucciarati? Yeah, it's me again. I'm done waiting. I'll give you one hour before I start cutting bits off Giovanna and the mop-haired kid. If you want there to be anything left of them, you'll follow my instructions." He ended the call before giving Bruno a chance to speak and handed the phone back to his man before he reached into his coat, pulling out a small case.

"Just to make sure you two don't make any trouble while I'm gone I'm going to let you sample a little of the goods."

He opened the case and revealed several small bottles and syringes. He handed one of each to one of his men who went over to a table to fill it. Giorno swallowed hard.

"What is it?" he demanded.

The ringleader grinned. "Something real nice. Our own special recipe. Good and strong. Knock you right off your feet. You might just decide you like it."

"How much, boss?"

"Not enough to kill them," the ringleader said dismissively.

"Hey, get away from me, you asshole!" Narancia snarled, tugging at his ropes again. Giorno craned his head to watch helplessly over his shoulder as the goon grabbed Narancia by the chin and wrenched his head to one side, jabbing the needle into his neck.

"Narancia!" Giorno shouted as the other young man cried out, jerking in the chair.

It was then he realized the ringleader also had a syringe ready, and the man's hand gripped Giorno's hair, wrenching his head back to bare his throat. Giorno struggled as he heard Narancia groan and slump heavily against the back of the chair, head resting against Giorno.

"You'll regret this," Giorno told the ringleader firmly.

"You're the one who's going to regret this, Giovanna. You and that insufferable do-gooder, Bucciarati." He stuck the syringe into Giorno's neck and Giorno was unable to help a gasp as he felt the drug ejected into his veins, cold and unwelcome. He shuddered, trying to fight the sudden nausea and drowsiness that overcame him. He blinked heavily, trying to curl his lip at the sneering man hovering over him, but then everything just got too blurry and he was forced to close his eyes and drift into the unwanted darkness.

~~~~~~~

Bucciarati slammed the phone down with a curse. He glanced over at Abbacchio and Mista who were standing guard over their captive, Mista's gun under his throat so he wouldn't try to say anything.

"We need to go," Bucciarati said firmly. "We're running out of time."

Abbacchio cursed as well, grabbing a cloth to clean off bloody hands.

"And what are we doing with this bastard?" Mista asked, jabbing his gun harder into the man's chin.

"We'll deal with him later," Bucciarati said darkly.

"W-wait! You're not exchanging me for the brats?" the man started. "You know what my boss is gonna do right? He's gonna kill them!"

Abbacchio slammed a fist into his nose and the man's head snapped back as he cried out, blood streaming down his lip to join what was already there.

"Shut your damn mouth," Abbacchio snarled. "I'll tell Fugo to go get the car."

Bucciarati nodded to Mista and they made sure their prisoner was secure before they left and locked the room.

"Hey Bruno, what about that guy's Stand? Doesn't it knock out other Stand abilities?" Mista asked.

Bucciarati gave him a look that was actually genuinely scary. "I think all of us were perfectly capable even before we got Stands, don't you, Mista?"

Mista gave him a lopsided grin. "Hell yeah. Let's go save Giorno and Narancia."

They made quick work of the details. Mista and Fugo went to cause a distraction and Bucciarati and Abbacchio rushed in the back using Sticky Fingers. They must still be out of range, but Bucciarati didn't think that would last long.

As they started to hear Mista firing off shots, Abbacchio glanced over at him, checking his own gun hidden under the tail of his coat. "Ready?"

Bruno nodded, taking his from the holster inside his coat under his arm. "Let's go."

They hurried on until they found one wayward goon, who Abbacchio nabbed instantly, slamming into the wall.

"Where are they?" he demanded, gun jabbed under his chin.

The man whimpered and pointed shakily down the hall, not even bothering to ask. "L-last door."

Bucciarati nodded and used Sticky Fingers to punch the man, unzipping him into pieces.

They hurried down the hall, listening to the chaos ensuing outside and when they got to the last door, Bucciarati stepped aside to let Abbacchio kick it in.

They came to a stop when they saw the ringleader standing inside the room beside a bound Giorno, holding his head up and pressing a gun to the boy's temple. Another man was likewise threatening Narancia. Both boys looked unconscious or nearly so, eyes rolled up in their heads, bodies limp.

Bucciarati swallowed down his fury, knowing that keeping his head here was the only thing that was going to save them all.

"Ah, Bucciarati," the ringleader said. "I see you failed to do as I asked. I don't see my man."

"No, you don't," Bucciarati said firmly. "But you might see him soon. In hell."

The ringleader smirked. "What are you going to do? Try me, your Stands won't work here. But feel free to wrestle me for the gun if you want to see your precious golden boy with his brains splattered on the floor."

Bucciarati and Abbacchio didn't waste time with banter. They both whipped out their guns, taking everyone in the room by surprise. Bucciarati's bullet found the ringleader's skull and Abbacchio's took out the goon holding Narancia, they then both ducked the other goon's bullet before taking him out simultaneously.

"Smug bastard," Abbacchio snarled, kicking the ringleader's body before kicking his gun away from the dead hand.

Bruno was already putting his gun away and heading to Giorno whose chair had toppled during the chaos.

"Giorno," he called worriedly, pulling out his knife to start cutting through the ropes tying the boy to the chair.

"They gave them something," Abbacchio grunted, untying Narancia as well and pulling him up. The boy moaned, blinking woozily, head lolling.

"A-Abba," he murmured.

"Hey, kid," Abbacchio said kindly with a small smile as he pulled Narancia into his arms and simply picked him up. Narancia wearily wrapped his arms around Abbacchio's neck, burying his face in his shoulder.

Bucciarati finally got Giorno untied and reached down to cup the boy's cheek as his eyes twitched.

"Giorno?"

"Mm, Buccia-rati?" Giorno murmured, blinking once before he winced and squeezed his eyes shut again.

"Shh, you're safe now."

"Naran—"

"He's fine, Abbacchio has him. It's all over."

"Got him?" Abbacchio asked as Bucciarati wrapped one of Giorno's arms over his shoulders and got an arm under his knees.

"Yes," Bucciarati replied, standing up with his precious burden. "Let's go."

They hurried out, meeting Mista half way. He came to a stop, holding his gun up, eyes widening as he saw Giorno and Narancia.

"They all right?"

"Drugged," Bruno said darkly. "Go get the car."

"Fugo's already on it."

They hurried out and Bucciarati and Abbacchio carefully settled Giorno and Narancia into the back before they got out of there.

Bruno glanced back at the boys, again trying to quell his fury. They were all right. But the idea of what had happened to them, or nearly so still made him mad. One day, one day their city would be free of people like this.

~~~~~~~

Giorno peeled his eyes open; everything felt so uncomfortable. He was hot and cold at the same time and his head really hurt. Everything seemed really bright too, stabbing his eyes. He tried to roll over with a groan, but his stomach twisted and he suddenly felt an overwhelming bout of nausea wash over him.

He whimpered sickly, wrapping his arms around his middle.

"Easy, just stay still," a firm but soft voice commanded, taking hold of his shoulder and pressing him back. Something cool wiped across his forehead and Giorno sighed and leaned into it. Fingers slid his hair away from his eyes.

"Bucciarati?" Giorno mumbled.

"I'm here," the voice said again.

Giorno relaxed slightly. "Wha' happened?"

"You and Narancia were drugged by the dealers. You'll probably feel bad for a little while, but you should be able to sleep it off. Do you think you can manage something to drink before you go back to sleep? You need to stay hydrated."

Giorno groaned, not making any motion to move. "Stomach." He didn't think he could even put water in there right now.

Bruno hummed in understanding. "Well, maybe we'll hold off for a couple more hours until your stomach settles."

Giorno murmured in agreement and buried his face in the pillow again. "It's over?" he asked.

"Yes. Another drug ring taken off the streets. I'm just sorry this happened to you and Narancia in the process."

"Still got them," Giorno said blearily with a small smile.

Bucciarati chuckled. "Yes, we did." He pulled the blankets up further around Giorno's shoulders, using them to shield his eyes a bit as well. "Rest now."

Giorno murmured and curled up, his exhaustion winning out over the stomach cramps and the ache in his head. Someday, they wouldn't have to worry about any more drug dealers in Napoli, but today, Don of Passione or not, he just really needed to sleep.

[andipxndy-writes]

holiday mishaps (part 4)

fandom: alex rider x ncis [crossover] warnings: mentions of blood, typical ncis stuff requested by: @lilcoffeecup word count: 7.8k

cross posted to ao3

summary: Alex Rider just wanted a relaxing holiday, somewhere where he could relax without any trouble cropping up. And with Jack and her family, he almost got that. ALMOST. And then he had to go and take a midnight walk. On the other hand... Ziva David swears she recognises the fair-haired witness to their murder case.

holiday mishaps

If Ziva was being completely honest, she was pretty glad that Gibbs hadn’t let her drive to the mall. She knew what kind of driver she was — everyone had made her very well aware of what kind of driver she was — but in a rush like this (where she felt partially at fault for a young man being put in so much danger) she probably would have caused at least one accident. Or maybe two. She wasn’t completely sure, but she knew that Tony would be very willing to tell her if she just asked him. As it was, Gibbs’ speedy driving had kicked in the moment he’d started up the sedan, and Tony was hanging on tightly to his seat the entire way there.

He did not appreciate the way she hissed, “Wuss,” at him over her shoulder, but she didn’t feel like he had any right to complain about her choice of words.

As soon as the car screeched to a halt outside the large building, all three agents leapt out of the car, the engine barely even starting to cool as they headed towards the entrance to the building. Of course, Gibbs had decided not to take the time to actually head to the parking garage, but Ziva was pretty sure they could get themselves off the hook for it later. Or just charge the ticket to the agency.

