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constellaj · 3 years

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I will pay you up front if you can rewrite the Urban Jungle episode. Please, I am begging you

I love undergrowth and his character but the episode was just, awful

*Alright* I am going to approach this as if it is part of the original series; I won’t be making it stupid gay, changing the overall tone or messaging of the story, making it any rating past pg-13, etc etc

with that in mind: urban jungle feels like the episode where danny and sam should have started dating (going with sam x danny to fit with the ‘original series but good’ angle). the line “i always thought you ruled” is fucking banger so what we’re going to do is extend that out into the actual theme of the ep: sam and self-esteem

sam has friction between tuck already (vegetarian vs meat eater) and in the beginning of the ep we also are gonna bump up the friction between her and danny, with how she thinks his powers should be used for good and how he just wants a break etc etc. sam gets really caught up in activism and her friends kind of snap at her for it due to burnout, so they break up what was going to be a group movie night and sam goes back to her house alone while danny and tuck go to danny’s place.

i don’t want undergrowth to magically appear, and I don’t even need it to be anything to do with urbanization necessarily; instead let’s take a popular fan theory of summoning and combine it with the premise of the episode ‘what you want,’ where tucker gets ghost powers. let’s say that sam, while digging into the occult, is like ‘if i had ghost powers/plant powers/could drive out oil industries i would in a heartbeat’ and learns about a ghost she can summon (undergrowth). danny and tuck are busy playing doomed while she does this. undergrowth takes one look at her and is like “ohoho, i can tell you love plants just so much.” he will be manipulating her and preying on her rage and feelings of inadequacy for the majority of this episode

cool, undergrowth is here now. let’s keep the enslaving-people-into-plant-zombies thing, but instead of instantaneous let’s make it a little scarier, with creeping roots sinking into the water source and slowly moving through amity, bit by bit. danny is unaffected cause he’s a ghost, and he and tucker manage to realize something’s up with the fentons before tucker gets zombified too. they’ll run to check if sam is okay, and on first glance they’ll think she’s been zombied, but of course she isn’t in the same way everyone else is. she’s a host body for undergrowth, and she’s actually actively repressing his possession (shes had a lot of practice, working alongside danny), and she’s super bitter about literally everything they’re doing and kicks them out.

it has to be shown earlier in the episode that sam feels like a lot of what she does is performative/etc and that danny and tuck are in the wrong with treating her sorta like garbage.

i’m cutting the ice powers cause that’s dumb. instead we’ll have danny and tuck working together to try and find a solution, and learning (probably through old fenton records or tucker being smart) that liquid nitrogen can get rid of undergrowth until summoned again, so they have to go all the way back to the lab at casper high and hook up some machine or other to clear the town. (retroactively, let’s make one of the earlier arguments between them and sam take place during a lab, and throw in a sidebar about liquid nitrogen; lancer saying that it should be here, dash and kwan fucking around with it, danny just touching it cause hes ghost, etc, something like that)

as they progress undergrowth/sam starts putting spores out, meaning tucker’s also getting infected, all while theyre fighting back these different plant people all in the town. plant people still retain some of their original personality and stuff as a joke though. insert joke about plant-paulina zombie-lumbering towards Phantom, creakily going “how about a kisss” and danny just, morphs back into Fenton, and she goes “ew. gross” and leaves. that kind of thing. it’s a lot of strategy and we get to see other characters interacting in a pseudo-dreamworld with danny and tucker, and a lot should focus on self-esteem or making them feel bad to drive the point home

also what needs to be shown earlier is sam’s crush on danny.

during the progression danny has to be getting really worked up about this and eventually let slip ‘and can you believe i was going to ask her to [x event, movie, dance, etc]’ and tucker like, balks. tucker says ‘she has had a crush on you for like two years man’ and danny is like “WHAT” and now, encouragement to get things done faster. course then dramatically tucker gets turned into a plant. here we learn that the plant people are mouthpieces of sam’s self esteem issues right cause tucker just goes “well why would you like her. she’s a sweaty goth girl. she’s too loud. she’s so bossy” which are all things that sam would have said about herself/danny would have said about sam earlier when they were fighting

so danny rushes to the school and grabs the liquid nitrogen but uh-oh, of course undergrowth/sam is already there ready to stop him. something something she probably heard his conversation with tucker through another plant person, maybe valerie on a hoverboard. anyway she wants to possess danny and make him a plant person and we get the “together we can rule / I always thought you ruled” line that was the only good part in the og episode. this inspires sam to break out of the undergrowth mindset partially but, naturally, she was just a pawn for undergrowth who’s been preying on her self-esteem issues this whole time, and so now he’s like “ugh well if you’re not easy to manipulate what’s the point. i have to take over the entire planet with plants now bye”

epic fight scene with danny and sam working together to blast the man with liquid nitrogen while sam slowly gets possessed/plantified. something something something, they run out of nitrogen before sam gets totally planted, ghost breath is very cold (also needs to be referenced earlier). it’s probably tucker’s idea, but danny gets to do a magic kiss so she comes back.

it’s super awkward and she punts him at first. but then on for the rest of the series they actually ARE dating and there’s no more weird back and forth drama about things. danny’s ‘ice powers’ are now just being able to slightly control his body temperature (jokes later on about him faking sick by artificially making a low temp). sam is never once weirdly sexualized and instead she’s lashing out because she thinks her friends don’t care about her as much as they care about each other. undergrowth isn’t giving sam special treatment, she just happened to be the easiest pawn to reach

#danny phantom #undergrowth #urban jungle #sam manson #Anonymous #adpRewrite

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welllpthisishappening · 3 years

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Hello there, I see you're back on blue-line drabbles! I love them, I am obsessed with this universe. I don't know if I ever came back to say hi after I read all your big fics, but somehow I liked each even better than the last! I don't know how that's possible! But anyway, I think one of the best signs of a good writer/good story is when you're not ready to leave the world once you've finished, and Blue Line is one of the few fanfics I've read where even well after I've finished it, (cont)

(cont) I want to keep living in it and I end up writing my own fic of it in my head (strange, I know). Anyway, for whatever reason, I got really invested in Roland and Lizzie's relationship. Like, how did they end up dating after knowing each other for literally Lizzie's entire life? How did the adults react? Do you have any Lizzie/Roland stories up your sleeve? They would not go unread :)

————

Hello, yes, listen, this ask has lived rent free™ in my head since I first got it and I cannot properly convey how absolutely, goddamn wonderful it is. I am a broken record of outdated references , but it continues and will always amaze me that people are not only interested in Blue Line (more than three years!!! after I originally started posting) but are also interested in other characters in the story who are, for all intents and purposes, original characters at this point. Like the overall size my heart becomes when reading something like that could potentially cause a serious medical condition.

But, like, in a nice way.

So thank you, thank you, thank you. It genuinely warms the cockles of my entire soul. And, like, if you wanna share those fic ideas of the fic, you’ll never hear me say no. Just like I will never turn down the opportunity to write more stuff. Which is what’s under the cut. This stuff includes:

Roland and Lizzie’s first kiss, what I hope is some legitimate banter, more kissing, obvious flirting, and Roland being something of a sap.

Also, uh, it’s entirely possible that I have also already written: Roland and Lizzie’s first “I love you,” their wedding and some other stuff where their kid is involved. Seriously, guys, I am always down to write other relationships in this ‘verse.

————

It was, she figured, something almost passably close to, sort of resembling, definitely inching somewhere nearer to—

Assured.

Unavoidable.

Inexorable

Inevitable.

That was a bad word. That last word. The third one was pretty impressive, honestly. Vocabulary, wise. She’d have to remember that one later. The last one, though. Made teeth Lizzie wasn’t even aware she possessed ache as she ground them together, a pronounced tension in her jaw that was likely affecting her shoulders as well. That word. An awful word. Boasted less-than-positive connotations, letters practically dripping with lack of self-control and overtly aggressive infatuation, but if the world expected her not to be a little in love with Roland Locksley by the time she turned fourteen and noticed that slight indentation in his right cheek every time he smiled, well, then the world had another thing coming.

Dimple, that was the appropriate description. Another word. More words. Too many words. All of them bouncing off the slope of her skull and scratching at the back of her brain, nearly distracting her from what should have been the very pleasant buzz lingering beneath whatever biological thing made up her top and bottom lips.

Which were parted in an emotion very similar to overwhelming surprise.

That was stupid.

The whole thing was stupid. God, maybe she was stupid. No, that wasn’t true. She’d made Dean’s List last semester. Stupid was—

A stupid word, really. Despite the blush rising in her cheeks and the wide eyes practically boring into her soul, bated breath that didn’t make any noise because that was what bated entailed, and no one else glanced in their direction. Not once. No one else noticed.

That the whole world had flipped upside down.

Or right-side-up, maybe. Depending on how the next five minutes or so went.

Because the last two minutes and twelve seconds, give or take, had seen Roland Locksley tilt his head and let his eyes flutter closed before his mouth found hers for the very first time — at midnight for God’s sake. On New Year’s Eve. Or New Year’s Day, she supposed. His parents were standing on the other side of the room.

Suggesting that Lizzie had ever been just a little in love with Roland was a rather monumental lie.

As far as those things went.

“So, uh—” she started, only to find blood in her mouth. From her teeth. Wayward and unpredictable, as they were. Biting down on the side of her tongue and Lizzie hated going to the dentist. Doing irreparable damage to her teeth on what was now legitimately New Year’s Day, in the middle of an annual party, was not on her schedule.

Metaphorical as it might have been.

