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starsgivemehp · 4 years ago

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The Argument Against and Defense of Hetalia

Let me preface this by saying that I have not watched the show or read the manga in a few years now, and thus I am working mostly off of memory and what fan content I see these days, which is not a lot. Also, I am a gentile, and I don’t claim to know a lot about the Jewish community or traditions. I am, however, a writer and I have plenty of practice analyzing and criticizing works of fiction from multiple angles. With that in mind, this essay is an attempt to explain everything that is wrong and not wrong with the show, the comic strips, and the fandom.

I’m putting this under a read more for sheer length, this was 11 pages on Google docs.

Let us start with the list of grievances assembled largely from one post, the majority of which I had to go digging for as the original person in this post who mentioned Hetalia said, and I quote, “i dont feel the need to link a source for [hetalia] because…” and then listed two things, one of which is incorrect entirely. But I digress, I will address each one at a time. The list of grievances is as follows:

It is called ‘Axis Powers’ Hetalia

One of the main characters is a personification of Nazi Germany

The entire point of the series is:

Advocating for eugenics

Racial fetishization

Advocating for fascism

Nazi sympathizing/propaganda

The entire franchise is terrible due to rape jokes, racism, and Holocaust jokes

Hetalia fans are all terrible due to rape jokes and other issues

Death of the author cannot apply to this fandom

There may be more that are in other reblogs of the post in question, and I may add addendums further in this essay, but for the time being, I will address each of these grievances and explain the validity or non-validity of each, from a position understanding of both fans and of non-fans. Thus, in order:

‘Axis Powers’ Hetalia

When people talk about Hetalia, they usually are referring to the anime due to its widespread popularity. However, Hetalia began as a series of strip comics posted on a forum by Hidekaz Himaruya (and I spent a while trying to actually find the original comics, but I can’t, there are links to his blogs there in what I’ve provided). It later was formatted into a manga, and then later became an anime. While it was originally titled Axis Powers: Hetalia and the first two seasons of the show are named as such, it usually is only referred to as Hetalia. The anime seasons after said first two seasons have all been ‘world’ focused: Seasons three and four were titled World Series, season five was titled Beautiful World, season six was titled World Twinkle, and the upcoming season seven is titled World Stars.

For the purposes of tagging everything, I tend to see the tags ‘hetalia’ and ‘hws,’ which is short for Hetalia: World Series. This name of the third and fourth anime seasons is the most widely accepted and used name for the series as a whole. While it is true that, years ago, people referred to it as ‘aph’ for Axis Powers Hetalia, the fans and the series have put that behind them, for good reason. It is understandable, even righteous, to not accept the title ‘Axis Powers.’ It does draw focus to the WW2 era, and place the fascists and nazis as the ‘main characters,’ or even, ‘the good guys,’ which is not the case. Obviously, the Nazis were terrible and the entirety of the Axis Powers did horrible, unspeakable things during the war.

It must be noted, to anybody who has not seen the show or read the manga, that the first one to two seasons do have a ‘focus’ on the WW2 era, per se, but it largely talks about interactions between countries, as they are the personified party, and makes extremely few allusions to the war itself, and none to the Holocaust. I will address that in a later section. For now, the point to make is that after these original two seasons, Hetalia branches out into a much wider worldview, adds several more characters, and focuses more on said characters in individual arcs and offerings of historical facts - as generalized as they may be. Nobody claimed that Hetalia was correct in everything it said, but it aims to play out some historical information in a simplified and humorous way. This is due to the fact that the characters are all singular people meant to personify entire countries, which leads us to point two.

The Personification of Nazi Germany

This is the second complaint of the strand of the post in question that I was presented with, quoted as “one of the main characters is a personification of nazi germany.” This is an entirely incorrect statement. ‘Nazi Germany,’ as people call it, is the state of Germany during the era leading up to and of World War 2. The country is still Germany, the people were still German, the Nazi part comes from the political regime in power, a real world nightmare. In the Hetalia series, the characters are called by their country names, because that is who they personify. This may change at times. For example, the character now known as Turkey was previously called Ottoman Empire. They come to be when civilization starts or a colony is introduced to a place. This can be seen in the strip or episode where China ‘finds’ Japan as a small boy and begins to teach him reading and writing - and Japan thereafter invents hiragana. It can also be seen in the comic where a young child, Iceland, questions who he is and why he knows his people are “different beings” than him. The country that speaks to him (I only have the comic here in my likes in that list, the name isn’t mentioned and it’s been a while, but it might be another of the Scandinavian countries) explains that he is Mr. Iceland, they don’t know why he is Mr. Iceland, but they know he is.

What I am attempting to explain with all of these other examples is that there is no ‘Nazi Germany’ character. There is a character called Germany (or Mr. Germany), and all of his adult life, he has been called Germany. He is never addressed by anything else. He does, however, look remarkably similar to a childhood friend of Italy’s, Holy Roman Empire (or just Holy Rome), but as far as it has been explained in canon, Holy Rome went off somewhere and, later on Germany and Italy met as strangers. The general consensus is, due to the area where the Holy Roman Empire used to be is around-ish Germany, the characters are the same. But never, in any of the comics, anime, or movie, is Germany referred to as Nazi Germany. I don’t believe the word ‘Nazi’ appears at any point in time, even, though I cannot claim I have seen every shred of content, so I may be wrong. But I doubt that very much, as it is not in the nature of the series to do such a thing. Moving on.

Advocating for Eugenics

I will start and end this section by saying that Hetalia was, in the original post, roped in with Attack on Titan, of which (as far as I know) the author advocates for eugenics - or the idea that certain people should not be allowed to produce offspring due to their race or other factors. There is no example of Hetalia content wherein this disgusting opinion is ever mentioned or supported in any way. This is at worst a flat-out lie, and at best lumping Hetalia in with a much worse show that does do this (but I won’t get into that, I have never seen more than a few episodes of Attack on Titan and I don’t care to see any more of it. Throw your opinions or defenses elsewhere, I care 0% about it entirely). I have no more need to prepare a more detailed response to this accusation. It simply is not true.

Racial Fetishization

This particular accusation is a difficult one. Fetishization may be a strong word, as the series is largely a comedy. Everyone gets their turn in the spotlight, so to speak, so I find it hard to plainly state that any one character is fetishized or displayed as the most powerful. There is, of course, Rome, who only appears in small segments as Italy’s grandfather and is, in the series, touted as an amazing empire who had it all. I do not believe this is what the accusation is referring to. This accusation seems to be some sort of insistence that the show and creator believe that white people (or possibly just Germans/Nazis/the Aryan race?) are touted as the most powerful and nobody else can compare. I can confidently say that while that is never said anywhere, there are a few issues. Hetalia, particularly the animated series, had (and may still have) a longstanding issue of whitewashing countries that should not be white. This includes Egypt and Seychelles (who both later got a darker skin tone, probably still not dark enough though) as the worst offenders, and even Spain, Turkey, Greece, and Romano (southern Italy), and so on. Yes, this is a big problem. There is no defense against that. It should not be the case. These characters obviously should have darker skin. I will note, however, that many fans are already completely aware of this, have been complaining about it since the beginning, and tend to draw these characters with more correct skin tones in their fanart. This is a case where yes, the original content is not good, but the fans make their own fixes. If you are angry at Hetalia for whitewashing, good. You should be. But I do not believe this should reflect on the entirety of the content and the fandom (And note that I am not linking any particular fanart here, because I want nobody to go attack any fans).

It is also important to note that yes, a large majority of the series builds upon stereotypes. No, stereotypes are not good. No, you should not assume that the personifications of the countries encompass all citizens of said countries. The entire premise of the show is one person = the embodiment of a country, and that person changes and adapts with the times in terms of uniform and personality. It is extremely hard to do this without stereotyping. Most serious fans are aware of this, and do not in any way believe that these characters represent everyone from these countries. It may be true that much younger fans used to, and it may be true that people do not want to watch the show because stereotypes are, arguably, bad. But do remember that this is a comedy, and every character is picked on. Every one. And it is understandable if this branch of humor is not for you. I, personally, don’t like Family Guy or South Park or any shows like that for their humor. I also don’t attack the people who do. I ignore it.

Advocating for Fascism

This is another area wherein I believe the accuser is simply lumping Hetalia in with the original poster’s subject, Attack on Titan. Again, I will not defend or attack that show, as I do not care about it at all. However, regarding Hetalia, I can confidently say that it does not advocate for fascism. While the first two seasons are (sort of) set in WW2 era, as previously mentioned, the fighting is not really a big part, and nobody is touted as correct - only struggling in the conflict. For example, there is a scene where Germany, post WW1, is shown making cuckoo clocks by hand and lamenting the fact that he has to make so many thousands in order to pay back France. This is by no means painting fascism as a good thing, or explaining anything about how poverty and other struggles lead to the formation and rise of the Nazi party. It is simply a scene where we see a man frustratedly making cuckoo clocks and complaining while France’s big head jeers at him in his imagination. The surrounding scenes and the end of this one are making note of how Italy keeps coming over to his house to try and be friends and Germany keeps kicking him out because Italy is annoying and whiny. The episode further goes on to mention that Germany is attacking France again, and Italy has suddenly become his ally, and he is not happy about it for the aforementioned reasons. Again, this does not in any way paint Germany as being ‘right.’ The purpose of the segment(s) is/are to show him disliking the annoying Italy (whom the show is named for) and trying to get him out of his house before eventually giving up and accepting that they can be friends. Is it all 100% historically accurate? No, not by a long shot. Does it paint him as sympathetic? Sort of, you feel bad for the guy making a thousand cuckoo clocks, but only in the sense that he is one person doing a lot of work, a completely fictional situation. But Italy - and the audience - obviously know that attacking France again is not a good thing, so does it advocate the Nazis or fascism? Also no.

Nazi Sympathizing/Propaganda

I pretty well covered this in the previous section, but I will expand. I have alluded to the first two seasons as “focusing” on WW2, in a way, and also mentioned that this is a generalization of sorts, so here I will attempt to clarify. The first few episodes do, indeed, touch on ‘the way they all met’ in a sense; Germany is starting a war and he reluctantly becomes allies with Italy, and less reluctantly becomes allies with Japan, who examines both of them and decides he is content with this situation. However, none of it is very serious, and these ‘formalities’ give way easily to more humorous personable interactions, such as Italy hugging Japan without warning and the touch-anxious Japan pushing him off and getting flustered, Italy petting a cat and then freaking out when he is licked because a cat’s tongue is rough, the two of them ‘training’ by doing your regular old exercising and jogging and Italy being late, etc etc. Stupid, personable jokes.

On the flip side, the show covers the Allied Powers quite a bit too. A lot of this is the five big ones - America, Britain (/England/UK), France, Russia, and China - all meeting around one table and squabbling about various things. I fondly recall one scene where China arrives late and has a bunch of workers suddenly building a Chinatown in the meeting room because he was hungry and wanted his own food, and the others protesting. They are then offered food and become okay with it, because food. Other such nonsense plays out in other, similar meetings. There is also a segment where the Axis powers are all stranded on an island for… some unknown reason… and they set about attempting to survive via campfire and fishing and such. Twice (three times?) the Allied powers ‘attack’ them on this island via China whacking them each with a wok and, as the three of them are in a sad heap, something interrupts the scene to make the Allies retreat. One time, it is Rome’s sudden and also unexplained entrance across the sky singing a song, and another time, it is England’s preoccupation with a cursed chair. Also, at one point, Austria is playing a piano. Does any of this magic logical, real life sense? No. It’s stupid and funny and has nothing to do with war. These are just personable characters thrown into weird situations so they can be funny, with some extremely mild historical context along the way.

I will note again that WW2 is pretty much completely dropped after these two seasons, with the war hardly addressed at all, and future seasons focus more on other characters. The Scandinavians get to all have fun together, the Baltic trio is mentioned, there is a lot about Switzerland taking care of Liechtenstein (wow I spelled it right after all these years, go me) and being stiff and formal with Austria. There is also plenty about people mistaking Canada for America, and England and France squabbling throughout the years, and Spain finding Romano cute but also very grumpy, etc etc… This series is largely Eurasia-focused, yes, and it can be criticized for not being as diverse as it should be. But boiling it down to ‘Nazi propaganda’ is outright, obliviously false.

I don’t know if this is the best place to put this particular note, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to place it, so here it will go. I would like to mention that in the series, some characters, like Germany and Russia, express outright fear of their ‘bosses’ in certain points in history. It is important to realize that Germany, Japan, America, etc… these characters are not the actual, real-life humans in charge of these countries, but people of a fictional, separate species than humans who grow up as the nation grows and have lives that are affected by these world leaders (we even watch in the show America shooting up from child to young adult as the colonies expand, and England comments on how quickly he grew up - but not as quickly as his people, of course. We’ll get to Davie later). The president of the United States is America’s ‘boss,’ and naturally, that boss changes every time the president changes. The emperor of China is China’s ‘boss.’ It follows, thusly, that at one point, Hitler was Germany’s ‘boss.’ The terrible person himself was alluded to, as far as I know, exactly one time, not by name, and no face was shown. In a very brief scene, Germany laments that his new boss is scary and he was just ordered to go force Austria to come live with him. Said boss is shown as, I believe, an evilly laughing shadowy figure. That’s it. That’s the scene. There is no other mention of Hitler, nor is there any mention of the Holocaust anywhere. One could argue that the show is then trying to say that the Holocaust didn’t happen, but I think such an accusation is frankly absurd. It’s a comedy, it was always a comedy, and what in the fuck would be comedic about a mass genocide in any way? Nothing. None of it is funny. Of course it is not brought up in a comedy.

Rape Jokes, Racism, and Holocaust Jokes

While I did somewhat address racism already in the section about whitewashing and racial fetishization, I have another clarification to make, especially regarding the jokes. A lot of people complain that there are rape jokes throughout the series, and that there are two Holocaust jokes. I will begin by saying yes, this is all true, those things did happen during the course of the show. However, it is important to note that all of those things happened in the English dub of the animated show, and none of these terrible jokes exist in the Japanese/subbed version, or the original comic strips.

The English dub is, on all accounts, pretty terrible. Everyone has an over exaggerated accent, there are the aforementioned jokes, there are name changes (England referred to as Britain, among them, very confusing), and the voice actors themselves make mention in commentaries that their goal in this job was, to paraphrase because I haven’t listened in a while, ‘to be as offensive as possible to absolutely everyone’ (and one of the English dub voice actors is even a convicted sex offender, but that’s it’s own mess). Not the most glamorous or noble of goals. One could say ‘at least if it’s everyone, it’s not really racism, is it? Just humor?’ There is a case for that. Many comedians will say that they poke fun at everyone to avoid singling anybody out as inherently superior. It cannot be said to be the best way to make humor, but it cannot be said to be the worst way, also. Overall, I don’t like the English dub, I don’t watch it, I prefer the subs. And yes, the subbed version has a few issues of its own, but I can say that at least, no, it does not make any Holocaust or rape jokes. Are those kinds of jokes excusable? Fuck no. They’re completely inappropriate. Should you judge the whole series and fandom based on the grossness of the English dubs? Also no, the people who did the English dubs have zero to do with the original creator, the animators, and the fans. Screw them.

