#didn’t see the option to repair the computer at the library either

[heckatie]

Playing the new event and accidentally used a spell to have my spellcaster repair the computer and now I think I’ve locked myself out of completing the event

[imarealnamenow]

Dangerous Mistakes

Brian's cyborg parts low key stress me out. Technology is temperamental at the best of times. Like, I almost bricked my computer trying to set up a new piece of software the other day, so I can't imagine relying on so much tech for basic functions. I'm sure he would have back ups and things, but he'd have to be able to get to them. Some more thoughts on @alittlesliceofcucumber's Spooky!Lads AU.

Daithi had been floating about town randomly all day and, quite frankly, he was bored. He had messed with some kids in the library, but he wanted to talk to someone who could see him. Dan should be sleeping. They had all agreed to leave him alone more during daylight so that he would actually do it. Seán was working and Kevin had physio, so his only option for someone to bother was Brian. He was probably holed up in his bunker, working on some new piece of tech. He also probably wouldn’t want Daithi there to bother him while he worked, but that was half of the fun.

The forest outside of the bunker was littered with sensors and traps. Calling Brian paranoid was an understatement, and his security system reflected that accordingly. Even Daithi had a hard time navigating it without getting detected. Now, he dodged in between a couple of infrared sensors and if the 007 theme was playing in his head, nobody really needed to know. By the time he made it to the clearing over the bunker he was already in a better mood. There was no sign of Brian yet, so he had either been successful in dodging everything or the other had seen it was him and just didn’t care.

Either way, he phased gently through the ceiling hoping to at least slightly surprise the other. Except what greeted him was not the exasperated sigh he had been expecting, and rather the quiet rasp of panicked breathing. Brian was collapsed next to his desk. There were tools scattered across the floor as if he had knocked them off the desktop on his way down. A panel was missing from over his left shoulder and Daithi had a sneaking suspicion of what had happened.

“Brian?” he called out quietly to alert the other of his presence. Brian gasped and responded frantically, “Daithi, I - I fucked up. I can’t move. Something must have - it must have gotten disconnected. Holy shit, I didn’t know what I was gonna do.” Daithi hummed and gently floated over to the other. He was already focusing on becoming corporeal as quickly as possible. “It’s alright, man. I got you. Just tell me what I need to do.” Brian swallowed heavily, nodding now that the other was close enough for him to see. He shifted his head, trying to see as much of his shoulder as possible despite the limited range of motion.

“I was doing a repair and there must have been something loose in the drive casing. My whole system shut down. I just need you to reconnect it. Then, that bolt right there by the hammer, that's what should have been holding it in place. It would help if we put that back too,” he explained, much calmer with a solution available. Daithi focused his energy, staring nervously at the little bolt, but smiled triumphantly when he was able to grab it on the first try. The organized chaos of electronics inside of his friend was nothing new to him, and he was able to locate the loose drive fairly easily. The little stick was jutting out just millimeters from its seating. He was struck, not for the first time, by just how fragile his friend could be.

He pushed it firmly back into position. Once the connection was reestablished, little lights blinked to life all over the place and Brian sighed. By the time Daithi had the bolt screwed back in place his systems had fully rebooted and he levered himself off the ground with a groan. “Thanks man. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t shown up,” Brian told him with a grin. All trace of his earlier panic was gone. Daithi looked at him sharply, pinning him in place with a glare. "We've gotta talk about you working on yourself alone like this. What if I hadn't come by today?" Brian bristled and turned away to gather the scattered tools. "I can take care of myself. In fact, I'm the only one who can do it. This was a one time thing. I messed up. It won't happen again."

He placed everything back on the desk and sat down. His attention shifted to giving his hardware a quick once over before replacing the panel. Daithi waited until the last screw was replaced before he spoke again. "I'm not saying that someone else has to do it. There should just at least be someone here, someone who can help if you need it." He knew why Brian always did maintenance alone, knew that he didn't like being that vulnerable around other people. As far as he knows, Daithi is the only one who has ever been permitted to help him. He might be the only one who has seen what's underneath those panels at all. It's why he'd never said anything about it before, despite his concerns.

Today had proved that he was right to worry, though. This would never happen again if he had any say in it. "It doesn't have to be me. Just one of the lads. Just in case. Please," he continued. Brian stared into his eyes, and he must've seen the very real worry there. He gave the smallest of nods before looking away. "God. Fine you big baby. If you're so worried about it, I'll try to get some company next time I need to do repairs." His voice was brittle and the words weren't exactly committal, but Daithi would take what he could get.

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

The Mistakes We Made - Chapter Four

Summary:  When her high school girlfriend comes back to town after two years with a baby and a terrible story she won’t tell, the Librarian has to deal with the feelings she had worked so hard to keep at bay.

Notes:  I have no idea of how libraries work, just roll with it *finger guns*

Read it on ao3: (chpt1) (chpt2) (chpt3) (chpt4)

Maven cracked her eyes open and squinted immediately. Her face was bathing in the early sunlight, and groaning she realized that she had left the curtains open the night before.

She turned her back to the window, knowing she still had time to rest until her alarm rang. Clutching her blanket tighter around herself, she tried to hang on to the last vestiges of the dream she’d been having. And it had been such a strange dream, so impossible and bittersweet.

Her sleep muddled mind failed to remember much more of it, so she simply accepted to let that be. That is, until she heard sounds of clatter in the kitchen, which made her sit up on her bed immediately. It couldn’t be an animal; she always let her house locked up at night. It wouldn’t be a visitor either: only Maven’s uncle had another key, and he was currently out of town. Her only other option would be faeries, but she had quite a few amulets to keep those away from the house. Besides, the scent coming from the kitchens smelled like coffee, not like flowers or milk like one would expect from the wee folk. So there was only one possibility.

It hadn’t been a dream.

Maven bolted out of her bed, heading straight to the bathroom and throwing water on her face. As her mind began to cooperate, the details of the day before came back to her. Johanna walking into the Poet’s Retreat, asking for help by the lamplight, feeding her child in the living room and putting her to sleep in her stroller: suddenly it all got as clear a the day outside in her head.

But her thoughts clouded over again as her heart took control. The shock of seeing her former best friend back, with a baby and without her husband, had stopped her from thinking about other things the day before. She had acted mostly on impulse. But now that she had rested and spent some time away from Johanna, she began remembering exactly why her impulse had been running away and lashing out.

Her mood didn’t improve as she got dressed, figuring she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep and deciding to get ready for work instead; after all, an early morning wouldn’t hurt. Not to mention it would give her somewhere to hide from her feeling and a certain someone who had awakened them.

She got out of the bedroom wearing her typical clothes: a white button up shirt with a sleeveless grey cardigan on top, a pleated black skirt with leggings underneath and dark flats that were comfortable enough to not make her feet ache when she needed to stand up for hours organizing books.

The usual routine was comforting, in a way. Dressing up, brushing her short hair, putting the things she’d need in her dark blue messenger bag. It made her forget that something out of the ordinary was happening.

Of course, that sense of normality disappeared when she walked down the narrow wood stairs to the kitchen and found herself looking at the unusual picture that her former girlfriend and her baby made in Maven’s house.

“Good morning” Maven said when she was a few steps behind Johanna, who was in front of the oven scrambling eggs. She startled and turned back, facing her host with the fridge and spatula still in hand.

“Oh, good morning!” She chirped, making her tone politely happy and putting a smile on her face, but it wilted when she noticed how gloomy Maven looked. Her shoulders were tense, her eyes hooded with irritation and with dark circles under them, though she could barely see them as Maven’s hair was getting in the way. Surliness seemed to roll off of her in waves, and Johanna knew her way to well to think everything was okay.

But Johanna didn’t have the patience for this, and she surely didn’t have the strength for this any longer. She knew Maven wasn’t Torrin- there wouldn’t be much of a negative consequence if they had a row- but that didn’t mean she had the psychological and emotional strength to deal with a fight. So she just lowered her head and waited for her friend to speak.

Seeing this, Maven lifted her eyebrows in both surprise and mockery. Really? No “stop sulking! What real problems do you even have?”? No “quit being a happiness sucking spirit!”?. Even before everything went to hell, Maven would get an “well, someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning.” if her friend noticed she was in a bad mood. Staying quiet wasn’t typical Johanna behavior and it wouldn’t be in a thousand years. But the woman had no marks on her body, and that made a lot of Maven’s preoccupation with her succumb to the nagging voice in her mind telling her that she had warned Johanna, and she had been ignored.. Seemed fair she’d have to face the consequences now.

“I’m going to work.” She said shortly. “I’ll be back by lunchtime to get my stuff. I take it you’re still not back at college?”

“I’m not.”

Maven nodded and looked at the cabinets above Johanna’s head. She should probably get something to eat, but she really didn’t want to be in the same room as her at the moment. “Excuse me” she said as she reached out for the cabinet’s wooden handle, making Johanna take a step to the right. She quickly found a package of biscuits and took it out, giving Johanna space to return to her cooking once more.

She had already turned to leave. Her hand was in the bag where she’d placed her keys. But a bit of her conscience made itself known in her mind through the haze of pain. Monster, it seemed to tell her. You’re just going to leave? Are you really this cold? This is why you’re meant to be alone.

With her heart clenching, just like her fingers around her keys, she said:

“Do you need anything?”

Johanna turned her head from the oven to look at her, a confused frown on her face. Though Maven had to be talking to her, she was staring at the door. “For the baby.” She completed. “Do you have enough diapers and that sort of thing?”

“I do. Thank you.”

“If- if you have any problems” she reluctantly said as she unlocked the door. “You can call me.”

And after she had stepped outside into the chilly morning, she called. “You know, I haven’t changed my number. I was wondering if maybe that was why I never heard from you again, but it seems it remains the same.” Just before she shut the door again, leaving each of them alone with their own pain.

_#_#_#_

Yawning, Maven raised her arms above her head and stretched. After spending a good part of her morning and most of her afternoon sitting at one of the tables in Trollberg’s library, she’d finally finished studying and was ready to head home. For the day, at least.

Picking up her backpack from the chair by her side, she closed each of her notebooks and stored them away, doing the same with her pens. Most students from her class used laptops to do their essays and researches, but Maven’s mother didn’t have enough money to get her one, having to work alone to make ends meet, so she learned to deal with all the paper that she needed to get through college. She found she preferred that, too. Paper was comforting and it didn’t stop working suddenly and made you pay even more to repair it. Paper was reliable, even if it was a bit messy.

When all her things had been put away, Maven got up and lifted a stack with the four books she had used, and set about looking for Mr. Kavindi, to ask if he would put them away or if she could reshelve them herself. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know where pretty much everything went at this point.

She found him eyeing the library’s computer at his desk, frowning at the screen. His worried expression reminded her of the troubles he’d told her about days ago, and suddenly she was afraid that something bad had happened. For whatever reason, Aven had showed up at the library, an action so atypical of him that could probably justify sending him to an asylum, and declared that Mr. Kavindi’s work was insufficient , and that his father would know about how slowly work got done around there.

If it was anyone else, they wouldn’t have cared for the threat. Problem was, the bastard was the son of the mayor. And that complicated things a bit.

