#i was gonna make instructional zines on this actually

[himbopunk]

bro every time someone on etsy asks me how i make patches i get so excited i fucking love sharing resources and helping people make things its cool as hell

[lazywitchling]

Review: The House Witch by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

3.5/10 - This could have been a zine. As it stands, I was not the target audience for this book.

Maybe I'm just being mean since I read this one directly after Queering Your Craft, but my goodness I don't think I was the target audience for this one. I am cis-adjacent girl-not-woman, single, living at home with my highly conservative christian parents, and keep my craft in the closet. This book is for a cis-woman who is probably married, runs a household, has a couple of children, and is the spiritual-head-of-household who teaches the kids to say their prayers to the abstract Divine every night before they turn on their essential oil humidifier for bedtime.

It sure would be lovely to live in the world that Arin does, where I could consult with the other family members about their particular Spiritual Beliefs (TM) and integrate those into an Altar in the kitchen where we all make our offerings and say our prayers to the household spirits, but that is not the world I live in. If I tried to start that conversation at home, I'd very quickly wind up with a very aggressive visit from the local pastor who spoke at a rally for 45. Thanks, Arin, but I'm... gonna skip the build-an-altar-in-your-kitchen-and-invite-your-family-to-participate step.

So here's the thing. (And I'm starting to notice that this is a pattern with a lot of the witch books I read...) I would probably have loved this book if it were more of a personal memoir than a How To Witch 101 guide. And I get the feeling that this was more of a problem with publishing than with the author. I mean I could practically feel Arin bursting at the book-seams to tell me about how she practices her witchcraft spirituality in her home, but instead she's stuck trying to write about Hearthcraft (TM) as if it's a universal thing, since that's what's easiest to sell. The whole book feels like it's formatted and marketed to be a Witchcraft 101 book, but it doesn't do it well at all. In fact, in the beginning of the book, Arin practically scolds the reader by saying 'this is a spiritual path, not a magic one, and if you want a magic one, go get a book about magic.' Like... Arin, honey, your book is called The House Witch. I thought I was reading a book about witchcraft.

Furthermore, it feels like this book is filled up with a whole lot of pillow fluff to fill in the gaps. Did we need a whole chapter of cauldron mythology that we never ended up tying into anything else in the book? Did we need that? It seems like there's a lot of stuff in this book that was just put in for a page count; something to make the book seem like it has the wide-appeal of a Witchcraft 101 book. But it just came across as... idk, not genuine.

I just keep coming back to how much I would have loved to hear about Arin's own personal practice that she's so clearly passionate about!

Hey, but also... this book was an organizational mess. Why was the cookie recipe in the chapter with the cauldron lore instead of in the recipe chapter? Why were the instructions on making a clay figure of a household spirit in the chapter with the imaginary altar instead of in with the chapter on household spirits, or the chapter on crafts? Why was there a section on ethics sandwiched in between a section about talking to a tree spirit and a section about talking to a blender spirit, instead of in with the cooking chapter when we actually referenced ethics?

-sigh-

Look, while there wasn't really anything in this book that made me go "Oh wow that's a great idea, I need to use that!" there were a few sections that made me say "Hey, that particular thing is not of use to me, but the idea behind it absolutely is, and I should look into that." Which, once again, comes back to how much I wish this book was a personal memoir. Finding the little nuggets of information that told me what Arin does and how and why were so much more useful than the vague-and-generic step-by-step instructions of... whatever the instructions were for.

BTW, I read through this whole book, and I still am not sure of the definition of "spiritual" nor of "hearth" that we were using. I never did figure out if "hearth" meant "fireplace" or "center of the home" or "kitchen" or what.

Ultimately I came out of the book more confused than I was going in. It's not the worst witch book I've read -- [waves to Skye Alexander] -- and I did get at least some things out of it that I can ponder on my own. But man... idk what that book was for. I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

[faeryvoid]

About FaeryVoid

I'm Fawn (FaeryVoid) I'm starting this blog to share my art, crafts, and creative projects.

My identity and experiences are very much reflected throughout my art etc, so first I'm gonna tell you a bit about me.

I'm a 21 yo queer, neurodivergent, disabled, ancom, punk, alterhuman, folk witch. Umm I really enjoy counterculture. I grew up in a Christian conservative family and I think I've always been drawn to things outside of the norm or things that rival the Christian conservative values. For example I've always been very hyper fixated on occult things and the macabre. I remember my mother saying when I was very young, "when I had a girl I thought I wouldn't have to worry about you being into these sorts of things". Looking back at that conversation now I find it very funny. Like I'm a genderqueer witch, I through her expectations right out the window. "God gave me instructions on how to live my life, but I couldn't read his handwriting so I burnt them last night" ~ Johnny Hobo and The Freight Trains. Though I was very isolated as a child so it wasn't until my early teens when information started becoming more accessible to me I discovered so many different aspects of myself. Things I had felt my whole life suddenly had names and communities of other people. Of course around that age 12-13 everyone around me thought everything was just a phase, while honestly I just had a bunch of information I never had before. Obviously my identity has evolved since I was only 12 years old, but I honestly had a very good sense of self at that age and I think my elders trying to convince me otherwise created so much self doubt. Anyways I've also always enjoyed creativity and creating things from a very young age and expressing myself through art etc. I'm also very crow-brained in the sense that I really like collecting things. I was a Monster High kid and now collect dolls as an adult. Also though not very relevant to this blog I was a Sonic kid, love Sonic. Cycling back to witchcraft today I'm pursuing a path in Celtic especially Welsh folk magic. I've actually been a witch for six or seven years now, but in the beginning I was very eclectic and actually I was Wiccan which definitely isn't my path anymore so I'm kind of relearning things. That's pretty much what I want to share about myself right now, in future projects like in zines I'll go more into debt on my identities, and experiences.

I plan on sharing a pretty broad array of art, crafts, and creative projects, like illustrations, zines, jewelry, poetry, DIY stuff, I'm thinking maybe even witchcraft related things. I'm teaching myself to cook so maybe stuff pertaining to that. I imagine it might not seem very cohesive, but I think overarching themes will tie everything together.

I also have a corresponding Instagram page for this blog. On top of that I've thought about making videos, but I'm not sure yet.

[asagi-red-wolf]

What happened with the zines?

Hey Anon, I'm gonna keep this short as the subject is a little anxiety inducing for me so apologies if I skim over things

I had a severe mental health crisis in December of 2021, including a suicide attempt, after wich my mom stepped in and temporarily cut me off from my projects for my health- she tried to step in and help following my instructions but understandably it was quite an enormous undertaking for someone who had no experience with zines, project management to that scale, or even using social media or instant messaging, and it was incredibly hard for her to try to keep things up

Some projects fell apart completely, like the Miraculous magic zine, others were taken over by my very capable and extremely kind and lovely co-mods, like the Yuri On Ice zines

I tried to keep in touch with some of the co-mods via email as I no longer had access to my discord, but unfortunately, as I'm sure many are aware, emails get lost and eaten quite often, and on some occasions I lost contact with my mods and fell outside of the project

There were also some cases, especially with the Teen Wolf soulmates zine, where I had been left as the only mod for months and I was trying to get help from contributors to update the social media, as the Tumblr purge on my zine blogs left only the Twitters available and I had no access to them, but that only occassionally worked

Financial management was either given to other mods (in the case of things like the YOI projects), or was held onto wile waiting for leftover sales to hit, like in cases with the IchiRuki zine, wich I later found out was taken over by one of the other mods who I've been trying to get in touch with to iron out details with, as we still had packages left from the Russian mail ban that haven't gone out and I was reluctant to start leftovers until those packages (as there are quite a few) could find their ways to their owners, however, there were also cases like the Yugioh horror zine where the zine was actually overdrawn (in the case of the horror zine, we were short over $300, wich I had spent out of my own pocket to complete shipping on, I had needed leftover sales to happen in order to make any donations, not to mention reimburse me for the money I'd spent- wich, between all projects, ended up totaling around $2,000 just in terms of funding shipping to contributors- IE: what I needed reimbursement for (things like certain packaging materials, customs import costs, and adding embellishments to bookmarks/necklaces, wich all totaled around $1,000, I was paying for out of my own pocket anyway and sought no reimbursement- they were things I was happy to provide for the zines out of love for my passion projects)

If anyone needs to reach out to me privately I can connect you with one of my co-mods to confirm that I covered $2,000 of my own money in zine production/shipping costs- I only say "privately" because I don't want to risk her getting slammed with messages out of nowhere, but please be aware (as evidenced by looking at my archive on here) I'm not on Tumblr much these days, I own my business and it keeps me extremely busy so I rarely have any down time

I still love zines, I still purchase them on a regular basis, so I'm heart-broken that things went the way they did, especially as I had made some really great connections through them that I've now lost due to losing access to my discord, but the mental health crisis I went through during the last year or so of my working on them was very serious and I'm lucky to have had my mom putting safeguards in place that I otherwise wouldn't have had to keep things from getting.... permanent....

