#just to see how to get it up and running smoothly for future iterations

[aurosoulart]

Figmin XR Multiplayer Jam - TONIGHT!!! 🎉

HEADSET USERS: wanna hang out in a giant dandelion forest? pet a dragon? have an indoor snowball fight?!

if you have a Quest 2 headset (or any of the other mixed-reality headsets Figmin runs on) with Figmin XR installed, you can join me TONIGHT in the official Discord server at 5PM PST for the first ever public Multiplayer Jam.

🎉here's the link! 🎉

[sombersummerskies]

A Champion's Love: Chapter 32

Chapter 32: From the Ground Up Word Count: 4330 CW: None

Want all the chapters? -> Masterlist

~~~ <> ~~~

Months passed as you settled into your new lives. Life in Hateno was relaxing, which felt odd to you when you’ve spent the majority of your life on high alert at all times. Within time your wounds from the Yiga had healed completely, though you were left with a long scar on your bicep and a few minimal scratches along your torso.

The princess hadn’t yet completely reinstated you as her knight, claiming you still needed more time to recover from the mental stress. But the last thing you wanted to do was sit around, wasting away. So instead you dedicated yourself to offering assistance to the people of Hateno village. Killing off a monster camp to protect the rancher’s flock of sheep, finding various weapons to show to a curious boy, even collecting a handful of crickets for a man who wanted to use them as a gift.

The people of the village were grateful, giving you rupees and cooked meals. Eventually, however, you ran out of people to help within Hateno. So you began to travel to offer your assistance. From Kakariko, to Lurelin, to the various stables, you traveled back and forth with the aid of your steed to help any in need.

Whenever you could spare a day or two, you’d travel to Zora’s Domain to pay Prince Sidon a visit. Even though the council had recently been giving the prince more and more work, he would still eagerly make time for you. As of late he’d been showering you with various gifts, which according to the guards was another aspect of Zora courting rituals. If there was ever a day where Sidon could get away from his diplomatic work for more than a handful of hours, you would graciously spend that time together alone, away from prying eyes.

At the same time, Zelda was starting a new project. The construction of Lookout Landing was going smoothly, so the princess set her sights on a new goal: building a school. One night after having dinner she was excitedly explaining it to you, sharing how she and Symin were going to work together to usher in a new age of academia.

“Oh, you simply must see the plans,” she said with a grin, “it’s going to be the most precious building. Bolson and Hudson will be offering their construction expertise of course. In the first iteration it’s going to be a school for the younger children, but in the future I hope to expand to higher education for adults as well.”

Ever since moving the princess had a new air about her. More confident, more determined, and more hopeful. Her newly short hair bounced as she spoke, the blonde strands catching the light of the oil lamps around you.

“It sounds exciting,” you smile, leaning against the dining table, “do you know if any of the parents here are interested in sending their kids to school?”

She nods, “yes, the mayor has a young son, and I’m sure if the mayor gives the school his approval that even more families will be influenced to allow their children to join.”

You can’t help but chuckle, “Zelda, you’re the princess, the fact that you’re running the school is the only approval it needs.”

“Perhaps,” she smiles, “and how have you been fairing?”

“Good, good I think,” you reply, “it feels good to be useful. Unfortunately I seem to be running out of people to help.”

Zelda perks up at this, “oh, you’ve just reminded me. When I was speaking to Hudson about the construction of the school, he mentioned something quite intriguing to me. The development of a new town. He said it would be in the Akkala region, far north of here- and he also mentioned how he’d likely require assistance. Maybe you should inquire about it.”

“A new town…?” you repeat, “that does sound interesting.”

“You do have to pass through the Lanayru region to get there,” she adds with a cheeky grin, “perhaps you could stop by and say hello to your prince.”

“If you’re allowed to tease me about Sidon, do I get to tease you about Link?” you shoot back, sticking your tongue out at her.

She flushes with a roll of her eyes, “that’s different, I doubt Link would ever pursue me-”

You burst out in a loud, “HA!” that causes Zelda’s blush to darken even further. “Are you serious?” you ask her through laughs, “do you even see the way he looks at you?”

“Small glances are nothing compared to how Prince Sidon looks at you,” she retorts, “I swear, when the two of you are beside each other he looks at you as if there’s no one else that exists in the world.”

And then it was your turn to blush.

…

You’d become rather familiar with the feeling of the palace’s smooth flooring beneath your boots. A light sprinkle of rain fell from the heavens as you walked across the Great Zora Bridge. The Zora armor, which you’d recently retrieved from Impa, reflected the morning sunlight. You’d left Hateno rather early, with the hopes that you could both visit Sidon and meet with Hudson in a single day.

As you passed through the entrance you received your usual round of greetings, from the guards and shopkeepers, and even from the young Zora who ran around in their typical manner. During all of your visits the children- Tumbo, Keye, Finley, and Laruta- had become particularly fond of you and seemed to look forward to your arrival in the domain everytime.

In front of Mipha’s statue you pause momentarily, which has become customary on all of your visits, to offer your thanks to her. If it weren’t for her spirit, you weren’t sure if either you or Sidon would have survived that attack from the Yiga.

You quickly head up the stairs towards the throne room, but are caught off guard by two elder Zora who stop you just before you can enter.

“And what exactly is your business here today, Hylian?” one of them asks, an elder who’s fins remind you of those of a squid.

“Uh-” you stammer, “I’m here to see Prince Sidon?” Your answer comes out sounding like a question, since you assume it must be obvious what your intent is. It’s the same every time you return to the domain.

The other elder, with fins that resemble those of a sawfish, rolls his eyes, “your incessant visits are becoming a nuisance. We are preparing the prince for his eventual Kingship, all you do is distract him.”

A frown sets on your face, “haven’t we been over this before? Sidon has made it clear that regardless of my birth and status you have to respect me when I’m here.”

The squid-like elder barks out a laugh, “respect? I should think we’re showing you plenty of respect. By telling you that you have no place here, rather than lying to your face. Do not mistake the young prince’s kindness for lifelong mateship.”

“Clearly you don’t know the prince very well if that’s what you think,” you mutter, growing tired of the elder’s condescension. 

The two Zora share a look before one says, “we know him well enough to know that you will never be his wife, let alone his Queen.”

You can’t stop the gasp that passes your lips. Normally you could ignore the comments from the council members, but something about this conversation struck a chord. Just as you begin to step back, someone else speaks up.

“Dearest? Are you alright?” At the top of the stairs Sidon is standing, a concerned look on his face. He glances between the two elders and then back to you.

“... I’m fine,” you mutter after a moment of silence, not wanting to cause a scene, “I was just here to say hello before I ventured to Akkala.”

You can tell that the prince doesn’t entirely believe your lie. He pads down the staircase and nods his head at the two council members, “you may leave us now.”

The two older Zora walk away, leaving you and Sidon at the base of the stairs. You fidget, the conversation having made you quite uncomfortable. “Will you be honest with me, now that they’re gone?” the prince asks, kneeling before you.

You’re keenly aware of the fact that there are plenty of Zora within ears’ reach who could overhear you.

“Can we discuss it somewhere else?” you ask in a quiet voice, “somewhere… private.”

He gives you a gentle smile, “of course.”

That’s how you find yourself at a small body of water known as Lulu Lake. A short walk east of the palace and two quick rides up the waterfalls of Mikau Lake brought you here. It was small and peaceful, with one final waterfall that would bring you near the peak of Ploymus Mountain. If you recalled correctly, it was this same set of waterfalls that you ascended with Sidon to help complete his trials.

Small lily pads and short grass sprouts from beneath the surface of the water, and surrounding the lake were colorful coral-like trees. You’d chosen to take a seat upon one of the sun-warmed rocks as you let your feet stay cool in the water. The prince opted to lay in the water instead, allowing the ripples of the water to wash over him.

You stare at the palace in the distance, eyes trailing over the large fish statue above the throne room. Out here, away from everyone else, you’re finally free to speak openly. After a few seconds of silence you finally speak up, “... they’re never going to accept me, are they?”

Out of the corner of your eye you see Sidon look up at you.

“The council will never accept me,” you elaborate, tilting your head towards him, “because I’m a Hylian. They’ll never approve of me.”

The prince sits up, your name just barely a whisper on his lips. “Darling… it will be an adjustment, with time they will come to understand their biases are wrong.”

“That’s what you say every time, and everytime I am here, nothing changes. It’s been months, and they still look down on me as if I’m a mutt, even after stopping the Divine Beast’s tantrum,” you huff, fidgeting with the fabric of your gloves, “do you know what they said to me just before? That I have no place in the domain. That I could never be your bride.”

Sidon frowns, glaring in the direction of the palace, “you mustn’t listen to them. They’re old, set in their ways, they have no perception of the way things have changed in the modern age. Let me have a word with them, I will set them straight.”

“It doesn’t matter how many times you speak to them, Sidon,” you sigh, sliding off of the rock to pace around the lake, “because whenever you’re not by my side, they will turn their noses up at me. They call me a distraction, they think I’m wasting your time, they probably refer to me as filth behind my back. They will never accept me, or our relationship, because I’m a Hylian.”

“Dearest,” he says, pleading as he walks towards you, “please, do not speak like that.”

“But it’s true isn’t it? Things would be simpler if I wasn’t a Hylian- if instead I were born a Zora. They would accept me then, wouldn’t they? Might even go so far as to say that they would like me as a Zora,” you retort.

Sidon kneels before you, gently coaxing you closer as he takes your hands into his own. He lets out a deep sigh as his eyes, somewhat murky and saddened, flicker across your form. “... if you ask the truth of me, I will not deny you. Though it pains me to say, I do agree that in another life had you been born a Zora, the council would be far more approving of our partnership.”

You stare into his eyes, nervousness bubbling in the pit of your stomach. You hesitate before speaking again, “... and you? Would you like me more if I were a Zora?”

You regret the question as soon as it comes out of your mouth. The prince’s expression falls, his grip on your hands loosening for just a moment. “Dearest? Where is this coming from? Have I ever given you such an inclination?” he asks, leaning closer to you.

“No- no, it’s just-” you stammer, ashamed at the way your insecurities came flooding out all at once, “nevermind. Forget I asked. I was just upset about what the council members had said to me. It’s a stupid question anyway, it’s not as if I can just transform my body.”

“Beloved, listen to me,” he whispers, “in all my life, out of any of the beings I’ve met in this world, it is you who captures my thoughts at every waking moment. You, in all of your courage and bravery and wit. In all of your beauty, charm, and candor. I would walk to the ends of the world just to feel the love you so generously share with me. I care not what form you take or how your body may look. With or without the approval of the council, it is you who I want to spend my life with. Even as we age, even in sickness. My affection for you will never change.”

Your heart pounds in your chest, though Sidon’s words immediately relax you and help to ease your worries. You throw your arms around his shoulders and hug him, hiding your face away as you do. “Thank you,” you murmur against him, “and I feel the same for you, always.”

The prince chuckles softly, “I’m glad to have helped you, dearest. Truly. It pains me to see you so forlorn, you know.”

“I’ll try not to be from now on,” you laugh.

“Ah, there’s that gorgeous smile,” the prince grins, leaning back to see your expression, “how else could I pull more smiles out of you, I wonder.”

“Hmm?” you respond, but you see the mischievous look on his face all too late.

Sidon tightens his grip on your waist as he falls backwards, dragging you down with him into the water. You shriek with laughter as the both of you make a splash, scaring away some nearby ducks.You yell his name, though there’s no anger in your voice, face hot from all of your giggles.

The afternoon hours pass as the two of you lie in the water together, talking and reminiscing and laughing. A thought passes through your mind, and as you admire Sidon’s bright eyes and handsome smile, you think of how lucky you must be to share a life with a being like him.

…

Much to your surprise, it didn’t take you very long to find Hudson’s location in the Akkala region. At some point during all your travels you’d met the Great Fairy Mija, who like her sisters was quite grateful for your presence and offered to mend and upgrade your armor. North of her fountain was a skinny, precarious looking piece of land that resembled a bridge over a circular lake. At the center of this lake was a large chunk of earth connected to this naturally formed bridge.

That was where Hudson had chosen the location for this new town.

On this faux island was a group of large rocks, a lone building, and a simple pond in the center with a prayer statue. You quickly found the architect, who was working away, attempting to break down one of the many boulders with his pickaxe. It looked like back breaking work.

“Hudson!” you called out as you approached, waving an arm.

Once you were standing in front of him he steps away from the rock, wiping sweat from his brow. He greets you with a simple, “hey. We meet again.”

“Indeed we do,” you smile at him, gazing around, “Princess Zelda mentioned to me that you had a new project here. So, what’s your plan?”

The Hylian man nods his head, his long hair bouncing, “the construction of Lookout Landing inspired me, and I spoke with Bolson. I’ve decided to build a new village from scratch. Every village needs a name, though. I think I’ll call it… Tarrey Town.”

“Seems like a good idea to me. Daunting task though, building a whole new town. How’s it going so far?” you ask.

“Well enough, however…” he trails off momentarily, “I built a house to store the village supplies in, but there just isn’t enough.”

“Enough?” you repeat curiously.

“Enough anything,” he answers, “people, money, stuff.”

You nod, taking another look at the surrounding area. If he keeps up construction at his current pace, it’ll take him months to complete all the work on his own. “Let me lend a hand,” you offer, looking back at him.

“But why? There’s nothing in it for you,” he questions, tilting his head to the side.

You can’t help but grin, shrugging your shoulders, “I don’t mind. I thrive helping others. Besides, after the calamity, I’d love to see some life returning to Hyrule.”

Hudson sighs, his shoulders visibly loosening, “thank Hylia, you’re a lifesaver. Well, I suppose to get started, we’ll need houses for people to live in. We can’t invite them until we have homes. Do you think you can bring me some wood? Ten bundles should be enough. If you bring me that, I can combine it with what I’ve already got and get started on new houses.”

“You got it, boss,” you reply cheekily, giving Hudson a salute before jogging away.

Within the storehouse you find a woodcutting axe and borrow it for the time being. Across the land bridge were a handful of trees, and after cutting a few down you get to work on chopping the wood down to size. You work up a sweat while doing so, and the evening sun still beating down on you isn’t helping. After an hour of labor, you have all of the necessary bundles, though you regret having left your horse at the stable as you wandered through Akkala.

Once you return to Hudson, you deposit the wood at the home and speak with him once more. He thanks you again and you ask what the next phase of construction will require.

“These boulders are driving me nuts,” he explains, ‘I want to move them out of the way so we can develop the land underneath. It’d really help me out if you could find someone with enough brute physical strength to bust them apart.”

“Physical strength… like a Goron?” you reply.

“Yes, a Goron would be my first choice,” he nods, “good luck hiring someone to travel here, though, it seems like a real long shot. Oh, and one last wrinkle… yeah, in accordance with the official Bolson Construction policy, that someone’s name must end in ‘son’.”

“... son?” you repeat, perplexed.

Hudson smiles, “yup. If you run into anyone that fits what I’ve said, try to send them here to Tarrey Town for me.

…

The heat of Death Mountain is sweltering. You trudge through Goron City in your flame resistant armor, but the fiery haze and high temperatures still make you sweat. It feels as if you spend the entire day in Goron City, stopping every Goron who walks by and asking for their name. There’s Bludo and Yunobo of course, neither of which have a name ending in ‘son’. It feels as if you’re searching in vain as you speak with Bargoh, Bladon, Fugo, Gonguron, Krane, Offrak, Pyle, Rohan, Slergo, Tanko, Tray.

You feel completely out of luck- until someone mentions the mines to you.

That’s how you find yourself in the Southern Mine, speaking with the workers after the sundown. A particular Goron sat by the fire catches your attention, as you hear him lamenting to his coworker that he feels as if he can’t use his strength to make a difference in the world.

“Sorry to interrupt,” you pipe up, adjusting your helmet, “but I couldn’t help but overhear.”

The Goron gives you a tired look, raising a brow, “what? Do you have a job that’d let me use my strength to make a difference?”

“Actually,” you grin, “I do.”

He immediately perks up, showing you more interest, “huh? Really? Where? Please, tell me more!”

“Tarrey Town,” you answer.

“Tarrey Town?” he repeats, “never heard of it. What’s the deal with the place?”

You explain the situation to him, how Hudson of Bolson Construction would like to build a new town from the ground up but needs assistance as he does. As you explain you ask for his name, feeling overjoyed when he tells you that it’s Greyson.

“Tarrey Town…” he mumbles, “so there is somewhere out there that needs me. Hmm, I guess Akkala isn’t too far from here. All right! I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna strike while the iron is hot! Thanks for lettin’ me know, lil’ guy! Pelison and I are gonna head there right away!”

Before you get the chance to ask who Pelison is, you watch as he calls out to a much younger Goron. A short kid looks up curiously, and you assume that they must be siblings. You watch as the two Goron brothers leave and practically want to jump in the air out of excitement.

‘Let’s go see what else there is to be done,’ you think to yourself, more than ready to get away from the heat of the volcano.

…

This starts a cycle of tasks over the course of two weeks, where you work alongside Hudson to build the town. Once Greyson had been able to clear away a substantial amount of rock, you needed to collect more wood to build more houses. After building more houses, Hudson confides in you that all the work has caused him to need a tailor to repair his clothing. 

So you make way for the Gerudo Desert, searching for a tailor who would be willing to move- and also has a last name ending in ‘son’. You begin looking in Kara Kara Bazaar first, and you luck out once you meet a Gerudo woman named Rhondson. 

She explains to you that in her search for a voe to marry, she’s mastered many skills, tailoring being one of them. You suggest that she move to Tarrey Town, not only for the job but also to aid her in her quest of finding a man to marry. When she agrees, your heart soars with joy.

Upon your return to Tarrey Town you see that two small shops have been established: one being Pelison’s, where he sells some of the gems his brother finds in the broken down rock. The other is Rhondson’s, where she sells some exclusive Gerudo clothing. While Rhondson doesn’t seem thrilled to be tailoring Hudson’s clothing on a daily basis, she is happy to be able to search for a voe.

After some discussion with Hudson he, yet again, requires more bundles of wood for further houses to be constructed. Once this has been acquired, Hudson discusses the construction of a general store with you for the distribution of goods. However, no one nearby has the qualifications to run such a shop. The two of you decide that looking around in Rito Village would be the best course of action.

Your visit in the Tabantha region is quicker than the rest. At the base of the village spiral you find a young Rito man with blue feathers sitting alone. You discover that his name is Fyson. He complains of a quarrel with his mother, how his mother runs the general shop in the village. The problem is that he doesn’t want to simply help her with the store, but instead wants to own a shop of his own. You eagerly explain the available space in Tarrey Town, and he agrees to fly there to see it for himself.

When you return to the Akkala region you’re thrilled to see that a new shop has been opened, run by Fyson himself. He happily shows you his stock, and you purchase a new bundle of arrows from him. When you reconvene with Hudson you are unsurprised to hear that he’ll need even more bundles of wood (this time, fifty) for the construction of the final few houses. After a few hours of labor in the forest west of the town, you manage to bring him the rest of the supplies.

“I actually wanted to talk to you about something a little personal…” Hudson says once you return to him.

“Something wrong?” you ask with a frown.

He shakes his head, “oh, not that kind of personal. Actually, I got engaged.”

Your jaw drops open without you meaning to, “what? That’s wonderful! Congratulations!”

“Thank you,” he replies simply.

“Might I ask to who?” you respond.

He looks up across the town and you match his gaze. You realize he’s looking at the small clothing shop. “To Rhondson,” he answers, a smile on his face.

You’re quite shocked to hear this but you don’t say so, not wanting to offend. “Oh, that’s amazing Hudson,” you grin, “I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks again. Anyway, we want to have a little ceremony to celebrate, but we need someone priest-like to officiate. I know I keep sending you on errands, but do you think you could look for someone priest-like for us?” he asks.

After some thought, you decide the best location to find someone devout and ordained would be Zora’s Domain. After a night’s rest you begin to prepare to journey back to the Lanayru region. In all your trips to the palace, you didn’t recall meeting any priests. But perhaps you might get lucky.

Besides, you can’t deny how excited you are to visit your prince once more.

