#i managed to save all my files and finally store them in my new computer

[n0heart]

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[sgtjbbhasmyheart]

Drunk Texting Is(n’t) Bad for Your Health- Chapter Six (part 1)

Series Summary: Talk about your unconventional meet-cute! Bucky receives a text by mistake requesting he prove he's not Reader's sister. The easy dialogue between Reader and Bucky sparks a natural friendship, but could it lead to more? Bucky still deems himself unworthy of any form of affection or love. Reader is hellbent to prove him wrong. With the help of some (meddling) friends along the way, Bucky may get his happily-ever-after after all.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Word Count: 3293

Warnings: ANGST, bad language words

A/N: Tumblr sucks. It forced me to split this chapter up because I exceeded the text block limit. That’s just how I write! Link to part 2 at the end.

A/N 2: Thank you again to everyone for showing this story so much love! And thank you to everyone for your patience and support as I struggled to put this out. As you can tell from the multiple parts, it was a doozy. 🥰 divider credit- @firefly-graphics​

In case you missed the update, I will be publishing a new chapter every other Saturday from here on out. Schedule is in the Masterlist in my header.

DO NOT copy or replicate without my permission.

Monday morning rolled around, and your good mood from the weekend followed you into the office. Spending all of Saturday and the majority of Sunday texting James had lent to this early morning cheerfulness. You couldn’t help the smile on your face. You had even managed to arrive before most of your team.  

You hummed a sweet melody as you booted up your computer and organized a few files for Timmons to peruse. They were statements intended for the press needing his approval about a particular prominent CEO or A-list celebrity client. The firm was not confirming nor denying any knowledge of said client’s whereabouts the previous week or why there was photographic evidence of them coming out of FlashDancers NYC. Other files included those seeking rebranding approval for existing companies looking to revamp their image.

Most importantly, today was contract signing day for Stark Industries. 

You had compiled the document from a generic template the company used for all its clients, manually plugging in Stark Industries’ information in the correct spots and changing or omitting any services rendered or not. E-signing contracts were not only environmentally responsible, but they also saved a lot of your time from printing out numerous copies of a single agreement.

All you needed now was Timmons’ go-ahead to email the contract, and Pepper Potts could plug in her Jane Hancock.

Seeing Timmons enter the workroom, tweed coat draped over his forearm and attaché in hand, you rose from the seat behind your desk. You shuffled into his office after him.

He hung his jacket from the coat rack in the corner near a bank of expansive windows and placed the small, leather case he’d been carrying on the sturdy oak desk. He pulled out a stack of papers and tapped the pile against the desktop to straighten them before setting them down. Looking up at you briefly, he tugged out his laptop next.

You positioned a mug of coffee on Timmons’ desk, turning the handle just so, making it easier for him to grab. You cleared your throat gently. He glanced up at you again.

“Here’s the media statements for today,” you said, handing him a group of manila folders. You smoothed down the hem of your cardigan, smiling at the reminder of Bucky. You wished there had been a way to apologize to him again. He had left your apartment with such a pained look on his face. Maybe you could ask Peter. “And the Stark contract pdf is ready to go. I can email it over to you for final approval.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Timmons replied absent-mindedly, lifting the organized piles on the desk as if looking for something.

“Oh, okay,” you returned, nodding your head diminutively. “Do you want me to forward the contract on to Ms. Potts, then?”

“Ah-ha!” Timmons exclaimed, plucking a pen from underneath a stack of envelopes. He twirled the writing implement in his hand and peered at you, finally taking in your presence for the first time that morning.

An uncomfortable feeling washed over you as he evaluated you from head to toe. What was he looking at? Your hands tensed into fists as you continued to wait for his answer, growing impatient.

“Should I go ahead and do that, then, sir?” you asked, folding your arms across your chest like a protective suit of armor to deflect prying eyes.

“Yes, yes. That should be acceptable,” Timmons answered.

It threw you off balance. What had gotten into him? Timmons always had to have the final say on everything. It was so unlike him!

“Just so we’re clear- I will be sending the Stark Industries contract via email to Pepper Potts to e-sign,” you said, seeking clarification. You wanted to dot all i’s and cross all t’s because you weren’t going to lay your ass on the line for a misunderstanding. Especially not with something as crucial as the Stark Industries account.

“What? No, there’s been a change of plans,” he corrected.

You stared at him dumbfounded. Was he purposely trying to give you mental whiplash?

“Change of plans,” you affirmed. “Has Stark Industries decided not to use the firm, sir?”

“Oh, no. They’re still going with us,” Timmons said, rearranging the clutter he’d made on his desk.

You dropped your arms to your sides, although inside, you felt like throwing them into the air in frustration. Why was he so vague? He was usually wholly transparent with you. “Would you mind explaining it to me, please?” you asked, borderline annoyed. “Last time I checked, Stark Industries’ contract signing was still on the calendar for today’s agenda.”

“And it still is,” Timmons acknowledged. “It’s moved to an in-person signing.”

Your stomach plunged to the floor. Shit! You hadn’t printed out the contract! When was the appointment? How much time did you have? So many questions flew through your head.

How could Timmons keep something like this from you? Your heart hammered in your chest. You practically wobbled on your feet. Were you going to be sick?

I’m going to get fucking fired over this, you thought, trying to steady your breathing.

“Will you be ready to go in twenty minutes?” Timmons questioned, sitting down in the comfy desk chair and opening his laptop.

“Go?” you squeaked, attempting to recall how much you had in savings. You shook your head, trying to understand his words. Was he already asking you to clear out your desk?

“Yes. The car will be here at nine,” he said, keyboard clacking as he typed something.

“Car?” you asked, finding great difficulty comprehending the situation. Your head felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

Timmons regarded you in bafflement. “Have you been drinking?”

“What? NO!” you declared. You didn’t need that added to “the inability to perform required tasks” as a reason for your firing.  “I’m-I’m just really confused, sir.”

“About what?” Timmons asked, sitting back in his chair, folding his hands in his lap.

“Well…” you started. “What do we need a car for?”

His chocolate brown eyes shone with what you imagined might be excitement. “To drive upstate, of course.” He smirked as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desktop.

Upstate? What was upstate?

Timmons’ smile broadened as realization crept across your face. “Are we-”

“Yup!” he interrupted gleefully. He was like a child in a candy store. “We are headed to the Avengers Compound with a personal invitation from Tony Stark himself!”

You blinked several times at your boss, not entirely computing what he’d said. You were usually a lot quicker on the uptake than this. Why were you having such an off-day? 

“We?” you asked, shaking your head clear of the cobwebs. Why on Earth would he bring you along?

“I need someone who knows the ins and outs of these contract signings,” he said, fiddling with his pen again.

Wasn’t that his job?

“I’m just the schmoozer- the people-person,” he admitted, shrugging. “You’re the real brains behind this whole operation.

You nodded your head in agreement. He wasn’t wrong. The office would collectively collapse without you, and it felt good to hear your actual boss say it out loud.

“You better not forget it, either. Especially when my job performance evaluation comes around,” you asserted.

Timmons swiftly saluted you as if he was the subordinate. You huffed a laugh at him while shaking your head with incredulity. You took a step or two toward the office door before looking over your shoulder at him.

Timmons had turned back to his laptop screen already and started typing again. “So, twenty minutes?” he asked with an air of levity.

You faltered, nearly tripping over your feet. “Wait? You were serious about that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Timmons wondered, looking up hurriedly from his laptop.

“I need to print out the contract and make copies, for one thing,” you mentioned, almost accusatory. Maybe if he had warned you ahead of time, you wouldn’t be so defensive.

“Already taken care of,” he soothed.

“What do you mean it’s ‘already taken care of’?” you asked, raising your hands to make quotation marks with your fingers.

“I had one of the other grunts do it last night.”

You gaped at Timmons like a goldfish, mouth popping open and closed. Did you hear him correctly? Timmons did something to make your job easier? You could hug him right now! You felt like pinching yourself to make sure it wasn’t a dream.

Once you gathered your wits again, you glanced to your feet bashfully. “Oh,” you spoke, absently fingering the bottom button of your cardigan. “Thank you.” You smiled gratefully.

Timmons returned the smile with one of his own. “You’re welcome.”

“Nine o’clock, then,” you agreed, moving further toward the doorway.

“On the dot!”

Words couldn’t even begin to describe the Avengers Compound. You’d seen it on the news, sure, but that didn’t compare to seeing it in real life. It was grandiose, imposing. You felt dwarfed in size looking up to the high rooftop. 

It was almost ostentatious in a way. Much like the man who designed it. Larger than life.

Tony Stark.

Tony had insisted he take you and Timmons around on the tour of the compound. You still hadn’t seen the need for a tour.

“When Tony Stark invites you to tour the Avengers compound, you don’t say no,” Timmons had said in the car-ride up when you questioned why it was necessary.

It was all superfluous, really. Like Tony was trying to woo the firm to sign them, not the other way around.

A headache was forming at the base of your skull as you waited in line at the reception desk to return your visitor security badge.

The tour of the facility seemed to have been drug out longer than it needed. Tony had appeared overeager to show off every little gadget or trinket. Or maybe he just liked to hear himself talk.

When Timmons excepted the lunch invitation after the tour was completed, you felt the urge to run down to the armory, grab a gun, and shoot yourself in the foot. You were kicking yourself for ever agreeing to come on this dumb tour.

As the line slowly dragged forward, the muffled noise of men’s voices caught your ear. It sounded like an argument. Your line of sight followed to where the altercation originated.

Standing twenty feet away was Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, clearly disagreeing.

Your breath stilled as you watched the two super soldiers quarrel in a near-stage-whisper. What could they be fighting about?

From your place in line, you saw Bucky shake his head adamantly, his chestnut hair swishing about his shoulders. He might have even stamped his foot like a child, but you were too preoccupied with the look of abject horror on his face. He turned away as if to flee, but his friend caught him by the shoulder to stop him.

Were you causing this reaction from him?

You looked to your right to see if there was possibly someone else. All you noticed, though, was an empty space. Had you hurt Bucky’s feelings that badly? Your stomach clenched. The last thing you wanted was to be on an Avengers’ shit-list.

Glancing back to the two men, you caught Steve gesturing Bucky forward with short sweeping motions of his hands. Bucky shook his head again, stubbornly.

Even at this distance, you could feel the frustration rolling off Captain America.

Like a sucker-punch to the gut, you suddenly became very aware you were eavesdropping on Captain America and his best friend.

Your cheeks heated instantaneously, embarrassed of your staring. You shouldn’t be spying on them, you admonished. No matter how much your curiosity is piqued. 

It was none of your business.

You turned away from them, facing the reception desk again.

As hard as you tried not to pay attention, you could still see what looked like wild gesturing from the corner of your eye.

What if they started fighting? Shouldn’t you be conscious of your surroundings for your own safety? You fidgeted in your spot as you debated your moral compass.

Fuck it, you thought.

As you peered over to the two super soldiers, Steve shoved Bucky forward gently, causing the latter to trip over his booted feet. Bucky glared back at his friend, his hands clenching into fists. Steve shooed him further. You could barely make out the word “Go!” on his lips.

As if in slow motion, you eyed Bucky taking step after step toward you. Was he coming over here?

Once you realized what was happening, your heart plummeted to your knees as your head whipped around to the front of the line.

Bucky Barnes was definitely walking over to you. 

Had he noticed you staring?

You tried to stabilize your heart rate with slow, easy breaths, but Bucky was beside you much sooner than you could imagine.

A waft of aftershave hit your nose- woodsy and deliciously masculine. Your stomach swooped.

God, he smelled good.

Without having to turn your head, you could feel his brawny mass hovering near you.

How do you play this?

Perplexed? 

“Oh, my gosh! I had no idea you’d be here!” Of course, he wouldn’t believe that. This is where the Avengers lived. He’d probably think you were a stalker.

Apologetic?

“I’m so sorry Peter and I made fun of you! Will you ever forgive me?” Nah, too needy or clingy.

Or--

Before you could think of any other ways to portray the situation, you heard a large gush of air escape from Bucky. Was he nervous?

“Hey-hey, (Y/N),” he said, voice shaky.

You gazed to your left. Bucky looked as white as a ghost. Had his ego taken that big of a hit?

At that moment, you wanted to do nothing more than wrap him in your arms and tell him sorry, and everything would be okay. You couldn’t, of course. You didn’t know the guy. So you settled for the next best thing.

You smiled at him beatifically. “Hello, Mr. Barnes.”

Like a veil had been pulled, his demeanor changed instantly. He returned the smile. “Ja-” he started but scrunched his nose as if he’d made a mistake. “Please. Call me Bucky.”

“Okay, Bucky,” you replied.

Timmons turned around, ahead of you in line, and eyeballed you. You gave him a dismissive look, praying he wouldn’t butt in.

“So, you here visiting?” Bucky asked, observing the badge in your hand.

“Sorta. It’s a work thing,” you remarked, waving the plastic fob in the air. “Stark Industries has hired my firm as their PR representative. It was signing day.”

“Ah,” Bucky said, nodding in understanding.

“And I got the tour and lunch courtesy of Tony Stark,” you added.

“Oh, yeah?” Bucky’s eyebrows raised in interest. “What did you think?”

“Honestly?” You watched Bucky shake his head in agreement. “It was extremely overwhelming. How do you not get lost in this place?”

Bucky laughed. Crinkles appeared in the corners of his eyes, yet he looked so boyish. He was beautiful.

“When I first got here, I did several times,” he huffed. “Every hallway looks exactly the same!”

“Right?!” you exclaimed. “I kept thanking my lucky stars that I had a tour guide!” 

Timmons rolled his eyes and pivoted, facing front.

“Steve had to draw me a map to help me find my living quarters after the third time,” Bucky confessed, running a hand through his hair.

“Oh, no!” you empathized, bringing a hand up to cover your mouth. “That must have been so embarrassing!”

“Bird brain caught wind of it and gave me shit for weeks,” he lamented.

You gave him a confused look, not understanding who or what he was referring to.

Realizing his mistake, Bucky corrected, “Sorry. Bird brain is Sam.”

“Because he’s Falcon?”

Bucky bobbed his head yes, looking a little sheepish.

“It’s clever,” you grinned. “I like it.”

Bucky reciprocated the smile, and your chest warmed. It was a feeling you usually felt while texting James. Light and airy.

Finally making it to the reception desk, you relinquished your security badge to the pretty blonde in the too-tight sweater set. She handed you a clipboard to initial and fill out your departure time.

While signing, you surveyed the blonde as Bucky stepped closer. Her eyelashes fluttered rapidly, and she bit down on her bottom lip. Was she giving him bedroom eyes?

A new kind of warmth flooded your body. It felt a lot like jealousy as it snaked its way up to your ribs and circled your collarbones, which was absurd because you had no claim to this man. You’d met him one other time. Why would you feel this way?

Shoving the clipboard back at the receptionist, you spun toward Bucky. He regarded her politely and nodded, “Ma’am.”

Her shoulders slumped, and a frown slithered onto her painted lips. Somehow you felt triumphant, but not sure why. Bucky hadn’t picked you over her.

Your heart thumped harder in your chest as you walked side by side with Bucky, nearing the exit. You were suddenly overcome with the feeling of apologizing. What had you told James if you ever saw Bucky again? Apologize profusely and ask him to coffee.

You smiled at Bucky once again as he rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. The sound of a throat clearing resonated nearby. It wasn’t until you glanced up did you register Timmons standing so close. You had nearly forgotten about him.

Trying to gather your courage, you glimpsed between the two men. Bucky was squinting suspiciously at Timmons, and it made you chuckle lightly. “Easy tiger,” you assured. “That’s my boss, Roger Timmons.”

Bucky’s blue eyes widened a fraction, and he raised a hand in hello. “Sir.”

Timmons raised his chin in acknowledgment before looking down at his watch. You took it as his way of telling you to hurry up.

Okay, it’s now or never.

“Would you like to go to coffee with me?” Bucky blurted out, cheeks coloring pink.

Your eyes roamed across his handsome face. The boyishness was back, along with a touch of uncertainty. He was sweet, regardless of what the media claimed about him. Your lips curled up into a broad smile. “You read my mind,” you revealed, then winced. “That’s not one of your superpowers, is it?”

Bucky tittered. “No, no mind-reading.”

“Good,” you said, relieved.

“Whaddya say? Coffee?”

You dipped your head in a slow yes. “It’ll have to be after work, though.” You motioned over your shoulder with your thumb. “The slave driver over there is taking me back to the office to put me to work.”

Giggling, as you heard a scoff come from behind where you were standing, you reached into your purse and pulled out a pen and an old receipt. You quickly jotted down your work address. Handing it to Bucky, you began moving towards Timmons. “I get off at five,” you called. “I’ll meet you in the lobby.” You waved goodbye.

Bucky smirked. “Don’t work too hard!”

You flashed him one last smile before disappearing through the exit door.

You had a coffee date with Bucky Barnes!

You couldn’t believe it! The giddiness swelled inside you.

You gazed at Timmons’ profile as you walked to the waiting car parked at the curb. He had that look on his face.

It was a long drive back to the city. There was no way you could endure it if he started up now.

You gave a stern look before you stated, “Whatever you’re thinking, keep it to yourself.”

Timmons threw his hands up in mock surrender. “I wasn’t thinking anything.”

“Uh-huh,” you said dubiously. Timmons smiled smugly as you both climbed into the town car.

Chapter Five | Chapter 6 (part 2)

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[agentofscifi]

Super Genius Marinette Ch. 1

So, I read Marinette: Iron Man Rising & Ladybug: Young Avenger by @unmaskedagain and total loved them. Then I got the idea, what if Marinette was Ironman’s kid. I know there’s been a lot of BioDad ideas for Marinette and I wanted to try this one out. Hope you guys love it!

I stare down at my classmates over the top of my iPad. They were all chatting away about random things they would be doing during the summer and their pool party celebration after final exams. There were a few pointed jabs at me by Alya and Lila, but I simply ignored them. They’d gotten worse this year after it was revealed that I supposedly forced Lila to lie about having a lying disease to get out my expulsion the year previous. I simply rolled my eyes at their naivety. Coming next fall, this entire class would crash and burn. 

My class had a lot of potential, however, they never really did anything with it. It didn’t help that this entire room ran itself off of my scheduling, reminders, and fundraising due to my class representative job. I was still kind of angry at myself for taking the job. I was already juggling a lot of work. Being Ladybug was time-consuming enough, adding on class representative duties put me behind in my real studies. That was one secret I had been harboring for years. I am a child genius and the daughter of the famous Tony Stark.

When my mother was young she had a brief one night stand with my biological father, Tony Stark, while on vacation. When my mother was just a few months pregnant, she met my Papa at baking class. They started dating and ended up opening a store together. When I was just 1, they married. Now, shortly after my birth, my Mama called my Dad to inform him that she was pregnant. A DNA test was done on the sly. My father never revealed that he had a child and my existence was kept a secret. So secret that only my Father, Mama, Papa, Aunt Pepper, Uncle Rhodes, Uncle Happy, my Papa’s parents, and my Mama’s parents knew about it. A small circle that somehow remained small. 