If anyone needs to receipt check me, feel free to ask, I don't have access to some of the information anymore like the Bigcartel data as I closed my Bigcartel account ages ago and the data went with it, Awesomemerch also went belly up so certain things that I don't have on emails (like the proofs for some of the orders) aren't available either, but I do still have all of my receipts from every project I've worked on in case anything ever comes up about it and I need to show a papper trail

I know alot of people were upset by what happened, and mostly confused as I dissappeared into the ether and had no way of directing people from my past blog to this one, as- for those who don't know- Tumblr deleted my account in 2021 under false claims of it being a spam account (still boggled by that one to be honest) wich was posted about on many of the zine socials and can be confirmed by several different co-mods, for some reason my personal blog is still up but because it was a sideblog and not my actual account I can't log into it- the login page just says "this account was deactivated" when I try- and I'm extremely sorry that everything unfolded the way it did, but I'm happy and relieved to see that several of the projects I left in my comods' hands did well, that was all I ever cared about

[klance-fics]

Hmm got any recs for wrong number/texting fics?? 👀

i loooove those yes i have a bunch actually

i usually only post completed fics its like my rule but "this is so sad paladins form voltron" was discontinued. however klance happened in the fic before it got discontinued and its actually my fav so im adding it anyway

you never stood a chance

lance to hunk ♡

>i’m gonna fukin die hunk oh mygod i sent

>keith a work out selfie that i wan supposed to fcukin send to you and you know what it said

>”BET YOU WANNA LICK THESE NIPS”

>HUNK I WILL NEVE BE ABLE TO FCE HIM AGAIN I WANT TO DI E

(Or, Keith is beautiful, Lance has a crush, and there's lots of shirtless selfies)

teamwork makes the meme work

Allura creates a groupchat for the newfound members of the Gender-Sexuality Alliance club at Voltron University. Everything goes downhill from there.

Keith

Why was I never considered

Shiro

You know why.

Keith

For fuck’s sake

You shank a guy once and suddenly you’re “violent” and have “anger issues”

Pidge

keith you;re gonna make me piss my pantsnhdjkljdhjh

build a paper plane (to float to you)

“Would it make you feel better if I introduced myself to Shiro’s neighbours?”

“It would make me feel better if you had told me that you were going to be alone this winter break.” Lance grumbles lowly.

“I’m telling you now.”

Lance rubs his hand over his face, tries not to sound frustrated. “Why are you telling me now?”

Keith falters, thinks over his words. Lance bets he doesn’t know why he’s telling him now either. “Because I thought you should know.” He finally settles on. Because you can’t do anything about it.

--

In which Lance travels across 1,681 kilometers, sees the sky and the water meet for the first time, and falls in more ways than one.

voltron is a meme

Group Message to: Lance and +9 972-888-2022

Lance: shut the fuck up

+9 972-888-2022: i haven’t even said anything yet!

+9 972-888-2022: rude

Lance: PIDGE CAN’T MAKE PHONES

Lance: THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE OKAY

Pidge: say that to my face

Lance: if you can make HUNK a PHONE then you can make ME a PROPER FACE LOTION

Pidge: gdi lance lotion isn’t the same as technology

Lance: i fucking hate u

Lance: you CAN’T tell me you can build a phone out of nothing and not even make me a lotion

Pidge: i don’t even know what goes IN lotion

Pidge: i haven’t moisturized a day in my life

Lance: you Take That Back

In which Team Voltron canonically gets a group chat, Lance hates change, memes are sacred, and Keith and Lance's crushes are obvious to everyone except them.

This is So Sad Paladins Form Voltron

Princess: What is this Mario Kart?

gos: it’s a video game where you race one another in little cars

Dunce Dunce Revolution: excuSE ME

gos: not again

Dunce Dunce Revolution: did you just call mario kart a /video game/

Dunce Dunce Revolution: a mere /video game/?

Pidgeon: blocked and reported

Kogayne: never speak to me or my husband ever again

Kogayne removed gos from the chat

OR: a post season-7 chat fic because I couldn't find any

FEATURING: pining, of the klance, romellura, and adashatt varieties; wholesome family bonding; the MFes as well as our alien friends, and an unholy amount of memes.

it's actually mostly memes.

ladies and gentlemen we are rocking in space

LANCE

do u like the taste of spam, van kieu

because thats what ull get

1 glorious terabyte of def-not-garrison-approved viewing matl

every hour on d hour

KEITH

And now you’re blackmailing me. Wonderful.

Look, I’ll tell you, alright?

Not because your threat scares me, but because I’d like to cut this conversation as short as humanly possible.

LANCE

glad ur being so cooperative ;) ;)

--

Lance gets a new flight simulation partner. Lance makes a bunch of mixtapes. Lance falls in love?

Galaxy Garrison + texting au. For the Klance Zine!

Instructions Not Included

Keith glanced back toward the front door of his apartment, half hoping the cat’s owner or someone would suddenly bang on the door and give him an explanation. But the door remained silent, and Keith sighed, turning back to the cat. She was now licking her paws, seemingly completely unconcerned with her new environment.

“Don’t suppose you could explain what’s going on.”

The cat looked up at him, her gold eyes studying his, then she dipped her head and coughed up a hairball at Keith’s feet.

Keith wrinkled his nose. “Guess not.”

—

Keith ends up with an unexpected guest over the holidays.

you walked in, and i couldn't look away

Lance has a staring problem. Keith hates it and confronts him about it. Lance falls for him, literally, and then... they become sort-of friends.

Funky Lesbian changed group name “Voltrons bitches” to “Voltron is just furry propaganda”

The paladins of Voltron are on their way home. PIdge installed a texting / messaging system into their lions and now they can communicate on the way home.

Pidge did not think this through and now Lance keeps messaging about his crush on Keith.

Inspired by this tumblr post : I’m proud to identify as morosexual. I’m attracted to dumbasses and dumbasses exclusively. A guy asked me what the Spanish word for tortilla was once and now I dream of kissing him under the moonlight

hello neighbor

[8:08 PM]: you’re at work at 8 at night? where do you work?

[8:08 PM]: why would i tell you that

and don’t say because we’re number neighbors

[8:09 PM]: UGHHH

i thought we were having a moment

[8:09 PM]: over what?? i know nothing about you

[8:09 PM]: well let’s change that shall we

the name’s lance

DID YOU REALLY JUST LEAVE ME ON READ

[da-at-ass]

Alright, I'mma have a catharsis in here

(here having been my patreon discord last night)

NO ONE IS HERE

NOT A SINGLE DING DANG PERSON

I HAVE BEEN POSTING SO MUCH A STUFF IN A HERE

I HAVE WRITTEN SO MANY DING DANG THINGS AND I KEEP TRYING TO PUT IT IN DISCORD FIRST SO PEOPLE IN PATREON CAN SEE IT BEFORE I POST

BUT AIN'T NO ONE IN THE DING DANG DISCORD

SO I'MMA DROP THIS BIG PRIMER ON TIME TRAVEL IN THIS HERE CHANNEL

AND THERE WILL BE NO ONE HERE TO READ IT

BUT I'M GONNA DO IT ANYWAY BECAUSE I LOVE FUTURE YOU

WHOEVER YOU ARE

THANK YOU FOR JOINING MY PATREON AND MY DISCORD AT THE WRITING TIER AND NOW

I GIVE YOU

TIME TRAVEL: A PRIMER

I posted this rant in my Patreon discord last night and then proceeded to upload a PDF of 2,000 words length on time travel instruction, a sort of “handout sheet for class lecture number one” of Time Travel 101, to the writing channel of my Patreon discord, wondering when sempai would notice me.

Then I, myself, noticed something.

My Patreon tiers were still the old tiers, and none of them described having writing as a reward, so no one who actually wanted writing was getting writing. So no one would be able to read Time Travel: A Primer. And no one was accessing my writing in Discord because it had apparently been impossible.

UNTIL NOW.

Now, if you subscribe to the BOTTOMLESS FRIES tier of my Patreon, you will have access to the discord channel that has all the writing in progress I’ve been doing for the past 3 months or so, plus all the art, plus all the notes on future articles, plus pictures of my cats colonizing my desk. Just hook up Discord rewards and you will affix the content hose to your computerized digital device of choice! Splendor! Fancy! Nuclear footballs! It’s all in there!

Also I’m gonna make that Time Travel: A Primer PDF a Patreon post of its own now, I wanna make sure all the people who have access can see it as easily as possible. It’ll stay a Patreon exclusive since it’s so long that if I publish it it’ll need to be a zine or ebook or something, which are possibilities in the future. I’ll be posting an excerpt or two with more info on what to expect and how to get Time Travel: A Primer when it’s available beyond Patreon!

Thanks everyone for all of your support and patience!

[aifastic]

Winning Lines

The @talesofteufort zine has been shipped, and the PDFs sent! Thank you very much to everyone who contributed. I’m very glad to have been able to participate in this project; it was a wonderful experience and it’s been great working with everyone aaaa ♥

I’m really happy to share my piece for the zine! I really hope you all like it ♥ (Read it below the cut)

Title: Winning Lines Words: 1845 Warnings: None Summary: BLU has a drawing contest. Demo just wants his magazine back.

-----

“ARE YOU MANN ENOUGH TO DRAW THIS BETTER THAN US?”

The header caught BLU’s Demoman’s attention. He’d been reading the latest issue of Hat-Wearing Man when he found the ad at the bottom of one of the pages. There was a somewhat simple drawing of a monkey in a spacesuit. “If you draw Poopy Joe better than our extremely talented artist, we’ll give him the boot—and kick his ass in the process! And your picture will be the new image of our project and you, our lucky friend, will win nothing less than $700 dollars!”

“Huh, it doesn’t look that hard…” he said, pensive. Suddenly, the magazine was snatched from his hands. “Hey!”

“Ohohoh, what’s this?” Scout said, grinning at the magazine. “Hey, I’d win this in the blink of an eye!”

“Oi! Get your own!” Demo took the magazine back. “I’m gonna try this. Mum will love the extra money,” he added to himself.

“Pffft, no way, it’s a waste of mail money, pally. If someone should participate, that’s someone who actually has a chance.”

“Heh.”

They turned around to see Sniper in a corner, grinning.

“What’s your deal, Long Legs?”

“Shut up, ya scoundrel. If anyone has a chance here, it’s me.”

“Oh, yeah?” Demo asked. “Where’s your credentials, mate?”

