#honestly have so much to say about all the ways you could utilize assistive devices in post-canon curly fics

[noperopesaredope]

Me: *Writes a whole post about how it would be so cool to see Curly use morse code to communicate post-crash while still on the Tulpar and how that would alter his role in the story (even if it might not fit thematically in canon, AUs and fanfics still exist for a reason)*

This Post: "Morse Code"

Me:

You. You get me.

yeah i'm mad

[brokaw22]

A Displaced Red Robin Chapter 18

Title: A Displaced Red Robin Author: Brokaw22 Disclaimer: The norms Rating: T Story Synopsis: Tim gets transported to the cartoon Young Justice world, and he's not sure he knows how to deal with it.

AO3

ff.net

The distinct sound of hushed voices registers only a moment before the realization that this room is far brighter than the one that he remembers passing out in. Tim doesn’t understand what that implies at first, but then he recognizes the feeling of soft sheets, the pliant mattress, and plush pillows underneath him. He has no idea why they bothered to move him out of the cave and upstairs, but Tim has certainly awoken in worse places.

 He keeps his eyes closed, to avoid straining them with the light, and tries to focus on the murmured voices. Tim can discern Dick’s voice almost immediately, but he’s nearly caught off guard by the realization that Roy is with him. Tim lies still and keeps his breathing even as he listens. “Look, Dick, this isn’t your fault, and Red wouldn’t want you to blame yourself.”

 “No, you don’t understand.” Tim can hear Dick pacing, but it takes him a moment to realize that the reason his gait sounds so odd is due to the fact that Dick is walking around on his hands instead of his feet. Tim would smile if he couldn’t practically feel the tension in the air. “This is definitely my fault. I’m the reason that he got stabbed in the first place, and now I’ve exasperated his condition. He should hate me. I know I do.”

 Tim’s relieved that he’s propped up on so many pillows. The idea of having to force himself into a sitting position makes his chest burn. He blinks his eyes open, and then instantaneously groans at the sunlight streaming through the large window. “I don’t hate you and you shouldn’t either.” Speaking is a bit more arduous than Tim anticipated, but it’s also a necessary evil if Dick is going to insist on brooding like this.

 They both rush over to his bedside, and Tim is extremely grateful that Roy stops Dick from leaping on top of him. Though, Tim does have to admit that he is genuinely stunned when both of them grab a hold of his hand. “How are you feeling?” Dick’s clutching onto him as if he’s some kind of lifeline.

 “Do you need anything?” The two of them are speaking over each other and Roy’s voice is dripping with a desperation that Tim, quite frankly, doesn’t understand. His condition shouldn’t have scared them this much. After all, it’s an occupational hazard.

 Tim works himself up to respond while he simultaneously attempts to process their fussing. He’s starting to wonder if he wants to ask how long he’s been unconscious or how far his recovery has been pushed back. However, with the expression on both of their faces, he figures that there are more pressing matters to deal with first.

 After all, Tim’s certain that he can ask Alfred all of those questions later. Besides, it’s not as though the answers will change anything. He knows that he’s going to be stuck on bed rest for some time, and then monitored for the duration of his recovery as he slowly works up to his normal amount of activity again… no matter how inconvenient it will be.

 “I’m okay for right now.” Tim refrains from taking a deep breath, knowing exactly how much pain that will cause him. “Not that I’m ungrateful for the concern, but what is Red Arrow doing here?”

 Roy rolls his eyes as he pulls a chair over to sit down. “You can drop the codename. I already know that you know my name, and I think we’ve grown close enough that you can use it, and maybe give me yours.” He gives Tim a hopeful look, which Tim pointedly ignores. Roy doesn’t push it, but Tim honestly wonders how long he can get away with keeping that particular secret. “Anyway,” Roy starts again before Tim can say anything on the matter. “I just wanted to check on you and Dick, so I did what any reasonable vigilante would do and put my skills to work.”

 “By which, he means he tried to sneak past our security and I had to talk Bruce into letting him stay.” Dick grins mischievously and gently nudges Tim. He knows that it most likely means that Bruce had every intention of letting Roy stay either way, but that only baffles Tim more. Everything that he’s learned about this Bruce has left him with so many questions about his own in regards to when Dick was younger. However, most of them are questions that he’s not entirely certain that the answers are necessarily something that he wants.

 “Well, I’m glad that you’re here, Roy.” It feels weird to say the name out loud after so long, but Tim does have to admit it gives him a sense of normalcy after everything that has happened. “I was hoping we could discuss Superboy’s training some more. I don’t want the team suffering just because I’m grounded, and I really need someone to encourage Superman to actively help out a bit more.”

 Roy shakes his head. “I’ve got that handled. Black Canary and I are working with the whole team, so you don’t need to worry about it. Superman has been making real strides toward helping Superboy, and the entire team has been training even harder since your injury. They’ll all be just fine until you get back on your feet, so the only thing that you should be doing is resting and healing.”

 Tim wants to argue that he’s not exactly adept at simply resting. After all, there’s still plenty that needs to be done, but he already knows no one in this room is going to listen. He glances over at Dick, who has been suspiciously quiet for the last couple of minutes, and notices that the boy seems abruptly rather sheepish. Tim narrows his eyes as he stares the boy down. He has a feeling that he’s not going to like whatever Dick has been reluctant to share. “What’s up, Dick?”

 Dick immediately begins nervously rubbing the back of his head as he shifts from one foot to the other and back again. “So… um… I… uh… I wanted to tell you something. I kinda enlisted Roy’s help with our other project.”

 Tim doesn’t know how to react at first. There’s a moment when he just freezes while desperately trying to figure out why Dick would enlist anyone’s help with Jason, especially after Tim explicitly told him not to involve anyone else. “Why?” It’s the only thing that Tim can force out past the mounting rage and dread, even though there are about a thousand other things that he wants to say. However, Tim is well aware that what he’s thinking is rather unhelpful at the moment.

 Roy tightens his hold on Tim even more as he all but shoves Dick to the side. “It wasn’t his fault. I wanted to know the full details about what had happened to you, so I tracked Dick down last night while he was in the middle of addressing your little side project. It wasn’t easy, I might add, but… well, I know Dick pretty well. Anyway, after he left, I sorta insisted that he fill me in. I don’t know all of the details, but I’m willing to help.”

 Dick stares at him wide-eyed and pleading. It’s an expression Tim usually only sees his own brother utilize when he’s trying to steal Tim’s food. It’s a little jarring to see it now. “Don’t be mad at, Roy. It’s my fault. I should have been more careful.”

 Tim breathes a heavy sigh and suppresses the wince from the action. Dick’s right, of course, he should have been more careful. After all, they’re both rather lucky that it was Roy who caught Dick while he was meeting with Jason, especially considering all of the other possibilities. Tim has a feeling that none of Dick’s actual team members would simply just go along with his plan, even if Tim has done nothing but help all of them since he arrived here. Not to mention, the last thing that they need is Batman’s attention.

 Still, Tim is rather grateful that Roy is willing to help them. After all, he may just be the perfect person for the task. “I’m… I’m not mad. I was just concerned, given the circumstances. However, I think Roy’s assistance will be instrumental in our ability to move forward. After all, I think having a way to get information to and from the source without either of us being involved may be the best way to operate for the time being, especially given the current circumstances.” Tim gestures widely at himself, before continuing. “That is, of course, if you’re willing, Roy.”

 Roy simply shrugs. “I already said that I was, didn’t I?”

 Tim smiles a genuine grin for the first time in what feels like forever. Finally, something seems to be going his way. “Okay, so if you can make visits to our mutual friend in my place, it’ll give him even more support and take some of the responsibility off of Dick’s shoulders. Remember staying off the grid is our top priority here, so if you two can get me some hardware I can make us a few communication devices that aren’t connected to certain sources.”

 Roy stares at him for a long moment before shaking his head. “That sounds suspiciously like work, and I really don’t think that any kind of work is good for you right now. I believe multiple people have emphasized how much you need to rest. I may not know you exceedingly well yet, but everything I do know has led me to believe that actually resting is not your specialty.”

 Tim restrains himself from rolling his eyes. “I assure you, giving me something to do that is constructive is in everyone’s best interest if you actually want me to take it easy.”

 Dick and Roy glance at each other before Dick shrugs. “He was raised by a Bruce. Maybe it is for the best.”

 Roy rolls his eyes before nodding. “Fine, fine, I’ve seen enough to know that he’ll probably just sneak out and injure himself worse, given that he doesn’t exactly take actual breaks back at HQ.”

 Tim wants to argue. He really does, but he also knows that he doesn’t exactly have any supporting evidence that won’t work against him here. “No reason to risk it, honestly.”

 They both just kind of stare blankly at him before shaking their heads and Roy raises an eyebrow at him. “Shouldn’t you at least pretend to disagree with us?”

 Tim shrugs. “Would either of you believe me?”

 Neither of them hesitates before answering. “Absolutely not.”

 They break into laughter before Roy declares that now that Tim is awake they’re going to have a movie marathon. Tim doesn’t even get a chance to object before the other two are rushing around getting everything into place and settling themselves down beside him with pillows practically suffocating him on all sides to keep him from jostling his injured chest. It’s warm… nearly too warm, but Tim finds that he doesn’t actually mind for once.

 The break from literally everything -- no matter how forced -- is actually rather relieving. Tim feels as if he’s been going nearly nonstop since long before he landed in this world. He’s almost forgotten what it’s like to just sit still and be with the people around him without a thousand plans running through his head or a fight brewing just below the surface.

 He breathes calmly without having to force himself to merely appear that way for what feels like the first time in ages. It takes Tim a moment to realize that it’s not just the forced relaxation that has him leaning just a little heavier into the pillows with a small grin on his face, but the fact that for the first time in so long Tim isn’t braced for an attack, another fight, or just desperately trying to fix something that truly has nothing to do with him.

 He doesn’t know how to feel about the fact that he hasn’t felt like this since some time before he became Red Robin. Tim wonders if once he returns home if he’ll ever be this relaxed again... that is if he manages to return home. He knows that it’s probably unfair to assume that, even if he does make it home, he most likely won’t ever capture this feeling again, especially given that it’s his fault that he can’t be more relaxed back home.

 After all, Dick has made great strides with Damian. Tim is utterly certain that their relationship has only strengthened since Tim’s disappearance. Not to mention, Tim is well aware that his friends would gladly drag him into a movie night and rant fest if he would just let them, but… well, things like this just always seem out of reach at home.

 After all, there’s always something to be done. There’s always some mission that specifically Tim can do. It’s true that, while it may not be a task that only Tim can do, it’s usually some undertaking that Tim is more than capable of accomplishing, especially when no one else will do it.

 Tim thinks that perhaps he should focus on other less distressing things, especially since the other two are chuckling about something that Tim has completely missed. However, he’s honestly too exhausted to force himself to participate right now. Besides, he’s certain that the other two haven’t even noticed his waning interest.

 Still, he’s starting to think that perhaps his lack of contribution may be allowed or even anticipated by now. Especially since his lack of enthusiasm doesn’t seem to be dampening the other two’s enjoyment one bit. Tim’s relieved that for once he seems to be able to keep his less than pleasant machinations from disturbing the people around him. It feels as though he’s finally managed to do something right, even if Tim knows that he’s taking a victory where he doesn’t necessarily deserve one.

 Abruptly, Tim’s thoughts derail when there’s a gentle knock on the door. He turns as much as the mountain of pillows around him will allow and spots Bruce slowly pushing the door open while simultaneously carrying a tray laden with various cups and bowls. He honestly was expecting Alfred, given the tenderness of the interruption. It takes every ounce of Tim’s training to suppress his bewilderment.

 He contemplates what it says about him -- or perhaps, what it says about his current situation back home -- that Tim’s immediate reaction to seeing Bruce is to ponder what he did wrong. He doesn’t think that he could have possibly done anything to draw Bruce’s attention, and Tim certainly doesn’t believe that he could have done something to make Alfred feel as though he needed Bruce’s attention, so he has no idea why the man is here.

 However, since neither Dick nor Roy seem even mildly surprised to see the man; Tim assumes that he’s probably the only one acting peculiar. He supposes Bruce’s presence is completely commonplace for everyone else, or, at least, it seems that way. “Good, you’re awake.” Bruce sounds genuinely happy, which normally would have Tim raising an eyebrow, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Tim’s normal reactions don’t always make sense or even apply in this world. “I brought your medication.”

 Tim merely nods as Bruce sets the tray down on a nearby desk. At least, he now knows that he wasn’t unconscious, nor anticipated to be unconscious, for an unreasonable amount of time. At least, that doesn’t seem to be the case if they expect Tim to actually swallow pills.

 Bruce hands him a cup with a few very familiar-looking pills in it. Tim stares at it for a long moment before ingesting the medicine. He wonders if Bruce has caught on to the one thing even the team and Black Canary don’t know that he’s been doing at the HQ for the past two months.

 “I presume I don’t need to tell you how important it is for you to take all of them, given your lack of a spleen.” Bruce gives Tim a very pointed stare as if he expects Tim to argue. He knows that he hasn’t exactly made the best impression with this Bruce, but Tim would think by now Bruce is aware that he’s not a complete idiot.

 Tim nods as Bruce hands him a glass of water. Roy shuts off the movie before Dick turns to him with a wide-eyed expression. “Wait, you don’t have a spleen?”

 Tim shakes his head, but before he can respond Roy jumps in with another question. “Aren’t spleens kind of important?”

 Tim shrugs the best that he can without jostling everything. “It’s not like I can’t live without it, obviously.”

 “True, but you need to take low-dose antibiotics regularly.” Again Bruce is giving him that pointed glare, and Tim suddenly finds himself wanting to insist that he’s not a moron.

 “I know and I was.”

 Before Tim can say another word, Bruce takes the now empty glass from him and places a warm bowl of soup in his hands, and gestures for him to eat. “I’m aware. Just know that there’s no need to take them from the HQ infirmary, hack the system, and change the automatic refill order, even if it is impressive. I’ll get you anything you need. There’s no need for all of this secrecy.”

 Tim wants to laugh, but he knows that none of them would respond well to it, and that includes his own injuries. Still, a Batman -- any Batman – claiming that there is no need for secrecy is hilarious. However, before Tim gets a chance to respond Dick and Roy both have a hold on his hands and are shaking him slightly… not enough to hurt, but enough to be noticed. “You were doing what?” Dick’s voice sounds absolutely exasperated.

 Roy shakes his head. “And I thought I was paranoid. You have friends here, dude. Let us help you.”

 Tim doesn’t think mentioning that he has friends at home who are likely to say the same thing and get the same results would really help his cause right now, even if it is true. Still, their concern is nearly overwhelming, especially Bruce. “Technically, you were getting the antibiotics for me. It was just the most efficient and direct way.”

 Dick raises an eyebrow at him, skeptically. “Let me get this straight, you think that sneaking into the infirmary, hacking into the system, and keeping the fact that you don’t have a spleen to yourself was the most efficient way? Really?”

 “Bruce would have just told me to take what I needed from the infirmary, and then changed the amount he was ordering anyway. I just cut out the middle man.” Tim honestly doesn’t understand what is so complicated about all of this.

 Bruce stares at him for a long moment. “What would your Bruce say if he discovered you did this back home?”

 Tim furrows his brow in confusion. He’s not certain why he’s being asked this question or why it’s even relevant. “He probably wouldn’t say anything, and, if for some reason he did, he would suggest ways I could hack the system faster or compliment how efficiently I did it.”

 Bruce hums to himself but doesn’t say anything more on the subject before assuring both Roy and Dick that there are plenty of snacks on the tray that he brought up with him for both of them. They both scramble over to the tray as Bruce grabs a chair, and then places it beside the bed. “What are we watching?”

 Tim doesn’t know how to respond. He didn’t expect Bruce to stay. He squirms a little, trying to make it look as though he’s just trying to get comfortable when Dick decides to answer for him through a mouthful of food. “Whatever you or… um… Red wants, I suppose.”

 Bruce stares at him with an unreadable expression – one that Tim honestly doesn’t recognize and has absolutely no hope of deciphering. “It’s your choice, Red.”

 Tim has a feeling that the man is talking about more than just the movie. Although, he has no idea what Bruce could possibly mean, so instead he merely shrugs and gestures for someone else to pick. “It doesn’t matter to me.”

 Bruce places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes gently. “Relax.”

 Tim isn’t exactly certain why he feels compelled to actually listen, but he forces his shoulders to loosen up, takes a calming breath, and then sinks a little deeper into the pillows behind him. It doesn’t escape his notice that Bruce never actually takes his hand off of Tim’s shoulder until Dick passes Bruce a steaming cup. Dick flops onto the bed beside Tim and focuses on the movie Roy picked for them, while Tim desperately tries to ignore the lingering warmth on his shoulder.

 XYZXYZ

 Over the course of the next week, Roy and Dick visit often and are able to smuggle Tim enough hardware for him to build the communication devices. He honestly expects Bruce or Alfred to catch them at some point, especially with how often they both like to check on him. It’s not exactly something that Tim is used to, but he guesses this universe doesn’t keep people as busy as his own.

 Still, this Alfred and Bruce don’t have nearly as much experience with Robins refusing to simply sit in bed and do nothing as his own do. However, it feels a little too easy to simply work with the pieces that he’s been given, stow them away when he knows someone is coming, and rest just enough that Alfred doesn’t get suspicious about how his healing is progressing. Besides, even if he thinks it might be a little too effortless, Tim is eternally grateful that for once things seem to be working in his favor.

 He’s also extremely relieved that he was able to convince Roy and Dick to help keep him busy. The mere idea of spending a week in bed doing nothing with minimal time walking around has his skin crawling. Not to mention, knowing that his recovery is going to take a full six to eight weeks has him feeling rather antsy. Tim sighs heavily at the very thought of it as he stashes the finished devices and then lies back once more.

 He breathes out a breath of relief that he did when moments later Alfred knocks on the door. “I must say, young sir, you have far greater patience than Master Bruce and Master Dick. I honestly expected to find you trying to sneak out of your room at least once during this week.”

 Tim merely shrugs and does his best to mask the wince it causes him. “What can I say; I enjoy your company, Alfred. Not to mention, Dick, Roy, and Bruce have all been doing their best to keep me distracted.”

 Alfred smiles gently at him. “Be that as it may, young sir, I can assure you that such trivial diversions would not be enough to keep Master Bruce and Master Dick from at least one desperate foray into the cave.”

 Tim nods his head and doesn’t mention anything about the fact that, if he thought he could get away with it, that’s exactly where he’d be right now.  “I know exactly what you mean. My own Alfred has come up with some rather creative ways to keep us in bed.”

 “Perhaps, young sir, you can divulge some of his more visionary ploys over our chess game, but first you need to take these.” Alfred hands him his medicine and gives Tim a rather pointed stare. He doesn’t understand why after a week they’re still all treating him as though he has to be watched while taking his medicine, but Tim knows better than to argue with any Alfred.

 Tim takes the medicine and doesn’t even make a show of it, despite how much he may want to. “I don’t know if I feel comfortable sharing information that could potentially be used against me.” Tim means it as a joke, but… well; he knows he has a propensity of getting into trouble.

 Alfred coughs indignantly as he raises a single eyebrow. “I certainly hope you aren’t implying that such grievous injuries are going to be a common occurrence while you are here, young sir.”

 Tim merely shrugs and is immediately reminded why such movements are problematic right now. “You know how it is, Alfred.”

 Alfred furrows his brow and looks as though there’s something he desperately wants to say, but instead he shakes his head and begins helping Tim out of bed. “I believe it would be best to do your exercises now, young sir.”

 Alfred helps him out of bed, and Tim does a few stretches that won’t injure him further. Alfred then assists him with walking around the room before leading him down the hall to where their chess game is already set up and waiting. Tim doesn’t feel nearly as winded as the first time that they did this, but he’s truly not looking forward to his slow recovery. Once Alfred has him settled down in a well-cushioned chair, he takes his own seat, and they begin the game in a tranquil silence.

 The quiet doesn’t last long, however, before Alfred clears his throat. “If I may, young sir?” Tim gestures for Alfred to continue. “I’m aware that you told Master Bruce that you are 17.”

 Tim nods, although he honestly has no idea where Alfred is going with this. “It’s true. I am.”

 Alfred moves one of his pieces and gestures for Tim to take his turn. “I’ve been thinking, young sir; perhaps we should enroll you in school with Master Dick, once you’re healthy, of course.”

 Tim nearly chokes on air at the mention of school. It’s been so long since he’s even considered school as more than a distant memory. He quickly makes him move, hoping to divert Alfred’s attention slightly.  “Oh, um, I’m not in school anymore.”

 Alfred looks pleasantly surprised. “You graduated already? I must say that is most impressive.”

