#it makes Not accidentally copying an existing design so difficult | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cycas · 1 year ago

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Idk. When I was 8, nobody taught me to type. What we did spend ages and ages learning was how to do joined-up writing. Handwriting was considered vastly important. That, and getting fast at very basic mental arithmetic were the two things we spent most of our primary school lives on.

Important skills! Vital to all aspects of life in the 1970s! (I was really bad at both of these by the way. Almost got held down a year, because really, how would I cope in the modern world???)

I'm in my 50's. Nobody cares about handwriting or times tables any more. Nobody uses Word Perfect, the 'standard' wordprocessor I learned to use when I was 21. The many 'vital-to-employment' WP keyboard shortcuts I memorised are dust on the wind, as so many other tech skills When I was in my late 20s', I had a job for a bit teaching unemployed dockers who had lost their jobs due to mechanisation how to use computers (a skill nobody had ever taught me). They were slow at it, and they didn't know obvious things, like how to make spaces between words, or capital letters.

But the most difficult thing was convincing them that they could, in fact, noodle around and try stuff out. That it was OK to try different ways, OK to ask questions. Nothing was going to break, and even if it did, we could probably fix it. Or start over, which is also fine.

Centering a heading using spaces IS formatting. It may not be the currently-preferred way of doing it (hey! There's a button for that now! Magic!) but formatting things using spaces does teach you interesting things about fonts and how wide different characters are, maybe also what non-latin-standard characters exist, and how you make them.

Save as PDF is one way to copy a web page, but far from the obvious or most useful one for every possible scenario.

I am the same age as email. It's a funny old technology, and one that was never really designed to do all the things we do with it now. It's... kind of fragile. Kind of buggy. Not surprising really, at our age.

I'm not sure people will still be using email - or at least, email in the sense that we use it now - in 20 years. Or 40.

I mean, I see the concern. It's a problem if children don't have enough keyboards, enough tech to noodle around with. It's definitely a problem if children are being reprimanded for doing things 'wrong' or punished for experimenting. But let's not accidentally teach people that there's One True Formatting or One Right Way. 'Wrong' is 'it caught fire'.

Anything else is a convention, which you can adhere to or break, according to what you are trying to do. Maybe that one kid will even be the one that changes it, one day.

The time to learn the conventions is when you are in your late teens to 20's, when it actually matters because you need to impress big organisations handling tons of people: employers, colleges, the government.

If you are collecting information and need it to conform to a convention, accept that people of any age can't guess what convention you want. (I get that people never read instructions, and this is very frustrating. Still, reviewing your help text yet again is one thing you can do that might actually make a difference)

People are probably going to fuck it up, but that's part of the learning process. Aged 18-20, their learning skills should be at their peak. They can make a mistake, be corrected, and do it the 'Accepted Way' next time. Just, you know. Don't reckon on it staying Accepted for the next 30 years. It won't.

seriously, though. i work in higher education, and part of my job is students sending me transcripts. you'd think the ones who have the least idea how to actually do that would be the older ones, and while sure, they definitely struggle with it, i see it most with the younger students. the teens to early 20s crowd.

very, astonishingly often, they don't know how to work with .pdf documents. i get garbage phone screenshots, sometimes inserted into an excel or word file for who knows what reason, but most often it's just a raw .jpg or other image file.

they definitely either don't know how to use a scanner, don't have access to one, or don't even know where they might go for that (staples and other office supply stores sometimes still have these services, but public libraries always have your back, kids.) so when they have a paper transcript and need to send me a copy electronically, it's just terrible photos at bad angles full of thumbs and text-obscuring shadows.

mind bogglingly frequently, i get cell phone photos of computer screens. they don't know how to take a screenshot on a computer. they don't know the function of the Print Screen button on the keyboard. they don't know how to right click a web page, hit "print", and choose "save as PDF" to produce a full and unbroken capture of the entirety of a webpage.

sometimes they'll just copy the text of a transcript and paste it right into the message of an email. that's if they figure out the difference between the body text portion of the email and the subject line, because quite frankly they often don't.

these are people who in most cases have done at least some college work already, but they have absolutely no clue how to utilize the attachment function in an email, and for some reason they don't consider they could google very quickly for instructions or even videos.

i am not taking a shit on gen z/gen alpha here, i'm really not.

what i am is aghast that they've been so massively failed on so many levels. the education system assumed they were "native" to technology and needed to be taught nothing. their parents assumed the same, or assumed the schools would teach them, or don't know how themselves and are too intimidated to figure it out and teach their kids these skills at home.

they spend hours a day on instagram and tiktok and youtube and etc, so they surely know (this is ridiculous to assume!!!) how to draft a formal email and format the text and what part goes where and what all those damn little symbols means, right? SURELY they're already familiar with every file type under the sun and know how to make use of whatever's salient in a pinch, right???

THEY MUST CERTAINLY know, innately, as one knows how to inhale, how to type in business formatting and formal communication style, how to present themselves in a way that gets them taken seriously by formal institutions, how to appear and be competent in basic/standard digital skills. SURELY. Of course. RIGHT!!!!

it's MADDENING, it's insane, and it's frustrating from the receiving end, but even more frustrating knowing they're stumbling blind out there in the digital spaces of grown-up matters, being dismissed, being considered less intelligent, being talked down to, because every adult and system responsible for them just

ASSUMED they should "just know" or "just figure out" these important things no one ever bothered to teach them, or half the time even introduce the concepts of before asking them to do it, on the spot, with high educational or professional stakes.

kids shouldn't have to supplement their own education like this and get sneered and scoffed at if they don't.

#all things change #anything you teach an 8 year old about technology will probably be wrong by the time they are looking for a job

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charseraph · 2 years ago

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You’ve probably answered this before, but do you have any advice for anyone wanting to make their own spec bio species? I tried making my own but I feel like they’re too humanoid of designs but that’s also what I’m most comfortable with😔

Don’t worry, I’m happy to answer! 🤲🏼

I found that finding a shape, even the most ‘unusable,’ ‘un-animal-able’ shape around you, and then replicating that shape as accurately as you can in a sinch (no streamlining! Shaky messed up lines are ENCOURAGED, living things are all imperfect squiggles, so minimize your erases and undos!) can help with silhouette ideas.

(The reason for that is that instead of deleting a ‘bad’ drawing outright, you can start anew or copy only the parts you liked, and then boom! You’ve got one drawing you’re happy with and another you’ll more likely than not return to in the future, however far.)

(A dozen fast, improvised designs can beat out a single painstakingly planned one. It seems counterintuitive that quantity can be better than quality, but that’s only if you know the quality ahead of time! When it comes to concept art, more is better at the very beginning.)

Once you’ve replicated a handful of shapes, don’t add eyes and ears. In fact, don’t draw anything you’d think of as something an animal would have. The frequent fallbacks are tails, claws, paws, toes, ears, horns, fur, wings, joints, teeth, snouts, and hexapedal, quadrupedal, and bipedal bodies with heads in the front. These things are not universal, they are just our earthly scope of our closest relatives.

Modeling an alien species after insects, birds, reptiles, or sea life will make your alien nonhuman, but still earthling. These categories won’t necessarily arise in an alien world. Evolution doesn’t produce birds as we know them, evolution takes the most convenient source material and produces something to fill the niches birds occupy, and birds happened to be that source material.

I like to think about building a species like building a robot. How does a robot know where it’s going? Light sensors, maybe. Those don’t need to be orbs, or even at the front. How do some robots move? They don’t necessarily need spines or toes or claws or tails. How is fuel acquired? Lots of earth animals happen to have a hole in the front that sucks it in and breaks it up for refinement. Does it only have to be this way?

The more you separate life from Earth and relate it more to processes, means to the goal of continuing one’s design’s existence, creating more and more alien but still feasibly alive creatures becomes easier.

Above all, it should be fun. Researching biological precedent and basis from actual animals isn’t absolutely required, because those processes are based on logic—through which you can invent (or accidentally independently replicate) your own symbioses, organs, life cycles, and body chemistries.

Earth nature is like a template: working too closely from it can make you something that’s feasible, but could be recognizably earthly. Imagination is like raw resources: difficult to refine into something that makes total sense at first (from a lack of reference and guidance), but, with the right balance of templates and shots in the dark—you can make something positively, confidently alien!

You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to of course! It’s not a rule set, and you aren’t doing anything wrong if you don’t do them. The ultimate goal is to enjoy creating, not just the end result. Your aliens should be fun for you to draw. The amount of worldbuilding you want to do is your choice alone and no one else’s. Stopping at a single species, culture, planet is perfectly OK. Don’t let guides or other worlds pressure you into making more than you’re craving to.

If you ever make any drafts, however small, I’d love to see them. I’m always down to hear about people’s alien ideas, I sometimes throw in some fan art to help out. I wish you the best of luck, fun, and ease.

#char speaks #ask #thank you for asking!#speculative biology

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rigelmejo · 2 years ago

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Mm.

The main thing in Readibu that seems to benefit me is that it tells me the percent done in the right upper corner. I don't know why, but seeing percent really pushes me to keep reading. It did in Amazon Kindle and Moonreader Pro too, but both of those apps just Stop showing me percent for some reason eventually... I'm guessing because I read too slow for its calculator, or because the file I read is hundreds of pages instead of split into 2-10 pages in length.

Readibu also has click definitions, and audio of individual sentences, and it's paid version (which I'm not using) has full sentence translation. But Pleco has all those features, but better. Readibu let's me favorite words i look up, which is nice to me in particular because I can see the words favorited since I started this reading kick. But Pleco let's a person favorite words AND add them to many customized SRS flashcard collections so it's much better designed for study. (Readibus word favorite is only preferable to Pleco for me right now, because my pleco has thousands of words saved many of which I've now learned, versus Readibu which I got this month so all the saved words are fresh study words).

Readibu's main unique feature, as far as I can tell, is that you can click the Stats button for whatever you're reading, and see an estimate of the reading level of the material. This is convenient and really freaking useful, because the last took I found that did this required a lot more copy/pasting to use and didn't compare with HSK but it's own vague difficulty score and would often crash on me due to the amount of characters in a webnovel chapter (it was still useful and wonderful for existing though!). I think Lingq also had a similar feature when I used it (if I remember correctly), in that Lingq counted words you marked as known and could tell you the % new unknown words versus known in a given reading material. But the problem with Lingq for me, was my reading level was far above beginner and I'm too lazy to mark all the words I know. It was a LOT of words, and I just wanted to quickly read not pause to mark all the stuff I knew. The Lingq tool would likely be more accurate to YOUR real reading level, but it requires more regular Lingq use to be accurate for you. And I just didn't use it enough, and I hated Lingqs expensive pay model (especially given Pleco is way better for chinese and is a one time fee then free to use forever after). Readibu's Stats information is more generalized, but i can quickly open something I find easy to read, check it's Stats, then compare it to other things I want to read and see roughly how much more difficult they will be for me to read. So it's easier to pick something the same level or a little challenging, instead of accidentally going from one reading level to "this will take me months to slog through." It's very convenient, works great, and it's free (unlike lingq).

I'm only using Readibu's free version, but it's perfectly useful free. Like I mentioned, the only paid thing it seems to do is full sentence translation. And it's probably just using Google translate so a copy/paste will give you the same result free, or you could get Pleco (which was a one time cost of around $20 dollars for the several dictionaries I got and full Reading tool features which are hands down the best of all the Chinese reading apps I've seen) if full sentence/passage translation matters to you. The only particular thing tempting me to buy Readibu, is knowing if I know I'm being charged I'd probably read more to make it earn it's usefulness ToT. But I don't need to do that lol.

Anyway, review of Readibu: free version is great! I recommend! It's not the best Chinese reader app, and it's a bit clunky depending on the Chinese webnovel site link you input, but it overall works on everything I put into it, it has good definitions (better than Lingq), has audio, has words underlined (good for beginners), and difficulty Stats. It also says percent read which I personally think is kinda motivating. It's satisfying to read and finish a whole novel in readibu! (I also think Readibu has likely improved, I remember checking it out back when it came out and it definitely works better now with better definitions/websites compatibilities and is a very useful reading tool now). Paid version seems unneeded but maybe I'll check it out one day, i already assume it's paid version would probably be at least as good as Lingq or better (if you're studying chinese).

#rant #readibu #review #motivation #idk why but seeing percenr done SUPER motivates me #thats ALSO why Memrise is my favorite SRS app.#anki never showed me percent done. memrise both shows TOTAL COURSE COMPLETION and completes each module circle as you do cards #so each mini module u complete becomes filled in. as ur overall course percent goes up.#so i constantly visually saw my progress. Clozemaster shows progress too but #in such a huge scale of 10/10000 cards done. that it doesnt visually xhange often so it doesnt motivate me much #(still motivates me way more than anki yho. any visual completion info motivates me).#also fun story i bought clozemaster pro Once. because i REALLY like that apps radio mode.#if you like audioflashcards/comprehensible input audio their radio mode is perfect.#anyway so i bought clozemaster pro. and it charged me once. but never again.#so i still have all these pro features but never get charged anymore. which was a very happy accident

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su-era4-comic · 4 years ago

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This is cute but you stole the design for ivory from ask-whitepearl-and-Steven aka thechekhov and I think that’s super messed up

You know, I was just gonna ignore this ask but, honestly, I knew this was probably gonna come up again sometime in the future.