Pulling out his phone, Gibbs quickly dialled McGee’s number before pressing it to his ear. “McGee, where are we headed?” Ziva didn’t hear the answer to the question, but as soon as Gibbs began jogging through the crowds and in through the double doors she sped up her pace, following him into the busy building of people.

A busy building of people who could easily get in the way if something went wrong.

And she could feel that something would definitely go wrong with this. Call it a… gut feeling.

Soon enough, Gibbs was tucking his phone back into his pocket as they began weaving through the crowds, leaving Tony and Ziva to follow.

“Where are we headed, boss?” Tony asked before Ziva could say anything. Ziva wasn’t exactly sure how or whether McGee could pinpoint exactly where in a mall a person could be using their phone, but he could find a way of getting a location some other way… right?

“McGee says Alex started off in the lingerie district,” Gibbs started, and Ziva elbowed Tony harshly when he let out a snort. “He’s not hiding there, but should be somewhere close by. Keep an eye out.”

“And Rossi?” Ziva pressed, wondering how they would be able to get Alex to safety and the man arrested in the same day.

“Keep an eye out for him, he could be anywhere.” And he was searching for Alex just like they were. It’s likely he even had a head start on his location. They had to stay sharp. “DiNozzo, head to the upper floors, see if you can find any hint of Alex there.”

“Upper floors near lingerie central?” DiNozzo sensed Gibbs glare before he saw it. “Could’ve got to an elevator and travelled up to hide. On it boss.”

“Ziva—”

“I will head to the men’s section near the lingerie.” Which left Gibbs with the home stores. Much easier to search amongst men’s clothing than large stores full of furniture that anyone could hide in. “On it.”

***

Ziva had to admit, searching for a teenaged boy in a crowd of busy, moving people was not easy at all. Never mind the fact that she still had to make it down to the lingerie sector first before making her way back through the men’s stores (so that she could retrace his steps), forcing her way through a crowd without using her badge was tough enough. She couldn’t just give away the fact that she was a federal agent and tip off the drug dealer looking for Alex too. Otherwise he would disappear without a trace, and they wouldn’t have the murderer for their case. And he could also come after Alex for revenge.

She had to play it carefully.

Reaching the lingerie section, she turned on her heel and paused for a moment, forcing people to walk around her to get to their destinations. Glancing around, she thought she could spot a security camera and was tempted to ask McGee if he could find Alex on there for them. But that would require them going to security and getting a warrant and then permission… they didn’t have the time for that.

Gradually she made her way into the menswear sector, looking around at the different stores. Sports clothes, lounge clothes, general wear, suits…

Suits.

She didn’t know why that one sounded right to her. After all, who would look for a teenager in a suit store?

Then she realised why it sounded so right to her. Who would look for a teenager in a suit store?

If Alex was smart, he would have headed in there to hide. If not, she’d have to look elsewhere. Perfect.

Heading straight for the door, she wasn’t surprised when one of the store assistants tried to stop her. After all, she was clearly a woman going into a store for men’s clothing. The polite smile she was given almost made her roll her eyes.

“Can I help you, ma’am?”

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her badge and flashed it at him, tucking it away quickly. She was here on business. “I am looking for someone. A teenage boy. Fair hair, rather tall.”

The man almost appeared as if he didn’t want to help, like he didn’t want to get involved, but then he glanced towards the changing rooms. Ziva began to move even before he spoke, “Last I saw, a kid of your description headed in there. I haven’t seen him come out, and he’s been in there a while, but I may have missed him leave.”

Ziva just about remembered to throw him a quick thanks as she headed for the changing rooms, ignoring the various looks she received from men as she passed them. Before someone stopped her at the entrance to the changing rooms, she brought out and flashed her badge again, clearing her path pretty quickly.

Soon enough she was basically backstage, heading straight through the fitting rooms to find a cubicle that seemed suspicious enough to hide a teenager, and a pretty smart one at that. Most of the cubicles were open, and any that were closed had a voice flitting out from behind the curtain or visible feet casting a shadow from underneath.

Apart from one.

It was one of the penultimate changing cubicles, the last-but-one, and from what she could see the cubicles at the end were empty, curtains open. After all, who wanted to go that far back into the changing rooms when they could be in and out much faster closer to the entrance. She was pretty much certain that Alex had to be in this one.

Of course, in case it wasn’t, she unholstered her gun and set it to her side, holding it close in case she had to use it. Of course, the safety was on, but she knew she could be quick to take it off and shoot if necessary. Mentally, she counted in her head, slowly reaching for and taking the edge of the curtain.

One…

Two…

Three!

She pulled back the curtain and raised her gun, only to have to duck out of the way quickly when a clothes hanger came flying at her head. She started wide-eyed at her attacker, holding up her gun and very close to taking the safety off.

It was only because it was Alex that she didn’t actually do it.

“You could have taken my head off!” she snapped, glaring at him now. She, of course, did not appreciate the fact that he'd tried to attack her, even though she was glad that he had something to attack with in case it hadn’t been her or any other NCIS Agent.

Alex didn’t even look sheepish. “You could have shot me,” he responded, sounding almost calm.

“The safety is on.”

“I didn’t know that. All I know is that you’ve got a gun pointed at my chest.”

Ziva was almost tempted to point the gun at his face instead. Instead, though, she holstered her gun and pulled her jacket over it so that people didn’t see it and assume the worst. “Has anyone else come for you?”

“A couple of people have opened the cubicle expecting it to be empty. Other than that, though…” he shook his head, “nothing. No one.”

Well, that was good, Ziva supposed. Rossi hadn’t found him yet, meaning that they had the time to get Alex out of there and to safety and then track down the drug dealer and bring him in. This was all turning out brilliantly — or, at least, as brilliantly as it could go, which was to say, it wasn’t turning out terribly.

“Good,” she responded, nodding her head towards the door. “Let’s get you out of here. Then we can get you to safety and make sure you are protected before anything happens to you.”

“What about Jack?”

Ziva hadn’t expected that question. Jack? His guardian? “Well, she will be in protective custody with you.”

“No, I mean…” he hesitated for a moment, biting his lip. “She came to the mall with me. When we realised someone was following me, we split up to lose them, and now…”

Ah, great. So now they had another person to look for in this mall. That, of course, made their jobs a lot easier.

Not.

Ziva pulled out her cell, dialling Gibbs’ number and putting it to her ear. It only took two rings for him to pick up.

“You got him?”

“I have Alex,” she confirmed, glancing at the teen. “We have one problem, though. The guardian, Jack. She is somewhere in the mall. And not with Alex.”

She could practically feel Gibbs’ frustration through the phone call. “I’ll get DiNozzo on it. Any idea where she could be?”

Ziva looked to the teen for help.

Alex, of course, wasn’t a mind reader. So of course he couldn’t he hear what Gibbs was asking over the phone, even though he was usually good at that sort of thing. He had a feeling Ziva was holding the phone pretty tightly against her ear. “Yes?”

“We need details on when and where you last saw Jack, and where you think she could be.” Ziva handed the phone over to Alex. “Speak to Gibbs.”

Taking the phone from the female agent, Alex realised he didn’t need to explain what Jack looked like — all of the agents had met her before, as she’d gone with him to NCIS. So it wasn’t exactly a secret that she was a redhead with a spunky attitude. Well, spunky and protective, but most people missed the protective part if they weren’t looking hard enough. He paused for a moment to try and think on what to tell Agent Gibbs.

Gibbs seemed to sense that Alex wasn't exactly sure where to start.

“When did you last see her, and where?”

When and where. A good place to start.

“We were in the Nike store when I first felt like we were being watched, and we were heading towards JD Sports to try and get me some more stuff when we decided to split up.” Well, it had been less of a “we” and more of a “he” considering the plan, but he didn’t need to tell Agent Gibbs that. It wasn’t as if Jack would spill that to them when they found her anyway. “We’d just got out of the store, maybe about four or so feet away, in the middle of the crowds. Jack headed in one direction, probably still towards JD, and I headed towards the home store section.” Which had ended up with him in lingerie, but he didn’t need to mention that.

“When?”

“About half an hour to forty minutes ago,” Alex guessed, looking down at his watch. He couldn’t exactly recall the time he’d last seen Jack, but it felt like it had been that long anyway. “We agreed to meet at the food court an hour from splitting up, and to call if one of us was unable to turn up and tell mall security.” He said “we”, but it had been Jack’s idea, and she had definitely made that suggestion so that he remembered to contact her if anything happened. Because, of course, he had a habit of getting into trouble and forgetting to tell her when he was safe.

There was a brief pause on the other line, and Alex was pretty sure he could hear a bit of scuffling. “Pass the phone back to Agent David.”

Well. Alex would have appreciated a “thank you” or an acknowledgement that his information was useful, rather than that gruff response. In fact, something to acknowledge his usefulness would have been polite, given the circumstances. Alex could very well have gone looking for Jack on his own, knowing that he could hold his own in any sort of battle. Well, most sorts of battle. When there weren’t civilians surrounding the area who could possibly involved in the whole situation. But he passed the phone back to Ziva anyway, who was nodding and muttering a few things into it before she ended the call, tucking the mobile device back into her pocket.

“Agents Gibbs and DiNozzo are now searching the upper floors for your guardian,” she informed Alex, and the teen nodded before realising that that meant they weren’t searching the upper floors. That put him a little on edge.

“Where are we searching, then?” he asked her, and he could see the slight pinch on her face that told him he wasn’t going to like the answer that she was about to give.

“We will not be searching. We are going back to the car to make sure that you are safe, and if possible I will escort you back to the home of your guardian’s family.”

He didn’t like that answer one bit.

“Bullshit.” As if he was going home to face Jack’s family when she was somewhere in the mall hiding from someone who was most probably after him. He couldn’t deal with that sort of judgement. “I’m not going into hiding when Jack’s out there. I’m coming with you.”