My father sent birthday gifts, called and video chatted, and he even attended a ceremony in Paris when I was a child. However, all three of my parents wanted me to have a normal life. It was slightly more difficult when I managed to trick-out a computer at four and fix household appliances at six. They ended up sending me to a specialized école élémentarie. I was put on a fast-tracked schedule that had a lot of self-studying and online learning. If I kept to the schedule, I would graduate from Lycée at 14 and started University at 15. A few months younger than my father. 

I, however, insisted on attending normal school to keep up with kids my age. I didn’t care as much about starting university at an unusual age. I did skip a grade, however, as I couldn’t hide all of my knowledge. So, I started at a regular école élémentarie. Classes were general alright, I enjoyed the literature classes and speed through the science and math classes. I mostly did my advanced work in class. As long as I turned in my homework and wasn’t bothering people, my teachers didn’t care. Chloe did put a bit of a damper on friendships, as no one wanted to anger the Mayor’s daughter. However, I still enjoyed regular school. 

When I started Collége Françoise Dupont, at age 10, I was already through the first year of the materials. It got easier with me being in Madame Bustier’s class. She was a nice teacher but didn’t control her classroom very well. For two years I managed to do my advanced work without her ever knowing. Frankly, her relaxed environment made it easier for me to work ahead. When I started my third year of Collége, I had done all of the materials already. A year and a ½ of studying in a year’s worth of time. 

Of course, this is when it got messy. I received the Ladybug miraculous and made some real friends, or so I thought. All of this was fun and great, but it made working ahead more difficult. Adding on Ladybug work and class representative work made it possible for me to only do a year’s worth of Lycée work in a year. 

Father called, a little worried, but I easily calmed him down. I was still three years ahead of everyone else, plus adding on all of my design work and my class representative duties would make my college application even better. Less studying gave me more time to do independent work. My pseudonym, Maria, created several green energy products, three different popular apps, and an extremely lightweight, flame-resistant, and shrapnel resistant line for firefighters. I was a success, and I would continue to be, despite all of Lila’s mechanisms. Either way, I was in the last few hours of class with these idiots. Starting next fall, I’d be attending MIT in Massachusetts. 

I had a small, personal graduation from my specialized Lycée a week ago. I sent my transcripts from both my specialized Lycée and one from Lycée Françoise Dupont. I did get Madame Mandeleiev to help me get video footage of Lila framing me for my expulsion and write a letter explaining the issue of my rescinded expulsion on my record. A brief phone call and an email containing the Ladyblog link told MIT everything they needed to know about my classroom. I did get asked why I stayed. Truthfully, I wanted to see this through. After Lila’s return in the second half of my Troisieme year, I started collecting evidence against the Collége and Lycée Françoise Dupont for enabling bullies, extreme favoritism, and incompetence. 

“Marinette?” I glance up from my iPad to see Madame Bustier looking at me. The entire class is now looking at me. Lila is smirking next to Bustier. “Can you apologize to Lila?”

I raise one eyebrow. “What am I apologizing to Lila about?”

“For your rude and threatening words earlier, before class started, in the locker room.” Madame Buster speaks to me as if I am a small child. She’d done that to me for a while because I skipped a year. She seemed to think that because I was a year younger than everyone else, I need to be treated like a child. After Lila’s arrival, she became even more condescending. 

I glance at the clock really quickly. 2 minutes until the bell and just a few hours until I would be flying first class to New York. “I didn’t go to the locker room this morning Madame Bustier.”

Mrs. Bustier sighs. Lila smirks before sobbing loudly. It sounded horrible and fake, like some cheap amateur actress. “Oh, Marinette. I didn’t want to make a big deal about this. I just wanted you to apologize for your mean words and for stealing my iPad-I mean, oops!” Lila’s shirk is back, but the entire class misses it to turn to glare at me. Then the comments started.

“Dude, stealing is not cool!”

“Stop being such a bully!”

“I thought we could trust you!”

“I can’t believe this! I used to think you were such a good person.”

“Just give Lila back the iPad, Marinette.”

I roll my eyes, putting the iPad in my hand into my bag. “File a report.”

There’s silence. “What?” Lila looks at me in confusion. 

“File a report. If I really stole this iPad from you, go to the police. Have them do an investigation.” The bell rings above us and I stand from my seat. Everyone is still in the same spots, too stunted by my declaration to do anything. 

I walk down the stairs until I’m in front of Mrs. Bustier. I pull out a file and hand it to her. “I’m unable to be Class Representative next year. This is everything I need to hand over for my successor. All of the money earned for the Graduation trip in two years is in the class savings account. I left a page detailing how much was earned at each event this year.”

I move to leave the room, but Mrs. Bustier steps in front of me. “Marinette, we talked about this. The Marinette of the world, setting an example.” 

I met Mrs. Bustier’s eyes with a flat look. “Mrs. Bustier, I have a flight to catch, please move.”

“Marinette!” She sighs, but I had already moved around her.

Chaos starts to erupt behind me in the classroom. Students yelling about me being childish, some saying Lila should press charges, and others saying that they should just enjoy me being gone. Either way, it was no longer my problem. I didn’t have time for stupid people.

Next

[dpanuncialwriter]

Librarians, Start New Game

November-December 2019, American Libraries Magazine

For librarians at universities with videogame design programs, maintaining a large, accessible gaming collection isn’t a Final Fantasy. It’s a Call of Duty. Beginning a collection may be as easy as pressing start to play, but storing and preserving complex materials is a tough battle—and academic librarians want to level up.

The University of Michigan’s (UM) Computer Video and Game Archive (CVGA) in Ann Arbor boasts more than 8,000 videogames and 60 consoles dating back to the 1970s. “Because we have such a large collection, there are many examples from which to pull and get inspiration, things [students] would never be able to afford on their own,” says David Carter, videogame archivist at UM. “Almost nobody has a collection this big, especially a college student.”

“[People] don’t think of libraries as a destination for digital scholarship,” says Anne Morrow, associate librarian and head of digital scholarship services at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library, which has more than 500 videogames and serves almost 400 game design students. “There’s an incentive to see what the obstacles are for bringing these types of original work into the collection.”

Objective: playability

As the owner of more than 2,000 commercial games, 300 student games, and 40 consoles (some as old as the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System), the University of California, Santa Cruz’s (UCSC) Science and Engineering Library prioritizes authentic playability. Its goal is to provide students with not only a game but also the console it was made for, a compatible controller, and an era-appropriate TV to play it on.

With so many moving pieces, says Christy Caldwell, science and engineering librarian at UCSC, “providing usage of increasingly ‘antique’ [materials] is an ongoing challenge.”

UM has the same goal. “We don’t have to do a lot of tracking down, thankfully,” says Valerie Waldron, UM computer and videogame archive manager. About half of its collection is donated, and as with other academic libraries that own game collections, staffers turn to eBay if they need to repair or buy a missing item. Or they get creative.

“Something broke on our Atari 7800, and we actually 3D-printed a replacement part,” Carter says.

Why is maintaining playability of older games important? Students are mainly studying design and software. “What does the game look like, and what does the controller feel like?” Caldwell says. “Are you seeing something similar to what someone who played the game earlier would have seen and experienced?”

Students are also looking at artwork, game mechanics, subjects, and even source code as inspiration for their own games. “They’re using [archives] for competitive intelligence, and looking at what’s been done already,” says Tallie Casucci, assistant librarian at Marriott Library.

Space is another issue. At Marriott Library, students must go to different floors to pick up a videogame, grab a console and matching controllers, and actually play, since the stations are separated and require checkouts for loss prevention. “It’d be nice to have everything all in one place,” Casucci says.

In Ann Arbor, the CVGA houses both the collection and spaces to play the games on consoles, since the collection doesn’t leave the library. “It’s a very crammed room,” Carter says.

Save game?

UM staffers say they have two missions: to serve the teaching and research needs of faculty and students in order to promote usage of the games, and to preserve those games. “There’s an inherent tension. Usage is the enemy of preservation,” Carter says. “Academic usage trumps preservation. We don’t want to have something just to have it and not let people use it.”

After students from the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program at Utah lost all the materials for Erie, a popular student-made game from 2012, Casucci and Morrow investigated their options. With help from an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, they published an ebook this fall on how to best archive, preserve, and disseminate student videogames.

“People have been looking at digital preservation seriously, [but] we haven’t made progress with objects that are really complex, like videogames, that have many interactions between files,” Morrow says. “We thought about the existing services in a library and how games might be supported by those services.”

“In our case, it would be the sheer number of analog games to process and store that would be difficult, especially year after year,” Caldwell says. “You’re asking people in cataloging who have never even played a game to suddenly start cataloging media. You need to support them.” The best way to do that, she says, is to develop accurate metadata and consistent, detailed cataloging practices.

But academic libraries still need to strategize.

At Marriott Library, Casucci and Morrow created a tiered retention system for archiving student games, through which students can choose the process that best suits their needs. In earlier tiers, students can contribute visuals such as screenshots or game trailers. As they go further into the system, students can contribute their games in their entirety, allowing future students complete access to its features.

Commercial games have not been forgotten. Carter and Waldron are finding ways to preserve legacy formats of videogames like floppy disks and cartridges. “We’re trying to discover ways of taking the game off its original format and creating an image for it,” Waldron says. “There are still a lot of things to work out, like how to store it properly, retrieve it, or put it back in its original format.” As for regular discs, UM keeps multiple copies and stores them in archival-quality sleeves behind the circulation desk.

According to Heather Maxwell Chandler’s Game Production Handbook, after producing a videogame, developers organize the game’s source assets and archive them in a closing kit—a common practice in the industry to help developers install updates or patches to their games. UCSC would like to implement closing kits down the line.

“The faculty wants to have a record of what students have created,” Caldwell says. “They want students to be inspired by what other students have done and build on that work.”

Carter and Waldron say that videogame preserving and archiving has been underdeveloped in libraries because it is still an emerging format. “Until recently, the history of the videogame industry has been left in the hands of private collectors,” Carter says. “Not to discount the work that private collectors have done—that’s one portion of preservation, but you need academic libraries in the mix.”

“For a long time, [game companies] weren’t really interested in preserving their games, either,” Waldron says. According to Kotaku, this is due to legal gray areas, lack of industry support, and turnover of games. “I think that’s slowly starting to change.”

Conquering copyright issues

Potential copyright problems exist in every layer of videogame collecting, especially regarding older materials with expired copyrights. In October 2018, a decision from the Library of Congress and US Copyright Office allowed institutions to lawfully own copies of older videogames if they were acquired from the original companies in order to make preservation copies—a separate challenge for librarians and archivists as many companies are no longer in business or have discontinued server support.

“Assuming that all videogames are governed by terms of use, it’s likely that any exceptions one would expect in the copyright law are not allowed,” says Carrie Russell, senior program officer and copyright specialist at the American Library Association. “If students are doing close analysis of the games or something similar, it’s likely that license terms don’t forbid just studying and researching the game unless the research involves the need to circumvent digital rights management (DRM) that may be employed by the rights holder.”

DRM is a form of copyright protection licensing for digital media implemented by embedding code that prevents copying, specifying a time period in which content can be accessed, or limiting the number of devices content can be installed on. For example, games with expired or maxed-out licenses may not be library friendly.

Another consideration is that certain PC games come with keys—a string of unique characters—that a user must input in order to play. “But then that [game] is registered, and it’s only good for one use,” Carter says. “If someone donates a PC game to us, if they’ve used the key, we can’t use that game. We have to somehow get another key.”

Currently, libraries’ and archives’ rights to preserve videogames are allowed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. “That exemption, however, will expire in 2021 and need to be requested again,” Russell says.

Student-made videogames are easier to preserve since students get to decide what university libraries can keep. The student work that libraries archive mostly consists of digital files. They can either archive the entire game or different elements of it, like an abstract, artwork, or gameplay footage.

“We never make the students put up everything,” Caldwell says. “They could say, ‘I don’t want to upload my actual code. I’ll upload my abstract.’”

Students can claim complete copyright of their games or use a Creative Commons license, which allows others to share, use, and build on their work. They can even decide if they want their work to be available to university affiliates or the public.

Librarians, too, try to educate students about the importance of archiving their work at the library, studying other games, and how copyright plays into both. “You have to believe that [students] are going to use [the collection] responsibly,” Caldwell says.

Next-level libraries

Librarians agree they’re just beginning to assimilate game scholarship into academic libraries; progress will continue as the industry and programs evolve.

Caldwell says librarians should be working collaboratively to keep games accessible by lobbying for copyright law exceptions, partnering with game companies, and improving metadata and catalog descriptions.

“Games are to the 21st century what films were to the 20th,” she says. “How long did it take libraries to start collecting film? I think what we can do is start working together sooner, because we’ve already lost so many games.”

UM also wants to encourage students who may not be game design majors to help normalize videogames in the library. “In humanities or social science classes, instead of writing a paper, students are creating games,” Carter says. “We’ve been working with the design lab [at UM] to figure out ways to support the lighter-weight aspect of game creation.”

“[Games are] a part of society,” Waldron says. “It speaks to what our culture is in any given era, like any other format.”

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

Til Death Do Us Part ch 1

This will end up on Ao3 eventually  Based on the @maulusque post (Which You Should Read Before Reading This) where Fox and Palpatine end up in a fake relationship and sham marriage because both thinks the other is sincere and that they are manipulating the other but Fox had one hell of a prenup and ends up cleaning house when he divorces Sheev and saves the galaxy 

This is not that story.  This is a failed version of that story I thought up because my two braincells were like Rey Palpatine? That makes Fox her step-grandpa??? and i wanted them to meet. It also is turning into a Sequels Fix It (disclaimer- I kind of take sequels canon about the sheev clones and mash it with my fist until juice comes out and make lemonade and do whatever i want bc they dont explain enough)

Summary:  Fox wakes up from cryo-stasis to a galaxy recovering from the fall of the Empire as the universe’s Bitterest Ex-Husband because he didn’t get to kill Palpatine himself. He’s not going to let some discount clone of sheev ruin things again either, and ends up with a surprise step-granddaughter along the way.  3k words chapter 1/?

Fox should have known better than to attempt out-manipulating the puppetmaster of a galactic war.  What really rankled was how close he had come, his fingers had metaphorically brushed the salvation of the Republic before it had been snatched away. 

The divorce had been more than halfway processed, and Palpatine had grown more and more panicked.  Under the scrutiny of every lawyer on Coruscant, the prenuptial agreement had been airtight, the political powers Fox tried to give himself in it were unlikely to be enforced, but the monetary and titular aspects were to the letter of the law.  

Of course the law only applied to citizens and sentients.  Palpatine cracked down hard against Clone Rights in those last months.  He himself did not publicly utter a biased word in either direction, only ever praising the effectiveness of the troops, but many of Palpatine’s close associates presented strong cases.  People that had been at their engagement party, people who had been roped by tradition into dancing with Fox’s brothers at the wedding, people who had looked him in the eye over an oiled banquet table and praised his wit, became the ones proclaiming that Fox and his brothers had no more inborn rights or legal merit than a droid or womprat. 

Palpatine drew the court case out in circular debates, and last minute rescheduling.  Fox was kept exhausted and worn to the bone between the ramped up tempo of the war, the grueling hours in court, and the new loathing facing him every second he spent at his job in the Coruscant Guard.  Palpatine had dropped any acts around Fox, no longer the doting grandfather of the republic, or enthusiastic geriatric spouse, but bitter and jilted and cruel-tongued.  Some days Fox feared for his life. 

It was that resignation that he would die that saved Fox’s life.  He updated his will -clones were at least allowed those for any non-GAR-issue items they had - and made sure copies were held by numerous offices, and even on other planets.  He appointed Cody and the Coruscant Guard as the main benefactors, Cody had the authority to divy resources up among the rest of the vode, and the Coruscant Guard were both his closest brothers and deserving of any boon he could grant them.  He left a hefty endowment for the cadets and tubies, to find either adoptive families or to raise them without the military training in the event of the War ending.  He left his half of the cultural artifacts that Palpatine had collected to the Jedi for them to distribute as they saw fit. 

Even if Palpatine managed to pierce holes through every line of the divorce documents, he could not deny Fox’s last will and testament.  Palpatine had to keep Fox alive, or else he would lose many of the assets he was trying to keep in his grasp. 

Fox had counted on more time to slip information to the GAR and the Jedi, he had counted on less supervision, and he had counted on Dooku and Grievous lasting for a few more months than they did.  

He failed to prevent Order 66, and as his brothers lost their free-will, he was abducted from 500 Republica.  A drugged dart jabbing through his blacks and unfamiliar hands hauling him onto a ship.  He was put into cryo-cycle stasis. That counted enough as keeping him alive that his will could not be enacted, but kept him and his insider knowledge from challenging Palpatine. 

Forty years later, a decade after the fledgling New Republic finally closed the buried account that dripped credits into the facility Fox’s stasis pod was in, the power couplings shorted out - whatever droid or employee was in charge of maintenance long departed for salaried work.  The pod had emergency protocols to thaw him out with the last of its energy reserves if the power was cut out. 

And so out he had staggered, head aching and bile rising.  His genetically wired resilience and discipline had carried him through the worst of the stasis sickness. 

The computer terminals were easy enough to slice.  Palpatine did not change his cybersecurity strategy over the decades, and Fox knew more than he wanted to of that man’s mind.  What he found was disturbing, but not surprising.  Weapons capable of destroying entire planets, the genocide of the Jedi, the suicidal brothers made into cyborg Dark Troopers, a Galactic Empire.  And cloning, an overwhelming amount of information on cloning. Not just familiar Kaminoan files, but resources from other cloning facilities, Strand-Casts, Splices, Stem-cells- every method explored and combined.  Palpatine had been seeking immortality.

Fox did not let himself think about what year it was, he did not think about the decades Palpatine had marred for the Galaxy, the vode all marching far away without him, the history ripped apart by waves of propaganda.  What he thought instead about was his own failure to sacrifice himself and put a blaster bolt through Palpatine’s wrinkled forehead so many years ago. It rankled quite a bit that Palpatine died while he was in stasis - the bitterness of unfulfilled hatred. But he could find new purpose. He would not let a false Palpatine return and inflict himself upon the healing Galaxy.  

After he left the lunar facility orbiting its dead planet in a nearly-corroded relic of an emergency escape ship, the first goal he achieved was programming a medical droid to excise the control chip from his brain.  Then he started slicing again.  There were still some accounts he had set up during his sham marriage with credits that had decades of interest.  His backup plan to that was selling the material assets he knew either he or Palpatine had stored away in scattered locations.  

Fox bought a ship, blasters, and assembled piecemeal a set of armor.  He bought bounty hunter credentials, keeping his helmet on always to hide any recognition his face might bring.  He stacked crates of rations in the empty bunks in his ship - a Skipray Blastboat - a vessel meant for four was a roomy choice to travel alone in, but still nearly invisible in its ubiquity.  And he went hunting. 

Palpatine’s clones were hard to find, a challenge Fox embraced for its distraction.  He found out some of the pseudonyms running the older facilities, the constructed identities for whatever apprentices, droids, or imperial loyalists were actually doing the work.  That was a mystery Fox was still investigating.  

