#easy start to a hopefully long endeavor

[awardenandacrow]

Number 5 for the Rook storytime prompts!!

I’m so sorry for the delay on this!!!! I never saw it in my notifications and only recently discovered how to access my asks otherwise (I am officially Old, apparently). I like this one a lot and had to really think on it before I decided how I wanted to approach it.

I kicked the ask around for a LONG TIME trying to decide if I wanted it to be separate from the fic, pre- or post- game, and nothing was really clicking. So instead, I had a think about what would be the absolute WORST time in-game for Naimy to be dealing with something as mundane but inconvenient as being ill. There are of course a whole host of options, but I got inspired where I landed and here we are.

Prompt 5: Rook Being Seriously Ill

[Naimy’s coming down with a “cold” while recruiting Davrin, has to make The Choice with a head wrapped in angry cotton, takes a dragon headbutt to the body, and then, when it’s all over, she just… collapses. AKA I gave Naimy the flu at the meanest time I could think of.]

AUTHOR’S NOTE: the first snippet falls chronologically directly after Spite enters Naimy’s dream (snippet 21), and this ask absorbs and expands upon snippet 4, the morning after The Choice (SPOILERS for the end of Act One).

I broke this up as much as I could into smaller pieces because we’re talking about a couple chapters worth of fic here that Naimy is sick… so while this isn’t all of it it’s LONG. I hope it’s not too overwhelming 😅 my bad 🤡

SPECIFICALLY FOR THE DAVRIN-ROMANCERS: I saw a post about how pre-romancing Rook, Davrin had always kept things casual, and it inspired me to cook up some angst. I’m not slandering our halla-singing gentle giant, but Naimy DOES have some early misconceptions about his character that WILL be addressed and sorted out. Enemies to that’s-my-super-annoying-idiotic-sibling-whom-I-love-and-would-kill/die for. I’m excited for it. You’ll see.

CW/TW: bodily injury, description of illness & symptoms, strong language

——————————————————————————

Naimeryn thought a bit more sleep would chase away the nausea of her and Spite’s discovery, but when she awoke again, she still felt… off. Perhaps that was a normal reaction, she supposed, to discovering something so unexpected, and in the way she had. She picked at her pancakes, feeling immensely guilty Lucanis had made her favorite, and she could barely taste them. She caught him throwing a few concerned glances at her plate, and endeavored to eat more fervently. This only soured her stomach more, and the coffee didn’t help.

She wondered how he was doing, saddled with this new knowledge. She supposed it couldn’t possibly make things *more* awkward between them. He’d agreed to come along to try to recruit Davrin, after all. Hopefully having some time to think about it all hadn’t changed his mind.

But as Bellara and Harding began to clear the table, he told her he’d get geared up and meet her in the library as soon as she was ready. Naimeryn allowed herself a small smile of relief, and excused herself to go get changed as well.

As expected, Lucanis was ready and waiting for her by the library table when she emerged from her room. Her head was throbbing, but she told herself that was normal after such a fitful night’s sleep.

“Ready?” She asked him, attempting to put on an air of her usual cheer despite not feeling particularly cheery.

“After you,” he responded, nodding towards the stairs. Naimeryn always felt a little odd leading the others up and down the stairs, but as they reached the set into the Eluvian room, he fell into easy step beside her. She flashed him a genuine smile, then broke the moment by stepping through first.

“So do you know this Davrin fellow?” Lucanis asked as he stepped through the Eluvian and into the Crossroads.

“Not personally,” Naimeryn shook her head, starting down the next set of stairs. “I know *of* him. As I mentioned, he’s kind of famous around Weisshaupt. And I… know someone who knew him.”

“You sound…” Lucanis hestitated. “It does not seem you are a fan.”

“I’m not sure how to describe how I feel,” Naimeryn said honestly. “He must know *so much*, and I’d love to pick his brain. He must have been *so many* places! But… he also hurt someone I care about. Hi, Caretaker!”

“Dweller,” the spirit inclined their head and swept their hand to welcome her into the boat. A wave of dizziness took her, and she shook her head in an attempt to clear it, teetering precariously close to the edge for a moment before regaining her balance. That was… odd.

“Are you all right?” Lucanis asked, his hands outstretched as though he’d been about to grab and steady her.

“Yeah, I…” Naimeryn pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “I’m fine, sorry. I don’t know what that was about.”

“The air varies, Dweller,” Caretaker said cryptically, suddenly standing on the dock at her elbow. “Be mindful.”

“Uh, yeah, okay,” she nodded, though she didn’t actually understand. She stepped more cautiously than usual into the spirit’s vessel.

“So this Davrin,” Lucanis said again once they’d been floating through the air for a few minutes. “He hurt someone you… care about, but you still want to recruit him?”

“That was… a *personal* thing,” Naimeryn said, fiddling with one of her braids. “From what I understand, he’s a no-strings-attached guy. Which I mean, I guess if both people are into that then that’s… their business.”

Involuntarily, she shuddered. Or maybe it was a shiver? “My.. friend. She wanted to revisit the strings, and he didn’t. She didn’t take it well.”

“No strings,” Lucanis mused, gazing into the ether. “You sound… disapproving. Is that not an arrangement you would find appealing?”

Naimeryn’s breath caught, and she felt herself flush. Aware he was watching her from the corner of his eye, she looked at the floor or the boat, lest her expression give something away she didn’t want it to. Was that… something *he* would want? Maker’s Balls, she really *was* doomed.

But why not? He was a Crow. Nothing was promised in the life of an assassin, surely? She knew little enough of the life, though her curiosity had seen her pepper Zevran with questions when the opportunity arose — exactly once. And the way Illario flirted… maybe committed relationships weren’t common in their ranks? Even Teia and Viago, though she suspected they were together currently, seemed very casual about it. Lucanis had probably seduced marks before. Sex probably meant nothing to him; or at least, it was likely a complicated subject.

Everything with him always seemed to be “complicated.”

But she… she couldn’t imagine being intimate with someone and having it be meaningless.

“No,” she said finally. “I don’t judge anyone for their preferences, or choices. But one night stands, friends with benefits… no strings. None of it ‘appeals’ to me, as you say. I guess I can understand it working for most Wardens. I mean we could die any time, and…“

She caught herself. *People* didn’t know about the Calling. She cleared her throat. Why was it so scratchy? “I don’t know, technically when you become a Warden you’re supposed to give up attachments, like family. It’s… *challenging* for us to have kids. We can’t inherit titles. We’re not *supposed* to get married, though nobody stopped Antoine and Evka.”

She smiled, thinking of them. “I guess if it’s another Warden, why not, right? You’re in the same boat.”

“New shores, Dweller,” Caretaker announced their arrival at their destination island. Naimeryn stepped off the boat, and the whispers began immediately.

“Ugh,” she grumbled, “I thought we cleared out all the Darkspawn from this area last time.”

“The Warden doesn’t know that there’s always more?” Lucanis chided, joining her on the dock.

“It’s the Fade,” she gestured vaguely ahead of them. “Shouldn’t the rules be, I don’t know, different?”

A violent shiver took her, and she wished she’d worn her old cloak, no matter how worn out. She’d known this part of the Fade was cold and snowy. What had she been thinking?

“You are the mage,” Lucanis’s tone was still teasing. “Shouldn’t you have that answer as well?”

She smirked at him. “You know what, Lucanis, keep questioning me like this and I’m gonna stop bringing you places with me.”

She’d expected a snappy comeback, but instead he looked completely tongue-tied. He opened his mouth like he’d also planned to continue ribbing her, but he suddenly seemed genuinely concerned she might mean it. Her brain didn’t give her a moment to sort through why that might be. She panicked.

“I’m kidding,” she said instantly, touching his arm. “You’re stuck with me.”

*You’re stuck with me?!?!* she screamed internally. *What* was she thinking? She let go of his arm and took a few backwards steps away from him, desperately trying to return to lighthearted and playful and not… whatever this was.

“Besides,” she could feel the heat rising to her face as she began to ramble. “You’d get bored cooped up in the pantry by yourself.”

That was *not* better.

“Uh, I mean — I — I —“ whatever other mortifying thing had been about to fall out of her mouth, it was thankfully swallowed up by a sneeze so powerful it made her head hurt twice as bad. It echoed around the hills and half-crumbled structures and the high stone wall.

Oooooh, no. That could not be good.

“Company,” Lucanis advised, unsheathing his blades and nodding ahead. Of course they had company now. Every Darkspawn on the island had to have heard that sneeze. They were lucky it hadn’t started an avalanche! Naimeryn felt her nose starting to run.

Great. Could this day *possibly* get any worse?

…

*It’s always something with these damned recruitments,* Naimeryn thought savagely. Not sensing that damned Ogre before it was *on top of them* in Arlathan. Slipping and sliding and falling over herself in the Ossuary. And now, recruiting a fellow Warden, *while battling a cold?!* It really was a wonder anyone had agreed to join their cause.

…

“You don’t need to apologize,” Davrin shook his head. “You’re in rough shape, and you still saved Assan’s butt back there. And if you mean it that you’ll help get them back…”

“Ob course!” Naimeryn said resolutely, if miserably.

“All right, then,” Davrin nodded. “Count me in. I’ve got some things to gather up here before we leave.”

“Take this back,” Lucanis said, wrapping his cape around her once more when she turned to him. “You help him gather his things.”

“Wha’bou’ you?” Naimeryn asked with a sniffle, confused, even as she snuggled deeper into the warm garment. That was nice.

“*I*,” Lucanis said pointedly, “am going to head back ahead of you and get started on a soup.”

“Oh,” Naimeryn said, perking up. “Tha’s so though’ful ob you.”

Lucanis stifled a smirk, and she flushed. She sounded ridiculous.

…

Naimeryn wobbled, almost toppling out of the boat.

“Easy, Rook,” Davrin said, gabbing her by the shoulders as Assan landed on the dock with a querying squawk. “Let me help.”

Too dizzy to speak, she nodded weakly, allowing him to all but lift her onto the ground before following behind.

“Hopefully Lucanis has that soup going,” he chided. “This wa—?”

“Rook!”

Naimeryn’s head snapped up at Neve’s panicked cry of her name. Her chest tightened at the sight of the whole team running down the stairs from the Eluvian towards them.

“What’s wrong?” She croaked out, shaking off Davrin’s steadying hand and stumbling forward a few steps to reach them.

“*Everything’s* wrong,” Lucanis’s expression was clouded. He looked more agitated than she’d seen him since the Ossuary. Harding and Bellara wore expressions of concern, and Neve looked beside herself with worry. “Treviso and Minrathos are both under attack.”

“Blighted dragons,” Neve added quickly. “One for each city.”

Naimeryn’s head spun. Dragons didn’t *get* Blighted.

Well. Not before Ghilan’nain, anyway.

“Damn it,” Naimeryn shook her head in an attempt to clear it. Her vision was… fuzzy. It shouldn’t be this hard to think. “We knew Ghilan’nain was controlling dragons after D’Meta’s Crossing, but *Blighted*…”

“You got back just in time,” Harding cut her off.