“Don’t need any,” he said. “Quiet kid, hours at the back of the classroom sketching the teacher being eaten by a croc.” He grinned. “It should be easy as cake.”

“Oi, do ya remember the magazine is mine?”

“I agree, though—the chance should be for whoever’s got the talent.”

Demo sighed. “Aye, alright. But I’m not gonna just give it away.” His face lit up, an idea coming to his mind. “You’ll have to beat me for it.”

“Huh?” Both mercenaries stared at him quizzically.

Demo grinned, eye glinting.

“Let’s have a drawing contest.”

-----

They emptied the kitchen table in order to make room for their sheets of paper, pencils and pens. In the meantime, they threw evaluative gazes at each other, competitive strike flaring up.

The rest of the team slowly wandered to the room to find out what was going on.

“What is noise?” asked Heavy, scratching his chest. Medic, who was right behind him, had just closed it, having found himself too distracted by the ruckus to continue his surgery.

“We’re about to find out who’s gonna win 700 dollars!”

Medic perked up. “I am in. What is the bet?”

“We’re not betting, mate.” Sniper showed him the magazine’s ad. “It’s a contest.”

Medic’s smile turned dangerous. “Even better.”

“Heavy is in, too.”

“Aw, come on, guys! It’s not as if you’re gonna beat me!”

Heavy threw Scout an unimpressed look. “It is fun. I want extra money. I am in.”

“Alright, alright, mate. Sure.” Demo handed them both some extra sheets of paper they'd brought just in case.

Medic excused himself to go search for a couple of pens. On his way out, he almost crashed onto Soldier.

“Ach, watch where you’re going!”

“I need sustenance, maggot! And you’re on my way!” He shoved Medic away, making him stumble on the way out. A couple of German swears could be heard from the corridor. “Hello, everyone!”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re gonna get in too,” Scout groaned.

“In what?” Soldier inquired, tilting his head. Demo showed him the magazine’s ad.

Engineer peeked over his shoulder.

“Oh, a drawing contest?” he said, looking at it with a fond smile. “Heh. It’s been a while since I tried my hand at one o’ those. But I thought they allowed only one entry per ad?”

“That is point,” Heavy said. “We are fighting to get chance to earn money.”

“Oh…” Soldier grinned. “I’m in, maggots! I actually studied art with Kickasso.”

Everyone stared at him.

“Sure, mate,” Demo said, patting his back and attempting to lead him into the kitchen.

“You don’t believe me!” Soldier looked at everyone. Engie shrugged. Scout picked at his nails, and Sniper scratched the table distractedly. Heavy’s eyes said it all. “I will prove it to all of you!” And he headed to the table, snatching a paper sheet from the pile.

Demo brushed a hand across his own face. “I hope Medic brings enough pens.”

“I’ll go for mine,” Engie said. He added, “And I’ll go look for Pyro; they’ll love this.”

Scout groaned. “Anyone else? Maybe Saxton Hale?”

Spy’s laughter can be heard from a corner of the room.

“Oh, this is priceless. I wasn’t going to butt in, but this looks like too much fun to pass on the opportunity.”

“The opportunity to what?” Scout said, miffed.

“You’ll see,” he said with a glint in his eyes. “Besides, you need a referee, don’t you?”

“Ugh,” Scout said, bonking his head on the table.

-----

Everyone looked at each other from their respective places. Scout’s leg bounced nonstop; Sniper picked unconsciously at his pencil. Heavy’s grip on his pen was strong enough for Medic to worry about it breaking.

“Alright,” said Spy. “You have to draw…” He squinted. “Poopy Joe, following the ad’s instructions; the best artist wins. The rules are: no interfering with anyone’s drawing. No kicking under the table. No destroying anyone’s drawing. No rising up from the table until all this is over. No showing your drawing until everyone is finished. Understood?”

Everyone nodded. Pyro hummed happily.

“Excellent. So, on the count of three: One, two… Three!”

Scout’s pen tore onto the paper. “Shit! Do you have a spare?” Spy handed him one. “Thanks,” he muttered.

The truth was, Scout wasn’t that confident of the fact he was going to win. When it was just him and Demo, he’d been sure he’d win to the unsteady hand of a drunk man. And Sniper was all bragging anyways. But Medic? He’d probably drawn lots of skeletons and stuff at college. And Engineer’s schematics always look exactly like the finished product. Shit. And—did Soldier really paint with Kickasso? Nah, he shook his head. He didn’t think so. Heavy was a wild card, though.

But he had to try anyway! He couldn’t back off now. So he put his all into it.

Engineer turned his sheet of paper down. Hell! That was fast. He tried to concentrate in the lines that formed Poopy Joe, and emulated them the best he could. Damn, his hand was sweaty… He hated drawing. His cousin had always been better at it, and it pissed him off even now, far from home.

He slapped his drawing on the table, face down. “Done!” He looked up to see everyone had finished. Crap.

“Alright, then,” said Spy. “Let’s see what you came up with.”

“Come up with?” That had many meanings, but the way Spy said it… “What do you mean?”

“The challenge was to improve on the design of Poopy Joe drawn by the artist, not to copy it.”

“Oh, darn,” Engineer said, showing a perfect copy of the Poopy Joe logo. Holy shit. “Guess I got a bit carried away. I’m more used to copying stuff, ya know.”

Soldier snickered.

“Let’s see what you did, Soldier boy.”

“Alright! Look at it and weep!”

He showed them all a mess of lines with dots in seemingly random places.

“Soldier, that’s…” Scout got elbowed by Demo. “That’s cool. What are… those?”

“Those are his eyes!” Oh, God.

“Let’s see Demo’s!” grinned Soldier, confidently.

“Ach, you know I’m no artist, mate,” he said, showing his drawing. It was… Actually, it was pretty decent. His drawing had a cartoonish style that drew everyone’s eyes in.

“Interesting,” said Spy, nodding approvingly.

“Demo did great job,” Heavy said, crossing his arms.

“Aw, thanks, mate.” Demo shrugged it off, somewhat flustered. “What about yours?”

Heavy showed his drawing. It was simple, a single line delineating the silhouette of the monkey astronaut. It was stylish, though it was difficult to guess what it was at times.

“Wonderful, mein freund!” Medic clapped, and revealed his. It was… Oh, my god. “I might have put a bit too much emphasis on his organs.”

“Next!” yelled Scout, tearing his eyes away from the gory drawing. Shit. Now he had to show his. Alright. You can do this, he told himself.

He turned the page face up.

“Mate,” Sniper said.

“Oh, buddy, we made the same mistake.”

“Y’know? I saw RED’s Scout draw once and I secretly thought we were doomed.”

“Oh, shut up!” Scout said, face beet red. It was true, he’d tried to copy the drawing, like Engineer did. And his lines weren’t as sure as Demo’s or Heavy’s. Shit. He screwed up big time.

“It’s good overall, mate,” Sniper said. “You just need more confidence.”

Scout flushed. “What about yours, Mister Expert?”

Sniper grunted, and showed his drawing. Oh, wow. It was really good! The monkey looked like it’d come out of the page and tear them apart. He felt as if he would be able to touch its fur.

“Wow, Slim! That’s one helluva good drawing!”

“Thanks,” he said, grinning. “I told ya: quiet kid.”

“Where is his spacesuit, though?”

His face dropped. “Aw, hell.”

“Hmmmph!” Pyro yelled, pointing at their sheet of paper.

“Alright,” Spy said, grinning along with Engineer. “The moment of truth has come.”

“What do you mean—?”

Holy shit.

The drawing was astounding. The monkey looked cartoonish enough not to look real, but in a way that made the drawing look alive. Everything was there, and in wonderful detail: The space-suit, the stars… Even an additional full moon in the background that was a perfect circle.

“Holy shit, Py!” Scout said. “How did you do that?”

“Hhmph?” Pyro asked, pointing at the moon. Everyone nodded. Pyro mumbled happily, grabbing another sheet of paper, and drew a classical Greek style face, then erased the rest of its features little by little until they got a perfect circle.

Oh, for the love of—

“Well, it seems we have our winner,” said Spy, handing Pyro the magazine. Pyro clapped with glee, running off with it.

“Aw, man. That was totally unfair. You knew this would happen!” Scout pointed to Spy accusingly.

“I had my suspicions,” he said, grinning.

“Hey, maggots,” Soldier said, sniffing. “Is that smoke?”

They all turned around to watch Pyro as they set the magazine on fire.

“Ach! My magazine!” Demo ran and stomped on it. However, many of the pages, including the drawing contest ad, didn’t make it. “Hell. Why, mate?”

“Hmmphmmphmmph!” they said, pointing at everyone in the room, then at their drawings. Then they clapped.

Everyone looked at each other, and found a common understanding. Who knew what Pyro said? But they had the feeling they meant they were all winners today.

“So it was a huge waste of everyone’s time. Fantastic,” Spy said. “Entertaining, though.”

“Shut up, Spy, we were having a moment,” Scout said.

And yes, indeed. Because even though Demo lost his magazine, he left the room with a good feeling inside. And he was sure that the rest felt the same way.

Poopy Joe’s artist could keep his job for another day.

[miss-tc-nova]

A Real Winter - Scala Kids

Merry Christmas Eve from Nova! Or Happy Holidays if you don’t celebrate Christmas. 

This is my alternative work for the Hearts for the Holidays zine. I liked the other more in terms of it’s spirit and emotion, but I still liked this one enough to complete and share with all of you. Enjoy Xehanort’s first real winter. 