~~~ <> ~~~

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[miafreeman702]

Spreads & Feedback

At the moment the layout and indesign doc for my publication feels all over the place. Because I'm still waiting to talk to my parents (which I'll be able to do this weekend), I feel like I can't make to much solid progress. I've been focusing a lot of testing layouts, exploring inserts digitally and trying to nail down a visual style. This is been quite hard because I feel like a lot of my direction will be informed from what my parents say and the points that they bring up. After this weekend I will hopefully have a much better understanding of the content and narrative and can match my storytelling and visuals to that.

An example of a fold out test, the text will open up to show the image. I want the hands grabbing at me to feel overwhelming and somewhat scary to portray my feelings.

I have an understanding what I want to push for in terms of visual direction, but I know I wont necessarily be able to complete this all for formative. I want to try a lot of analogue collage, which I started exploring digitally, but I don't think I'll have time to do this for formative. This is definitely something I want to use a lot throughout the later chapters to keep a scrapbook feel and also be able to communicate the feelings I had.

This spread talks to my experience of wanting to try and 'run' from my disability and ignore that it was there, by going through and scribbling out my arm or self in each photo. The black paint is brought in to show how some memories become almost tainted because of the realisation that I was 'weird' to everyone else.

I've been testing a lot of fold outs a lot digitally as well and trying to see exactly what these look like so I have lots of iterations that are just the same spread in it's different stages of folding out. This has been helpful but I know i'm going to have to do a lot of work to figure out the signatures and get these ready for print.

I've also been experimenting with characters and bringing drawings of myself in to show how I feel now or how I felt at the time. This element again will be bought in later through the book when the perspective shifts from my parent's to mine. I need to figure out a way to make this transition smoothly so it doesn't feel inconsistent to just have this character appear.

character illustrations

Talking to Phoebe about this was really helpful and she offered advice on including sections on connection. I had been thinking that I wanted to add space for people to write their own experiences and stories and then pass the book onto other family and friends. Phoebe suggested that in the future I should consider creating a social media campaign or platform in which parents and people with upper limb differences can share their experiences, offer comfort and connect with others. It would give a good space for people to talk to each other, relate and feel like they aren't so alone.

She also talked about making some of the visuals more subtle and thinking of other ways to show the emotions and feelings rather than literally drawing them.

[haircoveredwriter]

Carol's Origin Story: 5 most underrated scenes

There are some moments that always come to mind when fans of The Walking Dead think of Carol Peletier; ones seared into our minds from sheer awesomeness or heart-wrenching emotions no one can escape. Yet such multi-faceted characters cannot be simply broken down into their 4 best episodes for one to truly understand who they are and how far the journey they've traveled to get here. As such, we will examine a few poignant stages along Carol's journey which deserve their recognition.

5. Teaching the kids at the prison to fight

Following the fall of Woodbury, our survivors were inundated with new people joining them at the prison and looking for some semblance of leadership. A role which Carol takes on easily and with devout purpose; arranging schedules to help the community run smoothly as well as maintaining the perimeter fencing's safety. Although she's not content simply to sit back and let her past be repeated, fearing it was her own lack of education that lead to Sophia's tragic death. Not if she has anything to do about it. Disguised as regular storytime, she quietly instructs the children on basic weapon usage and how they can protect themselves when they're threatened; a lesson that proves extremely helpful upon the Governor's return and subsequent attack. If it were not for Carol's tactical thinking, Mika and Lizzie might never have saved baby Judith or Tyrese for that matter, and Rick would have never gotten the happy reunion he'd been dreaming of.

4. Her facade in Alexandria

Becoming who she needs to be in any given situation is much more than a talent for Carol, it is a survival mechanism. Something she'd had to learn during her marriage to Ed in an attempt to appease his temper and evade his ever-present wrath. Though it was truly mesmerizing to watch her read the room within an instant of entering Alexandria - a community they knew nothing about or whether it was to be trusted - and switch over to her previous meek, demure persona without missing a beat so that she would have the ability to protect her family. The Wolves would have served well to have noted this point sooner. While Carol has donned her veiled mask multiple times since, in the show's series, it's the first iteration which shows just how intelligent this woman is.

3. Saving Lydia in The Storm

Reliving a parent's worst nightmare is horrible enough to experience once but for Carol she, unfortunately, lived through many losses of children, the most recent being her adopted son, Henry, at the hands of Alpha. Swallowed up by pain and grief, her feelings of self begin to fracture as she fears she's losing any hold of who she is. When the group is forced to venture into the eye of a terrible winter storm, she finds herself face to face with the daughter of her son's murderer and has to battle her own dark inner thoughts as well as the young girl's suicidal tendencies. Despite the immense burden of blame weighing on her heart (of other's and herself), Carol is able to connect with the mirror image Lydia displays, seeing her own past traumas and pain being experienced by another and it's then that Carol chooses to reach out to provide the support she'd never had to the suffering teenager. True strength comes from the ability to use one's own pain to help others ... this is the definition of Carol Peletier.

2. 'Warning' Merle

"People underestimate me ... don't underestimate me." Why this scene was cut from the broadcast airing I will NEVER understand! Carol has always been protective over those she cares about, although when Daryl's brother, Merle, arrives at the prison, potentially jeopardizing his mental & emotional well-being, Carol doesn't bat an eye before making it clear to the elder Dixon ... if he messes with Daryl, she'll take him out in his sleep. There are so many subtle aspects to this scene that draw the viewer in at the same time shock them to their core; whether it is Carol's sweet and reserved presentation, her ease in mentioning descriptive details proving she has already been keeping track of Merle, or the mere fact that in a way the man in front of her displayed several tendencies which she had cowered from earlier in a previous life. This is also the first instance where the strengthening bond between Carol and Daryl shows how deep it goes, and how far the star-crossed soulmates will go to protect the other from anyone or anything.

1. Saving herself in "Look at the Flowers"

You can be your own worst enemy. When times get tough, it's easier sometimes to fall back on habit rather than going for what you want or need. Both these are true for Carol when we find her in season 10. Alpha is dead, Henry's death has been avenged ... yet neither brings her the peace she's sought and she finds herself running again from her emotional turmoil rather than head back to Alexandria to face it with Daryl. Along her instinctual journey she can't escape the voices inside her head which take on the physical representation of the woman she hates the most, Alpha. Every horrendous thing anyone has ever told her or things she has told/believes about herself come flooding through, one after another, until fate deals its hand and pins her overnight beneath a boat with no way to escape. The incoming promise of death seems nearly accepted before the prospect of losing Daryl is too much for Carol to take and she musters her courage, dislocating her shoulder and then killing the incoming walker. This is the moment where she decides she is done running. This is the moment where she chooses her relationship with Daryl over everything that has come or will in the future. This is the moment where Carol decides she is worthy.

Carol Peletier Origin Story (3/7)

[rockindragonz]

Theory and Practice

Words: 4554

Summary: Indrid draws a future that forces him to confront the feelings he's been slowly developing for everyone's favorite regular ass dude.  AKA 5 times Indrid saw the future vs the 1 time he didn't

Ao3

Time is funny for people who can see the future.  Even if Indrid couldn’t see exactly what was going to happen, he could still see the possible outcomes of any given situation.  This always put him one step ahead in theory, but two steps behind in reality.  While everyone else was living in the present, he was living 3 seconds ahead, so he missed out on the spontaneous things people would sometimes do.  It was probably that spontaneity that drew him so magnetically to Duck Newton.

The man was peculiar in more ways than one.  His face was soft, but aged beyond his years.  His eyes were bright, but constantly exhausted.  His body was strong, but his bones cracked and popped with nearly every movement.  Most importantly though, despite the destiny Minerva had nicely laid out in front of him, Duck refused it and fought against it as much as he could.  He purposely tried to do the unexpected things, the spontaneous things, that made Indrid have to scrap all of his drawings and start over.  Normally, this would have been a nuisance, but he found himself drawn to the chaos that Duck created.  Whenever Duck was in the room, Indrid found himself anticipating the things he would say, the paths he would take, the new ones he would create.  Sometimes, of course, Duck did the expected thing.  Sometimes he did his “chosen duty” of saving people, but he and his companions always found a different way of making things interesting.

That is why Indrid finds himself where he is: with a single lonely drawing of an odd future.  A drawing of him kissing Duck Newton.

“Indrid, man, are you still there?” Duck said, and he sounded worried. It was their usual chatting time right now.  Indrid knew that whenever he went quiet for too long, Duck would grow concerned over the possible futures running through his head.  “Hey, uh, listen, I can call back later if now's a bad time.”

Indrid coughed in what he hoped was a convincing way.  “I'm okay, sorry Duck, just, um, choking on air, a possible future caught me off guard,” he said as smoothly as he could, “Nothing to worry about.”

“You sure?  You freaked me out for a sec there.”  Duck's voice was concerned, almost afraid in a weird way.  Indrid was certain his mind was conjuring up all sorts of possible reasons one of Indrid's visions would cause him to choke briefly.

“Yes I'm sure, it's not a big deal, just a… surprising future is all.”

“Oooookay man… I trust you.  Just let me know ASAP if anything changes,” Duck said.  

There was a brief lull in the conversation as Indrid carefully considered his next action.  These visions weren’t completely new; there were a few futures where Indrid and Duck kissed at their first meeting, and even a miniscule amount where more happened. But those visions were usually so insignificant that Indrid paid them no mind. The mere fact that he drew that timeline meant that there were enough iterations of it that he might have to plan for it.  Indrid shook his head as he suddenly realized that he was still on the phone, and laughed quietly.

“You are full of surprises, Duck Newton, absolutely full of surprises,” Indrid said into the phone.

Duck shuffled around on the other end. “Well, uh, is that uh, a good thing?”

“Yes, it brings variety to my life, so thank you,” Indrid smiled, “It gets rather boring knowing everything that will happen.  You frequently send us down unlikely paths and force me to rethink everything, and to be honest I thoroughly enjoy it.”

“You’re, uh, you’re welcome, I guess?  I don’t know, Indrid, I just don’t wanna be stuck in a box, you know?  I— I’m multidimensional man!  I have feelings and shit!” Duck said, his voice raising in pitch slightly.  Indrid chuckled as he looked down at the paper with an unfamiliar fondness.  As Duck rambled, the future in front of Indrid became slightly more likely, and Indrid found himself wanting this vision to come true.  And as soon as that clicked, Indrid knew he was irrevocably fucked.

*

The drawing had taken up permanent residence on the wall, even if that specific moment had passed.  It was odd for Indrid to keep such a drawing; usually he threw them out as soon as they were no longer relevant, but something kept him attached to this one.  He wasn’t sure if it was the nature of the drawing, or if it was because of who it was with, or even if it was because it was simply such an odd future that Indrid just couldn’t seem to let go of it.

Duck was set to come by the Winnebago later to talk about the most recent developments regarding Billy and the abomination— sorry, bom-bom. The drawing was carefully stowed away in one of Indrid’s many journals and stashed under his bed.  He understood the underside of a bed to be where all humans kept their more private items.  That or a bedside table, but this drawing wasn’t something Indrid would need offhand.

Usually, Duck didn’t get the chance to knock, but Indrid was distracted with drawing other possible futures, so he simply let Duck knock and told him that the door was open.  As Duck pushed the door open, new and rather… interesting futures appeared with varying levels of appropriateness.  Indrid cleared his throat and forced himself not to focus on one of the more explicit ones.

“Hey man, thanks for letting me come over, I just needed to, I dunno, talk through some shit with you without the other two cracking jokes about it,” Duck said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“That’s quite alright, Duck, please sit down, would you like some nog?”

“Uh, yeah, sure, fuck it,” Duck laughed nervously.

 As soon as those words left Duck’s mouth, more of the futures Indrid was enjoying popped up, and he smiled a little bit.

“You never cease to surprise me, Duck,” Indrid said. “So what is it you wished to ask me?”  

He placed a cup of eggnog in front of Duck and sat opposite him at the small table in his camper.  It was nothing special, just a typical plastic table with a bench that was just a little bit too small.  Indrid smiled as he watched Duck fiddle with the cup. He seemed to be trying to find the right words.

“How do you - how do you deal with seeing the future?  How do you know which ones’ll come true?” Duck said.  Ah, so they were in this timeline then.

Indrid leaned casually on the table. “Well, you’ve seen my drawings, obviously, and you’ve seen me at work.  Typically, it starts with an event that creates ripples.  A person will say or do something seemingly insignificant, but it will affect every single future to come.  That being said, sometimes there are multiple futures that can branch off of one incident, but those futures are whittled down by other factors.  Things as small as the temperature outside, the wind levels, whether someone sneezes or doesn’t.”  He paused.  “My best outlet is my drawings and my knowledge that worst-case scenarios are just that— worst case.  Disaster scenarios are always present— floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, even something as dramatic as a meteor but these futures are so unlikely that—”

“Sorry, did you say meteor?” Duck interrupted.

“I did, but even as you asked that, that situation became less likely,” Indrid said with a knowing smile.  Duck’s cheeks grew red as he continued to listen and he took a small sip of his eggnog.  “But those futures are already so unlikely to happen that I try not to worry too much about them.  It isn’t worth concerning myself over an almost impossible future, doing that would be maddening.  And there are some less dramatic examples, like ones where I have relations with others that I have to ignore so that I don’t affect those outcomes.”

“But what if one of those situations were to become more likely?  What would you do then?” Duck asked.

“I would have to warn my friends and family that already know of my abilities to avoid another… incident.”

“Shit, man, I’m sorry, that was real rude of me,” Duck said, face burning crimson again.

“Pay it no mind,” Indrid said with a dismissive wave. “What’s done is done.  I may be able to see the future, but I cannot change the past.”  

There was silence for a moment as Duck considered his next words carefully.  Indrid smiled patiently, but he reached for a pencil and sketchbook he kept handy if a future popped up that demanded recording.  He drew idly as he waited for Duck to speak.

Duck finally spoke, “Hey so, this is gonna - this’ll sound awful strange Indrid, but I, uh, I’m… Chosen.  I get these visions where I see— I see disasters and I see issues I need to fix and it has been drivin’ me insane.”  

Indrid ceased drawing as Duck started talking.  Suddenly, he was flooded with an array of new futures.  In simply telling Indrid of his status as a Chosen, Duck created new timelines, many of which featured the two of them together.

“I see,” Indrid said simply, “Er, my apologies for my short response, many futures have just been deleted from existence and many new ones just popped up.  It’s rather… overwhelming.  That doesn’t happen often, Duck.”