“What, um. What do we know?” Naimeryn’s heart was racing as she grappled with what to do. *Two* Blighted dragons. Two attacks. At the same time. *Fuck,* why couldn’t she just *think?*

“It has to be the gods,” Harding said resolutely. “Two dragons? At the same time?”

*That’s why I brought up D’Meta’s Crossing,* Naimeryn thought blankly. She *had* said that out loud… hadn’t she?

“Treviso’s a merchant city,” Lucanis said, his tone pleading. “It has *no* defenses. And the canals run everywhere!”

Naimeryn’s head throbbed. He was right. Why would the gods target Treviso, and not Antiva City? Minrathos was the capital of Tevinter, it was a logical tactical target. But Treviso?

“If we don’t stop the dragon, people will die,” Lucanis was saying. “Innocent people. *My* people.”

Naimeryn flinched. Illario. Teia. Viago. *Jacobus.* And Lucanis… he’d spent a year in the Ossuary, lost his autonomy, lost what his life had been before. Gotten out only to lose Caterina. Of course he was panicking. He was about to maybe lose *everything.*

But Neve. Minrathos was *her* city. Tarquin, the Viper, Dorian, Maevaris… Rana. Neve fought so hard to keep Dock Town afloat. They all did. What would happen if they had to split their focus between a dragon and the Venatori?

“They either die right away, from the dragon,” Lucanis shook his head.

“Or slowly, after, from Blight in the water,” Davrin said seriously, at her elbow. They both knew what that would mean. No fish. No clean water. Blight and other sickness would feeter and spread like wildfire. Blight was a slow, painful death sentence. And if it was in the water… all of Treviso would be effected, and Blight didn’t just go away. The Wardens might be able to contain it — if they’d even go to Antiva to try — but Treviso would be lost.

“We *need* to go to Treviso,” Lucanis said with absolute certainty.

“And just leave Minrathos to burn?” Neve demanded. Lucanis’s expression was stricken, then pained.

“Neve…”

“The Shadow Dragons *will* fight,” Neve shook her head, utterly ignoring the apology in his voice, “Right to the end of it. But we’re the only ones keeping the Venatori in check. And if we fail?”

Neve looked towards the others, as if looking for their support. Naimeryn had never seen Neve make a face like that.

“The Venatori will take advantage,” she said. “They’ll make a push for the throne.”

Neve looked pointedly back at Rook. “And hand the gods the *entire* Tevinter empire.”

Naimeryn swallowed with difficulty, her throat dry and tight and sore. The archon’s palace had blasted demons apart and taken shots at *her and Varric.* Surely they’d fire on a *dragon*? And surely there were more Templars like Rana and Tarquin, who would join the Shadow Dragons in fighting the Venatori?

“Is there *aby* chance we —“ Naimeryn started, not even sure she knew what she was going to say.

“Damn it! There’s *no* time!” Neve snapped. Naimeryn’s head throbbed, and she felt unsteady on her feet. She had to suck it up. Get it together. “I’ve got to go home! I *need* to be in Minrathos.”

“And I must go to Treviso,” Lucanis said, his voice shaking. “Go where you feel you must, Rook. *We* cannot wait.”

Neve had already started running, and Lucanis turned to run in the same direction, towards the other dock. Naimeryn couldn’t breathe. Her head felt so full. Bellara and Harding were staring at her, waiting for her to make a decision.

“What’s our move, Rook?” Harding wanted to know.

“I, I dob…” Naimeryn pressed her fingers into her temples. “We hab to trust that the Shadow Dragons have thibs handled in Minrathos, that the Templars and magisters who aren’t in the Benatori’s pockets will help. The archon isn’t Benatori, ob’iously, so the palace should be attackib the dragon too. I — as a Warden, I *can’t* risk Blight gettib into the canals. We *hab* to go to Trebiso.”

She said the last sentence directly to Davrin, pleading. She looked back to Harding and Bellara.

“We’ll split the team,” she decided. “Minrathos can use the backup. Go help Nebe. Stay safe, come back alibe, alright?”

…

“We hab to get to Minrathos,” Naimeryn mumbled as Teia and Davrin hefted her back to her feet. Her whole body ached.

“Rook, you can barely stand,” Lucanis frowned. “Why don’t you let us —“

“No,” Naimeryn said firmly. “I need to go. Maybe if we hurry, we can still help. I *hab* to try.”

…

After dozing enough to have her talk with Solas, Naimeryn lay awake all night. Tossing and turning was kept to a minimum — even slight movements were too painful to risk anything bigger. Her nose ran, her head throbbed, her eyes watered. She was too hot for her blanket. Then she was freezing. She ached all the way to her bones.

Beneath the agony that kept her body awake, a different kind prevented her mind from settling. Neve’s face swam in her vision off and on in a loop, intermixed with Tarquin’s glare and the sight of the Viper, writhing on a crate with Blight coursing through his veins. She knew that allowing Blight into the canals in Treviso would have been a much worse outcome than one Blighted man. Knew it to her core.

And yet the guilt threatened to eat her alive.

She didn’t know how long she wallowed in her misery on that couch before she heard the library door open and close, and someone shuffling about below. She had just managed to find a position that was… not comfortable, but almost, and so she laid perfectly still, hoping whoever it was didn’t need her. She willed the room to stop spinning until she dozed off.

Another indeterminate time later, the library door opened and closed again.

“You’re up early!” Harding’s voice.

“First chance to look around,” Davrin. “Might as well get to know the place I’ll be calling ‘home’ for a while.”

Naimeryn sniffled, and tried to sit up. If the team was stirring, she’d struggled to sleep plenty long enough. She wheezed, the pain in her ribs sharper than it had been through the night. Okay, a different way then. She tried to roll onto her side first, but she had to roll onto her injured right side to get off the couch, and that was particularly painful as well. Great.

The library door swung open and closed a third time.

“Morning! Has anyone seen Rook? I made her pancakes,” Bellara’s usual chipper morning voice was marred by poorly-suppressed concern. “Tarquin was pretty harsh on her yesterday.”

“I doubt she’ll be up and about for a while,” Davrin told her. “Getting full body head-butted by a dragon tends to take it out of you.”

A plate shattered on the floor. Crap. Naimeryn renewed her attempts at sitting up.

“She got *headbutted* by the *dragon*?!” Bellara asked shrilly.

“And neither you nor Lucanis thought *maybe* you should mention it?!” Harding added.

“Uh…”

Naimeryn could already hear both of their footfalls on the stairs. She grabbed the back of the couch and wrenched herself up, sucking in a seething breath to keep from crying out. Okay. Everything was fine.

“Rook?” Bellara burst through the door without knocking, Harding hard on her heels. Unable to gain enough composure to speak, Naimeryn managed a weak and unconvincingly cheerful wave before falling back to sit precariously on the edge of the couch again. Her nose ran, and she wiped it carefully on the back of her wrist. Gross.

“Elf root,” Harding snapped. “You big dummy, you need elf root. Be right back.”

“You dob hab to —“

“And ice!” Bellara said. “I fell out of a tree once, and Irelin put ice on my a— aaanyway. Ice!”

“Wait —“

But they were both gone. Naimeryn sighed and rubbed her forehead. She made a mental note to give Davrin an earful, though she immediately forgot. She hadn’t wanted them to worry — not about her. *She* was team leader. It was her responsibility to worry about *them.* And right now, there was enough on their plates to worry about knowing there were two blighted dragons on the loose. She already had to add the tasks of tracking down a dragon hunter and a Fade expert to their to-do list.

Now that she had no audience, Naimeryn gingerly set about getting back to her feet. Slow breaths. Slow movements. Easy does it. She made her way around the couch and picked up the hand mirror off the console table. Not for the first time, she wished she had a full length mirror.

Carefully, she undid the sash holding her night wrap closed, hissing at the pain of each movement. She hooked it open with her hip, holding the mirror upside-down and at an angle to get a better look at the bruising on her side and ribs. She groaned. Her flesh was puffy, covered in angry black, purple, blue, and… green? That was new. She’d never had a green bruise before. Was that bad?

“Rook?”

*Oh, no.*

Bellara and Harding hadn’t shut her door tight behind them, and Lucanis pushed it open easily with his shoulder. “Bellara said you needed ice — *mierda.*”

Unable to move quickly and thankful she wore her underthings to bed, she gave him what she could imagine was the most awkward, embarrassed smile she had ever given anyone.

“Hi,” she squeaked.

He seemed frozen in place, the ice forgotten in his hands. His eyes swept over dark purple satin, nearly the same color as her offended skin. Now that he could see more of them, she wondered, not for the first time, if he thought her scars were ugly.

What a time to be wondering if he could find her pretty! Standing half-dressed in front of him, struggling to breathe or, in all honesty, even maintain her semi-upright position, with red puffy eyes and a runny nose. Of course he didn’t; how ridiculous.

BLIGHT AND… *LAVENDER?* Spite hissed. He said the second word in a tone that was far too knowing, and set Naimeryn’s cheeks ablaze. *Oooooh, no.* She was so flustered, it didn’t even occur to her to be shocked that she’d *heard* him, despite Lucanis’s lips not having moved. Flustered, and… did she *really* smell like Blight? Well, she hadn’t really bathed before collapsing on the couch the night before; just cleaned up her open injuries…

Spite’s remark seemed to shake Lucanis free of his startled state, and he held up the wrapped bundle of ice without moving.

“Do you…” he hesitated. “Do you want help with this?”

“No,” Naimeryn said, too quickly. “I mean… no. Ah. You dob hab to — I’m sure you hab… Crow… stuff?”

“Crow stuff?” the corner of his mouth quirked up, but his expression was more concern than mirth. “Nothing more important than this. Teia would not forgive me if I treated the ‘savior of Treviso’ so callously.”

Naimeryn gasped, winced. Lucanis was at her elbow in a moment, though he still made no move to touch her. “Please tell me people aren’t actually callib me that.”

“Well, Teia might. She is quite fond of you.”

“Elf root tea!” Harding announced, pushing into the room. Her eyes fell on Naimeryn’s side, and she groaned. “Oh, Rook. You big dummy. Lucanis, put her ass back on the couch.”

“But —“

“There’s nothing you need to do *right now*,” Harding said firmly, putting all her weight on one hip and giving Naimeryn a stern look. “You need to rest. *Now.*”

“She is right,” Lucanis said, nudging her elbow with his.

“Traitor,” she mumbled, allowing him to lead her back to the couch. He sat next to her, carefully pressing the ice to her side. She sucked in a hissing breath, then choked on it and began to cough. *Creators,* that hurt. Harding set the tray on the table as Lucanis tentatively splayed his hand across the middle of her back. Naimeryn groaned. Harding held out a cup of tea for her, and she reached for it. Her head throbbed. The next thing she knew Lucanis was on his knees, and both he and Harding were holding her up off of the floor.

“Naimy, you’re burning up,” Harding fretted. “Lucanis mentioned you were coming down with a cold when he came back early from recruiting Davrin, but with everything going on, I completely forgot!”

“As did I,” he admitted with a deep frown.