Inspiration: Yeah, this

~~~~~

              “You better watch out! You better watch out! You better WATCH OUT!”

              Those two blockheads have been singing the same thing for five minutes now, ever since Eraqus forgot the next line and repeated the one before. Then that smarmy Fluffcoat—Bragi—joined in and they’ve just been ominously singing the same line over and over.

              Other than the threat-chanting morons, today has been a new experience for Xehanort. Having spent his entire life on a pair of tiny, tropical islands, he’s never actually seen real snow before. Spring was in full swing in Scala Ad Caelum when he arrived and it only shifted into an even hotter summer. Granted, autumn was pretty and another first for him but, hands down, this winter wonderland is one of the most beautiful scenes he’s ever seen.

              In the first snowfall of the season, the new key bearer was out in the middle of it, awing at the sky until Vor and Hermod ushered him back inside. The down pour over the next few days kept them all holed up indoors—that and Xe caught a cold. Now that the weather has had time to dump a bounty of snow across the city and all the students are healthy, they’re out to sightsee and show the newcomer what a real winter is.

              And what a sight to see. Scala itself is normally a bright place with white buildings and shining adornments, but blankets of snow make everything nearly pure white and it’s almost enough to burn retinas. Still, when it isn’t blinding innocent civilians, Xehanort distinctly thinks of diamonds when looking at the glittering powder. It sparkles and glimmers and even the crystal ocean of his home world can’t compare to the sight. His friends can barely convince him to stick with the group—they want to meander while he’s raring to race through the streets and see it all as soon as possible. He has to admit, though, a slower pace does give him a chance to really appreciate the true beauty that the weather has presented them.

              They finally reach the park where a seemingly endless expanse of untouched snow dazzles the silver eyes. Powerful is the desire to disturb the perfect scene yet at the same time, he wants to just take this moment to take it in. That’s ruined when there’s a pull on his jacket.

              Xehanort peers over his new scarf at his shortest classmate. With another tug, she says, “Let’s build a snowman!”

              With no idea how to do that, he gives the others one last glance before being dragged off the path to ruin that perfect blanket. Vor excitedly scoops up a pile of snow while explaining to Xehanort how to build a snowman. It’s pretty straightforward: roll snow up in a ball and stack three of those on top of each other. Not about to ruin her fun, he copies his friend’s action and starts rolling a handful of frost.

              Before long, Xehanort has a decent mass of powder packed together when Urd calls him over; a much larger orb sits between the girls.

              “Put it right here,” Vor instructs, patting the top of the base. They reinforce the seam with extra powder as Eraqus brings over another orb, heaving it on top.

              “Lookin’ good,” he hums.

              Vor dusts her hands. “Now he needs a face.”

              Before a confused Xehanort can ask, Bragi announces, “Way ahead of you.” He and Hermod have been collecting sticks and stones for their creation.

              The islander watches the Scala natives poke rocks into the thing to emulate buttons, eyes, and a smile that looks rather drunken. This tipsy appearance is further created by the crooked arms that mimic an inebriated jig. The whole group looks rather proud of this morally questionable mound of snow.

              The blond tilts her head. “Hmm, he’s still missing something.”

              Hermod tugs at his scarf. “Here.”

              “Perfect!” Her smile turns to concern. “Are you sure?”

              “Yeah. I wanted to get a new one anyway. That one has a hole in it.”

              As the girl tries to tie the scarf around the taller counterfeit being, Xehanort’s still not sure about this whole snowman thing.

              “If he’s made of snow, why does he need a scarf?”

              Vor beams. “It just makes him look cute. Isn’t that right, Shawn?”

              “Shawn…the Snowman?” Urd questions.

              “Yes!”

              “Well okay then.”

              Hermod chuckles. “Sounds like a good name to me.”

              Firstly, there’s really no reason to argue with Vor about such a trivial thing and, second, none of the others were likely to come up with anything better to call him. However, surely there’s someone who’d have some quip about “Shawn,” but he’s mysteriously vanished.

              “Hey, where’s Bragi?” Vor asks.

              Xehanort glances around. “Eraqus is missing too.”

              As the four fall silent, a rhythmic humming can be heard.

              “You better watch out! You better watch out!”

              Across the path is a low hurdle of snow. In time with their ridiculous chanting, the troublemakers pop up from behind the wall to add to its bulk. All the while, their mantra slowly morphs into shouting.

              “YOU BETTER WATCH OUT! YOU BETTER WATCH OUT! YOU BETTER WATCH—”

              Hermod heaves a sigh. “What are those two—”

              THWAK!

              Down goes the model student in an explosion of powder. Xehanort immediately ducks, now fully aware that those rabble-rousers have started an assault.

              “Run! Run!” Vor shrieks, fleeing for the first defense she can get at: behind a tree.

              Xehanort slinks away behind good ol’ Shawn for cover, just missing a projectile aimed for his head. He watches as the ambushers prep more ammo and their first victim drags himself into the shelter of Shawn with him.

              “What the heck is going on?”

              “They started a snowball fight,” Hermod grumbles, wiping a sleeve across his face. “Basically we just throw chunks of snow at each other. But at least it’s two against four.”

              Xehanort distinctly notes the head of silver hair ducking down behind the barricade with the hoodlums. “I think Urd just defected.”

              “Oh no…”

              “FIIIIIIRRRRRE!”

              Both boys look back to see little Vor with a mound of scooped snow and hurling them across the path like a machine. Her barrage alone is enough to cause the rebels to cower and earn gaping mouths.

              The two exchange glances and Hermod tells him, “You make ammo and I’ll make the wall.”

              Xehanort agrees with a nod and begins packing snow into throwable clumps while Hermod shoves more around Shawn to extend his protection.

              Even odds take over the battlefield as the underdogs gain some ground: Guardian Shawn’s wall has been built and Vor uses her secret talent of snowball flinging while Hermod and Xehanort provide back up and ammo. More importantly, Xehanort is having a blast. Behind the dramatic “fatalities” and battle cries, every one of the kids is laughing and giving the game their best.

              There was no telling what this new season would bring the boy who only knew humid summer all year round, but based on the beauty alone, winter quickly became his favorite. However, now that he’s out enjoying what the weather has to offer—now that he’s making memories with newfound friends—the snowy season will forever be his favorite time of year.

              A shot of freezing cold splatters against Xehanort’s ear. He launches his retaliation across the expanse, knocking Eraqus back behind shelter. Vor follows up with a volley of her own.

              “SURRENDER!” she demands.

              “NEVER!” the blockhead boys shout back.

              Her orders turn on her teammates. “Gimme another!”

              “We’re running out of useable snow,” Hermod says, plopping an orb with stray bits of dead grass in her hand. “Unless someone wants to run out there and risk getting pelted.”

              “Unless we use Shawn,” Xehanort tacks on.

              He’s never encountered such a wrathful look of offense, but Vor is deeply disturbed by the suggestion. “Don’t you dare touch Shawn!”

              “He’s too tightly packed anyway,” Hermod informs them. “We might have to surrender.” It’s his turn to face the offended expressions of his classmates: Vor is too invested in this battle and Xehanort never admits defeat.

              “No,” the girl states flatly. “This is what we’re gonna do.”

              She gives the boys her do-or-die plan. Hermod is a little reluctant, but has never been one to let his classmates down; Xehanort, on the other hand, is already on board, risking attack by reaching for good, fresh snow beyond Shawn’s wall. With a stockpile for little Vor to support the longer-legged boys, the trio makes their move.

              The second the opposition all ducks behind shelter, Hermod and Xehanort dart in opposite directions. Urd pops up, only to be forced back under cover by Vor’s onslaught.

              “They’re coming!” she alerts the other two.

              Bragi and Eraqus attempt to halt the pincer maneuver, but the sharpshooter keeps them in check. With Vor watching their backs, the boys are able to slip around enemy lines. The victims put their backs to the wall, successfully cornered, and the petite blond scurries over to reinforce that advantage. Snowballs are held up in warning.  

              “Give up!” Xehanort shouts.

              “No!” Bragi snaps, resulting in a snowball exploding in his face, curtesy of Vor.

              Eraqus is not as eager for his punishment, attempting to hide behind Urd. “Alright! We give! We give!”

              Hermod drops his arm, but Vor throws hers in the air. “Whoo! We win!”

              Chuckling, Xehanort tosses his last snowball off to the side. “Looks like I win again, Fleetfoot,” he says as he extends a hand to his rival.

              Despite having lost, Eraqus gives him a grin and takes the offer. “Yeah right. Vor handed you that one. You and Hermod would’ve been toast without her.”

              One teammate does not disagree while the other is quite proud of herself. Xehanort, on the other hand, is a bit miffed. “Please. One on one and I’d have you cowering in under a minute.”

              “Are you kidding? You’ve got a red mark on your face from where I got you.”

              “One lucky shot doesn’t win a war,” Xehanort retorts.

              “Why don’t you two continue this on the way back to the castle?” Hermod suggests, his hands shivering against their shoulders. The herd has been out long enough that everyone seems to be stifling shudders.

              So the pack treks back to the citadel, taking refuge from the frosty weather in the student dorms. Damp layers are discarded for dry before everyone meets back in the commons. Hermod and Vor are kind enough make the hot chocolate while Xehanort and Urd get the fireplace going. As the sun begins to set, everyone sits in a happy comfort, chatting among themselves and enjoying the warm fire.

              As he sits, Xehanort’s eyes travel to each of these kids he’s only spent a handful of months with. Being aloof and distant had been his specialty from the beginning—not everyone on his home world liked him and those assumptions transferred with him to this world—but not one of these people seemed to acknowledge that. He brushed off attempts to be friendly and even picked fights with Eraqus, but they remained welcoming and friendly; they did not meet his expectations of people which was something he didn’t know he wanted until this very moment. They spent all this time with him, breaking down those beliefs of his and creating friendships with him. Everything about Scala Ad Caelum flipped all he knew and this snow—his first real winter spent with actual friends—has cemented the idea that he has a bright future ahead of him.

              “So what do you think of winter so far?” Pulling Xehanort from his ponderings is an elbow from Eraqus: the one who’s destroyed the most expectations.

