#i thought of the layout for this one and dropped Everything. it’s a bit wonky but i still like it

[magicicephoenix]

Draft - The Ink Demonth 2024 (Day 15)

A tiny crack hinting at freedom, whispering of things you’ll never get to see…

[locolesbianwp]

birthday

pairing: Emily Dickinson & Sue Gilbert

warning: smut

summary: It’s Emily’s birthday and Sue finds herself under the table

word count: 2000+

Emily practically pranced around the dining table to make sure everything was in its correct place. She shifted forks that looked even the slightest bit wonky, folded and refolded napkins if they weren't pleasing to the eye. She even went as far as twisting the plain, circular plates around as if they would look any different when turned.

"Emily, relax. It's your birthday, go sit down." Sue instructed, pulling out a mahogany chair in the middle of the dining table. She had also been trying to help set the table but she barely got to touch anything for Emily wanted everything to be perfect tonight. Her whole family was practically there and she so wanted to have a peaceful, quiet, drama-free dinner. For once.

"I'm just excited." Emily explained, holding her own hands over her heart as she examined the layout of the dining room. The great oak table had been covered in a gorgeous red material provided by Betty. Sparkling cutlery and fine china plates were set in front of ten seats, ready to be used for the birthday dinner. The wine glasses had been cleaned over so many times by Emily that they almost shimmered from the light of the chandelier.

Of course Emily dressed up for the occasion, and she did not disappoint. She wore a stunning gown of emerald green that really made the brown in her eyes twinkle. Or perhaps her eyes were twinkling from sheer excitement. An elegant necklace rested around her neck, gifted from her parents that very morning and her brunette locks flowed behind her back, just a few strands framing her face.

"I think we're ready." Emily announced, sharing an accomplished grin with Sue who was still holding onto the back of the chair she pulled out for her poet.

"Come sit, birthday girl." Sue gestured to the chair she was currently leaning over. Her eyes could not be torn away from Emily as she crossed the room and took her seat in the pulled out chair. Sue pushed her in and with a nervous flutter in her stomach, bent down to press a clandestine kiss against Emily's exposed neck.

It may have been the intimate gesture or the giddiness of having a secret relationship that made Emily gasp, or maybe it was the fact that many voices and footsteps could be heard a few feet away from the dining room, guests planning to enter.

"Sue, quick, sit!" Emily rushed in a quietened whisper, her heart racing at the thought of being caught. Sue obeyed and quickly slid into her chair next to Emily. In her haste, she managed to bang into the oak table a little harshly, causing her fork to clatter to the ground.

"Shit." Sue internally cursed at herself for her stupidity and dropped to her knees to reach for it under the table. The long red tablecloth made it difficult to see and so she pulled it over her head, only to see the fork far out of her reach. She was sure she would have looked like an idiot crawling on her hands and knees to retrieve a fork but luckily no one could see her.

The sound of cheerful chatter suddenly filled the atmosphere as all the guests joined the couple in the room, though they could only see one.

"Happy birthday, Emily." Jane Humphrey was the first to speak in a monotonous voice and the rest of her friends followed suit, although they sounded a bit more cheerful.

Everybody chose their desired seats and Emily was secretly pleased to know everybody wanted to sit next to the birthday girl. Lavinia had already called dibs and was sitting next to Emily on her left and Sue was supposed to be sitting on her right, though she hadn't emerged from underneath the table yet. As Mrs Dickinson brought in the food, she noticed this.

"Has anyone seen Susan?" All eyes turned to Emily who looked like a deer caught in the headlights at the attention.

"Uh, yeah, she's-" Emily was cut off when a sudden and surprising hand squeezed her right thigh from beneath the table. "Um, no. I haven't seen her."

"Well, that is quite rude, I must say." Mrs Dickinson voiced her disapproval as everybody began dishing out their food. "Austin, you need to start teaching your wife good manners."

"Yes, I agree. I must admit, I'm not her biggest fan in the world." Jane declared with murmurs of agreement coming from Toshiaki and Abby.

"Hey, it's not nice to talk about people when they're literally right here." Emily scolded, earning a pinch in return for her slip up from Sue under the table.

"Sue isn't here yet." Toshiaki stated the obvious.

"I meant, like, behind her back. Sue may not be here physically but I can feel her presence..." Emily trailed off when cold fingers danced across her inner thighs, her mind suddenly becoming cloudy. "I can feel her..." Trailing off once again, Emily earned a few concerned glances from everybody seated at the table. Sue allowed her fingertips to lightly graze over Emily's panties before the poet subtly, and perhaps unintentionally, spread her legs a little wider.

"Anyway..." Lavinia broke the awkward silence with a slight clear of her throat. "Let's enjoy this delicious food!"

Everyone conversed wholeheartedly while passing food and sipping wine, apart from Emily, who was astonished that Sue was still under the table.

As Emily was lifting her wine glass to her lips, Sue decided it would be a good idea to pry Emily's thighs apart completely with strong hands and hook both index fingers under the poet's black panties. Sue didn't even tug them down as she usually would, she leaned forward and pressed a teasing kiss against Emily's clothed clit.

A loud gasp erupted from Emily's throat at that first unexpected touch, causing everyone's chatter to die down and gaze upon the birthday girl with yet more concern. Lavinia, who was already experienced with under-table fornication, stared at Emily a little funnily before taking note of Sue's absence.

"Emily, are you okay?" Austin asked, his own concern for his sister evident in his tone.

"Yes, I- this wine is just so lovely that it shocked me, you know?" Emily started to ramble on, desperately trying to distract herself from the fact she could feel Sue's tongue gracing her inner thigh. "It even smells expensive, where did you get it? Like, Italy or something?"

Sue's mouth started to kiss its way back to Emily's covered centre, leaving soft open-mouthed kisses on the fabric that was dampening with Emily's arousal. Emily managed to spark up a whole conversation about wine between her family and let a brief sigh of relief fall past her parted lips. She was grateful that the attention was no longer on her so she could focus on the actions of the girl between her legs.

Sue's fingertips traced the outline of Emily's panties so lightly, she almost could've missed it if her senses weren't heightened from excitement and nervousness. Sue rested the side of her cheek against Emily's left thigh as she pulled the poet's panties to the side with ease. Emily quickly glanced down to try and catch a glimpse of Sue but the tablecloth covering the table sheltered the girl from being seen. Emily supposed it wasn't a bad thing but she so desperately wanted to gaze into Sue's eyes, to see if the hazel orbs had darkened in colour due to lust. To see the love and affection swirling around in her irises, only for Emily to see.

When she felt the tickling of Sue's hair against her bare skin, she knew the girl was close. Emily braced herself physically by taking her bottom lip between her teeth in case she made any noises that would alert her family, and braced herself mentally by filling her brain with thoughts of Sue. Sue, Sue and only Sue. That was all she ever needed.

Sue, pink-faced and extremely turned on, used her free hand to securely grip onto Emily's hip as her other was busy holding panties apart. Leaning in, her eyes fluttered shut and her tongue darted out to get a taste of what was Emily. It slipped through the poet's lips, collecting all of the wetness Emily had to offer. Sue's tastebuds were exploding at the all too familiar taste and she couldn't help that her delight came out in the form of a soft moan.

Emily was trying awfully hard to keep calm and collected as Sue's tongue licked the length of her pussy in slow strokes. Sue panted softly against Emily as her tongue continued to slip effortlessly through the poet's glistening folds. The two girls were silently begging for more and as if reading her mind, Sue began tongue-fucking her way into Emily's pussy, earning an involuntary thigh clench around her head.

Sue took two slender fingers and guided them to the little bundle of nerves that was aching for attention, rubbing in quick circles.

A sudden fist slamming against the table had everyone in the room looking around, eyes wide, including Emily. Until she noticed that the source of the disturbance was herself. Quickly pulling herself together and attempting to keep a straight face, she apologised for disrupting the conversation and made up an excuse for her abrupt action.