She liked schedules. Had plans. Focus, even. People always said that about her — how focused she was, liked to throw around the word drive with startling regularity, as if they were amazed she wasn’t simply willing to rest on her laurels or the pair of last names she proudly toted around with her. As if Lizzie expected doors to swing open on a glance.

Rather than consistently preparing herself to knock them down.

She liked the challenge of it all. Appreciated the way disbelief always spiked something in her blood, and that was likely equal parts genetic predisposition and a product of her childhood, but right now, Lizzie was simply prepared to fight for the schedule she’d never allowed herself to mention to anyone else before and it wasn’t like they weren’t friends.

Talked outside the group chat, even.

That meant something. Definitely meant something. Had to mean something. Her lips felt like they’d been doused in liquid nitrogen.

She didn’t know all the scientific properties of liquid nitrogen, but it always made that rather impressive cloud of steam-type stuff on cooking shows. So, it seemed very likely that it did something similar to cause whatever was happening in the region directly surrounding her mouth. Buzzing and tingling, and whatnot.

When had Roland last blinked? Lizzie couldn’t remember. That would have been impressive in any other situation. Right now, it was sort, kind of, totally— Pissing her off.

Color dotted his cheeks, no sign of the goddamn dimple because he wasn’t smiling, presumably couldn’t do that when it was clear he was so intent on pulling his lips into his mouth, and that felt a little insulting. Her tongue had just been in that mouth.

Lizzie was fairly confident in the abilities of her tongue, so she wasn’t all that pleased to be replaced by a pair of lips that could have been doing much better work against the side of her neck.

“If you sit here right now and tell me that you are,” Lizzie lifted a finger, “one, sorry,” another finger, “two, anything even remotely resembling regretful,” another finger, wiggling close enough to Roland’s nose to make him just a bit cross-eyed, “or, three, too old for me, I will throw my heel at that bruise I know exists on the back of your left calf.”

His lips twitched.

He really had impossible eyelashes. Seemingly made so he could glance up from underneath them, to meet Lizzie’s steely expression with what she refused to believe could be cautious hope. Passable optimism, maybe. She’d have to look up what liquid nitrogen did, later.

“I’m standing.” “I hate you.”

“You wanna go in order, or how do you want to work this?” “Where else are you bruised?” Roland laughed softly, a shift of his shoulders and tiny burst of air between barely parted lips. Feeling that tiny burst meant they were standing very close to each other. How they were standing remained another mystery.

One of those great ones, Lizzie figured. The kind referenced when people talked about the sweeping potential of life and love and— Ah, fuck.

“Please don’t threaten to attack me anywhere else,” he muttered, before quickly adding, “you gotta know this was not my end game, Liza.” Narrowing her eyes did nothing to temper the…tempest. Swirling in her gut. Threatening the back of her throat. Eating away at vocal cords and vocal boxes and the structural integrity of her entire goddamn larynx. Possibly her tongue, too, just to be especially efficient.

“Really? Might’a been mine, actually.”

She’d always liked his eyes.

How they could widen, and it wasn’t like...a normal brown. Nothing about the way he looked was ever dull. Drifted toward regularly excited, and the sparkles were probably a figment of her over-active teenage imagination, but Lizzie liked to think sometimes the sparkle came from her. Because of her, even. When she’d call because he always wanted to hear about her latest lecture and he’d call because sometimes Western swings were exhausting and loneliness-inducing and—

She knew.

He knew.

They knew each other.

Grand scheme, the sparkle-prone eyes still weren’t particularly close to the dimple. On the list of things Lizzie liked. What left butterflies fluttering in her stomach and her heart hammering against her chest. Sparkle was probably a solid fourth. Behind the precise way his curls fell toward his eyebrows when he didn’t have time to get his hair cut. Which rarely happened during the season. Right now, it was happening right now. Well-defined strands that Lizzie knew felt even smoother than she’d ever theorized between her fingers, and she wasn’t sure what she was going to do with that information.

Obsess over it, probably.

For at least the next week, or so.

Still. Eyes. Eyelashes. Too long and too bright, and that was the wrong description order and she was starting to teeter. On the edge of a rather dramatic free-fall. Into feelings and possibility, and this was way too dramatic. For both of them.

“Don’t do that,” she mumbled, a scrunch of her nose that apparently demanded his thumb. Brushing against the bridge, and there wasn’t any caution there. No obvious fear or concern. For the way it left Lizzie’s lungs pinched, and there must have been a limit.

To everything her internal organs could cope with in a limited span of time.

“What was the last one on the list?” She swallowed. “Too old.” “Yuh-huh.” “Pretty flimsy as far as excuses go. You realize I’m not asking you to marry me right now, right?” He choked. On what, she wasn’t entirely sure. Only that it made her stomach heave and her teeth dig into her lower lip, and that was— “Because I know I said, end game,” Lizzie continued, giving in to the need to fill empty space with the sound of her own voice, “but that sounds like several pop culture references all at once, and you know how much I—”

“Hate to come across as disingenuous.” “Mattie’s the pop culture reference machine, anyway.” “Please don’t talk about Matt when I keep thinking about how much I want to kiss you again.” Her eyes, that time. Widened. Bugged. Did something unnatural. “Yeah?” “You’re kidding me, right?” “You’re not an old man.” Rolling his eyes, Roland’s tongue dragged across the front of his teeth. To torture her, apparently. “I was in college when you were a freshman in high school.” “Yuh-huh.” “Liza.” “Nah, nah,” Lizzie shook her head. Crossed her arms. Tried to stand up to her full height, but even the heels didn’t do much to add to the overall intimidation factor. Roland was doing an awful job of fighting off his smile. “Pulling out ancient nicknames is not—” “—It’s not a nickname; it’s literally letters in your name.” “Nick,” she leaned forward, “name. All personal-like.”

Making mistakes was not something she enjoyed very much. It was that Jones competitive streak. Plus, the Vankald stubborn streak. Created a monster of determination, who knew what she wanted, and feeling Roland’s fingers graze her cheek as a strand of hair hung limply in the minimal space between them was the result of Lizzie’s mistaken movement.

Even as much as she might have wanted it.

Goosebumps prickled her arms. Stole whatever oxygen she’d managed to get in the last forty-six seconds, or so. Her eyes fluttered. Head tilted. Towards the touch and the warmth, and for someone who spent so much time on the ice, he really was impossibly warm.

“This is your fault.”

He didn’t move his fingers. Cupped her cheek, instead. “You were doing that eyebrow thing.” “Expand on that for me.” “Lifting ‘em. Happens sometimes. When you’re listening intently. Like you’re a little amazed by new information. They’re these stupid little arches on your face. Drives me nuts.” “The compliment was in there somewhere, I’m sure of it.” “I am so much older than you, Liza.” “Shouldn’t’a played out a bunch of teenage daydreams at once, then.” She was legitimately worried about the state of his tongue. Barely biting back her laugh, Lizzie let her eyes lift. To find Roland gaping at her, drooped shoulders and puppy-dog eyes. And that goddamn dimple. “C’mon, this isn’t...do you think I haven’t made out with people before?” “Wouldn’t classify what we just did as a makeout.” “No?” His eyes darkened. Shivering was probably not a good move, right? Right. Definitely. She wasn’t shivering. It was just...January. And inside. With dozens of people around them. “I would not, no,” Roland said, and the drop in overall volume was some sort of trick. Or, something.

“How many people do you think you’ve made out with? Ballpark it for me.” “No.” “Is the issue a lack of appropriate numbers to tally that mark, or—” She bit her tongue, again. At the flash of amused frustration sweeping his face and polluting the molecules of whatever air was hovering between them. Permeating was a better word. Lizzie really needed to work on all of that. Words. Being slightly less jealous of potential make outs that didn’t have anything to do with her and definitely happened because there had to be other people out there in the world who simply could not cope with the existence of that dimple.

“How many people have you made out with, then?” “Scores,” Lizzie snarled, only to get immediately scoffed at. “I’m really, incredibly popular.” “Oh, I’ve got no doubt.” “Boatloads of guys. Lining up to,” she pointed an imperious finger at her mouth, “make out with this.” “Your well-defined chin?” “I’m going to take my shoe off.” “Draw attention with a move like that.” Whatever fight she had didn’t immediately die. It just, sort of, fell. At her feet, threatening all the bones there and there were too many. All of them far too fragile. For whatever metaphor she was running with at the moment. “And we’re not trying to do that, huh? Draw attention.” “Shouldn’t you be out sowing wild oats?” “Really know how to charm a girl,” she grumbled, and that got her a smile. No scoff. Not even the hint of a smile. The whiplash was hurting her neck. “Trust me, the oats have appropriately sowed. If I was ever particularly inclined to farm work.” “I’m starting to be vaguely embarrassed by all of this.” “Good.” Wasn’t quite a scoff. Was more like a half-hearted laugh, and a tinge of desire and that was better than the other emotions, but the decreasing level of Roland’s eyebrows gave her pause. “What about the status of your oats?”

“Well sowed, rookie season,” Roland said.

“You’re going to change the name on your jersey.” “Not sure that particular fact has a lot to do with anything else. Seven years, Liza.” “I’m perfectly capable of doing math, you know I took that stats class once.” “Because I double checked everything you turned in.” “Makes you slightly less of an idiot than the vibe you're giving off right now.” “A freeway or compliments.” Pulling in a deep inhale through her nose, Lizzie didn’t miss the way Roland’s gaze fell. To the neckline of her dress, lingering on the jut of her collarbones for a few seconds longer than a strictly platonic friendship should allow, and they were friends. Still. She knew that as well as she knew that he believed she thought he was simply being clever with nicknames.

And not making vaguely incorrect My Fair Lady references.

Because he’d always been a little annoyed that Eliza had gone back to Henry Higgins. Instead of Freddie.