 Tim coughs and rubs the back of his head sheepishly as he glances away from Alfred’s proud expression. He knows that he doesn’t deserve it. Tim never did actually have a conversation with his own Alfred about dropping out, but he’s always been rather grateful that he never had to see the disappointment on the man’s face.

 Tim sighs heavily. It doesn’t matter that this is a different Alfred entirely. He knows this conversation is going to break both of their hearts. “I…um… I didn’t graduate, actually. My senior year didn’t exactly go as planned. There was an important mission that required my full attention, so I dropped out.”

 Alfred drops the piece he was about to move and just stares at Tim horrified for a moment. “How could your Master Bruce or my counterpart allow the mission to take precedence over your schooling? What were they thinking?”

 Tim clears his throat and does his best not to make eye contact with Alfred. “Well, Bruce was missing and I left to go find him, and then sometime later I became an emancipated minor, so there wasn’t much either one of them could do at that point.”

 Alfred looks as if he truly wants to argue, but he simply resumes moving his bishop. “I assume you have your GED, then.”

 Tim shakes his head and resists the urge to sink further into his seat. He never thought disappointing another Alfred would hurt this much, but if Tim has learned anything from his time here, it’s that it doesn’t matter who he’s displeasing, it’s always just as agonizing. “There really wasn’t the time or a need. When I returned a new CEO was needed and… long story short, I was available.”

 “And Lucius agreed with this?”

 Tim shrugs and ignores the pain that it causes him. After all, it’s nothing in comparison to this entire conversation. “Um…well, it was his idea. I mean, it was kind of time-sensitive.”

 Alfred hums a noncommittal tone. “I take it from your general attitude that you have no intention of either returning to school or getting your GED when you return home, then?”

 Tim glances away once more. He’s fairly certain that he’s not imagining the disapproving tone. “Honestly, assuming I can find a way back home, I’m not sure there’s really a point to wasting my time. I’m fully capable of accomplishing everything I need to without it.”

 Alfred raises an eyebrow at him. “And what of the desires that you wish to achieve beyond what you need to accomplish?”

 Tim doesn’t know if he necessarily has an answer to that. It’s been so long since he’s even considered his own desires beyond what’s necessary that he’s not entirely certain that he even knows what he wants. He knows that he should focus on returning home. He knows that it’s not fair to simply abandon everyone and everything, but Tim doesn’t know if that’s what he necessarily wishes.

 “I’m sure I can accomplish most things without it.” Tim knows that Alfred understands what it means for him to be this evasive, but he hopes Alfred will simply let it go. After all, how can Alfred be certain pursuing this line of questioning will be advantageous when Tim doesn’t even know if he has a response beyond vague retorts?

 Tim isn’t sure if he’s relieved that Alfred does leave it there, because the rest of their game is finished in quite tense silence. When Tim returns to the room he’s staying in, he doesn’t need to feign exhaustion as Alfred slowly lowers him down on fresh sheets. A part of him wants to apologize, although he doesn’t know why. After all, this isn’t the Alfred that he needs to be apologizing to.

 Still, Tim can’t help it. As he slumps further into the pillows propping him up, Tim mutters out the only thing that he can think at this moment. “I’m sorry for not being more.”

 His eyes are heavy, but he sees the way Alfred clutches the covers he’s trying to pull over Tim. There’s the sound of hitched breathing, but whether that’s Alfred’s or Tim’s own breathing from jostling his chest, Tim will never know. He’s asleep before Alfred can say another word.

 The End (for now)

[sibillascribbles08]

Mmmm....Time...Mmmm bOoOoooyyY Acronix

I didn’t forget about this

It just took me this long to rly think of the best scene to show what Acronix is like in clone verse

But anyway here it is

“Move it for me?” Borg kept his eye focused on Acronix’s right arm.

He flexed the fingers of the prosthetic before flexing his arm. It was moving a lot better now. After Borg gave him the initial upgrade there’d been a number of small snares popping up, though Borg warned about them upfront. It was something he’d made in the spur of the moment, no time to test for bugs.

Acronix appreciated it regardless. It was leagues better than what he was trying to run around with before.

“Does that feel better?” Borg said. “It appears to be functioning fine.”

“Hard to feel it, doc.” Acronix laughed as he waved his arm. “But yeah, no more twinging. I think it’s good.”

“Ah, good.” Borg leaned back in his chair. “And I told you before to call me Cyrus.”

Yeah, Acronix wasn’t sure how he felt about that. After getting dropped out of the time stream into the mess that ninjago was left it he’d only know Borg for the longest time as The Overlord’s leading pawn. Getting to the know the man personally at this point was... odd.

Not that he didn’t enjoy it. Borg was the first person who was able to explain all this new technology in a way he could understand.

Speaking of which...

“You working on anything new?” Acronix hopped off the table. “With the way the city is progressing you must be occupying your time with something.”

“I’ve had some ideas here and there, but I’m trying not to pursue them for the time being.” Borg watched Acronix wander around the room, looking at parts scattered on the shelves. “I don’t wish for my ambitions to get the better of me again that easily.”

“Uh, not sure what you mean there.” Acronix looked back at him and frowned.

“Oh,” Borg sat up straights. “Did ah, no one mention to you how this whole mess started?”

Acronix shrugged. “Not in one piece. Kind of just picked things up as it happened. Sometimes still feel like I’m just trapped in a weird dream.” He picked up a nearby object. It was a rectangle, some kind of computer chip? But he could see some gears on the inside, much like that of a clock. He pulled it close to his face to study it.

“The ah, Overlord only gained as much power as he did because of all the technology I built. He utilized it to create his army.” Borg’s gaze fell to the floor. “I often still feel responsible for it all.”

“Yeah,” Acronix put the part back. “Sorry, if I could manage to get my time powers to take us back in time to fix it I would.” He chuckled, letting the reds and blues flash across his fingers. It surprised him a bit when his elemental power started coming back. Seemed that chrono steel didn’t last forever.

Still, he had a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, since some of the powers he got used to belong to his brother.

“Us?” Borg frowned. “Is going back something you wish for as well?”

Acronix shrugged. “I mean, sure, doesn’t everyone to some degree? Especially with how things are.”

“But you came from a period before this.” Borg wheeled himself over to where Acronix was standing. “Is that where you wish to return to.”

"I... don’t know.” He answer honestly, avoiding the man’s gaze. “I mean, if anything I at least wish I could just see my brother one more time. I don’t even know where he is or what happened to him. Did he fall out of the stream before me or after.” He went back to wandering around the room to keep himself occupied.

“Weren’t you with him? In the time stream I mean.”

Acronix cringed. “Yes but... as soon as we got in it tried to spit us out and I... couldn’t hang on tight enough.” He tried not to remember that, the feeling of Krux’s grip slipping out of his fingers. At least there was one good thing about lacking the nerves in his right arm.

“So it would make sense he fell out before you.”

Acronix laughed out loud at that and spun on his heel. “No, no, time isn’t linear. It loops.” He drew a circle in the air. “When you’re in the time stream you can see it all flashing around like a wheel. I guess that’s the best way to describe it.” He shook his head. He was rambling. “What I mean is even if he dropped first it could have been in what we would consider the future.”

“Time loops, fascinating.” Borg seemed deep in thought, leaning on his hand. “But you can’t use your power to time travel?”

“Nah, not how it is.” Acronix sighed. “It’s still coming back in bits and pieces, and even after that I’d have to reach my true potential to be able to make some kind of time portal. Then there’s the mess of actually managing to land in the right place.” He tossed his hands out and rolled his eyes. “Clearly nailed that the first time, jumped right into all this instead of back where I belong.”

“But what if you had something to assist you.” Borg rolled up next to him now, pulling a clock off a shelf. “A machine or a device that allowed you to pinpoint where you’re going.” Borg made the hands in the clock spin around before bringing them to a harsh stop.

“Hah, what,” Acronix leaned down so they were at eye level. “Are you saying you want to try building something like that, Doc?”

“Cyrus.” Borg corrected. “And that depends, as I asked earlier, is going back in time something you’d want to do?”

“I still don’t know. I do want to see my brother again but... not like there aren’t things in this time period I enjoy having around.” He tapped Borg on the nose.

The man seemed surprised from the contact, pulling his head back and blinking. “I, ah, well, yes.” He stammered. “But it’s not as if you couldn’t come back, right?”

“Change the past you change the future.” Acronix frowned. “Even a small change can effect a lot down the road.”

Borg only seemed to consider this information, but he didn’t comment on it as his hands kept turning the dials on the clocks.

“Calm down, Doc, I can hear you thinking over there.” Acronix smiled and tapped the man’s nose again.

“It’s Cyrus.” The man insisted. “Good grief, what do I have to do to make you drop that title?”

Acronix hummed. “Take me to lunch?”

The man stared at him, squinting for a second, his cheeks going red.

“That was a joke.” Acronix rushed the words out. “Not that I’d mind but I wasn’t–”

“Will you start calling me Cyrus?” The man stared at him, as if it was a challenge.

“Uh, sure.”

“Lunch it is then. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Cyrus dropped the clock back on the shelf before turning around and wheeling himself out.

Acronix just stood there, dumbfounded. The sound of the door shutting had him blinking and snapping out of it.

What just happened?

He only came here to get his arm fixed.

[jarienn972]

Uninvited Company - Part Three

My apologies for getting this final installment of my @ouatwinterwhump tale out a tad later than planned. I was sidelined by a migraine Monday, but I was able to finish it up today and share the conclusion. We left off last week with Emma a hostage and a wounded Killian staring down a wolf. I nearly had to add a fourth part to this to fit everything in (including a little bonus that I threw in at the last minute - sorry Killian).  For those following, I hope you’ve enjoyed the pains inflicted on our favorite pirate.  Once again, thanks to the creators of this fun event and to @the-whumpy-fangirl for providing her beta assistance.

Also on AO3 and FF.net   Part One   Part Two

Hands still cuffed in front of her, Emma faced an awkward challenge rolling up the bright blue tarp as swiftly as her captor would have liked. Answering a question too slowly or not completing a task fast enough earned her a none-too-gentle shove, but so far, the stranger had refrained from actually striking her, although she doubted that courtesy would last much longer. This guy was more agitated now than he'd been when they first encountered him, eager to get moving on his trek towards the Canadian border - one she had no desire to make. She didn't want to venture north because that would take her further from the town line. Further from magic and most importantly, further from the wounded husband she'd been forced to leave behind.

Surprisingly, the stranger hadn't taken her phone. He must have somehow been aware that there was no service this deep into the forest so he wasn't worried about her attempting to call for help. Her brain kept toying with thoughts as to whether the GPS locator inside the device would still work if there was no tower for it to communicate with, but on the off-chance that it did function, maybe someone would be able to find her. Maybe her father, being the often overprotective dad that he was, would become worried when they didn't return by dusk and start a search party? Obviously, it would be better if her message miraculously made it through so David would know they were in trouble, but she couldn't count on that happening.

After the campsite was cleared and all traces of human habitation covered up with dirt or vegetation, they embarked on the journey north once again, following a gravel utility service road. Emma knew that it was at least another hundred miles or so to the border but her captor definitely wasn't equipped to make it that far. He had little water and scarcely enough food for one person, let alone two. There was no logical way they'd manage the several days it would take to reach the destination on foot. He'd been paranoid about cops finding him so there must already be law enforcement out hunting for him. Might there be some way she could convince him to head back to her car? Maybe convince him to drive to the border instead of facing days trying to hike it? This guy wasn't from Storybrooke. He had no idea of how badly she'd magically kick his ass the moment she stepped across that town line. She just had to make him trust her but that would be a difficult task being law enforcement and all…

The sooner she could deal with this unexpected, homicidal third wheel, the sooner she could get back to Killian. She could only imagine how her pirate was faring… Had he regained consciousness yet? Was he getting cold? Blood loss could make you feel colder and all he had was that ratty old blanket stuffed in the backpack. Would he even remember it was there? If the forest canopy hadn't been so thick, she'd half expected to see carrion birds circling above the trees. Killian was alone, bleeding and probably still unconscious in a wilderness full of predators and the mere thought of his situation was conjuring up disturbing images she didn't dare contemplate... Were there bears in these woods? Mountain lions? Another pissed off wraith?

She and her unwanted companion had traveled maybe two miles from the campsite when her alert ears picked up a distant popping sound. It was faint, but it was also unmistakable - another gunshot.

"You have a partner out there somewhere?" Emma asked, certain that her captor would have identified the same sound.

"No partner."

"So, who's out there doing the shooting then? Wasn't me and it wasn't you…"

"Maybe it was your friend putting himself out of his misery."

"My friend doesn't have a gun," Emma stated, putting emphasis on the word friend as she spat it out angrily. "You think the cops are chasing you? Maybe they're shooting at you now too?"

"They wouldn't risk hitting you."

"You don't think so? They don't have the slightest idea who I am," she matter-of-factly reminded him. "From a distance, they can't see the handcuffs to know I'm your hostage and it's not like I'm in uniform here. For all they know, I'm your accomplice. If they're taking a dead or alive stance, you must be wanted for something pretty serious…"

"I killed two people and if you don't shut up and hurry up, I can make it three!"

"Okay, I get that you're obviously on the run and if that's true, there are gonna be cops from all over the tri-state area hunting for you. Probably everywhere from New York to Canada and everywhere in between. You really think you're just going to walk to the border and just hop across? You've got a lot of ground to cover between here and there and you didn't even come prepared! No food. No water. No cold weather gear. Look, take me back to my car and I'll drive you closer to the damned border. You've seen my car so you know that nobody's going to suspect anything. You can hide in the back if we encounter anyone, but they'll just see me as another cop out on patrol."

"And I'm supposed to believe that you don't have a gun stashed in your car or that you won't radio for backup?"

"You can tear the radio out of you want and I don't have a weapon in the car. It's locked inside my gun safe at the station. I didn't plan on needing it today…" The last part was a total lie since both her backup revolver and even a sword were tucked away in the trunk, but if all went well, she wouldn't actually need either.

The stranger thought about her suggestions for a few seconds, then waved his pistol, gesturing back toward the direction they'd just come from. "You lead the way, Sheriff. If you try anything funny, I won't hesitate to shoot you."

"Not planning to try anything funny," she replied firmly, and she definitely meant it. There wouldn't be anything funny about what she had planned for him.

At first, Killian wasn't certain whether he should be terrified or thankful when this latest gunshot sounded. The wolf who'd been sizing him up for a meal hastily retreated into the brush, but considering that the last bullet that was fired in his proximity had left a rather painful hole in his left side, he was understandably skeptical of the shot's origin. The wild animal wanting to eat him might be gone, but there were far more potential predators out there so he had to be leery of whomever was shooting.

"Hook?" he heard a familiar voice calling out his name, leading him to again believe his head could be playing tricks on him. "Are you alright over there?"

"That's up for debate, mate," Killian replied, breathing a sigh of relief as the face of his father in law came into view. "Provided you're not a hallucination, you're a sight for sore eyes…"

"I'm not a hallucination, but as far as the sight for sore eyes stuff, I could say the same for you." David sized up what he could see of Killian's injury, focused on the bloody gash at his temple and the deep blackening bruising surrounding it. "Glad I could scare off that wolf before it attacked, although you look like you've already gone one round with it. What the hell happened to you and where's Emma?"

"Ran afoul of someone attempting to escape the authorities. He shot me and made off with Emma as his hostage," Killian explained.

"Wait - you've been shot?" David asked incredulously. "Is that where the gash on your forehead came from?"

"Afraid that came from a different blow from the same weapon. The other wound's to my left flank," the pirate replied as he raised the wad of blood soaked paper towels he'd used as a compress as much as he could. "Can't get the blasted thing to stop bleeding, but I'm fairly certain I'll survive if I can get back to Emma on the other side of the town line or with the intervention of a physician or someone who's competent at patching things up… Mr. Smee is quite proficient at that should a physician not be available…"

"You're rambling like a drunk," David commented, concerned that Killian's babbling might be a warning sign that he was in shock. His son in law was always a tad verbose, but this was excessive even for him. "I'm going to radio for help. I'd rounded up a few people to aid in the search party…"

"Do we have the entire dwarf brigade at the ready?" Killian asked as David knelt beside him to see for himself just how bad the pirate's injuries were.

"Not all of them," David replied as he moved the makeshift compress away to obtain a better look at the seeping wound. "Damn, this doesn't look good… It goes the whole way through?" Killian gave a single nod to affirm his answer to the question. "How long ago did this occur?"

"I honestly don't know… 'Twas about noontime when we were surprised by the gunman, but I lost track of time after that as I may have succumbed to unconsciousness once or twice…"

"Okay, it's nearly 3:30pm now so maybe three, three and a half hours? We've got to get an ambulance out here… Think you can walk to the road or are we going to need a team to carry you out?"

"I've no bloody idea, Dave…" Killian responded with an exaggerated shake of his head that triggered an immediate bout of nausea accompanied by a splitting headache. "Damn...shouldn't have done that…"

"Well, we can't stay here, so let's get you up on your feet, if we can…" David said as he wrapped Killian's hooked arm around his neck and shoulders to offer some additional support to his impaired friend. He then placed his own arm behind Killian's back so he could help lift the pirate as Killian fought to push himself into a standing position. "Easy…" he urged, not wanting to make matters worse.

Once Killian was standing on his own two shaky feet, David pointed him in the direction of the road. With renewed waves of aches and pains pummeling him, Killian found his train of thought clearing, enough to at least ask the one question that had been swirling around his jumbled mind. "You know, mate, I've been meaning to ask you - how exactly did you manage to find me?"

"Well, I tried to call first, but my calls kept going straight to voicemail and I had this nagging feeling that something wasn't right, especially after reading a disturbing BOLO that came in this morning. So, I pinged the GPS for your last known location and then made a few educated guesses from there…"

"BOLO?" a confused Killian asked.

"A Be on the Lookout alert - you know, those bulletins that come in every morning that Emma ignores?"

"Ah, those electronic Wanted posters? Emma usually tells me to toss them in the rubbish bin."

"Yeah, one of those. There's apparently an escaped killer from Boston on the loose who may be trying to get to Canada."

"Sounds quite a bit like the bloke we encountered earlier and he's got Emma. We need to find her, Dave…"

"You need a doctor. I'll go search for Emma after we get you back to the road and into the hands of the paramedics."

"I'll be fine," Killian insisted, wrestling himself free of his friend's supporting arm and nearly teetering over in the process.

"Damnit, Hook, you can barely stand, let alone walk. You're in no shape to go traipsing around these woods, especially when you're leaving behind a trail of blood that'll attract more predators like that wolf! There are only a few hours of daylight left and only so many viable paths through that forest. There's a service road used by the electric company to reach their towers about a mile from here that runs north for several miles. It's a dirt and gravel road but it would be the clearest route - and one the State Police are well aware of. They've already sent people and helicopters out to patrol the area. Emma's smart. She knows that someplace so open would be the first place they'd start looking for a fugitive who probably doesn't know the area or the terrain so, I think she'd try to lead him somewhere else and I'm betting that it would be back to her car."

"Then we'll go there," Killian stated firmly as he took a few unsteady steps but in the wrong direction.

"It's the other way," David smugly informed his bullheaded son in law.

Killian squeezed his eyes shut, welling with such frustration that his jaw muscles began to twitch involuntarily, but he didn't hazard a response. He turned around without a word, ignoring David's offer of a supportive arm as he stubbornly tried to protect what little remained of his pride. He didn't want pity. He wanted to find his wife and the bastard who'd shot him and then separated her from his side.

"It's going to be a good twenty minute walk back to the car," David continued. "Longer probably at your pace, assuming I don't have to drag or carry you… At least let me help try to keep you on your feet…" He reached out to grasp hold of Killian's arm, but the moment his fingertips made contact with the pirate's leather sleeve, the ground beneath them gave way, sending both men plunging into a dark, subterranean crevice.

The drop itself was approximately ten feet but they slid perhaps another two or three before abruptly slamming to a halt when they reached the bedrock below. Dirt, pebbles and ground cover rained down on them from above, pelting them mercilessly, but thankfully not enough to risk being buried. David landed on his back, feeling every bump and bruise he'd received on the way down as he pushed himself up into a crouch, brushing away as much of the debris as he could while searching for Killian in the dim light. He spotted the pirate lying face down against a debris slope a few feet to his left and while he couldn't see any movement, a low, pained groan let him know that Killian was at least still breathing.

David scrambled to Killian's side, crawling through the loose earth and gravel to reach his friend and get him rolled onto his back so he could discern whether there was any additional injury from the sudden fall. Killian spat out a mouthful of dirt and muck as he tried to get his throbbing head to make sense of what had just happened. He wanted to sit up, but found himself clenching his teeth in agony when he moved too rapidly so he relented and conceded defeat, remaining lying on his backside, partially supported by a pile of fallen rocks and earth.

"You okay?" David asked, seeing the debris clinging to Killian's head wound but unable to locate any other visible wound.