“You cannot come with us.”

“You wanna bet?”

Ziva’s eyes narrowed. “I will force you into that car.”

Alex’s own eyes narrowed, a small smirk growing on his face. “Try me.”

***

It turned out that Alex was a lot better at convincing Ziva than he’d previously thought, considering he was now out searching for Jack with her instead of being tucked away in a car and being sent home. There was no way he would have been able to sit still at home with Jack out there anyway, and he was pretty sure he would have found a way to sneak out and head back to the mall to search for her himself. Which would have put them all in more trouble, if his track record was any indication.

Really, Ziva should consider herself lucky that he was there with her. Then she could keep an eye on him whilst they searched. He knew he had a habit of veering off the rails of safety and doing stupid things when left to his own devices.

“So, where are we headed first?” Alex asked, and Ziva raised an eyebrow at him. As if she still wasn’t sure how he’d managed to convince her to let him join her in searching for Jack. But it wasn’t as if she could do anything about it now; he was already there. He was probably about to get her in trouble with her boss for taking a minor on a possible rescue mission, but he wasn’t too sure he cared at that moment.

“I thought that you were the one with the idea on where to head next?” she asked.

He paused for a moment to think about it. Even if he was the one who had any sort of idea where they had to go next, he still had to think of where they actually had to go. If Jack had started off by heading towards the sports area, then…

“Maybe we should head to JD Sports?” he suggested, his hand coming up to scratch the side of his face thoughtfully as they wedged through the busy crowds. At least, they seemed to be dying down a little compared to how busy everything had been earlier. “That’s where we were heading before. If we head there, then we can try to follow wherever she could’ve gone, maybe trace her steps and find her then?” And then, if the hour was up, they could head to the food court and see if they could spot her there. She would probably call if the hour was up and she couldn’t make it, like she’d told him to do, so then they could find out exactly where she was and find a way to get to her and get to safety.

Ziva nodded. “A logical course of action,” she agreed, and part of Alex was glad that she agreed with him on that. Not that he needed validation from a federal agent, considering he’d even worked with the CIA before, but it was nice to know that his plans weren’t bat-shit crazy.

Unless she, too, was bat-shit crazy. Then they were both in trouble.

Regardless, the pair of them began to gradually make their way towards the sports shop that Alex had mentioned, weaving through the steadily thinning crowds as they went. It felt like they had been weaving and shoving for hours before Alex finally saw the shop Jack had intended for them to visit on their shopping trip. When he couldn’t see her standing outside it, he worried a little, before he realised that she would probably be hiding inside. Hiding outside would be a stupid plan if someone was chasing you, obviously.

A few minutes of weaving later, and they were inside the store asking about a redhead who may or may not have walked inside to try and buy some clothes, maybe head back into the fitting rooms. Or, rather, Ziva was asking, whilst Alex was looking around and trying to find any hiding spots that Jack could have used. She may not have his spy fighting and investigation skills, but she was pretty damn good at hide-and-seek from what he could remember of his childhood.

Ziva walked back over to him when she finished questioning as many retail workers as she could find. Alex couldn’t quite read her expression, but he stood from where he had been searching underneath a couple of clothing racks and brushed himself down. Jack clearly wasn’t hiding underneath those.

“She did briefly head in here, but was turned away since she tried to head into the changing rooms without any clothing, and clearly wasn’t buying anything from the displays or the racks.”

That, obviously, frustrated Alex a bit (why hadn’t she just gone and picked some clothes off the racks?), but he supposed he understood. This wasn’t the sort of thing Jack did. She didn’t know how to look as inconspicuous as he did. Plus… she didn’t exactly look like the sporty type either. Though part of him still wanted to look in the back changing rooms, in case she told those store assistants to feed that lie to anyone who came looking for her. Which would have been a smart idea, and he would commend her for that if she actually did.

Ziva’s quick search of the changing rooms, though, revealed that Jack actually hadn’t done that and really had been escorted out of the store. Unfortunately.

“So she left?” he muttered, more to himself than to Ziva, and he turned towards the store exit. If Jack had left the store after being kicked out… where would she have headed to hide next?

If they had agreed to meet at the food court, then he would have gone to hide somewhere near there until the agreed time was up. Would she have done the same thing? Perhaps that was more his stomach talking, though. “Are there any stores near the food court?” he asked curiously. “Maybe she could be hiding in one of those, if that was where we agreed to meet?”

Ziva took a brief moment to think about that, and Alex gave a small sigh of relief when she gave a small nod. “There are some stores around there that I believe we could search. It shouldn’t take too long to figure out which stores to search in. If it does take longer than expected, we will at least be in the vicinity of the food court.”

“Exactly,” Alex agreed, before beginning to head for the store exit and completely forgetting that he wasn’t the one leading the search. “Come on.”

He didn’t notice the look that Ziva sent before she followed him out of the store and back into the crowds.

***

Alex didn’t realise it at first, but by the time they were reaching some of the stores close to the food court it had already passed the hour mark. Jack should have called him by then, and even if she could call him, then he should at least attempt calling her. Of course, he didn’t realise this until they’d reached the first store to search through, noticing the time on his phone when he randomly pulled it out to check it. His eyes widened.

“It’s already been an hour,” he pointed out with a frown, before checking through his call log. Nothing from Jack at all. Not even a voicemail message. “It’s been an hour, and she hasn’t called me.” He paused for a few moments, and Ziva watched him as he realised this. He stared down at his screen for a few moments, trying to decide on what to do, before he made his decision.

He’d call her first.

He didn't have to scroll far through his call log to find the last time Jack had called him, and he tapped on the number before putting the phone to his ear, waiting for the rings to end and for her to answer.

Except… she didn’t answer.

He felt Ziva pull him to the side, out of the crowd, but other than that he was focused on anxiously waiting for Jack’s voice to interrupt the rings. For her to tell him that she was okay, but would be late to the food court, or something along those lines. Something, anything, to prove that she was still okay and hidden from whoever had been following them — to prove that he was the one who had been followed when they’d split up, that whoever they were had left Jack alone and had ended up just losing him instead.

He could only cross his fingers and hope.

When Jack didn’t pick up after the sixth or so ring, he began to genuinely worry. Jack was never bad at picking up her phone. If anything, he was the one who was terrible at answering calls — Jack was always good at answering, and was always berating him for not picking up his phone when she called him. He tried to force down the feeling that something was wrong. Maybe she was just at the food court and it was too loud for her to hear her phone ringing in her pocket. Maybe she was perfectly fine but was trying to order some food and would call him back in a minute. Maybe he was just overreacting.

Because he had to be overreacting, right?

“She did not pick up?” Ziva’s words were phased as less of a question and more of a statement. Which put Alex on edge a little, but he tried not to let it show.

“No,” he admitted, trying very hard not to grit his teeth in frustration. He didn’t need her stating the obvious right then. “It’s fine. It’s probably too loud where she is to hear the call.”

The silence that followed his comment felt like it stretched on for aeons, and only served to make him feel more anxious about the situation. It took him a lot of willpower not to run off an start searching for Jack by himself.

“We should head to your meeting point, then,” Ziva concluded, a resolute tone to her voice as she pulled out her own phone — likely to contact Agent Gibbs. “It would be best to head to the meeting point now, just in case she is there already or is headed there and looking for you."

Alex was still staring down at his phone, but he nodded. It was probably the best course of action. Just head there, and make himself easy enough for Jack to spot. Maybe he would even be the one looking for her shock of bright red hair. That thought was enough to give him a bit of hope. He didn’t tuck his phone back into his pocket, instead holding it in his hand as the pair of them headed for the food court to wait for Jack and hopefully head home.

***

A few minutes of walking and a brief call to Gibbs later (where the senior agent’s displeasure at the whole situation had been very clear), the pair of them were sat in the food court, waiting to see if they could spot Jack. Alex hadn’t seen any particularly bright shocks of red hair about that would definitely strike him as Jack’s, which only got him more worried the longer they waited. Ziva buying him a burger and fries to sate his hunger and calm him down certainly helped in him feeling less worried about the whole situation. Popping a couple of fries into his mouth, he looked up at her to see what she was occupied with.

Of course, her eyes were scanning over the food court for him.

He felt a little bad, leaving her to look for Jack on her own, but he hadn’t realised how hungry he was until he had smelled the various foods being sold in the area. He knew that had he been with Jack, he would have somehow convinced her to buy food from almost every stall so that he could try a bit of everything. And by trying a bit of everything, he meant inhaling everything. If anything, it would have been something that they would have joked about on the way home, where Alex would have still had enough space to fit in a large home-cooked dinner.

Because, of course, he was a bottomless-pit phase.

“I still do not see your guardian,” Ziva muttered, before looking back at the teen. Alex had almost missed what she said over inhaling the food in front of him. He put down his burger and wiped his mouth with the paper napkin before looking about, trying to see if he could spot Jack.

He couldn’t.

He really wanted to get up and properly search, but not only would it look suspicious to be searching for hiding places in a food court, it would look utterly ridiculous to do it whilst still eating. He’d have to finish his food first.

And then, his phone started ringing.

Alex frowned, looking down at the phone buzzing on the table, before recognising the called ID.

It was Jack.

Scrambling to clean his hands, he quickly cleaned them as much as he could on the napkin before answering the call, putting the phone to his ear. “Jack? Where are you?”

“A-Alex, I—” Her voice cut off, putting Alex on edge, but it was the sound of another voice that put the teen on edge.

“Hello, Alex. It's so nice to finally hear your voice. I have heard so much about you.”