Sue did not once stop her own actions though, her head bobbing steadily as her tongue thrusted into Emily's pussy greedily. Her hands were busy, rubbing the poet's clit in a circular motion while the other gripped hard onto her hip. Sue could feel her own panties become wet just from pleasing Emily in this way and she knew as soon as everybody left, she would fuck Emily senseless. And vice versa.

When Emily's hand came under the table, Sue wasn't surprised. The poet always adored hand-holding but whenever she was about to cum, she loved it even more. Sue released her grip on Emily's hip and intertwined her fingers with her lover's, allowing the pad of her thumb to soothingly stroke Emily's skin.

"Emily." The unexpected name call made Emily jump and she responded with 'what?' in a rather weak voice.

"Are you alright? Why, you look...dazzled." Mrs Dickinson noted. Lavinia caught Emily's eye and raised a questioning eyebrow with a smirk etched on her lips.

"Uh, yes. I'm fine, mother." Emily reassured, glancing down at her full plate. She realised that she barely ate a thing while everybody else was halfway through their own meal. For good measure, Emily stabbed her fork through a pea and popped it into her mouth. Just as she was doing that, Sue stopped what she was doing. Emily could have angrily protested out loud but she didn't think that would be the best idea.

She squeezed Sue's fingers tightly, wordlessly asking why she had stopped. Sue's response was one Emily approved of greatly, and her eyebrows knitted upward in pleasure at the feeling of Sue's lips now wrapped around her clit.

Sue sucked gently, her tongue often prodding the clit in her mouth. Emily's eyes threatened to roll into the back of her head at the immense waves of pleasure she was feeling everywhere within her.

The smaller girl's fingers teased at the entrance of Emily's pussy, carefully slipping two inside and burying them deep. Sue thrusted her fingers in and out quickly, and along with the clit sucking, Emily could feel her orgasm rapidly approaching. Sue knew this by the way the poet's legs shook occasionally.

With a couple more thrusts and a rather hard suck, Emily completely came undone. Her head threw back against the wooden chair and her eyes scrunched closed tightly, mouth agape. Sue squeezed Emily's hand repeatedly to remind the girl where she was and who she was surrounded by.

Emily forced out a fake yawn and stretched her arms out by her side to try and cover up her suspicious outburst. Finding the whole situation hilarious, Lavinia exploded into laughter that startled everyone, even Sue. The guests stared at her with judging eyes, suddenly doubting whether Emily was the weird one or not.

After everybody finished another glass of wine, they all decided to help clean up and disperse from the dining room to enjoy some music in the parlour. Emily stayed seated, pretending that she was finishing her meal. Lavinia also hung behind for a moment or two longer before she skipped out of the room, not before saying goodbye to both Emily and Sue.

Emily's mouth hung open in shock and the chair scraped loudly as she dramatically pulled back from the table. Sue emerged from under the tablecloth, her hair slightly tousled and her cheeks bright pink. In her hand, she clutched the fork she dropped.

"How did she know?!" Emily scolded frantically under her breath, eyeing the door as if Lavinia was going to slip right back in.

"I don't know, but it's Vinnie. She won't care." Sue shrugged it off though deep down inside she was still scared.

"I know she won't care but she's my sister! She knew you were under the table and she definitely knew we were doing things!" Emily took her head in her hands and groaned in despair. "I'm going to get bullied for this for the rest of my life."

"Hey, as long as you had a good time." Sue nudged Emily's arm teasingly.

"I did." Emily cocked a brow. "Aren't you hungry? You did miss dinner, I still have some-"

"Oh, baby, I already ate."

[depressedhatakekakashi]

How About, No!

Au: Collage Professors Au

Words: 2101

Pairings: Yamato/Umino Iruka, Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai (Mentioned)

Summary: Doing paperwork has never been Kakashi's favourite part of the job. Doing Tsunade-sama's paperwork is somehow even worse, but apparently that's not bad enough. Kakashi's best friend has to go and make his life more ridiculous over a stupid crush.

For: @cryptic-summons @pinkcatharsis (i don't know you might enjoy XD)

At the beginning of every semester, Tsunade-sama would ask Kakashi to help her sort out all of the paperwork. Make sure that everyone was sorted into the correct classrooms, that all of the information was up to date, and that there wasn’t a repeat of the ‘2018 fiasco’ that no one was ever allowed to bring up in front of her again.

It wasn’t his favourite part of the job, but it was a good excuse to get away from his usual workload for a little while so he never said no.

Not that he thought he could say no. The one time he had tried to deny one of her requests, he had gotten a call from his father five minutes later talking about being nice to his friend and not making her life harder because he didn’t want to have to hear about it the next time they got together for drinks.

“You’re losing focus,” a file came down on top of his head, forcing him to look over at Shizune where she was now standing in front of him with a playful smile. “If you keep stalling we’re going to be here all night.”

Not a chance. He had dinner plans with Gai and he was not missing them for this.

“There’s only one more classroom to go through anyways,” opening the file he needed on the computer, he stared at the classroom details. “Teacher, Umino Iruka. See, this one will be easy.”

Iruka’s classes were always full because people loved hearing him talk, which would usually cause him more of a headache sifting through everyone’s files to make sure they actually signed up for the class and weren’t just placed in there by a wonky system. It wasn’t a headache because Iruka liked to look through his class layout before Tsunade-sama started the mad dash to organize everything before the new semester started, so he always had a file ready full of all of the student’s class requests.

It saved Kakashi from having to look through each of their files to make sure that they were in the correct class, and there was always a note if there was someone in it who shouldn’t be.

“Where is-” The file in question appeared in front of his face suddenly, a smile on Shizune’s face when he looked up at her.

“You’re not the only one with plans tonight, Kakashi,” the playful wink she gave him told him Rin was going to be wearing a smile all day tomorrow. Probably the type he wouldn’t want to ask about, just to save his sanity. “There is one sticky note on the inside, but I haven’t read it yet.”

It was probably just a request to remove a student. Likely because they hadn’t actually requested to be in the class, but also possibly because Iruka didn’t want to deal with them again. There had been a few repeat students that had proven to be little more than a nuisance to the poor man, and while Kakashi did gain a certain amount of enjoyment from seeing Iruka tearing his hair out of his skull because of shitty students, he could also understand why he would finally put his foot down and stop letting them in his class.

Flipping the file open, Kakashi directed his attention to the sticky note first. Rechecking everything that Iruka had already done would be easy. The most difficult (but still rather easy) part would be finding whoever it was that needed removing and going through the process of having them taken off of the class list.

What he found was not something he had been expecting at all.

Professors don’t usually take classes themselves? A mistake perhaps?

Professor? Now that had to be a mistake. Maybe the systems were acting up and just throwing anyone into classes now. Who knows, maybe Shizune had been forced to remove him from one of her classes, or Tenzo’s.

Who knows what those computers were getting up to. They were so old that Kakashi was certain they were functioning on nothing but cobwebs and spite. This semester the spite was getting the upper hand and making their lives a little more interesting.

“Should be simple enough,’ scanning his eyes over to the list of students, he searched for a familiar name. “Though I wonder why the system would-” As soon as he found the name he was looking for, he dropped the file.

“Is everything alright?” Shizune asked with a concerned tone in her voice.

“It’s fine,” pushing his chair back, he snapped the file shut and stood up. This was something that needed a bit more of a hands-on approach to rectify. “I’ll be back in ten, twenty tops, and I’ll pick up coffee on the way back.”

She was less likely to be upset with him for disappearing in the middle of their work if he returned with a treat, and he knew the perfect person to pay for that treat.

After all, it was his fault that Kakashi was leaving his work behind. He could make it up to him by paying for Coffee.

Finding Tenzo had been easy. As always he was tucked away in the university garden, which everyone considered his office because of how much time he spent there, tending to some of the flowers.