The Fandom Being Terrible

I must again preface by saying I was never super active in the fandom at large. I had my own little niche of friends and I stuck to them and I didn’t often branch out. I did, however, go to cons back in those days, and saw plenty of cosplayers. The main complaint I see regarding the fandom is that most of the fans are completely rabid, make a bunch of rape jokes, and even dress up as ‘Nazi Germany’ (iron cross and red armband and all) and pretend to shoot up synagogues. Now, I have not seen cosplayers do the nazi solute or do such photoshoots, but I can believe that people have done it. I have seen plenty of rabid fans, and some of the OCs created for Hetalia, especially many interpretations of individual states (or Antarctica), were extremely cringey, racist, and overall just not good. And yes, these things are undeniably bad. They are very bad things! Those people should be ashamed. They should know better, regardless of their ages or anything, for fuck’s sake. The nazi salute is not a thing you do jokingly, pretending to shoot people is not a joke. Everyone is aware of this. The people who did, or maybe even still do, those things need a serious sit-down and to be woken the fuck up, because they are acting terrible.

However, it is extremely unfair to paint all Hetalia fans in the same light. That is a very stereotypical thing to do, no? As I mentioned earlier, I stuck to my little niche friend group of fans, and while we all had our own flaws and were younger and kinda dumber, we never did things like that. I never did things like that. Rape jokes were never funny, I never liked them, I never accepted them. I have people I still know who still like Hetalia and they never made those kinds of jokes either. I think, as the years have gone by, a lot of the more rabid fans have died out of the fandom. They’ve either grown the fuck up or they’ve went off to pollute some other fandom. Recognize that, especially in the beginning, the anime was low-budget and had a lot of that old and gross queerbaiting and stuff like that, so it was undeniably a magnet for crazy yaoi fans. But the majority of fanart, fanfics, and just overall fan stuff that I see these days are nothing like that. Overall, the fandom has seriously calmed down. A lot of the focus is much more on taking these characters and applying them to other historical events with more accuracy than the show might give. The history in these fanfics and fanarts may also be of questionable accuracy at times. I personally once wrote a fic where I made allusions to the death of Joan d’Arc and, later, the death of Elizabeth I, but did I add much historic fact? No, do I look like a history major spilling all this? The point of the fic was England - the character - maturing through starting to love one of his rulers and recognizing a terrible thing that he did before. It’s not the best piece of work out there, and maybe someone could point out a few things I did wrong with it, but for what it’s meant to be, it’s harmless. Takes on characters not actually in the series, like Ireland, Scotland, etc etc are generally pretty mature from what I see, fanart tends to just be the characters in various poses and styles. The overall love the fandom has, I think, is in the better character designs and in the very concept of the countries as people who laugh and cry and live through war and peace for thousands of years. And here is where I address the final grievance that I personally saw in the notes of the post which started this whole thought process and essay.

The Death of the Author

A lot of people might not fully understand what ‘The Death of the Author’ means. The death of the author is a belief rooted in the 20th century that the personal intentions, beliefs, and prejudices of the authors of certain works can have no bearing on their produced content, because once it is out in the public, every reader may then have their own interpretation and belief system. By publicizing the content, the author ‘dies’ and the reader is born.

There are some scenarios where this cannot apply. One example is JK Rowling, a very special case of a very problematic woman who happens to be so powerful, and so rich, that consuming any type of official (or even unofficial) Harry Potter anything can and will give her that much more power to spread her TERF bullshit. Let me be frank: Any time that consuming a product is allowing a bigoted or problematic person to gain extra money or extra power that they then use for evil, the death of the author cannot apply. You cannot use it as a moral justification. You might perhaps use it as the reason why you struggle to let go of a fandom near and dear to you, as Harry Potter is to so many people, but you absolutely must recognize that purchasing the books, the movies, or any other official content is outright supporting a TERF.

That in mind, there are dozens of other cases where the death of the author absolutely can apply. The easiest, of course, is with authors who are actually dead, such as Lovecraft. Lovecraft was a complete bigot and racist, an overall terrible person, and his works are saturated in that racism. But he is dead, and his work is very popular, and there are ways to take and use his work that do not contribute further to racism and bigotry. All you have to do is slap a non-racist cthulhu on a page. Make that cthulhu eat everyone equally. That’s a good cthulhu right there, a nice, safe cthulhu.

So where does Hetalia fall in this spectrum of can or cannot have death of the author? I believe it leans more to the side of yes, you can apply it. For one thing, you can definitely find the show for free in some places, and watch it without giving Himaruya a single cent. The comics are also available online for free, and while you might be giving your ‘support’ by being a viewer, I think overall, that’s not only negligible, but does not contribute anything bad? The author of Attack on Titan has many charges levied against him in the post which prompted this, and arguably, giving him any money is bad. But as far as I have seen, while Himaruya might have started out with a flawed premise and may have some whitewashing issues, I have seen nowhere that he funds any kind of racist, nationalistic, fascist, etc anything of any kind. This is not like Chick-Fil-A, where offering any kind of patronage is (or maybe used to be) sinking funds into terrible organizations. This is not supporting literal Nazis, as the complaints claim. This is a largely mediocre series with good parts and bad parts and zero ties to horrific organizations or ideals. Consuming good fan content does not make someone a racist or a bigot or a nazi sympathizer. Even rewatching some old favorite scenes or checking out the new season doesn’t make someone that. By all accounts, the show is flawed but not a means to fund nazis.

The Bad Anything Else

I will now take some time to talk about some other problems Hetalia has, because no, it is by no means flawless. I already discussed the whitewashing and stereotypes and the mess of the English dub, but there is more. I made mention of the fact that battles and seriously bad events such as the Holocaust are not mentioned, and this holds true throughout pretty much all of the series. There are certain points where ‘battles’ of a sort are seen, but only flash moments. One scene in particular that I really enjoyed as a tween and can now see the problems with is the whole revolutionary war scene. This was a scene split into two episodes (for some weird reason, even an unrelated episode in between, like, what? Why??) about a particular (unnamed) battle in the American Revolution where England faced down America, they each had a gun with a bayonet, and England charged America and his bayonet deeply scratched America’s gun, and America declared he was no longer England’s little brother, and the whole thing was played out as an extremely emotional scene. England is lost in the past of seeing America as a cute little kid he took care of, who has now grown up and is being reckless and stupid, and America is all righteous and independent and proving he’s a grown up, it’s all very emotional, I cried, other fans cried, there was much fanart.

This scene is problematic in a way. Boiling down an extremely nasty conflict following lots of really bad laws and protests to this one scene doesn’t do history any justice. It says nothing about the struggles of the American colonists, the struggles of the British empire, the awful things the colonists did to the natives, etc etc. It is one small scene and it focuses on these characters as humanoid, with feelings, and completely ignores the complexities of history. And yes, in a way, that is bad. But it is bad in the sense that nobody can - or at least should - take this show to be the end-all be-all of history. It is not. It is not often entirely correct, and it picks and chooses what points in the past several thousand years to play with, and trying to use it as a map for history is a bad idea. However, this focus on the countries as human-like and struggling can also be a good thing.

It is also important to note that there have been other problems. The portrayal of South Korea, for example, is extremely controversial, and while I do not know all of the specifics, I believe that it was banned in Korea due to this, and the character was entirely removed from the anime, among other things. Obviously, a bad take, a bad character. There are also just straight up not great characterizations in certain cases. I don’t, for example, like anything about how Belarus is portrayed as a crazy psycho constantly begging Russia (her big brother) to marry her? I think that that is ridiculous, and I know nothing about Belarus as a country but I am pretty darn sure that that is not how one ought to go about portraying the country. There are a few other examples, but my purpose here was not to pull up a list of every country and explain what is correct or incorrect about each characterization. It is enough to say that some characters were not portrayed perfectly. But with that in mind...

The Good Anything Else

It is the most important to remember that this, all of this, is fiction. This is a silly, silly fantasy series. The countries are not humans, they are some weird semi-immortal species that share a universal language and know they are not human and are referenced by humans as ‘those people.’ They are fictional constructs. But the good out of all of this is that they explore human emotions. The American Revolution scene should not be taken as how the revolution was, and who might have been right or wrong. But it is a very emotional story of a big brother unable to accept that his little brother has grown up and wants to make his own choices. That, right there, is a heartfelt scene that I’m sure plenty of real people can feel something about. And there are plenty of other scenes that really grab you by the heartstrings, especially given how crazy, stupid, and humor-oriented the rest of the show is. And I will take a moment and enthuse about some of the more popular scenes that I think are, in fact, pretty good.

There is one episode in season 5, Beautiful World, where an American woman visits France (the place). This woman, Lisa, is blond and bears a striking resemblance to Joan d’Arc. While visiting some historical place somewhere or another in Paris, France (the person) spots her and rushes up with an odd look. When she questions him, he apologizes and offers to give her a tour of the area, which she accepts. He then proceeds to lead her around and explain some history and show off some beautiful sights, and he mentions some stuff about Joan d’Arc. She butts in and lists off some stuff she knows, he beams and looks proud and says yes, she’s right. The end of the scene has the two of them standing alone somewhere and him commenting how young Joan was when she was killed, and that he always wished she could have had a better, nicer life. He then states that he is very happy that she got it, while giving this American tourist a gentle smile. She looks away for a moment, distracted by something perhaps, and when she looks back to ask just who the heck he really is, talking about a historical figure like he knew her, he is gone. It’s a very emotional scene in a quiet sort of way, because the watcher/reader understands that he took one look at this woman and instantly believed that she was, in fact, Joan d’Arc reincarnated into a totally different and totally average life, and he is so genuinely happy that a woman he saw as a hero gets this chance to live normally. Whether or not you may personally believe in reincarnation, and regardless of how often other times in the show France is shown as an obnoxious sexaholic, this is an extremely tender scene that lots of fans seriously love. It is very ‘human.’ And I feel like this is what the series as a whole strives to offer. These human moments. They may be peppered in a sort of lackadaisical style in the anime, but they are far more prominent in the comic strips, so it is important to realize that that kind of scene is more of what the creator likes to focus on.

Another very popular and touted scene is the Davie scene. I don’t remember if it was put in the anime or not, I read it as a comic. It was a scene set in colonial America, where the man himself was just a very small child. Little baby America was hanging out in a field with a rabbit and sees this boy, who introduces himself as Davie. Davie brings America to his house and opens up a botany book and points out a blue flower (possibly a forget-me-not) that he wants to see but that isn’t in the New World. America assures Davie that he will find him one of those flowers, and goes off to do so. He fails his search and goes back to Davie, who is older now, but Davie looks embarrassed and turns and walks away. Distressed, America runs to England and explains about the flower, and England says the flower is not there, but they do grow at home, and he will bring some the next time he leaves and comes back. America happily waits, and when England returns with a bouquet of the blue flowers, America takes them and runs off to Davie’s house. He is let in by a boy who looks just like Davie and presents the flowers, and the boy then puts them on (or maybe in) a coffin of an elderly man. America, smiling, does not seem to understand what is going on, and hopefully calls the boy Davie.

This entire scene, in the comic, has very few words. Davie’s name is repeated a few times, but most of the rest of the ‘dialogue’ is in images. The flower, England saying it is not there, etc. This makes the scene extremely poignant, and when we reach the end, we, the audience, realize suddenly that while baby America was fixated on finding a special flower for his new friend, years and years went by, and that friend grew up and got married and had children and eventually died, all while America remained looking the exact same age and understanding the exact same things. Look, folks, I don’t know about you, but that is some angsty stuff right there. I cried. We all cried. We all miss Davie. Mention the name to fans and you will get sobs. We love you, Davie.

Which brings me to my penultimate point, that this series is heartfelt and, while it avoids a lot of the bad of history, can be very poignant about what human nature is like. Human lives are long, very long, but also so very short, they fly by. Some lives end in tragedy, others are mostly peaceful, and maybe we get second chances if you believe in reincarnation, maybe not. Maybe it’s good that our lives are so short, maybe the fate of living forever and watching people you connect with die is tragic. Or maybe it would actually be really fun, having friends for thousands of years that you may squabble with at times but ultimately care for. Maybe nothing is simple and life is about finding joy where you can, and everyone needs to sometimes take a step back and realize that everyone is flawed, and there might be good and evil but the vast majority of people are in a grey area, trying to live their own lives and do what good they can for whatever reason they might give. I want to end with one last topic, one I have not yet addressed this whole time. The big white alien in the room, if you will.

Paint it: White!

There is a Hetalia movie, folks, if you didn’t know it, and it’s called Paint It White. This movie has just as many silly parts as any other Hetalia thing, but it also has a plot! In this movie, strange, all-white aliens are starting to invade the Earth. They arrive and anything they touch, they turn into completely identical white humanoid blobs, even the country personifications. With this scary and seemingly-unstoppable threat, the main eight - America, England, Russia, China, France, Japan, Germany, and Italy - all try to infiltrate the alien spaceship in frankly hideous uniforms to find out more and figure out a way to defeat them. Hijinks and disaster ensues, and at the end, each of them is fighting a mob and gradually being defeated. Italy is the last one standing, and as Germany is slowly being transformed into a blob along with the others, he tells Italy to smile. Italy then finds (or has? the plot isn’t great, it’s just there) a black marker and he suddenly starts going around drawing ridiculous faces on everyone. He draws fitting faces on each of his friend blobs, like a stern face on Germany-blob, a deadpan face on Japan-blob, etc etc. The invaders suddenly stop. They look at each other, marker-faced, and start to laugh. Then their leader of sorts comes out and is basically like “wow, we thought you were all stupid and you have wars and stuff, but this? This is beautiful. Wow. We all look exactly identical on our world, and these faces are cool and new and unique. We’ll turn everyone on your planet back if we can have this magical thingie you’re holding.” And of course Italy hands the marker right over, and everyone is put back to normal, and crybaby, scaredy-cat, useless Italy saves the world.

The plot is, obviously, not super great. It’s not going to win anybody any awards. But it has a very poetic premise. The strength of humans is that they are all unique. Every human has a different face, a different body, a different life. Our differences may cause conflict, but they are also something to celebrate. At the end of the day, Hetalia is an okay show that can get you hooked on history and tries its best to teach you that we’re all only human and there might be war and conflict and bad things, but you have to reach for the good things and find yourself good friends and have stupid laughs and enjoy life, however long or short it may be. I think that that’s a pretty decent message to send out to people.

The Bottom Line

In the end, this is a fandom like many others. Hetalia has its flaws and its cringe moments, and it certainly had its fair share of awful fans. But I truly believe that painting it overall as nazi propoganda and one of the most problematic and harmful shows out there is a blatant lie and disregards… just about everything of the actual content. I think it is difficult for someone to concretely say anything is super good or super bad without seeing at least some of it, or doing some research, and this business of blithely going along with what everyone else says just because they use big danger words does not do anybody any favors. Spreading misinformation is, I’m sure, the exact opposite of what most people want to do. And make no mistake, I am definitely not saying that everyone needs to like, or even watch, the show. If you never ever want to watch this show in your life, that is absolutely fine. Go forth and never watch it. But mindlessly following the herd and yelling overgeneralized, unsupported opinions about it is not a good thing. I beg of you, do research on the things you want to form or share an opinion on, think critically, and for the love of God, do not swipe a giant paintbrush to forsake every single individual fan of a show as a terrible, awful person. By all means, hate nazis, they are pieces of shit. Boycott things that support genocide and fascism, yes, fight for equality, yes. But do not go accusing without thinking, and do not overgeneralize. I leave you with the words of my old laptop bag that I bought years ago at a convention:

Make pasta, not war.