Maven didn’t really think that the good hearted librarian would be sent away. She couldn’t think of many people in this town who had the basic knowledge to get the job, and those who did were quite close to Mr. Kavindi and would surely refuse to do such a thing to him, not to mention that they all had their own stable jobs. But that didn’t stop her from being worried for a man who had helped her so much.

“Sir?” She began tentatively and he looked up at her, a smile slowly spreading over his face when he realized it was her.

“I just wanted to know if I should leave this with you or put them away.” She lifted her books in askance.

“Ah, Maven! Leave them at the desk, please.” She did as he said, putting them near a few other ones that also needed to be reshelved. “I wanted to talk to you, but you looked so focused in your studies I didn’t want to bother before.”

“It wouldn’t be a bother, sir. But is everything alright? You know, with the mayor?”

He nodded happily. “More than okay, my girl. You see, Mr. Torrin’s insatisfaction worked on my favour. It would seem the town hall finally allowed me something I’ve been asking for for years. They’re giving the library extra money so that I can have an assistant!”

Maven breathed out in relief and smiled, something she didn’t do quite often but seemed easier when she was with the kind man in front of her. “That’s lovely, sir. Maybe with a little help you could try to do more of those projects you told me you had planned when you first got the job. I bet Aven won’t have anything else to complain about, then.”

The librarian was looking at her with a little smile she couldn’t quite decipher. “Yes, maybe I could. Unfortunately, though, I seem to have a small problem. There seems to be a limited number of people interested in literature in this town, and all of those I’ve consulted weren’t interested in taking this part time job.”

Maven frowned. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find someone, eventually…” she remembered a girl in her high school class that had liked reading too, but she had moved to another city to go to college. There was also a boy who had been known to love Tolkien, but as far as Maven was concerned, he was studying something related to maths, so he was probably not an option.

“How’s your schedule, Maven?”

The girl looked up from the floor and at him at the unexpected question. “I’ve been handling it well enough. Mostly I have classes in the evening, so I have the mornings and sometimes the nights to myself. I use the half an hour of train ride to study or do homeworks… why?”

“Well, you’re smart, you’re young enough to go around stacking books with little effort, and you’re studying for this.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Would you consider working here?”

Maven could only gape at him. It was too easy, to have her dream job handed to her on a silver platter. It was never this easy. It shouldn’t be this easy. “Are you serious?”

“I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t.”

“Yes!” She said without thinking twice. Time would get a lot shorter; she’d probably have to stay up many nights. Money wouldn’t be abundant, either; librarians were already underpaid, and a part time, unqualified assistant wouldn’t have it easy either. But it was a beginning. If she did well on that job, maybe once she had majored in Library Science (which she really hoped she would) the town hall would consider her when the time came to choose another librarian. Not to mention she’d get a lot of experience with that.

“I’ll warn you already, it doesn’t pay well.” He joked, but when Maven didn’t waver in her resolution, he asked her to give him her CV as soon as she could. She was a little nervous about that, since she’d barely gotten started on college, but he’d assured her the city hall would trust his decisions. Time tables would be better discussed later, but initially they agreed on having her help him out in the mornings.

She left the library doing her best to look like her usual serene and composed self when inside she felt happier then she’d felt in months. Finally, it seemed things were going her way.

That feeling changed when she began to head home and found there was an unusual flow of people walking towards Main Street. Not quite liking the situation, Maven began turning into Trollberg’s smaller streets, looking for the least used way home.

When she was nearly there, she saw a man, tall with dark skin and eyes, smoking and looking at the sun that was slowly moving down the horizon. Dimitri, her cousin, and the owner of the town’s Hoodoo shop.

She stepped closer. Dimitri knew about things, maybe he’d know what was happening.

“Hello, cousin.” He said before she had a chance to wish him a good evening, without even turning his gaze from the sky to her. “Something on your mind?”

“Yes, actually. Do you know why everyone seems to be going to Main Street?”

He rolled his eyes. “Unfortunately, I do. It’s the Aven boy and your friend. Surely you heard that they got married today?”

The girl felt bile rise up in her throat. She knew, of course she knew. But she had tried so hard to forget that she actually missed the date.

Not that she’d been invited, anyway.

“Yes.” She answered simply.

“Yeah, the most dim witted parcel of the city’s population in going to watch them leave town, as if they were celebrities or something. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

Maven fought against the stinging in her eyes. She’d tried to stay away from anything related to Johanna, but still she hadn’t been able to block out the whispering voices in the streets that told her she was moving away to the Aven family’s cabin in the woods. “N- now?” She asked tremulously.

“Yes, now. Why?”

She didn’t answer why. She barely uttered a “thank you, good evening” before sprinting out of the alley in the direction of Main Street as fast as she could.

“Oh, Maven.” Dimitri whispered and shook his head, taking his cigarette to his mouth once again. “Why must you make yourself suffer this way?

_#_#_#_

“Are you going to tell me about it?” Mr. Kavindi asked from under the ladder which she had climbed to stack some books that had been left in one of the library’s desks the night before.

“About what, sir?” Maven replied as she sang the ABCs in her head to find out between which books the one she was holding should go.

He lifted an eyebrow. Maven couldn’t see it, but she was sure she could feel it. “You know what I’m talking about. I know you enough to be able to tell when you’re not okay.”

She groaned internally, putting the book in its correct spot, and taking a moment to caress its red leather spine before she took a deep breath and answered.

“Sir, I would rather not talk about that. I’m sorry.”

Mr. Kavindi sighed. His assistant was such a good girl. He’d always tried to befriend her, but she had always been a closed off one. No matter, he thought. He knew exactly what the issue was about even if she wouldn’t tell him. Ever since she’d began attending the library with a frequency, when she was but a wee child, there had only been one person who had been able to make that sort of anxious energy roll off of her in waves.

He wasn’t going to press any further, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious as to where his assistant could have possibly seen Johanna these days.

“How’s college?” He opted for a change of subject, and she was glad. She could even hear the concern on his voice; he knew that she wasn’t happy with her performance. Whereas before she had had time to study properly, after accepting the job at the library she’d been much more busy, and it only got worse when her mother passed away and she had to do some odd cleaning jobs here and there to make ends meet. Her family tried to help her, but she usually didn’t accept their money unless she had no other choice.

She paid attention to classes and made as good use of her time as she could, so her grades were not going to be bad enough for her to fail, but he knew it disturbed her to not be able to reach her full potential. And if he were honest, it disturbed him too. Maven was made for more than mediocre grades.

“Going as usual.” She answered simply. At the best of days she was somewhat reclused, but today he felt she just didn’t want to talk at all. So he politely excused himself and went to finish the preparations to open the library for the day, leaving the woman alone with her thoughts.

_#_#_#_

It had taken nearly an hour, but Johanna was finally ready to leave. Of all the people she’d hugged and said her goodbyes to, the last one was still in front of her, crying as if she’d gotten married herself.

“Don’t worry, Lucy.” She said to the woman who had been her best friend for the last couple of months. “It’s not like I’m going away forever. You can visit us whenever you like, and we will be back from time to time too!”

“I know, it’s just-“ she made a show of drying her tears. “It was all so very beautiful. The wedding, the lunch… everything! And it all happened so fast! I’ve never seen two people get engaged so quickly; the two of you just have such a deep connection.”

Johanna chuckled at her friend’s sentimentalism, but inwardly agreed with her. She understood Torrin better than anyone. And after she realized that, it didn’t take long for it to become easy to imagine a happily ever after with him. She was living the dream of half of the girls in the town, she knew.

“No time for this.” Johanna’s mother, Kate, said as she walked by the pair with her husband, who was carrying some of Johanna’s luggage. Most of her stuff had already been moved to the house she’d share with her new husband, but there were a few things she’d chosen to take with her. “There are many people waiting to see the two of you. Better not to keep them waiting.”

Johanna frowned. “What?”

“Oh, you know how people are in this town.” A voice came from behind her. She turned and saw him standing at the door of her kitchen, his blue hair falling on his eyes and his shoulder leaning against the wooden frame. There he was. Her Prince Charming.

“They love gossip, babe. And we’re a big thing, you know?” He smirked, stepping closer. “A great part of the town is on Main Street, just waiting to get one last look at us before we begin our life together. Isn’t that amazing?”

No, it really wasn’t. She wasn’t marrying for other people. She was doing it for herself; she’d always been a sociable person, but she wasn’t comfortable with the whole town wanting such involvement in her life. But clearly it made Torrin happy, and if it was good for him…

She forced herself to smile. “Yes! That’s… incredible.”

“Nothing less than what my princess deserves” he smirked, taking her hand. “Now let’s go. Your mother is right, and I can’t wait to begin our life together.”

He took her to the car his father had given him, powerful and imposing in the narrow street of her house. He opened the door for her, and after giving one last goodbye kiss to her mother, father and best friend, she got into the car in the backseat, and Torrin slipped at her side while she straightened the skirts of the dress she had chosen for the trip to their new house in the woods, one that was much more comfortable than the bridal one she had worn in the morning or the other that she had worn in the afternoon for the party.

Torrin took her hand as the driver that his father had hired started the car and headed for Main Street. He hadn’t even finished the turn when Johanna saw the ocean of people that had gathered to see them. The driver drove slowly, and Torrin lowered his window to wave goodbye at the people. Following his lead, Johanna lowered hers too and put her best smile on her face, waving at friends, family, former classmates and even complete strangers.

They yelled and cheered in happiness, but all noise seemed to disappear and time seemed to slow down as Johanna caught a pair of grey eyes in the crowd. It was so fast. Not after five seconds, the car had already moved enough that she couldn’t see her anymore, so she shouldn’t have noticed that she had been clutching her faded purple cardigan tighter around herself, apparently trying to look smaller. She shouldn’t have noticed that her mouth was closed into a tight line, a clear effort to hold back emotion. And she most certainly shouldn’t have noticed that the woman’s cold, grey eyes were filled with unshed tears.

Johanna had been paralyzed after that. Her hand stilled in the air and her gaze was redeemed unable to focus on any other person in the street; she only came back to herself once the car had crossed the town’s gates. Closing her window and her eyes, she took a deep, fortifying breath. Past. Maven was in the past. She was a mistake that Johanna wouldn’t commit again. Their friendship had been relatively harmless, but she’d stepped over a line when she took advantage of their closeness and Johanna’s confusion to turn their relationship into something more. Yes, she told herself. That’s what had happened.

But then why did she have to be at the Main Street to see her one last time, and why did she have to look so forlorn?

“Hey, Earth to Johanna.” Her husband’s voice took her out of her reverie, and she looked away from her hands in her lap and at his smiling face beside her. “Are you alright?”

She made herself smile. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”

At her affirmation, he leaned towards her, and she closed the distance between them, making their lips touch. Johanna shut her eyes and forced herself to focus solely on him. This was her fairy tale, her happy ending, and there was no place for Maven in it.

But even though she kept telling this to herself, over and over, she never quite believed it.

_#_#_#_

Maven was feeling slightly better when she went back home in the beginning of the afternoon. Not that her heart had stopped aching - it hadn’t since years ago, and that wasn’t going to change in just a few hours - but her job had actually taken the edge off of her pain.

Her mother used to say that, if being amongst books, trees, or family didn’t help, then it was a very serious problem. At least the book part seemed to have worked, but now she was coming back home, and would have to once again face the source of her pain.

Except she didn’t have to, in the end.