“We’re tryib to keep the world from endib,” Naimeryn groaned. The whole room was spiraling, and she again thought she might vomit. “Arlathan’s go’ Blight, there’s Darkspawn ib the Crossroads, a monster took a buncha griffons tha’ *aren’* essinct, Minrathos is burnib and now Solas wants us to recruit two more people! I don’ hab time to be *sick.*”

Her two companions carefully guided her back down into a reclined position.

“If you overdo it trying to fix everything *right now*,” Harding said, picking some ice out of the parcel Lucanis had brought and pressing it to her forehead, “you’re just gonna get worse.”

“Bellara is remaking the pancakes,” Lucanis told them. “I’ll go have her make soup instead.”

“I’ll jus’ comb to the dinin’ hall,” Naimeryn insisted. “I’ll drink my tea, I’ll ea’ my soub, an’ we can figure ou’ wha’ our nest mobe is. I can tell ebryone at once what Solas said.”

“Rook, I am not sure that is a good idea,” Lucanis frowned. “You just almost passed out.”

“Oh, is that what that was?” she murmured to herself.

“I think you should rest for the day,” Harding told her. “Later tonight we can all meet in the library and you can tell us about Solas then.”

“Do you think Nebe is *restib* today?” Naimeryn asked miserably, reaching for them both to help her up. They exchanged worried glances, but each took a hand and hoisted. Naimeryn swayed, gripping their hands tightly. The edges of her vision were black. She shut her eyes tightly and willed the dizziness away.

“I can’t just lay about and do nothib,” she tried again, opening her eyes slowly. Everything was squiggly. “I hab to —“

“Rook!” Harding’s voice sounded far away, and the room turned on its side before strong arms caught her, and everything went black.

If you made it to the end, thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it :3

[nomstellations]

Tales from the Isles- Bounty

Mangri checked the bounty poster in her hand. The disheveled yet all-too pleased grin of her target stared back, fangs on display with dark hair covering their eyes. A thief stealing from the Cove's mayor had some serious guts...Mangri herself would have liked to do the same thing, someday! But she was all too happy to settle for secondhand loot- they were hiding out in one of the canyon's mystery dungeons, so she tracked them here.

As a master thief, lining her own pockets meant more to her than whatever justice that sheriff wanted to uphold. Hopefully this job would be interesting...

Chomper's Canyon had plenty of little nooks and caves, she wasn't surprised a thief would make their hideout somewhere around here. Her target was a Deino who had made off with a pretty chunk of change, and the town's sheriff had a decent reward for whoever could bring in the thief. She had no plans on returning the loot, of course- but they didn't have to know that, did they? Their hideout should be somewhere on this floor...

Mangri found it sooner than she expected. Turning a corner, the dragon was met with a wide room full of gold, treasure boxes, and...food? Resting atop a smaller pile of gold was her target- a thin and lanky young man snoring loudly. As soon as she stepped in he awoke, looking around frantically as if he could actually see anything.

"Whuzzat?! Whozit? Who's there?!"

She smiled. This was too easy. "Your time's up, buddy. Come with me back to town and they might let you off easy."

He sniffed at the air for a moment, then licked his lips. "Hey...y'smell real fruity. You some kinda grass type? Heh heh, and you think you can take me in? I eat folks like you for breakfast! The only thing gettin' turned is you into food!" Suddenly leaping off his hoard, the Deino did a blind and reckless charge at what he thought was his misguided prey. But instead of clamping his open mouth down on his quarry, he found himself slamming into the large gut of a dragon type that vastly towered over him.

"Mmm...that's where you're wrong, shrimp." Hoisting him up by the back of the shirt, the larger dragon studied her catch in smug amusement. "See, I hate it when people underestimate me because of my typing...and I'm afraid you're overpowered and outmatched. Now let's see who's food, hmm?"

Her catch wriggled and shouted a few colorful expletives she noted for later, but it was all ultimately useless as she hoisted him high above her head. Opening wide, Mangri started slipping his feet into her maw and into her throat. Upon feeling the warmth and slick saliva he started to kick and wriggle, but her powerful throat muscles easily rendered kicking a pointless endeavor. "H-hey! You can't do this to me! I'm a DRAGON, y'hear me?! I'm nobody's lunch!"

Mangri simply hummed, lazily gulping again and letting him sink a bit deeper. She loved it when people underestimated her- she wasn't a little weakling anymore by any stretch of the imagination, and any self respecting thief should know that there's always a bigger, hungrier fish. She'll let this be a free lesson to him- two free lessons in fact. she mused as she began to tuck the arms that were shoving at her face and body into her maw. Lesson two: once a predator has most of you in their gullet, you cut your losses and save your strength.

Gulp, glp, glrk. It didn't take long for his protests to become muffled as he was swallowed down. Mangri's stomach jostled and wiggled a bit as her prey collected inside of it, but ultimately the fuss he made was covered well. He wasn't terribly filling either, which made her consider another snack later...but her biggest priority was right in front of her. The criminal was caught- now how does she make off with all this treasure without tipping the people at the Cove off that she stole it?

[valeriefauxnom]

South Grastea, Annotated (and the geography for why the Halidom is a prospective attacker's worst nightmare)

So, even if we got some info on geography for Grastea, keeping track of where exactly everything is can be tricky. Thus, I made a small, crude map to help give an idea of where the 'big' locations are, story-wise! Hopefully it helps any fic-writer out there who might want to have an easy consult for where stuff is.

Thus, Euden's path in the main campaign is as follows, as represented by this even cruder drawing wherein black lines are like ch 1-4, blue 5-9, yellow 10-14, purple 15 (the filled in white circle is 'start' in Sol Alberia, filled-in black circle is 'end' of South Grastea shenanigans at the border:

Some of these are guesses (Chanzelia to Clave Loy'elune and Clave Loy'elune to Murgia Village, ex) but others are evidenced or shown outright, like Euden's path from Sol Alberia to the Mistholt forest.

Still a terrible map, but it does show how Euden was bouncing everywhere. The early chapters do make a lot of sense: he approached the Halidom through its southern forest route, then left to leave through Myriage lake to approach Sol Alberia from the north, then got turned around and fled to Mt. Adolla. Guess Euden was lucky when deciding to then flee to the Halidom instead of running to nearby Leonidas for help, though!

Oh, and I also kinda have figured out the vaugeries of how the Halidom is even approachable, because it was kinda confusing as to how people could access it from the west if it only has that main drawbridge in its near-island position.

Long story short, it is still effectively an island, with the only 'permanent' bridge being the stone bridge from the southeast, but even that has a drawbridge they could pull. However, the Halidom does have a wooden rope bridge that goes to the west.

This can be better seen on my own picture (which also shows how the Halidom on the map would change depending on how far you've developed the Halidom!):

From a near distance, it looks like so:

This is where it becomes funny in the Blood That Binds, wherein most the family split up to try and bait the replica Alberius from all sides. Leonidas is to the north, Valyx the south, Chelle to the west, and Emile (and Phares) to the east.

But, as we can see, the only true feasible routes to march any decently-sized force through is the west and the south. Any other route would require a lot of swimming and then mountain-climbing to scale the rocky walls, which is not recommended to keep an energetic and safe force.

Thus, replica Alberius and his brutish strength decides to strike west, north, east, and then south. If I had to guess, Leonidas was put to the north to either be a one-man army himself by being able to fly over the lake separating him from the Halidom, or as a stealth source of reinforcements to either Emile or more likely Chelle to hopefully catch Alberius off-guard.

But Emile? Emile was likely put to the east just to keep him out of the action. And they still didn't trust him to lead that force well enough in case something did happen that they plunked Phares there to babysit!

Interestingly, the Halidom's layout has unique implications for the tunnel system that exists. We know it goes from outside the castle into it (and specifically into Euden's room at one point), but from where does the other side emerge? Is it still on the island, or is it a long long journey to the under the water surrounding the Halidom and under that, followed by a long climb up? We can see some more tunnels in the Halidom map in game, so who knows.

We also see Halidom strategy come into play for Gala Leif's story.

As we can see, it's technically possible to get very creative and 'make a route' from the east, likely in the form of a long bridge to span the gap between the island and the mainland. This, however, is still a very unconventional and dangerous endeavor (defenders just need to break the bridge), characteristic of Harle, and likely not a recommended warfare strategy if one dreams of attacking the Halidom.

Honestly, though, it's a phenomenal position defensively. The biggest risk would be a siege because of the easily cut-off routes in and out, but even that is mitigated by the presence of flying dragons that could carry food as well as its own mini-forest on the island they could cultivate and sustain a small force with. Its likely water supply also is hard to disrupt, being an absolutely massive lake surrounding it and entering via a waterfall, which would be hard to stop or poison entirely.

Last but not least, the weather is also favorable to defenders who know the land well, as Chelle explains in the Blood That Binds:

The water surrounding the Halidom, combined with its temperature swings from day to night, causes thick fog that a defender could utilize (even if it's not magically thick as it was in the very beginning). Yes, in this case, it's the offense taking use of it, but the replica Alberius, possessing Alberius' memories, had a 'defenders' knowledge that the rest of the family wouldn't know as well since Euden as the only current firsthand source of nitty-gritty details for how the Halidom works defensively had not shown up.

It really does sound like a nightmare for an invader. It's no wonder Euden is able to defend it with such a small standing force, and quite likely a bit part in why so many left him alone in the early stages; the time and resources it would require to truly root him out would be disproportionate.

So...yeah. There's a bit about Southern Alberian geography and why the Halidom is a defensive monster!

[kellanved-ammanas]

TF2 Drabbles: Pyro & Scout - Being a Mystery is Fun

Summary: There are already maps near some mercs' homelands/birthplaces (e.g. Rottenburg, and arguably Degroot Keep); are any of the other bases near anyone else's? (Not that Soldier would necessarily remember, although he might feel some déjá vú. And Pyro probably wouldn't let on if the team were stationed near somewhere they'd lived.)

[A/N] I've been toying with the idea that Pyro's from China for a little while now. Mostly because of the Neon Annihilator (if you don't know, it reads as 'bar' in Chinese). I found the idea of it being something they might've brought from his home town to be endearing. So upon getting to this request, prompting me to scroll through the map list and finding Kong King, I figured I'll go ahead and make that my official headcanon for Pyro. Plus, most of the rest of the team is from America or Europe so having one more member from a different part of the globe is nice. Also, I've started referring to Pyro as 'he' and 'they'. It began as an accident while writing this (probably because my current primary fandom has me writing all they/them's, making me want to keep using they/them for everyone) and decided to just roll with it because I like it. He's still a trans man to me but now he's a he/they trans man.

~

Kong King wasn’t home but it was far closer than Pyro had been since leaving for America. Close enough in fact that upon stealing a local atlas and sneaking it into their room, it didn’t take long to find his actual home town was close enough to theoretically drive to.

If they did, he’d be gone long enough to be missed – it wasn’t quite close enough for a quick in and out type of thing. He could maybe come up with a believable reason for going on such a journey though. Maybe he was just curious and wanted to explore. This was the team’s first stationing in this part of the world after and it was very different than America or Europe, their usual posting places. An exploration mission that ended in him being lost and thus in that particular town for a while shouldn’t seem to out of place. They could even endeavor to run out of gas there to explain why they hung around in that particular area for so long.