Alex’s breath caught in his throat when he heard a voice that definitely wasn’t Jack’s coming over the line. The suddenness of it had him torn between yelling and throwing the phone away from himself, and threatening whoever was on the other line so that he could hunt them down and possibly kill them for even thinking of touching Jack. Of course, that combination had him frozen, alerting Ziva to the fact that something was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

“Who are you?” Alex finally demanded, and Ziva was watching him carefully. She had no idea what was going on, but she definitely felt like it was something dangerous. Her thoughts were only confirmed when Alex looked up at her and a look of concern on her face, and he pulled the phone away from his ear, putting it on speaker so that they could both hear whoever was on the other line.

“Me? Oh, I think you know who I am. I definitely know who you are. In fact, I would be surprised if anyone in our world didn't.” Ziva recognised that voice straight away, putting her on edge. Rossi had Alex’s guardian’s phone.

“I’m not in your world,” Alex snipped, his eyes narrowing. Ziva could sense the hostility from the teen, but it felt like much more than an angsty teenager would have towards an offending adult. This sounded serious. And it only made her suspicions about Alex, and who exactly he was, increase. Who exactly was this teen who spoke with a drug dealer so callously?

“Oh, but if I think you are who this woman, your friend, says you are… then you very much are in my world.”

“What do you want?” Alex changing the subject added to Ziva’s curiosity about the whole thing.

There was a pause on the other line, as if Rossi was considering what he actually wanted, and Ziva quickly stood pulled out her cell, moving away from the table. If he had taken the guardian, Jack, and was going to make ransom demands… Gibbs needed to know. And he needed to know now. It didn’t take long for her to dial his number, and it took even less time for him to answer it and for her to quietly relay what was going on.

And all whilst the man was making his ransom demands to Alex.

“I want an escape vehicle. Maybe a helicopter. Or a plane. Something to get me out of the country discretely. You can figure it out.”

Clearly you have the funds to get one for yourself, Ziva wanted to say. But considering how the conversation was going, she had to assume that the man thought that Alex was alone. So she couldn’t say anything loudly enough for him to hear, otherwise she would risk the lives of both Alex and his guardian. Why Rossi wanted out of the country so quickly, though, she had no idea. He had power on these streets, and even if he did get arrested he would probably gain power behind bars. There was… something a little suspicious about it. Like he had done something worse than just kill a Petty Officer, which was terrible enough in her eyes.

“You want to leave the country,” Alex voiced, unimpressed. “That’s really original. Escape punishment rather than face and learn from it.”

“Ah, the typical ‘Rider wisdom’. I was hoping to hear it. For some reason, it is far less impressive when you hear it for yourself.”

“People usually hear it when they’re about to die or get seriously injured by me.”

That made Ziva double-take, and then she really saw the look in Alex’s eyes. Of determination and anger. A look she’d seen in the mirror multiple times before. The look of a person out for blood, because you’d touched something they considered more precious than diamonds. Warning bells started going off in her head. She knew Alex. Or, at least, she knew of him. After this whole thing was sorted out, she was getting in touch with some old contacts to make sure she had his identity right.

The man on the other end of the line laughed. “I doubt that will happen.”

“Most of the other people who come up against me tend to doubt too.” Alex was looking down at his nails now, like this was a conversation he had had with many people before. A conversation that was starting to get old and boring. “None of them are alive. So, I’m warning you this one time: return Jack, and you won’t end up six-feet-under.” And the look in Alex’s eyes told Ziva that this wasn’t a simple threat that the teenager was making — this was a promise.

Alex Rider wasn’t a teenaged boy; Alex Rider was a dangerous man.

“Well, I’m not most other people.”

“You’re right. Most other people wouldn’t have taken Jack, so you’re doubly fucked.” Alex was glaring at the phone now, as if he could glare at the man through the device. “So, what are you going to do? I’d suggest you give Jack back to me so that you can get on with your life as if you’d never met me.”

Ziva was beginning to think that this would be a wise decision, a very wise one, but clearly Rossi wasn’t all too wise. Which is why she wasn’t that surprised when the man answered with, “I’m not going to do that. What I’m going to ask for is an exchange. For your friend, a guaranteed escape route from the country, complete with a vehicle. And I want it in the next couple of hours, or you’re not going to see this friend of yours again.”

Ziva David didn’t appreciate threats. She had never appreciated threats. If anything, she detested them, and tended to vow to kill or seriously harm anyone who threatened her or her family in any way. So for someone to threaten a teenager like Alex, who was not only a minor but someone who was a lot more dangerous than he appeared… woe be unto them, she supposed. She focused back on her phone. “Gibbs?”

“McGee is tracing the call now. Stay with Alex — do not let him out of your sight. We're coming to you.”

Looking over at Alex, she knew that he would probably run at the next given opportunity to find his guardian. After all, that would be what she’d do in his position. Before she could answer Gibbs, he’d ended the call, meaning she was left alone with Alex waiting for Gibbs and Tony to arrive whilst Alex seethed in his seat over a call that had just ended for him. Honestly, Ziva felt if they didn’t get the man and put him into jail, Alex would end up doing something… and she wasn’t exactly sure what, but she knew that for legal purposes she wouldn’t want to know about it.

The conversation he’d just had didn’t stop Alex from finishing off the food in front of him, though. Soon enough he was polishing off his meal whilst scowling down at the table in front of him. As if that would be the solution to his problems.

Ziva got the distinct feeling that he was thinking up a plan to try and get his guardian back, and he would carry it out with or without NCIS getting involved. Ziva wasn’t sure whether she wanted to get involved, but she was going to. For the sake of protecting this teenager from doing something he would regret for the rest of his life. God knew she had done that more than enough times in her own life.

“What are you thinking?” she pressed, narrowing her eyes at him, and he glanced up at her. And then he did something she almost thought was uncharacteristic — he bit his lip, looking a little nervous.

“I have a plan,” he admitted, and she knew from the guilty look on his face that it either wasn’t a smart one or wasn’t a safe one. “I’m going to need your help to carry it out.”

“And why my help?” She frowned at him. What made her so valuable that he was going to ask her for help before Gibbs and Tony even arrived?

“Well, you’re Ziva David, right?” When her eyes widened, he continued, “Then you have the skillset I need to pull this off, and you know exactly what I need to do and how.”

That… definitely put Ziva on edge. If he knew who she was, and wanted a particular skillset of hers… then she knew exactly how she knew of him, and how he knew of her. And she also knew that if and when Gibbs found out about this whole plan that Alex had in mind, he was not going to be pleased at all.

***

It turned out that when Gibbs arrived and Alex told him what he was going to do and what he wanted to happen, the Senior Supervisory Agent wasn’t pleased at all. Ziva could see it in the expression on his face — she’d learnt how to read Gibbs fairly well over the time that they’d known each other. But he didn’t say anything against it. Ziva had a feeling it was because he knew that the plan was a good one, and he couldn’t come up with anything better to both get Jack back and solve their case, but she also knew that it was because Gibbs probably would have done the exact same thing. Except without involving a teenager.

The plan did, unfortunately, involve them actually obtaining a getaway vehicle for the man. Well, getaway vehicles, and Vance wasn’t happy about NCIS supplying any of them. After all, Gibbs didn’t negotiate with criminals who kidnapped and attacked random civilians.

Ziva, by this point, knew than Alex wasn’t a random civilian, but someone intelligent who may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe he was just where the drug dealer had planned for him to be, and the Petty Officer’s death was just a ploy to trap him. If so, this whole thing was likely to turn against him in a pretty terrible way very quickly.

The fact that they managed to get everything Alex needed in about an hour impressed the teen, from what Ziva could tell, but he didn’t show it very much (if at all). Ziva herself wasn’t too surprised, because that was the way their team worked when it came to ransom calls, but a small part of her was a little worried that the plan Alex had in mind wouldn’t work. First of all because it mostly included just her and him, and secondly because she didn’t know how he worked. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to work alongside someone she barely knew, someone whose files said he was just a schoolboy when he was clearly more skilled than that. She’d have to try, though, for the sake of that woman.

The next step was to go to the vehicles and check to make sure they were up to scratch, so that Rossi couldn’t say that they were trying or kill or sabotage him. Which disappointed Alex a little, but the teen was working with federal agents who were more in line with the law than most other agencies and had standards on how they treated their criminals. Even though many others would claim that they couldn’t see how Gibbs had standards. Once they were ‘up to scratch’, they headed back towards the mall, and Alex made a call.

A call that decided their next course of action.

The man had said to meet them up on the roof of the mall with the keys and locations of the vehicles he would use to escape in under two hours. They certainly had that sorted, but Alex wanted to make sure that the man was exactly where they had agreed to meet. Apparently, he had something against possibly losing Jack ‘again’. Ziva didn’t know what that meant, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to.

McGee, obviously, was tracing the call to make sure it was coming from the exact location that they expected, and Alex had the phone on speaker so that they could all hear the call coming through.

“Is there any reason you're trying to call?”

“Well, I’m clearly not trying if I’ve got through to you,” Alex pointed out casually, leaning back in his seat and crossing one leg over the other, ankle on his knee. Ziva almost did a double-take at the apparent change in personality, and Tony actually did do a double-take. The teen appeared ten times as confident as he had just seconds before, and it was baffling.

Almost like he was putting on a mask.

Ziva was becoming more and more certain that she knew who Alex Rider was.

“What do you want?”

“To be certain that you’re holding up your side of the bargain.” The teen looked to Tony, silently asking if he was getting any sort of confirmation from McGee that the man was exactly where he said he would be — still at the mall. Tony rushed to speak into his phone, pestering McGee (as usual) about his job and whether he’d got a location on the outgoing call on Alex’s phone just yet. “I’ve got what you wanted, but I’m not following through if you’re not holding up your side of it. Because if you don’t, I will hunt you down and make sure I fulfil my promise.”

