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winterfireice · 4 months ago

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Chapter 4!!

Now there are only two chapters left before this story is over, I hope you're enjoying it so far.

Tag list: @amandayetagain @doodle-do-wop @tiana4evahh

Rest of the chapter is under the cut

“I am not that clumsy!” Sophie basically shouts out of annoyance,

“We once watched you almost trip on your cape and as you were falling you tripped again on the air around you,” Biana responds, “I didn't even know that was possible before I met you,”

“Ok that did happen, but I hadn't slept in days, so it wasn't my fault,” Sophie tries to defend herself,

Stina makes a face, “You hardly ever sleep, that's not a valid argument,”

“Or does that mean I’m always tired, so I always have an excuse? Maybe the trauma is finally helpful for once,”

“No, you’ve gotten pretty good at being functional without sleep, plus I’ve seen you right after a good night’s sleep and you still trip,” Dex says not helping at all,

This specific post-Team Valiant meeting was not going according to Sophie’s plan at all, they had all ganged up on her as they were walking out to the Council Hall, and she tripped on a rock. They had carried on even after they had gotten settled in their “Fancy Hangout House” as Keefe had dubbed it.

Just thinking about her boyfriend summoned him apparently because all of a sudden, he was knocking at the door,

“Ooo Sophie your boyfriend is here,” Biana taunted, she had always been their biggest fan and the most annoying person regarding their relationship,

With the loving taunting as background noise, Sophie opens the door welcoming Keefe into the room pulling him over to one of the couches without saying anything,

“The Lady Foss-Boss is really coming out in you right now,” Keefe says as he lets himself be pulled around like a rag doll,

“You don't have a single thought going on behind your eyes when they're on Sophie do you?” Stina asks watching Keefe,

“Nope,” Keefe responds confidently,

“At least you’re self-aware,” she mutters,

Sophie and Keefe share a look holding back laughter,

“Well definitely one of us is self-aware,” Keefe says slyly,

“You’re talking about how it took me forever to realize I had a crush on you, right?” Sophie nudges him,

“Oh of course,” Keefe smiles, “Who else would I be talking about?”

“I am going to kill you” Sophie transmits with a smile on her face,

“I would die a happy man,” Keefe responds,

Wylie coughs as Biana rolls her eyes,

“We may not be able to hear you, but we can see you two obviously flirting in your heads,” Biana says,

“You have no idea what goes on in our heads, we are very complex individuals,” Keefe nods,

“This reminds me that Sophie is part horse,” Stina adds,

“How! How did that remind you of that?” Sophie exclaims,

“It’s my favorite fact about you, it always makes me laugh. It's the reason I’m able to be around you,”

“I have so much blackmail that I could use right now, you’re lucky I’m a good person,” Sophie snarks

Stina looks horrified, she opens and closes her mouth at least twice before giving up on speaking all together,

Biana just stares in wonder at the rare sight of Stina’s silence, “What do you have on her?” she asks, “I have never seen her this silent before,”

“Oh shut up,”

“There’s the Stina we all know and love,” Dex says, eyes widening and avoiding Stina’s entire body. Stina’s cheeks start to blush and one of her hands starts tapping against the side of the chair,

Sophie feels Keefe’s hand bumping against her side and takes that as a hint to enter his mind, “I think I can feel their hearts about to beat out of their chests,” he transmits,

“They are hopeless,” Sophie responds, “And adorable, I’m rooting for them,”

“You’re not the only one, we should make posters,”

“That say what? ‘Stinex’s number one fans?” she asks,

“Yes, exactly that, it's almost like you can read my mind,” Keefe jokes,

Sophie smiles, “Almost like I’m reading it right now,”

“At this point, I’m just going to stop asking because you all confuse me,” Biana says annoyed, looking around the room. Stina and Dex are still avoiding looking at each other while Sophie and Keefe are cuddled on the couch,

“Sorry,” Sophie tells her sparkly best friend,

“I’m only partly sorry,” Keefe says in return, “I’m quite bad at owning up to my actions, but I will repay you in quick-witted comments in the future,”

“It’s days like these where I wonder why I’m friends with you guys,” Biana says smiling,

~~~

“When did you know you liked Keefe?” Stina asks after taking a sip out of her juice. She had called Sophie a couple of days ago asking to get lunch and be able to talk a little bit without being observed by all their friends.

So now they were in Atlantis trying to find a restaurant they could both agree on, which meant they were mostly walking around the underwater city and vetoing each other’s ideas,

“I guess I didn't fully know until right before we kissed” Sophie admitted, “That doesn't mean that’s how everyone feels at the beginning of their relationships though, I was in denial for a long time, but Keefe knew how he felt for years before we ever got together,”

Stina looks surprisingly vulnerable, “But what made you confident enough to tell him?”

“It just got to the point where I couldn’t take having him not know how I was feeling or what I was thinking anymore,” Sophie says, “I had overthought every possible thing up until that moment where his lips were on mine. But I had the extra add-on of my crush running away from everyone and everything he knew before I confessed,”

“Only half of your response was helpful,” Stina sighs, “and even when you’re being helpful it feels weird. You basically just said that the only reason you’re dating Keefe is because you annoyed yourself into telling him you were in love with him,”

“Who said anything about love?” Sophie smiles, “I think you Stina Heks are starting to become a romantic,”

Stina starts to look horrified which Sophie is starting to get used to, “There is absolutely no possibility that I ever become, that word,”

“Wow, you can’t even say it! I think we may have another Great Oblivion on our hands,”

“Stop enjoying this so much!”

Sophie is in the middle of laughing when she spots two teenage boys walking closer and closer, “Oh I don’t think that will be happening any time soon. Look over there,”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Stina says under her breath after she sees their friends notice them,

“Oh, hey girls, fancy meeting you two here,” Keefe says genuinely surprised,

“Did either of you have something to do with this?” Stina whispers,

“No, I seriously didn't know they were going to be here,” Sophie whispers back so only Stina can hear,

Luckily Dex looks as terrified as Stina does so there is a very small chance of him noticing this very obvious conversation, “What are you guys doing here? Not that you can’t be here! You are your own people that deserve to be anywhere whenever they want to be,” He spurts out anxiously,

“Smooth dude,” Keefe comments,

“We were trying to find somewhere to eat, do you guys want to join us?” Sophie asks as she ignores Stina’s glare,

“I think we’re go-” Dex starts as Keefe interrupts him, “That sounds amazing,”

“Perfect where should we go?” Sophie asks before Stina or Dex can come up with an excuse to leave, “Stina is picky so it's taken us forever to find a place,”

“What about that sandwich shop that I took you to last month? Plus, it's super customizable so Stina will have to find something edible there,” Keefe walks around Dex’s frozen body to Sophie so he can take her hand in hers,

“I think that is a great idea, Stina, Dex? How do you guys feel?” Sophie says as she leans into her boyfriend,

“Fine,” Stina grumbles as Dex seems to realize he hasn't been functioning like a normal elf and just simply nods along, Sophie smiles as she pretends the others are genuinely excited about the next few hours of their lives, “Yay, this will be great!”