Today he was hovering over the tulips. Flowers that none other than Iruka had suggested were added, admitting that they were his favourite flower when Tsunade-sama asked him why he wanted them in the garden so badly.

Tenzo had wasted no time in finding the perfect spot to plant a variety of tulips. He had even chosen all sorts of different colours, determined to grow as many of them as he could just for Iruka.

The fact that there were still people in the university who had no idea about Tenzo’s crush on Iruka was astonishing to Kakashi. There was no way he could be more obvious about his feelings towards the modern history professor.

Well, there was one way but he had gotten upset with Kakashi over the cute sign he had tried taping to his back one day that read ‘I’m in love with Umino Iruka’. Kakashi still wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like he had made it into the university before Shizune pointed out the sign’s existence.

It wasn’t even half as embarrassing as Kakashi had intended it to be.

“So,” resting an arm on Tenzo’s shoulder, he smiled when his friend glared at him. Already prepared for whatever Kakashi was about to throw his way. “Daydreaming about Iruka? I hope you’re doing this during your break. You know how important it is not to get distracted when you’re watering the plants.”

“Very funny,” shrugging Kakashi’s arm off of his shoulder, Tenzo turned his attention back to the Tulips. “Unlike you, flowers are rather resilient. If I don’t water them right away they’ll survive. If Gai doesn’t hug you as soon as he sees you, you’ll wither away.”

Unnecessarily true.

“Meh, at least I can own the fact that I need hugs from my boyfriend,” placing his hands behind his back, he peered at Tenzo with his good eye. “Meanwhile you’re just pretending that you don’t have the biggest, most obvious crush on Iruka ever. You were so desperate to get close to him without admitting you like him, that you signed up for one of his classes. Didn’t you?”

Tenzo’s shoulders stiffened. Caught in the act, he turned to face Kakashi.

“How did you know?”

“I help out with the paperwork every semester. Did you forget that, Tenzo?” The look of dread on his friend’s face told him that he had, indeed, forgotten. “I wouldn’t worry too much. Iruka seems to think it was a mistake that your name was placed on his classroom list. I don’t think the man has any clue what you were trying to do.”

Which, in his personal opinion, just confirmed how oblivious Iruka was.

“I do have one question though,” dropping his arms to his side, he took a step forward and reached out to touch the one purple tulip that was blooming. “Out of all of the things you could have done to try and spend some time with Iruka, you decided to enroll in his course. Why?”

His question was met with silence. Not the kind that told him Tenzo was desperately thinking of an appropriate answer. No, this was the kind of silence he was met with whenever Tenzo was too embarrassed to give him an answer.

When he knew that providing Kakashi with the answer would lead to his best friend giving him an even harder time than he already was, which left only one clear reason for why he had done it.

“You could just, oh I don’t know, ask him out,” Gripping the tulips stem, he plucked it out of the ground and stood up straight. The annoyed look he received from Tenzo was no doubt in response to both his words and the fact that he had just plucked a tulip of all flowers. “What could you possibly hope to gain from taking his class, that you couldn’t from just asking him out?”

“I was hoping that it would...you know, maybe let me spend some time around him,” Turning his head, Kakashi levelled Tenzo with an unimpressed look. “I know it’s stupid. Trust me, I’ve been scolding myself for it for days. I just-I needed something. Some way to get in close to him and actually start a conversation.”

It took a moment for Tenzo’s words to fully sink in, but once they had Kakashi straightened himself up and carefully placed the Tulip he had plucked behind his ear. Keeping it out of harm’s way as he removed the file from under his arm and used it to smack Tenzo upside the head.

“Ow!” Tenzo’s arms shot up to protect his head. “Senpai, what the hell!?”

Taking the file across Tenzo’s head once again, he watched as his friend tried to back away from him. “Professors cannot date students you absolute-” cutting himself off, he smacked Tenzo once more before watching him stumble back into the tulips. “Of all the stupid ways to try and get close to Iruka, you chose the one illegal way? Are you trying to get him fired!?”

“No, that’s not��” Glancing down at the tulips that he had crushed under his feet, he sighed. “I wasn’t trying to. I just…”

The look of defeat on Tenzo’s face is all too familiar. Kakashi could remember a time when he had felt the same way about Gai. Never knowing how to approach him, let alone how to ask him out.

It wasn’t Tenzo’s fault that the heart was a stupid organ that didn’t have any meaningful connections to the brain. The thing acted without concern for the results of its actions.

It just meant he was going to have to take matters into his own hands.

“I’ll take you off of the classroom list,” he informed Tenzo, holding up a finger to silence his friend when he opened his mouth to protest. “And you’ll be ready one Wednesday evening for a double date. Gai and I will be there to make sure that you don’t do anything else colossally stupid.”

“Wednesday?” Tenzo’s eyes widened. “You’re not going to”

“Well, clearly you can’t be trusted to take care of asking him out yourself,” honestly, he’d probably leave the actual asking to Gai. He was always good at convincing people to hang out, and he might even be able to make Tenzo look good while offering Iruka a date with him. Something Kakashi didn’t trust himself to do at the moment, given what a dumb move Tenzo had just pulled. “Wednesday night. If you’re late I’ll be forced to send Gai in to retrieve you.”

For a second it looked like Tenzo was about to argue some more. Perhaps protest against Kakashi’s idea, or try to point out that he could take care of his own love life. Instead, he simply shut his mouth and nodded his head.

“Yes, Senpai,” he responded in a defeated tone. “Just...try not to be too embarrassing.”

Here he was trying to help his best friend out with his love life without possibly costing Iruka his job, and the bastard dared to call him embarrassing? That was the final straw.

He was bringing videos from Tenzo’s twenty-fifth birthday party. Iruka could decide for himself if he wanted to date Konoha’s worst karaoke singer or not.

[miamaroo]

Northern Migration- Chapter 21 (Notes + Preview)

We’re finally out of the Suffering Game, so you know what that means! We can finally move on with our lives and stop being anxious all the time in case someone else manages to get their souls kicked out of their bodies. But hey, let’s reflect fondly on our times here in Wonderland with our final set of notes for it. Like always, be sure to give the actual chapter a read but if that doesn’t float your boat then I guess you can just sink (jk).

Spoilers Ahead!

So since the previous chapter was a break from the slough that is Wonderland, I tried to make the opening scene a refresher of what’s going on, where everybody is standing, and what condition they all are in. Hopefully, I worked or else that fight scene got real confusing real fast.

I mentioned this a long time ago, but when I started this fic, I forgot that Avi is a massive jock. Like, he has two character traits and I completely forgot one of them. In order to convey my falsehood that he’s a nerd, I made sure to emphasized at every given moment that even though he has a sword, he has no idea how to use it. Now that I know better, I’m starting to incorporate the fact that he’s a jock back into the story. In this case, by having him jump onto a mob of mannequins and just brawling it out. I’m going to make the fact that he carried around a sword he did not know how to use a sort of character beat (that I’ll hopefully actually remember to go back to), but just know that I do notice when I make mistakes like that and there are times when I will do my best to reconcile my fic with canon.

In another instance of revisionist writing, I also did not realize that Maarvey is the leader of the Hammerheads until I was relistening to the Petals to the Metal a while back. Of course, I already wrote in a new boss for the gang, so I guess they’re married now. Guys, the Hammerheads are going to be so insignificant in the long run. Please don’t think about it too hard. I’m trying.

A whole lot of you were getting super excited to see Merle rescue Barry, and I was so sure you guys all forgot that Sloane was following Johann around. I don’t blame you guys for forgetting since it was actually months ago, but now I just feel foolish for not sticking a reminder somewhere in the story.

Lydia and Edward’s fighting styles as Lucretia and Taako are, of course, twisted versions of the magic the people they’re possessing are known for. I made sure to only have Edward use spells only Taako knows, which was actually super fun to write. I chickened out a bit with Lydia since some of the different ways I thought barriers could be used were a little bit too gruesome for my taste.