Killian winced as he tried to take a deep breath, clutching tightly to his injured side. "Quite certain I've bruised a few ribs on that unexpected descent and I'm fairly certain that my left leg is broken. Hurts like the devil and I can scarcely move it…"

"Don't then," David stated, digging his cell phone from his pocket to make use of its flashlight feature. "Let me see if I can tell how bad it is…" Shining the tiny but extremely bright light towards Killian's leg, he could see that the dark denim was torn open across his shin. He was relieved not to find any bone protruding from the skin, but aside from bruising and a deep abrasion, he couldn't make out anything else. "I can't really tell, but I'm gonna have to find a way out of this hole so I can go get help."

"Aye," Killian sighed, recognizing that he wouldn't be going anywhere for a while. "There has to be some way to crawl back up topside. Any thoughts on what just happened though? I didn't think that earthquakes were common in this realm…"

"No, earthquakes aren't that common in Maine, but I doubt that was a quake anyway. Looks like we fell into some sort of sinkhole or collapsed tunnel."

"Like the mines beneath Storybrooke?"

"Maybe. I don't think any of ours reach this far beyond the town line, but there could be other ones out here. At least it doesn't seem that we fell very far. I think I can climb out with a little help from those…" David shone the light onto the exposed roots of the towering pine tree above their heads. "I can radio for help and get them to bring rope and a stretcher and have them here in a few minutes - assuming the radio didn't break…"

"Go. I'll be here, eagerly awaiting your return…" Killian replied glumly.

"Hey, if it weren't for the fact that I dropped the radio up there, I'd stay with you, but you're not going to be able to climb out of here with a broken leg. I'll try to find something to splint it with while we wait. Believe me, I don't like this either, especially when you're already wounded, but I don't see any other option."

Killian knew there was no other choice, but it didn't mean he had to like it. He shifted his aching body as much as he could, searching for the most comfortable position since he wasn't going anywhere for awhile.

"Would you at least lower down Emma's backpack so that I'll have some fresh water and our picnic blanket to provide some warmth? It's grown rather chilly…"

"Of course. I'll get it down to you as soon as I get out of this hole and we'll get those dwarves here as quick as possible…" Killian might be conscious and talking right now, but David was revisiting his earlier concern about shock. The air temperature had barely budged and the breeze hadn't picked up so if Killian was feeling colder, it had to be from blood loss. The faster they could get him out of the forest, the better.

Emma's feet were aching and she found herself growing increasingly repulsed by - and extremely resentful of her unwanted, unknown companion. Miles north then miles back south hiked with few breaks. God, she really needed to go to the bathroom but she wasn't going to give this SOB the satisfaction. She'd wet herself before she'd allow her captor to witness that indignity. But her advantage at the moment was that she knew she was entering familiar territory and in a matter of minutes, none of this would matter anymore.

They were still approximately a quarter of a mile from the country road where she'd left her car when she could feel her powers tingling within her again. A faint smile crept across her face and in a flash, her restraints vanished. After taking a brief moment to massage her chafed wrists, she unleashed her pent-up fury. Spinning around to face her former captor, she didn't even allow him time to react to the bright light emanating from her hands before she flung him about twenty feet - into the sentinel-straight trunk of an ancient tree that had long ago lost its branches, leaving only a decaying post that resembled a rough-hewn telephone pole. The rotting wood splintered upon impact, but held its ground.

The stranger tried to shake off the blow, glancing up with wide-eyed confusion and even a hint of fear as a length of rope materialized out of nowhere and began wrapping around both his body and the old tree stump, guided by unseen hands. In comparison to his, Emma's eyes were narrowed, glowing with determination and anger, tempered only with the knowledge that she simply needed to immobilize this bastard long enough for the State Police to come get him. Locating Killian was far more important.

"What the hell are you?" the stranger demanded, struggling against the ropes which only magically drew tighter the more he fought them. "What the hell is all this?"

"Just think of me as the last person you wanted to piss off today," Emma hissed back at him. "You're in my town now and this is how I deal with a low life like you…" This time, she didn't need magic to get her point across. A solid right to his jaw sealed the message as he spat out blood, his mouth gaping open when she disappeared before his eyes, leaving only a cloud of grey smoke behind.

After David lowered himself back down into the sinkhole with the pack, Killian had immediately dug for the blanket, covering as much of himself as he could while pulling it up to his trembling shoulders. He'd managed only a few small swallows of water before swells of nausea threatened to bring it all back up, not looking forward to what would come next. David had gone in search of something that might prove useful as a splint so he could try to immobilize Killian fractured leg before pulling him out of the hole, not that there was any method they could use that wouldn't hurt like hell. Despite his nearly supernatural pain tolerance, Killian found himself almost praying that he'd pass out.

By the time the dwarves and two of Storybrooke's paramedics reached the crevice, the pirate was barely clinging to consciousness. David had scavenged a couple of mostly straight, sturdy sticks that he'd secured to Killian's leg using the purloined straps from Emma's backpack. He didn't figure she'd be too upset with him for cutting them off in sacrifice to protect her husband's leg from further injury although David did hope the paramedics would be able to come up with something better to stabilize that limb. In the end, the sticks remained as the splint but adhesive tape replaced the webbed nylon backpack straps.

One of the paramedics climbed down into the hole with David while the other radioed information and obtained instructions from the hospital. Killian was given injections of both painkillers and a mild sedative to take the edge off of the discomfort he was about to experience from all of the jostling that would occur getting him out of here. Once David and the medic had secured Killian into the metal framed rescue basket, ropes were tied to either end of the basket and he was gradually raised to the surface, but Killian wouldn't remember most of that process. He'd maintained his brave face as long as he could, his features contorting in agony with every jerk and thump until a sudden tilt shifted all of his weight onto his injured leg. That slip incited a scream he simply couldn't bite back before slipping into unconsciousness but at least it meant he was no longer suffering the overwhelming discomfort of the bumpy trip to the waiting ambulance.

Once his son in law was stable and on his way back to Storybrooke, David could concentrate on the rest of his task - locating his missing daughter, who he could only pray was in better shape than Killian. He intended to scour as much of this forest as he could until the sun set beyond the mountains so imagine his surprise when he found his daughter emerging from the shadow of the forest canopy. Looking a bit disheveled and utterly exhausted but otherwise unharmed, Emma recognized her father's face and she hurried down the road toward him as fast as her weary bones would allow. As soon as his daughter was within arm's reach, David instinctively threw his arms out, letting her collapse into him while he drew her into a tight embrace.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" Emma exclaimed.

"Same here," David replied as he released his hold on her, worried he might have squeezed too tight if she was injured. "Are you alright? Injured? When I heard you'd been taken hostage…"

"I'm fine. I'll probably be covered in bruises tomorrow, but otherwise, I'm not hurt. I can't say the same for Killian though… He was shot and I was forced to leave him behind in a clearing somewhere a little bit east of here… I've got to go find him…" She was rambling anxiously which drew a little chuckle from her father. Her stream of words halted there and her brow knitted in confusion as it wasn't quite the response she'd expected after telling him that her husband and his best buddy was wounded and lost somewhere in the woods.

"I already found him," David informed her. "How do you think I found out about you being taken hostage? The ambulance left here maybe fifteen minutes ago and I was just preparing to go search for you. I had a hunch you'd try to head back to your car…"

"So Killian's okay?" she interrupted. "He was conscious?"

"He wasn't when the ambulance left. I think he reached the limits of his inhuman pain tolerance, but after everything he'd suffered, I'm not surprised. The paramedics were trying to treat the head wound and the bullet wound and see how bad everything was beneath all of the dirt and leaves. We splinted his leg, but they didn't think it was too bad of a break. Of course, they won't know for sure without x-rays…"

"Wait - his leg? What happened to his leg?"

"Oh, right, I guess you wouldn't have known about that one… After I found him, we fell into some sort of sinkhole or something. We both got bruised up a bit, but he landed differently than I did and broke his left leg. Made for a hell of a challenge getting him out of that hole in the ground but he's going to be okay. Why don't you head over there now? I can drive your car back into town."

"I appreciate the offer, Dad, but there's something I need to do first… Maybe you can help me out here… Can you show me to that hole in the ground?"

"Yeah, of course. It's about a mile off of the road, but mind if I ask why?"

"I'm thinking I need a place to dispose of our uninvited company…"

True to her word, Emma left the stranger in the bottom of that very same hole, altering the appearance of the ropes to look as though the wanted man had stumbled into the hole, becoming tangled amongst the jumble of tree roots. A quick spell earlier had put him into a deep sleep that would leave him with no memory of the couple he'd attacked in the forest. David placed an anonymous call to the State Police, pretending to be a hiker who'd encountered a strange man trapped in a sinkhole. He said he'd received a warning from local law enforcement about a wanted felon who could be lurking in the woods and the man in the hole matched the description he'd been given. David said he hadn't approached the unknown man but gave authorities a brief description of the person and detailed enough landmarks for them to find their way to the hole and capture their quarry. David and Emma had no desire to let anyone know that the Storybrooke Sheriff's department had already done the work for them, merely wanting the bastard out of their vicinity.

Emma never did learn the stranger's name, but honestly, she really didn't care. While they would still have to deal with the fallout from their interrupted picnic for a while, the unknown gunman was no longer their problem. She was content to wash her hands of the entire situation and was certain Killian would agree. The State Police could have him and ship him back to Boston after they dragged him out of the ground - assuming no predators reached him first. David had casually mentioned that there might be a very hungry wolf nearby...

Her focus now was solely on Killian, who she discovered was in surgery to repair the bullet's damage when she arrived at the hospital. That news gave her a few minutes to head home, take a much needed shower and get a change of clothing. She stood nearly motionless beneath the stream of water, allowing it to flush away the muck, sweat and grime until she'd exhausted the hot water supply. When she finally declared herself presentable, she made the trip across town to find her husband admitted to a private room, sound asleep with his splinted leg propped atop a couple of pillows while a nurse recorded notes about his vitals into his chart. Gauze bandages were taped over the gash at his temple, covering the now-sutured tear but barely hiding the surrounding deep purple bruises.

Emma settled into the chair at his bedside, wanting to be sure she was here when he woke, but she'd barely gotten comfortable when Dr. Whale appeared in front of her. She hadn't heard the doctor enter so she nearly jumped out of her seat when she suddenly saw his platinum blond head hovering above her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you, Emma," Whale said sheepishly, always a little leery anytime he had to disturb her since her actions as the Dark One were still very vivid in his mind.

"It's alright, Victor. I guess I must have dozed off…"

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that we got the Captain here all patched up. For now, I just put a splint on his fractured leg since I assume you'll just wave everything away and magically fix it all."

"I'm waiting until he wakes up," Emma stated. "I can definitely heal all of those injuries, but it needs to be his decision. I already learned that lesson the hard way."

"Well, should he choose not to be magically healed, he'll need to be in a cast for at least four to six weeks and then we can re-evaluate. I did pin the fracture to help give it support but mobility could be an issue… Crutches are likely going to be awkward with his…"

"Hook?" Emma finished Whale's sentence when he hesitated. "I'm sure we can figure something out. What about the gunshot wound and the head injury? Any long term issues we'd need to be aware of?"

"I repaired the damage caused by the bullet. Nothing vital was struck, just some minor tissue and muscle damage, but those will heal. I sutured the laceration closed but he's definitely suffering a concussion. We'll keep a close eye on that once he fully comes around from the anesthesia. Overall though, for a person who was shot, suffered a severe blow to the head, and broke his leg falling ten or fifteen feet down into a hole in the middle of nowhere, he's in surprisingly good shape."

"If you say so."

"Anyway, I'll leave you two alone. You can have the nurse page me if you need me."

"Thank you, Victor. We appreciate it."

He vanished from the room virtually as swiftly as he'd appeared, leaving her alone with her husband in the sterile, white room. She leaned closer to the bed so she could reach Killian's hand and take it into her own, squeezing it tightly and clutching his fingers for a while until she realized that she'd been unconsciously tracing his wedding ring with her thumb.

What a hell of a six-month anniversary, she thought. Their wedding night and honeymoon had been delayed by an evil fairy and her unwitting minion and now, their half-year anniversary had been interrupted by a psycho on the run from the cops.

"I swear to you, Killian, for our one year anniversary, we are getting as far away from this place as we can. And if I ever say I want to go picnicking in the woods instead of sailing on the Jolly Roger again, please remind me of this day and knock some sense into me!" Stretching as far as she could without falling from the chair, Emma gave him a tender kiss on his cheek. "Happy Anniversary anyway, Killian."

[podcake]

Audio Drama December: The Penumbra Podcast Review

I have to be completely honest with you guys: I’ve never given much thought about the noir genre until I got into talking about audio drama as hobby. Not that I didn’t see any artistic merit in noir, just that it didn’t really appeal to me personally in a film format and it’s only now that I can appreciate it as an up and coming genre that makes candid appearances in a nice handful of fiction podcasts.

My most recently Podcasts& was a surprise overnight success and I already promised myself I’d actually do reviews for December so the whole noir thing was more random selection that just so happened to give me enough material for the remainder of winter.

Among the select amount of noir audio drama I’ve come across, The Penumbra Podcast was one that sat in my subscriptions list for some time throughout 2016 before I properly worked up the motivation to give it a listen. With it’s rich but tastefully minimalist purple cover art portraying what appeared to be a hotel elevator symbol, it left a lot to the imagination as I had little understanding of the show’s all around premise or if it even was noir when I decided to give it the time of day. 

And when I dived in, I found myself quickly engrossed and binge listening to the entire stretch of available episodes into the wee hours of the night. I went to bed listening to The Penumbra, woke up listening to The Penumbra, had Thanksgiving dinner thinking about The Penumbra, and hibernated in my room refreshing my feed in hopes that a new episode would crawl its way to the top of my phone screen like some early Christmas miracle. 

Not to spoil my impression of the series so early into the review, but do know this is coming from someone who unashamedly enjoys The Penumbra Podcast and sees what all the hype is about, as it were. 

Here I’ll only really be talking about the adventures of Juno Steel as I consider it the main crux of the series. Though The Second Citadel is certainly worth discussing, I feel it’s only appropriate to keep the noir train going and give Neon Nights a proper comparison by the time I drag it’s document file into a Tumblr window.

For those who don’t know, a significant portion of The Penumbra Podcast is primarily a sci-fi noir show detailing the adventures of Juno Steel, a private eye who offers his services to those in need, if he wants to or not. This all takes place in Hyperion City, a large metropolis on Mars where the worst of the worst linger, giving Juno plenty of cases to crack and bottles to open at the end of a long day.

The premise itself is fairly open ended with a lot of opportunities to explore and the show really does take advantage of the variety of options they get to sample without losing a distinct identity for itself. The city we’re placed in is a combination of luxurious and sardonic, like a freshly made cocktail made with water from the bathroom sink. 

Though a number of shows rely on the grim nature of their worlds to be a boiling pot of spiraling conflict, The Penumbra is fairly outright about it with Juno quick to state how much of a shit show Hyperion is and has quite the touching monologue at the end of season one as he debates leaving it all behind but still feeling bound to his own personal responsibilities and fear of his intimate desires. It’s brief but a nice and somber note to leave on before the rather humorous debut of season two a few months after. 

With that said, The Penumbra’s real strength truly does lie in its writing. The world displayed before us is incredibly immersive and nicely blends into the narrative, providing a variety of locations that vary from wide and luxurious to tense and claustrophobic. This is especially helped by the imagery that truly gets you enamored by a certain set piece before the dialogue starts rolling in. 

The Penumbra succeeds in getting you invested in the time, place, and stakes all in a couple of minutes and watching as a case gets cracked truly felt satisfying and like you were strapped into the ride the whole time.

This also goes for the leads with the protagonist Juno Steel being a refreshingly grim but equally fun character to follow. Though often melancholic, Juno is a man you quickly grow to like for their near suicidal bravery and intellect being balanced out by some very human faults and suppressed trauma. 

So no matter how intriguing a case or the supporting cast may be, Juno never risks the chance of being smothered by the excitement and is an active player that the show seriously couldn’t do without.

Even with the suave, mysterious nature of master thief Peter Nureyev and the lovably dorky antics of assistant and secretary Rita truly dominating their scenes, you still feel like this is Juno’s story and like there’s much more to cover about him than there is Hyperion City. Penumbra does what it needs to do to give you people you can’t help but be enamored with and the strong world building and dialogue has almost everything to do with it.

Much in their favor, they have an exceptionally talented cast of actors to work with. Joshua Ilon takes over as our main character and his distinct voice is spot on for an updated take on the hard boiled detective archetype. Though often cool and controlled, he’s shown to have quite the range of emotion in his performance and it’s only when he reverts back to the same tone that you start to see the cracks in his facade.

The same could be said for Peter’s voice actor, Noah Simes whose silky vocals and effortless charm really make you question why there aren’t anymore homme fatale characters around. 

And with some great sound editing and music selection at work, it only ever complements whatever scenario our beloved detective and his sort-of-kind-of boyfriend can get wrapped up in. It’s honestly when they’re in the heat of a tense scene that the audio makes use of some effective sound cues and only the occasional use of music to ramp up the tension. “Juno Steel and the Train From Nowhere” is one of my favorite episodes for not only having these elements but I feel the episode embodies all the charm and mystique that’s made it such a crowd favorite in recent memory.

Though I do admit that The Penumbra is strong as far as their character and presation go, this only applies to the heroes. For a noir series, it’s surprisingly lacking in an interesting rouges gallery. Though the schemes are worth writing home about, each mastermind behind it can be easily summarized as a quirky but intelligent woman in her later forties to sixties and not much else-bonus points if they’re some sort of artist or at least artistically motivated. 

None of which are exactly boring to listen to, though the roster can get a bit samey when you already know what template is in place. It can really drag a case down when it’s revealed who Juno is up against and though I was still intrigued in how things would turn out, in the end of the day, another scary lady is just another scary lady. I always looked forward to an episode when the antagonist was perhaps more shrouded in mystery...or perhaps just not another old lady. 

The hotel for a framing device is fairly innovative on its own merits but it’s what the writers do with all the extra rooms that make you want to stay. The move to a horse drawn trolley for the second season was a cool change of pace and likely some sort of symbolism for the events to come, though I think the metaphor of a giant, luxurious building bustling with stories behind locked doors is a kind of imagery that really captures the show’s essence. The trolley visual just didn’t stick with me as much even if the honey voiced narrator coaxing me place to place was always welcomed. 

As a whole, I always left episodes of The Penumbra feeling compelled to keep going. It has a way of truly enrapturing you in each and every case that still leaves a lot to the imagination. It ticks all the right boxes not just for noir but for just a generally well thought out and imaginative piece of fiction that can be funny, adventurous, haunting, and alluring all at the same time with seamless transitions between these different moods.

The Penumbra feels like the kind of show made from people who honestly care about the magic of innovative storytelling. It utilizes the most common of tropes to their advantage while still maintaining an air of authenticity and, dare I say, glamour. The Penumbra Podcast is engaging and interesting our of sheer effort and a kind of listening experience that lingers with you. No matter what you might be looking for in a story, The Penumbra is sure to deliver, case closed. 

[cophoenixseo]

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[renaroo]

The Things That Wait (2/4)

Disclaimer: Red vs Blue and related characters are the property of Rooster Teeth. Warnings: CHARACTER DEATH, Language, Canon-typical violence, Psychological manipulation and trauma Rating: T Synopsis: [Reverse Big Bang Entry] Tucker opens an unexpected email that ends up sending himself and all of the Reds and Blues toward a collision course with the unexpected and the completely deadly. In doing so, they face a beast familiar to many of them – the Meta – whose single minded efforts to complete himself with what remains of the Project Freelancer AIs could spell the death for more than a few of them..

A/N: Long, long overdue, I know and greatly apologize, but this chapter kept getting longer than it was meant to be and suddenly we have what we have now, which is another patented Rena monstrosity haha. 

Now, I want to warn everyone that CHARACTER DEATH and GORE are going to be pretty common from here on out, starting with this chapter. And, yeah, some of your favorite darlings are going to be murdered more than likely. So. Consider this your warning. And let’s get into it. 

And a very special thanks to @secretlystephaniebrown, @splendiforousblog, @doesthisfightcountforanything, Yin, Aryashi, and @primtheamazing! And, of course, my absolute WONDEROUS thanks to my partner in crime, @theeffar <3

Trust No One

“Goddammit, Church, not even a little heads up!?”

Tucker had worked for many years under the assumption that as far as teamwork went that Blue Team truly was utterly useless, but being smacked in the face with the evidence wasn’t exactly what he needed at the moment. Not when his toddler right at his side.

He as probably going to have his brains shot out right in front of Junior and Tucker highly doubted that his pension was going to cover the amount of therapy that sort of thing would amount to. Let alone college.