              A smile pulls at his lips. “It’s better than I thought it would be.”

              All of it is.

[randomoranges]

a few notes on this one: so, at the time this was only the second fic i wrote for this pairing, some almost 5 yrs ago. i had a very “naïve” view of their relationship and wasn’t talking as much with the other two “collaborators/creators”. therefore, this was very much my own view and my own thoughts and my own - whatever. the Timeline wasn’t as full or as developed. 

retrospectively, my view was that they got together, they were aware of the other having feelings, but they had a falling out bcs étienne couldn’t do Actual Feelings and commit. Anyways. i was going to rework it so that it could fit with the curent timeline, but doing so would remove too much of the essence of the original piece, so i left it as is. despite all that, i still find this one sweet, even if it’s a little naïve and optimistic. so i’m still re-posting it for sentimental reason, but it’s off timeline now. who knows, maybe it can be an au HAHAH.

Perfect Cities I Wanna Hold Your Hand

 The strangest thing was being able to spend so much time with Étienne. For so long, their friendship had been held at a distance, through the exchange of letters and an odd phone call here and there. Now, they could see each other during meetings, they could actually plan to meet up outside of them and the novelty was something else. Therefore, there had been many more lunches, after that first one. Edward found himself seeking out his new friend at every other meeting and the two of them were spending more and more time together. It was strange to think that Étienne wanted to see him – or wanted to spend so much time with him, but it was nice to have a friend at these things.

 At first, they wrote off the time they spent together as work related, but when they realised that they were spending more time discussing anything else but work related things, they dropped their fake pretenses and hung out for the sake of hanging out and enjoying one another’s company. Étienne was an interesting fellow to have around and Edward was fascinated by his way of life. (Had always been, to some extent, he’d read all about it in the letters.)

 It was around that same time that Étienne gave him his phone number (again, but Étienne didn’t seem to recall Edward having it and Edward didn’t say anything), with the specific instructions of calling him whenever he felt like it. Edward returned the favour (in case his friend had misplaced it), with a nervous, shaky hand.

 There had been three accidental four-am phone calls, where a sleepy Étienne had answered the phone, and twice Edward hung up, embarrassed, but on the third, he stayed on the line long enough to apologise and realise that Étienne sounded really sexy, when he was half asleep and spoke French. (And somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered what any of that was supposed to mean, but he buried it away and focused on anything else but that.)

 From that point on, he made sure to establish a specific time when they could call each other, since he didn’t want to impose and phone calls could be expensive. It would be a shame to waste money if the other wasn’t there to pick up.

 They spoke of trivial things; anything from the weather, to last night’s game, but after Edward accidentally stumbled on Étienne’s sketchbook, they started exchanging thoughts on current artists and galleries they had visited – art movements they liked, previous artists they had known.

 Edward enjoyed these talks with his friend and he genuinely looked forward to each and every one. Étienne made him laugh and always had an interesting story to share. On top of that, he never asked why he had been absent for so long and why he had often looked out of it when they had run into each other. For that, Edward was thankful. He didn’t feel ready to relive that particular moment of his life and he didn’t want to share the details just yet.

 The only problem with his friendship with Étienne was that he was slowly falling for him and he didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t let that happen. For so many reasons. Étienne was his friend, for starters, and Edward was pretty sure Étienne wasn’t interested in him that way (and that was fine, really.) Edward thought that maybe it was just his body reacting to someone being nice to him and genuinely seeming to enjoy his company after so long.

 He was okay with being friends, but he had heard enough about Étienne and his multitude of escapades and thirsts to hope that he would fit his criteria – that maybe Étienne would at least... show some interest – just once, or something (and then he berated himself all over again for thinking that way).

 But, apparently, he didn’t.

 Edward just hoped he wouldn’t do something stupid to ruin this as well.

 The other problem was that Étienne had invited him to spend a few days at his place. They were collaborating on a zine, some crazed idea Étienne had excitedly told him over the phone a while back, and Étienne figured they would get more work done, if they were standing in the same room.

 Edward had no problem with that, but it meant spending so much more time with his friend and after his last two dreams, he wasn’t sure he wanted Étienne to remain just a friend anymore. (And was he even okay with wanting that from Étienne after everything that had happened? The short answer was yes, the longer answer was more complicated.)

 Yet, when he landed at the airport, Étienne was there to greet him and for a moment, he conveniently forgot about his ordeal. They took a cab back to Étienne’s place, in the Plateau, and when Edward offered to pay, Étienne refused.

 His friend gave him the grand tour of the apartment, before Edward was shown to his room. It was small, stuffed to the brim with Habs merchandise, but Edward thought it suited the other man. When Étienne told him he had put some away, he laughed.

 Étienne then took him out to explore the city. It was a whirlwind of public transportation and many different sites. From le parc Lafontaine, to le Mont-Royal, passing by the Olympic Stadium, it was a busy afternoon and Edward was glad Étienne knew the city inside and out. It was nice to actually spend time in the city that wasn’t related to work or some grand event that took up all their time.

 Edward told himself he would do something brash, to figure out whether or not he actually had a chance with Étienne, and if his friend was interested in him. Of course, he wouldn’t do anything too drastic, just something that would help him read Étienne.

 He decided he would take Étienne’s hand.

 Or, at least, he would try to. He hoped that by doing so, Étienne would, hopefully, take his hand and then they could move on from there.

 But, if Étienne didn’t... then, well, they could always be friends and he could always dismiss this whole thing.

 The problem was, though, that every time he summoned enough courage to take Étienne’s hand, his friend either scratched his face, fixed his glasses, pushed up his bag strap, or did ten million other things with his hand that impeded him from taking it.

 Edward was half convinced that Étienne was doing it on purpose, as they stepped out of the métro, to get back to Étienne’s apartment. However, just as they made it to the door, he saw his opening.

 He took a deep breath, counted to three, hoped his hand wasn’t too sweaty, and made a wild grab for Étienne’s hand.

 He held his breath and waited for either of two things to happen; Étienne would push him away, or Étienne would take his hand.

 Instead, Étienne did absolutely nothing.

 And it slowly broke him inside.

 Edward was about to let go and write this whole thing off, but then, to his shock and surprise, Étienne did something.

 Étienne squeezed his hand back.

 He looked at his friend, but Étienne’s face was unreadable. The other man looked right ahead of him, as they walked back to the apartment. Edward looked away from him and to the ground, not feeling any better. Sure, Étienne was holding his hand, but that was it.

 If Edward gave himself time to think about it, Étienne’s hand was surprisingly warm and not at all what he had been expecting. His skin was rough in some places, soft in others, he was pretty sure he could feel a callous, or maybe it was just a dry patch of skin, but Edward didn’t want to let go.

 --

 By the time they got home, Étienne was a nervous wreck. He liked Edward, he really did that was never the problem and had never been.

 He had tried flirting with him, on a number of occasions, but it always seemed as though Edward was more interested in friendship than romance. He didn’t mind, really, and he wasn’t even sure if his suspicions about his friend were even right.

 But then, when Edward took his hand, everything changed.

 For the first time, in a very long time, he was interested in someone for more than sex. Usually, Étienne never bothered with feelings and emotions. It was all about the sex. He wanted it, he went after it. However, Edward was different. He liked spending time and getting to know him. He enjoyed the phone calls they shared and the lunches they took together. He wanted to get to know Edward, in ways he never allowed himself to, and it scared him.

 He was afraid that he or his reputation would scare off Edward, but when the other man took his hand, he completely froze. It seemed as though the very air around them stilled and he tried not to think about what any of this could mean. He avoided looking at Edward and instead, focused on getting home.

 When they did, he was on autopilot. He had to let go of Edward’s hand to open the door, and when he stepped in, he caught a brief glance of his bright, red cheeks. He quickly went to the kitchen, hoping his friend hadn’t noticed.

 “D’you want anything to drink?” He called back, rummaging through his fridge. “I was gonna have a beer.” “Or five.” He added, as an afterthought, in his head.

 “Oh, sure, thanks.”

 “Make yourself comfortable, I’ll be right out.” He took a long sip of his beer, tried a few deep breaths, and attempted to calm down, before he joined Edward in the living room.

 They sat side by side, in silence, and drank their beers. Étienne wanted to say something, but the only thing running in his head was the feeling of Edward’s hand in his, and he didn’t know how to bring that up.

 Instead, by the time he reached the end of his beer bottle, he excused himself and retrieved another one. They sat apart on the couch, both lost in their own thoughts, until Étienne silently slumped his head on Edward’s shoulder.

 “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but I actually really like you.” He murmured, in the fold of Edward’s neck, his breath warm against equally warm skin.

 Edward tensed and didn’t know what to say or do. Étienne liked him? As in liked him liked him? He remained perfectly still and held his breath, afraid he would miss Étienne’s strange confession. However, his friend had nothing else to say.

 He was starting to think he had hallucinated everything, safe for the fact that Étienne’s head was on his shoulder, when he felt the other’s hand on his, once more.

 Confused, he looked at their joined hands and hesitantly took it back, before turning to face Étienne.

 He had never noticed how green his eyes were and he felt drawn to them.

 For a moment, they simply looked at each other, not saying a word, and held hands. Edward felt Étienne caress the top of his hand, with his thumb, and he never wanted this to end, even though his heart was probably beating too fast.

 “I... I... I like you too.” He finally managed to say. He hoped the sky wouldn’t fall on his head and he held his breath for a moment longer, waiting for the apocalypse. When that didn’t happen, he chanced another look at Étienne and saw the prettiest of smiles blossom on his face.

 He wanted to see so many more.

 “I’m glad. I’m sorry for earlier... you took me by surprise.”