~~~

“Ok, this place is pretty good,” Dex mumbles as he continues to inhale half of his sandwich,

“I told you I have the best date spots,” Keefe exclaims after stealing another slice of something that looks like a pink yam but tastes like French fries off of Sophie’s plate,

The tips of Dex’s ears turn bright red at the comment and Sophie can guess how that topic came up before they ran into Stina and herself,

“I still refuse to believe that Keefe is actually good at being a boyfriend,” Stina complains even though her plate is near-empty,

“As someone with first-hand experience,” Sophie starts, “I can definitely disagree with you,”

“Foster, are you complimenting me?” Keefe asks with sarcastic surprise, his hand coming up to clutch fake pearls,

“Yes love, I am. You would think after three years you would have gotten used to it,”

“Nope, maybe keep trying,” he smiles,

“I can’t figure out if I find this adorable or nauseating,” Dex says putting down his food for the first time,

Stina looks equally disgusted but not any more than normal, “I’m going with the second option,”

“You two don’t get to have an opinion about this,” Sophie almost laughs, “They are borderline hypocrites,” she transmits to Keefe,

“I don’t think that’s a thing,” Keefe says out loud causing both Dex and Stina to look at him confused,

“I think you forgot to clue us into part of this conversation,” Stina tells him,

“Forget that part, it doesn't matter right now,” Sophie waves her hand in the air as if pushing the conversation away,

Dex ignores the handshaking, “I thought you were trying to keep fewer secrets between us?”

“I’ll stop when you guys stop,” Sophie says, enjoying her friend's embarrassment, “I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Stina manages to squeak out,

Sophie and Keefe only look at each other in response trying not to laugh at their friends.

“You guys are hilarious, one day we’re going to look back on this and laugh about it with Sophie and me,” Keefe chuckles,

“I hate you,” Stina grumbles, and Sophie is sure she can hear Dex whisper his agreement,

#kotlc #kotlc fanfic #keefe sencen #sophie foster #stina heks #dex dizznee

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foodfightnovelization · 1 year ago

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I Can Find It! Children's Book and Early Storyboards by Gary Clair

Okay, so here's another interlude where I talk about something a little different. This time, we're really gonna dig deep and try to unravel the mystery of how this movie changed throughout its production. As I mentioned in my introduction post, there were other forms of Foodfight! merchandise released outside of the novelization. To be more precise, there was a Deluxe Sound Storybook (basically a children's picture book but with buttons you can press that make sounds representing the various characters) a number of soft toys/stuffed animals, and this- The I Can Find It! book.

Now I don't actually own this book myself, someone on the Internet Archive actually scanned and uploaded their copy and that's what we'll be looking at here. (Someone else out there as obsessed with this movie as I am? What a world!) According to the inside cover, this was published around 2007, which makes sense as that's when all the other merchandise was released, the tie-in videogame was intended to come out, and of course the movie itself was supposed to release at one point. Anyway, aside from having a vastly more appealing artstyle than the finished film (seriously, it's SO much nicer to look at) what's there to talk about with this book?

Well, a WHOLE LOT actually! Let's strawberry jam...into this? As you might remember from our chapter-by-chapter analysis, there's a scene in both the novelization and the movie itself where Dex and Dan get trapped in a dryer and are almost melted alive. However HERE, they aren't trapped in a dryer at all-instead they're trapped in a giant washing machine. This makes a lot more sense- Lady X is a detergent Ike, so of course they'd be trapped in a washing machine. And even in the novelization, the Brand X display in the grocery store is a giant washing machine, explaining how one would end up in Marketropolis. It's a dryer in both the novelization and the movie itself however, so why was this changed? We'll get to it! This is the first of the major differences and it's one that's entirely unique to this picture book (unlike the next one, which is shared with the novelization) On the following page, Dex and Dan escape and find themselves in Brand X's headquarters.

Now this scene is in both the novelization and the movie, but there's a difference here. Can you spot it yet? While you look, I just want to say the picture book incorporating shelves and grocery products into Marketropolis itself is a great idea- it really sells the idea that this is a supermarket come to life. In the movie itself, it far too often just feels like a generic cartoon city, and the supermarket aesthetic ends up lost under regular-looking buildings and streets. Anyway, did you notice what's different here? He's hidden in the binding of the pages but he's here- it's the Brand X Mashed Potato Man!

If you've been keeping up with the analysis of the novelization, you'll know the Brand X Mashed Potato Man is a character who isn't in the movie itself- with there being a character called the Brand X Lunchlady who basically fills the same role. The Brand X Mashed Potato Man is still present in the novelization however, likely due to it being written and published before this character was written out of the film. However, here in this picture book we actually get to SEE this elusive character instead of just reading about him. And...honestly he looks kinda gross! I know that's the point of the Brand X villains, but his head is all lumpy and weird and it's just very unpleasant to look at. But hey, at least now we know what this character was supposed to look like before he was cut from the movie and replaced with the Lunchlady!

Now we reach the picture book's biggest change yet- in both the movie AND the novelization, Brand X is defeated by the Ikes creating lighting rods and starting a storm that destroys all of Brand X's buildings. Here however, that's not the case at all! Instead Brand X is defeated using the store's sprinkler system, which floods the place and washes the bad guys away. This again makes sense with Lady X being a detergent icon- like sure, of course you can wash away detergent with water. Using the store's sprinkler system also fits more with this taking place in a grocery store- that's something supermarkets typically have, whereas I can't remember the last time I went to Walmart and was zapped by a stray lightning bolt. The book is only 10 pages long so that's all there is to talk about here, but have you noticed both changes unique to the picture book's version of the story involve water?

I have a theory as to why. The initial version of the script must've contained both of these- Dex and Dan getting trapped in a washing machine filled with hot water, and Brand X getting defeated by a flood. However when it came to actually animating the movie, the animation software they were using was unable to render water convincingly (whenever we see fluid effects in the finished film they look AWFUL), leading to the script being rewritten to change the washing machine to a dryer and the flood to a lightning storm. This must've been the version of the script the novelization was based off, as it has both the dryer and lightning storm but the Brand X Mashed Potato Man is still present. Then for the version of the movie we know today, a few more changes were made and the Brand X Mashed Potato Man was written out of the story entirely, replaced with the Brand X Lunchlady. You might be saying "Tiffany, that's just a theory. Do you have any proof?" And I say to that YES! Yes actually I do! Linked below are early storyboards for the movie by concept artist Gary Clair.