Thank you for reading.

#I wrote an essay #I could probably source this way more #but I've been working on it for hours #Just take it

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fyrapartnersearch · 4 years ago

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❀ Fandom Cravings ❀

About me: ✦ Feel free to call me MC. ✦ I’m over 21 and asking only those 21+ to contact me. ✦ Open to writing more smut based stories/smut with plot. ✦ Only looking to roleplay through Google Docs. ✦ I’m fairly open to playing with/against any sexuality or gender. (trans/nonbinary/genderfluid+ inclusive) ✦ My preference is typically m/f as my “main” pairing. (I hate calling it that but I genuinely have no clue how else to phrase it.) ✦ Primarily Canon x OC (open to OC x OC, could be convinced to do Canon x Canon) ✦ I have no problem doubling to suit my partner’s own cravings.

✦ Able to write anywhere from 1-10+ paragraphs.

✦ Hit me up with those AUs and clichés~! ♡ ♡ ♡ Extra: ✧ I expect my partner to put effort in detail, grammar and punctuation, ideally providing at least two paragraphs for me to work with. With that said I will always be a firm believer of quality over quantity. ✧ No one-liners, no first-person. I write in third-person.

✧ I must add that I need a flexible partner, meaning someone who doesn’t demand a response every single day. I’m sorry, if that’s what you’re looking for then it’s unlikely we’d be a good match. Sometimes I can post multiple times a day, sometimes it’s once a week. I try to let any and all partners know if I’m unable to reply after a week if you see nothing new from me. Just putting that out there so there’s no surprises. Adding on I do my best to be active in OOC chatter, typically through discord.

✧ OOC chatter greatly appreciated to the point I would even dare to say it's a "must", to an extent. Communication in general keeps interest alive and I genuinely value establishing a friendly relationship with all my RP partners. Makes a world of difference aiding the creative flow. ✧ Even if our roleplay is mostly story focused, I would consider it a “requirement” of sorts that any and all future partners has to be comfortable writing out “mature” content. Broad phrasing, I know, and I do sincerely mean that beyond just the obvious being NSFW scenes. ✧ Please do not contact me if you’re the type to “ghost”. I don’t have the energy to deal with flaky people. I’m a big kid; just be upfront if there’s a loss of interest or you simply feel we don’t vibe/our styles don’t mesh well. ✧ If you read my expectations of sorts, please title your message with the last song you listened to and your favorite color. What I’m looking for:

Current fandoms I’m interested in -- Attack on Titan ; My Hero Academia ; Marvel.

Attack on Titan: I primarily had watched the anime then finished the series reading the manga where it left off and yes, this is fairly crucial to me. Even if we heavily diverge from the story, I would prefer to write with someone familiar with what’s covered in the manga versus solely what’s been animated thus far. I'm looking for someone to play Levi as my OC's love interest. Overall I want to stay true to canon, to an extent. Though I'm not totally opposed to going original, it doesn't appeal to me much. As you may notice with my other fandom listings, A/B/O or Omegaverse, is my favored AU to use and one I am strongly craving at the moment. This includes a potential AOT roleplay.

My Hero Academia: I'm caught up on the manga and would strongly prefer to write with someone similarly up to date with the series. At the moment these are the canons I'd like potentially matched against my OC by order of current favorites; Tomura Shigaraki, Kai Chisaki, and Shota Aizawa.

For Shigaraki and Chisaki I'd want to include "yandere" like qualities, so please bear that in mind before contacting me. This is a very specific craving and a particular version I personally enjoy that differs from your traditional "yandere". Additionally I would love any excuse to go the A/B/O or Omegaverse AU route as well. Other than that, for the most part I would like to follow the canon plot, to an extent, taking into account OC(s) and potential AUs used of course.

Marvel: I'm looking for someone to play Bucky opposite of my OC. I fell in love with Bucky's character all over again after recently binging FATWS. It should be noted that I have not read any of the comics, but there are some basic details I've come across over the years and would love to incorporate in an RP. One being to bring in Bucky's cat, Alpine.

Should probably also mention I have no prior experience writing a Marvel related story. What I lack in experience I hope to make up for in enthusiasm! All I really ask is if I double for any partner(s), they will be patient with me in figuring out how to play their canon favorite. Moving on, there is a lot from the movies I do not like; I'll explain to any potential partners that reach out.

It's safe to assume I'm heavily interested in an AU, or multiple AUs used, while still mostly staying true to canon. Some prime examples of AUs I favor -- A/B/O or Omegaverse and Soulmate AU. Even better if we can do both! I've written stories before doing so, they're an absolute blast. I'm also immensely interested in playing around with multiverse, as it is related to the OC I have in mind to write against Bucky. Do bear that in mind. Of course I'm plenty interested in hearing any ideas my potential RP partner(s) might have too! Please feel free to gush over your canon fav/your OC and anything in particular you might be craving at the moment for the Marvel verse.

Though this post is primarily focused on Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia and Marvel I'm more than happy to write a different fandom for my partner(s) ; I'm all for equal play. Do feel free to reach out and request another fandom you might be craving at the moment in exchange for playing one of my requested canons for me.

Note: Any characters involved romantically will all be 18+.

If interested you can reach me by email: [email protected]

#multiple paragraph #long term #short term #literate #action #au #comedy #cross over #fandom #romance

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engineeredfiction · 5 years ago

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Solace Among the Stars Ch. 2 “Manifest Destiny

Rating: PG-13

What: Crossover fanfiction comprising of themes and elements from: The Expanse, Blade Runner, Prospect(2018)

Characters: All original characters except for Ezra and Murtry. OC are based on actors I like such as Tobias Menzies (Greer) and Adele Haenel (Allard).

Plot: A group of banned Earthers attempt to improve their life beyond their home system, but come up against a powerful enemy.

Mood board is here. You can also check out the ‘sol mood’ tag

And if you would like to listen to music to put you in the mood then check out the playlist. I’ll be adding to it as time goes on.

Special thanks: @tom-riddleston-me and @yourpalmoony for being beta readers! I appreciate the time and effort!

NOTE: The format is a bit off, I will fix that later, I just don’t have the patience now. But if anyone knows how I can preserve formatting from google docs to a tumblr post please let me know!

More Notes: We finally meet Ezra! Well he’s awake and talking in this one.

Chapter 1 ‘The Stranger’

The lift sped up to the ninth level of Arcadia carrying Greer and his mysterious escort. A metallic ding signalled their stop, and the lift doors opened to a sprawling view of two nearby moons through floor-to-ceiling windows. The moon Helada, ammonia ice streaked the blue rock, and in the distance was Bosque, or colloquially known as ‘The Green’, due to its poisonous green atmosphere and lush forests. The gas giant Bakhroma was off in the distance behind the moon.

“This way,” the escort called motioning for Greer to follow him through the door behind the receptionist’s desk.

Greer pulled away from the view and glimpsed at the receptionist. There was an unnatural glow behind the young man’s eyes; he wasn’t human, but a replicant. Replicants always caught Greer off guard due to their ability to blend in with humans. He always thought their short lifespan was a necessary reassurance.

The hallway behind the door led to an expansive room with a flurry of activity. Desks were occupied with relaxed chattering people in well-tailored clothing. A young woman paraded around the office floor in a skintight latex unitard with a tray of hors d'oeuvres. Greer spotted a bowl of black caviar on her tray. More food and bottles of wine were brought in by caterers.

“Is there a party?” asked Greer.

His escort gave him a sideways glance, “A celebration.”

“Celebrating what?”

His question was ignored. The escort pressed a bell by a door near the back. After a few seconds the door slid open to reveal Wallis’ secretary.

“He’s been expecting you,” he cooly stated, “follow me.”

Greer followed the secretary while the escort disappeared behind him. The office was large, smokey, and dark except for low gold lighting around the perimeter of the room and the light coming from the expansive windows behind his desk. Wallis was surrounded by a few members of Terra Corp’s managing staff, each carrying full-to-the-brim champagne glasses. A freshly-lit cigar dangled from Wallis’ mouth. He immediately turned to his new guest with a wide grin, gave Greer a once-over while he took a drag from his cigar, and strode across the black flooring to greet Greer.

“You must be Captain James Greer?” Wallis affirmed with an equally firm handshake.

“Yes.”

“I’m Jaxtom Wallis. COO of Terra Corp.”

“I know you who are.”

Wallis took another puff of his cigar with a raised eyebrow and set it down on the desk.

“Let me introduce you to some of the bigwigs of Terra Corp on this side of the galaxy,” he announced. He slapped a firm hand on Greer’s shoulder and guided him through the introductions, “This is Callista head of sales, Zarina head of engineering and sciences, and Dexton our lawyer, well one of many, and this brilliant man is Xavix. He’s the Director of Colonization for the United World Systems.”

Pleasantries were exchanged and Wallis’s secretary handed Greer a half full glass of champagne.

“What do you need to speak to me about?” Greer asked.

“Straight to business? Take some time to admire my new cassowary! Here let me show you,” Wallis herded Greer with another firm hand on the shoulder. “I just got this beauty a few days ago.”

The large mechanical bird turned its head towards the pair, two amber glowing eyes stared back at them. The beak opened and a tinny squawk forced its way out. It took a few steps ahead, stretched out the wings, and flapped a few times.

“Isn’t it stunning?” inquired Wallis.

“Wonderful,” Greer deadpanned. Greer furrowed his brow at the bird, “What is it again?”

“A cassowary. The real ones on Earth are aggressive and can kill a person with its claws.”

“It adds comfort to the place.”

“More of a touch of elegance I think,” Wallis either ignored or missed Greer’s dry sarcasm. “Listen,” he turned Greer back towards the staff and leaned into him, “We had a situation where a Terra Corp employee mistook one of your employees as a raider…pirate…marauder…and fired at them.”

“She nearly died when the bullet tore her suit and exposed her to vacuum.”

“One I humbly apologise for.”

“And lost a hand.”

“I heard she had a limb regrowth procedure?”

“She did.”

“Well she’s good as new if not better! You see this mishap between her and one of my men has weighed heavily on me. I would like to make it up to you and your crew.” Wallis pushed a button on his desk and the hologram of a four planet system appeared. He continued, “Have you heard of the Basilicus System?”

“In passing.”

“The UWS has been in the Basilicus System for the past seventy years and has just announced that it is ready for colonization. Terra Corp has been given the first permit to begin working the grounds of Basilicus!”

Greer read the eagerly waiting faces of the staff, “And?”

“Terra Corp is a bit under financial strain-”

“I couldn’t tell,” Greer recalled his early sight of the celebration outside.

Wallis chuckled sheepishly and continued, “we just can’t take a whole fleet out that far without getting a lay of the lands and resource samples and showing those refined resources to our board and investors.”

“How far out?”

Xavix butted in, “Two parsecs from Arcadia. Sixty three years each way if you go there straight from here. Sixty years if you go back through The Ring Network. ”

“A hundred twenty-six years!” Greer choked.

“But we can reduce that to fifty seven years both ways if we give you a new state-of-the-art ship,” Wallis persuaded.

“For a twelve year difference, we are not giving up the Sleipnir.”

Wallis picked up the champagne glass and balanced it between his fingers. He studied Greer’s face for a few seconds. Wallis teased, “There are five million credits on the table for this mission. Five million credits for each crew member. Imagine what you could do with five million credits. You could buy a penthouse on Mars, or Titan, or a house with acres of land on the lush green planets of Andromeda or Rhea with more than enough left over for the end of your days; buy fine things for your wife…or husband! Maybe for your future children? And out of this you get a new space transportation system, which includes the new model of suspended animation pods, Generation Nine nuclear pulse engine, and other luxuries for a long trip…”

Greer swallowed the rest of his champagne, “I need to discuss this with my crew and see what they say.”

“Of course. But we need an answer tomorrow. Time is ticking and we are eager to get this to work for the long term goal of Terra Corp.”

“What’s the long term goal? “Expansion. On Earth 19th century Americans believed in Manifest Destiny. The virtue, mission, and destiny of the United States was to spread its way of life across the country. We aim to do the same for the betterment of our people…of all people. We still have the desire; the need; the want to explore and go further than ever before. And Basilicus has four planets, and their moons, with an abundance of wealth waiting to be plucked from its virgin lands.”

A lump grew in Greer’s throat, “I’ll talk to them.”

“Persuade them.”

Xavix stepped forward, “Do any of them have mining or harvesting experience?”

“No,” Greer responded.

“I can add one of my employees to your crew. I’ll see to it personally you’ll get the best and provide training for you and your crew. Paid by me.”

“And what exactly will we be doing-”

“-I’m afraid I can’t tell you any more until you and your crew agree to the mission.”

The staff appeared to salviate as they silently waited for Greer’s answer, their fingers wrapped tightly around the stem of the champagne glasses. Their breaths trapped in their lungs and lips pursed.

“If the answer is yes,” Wallis asserted,, “bring your crew tomorrow morning.”

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

“How long?” Murtry inquired as he crossed his arms.

“Fifty-seven to sixty-three years. So a total of a hundred fourteen to hundred twenty six Earth years. Plus however long it takes us to get these ‘resources’,” Greer replied.

A collective groan came from the crew.

“We’re already twenty years out from when most of us left Earth,” Keane stated. She jolted out of her chair in the mess room of their ship, Sleipnir, to the cabinet that stored the libations.

“What’s adding a hundred to it?” Allard sighed, “Perhaps they’ve already forgotten about us on Earth and we can go back?”

“Not likely with the UN in charge. They keep permanent records,” Murtry interjected. “I may not be able to go back to Earth, but I don’t plan on being a star sailor for the rest of my life.”

“Born and bred ground pounder?” Greer asked Murtry as he followed Keane to grab glasses and she pulled out the whiskey.

“Exactly! I would like to settle on some bountiful rock, and five million credits will get that for me.”

“Five million credits from a corporation that has built its empire on blood and exploitation? All they ever were fines, freeze orders, and strikes, ” Keane complained.

“Why not? They’ll be out of twenty million dollars with us on board!” Murtry retorted.

“But what did the UWS find out there that’s worthy of investing twenty million dollars, a pulse engine ship, and then the time it’ll take to get there and back? Must be something highly valuable.”

“And we would have to have one of their employees with us,” Allard added.

“I’m not comfortable with that and I want our own AI installed on the ship. If we’re going,” Keane insisted.

“I agree, I don’t want one of their employees with us,” Greer moved to the table with three glasses of whiskey for each and sat beside Murtry leaving Keane the only one standing sipping the liquor.

Murtry gulped down the whiskey, “So what we do? Hire a floater? Unsavoury characters.”

“Kettle calling the pot,” Allard hummed.

“It’s pot calling the kettle.”

“Are you sure?”

The three nodded their heads towards Allard.