Also, I really hope that fight scene wasn’t too confusing to read. There were too many things that had to be happening at once for me to choose one character’s perspective to stick with, but a lot of the sequences were way too short for me to break up with lines. I tried doing this sort of long shot effect where I started with one person and used things from the environment as an excuse to track the camera to someone else. So for example: Julia in trouble > Davenport can’t reach her due to beam > Ren can feel vibrations of the beam. If it was too confusing to read, just say so and I will never use this format again.

Where do I start with Ren and Lup? Remember two chapters ago when Not Taako first appeared and the umbra staff flew from Ren’s hand into his? That was supposed to be Lup thinking that Taako had come back to her, so when she realized seconds later that this is a fake, she zapped him. No one seemed to have caught onto that, or at least no one told me they did. So in this chapter, when Ren senses Lup being upset, this is Lup essentially thinking that Taako is gone forever.

I imagine that the umbra staff’s ability to help Ren know where everything is in a given space is the same ability that Lup uses to spread her senses beyond the umbrella. Essentially, Lup handed over her sense of sight to Ren so that she could “see.”

I never mentioned Killian having different types of crossbow bolts before because???? I don’t have a good excuse?? So sue me???

I actually had to look up spells for this fight scene so I guess I’m officially putting more work into this than I first said I ever would.

I hope with Kravitz’s arrival in this scene is a good indicator of how differently time passes on the Astral Plane. His arrival also marks the spot in the story where I should have spilt this chapter into two parts but oh well.

When you really think about it, bardic magic sounds terrifying. Anything can count as being music, so like you really got to be careful not to insult those suckers or else they’re just gonna scorn you.

I apologize if the POV got really wonky for the second half of the Hammerheads scene. Again, there was a lot of things happening at once, and the moment Barry went unconscious, I was having problems finding a good perspective to anchor the rest of the sequence on, especially since I wanted to give Merle some kind of moment in this chapter but I also had to explain Johann’s plan. It got real messy and, once again, I am so sorry for that.

Okay, so I wrote the song Johann sings. And by wrote, I mean I threw some lines with a rhyme scheme together and called it a day. It’s like not good at all, and really it’s super bold of me to claim that it’s the most beautiful thing Sloane has ever heard.

We’re going to talk a bit more about Stevie and John because I still have more to say. Stevie and John’s subplot is my favorite to write, and I am very excited that I can now start giving you guys a real idea of where it’s going. Initially, when I first started writing this story, I knew that I wanted John to play a major role before the story’s climax and I knew that I wanted Stevie to be more than just decoration for her parents. Putting these two together has led to some ideas and plot points I can’t wait to show you guys and I really hope that you’re as down to see them as I am. Everything I said in the in-chapter notes about Stevie having a good ending is true. Right now I am on the fence about how this will end for John because I can either let it end with him redeeming himself like in the original show or I can make it an excuse to reinforce his villainhood. Tell me when you guys would rather see, and I’ll do my best to make it happen.

Also, you know how John says he forgot Stevie’s name, giving her the opportunity to say it again (and essentially introduce herself for the first time without her realizing) and how Stevie never catches on that she got played? I once watched a Harry Potter movie where something like that happened and I remember thinking to myself “damn, that one smart kid for realizing they’re something fishy in someone doing that” and that’s where this was born from!

Also, I hope Stevie’s choice at the end there makes sense because I didn’t want to overstate it since it really is a culmination of her character arc so far.

Julia hitting Not Lucretia with her prosthetic leg and yelling “horseshit” is the best moment in this fic thus far.

The ending of actually collecting the bell is really rushed but the chapter was getting really long I didn’t want to have to spilt it up into two parts. I hope it does work, and whatever you think needs more time to breathe will probably get more air in the next few chapters.

I debated if I wanted to let Taako’s line be the ending note for the scene because, on one hand, I had a completely different moment in mind where Taako reunites with Magnus and realizes that he’s missed out on so much. But that lined happened and, even though I don’t have Taako say that catchphrase a whole lot (since he doesn’t actually say it a lot in canon) it felt like such an emotional peak that I knew I could not do better than that. The chapter had to end there because Taako saying his own name just felt right.

So I’m going back to school in a couple of weeks, which means that updates are going to slow down to a crawl. I’ll do my best to keep you guys posted on how things are going writing wise, but please feel free to drop in and strike up a conversation about anything. I am a lonely person and I always like hearing from you guys. In the meantime, please enjoy this preview for the next chapter:

It’s been a long time since he’s had to mess with the gurney. It’s made from a light wood, carved from Magnus’s deft hands. Taako puzzles over it for a moment, trying to figure out how the intricate straps are supposed to work when the mystery woman interrupts his thoughts. “Just help me sit right there,” she says, pointing to one end. Both her teeth and red bandana are bright against her dark skin, and his eyes hurt to even look at her.  “Just sit opposite. I’m pretty sure it’ll balance itself out.”

“Yeah. Fine. Sure.” He’s not heartless, so he grabs her arm and drags her close enough to the gurney that she can pull herself on. It’s hard work, and the sweat that drips down his back is as unpleasant as he remembers it being. She shifts, makes sure she has her sword and shield strapped to her back. When he takes his designated spot, she tells her stone to lift them up. The ground disappears under his feet. From this high up, he can see all that remains of Wonderland—nothing but a pile of junk and rock. He spits down at it.

A second later, he hears Kravitz’s distant but still clearly disgusted shout. Taako cackles.  

[...]

When the gurney reaches the deck, the murky feeling from before comes back in full force. He jumps over the rail, feet landing on the familiar wood. It’s the same silver railing, same layout from stern to helm. After all this time, nothing’s changed. Sure, Lucretia is laying on the ground with Davenport still worrying over her, but that doesn’t count. Everything else—the scratches on the wood where battles had been fought, the carving of their names by the helm for future prosperity—is still here in mint condition. Nostalgia sweetens his lips, punctuating every step of movement as he spins and takes in the sight of home. This is home.

And there’s Magnus. He’s standing by the buttons that operate the gurney lift, eyes wide as he stares at Taako. He’s older—thicker in some parts, worn out in others like a bruised shield. But his smile is the same as he takes three large steps from the buttons and engulfs Taako in a hug. “Holy shit—Taako!”

Taako wheezes, every rib cracking. Magnus’s arms are thick and strong, and Taako can’t deny how great the feeling of being affectionately suffocated is. “Ey, big guy—”

“I thought I was never gonna—”

“Momma!” At the sound of a girl’s voice, Magnus drops Taako. Hug over. His hands stay resting on Taako as the little human girl who is peaking out from the steps below deck, hiding for a moment longer before racing up to the gurney.

Taako feels Magnus’s hands leave him. “Jules,” he says, his hand now brushing over the little girl’s head as he approaches Julia. His mouth agape, he tries to find a place to start. His hands hover over Julia under she takes one of his and presses it to her cheek. His other hand copies it, and Taako can see the gold glint of a ring on his left finger. “Jules, what happened? This is… what happened?”

Taako stares at the ring, then at the loving sadness in Julia’s eyes. He looks down at the child, and a part of himself he really hates can piece the narrative into a whole picture. “What the fuck?”

[exotahu]

It’s here, the giant Bronycon post!

As per usual I don’t usually make this many words ever so shit might be wonky. and also it was written over the course of a few days so things might not line up in the right order. Also, fair warning I get kinda weird and sentimental at the end there. Also I have no idea if tumblr will break the formatting real bad so heres hoping it doesn’t

Thursday We left early without much incident. Only a group of 4 this time. Me, Andy, his brother Justin, and Andy's girlfriend Sam who was coming in via plane.