Maybe Gibbs and DiNozzo didn’t know what promise Alex had made earlier, but Ziva knew. And she felt the urge to stop the teen from making such a stupid mistake so early in his life. Holding grudges was good for no one. She knew from experience.

The other man only laughed, though. “Oh, Alex. You are quite amusing. Of course I’m holding up my end of the bargain. I’m exactly where we agreed to meet, don’t you worry. You just get here with what I’ve asked you for so politely.”

It hadn’t been polite, and Ziva knew this, but she could see Alex gritting his teeth. So she kicked him a little, silently telling him to cool it before he said something he regretted over the line. When she glared back at her, she turned to Tony. “Has McGee traced the call yet?” she hissed.

Tony held up a finger. “He’s working on it.”

“Well, tell him to work faster.” She wasn’t too worried about Rossi ending the call too early, since he seemed to have such an ego on him, but she was a little concerned that Alex would put his foot in it before the end of the call. Tony only glared at her before passing on the message, and McGee’s response made him roll his eyes. Ziva didn’t think she wanted to hear it if Tony was rolling his eyes.

And then suddenly, Tony was giving them a thumbs up. “He’s at the mall.”

Alex ended that call far faster than Ziva thought he could. “Great, see you in five.”

“Wait—”

A very mature way of ending a call for sure, but Alex sat back with a sigh, closing his eyes. “That was exhausting.”

Gibbs spoke up for the first time since the drive started, “Imagine how it was for us listening.”

“It was a joy to listen to and you all know it.” Ziva couldn't help but roll her eyes at Alex’s cockiness, shaking her head. And, of course, Gibbs only rolled his eyes, but Tony was smirking.

Of course he would be smirking.

***

Reaching the mall again, Ziva knew that Alex was more than tempted to just head off and find his guardian by himself. Honestly, if she were in his position, she would do the exact same thing, and she was pretty much known for bending the rules and doing things that Gibbs didn’t exactly approve of to protect those she loved. Her father, obviously, had been one of those people she toed the line with. But knowing what Alex wanted to do meant she was more determined to stop him from going off and doing something ridiculously stupid like that.

Which was why she was surprised when Gibbs was the one to pull Alex to the side to speak with him. Granted, she shouldn’t have been so surprised to realise that Gibbs knew what was going on and wanted to put a stop to it to protect a child, but at the same time it let a pleasant warmth spread through her. Her father would never have done such a thing for a stranger’s child, linked to a case or not. Gibbs, of course, was the far superior parent. No question about it.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Tony’s voice suddenly came from beside her ear. Had she been anyone else, she probably would have jumped out of her skin from the sudden voice. As it was, she just about managed to stop herself from turning her head sharply to look at him.

“Something that is none of our business,” she responded simply, before turning to face away from the conversation so it didn’t appear as if they were eavesdropping. Tony, however, didn’t seem to want to let it go.

“You really don’t want to know?” he pressed, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No, and I will snap your neck if you ask me that again.”

He smirked at her, leaning in close. “I don’t think you want to do that.”

She smirked right back. “I think you underestimate how much I actually want to do things like that,” she retorted, making his face blanch as she walked away grinning. As much as she did care for her partner, the fact that she was still able to freak him out with simple threats brought her a ridiculous level of joy.

Within ten or so minutes, Alex and Gibbs returned from where they had been chatting. Alex, rather than looking chastised as Ziva had thought he would, looked surprisingly calm. As if, well, he’d been trying to hide how he truly felt about whatever Gibbs had said to him. Though there was still a spark of appreciation in his eyes that Ziva could see — a spark that she hadn’t seen there before. It made her want to smile, and hope that this whole plan of his went through successfully. Oh, and also make sure the teen didn’t do anything completely stupid and reckless. She got the distinct feeling that that was the kind of thing he was prone to doing. And then they were heading towards the building’s stairwell and up to the roof of the mall, up to the meeting point.

It was time to get this plan underway.

[livingcorner]

42 Furniture and Fixtures in Your Kitchen + Amazing Kitchen Home Tours – Toot Sweet 4 Two

42 Furniture and Fixtures in Your Kitchen – is that even possible? After all, when you exclude all the things in the kitchen’s cabinets and drawers, such as kitchen utensils, tools, gadgets, cooking implements, supplies, equipment, accessories, pantry food, refrigerated food, etc., what’s left? Just a table, a few chairs, maybe a hanging light, and some decorations, right?

You're reading: 42 Furniture and Fixtures in Your Kitchen + Amazing Kitchen Home Tours – Toot Sweet 4 Two

Well, let’s look at the picture above of a beautiful white kitchen in a smaller L-shaped kitchen space.

Furniture and Fixtures in This Space

In that picture, this is what you see from left to right:

Kitchen chairs (similar but two different kinds; did you catch that?)

Kitchen table

Placemats

Dinner plates

Salt and pepper shaker

Vase with flowers

Three overhead hanging lights

White ceramic vase to the left of the sink

Window shades

Glass jar with kitchen tools to the right of the sink

Basket with different dried bouquets

Several canisters with dried pasta

Two hanging ledges/shelves

Wooden vase with eucalyptus leaves (top shelf)

Another basket with pinecones (top shelf)

Two more glass canisters (top shelf)

Three gray glass bottles (bottom shelf)

Two separate plants in two separate pots (bottom shelf)

Two small carafes – maybe oil & vinegar? (bottom shelf)

Stove/Oven

Range hood

Two wooden chopping boards

Two more glass canisters

Refrigerator

What you don’t see, but still in this kitchen area, are:

Drapes (they are off to the left; I cropped them out of this photo)

Hardware for the drapery and window shades

Light bulbs

And that’s just in this small kitchen!   27 things just in that one small area!

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This post is one of 55 lists of 42 household items in this series.  This endless, unremitting, ongoing series…

Let’s back up a minute…

If you are new to this blog, welcome!  I create lists of 42 for home inventory purposes.  I started this series of household inventory lists several years ago because I’d been working on my own personal household inventory list.  You see, I have a vested interest in knowing what is in our home, and documenting it, so that should an emergency occur again, we are not left relying on memory.

If you are a new reader to this blog, we lost our home in the 2007 Southern California wildfire known as the Witch Fire and we were sorely unprepared for the recovery process.  Since I’m doing this for myself, I decided to share on my blog so that if readers want to do the same, they have some basic tools with which to start!

Here’s another photo of this beautiful kitchen so that you can see the drapes and the amazing vaulted ceiling!  From this vantage point, this kitchen area isn’t small after all; it’s just limited on counter space and kitchen amenities.

Getting back to this list of 42…

This list of 42 furniture and fixtures in your kitchen is meant to include items that are moveable in your kitchen, i.e., not permanently attached to your home.  For example, kitchen cabinets are attached to your walls, but a free-standing kitchen hutch or buffet it not.  Why am I sharing this distinction with you?  If you are, indeed, creating a list of personal property for your homeowner’s insurance company for a loss you have suffered, items that are permanently attached to your home are usually covered under the “dwelling” portion of your policy.

Read more: What is the origin and meaning of the phrase “all day” when used in a commercial kitchen?

So, in the case of this beautiful white kitchen that I’m using as an example, the sink, oven/stove, range hood, and flooring would all be considered part of the “dwelling,” so you wouldn’t include them on your list of personal property.  But, always be sure to talk directly to your assigned insurance claims adjuster just to clarify these distinctions.

Discloser:  This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.  Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

Here’s more kitchen furniture and fixtures inspo for you… the photo above is a different beautiful white kitchen!  This one has more of an industrial vibe with a large center workspace island made of wood and steel and vintage-inspired industrial bar stools.  What a great space!

Are you working on your own home inventory project, whether for personal use or as the result of a homeowner’s insurance claim?  If you are struggling with this endless project (it took me 9 months of working nights and weekends to create our personal property inventory), I’ve created a tool to help you see it through.  The Complete Book of Lists: Room-by-Room Checklists for Your Household Inventory Project combines the 55 lists on this blog plus 20 new lists and rolls them up into one eBook with 75 different home inventory checklists – all for the low price of $9.99!

Check out the complete book!

Here’s a great panorama view of a different loft kitchen.  This one is both black and white with lots of cool industrial details, including similar vintage-inspired rustic kitchen stools, that make this kitchen a standout!  I guess I’m attracted to these loft-type spaces.  In my mind, that’s been a dream of mine – to live downtown in a loft apartment with an amazing view.

Wait…I’ve already been there, done part of that!  I did live downtown in an apartment with an amazing view!  It just wasn’t a loft.  And I’ll let you in on a little secret…living downtown in a busy city, even in a high rise building, can be very noisy!

We lived there for 13 months while we rebuilt our home after the wildfire.  While our apartment, located on the 8th floor of a 9-story building, had an amazing view of San Diego Bay and the city to the west, it was incredibly noisy.  Sirens going by day and night!  There was a hospital located about a mile from us and all I can assume is that more than half of those sirens were ambulances heading towards the hospital.  When you romanticize about living is a great downtown space, that’s one of the things you don’t think about – noise.

This beautiful country farmhouse kitchen features a rustic kitchen island that’s the definition of a working table and an equally rustic hanging pot rack.  There’s even a vintage radio next to the sleeping kitty.  Full of country charm with light streaming through the windows, who wouldn’t want to wake up and watch the sunrise in this charming kitchen?

One more panorama photo of another beautiful industrial-style kitchen space to inspire you before we move on to the list of 42, this one with a cool brick wall.  These rustic bar stools are sure popular, aren’t they?  By the way, in the kitchen space above, the kitchen island is not permanently attached to the floor (see the “crawl” space?).  This leads me to  believe this particular kitchen island would not be part of the “dwelling,” but rather “personal property.”