“I’m a ghost, not a babysitter, what the hell do you want from me?” Church responded without a moment’s hesitation.

“What the fuck!? He’s supposed to be dead!” a very familiar voice called out from behind them.

“It… can’t be… can it? Is that Church?” a second very very familiar voice said in response.

And if Tucker doubted himself, Donut’s response was all he really needed. His partner let out a huge sigh of relief covered in a small bit of laughter before lowering his arms to his sides and whirling around on his heels. Which was more than Tucker was willing to do with gun sights on him, but Donut was, strangely enough, exactly the sort of dumb bravery to pull it off.

“Guys! Oh, man! I was beginning to think that we weren’t going to see you!” Donut almost sang, opening his arms up for a hug.

“Donut! Get over here and get your gun up!” a voice that could only be Simmons’ ordered. There was a strained upward pitch to his words, just enough off to tip Tucker off to… something.

He needed more context, but he was certainly on edge, even with old… freinemies at the other end of a gun barrel.

Oh please. We’re all done with the Red and Blue thing, they just helped Caboose and me like. A few days ago, Church scoffed, his voice seemingly reverberating between Tucker’s ears. If Tucker thought too much about the source of the voice it added to the mounting headache he already felt.

“What the fuck were you doing with a Blue at a time like this!? Especially one with a goddamn alien connection!?” Grif’s voice spat at Donut, setting what little bit of Tucker’s spine that wasn’t edge back on the right path of anxiety and a touch of nausea.

“You were saying?” Tucker asked out loud.

“Fuck me if I know what’s going on,” Church answered over the speaker of their now collective suit.

“Okay, what the fuck? Where’s his voice coming from!?” Grif growled out, sounding angrier than Tucker had ever known the otherwise chill Red to be. It added to the unsettlement factor.

“I don’t… what the hell is going on?” Tucker demanded.

“And what’s wrong with Tucker?” Donut asked, finally coming to Tucker’s aid. Somewhat. “He’s cool. He’s not even all that Blue. He’s aquamarine … or maybe a touch of turquoise… Hey, Tucker, what color is your armor?”

“Fuck if I know! Is right now really the time to be asking about that?” Tucker demanded.

“Tucker… it’s never the wrong time to question one’s undertones,” Donut admonished him so sincerely it almost made Tucker think over the situation. Almost.

“The problem with him is that he’s-he’s-he’s,” Simmons sputtered, seemingly more unwound by the minute. “He’s a Dirty Blue, Donut! What more could you possibly want!?”

“Uh, answers for starters!” Tucker snapped.

At his calf, Junior clung tightly, letting out a series of distressed, rolling noises from his mouth and tensing up each time someone, especially Tucker, raised their voice. The fact that Tucker still wasn’t sure if it was safe or not to lean over and comfort his son was almost literally killing him.

“Okay, here’s an answer, fuck you and fuck Church, he was supposed to die ages ago and then he gets us here and suddenly you assholes thank us for pulling your team out of the fire by goddamn killing Sarge!” Grif was incredibly worked up, to the point that his little speech ended in what Tucker could only consider a crescendo.

But even with the showy declaration, the actual words hit him and hit him hard.

“Sarge is dead?” Donut said, all flavor and joy gone from his voice. There was a hint of disbelief in it, a note of despair.

“And what the fuck do I have to do with any of it?” Church asked, finally showing himself as a fully formed, transparent being glowing white and clutching a nonexistent sniper rifle right beside Tucker and Junior.

And, being on the other end of the display for the first time since it all started years and years ago in a different canyon between two different bases, Tucker could read out over his helmet’s HUD device that there was an amount of the armor’s power supply being utilized for extended projection.

He noted the phenomenon for later.

“Fuck you, dude,” Grif countered Church viciously. “After all that bullshit, after everything—“

“I don’t know what the hell is going on,” Tucker shouted them down, daring to move his head just enough to glance over his shoulder at the three Reds. “I really don’t, and that’s with Mr. Chicken and the Ghost giving me a full debriefing. But I do know that if you assholes don’t take your guns off me and off my goddamn kid, we’re going to have problems.”

After spending months together in the desert and beyond, hanging out with tyrannical alien species and even more slanderous and backstabbing upper echelons of the military, Tucker had come to expect Donut’s helpful and disarming charisma to follow suit.

When it didn’t, there was a bit of a sting Tucker felt that he couldn’t quite peg.

“We trusted you guys, we believed the whole Red and Blue thing was a farce. Sarge didn’t. And now he’s dead, fucking explain that,” Simmons argued. He sounded broken, betrayed. Tucker almost wondered if it stung him, too.

“Sorry, man, I am,” Church spoke up. “You … You helped us out. A lot. I hate to hear that. Even if Sarge was… honestly pretty homicidal and wanted nothing more in life than our helmets as trophies.”

“Dude,” Tucker hissed. “Not helping!”

“But we’ve been with Donut for as long as my haunted email got opened by Tucker, and Tucker and Donut have been away the whole time we were doing bullshit with the Freelancer fuck,” Church pointed out.

“We’re not saying you two killed Sarge!” Simmons snapped.

“It sure sounds like that’s what’s being said,” Tucker remarked pointedly.

“We’re saying Caboose killed Sarge, assholes!” Grif growled. “He killed Sarge during another one of his stupid fucking raids of our base and we’re done with playing nice with you guys!”

Immediately, everything was going sideways and Tucker just knew, he knew, that even if what Grif and Simmons were saying was true that it wasn’t right. And that was causing all sorts of chaos in his head. Not assisted by the fact that Church, true to form, was apparently ready to boil over with rage.

“Hey! You don’t know a goddamn thing! Why would Caboose kill Sarge?” Church crackled.

“Because he lost his mind!” Simmons all but screeched. “He’s been suspicious ever since the police released us and he’s been stealing stuff from us, being all secretive, and talking to himself all the time!”

“How do you know he’s talking to himself?” Tucker scrutinized. “Man, Caboose is so dumb that if he doesn’t say his thoughts out loud he doesn’t have them. I know it’s kind of annoying, but you get used to it after a while. Unless O’Malley’s around. Then maybe he’ll talk about wanting to kill you. That’s the only time to be worried. Y’know. Unless you’re me.”

There was a pause that indicated Tucker had said something miscalculated, but fortunately it was Church who spoke up rather than the highly upset Reds with guns.

“Uh. Yeah. Tucker? It kinda can’t be O’Malley. Omega and all the other AI—“

“What other AI?” Tucker demanded.

“I fucking told you the story already!” Church snapped.

“I don’t care if you told me thirty times — I wasn’t there and I didn’t pay attention for half of it,” Tucker bickered.

“Oh, well isn’t that just so fucking typical!” Church snarled.

“Yeah! Typically I don’t listen when you run your mouth!”

“Oh my fucking god, shut up,” Grif was groaning. He then stiffened and looked out of Tucker’s periphery. “Finally! Lopez is here. We called you forever ago, dude! We need your help pronto! We’ve got two—“

“There’s three of us,” Church corrected.

“And a half,” Grif gritted out between his teeth.

Church seemed genuinely aghast. “What the hell, Grif, we spent time in the pen together!”

“—of the Blues,” Grif continued just as the brown armored robot came closer.

“Lo sé,” Lopez grumbled. “Puedo ver eso.”

“Now you can help us take them to the brig!” Simmons added. He hesitated slightly before glancing Grif’s way. “We have one of those, right?”

“Uh,” Grif responded somewhat dumbfounded. “What the fuck makes you think I would know if you don’t know?”

“I-I don’t know! Brig seems like such a Sarge thing to take care of!” Simmons cried out, sounding genuinely choked up by his own words.

“Then what are we going to do with them!?” Simmons went into full hysterics.

Tucker and Church then took their turn to glance at each other before going back to being living statues for their somewhat-kind-of captors.

“Uh. Let us go see Caboose and sort things out?” Tucker offered.

“Oh, fuck off, Blue!” Grif snapped.

Lopez stepped closer to Grif and Simmons. “Quiero examinar el cuerpo yo mismo.”

Simmons lowered his gun enough to put a hand over his visor and sigh in aggravation. “Lopez, jesus, we don’t understand you.”

“Eso suena como un problema personal,” Lopez replied flatly.

There seemed to be a perplexing stare off between Grif and Simmons, Lopez, and the language barrier for a moment when, surprising all of them including Tucker, Donut spoke back up in a small voice.

“I want to see Sarge,” Donut said. “Maybe… maybe he’s not…”

As Donut trailed off, Tucker felt his chest tighten. Fuck, he shouldn’t have let himself get as attached to Donut as he had.

“You should let Donut see Sarge,” Tucker suggested. “We’ll come with you and stuff, whatever. But…”

There seemed to be an unease and shame that took over Grif and Simmons, but Donut seemed nothing but grateful.

“Thanks, Tucker,” Donut said just before Grif put an arm around him and began to lead him toward the base.

Simmons hesitated before nodding to Tucker, Church, and Junior. “Well… come on, I guess.”

Tucker eased up at last, his muscles still feeling taut and nervous with energy, but he focused on his priorities, scooping his son up first and following suit.

Church disappeared from Tucker’s side, but there was a hum in the Blue’s head that told him his former CO was still there.

Quick thinking, we should probably find evidence around Sarge, Church commented crudely.

“Or pay respects to someone who we knew for years and worked with,” Tucker growled under his breath.

Realizing that only half of the conversation was hearable, Tucker glanced around to see if anyone noticed.

Grif, Simmons, and Donut seemed far enough ahead leading the way it didn’t matter. They were talking amongst each other, but a short glance back told Tucker that Lopez was boring judgmental robot eyes into him. Which was not a great sensation.

Of course, there really wasn’t much that was all that good in the moment anyway…

For all the ways Tucker hadn’t known how the somewhat reunion of the crews from Blood Gulch was going to be, the one thing he could have never imagined, would never have wanted to imagine, was the way it was unfolding before him in that moment.

There was a part of him that just… never really believed any of them could actually be dead.

Inside of his head, Church was also carrying through with an uneasy quiet, taking in the moment. Of the way Simmons leaned into the nearest wall with a sag in his knees. Of the way Grif had eyes on them, angry, bitter, unlike anything Tucker had seen from the man before. Of the way Donut collapsed on his knees by a bright red suit, locked up in an unnatural fashion with glass and blood and a dented in helmet strewn across the base hall.

The Reds were between them and the body, but Tucker could still make out purpling exposed skin and a crew cut split by a tear through the flesh. Maybe that was the killing blow. Maybe it was something else. Maybe it was all real after all.

There was just one thing certain on Tucker’s mind, and that was that this was not the work of Caboose.

Caboose, idiot that he sometimes made himself out to be, had a careless streak, a sort of oblivious casualness to the occasional carnage everyone from Blood Gulch had been guilty of at one point or another. An accidental firing of his gun, a bomb he befriended going off at the wrong time, pressing a mysterious button that incinerated an entire room — those were Caboose.

Sarge had gone down fighting, and he had been hit hard. Hard enough to split a skull under a helmet, hard enough to leave the indents of knuckles on armor. Vicious enough and intentional enough to leave a crime scene with bullet spray and blood splattered to the ceiling.

Junior was making uncomfortable squirms in Tucker’s arms, teeth clattering together in a babble that tried but failed to overcome the mewing of his upset.

It was enough to grab Tucker’s attention, but not enough to pull the Reds from their current tragedy.

“Jesus,” Church muttered in the back of Tucker’s mind. He wasn’t sure if anyone else could hear Church, it was getting to be a fuzzy line what was or was not in his head.

“I… I can’t believe…” Donut was uttering. “I mean… it’s Sarge… he… he never…”

An electricity ran up Tucker’s spine that felt stronger than any kind of chill he had known before. It made his stomach feel heavy, empty. He wasn’t sure what the feeling was at first — guilt? Confusion? They all seemed to fit one way or another, but when Church registered again as an annoying hum in his mind, Tucker shuttered and looked upward as if rolling his eyes back far enough in his head would make Church visible.

“Church, what the—“

Quiet. Jesus, Tucker, can’t you think quietly? And here you were saying Caboose was the one with a problem of thinking out loud, Church hissed behind his ears. You were getting onto me earlier about not giving you more of a heads up, so those are my heads ups from now on. Cool?

Fucking weird, not cool, Tucker processed, feeling disoriented with the conversation. Can’t you just possess Lopez, Danny Phantom? This is fucking weird. I don’t like it.

No way, that sucked last time and Lopez began resisting me, remember? It was, like, a whole thing in Blood Gulch, Church countered.

He wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t make Tucker less annoyed.

He was more than ready to leave things at that, but suddenly the electric spike rippled down his spine again. He stiffened up just before turning enough to realize that Lopez, standing right behind him with a trained gun, was looking incredibly intently at Tucker. It was the kind of look that, had he not been an emotionless looking automatron, Tucker could have sworn was giving him a death glare. Or a suspicious glare. Or… well, perhaps he was reading too much into it.

Without a single word, Lopez pushed past Tucker and Church, leaving them without any trained guns on them, and he came over to the other Reds’ side, standing over Sarge with a bowed head. At first, Tucker thought that perhaps Lopez was looking over evidence, but after a few seconds without any kind of motion, Tucker realized there were other reasons for him.

Guess robots can have feelings, weird, Church commented blissfully.

It took much restraint on Tucker’s part to bite his tongue to that and let Church’s delusions continue unabated.

There were more important things to be concerned with, after all.

“Guys,” Tucker spoke up again, practically giving the middle finger to the immediate screaming Church started to do in his head. He adjusted Junior in his arms as all four living Reds looked at him hollowly and with lots of suspicion. “I just… I’m really sorry. This feels… so wrong.”

There was a moment of awkwardness that continued before Grif himself eased up his shoulders, as if he was finally (finally) coming around to common sense. “Yeah… yeah it really does,” Grif agreed solemnly.

“Look,” Tucker continued with the thread, daring to step out of place and toward them without a weapon in hand. “Maybe there’s something I can do to help here. We owe you guys a lot from all the times before with… well, just everything. And I want to know what happened to Sarge, too. But I don’t think this looks like anything Caboose would ever—“

Almost immediately, sirens began blaring, and the somber peace that had been built up between them all evaporated right before Tucker’s very eyes.

“He’s fucking at it again!” Grif roared, gun up. “Simmons, you go left with Lopez, Donut you come with me. W’re ending this Red and Blue bullshit one way or another!”

“Wait!” Tucker called out just before all four Reds split across the hall, rushing past him and Junior as if they weren’t even existent. “What about…” Tucker trailed off, his eyes set instead on the body in the hallway with him.

His stomach shifted uncomfortably, but in a more natural way than Church’s failed alert system.

“What killed him?” Tucker asked, slowly stepping toward Sarge.

“If we knew that, then se could have just told the Reds and been done with this nonsense already,” Church grouched.

“No, asshole, not who,” Tucker snapped back. “What did it? Like how did he die. That kind of stuff.”

“Would you calm down? If you want a specific answer maybe ask a specific question!” Church bantered effortlessly.

“Church!” Tucker growled out in irritation.

“Fine! Hold on!” Church answered, he then projected once more — the small meter of used energy appearing across Tucker’s HUD once more. Church then knelt down beside Sarge, taking a moment to look over him. A flicker of… something — emotion, most likely — surged through Tucker like an injection. It wasn’t his own, that was all he knew. “Poor bastard.”

Nauseous either because of the gore or because of the confusing juxtaposition of emotions and pain conflicting inside him, Tucker turned back and squeezed his eyes shut. He let Junior down to stand on his own and used his hands to balance himself.

“Dude,” Tucker got out. “Maybe you could stop fucking around and get out of me already. It’s starting to hurt!”

“That’s what she said,” Church snarked back.

“Bow chicka honk—“

“No! No no no,” Tucker snapped. “I’m trying to be serious here, Church!”

“Fine, I am too,” Church answered, looking up at Tucker. “Asphyxiation.”

“No more sex jokes for like ten minutes,” Tucker said flatly.

“What? Oh, shut up, I was answering your question from earlier,” Church scoffed. “Asphyxiation — that’s what killed Sarge. He was strangled to death.”

“What? Like kinky?” Tucker asked, the wave of nausea subsiding for intrigue.

“You just said no sex jokes!”

“This isn’t a joke! It’s a question! Lots of people die that way,” Tucker yelled back, caught up in the heat of the moment, before remembering there was a toddler right next to him. He then pointed accusingly at his son. “Close your ears.”

Junior let out a frustrated, gargling sound.

“It’s not autoerotic asphyxiation, Tucker,” Church sneered. “Obviously. Someone else strangled him.”

“Okay, but there’s no way of telling that that wasn’t erotic,” Tucker pointed out.

Church gave Tucker a strained stare. “Tucker, his fucking head is caved in and he has bullet holes in him.”

“But you can’t say it isn’t—“

“Fine, it was a sexy death, Tucker, are you happy?” Church snapped.

“It’s what he would have wanted…” Tucker sighed, looking over the corpse.

“Literally no one would want an embarrassing kinky death but you, but sure,” Church answered before flickering out. “I say we stay quiet and play this close.”

Tucker got to his feet, reaching for his rifle with a roll of his eyes. “Quiet, yeah, Church. That really sounds like something we’re capable of.

There was a moment to breathe rather than hearing one of Church’s quick fire retorts, which seemed strange. At first. But as the moment came to a point, suddenly Tucker felt the increasingly familiar sensation of a sharp shock running up his spine, his muscle growing taut and strenuous on him.

Adjusting his hold on his gun, Tucker whirled around on his heels, certain that there was someone watching him. It had been the same intensity, the same strange sensation that he had felt under Lopez’s heavy, emotionless gaze.

But even as they turned for a second time, Tucker didn’t find anyone there.

“You have to not do that when there’s nothing happening,” Tucker snapped at Church.

He should have known better.

as soon as the words had left his mouth, there was an undeniable explosion sound as though it came from outside the base. It made Tucker immediately turn in the exit’s direction, heart pounding.

“You were saying?” Church jeered. “C’mon, if there’s an explosion then we know who’s involved.”

Tucker hated how often Church was right lately.

It doesn’t exactly require detective work to find Caboose once they crossed the valley. Much like any other base Tucker had been at since his enlistment brought him to Project Freelancer, where a Red Base existed there unstably coexisted a Blue Base on the opposite side of a boxed in space.

Except whatever teams had been stationed at this so-called Valhalla had really lucked out because their crass wasn’t flattened and yellowed by unending heat and there were trees and streams instead of canyon walls and an unruly desert surrounding them.

Which meant Blood Gulch had been even more useless than they had complained about the entire time they had been there.

“Okay, what the hell’s with this improvement of scenery?” Tucker asked the air as Junior came stumbling in behind him over the small hill.

“Focus, Tucker,” Church hissed at him.

“Oh, yeah, that really helps me, focus, hearing you in stereo inside my radio and inside my freakin’ head!” Tucker growled back.

“Dude what do you want from me? I’m haunting your armor. Suck it up.”

More banter was on the tip of Tucker’s tongue but a second explosion interrupted him and he could see a familiar blue armored figure running in circles with flames covering him. Behind him, four angry and revenge inspired Reds were chasing at a considerable distance now that there was a fire hazard.

Actually, Grif wasn’t pursuing so much as staying back and yelling at the others what to do. That seemed more comprehensible for the people Tucker had come to know.

At first, Tucker was just taking the scene in when a shock went through him. “Ouch! Okay, Church, that fucking stings! Could you maybe lay off? I already know that Caboose is over—“

The energy meter appeared before Tucker’s HUD again and Church appeared on the hill beside him, staring in the opposite direction of Caboose, the Reds, and the general calamity about to unfold. He gripped his sniper rifle like it meant anything. Which, of course, Tucker knew full well that it didn’t.

“That wasn’t about Caboose it was…” Church trailed off. “I’m not seeing anything.”

“Yeah. A ghost with a ghost sniper rifle doesn’t get much more range than just a ghost fucking ghosting it, huh?” Tucker scolded sardonically. “Don’t fucking do that unless it’s necessary. Actually, don’t do it at all! That’s preferable.”

“It is necessary,” Church argued, dropping his gun slightly. “Aren’t you worried about the murderer?”

“The murderer?” Tucker echoed dumbly.

“We weren’t here, Caboose wouldn’t have done it, no way it was one of the Reds,” Church listed off. “Someone killed Sarge recently. And it’s no one we know. But it’s someone who is almost definitely still here. So excuse me if I happen to feel a little more inclined to pay goddamn attention to our surroundings!”

Tucker squinted at Church a bit, but as much as he hated to admit it — and he did hate to admit almost more than he could express — Church was right. Even when Tucker hadn’t been thinking about the who killed Sarge, the who kind of mattered.

A lot.

Then the fucker ruined it by sending another chill through Tucker’s body. “Church! Goddammit! What now!?”