When she arrived home that day, Johanna was absent, her purse gone along with Hilda’s stroller, but the rest of her things were left untouched. On the kitchen counter, there was a small piece of paper with Johanna’s clear, D’Nealian handwriting that said “I went to my parents’. Don’t know when I’ll be back.”

Well, Maven thought, I should expect her return to be town gossip by the time I come back. She hoped Johanna knew what she was doing. Her parents loved her, Maven was sure of it (or at least she liked to believe they did), but they weren’t the most sensible people in town. Johanna truly needed their support, and Maven was not sure that this is what she’d receive.

You tried to support her, remember? That same, terrible voice from earlier spoke in the back of her mind. And she turned her back to you. It would serve her well…

The librarian groaned. It would do no good to begrudge someone she was currently trying to help, but apparently she couldn’t help it. There had always been a darker part of her that told her that Johanna’s friendship, and then her love, was too good to be true. That it would crumble down, leave her broken, leave her hollow.

And now that it was proven right, it just wouldn’t leave her alone.

But she was a college student, she didn’t have time to spare with emotional crap. So she sent those thoughts to the back of her mind, where she could as easily take them from when she had the time to actually reflect upon them, and grabbed a few ingredients from the refrigerator. Spreading them over the counter, she hastily put up a ham and cheese sandwich, and began eating as she climbed up the stairs with her bag on her shoulders.

Once in her room, she found the material she’d need for the rest of her day and put it in the bag, closing the buckle on the leather strap. She had barely finished eating when she ran to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, used the toilet, and grabbed a comb that she could use while she ran to the train station.

When she arrived, her train was already waiting for her, so she got in and waited for the doors to close. The train was blessedly empty, as it usually was, and she was able to pick a booth with a table between the two sets of chairs. If an actual group of four arrived, there were other empty booths, so she felt no restrictions when she opened her bag and took out one of her textbooks and a pencil. Her next lecture would begin in 45 minutes, and she would like to make good use of the time it would take to get there.

Soon enough, the doors closed, the train started moving, and the raven haired girl tried to allow her mind to be taken over by the safe normality of her routine, though some of her ghosts just wouldn’t leave her alone.

_#_#_#_

She had run to Main Street in a haze, and now that she was there, her mind was still clouded over. She couldn’t recognize anyone in the small crowd that had gathered, though logically she knew that she had probably seen everyone there at least once. The noises and colours around her were all just a blur of activity, and she couldn’t tell if that was psychological or if she was running out of oxygen from the running.

As minutes passed and she was still waiting there, doing her best to ignore the judgemental whispers and looks the people around her were giving her, she realized that yes, it was psychological. She drew her cardigan tighter around herself, a futile effort to close herself off from the world around her. Her eyes began stinging and she closed them so as not to allow any tear to break free. A Sunday evening and here she was, pining for one last glimpse of her ex. She was truly pathetic, she thought. She should be stronger than this.

But she really, truly wasn’t stronger then this, and the proof of this is that she readily opened her eyes when the people around her began cheering and the sound of a car engine could also be heard. Though her surroundings remained a blur, Maven could see her clearly. She focused on the way her brown eyes skimmed the crowd for acquaintances, shining like melting honey when they caught a beam of light, her short curly hair flowing with the wind. She hungrily drank down her image, committing it to memory, because she was certain she wouldn’t see more of that woman for a long time.

And then their eyes met. For the most terrifying, wonderful second, their eyes met. The happiness that ought to have been in her eyes before wasn’t there anymore, and Maven was certain it was her fault. Of course it was. Who would like to see their ex after their marriage? Her lips stopped smiling, turning into a shocked expression instead. Her hand stilled in the air, too surprised to wave at those people any longer. Maven repeatedly slapped herself mentally. Her simple presence there had ruined their parting celebration.

This is why you’re meant to be alone, a voice inside her mind told her. And it was right. Johanna was a princess, good and strong and loved by all. She deserved her ending with her brave knight, even if Maven wasn’t at all sure about said knight’s morals.

But Johanna was a good character judge, so if she trusted him, shouldn’t Maven too? And now, she had disturbed this gift from the town to them. She had intruded on their happy ending; made the princess feel on edge, she had seen it in her eyes.

Maven sighed and began walking away as the rest of the crowd dispersed. If she had understood this since the beginning, she would have spared herself so much pain.

She was the witch. And there was no room for the witch in the princess’s happy ending.

_#_#_#_

Each night the sight of her front door got more and more alluring. But that was probably because each night Maven got more and more tired, and honestly all she wanted was to do the assignments she absolutely had to, have a bath and go to sleep.

But as fate would have it, she couldn’t do that! After all, Johanna was staying with her and she’d probably have to, once again, face the feelings she’d tried for years to quench down to no avail.

The first thing she did upon entering the house was head to the cupboard and take a package of biscuits out of it. She was starving, but she had no energy to prepare anything to eat. The second was wonder where could Johanna be. She didn’t know if she wanted the woman to be back or not. If she was, that meant more emotional labor for her. But if she wasn’t, Maven would probably be too worried about her to sleep that night.

Dropping her bag on the sofa, she headed to the most obvious room in which to look at first: the room she had allowed Johanna to stay at. As she walked down the corridor, the sound of her crunching the biscuit drowned down the other noise that was reverberating through the corridor, but as she got closer, it got too strong not to hear.

Johanna’s sniffles startled Maven, making her reactionless for a moment before she bolted forward, easily opening the unlocked door and worryingly looking around the room. She found her friend on top of the bed, curled into a ball with her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook with every deep breath she took, and only after a moment did she raise her head to look at the intruder.

Looking at Johanna’s red skin and miserable hair, she thought that her parents would need a damn good excuse if they didn’t want Maven to curse them.

[freudensteins-monster]

Random MCU Crossover Idea#62973: Gilmore Girls

Saw a few Gilmore Girls posts today and my brain immediately went into crossover mode. And then I saw a post on Buzzfeed with things/storylines people hated and I was like, yeah, I hated that too. And I hated AYITL, and I can’t bring myself to rewatch the original seasons because Emily is SO awful, and I can’t remember why I liked the show so much originally, and yet...

The day Tony’s high school girlfriend, Maya, showed him the little plus sign on the cheap plastic pregnancy test his world was turned upside down, and hers was pretty much over. As Maya grew to resent him and everything about their situation, Tony comes to  the realisation that he doesn’t want the life their parents are planning for him, and the moment he holds his daughter, Darcy, in his arms he knows he doesn’t want that life for her either.

As soon as Darcy can be seperated from her mother (Maya only too happy to sign over her parental rights), Tony packs their things and takes the busted up hot rod his father had bought him for his 15th birthday (promising they’d do it up together but Howard never did find the time) and drives all night until it finally breaks down outside Angie’s Diner in Stars Hollow, run by Angie and her partner Peggy.

They take him in and talk the owner of the Independance Inn into let him stay in a small renovated shed on the grounds in return for doing repairs around the place. Whilst completely overwhelmed with the path he’s chosen, Tony does his best to build a life for his daughter, bussing tables at Angie’s and working odd jobs around town with Darcy in tow, and eventually moving into the apartment above Angie’s when she and Peggy buy a nice house on Maple Street.

He saves every penny he can and by the time Darcy’s ready to start school he has enough to get a loan from the bank (co-signed by Angie and Peggy) and buys a small garage across town. A small part of him would have loved to put his name on it but he thinks of his family name emblazoned across hospital wings and skyscrapers and decides that “Stars Hollow Auto Repairs” works just fine.

Darcy is amazing; sweet, funny, smart as a whip, and his best friend. She’s a little more reserved socially than he was at her age, even more so after puberty hit her like a truck, but he wouldn’t change a thing about her.

He used to worry about the gap in their lives where his parents and Maya should be, but every time they suffer through a holiday dinner at his parent’s mansion, or Maya blows into town for a weekend, he’s reminded that he made the right choice. And they’ve collected a pretty amazing family for themselves anyway.

Peggy and Angie are the best pseudo parents a guy could ask for. They’re semi retired now and spend a lot of the year travelling the world, leaving the diner in the mostly capable hands of Clint and Scott, a few other strays they’d taken in over the years.

Ms Natasha runs the local dance studio and has a hand in most of the art/drama events in town. She’s constantly changing her hair (favouring blood-of-her-enemies red), knows everything about everyone, and actively encourages the rumour that she’s in witness protection, on the run from the Russian mob.

Coulson, town selectman and owner of the local market, is more of a frenemy than friend. He likes things just so and is a stickler for the rules, and encourages the townspeople to uphold Star Hollows quaint and old fashioned aesthetic. He and Tony butt heads frequently, and though Coulson thinks Tony’s now gleaming hot rod, with its loud engine and flame decals, ruins the towns image, he’s still the only person Coulson would trust to work on his baby, Lola - a cherry red Corvette that totally doesn’t gel with the aesthetics iether, Tony would constantly point out, and Coulson would argue that he never drives it *in* town.

The ironically named Happy, head chef at the Independance Inn, is one of Tony’s closest friends, and he visits Happy’s kitchen at least three times a week for lunch and to generally making a nuisance of himself, much to the annoyance of inn manager, Pepper. Pepper was the first friend he made in Stars Hollow, then just a maid at the inn who followed the sounds of a baby crying to find the teenaged father struggling to get his daughter to sleep. She helped him get Darcy settled and then stayed up talking with him until he wound down enough to fall asleep himself. During those first few weeks she even went so far as to take Darcy, safetly nestled in amongst the clean towels, with her while she cleaned rooms when it was clear that Tony needed a few more hours sleep. There’s some mutual attraction there but nothing’s ever come of it. For those first few years Tony was single minded in getting his shit together and looking after Darcy, and then Pepper was dating someone, or he was. Their timing just never seemed to be right.

The day Darcy gets accepted into Shield Academy is one of the best days of their lives, until Tony sees the tuition fees. After exhausting all his options, and being laughed out of more than one bank, Tony does something he’d always promised himself he’d never do. Gathering every ounce of courage he has, and discarding his useless pride, he drives to his parents house, Darcy’s acceptance letter in hand, tail between his legs, and rings the doorbell.

"Tony? My goodness, this is a surprise. Is it Easter already?”

Darcy almost refused to go to Shield Academy, causing her and Tony’s long overdue annual arguement (usually it happens in July when it’s just too damn hot out and tempers are frayed). She’d miss her best - and only - friend, Daisy, she’d said. Though she’d be okay with getting fewer death glares from Mrs May, a strict and imposing healthy living enthusiast, who loathes technology and makes her daughter use the local library computers for her school work (but for never more than an hour a day). Darcy would hate to be there when Mrs May found out about the candy bars Daisy has stashed under the floorboards, the various parts of Daisy’s home-made computer hidden around her room, or the fact that her daughter hacks her neighbours wifi regularly and with great ease.

And then there was this boy, Steve. He was new to town, just moved from Brooklyn with his mom. He worked at Coulson’s market and was cute, and nice, and didn’t stare at her boobs, or make fun of her sweaters, or her glasses, or the books she carried everywhere. And when he smiled at her it made her want to do stupid things, like stay at her old school in case he decided to ask her out.