“Again? Lee, what do you mean again?!”

I say AGAIN because a week ago I got a different ask saying that I was ripping off @omy-chan01 ‘s design for their THEIR version of “White Diamond Steven!”

So, this is gonna be a little long but I feel like if I don’t THOROUGHLY explain this, this is gonna come up again and again and I wanna be able to just...plop down a link to this post just in case.

Alright, so...did I steal @thechekhov ‘s WD!Steven design for Ivory.

No. I didn’t.

And you wanna know something? That wasn’t Ivory’s original design. I had tried several different designs for Ivory! He was actually the most difficult of the Diamond Bros to design BECAUSE of his gem AND because of the fear of this very scenario!

So, lemme explain my entire thought process when I was trying to design Ivory.

This is a bit of an obvious point to make but the Diamond’s gem placement/positions clearly mirror eachother. Yellow and Blue: their gems are just a legit mirror and similar shape so the Gem placement for Gold and Azure was easy, their Gems are basically their hearts.

White and Pink are the same: they have the same cut of Gem but they’re just rotated to be vertical mirror images.

I wanted to keep that theme with the Diamond Boys so I wanted Ivory’s Gem to “mirror” Steven’s. But here’s where I got tripped up a little.

This is one of the design drafts I made when creating the boys. As you can see, I made 5 different designs for Ivory’s Gem placement. My first design was actually the bottom one but, as you can see in my notes, THAT was a no go (the amount of spinal issues that poor boy would have to go through lol)

So I just stuck with the head placement which was the obvious choice but I still didn’t know how I was gonna rotate it. I didn’t want his gem to be upside down, it just looked...weird to me.

I thought about just having his gem rotated to the same position as Steven’s but just on his head but still...looked kinda off to me. So I had decided on either one of the designs in Column B. I thought both of those were pretty good! The top-right design still have an up-side down gem but just moved back to be at the center of his skull. And I thought the bottom-right one would be perfect because “hey, mirror image, just flipped and I could get some jokes outta this later down the line in the comic!”

In the end, I had ORIGINALLY decided to go with my Top-Right choice cause I thought that’d be more interesting and I thought maybe it would make him look a little more original!

But a few weeks later, as I was scrolling through Tumblr, a Steven Universe AU comic showed up in my feed. This AU comic was the @theeldritchgemsau. I read through it (and you guys should too, it’s REALLY interesting and really good) but then I saw THEIR design for “White Steven’s” Gem...

Oh dear...

Welp, guess I couldn’t use that design because I thought “Aw crap, better go with one of my other choices otherwise people will think that I ripped off this Comic’s design and I don’t wanna do that!!”

But here’s the OTHER issue I now had to deal with!

I still didn’t want to use bottom right design because I was VERY WELL AWARE OF (and a fan of) @thechekhov “Ask White Steven and Pearl” comic series at this time so I had the same issue of “SHIT, I can’t use that design EITHER because I’d be copying” but I still didn’t want to use my other 3 designs because they just didn’t gel with me but I still couldn’t use the options in column B because then I was afraid I’d be accused of stealing other peoples designs and it was just a spiral of “FUCK WHAT AM I GONNA DO NOW!!?”

Yeah. Fucked with me real bad! Then a thought creeped into my brain that was like “Oh shit, what if came up something that was already done and I get accused of copying them too?!” So I started looking through Tumblr and DeviantArt for “White Diamond Steven” to make sure I didn’t accidentally copy someone else...and..

LOE AND BEHOLD I actually DID find @omy-chan01 ‘s WD!Steven design! And even worse!? They came up with a similar “All 4 Diamond Sons existing in the same place” thing too!

I panicked, over thought a lot of stuff, tried to change my ENTIRE STORY AND DESIGNS and I almost SCRAPPED my entire comic idea JUST because of this! It was just an anxiety triggered domino effect...(-_-)

So then I took a break, calmed myself down and began reading up on “how to be original” and all that stuff. Then I came to a realization.

Like...yeah, Omy-Chan01 and Chekhov both have a version of WD!Steven with the same Gem placement but I don’t see people accusing them of copying the other. The only thing that same about these design IS the Gem placement but everything else about it? TOTALLY different. The design of their clothes, the design of the hair, hell the art styles are absolutely different. The only common factor between these characters is the Gem place/rotation. And...

It’s the same with Ivory. Aside from the Gem, my character is completely different from theirs. Why am I panicking over such a small detail? I shouldn’t be! I said “Fuck it, don’t worry about it.” And continued on with my work.

So...

TL;DR

NO. I did NOT steal @thechekhov ‘s design for WD!Steven. I just happened to come to a similar design conclusion for my character. I didn’t rip them off. I didn’t try and pass off their design as my own. This is all just a bunch of coincidences.

Thank you and have a nice day.

#Anonymous #asks #author note #so yeah #didn't think I'd have to deal with this but there it is

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imreadydollparts · 4 years ago

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One of those chatty, legitimate blog posts, I guess.

I’ve never had good gross nor fine motor control. I am the picture of clumsiness. It’s frustrating wanting to have done faceups and the like and being wholly unable to meet my own standards.

I’m also getting older and am at an age where my motor control will only get worse over time, and my hands are starting to hurt often.

It’s going to happen.

Recently I’ve done a couple of projects with absolutely no mind to perfection. They were just for fun.

“They” say quality over quantity, and that’s a very good rule to live by in general but when it comes to having fun, sometimes slopping your way through a lot of small projects and accepting good enough is more fun than focusing on one for a long time and worrying about perfection. Life isn’t long enough to not let go and have fun now and then.

First project has a bit of backstory to it, I guess. I’ve recently decided to curate my collection more tightly because I have way too many dolls. That didn’t necessarily mean I wanted to get rid of them, though, and some I’ve been trying to find ways to make them fit into the new aesthetic (pastels).

LOL OMG Neonlicious obviously didn’t fit but I did like her quite a bit, so I did a very simple change up on her by rerooting her with pastel yarn and going over her existing faceup with new colors. Tracing, basically, and not kicking myself over my poor motor control.

She’s been my most popular custom ever... I can’t claim credit for this design, though, because it is just a palette swap of her default faceup with a few added details in her too-big, too blank eyes.

I also redressed her in Rainbow High clothing and some Boxy Girls shoes.

Her new name is Pastelicious, because I’m not all that creative.

Second project is an old Remco pony inspired by this Totsy unicorn I saw on eBay and some brand new to me Posca paint pens.

I figured I couldn’t do worse. I’d actually rerooted the pony first, then Pastelicious, then couldn’t decide what to do with the pony’s eyes and copied Pastelicious’s. Using Poscas (fine and medium, both of which are too bulky for this type of thing) was a fun experiment. I don’t recommend them for faceups just because it’s a LOT more difficult to see around the pen than a brush.

Again, not kicking myself for the lack of fine motor control and letting myself have fun instead.

And it was! Experimenting with a new product was a lot of fun.

I’ve named her Ranibow Sprimkle.

Third for-fun project also has a good bit of blather to it...

I’ve kind of accidentally started a G1 MLP Cotton Candy collection. I have both G1 flat and concave foot Cotton Candy (concave needs a tail, and flat needs redyed), World’s Smallest Cotton Candy, repro Cotton Candy, and Softies Cotton Candy (the big plush with horrible hair).

And then I stumbled upon MLP Funko POPs and they’re horrible. I hate them.

That empty stare....

I thought it might be fun to try repainting one and see if I could make it less horrible.

I tried giving her G1 Cotton Candy’s eyes which for some reason, on both the purple is swallowed by the black in photos.

I can’t say I’m satisfied with this custom, it certainly shows what happens when 20 years of practice slams up against poor motor control in general.

You can’t see 20 years of trying in that at all.

My hands simply do not do what I ask them to, and I’ve come to accept that they never will. Now if they’d just stop flying off in random directions and punching things when I tell them to reach to a specific place to pick something up... That hurts.

I may revisit it sometime in the future, but it was fun even if she’s still pretty unpleasant to look at.

Forward facing eyes on a horse is disturbing no matter what... Though I do feel like it’s less horrible, now.

#repaint #lol omg #mlp #my little pony #remco #funko pop

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archiesoniconline · 4 years ago

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QnA: Zone Cop Briefing

Zally: Hello there everyone. I’m Zally, Head of Communications for the Zone Cops. Joining me today is our top officer Zonic...

Zonic: Hi there! Zally: And his protege, Zails. Zails: Uh, hello. That’s a lot of people w-we’re talking too. Zally: The staff at Archie Sonic Online have received a lot of questions about Zones, Zone Travel, Time Travel, and several covering some combinations of these topics. And so, they have asked us to give this briefing, to hopefully explain some of the basics about Zones and Time Travel, and with luck we’ll answer your questions as we do so. Just before we begin however, it’s important to say that, while what we will say today is the case for… hmm…. At least 9 out of 10 situations, there are several exceptions. Zonic: Not to mention Nega and that Genesis Wave messing everything up… Zally: Ahem! Going into all of them would take far too much time, so we’ll just say for now that ‘exceptions to these rules do exist’ and start the briefing. To begin, most Zones fall into two distinct types. There are the True Zones, such as say the Prime Zone and the Sol Zone, complete universes in themselves. Then there are the Pocket Zones, which have limited internal dimensions, can often be found within a True Zone, and can also be disrupted by tremendous emissions of energy. The Special Zone, formally the Zone of Silence, was one such Zone, as was the Pocket Zone destroyed when Super Sonic and Hyper Knuckles from the Prime Zone fought. There are multiple ways that Pocket Zones can be created, natural and artificial. But for True Zones, they are only created when a Triggering Event occurs in the Prime Zone. Other Zones cannot split to form new Zones. It might help to think of the Multiverse almost like a tree, with the Prime Zone as the trunk, and other Zones the branches growing from it. Triggering Events have a few requirements. There has to be a number of likely possible outcomes. And the different outcomes must have fundamentally different effects on the future of the Prime Zone. For example, Prime Sonic choosing how many chilli-dogs to eat might have several different likely outcomes, but none would result in any fundamental change, so it would not be a Triggering Event. In the opposite way, Prime Robotnik debating whether to use the Robotizer certainly had a massive effect on the events in the Prime Zone, but the chances of him choosing to not use the device were so slim, no new Zone was created. A Triggering Event need not be a single decision made by one person. It could be several smaller decisions made by a group of people that nevertheless results in a different outcome. It could even be the results of a natural occurrence. When life was reforming after the Gene Bomb in the Prime Zone, there were so many different directions it could take, that this is where the vast majority of Zones were created. Numerous Zones were also created when the Prime Zone first formed, some with wildly different laws of physics. When a new Zone is created, it is completely duplicated. The entire timeline is copied, not just from the Triggering Event. Though on that subject, the passage of time can be different between Zones. Time runs faster in some Zones compared to the Prime Zone, such as the Zone Robo-Robotnik hailed from. In some, it runs slower, such as in the Twilight Cage. And in others, it can run at the same rate as the Prime Zone, but the point where the Prime Zone and the other Zone meets are at different points in their timelines. That covers the creation of Zones. So moving onto Zone Cop operations, I’ll turn to Zonic. Zonic: Thanks Zal… uh, Zally. As I’m sure most of you are aware, the Zone Cops monitor activity within the different Zones, as well as travel between the different Zones. Different units of Cops have different roles, from general monitoring, to patrolling the Cosmic Interstate, to protecting against threats to the Multiverse. For me, my job means I’m called in when direct action is required in another Zone. This is… a difficult job. You could well ask why don’t we help out whenever something bad happens in the other Zone. Truth is, that could cause a horrible imbalance, and lead to more disastrous consequences further down the line. It’s not easy sitting on the sidelines, but sometimes we have to. But then, there are times we do need to act to make sure a greater threat doesn’t rise. You’re likely aware of some of those times, as that’s when I’ve brought in Prime Sonic. Why him? Well, the Prime Zone is only a step away from all the other Zones, even wildly different ones like the Sol Zone. And Prime Sonic is, in all honesty, one of the most capable Sonic’s in the multiverse, so I know it’s in good hands. We could send in a squad of Zone Cops instead, but one Sonic can do, with very little disruption, what it would take several squads to accomplish. This has all gotten a lot harder recently, with Eggman Naga swarming over the Multiverse causing massive disruption, and the recent damage inflicted to Zone Jails. Alright, there’s a bit more to cover, but that’s for the end. Right now, I’m gonna turn to Zails. He’s still training to be a Zone Cop, but as one of his training projects, he’s done a Case Study on Silver the Hedgehog, so he’s here to talk about time travel. Take it away Zails. Zails: Uh… Alright *deep breath* You can do this Zails. Silver the Hedgehog is a time travelling Hedgehog… That’s redundant, isn’t it? Uh… so… Silver has travelled through time, but there have also been incidents where he’s interacted with different Zones aside from the Prime Zone, known as Light Mobius and Dark Mobius. So, er, Time Travel and Zone Travel do share many similar principles. Travelling between Zones is easy, as No-Zone and the Cosmic Highway connect all Zones. Even travel that doesn’t use the Cosmic Interstate, such as Star Posts, tend to make use of that connection. Time Travel is much harder, though it is easier to travel forwards, going with the flow of time, than backwards, working against it. This means it’s very easy, if you don’t know what you’re doing, to accidently move between Zones when Time Travelling. Er… *checks notes* Jani-ca from Dark Mobius did this, accidentally travelling to the Prime Zone when she went back in time. It’s easier to do when you are going back before the Triggering Event that created your Zone. And so, if you know how to Time Travel, it is much easier to travel to other Zones. Which leads us, uh, to the next question. ‘Does time travel create new Zones?’ The answer is ‘it depends’. Keep in mind, looking at Silver, given the chance it was unlikely he wouldn’t go back in time. And when he found out about Mecha-Sally, also unlikely that he wouldn’t stop her. So his actions changed the future, without creating a new Zone. On the other hand, King Sonic of Light Mobius. Once, it was the future of the Prime Zone. But when he went back in time, his actions created such wild changes, that Light Mobius became its own Zone, and the future of the Prime Zone was shifted away from it. Which then leads to a bigger question. *takes a breath, checks notes* ‘If you change the future, doesn’t that create a paradox where you wouldn’t have gone back to change the future?’ Okay, when someone goes back in time, they become part of the past, as if they always existed there. So when they return to the future, they’ll still remember their old life, even if their actions have created massive changes. We think. This is partially theoretical, based on observing Silver. There is one last question: ‘Why are some things from Light Mobius seen in Silver’s future?’ This is because of the way Light Mobius was created. There is still a connection between Light Mobius and the Prime Zone. Sometimes, things leak through. Maybe just objects, but at some point, even Tikchaos, or part of her, was able to slip into the Prime Zone. *looks over notes* Uh… that’s everything from me, so, er, back to Zonic. Zonic: Thanks Zails, you did great. *gives thumbs up* Our last topic is on Zone Numbering and Naming. There are countless Zones, and each is given an ‘official numbering’, based on the date and exact time of its creation. These numbers, as you might expect, are VERY long. So instead, we usually refer to the ‘Case File’ Numbers. These numbers, after the first 100, are based on when we start to take an interest in that Zone. The first 100, well, we were trying to rate the Zone’s by importance. We really messed that up! *chuckles* For naming a Zone, that honour is given to the team who first open a Case File on a Zone. *communicator beeps* Oh, that’s right! Just one other thing to note. We've heard rumours of another 'Sonic Prime'. We don't know any details yet, but we're investigating.