Sometimes, to find a clone of Palpatine, Fox anonymously set the bounty himself, and then claimed it as well - getting the resources of the minor guild he worked with, as well as a tracking fob. 

Sometimes he killed them. Sometimes it was easy, the compulsions and the personality of Palpatine showing through, and that hated face looking back.  Sometimes they were worming their way into government positions to undermine the New Republic.  Sometimes it was harder, botched strand-casts that held only a passing resemblance to the man, and were without the force or any malignance.  Those, Fox judged on a case-by-case basis.  Were they in politics? How connected were they to any neo-imperialists? He judged each of them by their own actions, he knew the way a clone could be blamed for the actions of another.

He was not the only one after these clones, someone else was also hunting them - off of any official Bounty Hunting channels. And with the karked up Sith tradition of usurpers, Fox could not assume it was an ally. 

Fox’s unknown rival gradually became more than just a nuisance to compete against.  There had been a strand-cast clone of Palpatine’s that bore only a partial resemblance and had been actively undermining some of the networks Fox thought might be connected to the cloning facilities. Fox had been trying to track him down, to talk to someone who might be able to link him to the roots of this operation - he was even ready to offer personal protection - but his opponent had reached him first. 

The man was dead now. As was the woman he had been traveling with.  It was frustratingly suspicious, and Fox was out of other leads to investigate.  He spent a few months slicing and scouring for information about the strand-cast.  The man had boarded a ship from a large spaceport with a woman and a child, had transferred numerous times, and then, at the last port before his death, had only embarked with the woman.  The child had either died prior the the adults’ deaths, or was still alive.  And if the child was alive, they might know where their father had come from.

Shipyard security cameras and life/heat sensors could only tell him so much.  He looked into crew manifests, ration orders, and fuel receipts.  Between fuel logs and hyperspace maps, he created a list of planets between each refueling stop with more fuel purchased and time between than a direct route would necessitate and worked down that, checking for ships matching their vessel’s description docking with false credentials.  Planets with smaller populations were quicker to investigate so he looked there first.  It was a slow process over weeks. 

 Jakku had only a few scattered settlements, and while their ship monitoring was lacking, the local population was likely to have seen anyone who arrived or left. He landed outside of one of the larger trade centers. 

He disembarked his ship and walked towards the mass of tents and shabby buildings. He was wearing only a minimum of armor, and had left his helmet on the ship. His blaster was still displayed in its holster, a weight he felt pressed against his thigh with every step. He wasn’t here as a bounty hunter, but something closer to undercover instead, and if the kid was here he didn’t want to scare or threaten the child prematurely.  He would blend in more as just another spacer. 

He was met by a varied group of sun-beaten and skeptical beings. The welcoming committee seemed torn between distrust and hope for trade. 

“I’m here for information.” He began, showing a flash of credit chips when he pulled out his holoprojector. “About a year ago a ship of this type would have arrived and left a passenger behind.” 

“Lotta ships come in and out…” A thin Caskadag said unhelpfully.  But Fox could see poorly concealed recognition among some of the faces. He mentally debated who to bribe or how else to persuade the crowd. 

Out of sight, there was a shriek of conversation and then the frantic scuffle of running feet over sand.  A girl emerged from a clump of tents and stopped, almost breathless, staring at him. She was young, between six or eight, Fox struggled like most clones with approximating odd numbered years of natural borns, but she was small. 

“Did my parents send you!? Are they gonna come get me?” She asked with bright desperation. She was staring at the holoprojected ship in his hands.  Fox knew this was the strand-cast’s child. 

“I’m here because of your parents.” He said evenly.  He looked at the group of now unhappy onlookers, denied their chance to weasel credits out of him. “Is there somewhere less busy we can talk?” 

“Mmhmm.” She walked him between tents to a clearing edged with waste heaps. Fox opened his mouth and then stopped again, hesitant. 

“Why did my parents send you?” There was sensible caginess warring with hope in her voice.  She kept glancing back to the crowd they had just left. 

“I’m sorry, Rey,” He hoped that what the other workers had muttered at her had been her name, and dropped down to one knee to be on a level with her. “But your parents are dead.  I’m sorry, but they can’t come get you.” 

There was a watery vulnerability to her eyes.  Fox expected a denial, he hated being the one to deliver this news. It was partially his own failure.  

“So… So I’m just… I’m just going to stay here? And - and work for Mister Plutt forever?” She looked wetly at the pitiful tents around them, the sand, the beating sun, the scrap-sorting piles.  Fox looked at her, at the scabs and callouses on her tiny hands, at the stained clothing, at the bones of her arms, at the ring of faint green skin around her wrist.  Force, he had always been weak for the cadets. 

“No, if you want… If you want I can take you with me.”  It was an impulsive offer, but it felt right. 

“You’re not my dad.” She said sulkily. “I’m only supposed to leave if him or mum comes.” 

“No, I’m not.” Fox did some quick thinking about his relationship to Palpatine, his own apparent age, and the fact her father was a clone of Sheev. “But I am your father’s ex-husband.” 

He knew that she had no reason to trust him, and frankly if she had any sense to not get abducted, she wouldn’t.  Fox was ready to pull up a datapad with the copy of his marriage certificate, proof her father was a clone, and a discussion of family trees.  Instead of an argument, she looked intensely at him and he felt a warmth swell around him, like a summer breeze.  Of course the kriffing kid was force sensitive. 

It was pleasant, as far as being probed by the force ever was.  She was bright and gentle and washed over him, so unlike the cloying oil-slick that he had not realized choked his mind for years until he was finally free of Palpatine. He waited, keeping his thoughts on what he had just said, but not so intently as to raise her suspicion that he was hiding something. 

Eventually she nodded. “Okay.” 

“Okay?” 

“I know when people are lying.  And-” She hesitated, squirming a little. “And you feel nice.” 

Fox smiled. Nice was not the word that Fox would have picked to describe himself currently, considering he had spent a better part of the past year hunting down clones of his ex-husband and killing many of them with extreme prejudice. He wondered unhappily at what relative caliber for niceness she was comparing him to. He stood up and paused. 

“So you’ll come with me?” He asked again for clarity’s sake. 

“Mmhmm.” She confirmed, and stepped to his side, reaching up to worm her little hand into his. 

“Do you have stuff to get? People to say bye to?” He asked uncertainly.  He wasn’t sure how this was supposed to go, and right now it felt too easy.  She started tugging him towards the array of scrap-sorters.  

She went to a spot she had clearly hastily abandoned when he had arrived, and picked up a dingy canvas bag and slung it over her shoulder.  She walked back to him and put her hand back in his again.  

“Okay. Now we need to tell Mister Plutt.” She nodded towards a permanent structure at the edge of the scrapyard. 

“Rey, Rey, Who’s that man?” One of the women who had not been in the group that greeted him, skin toughened by sand and sun, rose up from the heaps of metal and brandished a staff at him.  Part of Fox was relieved that at least someone was stopping little girls from getting kidnapped.  The other part of him put on his most charming, non-threatening smile. 

“I’m her father’s ex-husband.  Her parents are dead and I only just found out…” 

The woman glared at him but shifted to look at Rey, softening her gaze. 

“He tellin’ the truth? Do you know this man?” 

“He’s not lying.” Rey said. “And Dad mentioned he had a complix-complexcated past.” 

“Her father and I may have split over our differences, but I’m not leaving his kid to grow up a scrapper beholden to quotas when I have the resources to raise her instead.”  Fox’s honest determination had the desired effect, the woman lowered her staff and nodded, still suspicious but relenting.  

“You’re going to have to pay Unkar for her.” 

Fox frowned and gestured towards his blaster on his hip. “Sure, I’ll pay.” 

“No. I mean it. You try any funny business and he’ll set the guild on you or worse.” The woman was very serious.  “You got enough to pay?” 

“If I have to, I will.” Fox said with finality.  He did not want to buy another being, but he also wanted Rey off of this planet as smoothly as possible. 

The questioning was repeated with Unkar Plutt, who glared with equal distrust to the people outside.  He took Rey aside into his office room, and Fox hoped it was to question her about his claims and if she actually wanted to leave with him.  Fox was concerned by how easy it was for someone to take a child off of Jakku like this, but also acknowledged that this was incredibly convenient for him. 

Plutt and Rey reemerged and Rey walked over and clung to his pant leg.  Fox brushed a hand over her hair. 

“I’m losing years of good labor.” Unkar said callously. “I expect to be compensated.” 

Fox told himself that the credits he handed over were a bribe. Fox swung Rey’s little bag over his shoulder and after a moment of consideration, hoisted Rey up to rest on his hip as well.  She was light and clung round his neck, giggling with surprise in his ear.  

Fox didn’t need to be force sensitive to know that this decision felt right. 

[sebspocketsquare]

Quarantine: 4

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader (online)

A/N: Heya guys! Here’s part 4! Its extra long like i promised. Let me know what you think! part 5 is in the works :) -T

Warnings: Flirting, language, quarantine, fear, crying, feels, mentions of a breakin

It’s pouring rain.

You’re in shock.

Frozen in place.

You’re not even sure what to think as you stare at your front door.

You’d locked it, right? You’d remembered to do that?

Searching your memories, you find that yes, you did lock it… which could only mean one thing.

Mind racing, the bags you’d toted home from the grocery store fall from your grasp to the cold concrete below, and you don’t even flinch at the sound that was surely your eggs cracking.

“But..” The word comes out as more of a breath, and that’s when you notice that tears are already stinging the ridges of your eyes.

It takes another few minutes of ragged breathing before you come to your senses and shakily fish your phone out of your pocket, dialing 911.

They answer on the second ring, and the dispatch operator sounds as stressed as you feel.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

You suddenly find yourself questioning if this really is an emergency, but right yourself almost immediately. Someone just broke into your apartment. A stranger. A criminal.

Yes, it was an emergency.

“I, um.. I just got home from the store, and my-my apartment door is open, I.. I think someone broke in while i was gone.”

You hear her typing before she responds to you, “Okay ma’am, I’m going to ask you not to enter the residence and stay away from the front door in case someone is still inside. Can you give me your address? I’ll have an officer with you in less than ten minutes.”

You exchange the information she needs with a trembling voice, and she asks if you’d like to stay on the line with her until the authorities arrive.

You’ve never agreed to anything so fast. Even if you didn’t speak, at least she’d be there if something else were to happen.

She tells you that there have been five other break ins in your area in the last two weeks, and that she’s sorry it’s happening to you, too.

You’re too numb to murmur anything other than a “thank you.”

It takes approximately 8 minutes for a patrol car to arrive with two officers inside.

They have you wait outside as they enter your apartment, and the next fifteen minutes of their searching seems as if it goes on forever.

As you’re waiting, your phone chirps.

A new IM from J.

[Sarge:] Getting worried over here, doll.. You home safe and sound yet?

Just reading the message has more tears welling in your eyes.

[clairv0yant:] Not exactly…

The moment you press send, both of the officers come out onto your porch with looks that can only be described as sympathy.

“Miss? We’d like you to come inside, please.. The coast is clear, but we need you to file a full report on what’s been taken.”

His words open a gaping hole in your stomach and you suddenly feel nauseated.

What’s been taken?

You don’t notice how your phone vibrates repeatedly in your pocket, desperate messages trying to reach you.

It takes 45 minutes to file the report with the police, to account for everything that’s missing.

They took the tower to your computer, the screen, the mouse and the keyboard. Your TV is missing, along with the bottles of vodka you’d kept in your freezer. The jar that contained your ‘vacation’ savings had been taken from your bedroom, along with your tablet and phone charger. They’d even gone as far as to steal the two packs of toilet paper and cleaners from under your bathroom sink. They broke every dish in your cupboard, glass was scattered on every bit of your floor, but they managed to completely overlook the small stash of twenties you kept in your underwear drawer.

The officers reiterate what the dispatch lady had told you: you weren’t the only one this had happened to recently, and they were sorry this had happened to you. They’d check in on you for the next couple days, and let you know if they find the people responsible.

There wasn’t much more that could be done.

Once they leave you lock the door, though that doesn’t make you feel safe anymore. 

That hadn’t been enough before, what would stop them from doing it again?

You lean your back against it, before letting out a sob and falling to the floor.

Your fingers tangle in the roots of your hair and you tug in frustration as you cry. 

Why you? Why now?

You weren’t working, the little bit of savings you did have had to be used to pay bills and buy groceries. You had no idea when you’d be allowed back to your job, and you had no one to rely on to help you.

What were you supposed to do now?

Your phone chirps from your pocket again, and when you bring it to eye level, you notice you have 18 missed messages.

[Sarge:] What do you mean?

[Sarge:] Doll, please answer me.

[Sarge:] Clair, you’re scaring me…

[Sarge:] At least let me know you’re okay.

[Sarge:] Clair, please?

[Sarge:] Say something, anything..

[Sarge:] Fuck..

[Sarge:] I’m such an idiot for letting you go out without getting your phone number or address

[Sarge:] Please let me know you’re fine

[Sarge:] Tell me I’m overreacting

[Sarge:] Clair..?

[Sarge:] I’m freaking out over here

[Sarge:] Baby, you’re scaring me..

[Sarge:] Answer me

[Sarge:] I’m begging you

[Sarge:] Just send me a fucking smiley face, anything

[Sarge:] just let me know you’re alive

[Sarge:] Just.. call me, please..

The last message included a phone number.

Your thumb hovers over the assortment of digits as you take in a shuddering breath. You didn’t want to call and have him hear you like this. You’d always imagined the first time you spoke on the phone would be full of awkward giggles and flirty compliments given back and forth.

Not you on the verge of breaking.

Your thumb finally presses the numbers, and as if to question your choices, a message pops up on your screen: ‘Calling.. Are you sure you want to do this?’

You hit yes without a second thought.

The line rings once before the person at the other end answers.

“Clair?”

You’re too emotionally devastated to appreciate the timbre of his voice, the concern laced in the first word you’ve ever physically heard him say.

“Please, say something..”

He’s begging at this point, and there’s a quake in his words that weighs down your already heavy heart.

“I-It’s me.” 

The whisper has him letting out a sigh of relief before he speaks again.

“What’s going on? Talk to me.”

That’s when you break.

You tell him everything through hiccups and sobs.

When you’ve finished with your story, he releases another sigh before speaking again.

“Baby, you gotta breathe. I know it’s hard, but take a couple deep breaths for me okay? Can you do that?”

You follow his instruction, taking a few deep breaths in, and releasing them just as slow.

“There you go.. I’m gonna take care of this, okay? I’m gonna take care of you. Don’t worry about a thing.”

You’re so entranced in your breathing that you almost agree to his words blindly. Luckily, you catch yourself.

“What.. What do you mean, J?”

“Let me help you, Clair, I.. please.”

You sit in silence for a moment or two before he speaks again.

“I know you well enough by this point to know you’re too stubborn to let me send you money, but.. Let me replace your things. Let me send you some groceries. Let me pay for a goddamn security system… Please.”

You knew he was kind. That was one of the first things he’d let you see of himself.. But this? This was different. Nobody just offers to do this for someone they haven’t even met.

“J, I.. I can’t.. That’s too much.. You don’t even know me..”

He sighs yet again, but you can tell this one is out of frustration. 

“Clair, please. I am literally begging you to let me help you, I.. I’m doing this because I care about you..”

Contemplating in silence, your eyes begin to water again. 

What choice did you have?

You didn’t have the money to replace your things.

You’d barely have enough to replace the groceries you’d just ruined in the rain, and you certainly couldn’t afford a security system.

“J, I.. I can’t pay you back..”

“That is literally the least of my worries. I just want you safe. Please. I can have someone at your place tomorrow morning to install the system. The replacement for your computer might take a little longer, but I’ll get it to you as soon as i can, just.. Let me do this. I want to.”

Before you know what’s happened, you hear yourself agreeing to his wishes and giving him your address.

“You live in the city?” There’s surprise in his voice that you don’t miss.

“You’re closer than I expected..”

Before you can ask him what he means, he’s speaking again.

“I have a friend, I’ll text him now and see the earliest he can come by tomorrow, okay? You can trust him, he’s a good guy. Do you have a spare phone charger for the night?”

You inform him of the one you always carry in your purse and that seems to ease the tension in his voice.

“Clair?”

“Yeah, J..?”

“I’m sorry this is how our first phone conversation had to go, I.. I pictured it differently in my head..”

You let out a sad laugh, “I know what you mean.. I’m sorry too.”

“But..” another sigh, “I’m not sorry I finally got to hear your voice.”

“I’m not sorry either..”

 You swear you hear him lick his lips, just before he speaks again, “Doll, my friend is calling me.. can I call you back?”

You take a look at the mess around your apartment before thinking that it might actually be for the best if you get off the phone.

“I should probably get off here and clean up all this glass anyway..”

He hums softly, “Call me when you’ve finished? I.. I just wanna know you’re safe.”

It was endearing how worried he was about you.

You also knew it was with good reason.

“Of course. I’ll call you back in a little bit. Bye, J.. and.. thank you.”

“Anything for you, Doll.. I’ll talk to you soon.”

HIM

The moment she ends the call, I slam my fist down on my desk. She was so close, so fucking close, and yet so far.

I couldn’t just show up, hold her and comfort her and protect her. It was too soon for that, plus with the required social distancing.. I don’t even think she’d trust me. 

Sam’s voice breaks my train of thought.

“What’s up man, I just got your text?” 

He’s standing in the doorway of my bedroom, still dressed in his sweats from the day before. 

I scoff at the sight, “One, you need to shower and change, dude. Two… I need you to do me a favor..”

He snickers and smirks, “This have anything to do with this girl you’ve been texting? Need me to track down some selfies for you to stare at?”

Had it been any other night, I might’ve entertained the idea of that, but instead I let out a quiet groan, “No, I… her apartment got ransacked today.. I need you to go over and install a security system for her.”

The smile falls from his face and his eyebrows raise. “Wait, what? She lives close? Why don’t you go?”

I shake my head, eyes falling to my left hand. The vibranium appendage almost glitters under the light of my computer screen, and when he follows my gaze he understands. “She doesn’t know yet.. who you are.”

I shake my head, and it’s his turn to sigh. “Yeah, man.. I can do that for you. Is she.. is she okay?”

I shrug, staring at my phone screen and willing her to call me back, “I.. I have no idea, man.. hearing her cry just now..” I have to pause and clear the emotion from my throat. 

“This quarantine is killing me.. all I wanted to do was go to her, hold her, and I—“ I pause again, cheeks flooding with warmth as I realize how vulnerable I just sounded.

“You’ve got it bad, don’t you?” He wonders, cocking his head to the side with a small smile.

The heat in my cheeks burns hotter as I nod slightly. 

“Just give me the address. I’ll make sure she’s got a system as good as ours.”

Just hearing him say that puts me at ease. I’d know her comings and goings, where she was in the apartment and if anyone was even close to entering. 

Stalkerish? Maybe a little, but.. 

If I couldn’t be there in person to protect her, this would be the next best thing.

HER

Aside from the missing appliances, you can barely tell what took place in your apartment today.

You’d swept every room, scrubbed every surface.

It might even be the cleanest the apartment had been since you moved in. 

J texted you earlier, asking for a list of your missing belongings and an idea for groceries.. you were a bit reluctant at first, but eventually gave in and handed over the information. 