But she did go to Shield, and she did get to date Steve - the “perfect first boyfriend”. And after Steve there was Ms Natasha’s younger cousin, Bucky, another New York native supposedly running from the mob as well. He was dark, broody, smarter than anyone gave him credit for, and was rarely seen without his ancient leather jacket, the left sleeve seeming held together with duct tape. He’s a bit of a mess but slowly grows out of it, popping back into Darcy’s life at random intervals causing her head and heart a lot of confusion. And then in college there’s Loki. He’s smart, fun, maybe a little bit arrogant at times, but he’s from a wealthy and influential family - her grandparents adore him on that alone. Tony, not so much.

Tony’s dating history isn’t much better. There was Bruce, whose shy and awkward smile got him all twitterpated, but he was Darcy’s science teacher, which made their entire time together awkward and weird. He has an illadvised fling with Christine Everhart, one of his father’s head-of-something-or-other department and the daughter of one of his father’s former business partners. When things get even more complicated between their family’s companies and Christine tells him that she would have to sue Howard to get out of the mess she’s been dropped in, Tony surprises himself by siding with his father. And he and Pepper eventually try dating, but as usual their timing’s off and things don’t go smoothly. And through it all, his messy, on/off relationship with Darcy’s mother doesn’t make things any easier.

(Oh, and Luis is Kirk. And maybe Jane is a less bitchy, slightly less intense Paris?)

[blockbustersgang]

Djibouti Diaries, part #1:

Irregular blog series of Iiris’ thoughts and travels in Djibouti filming upcoming feature “The Grave Digger” by Bufo, Pyramide Production and Twenty Twenty Vision.

Reporting thoughts from the first 8 days on the road, exactly 10 days before filming starts

Arrival

I’m not a huge fan of long flights - sometimes my low blood pressure gets the best of me and it’s not once or twice I’ve almost fainted after half a day in a plane. Surprisingly travelling with Qatar Airways was very nice and I rewatched A Star is Born (not the sad end though, as I wasn’t in the mood for sad endings) and got familiar with Aquaman (or tried to, didn’t really understand why was he called Aquaman and why not Ocean Master) and agreed again how complicated element water is for any VFX / CGI work.

Arrival to Djibouti was hot, fun and exciting. We understood already at the airport the way this country works is something very different than what we’re used to. Hot air whispered to our ears and black night took us to it’s arms. Road to our hotel was bumpy and after 30 minutes in the country I was already sweating like a pig. When getting to my room I was definitely in a small shock - no window, everything was very simple, AC wasn’t working - do I really spend the next 1,5 months here? I need to cancel my boyfriends trip here in the last shooting week - he’ll kill me if I’m making him to spend a week in here instead of the nice hotel rooms he always gets when he’s filming abroad. And my phone has no reception whatsoever, how will any producers from upcoming projects be able to reach me?!

I woke up the next morning very sweaty and hungry and went to breakfast (nothing gluten free was available, but luckily I had my own snacks with me). Suddenly after a big cup of black tea with steaming milk (yes, I might be a little British) world seemed exciting, interesting and adventurous. And especially after seeing the city and surrounding landscapes quickly nothing felt that gloomy or primitive anymore. I’m blaming my tired eyes and sudden travel depression for the first looks.

After 24 hours in Djibouti I finally took the time to open my luggage and make the little room mine. I scattered my stuff - my hot water boiler, tea collection, first aid kit, small library, my favourite tea cup, my essentials on suitable places and sat down. This is my small Djiboutian home. I’ve noticed waiting eagerly to get to show all this to my boyfriend (and am slightly worried his first night is like mine and I’ll be offended even though I’ll very much try not to).

As it’s never as easy as it could be / some IT talk

Through the first working week here (which in Djibouti is from Sunday to Thursday) we’ve scouted few missing places and started our tech recce tour. I’ve redone first 2 weeks callsheets with my loyal 2nd AD Paula (who I really really wanted to take this journey with me and I should probably almost apologise the production company for dozens of relentless, demanding emails) who’s arriving here next Saturday. First real setback happened two days ago when my 6-month old laptop broke out of nowhere. As I thought, nearest AppleStores can be found from Egypt, Doha, Dubai or South Africa. No AppleCare on sight either. As our Gaffer was flying to us in the next 12 hours there was no time to cry and get depressed - that I really felt like doing as I’ve already once had to repair this laptop - but to quickly consider my options and act.

Talking about loyal friends no guessing Emma has been the other one. She googled with me and ran to AppleStore to get me the newest iPad Pro with needed accessories and took it to our Gaffers to catch the flight next morning.

2nd setback of course happened when receiving the iPad and realising there is no longer MMS To Go available (seriously Entertainment Partners!!! I cannot be the only 1st AD who uses this) as mine on my old school iPad is a version from 5 years ago, only supported on 32 bit tablets and not on 64 bit ones so they’ve deleted it completely (and have no plans to bring it back as was replied to me from their customer service). Another round of zen mindset was definitely needed as well as Paula who now exports me PDFs to mark all changes so she can then work on those on her laptop’s MMS.

And not to get too optimistic iPad Pro neither supports formulas on pages that I desperately need for my callsheets. So currently after this setback no. 3 I’m also commenting our callsheets on PDF and Paula then makes the changes as needed. This is very close to our usual work flow but I’ve never felt this handless on a production. So Paula is bringing one more device with her - an old computer for all this I cannot do on my sparkly new iPad.

After blaming Apple this badly I must say otherwise I’m very very happy on this iPad and especially it’s functions with folio keyboard and pencil. If MMS and Pages would work here, I’d be replacing my laptop need with this 95%.

Living, understanding and experiencing Djibouti

My expectations of this journey weren’t very glamorous. I was unsure if there’d be anything in the stores I could or would buy being celiac, vegetarian and a western who’s been scared with a lot of talk over possible diseases and how they spread. After a week I feel very normal here. We’ve got two big grocery stores with many familiar products next to the hotel and one even has ”sans gluten” section. I’m starting to get completely used to cars that are old, rusty and missing some usual actions or pieces (only our driver knows how to get the minibus door open) and bumpy roads.

90% of our local crew is always on time. I’ve been stunned. They’re also very helpful, live at the moment, try their hardest to adapt to our ways and never complain. I’m sure our cultures have and will crash but for now it’s been a lot easier than I thought it would be (fingers crossed!). My 3rd AD is a wise local lady who’s determined to teach me some french on the way - and I am determined to learn at least something.

Amount of people everywhere is crazy to a finn. It’s usual there are more than 10 children in the families. I’ve obviously been in tears seeing little children on burning streets without shoes and then again I’ve also discovered how good life can be without all the things we usually think a good life needs. Most of the children look us curiously and after a while we can see a shy little wave - which we always answer to and that usually brings a lot of excitement to the air. Families living in small village with their stone built huts instantly offered us food and water after we marched to meet them with our safari outfits, taking reference photos with our smartphones and drinking water from our filtering bottles. There are goats everywhere - every possible size and color.

I’ve eaten amazing Ethiopian and Indian food. I’ve almost gotten used to the weather - liking 34°C we had yesterday A LOT more than 42°C we had in the beginning of the week though. I’ve only burned little bits of my skin and almost finished my first travel book (Naiset joita ajattelen öisin, Women I think at night by Mia Kankimäki). I’m starting to call this place my home. My phone still has no reception but I’ve very much adapted to the African living in the moment culture - well, it must be a lot of text messages I get after arriving to Dubai in the beginning of November and getting it back online. And as I have Emma, I’m counting on people calling her if they really need to reach me.

Iiris

[coutelier]

Irongate - The Lighthouse

~Lost, frightened, and dazed, Kaya seeks help by following the story she heard about a witch who lives in a lighthouse on top of a hill. (About 4,300 words.)~

Kaya Cade had no intention of being found. Not yet. She couldn’t accept what she’d seen. How could she - it was like no experience she’d ever had or even heard of. She wasn’t altogether sure she hadn’t dreamed it, yet she did have the blade, and didn’t have Greenback. But if she still couldn’t really accept it, and she was there, how could she expect the dibbles or anyone else to?

She had retrieved only a backpack from the wreck. For a time she wandered the town, carefully avoiding any patrol routes she knew about it and anyone else who might recognize her. It seemed strange to her to see others going about their business - children laughing and skipping to school, their parents eating breakfast and going to work - all acting as if everything in the world was normal. That nothing had changed. She wanted to scream and shout at them for their complacency, tell them their little suburban paradise was likely being watched now and could be turned upside down any moment. But that would change nothing either, other than land her in the hands of the very people she was trying to avoid. She didn’t really have the energy for it either.

But if the dibbles were out, what were her options? Mom would shelter her, sure, but she’d get into a screaming match with her dad which she also had no energy for. Stan was no different to the dibbles - he’d want answers of which she currently had none. Sayuri? She would help, or at least, but there was another problem - that creature had come after her relentlessly for seemingly no other reason than that she had seen it. If it wasn’t truly dead, or if there were others, they could just be waiting for the sun to set before the hunt began anew. Or could be watching her now.

Kaya stopped in a small cafe, spending what little change she had left on a sandwich. She then sat in a corner so she could keep an eye outside while contemplating her next move. What the hell was that creature been anyway? Some kind of elf? A faerie? It sounded ridiculous but she couldn’t think of another name. It was definitely ‘faerie’ with an ‘e’ though, and not ‘fairy’. The later was cute. This was most definitely not.

That Witch Which… there was a poster for those children’s books and cartoon on the far wall, with the titular red haired - and weirdly sexily posed - witch winking at her. She was meant to be encouraging kids to go to the library, or maybe their dad’s to take them, or - whatever. That was not important right now. What was important was that Kaya could not avoid the dibbles forever and she needed a place to hang low. There was a place she was sure no-one would think to look. Maybe someone there could help her. Maybe they’d turn her away. Maybe it was abandoned. But it was a destination at least which seemed better than wandering aimlessly.

A man parked his moped outside, resting his helmet on the seat before coming into the cafe and approaching the till. Maybe on his way to some job, maybe a home delivery driver. As he ran out again shaking his fist, Kaya realized this was a rotten thing to do. But her need was great, and it was temporary - he’d get his bike back and surely someone else would be dispatched to deliver the granny she was imagining her sandwiches.

If Kaya had remembered the map correctly, the lighthouse was west of town way off the main road. She soon learned from the state of it and her butt that the road leading to it was seldom used at all. Honestly she had doubted it really existed, but sure enough it was there, poking it’s faded beacon above the canopy, standing where a lighthouse really did not belong. Even with that had transpired recently the sight was surreal; so strange, and lonely, and out of place.

Kaya abandoned the moped for a couple of reasons; she thought it would struggle up the hill (and her butt’d had enough), and if there was a real witch (and why wouldn’t there be since there were faeries now apparently) she didn’t want to ride straight up to the gate. No - she needed to scout a little before she risked being thrown into an oven and baked.

As she climbed and picked her way up the hill with just her backpack, a mist began to descend. She hardly noticed at first, but half-way up it was a thick fog and she could no longer see the lighthouse before her. A chorus of hoots, whoops, howls, and wails, came at her from all around, forbidding her from focusing her attention in any single direction.

“Okay,” Kaya said, biting her lip. “Not creepy at all. You know I’ve actually seen creepier stuff than this recently, so - you know.” She pushed on. She should have taken more seriously what Ashley had said because the next thing to happen was a rumble, which she didn’t hear so much as felt in her belly. She fell to her knees, insides wriggling and jiggling and threatening to burst out through any available orifice.