It was a really easy journey. Even stopped at the one Speedway with the good hotdogs. I decided to tie a ribbon in my hair too, I always say I should do something more with it than just tie it back. So I figured I'd try it. We got to Baltimore in what felt like no time at all. We checked in and went to our rooms and waited for Sam. I fiddled with my little electric name badge thingy I bought last year. Got it to say my name and Bronycon 2018 with some hearts and sparkles. Once Sam got settled in, we all met back up to go to pre-reg. She and I were afraid we'd weird each other out but we ended up getting along great. We all went to pre-reg and picked up our badges. Then, after dropping our stuff off at the hotel we ventured back out into the inner harbor for food and hanging out. We opted not to go to Dick's this time, opting instead to go to Tir na Nog. Got my usual pub food. The Vodka cranberry (yes even though I planned on drinking later) and the plain cheese burger. I like to eat the same thing at all the places, because I think it's neat to see the same food through the different lenses of different restaurants. Tir na Nog in Baltimore is different than O'Toole's in Albany is different from Jack Astor's in Toronto. After that we went to the big Barnes and Noble and looked at books and stuff. Then we all went to that ice cream shop thats right next door. They sell tea apparently so I got a small one. Missed the regular size straws so I had a huge straw (Like a goddamn footlong) in a tiny cup (like 3 inches). We went to the bars in Fells point after that. We only got slightly lost, but we found it. We didn't register for the actual bar trot, cause you don't really have to to enjoy drinks. We went to the Dog's Watch Tavern first cause they usually have a good shot, which in this instance was a Pinkie Pie shot. Don't know what was in it but I had several. We went to the Admiral after that. It was the best as it usually is. I think I drank like, 4 of the Trixie, there was a Sunset Shimmer drink (But it was secretly the Applejack. I liked it anyway). And I had most of a Rainbow Dash drink. I must say, I absolutely adore the atmosphere at this bar. The bartender is great and clearly loves what he does. A couple people recognized me cause I sit in the same spot more or less every time, and the goggles that I wear. That was pretty neat. Got pretty drunk, decided to go back after that to prep for the next day. We got a little bit lost on the way back too, but it brought us by the CVS so I bought a couple boxes of PopTarts. We got back to the hotel and went to bed.

Friday

Tried to get up for opening but missed most of it. Caught the tail end of it though. Sleep deprivation got me, plus the buttload of alcohol didn't really help. Hung out in the harmony plaza til the apple family panel. There was a photoshoot that happened but there wasn't a ton of people there. Saw apple family VA panel. It was pretty funny. Went to the vendor hall and walked it to get the layout, I didn't want to just chaotically walk around and not know where anything was so I strictly just walked each isle in a pattern. Actually helped me remember where booths were. I spoke to an artist about getting a comission for a friend who couldn't make it. His slots were full for the day so I figured I'd come back Saturday. I bought an original piece from him, which was actually pretty cool. I then went to the comic booth. I am trying to get at very least the A and B covers for every comic, Plus I wanted first prints of the first issue mane 6 covers. I got the first prints of the two #1 issues I needed. Then I got invited to Jonny Rockets, and due to needing to finish something in the vendor hall it took me a little bit. My friends are cool and waited for me even though I went on one hell of a journey to get there. So I got out of the vendor hall which exited by the Hilton sky bridge. Figure, shit I'll just take the sky bridge on the opposite side so I go for it. Get out there, pass the other hotel (hyatt?) and what used to be a wide open plaza. (Now it's a parking lot). Realize the goddamn thing ends there and there is no way down (unless I went back through the convention center and all the way back around), and more of the bridge is missing. Figure I don't want to walk all the way back so I go through the hotel. No idea if I was supposed to go through that door cause it looks like there were unused decorations everywhere. Nobody stopped me so I made it out to the street. Realize I still have to walk to the corner to cross, but say fuck it and randomly cross in the middle to the street island thing. Then I almost died to a puddle walking on the sidewalk behind some food trucks. Caught myself though. Finally I get there and we hang out and get a burger. On our way back I managed to drop a Pokemon on the Bronycon gym. We went back to the vendor hall. Hung out and looked at stuff. Me an Sam went shopping for pillows. We each bought one, only the case though. Had no space to store the full whole thing.  We went to the whoves line pannel after that. It was really funny, especially the bit where they acted like the friendship map was a computer that got a ton of viruses and went to a "bad dragon" website. I am surprised I've never gone to it before. We went to Jimmy Johns for dinner and then dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed to the palooza. The performances were great, although they somehow got super off schedule. I bought a Shake-Ups CD. I stayed until the end. I enjoy the palooza immensely, but those 2AM nights are rough. My legs end up being noodles and its a guarantee I won't get to bed until atleast 330. Which is about when I went to bed.

Saturday

Had a bit of a slow start but I wanted to speak to the artist about that comission for my friend who couldn't make it. Even though I was slow, I still got there early enough. The thing he wanted would have been too complex, so I came up with something I think he'll like. Then I went to the comic booth and figured out what I needed to complete the A and B covers for the main comic series. It was cool cause they just let me into the booth to look. I believe I've done it, I just have to add everything to my app to make sure. I ran out of space in my comic storage, so I only did the main series. Next year I will buy for the side series. (There is a lot less). As of typing this out, I found the shop's location. Only a 3 hour drive. Might make a trip of it so I don't have to worry about it at next year's con. Dunno. Met back up with Andy and Sam in vendor hall. We looked around before leaving to get food and make a hotel drop. We got lunch at the JJ before heading to the script reading panel with Tabitha. Usually they're pretty strict about recording at these. Usually one of the staff says something about my camera, but nobody said anything. Or mentioned not recording it at all. I wonder if anyone uploaded it. It was about the mane 6 and a convention called "boomycon" which was about an alt. universe Derpy as a comic character who rides a meteor or something. The comic characters crossed over into the regular universe and shenanigans ensued. It was pretty funny. After that we went back to vendor hall to check on something, and I bought another of those dang pillows, and these weird flow rings, plus some other small stuff, including some super fucking adorable chibi-ball plushie things of Fluttershy and Tempest (Pretty sure I posted pictures). We made a hotel drop and got food. We tried to get into the DIY pony plush making but ultimately the wait list was too long. At this point we went to the sky terrace thing. Apparently there was a wedding, which is really fucking cool! Then we just found some chairs to just kind of chill in. Justin had a mini-pizza that came in a mini-pizza box. We're just sitting there talking and some guy came up and leaned over. We all thougt maybe he had left something. Then we notice he's signing the empty pizza box? He then just says you're welcome and leaves. It took a second then we realized... It was MA Larson. Fucking hillarious. I went back to the hotel again, meeting up with a friend on the way back. Met back up with everyone else at the palooza after that.  Brought the rings I bought and was playing with them, while doing my awkward-ass flail dancing. A couple people thought they were cool which was neat. I really enjoyed all the performances. A cover of 500 miles happened, Eurobeat was fantastic. Great show. I caught a T-Shirt that was thrown. (Which never happens ever and even though it's a small size it still fits.) Again I stayed until 2 AM, got to bed about 330.