You pushed your couch behind your front door out of paranoia before taking a shower, and now you sat on the edge of your bed in silence. 

It was hard not to let your mind wander to a dark place, to think of what you must’ve done to deserve this. 

Tears are starting to return to your eyes, just as your phone begins to ring again.

It’s J, of course.

“Hello?”

“Hey, doll.. how are you feeling?”

You’re calmed down enough to appreciate his voice now. The slight drawl to it, the sound of your nickname leaving his lips. It’s deep and warm and, god, you just wanted to wrap yourself in it and stay there forever.

“I.. I’m okay I guess.. it’s weird, y’know?”

“I’m sure.. I’m sorry you had to go through this.. I wish..” He pauses and you find yourself rather curious as to what he was going to say.

“You wish what, J?”

He hums before he finishes his thought, “I wish I could hold you, Clair.. Make you feel safe. Protect you.”

He’s making you blush, and it’s different than all the other times he’s done so through text. 

Actually hearing him say it brought it to a whole other level.

“Would that be alright?”

You can tell he’s second guessing his confession, and his timid behavior makes you smile.

“I would love that.. If only that was allowed right now..”

This quarantine was really messing things up for you. In more ways than one.

“I’d break the law for you, just say the word.”

You laugh at the thought, but you know he’s at least a little serious. 

“Have you um.. ever really thought about it?”

He hums again, and you find you’re addicted to the sound. “It’s embarrassing how much I’ve thought about it.. how about you, sweetheart? You ever think about me holdin’ you?”

The heat is back in your cheeks and you bite your lip to hold back the grin that’s taken over your entire face. “I.. yes. I have. I’m thinking about it right now, actually..”

Laying back on your bed, you pull a spare pillow to your chest and hug it tightly.

“What are you doin’ over there? Laying in bed? Do me a favor…”

It’s your turn to hum, and he chuckles.

“You got any extra pillows? Hug one of ‘em close, and close your eyes.. Just imagine it’s me, holding you to my chest… if you concentrate hard enough, maybe you can hear my heartbeat.. I’m sure it’d be goin’ crazy from being so close to you..”

You do as he asks, sighing happily into the phone. “Mine would be too.. it already is.”

You hear soft rustling from his end of the call, and you’re sure he’s settling in for the night too.

“Just wanna hold you.. kiss your forehead, ‘cause I remember you saying how much you like that.. Tell you how special you are to me..”

He’s making your heart beat wildly in your ribcage, and for some reason, tears trickle from the corner of your eye.

“You okay over there, baby?”

His new name for you was quickly becoming a new favorite.

“Yeah, it’s just.. you’re too good to me, you know that?”

“I’m the perfect amount of good to you, doll.. you deserve the whole world, and I’ll do my best to give that to ya.”

He’s making you forget the events of the day with each moment that passes, replacing them with sweet memories instead.

“J.. I adore you.”

“Not as much as I adore you, Clair.”

That night, you’re lulled to sleep by the sound of his breathing.

TAGS: (I wasnt sure who to tag, so if you dont want to be, I’m sorry!! Just trying to get this out there. ALSO if you wanna be tagged INBOX ME! I tend to miss people in the tags :( also some tags don’t work, so i’ve removed them if they dont. Sorry about that!  ).  

@mindingmyownbusiness@plumfondler@buckybarnesappreciationsociety@loricameback@tinaferraldo@geminimoonbeamx@preserumsteverogers@moderapoppins@lowkeysebby@buckyshattergirl@jayattemptstoruletheworld@the-observant-fangirl@moondancewrites@moonbeambucky@trinityjadec@stevieang@bionic-buckyb@eyecandybarnes@propertyofpoeandbucky@promarvelfangirl@ballyhoobarnes@bucky-plums-barnes@cate-lynne​@witchymarvelspacecase@imaginingbucky@theimpossibleg1rl​ @wonderlandmind4​@buckysthing@formulafun@curvybihufflepuff@fanficsformarvelkillme@shadyskit@lostinthoughtsandfeelings@reading--mermaid​@fuckmestan@siliverin@verygraphicink@sallyp-53​@thatsbucknasty@steadyphantomcat@booktease21​@drayshadow@theperditioncrasher@mmyepic@feelmyroarrrr@alien-beans@heartsaved@sideeffectsofyou@dreamingofonceuponatime@just-a-littlebit-of-everything@bluerorjhan@tarynsnotokay@jamdropx35​@pinknerdpanda @starkrobb @marvelgirl7 @unscriptedtimetraveler @fangeekkk @wonderlandmind4 @pinkisokay @mrsdaamneron @rynabarnesrogers @wish-i-had-something-better @stanning-seb-stan

[brand-it]

How to Mine Ergo Coins On PC (Step-by-Step Guide) 2021

I wrote this article on July 17th, 2017, at the time; one Ergo coin was worth $14.88. (10-09-21). The equivalent of $100 in Ergo coins will be worth $1287.14 in 2026. That is really significant! You're completely broke. While you learn about Ergo coin mining using your PC in this article, you can also be certain that it will provide answers to your mining questions and how this can help you get some money in your pockets.

My ERG is .832, and I'm well aware that it's quite low. So earning potential depends on the CPU and GPU within your desktop or laptop.

If you are looking to generate a lot of money, consider making your mining rig larger. I'm hoping that I've been clear about it. So, before we talk about mining Ergo coins, we need to learn how to do it easily.

How to Mine Ergo Coins on PC in 2021

To get started, you'll need to set up a wallet for sending and receiving cryptocurrency. A mining pool is the second stage of the process, which involves connecting your PC.

And that's all there is to it! For the safety of your computer, the third step is to monitor the GPU temperature.

How to mine Ergo on a PC:

Create a wallet

Get involved in a mining pool.

Begin generating ERGs and keeping an eye on the GPU temperature.

It's time to start with the first step, so let's begin.

1. Make a Yoroi Wallet.

Just like a conventional wallet, a crypto wallet stores your money. Digital wallets allow you to use digital money, like bitcoin, to transfer and receive funds. Moreover, they aid you in checking your balance, finding and sharing your wallet address for your transaction.

One should look for a crypto wallet that is lightweight and safe. Yoroi Wallet offers both of these qualities, and it is a relief. I choose it because of that. I'm going to provide you some information about it and explain why you should utilize it.

Why Use Yoroi Wallet?

The Yoroi Cardano wallet is both a browser extension and a mobile app. The Yoroi Wallet is unlike other wallets in that it does not sync or download the blockchain. Furthermore, you may see and pay bills when you access your wallet.

Additionally, Yoroi is a lightweight (HD) wallet for Ada (cryptocurrency) that runs as a Chrome addon.

You may use Yoroi on any device supporting Chrome and Google Chrome extensions. In addition, Yoroi is compatible with many operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. It is also possible to share your wallet's contents with someone else.

The installation process for Yoroi is concise and thus requires just a tiny amount of bandwidth. In addition, Yoroi is an extremely lightweight wallet that doesn't need you to download the entire blockchain, which saves you on bandwidth.

If you're thinking of mining with Ergo or another cryptocurrency, you'll want to get a Yoroi. We need to get started with installation right now.

How to Make Yoroi Wallet?

1. Visit yoroi-wallet.com and click ‘Download' from the options on the page.

2. You may choose from the list below. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Android, and iOS are all available. And everyone is well taken care of because of it.

3. If you're using Google Chrome like me, I recommend adding it to your Chrome browser. It'll be an add-on to your browser. Make sure you're ready before proceeding with the ‘Add extension' option.

4. Navigate to the Yoroi logo on the Google Chrome extension's toolbar. You will be able to continue after you choose your language and agree to the terms and conditions. Now choose the ‘Simple' wallet.

5. You may skip the next option, or you can enable the option to enable Cardano payment URLs. After this, you will be able to set up your hardware wallet, restore an existing one, and create a new one.

6. If you wish to mine Ergo coins, choose ‘Ergo.' Then, click on ‘Create Wallet'.

7. Enter your wallet details here. Once you've established your own recovery phrase, do so. However, remember to use it afterward for any secure transactions you make.

Hooray! You have created Yoroi's brand-new wallet. Now is the moment to plug your computer into a mining pool. It's best if we do it immediately.

2. Set Up Nanopool for Mining

For every coin, you have two choices for mining:

Mining rig or Miner

Mining pool

Mining rigs and miners cost a fortune. I've written this article to use a PC to mine Ergo Coins. In this case, I will choose the second choice. So what exactly is a mining pool?

What are mining pools?

Many obstacles complicate the challenge of solo mining. As a result, miners have developed a strategy to improve the odds of discovering fresh deposits by pooling the hash power of individual miners.

Suppose you can, a picture of a handful of small-scale miners combining their computer power to pool it. Then, honestly, they could make the same production levels as big farms do or perhaps beat them. ‍

When these miners participate in pools, they each receive less since the pool members split the benefits. However, even if the return is modest and constant, we should still appreciate it, given that alone miner has a hard time mining even a single block.

Mining pools that ensure payments are prompt and on time are more attractive and profitable. Nanonpool has an important role to play.

Why use NanoPool?

The specialty of Nanopool is cryptocurrencies, which are exclusive of use to video graphic cards. However, you may use it for mining at present:

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum Classic (ETC)

ZCash (ZEC)

Monero (XMR)

Raven (RVN)

Conflux (CFX)

Ergo (ERGO)

You may concurrently mine two different currencies using the pool. Nanopool uses powerful video cards and GPUs to mine digital currencies with huge farms.

Mining Ergo Coins on Nanopool

1. Visit nanopool.org and choose a cryptocurrency of your liking.

2. To start mining, click on the Quick Start button.

3. Get the miner as a zip file.

4. Extract the archive into any location on your PC. And then set up the minor.

5. Open the file and enter your wallet address in the place of the existing wallet address. Save the data in this format.

6. Save the ‘configure ergo' file after entering the mining rig information.

7. Go ahead and run the ‘nanominer' program now and wait a moment.

Here is how you mine Ergo coins on PC without the need for full-fledged mining equipment.

3. Use MSI Afterburner to monitor the temperature.

You must monitor temperatures in hardware. You risk ruining your computer if you don't take the appropriate steps. For that, the MSI Afterburner utility is a fantastic help.

What is MSI Afterburner, and why is it the best choice?

Afterburner is a free, third-party utility that MSI has created. Those that have GPUs utilize it to manage them. In addition, you may alter your GPU, VRAM, voltage, and other aspects of your graphics card via overclocking.

MSI Afterburner is a popular tool for enthusiasts since it serves a wide range of functions. For example, it's possible to monitor GPUs, VRAM, and temperatures using it.

But are you able to check the CPU temperature using MSI Afterburner? I'm happy to say yes. MSI Afterburner has no ties to the central processing unit. It may also be used to track the temperature of the CPU and GPU settings.

Monitoring GPU Temps with MSI Afterburner

You may get the MSI Afterburner file from MSI's website. First, unzip the download, double-click the executable file, and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

After the installation, run MSI Afterburner. To check GPU temperature and performance, go to the ‘General' page. The ideal GPU mining temperature is 70 degrees Celsius. However, I still think you should maintain it at the lowest level feasible.

Final Thoughts on How to Mine Ergo Coins on a PC

Now more than ever, mining cryptocurrency is simple. The mining pool Nanopool allows you to mine the Ergo currencies that have a crypto-like quality. The procedure includes three fundamental actions:

Create a wallet for yourself (using yoroi-wallet.com)

Mining pools provide entrance to cryptocurrency (on Nanopool)

Stay on top of the temperature (using MSI Afterburner)

That's the crux of the matter! After 48 hours, I've earned around .832 Ergo coins. It's true that it's tiny if you think so.

It's better to create something than to produce nothing, isn't it? Your total Ergo Coin amount may be increased if you have a higher powerful PC than I have.

[spoookymuulders]

perchance to dream.

read it on ao3 here word count: 15,018 summary: With two families dead, the BAU is called to Colorado to try and connect the murders. Something about the deaths seems familiar to Reid, but he can't quite put his finger on it. And when a familiar face shows up, it throws another cog into the machine, complicating things further.

chapter one. such stuff as dreams are made on.

I was a child, and she was a child, in this kingdom by the sea. - Edgar Allan Poe

    She isn’t sure how long she’s been walking. All she knows is that she can’t stop. Her feet are torn up from sprinting through the underbrush, then over a dirt and gravel road, and now solid pavement. Every step is agony, but she keeps going, knowing that she has to find somewhere or someone with a phone. Not long ago she’d spied lights in the distance, and she’s been heading that way since. As she rounds a corner, her saving grace comes in the form of a payphone outside a corner store in a small town.

    Grateful that emergency numbers don’t require any sort of payment, she picks up the receiver and dials 911, leaning heavily against the terminal until someone answers.

    “911, what’s your emergency?” The voice crackles through the phone line, and she thinks she could cry.

 “I’m at the corner of..” She glances up, squinting in the dim light at the street signs, “I’m at the corner of Shepherd and Walton Street. Please help me.” The hoarseness of her voice surprises her - but then, she supposes it shouldn’t. She’d given up on screaming long ago, had stopped speaking entirely not long after that. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been in that hellhole, or how long it had been since she actually spoke at all, but now that she is, her throat burns.

    Very suddenly, she finds that her legs can support her no longer. As the dispatcher requests more information, she repeats her plea for help, and collapses onto the sidewalk. Her skirt puffs around her and she slumps tiredly, closing her eyes. A chill breeze blows across her bare back and she sucks in a breath, vaguely aware of the dispatcher’s voice promising that help is on the way and asking if she’s still there.

    It isn’t long after that she hears sirens and sees the lights blazing as two cops and an ambulance pull up. They stop at the payphone, the EMTs immediately scooping her onto their gurney and pulling her into the ambulance. As she lays down and they begin checking her vitals, she closes her eyes, the ghost of a small, tired half-smile touching at her lips.

    She’s done it. She’s gotten away.

****

    Reid sits at his desk, fiddling with the picture frame next to his computer quietly. It’s one spot of bright and happy on his desk, something to break up the gray dullness of the rest of it - of the rest of the office, really. It’s a photo from Parker’s sixteenth birthday, when she had managed to convince him to go to a waterpark with her and her family, insisting that he needed a break from being a boy genius for a few hours. He hadn’t argued, because he knew he’d lose, and he had ended up having a blast.

    In the photo, Parker is seated firmly on his back, his hands wrapped securely under her knees while her legs lock around his waist. Her arms are settled around his shoulders and she has her cheek smushed against his as they both beam at the camera. A few of her curls are blowing into their faces, and Spencer remembers with a sad smile the way they had tickled his nose and made him sneeze.

    “You got a girlfriend you’re not tellin’ us about, Reid?” A voice behind him asks, and he jumps, startled out of his reverie. Morgan is standing behind him, holding his hands up to show he means no harm, and Spencer shakes his head, huffing quietly.

    “What?” He asks, squinting a little. Brows raised, Morgan points at the photo. “Oh. No. Um - that’s my best friend, from Vegas.”

    “She’s cute.” Prentiss says, stopping behind Morgan. Spencer hums quietly, nodding. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention her.”

    “I haven’t seen her in years.” He muses quietly, and sometimes he hates that he works with profilers, because the next question that hits him from Morgan is what happened to her? And he knows that Morgan can just tell . “She went missing. Two weeks before her seventeenth birthday.”

    At that moment, JJ leans over the railing to tell them they have a case, and Spencer thanks whatever higher power there is because he can’t endure the pitying looks and the questions he’s sure they’ll start firing at him. He grabs his phone off his desk and pushes between Morgan and Prentiss, making his way to the briefing room silently.

    As he settles in his chair and focuses on the file JJ sets in front of him, he can feel eyes on him as Morgan and Prentiss come in, but he ignores them as hard as he can.

    “What’ve we got?” Hotch asks, settling in his chair, and Spencer is glad the focus is off of himself. Looking up at the screen, he frowns as JJ pulls the photos up.

    “The Rodriguez family of Lakewood, Colorado was found dead in their house this morning. Three of the four had been stabbed, one had been smothered with a pillow.” She says. Prentiss frowns, looking through the file slowly.

    “Why the change?” She muses, looking back up at the photos. JJ shrugs.

    “Nobody can quite figure that out. That’s why they called us in.” She says. “Two weeks ago, another family was found murdered in their homes, similar MO. Three stabbed, one had his arms and legs cut off, as well as his head, and the last one..” She sighs, grimacing and closing her eyes for a moment. “The mother was made to eat coals.”

    “ Coals ?” Morgan repeats, eyes widening just so. “What the hell is this guy’s deal?”

    “Well the way he’s going after families makes him sound like a family annihilator,” Spencer muses, frowning at his file. “But the different causes of death are interesting. Could we be dealing with more than one unsub?”

    “It’s possible.” Hotch hums, gathering his things up. “But we don’t have any time to waste. We can discuss this more on the plane, we’re wheels up in thirty.”

    He should’ve known better than to hope that he would get any semblance of rest on the plane, really. Spencer is content to just lay down and fall asleep on the couch in the back of the jet after they go over the case a couple more times, but Prentiss and Morgan sit down across from him and he can feel them staring at him.

    “What?” He sighs finally, turning his head to look at them.

    “Why didn’t you tell us about your friend?” Morgan asks, and Spencer sighs, rubbing his face and sitting up.

    “I didn’t think I needed to.” He says, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve been looking for her since ‘98.” He tells them shortly, rubbing his cheeks when their eyes widen.

    “We can help you look for her, Reid.” Prentiss says gently, and Spencer shakes his head. He knows that tone - it’s the same tone he’d gotten from the police when he had checked in with them monthly. The tone that said sure we’ll look kid but meant she’s probably dead it’s too far past the first 24 to hope for anything different.

    But somewhere in his chest was this consistent ache. Something that told him she was still alive, and that she was out there waiting for him. He’s not usually one to believe in things like that, but Parker had told him once about a Chinese story that said when two soulmates were brought into the world, they were attached to each other by a red string. The red string of fate, she had called it. And he had told her that logically and scientifically, that made no sense, and she had laughed at him in the way that only she could and he knew she wasn’t making fun of him.

    It doesn’t have to make sense, Spencer, She had told him, hooking her right pinky through his and smiling at him. Soulmates and love don’t make sense most of the time. But that red string of fate connects us. I can feel it. And she had squeezed his pinky and kissed his cheek and he had felt himself blushing but that happened most of the time when she kissed him so it was nothing new.

    He holds onto that hope. That she was right, and that there was a red string of fate connecting them. And that that red string of fate was why he knew she was still alive.

****

    The Lakewood PD are more welcoming than other police departments they’ve encountered in the past, and they’re all more grateful for that than they can say. Almost as soon as they walk through the door, they’re informed of a girl who just showed up last night, and Hotch sends Morgan, Prentiss, and Reid to the hospital. He sends Rossi and JJ to the most recent crime scene and takes charge of setting up their HQ for the next few days with Garcia.

    Reid isn’t particularly looking forward to a twenty-minute car ride with Morgan and Prentiss, but he endures it.

    “Would you stop looking at me like that?” He asks after five minutes. Morgan jerks his eyes away from the rearview mirror and focuses out the windshield again.