It was really impossible not to be a little in love with him at all times.

“You’re really going to hyphenate?” Roland nodded. “Think of all the new jerseys they’ll sell.” “By the box-load, and Gina’s gonna buy the entire stock. She’s—that’s really nice, you know.” “Just a fact. Little late, but—” He shrugged. Lizzie’s smile threatened to split her face. In that same nice way, she’d been talking about. Her lips were still buzzing. She might have been buzzing. With adrenaline. Happiness. The near-desperate desire to find some type of closet and get her fingers back in Roland’s questionably long hair.

“Of naming conventions.” She couldn’t begin to guess what the record was for shoulder shifts in an emotionally charged conversation between two people who were simultaneously ignoring the point of the conversation, but Lizzie also knew her eyebrows had been halfway up her face as he’d detailed the reasons for making his jersey say Mills-Locksley. From here on out.

Maybe that was the top of the list, actually.

He was a good guy.

Had always been a good guy. The best guy, really.

Falling into that chasm wasn’t nearly as terrifying as Lizzie expected it to be.

“Why’d you do it?” Roland’s lips disappeared. His tongue moved, again. She was staring at the area around his tongue. So, like, his mouth. Directly at his mouth. “Because, I uh—have wanted to?” “Oh, don’t phrase that like a question.” “Wanted to,” he repeated, a statement of fact with a certain amount of conviction. Enough to make Lizzie’s pulse sputter. “Which is kind of freaking me out.” “Come back with more compliments.” “Your dress nearly made me fall over.” “Better, actually,” she laughed.

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Made sense at the time.” “Be more specific.” “Kissing you,” Roland said, enough emphasis that he leaned forward half an inch as well. It was a miracle their noses didn’t collide. Not the most impressive miracle, but—counted. “If I tell you that you might be my best friend does that make the lamest professional hockey player alive?” “Yes, absolutely.” “Matt might challenge you to a duel if he hears me talking like this, you know.” “God, Locksley, didn’t we just talk about the Mattie rules? Also, that made it sound like Mattie wants to kiss you too, so...”

He chuckled. Fingers still tugging on the back of his hair, like he was trying to ground himself in the pull and the self-inflicted tension, Roland looked up. Back at her. And Lizzie didn’t flinch. Didn’t blink. Held her position and prepared herself to defend the schedule she’d only ever allowed herself to hope for in the silence of that one corner in her brain.

Filled, as it was, with memories. Of conversations that didn’t have anything to do with hockey. Others that did. Arguing over blue line placement in the brownstone and college rankings. Of movies watched on two different laptops in different corners of the country, bad jokes, and consistent updates, that deep-rooted understanding that came from a life full of expectations and the exact opposite. No overt pressure, but the need to prove yourself anyway, if only because of the name on the back of the jersey, and Lizzie was going to have to buy a new jersey.

“You like me? Yes, or no?” Roland smiled. Wide and honest, the kind that ensured the dimple was on prominent display. “Yes.” “I am a grown adult? Yes, or no?” Crinkles appeared around his eyes. From the smile.

“Yes.” “Meaning I get to make my own choices. Romantically, or otherwise. Yes, or no?” “Obviously.” “Wasn’t one of the options.” “Yes,” Roland corrected, fingers trailing over the bend of her elbow. Lizzie hadn’t uncrossed her arms. Or remembered when she’d crossed them in the first place.

“Ok, good. Same page, then.” “Liza.” “Locksley.” Lifting her eyebrows wasn’t a challenge, per se. Was closer to instinct, really. Specifics didn’t matter, honestly. She did that thing with her eyebrows, and he did that thing with his mouth, the same one she was staring at and hoping would move closer to her, and then—

Well, it did.

Hands found Lizzie’s hips, pulling her forward sharply enough that she let out a soft grunt. From the feel of hips bumping against hers, and she honestly wasn’t sure who hissed in their next inhale, only that it did something to the flutter-like state of her pulse and the erratic nature of her heart, and it was slow and fast and good and great and not a single person noticed.

Miracles were arriving en masse, apparently.

Pushing her fingers into Roland’s hair got Lizzie another hum of approval, the first brush of his tongue making her lips part and her head fall to the side, but then his hand was wrapped around the back of her neck, and she could not be expected to pay attention to anything except the semi-consistent swipe of his thumb against her skin. It left more goosebumps. Caused another chuckle, the kind that rumbled through her and resonated around her, a tiny bubble of that same cautious optimism from before.

Like a spark.

Fanning flames and threatening to burn everything because if this didn’t work, then Lizzie wasn’t sure what would, and that was scary and overwhelming and terrifying was a synonym, but she really was working with very limited word-based resources when Roland’s thumb kept moving. Tracing her. Committing the feel to memory, and she wasn’t sure when they’d established the rocking pattern they were moving in, but something deep in the center of her trusted it.

Someone who regularly strapped knives to his feet and raced around at top speed knew how to stay balanced. And she was a stubborn idiot. Who got what she wanted.

“Is part of liking me because I told you I didn’t think it was embarrassing that you still got a little emotional about Miracle on 34th Street?” Laughter pushed past her lips. Took root in the pit of her stomach and the spaces between her ribs. Laced through her heart. In the kind of way that cemented itself. Right in the middle of Lizzie. Right in the middle of this. Them.

There was a them, now.

“Was definitely a factor, yeah,” Roland said, not bothering to pull away. “You, uh—you snuck up on me a little, Liza.” “Peak romance.” “Want me to talk about your dress some more?” She shook her head. “Unnecessary. And you didn’t.” “That might be part of the problem.” “Nursing old crushes, you mean?” Her hair hit her cheek. And his hand. He couldn’t seem to let go of her. “Nah, this wasn’t like...there was no torch, not really. I—I wasn’t hanging posters of you on my wall if that’s the picture you’ve painted for yourself.” “Kinda disappointing, admittedly.” “Pick a lane, babe.” No sparkle, that time. Just flash and want and the very thin line Lizzie’s lips had become. “Be more specific,” Roland repeated softly. “You’re not standing on a pedestal. Just you, Rol, as is.” He waited. That was fair. There should have been more. Should have been a detailed list of all the reasons the grown-up version of her liked so many parts of the grown-up version of him, but that all felt a little extraneous when she was still thinking about closet-type possibilities and that stubborn streak was a mile wide, anyway.

Roland nodded once. “Good.”

Both of them jumped. At the pop of another champagne bottle and Lizzie never understood how Regina managed to order so much champagne every year, but she felt a bit like she was floating on the bubbles, and they didn’t decide. Explicitly. To keep the whole thing—

Secret.

Another bad word. With bad connotations and shadows that clung to the definition, but this was them and only them and, for right now, that was enough. And if no one noticed the way Roland’s hand drifted over the small of Lizzie’s back during David’s speech, then that was a miracle she was willing to accept.

#blue line rambles #blue line one shots #these really are just original characters at this point #i have also written:#matt and claire meeting for the first time #henry and ella meeting for the first time #stuff about peggy and jeremy humbert #and i've got a whole list of will x belle stuff #in case it wasn't ovbious people still aren't responding to my emails #oh! also roland and lizzie's engagement #i wrote that too #also if you are so inclined: wilder days by morgan wade played like four times while i wrote this #mylifeisalifestyle #laura rambles

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

Text

Psycho Analysis: Jason Voorhees

(WARNING! He’s back! THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK!)

...ki ki, ki, ma ma ma...

The slasher subgenre of horror has plenty of villains, but the key to any great slasher movie (aside from quality kills) is having a memorable slasher who sticks in the mind of those who watch the film. You can’t just have some generic evil guy and expect the killer to be cool and memorable; you need to give them a fun gimmick. And in the scores of slashers who populated the 80s, there are few out there who are quite as legendary and iconic as Jason Voorhees. Jason is one of those few villains who, even if you’ve never seen a single one of his movies, you’d know on sight.

Even now, with him being absent from cinema for over a decade at the time of this writing due to legal disputes (though not from other mediums such as video games), Jason is still a household name, still remembered as one of the coolest, creepiest horror villains to come out of the 80s. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say Jason might be the greatest slasher villain of all time. So let’s take a look at the man behind the mask and see what we’ve got here.

Motivation/Goals: Jason as a villain is motivated by two main factors: a desire to make his mother proud, and a desire to get vengeance for how he was treated. The first few movies are all Jason taking out his anger over his mother’s death on anyone near Camp Crystal Lake. In earlier movies, he’d really only kill anyone who invaded his territory, but later sequels had him expand his killing range by going to Manhattan, Springwood, and even outer space. Basically, Jason is motivated by revenge against a world that persecuted him, and a desire to impress his mother. The simplicity of his motivations is actually a great strength, because it means there doesn’t need to be constant time in each new film adding on to Jason’s lore like they do with Freddy, Michael Meyers, and so on. Jason kills kids who have sex, that’s it. Simple, clean, effective, and a vehicle for cool kills.

Performance: There are a LOT of people who have put on the hockey mask throughout the franchise, but perhaps the most well-known name is Kane Hodder, the hulking actor who portrayed Jason in the seventh through the tenth films. He’s certainly the Jason that will spring to mind when thinking of Jasons, but he’s the obvious one. His actor in Freddy vs. Jason, Ken Kirzinger, was chosen because he had kind eyes and could tower over Freddy, and amusingly he actually appeared in Jason Takes Manhattan as a huge chef Jason tosses aside. Then of course we have Ari Lehman, the man who cameoed as Jason at the end of the first film in the Carrie-esque jump scare, most notable because he is so proud of his role that he named his punk rock/heavy metal band First Jason.