“Oh shit, man, I’m sorry, shit,” Duck said, reaching out to Indrid almost reflexively.

“As I said before, pay it no mind.  These things happen,” Indrid said.  The wave of futures was calming down, and his mind was once again a dull roar of possible outcomes.  He scrapped the drawing he had been working on, and pushed the pad and pencil aside.  There were too many variables in the upcoming futures for him to truly see which ones he needed to record.  “Duck, being Chosen is something very...special.  I have known since we met what you are, but I have very little details on it due to you not truly understanding it either, am I correct?”

“Yeah, yeah, I ain’t got shit,” Duck said.  A small laugh bubbled up through Indrid as Duck spoke.

“I figured as much.  Being Chosen isn’t easy - it is never easy to be special, but you are doing a wonderful job, Duck.  You do what must be done and you truly care for the wellbeing of others. Even for someone such as myself, who could have been a temporary aid.”

“Indrid, man, you know you’re more than just a tool, right?”  Duck said, “As useful as havin’ you around has been, that's not all you’re good for.  You’re funny, and clever, and altogether a really great guy.  Despite how you act, you care about Earth.  For fuck’s sake, you called us to warn us about Leo.  And the runaway train!”

For a moment, Indrid was in shock.  No one in all the years he had lived had ever said anything so kind to him.  And this man, this ridiculous Chosen man, who had known him for less than a month, was shouting his praises.  It was… unusual, to say the least.

“Look, Indrid, I… I should go, but I meant what I said.  You aren’t just a fuckin’ pawn or some shit, you’re our - well, you’re our friend.”  And then Duck stood up from the table and left.  And Indrid was left staring at his wall of drawings.  And he was left with a decision.

*

It wasn’t often that Indrid put himself in harm’s way on purpose.  He usually tried his damndest to avoid conflict in any situation, but this was different for him.  He allowed the goat man to take him hostage and beat him within an inch of his life.  Mainly because he knew that the Pine Guard would save him eventually, but also because he knew that Duck needed to see that he would only get in the way.  Since Duck had visited him last, Indrid had reflected on the visions he’d been having.

He realized that he was affecting the future, changing it to better fit his own desires.  If there were two paths, one leading to Duck and the other leading away from him, Indrid would take the path that led to Duck.  At first, he didn’t even notice it.  He would see himself tapping three times instead of four and would stop himself at three without paying it any mind.  When he finally realized what he had been doing, he forced himself to stop. But going against a future already set in motion was an insurmountable task, even for him.  There was no telling how his new choices could affect the future. So Indrid simply tried to stop caring.

That’s why he was telling himself that getting captured was important.  He was positive that if Duck were to see him weak and afraid and in pain, he would turn away, run even, like everyone always had.  Then there was, of course, the added variable of Duck probably being forced to see Indrid’s true form and be horrified once again.

And, while Indrid would never admit it, there were far too many futures where Duck was horribly injured when Indrid wasn’t there versus the few when Indrid was.

So when Indrid saw Duck burst through the clearing, wielding his sword and positively terrified, he was positive that this would be the last straw for him.

But it wasn’t.

Duck freed him from the chains, or he tried to at least, and in doing so he damaged his Chosen weapon, a feat that Indrid knew was difficult unless the Chosen really wanted to.  When Duck punched him to get the glasses off, Indrid didn’t see fear of him in his eyes as he became “The Mothman”, he saw fear for him as Duck urged him to run.  So, like Indrid did best, like he always had, he ran.

*

Indrid couldn’t bring himself to leave Kepler, despite that being the best option for everyone involved.  There were many futures where he left and went somewhere far away where none of them would be able to find him, but he once again ignored those futures and stayed put in his greasy Winnebago.

When Duck and the Pine Guard finally defeated the Bom-Bom, it was already dark out.  Indrid had enchanted another item for him to wear - an old necklace he kept hidden away - and was waiting with baited breath for Duck to arrive.  Indrid knew he would come and insist on giving him the glasses back, but Indrid couldn’t take them, or else it could lead to some of the more serious futures.  It was frustrating having to avoid a future he wanted, but he needed Duck to make the decision.

“Hey, Indrid, I’m-I’m here.  I brought your glasses back, but the gang doesn’t know I’m doing this, so let’s keep it on the DL?”  Duck pushed the door to the Winnebago open slowly and looked around the small camper.  Indrid was sitting on his couch, head in his hands, as he saw the futures swimming through his mind.  The punch Duck had delivered had been solid, but the time he had spent unconscious when the goat-man had taken him was the time that was only just now flooding back to him.

“Shit, Indrid, are you okay?”  Duck rushed over, seemingly forgetting the reason he had come, and he knelt in front of Indrid.  Indrid peeked at Duck, and saw a look of concern he was unfamiliar with.

“Too much.  Just a moment,” he spoke.  Duck simply nodded and made himself more comfortable beside Indrid on the small couch.  He bounced his leg anxiously as Indrid attempted to collect himself.  His whole body seemed to be vibrating with… something neither of them could quite put their finger on.  “Alright.”

“You feel better now?”

“Yes, I am fine now.  My apologies, I saw that you were coming and had to rush to enchant this new item so I may not look exactly as you remember.”  It was true.  Indrid’s form was similar, but there were certain things about him that were different. He was slightly closer to Duck’s height now, and his hair was quite a bit cleaner and shorter than it was before.  The most noticeable difference, however, was that he was much broader than before, so the camper felt a little smaller.

“It’s fine, I’m just glad you’re okay.  You know,” Duck started, and then paused to bite his lip as if he were contemplating his next words, “you know, I was… worried you would be gone by the time I got here.  I practically flew here, I ran so goddamn fast, never run that fast in my life.”

“I appreciate your concern, Duck, but I am quite alright.  I… figured you’d be coming by so I stayed put to see what you had to say,” he said.  The lie slipped so easily across his tongue, but it tasted like poison.  Indrid knew that he’d only stayed because he was selfish and wanted one last chance to see one of those futures through.

“I’m glad you stayed,” Duck said.  His face lit up and he sat up a little straighter.  “I-I-I mean the Pine Guard is glad, you were real helpful and, uh, yeah you’re a good dude and shit.”  Indrid laughed.  Duck had no idea how wrong he was.

“I put myself in harm’s way,” he said, “How is that helpful?”

“You kept them distracted.  You must have known what would happen with the goat-man and how it would change shit for us.  Because of you, they were distracted.”

“Yes, I make a good distraction, don’t I?”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Duck said.  His voice was deep and loud, and his eyes narrowed at Indrid.  “What I meant to say was thank you.  I’m sorry I punched you, but I’m glad you are okay.  Sorry I yelled, but you have a thick skull for someone who knows what'll happen.”

“I can't help it,” Indrid said with a small, satisfied smile, “I like seeing you all riled up.”  He was teasing, of course he was teasing, but his words held some truth.  Seeing Duck so fiercely protective made something inside Indrid just kind of smile.

*

A couple days after the bom-bom was beaten, the door to Indrid's Winnebago slammed against the wall as Duck burst inside.  Indrid had been expecting the action, but it caused him to jump nonetheless.

“Duck?  Is everyone alright?”

“Indrid, man, I-I'm - I think I'm broken,” Duck said, voice wavering, “I'm not - 'm not tough!  I'm not fast or special, I'm just Duck fuckin’ Newton now.  I'm helpless, for fuck's sake I asked a gigantic fuckin’ magical cat for a fuckin’ helmet because I am scared shitless.  I have never felt so fuckin’ vulnerable in my life, Indrid.  What the hell am I supposed to do?”  He was pacing about the camper with his hands running through his hair.

Indrid was unsure of what to do at this point, so he took a breath and considered his words carefully. “Duck, I am sorry this has happened to you.  This is far more than even I could have predicted.  This is a path that seemed so unlikely I gave it no thought.”  

It was the truth, not the whole truth, but the truth.  Indrid hadn't paid it much mind because it seemed like a disaster scenario, but he'd dwelled on this event longer than the others because of his personal feelings for Duck.  

“I am sorry, Duck Newton, I am truly sorry.  What you do now is entirely up to you.  I see… futures where you are injured and I see futures where you prevail without a scratch, but Duck?”  Indrid paused, looking at Duck and biting his lip, unsure of if he should say what he was about to say, but he took a deep breath and spoke, “You are still Chosen. Losing your powers doesn't change that you were Chosen out of billions of people to protect Kepler.  You will have to be more careful now, so you don't wind up dead, but so long as you aren’t careless, you’re going to be amazing.”  

Indrid felt his heart pull painfully as he took in Duck's full appearance.  There were purple bags under his eyes, new wrinkles had formed on his forehead, his shirt was half untucked. Really, he just looked like absolute hell.

“Indrid?  You really think all that?” Duck looked up at him.

“Oh Duck, of course I do,” Indrid said, voice betraying something slightly softer than what he’d meant to say.  Duck smiled at him and Indrid felt his heart soar.  Life was difficult knowing everything that could happen, but Duck made things a little easier to bear.

The two of them talked for hours about life, the universe, and everything.  Duck ranted about the expectations that came with being Chosen, Indrid reminded him that he was the one holding himself to those impossible standards.  Indrid talked briefly about the more explicit futures he would see, and Duck laughed. The sound was music to Indrid’s ears.  Duck talked softly about his sister, June.  Indrid said that he’d love to meet her someday, to which Duck responded that it might be hard to explain his whole ‘Winnebago eggnog weirdness’ (Duck’s words, not his).

It was the happiest Indrid had ever been.

*

Indrid was exhausted.  The futures where Duck confessed to him had gotten more and more likely as the weeks went on.  They’d begun speaking more frequently, Duck came to the Winnebago more often, and Indrid had even visited Duck’s apartment once; he had the cutest cat that liked to curl up on Indrid’s lap.  His life was becoming more involved with the Pine Guard.  They’d tried to get him to come with them to the lodge a few times, but he refused, citing that he didn’t really fit in with the rest of the Sylphs.

Today was one of the days where Indrid was staring at the many drawings he’d made of the two of them, debating on whether he should act or not.  He’d honestly been waiting to see if Duck even wanted something like that in this timeline, but he was growing impatient.  Duck was a hard man to read.  He’d say one thing, but his eyes would say another.  He’d do one thing with certain motivations, but his actual motivations would be vastly different.  As always, Duck Newton was an enigma.

Lost in thought, Indrid almost ignored the ringing of his phone.

“Hello, Duck, how are you?”

“Good, good, I’m all good here.  Hey, listen, I’m headed over right now, I needa talk to you about some— some shit, is now good for you?  Or should I come later?  I can come later if that’s better, I ain’t got anything else to do.”

“Right now is fine, I’ll be busy drawing, so just come in when you arrive.”

“Gotcha, I’ll, uh, see you in a bit man.”  Before Indrid could say anything, Duck hung up the phone.  As he looked to the future, Indrid was surprised to see almost no futures where Duck ‘made a move’ as it were.  There was one, but it was highly unlikely, and would only be determined moments before it happened.  With a frown, Indrid studied the futures, looking as far ahead as his vision would allow, and he drew out various likely events and pinned them to his wall.  He didn’t know how much time had passed by the time Duck got there, but the door swung open slowly as Duck peered into the Winnebago.

“Ah, Duck, good to see you,” Indrid said, “please, take a set, feel free to get yourself some eggnog from the fridge.”

“Uh, yeah, nah, I’m good man, just uh— I’m good.”  He stood awkwardly near the door and bounced from one foot to the other, looking around the small home.  It had gotten significantly cleaner since Duck had started visiting, but it was a still barely organized.  The awkwardness Duck felt was coming off him in waves.

Indrid set his pencil down and turned to him with, what he hoped, was a reassuring smile. “What’s on your mind, Duck Newton?”

Duck fidgeted for a moment before looking up at Indrid, his eyebrows knitted.  “I, uh, I needed to ask about some stuff, like the next Abomination, ‘cause we’re gettin’ real close to the time frame, and we’re all gettin’ super nervous ‘n’ everything and so we just wanna, ya know, know?”

“Well, uh, that is still a little outside of my vision, but I will be sure to let you know what’s happening as soon as I know what’s happening.”

“Yeah, sure, I mean, of course,” Duck said.  He stood there, bouncing from foot to foot faster than before.

“Was there… something else you needed?”  Indrid stood up, trying to look as non-threatening as he possibly could in his tall, lanky, not-quite-human form.

“Well, yeah, shit— I-I— shit, ‘Drid, this is fuckin’ weird,” Duck laughed, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at the ground, “I just, well I just wanted to say thank you for everything in the last little while here.  It’s been— it’s been real rough without Minerva and without, you know, havin’ all my powers.  I’m just a regular ass dude now, and I have pains I never knew I had everywhere.  Shit, dude, I feel so much older.  But yeah, um, thank you for helpin’ me out and for listenin’ to me all the time.”

Indrid nodded, “Of course, Duck.  I know what you went through, maybe better than others on account of my own abilities, but I can never truly understand.  I try, Duck, and I’m glad I’ve helped, if even a little bit.”

“You’ve done more than a little bit,” Duck said, stepping closer, “you’ve— you’ve listened and you’ve cared— or at least acted like it— and you’re literally always home and willing to let me come over, even at two in the fuckin’ morning.”

Before he could stop himself, Indrid’s face softened as he looked at Duck and said, “I would do anything for you, Duck Newton.”  

As soon as the words left Indrid’s mouth, his eyes opened in slight shock.  He was not meant to say that out loud, not in any of the likely timelines anyways, and that could only mean—

Duck surged forward and pressed his lips to Indrid’s.  It was forceful, but soft at the same time.  Finally, finally, Indrid was experiencing what his visions had shown him, and it was much more overwhelming to feel everything rather than see it from an outsider’s view.  But it was so, so nice, and it just felt right.

Duck pulled back, suddenly all nerves and aware of himself, and held up his hands between them.  Indrid only laughed and shook his head, and then he pulled Duck back in.  This wonderful, perfect, strange enigma of a man was finally within his grasp and Indrid was never letting go.

And he knew he was fucked.

But he didn’t honestly give a shit.

[creative-horror-network]

The Fog Report - The Shadow Space

Happy Halloween, intrepid readers! We’re getting near that bittersweet time when the last night of October falls and all the excellent spooky stuff packs it up in the aftermath. Before the fog lifts, however, there’s one more eerie experience I want to talk about, one that takes a very different angle than the other attractions I’ve talked about this year.

The Shadow Space was brought to my attention while looking for immersive offerings for Halloween that don’t involve menacing scareactors or jumpscares. I’ve admittedly built up a tolerance to a lot of the frights that come with a traditional haunt, but for a number of years beforehand I couldn’t bring myself to go to one. I know people who love Halloween but hate the idea of being stuck in a haunt, where masked strangers intentionally try to get a rise out of guests. It’s legitimately distressing, and I completely understand how that can be.

Thankfully the hunt for alternatives in and around LA is not a difficult one, and my wife and I have made a tradition of attending many annual Halloween shows and immersive theatrical experiences. We are longtime fans of Wicked Lit (literary plays frequently performed in a real-life mausoleum) and Fallen Saints (a dark anthology series), and just this year visited the interactive exhibits at the Heritage Square Museum dealing with true crime stories of old Los Angeles. There’s plenty of escape rooms, spooky galleries and themed pop-up bars to be experienced as well. The plethora of options is comforting, and the more we dig in the more we find, which is always a good thing.

Yet The Shadow Space surprised us with something very different and uniquely engaging. It’s part interactive theatre, part immersive roleplay ala a mystery dinner party, and part puzzle-solving challenge. It’s a haunted house story turned on its ear, because for once you’re doing the haunting.

The main conceit of the show is that you are among the recently deceased, and this will be your first haunting. Luckily for you, a friendly association of spirits is present to help ease you into your new non-corporeal existence and explain the rules. They’ve invited you to a Hollywood house (one built in 1919, no less) to spy on and mildly flummox a pair of living couples having a get-together. It’s only as the hour-long experience progresses that you start to learn of the tangled web these people’s lives lead, and when something genuinely sinister happens, your role changes to solving a mystery and putting clues together in order to put things right.

This fairly simple premise, putting the ghosting in the hands of the guests, would seem difficult to pull off in theory, but The Shadow Space does this with well-established rules, small groups of visitors (no more than ten per show) and absolutely superb improv on the part of the actors. No living person in the house can see you, and the actors do an impressive job completely ignoring the guests, engaging with each other and the environment as if they really are invisible. It’s made clear by the always-hovering (pun intended) spirit guides that touching the living spells catastrophe, for both them and you, and so it becomes organic to move out of the way as they move between rooms. Considering the intimacy of the space, this can be oddly tense at times, with guests stumbling out of the way as they try to eavesdrop yet maintain a fair distance.

Of course, they do react to changes in their environment, which is where the escape-room like elements kick in. Lights can be flicked on and off and certain objects that exist “between worlds” (revealed to be colored under black light flashlights) can be picked up and moved by guests. In the beginning this can be used for comedic effect - one of our group was clearly enjoying being a troll, constantly flicking lights and blowing on the back of the living’s necks, with them commenting on the faulty wiring and wondering where the draft was - but soon becomes a strategy for gathering information. Hiding objects from the living or placing key items in their path while they’re distracted becomes a matter of timing, since the guides state that the living seeing the objects simply appear and disappear would frighten them. As a group, sharing information, dividing and conquering to follow the action or solve puzzles, and deciding when to be discreet and when to cause incidents is the challenge. In the end, success or failure in solving the mystery comes down to how well the group worked together.