These storyboards are clearly based on a much earlier draft of the script- among other differences, there are many more real-world brand mascots present in the scenes we see. During the Ikes' attack on Brand X, we see Sugar Bear, the Golden Crisp mascot, and Oscar Mayer, mascot for a brand of hot dogs and cold cuts. On top of that, there's an additional sequence not present in the movie OR novelization where Polar Penguin gets tossed around during the titular food fight, eventually landing next to Dex and passing out.

We also see an early version of the scene where Lieutenant X confronts Cheazel about bringing Dex to them, and aside from the artstyle here being SO much more appealing than anything in the actual movie (seriously, it looks like a Looney Tunes cartoon or something) it ALSO takes place at a canal, just like the novelization's version of the scene does. In the actual movie it takes place atop a building, and once again I put forward my theory that this was changed because they couldn't convincingly render water effects and so wouldn't be able to animate Cheazel falling into the canal at the end.

Not only that, we see an early version of a scene late in the movie where Cheazel attempts to start the lightning storm by cutting the power lines. Only HERE, he's not cutting the power lines at all-he's cutting the cable to the fire alarm, likely so the other characters can set off the sprinkler system and cause a flood without the fire department rushing over to the store.

The Brand X Mashed Potato Man is also present here, confirming my theory that an earlier draft of the script (or at least the one the picture book was based on) contained both of these elements of the story. I can't confirm the reason these scenes were changed is due to being unable to convincingly render water, but why ELSE would all the scenes involving water in a 3D animated movie be conspicuously changed later in production to remove that element? So, with the picture book and early storyboards, the proof is in the chocolate pudding and we now have a definitive timeline for at least some elements of Foodfight's script:

-Dex and Dan trapped in washing machine, Brand X defeated by flood, Mashed Potato Man present (version the I Can Find it! Picture Book is based off)

-Dex and Dan trapped in dryer, Brand X defeated by lightning storm, Mashed Potato Man present (version the novelization is based off)

-Dex and Dan trapped in dryer, Brand X defeated by lightning storm, Brand X Lunchlady replaces Mashed Potato Man among other changes (version the finished film is based off)

Now hey, that's a little confusing and messy- but what IS Foodfight! if not that? And thanks to the novelization, the storyboards, a children's picture book, and my borderline obsession with this film, we've put together the pieces and found out part of how how it evolved (or perhaps, devolved) over the course of production. It's crazy to think we now have so many answers about this movie, all thanks to the novelization. A novelization so obscure only one copy seems to exist, and if I hadn't found and started writing we never would've even heard about. But maybe it's the destination that counts, and not the path we took to get there. In any case, the novelization is still my favorite version of the Foodfight! story, and I hope you'll come back next time when we plough our way through the last chapters of this epic parable. If you made it this far into the blog, I love you, and thank you for sticking with me on my strange, wet journey for answers.

#foodfight #dex dogtective #daredevil dan #christopher lloyd #charlie sheen #lady x #mr clipboard #the brand x mashed potato man #storyboards #concept art

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kazuza-art · 2 years ago

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Thanks for the tag @the-paper-monkey and @chemfreakwriting

Tagging any author I know off that had not been tagged yet because everyone I can think off had done this already XD

Rules:

1. Post the top 5 works you’re most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular),

2. your top 4 current WIPs that you’re excited to release in the new year,

3. your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year,

4. your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year,

5. and your number 1 favorite line you’ve written this year!

5 works

I don't have five works this year XD so I'll post only the two I'm the proudest off I guess!

My first long English written fic! I really wanted to write Tom and Albus relationship as people of the same age! I dropped every kink and plot bunny I love on that one XD

Time travel, Stockholm syndrome, possessiveness, age difference, young revolutionary Albus, Tom finding someone that gets him truly, Gellert facing a younger version of his lover that still believe in him and the cause, alternative sexuality, and so much more!

It's the most ambitious piece of work I ever work on, especially because I'm writing in English. (I wish I could write it in french XDDD) and my sincere hope is to be able to 1 spread the Riddledore/grindeldore 2 to finish it XDD

This is my favorite piece of work on HP fandom. I really wanted to write what I love about the Grindeldore pairing, the angst, the anger and resentment only two people that had loved each other passionately can feel. Albus and Gellert playing mind games with each other is my jam 100000 percent! I also LOVE writing about young Albus, before he became broken and jaded by war and despair.

Despite my terrible English, I also feel it's the one that turned out good XD

my first riddledore fic ever! It's part of a series that explores a dark lord Albus Dumbledore and his relationship to other. I like that one the best maybe because it's the first one I was confident enough to post.

4 WIPS

In plain sight

A long Grindeldore one-shot inspired by @laeveteinn 's Blood quills and lady fingers actually XD

One of them have to give in and Gellert decides it'll be him. Or Gellert takes advantage of Albus's obvious belief that Hogwarts is the safest place on earth and disguises himself as a teacher to worm his way through England and his ex-lover's heart. And if he had to kill Gellert Grindelwald and become another, then so be it.

I absolutely adore Graves!gellert seducing oblivious Albus fic. Like this is my fav trope ever but this time I wanted to explore a more darker, twister way love and obsession can take roots in a man

It will be very dark and probably not safe for most people to read, but if I there was only ONE fic I would want to write it would be this one.

As above so below spin off

Tom/harry fic where Tom had not turned into Voldi but being raised by Albus, turned out like a well-adapted psychopath and became British first minister of magic.

Harry is a driven young Auror that find himself in the wrong place at the wrong moment and become the unwilling Horcrux of the most famous man of England. A great game of cat and mouse, begin. Will harry be able to prove Tom Riddle is a terrible corrupt man or will Tom managed to corrupt him?

It'll be a light funny fic I think (with angst tho cause that's my jam)

Harry tom is not my stuff in general, but I like the plot of that one so I'll probably give it a try

Time travel grindeldore

Young Grindeldore manage to time travel in the future and are warmly welcomed by a 60 year's old Grindelwald at Numengard. The man is charming, warm and funny, the world seems at peace thanks to him and everything looks like the perfect future they dreamed together.

Soon however they realise the reality is very different from what their host said and that he's not willing to let young ALbus go home.

A dark Grindeldore series I had in mine from quite some time.

3 Improvements

I finaly dared write long fic in english! IT SUCKS BUT I DARED XD

I settled for myself a writing set of rules. I was procrastinating, and I was so frustrated cause there is so many plot idea I want to write... So I decided to follow Stephen King advice and kick my own ass XD

I forced myself to sit down every evening, no matter what and write 500words at the minimum (more if I feel like it but min is 500). And it WORK!