 Edward let out a nervous laugh and gave his hand a squeeze. “It’s okay. I guess... I wanted your attention and I didn’t know how to get it.”

 “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to startle you. I can be a handful, sometimes. I’m sorry if you thought I didn’t return your feelings.”

  Edward couldn’t take his eyes away from Étienne’s face. He was attracted to it, there was no point denying it, and he felt his heart flutter, when he realised how close they were and the proximity of their bodies.

 “No, really, it’s fine.” He was starting to think that maybe this was where he would have his first kiss, but the magic had to end, when the phone rang. Étienne apologised and went to answer.

 When he returned, he suggested they start working on the zine. Edward had almost completely forgotten about it and he would have preferred returning to that earlier moment, when they had been holding hands, on the couch.

 He helped Étienne set up the materials on his living room floor, before they started working. It was a good thing he enjoyed the work, for he was able to put his earlier thoughts to the back of his mind quickly, as he got engrossed in the layout of the zine.

 Étienne had made a few prints for it and he was busy inking the one they would use for the next issue, while Edward pasted the pictures. Neither one of them realised the time that went by, as they had another beer and the floor became an extension of their work. It was only when Étienne went to retrieve his other brush from his bedroom that Edward realised the beautiful mess they had created.

 With his brush in hand, Étienne fell back to his spot and looked at Edward’s hand at work. He couldn’t help but smile to himself, as he noticed his friend scrunch up his nose in concentration. He thought it was adorable.

 There was a smudge of paint on his cheek and some under his fingernails, as well. Étienne watched Edward’s hands dance on the paper. He looked at the curve of his fingers and the bend of his joints. He watched as he folded and glued the paper meticulously in place, and he felt his heart race.

 “Hey,” Edward paused and looked up. Étienne smiled at him, from his half-lying position.

 “Yes?”

 “I was thinking of something.” Edward gave him a curious look, as he capped his glue stick, his full attention on him.

 “Yes?”  He repeated.

 “I wanna try something. Close your eyes.” Edward wanted to inquire about his idea, but something about the way Étienne looked at him made him obey.

 “’Kay, keep ‘em closed.” He waited for whatever it was that was supposed to come. He was about to ask his friend what it was he wanted to try, when he heard the rustle of fabric, followed by the soft pressure of a pair of foreign lips on his own.

 Surprised and shocked, Edward opened his eyes quickly and found Étienne leaning close, kissing him.

 His mind stilled and ran twice as fast, as his breathing turned laboured and his hands grew sweaty. He waited for the worst and knew something bad was about to happen. Someone would crash in, he would be sent back there, Étienne would tell him this had been all a joke, or he would wake up, alone, in his own bedroom. But then Étienne simply pulled away.

 “I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to – I just thought –”

 “Do it again.” He rasped out. Étienne blinked and looked at him.

 “What?”

 “Kiss me again.” He said, a little louder, feeling more confident, when Étienne smiled.

 This time, he was ready, when Étienne dipped his head and caught his lips between his own. He met him halfway and dared to tangle a hand in Étienne’s curly, brown locks. He let the other man lead him through his first kiss and mimicked everything he did; unafraid, exploring.

 When Étienne pushed him back, he let himself fall on the discarded papers, allowing his friend’s hands to run down his body. He had never felt so alive and he never wanted it to stop.

 He looked up into Étienne’s inquiring green eyes and smiled reassuringly at the question he read in them, when they pulled away, breathless. There was a piece of paper stuck in his dishevelled hair and a splash of blue India ink by his chin. He could count the marks on his face, if he wanted to, but he would have preferred kissing them one by one. For a moment, they stayed like that, with Étienne hovering over him, until he reached for his friend’s hand and threaded their fingers again.

 “You can do it again.” He grinned.

 “I plan to, and we’ll keep the rest for later.” Étienne murmured, warm in his ear, before he sought his lips for a third consecutive time, pressing down on him. Edward easily parted his lips for him and allowed himself to feel, for the very first time.

 He was Edward, he was alive, free, and he was kissing another man.

 FIN 14

 Started writing: May 9th 2015, 5:22pm

Finished typing: May 10th 2015, 1:23am

Started typing: May 10th 2015, 12:12pm

Finished typing: May 10th 2015, 3:20pm

[strife-and-discord]

Can’t You See!

Read on AO3 here

Characters: Natsuo Todoroki, Enji Todoroki, Poor random office lady

Summary: Every year the number one hero is required to hold the annual Pro Heroes Gala. For the first time, this means Endeavour and he would like to have all his children there for the event, however, he's having a little trouble getting in contact with Natsuo. Oh well, surely he won't mind if Endeavour drops in on him while he's at college, right?

A/N: Okay, I'm gonna start with the nasty business by saying: THIS STORY IS BY NO MEANS AN ENDEAVOUR REDEMPTION and I don't think Endeavour particularly deserves to be forgiven. However, I don't think it's a bad thing that he's trying to be a better person, we should all try to be better people, and what this story is trying to show a bit is how Endeavour's efforts to be a better hero look from the outside. If you try to start discourse here I will delete your comments.

Oof, now that's over: I have been on such a Natsuo kick lately and I've been struggling on a zine piece so I decided to write this. I'm really in love with the quirkless Natsuo theory because I feel like it would round out the Todoroki family and make Natsuo's character more interesting.

I am a high school student in Australia and I know jack shit about college in Japan so don't @ about the absolutely false details in this fic alright.

Small and sleep deprived college students scatter as the hulking Flame Hero Endeavour storms his way up the path to the college’s main entrance, not even looking back at the wreckage he left behind him. The toppled students gaze up at him in awe, wondering what the de facto number one hero could possibly be doing at their school. Endeavour wasn’t really the sort of hero you invited to do education speeches and certainly not inspirational speeches, so most figured he must be here to arrest someone. Although it’d have to be pretty damn serious for to turn up.

There is no doubt that Endeavour is a man on a mission as he continues to stride straight through the doors of the college, only deigning to put out his flames right as he enters. Still, that was more than he usually did. At the slam of the door, the tired office lady looks up to see who could possibly be causing such a ruckus, only just managing to pull back before she scolds the number one hero for slamming doors.

Snapping her mouth shut she tries to pull herself together enough to go through the usual motions. Although she can’t quite keep herself from staring at him wide-eyed. She may not be a huge Endeavour fan, but it’s not like you get such a high ranking hero visiting you every day. And seeing that nasty scar of his up close in person…

She jostles herself. Now is not the time to be thinking about such things.

“Uh… How can I help you today, sir?” She winces at the way she fumbles the start

The way the huge man looks down at her, she can’t help but feel a bit like an ant in his path. Although she can’t help but notice that The Flaming hero doesn’t look as angry as she has him on telly before. She had heard rumours of Endeavour supposedly acting softer than he had as number two, could they actually be true?

“I am here to see my son who attends here,” The man booms just a little too loudly, “Can you tell me where I can find him?”

The office lady goes back to gaping at him. She’s fairly sure it would be well known among the staff if Endeavour's son was attending. If only because the big bosses would be all over the famous hero’s wallet. And she thought his kid was in UA? Did he have other children? She still checks the database for any Todorokis but unsurprisingly comes up empty.

“I’m s-sorry sir but we don’t have anyone by the name Todoroki here, are you sure you have the right college?” It isn’t easy asking arguably the most aggressive pro hero if he’s made a mistake.

A very large, fist slams down on the desk and she flinches back comically before it slowly retracts.

“I’m sorry, that was unnecessary. I’m sure this is the school my son attends, his name is Todoroki Natsuo can you please check again.”

The office lady is still certain that there are no Todorokis here but the name Natsuo does ring a bell, and she’s starting to get an inkling as to what may be going on here. She searches the database again but with the name Natsuo and successfully gets a hit this time. Now… How to break the news to Endeavour.

“We still don’t have any Todorokis enrolled but we do have a Nanase Natsuo.”

Endeavour’s face changes as soon as she says it, she’s not sure how to describe how he looks but sombre may be a good place to start. Then, he says quietly then she’s ever heard him before, “Yes… That will be him.” He pauses for a slightly awkward moment. “Nanase was his mother’s maiden name.”

There is obviously something deeper there but she is definitely not going to pry. She had heard the rumours.

“Ahem, uhh…” she clears her throat awkwardly and looks back down at her computer, “Well, in that case, Natsuo should be doing a peer-assisted study session right now in Rec room one.”

It occurs to her that considering this is Endeavour’s first time here, he probably has no idea where that is. She reaches under the table and pulls out one of the maps kept there for new students and guests.

She opens the map up to Endeavour, “You just need to go straight from here, take a left, follow this path until you see the door that says Recreational Room One and he should be in there,” she traces the path for him from the office on the map.

Endeavour nods along at the instructions before looking at her, “Thank you, I appreciate your help greatly. I’ll be on my way now.” And with that, he heads to the door.

“Good luck!” The office lady calls out to his retreating form. She sits for a moment in an attempt to try and process what had just happened and only realises after he is long gone that she forgot to have him sign in as a guest. Oh well, He’s the number one hero, what’s the worst that could possibly happen?

_______________

Natsuo’s struggling to concentrate today. There are a few more people than usual and he keeps getting distracted by various conversations. Nonetheless, if he wants to spend more time hanging out with Shouto on weekends, he actually has to finish his work in a timely manner for once. The old man hasn’t been doing anything to stop them from seeing each other so Natsuo’s taking full advantage of it to better get to know his little brother. It’s a bit of a new experience, seeing as he’d really only ever been a younger brother to Touya. But Touya isn’t around to be a big brother anymore and Natsuo has been neglectful enough to Shouto as it is.

Natsuo politely tells the others that he needs to stop talking to them if he wants to get this work done before putting his head back down to the book in front of him. He probably manages to get a solid half hour of work done before there’s an aggressively loud knock at the door that completely startles him out of his zone. Is there an emergency or something? Who on earth could feel the need to knock like that?

Everyone else seems to think the same thing as they all look at the door with expectation as an older student pushes himself towards the door with a sigh. For some reason, Natsuo can’t help but feel a vague sense of impending doom.