“It may seem strange to hear this from me, but Terra Corp is a double-edge sword. They’re a necessary evil. I know evil, I’m well acquainted with it. I’m slowly coming around from what I’ve done. And…I…it’s been more than twenty years since I’ve last set foot on Earth. The people I care about are either dead, dying, or don’t want to talk to me anymore. Or a combination of the latter. So why not travel the parsecs to the farthest reaches humans have gone and see worlds that haven’t been seen in person?” Murtry reasoned.

Keane stared at her boots; the soles were worn and on the edge of tearing, the original laces snapped ages ago and replaced with new ones.

“What do you think?” Greer asked Keane. “Are you in?”

Keane clenched her jaw before looking up at him, “Let me sleep on it.”

“That’s okay. We can finish discussing this over breakfast and a plan on recruiting a fifth.”

Allard finished her whiskey. “You know what they want us to get?”

“Wallis wouldn’t tell me until we accepted the offer.”

“That’s dubious and not surprising,” Keane stated. She looked down at her boots again and thought how nice it would be to have a new pair that weren’t bought with tainted credits.

Trees, dirt, sand, metal, and blood, all at once. The sun was warm and the wind gentle. Keane tried to convinced herself the desert in the middle of mountains was a dream and not an actual experience.

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

She was up first, waiting by the entrance of the docking arm to their ship. Her arms were wrapped around her trying to stay warm despite having a wool jumper on. Murtry greeted her with a cursory glance.

“I don’t want a ten minute story in a five minute bag. Too early and no coffee for that shit. Are you onboard for this? Honestly,” Murtry yawned and propped himself up on the wall.

She looked down at her worn boots, “It’s money. Which we all need,”

“Yes.”

She shrugged, “It’ll be exciting to go to a new star system. One of the first to really see these planets and get into their dirt.”

“You should have been a scientist.”

“I was an engineer.”

Murtry lowered his tone, “Soon enough people will accept your kind and you won’t have to hide.”

Keane gave a shy smile, “You mean that?”

“I may have the face of an arsehole, the walk of an arsehole, and sound like an arsehole,” they both chuckled, “but I am sincere in what I’ve said. If it wasn’t for your…modification you would have died on that rock.”

Keane’s breath deepened. “I’m still human,” she smiled and part of her fringe fell over her face.

Without thinking, Murtry gently swept the ginger hairs aside, “Of course.”

The sound of footsteps approached.

“Waffles! Pancakes! Sausage! Mimosas!” Allard cheered as she made her way through the docking arm. Greer dragged feet behind her, he pulled a polar over his head .

“No alcohol,” yawned Greer as he tried to smooth down his short brown hair.

“How are you so cheerful every morning?” groaned Murtry as he turned away headed for the mess halls.

Allard ran to meet Murtry’s pace, “Because each time I wake up, I’m so happy to be alive. Arrête d’être grincheux!”

Smörgåsbord dining hall was quiet this early phase, or morning as ground pounders called it. A few tables were occupied but the chatter was low and infrequent. Kitchen workers filled the buffet with an assortment of breakfast foods. Allard swiped her credit card first and dashed to the buffet without waiting for the rest of the crew.

“The coffee smells so delightful!” Murtry moaned out in near ecstasy.

Keane paced in front of him and smiled in agreement. She eyed the coffee station with hungry eyes and was thinking about a large cup of black coffee, but a patron caught her attention. It was the man who was in the bed beside her hyperbaric chamber. His new arm was completed and he was massaging it softly.

Good for him, she thought. His face wasn’t shaven, clothing showed their age, and dirt clung to his boots. He must be a floater, an unusually attractive floater. She looked behind to get another glance and their eyes met. I’ve seen him somewhere before. Before the incident. Keane snapped her head around and poured her first cup of coffee.

Allard placed her plate down a few tables over from the man by the wall. Her mouth was already full with food when Keane set down a cup of coffee for Allard.

“Je t’adore!” Blow kisses were exchanged.

Food was being shovelled into mouths and condiments were passed around. “I’m in,” Keane traced a flower in the maple syrup on the plate in front of her.

Greer patted her back, “Good, good. I’m glad you decided to stick with us.”

“Someone has to save your asses. Arses.” They shared a laugh. Keane continued in a whisper, “Who knows, maybe Terra Corp will go under by the time we get back?”

“Cheers to that,” Murtry raised his mug, “so, what are we going to do about finding a harvester?”

The man’s ears perked up and looked over at their table, Keane caught his movement in her peripheral.

“Suppose we’ll go down to the docks and see if there’s any contractors or floaters. Plenty of decent Belters,” Greer thought out loud.

“There’s a job agency here yes?” Allard asked as she leaned back with her cup of coffee.

“Yeah. I suppose that would be the first place. We can’t just get anyone. We need someone trustworthy who’s not going to murder. Someone who can do the job…whatever it is exactly. And…not murder us and or steal from us,” Greer trailed off.

“You’re really worried about someone murdering us?”, Keane laughed, “I guess we have to vet them first.”

“I can get a background check on someone quickly,” Greer reasoned.

“No, no. I know what you mean. But if we are required to hire this harvester, then at least we go the contractor route. Anyone who won’t sign a contract can’t be trusted.”

“Right,” Murtry agreed, “it’s why we avoid the floaters. Possibly avoid Belters, they-”

“-Why won’t those people do contracts anyways? The floaters I mean,” Keane wondered.

“I think it has something to do with the legal fees. And maybe principles,” Murtry rolled his eyes.

“It’s mainly the legal fees,” a voice boomed to the group. In unison the crew turned towards the man who approached them with a stride of confidence that cut the air he moved through.

“Legal fees shouldn’t scare anyone in need of work.”

“Well some folks are in rough situations that don’t allow them the comfort of throwing credits to lawyers,” the man’s voice was accented with a drawl, “and so they turn to the honour of word and hard work.”

“So we just rely on the word on some floater to uphold their end of the bargain?”

“What’s a contract going to do for you out in The Empty when you’re faced with someone stronger than you?”

Murtry glared at him.

“Clearly you have an interest,” Greer chided, “since you’ve listened to our conversation.”

“My apologies, but I do good sir,” the man claimed. He sat down at the table next to Greer, “I’m Ezra.” He extended his arm towards Greer.

Hesitantly, Greer accepted the handshake, “I’m Greer. These here are Allard, Keane, and Murtry.”

“Surname basis I see.”

“It’s standard. What’s yours?”

“That’s a tale and a half,” Ezra advised as Murtry rolled his eyes, “but I go by my mother’s name Reyes.”

“Ezra Reyes?” questioned Keane.

“It’s a strange combination for sure. My mother and father came from two very different backgrounds, but fell in love regardless.”

“So what can you offer us?” Greer returned to the point of this meeting.

“I am a floater, yes, but I may have the skills you desire for this fifth wheel.”

Greer looked over Ezra’s shoulders as more people filtered into the dining hall. “How long have you been doing what you’ve been doing? What do you do?”

Ezra took in a breath. “I have been harvesting all over the inhabited systems since I was a spry teenager. Plants, gems, a variety of metals and foul smelling liquids to keep structures like Arcadia spinning and our ships flying. And I am willing to sign a contract.”

“You are?” Murtry blurted.

“I am. I am a man of my word. Now what is that you’ll have me do and where are we going?”

The group collective drew a breath and it was Greer who spoke, “We are going somewhere far to harvest samples of some material.” Greer carefully described.

“Well that is nebulous.”

“It’s for Terra Corp.”

Ezra gave pause upon Terra Corp being mentioned. “I suppose I am sitting in front of some well-accomplished team to have caught the eyes of one of the most powerful companies in the occupied Universe.”

“It’s basically an adventure of a lifetime and good money,” Keane cracked her neck.

“Yeah and far away to the outer edges of the travelled galaxy,” Murtry huffed.

Ezra’s curiosity peaked, “How far is the travel and how much are they offering?” He was met with apprehensive glances, “It’s a large sum of money?”

Greer ran a hand through his hair. “Two parsecs away and payment is in the millions.”

Ezra’s eyes widened, “Oh. I’ll be honest that caught me off guard,” he gave a weary smile, “My math isn’t the greatest, but I do believe that’s over a century of travel is it not?”

Keane finished her coffee, “Correct. A hundred and-”

“-twenty six years,” the crew said in unison.

“That’s an awfully long time. What do your loved ones say?” Ezra said as he flexed his new right arm and shook it a few times.

The crew found themselves in another round of meaningful silence which Keane broke, “we don’t have anyone but ourselves. We’re loners, we’re rebels.” She smiled to lighten the mood and Ezra smiled back.

“I like you,” he pointed at her. “I find that hard to believe that not one person in this part of the galaxy wants to be around any of you, except for this curmudgeon,” he nodded towards Murtry.

“Like I said, we’re rebels.”

“And what are you rebelling against?”

Keane sighed and gathered her thoughts for a second, she looked to her crew but none of them were interested in talking to a stranger about where they were from and why they were out this far from home. “Join us and maybe we’ll tell you.”

Murtry scrunched his eyes closed, Allard nudged Keane with a flirtatious smile, and Greer couldn’t help but grin.

“I have been known to go great lengths for a good story, but I will admit a century of travel is intimidating.”

“You’re willing to spend that century with strangers? You don’t have anyone?”

“No I don’t,” Ezra lied, “I’m a floater. For now.”

Greer looked Ezra over, “We’re meeting with Terra soon. You have more presentable clothing?”

“Why yes I do own interview clothes,” joked Ezra.

Tag list. If you do not want to be on this please message me. I have tagged people who requested it and those who I think may be interested.

@opheliaelysia @a-carnie-and-a-cop @1-800-fandomtrashqueen @tarrevizslas @dindjarindiaries @pedropascalisadilf @pedropascalito @maiden-of-asgard @rzrcrst @lizanotfromaroundhere @aint-that-a-mcfreakin-bitch @spacegayofficial @opheliaelysia

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taskade3 · 4 years ago

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Free Notion Alternative

Nonappearance of regard email drafts, notes applications and plan for the day chiefs: Taskade does all that and that is only a diminished gander at something more observable

Everything that I require to keep my life moving perseveringly on the web. Some spot. I can't discover it.

I'm destroying all the record numbers, meeting notes, plans for the day, contact data and piece drafts I have to see each day. Other than the plans I need to cook, wines I have to try, and YouTube accounts I should watch. An aspect of that stuff lives in my email inbox, and some in Google Docs. By then there are my Pinterest sheets, clashing bookmarks and the Evernote account I can never make reasonably. Free Notion for School

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Photograph: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

Over the level of late weeks, an application called Taskade has helped me change into request. Taskade joins evident the best highlights of Google Docs, Excel and Dropbox, near heaps of undertaking the heads and legitimate instruments. Taskade Labs Chief Executive Ivan Zhao depicts the thing as "the raised level season of Microsoft Office," which is a little hyperbolic and a ton faltering. Notwithstanding, it is the best life-alliance contraption I've attempted.

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Explanation behind reality the freshest locale is an information base contraption, which you can see as a table, a structure and the sky is the limit starting there.

Photograph: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

I used to require five separate applications to keep so much stuff straight. Absolutely it's all in Taskade, two or three snaps or a central intrigue away.

Square by Block

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Photograph: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

Taskade looks like chess: simple to learn, hard to star. The application itself looks genuinely standard, with a sidebar on the left and your open page on the right. It has a few rich amazing occasions, similar to the choice to add a spread photograph to the head of any page.

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Photograph: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

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In all cases resource

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Photograph: David Pierce/The Wall Street Journal

There's packs left for the Taskade get-together to do, clearly. Vindicating task pulls in, it's in like way organizing framework sync, PowerPoint-style introduction consolidates, a web trimmer, better confined assistance and that Android application. It's other than hoping to help relationship, for example, Zapier and If This Then That (IFTTT), which help move information between applications. Regardless, it beginning at now accomplishes more than any of its foes.

For a guaranteed long time, I've ricocheted around different note-manhandling contraptions, never completely happy. Evernote makes it simple to get data, offering little thankfulness to I never adored the interface. Google Docs and Keep don't offer enough highlights. Trello, Asana and other endeavor the managers programming don't work for note taking.

Taskade wires the best of each—and others—into a stunning renaissance application, capable in massive strategies for portion for creation and plot. I can't put a cost on the authentic quietness that begins from an unfragmented life. Check, yes I can: It's eight bucks every month.

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iamfitzwilliamdarcy · 6 years ago

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Title: from dust, arisen Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne (also ft. Dick Grayson and Tim Drake) Summary: When Jason is fifteen, he almost dies. Now, he grapples with the life he still has. (Jason Lives AU) (ao3)

I...got tired of opening this periodically from my incomplete Google docs over the past two years so...here we go. Will (maybe, hopefully) turn into a series of vignettes. Timeline is intended to make as much sense as possible but...comics.

When Jason is fifteen, he almost dies. It takes half a year to recover fully, his breath rattling against broken ribs and raw throat. He was protected, mostly, from the blast and has only minor burns, but his right arm is broken and so is his left leg, his shoulder dislocated, he needs stitches in multiple places, and he’s covered in bruises. He has a concussion, too, but he’s alive, and he almost wasn’t.

He’s confined to his bed for weeks. Bruce and Alfred hover. Dick’s there sometimes too. He feels suffocated, near the end, but mostly he’s too exhausted to care.

When he starts getting bored and antsy, Dick brings over video games and movies and little 5lb weights.

“I can only use my one arm,” Jason tells him mournfully. “The right one is already smaller. I can feel it.”

Dick makes a face at him as he wiggles the fingers on his left hand. Says, “Well it’ll just have some catching up to do when you get that cast off.”

“And 5lbs are for babies,” Jason adds.

“Guess you’re a baby,” Dick says and sticks his tongue out him.

Neither mention he’s still sore enough that he can’t lift even the 5lb weight for very long.

But he can handle a control with his cast, so Dick tosses him one and they race cars and beat up bad guys and aliens and shoot terrorists. Dick even, Jason swears to God, brings him over some dumb as shit Harvest Moon game.

“For when I’m not here,” Dick tells him. Because when he’s not here Jason reads a lot, but there’s only so much you can read, and he alternates between being restless, bored beyond imagining, and, well, kind of depressed.

(Jason beats it and saves his damn stupid farm three times before his bed rest is over; his cows love him.)

Mostly Jason is just glad Dick isn’t looking at him like he might still drop dead at any minute, all furrowed eyebrows and blank faced like Bruce or downturned, concerned lips like Alfred. Dick laughs and jostles Jason’s shoulder, gentler than he would ordinarily, but at least he knows Jason isn’t going to fucking break.

Jason gathers that Dick is staying at the Manor again but he’s still fighting with Bruce. They rarely visit Jason at the same time, and when one comes in, the other gets all tight and excuses himself after a few minutes. Jason suspects they’re fighting about him.

He doesn’t ask. Dick doesn’t say anything.

They don’t talk about what happened.

********

Jason begs Bruce to let him back in the field for a month. He gives it some time, after he’s up and about, goes to his physical therapy when his casts come off, but Bruce still says no. No. Flat. That’s it.

Jason trains harder. He knows he’s not 100%. He knows he’s chubbier, slower, that he’s out of practice.

He knows Bruce doesn’t trust him anymore. Not after…

It only takes a month for him to get fed up with being left behind. He sits in the Cave as Batman leaves, pretending to look at the notes of the case Bruce has left him. A consolation prize, he rolls his eyes. Something shiny to distract him.