I try to think in english instead of just translating french to english when I write, I think it did improve my writing a lot, but jury is still in on that one AHAH

2 Resolutions

Find myself a native English speaker beta reader (i really don't want native speakers to cringe when they read my stuff ç_ç )

impove my damn english! (and finish fics XD)

1 Favourite Line

I don't have any. Reading my crapy English makes me cringe XDD

#my fic

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73chn1c0l0rr3v3l · 2 years ago

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There's a post going around right now that's talking about the "sad state" of femslash that I disagree with for a few reasons, although I don't want to start an argument on someone else's post, so I'm making my own post.

One of the things that gets on my nerves is the idea that the main way to tell if femslash is "working" is if there are big ol' juggernauts, ala Supercorp or Johnlock or whatever. Which is a thing I strongly disagree with, both as someone who was ostracized pretty heavily by my fandom's big juggernaut pairing community for the crime of writing Dark Fic, & I know i'm not the only person who's had that happen to them.

And thent here's… hm.

This is going to sound a bit all over the place, so forgive me, but;

I think that there are a bunch of different sorts of fic ecosystems. There are big juggernaut ecosystems & lots of little pairings in one space. Compare a big ol' whale to a jellyfish colony. Both valuable parts of an ecosystem, if very different.

The main reason I'm sad about not having as many people who are into femslash/my ships is because I don't have people to brainstorm stuff with, or talk about stuff with. When it's just me by myself, I throw my fic into the void, & I'm sure I'll make someone very, very happy in a few years when they find all the Hebe/Mel fic or the Ace/Mel fic or… well, all the other fics I've written that aren't getting any response, but I had fun writing.

(And hey, even if they don't, I still had fun writing it

The other thing is that when you're berating people who aren't writing femslash/your ships/whatever for not writing the stuff you like, all you're doing is making them feel shitty. "Why don't you eat your vegetables?" is not an attitude that we want to have in our fic.

That's what gets us nothing but shitty dutyfic or Extruded Fic Product, and I'd much rather that I had three other people who love my faves than twenty people dutifully banging out boring unpassionate paint by numbers fic.

If you're not seeing the stuff that you WANT to see, write more of it. Write it, or make rec lists, comment on the stuff that you do see. Look for the fic that you want to see as well - AO3 is not the be all end all of fandom. There's independent archives as well, there's ff.net, there's wattpad, there's probably places I haven't even considered since they're outside my sphere of interests.

The best way to get people into the thing you like is to love on the thing you love as loudly as possible, not complaining about the things that they love.

And hey. It can be nice, to be the biggest fish in your metaphorical pond. Especially if you end up luring someone else in with you.

#long post #meta #fandom

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tsarisfanfiction · 3 years ago

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Earthquake

Fandom: Thunderbirds Rating: Teen Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort Characters: Gordon, Scott, Tracy Brothers

It was one of those disasters they knew was going to be bad before they even arrived.

Final entry for @whumptober-archive with day 31 “hurt & comfort” using the prompt disaster zone. An apt prompt for a TAG fic! I had a few things I wanted to hit going into this one, especially involving all the boys, and honestly I just ran out of time. I should have been in bed nearly an hour ago and that’s messing with my editing brain, so consider this a draft rather than the final thing.

I’ll probably completely rewrite the fic before I archive it because I’m not that happy with how it stands right now, so don’t expect to see it on FFN/AO3 just yet. I don’t have any idea when it’ll happen, because the worst thing about only having a one day weekend is that everything piles up and I run out of time to do everything on the list... but it’s on the list of things to do when I have time, so hopefully you’ll have that to look forwards to at some point.

Gordon viewed the approaching scene in abject horror as Virgil brought Thunderbird Two in as close as she could go. Behind him, he was vaguely aware of Alan leaning forwards in his seat, morbidly enthralled by the destruction before them. Virgil was saying nothing, but his knuckles were tinted with white, and John’s hologram hadn’t winked out of existence post-briefing like he tended to do if there was nothing else to say.

And what was there to say? Downtown San Francisco looked like so much rubble. A bomb site, although that was an incorrect conclusion.

Earthquake.

The American city was no stranger to earthquakes, that was for sure, but the sheer scale and devastation of this particular one had left even their fortifications and specially adapted buildings in the dust. Literally.

That alone was enough to turn the mood over International Rescue sombre; even before they landed and started work, it was obvious that the fatality number was going to be high. They’d be pulling out more bodies than survivors, despite John’s best guidance from above, but that grim fact wasn’t the only thing that had them approaching the danger zone with a disquieted air.

Tracy Industries had offices in San Fran. None of their major ones, not like the HQ in New York or its secondary hub in Auckland, but offices nonetheless, and every so often, offices needed visiting by the higher-ups.

The earthquake had coincided exactly with Scott’s visit, and they’d heard nothing from their biggest brother since the quake had hit. Considering that it had hit in the early hours of the morning, when everyone was still supposed to be asleep in bed, they hadn’t actually heard from him since just before he’d turned in for the US-night, four hours before the quake, but that detail was insignificant against the carnage Thunderbird Two was seeking a landing space in.

Scott wouldn’t have slept through an earthquake. He should have been on the wire to John immediately, or certainly as soon as he knew what was going on. He definitely should have answered at least one of John’s many, many frantic hails.

He hadn’t, and that had them fearing the worst.

The rescue itself, for the most part, passed in an adrenaline-spiked blur. Not particularly unusual, especially with something of this scale and such a high mortality rate – getting too emotionally invested only ever ended badly – and Gordon was grubby with dust, dirt, and blood smears when his brain re-engaged fully to throw everything into a very sharp relief.

He hadn’t known that he was working the sector where Scott’s hotel had been. John hadn’t given him that information, and he hadn’t asked for it, but as he found a dust-coloured, limp hand sticking out from beneath a pile of rubble, awareness slammed back.

It wasn’t that he recognised the hand – there was no way of recognising any hands in the mess of this disaster – but that he recognised the watch.

Scott never took his watch off when he left home. It worked as his comm, leaving him constantly connected to Thunderbird Five, and by extension the rest of them, and never raised questions with anyone else, because watches doubling as phones were commonplace nowadays.

Even if Scott’s was Brains’-created, and therefore rather more than most people’s watches.

Gordon might not recognise his brother’s hand underneath the dust, but he certainly recognised the watch.

He grabbed hold of the hand, rather more desperately than he intended to. “Scott?”

Intellectually, he knew that there wasn’t likely to be any response. His brother was buried, had been buried for several hours. If he was still conscious-

The hand twitched.

Gordon froze.

“Scott?”

Fingertips curled loosely, a touch too light to even be considered a grip, but Gordon was hyper-aware of every movement his brother’s hand made. Those were definitely conscious actions and he cupped his own hand over the weak fingers.