Sunday Sundays are usually always the chill day where not much happens. Woke up around the usual time and headed over to the vendor hall. I wandered and bought some last minute things (Pillow #3...). I met back with everyone else around noon. We spent most of day in vendor hall just hanging out. One thing I did, was get a comission of my pony OC. I've been wanting to for years, just to say I had so I finally did it. I'm looking forward to it. Also saw a little digital badges that you could store pictures in. After that we went to the fountains to hang out before lining up for closing ceremonies. They opened with a nifty performance by Step2Harmony. Some of the guests said their farewells before the con chairs started talking about the numbers, a little more than 5000 people. (I don't remmeber the exact number, might have been closer to 5600?). After that was a skit involving the mascots. Blank Canvas got accepted into an art school and Hoof Beatz was going on tour, and the date they were leaving was the end of August next year. They run off stage and Mane Event just stood there like "What about us... : (" Scene end. Sure enough, the con chairs came back out and annouced that next year is going to be a 4 day event instead of a 3 day event. They also anounced that next year is going to be the last Bronycon and that they are ending the event in 2019. You could feel the moment where everybody's hearts broke. There were a lot of people crying. I was pretty choked up too, and I'm honestly not sure how I kept myself together. We walked back to the hotel. While we were waiting for the elevators, you could tell the mood was pretty sombre. Dropped off my bag and went back down to the lobby to wait for Andy and Sam. We all headed down to the inner harbor to go to Bubba Gumps. We had a hour and a half wait, that we spent hanging out in the harbor and the pavillion. One of them seemed to be closed this year. They seem to get smaller and smaller each year. Bubba Gumps as always was fantastic. I got the usual Shrimper's Heaven. Even got to eat the shrimp that Sam didn't eat. Bonus shrimp! Spent 60$ on my check and regret nothing. We went back to the hotel with the intent of playing some Shipfic in the one banquet room the hotel usually has open, which we did! Another group played the pony movie which was neat. We also saw an Insomnia Cookies down in Fells Point so we decided to order some. It took a little more than an hour. But I got the call and they showed up to the hotel and handed me a very warm box. The cookies were fantastic. Every bit worth the wait. I think I have one somewhere relatively close to my home but I'm nowhere near the delivery radius. Probably a good thing because I would go broke buying cookies. They're pretty awesome. Some guy had also had a baby skunk! No idea how he pulled that off or how the hotel was cool with it but it was really cute. Once the movie ended most of the people left. After that we went back to our rooms. Me and Sam got a group picture of all the pillows we bought. I packed most of my stuff after that and went to bed.

Monday.

Woke up, got the car all packed and cleared the rooms pretty quick. We had thought to do some other stuff, but we really didn't have time. Instead we went to Tir na nog and just hung out until we had to leave. Any day you can be mildly drunk before noon and have it not be a problem is a good day. We dropped Sam off at the airport after saying our goodbyes. We hit the road after that and started our journey home. Which was honestly fairly uneventful. No one's windsheild broke. No one's catalytic converter got stolen. We made a couple of stops but nothing really interesting. Got home way earlier than I'm used to. Like 5:30-6PM. And then I realized, Bed, Bath and Beyond was still open. So I drove out there to get the actual pillows for the pillow cases. Found the exact ones the guy at the booth I bought them from. They were on sale, so they were only 20$. Then I had the fun time of fitting 3 hugeass pillows in my really tiny car. Got back home and finished unpacking.  

Conclude:

I had a really good time this year. It was very a relaxing trip and I enjoyed spending time with everybody. It never quite feels long enough. I didn't make any real attempt at cosplaying this year. Just didn't really feel into it. I did wear my Sylveon ears that were given to me by a friend though. And I had my goggles, which are just kind of a thing now I guess. I tied a blue ribbon in my hair too. I never do anything with it and I guess I decided now was the time. I think I'm going to do that more often from now on. Next, I am beyond incredibly sad that next year is the last one. Bronycon has been one of the big things I look forward to doing each year. It's easily been one of the best cons I've ever been to. The atmosphere was great, the staff was great. The con ending will also mark the end of a 12 year tradition for me of going down to Baltimore for a con. The only year I wasn't able to go to was 2010 because there was just no way I was going to be able to swing it. Aside from that, I went to Otakon from 2006 until 2012. I had honestly kinda burned out on that though and wasn't sure if I was gonna go back, but it would be shortly after returning from the 2012 Otakon, Bronycon announced that they were gonna move to the Baltimore Convention Center in 2013. Some other friends were interested in going, and since I knew the area so well, we decided to go for it. I went every year after that. Hell, it's how I ended up meeting Andy (which is a pretty funny story all on it's own), it's also how I ended up recconecting with another friend of mine from way back in the day as well as others. There were good times and adventures to be had outside the Con as well. Bubba Gumps, the bar trot in Fells Point(that goddamn Trixie drink, looked like something I'd never have been able to drink, but it is easily my favorite alcoholic drink that has ever existed. I really hope I can get the recipe next year), the bigass barnes and noble, the aquarium, the pavillion. It seems like every year it gets better and I've never felt bored of it or burned out. I am going to miss this immensely, I suppose I'll have to find another con to go to, or atleast other adventures to have but one thing is for sure, I'm never going to forget any of this. All the good times that we've had, or this big thing I've been a part of or this place that has brought me so much joy over the years.

(Once next year ends and I walk out of that convention center for the last time, I am going to be a complete goddamn mess. It's going to be a terrible day for rain...)

Also, though I don't know if you'll ever read it, as I don't think we've spoken in several years now, to the person who convinced me to go to that first Otakon back in '06, Thank you. For introducing me to this place, and setting off a real wacky series of adventures. I don't know if any of this would have happened if you hadn't convinced me to come down here all those years ago. Once again, thank you, and I hope you're doing well.

tl;dr Good fuckin' con, but Pete fuckin' sad.

[arthurhwalker]

Lenovo Thinkpad P51 Review

Disclosure: I'm a Lenovo Insider, and I participate in Lenovo's customer advocacy program. The P51 Laptop was provided to me by Lenovo for my personal use, no strings attached. Review voluntary, opinions my own.

In the before times, there wasn't WiFi everywhere you went, and being able to bring your computer with you was sort of novel. Laptops back in those days were expensive, and built to last. Back then, they tended to have nice displays, a better keyboard than what you find today, and the ability to do all your personal computing on the go.

I need professional graphics, commercial grade processing power, and I jump between 2-3 operating systems for purposes of testing and preference. It's relatively simple to have all that with a desktop, paired with nice displays, and a premium keyboard. It's very difficult to have that sensation with a portable device, as laptops tend to be manufactured for Ned and Nelly Normalperson, or Billy and Betty Businessperson.

Lenovo’s P51 Thinkpad can do all the things, and I can take it with me.

Here's a link to the model Lenovo sent me.

Okay, scroll down... and, color calibrated, 10-point touch screen! But wait, there's more. You can draw on this screen with an AES stylus from Lenovo or Wacom. Yes. Yes, you can.

Obviously, drawing on screen, if you've acclimated to a tablet, is going to be weird, but I found myself quickly returning to that painting on canvas sort of feel. For doing higher resolution pixel art and landscapes it's become a favored input method because the hinge is very stiff, and I can work keyboard shortcuts while I draw. It's a thing I didn't know I wanted.

For my use case, the P51 is, literally, like taking my desktop with me.

Ports:

4-in-1 reader (MMC, SD, SDHC, SDXC), supports UHS-II SD card Four USB 3.1 Gen 1 (USB 3.0, one Always On), USB Type-C / Thunderbolt 3, Mini DisplayPort 1.2a, HDMI 1.4b, Ethernet (RJ-45), Dock connector

I can plug it into basically anything. All the things. The SD card reader is very fast, supporting UHS-II SD cards, at 300 mb/s. I own one of these 'extreme pro' cards but never got to experience how nice they are as my other machines don't have a reader that moves at this speed.

Storage:

Up to 3 drives (two M.2 SSD and one HDD) HDD / SATA 6.0Gb/s, 2.5" wide, 7mm high, Active Protection System M.2 SSD / PCIe NVMe, PCIe 3.0 x 4, 32Gb/s

This is actually better, and more, storage than my desktop. It's kind of a big deal if you use multiple operating systems. It's simpler to drop one, load another, update the bootloader, and go.

Seriously, head to Lenovo's PSREF site, scroll to the bottom of the page, and expand the specifications chart. One can set the P51 up for almost any portable computing experience for commercial and professional purposes.

Here are some things that are not in the PSREF.

The sound from the P51 is like my Thinkpad W530, super good, for a laptop. Headphones for most media consumption are optional. Melodic Death Metal requires headphones, both for audio quality, and the comfort of everyone else at the coffee shop. Moving on.

Linux runs great on it. I run all three hard drive bays and triple boot Windows 10, various flavors of Ubuntu, and various flavors of Fedora. And, yes, the touchscreen, professional GPU, and stylus pen input all work very well. I know, right?