42 Furniture and Fixtures in Your Kitchen

Your kitchen isn’t just about what you can stuff into your cabinets, drawers, and pantry, but also includes the furniture, fixtures, decorations, dinnerware, and other tools of the trade needed to make the most used room in your home an enjoyable retreat.  Check out this list of 42 Furniture and Fixtures in Your Kitchen to make sure that nothing is forgotten!

Kitchen table

Kitchen chairs

Area rugs

Draperies, rods, brackets, valances, curtains, shutters

Blinds or window shades

Lighting – overhead, lamps, sconces and light bulbs

Kitchen hutch, kitchen buffet

Kitchen bar stools, counter stools

Stepstool

Bench or benches

Decorative knick-knacks

Pictures, prints, photos, posters & frames

Plants and plant containers

Hanging pot rack

Refrigerator, freezer

Microwave, microwave cart/stand

Stove and/or cooktop

Oven – single or double

Range hood

Dinner plates, salad plates, dessert plates

Pasta bowls, cereal bowls, fruit bowls, dessert bowls

Cookbooks

Bookends, cookbook holder

Bookshelves, ledges

Water glasses,  tumblers, juice glasses

Cups and saucers, mugs, travel mugs

Wine goblets, champagne flutes, cocktail glasses

Dessert, parfait, mini glasses

Flatware set; butter knives

Serving spoons, serving forks, gravy ladles

Ice tea spoons, mini spoons & forks

Candles and candleholders

Vases

Lazy Susan

Chalkboard, chalk, clipboard, pens

Grocery bags and totes

Serving bowls and platters

Baskets and trays

Pitchers, carafes, decanters

Gravy boat, candy/nut dishes

Canisters

Free-standing kitchen island, kitchen island cart

Whew!  Did I leave anything out?  Let me know – I’ll add it to a future list!

What furniture do you need in your kitchen?

So, what furniture do you need in your kitchen?  Obviously, answering that question starts with evaluating your space.  Depending on the size of your space, the actual “furniture” in the space is contingent upon your available space.   I’m linking to a couple of decor bloggers for some great kitchen decoration and decor inspiration.

The above photo is of Karianne’s gorgeous farmhouse-style kitchen at Thistlewood Farms.  The actual furniture in this kitchen space includes the two kitchen counter stools, a freestanding kitchen island, and a kitchen hutch to the right displaying all her dishes.  What you can barely see peeking over the end of the other counter are four more white counter stools.

And her kitchen fixtures include that gorgeous chandelier, a beautiful range hood, rug, and other things you can’t see off camera range.  Karianne’s home is stunning – I encourage you to visit her beautiful blog for more design and decor inspiration!

The side-by-side photos above are of Taryn Whiteaker’s contemporary kitchen from her blog by the same name.  The actual furniture pieces in her beautiful kitchen are the “live-edge table,” kitchen chairs, kitchen counter chairs, area rug, and two amazing industrial-style open shelves.

That live-edge table truly elevates the space to fine kitchen dining, doesn’t it?  The kitchen fixtures that we can see in these photos include the great lights she’s selected hanging over the kitchen island and above the open shelves.  Be sure to visit Taryn’s blog for more great decor ideas and lots of beautiful tablescapes!

This amazing French country kitchen belongs to Karen at Sanctuary Home Decor.  Even though the only actual “furniture” pieces in this space are the kitchen counter stools, I had to share this gorgeous kitchen with readers!  Isn’t that range hood amazing?  And the beams in her kitchen…no words!  Karen has two homes; be sure to stop by her blog to see even more amazingly beautiful home decor.

This beautiful white modern transitional kitchen space belongs to Tana at Your Marketing BFF.  In this photo, you’ll notice the following pieces of kitchen furniture:  chairs, kitchen table, bench, kitchen counter stools, and hanging lights. Did I mention that Tana is my website’s designer?  We met many years ago at a blogging conference and became fast friends.  Not only is she an amazing website designer, but she’s a great teacher about all things blog.  Be sure to visit her site not only for decor inspiration but for help with all your blogging questions, too.

Read more: The Best Way to Clean Every Type of Kitchen Flooring

And Randi’s kitchen from her blog, Randi Garrett Design, is the ultimate in feminine glam!  Gold lighting fixtures, gold drawer and cabinet pulls, gold faucet on the sink, and gold controls on the stove, elevate her kitchen to rock star status!  Check out her blog for gorgeous design inspiration not only for the kitchen but for the rest of the house, too.  Oh, by the way, her site, too, was designed by Tana at Your Marketing BFF!

Last on the kitchen home tour is a beachy vibe with a modern twist.  This colorful kitchen breakfast nook started with a modern simple round pedestal table.  Adding the casual wooden wishbone armchairs painted aqua transform this nook to beachy casual and the aqua chevron-striped window shades add to the contemporary look.  The drama is added by hanging two identical paintings sideways, one upside down.

These two paintings flipped sideways are called Delta Dream and were created by my father, Chuck.  He was an Air Force pilot whose hobby was art; he passed away after a long life of creativity in 2013.  I miss him every day but I’m fortunate to be surrounded by his amazing talent displayed in my home.  He created many beautiful works of art throughout his life (both paintings and sculptures) and I’m thrilled to be able to share the paintings with the world.  Reproductions are available on Great Big Canvas.

Will you do me a favor?  Would you share my post on social media?  The pinnable images at the top of this post and the one below are for your Pinterest boards so that you can bookmark this post and come back to it later.  Thanks for sharing!

And don’t forget to sign up to receive my newsletter in your inbox.  As a thank you, I’ll send you a freebie!  Look for the sign-up boxes near the top of this post and again at the bottom of this post.  Thanks so much!

Tootles,

Related Posts from Toot Sweet 4 Two’s Archives:

42 Must-Have Kitchen Utensils

42 Pantry Foods to Stock for Emergencies

42 Things in Your Living Room, Family Room, and/or Great Room

You Might Also Like:

The Forest Modern: Our Chic Black Butler’s Pantry from Shauna at The House of Silver Lining

Kitchen Stalking – The Most Incredible Kitchens Around from Coco at Coco Cozy

Our Best Tips for Styling Open Shelves in the Kitchen from Cathy and Garrett at The Grit and Polish

Clean Your Messy House Like a Total Boss

Ever wondered what’s the best and fastest way to clean a messy house?

These simple, yet actionable tips will refine your routine leaving more time for you!

Sign up today and download your FREE checklist – How to Clean a Messy House Fast Like a Total Boss.

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Kitchen

source https://livingcorner.com.au/42-furniture-and-fixtures-in-your-kitchen-amazing-kitchen-home-tours-toot-sweet-4-two/

[technato]

After the Fire: HP Archivist Pledges to Rebuild What She Can

Little was digitized, much was lost, but some copies of Hewlett-Packard’s key historical documents may remain in the wild

Credit: Ben Margot/Associated Press

The October fires that tore through California’s wine country burned a trove of the Hewlett-Packard Co.’s historical documents, housed in modular buildings on the campus of Keysight Technologies in Santa Rosa

In October, some 100 boxes of correspondence and other documents that detailed the origins, evolution, and strategic thinking that turned a little garage startup into the grandfather of Silicon Valley were burned in the Sonoma County fires.

These documents—the papers of Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett that represented the records of the Hewlett-Packard Co. going as far back as 1937—were assembled before HP began the first of several splits starting in 1999.  In recent years, the collection was stored in a modular building on the campus of Keysight Technologies in Santa Rosa, Calif. (Keysight got custody of the documents when it spun out of Agilent, which had previously split off from HP.) The collection was hard to access by historians, had yet to be digitized, and was, as we now know, vulnerable to fire. 

Much of the collection had been indexed by archivist Karen Lewis, hired by HP in 1987 originally to dive into a few unorganized boxes to prepare for the 50th anniversary but who eventually spent more than 20 years with HP and later Agilent Technologies, figuring out what needed to be saved for posterity and collecting and organizing those documents and artifacts.

So, Lewis says, we mostly know what was lost. Perhaps the most heartbreaking, she points out, are the carbon copies of all of David Packard’s outgoing correspondence, stored with the replies he received. 

“Packard was obsessive about that,” she says. “He had copies of everything. As a result, we could see his strategic thinking, for example, his correspondence with Leon Sullivan discussing the Sullivan principles,” which were used to put pressure on South Africa to end apartheid.

Other correspondence, Lewis says, traced the development of Packard’s thoughts on what it would be like to eventually do business in China and other communist countries, reflecting his believe “that technology was for the greater good of mankind, it wasn’t just about business.”

It isn’t particularly surprising that these documents, no matter their historical value, were never digitized. “Many archives of that age and size don’t get digitized because the papers are of different sizes and thicknesses. It is expensive and it is difficult to make sure you have the necessary accuracy. So it’s not uncommon to just store them safely and securely in the proper environment for preservation.”

While historians, former HP staffers, and other members of the tech world are mourning what is lost, Lewis is thinking about how to rebuild the historical narrative, even without the original documents.

The oral histories are not lost, she says. “I have a full text of them on my computer, and they also exist in the HP [Inc] archives.”

“I hired someone to do a full-text inputting of Packard’s speeches at one point, so we’ve got that,” she says.

Putting the rest together is going to be like making a patchwork quilt out of scraps. Fortunately, annotated indexes of the Packard and Hewlett—box by box, folder by folder—exist, with copies stored on a variety of computers, both personal and corporate. Some of the papers collected from other key HP executives are also indexed—but not all on them.

Lewis shared the index of David Packard’s papers with me. With 238 pages to review, I confess I’ve barely made a dent—but it’s a fascinating exploration. A few examples from the first 20 or so pages  (DP is David Packard; WRH is Bill Hewlett):

8/12/37 DP memo on interview with Terman who “felt with me that we might do fairly well with merchandising radios if we located somewhere on the peninsula”

4/25/42 DP to L.H. Lynn, GE concerning lack of delivery of voltmeters, also “the lack of engineers and the problem of trying to work 50 people in a space designed for 15, all confronting us at once, it is rather difficult to promise anything definite.”