The reason for that is very clear when the door opens to reveal his… dad. It feels weird to even think of him like that, but it feels weird to call him Enji as well? Regardless of what Natsuo should call him, what the hell was he doing here!? He’d never shown any interest in Natsuo’s education before, or Natsuo in general, but it seemed unlikely that there would be some sort of villainous issue coincidentally in the same room that Natsuo’s currently in.

There’s a crushingly awkward silence as everyone in the room tries to process the presence of the number one hero, and Natsuo tries to sink down in his chair enough to be unnoticeable. Something that is hard to do when you have a similar build to freakin’ Endeavour.

The student at the door finally seems to accept the hulking figure in front of him and comes back to himself, “Uhh… hello Mr Endeavour, sir…” He does nothing to hide his disbelief.

However, disbelief has always done nothing but fuel Endeavour more. “I am here to talk to my son if that’s alright. I was told he might be here.” Natsuo sinks further into his chair.

He’d heard from Fuyumi that the old man had been trying to contact him lately, which of course Natsuo has him blocked in every way possible, but he never thought he’d do something as outright ridiculous as hunting him down at school.

One positive, at least, is that Enji is so used to saying “my son” and having people automatically know he means Shouto, that he doesn’t even think to refer to Natsuo by name, so there’s still a chance Natsuo could avoid this confrontation.

‘I... uhh… Are you… sure you hav-” Endeavour cuts in before the poor guy can even finish, “His name is Natsuo, you may know him by Nanase.” Shit. He must’ve figured it out at the front office. Of course, pretty much every kid in here knows him, and of course, as soon as the name’s out every head in the room swivels toward him like a herd of meerkats on the nature channel. Even Endeavour is looking over at him now, following everyone’s gazes, and Natsuo lets himself sigh in defeat. If this is how it’s all going to end for him, he’d like to make one final stand.

Natsuo rises from his chair, head held high, and marches towards his father with as much pride and intimidation as he can muster at this point. He can feel every eye in the room on him as he makes his way on what feels like a dramatic quest at this point. He sets his face in a glare aimed towards his father and as he reaches him he puts his hands out towards him and shoves with all his might.

“Let’s take this outside,” he commands. In the back of his mind, he thinks that this must be what Shouto means when he talks about going plus ultra.

To Natsuo’s surprise, and probably to Enji’s as well, He actually manages to move him. Endeavour stumbles backwards out the door and for a moment Natsuo worries he’s pushed too hard and he’s gonna be attacked for shoving the number one hero to the ground but thankfully he manages to hold his ground.

Natsuo shuts the door behind him and does his best to face his father expectantly while he regains his footing. It doesn’t take long for Endeavour to be back at his full height and staring Natsuo down. Suddenly, the plus ultra moment is gone and he feels like a little kid vying for his father’s attention again. But that doesn’t mean he can back down yet.

“What the actual hell are you doing here!?” Natsuo demands.

Enji just looks at him in a pondering manor before completely ignoring his question, “You’re going by your mother’s name?” The way he asks it makes Natsuo feel like it’s a question.

“Yes. I am. And you just exposed me to that entire room! Back to my question, why are you here?”

Enji at least seems willing to let the topic go for now, although Natsuo can tell this won’t be the end of that particular of discussion.

“As you are most likely aware, the number one hero is required to arrange and host the annual pro hero gala. Your sister and I have been working together to arrange this year’s and it would mean a lot to me to have all my children there. I came here to deliver your invitation personally”

Natsuo just stares at his father blank-faced. Having all of them at a gala like that would absolutely mean that Enji would have to officially present him and Fuyumi to the other heroes and the media. He would have to acknowledge their existence. And the fact that he came personally to his college just to give him the invitation makes it seem like he’s actually pretty serious about this.

“Why on earth do you think I would agree to that?”

“I understand that you won’t come for my sake so at the very least I ask that you come for your sister’s. She worked very hard on this and it would mean a lot to her for her siblings to see it and be there with her.”

Damn. That was a pretty good reason. And it’s exactly the sort of thing Fuyumi would actually say to him so either Enji’s gotten to know her really well in the span of a few weeks or she actually said that to him. He’s certain Fuyumi will go to the party meaning she’ll probably be able to convince Shouto to go as well. Also meaning that it would be a dick move for Natsuo to just abandon them there.

Natsuo can feel the fight draining out of him. He promised he was going to be a better brother from now on and that he wouldn’t run away when his siblings needed him. God knows he did more than enough of that as a child and if he hadn’t maybe Shouto would smile more today. Maybe they’d still have Touya.

“Fine… I’ll go. Hand me the invite,” Natsuo holds his hand out.

Enji holds out a deep crimson envelope with gold decal flowers nicely placed along the front framing the invitee’s name, which in this case says Natsuo Todoroki, a name that Natsuo hasn’t seen in a while.

“I’m glad you’ve come to that decision Natsuo. I look forward to seeing you at the gala.”

“Can you just go now,” Natuso snaps tiredly, “You’ve done enough damage here as it is.”

Enji hesitates for a moment before giving a soft nod of his head and turning to walk back down the path. Before he leaves, he turns his head back to Natsuo one last time.

“Why not use the family name?” He calls.

Natsuo can’t help but scoff, “And spend the rest of my life being Endeavour’s Qirkless Son? Haven’t you seen how much much Shouto’s been struggling to get out from under your shadow? I’d rather just be Natsuo.”

Enji finally takes his leave and Natsuo can’t help but give a sigh of relief when he turns the corner. Still staring at the envelope Natsuo goes to head back into the rec room but as soon as he starts opening the door he here’s the sound of nosey brats rushing back to their seats. Natsuo opens the door to a whole room of students looking at him with something akin to awe in their eyes.

One of the older students pipes up from the back, “So are we gonna be calling you Todoroki from now on?”

[kidgezine]

Check-in #2 is Next Monday!

Some of y’all have already turned in your sketches or drafts (and a few finished works) but for the rest of us be sure to email your work to kidgezine@gmail.com by 11:59 pm EST on Monday October 15th. Just like last time, putting your work in the WIP channel of the Discord server is great but it does not count as turning them in so be sure to email them. Here’s some details to help out:

Artists

Sketches for Individual Pages: This is where you need to make sure your image is the right size and all set up for printing. We made a template with an illustrated tutorial to help you with that. Just check out this post and follow the instructions there. The image in Step 3 is a sketch. It’s a bit of a rough sketch but a good example of the minimum expectations for what your sketch should be. It’s ok if you’re already past the sketch stage. Just watch the gif at the end of that post for a quick animation of how to make sure your image is ok for printing. If you need help with that jump into the Discord server and ask umbraja to give you a hand.

Sketches for Journal Images: These are going to be framed to look like old school Polaroids so the print specs aren’t as exacting with journal images as they are with full page pieces - no need to worry about the bleed. They do need to fit into the frames though. Polaroids have about a 3x3 inch picture area so your journal sketches need to be square. We'd rather you draw at a minimum of 6x6 inches (1800x1800 pixels) so you can get better detail but they will end up printed 3x3 so not too much detail.

Thumbnails for Collaborations: Many of y’all turned in thumbnails for collabs last month but they’re not actually due until this one. You can turn in more if you like or go ahead and send sketches. Be sure to send your writer thumbnails and sketches (preferably before you send them to us) so they can give you feedback too. Please let us know if your writer has not been working with you on the collaborations so we can pester them about it. Thumbnails for collaborations should follow the same guidelines as Individual pieces but with a bit more room for creativity. Collaborations do NOT have to follow the 6x9 page size rule. Because there is text to work with in the layout you can make your Collaboration image(s) any shape you want and we will use the fic’s text to fill in the extra space. You can even do organic shaped edges and full spread layouts. We’ll do a tutorial on this later so don’t be afraid of doing fancy things. We’re here to help y’all get it done.

Writers

Drafts for Individual Works: Page count is tight for the printed zine so we made y’all a writing template that you can copy/paste your fic into and get a feel of how many pages you’re using. Just check out this post and follow the instructions there. Don’t panic if you’re over the page count. We’ll work with you to trim it down. If we can’t trim it then we’ll select an excerpt for the printed zine and will put the rest of the pages in the digital copy. We would like to have some complete works in the printed zine though so not everyone can have an excerpt. As for the drafts, these do not need to be polished works but they do need to be complete from beginning to end. They can be super rough with no consideration for grammar or style so long as there is enough detail for us to get a feel of where the fic is going. You can have long sections of dialog with no description (I actually find this to be the best way to draft dialog) or summaries of conversations to be fleshed out later so long as we get the gist of what’s going on. It’s ok if you’ve got notes on things you haven’t figured out yet. You can even put questions in your draft if you want specific feedback such as “I’m not sure if this is physically possible, do you know?” and we will respond when you get your feedback. It’s also Ok if your draft deviates wildly from your outline. We understand how narratives can evolve. Your final story should resemble your draft though so be sure you’ve pinned down where this thing is going to end up.

Drafts for Collaborations: It is very important that you get your drafts as well as any notes, comments, descriptions, or other resources to your artist(s) as soon as possible. The draft itself should follow the same guidelines as an individual work but you also have to communicate with your artist(s) to make sure they have what they need to get their part done. Your artist(s) should be showing you thumbnails by now. Please give them feedback. If your artist doesn’t send you something by Oct 15th let us know.

Journal Entries: We’re going to wait until we get sketches for these cuz we had so many different versions we’re not sure which thumbnails are getting finished. There are a whole lot of really great images so we’re super excited and can’t wait to show you guys so y’all can pick which ones to write for.

Betas