If you want to use a keyboard this nice, you almost have to take a time machine back to the late 1990s and buy what would have been a $4000 laptop from that era. Thinkpads always have a good keyboard relative to everything else in the market, but the P51 is comparably good to everything I've ever used in the mobile computing stratum. Also, fully functional with Linux.

The battery life estimates in the PSREF seem close to the mark. It's significant because they are almost never accurate when subjected to the real world. I was surprised that a machine this powerful could last 6-8 hours depending on the load carried by the GPU.

You can swap the battery out for a spare, by flipping a switch, but spare batteries aren’t cheap. It’s still nice to have the option.

While heavy, the P51 is still pretty portable and I find myself carrying it with me more than I thought I would because of the features it provides. The heft isn't without merit, as it very well made and can take a beating. Thinkpads are famous for being Mil-Spec, but the P51 feels like it was made to both meet and exceed that threshold.

Thinkpad Aesthetics

I've owned a few Thinkpads, including a W-Series with Quadro Graphics. Thinkpads are like the black suit of business electronics. The P51 has all of that, in spite of basically being a brute when set beside most other Thinkpads, particularly X-Series. However, it has a few things many other Thinkpads do not have, that usually ruin the look of a laptop for me, but not in this case.

A lot of the mission critical ports are on the back of the laptop below the hinge. This is another thing I didn't know I wanted. Most peripherals don't have an L-shaped plug, so they stick out the side of your machine, and are generally in the way. This is especially the case if you carry a mouse, drawing tablet, or just have a book or other media laying on the table beside your computer while you work.

Two USB 3.1 Gen 1, USB Type-C / Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 1.4b, Ethernet (RJ-45), and power port are all along the back. They sell mechanical docking options for the P51, but I have no idea why.

Next, while I've already gushed a little about the keyboard, I should also say that I usually hate laptops that have a 10-key. Often, the layout of the keys will be wonky in some way unforgivable, or cramped because of space constraints. Worse, they almost always look like they were designed with the 10-key as an afterthought, just tacked onto a normal laptop keyboard.

Not with the P51, it just feels and looks right.

Bad Stuff

There is some sort of problem with the TPM module.

Official Microsoft Advisory Official Lenovo Advisory

There does not appear to be a fix as I write this, so if you use software the relies on the TPM module, this is a thing you should know about. I have confidence it won't remain a thing, and that they'll fix it. Not sure when.

Good Stuff

I used the P51 for about four months, over the course of about 550 hours to complete a game development project, the eighth book in my science fiction serial, and several other miscellaneous projects. I used it for games, casual use, and I carried it around with me quite a bit, in spite of the heft. It is that useful.

The purpose of all that was to make sure that when I wrote the review, it would be after I’d really put it through the paces as my primary device. That is, really, what a person would buy this for, to be their one and only. I feel pretty good about recommending it not just for the professional that needs power, but for the prosumer as well.

The P51 is in a rare space where cost versus value is concerned. Because it makes no attempt to be thin and sexy, you aren’t paying a premium for those aesthetics. As I write this, a starting model is about 1300 USD, and you really only need to pay a little extra to upgrade the drives and RAM from there, something that’s easy to do yourself.

If you search “Lenovo P51 upgrade” on YouTube, Lenovo has a pair of videos showing you how to do the upgrades yourself. I added two drives to the machine just to make sure it was something I could recommend to beginners. You will need one of these and one of these if you buy an M.2 SSD drive to add.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, or find me on Twitter.

[momentumgo]

Arielle Ray

Motion graphics journalist/Art Director www.arielleray.com/ New York, NY

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

My start in motion graphics was definitely odd; I didn’t really know it was a job that you could have. In high school I knew that animation was a profession and that I could work at Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network or Disney, but that seemed impossible to achieve. I’ve always liked to draw but not THAT much. I didn’t have a stellar art portfolio (mine was pretty mediocre because I didn’t have a style or apply myself) and I knew I needed a scholarship if I wanted to stay out of debt. I was also a little be terrified of the perceived impracticality of art school (my whole family is in STEM), so I ended up going a more academic route.

I ended up in a Visual Journalism program with a double major in English Literature and an Art Minor within the communications school. While there I slowly gravitated towards all of the design classes, and I thought I would end up in infographics/dataviz or doing editorial layouts online.The project that landed me in motion graphics was part of an independent study. I was supposed to be building a whole interactive site based on census data to showcase my dataviz skills...then the government shutdown happened. Fun fact, no government, no census data. So my professor told me that the science department needed an educational video aimed at middle/late elementary schoolers about aphids.

It was 5 minutes long and completely illustrated. It honestly looked like a highly animated powerpoint. My professor didn’t know how to use After Effects and neither did I. I had no idea how to parent or pre-comp things, and I think I just did a crash course in Lynda tutorials and selective googling.The project has over 200 unparented layers in one very long comp. There is no easing and the aphid has the weirdest, wobbliest walk ever. There were tears. It ended up being oddly charming though, so I got an A in the class.

Early career: I moved to NY the summer after college for a paid internship at a magazine. I was the art department intern and mostly ended up digitizing archival photos. I used my extra time to brush up my portfolio and do personal projects so I would be job-ready. I dropped off my resume at a few booths at a journalism career fair (pro tip: designers, make your resume super extra. Have a designed version and a Microsoft Word version, you’ll stand out that way) and I got a call back from the Wall Street Journal. Based on my wonky aphid video I got hired as a video department “illustration” intern doing day turn around, graphics-forward news videos. I spent a lot of time making assets, and then slowly began to edit entire videos. When I was hired on as a staff member, I made 1.5-4 minute explainer videos on everything from opioids to ISIS to Hamilton. I now work for Quartz, another media outlet and I art direct for the video department, do a lot of branding work as well as occasionally writing reporting and producing my own videos.

I use basically all of the skills that I learned in college, my English Lit major helps when writing scripts, I use my journalism background when interviewing people and doing research, my fine arts background comes in handy when it comes to illustration, my graphic design background helps with composition, art direction and color theory.

I’ve never freelanced and just moved from journalism outfit to journalism outfit doing motion graphics and I feel like I stumbled into the perfect career. I get a ton of freedom in that my team kind of lets me animate what I want, and I don’t have brand guidelines or a client brief to follow. That being said, the story is always king in journalism, so my visuals will always take a backseat to the reporting and changing timelines are common. The script/voice over is never truly locked. Your animation can get cut and it doesn’t matter how hard you worked on it or how much you love it.

I’m also on staff, and that comes with stability and health insurance and I really love that. I think I could ultimately push myself to be more creative and make more money if I freelanced, but I am very risk averse and cannot handle living in a city as expensive as NY without a steady paycheck.

At the end of the day, I really love my job, and I feel very successful doing what I’m doing. I don’t know if I’ll ever have time to produce Motionographer level work, or do a short film, but I feel creatively fulfilled and am really proud of a lot of my work.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I was lucky enough to go to high school in a place that allowed for a lot of AP classes so I started college with a bunch of credits, allowing me to finish a double major and minor in 4 years. Those AP classes also got me a scholarship and between that and my parents help, I didn’t have to take out any loans. I worked some to take care of minor living expenses but because I was financially secure, I could choose jobs that helped my design skills and I took on 3 unpaid summer internships. I landed my internship through an alumni of my college, and that internship paid me a lump sum that covered my living expenses. I would not have taken the NYC leap without the money. My parents stopped supporting me when I moved to NY but I always knew I could move back home.

Starting out in journalism is a bit rough, and it is very, very hard to do if you have debt. You are expected to work 10-14 hour days on an intern’s salary (sometimes minimum wage) for that 3-6 months, and you are also expected to be grateful to be there. From there, there is often another level of indentured servitude called a fellowship, where you are paid under $45k (sometimes as low as $30k) and locked into that for a year. After that you have to hope you do a good enough job for that outlet to hire you/or that the outlet has the budget to bring on another staff member (they often don’t).