He waits a half an hour, and then gets ready. He realizes, quickly, that he doesn’t actually have a Robin suit anymore. He flinches, thinking about fabric being ripped from deep wounds, from its tattered remains Bruce didn’t know he’d seen.

He shakes his head and regroups. There’s always one of Dick’s old costumes. Jason’s…not sure he’ll fit in any. His weight has fluctuated so much over the past several months, as he weaned himself off pain meds, got his appetite back, sat around unable to do anything, threw himself back into his work-outs as soon as he could, got told off for working too hard when he was still in recovery.

Besides, Dick has always been slender. At fifteen, Jason isn’t done growing, but he’s already almost as tall as Dick and a little broader.

He could always go out in his civvies and a mask, but—

--the Joker can’t take Robin from him.

Batman actually falters when he sees Robin. Almost gets hit in the jaw for it, but recovers in time to duck. Jason jumps. They’re only some low level thugs. Small fry. He could have been helping all along.

He tells Batman so. Batman just looks at him for a long time. Long enough Jason wants to fidget, but he doesn’t. He holds his head up, clenches his jaw. Defiant. He can wait out Bruce.

Batman turns and walks away. But he doesn’t tell Jason to go home. Jason follows.

He guesses it’s a start.

********

“He’s stuck in that moment where he almost didn’t get to you in time,” Dick tells him seriously.

He’s come to Dick’s apartment because Batman is suffocating him. He swoops in when Robin doesn’t need him to, nearly breaks the jaws of thugs who so much as say the wrong thing to Robin, follows him too closely. Jason’s going to go insane.

He’s turning sixteen tomorrow. He almost didn’t make it.

Dick shakes his head. “You know how he doesn’t let go of things. I think part of him is going to live in that moment forever.”

Jason’s learned about watershed events. He wonders if Ethiopia is theirs. His and Bruce’s.

“Why are you packing?” he asks abruptly, because he’s interrupted Dick. “Are you moving back home?”

Dick looks guilty, fiddles with the shirt he’s holding bunched up in his hands. “Not exactly. I’m going back to New York.”

To the Titans.

“Why?”

Dick shrugs. “It’s time,” he says. “And I’m failing anyway. Waste of time to stick it out.”

“You’re smart,” Jason snaps. “Fuck, Dick, you’re a detective. How are you failing?”

Dick gives Jason a look. A little surprised at his venom. Jason is too. Finally, he says, “Not all of us our cut out for the college life, kid. Maybe I’m squandering an opportunity I’m lucky to have. But I can’t sit in class all day and not focus on a case I’m working. Or fall asleep because I was out late the night before and was only able to half-ass my homework in an all-nighter.”

Jason doesn’t say anything, but he won’t look at Dick either.

Dick adds, “Anyway, Bruce is driving me crazy, too. Need some space.”

“You didn’t have to come back,” Jason says hotly. His face feels hot, too, and tight.

Dick reaches out and touches his shoulder. “You know,” he says, thoughtfully, when Jason looks up at him. “It’s not really the Titans if there isn’t a Robin on the team.”

********

Jason turns sixteen and Alfred bakes a cake and Dick comes over because he hasn’t left yet (because he maybe kind of sort of hasn’t told Bruce he’s dropping out yet either) and Bruce is looking at Jason in a way that he never has before (at least not where Jason can see) and Jason feels warm for the first time since Ethiopia.

********

He has to repeat tenth grade. Alfred suggests, gently, homeschooling for the year, but Jason’s missed enough time.

******** “I didn’t die, Bruce!” They’re on opposite sides of the living room from each other and Jason is yelling, his fists clenched, his face splotchy red.

They’ve been going at it for a while, the room hot and Jason hot, when he finally says it.

Bruce draws up short, and the room chills, and Jason suddenly feels deflated. He clenches his fists, adds quieter, “Stop acting like it.”

Jason doesn’t give him a chance to walk away first. He storms up the stairs to his room. He packs a backpack and leaves through the window. He takes the motorcycle and makes it to New York before morning.

Dick doesn’t ask, but his mouth tightens. He feeds Jason leftover pizza and lets him sleep in his bed. Jason snags a few hours, but he wakes to Dick’s hushed, tense voice speaking into a phone.

“No I don’t—obviously—well, I--,”

He gets up and pads over to where Dick’s hunched over on the couch, throws himself on the ground, leans back on his hands and looks up. Laughs a little to himself at Bruce being the one to do enough talking that Dick can barely get a word in edgewise.

Dick looks up and gives him a stressed little half smile. Mouths Bruce, as if Jason doesn’t know. Jason rolls his eyes to tell him obviously. Dick holds out the phone questioningly, and Jason shakes his head. He doesn’t feel as angry and restless as he did earlier, but he’s not ready to talk to Bruce just yet.

“Sorry, B, he’s still asleep. Yeah, we’ll just hit the City some tomorrow. He’s fine, I promise,” Dick sounds a little annoyed. “Go to bed, I’ll call later.”

Jason kicks Dick’s ankle in thanks and feels a little bad about how exhausted he looks. No one else is here, not even Kory, and Jason wonders if he really interrupted Dick in anything important. A local case or something.

Dick just raises his eyebrows at him. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Fuck, no,” Jason says because he knows Dick won’t reprimand him for his language, like Alfred. And also because he really, really doesn’t.

Dick shrugs. “I’m going to bed then,” he says. He stands up and stretches. Adds, “You should get some more sleep. I’ll take Kory’s room.”

Dick’s as good as his word to Bruce, and he takes Jason sightseeing in New York. They do the standard tourist things—see the Rockerfeller, the Plaza Hotel, the Brooklyn Bridge. They rent bikes and ride around Central Park. They sit on a bench and eat ice cream and look out at across the water at the Statue of Liberty.

(Jason turns down going to Ellis Island. He’s had enough family history to last a lifetime.)

Dick buys him bagels and pizza and soda and presses cash into the hands of the homeless they pass. He stops and talks sometimes, and Jason watches him. Envies how charming he is, how easy it all seems to come to him. Jason’s sixteen, and he’s not uncool, but he’ll never be Dick Grayson.

They go out into the city that night, as Nightwing and Robin.

The New York skyline is different from Gotham. It’s not their city.

Jason goes back to the Tower early. “So,” Dick says, mid-morning Sunday, over breakfast. Jason’s actually a little impressed with his scrambled eggs; they’re not Alfred level, but they’re pretty decent. “So,” Jason says back because he feels like Dick is evaluating him. Searching him for something. “So,” Dick repeats, rolling his eyes. “You can stay here as long as you want, you know--,” “But,” Jason prompts. “But,” Dick agrees, “I think you should give Bruce a call.” “I’m gonna go back today,” Jason says. He pushes his empty plate away, runs a hand through his hair. “I just needed some space.” Dick smiles sympathetically. “I get it,” he says, Jason tries not to let himself get pissed off because he knows Dick does, knows he and Bruce have spent too many years fighting for Dick to not get it but- -but he didn’t almost die. Because he’s fucking perfect. He didn’t screw up like Jason did. He doesn’t have Bruce breathing down his neck because he can’t trust him. Jason doesn’t say any of that, but somehow, Dick reads it on his face. He leans forward and Jason resists the urge to lean back. “Remember what I said before?” he asks. “About letting go?” Jason nods. Dick’s not helping. “Sometimes, and I know I’m a hypocrite for saying this, but sometimes, you do too.” Jason gets home after Bruce has gone on patrol. He lets Alfred feed him dinner, does a few rounds with a punching bag, showers, and goes to sleep. He wakes up in the dark, red numbers on his clock flashing 4am, a hand brushing the hair out of his face. He almost flinches away, but some part of his brain recognizes that it’s just Bruce and he relaxes. “I didn’t mean to wake you,” Bruce says, his voice a rough whisper. “’Sokay,” Jason says. He shifts, sits up a little, blinks blearily at Bruce. The fight from Friday lays between them. Bruce doesn’t apologize, but he pulls Jason into a hug, holds him close. Jason doesn’t apologize, but he snakes his arms around Bruce and squeezes back.

********

He notices the Drake kid tailing Batman and Robin, snapping pictures of them, before Bruce does. He doesn’t see the kid every night, but when he does, he makes sure to do an extra special kick or flip just right or pause a little longer. It’s not posing exactly, but it’s nice to be appreciated. (And Jason won’t lie, he likes the attention.) Also he’s a little curious to see how long it’ll take Batman to notice. Wonders if he already does and is ignoring it for some reason. It’s not like the kid ever lingers for long or isn’t as sneaky as possible, but Batman is, well, Batman. Jason finally gets a chance to talk to him about a month after he first starts noticing him. Jason’s by himself because, after their fight, he and Bruce are trying this new thing where Bruce lets him go off solo. At least a little bit. Because Jason’s sixteen now and not a kid and he’s not going to— The kid is startled when Robin drops down in front of him. He stumbles and Jason has to reach out to keep him from falling. “So what?” Jason asks. “Journalism class? You the next photographer for the Gazette?” The kid flushes and says “Oh my God” and “I’m sorry” and “Do you think he’ll be mad?” He’s stuttering over his words, and Jason finally takes pity. Says, “Chill out, I don’t care.” He sits down, swings his legs over the edge of the building, leans back on his hands and looks up at the kid. “Your parents know you’re out here?” He hesitates, then admits, “They’re out of town.” “Oh,” Jason says. He gets it. “Just for work,” the kid adds defensively. “They’ll be back.” Jason digs around in his belt and offers the kid a granola bar. He hesitates then takes it. After another moment, he sits down too, away from the edge. Jason leans back on his hands and looks at him, appreciates his mask lets him study without coming off as creepy. Kid’s scrawny, shivering in an overpriced jacket, can’t be older than 13, a giant ass camera hanging around his neck. He breaks the granola bar in half and offers the bigger one to Jason, who takes it. “What’s your name?” Jason asks finally. “Tim,” he says back. Glances up quickly, then back down. Back up again and blurts, “I’m glad you’re back. I wasn’t sure you would be.” Jason doesn’t say me too or me neither, but he wants to. “You look familiar,” Jason says. “Have we saved you before or something? That why you president of the fan club?” “No,” Tim says absently. “But I’ve been to some galas at Wayne Manor.” There’s a pause where Tim’s eyes widen and Jason stiffens. Then Tim scrambles to his feet saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” and Jason leaps up and grabs his arm, demanding, “Who are you and what do you know?” They both still and Tim draws in a deep breath. He lets it out and Jason notices he doesn’t look scared. Nervous, maybe, a little, but not scared. He says, “I figured it out. Who Batman is. A few years back. Well,” he backtracks, “I figured out who the first Robin was and then…everything fell into place.” Jason doesn’t admit he’s a little impressed. He lets go of Tim, sure he isn’t a threat and won’t run. Asks, still a little suspicious, “How’d you do that?” Tim gets this little half-smile on his face and he says, “The quadruple somersault.” “Yeah?” Jason asks. “How’d you make the connection?” “I watched two of the only three people who could do it die,” Tim says. Jason does some quick mental math and says, “No way in hell you remember that.” Tim huffs. “Well, I do,” he snaps. “It was one of the best days of my life. I was with my parents and they managed to let me meet up with the Flying Graysons before the show. They took a picture with me. I didn’t forget.” They’re quiet for a long moment. The moon is almost directly overhead, bright and full. “Are you going to tell him?” Tim asks finally. He slides a glance sideways at Jason, who doesn’t know if he means Bruce or Dick. Jason shakes his head. “Not yet, at least.” “I should go home,” Tim says, but he’s looking down, scuffing his toe across the roof, so Jason says, “Yeah, me too.” They start to part ways, but Tim turn again. “I really am glad you’re back,” he tells Jason. “He was…different without you. It was kinda scary. Batman needs Robin.”

******** Jason can’t get that out of his head. “He was different…it was kinda scary.” He turns the words around in his head over and over again, until he can’t sleep, thinking about it. He asks Alfred about it, after two days of thinking. Sidles up to him while he’s making sandwiches and soup for lunch. Bruce has to go in for a WE Board meeting (“On a Saturday?” Jason asked horrified and Bruce shrugged. “Guess it’s important. And I maybe missed it on Wednesday.” He winked and was gone.) He takes the knife without a word and starts to cut the sandwiches so Alfred can stir the soup. Tomato basil. “How was Bruce,” he asks abruptly, keeping his eyes focused on the sandwiches, “when I was hurt?” Jason hears the spoon stop stirring, can feel Alfred still next to him. A moment later, the spoon picks up again, slowly. It’s another moment before Alfred clears his throat and says, “He took it very hard. We all did.” “Oh,” Jason says. He keeps looking at the sandwiches even though he’s finished cutting them. He looks up when he feels Alfred’s hand on his shoulder. Alfred is looking at him with fondness and sadness and something else Jason doesn’t know what to call but it fills him up so much he feels tears pricking at his eyes. Alfred cups his face and his hands are warm and wrinkled and soft despite all the labor he’s put into this house over the decades. He says, his voice low with purpose, “You are very dear to him. To me. To Master Richard. I hope you know that.” Jason nods and Alfred lets his hand drop. Gives Jason’s shoulder a pat and says briskly, “Now let’s see about lunch.” He doesn’t ask Dick because he thinks Alfred has sugarcoated or lied to him. It’s only that, he has said very little and he loves Bruce differently than Jason does, the same way he loves Jason—they’re not blind spots, per se, but there’s some sense of duty, some sense of needing to protect. Dick is quiet for a long time when Jason asks over the phone. Jason starts to get antsy, wishing he had gone in person to see Dick, to ask. Finally, Dick answers, almost reluctantly, “He was furious. I’ve never seen him like that before. I thought—for sure, I thought he’d—you know.” Jason does know, but it makes him furious Dick won’t even say the Joker’s name, won’t say what Bruce wouldn’t do. “He would have deserved it,” Jason says savagely and is surprised out of his anger when Dick agrees, quietly, “Yeah. He would have.” There’s a long pause and then Dick adds, “But it wasn’t just him. B was…it was to everybody. A petty thief same as the Big Bads. It was like—it was like he really did. Lose you. And I didn’t—I wasn’t enough, then.” “Oh,” Jason says.

********

Jason doesn’t see Tim again for a while, worries he scared the kid off. He stays true to word, doesn’t tell Dick or Bruce, but he does keep an eye out for him.

When he doesn’t see him as Robin, Jason starts looking for Tim in school. He isn’t actually sure they go to the same one, it can’t hurt to keep an eye out. He doesn’t see him around the high school classes, and, remembering how tiny the kid is, Jason slips into Gotham Academy’s lower school during lunch and spots him right away.

Tim flushes when he notices Jason zero in on him, but he keeps walking with his nerd friend, determinedly ignoring Jason. Jason doesn’t like being ignored. He saunters over and slings an arm around the kid’s shoulder.

Tim’s flush deepens, but he says, almost valiantly, “Uh, hi?” He waves his friend off when he looks concerned and then shoves his hands in his pocket, like he’s trying to make his tiny self even smaller. “Can I help you?”

“Just haven’t seen ya around in a while,” Jason says. He tugs Tim outside with him and adds, “Let’s have lunch.”