“I’ve got you,” he promised. “We’ll get you out.”

The fingers twitched again.

Reluctantly, Gordon pulled one hand back to slam it against his comm. “Virgil! I’ve located Scott. He’s buried but conscious.”

“Is he talking?” It was John that responded.

“Negative.” Gordon grit his teeth. “I’ve just got his hand.”

“See what level of response you can get,” Virgil ordered. “I’ll be over as soon as I can. Alan, what’s your status?”

Gordon tuned out his younger brother’s response, focusing on his allocated task.

“Scott,” he called, “squeeze my hand once for no, and two for yes. Do you understand?”

For a moment, there was nothing, and he feared that Scott was less conscious than he’d originally thought.

Then came two twitches.

Gordon’s shoulders sagged with relief.

“Virgil’s coming to dig you out,” he told him. “You’re too buried for me to get out alone.”

Two more twitches.

“Let’s talk about you, shall we?” he continued, wrapping his other hand back around Scott’s. “Can you move? Twitches don’t count.”

There was no immediate response, which was typical Scott and gave Gordon his answer even before the reluctant single twitch eventually came.

That wasn’t a surprise, but it did tell Gordon that Scott was going to be a nightmare during recovery because he was almost certainly injured. An injured Scott meant a grounded Scott, and a grounded Scott was not fun to be around.

He kept talking to him, as much as anything to try and make sure his brother stayed conscious, as well as to keep him reassured that he wasn’t alone, until Virgil arrived with the jaws of life, Alan hot on his heels.

They both zeroed in on the hand Gordon held, and he could see the moment they recognised the watch because Alan’s eyes widened, and Virgil’s jaw set.

“Let’s get him out,” his older brother said, stepping forwards. “Gordon, you need to get out of the way.”

Gordon didn’t want to let go of his brother’s hand, but Virgil was right.

“See you soon, Scott,” he said, and got a double twitch in response before he gently set it down on the rubble.

Alan was hanging back, clutching a hoverstretcher, and Gordon joined him as Virgil exercised the mechanical muscle to start the process of digging their big brother out.

It took some time before he got enough shifted that the pale, dust-covered and red-smeared face of Scott could be seen. Gordon wasted no time in springing forwards, leaving Alan in the dust as he dodged around where Virgil was still working on freeing his torso to kneel by Scott’s head.

Blue eyes were half-lidded at best, drifting towards closed despite Scott’s clear attempts otherwise. The red smearing down the side of his face seemed to come from a graze rather than a direct blow, with fragments of rubble embedded in the skin.

“Hey, Scott,” he said, lightly brushing dust-coloured hair back from the wound. “You’re not looking too hot there.”

His brother opened his mouth silently, mouthing words and scrunching his face up in frustration when no sound came out.

“Take it easy,” Gordon insisted. “Once you’re clear we can get a medscanner on you and see what the damage is, so you don’t need to try and tell us.” Not that they’d take anything Scott said at face value, anyway.

Scott’s eyelids fluttered closed for a moment before snapping open. It seemed like the lure of unconsciousness was strong, and Gordon was not a fan of Scott passing out when they didn’t know how bad it was.

Virgil grunted as he moved a particularly large chunk, and Scott let out a pained gasp. Gordon ran his hands over his brother’s hair soothingly.

“It looks like his legs are in a small air pocket,” Virgil reported after a moment, crouching down. “Alan, get that stretcher over here and we’ll see if we can move him. I don’t want to move any more of this rubble if I can help it.”

Glancing up at the rubble in question, Gordon realised that it did look rather precarious. If they moved the wrong thing, Scott might well end up buried again.

“F.A.B.,” Alan responded, voice shaking just a little, before appearing next to Gordon. He seemed unable to look away from the limp body, eyes wide and round even as he mechanically set up the stretcher. Gordon shifted around until he was in a better position for moving Scott, never breaking contact with him, and clouding blue eyes followed his movement sluggishly.

Scott wasn’t going to be clinging onto consciousness for much longer. He probably wasn’t going to make it through being moved. Gordon grabbed the medscanner off of Alan and deployed it, praying that Scott wasn’t too seriously injured.

Multiple hairline fractures flagged up, especially around his ribs, and Scott’s body might as well be one huge bruise waiting to form, but all in all he seemed relatively intact. If he tried, he could probably move now he wasn’t pinned, but Gordon wasn’t going to be encouraging that any time soon.

“Get his hips,” he ordered Alan, hooking his own hands under Scott’s arms. “Make sure his legs and feet don’t snag on anything while I pull.” Virgil and his mechanical arms were bracing the rest of the rubble, making sure nothing fell as they worked and leaving the actual extraction to the youngest two. “Move him on three. One… two… three.”

He heaved, Alan guided, and the ragdoll that was Scott slid free, eyes flickering closed and this time not reopening. Gordon wished he was surprised as they manoeuvred him onto the stretcher.

“One Scott extracted,” he reported to John as Alan set the jets going and Virgil tentatively released the precarious rubble the moment they were clear. “He’s unconscious, but I think it’s pain and exhaustion, not a specific injury.”

“Understood,” John replied. “Will he need a hospital?”

“We should manage at home,” Virgil interjected, appearing suddenly behind him and peering over his shoulder at the scan results. “The hospitals are going to be overrun and there’s nothing life-threatening in the scans.”

“F.A.B.,” John acknowledged. “Virgil, sector eighteen are asking for some heavy lifting assistance; they’ve found a pocket of trapped people.”

Virgil heaved a sigh and straightened. “I’m on my way. Gordon, Alan, get Scott settled in Two’s cockpit. We’ll need the module to transport the rest of the injured.”

“F.A.B.” That was a sobering thought; Thunderbird Two’s module had a huge capacity.

But then, this had been a hell of a disaster. In the scheme of things, Scott had been lucky, not that he looked it on the stretcher, all pale and dust-covered with streaks of red where debris had scraped him and pyjamas torn beyond all saving.

“Let’s move, Alan,” he said, gripping the head of the stretcher and starting to tow their big brother away from the remains of his hotel. “This rescue isn’t over yet.”

Just because Scott was safe didn’t mean everyone was. Back in Thunderbird Two, the two of them docked the hoverstretcher in place at the back of the cockpit before leaving food and drink in easy reach in case Scott woke up before they got back from dealing with the rest of the danger zone.

One monitor attached so they could make sure he wasn’t worsening, and John deployed to keep half an eye on him while he worked, and they reluctantly left him to get back to work.