And these are just the few I wanted to highlight here; the original continuity is ten movies worth of actors playing Jason, and he even has multiple actors in some films.

Final Fate: It depends on the movie. His mortal life is ended by a young Tommy Jarvis in The Final Chapter, but then he comes back in Jason Lives as a zombie, a zombie who is only incapacitated until Jason Takes Manhattan where he is seemingly killed off for good by the nightly flooding of the Manhattan sewers with radioactive sludge (likely a safety measure against C.H.U.D.s). But then he comes back in Jason Goes to Hell where his original body ends up obliterated for most of the movie until the ending, but soon after he’s dragged right down to, you guessed it, Hell. But then comes Jason X, and he’s brought to space where he finally ends up obliterated for real by falling through the atmosphere of a planet and burning up. And this isn’t getting into the numerous deaths from games, comics, and so on; Jason is a man who is very hard to kill.

Best Scene: What does one pick for the best scene? His sleeping bag kill from VII? The liquid nitrogen kill from Jason X? The numerous amusing scenes he has when he actually reaches Manhattan in Jason Takes Manhattan? It’s a tough choice, but honestly. I might just have to go with his corn field rave massacre in Freddy vs. Jason. It’s just so damn cool.

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Final Thoughts & Score: Jason Voorhees is one of the great early slasher villains and, most impressively of all, he managed a remarkable level of consistency until the very end, at least compared to some of is peers. Compare to Michael Meyers, who had to constantly be rebooted because filmmakers kept trying to find ways to humanize and explan his motivations to the point that franchise has a fractured timeline to rival the Zelda series, or Freddy Krueger, who deteriorated from a terrifying psychopath who treated killing like a game to a non-stop quip machine that spent more time slinging one-liners than kills. Jason, while certainly going through some odd phases – recall the time he was a weird demon worm that could surf between bodies, or the time he went to space and became a cyborg – never really lost sight of the things that truly made him effective as a character.

Yes, Jason is a silent antagonist, but he says a lot with his deeds and actions. He’s a killing machine, but he certainly isn’t mindless, and he usually seems to have some sort of ethics that perhaps we don’t understand, but Jason certainly does. For instance, in later films Jason does not hurt animals, and once he’s a zombie he doesn’t kill children either. A lot of this likely stems from Jason essentially being a child in a deformed man’s body, and this goes a long to making him an interesting, tragic figure. Jason almost certainly doesn’t understand what he’s doing is wrong, and if he does, he’s almost certainly too blinded by rage to care, especially after becoming a zombie.

I think the underlying tragedy of Jason simply being a monster who only wanted to please his beloved mother and violently lashes out at those he sees, through his warped perspective, as the ones to blame makes him an interesting and complex character… and here’s the great thing! Unlike other slasher villains, this is all established very early on, and rather than continue piling on more and more backstory, the series decides to throw Jason into interesting situations. This is a problem that befell his slasher sibling Freddy; as cool as Freddy managed to be, every new film added more and more convoluted backstory rather than trying to put Freddy into an interesting scenario he could have interesting kills in. And the less said about Michael Meyers, the better. But Jason? They gave him all he needed in the first two movies, made him a zombie in the sixth, and then spent the rest of the series getting weird and creative. Jason is a villain effective because his simple characterization and motivation means he can slip into any sort of situation, be it fighting a telekinetic girl, going to Manhattan, fighting Freddy Krueger, fighting Ash Williams, slaughtering camp counselors en masse, or going to space.

It should be incredibly obvious Jason is an 11/10. He’s a testament to what makes a slasher villain great and memorable: he has a simple yet flexible mindset that allows him to be thrust into a variety of situations, he has an iconic outfit, he has an awesome weapon of choice, and he is parodied, referenced, and known throughout the world to this day. He has killer video game appearances in the likes of Mortal Kombat X and his own Friday the 13th game, he has tons of comics including ones where he takes on Freddy, Ash Williams, Leatherface, and even Uber Jason, and despite the obnoxious legal battles currently keeping him from appearing in any media to any great extent, you’d be hard pressed to find a person without even passing knowledge of Jason.

Here’s a few interesting notes, though – a lot of shout outs to Jason have characters using a chainsaw, which as we all know is the tool of Leatherface. Jason uses a machete for the most part but is very versatile, but even so the closest he ever came to using anything remotely like a chainsaw was in VII, where he used a weed whacker. Jason also didn’t gain his iconic look until the third film; in the second movie, Jason wore a burlap sack over his head. And finally, there’s a bit of trivia I’m sure most are aware of by now: Jason was not the killer in the first or fifth films. In the first film, the killer was actually Jason’s mother, Pamela Voorhees, and the fifth film Jason was still kind of dead so a copycat killer named Roy Burns took his place. So hey, while we’re here, let’s talk about these Jason adjacent killers:

Pamela Voorhees is one of those rare female slasher villains, and the fact she is so absolutely amazing makes you wonder why there aren’t more. She’s basically to Friday the 13th what The Boss is to the Metal Gear Franchise – an all-important female figure whose actions completely and totally changed the course of history. Her quest to avenge her son’s death led to her slaughtering people at Camp Crystal Lake, which led to her death… but then it turns out her son had lived all along, and her death served only to make him into a violent, vengeful monster. Add on the fact that Pamela was using the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis on her son to empower him (supported by Jason Goes to Hell and Freddy vs, Jason vs. Ash), and Pamela is indirectly responsible for every murder in the series. Or perhaps even directly, if it really is her voice Jason hears in some of the movies and the Friday the 13th game. Betsy Palmer absolutely kills it in the role (pun intended), and it’s a shame she was annoyed by the role for years, though she apparently did eventually come around and embrace it. As one of the great ladies of horror, Pamela definitely earns a 10/10.

But now let’s take a look at the opposite end of the spectrum with Roy Burns. The idea of a Jason copycat killer is not entirely without merit, and for the most part, the movie is incredibly solid, with good kills on Roy’s part. The issue comes with the ultimate reveal of his identity, which turns the entire movie into an utterly convoluted mess that makes absolutely no sense. The lack of buildup of any kind, save for two brief scenes prior to his unmasking, makes the twist lack any sort of punch, and his reasoning for killing people is just absurd. Hell, he isn’t even targeting the one person responsible – that guy gets away with a jail sentence while Roy butchers innocent people!

Basically, Roy fails at being an engaging replacement for Jason due to the film’s finale, which goes out of its way to undermine him and everything you just watched. It should come as no shock that he’s a 1/10. Still, unlike most villains with this rating, he does have a little bit of redemption due to being playable in the Friday the 13th game. You’re just controlling him as he kills without any worry about stupid backstory, so hey, I’ll give Roy that at least, and I can’t deny his mask is pretty sick.

UPDATE: Ok, I was way too hard n Roy. Yes, his motivation is stupid and poorly explained, his killings are absolutely ridiculous and make no sense with his motivation, I still stand by all that... and yet, I’m watching this movie for creative kills, right? And boy does our boy Roy provide. He slaughters his way through these oneshot characters with gusto! I think I’m just still bitter he’s not Jason, but I like Season of the Witch even if Michael Meyers isn’t there, so maybe I’m just too harsh on Roy and his movie in general. I think his dumbass motivations hold him back, but I think the correct score for him is a 6/10. He is most certainly not abysmal enough for a one and I was really foolish to issue a score like that. Sometimes even I have trouble overcoming my biases.

It’s interesting, though, that both of these characters tend to be forgotten, overshadowed by Jason. In the intro of Scream, Drew Barrymore’s doomed character accidentally says Jason is the killer of the first film, rather than Pamela. And I think that while that is likely a common misconception, it’s less because Pamela is forgettable but more that Jason is so overwhelmingly cool that he overshadows anyone else in these films with few exceptions. Jason may very well be the greatest slasher villain of all time, and if you disagree, well, who won in Freddy Vs. Jason again, hmmm?

And more importantly, what slasher villain has an Alice Cooper song dedicated to him?

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I rest my case.

#Psycho Analysis #Jason Voorhees #Kane Hodder #Friday the 13th

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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LOL, quick jaunt over to Marvel land, to engage in a rant about one of my very specific Bobby Drake pet peeves, but good God, this one has been around forever.

I don’t expect comic book writers to have a master’s degree in physics or whatever, but I mean, I’m a college drop out myself, and it doesn’t take a PhD to remember that cold is not an energy.

Its the absence of an energy. It results from thermal energy leaving an area. You don’t produce cold. You take away heat.

Ergo, mutant powers and high tech armor that absorb energy as a defense should not be in any way, shape or form protected against Bobby’s powers - if anything, he should be the ultimate defense and offense against them.

Because he doesn’t ‘shoot ice beams,’ he doesn’t project cold energy that they can then absorb and like, suck up the energy that his powers produce...his powers are moving energy in the opposite direction! He’s the ultimate absorption power/tech! Any time there are Sentinels that are adapted to absorb energy attacks, or there are villains with that powerset, or with energy-draining tech....none of that should in any way be able to stop him from simply using his powers to drain the heat energy from the area, plummeting the temperature until it’s all entombed in ice from whatever ambient moisture’s in the area he freezes. Or if there isn’t enough moisture, simply dropping temperatures until the machinery or armor is brittle enough to crack or shatter.

Like, this is basic stuff. What’s the point in making a big deal about the omega level powers of a guy that’s been around for sixty years, if in all that time barely anyone who writes him can bother to learn the most fundamental things about how hot and cold work?

No, fire should not be the Iceman’s ultimate weakness, lmao, because the Iceman doesn’t need actual water or ice to put out a fire, he can simply just move the thermokinetic energy around until the fire being fired at him goes bye-bye, because he took all the thermal energy away.