Okay, I think that is everything. Zally? Zally: Yes, we’ve just about covered everything. I hope we’ve managed to answer most of your questions. But before we leave, we’ve had numerous requests for knowing the name and designation of a number of Zones. So we’ll leave those with you. Thank you so much for listening. Now, here’s the list:

#001 – The Prime Zone – This is the zone where all others originate from, where Sonic and the heroes of Mobius fight against the tyranny of Dr. Eggman.

#017 – The Stealth Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius where the superhero Stealth the Hedgehog fights villains such as Professor Egg.

#059 - The Serene Zone - This Zone features a Mobius where Julian Kintobor never managed to gain control after the Great War, and the Kingdom of Acorn stood strong.

#100 – The No Zone – Our Zone, from here the Zone Cops organization strives to maintain order across the multiverse.

#109 – The Legal Zone – This zone features a Mobius with a city called Litigopolis where law and order are the way of the world.

#196 – The Freedom Zone – This zone features a planet Freedom which is divided into two realms – the Land of the Sky and the Land of Darkness.

#199 – The Underground Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius where Prince Sonic and his siblings, Manic and Sonia, seek to find their mother, Queen Aleena, and become the Council of Four to overthrow the dictator Dr. Robotnik.

#220 – The Lightning Zone – This zone features a planet Earth where Sonic has traveled and been adopted by a police officer named Tom and stops the plans of the overzealous scientist Dr. Robotnik.

#372 – The Anti Zone – This zone is a mirror reflection of the Prime Zone, where our heroes are bad and their villains are good.

#403 – The Earth X Zone – This zone features a planet Earth with a city called Station Square. It is the home of Chris Thorndyke and his friends and has been protected by Sonic the Hedgehog.

#492 – The Image Zone – This zone features a planet Earth that is protected by heroes such as Spawn, Savage Dragon, and The Maxx.

#496 – The Dark Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius nearly purged of life from a corrupted Knuckles the Echidna who became Enerjak.

#589 – The Discovery Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius resembling a gritty film noir.

#593 – The Boomer Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius where Sonic and the Freedom Fighters; Johnny Lightfoot, Porker Lewis, Tails, and Amy, face various foes including the evil Dr. Robotnik.

#623 – The Real Zone – This zone features a planet Earth where Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game character.

#905 – The Mobius X Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius where Sonic and his friends call home. Sonic and his friends have been transported off this planet into the X Earth Zone.

#1054 – The Kaiju Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius where Dr. J Kintobor uses a super sized mecha, Giant Robotno, to fight enlarged mutants.

#1072 – The Sentai Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius where Sonicman and the Chaos Ninja Team fight the villainous Sallactor.

#1084 – The Cyborg Zone – This zone is home to a planet Mobius that has been left a ruined wasteland thanks to it’s Dr. Robotnik. This is the zone from which Dr. Eggman hails.

#1100 – Maginary Zone – This zone is where the dreams of all other zones are born from. It is entered via the Precioustone and is guarded by the powerful Illumina.

#1103 – The Light Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius very similar to our heroes’ world. King Sonic and Queen Sally rule the Kingdom of Acorn in this zone.

#1105 – The Sol Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius where Blaze the Cat guards the Jewelled Sceptre and the Sol Emeralds.

#1114 – The Boom Zone – This zone features a planet Mobius where Sonic and his friends live on Bygone Island and deal with regular shenanigans from Dr. Eggman.

#1241 – The Archie Zone – This zone features a planet Earth with a town called Riverdale. It is the home of Archie Andrews, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Josie and the Pussycats amongst others.

#1291 – The Luna Zone – This zone features a Mobius that is protected by the pretty guardian Sally Moon and her crush Tuxedo Knux.

#4235 – The Galaxy Zone – This zone is the home of the Freedom Fighters of the Galaxy, a group that patrols their universe facing cosmic threats such as Robolactus.

#archie sonic online #character ask #ask #zonic the zone cop #zally the zone cop #zails the zone cop #zones #time travel #light mobius #dark mobius #Silver the Hedgehog #prime zone #sonic the hedgehog

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mysecretatticsstuff · 5 years ago

Text

Pranks

Pairing : Jeon jungkook x reader

Word count: 27.3k

Warnings: Smut, Fluff, emotional breakdown.

Summary: You thought you were going to enjoy college. Even with unfortunate events and a poor sleep schedule you were trying to live your best life. Untill one particular kid, aka golden boy of campus came dashing into your life.

College. The place you got excited to go thinking you would finally meet good people, make friends and have the time of your life. And yet here you are, 3 am in the morning just barely hanging in there with a paint brush in your hand finishing up the poster that was supposed to be a group project for physiology class. You have dozed off a couple of times now, with eyes open doing the detailed line work that you suggested not to put in it because of the amount of time it takes. You almost messed it up but your multitasking skills save you. In short you hate college. Or more so, you hate your luck for always putting you in the companionship of the worst people in the world. You can now permanently stamp a "pissed off" warning to your forehead to avoid casualties.

Grumpy wasn't even a mood anymore, it's a lifestyle. And some people just make it real difficult for you to not eat them alive. On top of that list was Mr. Jeon Jungkook. Golden boy, good at whatever he does, loved by everyone he has a conversation with. Well except for you. You on the other hand want to kill him. Not because you're jealous or anything. Heck you would be happy for him if he didn't make your life a living hell. You always wondered what you did for him to hate your existence so much. He kept pulling off weird ass stunts with you. Once he filled your water bottle with chilli tomato ketchup, you took a gulp without knowing and had a red face for a legit hour. Another time he issued the last copy of only book that had the reference you needed and kept it untill a day before the assignment was due. So you had to beg him to give the book to you and complete the whole assignment in one day. (Which was not fun of course). He mixed salt in your drink, splashed water from behind while you were returning to your apartment and what not. At first you thought to ignore him, when the stunts were small. But he just kept doing that shit and you grew angrier. When you asked him, why the heck was he doing that to you he just simply smiled like a devil, winked at you and walked away. That was a year ago, since that day you have been wanting to kill him.

You weren't the aggressive type by nature, your friends would agree that you were the most calm and collected, amiable and open minded friend in the group. Your personality was more of a mediator than a murderer. But the golden boy brought out the beast in you. When you realised that he isn't stopping with the obnoxious pranks. You started pulling off your own as a revenge. To be honest you didn't even regret it. Heck it was even cathartic. Once you hid his clothes while he was in the gym, so basically he had to wait inside the bathroom for the whole day in a towel. (You took his phone too so that he couldn't call anyone for help). You "accidentally" splashed juice onto his crisp white t-shirt before an early morning class. You wrapped his bike with cling film and bubble wrap. It was tiring but worth it when you saw his face, glaring daggers at you cause he was getting late for class and couldn't leave his apartment. You made sure you smiled sweetly at him when he saw you that day.

By now, everyone in your friend circle and both of your departments knew how you both jumped at the first opportunity to ruin each others day. You stopped questioning Jungkook because he never answered instead you focused on how to attack him in the best way.

The past two months have been extra rough for you, both personally and academic wise. Hence, jungkook's bickering has had you in a new level of pissed. A level you didn't know existed. Honestly you were amazed by the fact that you haven't had a breakdown till now. You didn't get any chance to pull anything off against him and that makes you angrier. I guy you were talking to back and forth has suddenly ghosted you and you are wallowing in all the self pity. You've had less than 4 hours of sleep for the past week because of all the requirements for class. You're just a week away from finishing everything off and you're praying that the devil doesn't make it impossible.

You personally hated Mondays, but who are you kidding everyday feels like a monday now. You head to the library first thing in the morning to finish your paper, a semester worth of work. You settle in starting to type out the last page. About an hour later your phone vibrates.

"Hey where are you?" It was Sunmi your best friend.

"I'm in the library" you wisper shout

"Oh.. i had something urgent to say to you can you come out for a second. I'm almost there."

"Okay, coming" you say.

Outside, sunmi was waiting for you with a book in hand.

"Jeez, y/n you look dead. Do you even sleep anymore?"

You sigh out loud, "Don't ask, i feel like i'm gonna pass out anytime soon. Coffee isn't helping anymore. I think i need drugs"

Sunmi just shakes her head in disbelief "What you need is a good night sleep. And for the drugs part, try sex." She says this in such sincerity that you actually consider it for a second before she laughs.

You laugh too, "Uggh, i can't wait to finally go out this weekend, i'm turning into a hermit. Anyways i'm sure u didn't call me out here to talk about hookups..?"

At this she hands you the book, "Yeah I didn't, but we need to talk about your dry state after you're free tho, but till then here you go. The book that you were searching for, you wouldn't believe how I.. or i should say where I found it I-... "

"Wait... Before you start your essay, i need to finish my paper. I meet you after your classes today. Tell me then. I need to go... Bye!" you hurriedly say before you turn around and enter the library

"But it's about Jungkook... " Sunmi tries to explain. But she realises you can't hear her anymore. She says to herself rather, "I hope you don't find trouble."

You almost reach your designated place when you see him. White T-Shirt and olive green cargos. That little shit, what was he up to again? You hurry to your laptop, only to find him smirking as if he knows some secret you don't.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" You ask. "Ooh.. chill Princess, just thought i'd see you and your work". At the mention of work you wake your computer up. A chill ran down through your spine followed by panic when you couldn't find the document you saved. After a moment, your eyes shot up, glaring dangerously at him. He sat up, folding his arms onto the table. "What's wrong? Can't find something?"

"What the fuck did you do, Jeon?" You wanted to scream bloody murder at him, but you didn't know how were you this calm.

"Tsk, tsk,.. last names now huh? Someone's angry. Tell me princess, will I win a prank of the year trophy this time?"

You were unable to speak. Your blood boiled, you wanted to punch him, better kill him. When you didn't reply he continued. "I hope you remember what your wrote in your thesis, even better if your typing skills are on fire, cause you need to rewrite within one week" He was putting a full display of his evil grin. Clearly amused by the situation he put you in. But you slowly realised what he meant. You quickly went to the recycle bin of your computer to test your luck, but soon saw that the demon had already deleted it from the bin too. Your heart sank. This was not fair. You wanted to cry now. Months and months of your hardwork, gone now. What the fuck was that bitch even thinking. This was not a joke anymore. It was your finals. Yes you both have done horrible things to each other but you made sure that it never got out of line. But him deleting your final thesis. This was definitely out of the line. You could not rewrite the whole thing even if you tried in a week. It would never get close to the original one. You would miss many points and the writing style. Damn you for not keeping an extra copy of the thesis somewhere. But again, you never thought Jungkook would go this low. You didn't even want to think how he figured out the passcode for your laptop. Anger doesn't describe what you were feeling now. You wanted to shut down. When Jungkook didn't hear a threatening or a curse, he chimed in. "Have I pulled the most epic prank on miss y/n that it finally shut her smart mouth?"

You couldn't bare it anymore, all these weeks of running around with just 4 hrs of sleep or sometimes non has made you physically weak. You wanted to escape. You throat hurt from the suppressed tears. But you were not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing you cry. You look at jungkook in the eye. Cold. You stand up, take your things and leave.