#whumptober2021 #no.31 #disaster zone #thunderbirds are go #fic #thunderbirds are go fanfiction #gordon tracy #scott tracy #virgil tracy #alan tracy #john tracy #thunderwhump

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katierosefun · 3 years ago

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2021 fic review

tagged by @renegadeontherunn and @stolen-pen-name23!!! ily <3333

total number of completed works: 69 fics! (not counting the ones that are still marked incomplete)

total word count: according to ao3, i’ve written approximately 437,652 words this year...which is roughly 100k words more than last year...which i found a huge surprise, because? i thought i wrote less this year? but i suppose not--i guess if we counted all of my unposted works/original works, i probably wrote...much more than 440k words too--

looking back did you write more, less, or the expected amount of fic this year?: oh, def. more. according to ao3, i apparently wrote about 50-ish fics in 2020, and like...given that i’ve written almost 20 more fics than the year before is a little insane to me.

your own favorite story of this year?: oh, that’s a hard one. i tend to be very self-critical, but i think my favorite stories were last ones out and under the same sky.

did you take any writing risks this year?: i wrote for fandoms that are much, much smaller than star wars fandom--and that experience was so meaningful to me. if i’m going to be honest, there was a moment where i felt...very much so tired with my own writing/becoming insanely critical of everything i wrote. lots of questions about why aren’t i as good as i used to be? and all that dramatic stuff (alexa play nothing new by taylor swift)--and somehow, i wound up watching a show with a much smaller fandom, wrote a few fics going into the experience knowing that i was reaching a smaller audience, and somehow found my love for writing again in the process. ‘twas a very healing experience, and i’m very, very glad that late july-early august caroline took that jump. (and i do feel healed enough to very tentatively re-approach star wars fic, although now i have new characters in the back of my head to cheer me on.)

do you have any fanfic goals for the new year?: oh, totally. i want to make the push to getting the beyond evil fic archive to hit 1k fics by the end of 2022 (we almost hit 500 by the end of 2021, which is huge, considering it was roughly 200 fics when i first started writing)...and i also want to finish some of my star wars fics, and i also want to pursue many more ambitious projects that play around with the fic format a bit more. (i’m doing that a little bit with about love (and what’s after that) in that it’s very inspired by the kdrama formula, and it’s very fun.)

most popular story of the year? for the first time, which is honestly quite a surprise, because i wrote that in.. . .a very short amount of time and felt strange about posting it.

story most under-appreciated? hmm…probably moonlight sonata, which was a fantastic collab filled with so many talented people. but if we’re talking stories written solely by me, probably already stepped on this road, but i expected that much. either way though, i do still love that story!

most fun story to write?: probably what happened in the gundark cave, which was such…a bizarre story? but i weirdly enjoyed writing the dynamic between raised-as-a-sith anakin with his funny abandonment issues and obi-wan, who’s both exasperated and still a bit sad about what happened to that boy on tatooine. i do want to revisit that au, just because i have a whole story about them in my head still—

most unintentionally telling story: oh god. probably a good bad person (which i can’t ever re-read as a result), as well as chose the manyang garden over gwanghwamun square, because what started as a silly story about a rare pair turned into a character study that might have taken me a few days to recover from lol

biggest disappointment: i wish i completed my tcw multi chaps. i’ve been telling myself to be a bit kinder lately, because 2021 was full of so many surprises, both good and unfortunately…not so good, which made it much harder to revisit tcw wips. but here’s to better luck this year!

biggest surprise: how strangely pleasant it was to broaden my horizons writing for a different, smaller fandom? i’ve already mentioned this, but i do think i kinda fell back in love with writing because of it…and i think i strengthened my own writing too, which makes me so glad.

my favorite part of fandom this year: strengthening and maintaining friendships with my favorite people in the fandom, making new friends from different fandoms, and i suppose, in a weirdly cheesy way…recognizing that there are people in each fandom who are much more than just readers or fandom friends—but they’re also genuine companions and genuine people who truly, really want the best for you. i’ve had many ups and downs, and i have forever been touched by the gestures of kindness from people who i’ve only talked to through the screen.

i’ve also just…been incredibly touched by the amount of star wars people who cherish my enjoyment of beyond evil, rather than get annoyed with me because of it (which has happened on an occasion or two…i always felt a bit of guilt when seeing follower or user subscriptions go down because i’ve written more about beyond evil than star wars this year. for that reason, i spent a lot of time offline or just didn’t bother opening stats/follower numbers.) as such, i was so very scared that i’d be marked as a dead account, but each and every time i felt apologetic (which is silly! i know!), i’ve been met with genuine support and happiness. like. idk. mayhaps a touch dramatic, but it makes me feel so very warm and so very appreciative of all the people in fandom circles who have either quietly supported me from the sidelines or encouraged me to dig deeper or just enthused in my own moments of happiness. my heart is so, so warmed by the love and support. :’)))

so! that said, some tags: @skywalker-swift @pandora15 @vanilla-chip-101 @kckenobi @giggles-and-freckles

#tag game #thank you!!#i might be tagging people again oopsie sorry if i am!

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elwenyere · 2 years ago

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🧐 🤗 🤯

Thank you so much for the asks, Ferret!!! These were really fun questions to answer. <3<3<3

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

This varies a lot from fic to fic for me, though I would say I usually do end up looking up at least one fact or definition or location per story. Probably the most research I've ever done for a fic was when I was writing "Citation Needed" with you! We decided to make the fic semi-epistolary by including primary documents from Prof Tony's research into Project Insight, and I had a lot of fun hunting through the archives at UMass Amherst to find models for some of the WWII-era forms (which you then used to create gorgeous edits for the story).

For my sins, I am also completely addicted to similes, and that means that when I'm writing fic set in a different time period or narrative universe, I spend a lot of time looking for objects to use in worldbuilding-appropriate figurative language. The amount of time I've spent on Wookiepedia looking up raw materials or small mammals or winged insects - or just Googling things like "what is dinnerware made of in Star Wars?"...it truly doesn't bear thinking about. XD

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

I think one of the things I've struggled with the most as a writer is my anxiety about reception: especially with stories that I've put a lot of time into (and I am generally a very slow writer), I often feel panicked about posting and very emotional about waiting to see if people will read and enjoy. It's been a slow, ongoing process for me to learn how to distance myself from the numbers, and one of the things that's really helped is finding friends with whom I can share the process of creation and the stresses of posting. So I think my first advice to new writers would be: (1) as much as you're able, write to learn, be surprised, take risks, get absorbed, and bracket the things (like popularity) that are out of your control; and (2) find some trusted friends who can help sustain your joy in the work when reception conditions get tough.

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

Until about a month ago, I would have said "smut," because it took me a very long time to build up the courage to attempt that hurdle. That's still an area where I hope to grow, but to be honest I feel like my biggest struggle at the moment is writing good descriptions of characters' clothing and appearance (writing characters who wear armor in particular means that I am constantly battling my inability to remember whether I started the scene with their helmet on or off).