But she glimpsed something strange, or whatever passed for strange now. The mist hadn’t descended - rather risen from spots on the ground. Then, hidden among the ivy crawling up the trunk of one tree she spied a wire, which after pulling she found was attached to a speaker concealed within a hollow. What kind of a witch uses vents and recordings to scare people? Come to think of it the owl watching her also seemed off - almost mechanical. She tugged, detaching the speaker from its power. The rumbling stopped, although she doubted that could have been the only source for it. The owl was still following her with it’s big camera eyes - something knew she was here and perhaps was letting her proceed. Or maybe there were more deadly deterrents ahead.

Whoever lived here wasn’t a witch, but clearly wanted to be left alone. Kaya might have respected that on other days, but frankly she had come all this way, had no idea where else to go or what to do, but was determined to do something. At least see what kind of person this was - if nothing else all this security seemed comparatively normal and a welcome distraction from her fae problem.

Pushing through the remaining mist, Kaya reached a ten foot stone wall that surrounded the property, little spikes at the top to discourage anyone attempting to climb over. Following it around she came to a back gate; heavy, wooden, braced, and locked. This place was like a castle with the lighthouse as its keep. She was out of sight of the owl and a lock couldn’t keep her out very long, soon clicking open to give her access to what she assumed was the back of a brick shed or garage. Creeping around she found the garden to be well kept and normal, except for the robots.

They were glistening green cylinders trundling around on tracks, spindly long arms reaching out to dig or pull weeds from the soil. Kaya didn’t know enough about flora to guess what they could be growing, but figured robots didn’t eat vegetables or have want of anything recreational so something human had to be around. Unless maybe their creator had passed long ago but these bots just kept going about their programmed duties day after day as if nothing had changed - quite sad if you thought about it.

Kaya had no time to think about it. Motors whirred behind her - another robot. Same design as the others, but blood red in color and with an extra appendage protruding from its back which Kaya’s imagination filled in was some kind of weapon. The aggressive machine blocked her path back to the gate, forcing her out of her crouch and out over the grass then gravel, the garden robots turning on her with their single irises, closing in. The lighthouse door was locked when she backed into it, but then clicked open, confirming her inkling that she was being herded into it. She could have tried to run the other way, around the bots, back to whatever things could be waiting for her out there. Or she could hope that whatever was controlling these chrome horticulturists would want to talk. Wasn’t much of a choice really.

Inside the lighthouse was dark, except for computer monitors mounted all around the circumference. Some displayed numbers Kaya couldn’t begin to make sense of - it was all very mathy. One had a map of Irongate with blotches on it, some displayed images from what must be cameras hidden all around the property. The ones showing the forest must have been owls, and the ones moving must be what the robots were seeing. Below the monitors were workbenches again running almost all around the circumference from the door to the stairs. On them were robots in the middle of being repaired or assembled, some cannon looking thing, a hoop with some wires attached floating a foot above the bench - Kaya waved her hand under and over it then tugged gently at all the wires. Didn’t seem to be a magic trick - it really was just floating. Then there were just all kinds of tools and junk she couldn’t even guess at.

Kaya’s eyes were drawn up, the stairs spiraling and disappearing into a murky abyss high above from which cables dangled like tentacles. One of them stretched out all the way to the floor, hanging behind - Kaya spun about, coming face to metallic eye with something. It was manta shaped, two feet wide, peering at her through some spinning green lens. With a yelp Kaya fell back on one of the benches, instinctively grabbing anything to protect herself. It turned out she’d picked up a hammer, but a discharge from the creature’s lens knocked it from her.

“Please do not be alarmed,” it spoke although it had no mouth.

“D-don’t be…?” Kaya gulped like a fish, her hand feeling like someone had put out a candle on it. “You just zapped me!”

“Apologies, but your heart rate and respiration elevated.”

“No freaking kidding!”

“I could not take the risk of you taking rash action.”

“How about just not creeping on people, huh?”

“Apologies,” it said again, turning slightly askew. “You did force your way onto this property.”

“Yeah,” Kaya said, still trying furiously to get cool air flowing over her burn. Then she remembered the lighthouse door opening by itself. “I think you let me in.”

“Correct.”

“So, who or what are you?”

“Heuristic Analysis and Learning Machine. But the mistress prefers to call me Hull.”

“Right,” Kaya exhaled, muttering as the eye lifted itself away, “not creepy at all. You going to ask who I am?”

“Your likeness has been scanned and matched to police records,” Hull said, stalk and green glow swinging back toward her, “you are Kaya Cade.”

“Hope the dibbles had some nice things to say about me. So, why’d you let me in, Hull?”

“I require your assistance with the mistress.”

“Okay. So what’s up with her?” Kaya asked, just rolling with it at this point, but suspecting she was soon going to find a dusty old skeleton, stupid machines unable to distinguish between atoms in a living thing from a dead one.

“Guidelines recommend at least three meals and thirty minutes exercise per day. But lately the mistress refuses to leave her study and takes hardly any sustenance. Additionally she does not dress herself. I believe she is in a state humans call depression.”

“Sounds like it,” Kaya nodded. The mistress was definitely dead.

“I fear my status as an artificial being whose commands can be overridden renders me incapable of assisting. However, you may be able to, as some say, snap her out of it.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“I will not zap you again. Or contact the authorities.”

“Well negotiated,” Kaya supposed there was no harm in looking. But if she did just find a sack of bones explaining the concept of death to a machine could be tricky. “So, where is this mistress of yours?”

“As I said - her study. Follow me.”

“How-?” As Kaya asked the manta-shaped eye detached from the tentacle and proceeded to swim out the lighthouse door and across the courtyard. “Oh - okay.” Kaya then followed the silvery sky fish to the lighthouse keeper’s, or mistress’s, cottage.

Inside was nice. Cozy. On the surface at least it seemed an entirely different world from the cool mechanical interior of the lighthouse. There was a big soft looking couch with fluffy cushions, smooth wooden banisters, warm carpet. A little musty, but in a way that reminded you of an old library. And there were books; lots of books stacked on shelves or in small piles on a coffee table. Sensibly there were no books around the fireplace, but there were some framed photos of a family. A man, a blonde woman, and a little blonde girl…

“No way,” Kaya breathed, eyes widening as she realized she knew, or rather had known, each of the people in the photographs. “What are the chances I’d end up here?” She asked rhetorically. Hull answered anyway:

“Given the proximity in which you live, your history of petty theft and burglary, and association with organized crime, I would say the chances of you one day attempting to steal from here were fairly high.”

“I didn’t come here to steal,” Kaya snapped, although acknowledged that if she hadn’t encountered that fae monster there was a good chance that one day she might have been driven to it. “But you’re right - I’m scum. And this - this is a mistake. I can’t help you or your mistress. You see, she hates me. For good reason. I should just go-”

Too late. She’d heard them and was descending the stairs in a powder blue gown, one hand on the banister as if too weak or uncertain to stand on her own. “Hull?” She asked as she turned. Her hair was much longer and messier than it used to be. Her eyes seemed sunken and shadowed like she hadn’t gotten much sleep, or perhaps spent too long staring at screens. “Who are you-?” The pale blonde young woman froze, squinting at the strange sight before her; not the gently bobbing sky fish, but the other young woman with dyed red hair. It had been blue when they last saw each other so maybe she didn’t recognize Kaya now. But then Jenn’s facial muscles tautened as she bared her teeth and spat, “you!”

Jennifer burst for a drawer, Kaya feeling she had no choice now went after her, recoiling when Jenn spun around with a canister in her hand and a finger perched and ready to press. “Woah,” Kaya backed off, raising her palms, “look, I know you’ve got a lot of reasons to be mad at me but I’m not here to fight, okay? Also that is fly spray.”

“Oh,” Jenn quickly confirmed with her own eyes but kept the can firmly trained on the invader. “Well, i-it could still make you very sick and potentially is carcinogenic, so you better stay back!”

“Okay, see? I’m staying back over here. Like I said, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Jenn snorted, “like there’s any way you could more than you have already. What do you want?”

“Honestly? I don’t know,” Kaya admitted, maintaining a safe distance. “I was just frightened and lost, then I remembered seeing this place and your fish let me in.”

“Yes,” Jennifer glared menacingly at the bobbing manta, “we’ll be having words about that.”

“You know the kids in town think you’re a witch.”

“I know. They dare each other to come up here sometimes. No-one’s ever made it past the brown note before.”

“So you just live up here on your own, tinkering with robots and junk?”

“Evidently,” Jenn tersely answered. “Look, I’m not interested in catching up or small talk so can you explain why you’re here, please?”

“It’s just I always thought you’d be off somewhere studying to be a doctor or scientist or something, or off exploring the world and investigating mysteries.”

Jennifer exhaled, lowering the fly spray as she collapsed into an armchair, eyes glazing as she looked away, seeming to fixate on a reflection in the coffee table. “There was,” she quietly confessed, “there was no-one to explore it with.”

“I’m sorry,” Kaya didn’t know what else to say.

“It’s fine. I-I’m luckier than most,” Jenn said, really sounding like she was trying to convince herself. “I have a good place to live and the freedom to tinker with all the junk I want.”

“Right. Except the fish - Hull - he’s worried about you. He thinks you’re depressed.”

“Hull is just a computer. He doesn’t think or worry or really understand what words like ‘depression’ mean. I’ve just been a bit tired is all.”

Perhaps most of that was true, Kaya thought, but then that was the problem here wasn’t it? All the mechanical friends in the world couldn’t really understand. Jennifer it seemed hadn’t really changed that much; somehow simultaneously bright and brilliant, but also very, very dumb. And stubborn. Probably just as well that she was or Kaya’s earlier premonition might have come true. Kaya had one other burning question to provide a bit of distraction from all that, “why is there a lighthouse here?”

“Ah - you see,” Jennifer explained, lighting up for a moment as she always did when she got to share some knowledge, “Alexandria was famous for two things; the library and the lighthouse. So when they built the university here someone had the bright idea of putting a lighthouse nearby, to symbolize souls being guided to the shores of learning. It turned out residents in town didn’t much appreciate a million candles crashing through their windows at night, so it was only ever turned on once. Then everyone just forgot about it,” likewise Jenn’s light faded as her story returned to the present. “Anyway, my uncle bought it and gave it to me to look after. I guess so he wouldn’t have to look after me.”

Kaya looked to the family photo, “so no-one ever found what happened?”

“Nope,” Jenn sniffed, “They were declared dead I think a year ago? I lose track of time here. I buried some empty coffins, but I still think…” She trailed off, jaw hardening as her eyes pivoted back on Kaya. “It doesn’t matter. You still haven’t said why you’re here.”

“Right,” perhaps, Kaya thought, a distraction was what they both needed. She - very carefully - opened her backpack to pull out the creature’s blade which she’d wrapped in some old newspapers. “Look at this,” she said, unraveling it on the coffee table.

Jennifer looked. Shrugged, “it’s an old knife.”

“It’s not a knife,” Kaya corrected, “it’s a piece of some kind of sword or something. Went through my car roof like it was cardboard.”

After looking more closely, Jenn clasped her hands over her nose and mouth, gasping, “is that blood!?”