********

“Why are you spending so much time with the Drake boy?” Bruce asks one night. They’re in the Cave, still in tuxes from some charity thing Bruce has thrown. Alfred will be mad if he knows, but he’s upstairs, cleaning.

Jason shrugs. “Just a friend. He goes to my school. ‘Sides, everyone else at those things is boring.”

“Not me,” Bruce says and Jason yawns extravagantly. “Especially you.”

********

He wants to tell Dick first about Tim because it’s Dick who helped Tim figure it all out. When he calls to see if he can come up for a weekend visit, though, Dick is distracted, sounds off.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Jason finally demands and Dick sighs. Says, “I’m leaving the Titans. I guess I’m moving back to Gotham for a bit.”

It’s good timing, Jason thinks, and immediately feels guilty. He tries not to feel giddy about Dick being back. Tries not to worry about Nightwing, who’s lost teammates and just sounds tired lately.

“To the Manor?” he asks and Dick says, “God no. At least, not permanently. I just…need some time.”

“I have a secret to tell you,” Jason says. “When you get back.”

“I don’t know if I like the sounds of that,” Dick says and actually laughs.

******** Dick takes to Tim right away and Jason tries to squash down any jealousy boiling up in him. It’s not Tim’s fault they’ve come into Dick’s life at different places.

******** Bruce finds out with Dick and Jason both playing mediator, but he seems more impressed than angry, a concerned furrow etching into his brow.

“His parents aren’t home a lot,” Jason tells him, as if Bruce hasn’t noticed the kid sitting in his kitchen, doing homework and eating Alfred’s cookies on a near-daily basis.

******** He watches Tim spar and they way he pores over notes Bruce leaves for him when Batman and Robin go out, and he calls Dick the next day. Asks, “How did you know?” He’s woken Dick up and all he gets is a muffled, “Whu?” “How did you know?” He repeats, more insistently. “How did you know when it was time to move on?” “From what?” Dick asks and Jason lets out a frustrated sigh. “From Robin, asshole,” he snaps. “How did you know?” “Oh,” Dick is quiet for a minute. Then, he says, “I think if you’re asking, you already know.”

********

Jason was fifteen when he almost died. He was fifteen when he took back Robin, sixteen when he and Bruce started figuring each other out again.

Jason is seventeen today, poised on the edge of growing up. He’s seventeen and he is giving Robin away. Tim’s hands tremble when he takes the proffered uniform.

“But it’s your birthday,” he blurts, and then, “Are you sure?”

Jason glances at Bruce, suddenly glad he’s run it by him the night before instead of letting it be a surprise. Bruce doesn’t smile exactly, but there’s something encouraging in his eyes, reassuring, and Jason says, “Sure I’m sure. I’ve been thinking about it for a while. You’re ready.” I’m ready.

“What will you do next?” Tim asks, voice softer, almost reverent as he gathers the Robin uniform close to himself.

Jason shrugs, but he’s grinning. “I have a few ideas.”

He does, too, scribbled down, sketched in a notebook. Because he is seventeen and he did not die and the world is open before him and he is ready for the world.

#jason todd #bruce wayne #batfam #dick grayson #tim drake #batman #robin #fanfic tag #my fic #hi here is 13 type written pages i actually have more already in this series lmao #katie's adventures in writing #tumblr formatting sucks lmao

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thosedamnsmoshkids · 6 years ago

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some cdp facts

last hiatus i made the crime does p(l)ay(list), (and the one i made this arc too!) and people seemed to like that! i also referenced making this in my ‘five fun facts’ post, so, here you are!!

below the cut there are few arc one/two spoilers, so if you haven’t read cdp yet, go give it a read and then come back here!

more than half of the plot was written after chapter seven, which is why some of the characters seem a bit different in their personalities there than after.

i nearly completely forget that Wes got beat up in ch 5 and I almost wrote him without his rib and facial injuries

CDP was originally only supposed to be ~15 chapters, as i thought that i’d have run out of steam by now. boy was i wrong.

Leo was never meant to be a heavily focused character, and he was only going to be in the ‘raven room’ chapter. the role Leo plays was originally supposed to be done by a different character altogether. the character he’s based off of is from the original plotline, where instead of Damien feuding with Leo, it’s Joven feuding with the xiaolong’s leader’s daughter, who was characterized as being very loyal to both her father and the gang. her characterization (brash, commanding, and loyal), turned into Linghun. she was supposed to threaten Joven and act as a distraction before disappearing after arc one, probably having been killed off in the gauntlet

kate was supposed to be a one off character, but i ended up loving writing for her, (and i needed a character who was involved in Mari’s crime scene clean-up), so i added her to joven’s backstory, and gave her some more personality

ryan todd was supposed to have bigger sway in arc one, and have it end with his accidental death, but i wrote a few lines for his podcast and he ended up sticking around.

sunny was also supposed to have a much bigger role, but he didn’t fit super well, and i ended up keeping him to the sidelines

the only characters that were locked in to existing were the main five, the strippers, sohinki and lasercorn, and matt raub. everyone else was written in later.

mari was the first one to get a backstory, boze was the last.

though this has been briefly (albeit not explicitly) mentioned throughout the fic, the canonic ages of each character are as follows: Mari - 26; Joven - 27; Damien - 22; Boze - 24; Wes - 26; Courtney - 25; Shayne - 23; Noah - 21; Keith - 24; Olivia - 22; Sohinki - 25; Lasercorn - 30; Kate - 26; Sarah - 29; Matt Raub - 38; Leo - 24; Sunny - 37; Tim - 32

Most of the characters also didn’t have solid ages until arc two

i actually have mockups for the official Jackrabbit logo in my google doc for the plot (might post it for fun idk). i’ve done a few sketches, but the official logo has been recorded in there. i might make something out of it if i manage to finish all of CDP

the second thing i planned out for CDP after chapter one was the epilogue chapter that will follow arc three. and i basically knew how the fic would end the moment i started it.

CDP arcs all take place over varying amounts of time, arc one roughly takes place over several weeks and arc two takes place over four months. (i’m still trying to plan out how long -time skip wise- arc thee is going to take)

CDP begins roughly in the beginning of November (due to the fact that that’s when i started writing it), but time acts differently in the story as there are never any concrete ‘dates’. Wes mentions it being january in ch 35, and damien mentions that it’s february in ch 43, but those are the only times i really gave actual months

there was very nearly going to be a christmas episode, but i felt like it messed with the pacing too much

i wrote most of the pre-CDP plot/backstory at the end of plotting out the fic

The name ‘Xiaolong’ is actually a word in Chinese. I meant the word to be ‘dragons’, but after consulting two of my Chinese-speaking friends they have both informed me that it actually means ‘little dragon’. once again google has disappointed me, but given me a nice name.

The original name for the Xiaolong was the ‘Swhi Zi Long’ which (very roughly) translates to ‘blood of the dragon’

I still can’t spell the Russian words for ‘bear brotherhood’ correctly, which is why I frequently refer to them as just ‘the brotherhood’

Kate’s number, referenced in chapter 12, is 555-0930. The final four numbers is the date Kate and Joven got married

the Jackrabbit’s address - 1301 Verloren street is a mix of two different things. 13, the day i was born, 01, the year i was born, and ‘Verloren’, which is the verb for ‘to forget’ in german

damien references something in one of his early chapters that can be seen as somewhat of foreshadowing to what happens in chapter 55

a single chapter of CDP, (which are roughly between 1,500-4,000) can take anywhere from 2-7 hours to write, depending on my focus and depth of editing

the shortest chapter of cdp is around 1,000 words and the longest chapter is 5,400 words long

there’s a base 64 easter egg in chapter 43. (the code that leo gives to damien to unlock the storage space translates to a french phrase, (la douleur exquise), which basically means ‘the heart wrenching pain of wanting someone you can't have’. and if that ain’t a mood with leo’s feelings towards damien.)

the final five chapters of arc two were supposed to be formatted very differently. the arc was supposed to end with a damien chapter, but i felt like it messed with pacing too much to add more people’s points of view. instead we got some extra stuff and some cute coze interactions and more boze backstory, so it payed off well!

unlike arc one, the plots of each of the chapters of arc two were written WAY before i published them. some of them changed based on how the characters changed, but most of them have been the same,

the bare plot for arc one is roughly 3.5 pages long, the bare plot for arc two is 5 pages long, and the bare plot for arc three is 7 pages long

there will be 35 chapters this arc, as well as one, most likely very long epilogue chapter.

cdp will return this friday! for making it all the way through the list, have a few paragraphs from the next chapter - 56 - the aftermath

Mari’s heart was pumping out of her chest.

The ambulance sirens wailed around her as she followed closely behind in her car. The technicians hadn’t looked hopeful as they’d loaded the bodies into the back of the van.

There had been so much blood.

She’d been standing in the back, barely paying attention, trying to focus on the set numbers. Then the explosion had bloomed across the room. She had felt the sonic hum deep in her chest, and the ringing in her ears still burned, even now.

Mari slammed her fist into the steering wheel, letting out an ear splitting shriek as she let her emotions bubble over. Her friends might be dead. She had never thought that it would actually come it this.

She thought that they were safe now that the Titans were gone.

Sohinki’s words now echoed hauntingly in the back of her head.

The ambulance in front of her ripped into the hospital parking lot. Personel in white coats and white gloves ran with crash carts from the front door as soon as the ambulance stopped.

Mari found a parking spot quickly, putting the car into park before running towards the van, barely thinking to lock her car behind her. She could see them pull a gurney out of the back, moving it quickly towards the front entrance as doctors and ER techs shouted numbers at one another. Joven stepped out of the back, out of breath and sweaty, covered in blood.

#cdp #arc one/arc two fun facts #crime does pay #smosh fic

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katiebug445 · 6 years ago

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Cold Coffee

Pairing: Jean/Armin Fandom: Attack on Titan Word Count: 5648 A/N: I found this sitting in my google docs. This was the very first Jearmin fic I ever wrote, waaay back from last winter. I never posted it anywhere because I didn’t think it was very good. But after a little bit of editing (see: I did the first half and got tired), I think it’s okay enough to post. It’s self indulgent as all fuck and Jean apparently has a cat named Brad? I don’t know...

Tick, tick, tick, tick, the steady, easy, rhythm of the clock on the wall behind him was about enough to put him to sleep.

Jean Kirstein leaned against the counter, his chin in his hand, and was itching for something to do. His eyes lazily followed people walking by outside, chatting amongst themselves as they went about their lives, and he longed to be out there with them, instead of stuck in his stuffy, overpriced coffee shop.

He hated days like this, the days when things were so slow, that watching paint dry would be preferable to being here another second. He glanced at the clock, and he was discouraged to find that only a minute and thirty seconds had passed since he checked it the last time. With a sigh, Jean pushed off the counter and scrubbed his hands across his face to wake himself up.

Thanks to Sasha and Connie coming in late Friday night and all day Saturday, they’d caught up on inventory, and he personally had helped them restock everything. Levi made sure everything was spotless when he arrived after lunch. There was nothing left for Jean to do aside from praying to whatever deity that was paying attention for a customer or two.

He didn’t even have homework to occupy him.

Jean could hear Eren and Mikasa in the back, bickering about a math test they had the following day, and only the prospect of losing his job kept him from mouthing off to Eren. He knew from experience that if Levi caught them at each other’s throats again, they’d both be fired on the spot. And Jean needed this job. Bad.

The sky was beginning to darken despite it being just a little after 4:00 in the afternoon, and Jean had a sinking feeling that it would probably be freezing by the time his shift ended. Great. With another glance around to make sure nobody was miraculously going to be heading inside, Jean pulled out his phone, opened up a couple social medias, and began scrolling.

Marco seemed to be having a blast at the convention he’d decided to go to last minute, and Jean wished he was with him. From the pictures he’d been posting, he was making all kinds of friends with cosplayers, and had an entire backpack full of merchandise that Jean was envious of. Sasha was out sick, and her twitter was nothing but a solid stream of tweets and selfies posted from her bathroom floor, and how wonderful a boyfriend Connie was for risking contracting whatever virus she had to keep her company.

With a sigh, Jean shoved his phone back into his arpon and went back to staring aimlessly at the door. He had half a mind to try hacking the speakers and pull up one of his playlists, but Levi had a strict policy about that (thanks to Eren) now, and he knew he’d get his ass handed to him if he tried.

Finally, he heard the bickering coming up from the back and after a moment, Eren emerged, his face red and his eyes murderous. Jean couldn’t help but snort. “What’s wrong? Did mommy and daddy have a fight?”

“Shut up.” Eren growled, leaning against the display case with his arms folded tightly across his chest. “It’s none of your business.”

“I beg to differ. If a fight’s gonna break out, I wanna make sure I get a good seat, and have enough time to put a hundred on Mikasa.”

“Are you looking to start a fight?”

“Not at all. Just wantin’ your girlfriend to know she’s got my support, is all.” Jean snickered.

“Will you shut up?”

“No.”

Eren stalked up to him, shoulders hunched and looking like he was about to punch him right in the face. He probably would have, too, if Mikasa hadn’t chosen that moment to poke her head out and break them up. She looked every bit as angry as Eren, and that cold stare of hers was about enough to make both boys fear for their lives. Instead of egging the hot headed idiot on anymore, Jean turned around and went back to staring at his watch while the lovebirds tried to resolve their issues in low voices at the opposite end of the counter.

It was by complete chance that he noticed him. Jean rolled his eyes at the two and let his gaze fall to the windows, just in time to see a mop of blond, wind-blown hair struggling at the door. Jean straightened up, trying not to look like he was pissed off or desperately looking for something to do, and put on his best customer service smile. “Afternoon,” he greeted.

“A-Afternoon.” The mop mumbled.

“What can I do for ya?”

The kid had just opened his mouth, and suddenly Jean was being shoved out of the way by the full force of Eren Jaeger. He opened his mouth to scream at him, to tell him to stop being a rude ass, but he decided against it last minute. No need to scare off their fist customer in over an hour. Jean swallowed his remark and relaxed his stance just a little.

Figuring that Eren had things under control, he didn’t think he was needed up there anymore. If he happened to bump into Eren on his way out and knock him a little off balance, though, he wouldn’t have complained.

When Jaeger called the drink order, Jean got to work, trying to catch whatever bit of conversation he could between Eren and the customer. It seemed like they knew each other, pretty well from the brunette’s sudden shift in tone. He thought he even caught him smile once or twice. Creepy.

When blondie’s hot chocolate was finished, Jean brought it up with a smile, and a little wink to the guy, who muttered a quick thanks. After that, he was on his way, and off to a table near the back. Once he was out of their eyeline, Jean wheeled on Eren and caught his arm before he could disappear. “Mind tellin’ me what the fuck that shove was about?”

“None of your business.”

“Kinda my business when you almost shove me down, Jeager.”

“Just stay out of it!”