Also, he’s quite definitively done this before. Mike Carey at least tried doing some new things with his powers, and showed how Bobby could basically turn off the powers of mutants with fire powers or even just powers that relied on chemical reactions igniting...because his command of thermodynamic forces, or at least his outright neutralization of them, meant he could keep Sunfire from generating the plasma he bases his name on.

Like, Bobby was just like lol no, and kept the dude who projects thermal energy at the same temperatures as the sun from using his powers at all by simply going..."yeah but what if I just don’t let it get any hotter no matter how much plasma you try and generate? Whatcha gonna do then, Shiro?” And it turned out, what Shiro did then was nada, because all the literal firepower in the world doesn’t mean squat when a guy who violates the laws of thermodynamics for goofs sits on all the thermal energy in the vicinity and goes “nah, nobody’s getting up until I say so.”

Similarly, no, being in a desert or some location with very little ambient moisture in the air shouldn’t in any way be a hindrance to Bobby, limit his powers or make him weaker, because he doesn’t just make ice, and never has...its simply the most common and efficient usage and combination of his dual powerset....which is thermokinesis and hydrokinesis.

I know he’s hardly ever referenced as having the latter, and its not like he’s ever been shown moving water itself around like a waterbender or Hydro-Man, but its a necessary part of his powerset to do the things he does. He forms ice in highly specific shapes, and the only way he can do that is if he’s not only dropping the temperature and freezing things (thermokinesis). He has to be at the same time moving water molecules into the specific arrangements and patterns needed in order for his freezing of those water molecules to result in the specific ice configurations and shapes he makes all the time.

There’s absolutely no way his power could ever work the way its always shown to if he doesn’t have the ability to mentally manipulate the placement of water molecules, even if he’s not consciously directing them into the shapes he’s picturing in his mind when he makes ice shapes.

Point being, just because he usually uses his powers in the specific combination that results in him freezing water, specifically, and forming ice, specifically...doesn’t mean he’s ever been limited to that. His thermokinesis works perfectly well without him directing it at water molecules in specific, and this too has been long established.

Its not like water is the only thing that freezes. Everything freezes if you get things cold enough. Bobby’s the walking equivalent of liquid nitrogen, even though he’s hardly ever used that way (ironically, it was Claremont who first showed him using his powers this way, which is funny to me because Claremont famously hates his character and usually nerfs him every opportunity he gets, like, purely out of annoyance that he exists, lol).

But I mean, he quite literally can make even the strongest metals shatter without even touching them, by just flash-freezing his environs and letting everything go kabloo-ey under its own weight, once the rapid reduction of thermodynamic reactions makes even metal’s structural integrity go ruh-roh and then like....just collapse.

Even without taking things in that direction, the whole ‘put Bobby in a desert and he’s useless against the bad guys’ trope has always been dumb purely because of the fact that the human body is largely made up of water. As long as there’s anyone around him, it doesn’t matter how much or how little ambient moisture is in the air...he can just as easily focus his powers on just the moisture in peoples’ bodies. And it doesn’t have to be big or flashy or dramatic either, he doesn’t have to rip the moisture out of them and use it to make ice like he did in that one arc with the demons that we pretend didn’t happen because Chuck Austen was a mistake....like....all someone with Bobby’s powerset has to do when faced with living human beings and not a lot of surplus moisture in the air is just...drop the temperature of the bodies around him, nudge them towards hypothermic conditions.

*Shrugs* Things get cold enough, the blood flow in a human body starts to slow down, eventually they pass out. If you can control how quickly the temperature drops and how much that temperature change is focused most specifically on the parts of the body most dependent on moisture and biochemical reactions that require thermal energy to catalyze or function, you can make that happen very quickly.

Hell, they write Magneto using his powers to control the iron in peoples’ blood, slow the flow of blood to their brains and knock them out that way. Its really the same basic principle with Bobby’s powers, just asserting a little pressure on the moisture in peoples’ blood to produce the same effect. If anything, it should be easier for Bobby not because of different power levels, now that they’re both confirmed as omega level, but rather simply because there’s more water in the human body than there is iron. Everything Erik can do directly to human attackers, Bobby should be able to do even more easily, purely because he has more to work with directly.

LOL sorry, but this is where my critical-ness manifests most with Bobby’s writing. Scott, Dick, Kyle, I have actual Issues with how they’re written and received....Bobby, other than how various writers handle his sexuality or don’t, as the case may be....my ire is really ultimately just Nerd Ire. Because it makes me cranky that you give a guy one of the single most versatile powersets in superhero comics, make a point to establish that this dude’s powers are amped all the way up to the literal highest degree possible in comics, with virtually no limitations on the ways he can use them or the scope he can apply them to......

And then you do practically nothing with them, beyond the same handful of basic tricks that he’s been doing for decades, like that’s the sum total of his abilities or the only possible applications, when that’s really barely even the tip of the iceberg, yes pun intended. I admitted I was a Nerd, get with the program.

I honestly don’t give a shit about him being The Most Powerfulest Ever, especially since it results in him being sidelined more than he’s used, just because writers don’t want to deal with why Bobby can’t just....snap his fingers and start the next Ice Age and be like all done here, let’s go home. But it is Irksome when you tantalize me with the possibilities inherent in a superpower and then continue to use that power in the most dull way imaginable instead of just going nuts with it, because I am at the end of the day, above all other things a Superpower Nerd and like. Superpowers are so fucking cool, why must writers insist on not using them in cool and unique and interesting ways, and instead just being all....and then the one character shot a laser at the other and a third character punched everyone else super hard with their superstrength and that’s it, that’s the end. Until next time, intrepid adventurers!

Sigh. Its just so booooooring. And like, death by a thousand papercuts, lol, every time a writer clearly thinks they’re on to something when they come up with a ‘workaround’ to essentially neutralize Bobby in a fight or sideline him, so that his omega-ness or whatever doesn’t make everyone else’s present irrelevant before he solos the situation. And I get that, but this is not the solution they’re looking for, and hasn’t been the last hundred times they used it either, its just like. Please, please, please, even just wiki source how ice and cold work for a change. Its not rock, paper, scissors, where like, fire and heat automatically beat ice, lmfao. Its like nails on a chalkboard, seeing behind the page to like, how proud you can tell that writer is for their ‘solution’ to Bobby’s uber-poweredness, while meanwhile, I’m just like...dudes, that does not work the way you are trying to claim it works, and its making it really hard to suspend my disbelief.

Which you would think would not be that hard, given that I’m talking about a comic book with superpowers, but if you’re gonna do superpowers, at least do them in a way that makes some sense, which is not, in fact: “fire is the greatest weapon against the guy whose power is more accurately described as eats thermal energy and shits out ice cubes.”

Its literally the other way around, uggggggggh. Same with energy absorption being trotted out constantly to beat or neutralize the guy whose power is literally the opposite of energy projection. As Bobby is himself, actually, technically, ironically, the ultimate omega level energy absorption mutant, albeit primarily focused on thermal energy specifically.

(Though of course, at the base levels that Bobby’s powers have repeatedly been shown to operate at, all energy is fundamentally the same anyway, so even that qualifier isn’t quite applicable. Hey, don’t look at me, I’m not the one who decided to make the dude omega level and then define that as meaning the uttermost expression of a particular mutant powerset, with no apex ceiling or limit on their usage or scope. Maybe you guys should’ve put like, ten minutes of actual research into why water is cited as one of the basic primary building blocks of carbon based organic life, and how the kind of control over thermal energy Bobby’s powers require in order to even function at their most basic levels, once unrestricted in scope or degree, like....pretty much results in limitless applications across the board).

I mean shit, in a lot of ways, Bobby’s kinda the mutant embodiment of a physically realized Maxwell’s Demon. And if you put some thought into how that particular thought experiment could effect reality were anyone actually capable of creating a mechanism for violating the laws of thermodynamics in the specific ways postulated by good old JCM back in the 1800s, Bobby’s powers would really be less "hey check it out, I make ice and cool people off on a hot summer’s day" and more like "lol, Proteus who? Legion what? Wanda where? Phoenix, please!"

BUT I DIGRESS.

....oh shit, whoops, now I’m thinking about how Wanda’s powers when amped up to allow her to pull off the House of M reality warp, like, were basically defined as the ultimate expression of chaos magick/chaos energies, the psychic harnessing of entropy itself, using Wanda’s basic probability manipulations to hack quantum possibilities themselves and superimpose the pictured reality of her choice over her current reality at a quantum level.....and whereas if you look at Bobby’s powers in the vein of Maxwell’s Demon, and the theoretical applications for decreasing entropy, like...huh. Whoops, I think I just accidentally made my brain explode, hang on, I gotta think about this now.

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sanderssidesfanfiction · 5 years

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We’ll Carry On - Chapter Twenty Five

We’ll Carry On Tag

General Content Warnings: Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Substance Abuse, Abandonment, Minor Character Death, Transphobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Dissociation, Bullying, Homophobia

September 30th, 2017

It was all Virgil could hear his mother whispering about anymore. He’s gay, they’re gay, she’s sinning, Patton is going to wind up just like them and then she wouldn’t be able to protect him. Charles would offer to whip Patton into shape, which his mother always refused. Charles would scoff and say, “Don’t say I didn’t try to stop him from being a queer.”

Virgil never said anything if his mother brought it up. Sometimes Patton would ask him why he got quiet, and Virgil never had the heart to tell him it was because he had overhead Mom and Charles. He didn’t want Patton worrying about people talking about him, especially if what they were saying had no proof.

Though Virgil knew one thing for certain. He could never admit to his mother that he had gotten a crush on the new boy at school.