    “Reid..” Prentiss starts, and he sighs. “What makes you so sure that.. Well, that your friend is still out there?” Reid sighs again, shaking his head. He’s heard this question a million times, he’s been told over and over again that he should give up looking for her and that she was probably killed a day after she disappeared.

    “I just know.” He says softly, looking out the window. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Prentiss open her mouth again and Morgan shake his head just so, and he appreciates the gesture. He closes his eyes, tipping his head back against the headrest, and listens as Morgan and Prentiss chatter quietly about the case for the rest of the ride.

    “She hasn’t said a word since we picked her up.” Detective Jonah Harris says after introductions are made. “Called 911 and only gave the cross street and said ‘help me’.” Prentiss nods, looking over the chart as they walk. Morgan reads over her shoulder as Reid jogs up beside them, pushing his hair back.

    He peers around the hospital as they walk, wrinkling his nose a little - he doesn’t like hospitals very much, he never has. Prentiss fills him in, stopping at the nurse’s station to look over the chart better - she finds it’s easier to read when she isn’t trying to walk at the same time. She hums thoughtfully as Reid nods, peering over her shoulder and reading through the chart silently.

    “What’s the name?” He asks, almost absently.

    “Right now she’s just a Jane Doe.” Morgan says. “She hasn’t given anyone her name, we’re not even sure if she remembers it.” Reid nods again, leaning against the nurse’s station lightly and crossing his arms. “We’re hoping we can get more out of her soon. Maybe try a cognitive interview.” He glances down the hall as footsteps round the corner, and he straightens a little, touching Reid’s arm lightly. When he speaks, his voice is quiet. “Reid.”

    As Morgan grabs his arm, a flash of gold catches Reid’s attention and he glances down the hall as well, his eyes widening just so. It’s two braids that have caught his eye - two braids the color of honey held up to the sun. Slim fingers twist the end of one of the braids absently, a habit he recognizes without question. At the sound of the detective stating that she’s their Jane Doe, the girl looks up, and Reid’s breath catches in his throat painfully, because he’d know those green eyes anywhere - he’s been dreaming of them every night since November of 1998. He pushes away from where he’s leaning against the counter and takes two steps forward, eyes wide.

    “Spencer?” She breathes, her voice hoarse and brittle. Swallowing thickly, he takes half a step closer, still staring at her.

    “Parker.” He whispers. She needs no more confirmation than that, and she launches herself out of the wheelchair she’s in and stumbles into his arms. He rushes down the hall and meets her halfway, catching her easily and crushing her against his chest. Frail arms wrap around his neck in a vice-like grip and she presses her face to his shoulder as he holds her against him, burying his nose in her hair, and he can feel tears dampening his shirt. Her legs lock around his waist and he sinks into a chair that’s been pushed against the wall, before pulling away long enough to look at her properly.

    Cupping her face, he brushes his thumbs along her cheekbones delicately, drinking her in. A bruise under her left eye is turning from purple and blue to green and yellow, and there’s a split in her lower lip, but it’s her.  

    “He took me, Spencer.” She sobs quietly, curling her fingers around his hands. “He - he - he came, and he took me right out of my bed, and-” Reid shakes his head.

    “I’m here. You’re okay, you’re safe now.” He whispers, sniffling, his own eyes brimming with tears. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” He rests her forehead to hers, closing his eyes.

    From down the hall, Morgan, Prentiss, and Detective Harris watch the two, three pairs of arms crossed over three chests, three pairs of eyes widening simultaneously.

    “Is that.. That can’t be the girl from his photo?” Prentiss says incredulously, glancing at Morgan. Still staring at the pair down the hall, he nods.

    “It is.” He murmurs, completely stunned.

    “I’ll be damned.” Prentiss says quietly, shaking her head.

    “I haven’t seen her talk or even move that much since we brought her in.” Harris muses quietly, shaking his head. “Even when we picked her up. She looked like hell, just.. Sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. She looks a little better now, but she’s still seriously malnourished. We were able to get her cleaned up. She had to have a female nurse with her in the bathroom for it, but she wouldn’t let the nurse do anything to help her. And she didn’t say a word after she called us. Not until today.”

    Prentiss shakes her head, rubbing her face slowly. “Well.” She sighs, watching the pair. “If anyone’s gonna get anything out of her, it sounds like it’s gonna be Reid.” Her phone buzzes in her pocket and she pulls it out, stepping aside and pulling Morgan with her when she answers. “What’ve you got, PG?”

    “Not a whole lot.” Garcia says regretfully, frowning at her screen. “I ran everything you told me through the databases and there’s a lot of missing girls who fit the description you gave me.”

    “Okay, uh - well, we’ve got a name now.” Prentiss says, glancing back down the hall. “First name Parker.” She can hear Garcia hum on the other end of the line, her fingers tapping away at her keyboard at lightning speed.

    “Check missing persons reports from Vegas.” Morgan adds suddenly, leaning over.

    “Vegas?” Garcia repeats, frowning.

    “She knows Reid.” Morgan tells her, watching his friend and the girl in his lap down the hall. Garcia gasps quietly, and Morgan knows she’ll demand to be filled in later.

    “Mmm.. Oh! Here we go - Parker O’Hare, went missing from her home in Las Vegas in November of ‘98.” Garcia recites, staring at her computer screen intently. “Her parents were gone on a trip, so she was home alone, kidnapper hacked mom’s email and sent a message to the school saying she had the flu and they’d be keeping her home for the next week or so. She was sixteen.”

    “Who reported her missing when she didn’t come back to school after a week?” Morgan asks, brows furrowed.

    “I did.”

    Reid’s voice startles them, and they turn around, moving down the hall. Prentiss thanks Garcia and promises to fill her in later, following Morgan closely.

    “You filed the missing persons report.” Morgan repeats, settling into one of the chairs. Reid nods as Prentiss perches in the other chair, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees.

    “We grew up together.” Reid says, “Parker was the only one who never treated me like a freak, never called me names or teased me. She pushed Donnie Haskins off the swings once in second grade for making fun of me. He broke his nose the way he landed. Well, Parker was in second grade. Donnie Haskins was in fifth.” From her seat in his lap, Parker gives the ghost of a smile, her fingers brushing along the neckline of his sweater lightly. Prentiss glances at Reid and he nods just so. Shifting into Parker’s line of sight, she offers a gentle smile.

    “Parker, can you tell me what happened?” She asks softly, smiling encouragingly when Parker looks at her. “Take your time.” She glances at Morgan and asks for a cup of water, thanking him when he brings it over and setting it in front of the blonde.

    “My parents were gone.” She says after a few long moments. “They’d gone to see one of my dad’s old college buddies. I was supposed to go with them but I had to stay home ‘cause I had rehearsals for the musical. We were doing The Sound of Music . I was supposed to be Maria.” Her voice breaks a little, and Reid rubs her back slowly. Clearing her throat, she sniffs and continues.

    “Um - Spencer walked me home after my rehearsal and stayed for dinner. We did homework and I took a shower after he left and went to bed.” She mumbles. She keeps her eyes on the floor as she speaks, her fingers curling around the edge of Reid’s sweater. He covers her hand gently, brushing his thumb along her knuckles. “When I woke up, there was this guy just.. Standing over my bed staring at me. I tried to scream but he put a knife to my throat and told me to stay quiet or he’d kill me.”

    “And this is the man who.. Kept you?” Prentiss asks, watching Parker. She nods, glancing up at Prentiss. “Can you tell me anything else about him? What did he look like?”

    “I never.. Really saw him.” Parker whispers, looking back at the floor. “He never let me. I heard his voice, he talked to me a lot. But he never let me see his face. Every time we’d be face-to-face, he.. He had a mask on, or he’d keep a hood down low over his face.” She looks, meeting Prentiss’ eyes, and the older woman can see just how tired she truly is. “He made me call him William.” Prentiss nods, offering a small smile.

    “We’ll find who did this.” She promises. “Can you tell me how you got away?” Parker furrows her brows for a moment as she thinks.

    “He was.. Out?” She says finally. “I remember hearing.. Hearing a door open somewhere, and then everything was really quiet for a while. And he’d left - he’d dropped a pocket knife when he came into my room the night before, and I don’t think he realized it. He had me tied to a bedpost and.. And I got the knife and I was able to cut through the rope.” Prentiss nods, glancing at Morgan - they both know the question she has to ask next, and they both know Reid isn’t going to like it. And Parker won’t, either, and the last thing Prentiss wants to do is upset the poor girl.

    “Parker.. I hate to have to ask this, and I know it’s an uncomfortable question.” She says gently, watching the girl as she looks up. “Did he ever.. Force himself on you?” Parker shakes her head quickly.

    “No. No, never.” She says, “I always.. Expected him to, but he never did.”

    She can feel Spencer’s hand tensing a little over hers, and she shifts her hand to wrap her thin fingers around his wrist gently. Morgan watches this interaction quietly, and any doubts he might’ve had about this girl being Reid’s long-lost best friend dissipate as he watches Reid’s hand relax while her fingers brush along the side of his wrist.

    Half an hour later, Reid had stepped away long enough to call Parker’s mother and make sure she could catch the next flight to Colorado. Prentiss had gone to a shop nearby to get the girl something other than a hospital gown to wear, and Morgan is on the phone with Hotch, filling him in. Spying Reid as he rounds the corner, he waves and jogs over as he hangs up the phone and tucks it into his pocket.

    “So that’s your girl, huh?” He asks, peering into the room. Reid nods, watching as Prentiss ushers Parker into the bathroom to change and hovers just outside the door.

    “It’s from her sixteenth birthday. The photo.” Spencer tells him, exhaling quietly. “First time I ever went to a waterpark.” Morgan smiles a little, nodding, and puts his hands on his hips lightly. He watches Reid for a moment, then sighs softly.

    “Listen, kid..” He says after a moment, crossing his arms when Reid looks up at him. “She’s not gonna be the same girl you knew. You know that, right?” Reid nods, turning his gaze back to the room and leaning against the wall.

    “I know.” He says quietly, rubbing his face slowly. He looks up again after a moment and Morgan reaches out, squeezing his shoulder gently when he sees tears in Reid’s dark eyes. “I’m not dreaming, right? This is - I’m awake, this is all happening?” Chuckling quietly, Morgan nods and leans against the wall beside Reid. “I’ve had this dream.. A million times.”

    “I’m not surprised.” Morgan hums, glancing at his friend. “Losing someone you’re so close to, at that age and in that way.. I can only imagine.” Reid nods and moves to perch in a chair, running a hand through his hair.

    “I’ve had so many different versions of this dream.” He mutters, hanging his head for a moment. Morgan sits beside him in another chair and waits patiently. “There've been versions of it where.. Almost this exact thing happens. There are versions where I get a call in the middle of the night and it’s her, or when she just walks through the front door of my apartment like nothing ever happened. And then..” Swallowing thickly, he looks over his shoulder and watches as Parker comes out of the bathroom and thanks Prentiss, looking much more comfortable in a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.

    “Then?” Morgan prompts, tipping his head. He already knows the answer, he’s sure, and he won’t push it if Reid doesn’t want to talk about it, but something in the younger man’s face tells him he does.

    “Then there are the ones where I find her.” Reid says finally. Morgan doesn’t need to ask what he means. “It’s like.. The most common one is I come home and open the door and she’s just - there. In the middle of my living room on the floor, and I can’t even tell how long she’s been there, but I know it’s her.” Reaching over, Morgan rubs his back slowly and sighs. “And - and I know how lucky this is. I mean, you know the statistics as well as I do, by all accounts she should’ve been dead 24 hours after he took her. But for some reason he kept her alive all these years, and I just keep wondering-”

    “Why.” Morgan finishes for him. Reid nods, looking over and meeting Morgan’s eyes finally, and Morgan is struck by how tired Reid looks. “Go sit with her.” He says gently, waving a hand. “Prentiss and I’ll go back to the office and start working on a profile. We’ll fill everyone in. I’ll stop by your place and bring you a change of clothes later.” Smiling tiredly, Reid stands and lets Morgan hug him, clapping him on the back lightly and mumbling a thank you before slipping back into the room.

    Prentiss comes out as Reid goes in, squeezing his shoulder gently and going to stand beside Morgan. They watch as Reid pads to the bed and perches beside Parker, brushing a stray curl out of her face. The look in her eyes and the tenderness in her tired smile tells Morgan everything he needs to know and he hums quietly, draping an arm around Prentiss’ shoulders and turning her around.

    “C’mon, we got a profile to start.” He says as they go. “Coffee on me.”

    “I called your mom.” Spencer says softly, letting his hand fall from Parker’s cheek gently. “She’s gonna catch the next flight, she should be here tomorrow afternoon.” Sniffling quietly, Parker nods and takes his hand, brushing her fingers along the lines of his palm slowly. It’s a soothing action he hasn’t felt in years - something she’d done when they were teenagers to calm her anxieties.

    “Were they okay?” She asks quietly, glancing up at him. He hums thoughtfully, nodding after a moment. He’d told her before he’d stepped out to call her mother that her father had passed last year, had held her without complaint while she cried through that.

    “They struggled.” He says honestly. “We all did. But they did as okay as they could. They moved to Vienna a few years ago.” The smallest of smiles touches her lips and she nods just so - her favorite song, Vienna, had been the inspiration for the move, Spencer tells her. A crack of thunder outside catches their attention and they both glance towards the window as rain starts pelting the window. Parker shifts to the side of the bed, laying down slowly and keeping her hold on Spencer’s hand.

    “Will you stay with me?” She whispers, and his heart breaks to see the fear in her eyes. He shifts to lay next to her and she tucks herself against his side, relaxing a little when he settles an arm around her and brushes his fingers through her hair.

    “Nothing could make me leave.” He whispers back, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She closes her eyes and rests her hand on his chest, just over his heart. Settling his free hand over hers, he watches the rain for a moment before she whispers his name.

    “Read me something?” She asks quietly, glancing up at him.

    “I didn’t bring a book.” He murmurs, smiling a little when she laughs quietly.

    “Never stopped you before.” She hums, closing her eyes again. He hums back, brushing his thumb along her knuckles and closes his eyes for a moment, flipping through his mental bookshelf and selecting a volume - one that he remembers is one of her favorites. Poetry had always been a subject she enjoyed, and though her favorite is Emily Dickinson, he knows she loves Poe just as much.

    “It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea,” he begins, “that a maiden there lived whom you may know, by the name of Annabel Lee..”

    He’s finished Annabel Lee and is halfway through The Raven when he realizes she’s asleep, breathing slowly, deeply, peacefully. Settling the stark hospital blanket over the both of them, he closes his eyes and lets her breathing lull him into his own slumber.

We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. - William Shakespeare

[honestlyfancyobject]

How to convert YouTube videos to MP3

By following the instructions I gave you in my tutorial dedicated to the subject , you finally managed to know the way to download videos from YouTube without dalliance . However, if you're now here and you're reading this guide, it seems clear to me that you simply haven't yet been ready to find a satisfactory solution that permits you to download the live videos of your favorite singers and save them in MP3 format, so you'll hear them. smoothly on your portable player.

I'm wrong? No, here it's . Then let me offer you this point too, some useful recommendations on what to try to do . Give me a couple of minutes of your precious time also as your attention and that i will show you, during a simple but at an equivalent time detailed way, the way to convert YouTube videos to MP3 . I anticipate directly that to try to do this you only have to resort to the utilization of some special computer programs, very easy to use (even for those that , a touch such as you , don't consider themselves exactly an expert in computer science) and highly intuitive.

What does one say? the thought of downloading new software on your PC (or Mac) doesn't suit you considerably and would you wish to understand if there's any alternative? in fact yes, God forbid. you'll also do everything directly from the browser, using specific online services, also as from mobile, through special applications for Android and iOS. But now just chat and let's take action. Make yourself comfortable and skim everything below. i'm sure that within the end you'll be ready to tell yourself you're very happy and satisfied with what you've got learned. Good fun!

Warning: Use the tools indicated during this guide only and exclusively to download legally distributed music from YouTube or for live variants of the songs you already own within the original version, practically the videos with an ingenious Commons or open source license. it's absolutely not my intention to encourage the implementation of illegal activities, therefore I don't take any responsibility for the utilization that you simply will actually make of the instructions contained within the post.

Media Human YouTube to MP3 Converter (Windows / Mac)

The first of the useful resources i would like to speak to you about is Media Human YouTube to MP3 Converter . it's a free program available for Windows and Mac that permits you to download YouTube music videos and automatically convert them to MP3 while keeping the standard of the first file intact. Despite the name, videos also can be saved in OGG or M4A format with a bitrate up to 320 kbps.

You inquire from me the way to use it? I'll point it bent you directly . the primary step you would like to require is to attach to the program's website and click on on the Download YouTubeToMP3 link on the left.

When the download is complete, if you're using Windows, open the .exe file you only obtained and click on first on Run then on Yes . Then put the check next to the item I accept the terms of the license agreement and complete the setup by clicking on Next four consecutive times then on Install and on Finish .

If, on the opposite hand, what you're using may be a Mac, open the downloaded .dmg package and drag the Media Human YouTube to MP3 Converter icon onto the Applications folder via the Finder window that opened on the screen. Then attend the Applications folder of macOS, right-click on the program icon and choose Open twice during a row.

Once the Media Human YouTube to MP3 Converter window is displayed on the screen, click the Paste Link button to stick the link of the video you would like to convert to MP3. Alternatively, click within the center of the window and paste the link directly using the key combination Ctrl + V on Windows and cmd + v on Mac. differently to insert the link is to tug it directly into the program window.

Finally, return to the most program window, click on the down arrow at the highest right and your video are going to be immediately converted to audio and saved on your computer, within the Music folder (by default).

If you then want to vary the destination folder of the songs downloaded with Media Human YouTube to MP3 Converter, click on the gear icon located at rock bottom left of the most program window and choose Preferences… from the menu that appears.

In the new window that opens on the screen, attend the Audio Output tab and alter the folder during which to save lots of the MP3s downloaded from YouTube by clicking on the Choose… button . who is at the marked Output folder: . Then save the changes made by first pressing the Apply button then the OK button .

I would also wish to means that, again from an equivalent program preferences tab, you'll change the bitrate as you think that is more appropriate by selecting it from the acceptable menu . If, on the opposite hand, you would like to intervene on quality, select the acceptable item and use the relative menu.

If you then use iTunes , you'll also set the program to automatically export the downloaded songs to the iTunes library. to try to to this, just put the check next to the increased iTunes item and choose the reference playlist from the menu below.

ClipGrab (Windows / Mac)

Are you trying to find a legitimate alternative to the above program? Then i can not help but suggest you set ClipGrab to the test . this is often a no-cost program available for Windows and Mac which, in fact, allows you to extract the audio track of videos from YouTube by saving it in MP3 format (as well as OGG). it's very simple to use. let's examine how it works directly .

To download the program on your computer, hook up with its website and press the Free Download button . When the download is complete, open the .exe file you only obtained and click on on Run , on Yes and on Next . Then accept the terms of the license agreement by ticking the acceptable option and click on Next two more times. Remove the check next to the entry for the installation of additional software (eg Opera ), click on Next again , then on Install and complete the setup by clicking on Finish .