Did he want to though? He’d left for a reason after all. Several reasons actually, all of them good. That had been a long time ago though. He’d been living in America and burning stuff down for money there since well before Mann Co. recruited him. Anyone he’d known who might still be around wouldn’t recognize him, especially with the suit and mask making him perfectly anonymous.

They rocked back and forth as they idly flipped through his stolen map book. Maybe he shouldn’t have even brought it into the base. If someone found him with it would they suspect he was from around here? Did he care if they did? Soldier wouldn’t be happy about it but he put up with the rest of the non-Americans on the team, even if he hadn’t figured out most of them weren’t American. So it’d probably be easy to convince him to drop it. But still, Pyro’s country of origin was a mystery he’d caught the others speculating about more than once and had been directly asked about several times. He’d never answered such questions because being a mystery was fun. It wasn’t the reason they wore the suit all the time but it was a nice bonus. Giving up that game didn’t…

A knock sounded on his new room’s door a moment before it burst open – this base was unfortunately one without locks on the doors. Quickly Pyro tossed the atlas onto the floor so that is slide under the bed… only half way though, damn it. Hopefully that was still enough to hide it. He should’ve blocked the door with something.

“Hey Pyro,” Scout said a Pyro turned to face him. “The symbols or whatever the people here write with look a lot like the symbols on your sign thingy. Or at least I think they do. I gotta see it again.”

The Neon Annihilator – as Pyro had dubbed it for fun – was one of the few things he’d brought with him from home. It had been broken for a while but with the help of Engie’s tools he’d managed to fix it and even modify it for use as a weapon. Proud of it, he’d shown it off to anyone who’d cared to look at it which had included Scout. Apparently he’d taken note of its ‘symbols’ upon it, meaning he might be about to figure something out. Pyro could just decline to show him, say he’d lost and/or broken it but then he’d have to keep it hidden all the time and that would suck.

So instead they turned to the closet and pulled it out. They didn’t hand it Scout but instead held it where he could see, positioned so that the sign part of it would be sideways. As if that would even make a difference to someone who was ignorant enough to refer to it as ‘symbols’.

Scout stared at it in silence for several seconds before a wide grin spread across his face. “That’s it, I think. It looks the same anyway. That means your sign’s from here, right? You’ve been here before?”

Pyro shrugged. Not a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ and therefore he was putting off his decision on whether or not he wanted anyone to know such things about him.

“Or, I guess maybe you got it off someone who was from here. Either way it’s cool. Do you know what it says? It’s uh… gotta be Chinese, right? ‘Cause we’re in China.”

Pyro shrugged again as they shook their head. Apparently no, they wanted to remain a mystery for a little while longer at least. Keeping their understanding of the local language a secret wasn’t likely to be hard as they rarely interacted with anyone outside the team already anyway. The suit and mask tended to deter anyone else from trying to talk to them.

“Damn. You think Spy might know?”

Another shrug. An honest one this time. Spy spoke many languages. All the ones Pyro knew of were European but it was entirely possible he knew more.

“We should ask him later. But also, you wanna walk around explore with me and Snipes?”

“Sure.” He gave a thumbs up to reinforce his words as before turning to put the sign back in the closest before following Scout out. Going home wasn’t on the table but exploring around here should be just as good, if not better.

[celandeline]

Summer of Like // Farleigh Start x OC (13)

The night air is warm, still sort of sticky with the heat and humidity of the day, but still a welcome relief compared to the stuffy hell that is the guest bedroom across the hallway from Venetia’s room. 

It’s become sort of a habit, slipping outside to have a cigarette and enjoy the coolness of the night before I retreat back to bed. It’s not something I do every night, but something I do often enough that I’ve become familiar with the winding stone paths around the house and the way the moonlight casts the grounds in sharp definition. The cigarette is really only an excuse - it’s a wish for something extra - whether that be a hushed giggle from Venetia’s lips or the twinkle in Farleigh’s eye - my semi-nightly endeavors. 

The cherry of my cigarette burns red as I take a long drag, the smoke pooling in my lungs for a moment before I force it out my nostrils, the haze hovering around my head until I move on, following the path around the house. I round the corner slowly, and tap the ash off the end of my cigarette, letting it fall to the ground, mixing with the stones. 

My gaze wanders up the house, counting the lit windows, noting their placement. Venetia’s light is on - but there is no shadow in her room. She’s out and about - hopefully I’ll run into her before my cigarette burns out and I call it quits. I follow the path a bit more before the smell of smoke invades my nose, different, more pungent than a cigarette. And then-

“Eves.”

I turn, scanning the yard behind me for a halo of curls. Nothing. I look back in front of me, making sure to peer into the shadows as well as I can. Nothing.

“Up, baby.”

It’s teasing, like he is, but my stomach flips anyway. I cast my gaze upwards, towards the roof of one of the many outcroppings of the house, just underneath a window. Farleigh lounges against the tiles, an easy grin on his face and a joint in his hand, gently spewing a trail of smoke. 

“How’d you get up there?” I ask. 

He points to the window behind him. “But there’s some ivy on the side you can probably climb.”

It’s an invitation in different words, and one that I’m not going to turn down. I drop the remaining bit of my cigarette to the ground, and crush the flame under my flip flop. Stepping off the path, I come around the side of the room, where the ivy sprawls up the wall, almost to the roof. Farleigh watches me tug on the vines with a smile. 

“I’ve climbed that before, it’ll hold you.” He says. 

I grip around the trunk of the vines, and begin to haul myself upward. It’s clumsy, and my feet slip against the wall of the house, but I manage to make it up enough to grab Farleigh’s hand. With a grunt, he pulls me up the rest of the way, and I climb onto the roof. 

He grins, sitting back on his elbows. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I return, grinning just the same. This close, we speak hardly above a whisper, even though there is no one else to overhear us at this time of the night. 

He holds the joint up. “Want some?”

“Sure.” I take it from him, and slide it between my lips. The smoke is different from a cigarette, heavier, headier. But good all the same. “That’s good.” I say, passing it back. “What else is in there?”

“Lavender.” Farleigh says. 

Silence descends as the high starts to settle in, and I sit back next to Farleigh, and tilt my head to look at him. We just look at each other for a while - maybe thirty seconds, maybe thirty minutes - until he giggles, and then I laugh too. “Sorry,” I say between giggles. “I haven’t smoked in a while-”

“S’okay.” He cuts me off, passing me the joint. “I like it when you laugh.”

It might be the most honest thing he’s said to me in the month or so that I’ve known him. I really hope I’m not blushing, or that I can blame it on the high. “Is that why you always look at me after you make a joke?”

He licks his lips. “Maybe.”

I tilt my head, exhaling smoke through my smile. The high is truly settled in now, and the warm buzz under my skin causes a surge of confidence. “You can say yes.” I say, passing the joint back to him. 

Our fingers brush together as he takes it, and slots it back between his lips. He rolls his eyes, but says, “Yes.”

I smile, and properly lay down on the roof, making myself as comfortable as I can on the hard shingles, folding my hands over my stomach. It’s a clear night, and the sky is full of stars, the moon hovering amongst them, waning. I hear Farleigh exhale, and watch as his cloud of smoke drifts into my range of vision, dissipating in the air. 

“Do you do this a lot?” I ask. 

“No.” He says. I hear him shift, also moving to lay down. He keeps close, our legs brushing together as he sprawls. “Just sometimes. When I can’t sleep.”

“Oh.” I say. “You didn’t have to invite me up if you’re just trying to go to bed-”

“No, I wanted to.” He says. “I don’t-” He cuts himself off. Pauses. “I think we could be friends.”

“We could be friends.” I say, my stomach doing flips. I turn, so that I’m laying on my side, facing him. He mirrors my movement so that we’re almost nose to nose. “I’d like to be friends.”

The corner of his lips quirks upward. “Even though I called you a dog?”

I wrinkle my nose, and smile. “You’re right - nevermind.” I say. 

He breathes out a laugh, and takes another hit of the joint before passing it back to me. I take it - or rather what’s left of it. “Can I finish it off?” I ask. 

“Sure.” He says. 

His gaze doesn’t leave my lips as I take one last long drag, burning it down close enough that I can feel the heat of the ash just above my skin. I pluck the roach from my lips and stamp it out against the roof, leaving a circle of char on one of the shingles. No one will ever see it besides us, here, now. 

My eyes move from the ash back to his face. I let my gaze wander, tracing over everything - the shape of his eyebrows, the curls that dangle in front of his forehead, the slope of his nose, the perpetual bored smirk in the corners of his lips, the way the corners of his eyes crinkle when he smiles at me. There’s got to be something in this family’s genetics that predisposes them to beauty. 

“What?” Farleigh’s whisper breaks my concentration. 

“What, what?” I ask, grinning. I can feel the peak of the high coming on, my chest filled with tingling energy. 

“You’re just looking at me.” He says. 

“So are you.’ I shoot back. “You’re just looking at me.”

He scoffs, playful. “That’s not fair.”

“Why not?”

He says it like it’s obvious, like I should have realized it by now. “I’m always looking at you.”

I laugh, just a little. “Farleigh.”

“Eves.” He drawls, letting my name drip from his lips like water. 

“You’re the only one that calls me that.” I say. “Everyone else just calls me Evie.” It’s not a question, but I expect him to answer it like it is anyway.

And he almost does. He opens his mouth, like he’s going to say something, but whatever it is vanishes the moment the sound of someone’s footsteps on the path below us drift in our direction. We both sit up at the same time, peering down from the roof to see Venetia in the moonlight, rounding the corner in a see-through night dress. 

I shouldn’t look. But I do. 

Farleigh snickers. “You’re drooling.”

“Shut up.” I say, sliding towards the edge of the roof, fully intending to get her attention. 

He grabs my wrist, holding me back. “No don’t - c’mon.”

I turn back to look at him. “Why not?”

He doesn’t say anything, but I can see him thinking. I watch the wheels turn as he sorts through all sorts of excuses, his teeth sinking into his cheek as he ponders. 

A slow grin stretches across my face. “Why not Farleigh?” I ask, turning so that we’re face to face. I know why - of course I know. It’s the same reason he called me up here, the same reason he shared his joint, the same reason he’d paused before he said that he thought we could be friends. 

I watch his eyes dip down to my lips, and then back up. 

For a second, I think he’ll do it, but then the soft sound of Venetia’s voice sounds from a little ways away, and both of our attention is drawn to the noise, peering through the darkness. We see him at the same time.

“No.” Farleigh laughs mirthlessly. 

I watch as Oliver walks behind Venetia, who’s sitting on the stone ledge by the path stock still. I can’t hear what he says, but he must say something, because she sits straight up. He comes back around until he’s standing right in front of her, and then, slowly, sinks to his knees. 

“Oh my god.” I say, unable to tear my eyes away as I watch Oliver Quick disappear under Venetia’s skirt. 

Next to me, Farleigh’s voice is sharp. “You stupid little boy.”

< previous part | next part >

[princelylove]

Dear Prince,

Before I begin I just wanted to say I absolutely adore your writings as it hits the nail on the head for the characters personality every time and brings joy to my heart.