“I apparently have to kick your ass in gear to get you to go save Caboose, too! Jesus, I’m having to do everything,” Church groaned.

“You? It’s my body! Saving Caboose or not is my choice!” Tucker reminded his dead-but-not-so-much friend. “And you’re draining power or something. Cut the light show out.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Church said, a flicker phasing through his image. After a moment, though, he disappeared all the same.

“Jackass,” Tucker seethed.

Fuck face, Church boomed inside his skull.

“YOWEE!!”

Looking to the distance, Tucker saw that Caboose had fallen and rolled into the running stream of water, which had taken care of the fire but left him surrounded by the Reds. And they had their guns drawn and were probably trigger happy because Caboose, even if not a killer, was still very much Caboose.

Putting away his rifle, Tucker unsheathed his sword and raced down the hill, only calling back to his son with a quick, “Junior! Stay back! Daddy’s kicking some ass!”

Of course, that was about the end of Tucker’s planning when it came to paying any recourse forward. So, as per usual, he winged it in true Blue Team fashion.

“Hey! Dickweeds! Back off of my idiot!” Tucker yelled as he bum rushed the four with an alien plasma sword in his hands.

Wow, stirring speech, Church deadpanned.

“That sounds like Tucker! Is it Tucker? I hope it is Tucker. I don’t like Tucker though. I miss Tucker? But I don’t want to see Tucker,” Caboose babbled without even bothering to roll over to his other side and actually see who was coming to his rescue. Typical.

“Tucker, back off, you saw what he did!” Simmons warned.

“Okay, I think you guys are a little too close to the situation to be dealing out vigilante justice. Because you don’t have to like Caboose to know that Caboose didn’t do that,” Tucker argued fiercely. “Caboose kicks landmines into people’s faces or accidentally causes boulders to fall over on people. Or he just has a misfire and team kills. Killing an enemy on purpose? Fucking cold cocking Sarge in a brawl and strangling him to death? That’s not Caboose. It’s too malicious.”

“Are you fucking kidding us?” Grif asked, breathless and putting his hands on his knees.

Tucker looked incredulously at the Red. “How the hell can you be breathless, you literally just moved for the first time while everyone else was chasing Caboose around.”

“Leadership is much harder than grunt work,” Grif snapped.

“Is it has six blockages from the excessive weight?” Tucker asked, earning a well deserved orange middle finger.

“Come on, guys,” Tucker near begged. “We spent all those years and all those crazy adventures together and you’re honestly going to tell me that you can’t see through all this bullshit at least enough to know something about this whole situation stinks. And it’s not Church and not Caboose’s feet. For once.”

There was a passing moment of silence where Simmons and Grif glanced toward one another as if it was the only communication needed.

Tucker wasn’t sure where the situation was going to land them all next. And he was quite a bit nervous to find out.

When no one else on Red Team was making any motions to contest, Lopez stepped up to the other three, his droning voice speaking clearly. Or at least, Tucker assumed it was clearly since he had no idea what the hell he was saying. “No deberíamos escuchar la meant fina. Terminemos con la amenaza Azul de una vez por todas.” He gave a pause that was either dramatic or heartbreaking. “Es lo qui el padre hubiera querido.”

Before any collective breaths could be taken, Donut nodded his head sagely. “You’re right, Lopez. We have been around Tucker long enough to know that he’s got a fairly good head on his shoulder.”

There was an aggravated noise from the robot but apparently even a computer sometimes lacked words for full expression.

“Really?” Simmons questioned skeptically. “I would say we’ve known Tucker long enough to guess the opposite.”

“Exactly my thoughts, Simmons,” Grif huffed.

“Aw, c’mon guys, you sound like you really need a stick up your butts,” Donut offered.

“No. Wrong. That’s… You have to be doing that on purpose!” Simmons argued angrily.

Tucker was ready to weigh in, having formed quite an opinion on Donut’s turns of phrase after spending months with him on missions, when he heard a familiar cooing and clattering behind him. Turning slightly from the Reds, Tucker faced Junior just as the little alien reached the end of the hill and all but crashed into Tucker’s leg. He made some noise and then clutched to Tucker’s armor meaningfully.

“What’s up, little man?” Tucker asked.

“I think I may have an idea,” Church spoke up at long last. Look, he echoed inside of Tucker’s helmet.

Somehow instinctively knowing what direction Church meant, Tucker glanced back to the running stream where Caboose had been marinating before. It hit Tucker all at once that Caboose had been strangely quiet during the arguments and, when Tucker looked, he could see why.

Caboose was nowhere to be seen. But Tucker had a good idea of where he went.

“Stay close to me, Junior,” Tucker ordered his son.

With Red Team bickering like there was no tomorrow, getting past them on heading on his way to the Blue Base was simple enough. And what’s more, like a freaking fantastic father, he reached the end of the path without losing sight on Junior even for a second.

Then that aching electric shutter went down Tucker’s spine, forcing him to stand ramrod straight and look over his shoulder with the hairs on the back of his neck sticking straight up under his armor. “Church, what the fuck?” he asked as he saw nothing.

“What, you can’t see it?” Church asked critically.

Alarmed, Tucker glanced behind him again, looking for anything Church might’ve meant. But as he looked what caught his attention most was the absence of space. Between them and the nearest cliff was a clearing of grass covered in shadow. There didn’t seem to be anything there, but in some way, as the wind blew, the tall grasses split and swayed out of place, out of step with what nature probably intended for them. It was a decent distance, so it very well could have been that Tucker was all just seeing things wrong, but the more he looked, the more he was certain that…

“Tucker!” Church snapped. “Didn’t you hear me? What’re you looking at! Pay attention, I said that the Reds noticed you’re gone so hurry up and get to Caboose.”

For a moment, Tucker looked toward the Reds and, sure enough, had four helmets looking right back as a result.

Still, that didn’t seem right. It didn’t seem like enough.

Looking back to the grass, Tucker no longer saw any such discrepancies and furrowed his brow as a result. “Are… Are you sure that’s what it was?” he began to question.

“Tucker! Get to Caboose already before they start treating themselves like a firing squad,” Church barked out. He then uncharacteristically paused and a wave of nauseating guilt came over Tucker that wasn’t his own. “Maybe that’s just a Sarge thing…”

As if on cue, a shot off from the Reds narrowly missed them, ricocheting off of the side of Blue Base.

“Nope!” Tucker answered before ducking inside with Junior.

Much like the location itself, the inside of the Blue Base was, by far, nicer and more equipped than any location that Tucker could have even dreamed of being in back when they were in Blood Gulch. The halls were long and wide, lit by a continuous set of blue overhead lights built into the ceiling. It would have been impressive if it didn’t give Tucker a strange, sickly feeling in memory of what those same walls and ceiling looked like at Red Base, Sarge down on the floor.

Of course, Red Base didn’t have the sound of tinkering and a big lug muttering nonsense to himself.

“Time to get to the bottom of this,” Tucker grunted, moving forward toward the noises.

Junior, very obediently, stayed in step with Tucker, clinging to him occasionally.

By the time they reached the end of the hall, the low muttering from Caboose had become an almost audible string of nonsense words and humming to himself. It was still unsettling, even if it wasn’t exactly new where Caboose was concerned.

The room itself didn’t seem to be anything definitive, maybe a small office once, but it was completely devoid of furniture now. In fact its only assets beyond the people standing within it apparently amounted to a pile of what Tucker could only leniently refer to as junk, and a few milk carts turned upside down and leaned against the wall where Caboose was concerning himself with work on… on something vaguely resembling a skeletal exosuit like the kind inside the armors of their robots. Well, Church and Tex’s robots.

But the strangest thing was the cocoon shaped device with a bright blue screen at its top and a softening then brightening then softening again glow that seemed to work in rhythm with Caboose’s mumblings.

Still not the strangest thing proximity to Caboose had forced Tucker to witness. But, of course, that was fairly stiff competition.

Tucker knew what Church was going to do before the ghostly apparition even appeared by his side, so he allowed Church to have the floor, as it were.

“Caboose! What the hell! Isn’t that the Epsilon unit? Agent Washington told you to turn that in!” Church’s voice was cracking on weird, out of place intervals. And the more it drew Tucker’s attention the more he realized, rather suddenly, that for some reason Church was sounding that way out of a certain amount of fear.

Glancing back at the device, Tucker wondered if it was, indeed, stranger than he had originally given it credit for.

“Church!?” Caboose piped up, standing straight and alert before he clumsily turned his charred armor in their direction. He nearly leaped at what he saw. “I thought I had heard Church! I knew I did! I didn’t believe you would be dead, Church! I knew you were my best friend and you would never leave me no matter what the angry police officers said! Oh, Church, I am so happy to see you again!”

As the rambling outburst continued, Caboose flung himself forward from his makeshift work bench and toward the illusionary visage Church was forming of himself. This, of course, led to little more than Caboose passing right through Church but Tucker supposed that at the end of the day it was kind of the thought that counted. Maybe?

Church gave an aggravated glance to Tucker, as if the situation could at all be relatable and then turned his attention to Caboose who was swatting his hands through Church. “Hey! Fucking stop it, dude! I’m a ghost, remember?”

“Agent Washington said you were a computer,” Caboose hummed in return, though he did stop.

“He was an idiot. And he tried to get me killed. Good thing for him, he was wrong and as a ghost, I can haunt emails and save myself from suicide missions. Dumb fuck. Told him I was a ghost,” Church waved his hand nonchalantly, but there was still an edge to his words. Some kind of emotion he wasn’t getting through entirely.

“Don’t computers send emails? Not ghosts?” Tucker prodded all the same.

“Quiet,” Church hissed.

“Yeah, Tucker! Shhhhhhhhhhh,” Caboose added, took a large gulping breath, then continued, “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Ignoring Caboose, Tucker turned and squared himself directly with Church. “Okay. So, we’ve found Caboose. He is the exact same as he always was. Shocking. But that also means the Reds were full of shit about him going rogue and killing Sarge. Now what?”

“We figure out why he was stealing shit to begin with,” Church answered. “Hey! Caboose! Why the fuck were you stealing things from Red Base? If you’re the only one here, what more shit could you possibly need and have to take from them?”

Caboose tsked at them both, head shaking. “Why, Church, we are not alone in Blue Base. I have had my friend here the whole time! And I have been telling him all about how I have such good friends, like you! And Agent Washington!”

“And me?” Tucker asked.

Staring back at Tucker, Caboose allowed the room to lapse into long, confused seconds of silence. “Okay. Maybe not about Tucker.”

“What the fuck, I just saved you from getting skewered by the Reds, too. I’m gonna go get them and tell them you did kill Sarge, how about that?” Tucker snapped in return, being supported by protective growls and honks from Junior at his side.

“What friend are you even talking about here, Caboose?” Church demanded.

“Him! My new friend,” Caboose nodded toward the strange device. “Epsilon.”

With the mention of the name, the device glowed brighter and longer than any of the times it had lit up before, a strange humming like the purrs of a cat coming from it as it did so. But the longer the phenomenon went, the more unsettled Tucker’s heart became. Something about the droning hum quickly turned sinister and corrupted. The noise might not have changed in pitch or tone, but the ringing it began to spawn in his ears and the fuzzy way the glow manipulated his vision became nigh unbearable in the moment.

“GAH!” Church cried out loudly, disappearing from Tucker’s side and retreating into an out of rhythm, counter hum into Tucker’s skull.

It was too much, that shocking pain sprung down Tucker’s spine and drove him to his hands and knees in pain.

“Church!” Tucker cried out. It didn’t make any sense, something had changed. Something about Church had changed so that he was so unlike any of the times before in Blood Gulch. He felt heavier and intrusive as he possessed Tucker’s body and mind. It was infuriating and frightening.

But more than anything, in the proximity of Epsilon, it was so damn painful.

“Oh no! Where did Church go?” Caboose asked as another wave of shocked pain hit Tucker, immobilizing him. “The scary man may be back!”

“S-scary? C-Caboose! Wait! I…” Tucker groaned, his teeth beginning to chatter as gave in and flattened on the floor. “Church… what’re you doing to…?”

Oh god. Oh god I’m so sorry. I didn’t remember. I didn’t want it to be like this. Fuck. FUCK. I can stop it hold. Hold on, Tucker. Tucker, just—

Caboose seemed utterly distracted, mumbling something that made no sense to Tucker. Junior was panicked, by Tucker’s side and shaking Tucker by the shoulder as much as possible. His clattering teeth and growing concern was as heartbreaking as they were pride inducing.

“Okay! I will keep him away until Church is safe!” Caboose declared nonsensically. “It is a thing that the best of friends do for friends! And Church — both you Churches — are my friends! Promise. Pinkies. Forever.”

“Wait, Caboose… What the fuck are you…” Tucker groaned, reaching up and grabbing the sides of his helmet as if to keep it and, in turn, his skull from splitting in two. “Caboose…”

Without further word, Caboose shoved the weird device into Junior’s hands and then took off down the hallway they had entered from. He was giving no indication of what was happening, or what he thought was happening outside of the room. He just left them, alone, and Tucker feeling like his own brains were threatening to leave his skull.

“Church,” Tucker managed to get out in a whine as his vision became spotted and more blurry.

Tucker, I’m sorry, Church repeated. I think I’m causing this.

“No… shit,” Tucker wheezed before falling unconscious entirely.

[sevendeadlysinsguide-blog]

The Seven Deadly Sins Cheats

The Seven Deadly Sins Guide

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But, i did note that a number of the greater lewd moments of the anime's story have been toned down here, but now not via much. - had a terrible name inside the beyond with costumes (knights chronicles) however its not as bad as the previous games due to the fact you could purchase with in recreation forex in this sport and it doesnt supply talent changes like kc - you could get costumes by using giving them friendship factors (food or beer), growing their degree cap and pvp save. - costumes cost 20 bucks (complete set) however may be sold for 90 gems (full set ur dress) 60 gem (full set ssr dress) 30 gem (complete set rare costume) there has been a time in which a few heroes were paywalled for occasions within the beyond however they were constant very quickly in a span of two-four weeks and im positive worldwide wont get the equal troubles as kr/jp considering the fact that they recognise their errors.gamers are in livestreams installation via netmarble (pinnacle gamers in kr/jp) and that they actively talk about the game problems so they devs understand the troubles. Once more, this is shockingly detailed for what is a free to play mobile recreation. And the visible clarity is present in battles, where all of the attack animations appearance terrific, for all of the protected 62 gacha characters you can gather. Unique assaults appearance marvellous, and that they maintain looking better as you combine and enhance attacks in battle. It follows a card-based warfare gadget, in which you draw moves and may execute one card - or pass cards to your hand - for every individual of yours on the field. For now anyway. Dupes are treated here in a way i not often see in gacha games. You could use them in greater then one way. One way is to use them in a special change characteristic in which you exchange more than one copies of we could say meliodas and get the cursed meliodas (currently the top unit to go for). The second one is used to improve the gadgets unique assault card. I honestly could move on and on for hours, however a touch tip from me is to save up top rate currency for destiny banners and also keep up ssr tickets considering they may be needed for the first rate rare ssr trades. Each character of this game is rendered in ar as well as numerous easter eggs are in the sport for players to find. Additionally, the use of the digital camera is an elective element of this recreation. If one lets in the camera to get admission to the sport, then he/she can take pics with different ar characters of The Seven Deadly Sins mod. Those are a number of the capabilities which made this game more appealing for human beings. Apart from it, the sport modes and extraordinary characters and more make it one of the high-quality rpg cellular video games thus far. The adventure to exchange the destiny of the sector of meliodas, elizabeth and the alternative individuals of 7 lethal sins are waiting for you. It's tough to discover the answer in case you don't download this sport and be a part of on the adventure. We've got placed cookies for your tool to assist make this website better. You could modify your cookie settings, in any other case we will count on you're okay to keep. Privateness policy - recommendations every utility hosted on xdroidapps has age regulations. Encouraged age for The Seven Deadly Sins mod is three+ years. Find your very own strategy to win! A logo-new turn-based rpg! A unique approach to fight! A strategic fight system using ability synthesis. Abilities with the equal megastar rank improve to a higher rank when they may be subsequent to each different! Sense the joys of battle with every flip in the dynamic combat device. Combine playing cards and use them to cause an ""remaining move"" to decimate warring parties! Create your personal approach with the aid of combining the unique talents of [The Seven Deadly Sins] characters. The authentic international recreated in element - the lively story superbly reborn! With that during mind, i've determined to write a "review" of types in an try to paint a more entire photo for the oldsters right here at r/gachagaming that might be interested in the game. I'll attempt to cowl the fundamentals of the gameplay so that you may be on par with what i am explaining, but i might not pass over maximum stuff that you can discover in video photos. In sds, you play with a party of 3 units + 1 sub unit (that replaces a fallen ally) to tackle most people of the game's content material, with a few special locations allowing you to apply all 4 gadgets in play atonce. The main gameplay in grand cross is simple to a fault. Each character in your team comes with a small number of abilities that can be used to attack or combined into more powerful versions of those attacks. These ultimate moves are often performed with lots of flourish and flair, but still leave players just going through the motions. And even though the game has a massive roster of characters to collect and use, the truth is that once you have a couple of particularly strong characters, there's never really much reason to switch out.

[cookinguptales]

Coming off the post I wrote yesterday about the expenses involved with day-to-day living when you’re disabled, I just wanted to expand a little more on a subject I treated quickly in that essay.

So here’s the thing. There are a lot of factors together that encourage poverty amongst PWD, and you could probably write an entire book on the way things intersect. I’m not here to do that. But I am here to talk a little bit about some of the problems PWD come up against when they want to enter the workforce.

To preface this, some PWD really are too disabled to work and I’m not here to shame them. I’m deeply skeptical of our culture’s association of “able to do work in a capitalistic society” with “being a good person”. The whole working PWD/”sponge” PWD is a bad dichotomy. That said, I want to talk about some barriers PWD find when they are able to work and looking for jobs.

First of all, think about entry-level work. Just in general. What skills do we associate with entry-level work? With customer service and retail and interning and secretarial work? The people working food service who need to stand for several hours a day, read printed receipts, carry food, interact with coworkers and customers who most likely don’t sign? With jobs in grocery stores bagging food or restocking heavy items? With answering phones for mega-businesses? Entry-level work is grunt work. Baby’s first job is generally grunt work. It requires skills like standing and running and hearing and talking and seeing and the ability to do heavy lifting. Often, you have to do all of the above.

What I’m getting at is this -- culturally speaking, we’ve decided that people must do a certain kind of job when first entering the workforce, and those are often jobs that people with many disabilities just can’t do. Moreover, when people advertising for those jobs can choose between able-bodied applicants and disabled applicants they’ll need to make accommodations for, guess who gets picked?

This isn’t to say that all PWD can’t do these jobs -- and it isn’t to say that even more PWD couldn’t do these jobs if workplaces utilized creative solutions to encourage better accommodations. But I am saying that a certain level of work, typically the ground level, is rooted in physical ability. And if you can’t get in at the ground level, it’s much, much harder to enter the workplace.

Okay, you say, so what about higher levels? It’s easier to get a job doing data entry or something if you’ve had entry-level summer jobs, but if you’re educated and have skills, you can get jobs that better suit your disability. That’s very true! And not at all helpful to many PWD. I could write an entire post (and probably will one day) about how difficult it is for many PWD to get a quality education. Telling a disabled person to just get a degree then work displays privilege on multiple levels; not only is it assuming that it is possible for this person to get a degree, but it is assuming that they can afford to not work while they’re attaining it. Considering the unique costs associated with being disabled, there’s a pretty strong likelihood they can’t do that. (Hell, many able-bodied people can’t, either. See: why unpaid internships are worsening economic inequality.)

Inability to do grunt work paired with the difficulty of getting a degree really puts a lot of PWD between a rock and a hard place. It can feel like there are so many barriers to even finding a job you can do (and are qualified for) that you’re exhausted before you even have to contend with discrimination in the hiring process. And believe me, that shit’s a thing. A job that’s the best fit in the world for you won’t work out of the boss doesn’t want to deal with your disability. Maybe they don’t want to find you an accessible bathroom. Maybe they don’t want to restructure so they can work around your needs. Maybe they don’t believe disabled people are dependable or that you can actually do the work. Maybe they just think your body is kind of creepy. There are all sorts of reasons why an employer won’t hire a PWD, and they all come with plausible deniability. It’s simply easier to hire someone able-bodied. And in this job market, you’re almost always competing with someone able-bodied.

But okay, sure. Let’s say that you’ve found a job. Cool! Did you know it’s legal to pay PWD well below minimum wage? Because that’s a thing! The law itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it’s really designed to work with social safety nets so PWD don’t lose the benefits they need. Simply put, there are a lot of programs certain PWD no longer qualify for if they get a well-paying job. Okay, fine. That doesn’t mean that companies don’t occasionally take advantage of this legal loophole to underpay PWD who do the same work as anyone else and need the same paychecks as anyone else. Honestly, the whole situation is just one more worry.