If, on the opposite hand, what you're using may be a Mac, open the downloaded package in .dmg format and drag the program icon to the Applications folder within the Finder window that opened. Then attend the macOS Applications folder , right-click on the ClipGrab icon and choose Open twice during a row.

Now, no matter the OS , select the Downloads tab within the program window that appeared on the screen and paste the address of the YouTube video you would like to convert to MP3 within the bar at the highest . Select the MP3 (audio only) option from the Format: menu at rock bottom and use the Quality: adjacent menu to pick the standard you favor .

Finally, click on the Download this clip button ! , indicate the folder during which you would like to save lots of the computer file and await the conversion procedure of the video to MP3 song to be started and completed. Easier than that?

4K YouTube to MP3 (Windows / Mac)

Another great software, always free and available for both PC and Mac, that you simply can cash in of to convert YouTube videos to MP3 is 4K YouTube to MP3 . In fact, it's a resource capable of fulfilling the aim in question in a superb way, which is characterized by its very simple and highly intuitive interface. It allows you to save lots of the audio of the videos present on YouTube in MP3 but also in OGG and M4A. Again, you'll select the ultimate quality of the audio file also because the destination location.

You inquire from me the way to use it? I'll point it bent you directly . First, connected to the download page of the program and click on on the Download 4K YouTube to MP3 button . When the download is complete, open the file obtained, click on Run then on Next . Then check the box to simply accept the terms of use of the program and press Next again twice during a row. Then click on Install , on Yes , check the box to start out the program immediately and click on on Finish .

If, on the opposite hand, what you recognize is employing a Mac, open the .dmg package you only obtained and drag the software icon to the Applications folder via the Finder window that opened. Then attend the Applications folder of macOS, right-click on the program icon and choose Open twice during a row.

Now that you simply see the 4K YouTube to MP3 window on the screen, press the Paste Link button and therefore the link of the YouTube video you would like to save lots of the audio to MP3 are going to be pasted into the program. The download will then be started automatically. you'll then find the song in your computer's Music folder . That's all!

If you would like , you'll also immediately start playing the song you only downloaded by clicking on the Play button attached to the program window. If, on the opposite hand, you would like to directly open the folder during which it had been stored, move the pointer over it and choose the item View within the folder .

Then, before starting the download, you would like to switch the software settings by changing the ultimate quality of the file, the destination folder, etc., click on the Tools item attached to the menu bar and choose Preferences… . Therefore, adjust all the varied settings using the extra window you see appear on the screen.

Filegram (Online)

Don't feel like downloading new programs to your computer? No problem. As anticipated at the start , you'll still convert YouTube videos to MP3 by using special online services. Among the varied available on the square I suggest you contact Filegram . it's very easy to use, at no cost and is in a position to flawlessly fulfill the aim in question, directly from the online browser (any). The audio download is in top quality and also allows you to line the bitrate. In short, what more does one want?

To use it, connected to the most page of the service, paste the link of the video of your interest within the Paste the URL links here field and check the box next to the item I'm not a robot . Wait a couple of moments for the video to be “picked up” and confirm that the Audio item is chosen within the top left-hand corner and therefore the MP3 item is chosen from the relevant menu (and if not, you'll roll in the hay yourself).

[blazewatergem]

The year is 2016.

We had started the world a year, maybe two ago. It felt like it was always a part of us. You had made pixel art, using wool blocks from the wild herds of sheep wandering the grasslands. I was busy making a hidden hideout, a HQ of sorts. It was just the two of us, at first, but I knew we would get more involved. That our two little houses would grow into three, four, and more. The players list grew and so did our realm.

We had a huge bridge built across the swamplands, because yes we’re bringing those horses home. I made a barn on the water. You made a giant stadium all because we wanted to do firework shows. I managed to start experimenting with red stone and next thing we know I’ve got a half built arena that’s Hunger Games style, never mind I’ve never read the books. You laugh when I admit that. There’s a bakery somewhere. There’s a mountain fortress half built that honestly, was a country-cabin version of Erebor. So many builds I never finished, jumping from project to project. That hasn’t changed in the slightest. We had a nether base, too. We had a giant Christmas tree and got each other presents in the form of enchanted swords and armor. You gave me the Enderdragon Egg and it was the best thing in the world. I made a room for it in the HQ and everything.

You made statues. They’d be overlooking the hills.

I made fox holes. I’m not sure why I called them that but it was fun hiding from the night in them.

Our friends joined in. Some for weeks, months. Some only for a few days. It started with us two though. It was under my name, but it was ours.

The year is 2016 when it fell. When my computer suddenly didn’t want to load up. When the system had so many viruses it just...wouldn’t go. I made promises then. Promises I’d get the world out. It couldn’t be that hard, to download a world full of so much and so many memories. To keep them safe. To keep everything we built safe and stored away in the digital void of a thumb drive until we could show it the light again.

I come home from a day of high school to see my computer broken, and the Realm gone.

I stop paying the subscription — we got busy, couldn’t play much anymore. Both of us. The friendship never died, it changed and I would call us stronger for it but the realm is...not forgotten but put aside. We remember it fondly, talk about what we would do if we could go back. We’ve grown, learnt new things. Surely we could make it better, bigger. Nothing could stop us now, and all the changes would just add to the thrill. You mention you’re back from Indiana, and your PC will be put back together soon. “Let’s play!” You text me “Let’s do it. Let’s start again.”

I’ve never said yes so fast. So I set things up. Some technical difficulties but soon things are running smoothly. The Realm is back up and running, and I’m happy to make new memories even if I miss the old world. The old one lost to a broken computer now long, long gone for four whole years. I check the settings, the player list. Finally, urged alone by a passing thought, I check the back up logs for the system.

Last Backup Saved: November 6th, 2016

I see the mountains again. I see the HQ again. I see it all again. It’s still there. It stayed. It stayed and it’s back and it’s ours again.

A hiatus four years in the making, now ended by the fact that while we remembered it survived.