I’m usually rather shy but since it’s my birthday I decided to take a chance so if I may be so bold to ask what would it be like to have both Diavolo and Doppio share their darling? I can only imagine it to be both isolating and suffocating all at once.

Anyways thank you for all the wonderful writings I promise not to swallow them whole….at least today.

- peachy anon

Haaappy birth-day to youuu. Haaaappy biiiirth-day to-you. 

Aha. Why did you bring sizable utensils, anon? What are those for, anon? 

Asking for a protective and an obsessive together is like begging for no social life. You’re not extroverted, are you? Well, you’ll have plenty of social interaction with plural people! Two is the absolute minimum for plural, but it still counts. 

I dislike the common mischaracterization that Doppio wouldn’t stand up to Diavolo, partially because it’s also mischaracterizing Dia. Boss lightly suggests and guides poor, sweet Doppi, and Doppio does all the dirty work so Boss doesn't have to. Doppio has no problem telling him to just sit down, shut the fuck up, and let him handle it, though. Diavolo is the boss, duh, but sometimes Doppi just knows better. Who courted Donatella, huh? (Doppio says, as if he didn’t hate that entire thing and did it since Boss had zero chance of getting her himself.)

Still. Doppio relies heavily on Diavolo for long-term endeavors. He only knows how to take care of Diavolo, and… Dia isn’t the most normal individual. At least he blindly accepts your oddities. Doppio’s sweet, but he doesn’t understand that you cannot force someone who’s shy into a new environment, with a stranger, and have everything be alright. Why not? That’s practically how he met the boss! (Don’t ask him how he met ‘the boss.’)

Diavolo may know your needs better, and he's quite romantic, but he isn't really equipped to do it himself. That, and you cannot be casual with him, he’s just not the type of person you’d address informally. He’s also a terrible cook. And terrible at comforting you. Thankfully Doppio steps in where he’s lacking, but it’s not as if Diavolo is awful and Doppio is the easier option. 

There’s pros and cons to both of your options for what to do with your free time. Doppio has the advantage of, you know, not being a major creep, so you probably like him a bit more at the start, even though he’s clearly the one that took you. He doesn’t hide it, it’s not like he’s ashamed. Doppio’s pretty strong! If he can pick up Risotto then he can surely pick you up, for a little less violent (hopefully) ride back home. 

Doppio isn't very verbally affectionate, whereas Diavolo will smother you with every adjective and pet name he can think of. Sometimes he gets so overwhelmed (cuteness aggression, probably) that he can only make noses instead of proper words. Ohhh, you’re so cute, let him kiss youuu….. No kiss kiss? Just one kissy?

If you do not like change, it isn’t an easy adjustment. Diavolo demands that you all move from hotel to motel and back again, it’s safer that way. Now that he has you to worry about, which he really didn’t want to give in and take you just yet, he’s even more paranoid. There’s absolutely no wiggle room with him. You are allowed to have some sense of familiarity, but nothing too distinct or uncommon. Something that housekeeping wouldn’t think much of should you both need to momentarily step out. (Although he’d prefer to not do that.) 

A blanket or stuffed animal isn’t enough to help you adjust to an entirely new environment every two weeks or so, or every  month if he’s stable and Doppio is soothing him. It’s hard to feel like you aren’t intruding on their relationship, too, sometimes. They have their own dynamic and have loved one another for a long time, they’re both 33 by the time vento aureo takes place, so it’s… hard to socialize, even if they take the time to focus on you, and you obviously don’t see the two of them at the same time.

You'll learn, though. They can be bearable if you adjust to their lifestyle. Diavolo would never let his darling live a non-spoiled life, and Doppio is well intentioned despite how creepy he can be. You'll be taken care of.

[alchemicaladarna]

Well...Happy 1 year of QSMP I guess...

There's just no easy way to say anything about everything that's been happening the past few weeks and everything that's happened since yesterday because it's a fucking dumpster fire and I'm just so tired of it all to be honest...

But this post isn't about that.

I still want to celebrate this server's first year anniversary because of how much it means to me personally. I made a post talking about how I initially started watching the qsmp (two days early 💀) but I'll reiterate what I've always said:

That despite all the problems of the server, despite all the damage that has been done, never forget what it has managed to achieve and hopefully continues to achieve in the future, under better conditions.

The QSMP's mission was to unite people from all over the world to play together and be friends despite speaking different languages and having different cultures. It united communities and formed friendships across the globe. Personally, achieving that takes more than just sticking random people in the same room together because it's about making genuine connections that could last a lifetime. And the qsmp achieved that. I'll never stop saying this because despite all its glaring problems, the qsmp is revolutionary for all the good it has managed to do.

Ok, like think about the translations alone. I'm using Bad as an example because he's the only one so far that I've seen do this but, BBH has set up live translations of multiple languages on his screen so non-english speakers can still understand his streams and his vods even if he's not playing on the qsmp. That wouldn't have happened without the QSMP's influence. That's fucking incredible!

Think about all the CC's and admins that became friends after meeting on the server. Former admins like Lumi (Pomme) and Shade (Dapper) still talking to Bad on his chat and watching his stream. That's still really awesome! Not to mention all the amazing collaboration projects with many qsmp members outside minecraft like Ordem Paranormal and Liar Liar, to name a few.

Look, the last three weeks have been extremely difficult on everyone. I myself am tired of the situation and scrolling through the tag, especially after yesterday, just makes me sad tbh. For the first time since these weeks, I felt so despondent and shocked about everything. It got to the point where, after Shade and Lumi announced their departure, I called my mom and broke down sobbing and vented about the whole admin situation. And bless her heart, my mom actually listened and I'm going to share the advice she gave me:

"Let them fix the problem. Let the company do the restructuring they need to do because right now, it sounds like they have a lot of problems to fix. It's going to take a long time before things can go back to any sense of normalcy, so while they do that, focus on yourself for now. If you're so invested in all the problems of this online world, maybe it's time to step back for now. Maybe it's time to focus on the real world."

And well, she's right. I've been so upset about the situation that my mental health wasn't faring well because of it. Yesterday was kind of a wake up call for me I guess?

I've been in this fandom for 10 months now. It's the longest time I've been invested in a community and qsmp has and will always have a special place in my heart. But I think it's time to let go and move on for now. I'll keep my hopes up and hope that the future is bright, and the qsmp will continue because it has so much potential to achieve more greatness, but I'll leave the project to rest and focus on other endeavors for now.

I'll be posting art and checking in on stuff from time to time, and of course, I'll be watching BBH, but it might be time to depart and say, "Thanks for everything, and I'll see you later."

Most people will be ashamed to mention the fandoms they've been a part of when they were younger, but 10 years from now, if anyone ever asks if I was a part of the qsmp fandom, I'll gladly say yes and tell all the good stories I have about it.

I love the community we made here on qsmpblr, and if I trust the QSMP's mission of uniting people, then I trust that, no matter what happens, this community will be here when I return.

Because...Despite everything, it's all about love, right? And no matter what happens, the love is still there, and will always be.

Thank you for the journey <33

[howthesleeplesswander]

I totally subscribe to the fan theory that Jayce is the one who designed/made Viktor's crutch that he relies on to walk once his illness gets worse. Buuut this is also Viktor we're talking about here, so you bet he made some...modifications of his own to it X'D

Viktor frequently goes down to the Undercity to a) source cheap parts and materials for his experiments and scientific endeavors, and b) to give aid to the kids who are fending for themselves on the streets. Having grown up as one of those very kids, nobody knows the dangers of Zaun better than Viktor.

Which means that, loathe as he is to admit it, he's aware that he's an easy target. He always travels alone, and all it takes is one look to clock him as frail, defenseless—especially in the later stages of his illness when he graduates from a simple cane to the full crutch and looks like he's got one foot in the grave already.

Still, Viktor won't let that stop him from his pursuits, nor from providing food, supplies, companionship, and education to the needy children of Zaun. He accepts the risks of going to the Undercity, but that doesn't mean that he's willing to be a sitting duck. Hence:

The compartment in the crutch's handle where he smuggled the Shimmer that Singed gave him is usually home to a hidden, taser-like weapon, conveniently located in the hand-grip so it's in easy reach. It releases with a tiny, well-hidden button on the protruding end of the grip.

The device is simple in construction: when released, the hand-grip detaches entirely, revealing a pair of sharp prongs about half an inch in length with an electric current between them. It's designed for a single, quick attack that would hopefully stun assailants long enough for Viktor to get away. He modified his cane like this when he was younger, too, disguising the same hidden weapon in the cane's handle.

After a couple of incidents, however, he upgraded the version in his crutch. If Viktor doesn't pull the handle out after pressing the button, the taser activates while still embedded in the crutch itself. When he does this, the entire crutch electrifies, almost like an electric fence. The hand-grip and the cushion on top that goes under his arm are insulated to protect him from the currents, but touching it anywhere else will give a powerful shock. This was designed to prevent attackers from taking the crutch from him and leaving him not just truly defenseless, but also immobile.

Despite having this secret self-defense with him, however, Viktor uses it sparingly. He learned a long time ago that sometimes it's better to take a few hits than start a bigger fight you can't win. If he does run into trouble while in Zaun, it's a last resort.

He's only had to use it a few times—but Viktor has used it, to relatively successful effect. Nobody expects the feeble cripple to fight back. It's Viktor's pleasure to teach that lesson to people who need to learn it the hard way, even if he doesn't win the fight.

[a-land-lacking-sleep]

Surprise Electric Trains Status Update!

No, this is not me saying the next chapter is coming out this week, nor am I ending the story. This chapter is taking awhile - I know that, and I am honestly annoyed about it too. The cause boils down to I have less and less free time compared to when I started the fic!

Since I last posted in April, my work time (40 hours a week) and stream time (8-14 hours a week) have stayed roughly the same, but I have picked up additional projects. Back in April, I was accepted into In Pursuit of Victory, and while I am soooo glad I was in that, I wrote two chapters worth of fic for it, which put Chapter 20 on hold (Together, those were just shy of 8000 words, which is about 90% of what I expect Chapter 20 to be). And after I finished work on it, I was pretty burnt out with writing. I also took 2 vacations since then (a family vacation in July, which was when I finished my second zine piece, and one in September to visit my girlfriend), where very little work got done. I've also been posting my stream VODs to Youtube for the first time, so I spend a lot of time after work or on days off editing and rendering videos, making thumbnails, and recording outros. I also have several D&D games going on, so there are several nights where I just... Can't do anything else. I have also started about 6 WIPs in that time, some ranging from a single paragraph, and others being several pages long.

I plan to get Chapter 20 out by Thanksgiving (Nov. 28th), and will endeavor to have Chapter 21 (hopefully shorter) out by the 2 year anniversary for the fic (Dec. 23rd). I also have a few companion posts to put up for the fic, mostly Elio's Team and I believe Akari's Team. This fic isn't dead, I promise you! I'm just very worn out and taking it slower than I'd like.