“It’s not human,” Kaya assured her. “I don’t know what it was. But it was strong, and fast, and had this bark-like skin or armor like a spriggan or something. Oh! And it could turn invisible.”

“Invisible?” Jenn’s eyebrow arched.

“At first. But it was raining so I saw it.”

“And did you get any pictures of this supposed spriggan?”

“That was the other weird thing - my phone and everything electrical stopped working when it was around. It’s like your old book said, right? The hidden people guard their privacy. Well this thing really didn’t like being seen. Maybe that’s why it gouged the eyes out of that man.”

Jennifer blinked several times, repeating, “it gouged the eyes…”

“Uh-huh. I found the body, then it came after me. Got away in my car, although in the end the car didn’t make it. But I got hold of that and stabbed it through its eye, which seemed to stop it. At least for a bit.”

Jennifer looked as sternly as she could at Kaya, telling her, “if someone died, you should go to the police.”

“Trust me - those guys wouldn’t have a clue what to do with this,” Kaya had started to pace a little, one hand rubbing the back of her head. “They wouldn’t believe me anyway. But you - you used to be all into all that dragons and Bigfoot and fairy stuff. Remember when you tried to make those clockwork wings?”

“Yeah,” Jenn nodded with a distant smile, “I would have flown if you hadn’t all stopped me.”

“Or you’d have plummeted from the roof to your death.”

“Doesn’t matter now, because - we’re not little kids anymore.”

If Jennifer had punched her it couldn’t have hurt Kaya nearly as much as those words did. “So, you don’t believe me?”

“It doesn’t matter what I believe,” Jenn sighed, “people believe in all kinds of things that are wrong and nonsense; ghosts, miracle cures, white supremacy. Remember how I used to believe that you were my friend, but then when I actually needed you, you… you weren’t there.”

Kaya was wrong - Jennifer had changed. But she wasn’t being unfair either. “I’m sorry.”

“If anything you said was true then go the cops,” Jennifer stated again, rising from her chair. “If it’s some trick to lure me out so Angela can beat me up and paint ‘loser’ on my face for old times sake, then I’m not biting. If you want forgiveness, you won’t find it. In any case there’s no point in you staying,” Jenn turned her back to stare out a window. “We’re done.”

“Right,” Kaya picked up her pack, turning away to face whatever was waiting for her out there. “But you know I really am sorry. I know you can’t forgive me, but I’m glad I got to tell you at least. Hope some day you figure out a way to be less lonely.”

Jennifer waited until she was certain Kaya was gone before allowing her chest to relax and take in needed her. “Hull, why?” She asked. “You have all my diaries in your memory. You must know I despise that person.”

The silvery manta bobbed beside her, stating, “incorrect.”

“What!?”

“Other than your parents, Miss Cade is the individual you refer to most often fondly in your journals.”

“I think you should check again. I’m pretty sure most the entries are me weeping about some horrible thing she did.”

“First entry; ‘Momma left me at a new school. I was afraid I’d be alone, but one girl talked to me. She said her name was Kaya and I showed her my magnifying glass and she laughed. We spent the day looking for clues…”

“Stop!” Jennifer commanded, sagging as her lower lip pushed up under the one above. “I was what, seven? A lot changed since then.”

“Mistress?”

“And don’t keep calling me mistress. I keep telling you to use my name.”

“Miss Jennifer Willow Airhart-”

“Just Jenn, or Jennifer. I’ve never used my middle name. Did you know Taoist witches use willow carvings to talk to the dead? That’s what my dad told me to convince me my name was cool.”

“Miss Jennifer, have I erred?”

“No,” Jenn sighed, “it’s my fault. I should have taught you to prioritize later entries first. When we were thirteen she joined some stupid gang and they didn’t want the weird girl whose parents ran away hanging around them. Everything changed.”

“Changed?”

“Well life is change; she changed, I’ve changed, even you change. Every second you’re acquiring new data to incorporate into your algorithms, so you’re never the same computer you were yesterday or even a moment ago. We’re all different now.”

The green lights within Hull’s lens spun around as if struggling to process this information. Jenn doubted he was - probably one of the many other tasks he was running. “But then,” he said at last, “does it not stand to reason that the girl that hurt you also no longer exists?”

“Maybe not,” Jennifer conceded with another sigh, “unfortunately the memory still does.” She stood in quiet contemplation for another moment, watching the clouds change outside, knowing that this sky would never be again. “Anyway,” she then said, “you don’t have to worry about me. Not like I’ve not been down in the dumps before. I always bounce back.”

“Then you have decided on a new project?”

“Yep!” Jennifer twirled around with her arms outstretched, “we’re going to fly!” She froze mid-flight, spying that the blade Kaya has shown her was still lying on the coffee table.

“Before you begin, ma’am, you may be interested to know I have intercepted police reports that appear to corroborate some of Miss Cade’s story.”

Moments later in the lighthouse Jennifer saw the reports herself; bodies found with their eyes missing, inexplicable power outages, a wrecked car. “No sign of any spriggan though,” Jenn frowned. As it was here, she supposed she might as well look at the blade under a microscope. “It’s not metal,” she said as Hull floated around her, “some kind of crystalline lattice like a,” she pulled her eyes away as gears ground in her head, “like a limpet’s tooth. This could have been grown rather than made,” but with that discovery came a hurtful revelation - Kaya might have been telling the truth, and had asked Jennifer for help. If her parents were here, they’d have told that it didn’t matter who they were, you never turn your back on someone asking for help. But in order to help she had to learn more - perhaps the blood on the blade? “Hull - do we still have the DNA sequencer?”

“I believe it is stored below, next to old coffee machine.”

“Good. Get it out. I’m - I’m going to get dressed.”

[aragates014]

Advice On How To Handle Your Credit Cards

Ever since they were introduced, credit cards are the cause of problems for many people. Along with other things, a credit card can be hard to manage if you aren’t sure how to use one. This article has plenty of help for those want to learn more about having a credit card.

Make the minimum monthly payment in the very least on all of your credit cards. Not making the minimum payment on time can cost you a great deal of money over time. It can also cause harm to your credit rating. To protect both your expenses, and your credit rating be sure to make minimum payments on time each month.

If you experience a time of financial difficulty in your life, be sure to communicate this with the credit card company to discuss options in your situation. If you are at risk of being unable to make payments in a timely manner, the credit card issuer will usually try to arrange a payment plan that you can stick to. This might prevent them from reporting any late payments to the major credit bureaus.

When you are making a purchase with your credit card you, make sure that you check the receipt amount. Refuse to sign it if it is incorrect. Many people sign things too quickly, and then they realize that the charges are incorrect. It causes a lot of hassle.

If you are not satisfied with the high interest rate on your credit card, but aren’t interested in transferring the balance somewhere else, try negotiating with the issuing bank. You can sometimes get a lower interest rate if you tell the issuing bank that you are considering transferring your balances to a different credit card that offers low-interest transfers. They may lower your rate in order to keep your business!

When you make online purchases with your credit card, always print out a copy of the sales receipt. Keep this receipt so that when your monthly bill arrives, you can see that you were charged exactly the same amount as on the receipt. If they didn’t, call the company and immediately file a dispute. This is an excellent way to avoid being overcharged for a cost you are not responsible for.

If you make credit card purchases online, do not do so from a public computer. Public computers in coffee shops and public libraries could store your information, ready for a thief to retrieve and use it. It is very dangerous using these computers and entering any type of personal information. Don’t make purchases from another person’s computer.

If you are determined to stop using credit cards, cutting them up is not necessarily the best way to do it. Just because the card is gone doesn’t mean the account is no longer open. If you get desperate, you may ask for a new card to use on that account, and get trapped in the same cycle of charging you wanted to get out of in the first place!

Make sure you are consistently using your card. You do not have to use it frequently, but you should at least be using it once a month. While the goal is to keep the balance low, it only helps your credit report if you keep the balance low, while using it consistently at the same time.

An important tip for saving money on gas is to never carry a balance on a gas credit card or when charging gas on another credit card. Plan to pay it off each month, otherwise, you will not only pay today’s outrageous gas prices, but interest on the gas, as well.

Avoid the temptation to take out loans on your credit cards. It may seem to be the only way to get something paid for, but you must look into other options. Many financial advisers will tell you this and there is a reason for it. It could cost you your credit ratings later.

While secured cards can prove beneficial for boosting your credit, don’t use any prepaid cards. These are not actually reported to the big credit bureaus and are really just debit cards in disguise. Prepaid debit cards do little for you besides provide you with an additional checking account, and many prepaid debit companies charge high fees. Get a proper secured credit card by parting with a few hundred bucks for the deposit. These proper secured credit cards will help you to improve your credit rating, as they are reported to the major credit bureaus.

Once you decide to open a credit card account, keep it open. Frequent switches to new companies is not wise unless you find it absolutely necessary. Account length is a big part of your credit score. Another element to establishing credit is to maintain and keep you credit accounts open and active at all times.

Know that some charges, like restaurant and grocery charges, take longer to appear on your statement than others. Because of this, you may not know your true account balance.

When looking for a new card, it is very important to comparison shop and try to find a card that is offering great deals to new customers. Using a card that offers points or airline miles is great because you will be able to get a bit of an incentive, every time you use your card.

Be aware that you can still have a credit card, even if your credit is not up to par. There are basically two choices to pick from. You could either get yourself a secured card or sign up to be an authorized user on the credit card of a family member or partner.

Issuers of secured cards are often willing to give you unsecured cards once you have demonstrated your financial responsibility. You will also start to receive offers in the mail. Take the time to re-evaluate your personal financial situation as you go into the decision making mode.

As it said earlier in the article, it is hard for many people to handle having a credit card, and they may become frustrated. With the right advice, however, managing your credit cards can be very easy. You can use cards much more effectively by utilizing the information here.

The post Advice On How To Handle Your Credit Cards appeared first on Credit Repair Quick Fix.

source https://creditrepairquickfix.com/advice-on-how-to-handle-your-credit-cards/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=advice-on-how-to-handle-your-credit-cards from Credit Repair Quick Fix https://creditrepairquickfix.blogspot.com/2020/05/advice-on-how-to-handle-your-credit.html

[sierrafcortney2]

Advice On How To Handle Your Credit Cards

Ever since they were introduced, credit cards are the cause of problems for many people. Along with other things, a credit card can be hard to manage if you aren’t sure how to use one. This article has plenty of help for those want to learn more about having a credit card.

Make the minimum monthly payment in the very least on all of your credit cards. Not making the minimum payment on time can cost you a great deal of money over time. It can also cause harm to your credit rating. To protect both your expenses, and your credit rating be sure to make minimum payments on time each month.

If you experience a time of financial difficulty in your life, be sure to communicate this with the credit card company to discuss options in your situation. If you are at risk of being unable to make payments in a timely manner, the credit card issuer will usually try to arrange a payment plan that you can stick to. This might prevent them from reporting any late payments to the major credit bureaus.

When you are making a purchase with your credit card you, make sure that you check the receipt amount. Refuse to sign it if it is incorrect. Many people sign things too quickly, and then they realize that the charges are incorrect. It causes a lot of hassle.

If you are not satisfied with the high interest rate on your credit card, but aren’t interested in transferring the balance somewhere else, try negotiating with the issuing bank. You can sometimes get a lower interest rate if you tell the issuing bank that you are considering transferring your balances to a different credit card that offers low-interest transfers. They may lower your rate in order to keep your business!