I‘m genuinely impressed by how well-craftedThe Shadow Space is. Engaging, tense and exciting without being outright scary, it draws you in through its setting and storytelling, making you feel like a ghost purely by suspension of disbelief. I cannot commend the actors enough, both the living and our guides, for equal parts making sure things went smoothly and rolling with the choices of the guests, all while most of them had to pretend we weren’t there. I’m sure there’s the possibility for hiccups here and there, but the night I went everything ran smoothly, and my group was able to successfully solve the mystery. It’s stellar work all around, and well worth checking out if you get the chance.

I sincerely look forward to future iterations of this experience, if there are more planned. This year’s run is wrapping up, but if it returns in some capacity next year, I think I have another Halloween tradition on my hands. My first crash-course in haunting certainly left me wanting more.

Happy haunting, and I’ll see you in the fog.

The Shadow Space runs select nights until November 3rd, with two shows nightly. More details and tickets can be found here.

[wandlores]

what's something every primary and secondary has taught you

Before I give all the lessons these have taught me, I just want to iterate that these are just from my own personal experiences with people from these types. I am listing a positive thing and a negative thing. There are positive and negative traits to every primary and secondary. Overall, we need them all for society to run well and I appreciate every single one of them. 

If you have no idea what I am meaning when I am talking about primary and secondary houses, you can go read about them at @sortinghatchats​! It is their sorting system and it is amazing. 

Slytherin Primary: Those who are Slytherin Primaries have really taught me the meaning of loyalty. If you are their person, they will literally do anything for you. On the flipside, they have also shown me what “selfishness” for only you or your people can actually do to your people. It can cause them harm if you are not careful. 

Slytherin Secondary: Those who are Slytherin Secondaries have taught me how valuable it is to be adaptable in your environment. It isn’t always fake to change your face and act one way in one environment if it means getting things done or keeping the peace. Also, these individuals have also taught me how sometimes you can lose yourself in your own manipulation. It is a fine line and can be a great strength but also a weakness. Just like any primary or secondary.

Gryffindor Primary (this is what I am): Those who are Gryffindor Primaries have really taught me and have encouraged me to follow my natural inclinations and gut. Sometimes your gut can be right, but it can also be biased. You need to be careful that you aren’t sticking to your guns too much on an issue without seeing different perspectives and opinions could also be right. 

Gryffindor Secondary: Those who are Gryffindor Secondaries have taught me the importance of speaking up right away. Sometimes the only way to get things done is to just power through it, and you can solve conflicts easier. However, it can also cause more conflict than necessary if you don’t have forethought for certain issues. Sometimes it is smart to not just charge into a situation you are passionate about.

Ravenclaw Primary: Those who are Ravenclaw Primaries have really taught me the value of open-mindedness and seeing multiple perspectives, but they have also taught me that sometimes you should not toe at certain lines in certain settings just because there could be another perspective. There is a time and place with certain moral issues to not question things. But that might just be my natural Gryffindor Primary talking. 

Ravenclaw Secondary (this is what I am): Those who are Ravenclaw Secondaries have taught me what it means to be prepared and the benefits of being contemplative and knowing what to expect. Having the knowledge and foresight beforehand helps things play out smoothly. However, they have also taught me that planning too much ahead can sometimes cause you issues when you really need to just go with the flow. Having too much knowledge can sometimes be a burden in the moment when you need to act fast.

Hufflepuff Primary: Those who are Hufflepuff Primaries have taught me the importance of community and group orientation. I am naturally more of a lone wolf that likes to just be around a few select people, but Hufflepuff Primaries have shown me how great teamwork can be and how safe you can feel within a group. But they have also shown me that sometimes following a group blindly just because you trust them can get you into trouble. 

Hufflepuff Secondary: Those who are Hufflepuff Secondaries have taught me that kindness and acts of service really goes a long way. Wanting to help people and build a foundation for something is very important for future connections in the long run. However, they have also taught me that meddling to help others when they don’t need/want help is also bad. You need to give people space and sometimes to count on your built connections and foundations to solve your current problems.

[emblemevents-newyear]

A Look At the Winter Event, the Future For Us, and Another Farewell Until Next Time!

Hi everyone! Mod Morgan here! Well, here we are again. It’s always such a pleasure. Remember when you tried to kill me twice?-...wait, no, get out of here GLaDOS, Fire Emblem isn’t even your game! Another solstice passed, and another event finished. And it, ah, certainly was an eventful week, wasn’t it? I mean, aside from the event itself obviously. There were a lot of things that we weren’t prepared for, a number of them that were out of our control this time, but we had even more participants this time around than during the last Solstice! I hope this event seems like as much of a success to you guys as it does to us!

Before we get into our expressions of eternal gratefulness to you guys, however, I would like to preface this by getting a couple of things out of the way first. First of all, a short apology on my end. Between finals, trying to buckle in and work really hard to put this event together, and tumblr’s awful sense of timing, at least for us, among a few other things, we all got frazzled and a bit exhausted, and I think all that exasperation it seeped into a couple of my posts, more than I would’ve liked it to. If you didn’t notice it or didn’t think that it was that big of a problem, I’m glad it didn’t bother you, but I’m sorry for those that it did, because I know that it didn’t go unnoticed, and letting it impact some of my posts was really on me.  I hope you don’t think any of you guys caused any of that exhaustion though, because it’s just the opposite!...speaking of which...

...Tumblr sure picked the worst possible time, didn’t it? We don’t blame any of you for participating in the log out event, and honestly, had we not prepared this event’s schedule ahead of time, and based it around...you know...the solstice...because it’s the solstice event, there’s a good chance at least some of us if not all four of us would have done the same. I’m just glad we had the insight to poll you guys and that we managed to come up with something to tide everyone over until the next day, when we had to reschedule the sled races to. Thanks for sticking with us despite what happened, really, and to make another proper segue since I’m on that point... Seriously, thanks to all of you, once again. for sticking with us and taking part in this event. As I said, I’m pretty sure we had even more people participating than last time, which means this event and the community it’s building is growing, and that’s a good thing! We want people to feel welcome and comfortable here, above all else, and meet interesting new people...and have fun event-based interactions with those you already know of course. Maybe next summer, Tumblr won’t do something to add on to the stress for us and we’ll be 110% prepared ahead of time without a hectic pace in the last couple of weeks leading up to the event! I’m definitely going to try to adopt Morgan’s optimism as I often do with these events and use that to drive me next time around. Anyway, you know the drill! I’m rambling on way too much, and we still have three other mods that wanna talk to you guys, so it’s time to let each of them have their turns!

Mod Eliwood here; while I’d like to keep this short, there are a few things I want to acknowledge. First, as short notice as it was, I want to place a huge shoutout to mods Lyn and Hector, who together did the lion’s share of coming up with the mechanics and numbers for the Yggdratrail. Secondly- yes, it was short notice. I’m sure many of you noticed that the mechanics seemed too complex, our writing was rushed here and there, and everything went up... late in the day. Part of that last bit was us noticing a lack of activity on the dash and accommodating the afternoon hours instead of the morning one, but poor time management and panic on our part also factored in.

That said, several of you have approached me in person and told me you were enjoying the event, and that made it worth it. I genuinely enjoyed being part of this one, and with activities and ideas that were our own, it felt more satisfying to run than the Summer edition too.

We don’t yet know if we’ll be doing a Summer Solstice next year- we’ll have to discuss schedules with the Scramble Squad first. But if we do, I definitely hope to see a good few of you there!

// yooooo Mod Hector and just gonna make this one brief if my fellow mods have already expressed what I wanted to day. As before, I wanted to thank everyone for the support along the way as we hosted our second event for the community. Coming from a personal view, it still is a lot to manage so I’m always thankful for having my fellow mods to give advice, and of course the participants for contributing as much as they can.

I do want to apologize too bc I know my activity’s staggered after the Yggdratrail and I wanted to do a lot more to involve myself in all the activities going on. It’s certainly something I want to work on for the next time, especially knowing that my current job plays a factor in it all. Again, thank you for bearing with me here and my multimuse too!

Sooooo I’d be repeating myself here but I can’t say thanks enough for helping make this event what it was in the end, and looking forward, I hope to meet new people and see what else others have in store!!!

And here’s Mod Lyn! I got way more caught up in school stuff than I expected, so I want to thank Mod Eliwood for being the one to get the ball rolling and poke everyone about everything this time. I wish I could have been around more for the second half, but real life struck...in any case, I’m glad to see people enjoying and participating in the event, especially new faces. 

....And although I know the Yggdratrail was probably super confusing when I was braindumping it all out, I’m glad that we managed to turn it into what it was (and it was soo much more complex before the current iteration too oops), and glad that the other mods could put up with my jumbled thoughts and rambles until we came up with something. I hope you all enjoyed the writeups -- though I admit there were some points where I was struggling, on the whole it was still fun to come up them!

And despite the hiccup that was our friend the Community Guidelines update, I like to think the rest of the event went fairly smoothly! I won’t say too much, so I’ll wrap up with a similar message -- I hope you all had fun, we couldn’t hold this events without you guys’ support, and see you next time!

So, I guess it’s back to me to wrap things up. First of all, much like everyone else, I want to thank Mod Eliwood especially for helping keep us in gear and really getting us kick-started, and I also want to thank Mod Lyn for coming up with a system for the Yggdratrail that wound up working surprisingly well, though hopefully if we do this again, everything will be a bit-better ironed out and streamlined for everyone. But I want to also thank Mod Hector so much for helping pick up the slack and being there when I needed someone else’s support when everyone else was busy. I really wouldn’t have survived this event without you, for sure. And while I’m sure the message has gotten across well enough by now, seriously, I want to thank all of you for taking part and making this community grow a little more with this event. I will never, ever be able to express my gratitude enough, and hopefully you made some new friendships or strengthened some old ones through our humble little corner of FE community.

So, that leaves the question of what’s next for the Solstice Celebration blog? Well, we’re already looking ahead to the next Summer Solstice, and so long as the schedule of events lines up similarly to how it did around our first event, we’re definitely going to have our next event take place around then. However, the main event will certainly be a lot different. Whether we’ll consolidate the Obstacle Course down into a more compact version of what existed or build a new event, we’re not sure, but we’re gonna start brainstorming ideas once this event is wrapped up and we’ve gotten all your feedback-...and do keep an eye out for that feedback post, that’s coming up next. One thing we’re definitely going to do with the Summer Solstice event, however, is keep ourselves better prepared this time so it all comes out looking a lot cleaner, with less of a rushed panic, and less exhaustion for all of us, not to mention we’ll have a lot more time to work with, what with it being the Summer. 

So, once again, we all love you guys, and we hope you had fun being a part of our event! Take care of yourselves! We’ll still see you around the RP space as always...and sorry if we flood your dash with all the threads we need to catch up on. Until next time, welcome to the new season, and we hope you enjoy yourselves until the Solstice is upon us once more!

[darthrevaan]

If you're still up for Old Kingdom prompts, can I request something featuring the clones and/or Ahsoka? I still can't get the "Fallout: Ancelstierre" thing in particular out of my head, lmao

So this is some Ahsoka, bc I know you love her ;) I went through a couple of iterations of what Ahsoka’s backstory would be, but I wanted to bring in all the new worldbuilding Nix gave us in Goldenhand somehow, so here goes nothing :D

The girl Anakin had brought back was clearly from theNorthern Tribes. Obi-Wan had seen a few of them at the Glacier; theyoccasionally sent traders, most of whom dealt in furs and horses. There wassomething mischievous about her face and her smile, and she darted around thecamp like a little bird, flitting here and there between the tents, catchingthe eyes of all the occupants. Most of them had never seen anyone from theNorthern Tribes before, even though they came to Belisaere on diplomaticmissions every once in a while.

“Why exactly is she here?” Obi-Wan asked, watching her asshe chatted with some of the soldiers. “We can’t afford to send parties back tosafety, even to protect refugees.”

“She’s not a refugee,” Anakin said, “She’s been here for thepast three months. She knows the land. She says she knows what the Dead creature is, where it hides, itsstrategies. She says she’ll help us.”

Obi-Wan gave her another long, considering look. “She’llhelp us? For what price?”

“Her tribe sent her down here following rumours that thisarea had been abandoned. They want a new place to settle, away from the dangersin the north. Ahsoka said she’d help us if I promised to get the Queen to granther tribe this land, as well as the protection of the Kingdom.”

Obi-Wan sighed. “That’s not a small promise, and I don’tknow how much help-”

“Obi-Wan, we know nothing about Lospoth, let alone thisparticular area of it. She’s been here, fighting these creatures, for threemonths. She can help us.”

“Yes, but extending the Queen’s protection to any group isn’ta small matter. You already pushed the boundaries by letting theAncelstierrians across the Wall. The Queen was forgiving of that because it wasin line with her plans; she’s made no mention of allowing the Northern Tribesto settle on depopulated land within the Kingdom. She may not be particularlyhappy with you making promises in her name without consulting her.”

“I know that,” Anakin said, “I considered it before I madethe promise. But we need all the help we can get. I still don’t have a lot ofexperience with the bells or Charter magic, and this Dead creature is powerful.I think we need Ahsoka - and I’llhave to hope I can settle it with the Queen when we return to Belisaere.”

Obi-Wan was quiet for a moment. Anakin had only a very loosegrasp of politics, but a huge amount of compassion. It was an admirablequality, but Obi-Wan wasn’t sure it was going to endear him to Court, or evento the Queen.

Still, he had a point. If this girl Ahsoka had localknowledge, it would be extremely helpful. The scouts the Queen had sent withthem had not been to Lospoth for some time, and though they knew the land andwere skilled rangers, someone with recent knowledge would be much more helpful.

“She may as well stay, for now. The Queen is known for hercompassion, and she is interested in repopulating the lands ravaged by theDead. The Kingdom may not have the best of relationships with the tribes, butperhaps a diplomatic avenue can be pursued.” He shook his head. “It’s somethingyou’ll have to talk about with the Queen when we get back to the city. Fornow…keep the promise.”

Anakin smiled. Obi-Wan had the feeling that even in theshort time they’d known each other, he’d become attached to Ahsoka. He hoped itwould all end smoothly, but he didn’t voice any of his doubts aloud. “Youshould rest,” he said instead, “You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”

The next morning dawned bright and cold, with a low misthanging close to the ground, wreathing the tents in swirling white vapour.Obi-Wan was up with the dawn as usual, but he decided to let Anakin sleep alittle longer. He would need all his strength for the test ahead.

He knelt down next to the banked fire and began to stir theembers, building it up into crackling flames once more. He was just setting upthe water pot on the tripod over the fire when Ahsoka dropped down oppositehim.

Obi-Wan jumped, almost spilling water all over himself. Hehadn’t even heard her footsteps.

“Morning,” she said, grinning at him.

“And to you,” he responded, keeping his tone neutral.

“Anakin said you can see the future,” Ahsoka said with nopreamble. “Is that true?”

“Somewhat,” Obi-Wan said cautiously, “I can’t See anythinguseful on my own - or not very often, anyway. But with all my family together,we can See much.”

Ahsoka nodded. “He said you came from the Glacier, where thewitches live.”

“We’re not witches,” Obi-Wan said, mildly affronted.

“You use magic to see the future,” Ahsoka said, “Sounds likewitchcraft to me.”

“It’s Charter magic,” Obi-Wan said.

Ahsoka tilted her head. “What’s the difference?”

“Your witches and shamans use Free Magic; here in theKingdom, that type of magic is outlawed. The Clayr - my family - use a specialtype of Charter magic that only we can utilise.”

Now Ahsoka looked like she understood. “So you use Kingdom magic. That, I understand.” Shewrinkled her nose. “Or, I don’t understand, but I know our magic is differentto yours.” Her face took on an almost wistful look. “My mother used to say youcould use Kingdom magic without losing your soul. Is that true?”

“I…don’t know what you mean by soul,” Obi-Wan said, “Chartermagic lacks the corrosive, corrupting effects of Free Magic. You aren’tphysically harmed by using it.”

“Shamans would rule all of us, if they could,” Ahsoka said,scowling. “They only want power. More and more power, always. But mother saidin the Kingdom, shamans weren’t like that.”

“Magic-users are known as mages in the Kingdom,” Obi-Wansaid, “And they may crave power just as much as one of your shamans. But justto use Free Magic requires the will to subjugate a Free Magic creature, or thewillingness to perform spells that, with extended use, will cause corrosion andcorruption of the flesh. Free Magic is, by its very nature, inimical to humanlife. In the Kingdom it is seen as inherently evil, and it certainly seems todrive its practitioners to immoral acts and ill ends. Charter magic, on theother hand, is a force that works in tandem with human life; that draws itspower from it. It is not inherently harmful to the user - although it can be,if someone inexperienced attempts a spell that is too powerful for them.”

Ahsoka had followed this explanation with rapt attention. “Anakinsaid you were a master sha- I mean, mage,” she said.

“Anakin has been saying a lot about me,” Obi-Wan said,stirring the water in the pot above the fire. It had just about come to theboil while they’d been talking.

“You are family?” Ahsoka asked.

“Not really,” Obi-Wan said, “At least, not in the way youmean. No, I’m just a companion.”

“His lover?” Ahsoka said.