May 22nd, 2019

Virgil was nursing a black eye and trying his hardest not to cry in the principal’s office, failing miserably. He was snivelling as the principal called Dad and Ami. He would have sat outside the principal’s office, by the secretary, but when he had sat there, the other kid he was sitting by, Rick, had split his lip wide open. Of course, he had pinned it on Virgil, so now instead of being in trouble once, he was in trouble two times over. Both for things he didn’t do.

The principal looked at him with apathy. “Stop crying, Mister Picani. Crocodile tears won’t work with me.”

Virgil hiccuped, continuing to hold the ice pack to his eye and blotting his lip with a tissue. “I didn’t do it, sir. I really didn’t.”

The principal shook his head. “We’ll figure out who did what when Rick’s parents and yours come in.”

Virgil cried harder. He was terrified. Not because his secret was out, no, but because if he was blamed for what he didn’t do and Dad and Ami believed the principal, he’d be in such big trouble he doubted he’d be able to sit for a month. Dad and Ami had never spanked him before, but he was pretty sure being accused of kissing another student without consent would do the trick.

The time in between when the principal called Dad and Ami and when they showed up felt like an eternity and the blink of an eye at once. Virgil wondered if this was what dissociating was like, and resolved to give Roman a huge hug if it was, because he would never wish this on anyone.

When Dad and Ami walked in, Virgil almost sobbed. Ami immediately came over to his side and asked, “Virgil, are you all right?! What happened?!”

The principal cleared his throat. “Mister Picani,” he said neutrally.

Ami stood and glared at the principal. “Mister Gardener. Have you managed to find accommodations for our youngest yet in between meetings?”

The principal leveled Ami with a stare. “No, he has not yet gotten a translator for summer school. He can speak, he doesn’t need one. And that is not why I have called you in here today.”

“Yeah, I can see Virgil here,” Ami growled. “Who gave him the black eye and split lip and what are you going to do about it?”

A woman strolled in with Rick clinging to her hand and crying, pointing at Virgil. “He did it, Mom! He’s the one!”

“Of course he is,” the woman spat. “Remy. Emile.”

“Brenda,” Ami said, voice as cold as liquid nitrogen. “What brings you here?”

“Your delinquent son kissed my poor Rick.”

Ami blinked and said nothing. Dad just looked shocked. The principal cleared his throat. “Misses Jackson, Misters Picani, please, have a seat.”

“I demand an apology be made! Rick was traumatized!” Brenda’s shrill voice accused.

Virgil cried harder as Rick glared at him. “I didn’t do it!” Virgil said. He felt like his heart had shattered into a million pieces, and Ami and Dad hadn’t even given him the disappointed look at him yet.

“He did!” Rick exclaimed. “He’s lying, he kissed me!”

“No I didn’t!” Virgil exclaimed.

“Virgil, deep breaths,” Dad reminded him. “Can you explain what happened?”

Virgil took a couple deep breaths but shuddered out a, “I’m not sure what happened.” At Brenda’s laugh, he exclaimed. “I’m not! One minute I’m talking to Rick and the next he punched me in the eye and called me names!”

The principal looked nonplussed. “Well, what did you say to him?”

“It was personal,” Virgil said, looking at the floor, and feeling his cheeks flaming red.

“If you won’t admit what you did, Virgil, then I’m afraid you will have to be suspended,” the principal said.

“Hey, now, hang on a minute!” Dad exclaimed. “You haven’t even heard his side of the story! I’m sure you listened to Rick’s in great detail! Did you not listen to Virgil’s because Remy and I are fighting against you to get Dee accommodations? Are you just bitter at us? Or is there something more sinister at play here? Do you just not care for your students?!”

“Of course I care about the students!” the principal exclaimed.

“Then let Virgil share his side of the story!” Dad bellowed. “And don’t suspend him until you’ve gotten all the facts!”

Virgil was shaking and crying more and Dad turned to him, apologetic. “I’m sorry, Virgil. I shouldn’t have raised my voice. I know you may not want to share, but what did you say to Rick before he hit you and called you names?”

With shaking hands removing the ice pack from his black eye, Virgil said, “I said I had a crush on him, okay?” He scuffed his shoes on the floor. “I figured it was almost summer, so if he didn’t like me back it was no big deal, and by fall he would forget. But he started yelling at me, saying I was gross and going to hell and...and he punched me in the eye before saying...”

“Saying what?” Ami asked, turning his icy glare onto Rick.

“Before saying I was a filthy queer,” Virgil whispered, starting to cry again, softer. “That’s when a teacher came over and Rick claimed I kissed him and he was trying to get me away, and he sent us both here.”

“That doesn’t explain your split lip,” Ami said.

Virgil shifted. “When the secretary left for a minute to talk to the nurse about what happened, Rick punched me again, and when I yelled, he claimed I hit him in the stomach first.”

“My angel would do nothing of the sort!” Brenda screeched. “You’re a liar, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself!”

Virgil cried, “I’m telling the truth! I just had a crush on him! I didn’t want to kiss him, I didn’t kiss him! I just wanted to tell him, because I thought he was cool!”

Rick scrunched his face up and Virgil was really starting to wish he had punched Rick, because there was no way he could do it now but he really wanted to. “You’re gross!” Rick exclaimed. “I don’t want you near me ever again!”

Dad looked angry, and Ami looked completely calm, which is how Virgil knew someone wasn’t making it through the day alive and well. “Mister Gardener, how many times has Rick been called into the office for violence against another student?” Ami asked.

“I hardly see how that’s re—”

“How. Many. Times?” Ami demanded.

Mister Gardener stared down Ami and lost as his eyes drifted away and he muttered, “A handful.”

“Now. How many times has Virgil been called into this office, for any sort of infraction?” Ami continued.

“Never before today,” Mister Gardener said. “But he has been called down here for—”

“For abuse perpetuated by his mother and stepfather before my husband and I gained custody, I know,” Ami dismissed. “That’s irrelevant to this.”

Mister Gardener sputtered in indignation, but shut up as soon as Ami leveled him with a glare that would make Charles cry.

“Now, let’s see. A boy with a history of violence against other kids, as well as, I’m sure, insulting others, belittling them, and behaving much like your average schoolyard bully, tells you that the quiet kid who never comes out of his shell and never gets in trouble beyond occasionally talking to his brother for too long hits him because he was allegedly kissed, and you believe him? Over said quiet kid who not only hasn’t gotten in trouble, but also has a story behind what happened? Beyond ‘he came up to me and kissed me’? Are you really that stupid? Every kid has a reason for doing what they do. Not to mention that Rick doesn’t have a scratch on him and Virgil has some bruises that aren’t going away for at least a couple days. Do you want to allow violence in your school?”

“Mister Jackson will be punished as well for retaliating—”

“No,” Ami said, voice deadly, dripping with venom. “There is no ‘as well’ in this situation. Virgil is telling the truth. Ask the other kids on the playground, I’m sure they’ll tell you exactly what Virgil told us. Virgil doesn’t go up to random kids to kiss them. Especially not boys he likes. He has anxiety which makes it hard for him to raise his hand in class, let alone telling his crush he likes him. Kissing his crush is completely out of the question. You are trying to punish my son for simply liking another boy, and I will not have it!”

Virgil watched in awe as Mister Gardener actually got nervous. He fiddled with the cuffs on his shirt and swallowed a couple times before saying, “I can’t just let him get off scot-free.”

“He did nothing wrong!” Ami exclaimed. “He told a boy he liked him! And then that boy hit him, twice, and called him slurs! Don’t you think that is ‘punishment’ enough? Now, you either get the full story from the other students and see how you were wrong, or I’ll be taking this to your superiors, who I’m sure won’t be as forgiving as I am!”

Mister Gardener paled. “I will talk to the other students, but until the full story is uncovered, both boys will not be allowed to return to class.”

“If you’re suspending Virgil, we’ll be sure to give him some time off at home, let him watch his favorite cartoons, and make sure he knows he’s not in trouble. Because he did nothing wrong,” Dad threatened. “And if by next year you are still trying to get our boys in trouble for something they didn’t do, well, I’m afraid you’ll be dealing with us a lot more than you’d like.”

Dad and Ami led Virgil out, and he could see Dee waiting outside the office on a bench. The four of them went home and Virgil sat listlessly on the couch for two hours, until he heard the door slam shut and Logan, Roman, and Patton walk in.

He looked up as they approached him. Logan and Roman were looking at him with concern, but Patton just looked hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me you were gay, Virge?” Patton asked.

Virgil shrugged. “I was embarrassed, I guess. It’s hard to tell your twin brother you’re gay when he thinks it’s a bad thing, and even after that, I just...thought crushing on Rick was embarrassing. And clearly he didn’t feel the same way,” he weakly laughed at the end.

Patton climbed on the couch and hugged Virgil tight. “I don’t care that you’re gay, Virge,” he said. “I just wish you would have told me. I could have helped you.”

Virgil hugged him back, and sniffled. “He called me names the second I told him...” he admitted. “My heart hurts, and the principal didn’t believe me when I told him I didn’t kiss Rick, and definitely didn’t kiss him without him saying yes.”

Patton just hugged him tighter. “It’s gonna be okay,” he murmured. “You’re gonna be okay.”

Virgil wrenched out a sob and started to cry into Patton’s shoulder. Logan and Roman offered their comforts as well and Virgil realized something. Even if his crush didn’t like him back, his family would always love him. No matter if he liked guys, girls, or no one. No matter if he cried during movies, or laughed too loud at a good joke. His family would be here for him. No matter what.

Patton held Virgil close as Logan talked about his experiences with crushes and Roman laughed at the escapades Logan got into. Virgil smiled despite himself. His family would be there for him through this, through all of it. He didn’t even get a disappointed look. His family was there for him through this.