So okay, it’s hard for PWD to work. Frankly, you probably knew that before you even started reading this essay. Why does this matter? Well, lots of reasons. There’s the aforementioned association that we have between capitalistic function and worth as a human. That’s gonna fuck you up if you can’t work. There’s the really horrible “benefits scrounge” stereotype that follows PWD around and that has led to hate and violence. There’s the fact that even getting those benefits is extraordinarily difficult and they’re often not enough to live on. (Particularly if someone also requires expensive medication/surgeries/assistive devices, etc.) So even just on the basic level, you can barely feed yourself and you hate yourself.

The wider level, though, that’s the even shittier one. I’ve talked about the terrifying effects of silence and isolationism on PWD safety, psyche, and rights before, and the inability of many PWD to get jobs and/or education really worsens this. It often means that PWD are locked up in their house bc they can’t afford to leave it. That they don’t get regular socialization with coworkers. That they can’t afford to keep up with news and history and activism. They may be financially dependent on family/caregivers that abuse them. The inability to interact with the world and provide for themselves means that PWD aren’t entering into positions of authority, which means it’s harder to fight to end abuses of our rights and change societal views towards the disabled. This isolation is keeping our voices from reaching each other and the outside world, and historically speaking, that shit’s never been safe.

(And don’t be one of those pricks on Twitter who come at me like BUT FDR THO!! FDR purposefully hid his illness as much as physically possible specifically because he knew it’d make his political life harder! Most voters didn’t even know he was legit disabled when he was voted in! You can use him to argue that disabled people can be president, but not that there aren’t societal barriers for people who can’t hide their disabilities.)

Like I could tell you stories about my own experiences with employment/education that would make your hair curl. The constant day-in-day-out fight is exhausting. That’s why I would at the very least like to bring some attention to some of these struggles. Able-bodied people still often have this Hallmark Channel idea that PWD can and will do ~anything~, so they don’t recognize our daily battles we have to fight to do...well, anything. I want to shine a spotlight on the problems PWD face because I want our efforts to be recognized and our struggles to be alleviated.

Thank you.

[seoekspert991-blog]

15 Up-and-coming Trends About Markedsføring På Nett

Thinking About Lead Generation? Read This Post Now!

There isn't much that tops rate of interests for old and new business owners than list building. Your service will not survive long term without new leads. The complying with short article has valuable pointers.

Lead generation isn't simply about e-mails, ads, as well as social media. This is one of the most effective methods of producing leads.

Be much more active on niche-relevant forums and also conversation boards to create easy leads. If you hang out where customers ask questions, you can gather trust fund, brand yourself and also be a best source for them. Not only will they value your support, they will certainly also probably see your website for even more information or to make acquisitions!

Getting leads that are real will certainly occur more usually when people understand they can trust you. Make sure the advertisements have facts in them and also how the service can profit people.

Do not pre-judge your lead gathering technique. Though you might think you are not going to get wonderful outcomes, or you are overly positive regarding the success, you can not make certain. The only way to know if your list building is working is to place it right into action without preconceived notions about results.

It is not tough to get so involved in purchasing or obtaining leads in various other manners that you fail to remember that some of your leads may be duplicates. Be sure that you have a target number of leads in mind so that you can make sure they're all various.

Search engine optimization can take awhile to get going, as can other list building techniques. While they are the very best, as well as while some specialists saying buying leads is a bad idea, it's not constantly the situation. Purchasing leads from a relied on resource within your niche can in fact be very advantageous.

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Take into consideration offering to assist construct leads. Pick a group which somehow connects to your particular niche, such as Cub Scouts if you are a dentist or a French club if you take place to be a tutor. Volunteering programs you have a great spirit and also can aid develop a favorable track record.

If you have youngsters in institution, trade referrals with various other http://edition.cnn.com/search/?text=Effektiv Marketing parents. For example, if your youngster is in karate classes, speak with the parents there and ask them what they provide for a living. If you can trade recommendations for every other, you could simply start seeing some leads are available in.

Material that drums up genuine visitor passion can produce significant leads. You don't finish up shedding clients when getting their interest.

Rewards are a killer means to generate brand-new leads. Whether it is a discount coupon, bonus offer present or access into a free gift, using something extra to those that buy from you can actually drive your client procurement. Be sure to just utilize this technique for those that would not end up being a lead or else otherwise you'll be shedding cash.

It does not matter if its typical marketing, Effektiv Marketing Google Ekspert email advertising or social media marketing - you require a strong call-to-action to create leads. You aren't at all developing the opportunity for creating leads.

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Make sure to sign up with blogs, teams as well as Effektiv Marketing Solutions Markedsføring på nett discussion forums online which fit your specific niche and get involved daily. Include a link to your website in your signature to make sure that others can follow you and also what you do. As long as you remain specialist and provide your proficiency, you'll discover Søkemotormarkedsføring Effektiv Marketing Solutions leads are generated.

Discover regional online forums and blog sites to discuss. Share your experience, also review local events or your preferred dining establishments, and then include a phone call to action as well as your web link in your trademark. Just bear in mind to have a persona which is confident and also expert, do not shed bridges in your community!

If you are honestly thinking about organisation growth, then understanding concerning lead generation is essential. Without the ability to locate new resources of company on a regular basis, the future of any kind of undertaking will doubt at best. The pointers over ought to assist any kind of business driver or owner.

[operationrainfall]

By all rights, I’m the last person at oprainfall that should be covering Code Shifter. Not cause of any existing bias against the game or team behind it, but because I am woefully inexperienced with the library of Arc System Works and Technos. I know who they are, but don’t have much experience actually playing their titles myself. I haven’t played any BlazBlue titles, nor Guilty Gear, and haven’t touched a River City game. Hell, the only games in the vast roster I have firsthand familiarity with are Double Dragon and RADIO HAMMER STATION. So you may be asking – why am I writing up Code Shifter? The reason for that is the same reason this piece is so late. I tried in vain to find another taker at the oprainfall site, and had no luck. So it ended up in my hands. Thankfully, though I’m not experienced with Arc System Works, I am an old hand at platformers. So let’s see if this plucky platformer made a convert out of me.

The first thing about Code Shifter that stuck out to me was the candy colored aesthetic style. It’s an attractive game that almost has a Pixar vibe to everything. You play Stella, a programmer that made the titular program, Code Shifter, in order to debug viruses. When you’re trashing viruses, your avatar is a powerful hero named Sera. She’s able to double jump, slash and generally bounce around each stage with impunity. At first I really liked how quickly Sera could get around, but I soon discovered her fatal flaw – Sera is about as physically intimidating as a bag of kittens. That’s not to say she can’t deal with foes, but rather that it takes plenty of rapid fire combos to deal with most serious threats. Thankfully, there’s another option to combating foes – transforming into hero codes you find in stages. These are pixelated representatives from many games from the Arc System Works library, and I recognized a few of them. They’re delightfully old school, and most of them pack a much more powerful punch than Sera. So letting her utilize them does help with her general weakness somewhat. Hero codes also can manipulate the environment a few ways. Some can trigger electrical devices and others can break boxes. This is actually indicated by the icon next to their name, a handy feature I discovered about an hour into my experience.

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Other than using the power of hero codes, Sera can also equip skills before taking on a stage. You get these by beating any given stage with an S rank, which is a lot harder than I expected. You essentially have to beat a stage as quickly as possible while taking very little damage. If you lose one life, the best score you can get is an A. I actually found myself wishing that a score of A could provide one Skill, and a score of S could get another. But unfortunately that’s not how this system works. You can get more skill parts by beating stages on higher difficulties, but frankly Code Shifter is plenty challenging on Normal. What frustrated me most about skills is that most make a very slight difference to your stats. Many of them do things like increase attack power or jump range, but to a minuscule degree. They’ll boost you, but only by like 5%. And honestly, it’s hard to comprehend how much of a difference these boosts actually make. The skills that helped me the most were ones that enhanced my loadout of available hero codes, since initially you can only hold one at a time.

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Another factor that can help you a bit are hero assists. These are ones you summon to the field for a variety of effects, from dealing damage to boosting Sera’s stats to healing you. This is cool, but the cooldown to use them again made them a feature I typically ignored, especially during boss fights. Overall the combat in Code Shifter is fine, but it lacks finesse. Sera has no dodge or block move, which makes most battles a frenetic scramble with enemies trying their best to stampede you. This is problematic when you’re transformed into a larger hero code, which makes you a perfect damage sponge. Another issue is that when you lose a life, you’ll lose all your hero codes with it, other than assist summons. And though I appreciate how the game displays Sera’s moveset from the pause menu, along with assist abilities, I found it odd hero codes you directly control don’t display their movesets anywhere. It’s really too bad, cause there’s a lot of speed and flexibility to the combat in the game. It just lacks the tightness and balance of a truly great example of the genre.

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Besides the basic combat, there’s a mini game in Code Shifter. It’s called Colorful Fighters, and it features tons of pixelated reps from Arc System Works games. You start out with a handful, and can unlock more by beating EX stages. I like that in theory, but to do so you have to defeat demonic versions of the characters first, and they’re frankly more difficult than the regular bosses in the game. I managed to beat one, but since that stage featured a couple and required me to beat both to unlock either, I’m still working on making serious progress. Thankfully you can play with just the default characters, and Colorful Fighters is a chaotic scramble. It is 4 v 4 insanity, and it’s like a manic Smash Bros. I can’t say there’s much strategy to it, but it’s a fun diversion.

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Now, despite my issues with the combat, I did find Code Shifter a moderately fun experience. There’s actually even a halfway decent plot here that might go someplace interesting. It’s all about a company getting a new game ready to launch when suspicious viruses start delaying progress. I’m not sure if this indicates an industrial espionage angle or what, but it’s fun watching things progress with Stella and her coworkers. The only downside is how they all speak. They sound like horny metal squirrels copulating. Normally I don’t mind gibberish talk in games, and have enjoyed it in Banjo-Kazooie and the SteamWorld games. But here it’s super irritating. Also annoying is moving about the office. It’s really easy to bump into invisible geometry and get stuck. Luckily you can pause to select a location you want Stella to move, and thus have her go there instantly.

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Despite issues with combat, the platforming is actually pretty fun in Code Shifter. It’s basic, but there’s some tricky maps to navigate as you hunt for viruses to slay. The game makes use of disappearing platforms, warps, air vents and more to keep things interesting. And most areas don’t overstay their welcome, only featuring a handful of story stages and optional EX ones. Again, the big issue I ran into was how unbalanced and loose combat felt. Especially since the game inexplicably forces you to use the joystick to move around, instead of allowing that and D-Pad. Which is odd, since you can use the D-Pad to navigate sub menus. Altogether this made challenging parts of the game a real slog. I almost gave up entirely at one miniboss, who kept spamming a revolving shield. Eventually I got past it with a summon assist, but the lack of clear strategic options in the game doesn’t help matters. It’s never clear which heroes you should keep and which you should toss aside, other than ones you need for getting to the stage exit. And while I wish I could say I loved the bosses I’ve faced, they were just as awkward as the rest of the combat. On the plus side, the visual flair of the game is nice and the music is better. Each hero code you play as has an accompanying soundtrack, and that really livens things up.

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Sadly Code Shifter didn’t quite pass muster with me, though it did make me curious about exploring more Arc System Works titles. There was a lot of potential here, but the ideas didn’t quite mesh enough for it to make a deeper impact. But if you’re a fan of platformers and want something different, Code Shifter might be for you. Especially since it’s available on many consoles. For everyone else, this one might not be worth your time.

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IMPRESSIONS: Code Shifter By all rights, I'm the last person at oprainfall that should be covering Code Shifter. Not cause of any existing bias against the game or team behind it, but because I am woefully inexperienced with the library of Arc System Works and Technos.

[asfeedin]

Google Pixel Buds 2 Review: New Design, Better Sound

Google Pixel Buds 2 review-in-progress: New design, better sound

“Google’s newest Pixel Buds pack a big boost in audio quality.”

Streamlined setup

Attractive look

Excellent voice integration

Useful features

Average battery life

No noise cancellation technology

This is a review-in-progress. We’ll update this review after spending a few more days with Google’s new Pixel Buds.

It was only a matter of time before Google brought its first real contender into the arena of true wireless earbuds. Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long.

Google released its second-generation Pixel Buds today, a $179 pair of earbuds that scraps the wire that tethered together the originals, and adds new design elements and tons of features. While I haven’t had enough time with the Pixel Buds for a full review, I have listened long enough to have some thoughts.

Out of the Box

The packaging for the Pixel Buds — which are technically the Pixel Buds 2, but I’ll use Google’s official name for them throughout this review — is tiny, white, and adorned with different images of the buds themselves. Inside are the buds, resting inside a wireless charging case, as well as extra eartips, a USB-C charging cable, and the appropriate documentation.

Nick Woodard/Digital Trends

Normally, I unpack everything, check out the product briefly, then take a glance at the quick start guide to see if there are any set-up quirks to adhere to. But with the Pixel Buds, I never opened the booklet.

As I was pulling the first bud out of the case, a notification appeared on my Pixel 2 smartphone prompting me to pair with the buds. A second prompt followed, instructing me to download the accompanying app, and the rest of the set-up process was set in motion from there.

That’s all thanks to Google’s Fast Pair on Android feature, allowing you to immediately pair your Pixel or Android 6.0+ device with the earbuds. I’ll be the first to admit that most earbud setups are relatively easy, but this was as simple and streamlined as it gets, and more in line with how Apple’s AirPods work.

The original buds, which were $20 cheaper at their initial release, had their fair share of connectivity issues. It’s a small sample size, but I have not experienced any such snags in my time using the new Pixel Buds, which are outfitted with Bluetooth 5 technology.

Design

The Pixel Buds are not the smallest earbuds in the game (at 5.3 grams, they outweigh the Apple AirPods by over a gram each), but they aren’t the heaviest, either — both the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ and Amazon Echo Buds weigh more. They’re right in the wheelhouse, which is all we can ask of most earbuds these days.

Nick Woodard/Digital Trends

It’s the Pixel Buds’ actual design, however, that has me the most intrigued. The original Pixel Buds, from our perspective, were loose-fitting and though they never fell out, they did not create the seal in your ear canal that’s important for noise isolation. Google listened, and created a pair that sits nearly flush with your ears, providing a much more secure feel. I managed to fit in a five-mile run in my first few hours with the buds, and had no problems with them shifting in transit.

The Pixel Buds will only be available in their cutely named Clearly White color at launch, but will follow that with Almost Black, Quite Mint, and Oh So Orange options. The charging case more closely resembles an egg than the pill-shaped carriers Samsung and others have adopted. It’s also heavier than every case except the Echo Buds, but still pocket friendly.

Features

At first look, the Pixel Buds’ set of features remind me of a classic power hitter in baseball. They’re going to hit some doubles and homers if you can tolerate a whiff here and there.

Nick Woodard/Digital Trends

Double: An IPX4 weatherproof rating, giving them protection against splashes and sweat. You will not want to submerge them, but the Pixel Buds should be plenty workout proof.

Homerun: The Pixel Buds are the first Google Assistant hotword-enabled earbuds, meaning all you have to do is say “Hey Google,” or “OK Google” to have your own voice assistant at your service. This is not new in the industry, of course, with Amazon and Apple ahead of the curve in that regard. But Google has made it effortless to use, to the point where I preferred asking Google to change a track or turn the volume up over the built-in gesture commands on the bud. Those are simple enough to use, but there is something more appealing about controlling the buds hands-free.

Swing, and a miss: The Pixel Buds have five hours of battery life in a single charge. Which, to be fair, is on par with the Apple AirPods and Amazon Echo Buds. But five hours just isn’t much anymore, not when the Samsung Galaxy Buds+ set the benchmark with 11 hours of playback time. With the included charging case, which is QI-certified and can wirelessly charge on any compatible charger, the Pixel Buds have a respectable 24 hours of total battery life.

Double: The return of Google Translate, through either Conversation Mode with Google Assistant or the Google Translate app. The feature was a highlight of the first-generation Pixel Buds, and it remains a fun tool to translate the words you or others speak into different languages. It’s a perk that not everyone will utilize, but remains nice to call upon if needed. The same goes for the ability to ask Google directly how to get somewhere or get notifications read to you from essentially any app on your device. Not totally needed, but neat.

Struck out looking: Google opted against adding noise-cancellation technology into their second-generation buds, and I think that’s a missed opportunity. Sure, the fit is much better this time around, making passive noise reduction possible. And yes, Apple’s second-gen AirPods don’t carry that feature either, at $20 more. But the Amazon Echo Buds did it, and they retail for $50 less than the Pixel Buds. It’s not detrimental that the Pixel Buds don’t have noise cancellation, but if they really wanted to make a power move in the true wireless earbuds category, that would have been the way to do it.

Audio Quality

As I began listening to the Pixel Buds, I wanted to be sure of what I was hearing. So, I passed them to my partner, replayed the Brothers Osborne track I had just auditioned (Love the Lonely Out of You), and asked her for a description of the sound.

Nick Woodard/Digital Trends

She took the exact word I was thinking of — crisp. The Pixel Buds have custom 12mm dynamic speaker drivers and what Google describes as a “hybrid acoustic design” where the eartips aim to seal outside noise, but spatial vents reduce the “plugged-ear feeling.” The result is, ahem, music to your ears.

I’ll need a few more hours with these before I can justify comparing them to any of the top competitors I’ve been mentioning. And they’re definitely not on par with something like the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 2, but then again, who is? All that aside, I can definitely say that the Pixel Buds have improved leaps and bounds from the sound of the first version, which was “just fine,” as we put it. The low end is present but not overbearing, the vocals are clear as day, and the mid-range is well-balanced.

Nick Woodard/Digital Trends

There’s no equalizer in the Pixel Buds app, but I likely wouldn’t use it even if there was. Songs like The Wood Brothers’ Luckiest Man were a treat, giving me the sense that I could hear the strings behind each individual note. Google also suggested listening to some 8D content on YouTube, where existing songs are re-produced to sound like they’re moving around the listener. It’s not music specific to the Pixel Buds, but it helps to have solid sounding buds recreate Freddie Mercury’s legendary vocals dancing back and forth across your head.

The few calls I’ve made were clear, with those on the other end of the conversation remarking that I sounded better than I had when trying out other buds. The Pixel Buds have a pair of beamforming microphones designed to focus on your voice, in order to be heard in louder conditions or when you’re on the move. It has been a limited experience so far, but so far so good.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the Adaptive Sound feature in the Pixel Buds. The same way you can let your phone automatically adjust the brightness depending on the environment, Google gives you the option of letting the Pixel Buds adjust the volume based on where you are. It’s subtle, but it’s supposed to be, and I found it to work well when moving outside the house and on to a busier roadway.

Conclusion

The Pixel Buds are filled to the brim with features, though to access the best of them, you’ll need to be at least partially invested in the Google/Android ecosystem. They greatly improved the design and audio quality from the originals but equipped the newest version with just average battery life, and left out noise-canceling abilities.

I’ll revisit this review after more time with these buds. For now, Google’s Pixel Buds made some major adjustments, and because of that might just be the best Android-centric earbuds you can get right now. But they’ve left room to grow. In today’s fast-moving true wireless world, maybe too much room.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Tags: 2, Buds, design, Google, Pixel, Review, Sound

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[technicalsolutions88]

It’s true, you’ve got the Galaxy Note to thank for your big phone. When the device hit the scene at IFA 2011, large screens were still a punchline. That same year, Steve Jobs famously joked about phones with screens larger than four inches, telling a crowd of reporters, “nobody’s going to buy that.”

In 2019, the average screen size hovers around 5.5 inches. That’s a touch larger than the original Note’s 5.3 inches — a size that was pretty widely mocked by much of the industry press at the time. Of course, much of the mainstreaming of larger phones comes courtesy of a much improved screen to body ratio, another place where Samsung has continued to lead the way.

In some sense, the Note has been doomed by its own success. As the rest of the industry caught up, the line blended into the background. Samsung didn’t do the product any favors by dropping the pretense of distinction between the Note and its Galaxy S line.

Ultimately, the two products served as an opportunity to have a six-month refresh cycle for its flagships. Samsung, of course, has been hit with the same sort of malaise as the rest of the industry. The smartphone market isn’t the unstoppable machine it appeared to be two or three years back.

Like the rest of the industry, the company painted itself into a corner with the smartphone race, creating flagships good enough to convince users to hold onto them for an extra year or two, greatly slowing the upgrade cycle in the process. Ever-inflating prices have also been a part of smartphone sales stagnation — something Samsung and the Note are as guilty of as any.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note gets even larger (and smaller)

So what’s a poor smartphone manufacturer to do? The Note 10 represents baby steps. As it did with the S line recently, Samsung is now offering two models. The base Note 10 represents a rare step backward in terms of screen size, shrinking down slightly from 6.4 to 6.3 inches, while reducing resolution from Quad HD to Full HD.