All the way to your apartment, you wanted to cry, but you waited till you were inside the safe heaven of your bed.How could he do this to you? When this crazy prank scenario started you couldn't comprehend why the nicest guy ( according to students and professors) had taken a toll on you. Yes you were angry at the beginning. But soon it had simmered down to something else. You couldn't pin point what, exactly. It's true his pranks were delirious and you hated him with all your will, but you couldn't help notice the small ways he made a difference in your life. You were an over-thinker, and this stupid game of pranks with him kept you busy. It was kind of the only source of entertainment for you as academics was no joke. It's difficult to explain but you became more productive because of him. You became a more open person, you made a lot of friends and most of the conversations started with how people don't understand why both of yo fight. Jungkook's friends became your friends too. You found out a lot of things about him through them. One that he was a naturally competitive person. He was a big softy inside they said, that was a bit hard to believe for you. But once he stood up for you when you were being cat called, he was so close to beating the shit out of the boys, nevertheless you dragged him out of it. He walked you to your apartment without even uttering a word. You wanted to say thank you, but the very next day he deflated your tires. And the saga continued. The moral of the story is you definitely had developed a soft spot for him. And this prank was definitely a blow to your ego and your heart.

All the emotions, the exhaustion just came crashing down and you let the dam break. You cried like a baby, whether because of the grief of your lost files, anger or because of him entirely you didn't know. You woke up 3 hours later, with puffy eyes and a blocked nose. You decided you can't let him get to you. So you did what you do best, turn all the frustration into anger towards him. You arranged all the resources for your thesis, and then you sat down with your laptop typing away from the beginning.

You didn't go to college next day, thought it would be better to stay at home and work. There were no classes anyways. You already sent an email to your professor informing him that there was a technical difficulty and you lost your files. Your professor was kind enough to excuse you from all the classes that week to work on your thesis stating that you had good attendance already. Sunmi called you, she felt guilty about the whole thing. "I should have known there was something fishy when that asshole gave me the book. I shouldn't have asked you to come out".

"Hey, it's fine, it's not your fault. I'll kill him with my own hands once everything is over"

"Still.. i feel super bad. Let me know if you need anything. I can bring you books from the library.."

"Thank you sun, i'll let you know if I need anything.. "

"Okay.... Oh and y/n,.. Jungkook came looking for you today. He seemed anxious? kinda worried even. I told that fucker i don't know where you are. Thought you should know"

Jungkook was looking around for you, that's weird. Was he feeling guilty? You always came up with a new prank. Maybe he is just surprised you vanished. "Hmmm... Thanks, i don't want him to know anything about me, Anyways i couldn't careless about him now. See you later".

"Take care y/n".

It was 10 pm when you stood up from your desk, your shoulders and wrists were stiff from all the typing. You realised you hadn't eaten anything for 7 hours now. It was raining heavily, you felt a bit dizzy. When you finally get out of college, this would be a hell of a story to tell though. You missed home dearly, you wanted someone to just hold you and assure you that everything is going to be okay. You took some leftover pizza from your fridge and put it in the microwave. Sometimes living alone just gets to you. All the loneliness, all the times you wished someone was there to comfort you. Your body ached and you felt pathetic about yourself. 'Why me?' was your question. A mixture of all these thoughts and emotions were swirling in your head and you didn't even realize that you were crying now. This was your 3rd breakdown in a span of two days.

"Pathetic" you muttered to yourself. Then your heard the bell ring. Confused at who came by at this ungodly hour, you wiped your tears and went to get the door.

You didn't expect the person you were staring at. Doe eyes slowly scanned you, from your feet to face. Jungkook.

You must have puffy red eyes, you think. God you didn't want him to see you like this. All petty and defeated. He was partially soaked from the rain. Jungkook just stood there, staring back at you. You waited for him to speak, when he didn't, you finally spoke, "What are you doing here?"

"I didn't see you in college today" he replied. Jungkook looked guilty? Sad even. "Why didn't you attend?" He asks next.

"That's non of your business" that came out harsher than you thought. At this his face turned stern. "Were you crying?"

At this point you don't know what or when will you break down. You could already feel a little lump forming in your throat. You looked down at your feet. "Go away, i have work". That came out so fragile and weak, you cringed internally. He stepped in. Searched around in his pocket and brought out a small USB in his hand. You looked at it and then his face.

"Your files" he said.

"You... why would you even... What the fuck? Jungkook!" With every word your voice rose. You thought he was feeling guilty, but he was just a little brat, playing games. All your softness was gone now.

You could tell by his devilish smirk that he was enjoying this way too much. "Who do you think you are?" You saw red with anger. With that much of a volcano boiling inside you, you were not sure what were you doing. Your hand flew up involuntarily. Lets just say, you would have punched him if it wasn't for his quick reflexes. He grabbed your wrist, turned you around. His other arm swiftly snaked around your waist.

"Woah.. easy princess. You sure you can fight me?" He tightens his grip around you. You hate to admit how badly it affects you. You can feel your knees going weak. His taught chest pressed against your back. You can feel him way too much through your thin t shirt. Your face heats up without you wanting it. No, no, no, no, you can't let your stupid hormones get to you. This is crazy. You hate him. Then why do you suddenly feel hot? As if on cue he lowers his head and whispers in your ear, " You okay, sweetheart?"

The new pet name, sends a spike of electricity just between your legs. You bite your lip to control the moan that threatens to leave your mouth. He notices the change too, the tension between you two is growing. You turn around to face him. He lets you. "I hate you."

His arms are still around you, circling your waist. He looks soft, as if relieved of some burden. Your clothes are getting wet from the contact. You don't know what to say, because you can hardly process what is happening. Just then your microwave beeps to your rescue.

You half jump half stumble away from him. "Uggh, i'll bring you a towel. Be right back."

When you return, he is standing in front of the couch. Looking godly. You sneak a glance at his chest and now hardened nipples before landing your eyes on his face. You hand him the towel. As if a half soaked jungkook wasn't enough. He swifty stripped off his t-shirt before drying himself off. You freeze. He looks at you gaze piercing.

"W- why.. did you do that?"

"You need to be a bit more specific sweetheart" he takes a step closer to you. You don't move away.

"The pranks.. why do you hate me so much, that you need to make my life a living hell?" You said softly.

"Helps me sleep at night." He smirks. You rolled your eyes at this. You were about to turn around when he grabs you by hand.

"I don't hate you. It's quite the opposite actually" Your eyebrows shot up at this. "yeah right. You think you can fool me again?" You scoff.

"I know you're a fool sometimes, but to be honest y/n I didn't know you were this dense" He mocked with a smirk.

"What the fuck? Okay that's it. Get out of my house Jeon" you demanded.

"What if I say no, Princess?"

You couldn't believe it. This guy has the audacity to mock you in your own house and then refuse to leave. You were beyond irritated now.

"How do people like you? You're such an ass. Leave before-..." you didn't get to complete the sentence before he pulls you towards him, with such force that you stumble, loose your balance and fall straight on his chest.

HIS BARE CHEST. GOD THIS WAS BAD. You felt your throat getting dry. You couldn't speak. He was firm, you kind of wonder about how much he works out. You could feel his silky smooth skin. You just stared at him, like a deer caught in headlights.

"That's it? You're not gonna 'make me' leave princess?" He says, with his face inches away from you.

*Pull it together y/n* you scold yourself mentally. But you body just froze and it feels hot. You probably have a red face now. You make another mistake of glancing at his lips, which are so damn close, it kinda makes you feel things you can't explain.

Jungkook notices this. He sees right through you. He finally speaks, "If you still haven't got it y/n, i don't know what to do with you... I... " He sighs, "I like you y/n. A lot. And I don't know how to behave when i'm around you, so I keep teasing you.." he says with a sincere look. "And besides.. you look hot, when you are angry at me" He smiles.

You realise you're still holding each other. Your heart is hammering in your chest. He probably can feel it beating too. You want to punch him for being such a jerk, but you also want to kiss him. You're so frustrated, at this point you don't know where the courage came from for what you did next. You kiss him. Out of all the things this was something he did not expect. This time he froze, hands paralyzed at your hips. When he finally came to his senses that it was really happening, he kissed back.

You snake your arms around his neck, pulling his hair into a fist. He lets out a small moan. You pull back, smirking. "No snarky comments now huh Jeon?" you mock, satisfied with his look. His face is flushed. You can feel his member slowly growing. He took some time to overcome his initial shock. Then he said, "No shit.. I'm.. God you're hot" And he is kissing you again. More in control this time. You part your lips to let him enter. His hands cup your face. Your kiss gets heated, one of his hands goes down, between your breasts, to your stomach. Then he waits, as if asking for permission.

"What now?" You say in between your kisses. "No guts for that?" You challenge him. And this time he actually has nothing to say. So you smirk, you take his hand and slowly slip him under your t-shirt.

"Shit". He mutters. He touches your skin, you feel like you're on fire. Goosebumps form all over your body. You feel alive.

The next thing he did left you speechless. He slips both hand under your t-shirt and with one go pulls off your shirt and throws it behind you. You gawk at him in suprise. You can tell he liked the way you reacted because his eyes went dark and he looked at you like he wanted to take you right there. "Jeez Jeon.. give the girl a break" with this you latched on him again. He stumbled back and landed on the couch. Seeing the opportunity, you climb on him, Keeping your weight on your knees, you hover just above his member. You know he wants you to sit on him, but you don't want to give him the satisfaction.

"I think I need to mess with her assignments more often" saying more to himself than to you. "Specially if it leads to this" he stands up keeping you close.

" I heard that you idiot" you were now feverishly unbuckling his pants. He moved his lips to suck you down your jawline, he made sure to nib and suck a bit harder right above your pulse point.

You let out a moan. Your hands are shaking but you somehow manage to undo his pants.

You feel really hot. You were about to pull his pants down when he holds both of your wrists. You freeze, your mind racing at 100 miles per hour. Did you do something wrong? Are you crossing your line? Did he not want this and you took it otherwise? God this is embarrassing.

You eyes were still wide when he said, "I'm not messing around this time y/n. I really do like you" he looks so very sincere that he moves some part of you. But you decided that you ain't gonna let him go so easily.

"I had three mental breakdowns since yesterday". You shot back. At this his eyes turned sad. Like he was really feeling guilty. You felt bad for him now, wondering if it was too harsh.

"I never wanted that, I thought you would argue with me and at the end of it i'd give you the usb, but you looked so angry, and when u left without saying a word I knew i had fucked up. Big time."

You backed off, hands crossed in front of your chest.

Jungkook knew you were angry. But he couldn't deny that he was beyond turned on by this site, you just in your bra and shorts, angry at him. You didn't know how hard he was trying not to turn you around bend you over your desk and fuck you silly.

You noticed that he visibly gulped, he was eyeing you like a prey. But he waited, because you were angry. He wanted to do this right.

"And all this time I kept wondering what wrong did I do to you. I hate you, you know that Jeon?...

"Baby, i'm sorry" he purred stepping closer.

A new surge of arousal hit you at this. "D.. Don't baby me..." The stuttering gave you out. He smirked liked a devil. He closed the gap between the two of you. He hovered above your lips, "forgive me please" he said just an inch away from your lips.

"Kiss me please" you said, not being able to process anything. And he did, he kissed you like there was no tomorrow. Strong and urgent. He cupped your ass and gave a tight squeeze. You let out a moan.

"Do you want to take it to the bedroom?" He asked voice an octave deeper.

You nodded, not trusting your mouth. He lifted you and you wrapped your legs around him. His body was divine, his skin was smooth, heat radiated from him although he was soaked before, lips not sparring you even one 1 second. You could feel his hard on, on your stomach and it felt powerful that you can do such things to him.

"God i've been dreaming about this for so long"

"How long, jeon?" You asked stripping him off his pants and underwear.

"From the moment you debated with your proffessor about a theory in front of your department. I watched you prove your points to him, and i swear to god I had a hard on since. I had to run to the bathroom to give myself some relief " he chuckles at the memory.

"Nerd" Fully naked now, you stare at his body.

"Damn, why are you so hot. This is not fair"

He looked at you. "I see you haven't gotten rid of your clothes yet y/n.. i would like to watch baby"

So you stripped, putting up a show for him. He grabbed you when you were about to take off you panties. He turned you around, pushed you onto the wall, you balanced yourself onto the wall.

"You're gorgeous." He said before slipping his large hand in your panties and cupping your entire sex. He then hurriedly took your panties off. He pressed himself on your behind and you whimpered. He fondled your breasts with one hand and the other slowly slid towards your dripping core.

He kept touching you there, in slow tantilizing movements. You squirmed. He teased you more, knowing you needed some pressure on your clit. He avoided it the most. You were growing anxious.

"Juuunngkook... Please" you draged each syllable.

"What's wrong?" He was enjoying this way too much you could tell.

"I think I deserve being worshipped after what you make me go through kook". You stated with eyes screwed shut.

"Okay, that's fair". At this he dipped one finger inside, testing if you could take him. He gasped at the warmth and the slick that now covered his fingers. He started slow at first, drawing out low moans from you. Then without alarm he added one more digit and started pistoning in and out. You arched your back with pleasure. You were so aroused, and mixed up with your pent up stress and frustration you could already feel something heavy settling at your lower belly, tightening inch by inch.