Obi-Wan felt himself blush, and looked down into the boilingwater. “No. Just a friend.”

“Hmm.” Ahsoka sounded sceptical, but she didn’t press theissue.

“Anakin told me thatyou came here looking for a new home for your tribe,” Obi-Wan said.

Ahsoka shrugged. “My tribe had many bad winters in a row.Then in the summer, large raids by other tribes. Now, a new witch rampagesacross the steppes, wanting to kill and enslave everyone. Our people are tiredof running, suffering, and dying; we heard the Kingdom is safer, and not manypeople live here now.” She made a face. “No, but dead things live here instead!It’s not what I was hoping for. But Anakin says he can kill the dead, and makethis land safe again.” Ahsoka nodded, “Then, we would live here.”

“It would be a big change,” Obi-Wan said, “No more shamansand witches, no more Free Magic. No more raiding. Do you think your peoplecould adapt?”

“We’re prepared,” Ahsoka said.  

Once again, Obi-Wan felt a tingle of doubt. They should behonest with this girl about the chance that the Queen would turn her tribeaway, even with Anakin’s intervention.

“Are you not making breakfast yet?” Ahsoka said, leaningover to peer into the pot. “I’m starving.”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. “It’s coming. Why don’t you go wakeAnakin up? He needs to start getting ready.”

Ahsoka grinned and rolled up onto her feet. “I want to berepaid with the biggest portion of breakfast,” she said, before darting off inthe direction of Anakin’s tent.

After going throughthe trial of waking Anakin, you’ll need it, Obi-Wan thought, grinning tohimself as he began adding porridge to the boiling water.

[cardfightcentric]

Brave post GB:14

Brave post GB14

Sup yall! Since I'm so hyped for GB 14 I figured I would take a second to talk about brave and where it will stand after all the new support, since compared to the other big names in the set ( luard, ZTB, Minerva) brave is naturally gonna get passed over. However, I think this next round of support for my boy Altmile is beginning to get the deck where it needs to be and make brave a decent keyword for royals.

Even though brave is not widely played and has always been overshadowed by blasters, since blasters is significantly easier to play with (usually) better results I don’t think brave has ever been an absolutely terrible deck. With the last few rounds of support brave has been somewhat of a sleeper pick. It’s certainly not the best, but when it works it works well. It just takes some getting used to, and the new set will definitely provide some support that makes the deck run much more smoothly and more effectively. In my opinion and from my experience playing brave through it’s many iterations brave is an exceedingly explosive deck. If I'm going to win with brave it’s usually by second or third stride. The deck is just not designed for long games, which is what sets it aside from something like Gurguit who can continually renew resources. The one card that I think will definitely aide in this is our 2nd brave GR: fides.

Fides will be a huge asset to brave decks, and I mean huge. Usually second stride for brave is transcending Altmile for me. Which is great, but heavily drains resources. He takes a lot of CB and cards to be effectively going for the kill. Fides on the other hand will provide the same kind of pressure, but without so many cards. By your second stride most decks are just starting to get set up, and even something like luard will not be completely set up after their first stride. Most of my opponents usually have between 5-7 cards in their hand. To burn those with Transcending Altmile would take multiple redons and multiple calls to shrink that, reducing the number of plays you have for the next turn. Fides says fuck you and forces your opponent to drop everything. Not being able to guard with just one card makes every attack on that fides turn much more lethal, as they can’t guard the smaller attacks to save for your VG and multiple calls after. While I can see this being a good attempt to kill them at 2nd stride card, I think this will really help brave push opponents without throwing down all their resources so they can kill the next turn. No it’s not gonna be an instant game winner card, brave doesn't have any of those. But it will definitely add pressure to brave’s already scary stride turns. Plus because fides can flip anything, 3rd stride can easily be a fully powered up transcending altmile ready to take your opponent out. Late game fides is even better as he can call anything and thus pit even more pressure on his opponent since you are no longer locked out of calls depending on how many g2s are left in your deck.

The next thing that I think will really be aiding brave here is the new Altmile, High deity Knight Altmile. First of all he exemplifies something that these new brave cards mostly feature:They are no longer restricted to just calling grade 2s from deck. Before even with high numbers running out of 2s meant your turn was done. Now you can better utilize your entre deck and play more useful cards in the other slots, rather than relying on grade 2s for the entire game. Also important, this new altmile uses a soul blast rather then a counterblast. This to me is huge. It means that’s one less per turn that I have to use for my stride skill, because brave really lacks resource renewal. Other new cards are helping to mitigate this soul cost, making it great for this deck to really take advantage of everything it has. And probably the elephant in the room, he calls right from your deck. Any grade. You no longer have to hope you have the right card in your hand to call with heavenly altmile or OG altmile and can now just pull it right from your deck. You can grab whatever card you need for your situation, while keeping it safely tucked in your deck away from the pesky hands of control decks. Overall a fantastic card that will for sure be the new backbone of brave in all my future iterations.

The last thing I want to say about the new brave support is that what’s really starting to improve this deck is just flat out more cards with brave. Having more cards with brave that can be used rather than using a lot of generic royal pally support will really improve the way the deck runs, as well as continue to reward the player for playing with the keyword. Brave is finally getting the cards it needs to make being at brave worth it, which is exactly what the deck needed. Plus I just wanna say felix is gonna be the savior card keeping your front row with resist so you can just keep attacking XD

Overall I don’t think brave is gonna be meta defining or break the game by any means. But i think the deck will improve greatly overall and will be a great rogue deck for tournamrnts. I know for sure it would be one that I take, and I’m excited to see how the deck will play with all this cool new support.

~Captain Despurr

[nationalpark-rp]

Announcement: New Changes!

Hello everyone!  Your lovely mods are back at it again with some wonderful new changes for our group.  These changes will take effect immediately, and across both the National Park and National Park MORE.  Please give us a few minutes of your time as we explain further.

ON THE NATIONAL PARK HUB…

First let’s talk about some changes that are happening on the hub!  If you haven’t noticed, people are posting memes nearly every day.  And that’s because there are no meme days!  That’s right! We’ve officially removed meme days!  Now you can post and reblog memes whenever you want.  While memes do not count towards activity, we nevertheless encourage you to participate whenever you’re able.  Get to know your fellow members and their characters!  Have fun!

Please note that although we are removing meme days, this is still a preliminary trial.  We’re testing the waters to see if having no specified meme days is the best way to go.  We therefore suggest that you keep the amount of memes you reblog on any given day to a select few; you have plenty of time to participate in memes throughout the week. We’re prepared to step in if things get crazy, but we’re positive we won’t have to do that.  Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do!

The next thing we’d like to bring to your attention is our suggestion box!  We’ve had our suggestion box for a while, but let’s be real: who knows what to say on those things?  You might lean one way or another with how you feel towards what’s going on, but when actually faced with writing something?  Nope!  Your mind’s gone completely blank!

Here’s what’s different: we’ve created a survey to alleviate all that tension!  This survey is completely voluntary, so you are by no means obligated to complete it. We ask that you participate in this survey so that we the mods can better understand our members, and to pinpoint what exactly you all are looking for with this group.  The National Park is your group as well as ours.  You deserve a say in our present and future.

You can access our survey by going to this link here. It will also be available during every Activity Check from this point on.

 ON NATIONAL PARK MORE…

The hub isn’t the only thing that is getting refreshed! The MORE blog is, too!  But don’t worry, we are not getting rid of our character request—those are staying.  In fact, we encourage them.  So if you have a character you’re just dying to see, please feel free to request to your heart’s content!  We recommend that you request one (1) character at a time to give us an opportunity to process it.  You can request characters on either the hub or the MORE blog.

And do you remember our character development prompts? I sure do.  In its current iteration, we have only posted two such prompts, but they just didn’t seem to be getting as much attention as we’d hoped. We brought them into fruition so that everyone could indulge in exploring more character development with their muses, but we’ve since learned that the way we went about it was wrong. So we’re trying something different. We’re keeping these character development prompts, but this time… they’re in meme form.

You heard it here first!  I meme, you meme, we all scream for development memes!  With these character development memes, we’re going to bring all the fun of bragging about our characters with the giggling hysterics (or wailing sobs) of memery.  It’s going to be a great time.  We hope that this new format will give you a better experience when exploring your characters.

We’ve saved the most important news for last.  When we first created the MORE blog, we intended for it to be a place where we further the hub’s creations.  We started this by our positivity quotes and with our character requests, later followed up with our character development prompts.  After much deliberation, we’ve decided to remove positivity quotes from the MORE blog. While they were a good idea—as positivity and inspiration is something we all need in our lives—we feel that we can do something so much more with the blog.

Instead, we’ve decided to add something even more special in its place!  Continuing our mission to spread love and hope to our members, we’ve decided to revamp it with something fresher, something better. Something where we can brag about the people we love most.  Something like… a member of the month (MOTM) feature.

Now this is my favorite part.  These features will highlight one member, and we the group will talk about how great they are.  We’ll discuss how they write their characters, and everything that makes them fun and unique.  We’ll be using these features to appreciate all of our members and what they do for our group.  It truly is you guys who make our group so great.

How this will work is simple: you’ll submit the name(s) of the people you feel best deserve to be nominated for the month’s MOTM feature.  Tell us why you think they should be selected, and everything about what makes them wonderful.  We want to hear it all, because that’s what we’ll use in our feature. The member with the most votes will win that month’s feature.

There isn’t any criteria for someone to be nominated as MOTM.  Everyone is eligible right from the get-go.  Should there be no names submitted, we the mods will choose the member who receives that month’s MOTM feature.  And even if you don’t happen to get it, that doesn’t mean you’re any less special or important to us.  Everyone is fantastic in their own way.  We should celebrate our fellow group members rather than be jealous of them.

AND SO…

And that’s it!  Meowth-mod and myself have been working diligently to keep the National Park running smoothly.  We’re going to try new ideas and events to encourage you all, too.  Branch out a little.  Get outside of the stereotypical roleplay group box.  We don’t want our group to be just like all the others.  We want to stand out.  We want to be remembered.  And you, my dear, sweet, beloved members, are a huge part of that.  Every minute we spend with you is such a blessing. We truly are humbled that we can write with you all.

That’s all for now.  We’ll see you next month for another MOTM feature and the brand-new Winter Event.

~ from your loving mods  ❤

[panaceainfotechpvtltd]

10 Pro Tips for Designing Effective Mobile App in 2020

The difference between an excellent mobile app and a bad mobile app is usually the quality of its user experience. Smartphone users expect a lot from an app like the ease of use, loading time, and delight during an interaction. So, if you want your mobile application development to be successful, then you have to consider UX to be not just a minor aspect of design, but an essential component of product strategy. So, below are the given tips to help you in guiding the development process towards a more UX friendly experience for your customers in 2020.       

       1. Keep design responsive

Mobile applications should be compatible with a wide range of devices. It doesn’t matter how popular Android is; it already had its moment of glory, like the iPhone. So, we should develop a 50/50 split unless the company is specifically targeting one set of uses. Therefore, examine and handle all the possible issues which come into the play for different devices and OS.

2. Try iterative design 

Iterative development means nothing but using information from evaluation methods like user testing. So, iterate UI for creating a responsive as well as engaging a mobile app for a specific demographic as this is also a way for learning valuable lessons for future design projects. Nevertheless, another way to get actionable from real users is adding in-app user’s behavior analytics solutions to your mobile app so that this will help you to understand how people are using your mobile app. Leading mobile app development company offers such solutions.

3. Keep it simple

The human mind craves simplicity because it doesn’t want too many elements, which can lead confusion, so by keeping your design simple, you are helping users to focus on the things which you want them to do, like putting on a button with a color which stands out. Nevertheless, carefully choose the elements so that your customer can see the images or text which they want to see because, for apps, they need many visual elements. Therefore ask your mobile app builders to optimize the images.

4. Make text readable 

There is nothing more annoying than reading a poorly rendered text. So, see to it that the size of the text is large enough to be understandable even to people with poor eyesight. Therefore, mobile app builders should choose typefaces because these are easy on the eyes, and if you want to use any fancy fonts, then you should place it on banners as well as on headers but not on the body.

5. Ensure compatibility with iOS and Android

To make sure different types of users will use your application, check that it should run smoothly on the different types of devices because device compatibility is an essential factor that every mobile app builder needs to consider. Thus you need to develop a mobile app that users can easily see or operate whether they use it on tablets, smartphones, or even on Windows or Mac devices. However, examine and provide a solution to all possible issues which might crop up when the application runs on various devices.

6. Keeping an eye on trends

Good design always evolves because a collective preference or trends of your users is ever-changing. So, expect that there are new ways for creating different looks and designs of your mobile app based on their taste as well as on the introduction of new technologies. However, keeping up with the fresh and innovative trends can majorly help mobile app builder for implementing new ideas to help for letting you reach users as well as the market.

7. Follow marketplace guidelines

Mobile apps should follow the set of instructions that are imposed by the Apple App Store and Google Play store, so while you can freely experiment with the navigation and other user’s interaction, you need to consider the standards by these market places. Nevertheless, these guidelines will also help to ensure that developers will implement UI design to focus on core features over minor ones because failure to comply with this specification may mean disapproval of getting your mobile apps into the stores.

8. Consistently update for security issues

Security and compliance can be a massive barrier for streamlining development; therefore, security issues can be avoided by the usage of consultation with the back end team because often most of the people aware of how to prevent data breaches and security issues need consistent monitoring.

9. Understand the market needs

While developing your mobile application, understanding your customers is of utmost importance, so you should keep in mind the need and wants of your set target audience because users want a personalized touch, which can help to reflect how mobile app builders value their particular requirement and interest as a demographic. Nevertheless, the best way to know what your users expect in your mobile app is to conduct a complete research before and during its development. A mobile app development company helps in that.

10. Test It with Your customers

Most of the designers, as well as mobile app development company, have numerous testing methods which they use for getting user input, perhaps the most significant and an industry-standard because this method enables you to tweak the mobile application’s design easily. Therefore, it can also help you detect glitches even during the early stages of mobile app development, so this can help to time as well as money.

Summing up, a great design is a perfect combination of beauty and functionality, which you should be aiming at while building a mobile app. Nevertheless, creating an excellent mobile app right on the first attempt is almost impossible; instead, treat your mobile app as a continually evolving project. Therefore, use the data from testing sessions and user feedback for continuously improving the experience.

Panacea Infotech is a leading mobile app development company with immense industry knowledge. We follow benchmarked processes for developing cutting-edge mobile app solutions.

 Contact us today.

Source Link - https://panaceatek.blogspot.com/2020/01/tips-for-designing-effective-mobile-app-in-2020.html

[phantoms-lair]

Wormholes AU - Alternate Selves Part 1

“The integrity of the wormhole has been compromised” Coran declared. “It’s breaking down!”

“What does that mean?!” Lance screamed.

“It means we have no control over where we’re headed!”

The castle rocked and the Lions began to slide around in the hangar.

“Shut the hangar door,” Shiro ordered. “We can’t afford to be separated.” The order came just in time, as the black Lion crashed against the closing door, the other lions piling up on him.

“It everyone alright?” Allura called.

“Squished, but fine,” Shiro reported back. “How’s it looking on your end?”

“Let’s check the Rift Exit Positioning Monitor to see where this wormhole is taking us,” Coran desperately began typing away at his console.

“Coran look, there seems to be something on the other end. We’re heading right towards it,” An inky black mass, unlike anything Allura had ever seen was blocking the end of the tunnel

“Scanners show there’s no exit. It’s just nothingness. Find an exit before we run smack into the void!”

“I can’t, I’ve lost control of the Castle.”

“Brace yourselves, we’re about to hit!”

The Alteans, Mice, and Pilot’s braced themselves as they collided with the mass. The strangest feeling any of them ever felt passed over them, then-

“Let’s check the Rift Exit Positioning Monitor to see where this wormhole is taking us.”

“You just did that,” Pidge yelled over the intercom.

“Coran we’re okay you…?”

“What’s the matter Princess?”

“You’re younger,”

“Boobs!” Lance suddenly exclaimed.

“Lance this is seriously not the time,” Shiro growled,.

“It is when they’re on my chest!”

The rest of the male, er formerly male Paladins looked down. “ Okay, this is weird,” Shiro allowed, suddenly aware of the change in pitch in his voice. “Any idea what’s causing this, Princess?”

“No, but the mice have changed too!” Allura looked at now squirrel-like beings she was telepathically bonded with.

“What are you talking about, they’re always been like that. And shouldn’t we be more worried about the void we’re about to crash into?”

Again the strange sensation overcame them. “Okay, good news, not a girl anymore. Bad news, four arms.”

“And Coran’s even younger!”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, but let’s check the Rift Exiting Position monitors and see where this wormholes taking us.”

“I don’t see how that’s bad news. I mean, the armor’s made for four arms now and can you imagine the stuff I can build with this?” Hunk sounded excited as he began adjusting the Yellow Lion’s controls. “This is great!”

“This is not great, well the four arms thing kinda is, but according to these reading we’re stuck in a time loop.” Pidge rapidly began doing scans. “Allura’s unaffected, we’re not affected mentally, but we’re physically transforming. Corans not transforming, but he is de-aging and can’t remember the rifts. The mice are transforming, and they’re mice so who know what they remember.”

“I do, they remember something wrong, but have a hard time placing what’s changed.”

“Okay why those divisions. What controls who’s affected and how?”