Thank you again for these wonderful asks, Ferret!!! I had a great time with this. <3<3<3

#writer asks #ask meme #thank you ferret!!!

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freshlybakedspiderbread · 3 years ago

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Once again went and listened to rd-sounds' △ (which is also now on spotify), and I don't remember if I talked about this album when i got it some months back, but I haven't stopped being really fond of it.

I was thinking of making a big post where I go into why I like each and every song on it (I'll say real quick yhsy my favourite song in the album is probably シン・汎用合成クラスメイト・宇佐見227号 which is a remake of an older song, but this version is a super catchy duet about sumireko and fitting in and society and robot metaphors and robot literal and whatnot), but I'm tired/lazy and don't feel like doing that, so i just wanna talk about the nonsense i love that these dyz hifuu albums seem to have a tradition of doing.

So the very general gist of the album and the cover song's premise is that the world is basically ending but you should pledge your support to the hifuu club for the remainder of our limited existence.

All the songs in the album are labeled with the designation U7731, which the booklet kinda sorta explains is the universe these songs are from. Except for the very first one in the cd, which is instead labelled U0001, and this isn't a song at all but a distorted audio message from someone from this universe number 1, stating they are from the hifuu club, and announcing the album's name. Its all flavour and I love it.

And that's fun and all, but if you scan the qr code that comes with the cd, you get to go to a super secret webpage that contains archived and ruins notes from U7730, the previous universe (and also get to access four additional moody instrumental music tracks n_n) and the gist of the information as told to me by someone else because I can't read japanese, is that its the hifuu club's notes about how this universe met its end just like all the others and its on to the next one.

And i thought that was it for a while, but weeks later, I looked up the album for fun on thbwiki and some dyz fansaites and I noticed they all listed an extra song from this album that I wasn't aware of?? After a lot of mucking around and asking around, I found out that if you viewed the page source of that super secret webpage, there's a clue (in japanese) that hints at you to travel even further back before universe number 1, and to number zero instead o_0 And that's where you find the very first activity logs of hifuu's search of life in other universes, and its in this extra secret hidden page where you find a full and clear version of that distorted audio track from all the way at the start of the CD...... Gah, I love this whole weird thing a lot @_@

The previous times these albums made me jump through hoops like this (密 and 夢) was something, but this felt like a whole step up in terms of how much i got into this surreal story and atmosphere. I mean its still really simply done, but actually going through it, listening to the songs, discovering the clue in the Page Source, and finding that final final final piece put the biggest smile on my face.

#sometimes I really love theming and i really love themed gimmicks!!#touhou #doujin #music #dyz

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commandtower · 3 years ago

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More decklist updates

Hey again folks, I’m back with another round of decklist updates for you to check out. This time, I’ve updated my lists for Yeva, Nature’s Herald, Erebos, God of the Dead, and Experiment Kraj. Each of them is now up to date with the current physical version, including changes up to Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.

If you’d like more details about the changes, you can read about them below.

The main name of the game with this round of updates was improving the speed and consistency of these lists. These three decks are among my longest-lived Commander decks and are often the most difficult for me to effectively change just because they’ve become so tightly packed with powerful cards over their lifetimes, but I really wanted to improve some of the card selection in them.

Yeva’s deck received a pretty sweeping overhaul, obtaining a number of new tools for its arsenal. Not the least among them was an Allosaurus Shepherd, replacing Gaea’s Herald as my cheap counter option due to its improved utility, reduced cost and the removal of the symmetrical aspect. It’s kind of a shame, because the Herald has one of my all time favorite pieces of art in the game, but the Shepherd is just an all-around better card. Other changes include the addition of a Kogla, the Titan Ape, a powerful piece of removal that plays very well with Yeva’s addition of flash, and a Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate, which I’ve talked about previously as one of the best cards for Green decks to come out of this past year. The suite of ramp spells was also tweaked in this list, swapping Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach for Three Visits and Nature’s Lore. Since Yeva costs four mana to play, swapping the three mana ramp spells for two cost alternatives allows for smoother play into a Commander drop without a loss of tempo. I also swapped out the Snow-Covered Forests for regular options as the deck no longer makes use of snow mana after this recent change up, and I don’t really feel like getting blown out by a Break the Ice. Lastly, I recently came into possession of a few copies of The Great Henge thanks to lucky pulls from promo packs at my local store, so I added one to this list. It’s just an all-around great card for any deck that runs Green, and this list definitely loves to draw cards as it casts creatures.

Kraj has always had a bit of trouble with turn consistency, and so the biggest thing I wanted to improve with the changes to this list was the turn-by-turn progression, smoothing out ramp options and card draw a little nicer. A previous upgrade removed the spell-based ramp in the list in favor of more mana dorks for Kraj to copy, but I’ve opted to re-add a Cultivate to the list just for a bit of assistance in case of emergency. Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy was an easy include here and adds a lot of options for the list, offering a boost to mana production as well as the ability to dig for options. Branching Evolution and Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider join the list as additional static counter buffers, allowing for faster and more explosive buildup, and The Ozolith helps to reduce some of the blowback that comes from losing creatures to removal. Kraj’s spellbook was enhanced a bit by a visit to Strixhaven, picking up some excellent modal pieces in Decisive Denial and Quandrix Command that improve the list’s available options in various situations. This list also gets a Great Henge, and it’s honestly probably even better here than it is in my mono-Green list as Kraj directly benefits from the Henge’s counter distribution. I think the cards I've added here will help a lot with the deck’s overall progression, and the games I’ve played with this version have already felt much smoother and more involved.

Erebos has mostly been upgraded to allow for increased speed. He’s seen the inclusion of a number of new, slimmer-cost options compared to his previous cards that help to get him into the game faster, and a fair amount of new mana ramp options through additions of cards like Forsworn Paladin for some improved early-to-mid game progression. Feed the Swarm came in thanks to its unique capacity as a targeted enchantment removal in mono-Black, and Baleful Mastery replaced another piece of targeted removal thanks to its cost reduction option. Dauthi Voidwalker and Opposition Agent were added as lean-costed cards that can severely hamper other decks’ gameplans, which is true to what this deck was always trying to do. Rankle, Master of Pranks was introduced to the deck due to the versatile suite of options available to him, offering a customizable selection of abilities that can change to fit a number of situations. I’ve also chosen to add Boseiju, Who Shelters All to protect some of my win conditions like Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate. I decided to leave the snow lands in this list as it still makes use of them through cards like Extraplanar Lens and Dead of Winter, although that may change if I start seeing more copies of Break the Ice in my local meta.

Overall, I think these changes will help to keep these decklists viable as Commander continues to evolve as a format. Even though these are some of my longest-maintained decks, they’re also some of my favorites, so I’m happy to see new options that help to keep them updated.