The seemingly regressive step lets Samsung come in a bit under last year’s jaw dropping $1,000. The new Note is only $50 cheaper, but moving from four to three figures may have a positive psychological effect for wary buyers. While the slightly smaller screen coupled with a better screen to body ratio means a device that’s surprisingly slim.

If anything, the Note 10+ feels like the true successor to the Note line. The baseline device could have just as well been labeled the Note 10 Lite. That’s something Samsung is keenly aware of, as it targets first-time Note users with the 10 and true believers with the 10+. In both cases, Samsung is faced with the same task as the rest of the industry: offering a compelling reason for users to upgrade.

Earlier this week, a Note 9 owner asked me whether the new device warrants an upgrade. The answer is, of course, no. The pace of smartphone innovation has slowed, even as prices have risen. Honestly, the 10 doesn’t really offer that many compelling reasons to upgrade from the Note 8.

That’s not a slight against Samsung or the Note, per se. If anything, it’s a reflection on the fact that these phones are quite good — and have been for a while. Anecdotally, industry excitement around these devices has been tapering for a while now, and the device’s launch in the midst of the doldrums of August likely didn’t help much.

[gallery ids="1865978,1865980,1865979,1865983,1865982,1865990,1866000,1866005,1866004"]

The past few years have seen smartphones transform from coveted, bleeding-edge luxury to necessity. The good news to that end, however, is that the Note continues to be among the best devices out there.

The common refrain in the earliest days of the phablet was the inability to wrap one’s fingers around the device. It’s a pragmatic issue. Certainly you don’t want to use a phone day to day that’s impossible to hold. But Samsung’s remarkable job of improving screen to body ratio continues here. In fact, the 6.8-inch Note 10+ has roughly the same footprint as the 6.4-inch Note 9.

The issue will still persist for those with smaller hands — though thankfully Samsung’s got a solution for them in the Note 10. For the rest of us, the Note 10+ is easily held in one hand and slipped in and out of pants pockets. I realize these seem like weird things to say at this point, but I assure you they were legitimate concerns in the earliest days of the phablet, when these things were giant hunks of plastic and glass.

Samsung’s curved display once again does much of the heavy lifting here, allowing the screen to stretch nearly from side to side with only a little bezel at the edge. Up top is a hole-punch camera — that’s “Infinity O” to you. Those with keen eyes no doubt immediately noticed that Samsung has dropped the dual selfie camera here, moving toward the more popular hole-punch camera.

The company’s reasoning for this was both aesthetic and, apparently, practical. The company moved back down to a single camera for the front (10 megapixel), using similar reasoning as Google’s single rear-facing camera on the Pixel: software has greatly improved what companies can do with a single lens. That’s certainly the case to a degree, and a strong case can be made for the selfie camera, which we generally require less of than the rear-facing array.

The company’s gone increasingly minimalist with the design language — something I appreciate. Over the years, as the smartphone has increasingly become a day to day utility, the product’s design has increasingly gotten out of its own way. The front and back are both made of a curved Gorilla Glass that butts up against a thin metal form with a total thickness of 7.9 millimeters.

On certain smooth surfaces like glass, you’ll occasionally find the device gliding slightly. I’d say the chances of dropping it are pretty decent with its frictionless design language, so you’re going to want to get a case for your $1,000 phone. Before you do, admire that color scheme on the back. There are four choices in all. Like the rest of the press, we ended up with Aura Glow.

It features a lovely, prismatic effect when light hits it. It’s proven a bit tricky to photograph, honestly. It’s also a fingerprint magnet, but these are the prices we pay to have the prettiest phone on the block.

One of the interesting footnotes here is how much the design of the 10 will be defined by what the device lost. There are two missing pieces here — both of which are a kind of concession from Samsung for different reasons. And for different reasons, both feel inevitable.

The headphone jack is, of course, the biggie. Samsung kicked and screamed on that one, holding onto the 3.5mm with dear life and roundly mocking the competition (read: Apple) at every turn. The company must have known it was a matter of time, even before the iPhone dropped the port three years ago.

Courage.

Samsung glossed over the end of the jack (and apparently unlisted its Apple-mocking ads in the process) during the Note’s launch event. It was a stark contrast from a briefing we got around the device’s announcement, where the company’s reps spent significantly more time justifying the move. They know us well enough to know that we’d spend a little time taking the piss out of the company after three years of it making the once ubiquitous port a feature. All’s fair in love and port. And honestly, it was mostly just some good-natured ribbing. Welcome to the club, Samsung.

The headphone jack dies not with a bang, but a Note

As for why Samsung did it now, the answer seems to be two-fold. The first is a kind of critical mass in Bluetooth headset usage. Allow me to quote myself from a few weeks back:

The tipping point, it says, came when its internal metrics showed that a majority of users on its flagship devices (the S and Note lines) moved to Bluetooth streaming. The company says the number is now in excess of 70% of users.

Also, as we’re all abundantly aware, the company put its big battery ambitions on hold for a bit, as it dealt with…more burning problems. A couple of recalls, a humble press release and an eight-point battery check later, and batteries are getting bigger again. There’s a 3,500mAh on the Note 10 and a 4,300mAh on the 10+. I’m happy to report that the latter got me through a full day plus three hours on a charge. Not bad, given all of the music and videos I subjected it to in that time.

There’s no USB-C dongle in-box. The rumors got that one wrong. You can pick up a Samsung-branded adapter for $15, or get one for much cheaper elsewhere. There is, however, a pair of AKG USB-C headphones in-box. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Samsung doesn’t get enough credit for its free headphones. I’ve been known to use the pairs with other devices. They’re not the greatest the world, but they’re better sounding and more comfortable than what a lot of other companies offer in-box.

Obviously the standard no headphone jack things apply here. You can’t use the wired headphones and charge at the same time (unless you go wireless). You know the deal.

The other missing piece here is the Bixby button. I’m sure there are a handful of folks out there who will bemoan its loss, but that’s almost certainly a minority of the minority here. Since the button was first introduced, folks were asking for the ability to remap it. Samsung finally relented on that front, and with the Note 10, it drops the button altogether.

Thus far the smart assistant has been a disappointment. That’s due in no small part to a late launch compared to the likes of Siri, Alexa and Assistant, coupled with a general lack of capability at launch. In Samsung’s defense, the company’s been working to fix that with some pretty massive investment and a big push to court developers. There’s hope for Bixby yet, but a majority of users weren’t eager to have the assistant thrust upon them.

Instead, the power button has been shifted to the left of the device, just under the volume rocker. I preferred having it on the other side, especially for certain functions like screenshotting (something, granted, I do much more than the average user when reviewing a phone). That’s a pretty small quibble, of course.

Bixby can now be quickly accessed by holding down the power button. Handily, Samsung still lets you reassign the function there, if you really want Bixby out of your life. You can also hold down to get the power off menu or double press to launch Bixby or a third-party app (I opted for Spotify, probably my most used these days), though not a different assistant.

Imaging, meanwhile, is something Samsung’s been doing for a long time. The past several generations of S and Note devices have had great camera systems, and it continues to be the main point of improvement. It’s also one of few points of distinction between the 10 and 10+, aside from size.

The Note 10+ has four, count ’em, four rear-facing cameras. They are as follows:

Ultra Wide: 16 megapixel

Wide: 12 megapixel

Telephoto: 12 megapixel

DepthVision

That last one is only on the plus. It’s comprised of two little circles to the right of the primary camera array and just below the flash. We’ll get to that in a second.

The main camera array continues to be one of the best in mobile. The inclusion of telephoto and ultra-wide lenses allow for a wide range of different shots, and the hardware coupled with machine learning makes it a lot more difficult to take a bad photo (though believe me, it’s still possible).

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The live focus feature (Portrait mode, essentially) comes to video, with four different filters, including Color Point, which makes everything but the subject black and white.

Samsung’s also brought a very simple video editor into the mix here, which is nice on the fly. You can edit the length of clips, splice in other clips, add subtitles and captions and add filters and music. It’s pretty beefy for something baked directly into the camera app, and one of the better uses I’ve found for the S Pen.

Note 10+ with Super Steady (left), iPhone XS (right)

Ditto for the improved Super Steady offering, which smooths out shaky video, including Hyperlapse mode, where handshakes are a big issue. It works well, but you do lose access to other features, including zoom. For that reason, it’s off by default and should be used relatively sparingly.

Note 10+ (left), iPhone XS (right)

Zoom-on Mic is a clever addition, as well. While shooting video, pinch-zooming on something will amplify the noise from that area. I’ve been playing around with it in this cafe. It’s interesting, but less than perfect.

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Zooming into something doesn’t exactly cancel out ambient noise from outside of the frame. Everything still gets amplified in the process and, like digital picture zoom, a lot of noise gets added in the process. Those hoping for a kind of spy microphone, I’m sorry/happy to report that this definitely is not that.

The DepthVision Camera is also pretty limited as I write this. If anything, it’s Samsung’s attempt to brace for a future when things like augmented reality will (theoretically) play a much larger role in our mobile computing. In a conversation I had with the company ahead of launch, they suggested that a lot of the camera’s AR functions will fall in the hands of developers.

For now, Quick Measure is the one practical use. The app is a lot like Apple’s more simply titled Measure. Fire it up, move the camera around to get a lay of the land and it will measure nearby objects for you. An interesting showcase for AR potential? Sure. Earth shattering? Naw. It also seems to be a bit of a battery drain, sucking up the last few bits of juice as I was running it down.

3D Scanner, on the other hand, got by far the biggest applause line of the Note event. And, indeed, it’s impressive. In the stage demo, a Samsung employee scanned a stuffed pink beaver (I’m not making this up), created a 3D image and animated it using an associate’ movements. Practical? Not really. Cool? Definitely.

It was, however, not available at press time. Hopefully it proves to be more than vaporware, especially if that demo helped push some viewers over to the 10+. Without it, there’s just not a lot of use for the depth camera at the moment.

There’s also AR Doodle, which fills a similar spot as much of the company’s AR offerings. It’s kind of fun, but again, not particularly useful. You’ll likely end up playing with it for a few minutes and forget about it entirely. Such is life.

The feature is built into the camera app, using depth sensing to orient live drawings. With the stylus you can draw in space or doodle on people’s faces. It’s neat, the AR works okay and I was bored with it in about three minutes. Like Quick Measure, the feature is as much a proof of concept as anything. But that’s always been a part of Samsung’s kitchen-sink approach — some combination of useful and silly.

That said, points to Samsung for continuing to de-creepify AR Emojis. Those have moved firmly away from the uncanny valley into something more cartoony/adorable. Less ironic usage will surely follow.

Asked about the key differences between the S and Note lines, Samsung’s response was simple: the S Pen. Otherwise, the lines are relatively interchangeable.

Samsung’s return of the stylus didn’t catch on for handsets quite like the phablet form factor. They’ve made a pretty significant comeback for tablets, but the Note remains fairly singular when it comes to the S Pen. I’ve never been a big user myself, but those who like it swear by it. It’s one of those things like the ThinkPad pointing stick or BlackBerry scroll wheel.

Like the phone itself, the peripheral has been streamlined with a unibody design. Samsung also continues to add capabilities. It can be used to control music, advance slideshows and snap photos. None of that is likely to convince S Pen skeptics (I prefer using the buttons on the included headphones for music control, for example), but more versatility is generally a good thing.

If anything is going to convince people to pick up the S Pen this time out, it’s the improved handwriting recognition. That’s pretty impressive. It was even able to decipher my awful chicken scratch.

You get the same sort of bleeding-edge specs here you’ve come to expect from Samsung’s flagships. The 10+ gets you a baseline 256GB of storage (upgradable to 512), coupled with a beefy 12GB of RAM (the regular Note is a still good 8GB/256GB). The 5G version sports the same numbers and battery (likely making its total life a bit shorter per charge). That’s a shift from the S10, whose 5G version was specced out like crazy. Likely Samsung is bracing for 5G to become less of a novelty in the next year or so.

The new Note also benefits from other recent additions, like the in-display fingerprint reader and wireless power sharing. Both are nice additions, but neither is likely enough to warrant an immediate upgrade.

Once again, that’s not an indictment of Samsung, so much as a reflection of where we are in the life cycle of a mature smartphone industry. The Note 10+ is another good addition to one of the leading smartphone lines. It succeeds as both a productivity device (thanks to additions like DeX and added cross-platform functionality with Windows 10) and an everyday handset.

There’s not enough on-board to really recommend an upgrade from the Note 8 or 9 — especially at that $1,099 price. People are holding onto their devices for longer, and for good reason (as detailed above). But if you need a new phone, are looking for something big and flashy and are willing to splurge, the Note continues to be the one to beat.

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[cophoenixseo]

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[sheminecrafts]

Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ review

It’s true, you’ve got the Galaxy Note to thank for your big phone. When the device hit the scene at IFA 2011, large screens were still a punchline. That same year, Steve Jobs famously joked about phones with screens larger than four inches, telling a crowd of reporters, “nobody’s going to buy that.”

In 2019, the average screen size hovers around 5.5 inches. That’s a touch larger than the original Note’s 5.3 inches — a size that was pretty widely mocked by much of the industry press at the time. Of course, much of the mainstreaming of larger phones comes courtesy of a much improved screen to body ratio, another place where Samsung has continued to lead the way.

In some sense, the Note has been doomed by its own success. As the rest of the industry caught up, the line blended into the background. Samsung didn’t do the product any favors by dropping the pretense of distinction between the Note and its Galaxy S line.

Ultimately, the two products served as an opportunity to have a six-month refresh cycle for its flagships. Samsung, of course, has been hit with the same sort of malaise as the rest of the industry. The smartphone market isn’t the unstoppable machine it appeared to be two or three years back.

Like the rest of the industry, the company painted itself into a corner with the smartphone race, creating flagships good enough to convince users to hold onto them for an extra year or two, greatly slowing the upgrade cycle in the process. Ever-inflating prices have also been a part of smartphone sales stagnation — something Samsung and the Note are as guilty of as any.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note gets even larger (and smaller)

So what’s a poor smartphone manufacturer to do? The Note 10 represents baby steps. As it did with the S line recently, Samsung is now offering two models. The base Note 10 represents a rare step backward in terms of screen size, shrinking down slightly from 6.4 to 6.3 inches, while reducing resolution from Quad HD to Full HD.

The seemingly regressive step lets Samsung come in a bit under last year’s jaw dropping $1,000. The new Note is only $50 cheaper, but moving from four to three figures may have a positive psychological effect for wary buyers. While the slightly smaller screen coupled with a better screen to body ratio means a device that’s surprisingly slim.

If anything, the Note 10+ feels like the true successor to the Note line. The baseline device could have just as well been labeled the Note 10 Lite. That’s something Samsung is keenly aware of, as it targets first-time Note users with the 10 and true believers with the 10+. In both cases, Samsung is faced with the same task as the rest of the industry: offering a compelling reason for users to upgrade.

Earlier this week, a Note 9 owner asked me whether the new device warrants an upgrade. The answer is, of course, no. The pace of smartphone innovation has slowed, even as prices have risen. Honestly, the 10 doesn’t really offer that many compelling reasons to upgrade from the Note 8.

That’s not a slight against Samsung or the Note, per se. If anything, it’s a reflection on the fact that these phones are quite good — and have been for a while. Anecdotally, industry excitement around these devices has been tapering for a while now, and the device’s launch in the midst of the doldrums of August likely didn’t help much.

[gallery ids="1865978,1865980,1865979,1865983,1865982,1865990,1866000,1866005,1866004"]

The past few years have seen smartphones transform from coveted, bleeding-edge luxury to necessity. The good news to that end, however, is that the Note continues to be among the best devices out there.

The common refrain in the earliest days of the phablet was the inability to wrap one’s fingers around the device. It’s a pragmatic issue. Certainly you don’t want to use a phone day to day that’s impossible to hold. But Samsung’s remarkable job of improving screen to body ratio continues here. In fact, the 6.8-inch Note 10+ has roughly the same footprint as the 6.4-inch Note 9.

The issue will still persist for those with smaller hands — though thankfully Samsung’s got a solution for them in the Note 10. For the rest of us, the Note 10+ is easily held in one hand and slipped in and out of pants pockets. I realize these seem like weird things to say at this point, but I assure you they were legitimate concerns in the earliest days of the phablet, when these things were giant hunks of plastic and glass.

Samsung’s curved display once again does much of the heavy lifting here, allowing the screen to stretch nearly from side to side with only a little bezel at the edge. Up top is a hole-punch camera — that’s “Infinity O” to you. Those with keen eyes no doubt immediately noticed that Samsung has dropped the dual selfie camera here, moving toward the more popular hole-punch camera.

The company’s reasoning for this was both aesthetic and, apparently, practical. The company moved back down to a single camera for the front (10 megapixel), using similar reasoning as Google’s single rear-facing camera on the Pixel: software has greatly improved what companies can do with a single lens. That’s certainly the case to a degree, and a strong case can be made for the selfie camera, which we generally require less of than the rear-facing array.

The company’s gone increasingly minimalist with the design language — something I appreciate. Over the years, as the smartphone has increasingly become a day to day utility, the product’s design has increasingly gotten out of its own way. The front and back are both made of a curved Gorilla Glass that butts up against a thin metal form with a total thickness of 7.9 millimeters.

On certain smooth surfaces like glass, you’ll occasionally find the device gliding slightly. I’d say the chances of dropping it are pretty decent with its frictionless design language, so you’re going to want to get a case for your $1,000 phone. Before you do, admire that color scheme on the back. There are four choices in all. Like the rest of the press, we ended up with Aura Glow.

It features a lovely, prismatic effect when light hits it. It’s proven a bit tricky to photograph, honestly. It’s also a fingerprint magnet, but these are the prices we pay to have the prettiest phone on the block.

One of the interesting footnotes here is how much the design of the 10 will be defined by what the device lost. There are two missing pieces here — both of which are a kind of concession from Samsung for different reasons. And for different reasons, both feel inevitable.

The headphone jack is, of course, the biggie. Samsung kicked and screamed on that one, holding onto the 3.5mm with dear life and roundly mocking the competition (read: Apple) at every turn. The company must have known it was a matter of time, even before the iPhone dropped the port three years ago.

Courage.

Samsung glossed over the end of the jack (and apparently unlisted its Apple-mocking ads in the process) during the Note’s launch event. It was a stark contrast from a briefing we got around the device’s announcement, where the company’s reps spent significantly more time justifying the move. They know us well enough to know that we’d spend a little time taking the piss out of the company after three years of it making the once ubiquitous port a feature. All’s fair in love and port. And honestly, it was mostly just some good-natured ribbing. Welcome to the club, Samsung.

The headphone jack dies not with a bang, but a Note

As for why Samsung did it now, the answer seems to be two-fold. The first is a kind of critical mass in Bluetooth headset usage. Allow me to quote myself from a few weeks back:

The tipping point, it says, came when its internal metrics showed that a majority of users on its flagship devices (the S and Note lines) moved to Bluetooth streaming. The company says the number is now in excess of 70% of users.

Also, as we’re all abundantly aware, the company put its big battery ambitions on hold for a bit, as it dealt with…more burning problems. A couple of recalls, a humble press release and an eight-point battery check later, and batteries are getting bigger again. There’s a 3,500mAh on the Note 10 and a 4,300mAh on the 10+. I’m happy to report that the latter got me through a full day plus three hours on a charge. Not bad, given all of the music and videos I subjected it to in that time.

There’s no USB-C dongle in-box. The rumors got that one wrong. You can pick up a Samsung-branded adapter for $15, or get one for much cheaper elsewhere. There is, however, a pair of AKG USB-C headphones in-box. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Samsung doesn’t get enough credit for its free headphones. I’ve been known to use the pairs with other devices. They’re not the greatest the world, but they’re better sounding and more comfortable than what a lot of other companies offer in-box.

Obviously the standard no headphone jack things apply here. You can’t use the wired headphones and charge at the same time (unless you go wireless). You know the deal.

The other missing piece here is the Bixby button. I’m sure there are a handful of folks out there who will bemoan its loss, but that’s almost certainly a minority of the minority here. Since the button was first introduced, folks were asking for the ability to remap it. Samsung finally relented on that front, and with the Note 10, it drops the button altogether.

Thus far the smart assistant has been a disappointment. That’s due in no small part to a late launch compared to the likes of Siri, Alexa and Assistant, coupled with a general lack of capability at launch. In Samsung’s defense, the company’s been working to fix that with some pretty massive investment and a big push to court developers. There’s hope for Bixby yet, but a majority of users weren’t eager to have the assistant thrust upon them.