"Kook... I'm gonna... Cum". You said between grunts.

"You're doing so good baby, cum on my fingers"

You found your release at his praise. Pleasure coursing through your veins with lightening speed. Mid orgasm Jungkook smacks your pussy. And you go crazy at that, so much that you see white. When you finally come to your sense you find his strong arms snaking your waist and holding you, so that you don't fall down. He upper body completely glued to you.

Then you finally speak, head thrown back chest heaving

"I think,.. this was the strongest I ever came in my life"

Jungkook chuckles, "You're welcome". He kisses your shoulder. He slowly lets you go, so that you can stand by your own. You haven't forgotten the fact that, his hard on is pressing onto your back, waiting for the attention.

"So tell me Jeon..." You kiss him slowly moving towards your bed, you stop, look him innocently in the eye and ask, "Where do you wanna cum? My mouth or my pussy?"

"God, if you keep saying such things, I think i can cum just like this" His hand rubs all over your body, "For now, let's put that sinful mouth of yours into good use, okay?"

You nod, leading him to lie down on the bed.

If somebody would have told you, the previous day, that you out of all the people would blow Jeon jungkook, in your bed. You would have smacked them in the face.

You straddle him, and then you start Pickering kisses, first his mouth then his jaw. You have to admit he is a damn good kisser, you get so lost in the kissing that you almost miss that he is grinding himself onto your core. Coating himself with the slick. You feel your pussy tingling. You keep peppering kisses moving to his jawline, then his neck, biting a bit hard on his sweet spot to make sure it blooms with purple afterwards.

At one point he gropes you ass with one hand and pushes you down to grind with more force.

"Change of plans sweetheart. Do you have condoms?" He asks, eye sparking with lust.

You sit straight, a smirk plastered on your face, you bend towards your nightstand, and bring out a foil packet from your drawer.

"Always so fucking prepared" he slaps your ass, you gasp at the sting. He is looking at you, trying to figure out whether you liked it or not. You moan, with your eyes closed.

Jungkook is painfully hard now. If he doesn't put it inside you, he thinks he might burst out of sheer arousal.

"Baby.." he says in a raspy voice

You hurry up at this, you tear the foil and roll it onto him. You raise up to lie down but he grabs you. "Ride me.." voice octaves lower. You're so wet already, you don't think you need extra prepping. You come back to your stance and slowly sink in holding his member for guidance.

Both moan at the pleasure surging through the body. You're impressed by his strength, for holding out so long. He has his eyes tight shut, almost as if everything is too much for him. You feel great, warm where he is inside you. You notice how beautiful he looks under you. Head arched back into the pillow, he looks sexy as hell.

You were zoned out in your thoughts, when he snapped back. "Y/n move". And there you were riding the most handsome guy from campus. And you couldn't believe both of you were making such mind blowing noises. You piston on him for a while before getting tired, thankfully he got the message. He started thrusting his hips up to you with such a velocity that you didn't know was even possible. You could feel another orgasm right around the corner, but you didn't want to finish before him.

"Kook, are you close?"

"So close baby" he whined .

"Me too.. ughhh"

At this he moved his hands from your hips to your breasts. He gave a squeeze. His member was throbbing inside you.

"Come with me y/n" he said through gritted teeth. Suddenly he then spanked one of your boob, while other hand pressed on your clit. You didn't see it coming and the suprise helped to exceeded any pleasure you felt in your whole life. Heat surged from your fluttering cunt throughout your belly. Your orgasm hit you like a truck. It was so strong you couldn't hear anything for some seconds. That followed by ringing of your ears.

You don't know when did he flipped you on your back but you could see his eyes screwed shut, eyebrows drawn together. One last trust and he was coming with you. Your highest high lasted for a while, and left you with aftershocks. Jungkook collapsed on top of you, he hadn't pulled out yet and your sensitive sex was still clenching on him.

You both layed there motionless. It was he who moved first, pulling out with a slight hiss. He tossed his condom with a knot in the trash can and fell back on the bed with a thump. You were still slightly dazed out from the orgasm. He chuckled seeing you in the bliss.

"God, Jeon, i'll be sore tomorrow."

"Well I'll take that as a complement" he smiled.

"That was hot. You're hot" you replied turning away your head feeling shy, all of a sudden.

He grabbed you by your waist and pulled you close, "Damn baby, i didn't know i'd see this side of y/l/n ever."

"Don't stroke your ego too much jeon".

He kissed your shoulder and smiled, "Do you have any idea, how hot and pretty and beautiful you are?"

You looked at him, for the first time you saw how his eyes twinkled while talking to you.

So you just kiss him, which he welcomes whole heartedly.

The next day you step in the college campus feeling amazing. You have been smiling to yourself since the morning. Since Jungkook gave back your thesis, it was just an hour's work away from getting the final sweep before submission. You hit the library, finish off your work and finally submit it. Your proffessor was not surprised when you told him that Jungkook pranked you again. Even if he found it weird that you had no anger or resentment towards him, he didn't point it out. Now that you felt 10kgs lighter, you had one class to attend and then you were done for the week.

You were heading back to class, when some of your classmates commented, "Hey y/n, we're rooting for you both" . They glimmered while talking to you. Unfortunately they passed by too quickly for you to enquire. You entered the class, confused and zoned out enough that you don't eveb notice how everyone's eyes are on you.

"Y/l/n".

You know that voice. You look towards the last row, he stands, smiling at you. You didn't know what was happening, but your nerves were on fire. Your hands suddenly got clammy and your heart beat started to fasten. You internally scolded yourself.

*Calm down, it's just Jungkook*

He looked nervous? You could tell, it wasn't his usual cocky behaviour. He didn't know what to do with his hands. So he just let them hang. It's weird you think.

As your gears in your brain were working, you start walking towards him. But his voice stopped you.

"Y/n".. then he jutted out his chin, pointing behind you. You could hear your heart hammering.

You turn.

" Y/N Y/L/N, I'M SORRY, SAY YES.. PLEASE?

-J.K. "

There it was written on the white board. In bold capital letters.

Is this a joke? If it's a joke you're not going to be able to walk out of here. Did Jungkook sleep with you so that he could pull the biggest prank in history? But he said all those sweet things yesterday right?

Before you could react, Jungkook spoke behind you. You turned to find him in front of you. You were hyperaware now, the students who were entering silently took their seats looking at you two. This felt like a scene from the movies.

"Y/n, i'm sorry that all this time I made your life a living hell. But i'm also glad because otherwise I wouldn't have the chance to know you." He smiles, his nervousness showing.

He slowly takes your hand. You let him. You already feel the emotions surging inside you. Is he really going to ask you out in front of the whole class?

He takes a long pause. It's almost painful waiting for him to finish the speech. Then he says-

"I'm sorry, Y/n will you be my girlfriend?" He says in one breath.

You gasped. All you could do was just stare at him, staring you back. Suddenly you forgot how to speak. Jungkook breaks the silence. "Say something please, you're killing me here. I -"

"Yes". He stops speaking. Grin slowly spreading from ear to ear.

"ABOUT FUCKING TIME" Someone from the class cheers. Everybody starts clapping. You can't stop smiling. Jungkook pulls you towards him, hugging you. You hug him back.

"Aww guys just kiss each other already!!" Hoseok, spoke with a mischievous smiled plastered on his face.

Jungkook pulled your face towards him for a kiss. It was a sweet kiss. You smirked when you felt how badly he wanted to shove his tongue down your throat but refrained since you're in public. Seeing you smirk, he whispers to you. "I can't wait to take you to my place after this". You shiver at the thought.

____________________________________________

"Mmmmm, kook..." He kissed your neck. You could get used to this. Straddling his lap and making out.

"Yes baby.." u feel his smirk against your skin.

"I have a question." You said, putting a space between you two. He took your hands and started leaving pecks starting from your knuckles moving upwards. You giggled.

"Why didn't proffessor take our class today, like he came 1 hr late, gave us homework and went away. I feel like this has something to do with you asking me out.."

"Y/n, babe out of all the questions you could ask me while making out, you choose this?" He pretended to be offended. You smacked his chest looking at him expectantly.

He started- "Well I might have talked to the prof before class telling him, i kinda need a favour from him.. "

"WHAT?" U couldn't believe this boy.

"Perks of having good rapport with prof. Also i always pay attention in class. You should learn from me y/n.." he looked at you innocently. As if he was not kneading your ass right now.

"Jeon Jungkook please tell me that you at least made up a situation or does our proffessor has first hand knowledge about us being in love.." the L word just slipped out. You acted like you didn't notice. But he surely did.

He winked at you, smiling wide like he got a promotion. "What did you just say?"

"Ugh about what?"

" About us being in something."

He was so smug about this, you knew he had won. You leaned into him.

"Let me show you instead" you wispered in his ear. The hair on Jungkook's body stood up , he had goosebumps. He picked you up towards his bedroom.

"Goddamn I love you".

#jungkook x reader #bts smut #kpop smut #smut #oneshot #bts fluff #jungkook #jungkook fluff #fanfic #bts fanfic

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pigstepping · 3 years ago

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I've decided that I want to start posting about my WIPS on my blog more, so it's SBI Vigilante AU worldbuilding hours! Time to bust out that biology degree \o/

So the system I developed has powers that stem from genetic predisposition + environmental factors. Kids who are predisposed to developing powers have a critical period around age 8 during which, if they have a significant-enough need, they can create a pocket of influenceable physical reality around themselves which allows them to develop superpowers.

Dense worldbuilding notes under the cut for those interested:

Genetic explanation

The gene that causes kids to be predisposed to developing powers is what's called a "repeat expansion mutuation." (This is a real thing, which causes a number of real neurological diseases!) Basically what that means is that this gene has a bunch of different versions (alleles) that are differentiated by how many copies of a particular sequence of DNA are present in the allele. The more copies, the stronger the expression of the trait along a spectrum of intensity.

In this particular case, the repeating sequence was introduced to the human genome around 40 years ago via an engineered retrovirus (famous example: HIV) that was designed and accidentally released by the government. The retrovirus was spread via contact transmission between adult hosts, who had no way of knowing they were carrying the virus as it only has affects on children. The retrovirus inserted varying numbers of copies of itself into the genome of infected individuals, and those individuals passed the mutation to their kids. Children who inherit the mutation cannot spread it to others, as they are born with the DNA sequence integrated into their genome rather than existing in transmissible viral form. In the current day AU, around 20% of the population in the country where containment was breached has at least 1 copy of the retrovirus in their genome, and the virus is slowly spreading via reproduction and residual viral transmission to other parts of the world as well.

The presence of even a single copy of the retrovirus in someone's genome is enough to give them a window of opportunity during childhood in which they have the ability to create a localized pocket of spacetime that allows them to alter reality. If this pocket manifests, both its duration and the degree of influence the child has over reality within the pocket are determined by the number of retrovirus copies in the host's genome. However, environmental factors determine whether the pocket manifests in the first place, as well as determining the nature of any resulting power.

Environmental explanation

If a child has 1 or more copies of the retrovirus, they enter a developmental critical period around the age of 7-8 years old. During this period of time, the kid will manifest the reality-altering pocket if they ever feel a sufficiently strong unmet need or desire. They will subconsciously use the pocket to alter reality in a way that they believe will improve the odds of their needs being met.

In practice, this means that healthy, happy children with capable guardians are less likely to manifest pockets, because they usually don't have strong unmet needs or desires. There are exceptions, such as kids who are extremely passionate about an interest or hobby, kids with particularly vivid imaginations who desperately wish they could live out their fantasies, etc. But a moderate majority of kids who manifest pockets do so because of trauma.

Generally, the nature of the need determines the nature of the power, although not necessarily in predictable ways. A kid who lacks food security might develop photosynthesis so they can "eat" without needing food at all, or they might develop the ability to digest things that don't normally give any nutritional value, or they might develop mind control that can be used to convince strangers to give them food. In addition, not all kids who manifest pockets will develop powers based on their needs during that time. If the need that triggered the pocket gets addressed before powers develop, the kid might develop powers that are completely unrelated, or they might not develop anything at all.

Mechanics of power development

The powers developed within the pocket are determined by three factors: the intensity of the trait's expression per the child's genome, the subjective manageability of the unmet need according to the child, and the way the child views the world around them.

As previously mentioned, the more copies of the retrovirus you have, the stronger your influence over reality, which means that kids with several copies will generally have the capacity to develop more outlandish powers than kids with only one or two copies. An example might be the ability to turn invisible vs the ability to blend into crowds. Both result in the child being less noticeable to the people around them, but one is clearly further outside the bounds of normal reality.

However, more outlandish powers don't always equate to more "powerful" powers. If a child believes, correctly or incorrectly, that they can handle their problem on their own, they will usually develop a "weaker" power regardless of how closely that power adheres to the normal contraints of reality. A weaker power might have a smaller area of effect, a longer cooldown between uses, a more significant physical or mental cost to use, or some other limitation.