When you make online purchases with your credit card, always print out a copy of the sales receipt. Keep this receipt so that when your monthly bill arrives, you can see that you were charged exactly the same amount as on the receipt. If they didn’t, call the company and immediately file a dispute. This is an excellent way to avoid being overcharged for a cost you are not responsible for.

If you make credit card purchases online, do not do so from a public computer. Public computers in coffee shops and public libraries could store your information, ready for a thief to retrieve and use it. It is very dangerous using these computers and entering any type of personal information. Don’t make purchases from another person’s computer.

If you are determined to stop using credit cards, cutting them up is not necessarily the best way to do it. Just because the card is gone doesn’t mean the account is no longer open. If you get desperate, you may ask for a new card to use on that account, and get trapped in the same cycle of charging you wanted to get out of in the first place!

Make sure you are consistently using your card. You do not have to use it frequently, but you should at least be using it once a month. While the goal is to keep the balance low, it only helps your credit report if you keep the balance low, while using it consistently at the same time.

An important tip for saving money on gas is to never carry a balance on a gas credit card or when charging gas on another credit card. Plan to pay it off each month, otherwise, you will not only pay today’s outrageous gas prices, but interest on the gas, as well.

Avoid the temptation to take out loans on your credit cards. It may seem to be the only way to get something paid for, but you must look into other options. Many financial advisers will tell you this and there is a reason for it. It could cost you your credit ratings later.

While secured cards can prove beneficial for boosting your credit, don’t use any prepaid cards. These are not actually reported to the big credit bureaus and are really just debit cards in disguise. Prepaid debit cards do little for you besides provide you with an additional checking account, and many prepaid debit companies charge high fees. Get a proper secured credit card by parting with a few hundred bucks for the deposit. These proper secured credit cards will help you to improve your credit rating, as they are reported to the major credit bureaus.

Once you decide to open a credit card account, keep it open. Frequent switches to new companies is not wise unless you find it absolutely necessary. Account length is a big part of your credit score. Another element to establishing credit is to maintain and keep you credit accounts open and active at all times.

Know that some charges, like restaurant and grocery charges, take longer to appear on your statement than others. Because of this, you may not know your true account balance.

When looking for a new card, it is very important to comparison shop and try to find a card that is offering great deals to new customers. Using a card that offers points or airline miles is great because you will be able to get a bit of an incentive, every time you use your card.

Be aware that you can still have a credit card, even if your credit is not up to par. There are basically two choices to pick from. You could either get yourself a secured card or sign up to be an authorized user on the credit card of a family member or partner.

Issuers of secured cards are often willing to give you unsecured cards once you have demonstrated your financial responsibility. You will also start to receive offers in the mail. Take the time to re-evaluate your personal financial situation as you go into the decision making mode.

As it said earlier in the article, it is hard for many people to handle having a credit card, and they may become frustrated. With the right advice, however, managing your credit cards can be very easy. You can use cards much more effectively by utilizing the information here.

The post Advice On How To Handle Your Credit Cards appeared first on Credit Repair Quick Fix.

from Credit Repair Quick Fix https://creditrepairquickfix.com/advice-on-how-to-handle-your-credit-cards/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=advice-on-how-to-handle-your-credit-cards from Credit Repair Quick Fix https://creditrepairquickfix.tumblr.com/post/617360784043933696

[creditrepairquickfix]

Advice On How To Handle Your Credit Cards

Ever since they were introduced, credit cards are the cause of problems for many people. Along with other things, a credit card can be hard to manage if you aren’t sure how to use one. This article has plenty of help for those want to learn more about having a credit card.

Make the minimum monthly payment in the very least on all of your credit cards. Not making the minimum payment on time can cost you a great deal of money over time. It can also cause harm to your credit rating. To protect both your expenses, and your credit rating be sure to make minimum payments on time each month.

If you experience a time of financial difficulty in your life, be sure to communicate this with the credit card company to discuss options in your situation. If you are at risk of being unable to make payments in a timely manner, the credit card issuer will usually try to arrange a payment plan that you can stick to. This might prevent them from reporting any late payments to the major credit bureaus.

When you are making a purchase with your credit card you, make sure that you check the receipt amount. Refuse to sign it if it is incorrect. Many people sign things too quickly, and then they realize that the charges are incorrect. It causes a lot of hassle.

If you are not satisfied with the high interest rate on your credit card, but aren’t interested in transferring the balance somewhere else, try negotiating with the issuing bank. You can sometimes get a lower interest rate if you tell the issuing bank that you are considering transferring your balances to a different credit card that offers low-interest transfers. They may lower your rate in order to keep your business!

When you make online purchases with your credit card, always print out a copy of the sales receipt. Keep this receipt so that when your monthly bill arrives, you can see that you were charged exactly the same amount as on the receipt. If they didn’t, call the company and immediately file a dispute. This is an excellent way to avoid being overcharged for a cost you are not responsible for.

If you make credit card purchases online, do not do so from a public computer. Public computers in coffee shops and public libraries could store your information, ready for a thief to retrieve and use it. It is very dangerous using these computers and entering any type of personal information. Don’t make purchases from another person’s computer.

If you are determined to stop using credit cards, cutting them up is not necessarily the best way to do it. Just because the card is gone doesn’t mean the account is no longer open. If you get desperate, you may ask for a new card to use on that account, and get trapped in the same cycle of charging you wanted to get out of in the first place!

Make sure you are consistently using your card. You do not have to use it frequently, but you should at least be using it once a month. While the goal is to keep the balance low, it only helps your credit report if you keep the balance low, while using it consistently at the same time.

An important tip for saving money on gas is to never carry a balance on a gas credit card or when charging gas on another credit card. Plan to pay it off each month, otherwise, you will not only pay today’s outrageous gas prices, but interest on the gas, as well.

Avoid the temptation to take out loans on your credit cards. It may seem to be the only way to get something paid for, but you must look into other options. Many financial advisers will tell you this and there is a reason for it. It could cost you your credit ratings later.

While secured cards can prove beneficial for boosting your credit, don’t use any prepaid cards. These are not actually reported to the big credit bureaus and are really just debit cards in disguise. Prepaid debit cards do little for you besides provide you with an additional checking account, and many prepaid debit companies charge high fees. Get a proper secured credit card by parting with a few hundred bucks for the deposit. These proper secured credit cards will help you to improve your credit rating, as they are reported to the major credit bureaus.

Once you decide to open a credit card account, keep it open. Frequent switches to new companies is not wise unless you find it absolutely necessary. Account length is a big part of your credit score. Another element to establishing credit is to maintain and keep you credit accounts open and active at all times.

Know that some charges, like restaurant and grocery charges, take longer to appear on your statement than others. Because of this, you may not know your true account balance.

When looking for a new card, it is very important to comparison shop and try to find a card that is offering great deals to new customers. Using a card that offers points or airline miles is great because you will be able to get a bit of an incentive, every time you use your card.

Be aware that you can still have a credit card, even if your credit is not up to par. There are basically two choices to pick from. You could either get yourself a secured card or sign up to be an authorized user on the credit card of a family member or partner.

Issuers of secured cards are often willing to give you unsecured cards once you have demonstrated your financial responsibility. You will also start to receive offers in the mail. Take the time to re-evaluate your personal financial situation as you go into the decision making mode.

As it said earlier in the article, it is hard for many people to handle having a credit card, and they may become frustrated. With the right advice, however, managing your credit cards can be very easy. You can use cards much more effectively by utilizing the information here.

The post Advice On How To Handle Your Credit Cards appeared first on Credit Repair Quick Fix.

from Credit Repair Quick Fix https://creditrepairquickfix.com/advice-on-how-to-handle-your-credit-cards/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=advice-on-how-to-handle-your-credit-cards

[thegloober]

Lessons from losing a week of photos to memory card failure

Summary: One of the photographer’s greatest fears is to lose a significant chunk of images from a big trip or event. In this long-form article, find out how a memory card failure caused a week of photographs to disappear, what I did to try to recover them via software, then physical data services, and the valuable lessons, counter to common knowledge, to be learned about memory cards, dual card slots, and backups to prevent such a nightmare scenario from happening to you.

Landscape expeditions can be taxing in the long days of summer, even more so if you are also doing night photography. After flying to Seattle, I arrived at the coast of Olympic National Park around 11 PM – many view Treasured Lands as a culmination of my work in the national parks, but I am far from being done with them! Seeking stars, I woke up before 2 AM for the short window between moonset and astronomical twilight. However, the marine layer had rolled in while I was hiking to the beach, and I shivered until past sunrise time without even seeing a sliver of sky. The next day, since I had to drive from Heart of the Hills Campground and hike 45 minutes to Hurricane Hill, I rose before 1 AM.

On the last day, temperatures in the inland plains of Hanford Reach rose above 100F. When I came home from the week-long trip, I went straight to bed. The next morning, I reached for my cameras, took the memory card out, and inserted into the card reader. This resulted in the dreaded:

Attempting to read the card with software

I reacted with mere annoyance at the computer, and tried to read the card from the built-in memory card slot of a laptop. The same message appeared. Growing worried, I inserted the card into a standalone backup device, and it said “Memory card not found”. Surely I would be able to see the files in the camera, since the last time it had been turned on, less than a day before, everything was normal and I was able to scroll through some images? Nope, like the computer, the camera said “Unable to use memory card. Format?”

The PhotoRescue software installed on my computer had been successful at rescuing files from a corrupted card in the past, however, it did not uncover a single file this time. Hoping for better luck with Lexar’s own Image Rescue software that came with the card, without the activation code handy, I contacted Lexar’s customer support. They were quick in providing me a download, but it did not help:

Note that the computer sees 8.2 GB, but it was a 64 GB card. Lexar support suggested several other apps, including Ontrack® EasyRecovery which has a “technician” version with a $500/year licensing cost. As those apps include a trial mode that allow you to attempt to discover files, and require you to pay the fee only to actually recover them, I took each of them for a spin without success. There are a lot of recovery programs around, but if the error is hardware rather than software, you can try all the programs in the world, and they won’t do you any good.

Dealing with physical data recoveries services

It was time to contact a physical data recovery company. All those companies have a similar mode of operation. You send them your media with pre-paid overnight shipping at their cost, they diagnose it and provide an estimate. If you approve the estimate, they attempt to recover files and charge you if the recovery is successful. Seems fair, right? The problem was that the quote from the Lexar-recommended company was quite a bit higher than I expected:

After a bit of shopping, I found another company which provided me a lower quote. I sent them the card via Fedex overnight and got the following diagnosis:

Despite numerous attempts to identify the source of the problem, we were unsuccessful in reaching a solution. At this stage it is clear that this is an extremely complex case that will require extensive research, time & use of in-house donor parts. Your media will be passed to our Research and Development department; They will be able to research & execute techniques such as safe removal, reballing and replacement of the core processor and other components containing device specific information and repairs to fractures in the tracks of the logic board.