Onward and upward, and don’t worry. This time I saved it. We’ll never lose our home again.

~~~~~~~

Back in 2016 my friend and I had a Minecraft Realm that we built so much on, it was basically our own little kingdom. We’d start and end worlds at random, but I always kept our “original” save in a folder to use whenever. When my computer busted and died, I thought that world lost for good. I honestly mourned all that lost progress, we had been building for two years. Hell maybe even more!

Today, when I finally repurchased the Realm and was setting it up again so we could start fresh and new, I noticed there was a backup file saved. Over FOUR. YEARS. AGO.

It was our old world. It had been saved by the system. I never even considered that, and I actually ended up crying a bit as I logged in and saw the old builds. There’s houses of people I don’t even talk to anymore, things I haven’t touched in so long and silly memories we made by playing at like midnight and being sleep deprived. It was all there, and I texted her immediately freaking out about it.

Then I proceeded to save it to my account so I’ll never lose it again.

Chances are we’ll start another world, fresh and ready for our chaos(my friend is a streamer, after all. Maybe a Let’s Play? Not like it won’t be chaotic with us anyways lol) but the emotions I felt when just flying around and seeing it all still there. I had to write something. I HAD to.

Minecraft has changed quite a bit since then. It’ll be fun, building a new Realm. Maybe this time I’ll actually finish all my builds 😂

[dangerouslysmartslime]

Trying to understand college: My first Academic Development 101 Zoom Meeting

Discussion is going to start, and it’s going to be for Chapters 1 and 7. Academic Development 101… Starting with a check in, so… I didn’t read both parts because it is purely questions that you’d find at a mental hospital, which makes sense but it is a pain. So stop wathcing fucking shows like People Watching and get stuff done.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish this Winter Session

I hope to get used to online classes, unlike my Junior Year of High School, which was quite unpleasant. At the same time I also felt like I was being babysat by the school as there was no on the campus who knew what I was taking. Taking US Government, Trigonometry, English, Environmental, and such but a lack of continual feedback. Just trying to understand things day in and day out and the best thing I could seemingly think to do was to read the material and then look at what other people online thought, and then use both the actual sources and analysis of others. To be a lot better person than that is ideal, however it can be a lot harder than being at a class and there being discussions and then what happens outside of class is review.

There are a lot of folks who are here today, so they’re taking attendance and I feel unsure of what to do. I realize now that the three classes are interconnected, in the fact that they aren’t straight and narrow, they’re pieces that you have to read, go over, then respond with in your ideas. You have two days left before all the assignments are due for the week. A lot of people say they should earn at least a B+ GPA. One must first be stable before they can help themselves. Apparently a lot of people don’t know what to do with themselves, but they spend a great deal of money on education. Where do you take it to and pursue. Improving as a student and being more organized. It’s definitely something that I should work on, as there are Modules 1 and 2 at the same time, and getting it all done is important so you don’t get multiple 0s and fail classes. Just as you ended up getting an 80% in a Quiz just because you didn’t answer the questions quickly and efficiently. Learning better time management as folks can often be procrastinators. Passing, keeping focused, and keeping ahead of assignments.

Transitioning to online classes can be a pain for people. How to apply the tools you have, as there is a difference between getting dressed and being there or being online. And the program they use is something that people get used to. Her name is Stacy Hurley, who’s taught at CCBC Face to Face since 2011, taught Sociology classes in the evening and worked with child protective services for Baltimore City as well as nonprofit and therapy. She is an adjunct, and works with the Howard County. She does dog walking, dog sitting, and tutoring for fun. She likes that she is flexible, and her favorite thing is teaching. She started a post-graduate program, as not only she has a teacher perspective but a student perspective, so she was taking classes as well as teaching. She even asked for extensions, using the tools to keep yourself on track. Any questions? Nope.

Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, and is a Synchronous class, meeting at those times and you are reading the chapters before class so there can be a good discussion. Know the material, and then review is in Zoom. There are quite a few modules she goes over, and the process is important. The “journey is the point of it” The final point is the “story of me” Where hopefully the class is at a different point in 3 weeks from now. All of the Office 365 applications are used, and there is a way that you can connect the google calendars to the school one. You can add those in there so everything is in one Calendar. Work on understanding everything so you can be organized. You also get a OneDrive to store work, and some people may also use a Google one, and saving it into the OneDrive is important so you can do it on your work computer, or home computer, or a library computer. You can make folders as to organize things by class, then week, then assignment (just as I have already done). I still need to make a To Do List for each week, and getting things done efficiently.

Announcements, and if you need tutoring, then you can arrange them through the virtual tutor. You go to getting Started, a tutorial to get to CCBC Email and Login, then the Keep Learning guide for online resources going from Face to Face, then logging into Blackboard. Going to Blackboard and it’ll bring you up, and if you don’t have it then you have to go to MyCCBC login. For the New Student Orientation there is a video and powerpoint to look at. The information will also be talked about in the next 2 hours (because it’s already been 30min) in the end there was the certificate, which I need to send to Stacy Hurley for Extra Credit.

Students improve and remain in college because of Academic Development 101. Think about Resilience and Grit. It’s not hard stuff, it just takes time and planning to deal with. Schoology is similar, for grades there is All, Graded, Upcoming, and Submitted. How much everything is worth, where you see discussion, assignments, and all of that. When she grades something you will see the grade out of how many points, then a text bubble giving feedback. “Hey you’re missing this, hey I like this, hey you should’ve had this.” And you can submit multiple times, taking her feedback into consideration. Practice your writing and communication.

In general the information hasn’t changed in the newer textbook, but it might be a good idea to buy, and we’re not going to get to all of the chapters. College Policy regarding etiquette for Zoom Classroom. Of course wear clothes. First part of the list, you must read. Student Success Navigators. There isn’t a counselor on campus, but they assist with finding resources like food, housing, applying for benefits, getting mental health help, referring for any of these services. You should be successful and going there is done at any way. Either talking to them or filing a report to need services. Someone contacts you to set up an appointment for what you need. There are disability accommodations, for different mental and physical disabilities depending on if you have a 504, and people don’t tell them why you get accommodations, as it is protected by HIPPA and such. There is also the Student Success Center offering tutoring, and avaliable for tutoring as the class fees pay for it. So use the link. Pay attention to the Academic Calendars, like when you can drop a class and when there are finals. Use proper college English, use proofreading. This is the time to do so. Turn your work in on time. Anything extra that was not assigned will be extra credit. Take advantage of it, as not every class has extra credit. Earn as many points as possible out of 800, so you earn as many as possible, then add the Extra Credit points, then the class grade is that out of 800. Know where everything is by keeping it in one place. Keep it in APA Owl Purdue College Format. It breaks down how to cite. Some courses may use APA, some may use MLA. You will be creating “The Story of Me as a Lifelong Learner” as each assignment builds up to the final project, which will be done using the app SWAY. Given each topic and skill you should be able to build a toolbox. The three words are Grit, Resilience, and

If you want to do the bare minimum, that’s on you, but if you want to do more, then you can. Really it is best to do as much as possible. The biggest Module is Module 4 as there are the most complicated pieces. Career Inventory, a survey that goes along with it, research links to look at careers you’re interested in. Looking at Educational Plan with DegreeWorks attached and information from ARTSYS website to plan Spring classes. I still need to talk to an advisor, so that is rather important. Transferring to another university later. You have to pay attention to each of the pieces. The final project is due February 1st, taking all of the pieces to have a Portfolio,/Presentation/Blog online about you as to finish it. The career piece will be on Animoto. You’re not paying for anything, you’ll just be using the free version. So manage your work and your stress to do what is needed. In person they used to do a career poster. Videos on how to set up Cornell Notes if handwriting. The templates were given for Word. You must write a summary of the chapter to show what you have taken away, it is pretty important. This chapter told me ABC. The notes must be in the format, whether typed or handwritten.

What is ACDV? Academic Development

Helps you be successful in your academics, to identify weaknesses, meant to help you develop good habits in academics, to come up with a strategic plan for yourself. Promoting healthy attitudes, to help sharpen your skills. To help you transition to college, to know where things are on campus and on Blackboard. To help make sure you are choosing the correct career path and educational path, to help you with a work/life balance with a new academic lifestyle, to help you prepare for the future, to help you have an idea of where to go. Getitng to know yourself better, developing academically. Exploring your passions, interests, values, skills, and talents. You can be interested in a great many things but you aren’t skilled in many. But interests can become skill. You can develop new skill based on the interests you already have. What are your values. The jobs that you’re thinking about, what is your motivation. Because if your motivation is purely money, then you could’ve taken a job that costs less to study for. What do you want to accomplish and look at. You don’t want to be a nurse if you don’t like blood or needles. Sure carrying tradition might be nice but it may not be fit for you. Do you want to have a career and not just a job.

What is academic development

To help us know what to do with our lives.

It can be quite difficult as there it can take a third of our lives to become who we want to.

A guide to CCBC and how to perform well in this institution.

What is Student Life is a thread that it has. There is the Community Book Connection as well. A book club, and the newest one is “The Truth about Stories, a Native Narrative” which if you do it, you get extra credit. Campuses are open, and you have to stop, they’ll check temperature and you have to ask questions on whether you’ve been close. The library and bookstore are open to go and get things. It is kind of a ghost town due to the plague, but things are still open. Blackboard has a list of Campus Events, Activities, and Resources she’s talking about. All of the folders are there, and things are due by tomorrow, while for Intro to Human Services my classes are due the day after. It is a pile of things stressing me out and the best thing you can do is to do your best at surviving and making the world a better place. Important things you need to cover, so let’s get done what is needed one thing at a time. Module 1 for ACDV is now due on Friday, and you’d get the rest done by Sunday. On Thursday we’ll talk about Finances, so that will also have to be handled. Filling your mind with sha helps no one, so take it one step at a time, use your peers and teacher. Try first, you will have to deal with things outside of time and sooner or later it will all click. We might not get to everything, so mainly do what is assigned. If it isn’t assigned, then wait until you’re done with assigned work before working on unassigned work or work due far later (following week). 

[chrismalcolmhnd2c]

Editing Workbook: Folio One Introduction

BRIEF: People Make Glasgow

Where might you find good resources/ tutorials for the following? Name at least 3 sources of good online tutorials.

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/user-guide.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/photoshop/tutorials.html

https://phlearn.com

https://photoshopcafe.com

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/bridge/user-guide.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/support/bridge.html

https://spark.adobe.com/page/ZYS1NsR6NKqfH/

https://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/what-is-adobe-bridge/

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom-classic/user-guide.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom-cc/tutorials.html

https://www.theschoolofphotography.com/courses/lightroom-course-online

https://www.photoblog.com/learn/lightroom-tutorials/

Other programs: Make a list of other programs that photographers might use to edit enhance photographs.

1/         Capture One

https://www.captureone.com/en

2/         Affinity

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

3/         Pixlr

https://pixlr.com

4/         Gimp

https://www.gimp.org

5/        PhaseOne Capture One Pro 20

           https://www.captureone.com/en/products-plans/single-user/capture-one-pro

Mobile apps: Make a list of useful mobile apps for photographers.

1/         Adobe Phone Apps

https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/catalog/mobile.html

2/         Snapseed

https://snapseed.online

3/         Geometry Club

https://geometryclub.org/app/

4/        PicsArt

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/picsart-photo-studio-picture-editor-collage-maker/id587366035

5/        Pixlr

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pixlr-photo-collages-effect/id526783584?irgwc=1&aosid=p239&cid=aos-us-aff-ir&irchannel=13631&irpid=221109&clickid=WLGziny4LxyORNRwUx0Mo3ERUkE0B72Vm2YOVg0&ircid=7613

File types refresher:

File type

RAW

+ The best quality image file is captured

+ Extensive options in post-processing and image manipulation

- Time needed to convert and edit photos

- Bigger file sizes mean more storage needed and longer post-processing times

JPEG

+ Small file size so good for social media and emailing

+ Universal format that doesn’t need proprietary software

- Loss of quality due to image compression

- Less opportunity for image manipulation in photo editing software

TIFF

+ Ability to manipulate photos extensively in photo editing software

+ Option to print at the highest quality and at much larger sizes

- Much bigger file sizes (more storage needed)

- Longer transfer and loading times due to file size

GIF

+ Small file sizes makes these ideal for use on the web

+ Files can contain animation

- Limited colours means it is not the best choice for photos

- Does not support partial transparency like drop shadows

ADOBE PDF

+ PDF can be opened on any device with any operating system in exactly the same form in which it was created

- It’s not free to edit PDF files

- It’s easier to edit files in other formants than in PDF, because PDF files must be edited in specialised programs

Choose another that you might use

DNG

+ Ability to use image processing software such as Lightroom and Photoshop

+ Possibly guard against inability to open or access files in future

- Extra time needed to convert camera raw files to DNG (if your camera does not have the option to supply files in this format)

Choose another that you might use

PNG

+ Lossless compression means good image quality

+ The ability to maintain transparency

- Quality will not be good enough for printing at any size

RAW workflow: In photoshop.

Add an appropriate diagram from the web.

Source: https://chriseyrewalker.com/my-complete-photography-workflow-in-10-steps/

Explain the need to develop a good digital workflow.

Why workflow matters

Photography workflow is the sequence of steps and actions you take to edit your photos, work them up to a result you consider finished, and share them with the world. Editing photos can be like baking a cake or assembling flat pack furniture. You start with raw ingredients, or loose parts, and use an ordered sequence of steps to put the thing together. In a good photography workflow, the end result is a perfectly crafted image, securely stored for future use, all with the least possible effort.

Efficiency is important. Without a good workflow, at minimum you’re wasting time. Worse, you run the very real risk of losing your most precious photos. Forever. A couple of years ago I knew a wedding photographer, then aspiring to become professional, who lost an entire wedding shoot because of relatively simple errors in her workflow. (In short, the mistakes derived from a convoluted importing method and totally inadequate backups.)

Maybe you’re only taking pictures for fun? If you’re planning to continue with photography, you still need to use an effective workflow. If you don’t, your photo archive will become a beast, very difficult to tame. And your images won’t look as good as they could. No fun.

When you’re starting out in digital photography, you need to develop good habits early.

Source: https://digital-photography-school.com/digital-photo-editing-workflow-better-images-capture-output/

1/ What software did you use to optimise/ name/ select these? Where did you store them?

File management

Name Three places where you will store your images.

1

Memory Card/USB Drive

+ Small and portable.

+ Easily share files documents with other devices.

+ Simple to operate.

+ Cheap to buy.

- Easily infected with viruses or malware.

- Easy for users to lose or break them.

2

Computer HD

+ Fairly affordable and easy to use.

+ Higher capacities than those available with small USB drives.

- This type of physical storage doesn’t last forever.

- Don’t usually come with password protection or advanced security features.

3

Cloud Based Back-up

+ Your data to be accessible from anywhere.

+ Allow clients to view select files through cloud sharing platforms.

+ Off-site storage so useful in disaster recovery.

- Security is a major concern for businesses using cloud storage solutions.

- Possibility of remote failure of server.

- Can be expensive.

Name File management software.

1/        Adobe Bridge CC

2/        CyberLink PhotoDirector 10

3/        Magix Photo Manager Deluxe

Explain the need for good clear file management.

Good file management is important to allow you to quickly and easily locate images.

1. Everything is easier to find

2. See how you’ve progressed

3. You’re forced to review the good with the bad

4. It will teach you to avoid recurring mistakes

5. Discover ideas you want to revisit

6. Find themes and begin developing a vision

Source: https://digital-photography-school.com/8-reasons-organize-your-photo-collection/

People make Glasgow: Editing tasks.

Manage files:

Store and rename you files.

Where have you saved these images?

Camera Memory Card, External Hard Drive and One Drive in the Cloud

Contact sheet:

What software did you use?

Adobe Bridge

Place an of your ‘People make Glasgow

How straight forward was it to make this in your selected software?

Quite straightforward, I selected the shots I wanted in Bridge’s “Output” tab, selected the number and size of images I wanted on a sheet and exported them as a PDF file.

Explain two methods of Black and white conversion from an RGB original.

From Bridge, an image can be opened in Camera RAW and converted by selecting the “B&W” option in the top right-hand side.

In Photoshop, a new “Black & White” adjustment layer can be selected.

BLACK AND WHITE CONVERTION:

Choose three of your ‘People make Glasgow’ images and show before and after edits below.

Before: file name: _DSC0464.NEF

After: CMalcolm_HND2C_PMG1_103.jpg

Before: file name: _DSC0483.NEF

After:  CMalcolm_HND2C_PMG1_007.jpg

Before: file name: _DSC0496.NEF

After:  CMalcolm_HND2C_PMG1_044.jpg

Evaluate how the edits have changed/ enhanced the feel of the image.

For these shots, I first corrected the image in the “Optics” tab of Camera RAW to correct any chromatic aberrations. Next, I converted to B&W and checked the exposure and colour temperature. I then added a small amount of clarity and adjusted the contrast, shadows, whites and blacks. Next, I opened them in Photoshop and cropped them a small amount.

I think all the edits have worked well and by making the adjustments described above, I feel I have met the brief by providing more high contrast “gritty” and engaging images of Glasgow’s people.

People make Glasgow finished canvas, make a selection of your best images and display on one A3 300 ppi canvas.

How do you feel about your final series of images?

I think the final series of images work together well to give a flavour of the different characters that make up Glasgow’s people.

[percywinchester27]

About a boy (Part-2)

Word count: 2.8K

Warning: Suspense, feels, physical abuse, bullying 

Characters: Dean, Cas, Gabriel, Benny, Michael, OCs and… Sam?

Summary: Dean Winchester has a secret. A secret that could really land him in trouble. He never expected to connect with anyone when he walked into the ‘Blue Stone Orphanage for Boys,’ but even then, the walls he has put up are slowly coming down. Now, a series of strange events are threatening to expose him. When everything starts falling apart around him, will he still be able to save the one person that matters the most?

A/N: Many thanks to @thing-you-do-with-that-thing and @deanssweetheart23 for beta reading this story. I love you guys <3

Part 1

The orphanage wasn't quite as gloomy in the daylight, Dean concluded, but still gloomy enough. Cas showed him around the place in the morning. The shower rooms, the mess, the grounds. Everyone looked at him as they passed. The new kid. As if he hadn't had that before. 

The building was I- shaped, and a good chunk of the T-shape was occupied. No one really knew what happened in the left-wing. It was boarded and the only way to go there was from the ground and up the other staircase. The ground floor had the office, the library, store room, record room, the kitchen and the mess hall, which overlooked the huge, unkempt backyard. 

The first floor was mostly storages and a creepy meeting room for when interested couples visited the orphanage to look at a kid up for adoption. Looked like a jail cell to Dean. The second floor had a Rec room with one old TV set. A couple of computers that looked like they were about to give up any second now. A table tennis board and a few other random board games. It was longish room, like several walls had been knocked down to make space for it, with an assortment of mismatching sofas. The place was about as lively as an almost abandoned old age home. The second floor housed kids from 3 to 6, third floor from 7 to 10, then the floor above had 11 to 14 and the fifth floor, the one where Dean was to live was 15 to 17.

He kept his head down all through breakfast, carefully watching kids file in and file out. There must have been at least 600 to 700 of them in the whole building. It was a big facility and that just made it all the more difficult for him. Afterwards, he stood by the widow, seeing all the little kids scramble on to one bus after another and head to school. Dean started the day after, so today was all he would get. 

Cas clapped him on his back on his way out. "Stay quiet, alright?" his blue eyes twinkled. 

"Okay."

As soon as all of them were in the bus, Dean slipped out of the mess quietly. His cleaning duties weren't going to be assigned till later today which is why he had to make the most of his time. He passed Andy in the hall, who was headed towards his office.

Dean nodded to him, all the while cursing under his breath. The record room was just down the corridor from Andy's office. How was he going to break into it with Andy just around the corner? He had to try though.

He looked around once Andy had passed, then doubled back to the record room. It was locked.

Great!

He pulled out the lock pick he kept with him from his pocket and picked it open, cursing once more because this would leave evidence, and he was, at no cost, supposed to draw attention. Once inside, he shut the door behind him and turned to face the room. His breath caught. The room was full of racks stacked with files. There must have been thousands and thousands of those. Till there was only enough room to walk around.

"Shit!" 

There was no way he was going to find one single record in this sea of files. He went along the first row anyway, maybe they were categorized alphabetically, though being organized seemed highly out of character for the whole place.

Still, Dean went around, looking for 'W.' That wasn't the most common letter for surnames, now was it?

All of a sudden the door barged open. 

"Who's there?" A voice called. Dean jumped, startled. "It's me…" he said, as meekly as he could manage. I'm new here… I got lost."

"Come out, now."

Dean walked back carefully till he was at the start of the rack. A lanky boy of about 19 was standing at the door. He wore a janitor's uniform, and looked slightly punch drunk.

"You shouldn't be here, kid!"

"I-I got lost…" he stammered.

The janitor dude, walked closer,eyeing Dean. The nameplate on his chest read "Garth F."

"Alright, but don't have Andy catch you snooping around next time," Garth scolded good-naturedly. "Now off you go."

Dean didn't need to be told twice. He made a beeline straight for the 5th floor. Not stopping till he was on his bed, heart pounding out of his chest.

What had he been thinking? Getting caught on the first damn day?

He could barely swallow the lunch and then hit the sack at 5, before Cas could get back from school. Dean was starting to like him, and at this point he couldn't really afford to do that. The sleepless night and an afternoon of over thinking, at least, aided in passing out cold.

Dean was awoken by a rag thrown over his face, suffocating him. He tried to flail, to yell but rough hands grabbed his legs, his arms, pinning him to the mattress. 

"Don't make a sound, or you'll pay for it," someone hissed in his ear.

So, this was the initiation. Deliberately, Dean stopped moving. If he didn't know who he was watching his back from, none of this would ever work.

He was roughly shoved into a huge gurney bag and then dragged across the hall. Fortunately, not down the stairs. He guessed that whoever the captors were, at least they were scared of making too much noise, so he wasn't obviously staying on the same floor. 24 steps down, flat stretch then a pause then a left turn, another 24 steps. Dean tried to memorize every step, but what with all the juggling around, it was hard to make sense of the direction.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the gurney carrying him was thrown on the ground. The fall hit his head hard. Then it began, the ceaseless thrashing. Hands and feet, mostly feet found each part of his body, hands, head, leg, just everything. He curled up into a ball, head in hands to avoid getting hit in the eye or getting his nose broken. That thing was permanent and he didn't want to live his life with a crooked nose.   

At long last he was dumped on to the ground unceremoniously. At first, he didn't remove his hands from over his face, but when nothing happened immediately, he blinked into the darkness, barely seeing anything.

"What's your name, kid?" A harsh voice asked.

"You want it tattooed on your chest?" Dean asked. It earned him a swift kick to the gut.

"Smartass."

The comment was a throwaway, but Dean could hear a hint of grudging admiration.

"Your name?" Another voice asked, this one was harsher, and also older.

Dean wanted to throw another comment, but he figured he needed to get up first to have at least some advantage. If answering was going to buy him time, might as well.

"Winchester."

"Think I've heard that name somewhere," the first voice muttered. Dean inhaled sharply.

"Winchester what?" Second voice.

"Dean Winchester," he replied, hoping that the first voice had something more to add to. Sneakily, he got on his knees, his body killing him as he ambled.

"We have an initiation system here, Winchester," a third voice added.

How many were there? In the bare light coming from the far away lamp near the side building, Dean could make out at least 5 silhouettes. There could be a couple more. 

There was no way he could fight his way through all of those.

"Strip!" The harsh voice said.

"What's the fun in that?" Dean said, careful, calculative. If he had the disadvantage of the darkness, so did they. Maybe, just maybe he could run away.

Another shove. Dean almost fell back this time. When the second shove came, he was ready to block it and throw it back. His one hand collided with the assailants and the other landed on his back, pushing him down. There was a muted yell and whoever the boy was, took another one down with it.

"Think you're smart, huh?" The harsh voice asked, and three figures crowded in. 

"Wait!" 

The huffing thin frame of Castiel threw himself before Dean. "Let him go, Michael."

So that was the bully's name.

"Castiel?" Michael backtracked. "What're you doing here?"

"Dean's my friend. I can't let you guys do that to him."

Michael seemed to regard Cas. "This happens to every kid."

There were jeers in the background.

"Yeah but he's not a kid anymore" Cas said, hurriedly. "C'mon, man! Let it go."

Even in the darkness, Dean could see Michael's shoulders go taut. "Why are you trying to save the  newbie's ass, Castiel? What's in it for you?"

Cas said nothing, and Dean wondered the same. What did he get out of saving Dean?

"I've had enough of this soap opera," Michael said impatiently. "Gary, pull Castiel away. Let's get this show on the road."

There was a sudden whelp, and then Cas grunted, as if he had been hurt. 

"No," Dean shouted, losing his calm now. Whatever Cas' deal was, he had still tried to help Dean. He didn't deserve to get punched for it. "Let him go. If you got guts, come at me, asshat."

No one answered. There was just a flurry of movement and Dean was down on the ground once more, the dust making him cough. They could thrash him for all they wanted. He knew they would succeed because they had the advantage of numbers, and they knew the place well while he was plunged in this darkness. But, like hell he was giving up without putting up a fight. His only concern was Cas. He had to be okay.

"Gentlemen!" A silky voice suddenly interrupted. The thrashing stopped.

"I see you're showering our lovely new inmate with all the love."

"Gabriel?" Michael asked, perplexed.

"Yo, Mikey!! You back to abusing little kids in the alley?"

"What?" Michael's tone quickly changed from surprise to anger. Dean noticed that this Gabriel was making no effort to keep his voice down like the others.

"Too dark here, don't you think?" Gabriel wondered out loud. Then, there was the distinct sound of a matchstick being struck and the view was flooded with light. 

Holding the match was a boy of about Dean's age, or maybe a little older. It was hard to tell. He was blonde with light eyes. Maybe brown, maybe hazel, it was hard to tell. The most distinct thing in his eyes wasn't the reflection of the dancing flames. It was the dancing mischief.