“I will never surrender to the void!” Coran declared as inky darkness swallowed them again.

“I’ve got it!” Pidge declared, the small mass of tentacles that made up her hair writhing in excitement. “The mental anchor is bonds. We’re bonded to the Lions and Allura’s bonded to the Castle. That’s what's protecting our minds. Alteans must be resistant to the transformations, and I bet it’s linked to whatever energy it is Allura uses. Coran doesn’t have the energy, or at least not a lot of it, which is why he can’t create wormholes or do the Balmeran Rejuvenation ceremony. So he’s merely resistant, rather than immune like Allura.”

“That’s great Pidge, but that doesn’t tell us how to stop it,” Keith pointed out.

“Stop, that’s it! We’ll stop the castle, Coran, power everything down.”

“You can’t tell me what to do!”

“CORAN!”

“Fine,” there was a whirr and the castle powered down. Sadly it didn’t slow down at all, and the darkness was upon them again.

“Well that didn’t work,” Pidge muttered, frantically scrambling.

“At least we seem to be mostly normal,” Shiro sighed.

“I don’t know, can anyone else feel the castle, like how we feel our Lions?” Keith asked.

“Now that you mention it, I can.” Lance said, “So what does it mean?”

Pidge’s eyes bugged. She ripped off her helmet and felt her ears. “Everyone, focus on the Castle itself, try to, I don’t know force energy into it?”

“Pidge what are you-” another trip through the darkness interrupted them. “CASTLE! ENERGY! NOW!” Pidge yelled, focusing as strong as she could.

“You heard her.” Shiro wasn’t sure exactly what he was do, so he tried focusing on the castle like he did Black. To his surprise he felt a connection and tried to focus on sending energy hoping it worked.

“I’ve gained some control over the castle,” Allura announced. “I can’t reroute us, but at least we’re not moving forward, and that’s brought us some time. Pidge, what did you do?”

“We got lucky,” Pidge explained, still focusing on the Castle. “The last loop turned us into exactly what we needed to be, Alteans. That’s why we didn’t change this loop, we’re as stable as Allura now. And since we are helping stabilize the ship, at least some of us can utilize Altean energy.”

“Alteans? You’re all Alteans?” Allura’s voice was weak.

“This is not time to rest though, we’ve slowed it down, but we’re not free yet.” Shiro reminded them. “Princess, any ideas on how we can free the Castle?”

“No,” Aluura forced herself away from thinking about the fact that there were five other Alteans present besides her and the now toddler-like Coran. “The Castle is able to home in on the Lions, but since they’re here, that won’t do anything.”

“Then we need to move the Lions,” Shiro surmised. He was beginning to feel tired. “With the energy we’re giving it, how long before the Castle continues towards the void if we leave?”

“A few dobash at least.” Allura answered. “But not much longer that that.”

“Okay, here’s the plan. We open the doors and immediately form Voltron so we don’t get separated. We go through the wormhole’s wall to wherever it takes us, and Allura follows with the Castle.”

“If you go through that wall, there’s no telling where you’ll end up.” Allura pointed out. “You could be anywhere in the galaxy.”

“Anywhere but here, which is all we need,” Shiro pointed out.

“Guys, I hate to be a downer, but are we going to turn back to normal?” Hunk asked.

“It doesn’t matter. If we stay, we’re stuck as Alteans anyway,” Keith pointed out.

“And I don’t know how much time we have before Coran disappears entirely.”

“Right,” Shiro stopped focusing his energy. “Open the hangar doors and let’s form Voltron!”

The action was second nature to all of the Paladin’s by now, which was good, because even as the Lions came together it felt like the energies of the wormhole was ripping them apart. “Hunk, Lance, put everything you’ve got into sending us towards the wall and not into the void. Pidge, keep an open signal to the castle.”

“Everything’s getting scrambled,” Pidge yelled as they hit the wall. “I’m not sure how clear the signal’s going to be.”

Allura stood staring at the map, watching the little blip that was Voltron vanish while the ticks ran out on how long she could resist the void. “Come on Paladins, please…..”

A signal lit and she slammed the button as hard as she could. The exit wasn’t clean by any means, but at least they were out. “Coran, Coran are you okay?”

“Never better, Princess.” Coran dusted himself off, standing from where his toddler self had fell. “Why do you ask?”

“We were stuck in a timeloop, but the Paladin’s got us out of it, they-” A look of hope blossomed on her face, only to be quickly crushed. “I’m a terrible person Coran.”

“Well I know that’s not true. What’s wrong?”

“The effects of the Wormhole loop were causing the Paladin’s to change forms. In the last iteration, before we escaped, they had become Alteans. And for a moment I wished that they would still be as such.” She looked disgusted with herself. “We’ve already taken them from their homes and families, to fight on the front lines of a war they had been safe from. Now I wish to take away their own forms, their identity as a species?”

“You’re not a terrible person,” Coran assured, his voice more serious than it usually was. “Being the last of Altea is a difficult thing, I know. It’s normal for you to wish to see others, by any means.” He smiled. “Now come on, let’s see how they’re doing.”

“Right,” She gave him a small smile back. “Paladins, how are you?”

“Tired, but in one piece,” Shiro grinned. “I’m ready for some food and a nap.”

“Nap sounds good,” Keith agreed. “Maybe a shower. I feel kinda of itchy.”

“TMI,” Lance groaned.

“How can you guys want to sleep? Do you think the Lions were able to record the data from what happened?” Pidge sounded like she was bouncing in her seat.

Shiro smiled fondly at her enthusiasm. “I’m not sure,” He really was feeling the energy drain from helping power the ship. “What about you Hunk?”

“GRoooOOOolf”

The sleepy feeling was pushed back as all of the other Paladin’s sat up. “Hunk you okay buddy?” Lance asked nervously. “Grolffffffffffff” can the sound again, particularly forlorn sounding.

“Hunk might still be under a wormhole effect,” Pidge theorized.

“Let dock at the Castle, Hunk are you good to fly?”

The answering noise wasn’t any more understandable, but the fact that the Yellow Lion turned and flew towards the castle was heartening.

The five Lions landed in the main hangar and as soon as the door was closed, Shiro was out of his Lion. In the future he would look back and realize he’d gotten out too smoothly, too swiftly, but for now all he could think about was getting to Hunk. He was in the Yellow Lion before it’s Paladin got out of it, and was shocked to see what was sitting in the pilot seat. “Hunk is that you?”

The grizzly bear wearing the armor and helmet of the Yellow Paladin made another mournful growl at him.

“It’s okay Hunk, we’ll fix this. Pidge will figure it out, you know how smart she is.” Shiro tried to be reassure.

Hunk smiled back, or at least as close as he could to it. The large bear slid carefully out of his seat. Their attention was drawn by hearing Lance shriek and the sound of several thuds, followed by a weak “I’m Okay,”

Hunk wuffled worriedly as he and Shiro exited Yellow.

“Sorry guys, I think my legs fell asleep.” Lance was laying on his back just outside Blue’s mouth. “I tried to get up and just tumbled out.”

“I think you need legs for that,” Keith said in a shocked voice.

“What do you mean I need legs, what kind of lame insult….” Lance trailed off at he looked at his legs, or rather where he legs had been. Instead the white and blue armor now covered a broad tail, ending in a shape that could only be a fin. “Where are my legs? And-and why is Hunk a bear?”

“A bear?” Pidge joined them. “That’s odd. All the things we were turning into were sapient beings, would going through the wall have changed much?”

Lance blinked. “Okay, I’m a fish and Hunk’s a bear. So why is Pidge in a dress the weirdest thing in this room.”

Pidge blinked. “What are you talking about, I haven’t worn a dress for years, not since I started pretending to be a guy. Oh please tell me that wormhole didn’t.” Pidge looked down to discover the Green and white armor was indeed now more of an armored dress, with pink accents. “I shouldn’t even be surprised should I?”

“At least it’s just a change of clothes, That’s easy enough to fix. At least you’re still human. How about you Keith?”

“I think so, at least I have the right limbs in the right places.” He took off his helmet and the other four recoiled. “Oh no, how bad is it?”

“Paladins, are you okay? We heard the noises coming from-GALRA!” Allura and Corna both entered the hanger before skidding to a stop.

“Where?” Keith turned, activating his bayard, only to find no one behind him. His ears twitched to the side, trying to locate an incoming attack. Wait.

“It’s not me,” desperation colored his voice. “I’m not a Galra. Tell me I’m not a Galra!”

“Keith,” Allura cupped her hands in front of her mouth.

“If it makes you feel better, Pidge in a dress is still weirder.” Lance offered, the futilely tried to wiggle away before being zapped by the Green Paladin.

“Of course you’re not Keith. The form you wear now isn’t truly you.” Allura both reassured and confirmed his fears. “It is an effect of the wormhole and nothing more. We’ll find a way to get you, Hunk, and Lance back to your true selves.”

“Let’s get to the pool. We can figure things out more there.”

“Wouldn’t a lab be more useful?” asked Pidge.

“Normally yes, but Lance is half fish and I don’t know how long it’s safe for him to be out of water.” Shiro effortlessly picked Lance up in a fireman’s carry.

“Only one problem with that, the pool is on the ceiling and I may be a fish, but I’m not a flying fish. I think.” Lance pointed out.

“Oh, it’s just where we store the water, “ Coran explained. “Don’t worry, we can make it any shape you want. We can even do loopty loops!”

“Regular pool will be fine, at least for now.” 

“Are you sure you’re okay, Shiro? You look really pale.” Keith pointed out.

“I’m fine. Charging the castle drained me, and I’ve a a few shocks in the last couple of minutes, I’ll be fine.” He didn’t have time to not be fine. They didn’t know how long till Zarkon might track them down and they needed to be in fighting shape when he did. There was a very real chance they wouldn't have time to learn new bodies. He was only grateful he and Pidge wouldn’t have to.

It didn’t take him long to realize how wrong he was.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Continued Here

[bristolstreetstudios-blog]

Development Update 8/14/2019

Hi!

It took a tad longer than expected for us to circle back around to our first official development update. We’ve had a long, fun, and chaotic summer, and with the final leg of 2019 fast approaching we finally feel ready to start sharing our work with the world.

So, introduction time. We are Bristol Street Studios, a small but diverse game development team working on our very first full-scale release. We are creating an atmospheric puzzle-adventure game about a little bird exploring a big and mysterious world of floating islands, and we are calling it Flightless. This blog is the place to be for updates and inside looks into our journey turning Flightless into a reality.

Official development began in April of this year, but our history with Flightless goes back much further. The project began as an entry to the 49th Ludum Dare game jam in 2017, and a subsequent release on Steam several months later. This January, the idea of bringing the project back from the grave and into active development started to gain some legitimacy. By the time spring had sprung, we were ready to call ourselves a game studio again. Since then, we’ve been quietly hard at work picking up where we left off. The original team members from 2017 are still around, and have been joined by some fresh faces this time around. We’re so excited to start introducing ourselves to the gaming world.

For our first development update, we’d like to highlight some of the best work that our team members have done in the past month. Next week’s post will focus on discussing our goals and visions for Flightless, but for now please enjoy a look into our busy lives as burgeoning game makers.

Oh, also, very soon we will have a live web build of the game available to play on our website, https://www.bristol.st/, so make a bookmark and stay tuned on our Twitter (bristol_street) and Instagram (bristolstreetstudios).  

Optimization The user experience is just about everything in the world of commercial software, especially video games. If it can be frustrating just picking up a controller and hopping into a game, you’ve got a real problem on your hands. Decades of maturation in the video game industry means that these days, most developers understand how to make intuitive interfaces and easy-to-learn controls. However, there’s one problem that just doesn’t ever seem to completely go away: optimization. What fun is a game that runs like a stop motion movie? 

Our lead programmer, Balaji, has been making sure that the beta build of Flightless runs as smoothly as possible. He’s been working in conjunction with another one of our team members, Ushana, who created a script to generate invisible walls in levels that prevent the player from falling off of an edge. Originally, these invisible walls were being calculated and placed in levels all at once, before the level was loaded. This static implementation did not account for the dynamic aspects of many Flightless levels, so we had to identify a better option. Balaji tried generating the invisible walls when the level is loaded (runtime), but this was slow and led to noticeable lag at the start of a level. Here’s what that looked like:

Being as clever as he is, he turned to a progressive algorithm that recalculates invisible walls in the vicinity of the player as they traverse a level. This technique of delaying computation until explicitly required is called lazy evaluation, and is a powerful tool in the world of game development where every frame matters. CPU consumption by the wall generation algorithm has decreased by over 90% since the first iteration of the script. Here it is at work:

Art Now we turn to our resident artist (and, as seen above, part time programmer), Ushana. This month, we are gearing up for our first beta release and the establishment of a Flightless Steam page. This requires a lot of art assets, and so in recent weeks Ushana has been creating banners, icons, and everything else that will represent our game online.

Modeling One of the hallmarks of a work-in-progress game are placeholder models, plain textures, and an overall feeling of incompleteness in the visuals. Sooner or later all developers have to start the process of beautifying their game, and with our team’s heavy focus on aesthetics and atmosphere this becomes all the more important.

One of our programmers, Spev, has been learning how to use Blender, and getting pretty good at it too. He has transformed bright pink cubes and solid color wireframes into detailed models based on Ushana’s concept art. This project has been a learning experience for everyone on the team, and so challenges like learning an entirely new form of art have become the rule, rather than the exception. Here are some highlights of his work so far (do you see a common theme?):

Spev has already become a fantastic in-house 3D artist, and so expect to see much more work of his in the near future.

Levels Next week’s update will be focused on gameplay and game design, but I wouldn’t want to leave our first post without some looks at the game itself. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!

[anghraine]

“part of the past, but now you’re the future” - fic

AKA the fic I planned to write for Day 2 of Rebelcaptain Appreciation Week (“Comfort”), but lol what are plans. (Also the one I was whining about last night. And last week.)

fandom: Star Wars

verse: the one where the early script idea for Jyn and Cassian to narrowly escape the wreckage TOTALLY HAPPENED*cough* (tagged as #script au because I’m creative like that; follows directly from threshold of a dream, though is probably comprehensible without it)

characters: Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, K-2SO; Jyn/Cassian

length: 4400

stuff that happens: grief, uncertain love, spinal injuries, involuntary drug use

It all made sense in his head. Yet, for one of the only times in his life, thoughts didn’t translate smoothly into words, the bonds between head and heart and speech worn near to snapping. 

Just his head alone … his mind didn’t work quite right, he could tell. Everything jolted along uneven paths, simple sentences meandering off. Even without the sharp, hot anguish that swallowed up nearly all else, he couldn’t—he kept slipping in and out of the blue glow, exhaustion more threatening than a dozen cracked bones.

Jyn, he reminded himself. She jostled him again, pain slicing through him, but his eyes flew open. Jyn was here, and he had to get her home. He’d promised.

Cassian didn’t know if he would ever go back into the field.

Not because of his very real distaste for it, and not because of self-pity. It was just the doctors and droids, with their anxious-cheerful voices, assuring him that he would very probably walk again.

“Almost certainly,” stressed Dr Tanth.

Cassian was not often at a loss for words.

“Oh,” he said. “Good.”

Tanth kept talking, and the droids, but he tuned them out. For once, it didn’t seem important to catch every detail. He’d walk, or he wouldn’t. The chances appeared to be in his favour, though he couldn’t know more precisely without Kay to—

Without—

He’d never anticipated this. It was foolish, of course; a single droid, however powerful, could always be destroyed. Easily, even. Cassian knew that. But he didn’t think he would live long enough to see it. Anything that could take out Kay would have long since taken out him. Kay himself gloated … used to gloat that he would still be in peak condition after Cassian had gone through five or six iterations.

(Cassian had briefly considered explaining how organic reproduction worked, then decided he would rather do literally anything else.)

It seemed almost obscene that his vulnerable human body had outlasted Kay’s circuits. He’d been shot and smashed his spine and cracked his bones until he could no longer hold himself upright, but with Kay reduced to a smear of metal, somehow Cassian hung on. Through that excruciating climb—and then, there was Jyn. He didn’t know that she hadn’t sustained him through will alone.

“That’s Alderaanian,” she’d said when he swore under his breath. Cassian squinted through his unsteady vision as he swerved their shuttle around laserfire. His records said he was a competent pilot in his own right, but he felt half of one in the instant. “Is that where you’re from?”

“No,” he panted, forcing his attention away from burning pain in his side and back and legs, and onto the warmth and strength of her grip on his shoulder. “Fieste.”

Her hand tightened and his focus narrowed with it, as if her fortitude somehow bled into him, arced along her fingertips. He’d done this before, flying alone and injured, with smaller stakes than Jyn’s life. Dodge, calculate, time the jump.

He knew that they would die if he couldn’t do it this time. Joyless as his life was, Cassian dreaded death; but he dreaded it for Jyn still more. Most of all like this. Dying on Scarif, however horrific, would have made a certain terrible sense. Their lives for the mission. But this? No. Jyn couldn’t get killed by the Empire’s cannon fodder.

She wouldn’t.

Jyn had stayed quiet, as usual, while Cassian plotted the coordinates. But when he counted down under his breath, she unhesitatingly yanked down the hyperdrive clutch, and they slid smoothly into lightspeed.

For a long few seconds, they just watched the whirling lights of hyperspace. But his head spun, and agony splintered through almost every part of his body. Behind the pilot’s seat, Jyn was fumbling with something he couldn’t see.