I was able to skip the fellowship stage but was still being paid a fellowship salary. The benefit was, I was able to negotiate a slightly better salary within 6 months. I would not be able to have reach where I am without my parents’ financial help in college, and I would not have taken such risks if I had debt.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

I don’t know that I would want to do mograph without the journalism, but I also wouldn’t necessarily advise getting into journalism. You have to really, really love it. I personally do love my career and feel extremely fulfilled by it. I love that I have so much control over my work and sometimes tackle subjects that really make a difference, and I’m constantly intellectually and creatively stimulated. I also wonder if staying in journalism is worth it. Layoffs are always imminent and getting paid what you’re worth is a constant political game of competing offers and posturing. You can never really look past the next 6 months for guarantees. Unfortunately, journalism is a contracting industry and in New York City there are a million new Columbia grads every year who would be very willing to replace you for pennies. A graphics background makes you special, but not special enough to make you irreplaceable.

In your design work, be flexible, be multidisciplinary, and don’t be intimidated by other people’s work. Figure out that unique thing that you bring to the table and don’t be afraid to volunteer for things that are only tangentially related to what you do, you’ll be amazed what you can learn in the process. Don’t be afraid of negative feedback, it’ll make you better, but also don’t take it completely to heart. Communication is key, and that, more than software and design skills will make you invaluable to your team.

[spraklecat]

Islands of Adventure Review/trip Report below cut, it’s pretty long.

Honestly, I don't remember the exact order of events.  I pretty much just rode stuff or poked around all day, so here's what I though of the rides,   roughly in the order I first rode them.

Skull Island: Reign of Kong

Last went back in 2012 and obviously this wasn't around then.  Went in not having looked at the reviews much and I thought it was pretty cool, though I haven't been on many motion simulators.  The queue and exterior were my favorite parts (I think there was a scare actor popping out in the queue.  That or a very good animatronic.  Still a nice touch).  I hit it early, so minimal line.  There was maybe too much dependence on screens, but it was still quite fun, honestly I was a bit underwhelmed by the animatronic at the end, just much slower in action that the previous parts of the ride.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey:

A bit nauseating and more intense than I expected (again, wasn't sure what to expect since I hadn't looked into it much).  This blended real sets with screens much better and I really love the seating/ride vehicle it has, very nice flying effect.  I don't remember a lot of the details of it other than just it was a really neat experience and the story seemed really muddled, just random Harry Potter stuff stuffed together with no storyline I could really pick out.  Some of the projections were a bit blurry, but otherwise probably my favorite simulator in terms of ride experience (Spiderman is the better overall package I'd say).  

Dragon Challenge:

Both were alright in the morning, better than Raptor but well below Montu and Banshee for me due to their wonky pacing.  Maybe it was better when they dueled but I did find their layouts not as smooth and well-paced as I generally expect from B&Ms.  They got much better in the evening, though, as coasters tend to.  Still have them in the same ranking amongst inverts, but I had a lot more fun on them.  Unpopular opinion: I prefer Horntail.  The first half is amazing and honestly, the combination of the zero-G roll and the snappy cobra roll reminded me of Kumba in a really good way (as did the very noticeable rattle in the back, that thing growled more than roared).  After the loop it felt pretty meandering, but the rolls packed more of a punch than Fireball's for me.  I can see why people prefer Fireball, but it just felt kind of awkward to me.  For some reason, I felt like it always turned the opposite way I expected it to, even after at least a half dozen rides on it (I lost track of how many rides I took on them both in total, but it was quite a lot, I spent several hours in the evening/late afternoon running through the queue and reriding them).  And as I said before, the rolls on it just didn't seem as strong as Horntail's to me. If someone were to put the first half of Horntail (perhaps with Fireball's first Immelman instead though) and the back half of Fireball together, honestly, it would very closely rival and possibly beat Montu for me because dammit, I love that cobra roll.  

It's sad to see them go after I've only just gotten to appreciate them.  Especially since their layouts felt so unique compared to the other B&Ms I've been on.

Poseidon's Fury

Effects and scenery were good (the water vortex was my favorite part), but holy crap was the film (especially the costumes) cheesy as hell.  Looked like some sort of low-budget sci-fi thing rather than a battle of Greek gods.  Still glad I did it since I won't be surprised to see it go whenever they need more space.  

Cat in the Hat:

I remember this being a fun little dark ride back in 2012, but man things have gone downhill.  The animatronics definitely look worse for wear (this goes for the whole Seuss land in general).

Seuss Trolley Ride:

Thought this would go through more more themed spots like the initial wash station and have a story related to the one in the queue, was very disappointed that it didn't.  Can't believe I wasted 25 minutes waiting for this lol

Dr. Doom's Fearfall:

I always appreciate the rides that have little movies in the queue to watch while you wait, especially since the wi-fi wasn't working and I have very limited phone data.  The launch and first drop was remarkably intense, though the next few bounces were pretty weak.  Better than Power Tower was last year, which was just pathetic imo.  Still prefer those Larson (I believe?) towers you see at fairs since those tend to have minimal lines and much better drops.  

Spiderman:

Probably the most cohesive story-wise of the simulators, and like Harry Potter, blended real sets and screens very well.  The drop scene is definitely a favorite.  Rode this one twice, so that might have to do with my bias.  Really enjoyed the in-your-face 3D effects on this one, made me feel much more connected than on the other simulators.  

Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges:

Haven't been on a ton of these raft rides, but it's much better than the one at Busch Gardens Tampa.  Really enjoyed the lift mid-ride and the faster section after it.  If the one at Seaworld ends up anything like it ride-wise, it'll give me even more reason to get out there some day.  

Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls:

I was very impressed by how the ops just crank out the logs and how fast they move along the troughs and conveyors.  Sitting position was a bit awkward, though.  The first few drops caught me by surprise and kind of outshined the last one by setting my expectations too high.  That last one wasn't as good as I had hoped, but still, it's a really good log flume.  I didn't get on the JP flume since I remembered it pretty well and didn't feel the need to go again, but IOA's water rides are definitely a strong point.  

The Incredible Hulk:

Wow, this was much better than I remembered.  Unlike what others have said, it was smooth that day (a bit rougher than Shiekra I'd say) and the audio worked every time for me.  Love that launch into the roll and the high energy the whole ride has (which most of the other B&Ms I've been on lack) and honestly, I even like the second half.  It's a nice cool down from the power of the start.  Still preferred Horntail's cobra roll to Hulk's, but it's great visual.  Also, the trains on this thing are beautiful, if also very different from the B&M norm.  

Misc. Thoughts

Only had a ticket for IOA, so obviously didn't do anything in the other park.  Ice cream selection was just sad, all they had was soft serve, Dippin Dots, and exactly four flavors of regular scooped ice cream.  Which is a nitpick, but I like having a nice cone to relax at parks (and if I'm going to pay park prices, I'm not settling for soft serve lol), at least they had cookies n cream.  My patience was wearing thin in the longer lines for the coasters without my phone (especially in a 25 minute one for the Dragons with how boring and dark it is in there) and when trying to squeeze through the crowds in the back of the park. It was a much more enjoyable park in the morning and later at night when it was emptier.  I'm just used to smaller/less busy parks, I guess.  Ops were great, though, can't complain about that.  Still bitter that they won't duel the Dragons even with those metal detectors now but, eh, they're still fun coasters with usually minimal lines, which I have a soft spot for.  

Got some pics of Hulk around sunset, sadly not really any good ones of Dragon Challenge (it's a tough one to photograph with everything hiding it back there, and it was getting dark when I got the chance to take photos). Didn't have the time/urge to take pictures of anything else since there's a ton out there and I'm more interested in pictures of naked coasters/rides and natural scenery than theming.

Also, as someone who hasn’t seen a standard-gauge steam engine IRl, I loved the Hogwarts Express replica.  Spent a while just looking at it since it was so enchanting for me even if it was fake. I keep remembering that I have a scholarship good for studying abroad and the UK is calling my name owo