"You'll wake everyone up, you idiot," a boy said, he looked scared. From the voice, Dean pegged him as Gary.

"Oh, you're worried about this little thing?" Gabriel smiled, looking at the matchstick that was on the verge of extinguishing. "I wonder what you'll make of the lights that are about to flood the hallways because I left one such matchstick burning in your room. Give it… uhhh ten more minutes before the smoke sets up the fire alarm and then boom! Red lights everywhere."

"Fuck!" Another boy cursed.

In the fading light, Dean had seen it all. The cold, calculating look in Dark haired Michael's eyes, his three goons lurking in the background. One more was holding Cas, then there was Gary who looked ready to piss his pants.

"This isn't over, Winchester!" Michael growled, then took off running towards the building, his goons all following him. The guy holding Cas, abandoned him, pushing him into the dirt, too. 

"Are you okay?" Dean said, pulling him to his feet. "Why-"

"Well, surely he isn't!" Gabriel said speaking over Dean, leaving all his oily pretense behind. He was irritated. "Cassy, are you out of your mind? Why did you do that?"

Cas just dusted the grime of his shirt. 

"Dean was in trouble."

"Yeah, he's new!" Gabriel shrugged. "Why did you put your ass on the line for him?"

"Why did you put your ass in line for me?" Cas asked. "Look, Gabe, let it go."

"It's your head," Gabriel said. "Just don't lose it over some newbie idiot."

The sound of footsteps walking away was much too loud now.

"C'mon, we need to get moving," Cas said. They hadn't really hurt him, but he was still roughed up. Despite that, his voice was pleasant and kind.

"Thanks, man," Dean said, looking down as they quickly walked up the path. "You didn't have to do that. They could have hurt you."

"Nah, they wouldn't," Cas brushed it off. There was a confidence there, and Dean wondered what the story was.

They walked in silence for a while, before Cas mumbled.

"Don't mind Gabe. He isn't all that cocky. He means well."

Dean got cocky alright. What he didn't get was how Gabriel could pull a stunt like that without getting in trouble. Michael's gang would totally get him now, but he didn't seem bothered at all. 

When Dean wondered out loud, Cas laughed. "Don't worry about Gabe. He's a sneaky piece of work. He has something over each one of them. Even Michael. I don't know what, but everyone just generally stays away from Gabe, ya know."

Survival of the fittest. Gabe sure knew how to be the dominant species. 

"He seems to care about you."

Cas' eyes glinted in the darkness. "We've been together for a long time, now, sharing the same room. Well, he's your roommate, too, now."

They had reached the back porch now. "We can't go in from the left wing. Those idiots probably locked that back up."

"What do we do then?" The question was more panicky than Dean wanted it to be. The place was affecting him more than it should.

"Don't worry," Cas reassured him. "We can stake out in the store room till the morning and then slip out when they unlock the floors."

The plan worked without a glitch, and soon they found themselves bunking against the musty furniture at the very end. Cas stretched out on the floor and Dean took up the side against the wall. This way, they couldn't see each other, but from the sound of his breathing, Dean knew Cas was still up.

"Can I ask you something?" Dean finally said.

"Yeah?"

"Why did you bust me out?"

Cas was quiet for a while. "I think you're different, Dean. There's something up with you. I've been in an orphanage all my life, I've seen countless kids come and go. They all look scared, look lonely. You- You on the other hand look like you've been sent into an enemy territory, you aren't judging this place, you're scoping it. Like you're up to something. Now, I also know you're not bad, because I saw you help out the kids out front today with the lawn when you didn't have to. So, I keep thinking to myself why you're here."

Holy shit! Cas was smart.

Dean knew if he lied now, he'd suck at it, but also he'd royally insult both the favor and the trust that Cas had put on him.

"I- " he started, feeling dangerously nervous. "I came here with a purpose."

Cas seemed to hear with baited breath.

"You see, my parents both died in a house fire." Dean waited for it, because now was where the "I'm sorry" came in. Cas didn't offer one. Probably because he had heard way too many sob stories by this point, or maybe because he knew all too well that those same 'I'm sorrys' didn't mean a damn thing."

"Well, I wasn't their only kid. I had a little brother- Sam. They… they took him away and put him in some orphanage. It has been 11 years since I last saw him. Turns out the some orphanage is this orphanage."

"Holy heavens!" Cas sat up straight, tumbling a bucket behind him. The clang of the metal it banged against, echoed through the whole room and maybe outside.

The two of them went deathly still.

There were footsteps outside, and both Dean and Cas, slipped further inside. He under the stashed away bed, and Cas under an abandoned table. 

Dean pursed his lips, not daring to breathe too loudly even after the footsteps had receded. He stayed silent, watching the minutes go by. Just when he was sure that Cas had probably fallen asleep, the quietest whispers sounded in the dark. 

"We're going to find your brother, Dean. We're going to turn this place upside down and find your brother."

Dean did not reply. His throat was too thick.

Now that he had let his guard down, the fear, anxiety and worse, the hope came flooding into his heart, making him defenseless. He stayed up long after Cas' hushed snores washed over him, feeling the gratefulness and camaraderie he hadn't expected at all.

******************************

A/N 2: I really really hope y’all like this story!! Please let me know what you think… the feedback is what keeps me going :)

If you wanna be tagged, please send me an ask

About a Boy taglist:

@sdavid09 @deanssweetheart23 @blacktithe7 @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @cosicas-cuquis @chalicia  @anathewierdo @mrswhozeewhatsis @protectteamfreewill @firefly124-writing @spnbaby-67 @hoboal87 @rizlow1 @donnaintx @starmission @gh0stgurl @tftumblin @emily-a-c11 @ericaprice2008 @jotink78 @charliebradbury1104 @ohgodwhybloggg @i-dont-get-cold 

[ahistoricalramblings]

Coding is Hard

                                                                                           November 8, 2020 

I’m sorry for this in advance if you know literally anything about coding.

I know I said that this week I would talk photography… but I’m not going to. I swear, it’ll come next week AND the week after that. Today I wanted to talk about coding. To be specific, I’ll be talking about coding in HTML, something I would’ve guessed would be pretty easy. It’s not. Like at all. Like this is so difficult. 

Some context, perhaps? For HIS9808, we have a final independent project in which we explore some form of digital history and report back about our experiences. Because I hate myself, I chose to code. 

I decided to try and make an interactive website for William Morris pieces. For the project, I’m only doing Strawberry Thief but, if I can manage to make it work, I might add some more over time. 

William Morris, Strawberry Thief source 

So the basic idea that I pulled from my brain with literally no understanding of how coding works is this: the viewer clicks on a certain part of the image or some button along the side and the piece animates and a window pops up on the side and displays some information about the piece or Morris. Did that make sense? 

My small non-coding brain figured this would be difficult but not impossible. I have now spent probably 25 hours working on just the coding. And I have almost nothing to show for it. Almost nothing because I do have new some knowledge and a navigation bar. 

An aside: I’m animating the image to move when the user clicks and that has actually brought me much joy. Unlike the coding, all the problems that arise are solvable with the brain I currently have. I would put some of the animations into this post but I want them to be saved for when they are in the actual website. 

The first thing I did was watch about ten YouTube videos. Then I called my brother. My brother is the smartest person I know (and I can say that because I know for a fact, he won’t read this). He went to Queen’s for Apple Math engineering and he now works coding (in python, I think) for a contracting company. So, I called him for a little tutorial if you will. He’s never coded in html so it was basically him showing me the program I should use (visual studio code) and how to use GitHub to store the code I’ve written incase anything goes terribly wrong and I want to restore to an earlier version. But it definitely helped me understand how to go about coding (which is to say: you google just about everything). 

Here’s what I’ve learned so far (beyond that I should’ve respected computer science majors more in undergrad): websites are actually made up of three different coding languages—HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you need to create a folder where your images, video, and other external content are sourced from (believe it or not, this took me a whole day to understand), and that coding is hard (given, I know). 

Let’s talk about the three languages first. So, from what I’ve understood from the seemingly hundreds of YouTube videos I’ve watched, html is the structure—the words, the format; css is the style—the colour, the positioning; and JavaScript is the interactivity—the movement when you click. At first, I was trying to do all three languages in one coding file (which is possible) but that created a monster file in which I could find not a thing, so I’ve separated them. Now I have a bunch of different test files, most of which do one of the things I want (display the image, have a sidebar, play an animation when clicked, etc) and none do more than one thing. 

A side note about the image issue. Basically, when you code all your code is stored in a file folder on your computer and everything you source in a line like <img src=”_________”> needs to be in the file folder. This is so basic that nobody online thought to mention it. You can imagine how stupid (but also deeply frustrated) I felt when I realized this. 

I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket, as they say. So I’m also looking around at different programs designed to make augmented reality and other alternatives. But I am really hoping that the html will come through. Because I’m coding from scratch, I get a lot more control over the entire project and in an ideal world, that would mean it should have an all around better outcome. But alas, I will search out the other options for science. 

This is all to say: coding is way harder than I thought it would be. I get it—this project is supposed to be an experimentation of what digital public history can look like and trust me, I have been experimenting. But the perfectionist in me would really like this project to be nice at the end of this as well as be a learning experience. So I will continue to spend absurd amounts of time trying to learn coding.

I’m going to end this off my plugging last week’s post on genocide and word choice because I am very passionate about it. I swear, next week we talk all things photography. 

Until then, stay savvy. 

[sedona1321]

Cleaning Up Your Mental Hard Drive (AKA your 90/10’s)

One of my favorite authors refers to “false/rogue emotions/feelings” as 90/10’s. He talks about how 90% of how we react to a situation is from the past and only 10% of it being from the present situation at hand. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to explain that to others and how to stress the importance of “clearing your past…to make way for the present” (AKA “letting go”) and I think I finally came up with something that everyone can relate to…

There are so many things that get logged into our memory data base, so for a moment or two, try and visualize your body being a computer and your brain is the hard drive, ok? Every event, emotion, feeling, situation, whether it is from childhood, friendships, relationships, work, etc, is logged into this data base into a folder; it just may not be saved where we believe it to be (many main folders…many sub-folders within the main folders). How many of us have a “my pictures” folder on our computer? When you open that folder, you may have several other folders in it that list each month, year, event, etc, right? Your brain does this, too.

So, with each feeling/emotion that we have…it gets stored into this massive hard drive (our heads) and what happens is when we experience that feeling/emotion again, we look/”search” for the last time we felt it…and what situation was tied to it. Think of it like this:

When I was engaged, my best friend had a thing for my fiancée. She would often talk about him and be super friendly with him, etc. I was young and hadn’t been seriously damaged at that time (and I was super naive) and would think, “Oh, she’s just being friendly. He’s marrying me and she’s my best friend, she would never hurt me.” etc. etc. Now, he didn’t cheat on me with her (he did later, another story), but I ended up finding letters addressed to him from her (and they weren’t appropriate, to say the least). I was crushed…and it was logged into my data base.

Ok, so the next relationship rolls along…new guy…new friends, right? I witness my friend whispering something in his ear, and instantly my personal “search window” pops up. My brain types in “boyfriend and friend relationship” and my search options show me a few situations that have been saved and what folder to find them in…but the number one search option, is the story I just mentioned…so immediately my brain associates those feelings/emotions tied to that particular folder…and I’m not too happy and I make sure they both know it…and neither current b/f or current friend have ANY idea why.

Ok, so that’s an example of how 90/10’s can affect us in our current situations. Unfortunately, most people don’t even realize that they’re doing this. They access the last time they felt that “bad” emotion and react...when in the present, it’s not even remotely close to the current situation. It may also go much deeper than that…

Many of us have failed relationships behind us (whether it was one that lasted a day, a week, or years isn’t important), so we believe a lot of these feelings and emotions are saved in the “relationship” folder. Truth of the matter is, it probably is saved in the relationship folder, but it’s also in the sub-folder “parents” or “childhood.” But when we access that data…it’s just from the general relationship folder and we don’t set the “search window” to look that deep.

All hard drives need to be “de-fragged” and “optimized.” When we’ve been using our computers for so long, bits and pieces of files/folders get jumbled up all over the place and it starts to run slow. When we run de-frag and optimize, the system gets cleaned up and all the files go back to one place again. Often we can delete files that we don’t really use/need, to make room for new ones. Our brains are pretty much the same way…and that is what HEALING does for us…clears out the junk.

A lot of people, I feel, are misled into thinking if they call a coach, find a counselor, or a therapist, that they’re going to have to go in and heal every little thing from their past (and boy, how much work would that be for us??). Truth of the matter is, once you’re aware of it, find a way to manage it, and check in with yourself before you act on it, you’ll be well on your way.

I believe that some events can just be fully let go of…I also believe that other events will be a little more deep rooted in our systems. The key is figuring out what the MAIN trigger is…and healing that…it will make the little triggers harder to pull, if that makes any sense. It’s a matter of cleaning our hard drives…so that there isn’t SO much stuff to access when our “search window” pops up….big triggers can become smaller, harder-to-pull-triggers.

One can walk around, the rest of their life, going from relationship to relationship, stating at the beginning of the relationship, “I have trust issues and here’s why….so I’m just letting you know if you do X,Y,Z…I’m going to think the worst of you…” or you can find a coach, a counselor, a therapist, a grounded friend, or whatever other means/avenues there are out there (and believe me, there’s a lot) and get to work on YOU.

We take pretty good care of our computers…don’t you think it’s more important to take care of the hard drive you use ALL day? If you can let go of the past…and all hurtful things tied to it….it makes room on your hard drive for the more enjoyable things in life. To me, LETTING GO is KEY!

[arthurhwalker]

Moving your Tabletop RPG Online: First Steps

Trapped behind a fortress of toilet paper, but still want to play Tabletop RPGs with your friends? This is my quick and dirty guide to getting started running and playing your games online. Toward the bottom, I'll have links to as many digital resources to help run games as I can find. I will update whenever I find new things, so check back, and comment on what you're looking for.

Requirements

You and your RPG table folks will each need a computer, tablet, or smartphone capable of running Discord, and accessing Roll20 via a browser. Discord can run in a browser as well, but I recommend using the desktop app on your computer, or mobile app on your tablet or smartphone. Also, I strongly recommend a headset or earbuds with a mic.

Every participant will need a Roll20 dot net and Discord App account.

https://discordapp.com/ https://roll20.net/

Discord will primarily provide video and voice chat for your table. It has lots of other potential for community building, but for right now we're just going to use it so you and your fellow gamers can see and hear each other.

Roll20 is where you'll host the game itself. It is where you and your RPG crew will roll digital dice, manage character sheets, look at maps, move tokens on the battlefield, and similar. It takes some setup, but not a lot to get started.

The more preparation the person running the game puts into Roll20, the nicer and more streamlined the experience. This can be done over time, between games. I wouldn't delay play to have everything perfect, just get enough set up to get started and go.

Discord for Gamemasters

Don't worry about setting up or joining a server just yet. You don't really need one, and it often just confuses folks that are new to Discord. At minimum, the person running the game should have all the players added as friends. Go to the Friends Tab, click "Add Friends", and put in their handle, pound sign, and number. Your handle and number will be displayed somewhere in the app depending on whether you have the mobile, browser, or desktop version of the app.

Once the person running the game has everyone added as a friend, they can add them to a Group DM. The New Group DM button looks like a speech bubble with a + sign by it, and should be visible in the Friends Tab. Once everyone has been added to the Group DM, the game runner can hit either the start voice or video call button, prompting everyone else to join.

That Group DM will persist in the Friends Tab, regardless of whether anyone is actually online or in the call. People that drop from connectivity issues can pop back in by just selecting that group DM when a call is ongoing. If people are having connectivity issues, they can send text messages to the Group DM, add files, send GIFs, and similar.

The person running the Game can post news and game schedules to the Group DM, and people can chat about the game off camera/mic in between games.

Yes, you can set up your own dedicated servers, forums, and communities using Discord, but you don't need to. In my experience, Discord is just arcane enough to confuse people the first few times they run it. The desktop version of Discord will continue running in the tray, by default, even if you close the main window.

Make sure you either go into settings and turn this feature off, or shut Discord down from the tray, and/or that you've left the call when you're done. Otherwise, you'll continue to broadcast as you talk to yourself, while browsing the Internet (to the amusement of your friends still in the Group DM.)

Roll20 for Gamemasters

Like Discord, Roll20 dot net is just arcane enough to baffle people. It has a lot of functions and features, and you do not need to make use of them all to get started. Don't delay play while you figure out how to get dynamic lighting to work, or build every map for the campaign.

Just get rolling with it, hands properly dirty.

Once you're logged in, you'll need to create your first game. Once you're logged in, there should be a shiny pink button labeled, "Create New Game". Click that, and head to the next screen. Give your game a name, and don't worry about tags (if you're just playing with friends). Pick the character sheet from the drop down menu that most closely fits the game you're going to run.

This will save you a bunch of time later. Don't worry, you can change it after you've created the game if you don't like this feature.

Once you've created your game, hit the menu button, and go back to Home. Click on your game, scroll down to invite players. You can send direct invitations to the email address they used to sign up for Roll20 with, or copy and paste a link, dropping it into your Discord Group DM text chat.

After your players have accepted the invitation, have them launch the game, at least once, so the Roll20 servers fully recognize that they are participants. This will allow you to assign them control of characters, and access to handouts later. This merely saves you the time of having to make those assignments at the first game.

While your players are in the game, have them go to the "My Settings" tab, by clicking the Gear Icon in the upper right corner. Have them scroll down and set Player Avatar Size to "Names only", and Chat Tech to "None" (no video/audio). You're using Discord (which is way better), so you won't need these features.

On your game's landing page, there is a place for Game Discussion where you, or any player, can post topics, people can reply, and so forth. For important game things, you can flag posts to hang around at the top of the Discussion Feed. This is a good place to put house rules, leaderboards, game schedules, and more.

There is also a place to indicate when the next game will be, the time adjusted from your timezone, to whatever everyone else has, depending on where they live. Handy!

When you launch the game to work on it, I recommend having the Roll20 Wiki up in another browser tab. I'm going to run through some of the basics, and give a tour, but there's too much to detail in a single blog post. I'll be focusing on what you'll need to just get started.

https://wiki.roll20.net/Main_Page

The game view has three visible points of user interface. The vertical bar of icons on the left, the horizontal bar of icons at the top of the chat log on the right, and the game board itself. The first thing in the Chat Log should be a "Welcome" message with some helpful chat window commands. At the bottom of the Chat Log is a toggle letting you change your role from yourself, to NPCs, monsters, and even player characters (should they find themselves charmed by a dryad).

Also, note the little blue Page Toolbar button at the top in the middle. This is what you'll use to navigate between different maps, and change what players are able to see on their screens. Your view doesn't have to follow what the players are seeing.

The learning curve with the Roll20 interface is going to feel very steep at first, for you and your players. If you're already anxious about running games, this can feel overwhelming. However, once you learn even a little of how it works, Roll20 is a very powerful tool. I use it to run my local games now with a big screen TV.

It's that good. Trust me, hang in there.

Okay, you're logged into Roll20, click on the games tab, mouse over it, and click the tutorial. Watching a YouTube video is a fine way to learn, but this gets you accustomed to the tools, where things are located, and so forth. Breaking through this initial learning curve, understanding where your game assets are stored, and how to control what your players see and hear takes a minute.

If you've ever used Photoshop or any image editing tool, even Microsoft Word or OneNote, a lot of the user interface will feel familiar, functions and features much the same.

Okay, some general tips that should streamline things for you.

Make a character called "Dungeon Master", "Game Master", or similar.  In the Attributes & Abilities tab create several that are going to automatically roll for yourself via /gmroll, or for players using /roll, the most commonly used things. Passive Detection, Surprise, Random Encounters, Treasure, Initiative, and anything else you roll for multiple times per game.

Then, click the "Show in macro bar" box so they are on screen for you whenever you need them.

When uploading assets, give the file names that are searchable in an intuitive way. You can make folders and to organize your art library, but it isn't really necessary. The search feature is robust enough it'll pick through the pile very quickly, provided your file names reflect what the asset is.

Asset0023.png <- No GoblinShaman.png <- Yes

Finally, in the settings for your game, add any applicable compendiums for your game, and click the box that makes them available for players. There are compendiums for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Ed, Pathfinder 2nd Ed, Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition, Dungeon World, Fate, Kids on Bikes, Pathfinder 1st Ed, Starfinder, Burn Bryte, DramaSystem, and Dialext.

A lot of these are paid upgrades, but worth the investment if you plan to stay on and use Roll20 for any particular duration. You'll find the full list on Roll20 dot net, under the Tools Menu Tab, in Compendiums.

Roll20 & Discord For Players

In the beginnning your goal should be to have fun, and understand how Roll20 works enough that you aren't slowing the game down for anyone else. Worry about macros and navigating the game as you play. Definitely watch YouTube videos, read the Wiki, and do whatever else you need to feel comfortable.

But, first, make sure you are using best application available to you for accessing the game.

There are these options for Android and iPad. (Keep reading, don't just grab one of these yet.)

Android iPad

As far as I'm aware, these are horrible, 1-2 star applications with problems, and lacking in support. Only resort to these options if you've tried every browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari) available for your platform, and  can't get it on your desktop or tablet.

Likewise, do this for Discord.

Make sure you are accessing the Discord App using the best option for your platform. I have yet to find a platform where Discord isn't pretty great. Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux, all awesome with a dedicated app, or in the browser.

Figure out how to mute yourself, and be courteous to other people participating. No one wants to hear you eating chips or yelling at your kids. ;-D Also, perform and audio test with your computer and headset. Have a friend or the game master meet you online and make sure everything is working properly.

This is, literally, 75% of the battle for a game master running their first online game. Just getting people online with the right software, hardware configured properly, with a modicum of understanding of how it all works. The absolute best thing a player can do is be responsible for learning and helping others learn Discord and Roll20.

Preparing games for Roll20 takes more effort for the dungeon master than normal. You can help this along by writing background stories, doing illustrations of your character, or just making a wish list of magical items your character hopes to encounter. Taking some of the guesswork out of making the game fun for you, will greatly streamline the process for the game master.

Likewise, organizing games online is time consuming and stressful as compared to just meeting at the local game or board game cafe. Make sure you communicate with the game master your availability, and be on time for games. This sets a standard for other players. Supporting the table with your reliable presence makes it nicer for you, and everyone else.

Build some custom emote macros for your character in the Attributes & Abilities tab or your character sheet in the Journal tab above the chat log. Whenever my Warlock uses one of his class abilities at my 5e table, I click a macro button that executes one of these commands.

/em holds a rod aloft, summoning hellish fortitude! (Using his Rod of the Pact Keeper)

/em grasps a shard amulet around his neck, closes his eyes, and reaches across into the hellscape it came from. (Using his Dark Shard Amulet)

/em gains terrible fortitude following the slaying of an enemy. (Dark One's Blessing Class Ability)

/em produces a shadowy tome, bound in the hide of an otherworldly beast, flames leaping up from the script inside. (Book of Shadows Class Ability)

/em reaches back into the void, altering his fate. (Dark One's Own Luck Class Ability) /roll 1D10 [Add To Current Saving Throw]

This accomplishes three things.

It lets the game master know you're using a class ability without breaking the flow by babbling about game mechanics.

It marks the use of that class ability in the chat log for tracking purposes.

It enhances the game for other players, giving them a more vivid picture of what your character is doing.

Resources

As of writing this, Roll20 has a ton of things in the marketplace for free, tokens, maps, and modules. It is part of the response to people being stuck at home. I've included links to some notable items, but definitely cruise through all the things.

The Master's Vault, D&D 5e (Free as of writing this) Quick-Start Rules Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition The Lightless Beacon - Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition The Strange: Starter Pack - Pathfinder Playtest Flip-Mat Multi-Pack

Lone Wolf's Hero Lab things provide for Online Character Creation, Campaign Management, and regular old Classic Character Creation. It looks like they primarily provide online support for Pathfinder 2e, Starfinder, and Shadowrun 6th Generation, and classic support for Pathfinder 1e, D&D 5e SRD, and Savage Worlds.

For 5th Edition Shadowrun, there is a keen Character Chummer on Github. Also, this tool for figuring out your Priorities before you start writing things down.

For Star Trek Adventures, there is a Character & Starships tool here. Also, this fan site looks like a keen source for ideas and things.

@Tartle_Games on Twitter turned me onto a service called Astral. I haven't checked it out in detail yet, but folks that play Call of Cthulhu, Pathfinder, Vampire: The Masquerade, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Exalted, Forbidden Lands, or Fantasy Age should probably head there and see what they've got. It looks like those games are specifically supported for playing online, and Astral appears to be free? https://www.astraltabletop.com/

Even More Resources

PCGen

"Compatible with Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e (coming), d20 Modern, Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition, Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, Starfinder, and many more..."

This service went into archive mode December 17, 2019. Take advantage of it while you can.

Fast Character

"Need a few quick pre-gens for a game convention or organized play group at your local game store?

Your cousin from out of town wants to sit in and join this week's game?

The party insists on hiring that NPC to join them for the adventure?

That failed stealth check got half the party killed and now the fallen are playing back-up reinforcements?

You don't have time to min/max your way through a character build but want to try something new?"

Support for D&D 5e, and Cypher System (Numenera, The Strange, etc)

Also, don't forget about ye old' Google Search for free assets and dungeon maps.