Even his breath felt thin and difficult, something that might betray him at any moment. He’d only taken this kind of damage a few times, and never without Kay.

She’d said she couldn’t fly. He thought so, anyway. Cassian would collapse soon enough, but it couldn’t be now. He had to land the shuttle on Yavin, had to keep concentrating.

Teeth clenched, he said, “Can … you talk?”

“Of course I can,” replied Jyn, her voice clear and steady even as she wrangled with whatever she’d found. He hadn’t expected so immediate or easy an assent, even now. Sure enough, she stayed silent at first, a heavy pause that stretched on like the starlight around them. Then, voice shriller than he’d ever heard it, she said, “Fieste? I’ve never heard of it.”

“You wouldn’t.” Cassian had to close his eyes; he thought he might throw up, otherwise. “Not important. Outer Rim. And you don’t … Basic. Fest.”

It all made sense in his head. Yet, for one of the only times in his life, thoughts didn’t translate smoothly into words, the bonds between head and heart and speech worn near to snapping. 

Just his head alone … his mind didn’t work quite right, he could tell. Everything jolted along uneven paths, simple sentences meandering off. Even without the sharp, hot anguish that swallowed up nearly all else, he couldn’t—he kept slipping in and out of the blue glow, exhaustion more threatening than a dozen cracked bones.

Jyn, he reminded himself. She jostled him again, pain slicing through him, but his eyes flew open. Jyn was here, and he had to get her home. He’d promised. Talk to me.

And Jyn, always so taciturn and brusque, had talked. She carried on that one-sided conversation until her voice went hoarse, cracked. At that, she dredged up water, gulped it all down, then talked on.

Cassian couldn’t follow most of it, but that didn’t matter. He latched onto her voice, and kept flying.

Now, some unknown number of days later, she was gone.

Not permanently, as far as he knew, and he didn’t anticipate that. He could think of above half a dozen things she might be doing: showering, sleeping, praying, fighting, a wide range of possible meetings. Also, every time before now—and Cassian gathered that he’d been in and out of surgery at least a week—he had woken to Jyn hovering nearby like some bad-tempered falcon, and she wasn’t the sort to run. Others would probably doubt that, but he didn’t really care. Cassian trusted his judgment and he trusted Jyn.

Perhaps unwisely in this case. But Jyn did not turn her back on anyone who had not first turned theirs on her. And it was Cassian’s nature to expect nothing and hope for everything; he had not followed it this far to turn back now.

“—to test the fusion of the implants with nervous tissue,” Tanth was droning on.

Cassian focused on him. “Cybernetic implants?”

Startled, Tanth said, “Yes, of course.”

Before he could reply, they both heard a shrill robotic voice from outside the room.

“You can stay here until Dr Tanth finishes the consultation.”

“I can also tear your circuits out,” said Jyn calmly.

Cassian was repressing a smile before she even walked in. When she did, he noticed two things right away: she looked livid, and she was wearing one of his jackets.

“There you are,” he said without thinking, then almost winced.

“Here I am,” agreed Jyn. Her voice betrayed nothing, but her scowl faded into what seemed very much like self-satisfaction as she strolled over and flung herself into the nearest chair. She studied him, with a clinical air that meant it signified little, but—

“You look better.” She glanced over at Tanth. “He’s had another surgery? How did it go?”

The doctor shifted, pretending to examine his datapad. The light it cast didn’t so much as flicker; there couldn’t actually be anything new. “Ah … I can’t—the patient—”

Cassian, not bothering to wait him out, waved this aside. “You can tell her anything.”

Though Jyn remained withdrawn, she gave one of her slight, ambiguous smiles.

“Well,” said Tanth, “as I was saying, captain, we’ll want to test the integration of the cybernetic implants into the organic material.”

Jyn narrowed her eyes. “The organic material of his spine?”

“Yes,” he said shortly, while Cassian fought off a wave of exhaustion. He felt like he’d slept more in the last … whatever, than in the five years before. It was unnatural, and felt it, his dreams strange, and his mind disoriented when he woke up or went to sleep. They must be drugging him—and if so, they must have a reason, since the Rebellion never wasted resources. In all probability, he couldn’t help it, but he felt like he should be able to power through. Cassian frowned, trying to concentrate on the doctor.

Something, something, antibodies. Tanth’s mouth kept moving, but it didn’t seem quite right. About the edges, he blurred into the background.

Cassian turned his gaze on Jyn, instead. She was nearer, and more real. Not fuzzy at all, just sitting there in his leather jacket, frowning.

“—what do you mean by ‘almost certainly?’” she was saying. Her fingers lay over his wrist, though he wasn’t sure she’d noticed herself placing them there. He hadn’t.

“Exactly what I said, Miss Erso,” replied Tanth. Jyn must have given her name at some point. “It depends on the success of the cybernetics, and the success rate is very high.”

“How high?”

The pause lingered, like so many of the pauses she left behind her.

“Pardon?”

Jyn’s hand curled around his wrist, her grip tight enough to hurt. Cassian said nothing, since he didn’t mind. It couldn’t begin to compare to everything else, and regardless, the brush of her skin more than made up for it.

In short, clipped syllables, she snapped, “Doctor, I want numbers.”

Kay would have them. Kay would already be haranguing Tanth and Jyn alike—and Cassian, too, but with the undertone of devotion he showed no one else.

He hadn’t programmed Kay to love him. You couldn’t, really. Even before the reprogramming, Kay loathed the Imperial captain who owned him. But not Cassian.

“Are you my master now?” he’d said doubtfully. “You do not appear to be a fully advanced version of your subclass.”

“No,” Cassian told him. “I just wanted to help. You’re free.”

“Free,” K-2SO repeated, as if he didn’t quite understand.

Cassian could believe it. In all probability, Imperial droids never had cause to understand freedom. So he said,

“It means you can do and say whatever you want.”

K-2SO peered around, eyes flickering. It took him a good minute.

“I find this room utterly unappealing.”

Cassian burst out laughing. He was still very young, and it didn’t trouble him that he had creatively interpreted his orders. With the bright certainty that always guided him, however opaque his path, he knew it had been the best thing to do. And he’d been less cautious in those days, less constrained.

Back then, only his skill at programming made him useful, since he’d grown too old to play at tragic orphan, too big to slip into tiny spaces, and too youthful for recruitment or combat. Instead, he got assigned to the laborious process of learning, writing, and adapting the codes for assorted devices. In this case, that meant 1) wiping the memory of a potentially valuable security droid, 2) identifying and stripping out the bonds of his Imperial programming, and 3) replacing them with Alliance ones for security. Cassian only managed the second of these things.

One of his rare but recurrent episodes of insubordination, he supposed. But he hadn’t thought of it that way. He only thought it impossible to do otherwise. Cassian had not joined the Rebellion to turn Imperial slaves into Alliance slaves; he was here for liberation.

“Let’s see if you’re working properly,” he said.

K-2SO’s eyes flashed, head tilted in what would be thought, were he human. Running scans? Basically the same thing.

“You have not altered any essential processes.”

“No,” said Cassian, appalled. “You wouldn’t be you.”

Before the droid could try to process that, Major Derlin showed up to check his progress. To Cassian’s alarm, he seemed angry as much as surprised.

“What were you thinking?” he demanded, while K-2SO amused himself with making clinking noises and slouching.

“I didn’t think the Rebellion kept slaves,” Cassian said sharply. “Sir.”

Derlin stared at him. Some part of his outrage seemed to have subsided, though not all. He took a step forward—probably to examine the droid more closely. He wasn’t a violent man.

K-2SO, however, did not know that. Without hesitation, he seized Cassian’s arm and shoved him behind his own towering frame, hard enough that Cassian staggered and fell, gracelessly.

“You are a small and decaying specimen of your kind,” he informed Derlin. “Your odds of overpowering me are less than one percent.” He turned his head to peer down at Cassian. “This one is mine.”

“Uh,” said Cassian. “You can’t own people. That’s the point.”

K-2SO’s eyes flickered. “You misunderstand. I am a security droid. Now, I shall secure you.” He was already glowering at Derlin again. “Forever.”

Cassian, speechless, gawked at the droid’s back. He would be covered with bruises in the morning, but that didn’t seem important. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had sheltered him, or anything like it.

Dimly, he realized: everything had changed.

“Thanks?”

Of course, in the middle of a Rebel base, even a droid of Kay’s stature and strength could be easily overpowered. If they wanted Kay bolted and coded into obedience, it would have happened. Instead, Draven interceded with the bemused Derlin. He kept Cassian on a leash, but a long one. While nobody could say Draven coddled anyone, Cassian later realized that he’d seen potential in him, quick and clever and convincing at fourteen. No point in burning through the ideals of a protégé who would do anything for his convictions, and therefore the Rebellion, as long as he saw them bound together.

And even among droids, Draven valued loyalty above obedience. He always said that free droids were far more effective, when reliable. He might be no Jedi, but no doubt Draven had foreseen—in his way—a time when a loyal, independent droid watching Cassian’s back would be more than worth the loss of a bolted one.

So Kay retained his new programming, and Cassian gained a protector. He was almost giddy; it seemed like the kind of story his sister might have read to him. A boy and his droid.

Not mine. He’s a free droid. Anyway, he didn’t feel like a boy.

A Rebel and his friend, maybe. That was better, better than anything. He hadn’t had anyone to care about for eight years, since his brother and sisters got shot.

But then there was Kay. For twelve years, Kay’s hulking body clumped at Cassian’s side or behind his back; for twelve years, he complained when Cassian replaced some defunct part or upgraded to a new one, though he gloated insufferably after; for twelve years, he delivered odds and mowed through stormtroopers and aggressively slouched around bases and ships alike. Twelve, twelve: it cycled through his head like Chirrut’s mantras. Twice the length of time Cassian had been alive when the clonetroopers came.

In his head, Cassian, nos enti—¡corre, corre! muddled in his head with Goodbye, clonetroopers joining with unseen stormtroopers, memories of peering up through rubble mingled with his horror as he gazed down at Jyn. He’d seen her swallow after he screamed, either in grief of her own or sympathy, and then there’d been … the plans, the Rebellion, they overrode everything. 

Even Kay, for the moment. And Jyn was—he had to find Jyn. That man in white was somewhere up there, and the remaining deathtroopers. Maybe reinforcements. He had to get to her, for the plans and for—just, Jyn. Her name shrieked through his head, as it so often did: Jyn, Jyn, Jyn, Jyn!

Cassian couldn’t do much at that point. But he could climb and he could shoot. And he could block the way to her if needed, take another blaster bolt. Maybe several, like Kay.

“Captain?”

It took a strong exertion of effort to drag himself back into the infirmary. He squinted, trying to get the edges of the room to stop swimming.

“If you’re willing, then I’ll just have you sign here.” Tanth handed him a datapad.

Cassian blinked down at it. He had no idea what the man was talking about.

As he tried to make it out, something dug into his left hand. Jyn’s nails.

“Look at me, Cassian,” she ordered, in a tone that suggested she’d already said it a few times.

He turned to her, not really comprehending, but responding to her tone more than the words, and contented enough with the slide of her hand on his. Or, not contented, but … soothed? Perhaps.

Jyn stared into his eyes. Not like in the elevator, regrettably. She looked more irritated than anything.

“I thought so.” She shifted to look at Tanth, jaw tight and brows furrowed. Not angry, but definitely displeased. “Maybe you could time these conversations for when he’s not high as the stars?”

That seemed … oddly poetic. For Jyn.

“Thanks,” she said dryly. If the doctor replied—though Cassian wasn’t sure why she’d be thanking him—he didn’t catch it. But Jyn went on, “They want to run a test to make sure the surgeries have done what they’re supposed to. Understand that?”

“Yes,” he said. They’d been talking about that for … an hour? Or whatever it was.

Jyn’s mouth twitched for some reason. “And then they’re going to do one more, which should get you functioning without medicine. Are you fine with that?”

“Yes.” Why wouldn’t he be?

Her fingers tapped unconsciously over his palm. He presumed unconsciously. It was nice either way, though he took care not to say so. Even drugged half out of his mind, he knew he had to keep some things to himself.

Jyn cared, to be sure. At this very moment, she jabbed the doctor with as many questions as Kay would have asked, held his hand again. Back in the Citadel, she’d screamed as he fell. When she saw his injuries afterwards, she flashed from triumph to murder almost faster than he could grasp her. 

And, in the elevator—Cassian could still feel her boxing him in, small as she was, her arm slipping around his neck and face lifting up to him. Even so, he had to bend his head down: not that it troubled him, even through the pain piercing every part of his body. Her mouth pressed against his, as soft and tentative as they’d been in the shuttle, and it wasn’t like the others at all—he wanted this—

Yet he didn’t think it was quite the same for her. Cassian had been completely charmed since he saw her trouncing stormtroopers on the streets of Jedha, except when he lost his temper, and mostly he didn’t. But his heart nearly stopped every time he realized her life was in danger, and often it was. Jyn stopped at nothing, suffered not a flicker of weakness in herself; she would be dead near a half-dozen times if he hadn’t been there. If he’d been just that bit slower, or weaker, or less accurate. He could have been. He certainly was now.

In any case, she didn’t panic as he did, or look half out of her mind, as he felt, or any of that. It didn’t bother him. This ... indistinct affection was more than he’d ever anticipated from another living person. She had called him her friend after a week, and felt furiously betrayed after another, and drawn close and smiling in the third. It was something. He just didn’t want her to feel any sort of—expectation.

As ever, he hoped, but did not expect.

“Cassian!” Jyn blew her hair out of her face, or tried. “Are you listening?”

“No,” Cassian said, honesty a rare luxury. He thought about it. “I keep getting lost.”

She studied him, her own eyes wide. They weren’t like jade, or emeralds, or anything like that; from a distance, they looked vaguely grey or even blue. This close, though, he could see the pale green of her irises, the dark grey rings circling the edges, spokes as brown as his own flaring out from the pupil like dark stars. A bright, uninterrupted green would be less interesting. This wasn’t something that could be approximated by a rock.

Thankfully—he thought later—Cassian clung to enough sanity to keep his mouth shut on that, too.

“Give me the datapad,” she said.

“Miss—”

“He can’t consent,” said Jyn. It made sense, though he couldn’t remember anyone ever bothering themselves over the finer details of that. “I’m next of kin, I’ll sign for it. He agreed as far as he could follow, anyway.”

Cassian handed it over, though not without complaining, “I am right here.”

She just pushed her fringe out of her eyes again. He sympathized. In fact, he tried to lift his free hand to his brow, but it felt impossibly heavy, as if it were as much a cybernetic as the implants in his back.

Abruptly, he said, “Am I a cyborg?”

Jyn had been grumbling under her breath, and he thought the doctor, too. Maybe at each other. But both broke off, now. He could tell they were staring at him, even though he couldn’t have sworn the former was human, at this far away.

“Uh,” Tanth said. “We don’t generally apply the term with respect to purely internal cybernetics. You won’t be considered one on your personnel records, certainly.”

That was answer enough. Right, he thought. Okay.

“If that’s all …”

Jyn handed over the datapad with a dismissive gesture, and Dr Tanth receded. Cassian thought he did. At least, the space that he’d occupied looked empty, and a pleasant quietness settled around them. It was one of the many things he liked about Jyn; so many people rushed to make clamour out of peace, like the Empire. Jyn dwelt in silences—sometimes venturing out, but always returning again. She could deliver monologues without a word.

He, not so much. For Cassian, words were less tools of clarification than extensions of himself: sometimes artificial, but always rooted in his own being. He held them close, most often; that did not make them absent.

“There’s no difference,” he announced.

Jyn eyed him. Since he liked her eyes, it didn’t matter.

“No difference between what?”

“The cybernetics,” said Cassian. “Outside or inside—why should that change anything?”

She shrugged. “Aesthetics. It’s not about science.”

The disdain in her voice caught him. Her father’s, perhaps, though it seemed she would have been too young to absorb much before his disappearance. She’d been older than Cassian, though—eight or nine, not six. She would remember more. He thought the mother had been a scientist, too.

“Do you mind it?” Jyn asked, voice awkward and brows knit.

Puzzled, he said, “Science?”

She made a strangled sound that he couldn’t quite identify. “The cyborg thing.”

“Oh.” His thoughts tried to wander again, but for the instant, Cassian held them fast. He shook his head, everything spinning. Even like this, the laugh in his ears sounded strange. “No. I was just thinking that Kay would be delighted.”

Jyn’s mouth curved, the smile tight but real. Like him, she had lines about her eyes, and they deepened now.

“One step closer to droid superiority?”

“Exactly.” He felt surprised that she saw it, and utterly unsurprised, all at once. But they’d understood each other in the end, Kay and Jyn. If he had escaped, they might have made a remarkable pair. The two of them really did have plenty in common, though Cassian valued his skin enough not to say so. “He liked you.”

Jyn snorted.

“Eventually.”

“Like captain, like droid?” She was blurry now, too, so he needed the words to hang onto.

“No,” he said. “I liked you from Jedha. When you clobbered all the stormtroopers.” Cassian almost let himself sink into that memory, so much pleasanter than thinking about Kay. But she was here as much as there, the fingers on his hand curling up in—surprise?—and relaxing again.

“It would be that,” said Jyn, amused. “But I didn’t notice.”