Undated, WRH to DP saying he rented a place with a cabin for himself.  He will pay $15 for the small house and part of the shop (garage) which “is concrete floored and has a work table in it already.”

12/8/47 DP told Michigan State student “the best preparation for work in an organization such as ours is provided in the general college courses which cover the more fundamental aspects of engineering training”; suggests they avoid too much specialization

4/30/48 DP expresses interest in Cal St Poly College’s new engineering major

10/18/49 legal agreement between HP and M.P.H. Industries concerning development of machinery for thinning row crops, commonly known as “Marihart Crop Thinner”

DP memo re labor difficulties at Lynch with unions; DP handwritten comments about unions including: 

If you want union you can have it. Think you will get a better deal – should join

New employees – check with older people – talk to Bill & me about it 

Good organization – don’t think they will try any rough stuff. Try hard – too much money in dues

If you don’t want union we can operate without it – will require little help & cooperation

Any evidence of pressure or threats report to foreman or to Bill & me

Hewlett-Packard Company Directors; James L. Jenks, Jr. 1961-69    – Jenks was upset over HP’s willingness to trade with communist countries; [Archivist’s note: may have led to Jenks’ retirement]

6/26/45  Coffee time and coke time:  “It has been noticed that the rule of ten minutes for coffee time in the morning and ten minutes for coke time in the afternoon has not been strictly observed…It is requested that as our contribution to the war effort we return to work promptly at the end of these rest periods.”

With these indexes as a skeleton, the rebuilding begins. “I have some stuff on my computer,” Lewis says, “and other people have copied things.”

People have started coming forward “who did research in the archives in days past, and who copied some of those papers. There will be some letters, and some planning papers.”

“I plan to get together with people at Agilent.  We will put together what remains and get it to a safe and secure place that is open to researchers like Stanford or the Smithsonian,” she says.

“I’ll be doing this as a labor of love,” she says, “I don’t have funding at this point, but that’s okay. I had a whole career as an archivist—at Harvard, at HP, at Agilent, at Apple. It’s time for me to give back.”

Anyone with copies of the kinds of documents described can contact Lewis at karenrlewis@gmail.com.

After the Fire: HP Archivist Pledges to Rebuild What She Can syndicated from http://ift.tt/2Bq2FuP

[inerginc]

GTM Smart Grid http://ift.tt/2eJlQnQ

LO3, a startup that brands itself as a "transactive energy company," is preparing to expand internationally after building the world's first blockchain microgrid.

The company pulled in new investments last week from Braemar Energy Ventures and Centrica Innovations. The capital raise completed a Series A round for the Siemens-backed firm, based in Brooklyn, New York.

For the past couple years, blockchain has been lauded as a potential game-changer in the energy industry, garnering millions of dollars in investment.

“There’s a lot of interest, a lot of hype in the blockchain industry right now,” said Scott Kessler, LO3’s director of business development, during a recent visit to the start-up’s new Brooklyn office. 

“Ninety-nine percent hype in blockchain,” CEO Lawrence Orsini added. 

Much of that attention has fallen on LO3 in the three years since it started using the technology. LO3’s core platform revolves around peer-to-peer energy trading on community microgrids where blockchain verifies the transactions. For all of the publicity that blockchain is getting, Kessler said the real innovation is around how companies are using it.

“We very much think of ourselves as an energy company that happens to use blockchain," said Kessler. "If another, more efficient way to communicate this data came out, we would use that.”

In addition to its latest funding round, LO3 recently announced two new projects underway in Germany. One, the Landau Microgrid Project, is a research project at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and a partnership with local utility Energy Südwest AG that includes 20 customers. It’s the first test of a local energy market in Germany. The other, in conjunction with energy provider Allgauer Uberlandwerk, will test a "virtual microgrid" based on disparate sources of distributed generation. 

LO3 now has projects in Europe -- including an unannounced project in the UK -- Australia, and the U.S. 

The crown jewel is LO3's Brooklyn microgrid project, which demonstrates the use of blockchain-enabled energy trading among a small group of residents.

The segment of Brooklyn where the project is located -- at the nexus of Gowanus, Park Slope and Boerum Hill -- was meant to be representative of a wide-reaching community and a diverse swath of buildings. Testing transactions there offers a model for how it could function on a larger-scale.

LO3 started the project small, with just five energy-producing participants. It now has 60 of those prosumers, and another 500 energy buyers participating. 

“What we’re trying to do here is partially a business-model test,” said Kessler. “We don’t want this to be something that functions only for a certain type of person or a certain type of building. We have to make sure it works for the entire electric grid.”

Orsini describes the energy system of the future, interestingly enough, as akin to specialty bottled water.

In the past, he said, people relied on cheap tap water that cost pennies a gallon. And though access to plentiful, cheap tap water still exists, many people spend dollars a day on the fancy stuff. The LO3 team suspects consumers may feel the same about bespoke energy as distributed energy resources become more commonplace. And what better place to test boutique energy purchases than in a fast-gentrifying portion of New York City?

A small monitor in the corner of the LO3 office details the core of the company's platform: the transactions moving through its Brooklyn project on any given day. On the day we visit, transactions are turning over with a 140 millisecond latency, the delay it takes for meters to communicate with each other. 

Right now, LO3 is both a software and a hardware company. Because using a blockchain to verify energy transactions is still new, and the data used to run a blockchain and balance a grid requires near instantaneous monitoring and reaction, LO3 had to build its own meters for customers in Brooklyn, Sacramento, Australia, and soon Germany.

The meters, which communicate with each other to move energy between consumers, form the hardware backbone of the platform. But LO3 also built an application that makes smart contracts (an automated contract for electricity verified on the blockchain) and allows customers to control their energy usage. 

Users on the Brooklyn microgrid can choose how much they want to spend on energy per day. Different resources can be priced at different amounts. In a demonstration LO3 gave on a microgrid installed in the lower level of its exposed-brick office, renewable generation cost a consumer more each day than the brown power available. Users can click through to see exactly where their energy is coming from. They can also vote on sites to install more solar in their neighborhood.

With the initial roll-out of its platform underway, LO3 is now looking to expand its consumer and prosumer network. Later this year, the company is scheduled to release a peer-reviewed white paper on its technology and the usefulness in energy applications. LO3 will also begin a “token event” to release parts of the platform so that others can build on top of it with permission to access its application programming interface. 

How Brooklyn energy users take to the platform could help set the standard for blockchain in the energy industry. Beyond New York, LO3 has grand visions for the possibilities of transactive energy.  

“What we’ve described so far ends up being a pretty small piece of it, because people buying and selling energy to one another should definitely be a function of this platform,” said Kessler. He and Orsini want to go further. 

They describe near limitless potential for how blockchain applications could smooth the production and distribution of energy. Possible next steps include paying consumers to turn devices on and off to meet demand. Or charging different amounts for the transmission infrastructure used to exchange electrons, thus increasing private investment in infrastructure instead of pushing those costs off on ratepayers. 

Scott Kessler, LO3's director of business development, shows off the company's metering system. Image credit: Emma Foehringer Merchant.

It’s still early days for the model. LO3's Brooklyn project has about 500 participants, and it's now rolling out the platform’s beta application there.

LO3's blockchain works for transactive energy because it can respond within seconds to verify a transaction, rather than the minutes-long response time for Bitcoin. Speeding up the verification process is especially important when balancing energy.

“There is no command-and-control system that can manage a billion devices at the grid edge efficiently,” said Orsini. “So there’s a different way you have to manage the level of DERs that we’re going to have in the next few years. Blockchain, it turns out, is a really efficient communication platform for value.”

Orsini argues that energy actually has the biggest potential among blockchain applications.

Last year, NRG dispatcher Chris Taylor declared that “we are on the ground floor of one of the most significant transitions in human history.”

Blockchain energy companies have been “cropping up like mushrooms after the rain,” wrote GTM's Jason Deign recently.

“It’s very easy to describe a future in which the utility disappears, the grid is literally just a network of wires and end points, and there’s generating assets and users and management of it," said GTM CEO Scott Clavenna on a recent episode of The Interchange. "It’s very easy to hype that that’s where blockchain is taking us overnight, while the reality is there are a ton of obstacles to get us there.”

LO3 executives have a sense of humor about the attention the technology is getting.

“I like to say that we basically started with the three most-hyped terms we could find and it was blockchain, microgrid and Brooklyn,” said Kessler. 

But that hype exists for a reason. LO3's experimentation with business models on the Brooklyn Microgrid could provide great value for utilities trying to understand how these platforms fit into the larger energy transition. 

“It causes issues for existing utility business models, existing retailer business models, and the physical grid itself,” said Kessler. “We position ourselves as the company that’s showing you what the market of the future looks like." 

Ultimately, what that market looks like will come down to experimentation. Orsini said he can’t envision a future with no central grid -- but it could look drastically different than the one that delivers energy today. 

“Anybody who tells you they know the business model for the electric grid of the future is confused, because nobody knows what it is,” said Orsini. “We have to test these models. We have to see how people respond to new technology and new choices.”

--

GTM will host an entire panel session on Blockchain at the first annual U.S. Power & Renewables Conference in November. You'll get an in-depth look at how the renewable energy market will interact with the U.S. power market, and how those interactions can impact overall industry development and market growth. Curated by GTM Research, MAKE, and Wood Mackenzie energy analysts, we’ll take an expansive view of key issues and timely topics, bringing together a diverse group of energy experts and stakeholders to discuss demand dynamics, economics and business model shifts, and policy and regulatory implications.