Instead, the power button has been shifted to the left of the device, just under the volume rocker. I preferred having it on the other side, especially for certain functions like screenshotting (something, granted, I do much more than the average user when reviewing a phone). That’s a pretty small quibble, of course.

Bixby can now be quickly accessed by holding down the power button. Handily, Samsung still lets you reassign the function there, if you really want Bixby out of your life. You can also hold down to get the power off menu or double press to launch Bixby or a third-party app (I opted for Spotify, probably my most used these days), though not a different assistant.

Imaging, meanwhile, is something Samsung’s been doing for a long time. The past several generations of S and Note devices have had great camera systems, and it continues to be the main point of improvement. It’s also one of few points of distinction between the 10 and 10+, aside from size.

The Note 10+ has four, count ’em, four rear-facing cameras. They are as follows:

Ultra Wide: 16 megapixel

Wide: 12 megapixel

Telephoto: 12 megapixel

DepthVision

That last one is only on the plus. It’s comprised of two little circles to the right of the primary camera array and just below the flash. We’ll get to that in a second.

The main camera array continues to be one of the best in mobile. The inclusion of telephoto and ultra-wide lenses allow for a wide range of different shots, and the hardware coupled with machine learning makes it a lot more difficult to take a bad photo (though believe me, it’s still possible).

[gallery ids="1869716,1869715,1869720,1869718,1869719"]

The live focus feature (Portrait mode, essentially) comes to video, with four different filters, including Color Point, which makes everything but the subject black and white.

Samsung’s also brought a very simple video editor into the mix here, which is nice on the fly. You can edit the length of clips, splice in other clips, add subtitles and captions and add filters and music. It’s pretty beefy for something baked directly into the camera app, and one of the better uses I’ve found for the S Pen.

Note 10+ with Super Steady (left), iPhone XS (right)

Ditto for the improved Super Steady offering, which smooths out shaky video, including Hyperlapse mode, where handshakes are a big issue. It works well, but you do lose access to other features, including zoom. For that reason, it’s off by default and should be used relatively sparingly.

Note 10+ (left), iPhone XS (right)

Zoom-on Mic is a clever addition, as well. While shooting video, pinch-zooming on something will amplify the noise from that area. I’ve been playing around with it in this cafe. It’s interesting, but less than perfect.

[gallery ids="1869186,1869980,1869975,1869974,1869973,1869725,1869322,1869185,1869184,1869190"]

Zooming into something doesn’t exactly cancel out ambient noise from outside of the frame. Everything still gets amplified in the process and, like digital picture zoom, a lot of noise gets added in the process. Those hoping for a kind of spy microphone, I’m sorry/happy to report that this definitely is not that.

The DepthVision Camera is also pretty limited as I write this. If anything, it’s Samsung’s attempt to brace for a future when things like augmented reality will (theoretically) play a much larger role in our mobile computing. In a conversation I had with the company ahead of launch, they suggested that a lot of the camera’s AR functions will fall in the hands of developers.

For now, Quick Measure is the one practical use. The app is a lot like Apple’s more simply titled Measure. Fire it up, move the camera around to get a lay of the land and it will measure nearby objects for you. An interesting showcase for AR potential? Sure. Earth shattering? Naw. It also seems to be a bit of a battery drain, sucking up the last few bits of juice as I was running it down.

3D Scanner, on the other hand, got by far the biggest applause line of the Note event. And, indeed, it’s impressive. In the stage demo, a Samsung employee scanned a stuffed pink beaver (I’m not making this up), created a 3D image and animated it using an associate’ movements. Practical? Not really. Cool? Definitely.

It was, however, not available at press time. Hopefully it proves to be more than vaporware, especially if that demo helped push some viewers over to the 10+. Without it, there’s just not a lot of use for the depth camera at the moment.

There’s also AR Doodle, which fills a similar spot as much of the company’s AR offerings. It’s kind of fun, but again, not particularly useful. You’ll likely end up playing with it for a few minutes and forget about it entirely. Such is life.

The feature is built into the camera app, using depth sensing to orient live drawings. With the stylus you can draw in space or doodle on people’s faces. It’s neat, the AR works okay and I was bored with it in about three minutes. Like Quick Measure, the feature is as much a proof of concept as anything. But that’s always been a part of Samsung’s kitchen-sink approach — some combination of useful and silly.

That said, points to Samsung for continuing to de-creepify AR Emojis. Those have moved firmly away from the uncanny valley into something more cartoony/adorable. Less ironic usage will surely follow.

Asked about the key differences between the S and Note lines, Samsung’s response was simple: the S Pen. Otherwise, the lines are relatively interchangeable.

Samsung’s return of the stylus didn’t catch on for handsets quite like the phablet form factor. They’ve made a pretty significant comeback for tablets, but the Note remains fairly singular when it comes to the S Pen. I’ve never been a big user myself, but those who like it swear by it. It’s one of those things like the ThinkPad pointing stick or BlackBerry scroll wheel.

Like the phone itself, the peripheral has been streamlined with a unibody design. Samsung also continues to add capabilities. It can be used to control music, advance slideshows and snap photos. None of that is likely to convince S Pen skeptics (I prefer using the buttons on the included headphones for music control, for example), but more versatility is generally a good thing.

If anything is going to convince people to pick up the S Pen this time out, it’s the improved handwriting recognition. That’s pretty impressive. It was even able to decipher my awful chicken scratch.

You get the same sort of bleeding-edge specs here you’ve come to expect from Samsung’s flagships. The 10+ gets you a baseline 256GB of storage (upgradable to 512), coupled with a beefy 12GB of RAM (the regular Note is a still good 8GB/256GB). The 5G version sports the same numbers and battery (likely making its total life a bit shorter per charge). That’s a shift from the S10, whose 5G version was specced out like crazy. Likely Samsung is bracing for 5G to become less of a novelty in the next year or so.

The new Note also benefits from other recent additions, like the in-display fingerprint reader and wireless power sharing. Both are nice additions, but neither is likely enough to warrant an immediate upgrade.

Once again, that’s not an indictment of Samsung, so much as a reflection of where we are in the life cycle of a mature smartphone industry. The Note 10+ is another good addition to one of the leading smartphone lines. It succeeds as both a productivity device (thanks to additions like DeX and added cross-platform functionality with Windows 10) and an everyday handset.

There’s not enough on-board to really recommend an upgrade from the Note 8 or 9 — especially at that $1,099 price. People are holding onto their devices for longer, and for good reason (as detailed above). But if you need a new phone, are looking for something big and flashy and are willing to splurge, the Note continues to be the one to beat.

[gallery ids="1869169,1869168,1869167,1869166,1869165,1869164,1869163,1869162,1869161,1869160,1869159,1869158,1869157,1869156,1869155,1869154,1869153,1869152"]

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/30bjXb9 via IFTTT

[managermint]

It’s true, you’ve got the Galaxy Note to thank for your big phone. When the device hit the scene at IFA 2011, large screens were still a punchline. That same year, Steve Jobs famously joked about phones with screens larger than four inches, telling a crowd of reporters, “nobody’s going to buy that.”

In 2019, the average screen size hovers around 5.5 inches. That’s a touch larger than the original Note’s 5.3 inches — a size that was pretty widely mocked by much of the industry press at the time. Of course, much of the mainstreaming of larger phones comes courtesy of a much improved screen to body ratio, another place where Samsung has continued to lead the way.

In some sense, the Note has been doomed by its own success. As the rest of the industry caught up, the line blended into the background. Samsung didn’t do the product any favors by dropping the pretense of distinction between the Note and its Galaxy S line.

Ultimately, the two products served as an opportunity to have a six-month refresh cycle for its flagships. Samsung, of course, has been hit with the same sort of malaise as the rest of the industry. The smartphone market isn’t the unstoppable machine it appeared to be two or three years back.

[embedded content]

Like the rest of the industry, the company painted itself into a corner with the smartphone race, creating flagships good enough to convince users to hold onto them for an extra year or two, greatly slowing the upgrade cycle in the process. Ever-inflating prices have also been a part of smartphone sales stagnation — something Samsung and the Note are as guilty of as any.

So what’s a poor smartphone manufacturer to do? The Note 10 represents baby steps. As it did with the S line recently, Samsung is now offering two models. The base Note 10 represents a rare step backward in terms of screen size, shrinking down slightly from 6.4 to 6.3 inches, while reducing resolution from Quad HD to Full HD.

The seemingly regressive step lets Samsung come in a bit under last year’s jaw dropping $1,000. The new Note is only $50 cheaper, but moving from four to three figures may have a positive psychological effect for wary buyers. While the slightly smaller screen coupled with a better screen to body ratio means a device that’s surprisingly slim.

If anything, the Note 10+ feels like the true successor to the Note line. The baseline device could have just as well been labeled the Note 10 Lite. That’s something Samsung is keenly aware of, as it targets first-time Note users with the 10 and true believers with the 10+. In both cases, Samsung is faced with the same task as the rest of the industry: offering a compelling reason for users to upgrade.

Earlier this week, a Note 9 owner asked me whether the new device warrants an upgrade. The answer is, of course, no. The pace of smartphone innovation has slowed, even as prices have risen. Honestly, the 10 doesn’t really offer that many compelling reasons to upgrade from the Note 8.

That’s not a slight against Samsung or the Note, per se. If anything, it’s a reflection on the fact that these phones are quite good — and have been for a while. Anecdotally, industry excitement around these devices has been tapering for a while now, and the device’s launch in the midst of the doldrums of August likely didn’t help much.

The past few years have seen smartphones transform from coveted, bleeding-edge luxury to necessity. The good news to that end, however, is that the Note continues to be among the best devices out there.

The common refrain in the earliest days of the phablet was the inability to wrap one’s fingers around the device. It’s a pragmatic issue. Certainly you don’t want to use a phone day to day that’s impossible to hold. But Samsung’s remarkable job of improving screen to body ratio continues here. In fact, the 6.8-inch Note 10+ has roughly the same footprint as the 6.4-inch Note 9.

The issue will still persist for those with smaller hands — though thankfully Samsung’s got a solution for them in the Note 10. For the rest of us, the Note 10+ is easily held in one hand and slipped in and out of pants pockets. I realize these seem like weird things to say at this point, but I assure you they were legitimate concerns in the earliest days of the phablet, when these things were giant hunks of plastic and glass.

Samsung’s curved display once again does much of the heavy lifting here, allowing the screen to stretch nearly from side to side with only a little bezel at the edge. Up top is a hole-punch camera — that’s “Infinity O” to you. Those with keen eyes no doubt immediately noticed that Samsung has dropped the dual selfie camera here, moving toward the more popular hole-punch camera.

The company’s reasoning for this was both aesthetic and, apparently, practical. The company moved back down to a single camera for the front (10 megapixel), using similar reasoning as Google’s single rear-facing camera on the Pixel: software has greatly improved what companies can do with a single lens. That’s certainly the case to a degree, and a strong case can be made for the selfie camera, which we generally require less of than the rear-facing array.

The company’s gone increasingly minimalist with the design language — something I appreciate. Over the years, as the smartphone has increasingly become a day to day utility, the product’s design has increasingly gotten out of its own way. The front and back are both made of a curved Gorilla Glass that butts up against a thin metal form with a total thickness of 7.9 millimeters.

On certain smooth surfaces like glass, you’ll occasionally find the device gliding slightly. I’d say the chances of dropping it are pretty decent with its frictionless design language, so you’re going to want to get a case for your $1,000 phone. Before you do, admire that color scheme on the back. There are four choices in all. Like the rest of the press, we ended up with Aura Glow.

It features a lovely, prismatic effect when light hits it. It’s proven a bit tricky to photograph, honestly. It’s also a fingerprint magnet, but these are the prices we pay to have the prettiest phone on the block.

One of the interesting footnotes here is how much the design of the 10 will be defined by what the device lost. There are two missing pieces here — both of which are a kind of concession from Samsung for different reasons. And for different reasons, both feel inevitable.

The headphone jack is, of course, the biggie. Samsung kicked and screamed on that one, holding onto the 3.5mm with dear life and roundly mocking the competition (read: Apple) at every turn. The company must have known it was a matter of time, even before the iPhone dropped the port three years ago.

Courage.

Samsung glossed over the end of the jack (and apparently unlisted its Apple-mocking ads in the process) during the Note’s launch event. It was a stark contrast from a briefing we got around the device’s announcement, where the company’s reps spent significantly more time justifying the move. They know us well enough to know that we’d spend a little time taking the piss out of the company after three years of it making the once ubiquitous port a feature. All’s fair in love and port. And honestly, it was mostly just some good-natured ribbing. Welcome to the club, Samsung.

As for why Samsung did it now, the answer seems to be two-fold. The first is a kind of critical mass in Bluetooth headset usage. Allow me to quote myself from a few weeks back:

The tipping point, it says, came when its internal metrics showed that a majority of users on its flagship devices (the S and Note lines) moved to Bluetooth streaming. The company says the number is now in excess of 70% of users.

Also, as we’re all abundantly aware, the company put its big battery ambitions on hold for a bit, as it dealt with…more burning problems. A couple of recalls, a humble press release and an eight-point battery check later, and batteries are getting bigger again. There’s a 3,500mAh on the Note 10 and a 4,300mAh on the 10+. I’m happy to report that the latter got me through a full day plus three hours on a charge. Not bad, given all of the music and videos I subjected it to in that time.

There’s no USB-C dongle in-box. The rumors got that one wrong. You can pick up a Samsung-branded adapter for $15, or get one for much cheaper elsewhere. There is, however, a pair of AKG USB-C headphones in-box. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Samsung doesn’t get enough credit for its free headphones. I’ve been known to use the pairs with other devices. They’re not the greatest the world, but they’re better sounding and more comfortable than what a lot of other companies offer in-box.

Obviously the standard no headphone jack things apply here. You can’t use the wired headphones and charge at the same time (unless you go wireless). You know the deal.

The other missing piece here is the Bixby button. I’m sure there are a handful of folks out there who will bemoan its loss, but that’s almost certainly a minority of the minority here. Since the button was first introduced, folks were asking for the ability to remap it. Samsung finally relented on that front, and with the Note 10, it drops the button altogether.

Thus far the smart assistant has been a disappointment. That’s due in no small part to a late launch compared to the likes of Siri, Alexa and Assistant, coupled with a general lack of capability at launch. In Samsung’s defense, the company’s been working to fix that with some pretty massive investment and a big push to court developers. There’s hope for Bixby yet, but a majority of users weren’t eager to have the assistant thrust upon them.

Instead, the power button has been shifted to the left of the device, just under the volume rocker. I preferred having it on the other side, especially for certain functions like screenshotting (something, granted, I do much more than the average user when reviewing a phone). That’s a pretty small quibble, of course.

Bixby can now be quickly accessed by holding down the power button. Handily, Samsung still lets you reassign the function there, if you really want Bixby out of your life. You can also hold down to get the power off menu or double press to launch Bixby or a third-party app (I opted for Spotify, probably my most used these days), though not a different assistant.

Imaging, meanwhile, is something Samsung’s been doing for a long time. The past several generations of S and Note devices have had great camera systems, and it continues to be the main point of improvement. It’s also one of few points of distinction between the 10 and 10+, aside from size.

The Note 10+ has four, count ’em, four rear-facing cameras. They are as follows:

Ultra Wide: 16 megapixel

Wide: 12 megapixel

Telephoto: 12 megapixel

DepthVision

That last one is only on the plus. It’s comprised of two little circles to the right of the primary camera array and just below the flash. We’ll get to that in a second.

The main camera array continues to be one of the best in mobile. The inclusion of telephoto and ultra-wide lenses allow for a wide range of different shots, and the hardware coupled with machine learning makes it a lot more difficult to take a bad photo (though believe me, it’s still possible).

The live focus feature (Portrait mode, essentially) comes to video, with four different filters, including Color Point, which makes everything but the subject black and white.

Samsung’s also brought a very simple video editor into the mix here, which is nice on the fly. You can edit the length of clips, splice in other clips, add subtitles and captions and add filters and music. It’s pretty beefy for something baked directly into the camera app, and one of the better uses I’ve found for the S Pen.

Note 10+ with Super Steady (left), iPhone XS (right)

Ditto for the improved Super Steady offering, which smooths out shaky video, including Hyperlapse mode, where handshakes are a big issue. It works well, but you do lose access to other features, including zoom. For that reason, it’s off by default and should be used relatively sparingly.

Note 10+ (left), iPhone XS (right)

Zoom-on Mic is a clever addition, as well. While shooting video, pinch-zooming on something will amplify the noise from that area. I’ve been playing around with it in this cafe. It’s interesting, but less than perfect.

Zooming into something doesn’t exactly cancel out ambient noise from outside of the frame. Everything still gets amplified in the process and, like digital picture zoom, a lot of noise gets added in the process. Those hoping for a kind of spy microphone, I’m sorry/happy to report that this definitely is not that.

The DepthVision Camera is also pretty limited as I write this. If anything, it’s Samsung’s attempt to brace for a future when things like augmented reality will (theoretically) play a much larger role in our mobile computing. In a conversation I had with the company ahead of launch, they suggested that a lot of the camera’s AR functions will fall in the hands of developers.

For now, Quick Measure is the one practical use. The app is a lot like Apple’s more simply titled Measure. Fire it up, move the camera around to get a lay of the land and it will measure nearby objects for you. An interesting showcase for AR potential? Sure. Earth shattering? Naw. It also seems to be a bit of a battery drain, sucking up the last few bits of juice as I was running it down.

[embedded content]

3D Scanner, on the other hand, got by far the biggest applause line of the Note event. And, indeed, it’s impressive. In the stage demo, a Samsung employee scanned a stuffed pink beaver (I’m not making this up), created a 3D image and animated it using an associate’ movements. Practical? Not really. Cool? Definitely.

It was, however, not available at press time. Hopefully it proves to be more than vaporware, especially if that demo helped push some viewers over to the 10+. Without it, there’s just not a lot of use for the depth camera at the moment.

There’s also AR Doodle, which fills a similar spot as much of the company’s AR offerings. It’s kind of fun, but again, not particularly useful. You’ll likely end up playing with it for a few minutes and forget about it entirely. Such is life.

The feature is built into the camera app, using depth sensing to orient live drawings. With the stylus you can draw in space or doodle on people’s faces. It’s neat, the AR works okay and I was bored with it in about three minutes. Like Quick Measure, the feature is as much a proof of concept as anything. But that’s always been a part of Samsung’s kitchen-sink approach — some combination of useful and silly.

That said, points to Samsung for continuing to de-creepify AR Emojis. Those have moved firmly away from the uncanny valley into something more cartoony/adorable. Less ironic usage will surely follow.

Asked about the key differences between the S and Note lines, Samsung’s response was simple: the S Pen. Otherwise, the lines are relatively interchangeable.

Samsung’s return of the stylus didn’t catch on for handsets quite like the phablet form factor. They’ve made a pretty significant comeback for tablets, but the Note remains fairly singular when it comes to the S Pen. I’ve never been a big user myself, but those who like it swear by it. It’s one of those things like the ThinkPad pointing stick or BlackBerry scroll wheel.

Like the phone itself, the peripheral has been streamlined with a unibody design. Samsung also continues to add capabilities. It can be used to control music, advance slideshows and snap photos. None of that is likely to convince S Pen skeptics (I prefer using the buttons on the included headphones for music control, for example), but more versatility is generally a good thing.

If anything is going to convince people to pick up the S Pen this time out, it’s the improved handwriting recognition. That’s pretty impressive. It was even able to decipher my awful chicken scratch.

You get the same sort of bleeding-edge specs here you’ve come to expect from Samsung’s flagships. The 10+ gets you a baseline 256GB of storage (upgradable to 512), coupled with a beefy 12GB of RAM (the regular Note is a still good 8GB/256GB). The 5G version sports the same numbers and battery (likely making its total life a bit shorter per charge). That’s a shift from the S10, whose 5G version was specced out like crazy. Likely Samsung is bracing for 5G to become less of a novelty in the next year or so.

The new Note also benefits from other recent additions, like the in-display fingerprint reader and wireless power sharing. Both are nice additions, but neither is likely enough to warrant an immediate upgrade.

Once again, that’s not an indictment of Samsung, so much as a reflection of where we are in the life cycle of a mature smartphone industry. The Note 10+ is another good addition to one of the leading smartphone lines. It succeeds as both a productivity device (thanks to additions like DeX and added cross-platform functionality with Windows 10) and an everyday handset.

There’s not enough on-board to really recommend an upgrade from the Note 8 or 9 — especially at that $1,099 price. People are holding onto their devices for longer, and for good reason (as detailed above). But if you need a new phone, are looking for something big and flashy and are willing to splurge, the Note continues to be the one to beat.

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TechCrunch: Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ review It’s true, you’ve got the Galaxy Note to thank for your big phone. When the device hit the scene at IFA 2011, large screens were still a punchline.