“I know.” He narrowed his eyes enough to make her out through the heaviness in his head, and through his hair. She looked—soft, almost, in a way he’d only seen once or twice. 

In the hangar, he remembered, when she seemed to truly realize he wouldn’t abandon her. She’d drifted forward into their odd sort of binary orbit, tilting her face up and smiling like every burden in her life had just tumbled off her shoulders. Like she had no desire to be anywhere else, with anyone else. It’d been the same here, earlier, when she leaned down and echoed his welcome home.

Now, Jyn snapped her fingers in front of his face. “You need to go to sleep.”

Probably.

“You’re wearing my jacket,” he pointed out.

Colour rose to her cheeks. He didn’t think he’d seen her do that, ever.

“My vest is disgusting,” said Jyn, with an air of casual unconcern that he didn’t even slightly believe. “I had to wear something.”

First he thought of saying that she might have stolen from someone her size, or at least her gender; then he thought of saying that she could have just taken one of his shirts, since the leather jacket was warm for Massassi; and, finally, he thought of asking just how much time she had spent in his quarters.

“Right,” Cassian said.

Her voice quickening, she went on, “The other coats were much too big. I like how I look in this one, though.”

Valiantly, he tried to think of any reply other than so do I.

“Did you steal another blaster?”

“What do you think I am?” Even through his haze, he could see that Jyn looked offended. She lifted the edge of the coat to reveal her hip, where sure enough, one of his older blasters rested. “Of course I did.”

“You’ll get a better model,” Cassian said vaguely. A new alarm struck him. “If you stay with the Alliance.”

Somehow, between that moment and the next, Jyn went from seated at his side to bracing his shoulder with one hand, the other reclining the chair into a bed. Even a half-hearted effort to stay upright on his own lashed fire down his back.

“Lie down,” said Jyn, from wherever she was. Near.

Now he obeyed without hesitation, trying to catch his breath.

“The new surgery should fix that,” she told him. “And the final bacta treatment. That’s this afternoon.”

He barely caught that, mind stuck on his previous thought. Nothing about the ceiling eased it. Nor did the one lock of his fringe that always fell over his eyes. Irritably, he blew at it, as Jyn had her own, but with no more success.

“Where will you be?” Cassian asked, too sleepy and dazed to even speculate at how he sounded. He closed his eyes. “You’re free.”

There was a long pause, and then Jyn’s voice:

“I’m not going anywhere.” Someone touched his brow, so hesitant that he barely felt it. Then, more confidently, they stroked his hair out of his face. “Go to sleep, Cassian.”

[emilyplaysotome]

Part 36 - Dirty Pop

Down the Voltage Rabbit Hole is an ongoing story about our MC, who could easily be anyone in voltage fandom. She woke up in hospital bed only to discover that she’d somehow been transported Voltage universe.

This story is ongoing, so if you missed a part, or are new to the story, please use the link to the masterpost below to catch yourself up:

https://tinyurl.com/k4rrxna

Part 36 - Dirty Pop

As promised, we were taken backstage once the concert concluded and I watched as the band maintained their designated personality types in the presence of their fans.

Sakiko was over the moon to walk away from the night with both a photo of all us, and one of her and Kyohei. She stayed with me backstage for approximately an hour or so, and upon realizing how late the night had gotten, decided to leave me behind. 

She was extremely apologetic about leaving me alone with the band and a handful of groupies, but had promised Eiki that she would swing by his place later and didn’t want to accidentally neglect her new relationship (even if that meant skipping out Revance).

I assured her that it was no problem, seeing as how the band wanted to speak with me about additional lyrics anyway, and with that Sakiko wished me luck and was on her way. 

As it was to be expected, Revance’s “new” song had blown up Tweeter, with people sharing out snippets of the night’s performance, under the hashtag #RevancePopUp. Soon after their new song hit the internet, the tag was one of the top trending Tweeter hashtags for the entirety of Tweeter Japan, and their fan forums apparently blew up as a result, crashing their “RevanceNet” server as fans clamored for more information surrounding their upcoming LP and new song.

It was clear that the song’s positive reception had only added to the urgency in which Ryo, Iori, and Kyohei wanted me to sign on to the group, but I knew that wouldn’t be happening. 

For now, I waited patiently to discuss things further, awkwardly biding my time until the band was ready to leave. After must discussion and flirtation, the groupies that would be joining us were selected, and I followed the group as we all headed to the “after party” at Revance’s home. 

From the games, I knew that the band liked to celebrate after a successful performance, but found myself surprised at how real the situation felt considering the fact that the band brought along a smattering of attractive young women to keep them company. In that moment, they did not feel like romanticized otome men whose routes I’d played, but real pop stars, who were escorting home a collection of women they deemed attractive enough to spend the night with. 

It was the first time I’d ever experienced anything like this and to be honest, it made my skin crawl a little at how dirty these pop stars were. 

Considering how smoothly they’d transitioned from signing autographs to whittling the group down to the select few present in their limo, it was clear that this was a regular occurrence for them and I quietly tabulated the estimated number of women that each of these men had probably slept with. 

With the exception of Iori and Ryo (both of whom stayed by my side the entire night), the rest of the band was getting cozy with a woman of their choosing (two in Kyohei’s case). 

It was behavior I expected from Kyohei and Nagito, but in truth I was surprised to see the real life iterations of Kota and Takashi engaging in such obvious flirtation. The trip to their house felt like a scene straight out of a reality show, where a group of horny 20-somethings are forced to live in a house together and end up going at it, completely unconcerned by the lack of privacy surrounding their torrid hookups. 

My general rule of thumb is that I do not oppose sexual behavior that occurs between two (or more) consenting adults. Everyone is different, and varies in comfort, kinks, likes, and dislikes, and in my opinion as long as all parties are on board, and nothing illegal is happening, I say go for it.

However, I myself, never consented to an awkward limo ride in which I was subjugated to what the games would most certainly describe as “lewd” behavior. Furthermore when it became obvious to me that each member of Revance must have slept with hundreds of women (50 cities, 3 nights, estimated 1 woman per city, with this being their 4th tour), I felt myself inadvertently scrunching my nose with worry, wondering if they at least had the good sense to practice safe sex and get tested regularly.

Iori and Ryo were so clearly desensitized to it all that they kept up a normal conversation with me the entire ride, initially inquiring as far as why I’d run off the previous day, until finally steering the conversation back to the additional lyrics they were hoping I’d write for them.

I told them that I had just accepted a full time job at the advertising agency Addison & Rhodes, and based on conversations with my coworkers it was unlikely that I’d be able to help them further. I made it clear that signing on to be a full-time ghostwriter with the band was out of the question, and upon providing this clarity I watched as Ryo glanced at Iori, with a frantic look in his eyes. 

His expression only confirmed my suspicions that he was in a slump of sorts and needed my help. 

I felt bad, and racked my brain in an attempt to think of the right thing to say but, I found myself unable to concentrate, thanks to the consistent background soundtrack of light moans and lips smacking, which made me feel as if I’d walked onto the set of a softcore porn flick. 

As I wrestled with how to best move forward, the limo pulled up to their house.

I watched the scene unfold before me as Kyohei draped an arm around the two girls he was sitting with in the back of the limo. 

Whereas Nagito, Takashi, and Kota had spent the ride preoccupied with a single lady of their choosing, Kyohei had been on overachiever of sorts, oscillating his kisses and attention between the two women. I looked on as he confidently whispered something in each of their ears, before exiting the limo with one woman on each arm, and a triumphant expression on his face.

Even though it had been obvious from the onset of the car ride that Kyohei would most likely end his night in a threesome, it was still sort of crazy to have watched the scene play out as it did. 

Having never engaged in a threeway myself (considering that my one-on-one sexual encounters are always awkward that first night), it was bananas to me that adding another person would somehow make the experience less uncomfortable. 

I silently said a wish to Leon that the ladies on each of Kyohei’s arm would derive as much pleasure from the experience as the man between them and watched as the rest followed suit and exited the limo, shooting Iori and Ryo a knowing look before heading to their designated rooms.

With the majority of the hookups now happening in private, I followed Iori and Ryo to the living room to finish the conversation surrounding Ryo’s slump and need for lyrics in order to move on with my life. 

I felt indebted to both of them (Ryo for his kindness a couple of days ago and Iori for caring for me when I’d arrived), and despite not knowing exactly what to say, I knew that I didn’t feel right leaving them empty handed when they were clearly so desperate. I’d gleaned from the concert that Revance was reaching the end of their tour with this LP and needed to release some new songs or run the risk of being forgotten about. 

Considering how eager they’d been to perform “Cry Me a River” it was clear that they needed additional material, and quick, to keep themselves on the top spot in the charts. I’d overheard Kyohei and Ryo in the greenroom, talking quietly about a rival boy band Grenade who was hot on their heels, and was certain that Kyohei was putting a massive amount of pressure on Ryo in order to deliver what they needed to ensure that they stayed the number one boy band in Japan.

Now that their performance of "Cry Me a River” had blown up on Tweeter, I could tell that they knew they needed to keep their momentum up. Iori and Ryo both bowed low before me, imploring me to help, saying that I could have or do whatever I wanted. 

I sighed, slightly conflicted that my assistance might accidentally trigger another trap to keep me pinned to this world, but with an offer too good to pass up I found myself smirking.

“Whatever I want, eh?”

They needed 12 songs and I had provided 1, which meant that Revance needed 11 more. 

Initially, they’d wanted me to write onsite at their apartment, but there was no way I was going to do that for fear of triggering one of their routes which I didn’t seem to be a part of. 

Clearly Kyohei, Nagito, Takashi, and Kota were unconcerned with my presence in this world (made all the more obvious by the occasional moan coming from the upstairs bedrooms), and both Iori and Ryo seemed more concerned with the future of Revance than women or potential love interests.

I found it a bit surprising that Kyohei wasn’t more invested in my lyrics, but upon thinking back to Ryo and Iori’s dynamic realized that I possessed a vague memory in which Iori had felt slightly responsible for Ryo’s departure. I surmised that in this world, perhaps my existence was helping to curb the rift that might eventually happen between them, and I hoped that my actions might help me make it out of Scandal in the Spotlight without any scandal.

After Iori and Ryo had agreed to my terms, I let them know that they’d have everything they needed in their inbox by the end of the weekend. 

They both eyed me skeptically, and I assured them that I’d amassed a rather large collection of unused lyrics in my years of writing as hobby. I said that if they were unsatisfied with what they received at the end of the weekend we could renegotiate the terms of our agreement. I also let Ryo know I planned to assemble everything in the cafe where he worked part time, and he eagerly let me know that he’d be far more comfortable having some proximity to me while I did so in case questions were to arise.

Even though he was working this weekend and we’d no doubt see each other, the pop stars still looked dubious as they walked me to a cab which was waiting to escort me back to the Gods’ mansion, and before leaving I felt compelled to assure them once more that they’d be satisfied with what I’d be able to provide.

After all, I had an entire decade of another world’s proven top pop songs at my fingertips. If it was good enough for Justin Timberlake or Bruno Mars it’d be good enough for Revance.

It was around 2 in the morning when I opened the door to Zyglavis’ bedroom, and made my way over to the fridge to grab a late night snack. 

A part of me had wished he’d be present upon my return, and I felt myself hoping that I’d find him on the bed waiting for me. When it was clear that he was nowhere to be found, I felt a bit of lonliness bubble up. The bulk of today had been spent reclaiming my independent spirit, and while I knew it was for the best that we be apart, I couldn’t help myself from gravitating towards the chocolate gateau cake he’d left behind.

Perhaps it was a result of my period, but I suspected my craving for chocolate had more to do with missing Zyglavis, and I cut myself a slick of cake all the while wondering what he was up to in the heavens. As I brought the slice over to my Operation GTFO HQ desk, I licked my fingers, dropping the plate with the cake next to my laptop. 

Even though I wanted to devour the cake in a rather unladylike fashion, I decided it best to change out of my sweaty concert clothes before digging in.

I went to grab the fluffy pajamas Aigo had gifted me, and got an unfortunate whiff of post-concert Naomi. Despite being lazy, I realized that it was probably best I take a quick bath before I changed seeing as how I didn’t want the pajamas to get ruined, forcing me to do a load of laundry which I’d been putting off (as I worried it wouldn’t be as simple as Zyglavis simply snapping his fingers). 

With that in mind, I wrapped a towel around me and headed to the bath in order to take a quick dip. 

I was surprised upon opening the large doors to the bath to see it occupied so late. 

Thankfully, the person enjoying her soak wasn’t one of the Gods, but the MC I’d met back at the planetarium. She was resting her eyes, clearly luxuriating in the bath and wore a towel, no doubt for fear she’d accidentally get walked in on by someone other than her beloved Huedhaut.

I announced my arrival as to not startle her, and in hearing my voice she offered me a warm smile and invited me to join her. 

With no reason not to, I slowly lowered myself next to her, as I rinsed away the sweat and body glitter that still lingered from the concert. I felt slightly uncomfortable seeing as how our last encounter consisted of some awkward bathroom eye contact and an overly emotional exit, but I tried my best to be friendly and make pleasant conversation with her.

“You’re up late...can’t sleep?” I asked.

She shook her head no and added, “There’s an upcoming event at the planetarium that I’m in charge of. All the Gods have been helping me prepare but it’s proven to be quite an undertaking and the stress has been keeping me up.”

She sighed deeply and then force a small smile as she continued to address me.

“I was hoping a soak would help me relax so I could finally get some sleep. How about yourself?”

“Oh, I just got back from the Revance concert.”

“Revance? The boy band?”

I nodded, pleased at her reaction which seemed appropriate for a grown woman. She did not exclaim excitedly, or swoon over any of the members, but instead seemed puzzled as to why a grown woman like myself would want to attend such an event.

“It’s a long story, but I ended up writing them a song that they performed tonight so…”

“Oh wow! Are you a writer?”

“Something like that…”

We made small talk for a bit, and when the conversation led us down a road which allowed for it, I capitalized on my opportunity to apologize for my juvenile behavior. Of all the MCs I’d met in this world, I realized that I liked her the best, and was worried that she wouldn’t want to be my friend after having witnessed such a ridiculous display. I could feel my anxiety building, but forced myself to spit out the words I’d been holding on to since I’d stepped foot in the bath.

“By the way, I’m sorry about the other day,” I said timidly, “I hope you didn’t take any offense - I assure you it had nothing to do with you.”

“Oh? And who did it have to do with?”

I could tell that this MC was clever, yet kind as she asked, keenly aware of my reasons for acting so erratically. 

Seeing as how it was no secret at this point, I came clean, figuring that if anything she would understand the plight of a human woman who had a sizable crush on a man that was a God.

“Zyglavis...”

“Mmmm,” she said with a knowing smile, “I see.”

She let out a quiet chuckle and I was struck by how elegant she was in her mannerisms. It was evident that she had lived her past life in the heavens, and I found myself feeling a bit insecure as I thought about Zyglavis potentially being surrounded by women like her in the heavens.

“Of all the Gods you had to go and fall for the one who loves law and order...”

“Tell me about it,” I said disparagingly.

“He is one of the most loyal men you could ask for, and in truth, I think he cares for you more than he realizes.”

The former Goddess of Fate’s eyes twinkled as she quickly surveyed the area around us to ensure that there was no one present who could overhear. She leaned in, still wary of being too loud and whispered in such a way that her breath tickled my ear as she spoke.

“After you ran out, he was so panicked and emotional...when he returned unable to find you, certain the worst had happened, I asked him if he loved you…”

“And?”

“Well, you should really ask him yourself but…”

She giggled girlishly and nodded, indicating the answer had been yes, quickly adding, “He wouldn’t say it because it’s forbidden but...a woman knows these things.”

Upon hearing her words, I placed my hands on my heart with the hope of calming it. The thought that Zyglavis loved me back was making my heart accelerate, and I found myself hoping her read was correct.

She didn’t seem to realize how flustered the conversation was making me, and continued on casually sharing her two cents as to the matter, “I’ve known him for some time now, and I’m sure he’s somewhere in the heavens trying to pull himself together and ignore everything you’ve ignited. If you love him back, if you really love him, you will not let him hide behind his logic or the rules. You will have to fight, but I really believe that if you’re willing to do that, he’ll be yours forever.”

“But what if I’m not sure,” I blurted, “I...he’s not the only person I have feelings for and…”

“I know you’re not sure Naomi but this is your chance to be happy...be it with Zyglavis, or Jin, or who was the other one?”

“Shun.”

The name tumbled from my lips at a volume which was barely audible. Not only had this MC just called me by my real name, but she seemed to be omnipotent when it came to my goings on, and I found myself backing away from her, suddenly wary.

“Are you going to take it or not?”

I nodded, “Yes. I’ll figure it out before I leave.”

“Good,” she said, before turning around to pull herself out of the bath, “You have only a week’s time so I suggest you figure it out quickly.”

I nodded, and looked away from her, completely caught off guard by everything that had happened. 

When I turned back once more in an attempt to shed some light on the situation, I realized that I had been fooled. I felt my eyes widen as it sunk in who I’d really been speaking with, as it was not clear to me that the person I had been sharing a bath with had not been Huedhaut’s MC.

No, her form had been used as an illusion to disarm me, and instead I found myself standing before the King of the Heavens who was smirking, clearly amused by the Goldfish from another world.

To be continued…in Part 37!

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