We’ve gotten all the betas paired up so go to your Check-in page and see which fic(s) you got. Each fic should have a Beta Level listed. Most of the writers only want feedback on a nearly finished work (that’ll be November/December) but some wanted feedback on each stage and a few want to work directly with their beta. You’re expected to give your writer(s) this level of feedback so if they only want a single read then you don’t have to do anything till later. Feel free to hang out in the Discord and help any writers that ask for it though. If your writer wants feedback on each stage then you’ll need to read over what they’ve got and send an email to kidgezine@gmail.com with your feedback by November 1st so we can add it to their Check-in page. Don’t contact your writer directly unless their beta level says they want to work directly with their beta. 

There should be a link below each fic’s summary that will take you to that writer’s submission folder. If your writer does not have a link below their fic that means they have not turned anything in. Right now we mostly only have outlines so you should probably wait until after the draft deadline to give feedback. Feel free to read the outlines though. Some of the writers have given us Google Docs with comment permissions turned on so you might be able to leave comments in the doc itself. Please still email us a copy of your comments so we can keep our information up to date and know not to pester you about doing your feedback.

A Note on Missing Deadlines

Holidays are coming up and we’ve got Inktober then NaNoWriMo to keep y’all busy so we understand the next few deadlines could be a crunch. That’s why we have so many of them. It’s Ok if you miss a few of the deadlines - except the last one, that’s absolutely final. Just be sure to contact us (in the Discord or send us an email) to let us know that you’ll be late and when we can expect you to have your work turned in. This way we don’t worry about you (we worry cuz we care). If there’s some special circumstance we can even work out an alternative schedule and any other assistance you may need to help get your work done. All you gotta do is ask.

That said, it is not fair to everyone else if you miss too many deadlines. Thankfully we only had a few people miss the first deadline and one of them has set up an alternative schedule. So long as the rest of y’all get your work in before the next deadline (which most of you have) you’ll be ok. If you miss another deadline without turning in last month’s work though, we will start to have problems.

The deadlines create a process that is designed to give y’all some structure and help you do your best work while letting us make sure that work is right for the zine. If you don’t follow the process you might end up doing work that has to be redone because it doesn’t fit the zine. No one wants that. So, please, follow the process and turn your work in on time (or at least close to it). If you don’t follow the process we may not accept your work into the zine.

Feedback on Progress

Y��all should have gotten an email with a link to our Check-in page which has all the information we’ve got on you and what work you’ve turned in so far. There should be feedback on your first check-in there and we’ll be adding feedback for every other check-in right under that as we get it in. Let us know if your feedback is missing or any other issues with the information and we’ll get it fixed. Also let us know if you did not get that email so we can send you the link. 

We won’t be sending a notification email for the next round of feedback but we will have it posted to the Check-in page no later than November 1st so just give it a look then to see our comments. If you want feedback sooner than that just put ‘Feedback Please’ in the subject line of the email when you turn your work in so we know to look at yours first. We’ll respond to your request email to let you know when to check the page for your feedback. 

 It’s up to you if you want to wait for feedback before continuing your work but you might have to make some adjustments if you get too far ahead. We won’t force you to do what our feedback says (unless it’s about following the zine’s requirements) but we will give suggestions for development. The decision is ultimately yours if you want to follow that or not. So long as your idea fits the requirements we’re not gonna be picky.

[shirlleycoyle]

Threatening Voter Emails Included Highly Suspicious ‘Hacking’ Video

On Tuesday, an unknown number of Demoratic voters in Florida, Arizona, and Alaska received a threatening email urging them to vote for "Vote for Trump or else!" 

"We are in possession of all your information," the email read. "You are currently registered as a Democrat, and we know this because we have gained access into the entire voting infrastructure. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you. Change your party affiliation to Republican to let us know you received our message and will comply. We will know which candidate you voted for. I would take this seriously if I were you. Good luck."

The emails, as Motherboard reported Tuesday, were spoofed to appear that they came from the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group. Proud Boys claimed to have nothing to do with the emails.

One of the people who was the target of this email campaign received a second, identical email that also contained a link to a video, which was uploaded to the cloud file sharing website Orangedox. The video seems to be an attempt to scare voters into thinking that this goes beyond an email-related intimidation campaign and is an organized effort to disrupt the mail-in ballot portion of the election. The strategy shown in the video appears to be similar to a version of a scheme laid out by 4chan earlier this week that Motherboard has already debunked as a serious election threat. 

Election experts say that the strategy shown in this video is a fear mongering tactic that shows a method of manipulating votes that will not work, and is likely intended to undermine faith in the electoral process. Motherboard is not publishing the video because it contains some voters' personal information and it is also a propaganda video designed to intimidate voters.

"This is just bullshit fear mongering"

The two-minute video plays over an instrumental of Metallica's "Enter Sandman." The video opens with footage of President Trump during a previous press briefing, in which he says, "I think that mail in voting is a terrible thing." The video then immediately cuts to a logo with the Proud Boys name. The video shows a screen recording of an alleged hacker scrolling through what they present as voter data. They do this in part with a tool called sqlmap, an established tool for taking advantage of vulnerabilities in websites, often to extract data. The alleged hacker then uses some of the information contained in the databases to access the website of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, and then prints out a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballots (FWAB) as a PDF document.

FWAB ballots are described by the government as "emergency backup ballots" for military members and citizens who live overseas and did not receive mail-in or absentee ballots from their states. Election experts say this is designed to make voting easy, that FWAB ballots are only used as a matter of last resort, and that other types of ballots supersede FWAB ones. Also, only certain people qualify for FWAB ballots.

"FWABs are typically ballots of last resort, and if any other ballot has been submitted by the voter, they trump the FWAB," Matt Bernhard, a cybersecurity researcher who works for the elections security non profit VotingWorks, told Motherboard in an online chat. 

Do you work on election security? Do you do vulnerability reserch on voting machines or ssystems? We’d love to hear from you. You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, Wire/Wickr @lorenzofb, or email lorenzofb@vice.com. You can contact Joseph Cox on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, or email joseph.cox@vice.com

At the end of the video, the person controlling the computer shows that they have several folders labeled with the name of American states, and shows files that are supposedly mail-in ballots PDFs they downloaded. It's impossible from the video to know whether these files actually contain ballots, and whether the folders all contain files or not.

Ben Adida, the executive director of VotingWorks, said that it's possible to do what the video shows, "but this attack is detectable and comes with very harsh penalties [for voter fraud]."

"This is just bullshit fear mongering," Bernhard said. "First of all, showing us a bunch of files in a file system doesn't prove anything. second of all, the databases shown are quite possibly ones that are publicly available anyways, or that have been posted to dark web sites after leaks." 

Gregory Miller, a cybersecurity expert and one of the founders of the Trust the Vote Project, also found the video to be suspicious.

“There are lots of reasons to believe this is misinformation as much as anything. As we’re looking more closely, the manueves they’re taking to ‘suggest’ they are hacking into voter information stores appears to be lots of smoke and mirrors, if you will. In other words, it appears on closer inspection to be a hoax of its own,” he said in an email.

A screenshot of the video contained the a threatening email seen by Motherboard.

The video also shows data that includes names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and redacted Social Security Numbers—all types of data that may be publicly available.

Bernhard explained that the ballots shown in the video are federal absentee ballots that have to be signed, and then physically mailed for them to count as votes. 

"Unless they're going to figure out a way to forge thousands of signatures, that ain't gonna work," Bernhard said, adding that it would require a lot of effort to print all the ballots, forge hundreds or thousands of signatures, and then mail them out.

There is no convincing indication that the alleged hacker is using sqlmap to break into any website or server that may be hosting such data. It is possible to use sqlmap locally; that is, not point the tool to a remote website, and instead interact with files stored locally. 

Michael Patterson, who was named in some of the data, told Motherboard that the information included in the video was accurate.

“That is pretty crazy. So, if I understand it correctly, they are sending emails to people telling them to vote for Trump and some of the emails contain a video proving that they have personal information? If some fascists want to show up to my house, I feel bad for them. I am a combat veteran and a communist, it wouldn’t go well for them,” he told Motherboard in an email.

There are few clues about who made this video. Metadata for the video does not seem to show anything that could be used to help identify who made it.

A few hours after a source sent Motherboard the video, the file was removed from the sharing site Orangedox. It is not clear if the user deleted it, or if Orangedox itself did so. Motherboard archived a copy of the video before it was removed.

Chad Brown, CEO of Orangedox, said the company's privacy policy prevented him from sharing information unless contacted by a law enforcement agency. Orangedox would then provide the agency with all necessary information on the user account.

"We don't make any copies of the files that our users post," Brown added.

The video and the viral 4Chan post instructing people to attempt to disrupt the mail-in voting process is similar in that election security experts agree that both pose very little risk, but give the appearance that impropriety is possible in the mail-in vote despite the risk being very low.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the video itself. On Tuesday, local media reported that the FBI was investigating the threatening emails more generally.

(Disclosure: Gavin McInnes founded the Proud Boys in 2016. He was also a co-founder of VICE. He left the company in 2008 and has had no involvement since then.)

Would you like to read more stories about hacking, privacy, and surveillance? Subscribe to our pop-up 'zine The Mail. The next issue is about hacking culture.

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