And, as a peace offering, have a sneak peek at Chapter 20! (ft. a cameo from Zisu and Wenton)

The twins were both out at the same time, and no time was wasted as they threw out their next set of Pokémon. Gliscor and Elektross hit the field, while Staraptor and Decidueye flared out their wings in preparation to attack. Then, in what some would confuse for a lapse of attention as the four trains threw their hands out in commands, the Pokémon were all in different positions. Gliscor, bruised and breathing heavily, hovered over a defeated Decidueye, while Staraptor was blown back into the dirt in front of Akari, her feathers slightly charred. 

As Eelektross trills and swirls in place, Wenton steps to the edge of the arena with a hand up to stop the trainers. “Ok, I know most of you probably got that,” he says, looking to the pair of trainers, then back to Zisu and Cynthia, “but what just happened?”

“Oh, thats easy!” Akari says, recalling Staraptor back into her Pokeball. “Zisu, do you wanna come help show him?”

“Oh, I see where you’re going with this,” Cynthia says as she laughs into her hand, while Zisu follows Akari’s direction to stand in front of Ingo.

Akari, Zisu, Elio, and Emmet step into the field, in the relative places their Pokémon had stood. “So, Gliscor moved first,” Zisu starts, stretching her back out. “He went for an Aerial Ace against Elio’s Decidueye.” 

“And Decidueye was going to hit Eelektross with a Spirit Shackle, since he’s a physical attacker!” Elio cuts in, taking the chance to adopt an archer’s pose and pull back the imaginary arrow. “If we could confine him, even just a little, we could get an advantage.”

“But Gliscor moved faster!” Ingo says from his spot at the edge of the field. “Specifically with an Agile Style.” On cue, Zisu jogs over towards Elio, hand raised to prepare a mimed slash. 

“But Staraptor was even faster, with an Agile Close Combat!” Akari swoops in and tackles Zisu, causing the woman to stumble and laugh out loud as the teenager pummels her midsection. “It wasn’t ever going to be enough to take out Gliscor, it was mostly to soften him up.”

“Good call, yup!” Emmet comes over to pry Akari from Zisu, and the woman continues her path to Elio, ‘striking’ them down. The Alolan Champion puts their hand over their heart and dramatically spins before falling down next to their Decidueye. “Of course, that left a perfect opportunity for Eelektross.”

Stepping over to his Pokémon, Emmet takes off Eelektross’ magnet, and drapes it around his neck. “I am Eelektross!” Turning on his heel, he leans back and points a finger gun at Akari with a deadly smirk. “I saw that the Staraptor was open. Using my trusty Magnet, I shot out a Thunderbolt and landed a critical hit!” Akari lets out a squawk and collapses into the dirt where her Staraptor had lain. 

With everything now settled, Ingo turns his chair to face Wenton. “As so energetically shown, that is what you missed. Do you have any further questions?”

[intersexprophet]

rehash of that one civilian dabitwice au where touya's childhood comes back to rear its ugly head

touya and jin have been friends for a while, but they (unknowingly) dip into something more from time to time, much to the frustration of the league and touya's siblings. they do, at some point, become lovers, but things take an odd sort of turn right from the beginning

touya moves out of his childhood home and into jin's apartment pretty quickly. which really isn't that big of a change, as he practically lived there anyways.

but something in touya's brain flips a switch. he spent a good chunk, see: most, of his life trying to earn his father's approval and love to no avail. to the point of burning himself multiple times, to the point that his body couldn't handle the stress. stress that's left long-lasting effects on him to this day.

even if he never truly verbalized it growing up and maybe still doesn't grasp the full repercussions of the way endeavor treated him, touya internalized two "truths" in the world as taught (regardless of intention) by enji: 1. love is transactional. one must earn love, it will not be freely given. 2. in some way, there is something wrong with him that prevents him from earning the privilege of love. thus, if he ever wants to be loved, he must constantly work to hopefully one day prove to others (and himself) that he is worthy of being loved, even at the detriment to his health and well-being.

as friends, their relationship was easy. friendship has such layers that it was easy for him to simply describe his relationship with jin as something casual, rather than the deeply personal friendship that had taken root.

but once they become lovers... well, that's just serious. no way around that. and some old network of nerves that, really, have always been active, seem to be buzzing with activity all of a sudden. now it's generating something like compulsion.

the dynamic between them has gotten strange. despite touya now officially living with jin, they see each other less and less. though they work the same hours, touya's taken up all the cooking. and the cleaning. and the laundry. the shopping. errands. bills. jin need not lift a finger. whenever he thinks of something needing done, touya's either finished with it or is in the process of doing it.

that means jin is on the couch twiddling his thumbs as he listens to touya, who more or less chased him out of the kitchen, make dinner. or taking a smoke break as touya sets yet another world record for folding a basket of laundry. he just wants his friend back. he's wondering if they went too fast or maybe this entire thing was a mistake.

jin notices the strangeness right away, but it's so unlike touya in a way that he doesn't really know how to respond. he tells himself that things are changing and maybe this is touya's way of dealing with it and he'll calm down soon? and he doesn't want to push it too hard, they're just budding as a partnership. (and it's not like either have a whole lot of relationship experience--romantic or otherwise. they spent most of their lives isolated, for one reason or another.)

it's when they start to toe the line of physical intimacy that jin starts to lowkey freak the hell out. it's always, ALWAYS one-sided. touya isn't reluctant or uncomfortable, that jin can tell anyway. he seems to be more than just willing to engage with jin's dick, which is always the first (and only) to get off. when jin tries to reciprocate in any shape or form, touya immediately shuts it down. either touya immediately loops back the focus to jin or, if jin has already gotten off, stops cold turkey with excuses that he's suddenly tired or he's sore from work or something despite what they'd just been doing.

touya, on some level that he might not yet be fully aware of, is just trying to prove that he's worthy of this relationship. if he just makes everything comfortable for jin, if jin doesn't have to put any work in and gets to reap all of the benefits, then jin will value him. maybe, eventually, even love him.

and around this same time, things are falling apart. natsuo and fuyumi don't fully realize what's going on, but they see touya putting in effort to a real friendship turned relationship and they're happy for him, encouraging him, even. praising him, in a way. they don't see that he's completely wearing himself out, but their words only reaffirm to touya that he's doing the right thing.

the league all live nearby, or in the same damn hall, so they also notice something is weird. (not to mention that some of jin's comments paint a very strange picture). they're not trying to meddle, but they're starting to poke the problem.

touya can't keep up. the workload is too much. he's not getting enough sleep and he's taken zero time to unwind. the stress is getting to him, erasing his appetite and muddling his brain.

until jin confronts him. it was bound to happen. it's a fight, for sure. lots of raised voices or just straight up yelling. touya falling apart, because there's no way he can hold it together, not now. and jin squeezing him tight, gathering up the pieces, promising that they'll figure this all out but this one-sided treatment has to stop.

[want2feed]

Times are about to be really hard. General food scarcity or just scarcity of safe food may become a major issue in the US so we need to regain the ability to get our own food without the use of industrial mass production and transportation networks. Where do we begin? I guess a list of major sources that can be maintained without any mass infrastructure. I am not the best person to start this conversation but I guess I will try.

In order of achievability:

1. "Easily" maintainable hearty crops that are full of nutrition and tons of calories. They also need to be easy to cook. This will provide the most reliable food that will last for most of the year in most areas. Alongside good preservation techniques this will keep the most people fed.

2. Hunting (with a caveat) we need to set the ground rule early on that we only hunt exactly what we need and that we use up as much of the animals as we physically are able. People who don't have an understanding of their impact on the world tend to make foolish mistakes that will lead to their own destruction. Also a heavy focus on reusable hunting tools. Things like bows, crossbows, slings, various traps, snares, and spears. Bullets won't last long after all of the infrastructure that mass produced and distributed them falls apart. Again good preservation techniques will save lives.

3. Foraging, yes I put this one third. Foraging is helpful and a good supplement to the others but it is also

(a) a skill that can take years to learn or else you will eat something poisonous and die.

(b) usually not reliable enough to get a single day's worth of nutrition much less a year.

(c) foraged fruit will not last you through any harsh winter.

The biggest benefits of foraging will be in the nuts. I'm talking about acorns, walnuts, pecans, and probably many others I am forgetting to mention (please tell me any and all I could be missing). Despite the prevalence of various nut allergies for those who can eat them they will represent a solid source of fats, calories, and other various nutrients and usable materials that will store easily through the year.

4. Community will be the thing that keeps the most people alive. Everyone deserves a chance to survive and even though we will lose access to a lot of medicine in the coming years if we can hold together and support each other we can carry those who will be most affected by the hard times ahead. I put this one fourth because If I'm being honest I think it is the least likely to happen. People are so torn apart right now and disability is a bad word in today's world. But if we can be better, if we can focus on feeding each other, nevermind previous borders. Nevermind past allegiances, we need to feed people. By our kindness we will build a new community and if people don't want to be a part of it we won't make them be, but we will feed them if they ask.

I realize this post is not "the end all be all of food in the apocalypse" (most of what I've said is probably wrong) but it is hopefully the start of a conversation that may keep some people alive.

My next four posts will be breaking down the four points I described here but in much more detail. I will probably make a lot of incorrect statements and I want to be corrected. Please send me every single resource that you can possibly think of (free and downloadable PDFs are appreciated). Not just for my sake but so that as many people as possible can be fed and kept alive.

Am I catastrophising? I hope I am. I hope these efforts will be in vain and we won't need the background of information and the resources that I hope to collect together in this blog. But the community is never in vain. The friends we make are always worth it. Feeding people who are hungry is never a fruitless endeavor. And we can still use this. We can use this to reliably feed people who don't have the luxury of being able to rely on the major food distribution systems currently at play. The current systems are failing people every day but if we can put together the resources and build a new community for the purpose of feeding everyone we can, then maybe one more stomach won't go hungry.

So again I am asking for every written text that exists on the topic of feeding people with little resources and anything to do with the four topics above or just any topics you think will be helpful. I am asking for every video, blog, magazine, and web series on this topic as well. Literally every resource.

Lastly, I am asking you to do the hardest part of all. I am asking you to talk to people. Talk to people that you normally don't. Just talk to them about feeding people and if they spit in your face or yell at you or get all self righteous about it then you don't have to talk to them. Talk to people in need. Talk to people who don't know where their next meal is coming from. Learn their names and memorize them. Write them down. These are the people we are working for. I am also asking you that as you see things you can do, actions that you can take, please do them. Plant those fruiting trees in places people don't want them. Grow those blackberry brambles and tell your HOA they can shove it up their ass. Or better yet get them on board with it. Build community gardens and feed your neighbors and your family and your cousins and your friends and even your enemies. Feeding people is never in vain.

So let's feed people.

[goodman-telletubbie]

This piece has been a journey. The journey's not over, but from a long-term perspective, I may have gone further on this than I should have.

From my perspective, the mental hurdles of starting something / stopping for whatever reason and the physical limits of this frame my spirit inhabits is like a serial inductor-capacitor circuit.

For the inductor, it's my mentality. It takes a bit for me to spur up to operating levels, and it also takes a bit before everything calms down, much like inductor that resist changes in current.