Powers are also limited by the child's imagination and base of knowledge. Power development is subconscious and can't be consciously controlled or guided by the child, so powers will be shaped by the subconscious assumptions a kid makes about the world, as well as the ideas and concepts they've been exposed to. A kid who spends a lot of time thinking about animals might develop an animal trait as their power, while a kid who spends a lot of time thinking about cars might develop a knack for hotwiring. Likewise, a child will develop powers based on what they subconsciously believe will help them, even if this turns out to be inaccurate. For example, a child who is insecure due to irrationally critical parents might develop a skill they believe will make their parents proud of them, despite their skill level playing little true role in the criticism they receive.

Additionally, because kids at age 7-8 don't generally have a solid grasp of science or the limits of physical reality, it is very rare for their powers to develop with clear biological/physical mechanisms. This can make it difficult to study how powers operate, because powers usually have no associated concrete phenomenon with a function or structure that can be examined.

Because of this lack of any biomarker, it's often impossible to determine whether someone has a power unless it includes an obvious body modification or the person uses the power in front of others. The closest approximation is genetic testing which can tell whether a person is predisposed to developing powers in the first place. However, as only about 50% of people with the necessary genetic makeup go on to develop powers, this method is imperfect.

In fact, many people with only one or two retrovirus copies will develop subtle powers without initially realizing. There is no clear indication that a child has manifested a reality-altering pocket, so if they develop a non-obvious power during this time, they may go their whole lives without realizing they have a power at all.

Sociopolitical implications

Because the retrovirus responsible for superpowers only breached containment ~40 years ago, society is still trying to grapple with the ramifications.

The immediate response of the government to the breach was to try to suppress information, limit the viral spread, and limit the development of powers. One of their earliest steps was implementing a secretive parallel foster care system for genetically predisposed children, designed to minimize stressors during their critical periods to prevent power manifestation. Foster parents were sourced from the ranks of the economically and politically powerful, both because this was the population the government trusted most with information about the outbreak, and because this was judged to be the population with the best resources for minimizing stressors. However, this plan backfired badly due to poor vetting of prospective foster parents, leading to an influx of powerful adults intent on deliberately depriving their foster children of basic necessities with the goal of manifesting powers the foster parents could use to their own benefit.

This miscalculation, in addition to the rampant spread of the virus to unaware carriers who then went on to have children, led the government to decide to give up on limiting the outbreak. Instead, they covered up the unchecked abuses of the parallel foster system and turned their attention to recruiting powered people into voluntary government service where possible, and capturing and experimenting on the rest.

The recruiting process was initially slow-going, and both powered crime and powered vigilantism were rampant. A breakthrough was made with the launch of the hero guild, a powers-centric branch of the police force which was designed with a built-in PR apparatus to entice powered people into working for the government, as well as turn public opinion against powered people who choose to use their powers without government oversight. Powered heroes are highly praised, while powered civilians are often regarded with suspicion and powered criminals are particularly reviled. Powered vigilantes were relegated to the outskirts of society, trusted only by the small areas they serve, and they have become increasingly criminalized over time with the aid of anti-vigilante government propaganda.

The hero guild also instituted a separate "penal" system for powered individuals, particularly for powered "villains" and vigilantes. To the public's knowledge, the guild conducts trials behind closed doors to protect the identities of the defendants. The public also believes that powered criminals are kept in a separate set of prisons with special security measures to counteract power use. However, this serves as a smoke screen to conceal the fact that most powered criminals don't receive a trial at all, instead becoming unwilling subjects in a system of laboratories where the biology and mechanisms of powers are studied using experimental methods ranging from benign to horrifically inhumane. This reality is an open secret in the vigilante community, but pervasive anti-vigilante propaganda makes it difficult for vigilantes to blow the whistle. The guild carefully keeps the lab system hidden from their powered heroes to avoid widescale rebellion.

On the international stage, the containment breach country is serving as a case study in managing powers. Other countries, aware that their own population of powered individuals will only continue to grow, are watching carefully in order to learn from the original country's mistakes.

SO, that's the bulk of my general worldbuilding for this AU so far! I'm still fitting the backstories for SBI and Beeduo into this setting, as well as various background characters, but this will serve as a good scaffold for further world development.

#m #my fic #vigilante au #that foster system is definitely gonna fuck over bench trio in a major way #and the adult members of SBI are going to have a very complex relationship with the guild #it'll be fun to pit all those dynamics against each other

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bltngames · 4 years ago

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Review: Super Mario Sunshine

Super Mario Sunshine is a weird game for a lot of different reasons. It was among some of the first game reviews I ever wrote for the internet, for one, all the way back in 2005. I was proud enough of that review that when it came time to relaunch TSSZ News in 2008, it was one of five archived reviews I transplanted on to the site. It was also a strange case where I became convinced it was a game I’d never play, originally. I was 23 years old, with no job, no money, and no prospects. I was desperate to play the game that was being sold as the sequel to Super Mario 64, but I could not envision a future where that would ever be possible.

Eventually, I reached my breaking point. Earlier that same year, somebody had linked me to something called “Quake Done Quick.” It was attached to a relatively new site, called the “Speed Demos Archive”, a hub for videos of people finishing games as fast as possible. The site was small, updated manually, and featured a list of roughly 100 games -- maybe less. This was before Youtube, so these were downloadable video files, usually in AVI or MPG format. And it was here that they had a Super Mario Sunshine speedrun. Even on my fledgling broadband internet, it took a considerable amount of time to download. But, with nothing more than two hours of raw, unedited, uncommentated gameplay footage, I watched a user named “Dragorn” play through the entire game (his old run is still viewable on the Internet Archive). Watching a speedrunner flip, spin, and trick his way across levels, I became convinced that Sunshine was incredible.

A few months later, I was surprised by my brother with $200 for Christmas, stuffed inside a greeting card. He said it was for “all the Christmases he missed” since moving out, years ago. Combined with other money I’d received in gifts, I headed to a Gamestop and purchased a Gamecube with my own (used) copy of Super Mario Sunshine. In my mind, it did not matter that I had spoiled the entire game for myself only three months earlier with the speedrun video. Watching someone else play is no substitute for a controller in your own hands. I needed to play it for myself.

In the modern context, Super Mario Sunshine is one of the games attached to the recently released Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection. Full disclosure: I will not be buying this collection, and I have not played the version of Super Mario Sunshine it includes. It’s not that these games are bad, but even from the outside looking in, the collection looks underwhelming. It’s full of basic, bare-bones ports of games that deserve more. But it does mean that these games have been on my mind, particularly Super Mario Sunshine, which I finished replaying, separately, a little more than one year ago. It was the first time I’d finished the game since that fateful Christmas of 2004, and it provided a refresh in perspective.

The truth of the matter is, brushing aside everything else about it, Super Mario Sunshine is an easy game to hate. Nintendo was trying a lot of new things with the Gamecube, struggling to figure out what could be done with the leap in horsepower over the Nintendo 64. Their pitch was a Mario that was subtly more serious and realistic. Sunshine is a game with a surprisingly large number of cinematics, and a considerable amount of narrative setup. It sounds like a joke, but it’s true: the game opens with Mario taking a long-deserved vacation on a tropical island, only to be arrested and wrongfully accused of crimes he did not commit. He is sentenced to community service, forced to clean the island of a paint-like substance its residents claim he has used to vandalize their resort town. This is accomplished with the F.L.U.D.D., a backpack-mounted squirt gun perfect for washing down walls and floors. It was the first manual labor he’d been shown doing since the NES version of Wrecking Crew in 1985.

It’s odd territory for Mario, but it leads to the game’s first real problem: Plot. Sunshine is not a game that’s packed with story -- there aren’t a lot of named characters, and there aren’t a lot of genuine story arcs to get hooked in to, but it’s way more than you got in most Mario games. Regardless, the influence of a narrative structure is definitely felt within its levels. One of the benefits of Super Mario 64 is that there was no set order to anything; you might drop in to a level with a specific goal in mind, only to accidentally stumble on to something else. You were encouraged to follow your curiosity, collecting stars more through natural exploration. Even though it’s not always obvious on the surface, the objectives in Super Mario Sunshine are following a specific plotline, which means flat, rigid linearity.

So you might reach an amusement park area, but you can’t go inside until you finish the mission where you open the front gates. Even once you re-enter the level for the next mission inside the amusement park, exploring its various rides will be a moot point, as the game will want you to focus on a specific goal instead. Want to ride the rollercoaster? Too bad, the story dictates it’s not available yet. Though you still have that go-anywhere, do-anything world design from Super Mario 64, the current mission is the only thing that’s ever active. Another example: at the beginning of the game, you open up the first stage -- Bianco Hills. Even though you have a whole village and a sizable lake area to explore, there’s little to do out there, because your mission is about reaching the bottom of the windmill. The second mission, again, doesn’t involve the village or the lake, but now asks you to reach the top of the same windmill in order to fight the game’s first boss, Petey Piranha. And so it goes: big zones to explore, but most of it useless as Sunshine slowly trickles out objectives one at a time, following a barely-visible narrative that drags everything down.

Nintendo had other intentions for the game, too. The company was known for taking its time with game releases -- Super Mario World released in 1990, and it took six years for Super Mario 64 to follow it up. Even once a game was announced, there were often months or even years of delays as the game got pushed back, and back, and back, as with Ocarina of Time. Similarly long waits happened for many of Nintendo’s other flagship franchises (Super Mario Kart, Super Metroid, etc.), and the peanut gallery was getting restless. With the release of the Gamecube, Nintendo made a vow to explore other avenues to release more games, more quickly.

The problem was, all of those delays are exactly what lead to Nintendo’s extremely high bar of quality. Rushing these games out the door meant cutting corners and finding easy ways to tack on extra play time, skipping necessary fine tuning. In The Wind Waker, this notoriously led to the last fourth of the game, wherein you must find and decode maps to dredge up half a dozen pieces of the magical Triforce. For most, this meant hours of sailing out to random, completely featureless areas in the middle of the open ocean hoping to find a single golden tortilla chip. “Tedious” is putting it kindly, but it saved Nintendo from having to delay the game too many times in order to add more in-depth content.

In Super Mario Sunshine, this manifested in a degree of repetition that is difficult to ignore. In both Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, most mission objectives are unique. There are occasional repeated missions, like finding 8 red coins, but by and large it's things like rescuing a baby penguin, opening a pyramid, assaulting an airship, or finding your way through a gravity-bending maze. There's enough variety that you don't notice as much when you're asked to do yet another one of Galaxy's purple coin comets.

Sunshine still has unique goals like that, but they are much fewer and farther between. Instead, the bulk of the game is filled with doing the same four or five missions over, and over, and over again. Finding fruit to hatch Yoshi or hunting red coins can be fun occasionally, but Sunshine often makes you do this stuff multiple times per level. Most bosses also must be faced at least twice, sometimes up to three times, and very little changes from fight to fight. And then there are the races -- a man named Piantissimo is waiting for you in most stages, looking to race you to an arbitrary landmark, and every single level has one penultimate mission where you must chase down the hero's evil doppelganger, Shadow Mario. It’s padding, basically, and thanks to a tenuous grip on narrative, there’s few ways to skip the things you don’t want to do.

This isn't even touching on the game's blue coins. They're one of Sunshine's rarer collectibles, and ten blue coins can be traded at the shop for a single Shine Sprite (the main item central to the story). The majority of blue coins can be found by hosing down graffiti found around the island. Spray a circle-shaped pattern on one wall, and a blue coin pops out of another circle-shaped pattern on the opposite side of the level, which you must run to and collect before it disappears. Then, the opposite: spray down the second pattern, and another blue coin will appear back where the first graffiti used to be. In a game full of rerun objectives, this is the worst offender. Rarely are these blue coin graffiti spots interesting or challenging; they primarily exist to fill space and fluff up the Shine counter.

The level concepts themselves also suffer from this repetition. In any other Mario game, “tropical island” would be one theme among many other level types, like deserts, volcanoes and frozen lakes. Sunshine tries to stretch its one theme out to last an entire game, and in practical terms, this means that even after 18 years and two complete playthroughs (three, if you count the speedrun video), I still can’t remember most areas in any kind of specific detail. I remember a couple stage names, maybe a few environmental traits (like the hotel at sunset or the amusement park), but anything beyond that and it all starts blurring into homogeneous beaches, docks, and villages. Even the music -- beyond the iconic acoustic guitar of the Delfino Plaza hub world song, absolutely nothing about Super Mario Sunshine’s soundtrack stands out as memorable in the slightest. Every part of this game plays, looks and sounds like every other part in the worst way possible.

And yet, through some miracle, Super Mario Sunshine does not come out the other end being a bad game. It’s not necessarily good, either, mind you. But when I finally managed to get my hands on this game back in 2004, it made me angry. Super Mario 64 was a tough act to follow, and rather than build on those concepts, Sunshine felt like a massive regression. Nowadays, it’s easier to see the bigger picture. Super Mario Sunshine was a stop-gap as Nintendo slowly pushed Mario back to a more linear, level-based structure. Super Mario Galaxy was another step in this direction, doing away with the open worlds in favor of traditional, straight-forward level design, something that would later be perfected in Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World.

That makes Sunshine more of a curious black sheep than anything else. It’s definitely not a game worth hating -- its biggest offense is simply being dull, and there are worse fates. For my replay, it became the sort of game I chipped away at, bit by bit, over the course of nearly three years. As it turns out, the best cure for repetition is to forget everything you were doing the last time you played. It’s even fitting on some level that a game about Mario taking a vacation is best served in lazy, slow, indifferent chunks. Make no mistake -- there are better, more polished, and more engaging platformers out there for you to play. It is in no way a stretch to call Super Mario Sunshine the worst 3D Mario game, but it speaks to the franchise’s high bar of quality that even the worst 3D Mario game really isn’t so bad.