[rodney-johnson-blog]

On the Search for Buried Treasure… You Have to Know Where to Look

I earned my scuba diving certification 30 years ago, although I don’t use it very often. It’s not that I don’t like diving, it just takes a lot of time and planning.

Still, during our family’s years in Florida we took the occasional East Coast trip to dive some of the numerous shipwrecks that aren’t too far off the coast.

And after my younger daughter got certified at 12 years old, we made a trip off of Venice, Florida, where we searched for prehistoric shark teeth.

To find them, you had to know where to look. Local dive captains guard their GPS coordinates for finding likely shark teeth as if what they’re looking for is sunken treasure.

In a way, it is.

The same thing that makes most dive trips all-day affairs is what drives up the value of locations where you can find shark teeth. It’s all about location, because most of the ocean floor is filled with nothing.

At least, nothing of immediate interest.

That’s not the part they show you on the Discovery Channel. Instead, you see beautiful video of bright-colored coral and majestic sea life. That stuff’s down there, but it’s not poking out of every crevice and covering every square inch.

Think about the last time you went in the water at the beach. What did you step on? Chances are, a whole lot of nothing, or rather, sand. That stuff stretches for miles.

Anyone hunting for lost shipwrecks filled with treasure is intimately familiar with this issue. They have to find the wrecks on the vast ocean floor, and then figure out how to get all that stuff back to dry land.

For the past 25 years, one company in the U.S., Odyssey Marine Exploration (Nasdaq: OMEX), has excelled at this task, but they’ve recently changed direction. Not because they ran out of wrecks, but because they ran into an immovable object: bureaucracy.

That’s OK, though. As the company’s CEO, Mark Gordon, recently told me, the pivot away from archeological finds will most likely make the company wildly more successful than it could’ve been otherwise.

Odyssey did everything right. The company registered its underwater finds with the appropriate government authorities, took detailed video of wrecks to preserve their character, and presented historical data and artifacts to governments and museums.

But it wasn’t enough. No matter what assurances Odyssey had before they excavated a site, there was always some government agency or group that sued them afterward. They were interested in taking everything that Odyssey retrieved.

It’s not much of a business to find shipwrecks, retrieve artifacts and stores of gold and silver, and then have it all confiscated. That’s charity.

So Odyssey reviewed its skill set: deep underwater exploration and excavation, extensive mapping of the ocean floor, and a knowledgeable employee base. If they weren’t looking for manmade treasure on the floor of the ocean, maybe they could find something else – the naturally-occurring kind.

For millennia, man has looked for valuable deposits on land. We’ve dug for everything from iron to gold. But dry land is a limiting factor, since 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by water. Now consider that everything found in land formations is also found underwater.

You simply have to know where to look… and how to get it out.

This is Odyssey’s bread and butter. Now the company is on the cusp of a deal that will cement its future.

Recently Odyssey inked a deal to excavate phosphate in Mexican waters. The mineral is a key ingredient in fertilizer, which makes it invaluable for improving crop yields. Mexico has very little phosphate on land, so the country must import it.

When offshore mining gets underway, Mexico will suddenly be able to mix fertilizer that will help feed its population and add a valuable export to its economy.

The last administrative hurdle left for Odyssey to clear is an environmental review. Gordon is hopeful that this will happen, since Odyssey has teamed with a group that’s performed hundreds of dredging operations in Mexico.

Since going public in the 1990s, Odyssey’s stock price has been on a wild ride. It shot above 80 in the mid-2000s before recently dipping to single-digits… and that’s after a reverse, 1-for-12 stock split.

But if underwater mining comes to fruition, Odyssey – and companies like it – could have a bright future. And the world population could suddenly have access to new sources of precious deposits such as rare earth minerals, gold and silver, and of course, phosphate.

You just have to know where to look.

And Mark does. He’s promised to talk more about his company’s days searching for shipwrecks, and give a better picture of the incredible opportunities that lie on the bottom of the sea at our fifth annual Irrational Economic Summit this October in Nashville. Seats are limited. Get your tickets today!

Rodney Johnson Follow me on Twitter @RJHSDent

Read much more from Rodney Johnson and the rest of the Dent Research team at Economy & Markets!

[inmed]

KKN in Srowolan

KKN is this mandatory community service that is part of the curriculum of UGM and other universities in Indonesia. They put together groups of students from different faculties and then send them to an undeveloped village. The students get to come up with and do “programs” to improve the village. 

So does it actually help and work? Let me tell you about my experience.

I wanted to go out of Java for my KKN so I applied early into a team of students making a proposal to go to Haruku Island in Ambon. Due to a computer error which was totally UGM’s fault, I was barred from going there and instead, randomly assigned to a new team being sent to Sleman. Later I was told that they do not want foreigners going too far. I suspect they used their website error as a way to block me from registering to go out of Java.

I’ve learned not to cry over spilled milk. Jogja is a sea of spilled milk. So, it’s better to just bite the bullet and go with the flow. Forget Ambon. Let’s go to Sleman!

I live in Sleman. It’s a district in the tiny province of Yogyakarta. Sleman starts in what is the city of Yogyakarta and then spans way up towards Merapi. In Sleman, there’s a sub-district called Pakem. It starts at the northern edge of the city and then stretches north to encompass lots of villages. Basically, Pakem is a really rural part of Sleman. The part of Sleman I live in (Mlati) is very much the city. It is indistinguishable from the rest of the city of Yogyakarta. But Pakem is mostly rice paddies, fields of other crops, and woods. In Pakem, there’s a sub-sub-district called Purwobinangun and then within that there’s a small village of some 400 people called Srowolan. I was sent to Srowolan for my KKN.

There are two landmarks in Srowolan. One is an “outbound” activity center called Banyusumilir. And the other is an abandoned marketplace called Pasar Perjuangan. I arrived on my motorbike with the help of GPS coordinates. The roads were dark and rocky, and winding between graveyards, the odd building, and what were probably rice paddies by day. Finally I saw a makeshift streetlamp and then a small empty field appeared between some sleepy village houses. This field was the parking lot of Pasar Perjuangan - the dead marketplace. 

I alighted and found myself walking into a sizable house. This is where I was to stay with 24 others for a period of 2 months. I estimated the single-story house to have been built about 30 years ago and abandoned about 5 years ago. The pictures framed on the walls told a story of a Christian family with their children graduating from university in the 90s and 2000s. One photo had a tombstone-like birthdate and death-date. The year of death was 2006. A short but heavy set man peered out the color photo with relaxed, small, beady eyes from behind a pair of steel-framed glasses. I explored the house. It was in the same of a rectangle. On one end there was a very large living room. A hallway left the living room towards the kitchen and toilets at the other end. Four bedrooms opened up onto this hallway. There were 25 of us, 13 guys and 12 girls. We decided the guys would sleep on mattresses and airbeds on the floor of the living room and two guys would sleep in one of the bedrooms. The girls would occupy all rooms except the one with the boys. Halal enough! So, where’d this house come from? It was basically unoccupied so the villagers lent it out to us. I believe we put money together to pay the owner, but I’m not sure. The leader of our KKN handled it so I didn’t pay too much attention. Ah yes, forgot to mention that we elected a leader during “bakti kampus”. What’s “bakti kampus”? It’s this weird ceremonial cleaning of UGM by the students who are about to go for KKN. You show up, pretend to clean (I moved dried leaves around), sign attendance, and then go home. Since we got together for bakti kampus, we decided to elect a leader. He became the leader of the four “sub-units” - as the 25 of us were divided into four groups, one group per village. Luckily, my village was Srowolan, the very same village where this house was located. The other three groups had to travel about 5 minutes by motorbike to reach their villages.

For KKN, each of us was supposed to come up with five “programs” and then carry them out during the two months. The main theme was rejuvination of the dead marketplace. The easiest and first thing that came to mind was to simply promote it using signs and such, and soon it will be alive again. Right? Wrong. We found out, in meetings with the villagers, that the marketplace has been dead for over 40 years, nobody really believes it can be alive again, and nobody really cares if it was alive again. So, we all adjusted our programs and instead focused more on other programs related to health, education, agriculture, etc. As I’m a medical student, one of my five programs was assigned to me by the local puskesmas (clinic): to collect some medical, health, and living conditions data by visiting some homes in the village. The other four: social media promotion (I uploaded pics to Google Maps), giving health education (I held a Q&A forum), making a promotional video for the village, and building an announcement board. I built the announcement board using plywood and other stuff I found in the hardware store nearby. I had to pay for it myself, sadly, but there was simply no funding. The promotional video is taking way too much time and effort and it’s almost the end of KKN. So I’m just going to put the half-baked video on Youtube and call it a day.

So, what did I really do for the last two months? Ok, disclaimer: I started KKN with a lot of enthusiasm. I wanted to finish up all the programs as quickly as possible and then relax the rest. But it didn’t play out that way because life moves really slow in the village. There are meetings and more meetings, and in the end, you need to have a logbook detailing daily activities. So, I gave up and decided to be lazy until the end. Every opportunity I got, I went home - about 30 minutes by motorbike. I often slept at home and often took unexcused days off. We were allowed to take five days off - with excuse. I took two this way and about 15 just unexcused. Even when I was there, not much was usually happening. I’d arrive at 9:30 AM and people would be lazily waking up and getting in line to bathe. This would continue until around 1 PM. And then, everybody would get busy trying to look for food, laundry, and other stuff. Then, the UNO cards would come out. Laptops with PES (soccer game) or The Sims. And, I’d be sitting there wondering, “why did I even bother coming today?” 

Not all days were like this though. Some days there was a flurry of activity and I’d help out when I could (to be nice and to get “helping hours” - we need a certain number of those) or join in for some fun.

There’s a lot more I can say about KKN. But I think I’ve said as much as I’d like for now.