The physical side, or Capacitance, prohibits indefinitely firing on all cylinders in a sense. The more effort I put into something, the more the capacitor charges up and therefore resists further charging. It's like how the first rep in an exercise is usually the easiest, while firing the associated muscles for the last rep is scrounging for whatever remains are left, almost more of a mental thing than a physical thing.

All that is to say that my mental inductance far out classes my physical capacitance. I think the biggest thing to fix this starts with proper physical rest. It's easy for me to overexert myself physically because I like to believe that mentally, I have no bounds. I therefore don't give proper physical rest since it feels like a waste of time when I feel ready to continue and then don't.

Fixing this has a few requirements - First, I'd like to increase my physical capacitance. I need to get better at sustained high-effort long-term, in all areas, not just drawing. Second, I'll need to get better at starting and stopping with stuff. Mental drive is important, so I can't decrease that, but getting up to working conditions and returning from those conditions better is a valid concern. Third, I'll need a balance such that my mental inductance and physical capacitance cancel each other out. The Fourth, but easily the most important, is learning how to rest.

This'll likely be the hardest since it also requires mentally being okay to rest. It's not that I feel every second I should be working, but it is hard to rest when I'm not happy with my surroundings, especially if I think I can do more to change things. I think the first step in learning how to properly rest is to feel safe resting. On that note, I will be taking a rest for a bit. In part was the stuff explained above, but also in part due to some brachial injuries, and also in part due to a schedule change as I hopefully secure some income.

Back to the piece itself, I'm happy with everything for the most part. I still need practice with hands and maybe a few tweaks to the software that breaks anatomy down, as it was difficult to tell where the hip bones were and how to articulate the ribcage, but I put a lot of effort into this, and I think it shows, so I think I did good for now. My hope now is that I rest long enough to be re-invigorated with this endeavor without quitting during everything like the July Kirby drawing endeavor I had.

[diinferi]

ORIGIN 

[PIRATE] You grew up wishing for a life of Freedom and thought of no better way to achieve that than by raising the black flag and striking it out as a Pirate! Though you will be hunted down by those who fly the Marine's flag, it's a small price to pay for the freedom that you now possess. Hopefully you have the strength to keep what you love beside you.

RACE 

[HUMAN] All across the seas, humanity can be found in every nook and cranny. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, from the normal to the outright bizarre, with heights ranging from four feet to thirty, and even multiple elbows on their arms. Honestly, it would be easier to name all the body types that don't exist.

LOCATION

[SHELL TOWN] A small island with a sizable marine base. While the only thing of note is the crazy Marine Captain ruling it like a dictator, if you’re willing to wait a short while, two strangers will eventually deal with that problem entirely and after that, they’ll simply head out. Maybe you can join them.

PERKS

[EPITHET] In a world of kings and legends, one must have a title of their own in order to stand out from the rest of the common rabble. You have a simple epithet that embodies who or what you are, is easy for people to remember, and causes those who hear it to feel awe, respect, or fear, depending on your reputation.

[A PIRATE’S LIFE FOR ME] And what a life it is! To travel these great blue waters, going from island to island, never knowing what adventure lies just beyond the horizon. You seem to benefit greatly from this, as no matter where you go, you will run into opportunities for great adventures, their rewards just as great as the effort you put into accomplishing them. You can of course toggle this on and off, but why would you ever do that?

[CHAOTIC FREEDOM] You are a pirate, one who has embraced their freedom and has endeavored to be the biggest headache around. This desire for freedom of yours has manifested itself in a chaotic manner, making it nearly impossible for you to be predicted. Even the greatest users of Future Sight would only get vague glimpses of you before their vision ended. And that part about being a headache? Well, it seems like the plans of those around you always tend to go awry whenever you're involved, often in the worst ways possible if they're your enemies.

[DIVERSE HUMANITY] Despite what you may think, there are an untold number of various offshoots of humanity, which you can be a part of. You've got the Long-Arm Tribe, the Long-Leg Tribe, the Snakeneck Tribe, you've got people with horns, third eyes, multiple legs, technicolor hair, even those who are just a few feet shy of being giants themselves. Of course, you could just be a regular person if that sort of wackiness isn't your thing.

[FIGHTING STYLE] An immensely useful skill on these dangerous waters, you are now skilled at any fighting style of your choice. Whether you wish to fight with only your feet, with three swords, a bizarre martial art, or just be a street brawler, you can definitely kick some ass. You will start off as an adept, but with an additional purchase you would be considered a master. This can also be purchased multiple times for different fighting styles.

[VETERAN SAILOR] In this world, where the sea is an ever-present entity, it helps when one knows how to traverse it. You are now a master of sailing any type of water-based vehicle. Whether it be a dinghy, a junk, a galleon, or even a submarine, they are all vessels designed to traverse through water, and under your guidance they will cut through the waves to witness a thousand sunrises.

[ADAPTIVE MINDSET] Those who cannot adapt to changing times are doomed to fall behind and get left in the dust. This is not a problem for you, for regardless of whatever scenario or complication you come across, you can quickly adapt to it and come up with some sort of answer to surpass whatever stands in your way, or at the very least, survive.

[CAT BURGLAR] Pirates are the most famous brand of criminals around, but not the only kind, as you can no doubt prove. You are now skilled in all kinds of dirty tricks, even being able to spot such things whenever others are using it against you. Throwing sand in the eyes or pickpocketing a few wallets is the least of the mischief you can get up to.

[HAKI TRAINING] While much of this world is more scientific than it seems, that does not mean the spiritual is useless. Capable of turning your will into a weapon and shield, you have mastered the basic uses of Armament Haki and Observation Haki. With Armament, you can reinforce yourself or objects and can bypass the defenses of those thought untouchable. With Observation, you can sense the presence, strength, and emotions of others. With time and training, you would be able to project your Haki without a medium to attack others from the inside or see into the future to such an extent that were you a Logia, even the might of Armament could not touch you.

[WILL OF D] Ah, so you count yourself a member of that infamous clan? Those natural enemies of the gods, the D's, are all said to possess the luck of the devil. Indeed, it seems like you've inherited that luck, for so long as you work towards a goal, no matter how difficult or seemingly impossible it is, fate will always conspire for you to succeed. Another aspect of the D clan is their inability to be controlled by any force they don't allow. Much like them, it's difficult for you to be mind controlled, and most manipulations are outright ignored.

[SILVER TONGUE] Humanity's greatest advantage has never truly been their physical qualities, whether it be strength, speed, endurance or vitality. Instead, their true talent lies communication, in their ability to speak and convince others to join their cause. And like the greatest of men, you find yourself possessing a powerful charisma, one that could charm and convince others, attracting them to flock to your banner with ease. Should you back up your talk with action, then you could quickly gather a truly massive and loyal following in no time.

[SURGICAL STRATEGIES] Not everyone can simply rely on pure luck, but you’re one of those who can create your own luck. Your masterful plans are intensely precise and intricate, able to reach years, or even decades, into the future with little chance of failure. Only the most random or chaotic of variables could throw off your schemes, and even then, you can still find a way to use the chaos to your advantage to achieve your goals.

[SIX POWERS] A superhuman martial arts style primarily utilized by the Marines, a master of this bizarre style is said to have the strength of a hundred men. Hardening the body to become iron-like, relaxing the body to act like paper in the wind, poking with the force of a firearm, kicking the ground hard enough to dash at speeds that can’t be tracked, kicking with enough force and precision to turn the air into a blade, and kicking off the air so hard that it gives the illusion of flight. These are the powers offered to and with time and training, you will be able to combine them together and perhaps, once mastery is achieved, a Seventh Power shall make itself known.

ITEMS

[BASIC GEAR] Well, you can't exactly start your adventure with nothing! You are now in possession of a set of custom designed clothes, along with two finely crafted weapons, a pistol and a sword.

[FLAG] Among the seas, everyone bands together under notable flags. From the Yonko to the World Government to some small-time pirate crew, you can't get away from these symbols. Now, you are in possession of your very own. It is designed to your own specifications, and it could be that of a faction you are a part of, strongly agree with, or your own personalized Jolly Roger.

[DEVIL FRUIT ENCYCLOPEDIA] It cannot be understated that there are so many Devil Fruits that can be found in these seas. It’s miracle that anyone can actually tell them apart from each other. But with this handy-dandy book, that won’t be much of a problem for you. Not only is this encyclopedia filled with entries and pictures regarding every type of Devil Fruit, it’s also chock-full of handwritten notes showing you unique and clever tricks on how to utilize and combat them. Nifty, huh?

[ARMORED CLOTHING] Not everyone is content with just wearing their ordinary clothes into battle, preferring something with a bit more durability to it. With this, not only are the clothes of your own custom design, but it’s also capable of resisting low-caliber gunshots as well as slashing. As a bonus, you’ll find that this set of clothes will even repair itself over the course of a day.

[LOG POSE] With how strange this world is, there is no question then as to why a tool like this is so invaluable. A different and special kind of compass, a Log Pose is used in place of regular compasses to traverse the first half of the Grand Line due to compasses not working properly in such a... unique locale. It does this by locking onto an island’s unique electromagnetic signature. After this Jump, this Log Pose will point you into the direction of interesting places or where special events may be occurring, guiding you into the direction of adventure.

[NEWSPAPER] No matter who you are, the world does not revolve around you. A million events are going on at the same time, and it can be hard to keep up with all of it. Luckily, you've subscribed to a newspaper that lets you know all of the most important events from across the world, all delivered in the morning. The writers do seem a bit biased, though...

[MEDICAL KIT] It's a general rule of thumb that you're eventually going to get injured on these waters, so it wouldn't hurt to be prepared. This high-quality medical kit has all sorts of bandages, medicinal drugs and herbs. It’s usually enough to stabilize most wounds that aren’t outright serious.

[SAVINGS] Money makes the world go round? Not entirely true, but money is nevertheless still quite the important and useful commodity. Thankfully, you’ve got around 500,000 Beli to do with as you see fit! Of course, you can purchase this multiple times for more money.

[UNUSUAL WEAPON] So you weren't content with just a pistol, sword, or your own fists? Well, if you want to be that way, then this is your option. Made from high-quality materials, this can be anything from a fancy dagger to a portable cannon, even a brick on a string if that's your choice. So long as it's physically possible, you can probably get it.

[TRANSPONDER SNAILS] There are no phones in this world, only Transponder Snails. You gain one for yourself and each Companion you have, with all of the snails looking like snail versions of you and your Companions. Simply tap the snail on the head, state the name of someone with another Transponder Snail, and enjoy talking to them from the other side of the world. Beyond that, they’re little more than simple snails with strange features. Strange but nothing out of the ordinary here. As a bonus, you also receive a small but thick book revolving around the Transponder Snails. With this book, you can learn how to breed new snails and modify the ones you already to grant them new features such as projecting images and videos.

[SEASTONE UPGRADE] Perhaps the basic weapons of this world are not enough for you and if so, there’s this. With this, you may upgrade any weapon in your possession with Seastone, increasing its durability and rendering it capable of nullifying the abilities of Devil Fruit users, regardless of whatever fruit they consumed. For ranged weapons, you’ll receive a replenishing stock of ammunition imbued with Seastone. Beyond this Jump, this upgrade to your weapon will even allow it to strike any opponents and objects that would normally be intangible or immune to ordinary weapons.