He was the luckiest kid alive.

#we'll carry on #sanders sides fanfiction #virgil sanders #emile picani #remy sanders #our creations #danger gays

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dewmie-in · 6 years

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oh no also

I keep screaming about the humans to diamonds initials thing? And in that I keep also tying William Dewey to White Diamond...

You know what else WD can stand for? Walt Disney! There’s the big urban legend that his body was frozen in liquid nitrogen lmao

William Dewey is definitely the cryogenically frozen dad referenced in the golf game in Rose’s Room.

#steven universe #william dewey #walt disney #su #su theories #it melted gary #disney's body being frozen has been debunked btw #but shit i believed it until i checked snopes xd

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xtruss · 4 years

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A US researcher who worked with a Wuhan virology lab gives 4 reasons why a coronavirus leak would be extremely unlikely

— Aylin Woodward | MAY 2, 2020 | Business Insider

Public-health researchers work in their laboratory at an airport in Qingdao, Shandong province, August 11, 2014.

A fringe theory suggests the coronavirus could have leaked from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, but there’s no evidence of this.

One US researcher who has worked with scientists at that Wuhan lab explained to Business Insider why an accidental lab leak is extremely unlikely.

The high-security lab says it has no record of the novel coronavirus’ genome, and follows strict safety measures.

It’s far more likely that the virus spilled over naturally from bats, jumping to humans via an intermediary animal host.

A fringe theory suggests that the new coronavirus leaked by accident from a lab in Wuhan.

Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) study infectious diseases, including coronaviruses, and did before the pandemic started. So as questions about how the pandemic started continue to go unanswered, the lab has drawn scrutiny.

Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s deputy national security adviser, asked intelligence agencies in January to look into the idea of a Wuhan lab leak, The New York Times reported. But CIA officers didn’t find any evidence.

There’s a reason for that, according to Jonna Mazet, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Davis, who has worked with and trained WIV researchers in the past.

“I know that we worked together to develop very stringent safety protocol, and it’s highly unlikely this was a lab accident,” she told Business Insider. Here are four reasons why.

Reason 1: The lab’s samples don’t match the new coronavirus

The P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China’s Hubei province, April 17, 2020.

The WIV houses China’s only Biosafety-level-4 laboratory. Scientists study the most dangerous and infectious microbes known to humankind in these types of facilities. Some of the institute’s researchers, including virologist Shi Zhengli, have collected, sampled, and studied coronaviruses that circulate Chinese bats. In 2013, Shi and her collaborators pinpointed the bat population most likely responsible for spreading SARS, in the Shitou Cave near Kunming.

After her team sequenced the COVID-19 virus, Shi told Scientific American that she quickly checked her laboratory’s record from the past few years to check for accidents, especially during disposal. Then she cross-referenced the new coronavirus’ genome with the genetic information of other bat coronaviruses her team had collected. They didn’t match.

“That really took a load off my mind,” Shi said told Scientific American, adding, “I had not slept a wink for days.”

Mazet has met and worked with Shi through PREDICT, a pandemic early-warning program started by the US Agency for International Development. The program has trained staff and funded labs in 30 countries, including the WIV, but President Donald Trump shut down PREDICT last fall.

“I’ve spoken to her recently,” Mazet said of Shi. “She is absolutely positive that she had never identified this virus prior to the outbreak happening.”

Mazet added that Shi set up a secure, shared database into which PREDICT members could upload their work for public release.

Reason 2: The lab implements rigorous safety protocols

In 2018, US officials raised concerns about safety issues at WIV, according to diplomatic cables obtained by The Washington Post. But Mazet said Shi’s work in the lab and in the field was above reproach.

“In the field, they wear extreme personal protective equipment, including multiple layers of gloves, eye protection, full body suits, and masks,” she said. (She noted, however, that she has not personally visited the WIV and couldn’t speak to all the research done there.) Samples collected from bats, Mazet added, get immediately split between some vials that contain chemicals that deactivate the virus, and other containers that leave the virus alive.

A laboratory technician working on samples from people to be tested for the new coronavirus at ‘Fire Eye’ laboratory in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province.

All samples are then dunked into liquid nitrogen on the spot, which freezes them, then the vials are disinfected and transported to the lab. There, scientists wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) unload them into a freezer set to minus 80 degrees Celsius.

When the samples are studied later, researchers only use the deactivated, non-infectious ones, Mazet said, adding that the vials with viable virus are locked down in a special area.

Reason 3: The coronavirus is the latest in a long line of zoonotic disease outbreaks

Rather than a leak, the coronavirus is more likely the latest disease to have jumped from an animal host to humans, experts say.

This type of cross-species hop, called a spillover event, also led to outbreaks of Ebola and SARS. Both of those viruses originated in bats, and genetic research has all but confirmed the same for the new coronavirus – a study published in February found that it shares 96% of its genetic code with coronaviruses circulating in Chinese bat populations.

Three out of every four emerging infectious diseases come to us from other species; these pathogens are known as zoonotic diseases. The coronavirus is the seventh zoonotic virus to have spilled over into people in the last century.

A greater horseshoe bat, a relative of the Rhinolophis sinicus bat species from China that was the original host of the SARS virus.

The 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic – swine flu – started in pigs then killed nearly 300,000 people. People have caught bird flus via direct contact with infected poultry. Other pandemic influenza strains, including the 1957 “Asian flu” and the 1968 Hong Kong pandemic, likely started in birds, too.

And in the last 45 years, at least four epidemics have been traced back to bats.

Reason 4: Everyday people are more likely to get infected than researchers who wear protection

The caves and wild habitats in which samples get collected from bats are dangerous places for people, since humans can be exposed to the live viruses circulating in the animals, Mazet said.

Shi’s researchers navigate those caves in full PPE; but tourists, hunters, poachers, and other people who rely on animals in some capacity for food or trade wander into such places less protected.

The mouth of a cave off of the Li River in Guilin-Yangshuo, China, May 2017.

Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance (which managed PREDICT’s relationship with the WIV), told NPR last week that his colleagues are “finding 1 to 7 million people exposed” to zoonotic viruses in Southeast Asia each year.

“That’s the pathway. It’s just so obvious to all of us working in the field,” he said.

A study published in March 2019 even predicted that bats would be the source of a new coronavirus outbreak in China. That’s because the majority of coronaviruses – those that affect humans and animals – can be found in China, and many bats “live near humans in China, potentially transmitting viruses to humans and livestock,” the authors said.

Spillovers will keep happening

The frequency of spillover events will increase as humans encroach further into wild habitats that house disease-carrying species we haven’t interacted with before, Mazet said. Researching how past spillovers happened and which habitats present the greatest risk for such events helps scientists make predictions about the next pandemic.

A researcher with a protective face mask holds a bat.

Since 2014, Shi’s group at the WIV has received nearly $US600,000 from a multi-million dollar, five-year grant funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to research the spillover of bat coronaviruses. The grant, which is managed by EcoHealth Alliance, was renewed for another five years in 2019.

However, after being questioned about that funding at a White House briefing on April 17, President Trump said his administration would “end that grant very quickly.”

A week later, the National Institutes of Health cancelled it.

Eroding confidence between US and Chinese researchers

Yuan Zhiming, director of the WIV’s biosafety laboratory, told Reuters that “malicious” claims about the lab had been “pulled out of thin air�� and contradicted all available evidence.

The persistent circulation of the lab-leak theory could impact future scientific cooperation and information sharing between the US and China, according to Mazet.

“What’s happening sociologically right now is our biggest risk -who’s going to want to work on this if they’re the ones put under a microscope?” Mazet said. “I think the real danger of what’s going on now is that experts like Shi and myself may not be able to keep collaborating to identify these viruses because of government pressures.” Mazet said.

That would make it harder to discover where the COVID-19 virus came from, as well as to forecast and prepare for the next spillover.

A German scientist works on research related to a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus.

Mazet added that she worries a blame game could even put lives at risk in the short term.

“If we point fingers at other nations that have best opportunity to develop a vaccine, why would we expect them to freely share that with us?” Mazet said. “Collaboration is key right now, otherwise you have countries developing things in parallel, and you can’t assume the US is the best at everything.”

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evonii · 5 years

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<<LOG #001>>

<<DATE: YEAR 5067 IIC>>

<<DESIGNATION: PAK #1892 "EVONII">>

<<LOG START>>

I have offical begun my exile to the edge of Irken space. My first designation is the planet #76665, formerly know as "Laslin" before capture by the irken empire. It's a small planet that has somehow attracted two moons, orbiting an unstable dying star. My mission is to determine whether to allow its neutron sun to devour Laslin or to have to transported to another solar system.

The most current irken records on Laslin date back 3045 years ago, making them a rough estimate of the current state of Laslin at best. The plant was know for its abundance liquid nitrogen in the form of vast seas covering most of the planet and its low atmospheric temperature. However, reports say the ungrounded caverns are extremely warm. Within the tunnels there was reported sightings primitive life form. Lifeforms were confirmed to live within the seas of nitrogen as well. No lifeforms where reported to live on the moons, which were composed of mainly salt plains.

Due to these reasons, at the time of record, the planet had been marked insignificant by the imperial cabinet of science due it lack of critical natural resources and low threat level to the irken expansion. Cross referencing offical imperial records from the time, the empire had an abundance of nitrogen stockpiled and was in no need to capture more nitrogen. Samples of the life forms within the seas were taken testing and confirmed suspection that they had a low intelligence level. No lifeforms within the tunnels were captured, but were suspected to hold the same level of intelligence. These factors led to the conclusion to leave the planet be and just have in within the confines of irken space.