#review #writing #nintendo #gamecube #switch #3d all-stars #mario #sunshine #super mario sunshine #re-review

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turqrambles · 4 years ago

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Digimon World - Midgame - Some Assorted Thoughts

At the time of writing this post, I’m sitting at around 31 Prosperity for the first Digimon World game for the PS1, which I could consider pretty mid-game for this type of game, so I just want to write down what I think about this little adventure.

For the record, I am talking about the original Playstation version of the game. The one with the T-rating (which feels way too high for this game since there’s no swear words and the battle damage is fantasy-level at best - is it because of all the poop in this game?) and the one with the CGI Metalgreymon on the cover for the NTSC versions of the game.

I’m playing this game on a physical copy that somehow survived like five moves on my PS3, just for reference.

(Yes that’s that actual price I paid for it. That was a big price for little kid me.)

The Past Trials of My Schoolchild Self

First thing’s first - as a kid, I actually did not like this game very much!

For starters, I didn’t get very far in the game. My Digimon would keep pooping all over the place for one since I don’t think I fully understood the timing of this mechanic. I stopped playing the game when my Airdramon was one poop away from turning into a Sukamon and I found myself unable to stop it because I saved right before my Airdramon would make the final poop, thus trapping me in an unwinnable game loop. If I turned the game back on, I could only watch as my beautiful flying feathered snake transformed into a poop with eyeballs as I was powerless to stop it.

My Digimon had to suffer for my mistakes.

But besides that, I just found the game far too cryptic to figure out just what was going on, and my Digimon would never turn into anything cool. My Airdramon really was the coolest thing my Digimon ever evolved into, so the yellow turd Digimon really was like salt on a wound.

But, to add insult to injury, one time I hatched a baby Botamon and talked to the old man, only to have this giant dinosaur run up to me and blast the literal infant into smithereens.

Greymon is a dick.

What I remember from kid me’s file of this game - I finished the Drill Tunnel, I got to the dinosaur world one time, and I’m pretty sure I entered Myotismon’s mansion one time because out of sheer luck, my Agumon digivolved into a Bakemon one time.

I know what I didn’t do - I never recruited any of the shopkeeper Digimon so I was doing an itemless run as a kid. A big mistake, considering how important items are in this game!

A Brutal Beginning

Playing this game in 2020 when I’m an adult and have a better concept in how these types of games work is making this playthrough a lot easier for me, but don’t be fooled. This game is still pretty difficult.

I’m going to be real. One of the main turn offs for this game for a lot of players, especially little kids in the year 2000 with dial-up internet and no strategy guide like myself, is that this is one of those games where the beginning starts out slow. Real slow.

Sure, most great RPGs give you a real sense of power and accomplishment once you figure out the mechanics and get stronger as you progress through the game, but in this game, you have less options at the start because, as it turns out, the shopkeepers, the superior meat farmers, the air taxi service, and all those fun little options typically available to you in other RPGs have all turned feral as a result of A Bad Thing That Happened on File Island and it’s up to you and your plucky partner Digimon to explore the wilds and beat them up one by one until they gain a little humanity (...digitanity) and expand the town.

While it is really cool to see the town expand through the course of the game - buildings are built and lights are gradually installed - but man, the fact that you go for a long time without having a shop if you don’t know what to do kinda sucks. A lot. I kept thinking to myself about how Pokemon is a lot more generous with the item drops and, while the shop inventories at Viridian City and Pewter City aren’t great, they’re there from the beginning.

Note: To get this guy, you have to chase a rumor from a Baby Digimon that there’s a fish that shows up after a certain time on a certain map. Then you have to progress through the jungle enough that you find the one Betamon that isn’t an enemy. There. Now the shop’s open. What, are you saying that’s super convoluted? Why yes it is. Welcome to Digimon World.

Not only that, but this game’s biggest flaw comes from one tiny feature it omits from the game - Digimon World doesn’t have a world map.

See this artwork? This is the most you’re ever going to get.

You know how a lot of RPGs - your Pokemon, your Final Fantasy, etc etc - have a world map that’s easy to access from the start menu? Yeah, this game doesn’t have that. It instead prints a rather rudimentary map in both the instruction manual and on the design of the actual disc. You know what that means? You’re SOL if you ever bought this game used.

I didn’t of course, but physically cracking open my disc case just to be like “ah okay I need to go north” was more annoying than anything. Maybe if the instruction manual came with an actual physical map you can unfold would’ve been better?

The Starter Dilemma

Like most monster collecting games, you have a choice of starters at the beginning of the game. Depending on how you answer the questions at the beginning of the game (all two of them, with only one of them truly mattering), you can start with either an Agumon or a Gabumon. Cool, right?

Well, it starts the fall apart the moment you fight the first boss in the game - a wild Agumon with weaker stats than your partner. And that’s when you realize that one of the starters starts out with a major battle disadvantage at the very start.

Agumon’s starting move is a little ranged attack that it can shoot at enemies. It can hit the enemy from pretty far away so he can evade a lot of close up attacks.

Gabumon’s starting move is an ineffective little flailing of his arms that requires him to get up super close to the other Digimon in order to hit them.

Did I mention this attack is weaker than Agumon’s starting move? This type of starter set-up is utterly baffling to me. Why would you intentionally hobble one of the choices?

So if you were a kid hoping to go on a grand adventure with your happy little dog lizard (instead of doing what a lot of people recommend, which is train your dog lizard for several in-game days until he evolves into something better) expect to see a lot of battles where the enemy Digimon just casually moves out of the way as your dog lizard yells “PWAH”.

Luckily this problem ceases to exist once you start digivolving and learning new techniques, but it’s still a major bummer to start the game on.

On top of that, unlike Pokemon, your Digimon can die. It can only faint three times in battle before he crumbles into a pile of bits and data in a rather brutal cutscene involving the flesh being ripped off your partner’s wire frame while the old man Digimon just kinda glumly stands off to the side and is like “lol he ded”.

So uh, have fun with that, children who accidentally run into a boss Digimon while trying to figure out where the hell anything is.

Sometimes Being Cryptic Is Good

That being said, in an age where I can just peek at my phone if I’m stuck, this game is kinda refreshing in a “playing your first Pokemon game” kind of way.

With no in-game maps and only vague hints of what to do next purely by talking to the villagers, you’re just kinda...left to your own digivices (see what I did there) as you explore this vast, uncharted world and slowly figure out what you’re supposed to do next and, since the world is arranged in a circle around the town, you can go in multiple directions and progress in any way you want.

There’s no set progression, with the story advancing based on how many Digimon you befriend rather than what places you’ve beaten. There’s no pressing incentive to go beyond the Native Forest if you don’t feel ready for that yet. Sure, the town won’t expand if you don’t, but you can still go at things at your own pace until you get a better feel for the environment. You’re just left to experiment as you gradually figure out how to make your Digimon evolve into cooler things.

And honestly, it’s kinda fun playing a game where I don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head in terms of how to get a certain Digimon so a lot of times I’m genuinely surprised at the evolutions I get.

You just, you know, need a lot of patience. Especially when this game’s English translation is...not great. (which is common with a lot of PS1 games)

The land changed after the land changes happened.

Current Consensus

You need a bit of patience to play this game, but it’s definitely rewarding if you stick by it. I’m certainly having fun playing this game, but I will say out loud that I’m also playing this game while watching a couple let’s plays and having GameFAQs open.

I will say that, as an adult, I actually find myself appreciate this game more than when I did as a child. It has its flaws, but after a pretty intense learning curve, it becomes pretty rewarding. You know, when it’s not requiring me to fish The Lake Guardian at 9 am with a piece of meat attached to my fishing rod in order to improve my gym.

I give it a “It’s Fun When It’s Not Being Bullshit” out of 10.

Quick Bullet Points

This game has some bangers in the soundtrack so at least it’s pleasant to listen to.

I do like that you can evade the enemy Digimon on screen so you can reasonably enter some places with a lower leveled Digimon than what that area requires. This is just not advisable since most of the Digimon are befriended with a boss fight. That being said, item management is a big thing in this game so enemy dodging is still a useful trait.

You can buy portapotties to keep your Digimon from shitting on the ground but since your Digimon has only one use animation, it uses it by eating it.

Cherrymon has a radically different design in this game than any other piece of Digimon media and it’s kinda funny how creepy he looks in this game.

The Monochromon Shop minigame earned the reputation that it has - it truly does suck ass and leave you at the mercy of RNG.

It’s been proven by hacking the game that the Bonus Try in the Gym exercises is rigged so never use it.

I like how this game creates recolors to make sure you can tell the difference between the recruitable Digimon and the Digimon that are just meant to be fought against....only for the series to then make these recolors recruitable, defeating their original purpose. I guess I should be glad they’re all considered proper Digimon now.

Poop is an element. You can have creatures of the Poop type.

No seriously Monochromon’s Shop minigame has given me a hatred for Veggiemon and I don’t think I can ever recover.

#Turq Plays a Game #Turq Reviews #Digimon World

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aaliyahshaw23 · 4 years ago

Text

https://www.axa.co.uk/business-insurance/business-guardian-angel/five-essential-legal-principles-for-graphic-designers/

Legislation

Graphic design contract checklist

Delivery details: when and how you will deliver work

Expenses: travel to meetings, hotel accommodation etc.

Retention of title: confirm you own the goods until they’re paid for

Retention of copyright

Confidentiality: what information, if any, can you disclose and when

Void contracts: what circumstances would breach the contract and become void

Additional costs: g. who pays for postage of materials, packaging etc.

Expenses and cancellation fees : As well as the more standard terms and conditions, you might also want to consider detailing the expenses and additional costs you expect your client to cover during the time you’re working with them. These additional costs could include things like travel expenses for meetings or overnight accommodation costs. By outlining the exact terms of any extra fees or expenses, both you and your client will understand exactly how much everything is going to cost before any work is done, meaning you can focus on the job itself and building a good relationship with your client.

You’ll also want to agree a cancellation fee (if you have one at all) as well as information about the terms of late payments.

Set out your graphic design terms and conditions: In your graphic design contract, you’ll want to confirm your terms and conditions in writing ahead of starting work for any client. Setting out clear boundaries means your clients will understand exactly what you’ll be doing and when you’ll be doing it. Setting out these terms clearly will help to avoid help avoid any disputes over delivery times or payment terms.

Fair use’ :Under US and UK law, the ‘fair use’ principle exists to prevent copyright law from hindering free speech, freedom of the press, and to avoid excessive legal action for accidental or minor breaches of copyright. It allows content creators (including designers) to include quotes and excerpts from published works if they credit the author and source, and justify the extent of its use. Fair use is usually applied to news reporting, incidental references and private or educational use. Outside of these cases, it’s wise to seek the owner’s permission.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons (CC) licences automatically give people the right to use, modify or share content. There are various degrees of permissions:

CC0 is public domain, meaning the content is anyone’s to use, modify and share – no strings attached.

CC BY (CC Attribution) is anyone’s to share, use and modify, if you credit the original creator.

CC BY-SA (CC Attribution-ShareAlike) is as above, but requires you to share any modifications under the same licence.

CC BY-ND (CC Attribution-NoDerivatives) allows credited use and sharing, but not modification.

CC BY-NC (CC Attribution-NonCommercial) allows credited use, sharing and modification – but not for profit.

CC BY-NC-SA (CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) is as above, but you must share any modifications under the same licence.

CC BY-NC-ND (CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives) allows credited sharing and usage, but not modification or sale.

Font licensing

These are a whole different ball game, so let’s start with the basics: while you're licensed to use preloaded fonts in programs like Photoshop, this isn't the same as owning them. Most licenses allow designers to use the fonts to create designs and documents on their computer, but not necessarily to ‘embed’ them or, in other words, share the font with unlicensed users.

Here are the four permission levels you’re likely to encounter, and what they mean in practice:

‘No embedding’ – you can’t embed these fonts in a digital document.

‘Preview and print’ – you can embed the fonts in a digital document (for example a PDF), but only to be viewed on a screen or printout.

‘Editable’ – you can embed fonts in a digital document, and it's fine for the recipient to view, print or edit the text.

‘Installable’ – the recipient can install the font to create completely new documents.

In web design, there are a few common approaches to sharing and rendering fonts:

‘Web-safe’ fonts are a small selection of fonts commonly found across both Apple and Windows computers, typically used by designers to ensure that text renders as well as possible in various web browsers. The operating system licence governs these fonts.

‘Rasterised’ fonts are turned into images and therefore not embedded.

‘CSS @font-face’ instructs the browser to temporarily download the font onto a user’s computer, and these fonts have their own licence terms.

Adobe Typekit gives subscribers access to a catalogue of fonts and has its own terms of use.

Logo ownership: the client or the designer?

Unlike other areas of graphic and web design, it’s common for the client to have ownership of the logo you design for them.

A logo design is such an essential part of the day-to-say functioning of a business that it’s easier for clients to have all the legal rights of ownership

Also, business owners want to protect their brand identity and logos are a big part of that. If the designer owns the rights, a business can’t register the logo design under the Intellectual Property Rights which can cause a number of legal issues further down the line for business owners.