With a roll of his eyes, Jean decided to drop it. He knew if he continued with it, either Mikasa would kill him, or Levi would fire him; neither of which he could afford right now. He did, however, flip Eren off when he wasn’t looking, though, and that brought him a small bit of satisfaction.

~~~

The next time Jean saw the blond was the first day of Christmas break. It was busy as hell, and he and Eren had been at each other’s throats their whole shift. They’d already gotten a warning from Levi, and Mikasa’s look promised horrible things if he said one more rude thing to Eren.

In short, he’d been having a horrible fucking day.

Jean was sulking at the register while he waited on Connie to finish the last round of drink orders, and drummed his fingers impatiently at the counter. The bell above the door jingled, and Jean looked up, recognition flashing across his face as the blond walked in, head half buried under a huge scarf and a hat that walked straight out of the ‘40s.

“Hi again.” Jean said, trying to sound cheerful. “I like the hat.”

The blond gave him a small, startled smile, and went to looking at the menu board. Jean waited patiently while his big, blue eyes scanned quickly over Levi’s handwritten words, and shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from drumming them again. He found himself staring at the boy across from him, watching as his lips moved while he read off the drinks, and decided that he was… kinda cute.

The blond must have noticed him staring, because he lowered his head and mumbled out something Jean didn’t catch.

“Say that again?”

“Can I just get a large hot chocolate?” He said just a bit louder.

“Sure thing. What’s the na--”

“I got it from here.”

Jean had no idea where Eren had come from, but he was suddenly there, shoving him out of the way again, and Jean actually had to bite down on his cheek to keep from yelling. That was twice, now. There was a reason Eren kept getting in the middle of this, and he wanted answers. Now.

The blond was taken care of, and he headed back to the small table in the corner of the store. Jean noticed, as he sat down, that the blond had a book in his hands. He tried to read the cover, but he couldn’t make it out from where he was. It wasn’t insanely important, anyways, he guessed.

Besides, he had bigger things to worry about right now.

Jean grabbed Eren by the arm, and felt as the smaller boy tensed up immediately. “Mind telling me what that was about?” Jean asked, raising his eyebrows.

Eren responded by pulling his arm back and walking away, sneakily flipping him off as he went.

~~~~

He came back the next day, at the same time, and thank God Eren had the day off.

It was near 6:00 in the evening, almost every table in the place was full up, and the heat was about enough to suffocate him. He’d been stuck at the register again, and thankfully, they were busy enough that he didn’t have a lot of time to think. Jean almost didn’t realize it was the blond at the register, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw who it was. “You’re back!” He said.

The blond smiled that same shy smile and gently asked for a large hot chocolate, and for the first time, Jean realized how soft of a voice the blond had. He liked it. He wanted him to say more things.

“Is the hot chocolate here really that good?” Jean asked. “I’ve never had it before.”

The blond looked up, and gave a small shrug. “It’s not that bad.”

“Well, what do I have to do to turn that ‘not bad’ into ‘pretty good’?”

“Uh…”

“I’m just kidding.” Jean replied, shooting him a smile. “What’s the name for the order?”

“Armin.” Said the boy.

“Armin.” Jean repeated. “Well, Armin, I’ll be sure to get that out to you soon, if you want to have a seat.”

“T-Thanks.” Armin replied, turning away from the counter and heading off to that same seat as the day before.

“Connie,” Jean called, turning back to his friend. “Go ahead and add a little whipped cream to that hot chocolate before you send it up. Forgot to say it.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the change enough for the addition, and left it on the counter until he could open the register again.

After a few moments, the drink was brought up, and Jean decided that instead of calling him up, he’d deliver it to Armin himself.

He grabbed the cup in his hand, hurried out from behind the counter, and headed off for Armin’s table. “Sorry about the wait,” Jean said by way of greeting, “We’re a little backed up right now, but it’s still warm.”

Armin jumped, his book falling out of his hands and onto the floor, and started apologizing for being a clutz. “Shoot, I’m sorry, I’ll get it, I’m sorry.” He kept mumbling.

“No, it’s okay.” Jean stopped him from bending down, and set his drink on his table. “I’ll get it.” He reached down and picked up Armin’s book, which was a battered copy of The Hobbit and handed it back to the boy with a gentle smile. “You like Tolkien?”

“Kinda?” Armin replied, gently taking the book back and clutching it close to his chest. “This is for school, though.”

“He’s good.” Jean said, his eyes flickering to the novel in the other boy’s hand again. “What’s your favorite?”

“I-I don’t know, this is the first I’ve read.”

“Well, that’s a good book. I promise. Kinda weird, but good.”

“Cool.” Armin replied.

They stood in an awkward silence for a moment, and, taking the hint that their conversation was over, Jean cleared his throat. “Well, Armin, enjoy your book, and your drink. Have a nice evening.”

“You too.”

Jean kicked himself the whole way back to the counter, wondering when he became such an awkward dweeb. Nobody would ever let him live that down if they found out.

~~~

It was freezing the next afternoon when he arrived at work. It had been raining since he woke up and the temperature was dropping rapidly. He wouldn’t have been surprised if by the end of the night, they’d have snow.

Jean took off his coat and shoved his hat in the breast pocket, hanging it up and rubbing his hands together to get some warmth back into them. “Hey, losers.” He said, getting a small scoff out of Eren. Jean snorted and went to clock in.

Much to his relief, Levi had the day off, which meant Marco was in charge, which meant they could goof off without the fear of being yelled at. Jean took the chance to hack into the bluetooth and put on his own music, which improved his mood even more.

Just as he predicted, by 4:00, the rain had turned to snow, and Marco had gone outside to put salt down on the sidewalk. Jean was busy repeating one of the songs he knew Eren hated for the fifth time when the door opened, and Marco walked back inside with Armin. Jean slid his phone back into his pocket as the opening chords started, and he heard Eren cussing him out from the back.

Jean covered up his laugh with a cough, and gave Armin that same smile. “Hi.” He said. This time, the other boy had a backpack with him, and he looked to be having a little trouble supporting the extra weight. Jean decided to have mercy on him and not chat him up too much right now. “Large hot chocolate, as usual?”

“Y-Yeah, thanks.” Armin said, shooting him a half smile before heading off to that same table again and setting his backpack on the ground. Jean couldn’t help but watch him. He pulled a laptop out of it and set it on the table, firing it up and hunching over when it turned on. He then pulled a pair of headphones out, stuck them on, and began clicking around.

Again, Jean personally took it upon himself to deliver Armin’s drink to him, and set it down on his table. When the smaller boy looked up, he slid his headphones down around his neck, and grabbed his drink. “I didn’t realize you knew Tolkien.” He said. “It surprised me.”

“Well, I’m not just a pretty face.” Jean replied, snorting.

Embarrassment colored Armin’s cheeks and he began to backtrack. “I-I didn’t mean it like that. You just didn’t… you didn’t strike me as the type, is all.”

“Oh?” The taller boy said, taking the seat across from Armin. “And what exactly is my ‘type’, Armin?”

Armin studied his face for a long few seconds, Jean shifting a little under the weight of his gaze, before he finally shook his head in defeat. “I don’t know.”

“Just don’t seem like the typical nerd?”

Armin just blushed and dropped his gaze to his computer, obviously embarrassed. “I don’t know. Forget I said anything.”

Jean wasn’t having it, though. He leaned forward on his side of the table, his arms resting on the pressed wood, and smirked. “Well, if it helps, I don’t know either. If you ask Eren, I’m nothing but an asshole.”

Armin turned back to the counter, finding his friend up at the counter, shooting glances their way every few seconds. The blond quickly turned back around and cast his eyes down again. “Well, Eren’s not always right about everything.” He muttered.

A small chuckle escaped Jean’s lips, and he got back to his feet. “I better get back. But hey, next time, don’t hesitate to talk to me about the book, alright? It’s a good one.”

“Noted.” Armin replied, watching Jean walk away. If he felt his cheeks get a little warm, he wouldn’t admit it.

~~~~

Armin showed up at the same time the next day, 4:00, and had his laptop with him again. Jean made sure he was front and center at the register, and greeted Armin with a flirty smile. “Large hot chocolate and the back table?”

Armin squinted, looking between Jean and the menu board for a few seconds, setting his laptop down on the counter. “How about a coffee this time?”

Jean just chuckled. “You got it. Anything else?”

“Two sugars and some time on your break?”

The taller boy blinked, not knowing what to say to that. Instead of saying anything, he nodded, and, with a slight blush in his cheeks, Armin took off for his normal table.

Jean just stared after him for a second, trying to process what just happened. Armin had been coming in for the last week, and he was always very shy. What brought on the change so suddenly? Shaking his head, he got started making the other boy’s coffee for him.

After a moment, he took it out, and set it down on the table. “I’ll be out soon, give me about twenty minutes, okay?”

“Okay.” Armin replied, shooting Jean a quick, barely there smile, before turning back to his computer and sliding his headphones up over his ears.

Jean found himself staring at Armin’s table several times, wondering what the sudden request was about. The most logical assumption was that he wanted to talk books, and Jean, well… he wouldn’t complain if that was it.

He found his eyes flickering up to the clock every few seconds, and was desperately counting down the time until he could tell Connie he was going on break.

“Alright,” Jean said, plopping down in the seat across from the smaller boy, “what’s up?”

Armin studied him for a moment, and slid his headphones down around his neck again. “How’d you get interested in books?” He asked. It sounded a bit dumber coming out of his mouth than it had in his head, but he was genuinely curious.

Jean ran his tongue over the sore spot in his cheek while he thought. “I don’t know… When I was young, my mom would read to me a lot. I guess I just… stuck with it as I got older.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah, she’s… pretty cool. Don’t tell her I said that, though, alright?”

That pulled a laugh out of Armin, and the blond took a sip of his drink, lost in thought for a moment. “What are some of your favorite authors?”

Jean shrugged. “Steinbeck, King, Tolkien, obviously.” He chuckled, shooting the smaller boy a grin. “Harry Potter’s not that bad, either.”

Armin’s eyes lit up. “You know Harry Potter? What house are you?”

Jean leaned back in his chair, giving a small roll of his eyes. “Well, I personally thought I was Slytherin when I first got into the series, but according to Pottermore, I’m… I’m Hufflepuff.”

Armin couldn’t hold back a small laugh at hearing that, which he tried to hide behind his cup.

“In my defense, Marco and Sasha are, too.” Jean pouted. “But what about you?”

“Ravenclaw.”

“Wow. Nerd.”

“There wasn’t ever a question.” Armin replied, shrugging. “I knew from day one.”

Jean laughed to himself, watching the smaller boy as he typed away at his keyboard for a second or two. “What about you, Armin? How’d you get into reading?”

“My grandpa.” He said simply. “When I was little, he would show me pictures from when he used to travel. He had lots of pictures of the ocean. I always wanted to know more about it. I can remember we’d go to the library, and I’d always come away with a huge stack of books about the water, or marine life, and everything in between. Eventually, that just gave way to just a love for reading in general.”

“No fair, your story’s more heartwarming than mine!”

That startled a laugh out of Armin. “I’m sorry?”

“You should be!” Jean teased, “I have nothing to compete with!”

“Now that’s not a very Hufflepuff attitude, you should be ashamed.” Armin retorted, laughing again.

Jean snorted. “What about favorite authors?”

Armin thought for a moment, shutting the lid on his computer. It looked to Jean like this was a harder question for him than it should have been, and he couldn’t help but think it was kind of adorable.

“Well…” Armin started, eyes fixed on a photo on the wall. “I really like Rowling, obviously. I like John Green… Neil Gaiman.”

“I’ve read a few of Gaiman’s books. They’re pretty good.”

Armin smiled at that. “What about Terry Prachett?”

Jean shook his head. “Doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Jean!” Armin replied, a little louder than he expected. “You have to read Terry’s books! He and Neil were good friends before he died!”

“Okay, I’ll try to hunt one down.”

“Please!”

Jean opened his mouth to reply, but saw the time, and swore to himself. “I gotta get back or I’m gonna get in trouble. This was… kinda fun, Armin. Maybe we’ll do it again tomorrow?”

“Sure.” The smaller boy shot him a smile, and took a sip of his drink. “Same time?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll see you then.”

“Cool.” Jean smiled, a bit sheepishly.

~~~~

When Jean got to work the next afternoon, Eren was leaning against the counter, waiting for him. His arms were folded, his jaw was set, and it made Jean a bit nervous. He stopped in his tracks just inside the door, waiting for something to happen.

“Can I help you, Jeager?” He asked after a moment.

“Yeah, actually.” Eren replied. “Stay away from Armin.”

Jean walked passed the smaller boy, shrugging out of his coat and shoving it behind the counter. “And why, Jeager, would I do a thing like that?”

“Because.”

“Because…?”

“He’s too good for you.”

Jean stopped for a moment, wondering why in the hell this was becoming such a big deal, and folded his own arms. “Just out of curiosity, why do you care so much who Armin talks to?”

Eren pushed himself off the counter and took two steps towards Jean, eyes murderous. “Because I know how you are. I see you at school, Kirstein; you kinda make yourself hard to miss. All you are is an egoistic, horse-faced bastard, and Armin deserves better.”

Jean had to fight not to touch his face after Eren’s comment, and shoved his hands in the pocket of his hoodie instead. “That stings a bit, I’m not gonna lie.” He retorted. “And what makes you think there’s enough going on between Armin and I that warrants this?”

“Come on, Jean. Everybody sees you two. You don’t interact with anybody the way you do with him. We all know what’s going on. You even have his drink order memorized already!”

“I have it memorized because it’s easy, you moron!”

“That doesn’t explain the flirting!” Eren shouted. “Just back off, okay? Leave Armin alone.”

“What else is there to explain? Just because I know how to talk to people without screaming in their face, you think I’m hitting on him? Are you that dumb?”

Eren didn’t say anything to that, just flipped Jean off before walking away, and left the taller boy there to calm down. Jean braced himself against the counter, taking breath after breath and trying to still his hands, and glared at the spot where Eren disappeared. He couldn’t believe he’d been ambushed like that.

Who in the hell was Eren Jeager to say who he could and couldn’t talk to, especially when they requested time with him in the first place! Jean didn’t want to stop talking to Armin because he enjoyed their banter, and he enjoyed the blond’s company in general, but now that Eren said to keep away made him even more determined to keep their line of communication open.

Jean shut his eyes and counted to ten, just like his mother had taught him, and took one more breath before letting it go. A small flood of customers came in about that time, and Jean put on his best retail face to deal with it, a small part of him hoping Armin would be among them.

He wasn’t. In fact, Armin didn’t show up at all that day, much to Jean’s disappointment. He couldn’t help but wonder if Eren had gotten him with the same threats that were thrown at him, and he worried. What if Armin wouldn’t be back now? What if Eren had gotten into his head, and told him a bunch of crap about what he was supposedly like?

Armin wasn’t in the next day, either. It was the last day of winter break, and after this, it would be even harder to see him because of school and work, and a million other things that could stand in his way. Jean’s eyes flickered hopefully up to the door every time someone walked by the windows, only to be let down when they went on.

He found himself missing the blond more and more as the hours passed. He longed for another conversation about books, or how he made a pretty terrible Hufflepuff, or anything that made Armin’s eyes light up like they had before. Jean couldn’t help but wonder what happened to him in that short amount of time; how had Armin gone so quickly from just another customer to someone he sought out like this?

What was happening to him?

6:00 AM came along much too early. Jean lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, a mountain of blankets piled around him, and his small, gray tabby cat laying on his chest. With a tired groan, a sleepy hand reached up, scratching the tabby gently behind the ears as it began to purr. “Brad, I have to get up. I know, it’s tragic.” Jean shifted gently, not wanting to disturb the cat too much, and sat up.

With a stretch, the boy got to his feet, got started looking for his school things, and got dressed.

Jean would have been lying if he said he wasn’t looking out for Armin that morning. He thought he’d spotted him at one point in the hall, but it turned out to be another short blonde named Krista or something. Jean wasn’t sure, and it wasn’t really important at the moment.

He kept an eye out for Armin the whole rest of the day, but he didn’t see him. He did spy Eren and Mikasa, though, and part of him wanted to ask about the smaller boy, but he knew it wouldn’t be worth the chewing out he’d get. Instead, Jean went about his day, his heart stopping every time he mistook Historia for Armin.

It was another week before he saw a glimpse of Armin again, just as he was walking to class. Jean had just gotten inside, and he saw those familiar eyes, that smile, and he made to open the door back up, but he was already gone. Jean sighed, taking his seat, and resolved to hunt him down later.

Sooner came later on in the day. Jean was in the library, looking for a couple books to read over the weekend, when he spied that blond hair again. This time, he wasn’t letting him get away. Jean set his books down, and quietly took off after Armin, looking around to see if he was alone or not. He saw an empty row of books, and grabbed the smaller boy’s hand, pulling him into it, and put a finger to his lips.

“Where have you been?” Jean asked in a whisper, his hand still wrapped around Armin’s wrist. “I haven’t seen you in almost two weeks.”

Armin, still getting over his shock, looked up at him sadly. “My grandpa got really sick, and then I caught it trying to take care of him. Today’s the first day I’ve actually felt like a person again.”

Jean released his wrist and pulled back, clearing his throat. “Is your grandpa okay?”

“Yeah! He’s fine now. Healthy as a horse.”

“Good…”

It fell silent between the two for a few seconds, awkwardness filling the space around them, and Armin let out a small laugh to break the tension. “I might have to insist on a large hot chocolate later. It’s been too long since I had one.”

“I… might be able to help with that…” Jean replied, taking another step back. It had only just occurred to him how close they’d been standing, and he felt awkward about it now. “Consider it on the house, though.”

“No, I couldn’t do tha--”

“Yeah, you can.” The taller boy said, quickly adding, “On one condition: You gotta keep me company on my break again.”

Armin pretended to think about it for a moment, and then smiled. “I don’t know, Jean, that’s a lot to ask, but I’ll see what I can do.”

“I know, it’s such a tragedy, but you’ll get a free drink out of the deal.”

The smaller boy giggled, and slipped passed Jean back out into the main hall. “What time do you go in tonight?” he asked in a murmur.

“Right after school.”

“I’ll see you then, then.” And then Armin was gone, back on the hunt for his books, and Jean was left standing there watching him go.

He raised his hand and gave a small little wave to his retreating form, not sure what just happened. “See you then,”