The work we would attempt is a highly skilled process that is not infallible. The chance of a successful recovery once these processes are completed is approximately 74%. At this point most Data Recovery services would send the media back to you as they don’t have the ability to do such complex work, let alone any sort of R&D department. Our R&D department is one of the best in the world, and they are responsible for creating new techniques and ways of recovering data that allow us to sustain an overall 92% recovery rate. Currently, we have two options for you:

Option 1. You allow our R&D department to use the lab time, parts & cleanroom facilities needed to gain access to your data. This is a standard process that will be completed within 15-20 business days. To go ahead with Option 1 an upfront payment of $800.00 is required, and this covers everything the R&D department will need to provide you with feedback: all lab time, parts required from our library, and cleanroom usage. If we are unable to gain access to any of your data that initial fee is not refundable.

Option 2. We return your media to you via either our courier or standard option, and you incur no recovery costs as we were unable to recover your data.

Although the fee wasn’t too bad, I wasn’t going to pay upfront without a recovery guarantee, especially after my friend Tommy, a technology entrepreneur and all-around geek opined “These are extremely difficult and risky techniques. I’m skeptical that they have such capability and even if they do, I doubt that the success rate is 74%. I guess more like 25% or less”. I declined, received my media back a few weeks later via regular mail, and sent it to yet another data recovery company:

Would you have proceeded with the recovery at this price?

Although you don’t often read that in reviews, my main complaint with the Sony A7R2 cameras is sensor dust resulting from the mirrorless design and an ineffective sensor dust cleaning system – it mechanically shakes the sensor using the image stabilization actuators. To cope, I work with two camera bodies in order to minimize lens changes. The excellent 24-105 FE (review) stays on the primary camera which is used for most of the photographs, while I reach for the secondary camera when I need more specialized lenses. On that trip, I had failed to do drive backups and the damaged memory card was in the primary camera, which meant that it contained the majority of a week’s worth of work, and probably the best photographs. However, I retained usable images from the second camera, a few of which illustrate this post.

I decided against proceeding with the attempted recovery, saving me the potential disappointment of failure or costs. It is not that the pictures aren’t worth the amount asked. Rather, including all expenses, the trip cost me only a fraction of that amount. This math didn’t account for my time, but no matter how tiring the effort felt, that time was spent on a process that I largely enjoy. Losing the pictures did not rob me of the experiences I had nor of the scouting I did, and rather than looking back by investing in the recovery, I chose to look forward by saving the money for a repeat trip – and a new camera.

The larger conclusion here is that attempts to read a card with recovery software may not always work, physical recovery services are expensive, and also not guaranteed to work. Even after three decades in photography, the incident reinforced several lessons for me.

Memory cards can fail

The disaster drew home the point that memory cards do fail catastrophically. Both data companies found serious physical damage, but that was a card that had been moderately used for a year without any single glitch, so neither “dead on arrival” nor past any reasonable life expectancy – which by the way nowadays is longer than technological obsolescence. It had never been subjected to any form of abuse before as it spent most of its life in a single camera, was formatted after each download, and prior to failure went straight from the camera to a card reader. There were certainly no warnings nor reasonable explanations.

I have been using digital cameras since the first days of full-frame in the early 2000s (remember the $8,000 Canon 1Ds series?) without any card failure, while during that time, I have had to replace a half-dozen failed hard drives. This made me overconfident in flash technology.

If you browse the internet, you will see that I was far from being alone. Quite a few other professional photographers (some with scores of workshop clients) state that they have never experienced any card failure and that when it happened, they were always able to rescue images with recovery software. Clearly, my experience has been different. The fact that you’ve been lucky doesn’t mean that your luck won’t run out at some point, as it did for me – and others. As we will see next, a quick perusal of customer reviews shows that memory card failure is not that rare.

Cards are not equally reliable

The card that failed is a Lexar Professional 1000x 64GB SDXC UHS-II/U3, which is amongst Lexar’s top line of cards, and deemed “professional” by the manufacturer. I used to believe that any memory card from a reputable brand would be reliable. If in addition, you bought it from a reputable vendor, chances that you’d get a counterfeit of questionable reliability would also be low. The preferred vendors are specialist stores such as B&H, but Amazon is fine, as long as you don’t buy from their third-party merchants. Sandisk and Lexar are two of the most well-known brands, and I’ve used exclusively their cards, depending on the best deal I could find at the moment.

Because of that belief, I didn’t pay much attention to customer reviews, adopting the attitude that nothing is 100% foolproof and unlucky folks can have a bad experience with any product. Besides, a quick glance at the ratings show that almost all cards are rated between 4-stars and 4.5-stars, so they must be good products, right?

It would have done me more good to read the Amazon customer reviews before buying the card, but after the card failure, I looked them up. One of the first 1-star reviews I read described the exact same experience I had:

I literally had just reviewed the pics on my Nikon D610 camera and inserted the card into my card reader and got a message that it was not formatted (which it was – I format every card when it’s new). I put the card back into my camera – and same Format error.

I literally had just reviewed the pics on my Nikon D610 camera and inserted the card into my card reader and got a message that it was not formatted (which it was – I format every card when it’s new). I put the card back into my camera – and same Format error.

Although I didn’t read all the 300 1-star reviews, the ones that I sampled overwhelmingly bemoaned card failure. Since this was becoming quite relevant, I looked at the 1-star review tally: 15%. That’s almost 1 out of 6 reviews, odds similar to the Russian Roulette. If someone killed themselves playing the game, I don’t think you’d attribute his death to “just bad luck”. Of course, this is not a scientific observation because several factors affect review-writing, but you get the idea. On the other hand, it is instructive to compare the percentage of 1-star reviews for a few other UHS-II cards:

If we assume that 1-star reviews are exactly the type you’d leave if the card totally failed, from that small sample, we can see that some cards are four times more likely to fail than others. This data also sugggests that there is a problem with those UHS-II Lexar cards. On the other hand, the Lexar UHS-I card that I have used for several years gets a convincingly low 3% of 1-star reviews. The lesson here is that not all cards are equal, even amongst those from a top brand. And if they can have such a high failure rate, think about cards from less reputable or conterfeit brands! By the way, looking at those numbers also indicate that failure rate with SD cards is far higher than CF cards.

Pay attention to negative customer reviews

Some negative customer reviews are frivolous because they are rooted in user error, or because they concern themselves with delivery rather than the product’s quality or performance. However, negative reviews are generally more significant than positive reviews.

If you think that one shouldn’t focus on the negative while the vast majority of reviews are positive, consider that on Amazon, the average rating for a product is 4.4 (out of 5) as found here by analyzing 7 million reviews. Even a product with an average 4.0 rating (4-star) is below average. The large majority of products are rated above 4.0, so the difference between a great product and a subpar product is less than 1 (star) on average. On the other hand, we’ve just seen that the number of 1-star reviews for different cards varies by a factor of four.

Consider dual card slot for backup

If your camera has dual memory slots, the most obvious and foolproof way to prevent data loss from memory card failure is to set the camera to write to two cards simultaneously so that it creates a back up in real time. Now that memory card have become very affordable, you can buy two sets of cards with enough capacity to last you for your whole trip so you don’t have to reuse any card, and you always keep two datasets.

Dual memory card slots are standard in high-end DSLRs cameras, and after omitting them in their first two generations of mirrorless cameras, Sony has started providing them in the A9 and A7 mk3 series (a good example of listening to customers, since there were complaints about the single-slots in previous cameras, many of them from Canon and Nikon users), with the caveat that the second slot is UHS-I, so using simultaneous writing will negate the benefits of the faster UHS-II main slot. I was thinking of skipping the A7R3 generation and wait for the inevitable A7R4, but the incident prompted me to upgrade.

Recently announced full-frame mirrorless cameras from Canon and Nikon have been greeted with an inordinate number of Internet comments about their single memory card slot. We saw many claims that no professional would use cameras with a single memory slot.

But the fact is that some professional photographers refuse to use the second slot for back up even when their camera has one, and for specific reasons. To start with, when I was shooting the Canon 1Ds series, I did not set up the cameras to simultaneous write, possibly because the size of the memory cards available back then made it mandatory to perform daily backups. More recently, Lloyd Chambers uses his dual-slot Nikon as single slot SD cameras because he is annoyed by the camera defaulting to the wrong card – this reminds me of Ted Orland’s aphorism “Owning more than one lens assures that you will always have the wrong lens on the camera for any given picture” – while Thom Hogan uses his dual slot Nikon as a single slot XQD camera because the SD slot slows down the camera. Colby Brown thinks that “there is no point in making two copies of your SD cards” and accordinglysets his Sony A7R3 to auto switch as he estimates he has a higher chance of missing a shot because of a full card than a SD card failure – what I used to do with the 1Ds.

I wonder if those statements about the rarity of card failures do a disservice to less experienced folks, because what isn’t clearly disclosed is that, although those photographers apparently don’t fear card failure, they also have extensive backup strategies using hard drives.

Have a solid backup strategy

If there is one thing that I wish others learn from my misfortune, it is that a solid backup plan is necessary. You want multiple copies of your data in multiple places. There are quite a few ways to go about it.

Several brands now offer ruggedized portable drives. SSDs, which have fallen in price, are much less prone to damage than HDDs. Using drives for backups, you can do a daily (or even more frequent) backup, and have more than two copies of your data.

On the other hand, compared to the in-camera dual slots backups, drive backups are not in real-time, so you could possibly lose a day of data. More importantly, you need to remember and take the time to perform the backups – when maybe you’d just rather go to sleep. During that ill-fated trip, I carried a portable drive, yet due to a combination of fatigue, loaded schedule and complacency, I did not use it. Another reason was that my portable drive had experienced a glitch during the previous trip, forcing me to skip backups, which in turn broke my habit of making them regularly. This brings up the point that with drive-based backups, you have to carry more gear, which could also fail. Even if you carry several USB external drives, you still depend on your laptop for your ability to make drive backups.

With in-camera dual-slot backups, given the availability of huge capacity cards, you could shoot most trips on a single pair of cards, but if something catastrophic happened to your camera, you’d lose everything. Alternatively, you could use smaller cards, and once a pair of card is filled-up (or another threshold in capacity or time is reached), each of them can be stored at an independent location to minimize the risk of loss due to theft. While the second approach increases the chances of a problem because you have more cards to manage, it minimizes the adverse effects of problems.

For now, I have settled on an approach which I think provides me the most redundancy with the least effort: use the second slot of the A7R3 for real-time backup with a medium-sized card, plus do a daily backup on a single self-contained portable hard drive. My choice is the e HyperDrive ColorSpace UDMA3 that I fit with a SSD drive. I generally prefer such a device to a laptop because they are considerably smaller and much faster to deploy for backup.

Eventually, my data loss was caused by my own neglect. I let my guard down and did only a few trips without backing up, and see what happened. This is just my experience and one data point, but I hope it’s been useful to you to read about it. What is your backup strategy? Did you experience a catastrophic memory card failure that you’d like to share?

About the Author

QT Luong is known for being the first to photograph all America’s 60 National Parks — in large format. Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan featured him in The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. His photographs are extensively published and have been the subject of large-format books including Treasured Lands (winner of 6 national book awards), many newspaper and magazine feature articles, solo gallery and museum exhibits across the U.S.

You can see more of QT Luong’s work on his website, Facebook page, Instagram; and follow him on Twitter. Also, check out his book Treasured Lands: A Photographic Odyssey through America’s National Parks. This article was also published here and shred with permission.

Source: https://bloghyped.com/lessons-from-losing-a-week-of-photos-to-memory-card-failure/