SCENARIOS None

DRAWBACKS

[ROMANCE DAWN] Well, it seems as though you've caught a certain someone's eye. That's right, Monkey D Luffy has decided that you're an interesting enough person that he wants you as a member of his crew!

[BEFORE THE BEGINNING] Of course, not everyone wants to start off with the beginning of the story, being much more interested in the prologue. You can start anytime in this world’s history you want, from when Shanks gave Luffy his straw hat, to the height of Gold D Roger's reign as the King of the Pirates, to the time of the original Joy Boy and even the Void Century nearly nine hundred years ago, all the way back when the Shandorians first colonized Jaya.

[FILLING OUT THE STORY] In a world of adventures, what’s the harm of experiencing a few more? At your discretion, you may incorporate any and all filler or movies into your adventure here. Help infiltrate the stories G-8 or have fun at an island-sized Casino Ship!

[EXTENDED STAY] There is so much to see within these grand waters, so much so that you could not possibly experience everything that it has to offer in just ten short years. Thankfully, you can now extend your time here by an additional ten years with each time this option is taken, though you will only benefit from the first five.

[HUNGRY] You are someone who is defined by their gluttony. After long periods of exertion or a fight, you almost immediately start craving enough food to make up a horse. That’s not hyperbole, as that would just be a light snack compared to your actual meals.

[PAIN SPONGE] Much like the eaters of the Dark Dark Fruit, you now soak in more damage and pain than before, nearly twice as much as before. It is certainly going to be a problem if you’re ever in an extended fight, and Goda help you when you end up stubbing your toe on something. This can be taken multiple times, increasing the damage and pain to three, four, even five times what you normally would have, though you will only benefit from this four times.

[TROUBLED PAST] Not everyone has the best of childhoods, their past filled with pain and torment. It seems that you suffer from such trauma, the scars still fresh and leaving you shackled to the past. It may take a while to heal, for the scars to fade, but it will never leave you, most certainly influencing some of your choices.

[CHAOS MAGNET] Why oh why do these things keep happening to you? Getting roped into political plots, being stranded on a crazy island, massive monsters that have rarely been seen, there is no end to your string of horrid situations. It just seems like all the craziest stuff and the worst kind of trouble are attracted to you, and nothing you do will let you escape this never-ending insanity.

[WANTED] Well now, it seems as though you've made more than a few enemies, or just made too big a name. You can now say that you've got a sizable bounty on your head. Whether it’s the World Government or an independent faction, you are now worth at least 100,000,000 Beli. Alive, or dead. You can take this drawback multiple times, though you will only benefit from the first five.

ENDING

[A NEW ADVENTURE] While this has been fun, there are other worlds out there just waiting to be discovered! You receive a miniature of the Thousand Sunny in a bottle.

[gracethyomen]

Arms Length Away: Masterlist

“The awful thing is that no matter how much you hold her at arm's length, she's still going to love you. Because you gave her just enough hope that she'll always wonder if you care about her the way she cares about you.”

Natalie is the paralegal that's been in love with Matt since she's known him.

Unbeknownst to her, Matt knows all too well how she feels about him, but tries to keep her at arms length to keep her safe.

When she starts to get dragged into the underbelly of hell's kitchen he calls home, some things can no longer remain hidden, and some emotions aren’t so easy to control.

I've had a few random drabbles outlining this story for a long time, and I posted a small excerpt a few days ago including a little spicy tidbit. As I write more of this story in actual full sentences I'm going to try to put them in chronological order here. I posted the original snippet first but I'm hoping I can put it in order eventually depending on how this little endeavor goes.

So without further ado, here's what I've got so far.

Warning: This story and most posts on my blood are MDNI. For depictions of violence, sexual content, language, and unhealthy relationship dynamics. Please don't model relationships after Matt and Natalie, many parts of their relationship are not all that healthy. I wrote them this way because Matt and Natalie are flawed characters, and the flaws of each character in Daredevil are some of my favorite parts of the show. Keep this in mind when reading, please. There are more warnings for this series but they will most likely be labeled specifically on individual chapters.

X: not uploaded yet, drafted.

R: not uploaded, not drafted.

O: uploaded and added to the master list.

Vague Job Description. (O)

Clear Cut Case. (O)

Complicated. (O)

Loose Tongue. (O)

Stairs. (O) (Care about you pt. 1)

Micro-Changes. (O) (Care about you pt. 2)

World On Fire (O)

Manhattan Native Obituaries Column. (O)

Things We Lost in The Fire (O)

Something old. (X)

Nelson v. Murdock (X)

The People v. Natalie Bishop (X)

End of Season 1. Both of DD and ALA.

Hopefully season 2 after some more drafting.

a/n: Thank you to everybody who read the first two excerpts of this story and for enabling my chaotic writer brain. @abucketofweird you are the main reason I'm publishing most of this so thank you for your interest.

[kutonowhere]

Just want to share a reading task in my current Coursera course that really inspires me to keep learning.

How to Position Yourself for a New Career

You are well on your way to becoming a software developer.

You took the most important first step: you started.

While this specialization on Coursera will make you into a well-rounded junior developer, you are basically just getting started.

Here are some proven tips to make the transition to your new career as smooth as possible.

Be persistent

Succeeding in your career efforts is not easy. Luckily, it's not too hard either. Consider this new endeavor of learning to code a part of your everyday life.

Make it as much of a routine as possible. Hopefully, it will work like this: 

You wake up, 

You brush your teeth, 

You run some errands, 

And then you write and learn to code.

Obviously, there are things like your school obligations, or your day job, or other places you need to be and things you need to do.

However, if you don't code regularly - preferably on a daily basis - your progress will be slower. Try to set aside some time to consistently code and learn every day. Persistence is key.

Start building simple apps today

Don't wait until you "learn enough". There's always more to learn, and it's best to get started with any kind of a simple project right now.

Even just taking the code from this specialization and tinkering with it will do wonders for your confidence and the speed at which you acquire new knowledge.

Also, the more you practice, the better you'll retain what you've learned.

Having your own projects that you can showcase to others - no matter how small or straightforward shows a track record and dedication. This is something that your future employer might be impressed with, so start today.

Set up a GitHub account

Since we're on the topic of personal projects, head on over to GitHub and set up your developer profile right away. It's essential to have an account there since you can keep all your projects in a single location that you can access from any computer.

You can almost think of your GitHub account as an additional brain power. No matter how long ago, whatever you've worked on will remain there, waiting for you to peek into and re-familiarise yourself with.

Pair program

Try to find someone at your level or perhaps slightly more knowledgeable than you and ask them to set up a recurring pair programming session.

This works nicely because having a pair programming partner can speed up your learning. You also have someone to be accountable to.

Start a coding blog

Technical communication is important for developers, and just like anything else, you get better with practice.

Starting a coding blog will work the same as having a GitHub account, with some the additional benefits: 

It shows even more dedication - and this increases your chances of getting hired 

It helps you experiment with different technologies 

Setting up your own website is practical learning in its own right and one more project to add to your CV

Collaborate on open source projects

Even if you are just starting out and are really struggling to get into this field, you can still be a valuable contributor to open-source projects. 

There are so many open-source projects that are in demand for all kinds of contributors. 

Even contributing to a project by fixing some typos in documentation files is a nice start to getting more involved and putting yourself out there.

Get a certificate

Getting certified is always a good thing. The fact that you're reading this lesson right now confirms that you're on your way to receiving a certificate of completion from Coursera!

Keep a positive attitude

As with anything worth doing, you might sometimes get tired, not understanding how something works, and perhaps even feel like giving up.

Remember to stay consistent.

There are always ups and downs in life, but sometimes it's worth it to think of all the things you've achieved so far and use that as motivation to keep at it.

Never stop learning

There's always more to learn in IT, and that's probably the best thing about it. It's the very thing that makes it fun and provides an opportunity for each developer to get ahead in their career.

[sheisintransit]

...and now for something a little more personal.

Hello again, if you’re here I guess you’re lost or you endeavor to witness the manic quarter life crisis I am currently having. 

Whichever the case-here’s the deal. For what feels like a long time now*, it has felt like somewhere back there, at some rest stop in the middle of the night or in a barstool in New Orleans, I lost the spark that used to make me feel like “me”. 

*I have been questioning my realistic relationship with time as of recent due to my new discovery of something called ‘Trauma Brain’.

When I was younger, I started writing every night on my Tumblr (that I probably thought was more popular than it actually was) after my shows on tour. I would write about people I met, how I was feeling, I guess I was decompressing.* 

*note; there were NOT as many easy ways to share your daily life back then, youth.

I had this wild fantasy I would write a book by the time I was 25, but I guess I was busy at SXSW that year. I do still have almost it’s entirety on a hard drive. Maybe I’ll plug it back in sometime.

I haven't quite figured out why I stopped, and even worse, I can’t figure out why I can't start again. 

I’ve sat and just poured glass after glass after glass of wine and listened to sad songs that used to tear me to pieces, flirted with strangers, hacked into my old photo bucket, done psychedelics, forced myself to watch old grainy cell phone videos from my past, everything. So, I bought a book by Rick Rubin and it told me I needed to try to be more open to The Source. The Source being where inspiration for art comes from. 

While I am still living on tour buses and swimming in polaroids taken across America, something feels...different. I guess I have kind of cut off my funnel from The Source. Fight and flight have shoved out my childlike sense of wonder and stacked their baggage so high it’s taking up a lot of the space in my brain. This has resulted in bullying myself daily with lengthy runs consisting of logging miles on the hamster wheel that is trying to get further in each memory I am desperately clinging to. 

I am not sure if the music and entertainment industry in general has done this to me, or the audience I was choosing to create art for. Perhaps I made up my audience and they turned on me in my head so I just stopped making art. I must’ve stopped writing because it was too “feelings” and I stopped “feelings” because after the outward flow was gone, the teeter totter didn't have anything left on the other side to stop it from just falling into the dirt. 

I guess the other side used to be the romanticizing I was doing when I used to hold myself accountable to a silly outlet. The person on the other side was the sticky, dripping, gooey hopefulness of what was behind the velvet curtain. The craving I used to have for that, I guess*. 

*Then again, sometimes I read back on my ramblings and I think I sound like a sociopathic Ke$ha in 2010.

I suppose I would like to hope that I can attract that metaphorical person again, the one who helped bounce the teeter totter back up when it hit the ground. If anything, I just want to try to chip away at something by blabbering some words down again, posting something a little more niche than the Insta content, and hopefully sparking what a sap I once was. 

I really don’t have the time to make videos or edit a TikTok these days, but I guess I can figure out how to at least update a blog. Wow. Vintage. 

Someone I love very much recently told me journaling was a good outlet for them. After many purchased and forgotten little notebooks, I decided this would be what I would do. I would make the great return to the Petri dish of emo and get back in touch with who I once was. And also tell some fun stories. And also possibly break down my identity crisis (just know I am picking on myself more than anyone else ever could). And maybe bring back Tumblr. 

Can we post nudes here again?