~~~

Armin came through the door at 4:00, same backpack on his shoulders with the top of a laptop sticking out, and waved when he saw Jean. He quickly made his way to the front and spread his arms out to the sides. “I’m here for my hot chocolate.” He told him.

“Your hot chocolate on the house, you mean.”

“Jean, you don’t have to do that, I’m serious.”

The taller boy shrugged. “It’s one hot chocolate, man. You’re a loyal enough customer that you’ve earned it.”

Armin mulled that over in his head for a moment. “As long as it won’t get you in trouble.”

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

With a nod, the smaller boy hurried off to his table, and Jean got back to work.

Armin jumped a little when a cup was sat on the table next to him, and Jean plopped down into one of the vacant seats. The smaller boy looked down, confused, and eyed the cup suspiciously. “Don’t tell me you paid for this one, too?”

“I might have.” Jean muttered, taking a sip of his own drink. “Didn’t think it’d be very fair if I came over sporting my own drink while you didn’t have anything.”

“It’s too much.”

“It really isn’t.”

“Let me pay you back.”

“Armin. It’s a couple drinks. It’s not a huge deal.”

“Please?”

“Fine,” Jean replied, “you can pay me back with your company.”

“Jean.”

“Armin.”

The two stared at each other for a tense few seconds before Armin finally gave in, leaning back in his seat, and sighed. “I actually brought you something.” He said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a small, worn book. “I - I thought you might enjoy a new read, but don’t feel obligated, it’s… well, it’s kinda dumb.”

Jean took the book from Armin and smiled, trying to hide his excitement. “You might want to be careful, Eren already thinks I’m hitting on you. Do things like that, he might think we’re actually dating.”

“Wait a minute, you mean you weren’t hitting on me?” Armin challenged.

That shut the taller boy up for a minute, and he stuttered, floundering for something to say. “I… Maybe a little, but, I - I…”

Armin laughed, a grin spreading wide across his face, and met Jean’s eyes. “Well, I’m flattered, Jean.”

Jean stopped for a moment, waiting for the shoe to drop, waiting for Armin to laugh at him, or tell him to stop, or any other way the smaller boy could have stomped on him. “I sense a ‘but’,” he said eventually.

“No, not a ‘but’, but maybe an ‘and’.”

“What does that mean?” Jean asked.

“Well, how about, ‘and, maybe bringing that book was my way of hitting on you’?”

Jean blinked, taking a moment to process what Armin just said, and a slow grin spread itself across his face. “I - I guess I’ll have to accept that book, then.”

“Cool.” The smaller boy replied, relieved.

Things fell to an awkward silence for a few seconds, the two staring at each other while waiting for the other to say something, and Jean cleared his throat. “So, where does this leave us?”

Armin thought about it for a moment. “How about, on your next day off, we go out for ice cream. I’m kinda burned out on hot chocolate and coffee. My treat, though.”

“Okay.”

“Rad.” Jean grinned, unable to fully hide the blush in his cheeks. Things fell silent between the two for another moment before Armin started telling him about the loaned book, and Jean listened with an interested ear. After a little while, they moved onto other books, then music, and Armin walked away with several new bands to listen to when he got home.

They spent all of Jean’s break talking and laughing, and realizing just how special the other was. It was only after Jean had returned to work that Armin tried to take a sip of his hot chocolate, and realized that both it and the other boy’s coffee had gone completely cold.

#jearmin #jean x armin #also apparently a little eremika?#Jean's an asshole to Eren #Eren's an asshole right back #Katie's writing #Does this count as a Christmas fic? I say so #merry christmas #christy

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carolyndaves-blog · 6 years ago

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hunterbold234 · 4 years ago

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Emulationstation Nvidia Shield

Retroarch on chromebook. And then I heard that it could be possible with RetroArch. The thing is idk anything about how to set it up fully or if it even is possible. Can I get any help here on how to set it up/use it? My goal is to be able to use RetroArch to play Pokemon DS games on my Chromebook. BTW I have a Samsung Chromebook.

Games Details: Short of an HTPC, the NVIDIA SHIELD TV is the most versatile box you can put in your entertainment console. It supports 4K HDR playback from Netflix and YouTube. You can play games from Google Play Store and stream games from your PC or NVIDIA’s servers. And you can even set up an emulator for retro gaming. 4K HDR Ready Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10. AI-enhanced upscaling for 720p/1080p to 4K up to 30 FPS Up to 4K HDR playback at 60 FPS (H.265/HEVC) Up to 4K playback at 60 FPS (VP8, VP9, H.264, MPEG1/2).

Nvidia Shield Tablet

Nvidia Shield Review

Emulationstation Nvidia Shield Tv

Nvidia Shield Tv

Emulationstation Nvidia Shield Pro

Emulation Station Nvidia Shield Tv

Emulation Station Nvidia Shield

2020-05-11 | RetroX 3 Collections

A new milestone for RetroX! Full announcement here: RetroX 3 Release

2020-01-21 | Groups + fixes v3

New: Added id=”logo” in themes to include Game logo images

New: Multi disk/disc games don’t need to be in individual folders anymore

Fix: Sega CD games crash when using Picodrive and Rewind

Fix: Amiga games are grouped as expected

Fix: Atari800 games controls initialization is working again

Fix: All ScummVM games are recognized again

Fix: Some themes were showing the MAME logo instead of the FBNeo one

Fix: Now the system selector shows the number of unique games (not duplicates)

2020-12-22 | Groups

Duplicated games are now grouped. You will see only one entry per game, and RetroX will display a list of available clones/duplicates to choose from just before starting the game.

2020-06-22 | The Next 64 Bezels

Now N64 is supported by the libretro based Mupen64Plus Next Emulator. This means better compatibility, less glitches and all the features available for RetroArch on RetroX like cheats, live backgrounds and… bezels.

Yes from this version your games can have bezels from the Bezel Project. You only need to select Borders -> Bezels and RetroX will automatically download and install the bezels for you.

Also in this release:

New: No need to restart the app to rescan games

New: Storage space validation on download/uncompressing of files

Fix: Live borders and compatibility with some shaders

Fix: Live borders when using high resolution emulators

Fix: Video transition issues on themes

Fix: No more freezes after saving states in some systems

2020-04-08 | Titan

Sega Saturn improvements:

New: Added Yabause emulator for older devices (GLES2)

New: Save states

Fix: Use HLE BIOS by default (fixes most games)

Fix: Original aspect ratio set to 4:3

Other improvemnts:

New: Separated 4:3 and square pixel (1:1) aspect ratio options

New: Better / seamless game start (no flashing)

New: Option to disable help screen on game start

New: Add Modern gamepad type for FBNeo

New: Game specific fixes for PSX

New: Frameskip setting for mGBA

Fix: PC Engine CD now works again

2020-04-01 | Sega Saturn

New Sega Saturn emulation through the Yaba Sanshiro emulator

New Rewind and Fast Forward feature for RetroArch based systems

Picodrive core for Sega Genesis has been updated

PCSX_rearmed core for Play Station has been updated

RetroArch emulator is now compatible with Android 10

Some notes:

Saturn requires OpenGL ES 3.x and has only been tested with the Nvidia Shield. RetroX will give you a warning if your device doesn’t support that version

Rewind and Fast Forward are disabled by default. You can enable them and select a button combo in Settings -> Emulator Setting

Not all emulators in RetroArch support Rewind and Fast Forward

2020-02-28 | Borders

Added new Static Borders option

Improved Live Borders

New Tonido support for adding games

FB Neo replaces FB Alpha. 12000+ games supported

CHD support for 3DO

Fix PSG audio volume for MSX

2019-12-20 | Automapped controllers

Now you can just pick your favorite controller and start playing, no mapping required!

New: CHD support for PC Engine CD

New: CHD support for Sega CD

New: Multi disc support for Sega CD

Fix: Search with remote controllers using the mobile user interface now waits for the full text

Note 1: If you are using a non-standard controller you can still map the buttons, but there is no need to assign controllers to players anymore.

Note 2: 8bitdo N64 controller is automapped by default for N64 games.

2019-11-15 | The New Deal

This update fixes the infamous “parsing error” on the Nvidia Shield! BOOM! This update also includes:

EmuMovies

New: Select platforms to be sync’d

Fix: Names with extra info (EU, JP, etc) are preserved

Fix: MAME and FBA are now compatible

New: Logs files created for missing artwork

DOS

New: Better display of launch options

New: GOG that use CD images are now supported

Fix: GOG sound card configs are used if available

Iss astronauts. A big thanks to:

Trigger TheHorizon for helping me improve DOS compatibility with standalone and GOG games.

Jay Rott and Fer Per for sending me the info that I needed to fix the “parsing error”

2019-11-07 | EmuMovies

Add EmuMovies sync integration

MAME 2003 with cheats support has been fixed

Added more keys to MSX: 1, 2, F5

A big thanks to: Allan MacDonald and Stuart Law for pushing me to do this EmuMovies integration!

2019-08-12 | Themes for Noobs

New Android TV users will get Themes by default

Video snaps for Themes

Old MAME 2003 has been brought back. No cheats, but it works

New alternative – EmuMovies friendly – artwork locations (see the Artwork Docs)

No more need to rescan for missing MAME/FBA files. Also you can ignore the warning if you have all the files merged.

Storage permissions now requested on startup

Removed obsolete Facebook and Google login

Source preferences (online, local) are now saved

Faster startup

Some users have reported having problems after the latest Nvidia Shield update, receiving a “parsing error” while installing APK files. If that is your case, try uninstalling all RetroX related packages – not only the app – you will find the emulators under System Apps in the Shield. If the problem persists, a factory reset will certainly fix it.

We also have created a special page to get Help for the Themes 4 Noobs release.

2019-07-25 | Online Themes

Now RetroX can download and install extra themes

Artwork is retrieved from the nearest available location (CDN)

More than 40.000 artwork files added

RetroX Collections now can be stored under the NVIDIA_SHIELD/retrox folder on external devices

2019-06-26 | DOS Boss

This update includes several improvements for DOS:

New Virtual Keyboard

New Graphical Button Mapper

Automatic support for games from G.O.G.

20 FPS limit removed

New Video Card selection (fixes Alien Carnage)

DOS UMB enabled by default (fixes Tyrian)

The Atari 800 emulator also receives the new Virtual Keyboard and Button Mapper

2019-03-01 | Mini

Theme engine improvements

NES Mini theme (retrox.tv/themes)

Zoom and fade animations

Vertical system selector

Variable number of items on system selector

Custom system images

CRT Support

Improved RetroX Vintage theme

Added screen test patterns

Added mGBA emulator for GameBoy and GameBoy Color

2019-02-18 | ScummVM for Oreo

ScummVM improvements:

Now it works in Android Oreo

Database updated to v2.0.0

Better audio options for ScummVM http://retrox.tv/scummvm-audio

RetroX Collection fixes:

Now “retrox” folder name can be used

Fixed scan of “3do” folder

2019-01-18 | Cheats

Automatic Cheats support. Details at http://retrox.tv/cheats

Internal MAME menu can be opened with L2+R2 or using the In Game Options menu

Now all MAME versions are available for Intel based devices

2018-12-22 | Soft boot

New option to start RetroX on boot

Better method for random background music

Order recently played list by date

2018-12-20 | Silent Oreo

Fixed Oreo permissions issue that blocked the app to install emulators

Added ENTER, SPACE and BUTTON_2 to default Amiga controls

Added more background music options

2018-12-15 CohoNES

Added NES options

Emulator selection: Nestopia, FCEUmm

Region selection: NTSC, PAL, others

Sprite limit removal

Two Amiga emulator options:

UAE2All emulator (default)

UAE4Droid emulator (required by some games)

Fixes in Themes:

Detection of L and R buttons with some controllers

Fullscreen display on devices with soft buttons

Stop button on downloads

2018-12-13 | Smooth

Enabled access to PlayStation Enhanced Resolution

Recently Played, Favorites and Recommended games in Themes

Now you can hide non used systems in Themes

RetroX Vintage (CRT) Theme

Random background music

Smoother music transitions

2018-12-07 | Themes

Support for themes is now released Details at retrox.tv/blog

2018-04-24 | Forum Requests Update

New: Two emulators available for GBA

New: Two emulators available for Genesis/MegaDrive, Sega Master System and Sega CD

New: Per game original / fullscreen aspect ratio option

New: Info about revision, region, etc now can be hidden from the game name

Fix: Display FPS on N64 only if enabled