While not assigned to, I wish to capture one of these creatures that roam the tunnels of Laslin if they still live. Their ability to live in extreme temperatures could further improvements on irken space suits and temperature control.

Before my arrival at Laslin, I am to pick up a fellow irken, currently reported to be on the planet Nectron, who has been assigned to my vessel. I've heard he's an ace pilot and more interesting a taller, one that could rival the tallest. My guess is that such an irken is being assigned to the Nebula's Shadow to prevent a coup d'etat. It will be interesting to see how such an irken reacted to being reassigned to a clearly throw away mission.

<<LOG END>>

#notes from envonii #log note 1 #iz role play #invader zim role play #iz #invader zim #daily update

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ialexluthor-blog · 5 years

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What is the real name for Hoverboards?

First appearing on our screens during the 1980s, the Electric bike has been the dream of youngsters everywhere. It's puzzling ability to faultlessly accept you beginning with one position then onto the following, absolutely unhindered by the surface over which you travel. Seeing Marty McFly float over a lake on a childs changed over bicycle began something in everyone, people started to consider it could sensibly be normal. It's perfect that in 2015 we have come a piece closer, as it is the year later on Marty and the Professor visit.

In 2015 (no uncertainty), hoverboards do truly exist! Do whatever it takes not to get unnecessarily stimulated, in any case... There should be a significant parcel of things set available to 'float', along these lines. Lexus extensively made a hoverboard for their advert, as a segment of a notice game plan to do with advancement. Their board required a metal track to continue running above and a tolerable serving of liquid nitrogen every so often, it's not actually as sensible as Marty's just yet. The other hoverboard being worn down (which truly floats over the ground, at any rate) is to some degree better, requiring only a metal skatepark to continue running above. Sadly, there is no genuine method to control the course of development on this board, anyway it's a positive advancement.

The hoverboards I am insinuating is basically the 2 wheeled, modifying kind. They were first found, in actuality, at the Canton Fair in China, an acclaimed development sensible which has stacks of new and chill gadgets being showed up by their producers/makers. Unquestionably, it got a lot of thought, yet clearly no one understood what it would transform into. In the early extensive stretches of 2015, they hit the Western world and exploded to praise with two or three smart thing plans. Justin Bieber and Chris Brown were seen with the sheets, and the rest is history! IO HAWK, one of the main shippers of the hoverboard, had sent a board or 2 to Justin and his group absolutely complimentary, which has since paid itself off charmingly.

Justin Bieber had one, so every other individual expected to as well. Typically, the viral thought of the Segway Board made its commonness take off. It was on everyone who was anyone's snapchat story and Instagram page. If you didn't have a Buy Ebike UK, you were falling behind, which clearly suggested useful things for the shippers of the high looked for after, short in supply people transporters. It was basic work for them, getting them in the country was the hardest task they faced.

As it was such basic work for such an inconceivable increment, hoverboard arrangements locales and pages hopped up everywhere. You could fill a word reference with the names people were giving them - Scoot Boards, SwayBoards, BalanceFoots and most ordinarily, hoverboards, notwithstanding the sensible truth that the wheels of them are unfalteringly planted to the ground. The reason the name hoverboard transformed into it's given name is a result of the tendency a customer gets when riding it, a 'floating' sensation.

Where might I have the option to get one?

As referenced, the choices you have on where to get them are close enough interminable. In the event that you by one way or another figured out how to enquire into every vendor of kids hoverboard UK you are in for a taxing night! The essential complexity between the offshoots are costs, changing from $300 to $1800. Worth differences are every now and again upheld from different viewpoints, from declaring to have the speediest on earth or ensuring their battery is more profitable than all others. When in doubt, each board is the comparable. There are sometimes snazzy complexities like wheels or lodgings, anyway they all begin from a comparable plant. The differentiations in assessing are assorted size undertakings at getting as huge a markup as could be permitted. You ought to plan to get as close $300 as you can for the standard hoverboard, any lower it is possible you are being deceived (especially underneath $250) and any higher you are paying too much!

The best results I've had is with seller connection locales, as they look at all the expenses and prosperity of the hoverboard shippers, guaranteeing the spot is trusted and secure and paying extraordinary personality to the best deals. My proposition is this most affordable hoverboards pioneer, as they have strong online life proximity on Twitter and Instagram with a huge amount of history. Furthermore, a lot of their associations go to Amazon vendors, which are all around trusted. You can buy sheets on there for as low as $300 and they have heaps of different models to investigate.

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bigbeargraue · 7 years

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Day 38: A World of Sound

(([WP] Your ship has come across a tomb system, filled with the remains of some long-extinct civilization. You discover a remnant that perplexes you more than anything else: A mannequin in a car "listening" to a chaotic jumble of sounds.))

Drone Log - Galactic Standard Dating (GSD) - 23A-510 Upsilon

Scouting mission’s results: Planet cannot sustain life.

My eyes hurt as they first opened to the light of the universe. They always did when I awoke from cryo-sleep. Someone suggested I try forcing my eyes open when I am put under, but given that it messes with the automated flight controllers visual reports on my cryo-sleep status, I think I’d rather live with a massive headache and eye pain. I slipped off towards the kitchen after I had gone through my reanimation procedures, my eyes glaring at the happy face digitally imposed in the center of the mess halls table. It mocked me in my weary state.

Energy supplement obtained, commencing with manual labor. I heaved a sigh as my body sunk into my seat, comfortable, Sitharian Leather. Spared no expense came to mind as I reached forward, grabbed my helmet and placed it on my head before lowering my visor. Total darkness encased me for a moment, but only a moment before the visor’s screen lit up and I saw the world I was to explore. A fairly green planet, awkwardly enough it had plenty of vegetation in spite of the massive amounts of radiation in the atmosphere and the levels of poisonous gas that comprised the breathable air.

Nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide. It was hard to imagine what creature actually breathed oxygen. My drone was in flight, rapidly moving towards the planet’s surface as I carefully lifted my energy supplement to my mouth and took a drink of the sickeningly sweet liquid. When the drone breached the atmosphere, I watched in awe at the world that sat only a few thousand miles below me. The landscape was simply breathtaking, the mountains towered higher than others I had seen, giving way to vast hilly plains, deserts that turned into jungles that turned into forests that turned into hilly plains that turned into mountainous tundras.

My drone was heading towards a remote point, small structures in the distance began to slowly rise into somewhat larger buildings. Nowhere near as large as the towering mega buildings on Xeros, but still, impressive. A quick scan produced no life forms in the immediate area, twenty-five miles wasn’t too impressive an area to scan, but it meant I could scout in peace. My drone finally relinquished control to me as it came down to a few hundred feet in the air over the ruins.

Ruin was a peculiar word to use. They were indeed ruins, most of the buildings uninhabited, some completely empty, but as my drone moved closer, they had a certain life within them. Shops, businesses, gathering places. All of them once held life, held meaning, but now, to me, they were simply places that would probably need to be deconstructed before we attempted to set up a colony. If we were even going to that is.

Addendum: Planet in need of further study and archeological referencing.

My drone traversed the ruins with relative ease, the streets were paved with a mixture of engineered stone, oil, and metal which meant my drone’s conductive flow energy matrix was running optimally. Hunks of metal were the only things in my way. They looked like light rail vehicles, but smaller, and with rotting matter around the wheel hubs where the engines would go. Some were filled with endoskeletons, calcium-based corpses that lay silent on the seats as I passed by slowly.

I began to try and hypothesize what had happened here, but honestly, my stretching guesses were as special as the solid gold wiring on my visor. Cheap and mass-produced. I slowly pulled back on the controls, moving my drone upward and then sending the small observer towards the East. I was curious now, I almost wanted to find life. To find something, anything at all. The world passed beneath my drone as I maneuvered it along the road that stretched seemingly forever before it connected to another road, much larger than it. Like a river, flowing to where?

I quickly followed the road as it stretched before me. More abandoned vehicles, more corpses, more ruins. Then I heard it, faintly at first, but then louder as I zoomed through the traffic of a lifeless land. It slowly grew louder and louder. Buildings grew up from the ground around me. Taller, taller, into the sky as I moved further into this ruined city. The sound grew more clear, more distinct as I gained more ground on its position.

“...what it is that makes me love you so, I only know I never want to let you go.”

Closer and closer, the sound grew into a cacophony of noise with words interspersed between. Or at least I hoped that they were words, my eyes finally landing on the place the noise was coming from, a vehicle with a creature sitting what I assumed was the pilot’s seat. This vehicle apparently ran on solar power given the grid of dark glass running over the roof. The sounds were almost deafening as they roared at me, “‘Cause you started something, Oh can’t you see! Ever since we’ve met you’ve had a hold on me!”

It was a terrible sound, loud, harsh, seemingly devoid of structure, but oddly enough, it seemed catchy. I quickly did a scan for life signs, a few small blips appeared on the scanner, but most more than a few miles away. This creature sitting in the vehicle was apparently dead. It seemed very much to be the case as it didn’t move or even look over at my drone. I listened for a good while, the song rolling into another of similar structure but with a much more relaxed feeling to it, “Eyyyy~yeauh~! Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay.”

I absentmindedly took my hands off the controls, simply listening to the song. I must have sat listening to those songs for a while as I suddenly began to realize the sky was darkening. Nightfall was approaching on this planet which meant I would need to get the drone to the ship for refueling. I slowly turned the drone around, moving it to look to the horizon, and with a hesitant nudge of the controls, I left the music behind.

End of report. New Addendum: Ancient Earth music must be gathered for collection and study. It is a cultural imperative.

#Day 38 #My Words #My Writing

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