Intellectual Property (IP)

Anything original that someone creates using their own mind is their intellectual property. Intellectual property rights allow you to make money from the intellectual property you own. Intellectual property can have more than one owner and it can be bought and sold to individuals or businesses.

You own intellectual property if you: created it bought it from the creator or previous owner have a brand that could be a trademark (e.g. a well-known product name)

Types of Intellectual Property (IP)

Automatic protection

Protects your work and stops others from using it without your knowledge or permission. You automatically get copyright protection when you create something original such as an illustration or a photograph. You can mark your work with a ©, your name and the year you created it. However, doing this won’t affect the level of protection you have.

Design right

Automatically protects designs to prevent someone from copying you 10 years after it was sold or 15 years after it was created (whichever is earliest). Design rights only apply to the shape or configuration of 3D objects; you must register to protect 2D designs like graphics or textiles.

Protection you need to apply for

Trademark : Registering your trade mark can help to protect your brand. For example, you can trade mark the name of a product or service. You can use the ® to show that you’ve got the trade mark and you’ll be able to take legal action against anyone who tries to use your brand without your permission.

Registered designs : You can register the look of something you’ve designed to stop people copying or stealing it. The ‘look’ of a design is its appearance, physical shape, configuration and decoration. Shapes of objects might already be automatically protected by design right, but registering it will give you further protection.

Patents :To be granted a patent, your invention must be completely new (not a modification of something that already exists) and it must be something that can be made or used. Patents are notoriously expensive and difficult to get, so you’ll need to think carefully about whether you really need one or not.

Image copyright

In the eyes of the law and the Intellectual Property Office (PDF), "photographs, illustrations and other images will generally be protected by copyright as artistic works."

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kumeko · 5 years ago

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Title: earth angel

A/N: For @desibrucewayne, for the @dc-secret-santa. You wanted Talia/Bruce, Cassandra, Damian, and time travel. I hope I delivered on it!

…

Damian grimaced at the sand at his feet. His feet were sinking into the soft, loosely held together sand dune. Around him was more endless sand, a golden yellow as far as the eye could see. He glanced at the hot sun distastefully, his skin already starting to burn mere minutes after appearing on the soft sands.

The soft sands of a desert. Damian was in a desert. This was no hallucination or illusion. He was in the desert. And apparently in full Robin costume. At least he wasn’t alone; Cassandra Cain stood next to him and judging by her body language, she was just as confused as he was.

How could they have fucked up this badly? His brow furrowed as he considered it all. “How did we get here?”

“I am not sure.” Cassandra nonchalantly took off her cowl and shook her head. She ran a hand through her sweaty locks with a frown. The costumes were able to handle temperature changes but nothing this extreme. “Weren’t we meeting Stephanie?”

“Stephanie?” Damian closed his eyes, trying to remember what had just happened. It was impossible to forget Stephanie’s blinding purple uniform, as ugly now as it had been when they’d first met. As Batgirl, she’d waved to them from a roof, gesturing for them to come closer. Behind her, he had spotted a blue-skinned boy approaching her. “There was some kind of alien with her.”

“Alien?” Cassandra blinked before her lips parted in a soft ‘oh’. “Klarion was with her. And you attacked him.”

“I thought he was attacking her,” Damian defended himself, crossing his arms.

“He wouldn’t do that.” Cassandra paused. “Usually, at least.” She gestured at their surroundings. “That explains this—he has teleportation powers.”

“Teleportation?” Damian ground his teeth. He hated magic. There was no good way to counter or negate it. “Can that nitwit teleport us back?”

“Probably.” Cassandra rubbed her neck. “Though that depends on his mood.”

“So we have to rely on Stephanie to make him do it?” His eyebrow twitched. That idiotic beam of sunlight didn’t know how to threaten anyone. Then again, if there was someone who was persistently annoying, it was her. Maybe Klarion would summon them back just to get her to shut up. He pulled out his communicator. It would be faster to just call the Batcave and get a helicopter. “I’ll just send for—it’s not sending any messages.” He tapped the screen but that didn’t change the status. “It’s not connecting to the satellite.”

“That’s odd. Bruce planned for locations like this.” After considering it for a moment, Cassandra pushed her hair back, tying it in a ponytail. “We have to find shelter. It isn’t good to be out like this.”

“I know that.” Damian snorted derisively, pocketing the communicator. If there was one good thing about their teleportation, it was that he recognized the area. “One of my grandfather’s old bases is nearby. We can wait there.”

“I do not want to fight all of his men,” Cassandra frowned.

“It’s abandoned,” Damian answered, already heading toward it. “It won’t be a problem.”

-x-

“I thought you said it was abandoned,” Cassandra whispered as she peeked over a sand dune.

“It’s supposed to be,” Damian snapped back as he stared at the definitely-not-abandoned base. There were jeeps and camels leaving it. People were walking in and out at steady intervals. Hell, there was even a patrol.

Someone had taken over his grandfather’s base.

He wasn’t sure if he should want revenge or want to laugh at the old fool for leaving the place so vulnerable.

“That doesn’t change anything,” Damian continued, memorizing the patrol pattern. Fortunately, the employees here were incompetent, leaving gaping holes in their security. Perhaps a lesser man would fail to find a way, but this was child’s play for two would-be-assassins. “If anything, this will make sending a message easier.”

“We will have to be careful not to be spotted.” Cassandra pulled her cowl back over her head. The jaggedly-pieced together Batgirl outfit was truly frightening in the dark alleys of Gotham. In the bright sunlight of the desert, it was just extremely out of place. “There is nowhere to hide the bodies.”

“You’re wearing all black,” he pointed out snidely.

“That is not a problem,” she replied instantly, already getting to her feet. “I can handle that much.”

-x-

“This is strange,” Damian muttered as they slowly stalked the hallways of the base. It had been almost child’s play to get in and they didn’t even have to take out a single guard to secure their entry.

That said, there was something truly unsettling about how Cassandra managed to disappear while they snuck in. He should have been able to spot her the entire time. It was black on gold.

“What is?” Cassandra asked, slipping to a wall and peeking around the corner. There were many intersections and bends in the hallway. Occasionally they’d pass by a stone chamber filled with food or other supplies. So far, there were no signs of a communications room.

“This place.” Damian gestured at the rigid stone walls. They all looked perfectly cut and clean. “The walls look like they were made recently. They haven’t been used in years.”

“They cleaned up?” Cassandra suggested, poking her head into yet another dark chamber. “There’s only ammunition in this one.”

“But there’s no way to hide that much decay—” Damian stopped talking. Behind him, he could hear footsteps echoing through the hall, quiet and intimidating. “Someone’s coming.”

“Hide,” Cassandra urged, grabbing his hand and dragging him into the chamber.

“We can take him,” Damian grunted, but he reluctantly crouched behind a barrel of guns. With bated breath, he waited as the footsteps grew louder and louder, a large shadow appearing on the walls. With the only light torches, the primitive cave felt more primal than it ought to be. Finally, when the shadow took over the entire wall, a man appeared in front of their chamber.

Batman, Damian thought, his eyes growing wide. Father.

There was no mistaking that cowl, though the design was an old one. Even the build fit correctly. “It’s not bad enough they’re taking grandfather’s base, they’re also copying Father?” he growled, pulling out a dagger.

“Wait.” Cassandra grabbed his hand, stilling it. “Not yet.”

“And let that insult walk by?” Damian hissed. He yanked his hand free and quickly slinked off to follow the imposter.

“Damian!” Cassandra quickly chased after him. Or rather, considering that they didn’t want to alert anyone, they both quietly slinked down the hall. The torchlights flickered and Damian hung back as far as he could, trying not to get caught before he interrogated and slit the imposter’s throat.

Fortunately, he wouldn’t have to wait long. The copycat was coming to a stop before a chamber. All Damian had to do was follow him inside and no one would be the wiser.

Cassandra caught up to him as he hid around a corner. Don’t she signed, glaring at him.

Watch me he signed back, watching as the imposter stood in front of a door.

After a moment, his mother appeared at the door and Damian bit back a gasp. When had she—that explained the base’s use, but she had been dismantling Ra’s bases the last he’d heard. What was she doing here? And why did she look so different? As his thoughts derailed, she stood on her toes and pulled off Batman’s cowl. It was only a profile, but Damian recognized him immediately.

That was Bruce Wayne.

A younger Bruce Wayne. A younger Talia Al Ghul.

He had gone to the past.

-x-

“This is the past,” Damian stated, if only to hear it aloud. His parents were in the chamber down the hall. Was he even born at this point? All of this because a blue demon couldn’t control his powers properly. His hand curled into a fist. When he got back, he was going to beat that demon until he was black and blue.

“It seems so. That makes things…difficult,” Cassandra replied. An understatement, truly. “I do not know if Klarion can bring us back.”

“Why can’t he?” Damian growled, pacing back and forth in the ammunition chamber they’d hid in earlier. They needed a place to think, to comprehend, but perhaps they should have picked another. His fingers were getting an urge to grab several of the daggers here.

“Stephanie said he could not control his powers properly,” Cassandra replied slowly, rubbing her neck. She sat cross-legged on a barrel, watching him. “We will have to find another magician. Maybe Zatanna can help.”

“Her?” Damian frowned. He had never been overly impressed with her work. Then again, none of the ‘heroes’ were adept magicians as far as he was concerned. Perhaps he should have stuck with his mother, after all.

His mother.

The image of her embracing Bruce flashed across his mind and involuntarily, he glanced at the direction of her chambers.

“She can connect us with others.” Cassandra leapt off the barrel. “I will find a way to contact her. You find a vehicle.”

“You don’t order me around,” Damian snapped but it was too late, Cassandra had already disappeared down the hall. He clicked his tongue as he rolled his eyes. And people complained about his communication skills.

Still, there wasn’t a flaw with her plan. Even if Zatanna could teleport them, it was better if they didn’t stay here. He wasn’t sure if they’d accidentally contact his parents and change the course of history. Change the course of his existence. He would just have to steal one of the jeeps he knew his grandfather kept out here.

Quickly, he snuck to the chamber’s exit and peeked outside. The coast was clear, as usual. It was no wonder his grandfather’s plans failed so spectacularly, if this was the skill his henchman showed. From his memory of the layout, the jeeps were kept two floors below. He’d have to access the stairwell to reach them discretely.

Damian glanced to his left one more time, to his mother’s chambers.

He should go.

He turned left.

-x-

Love was blind, Dick had declared once.

Damian finally understood what he meant. His parents were blind. Utterly, completely blind. He was mere meters away from them, hiding in a darkened corner of his mother’s chambers, and somehow neither Batman nor Talia had noticed him.

It was impossible.

He was never going to fall in love.

Yet, despite that, he couldn’t leave the room. His parents were sitting on the balcony, eating dinner on a small round table. It looked so informal. Bruce was holding Talia’s hand as she talked, a small smile on his face. He looked light, unburdened. Talia leaned closer, a coy expression as she gently swirled wine in her glass.

Damian watched, transfixed. He didn’t know what to make of this sight, of this woman who was not his mother, this man who was not his father.

Of this relationship that no longer existed.

-x-

Damian whirled the keys around his finger as he stood next the jeep.

“You weren’t spotted?” True to form, Cassandra reappeared next to him, holding an old school radio.

“I took care of it.” He jabbed a thumb at the wall. Three of his grandfather’s followers were knocked out, bound and gagged against the wall. “You can tell Dick I didn’t kill anyone.”

“I knew you wouldn’t.” Cassandra smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder. Damian tried not to feel too pleased about it. Swiping the keys, she headed to the jeep. “Let’s go.”

“I could drive,” he grumbled but he went to the other side of the jeep anyways. “You contacted Zatanna?”

“Not while we’re here,” Cassandra replied. The jeep hummed to life as she turned on the ignition and she winced. It was a sound they couldn’t muffle. “Ra’s might monitor it.”

“I doubt he was wise enough to set that up,” Damian sniped, still utterly disappointed by the lackluster guards in the area.

“Don’t underestimate your grandfather.” Cassandra slowly crept out of the garage, keeping the lights low.

“Maybe when he proves himself.” Damian glanced back as they quietly rolled out of the compound, in the direction of his mother’s chambers.

He knew the story well enough, of his mother’s lies, of his father’s fears. It was a story that would be replayed now.

Yet, he hadn’t known his parents’ joy. His parents’ love. They looked happy, truly happy, for that one meal and while he was never one to think of what-ifs, they haunted his mind now. If he had revealed himself, preventing his mother’s lies, how would it all have changed? Would they have stayed together? Would their relationship change?

Would he have changed?

No, there was no need to dwell on it. Just like the desert around him, the possibilities were vast. Damian was who he was now, and he didn’t intend to change that.

“I’ll call Zatanna,” he said, fiddling with the radio. The sooner they got out of here, the sooner he could put it all out of his mind.

#cassandra cain #damian wayne #bruce wayne #talia al ghul #batman #dc comics #fanfic #I reject what comics have given me and go with Damian being a little in awe of Cassandra #and maybe a little bit of a crush #and being too much of a snob to admit either thing #they'd be great sparring partners #tim steph and dick all make bets on who wins

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