If you’d like to take a look at all of the lists I’ve posted to the blog, past and present, you can check out the archive of my deck posts by using the Decklists tab in my blog’s sidebar. If you missed the previous list of updates I made to some of my other active decks, it’s available here. I have a number of new lists I’ve been working on over the past while that I’m prepping to share as well, so if these lists were to your liking, please stay tuned for more content like this to come. Thanks!

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coldflasher · 4 years ago

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Title: don’t threaten me with a good time Chapters: 1/1 Length: 7.7k Fandom: The Flash (TV 2014) Rating: Gen Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Minor/Background Relationships: Cisco Ramon/Kamilla Hwang, Barry Allen/Iris West Characters: Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, Kamilla Hwang, Caitlin Snow, Killer Frost, Iris West, Leonard Snart, Original Male Characters Additional Tags: Alcohol, Drunken Shenanigans, Bisexual Barry Allen, The Flash 7x12 Good-bye Vibrations.

Kamilla leaned forwards to read the front page. “The Barry Allen Drunkenness Scale.” Bemused, she looked up. “What’s this? “This,” said Cisco, “is the result of a great deal of research and a number of hard-earned lessons.” He pulled up a chair and sat beside her, pulling the folder towards them. “There are eight stages of Drunk Barry, each one with a varying level of severity. It begins with stage one.”

Inspired by the Santiago Drunkenness Scale from Brooklyn-99. Team Flash are throwing a party to celebrate Kamilla and Cisco’s departure from Central City, and Kamilla wants to make sure they go out with a bang. But with great power comes great responsibility, and sometimes responsibility means making sure your friend doesn’t break the sound barrier by doing the worm at Mach 2.

Read on AO3

@dctvgen (i hope this is okay!! didn’t really use any prompts but i had this one saved up and seemed like a good time to post it, lmk it’s not suitable!!)

Life came at you fast. After seven years being besties with a speedster, working to save the world, Cisco knew that to be true in more ways than one. But apparently despite everything he’d seen, it still had the capacity to surprise on him.

One minute the thought of leaving Central City had been a vague, abstract thought – a ‘what-if’ or a ‘maybe’ he dwelled upon whenever yet another crisis announced itself with a shower of broken glass raining into his Vibeuccino, or when he’d compared the news in Central City, which was all doom and gloom and murderous metas, to somewhere nice and peaceful like Keystone, where the biggest news story of the day was some kid winning the national Spelling Bee Championship. Then the job offer came in, and Kamilla had tested the waters with wanting to leave – and now their stuff was all packed and in boxes, he had a start date at ARGUS, and what had been a daydream was now a very clear reality. He’d hung up the gloves, said a final goodbye to Vibe.

It was the other goodbyes that were going to be the hard part.

“It just feels weird, you know?” he said, pausing in the middle of hanging bunting from the corner of the cortex. “We’re saying goodbye to everyone we know. This has been my life for almost eight years now. Team Flash are my family. It feels weird to celebrate leaving all that behind.”

“Don’t think of it as a celebration of what we’re leaving behind,” said Kamilla, who was sat at the desk, partway through ordering pizza. “Think of it as a celebration of everything we’ve accomplished. Making friends and building inventions and saving the world! I know it’s difficult and change can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve done amazing things, and I think it’s important to honour that.”

Cisco sighed as he successfully stuck the flags to the wall. He climbed down from the table he was stood on and joined her at the desk in his usual chair, pushing himself back and forth with his foot. “You’re right,” he said. “You’re always right. I’m not getting cold feet, I promise. I’m excited. We’re going to make this work. We’ve done amazing things, and we’re going to do even more. Together.”

Kamilla beamed. “That’s the spirit.” She held out her hand for a fist-bump.

Grinning, Cisco returned it. “You’re such a dork.”

“Which is exactly why you love me,” Kamilla countered, with a few final clicks and a flourish as she placed the pizza order. She consulted the list on her phone. “Okay, so we’ve got the cake, the decorations, the drinks, and the pizza is in transit. There’s just one more thing we need.”

She slid past him and made her way towards the small metallic fridge tucked away in the corner. Kamilla typed in the passcode 05-20-80 – the release date of The Empire Strikes Back – and the fridge unlocked with a clunk, revealing two test tube holders – one containing a single emergency vial of Velocity IX, and another that held eight tubes of liquid a few shades lighter than blood.

Cisco glanced over, bemused. “Babe, did you stash your Kraft beers in my security fridge? Because that seems a little excessive.”

Kamilla eased the second rack of tubes off the shelf like a tray of freshly baked cookies out of the oven. “No, I’m just getting a couple of vials of 500 proof for Barry. I didn’t want him to feel left out of the festivities.”

Cisco had met a lot of speedsters in his time, but in that moment he was pretty sure he moved faster than any of them as he sprinted across the room to intercept. Startled, Kamilla jerked back and the test tubes clinked together like champagne glasses mid-toast.

“Sorry, can we just back up a little bit – you’re what now?” said Cisco.

“I’m grabbing some drinks for Barry,” Kamilla repeated slowly. “This is his special speedster booze, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Cisco said nervously. “It is, but…”

“But…?” Kamilla prompted.

“Listen,” he said, hands up in a pacifying gesture. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, but that is a highly controlled substance and it’s really in everyone’s best interests if you put it back.”

Kamilla grew wide-eyed. “Why? Is it dangerous?”

“I mean, if any normal person drank it, it’d pretty much liquidize their insides, but that’s not the problem.”

As he spoke, Cisco headed over to the shelf on the wall, ran his fingers along the various binders tucked onto the shelf, and pulled one off. Cisco carried it over to the table, pushed aside the keyboard and laid the folder flat in front of her.

“The problem,” he said, flipping it open, “is this.”

Kamilla leaned forwards to read the front page. “The Barry Allen Drunkenness Scale.” Bemused, she looked up. “What’s this?”

“This,” said Cisco, “is the result of a great deal of research and a number of hard-earned lessons.” He picked up the metal test tube rack and returned it to the fridge, his fingers flying across the buttons to input the code before he slid the vials back into place. “It’s also the reason why this stuff doesn’t leave the lab except in dire emergencies, including but not limited to break-ups, deaths and severe metahuman disasters.” Decisively, he closed the fridge and it locked again with a clunk and a beep.

“I don’t understand.”

“That’s because you are fortunate enough to have never before encountered an inebriated Barry Allen,” said Cisco. “Let me walk you through it.” He pulled up a chair and sat beside her, pulling the folder towards them. “There are nine stages of Drunk Barry, each one with a varying level of severity. It starts with stage one.”

1 DRINK BARRY: A LITTLE CLINGY

One of Barry’s many wonderful qualities is his propensity for affection. Unimpeded by the bounds of modern-day toxic masculinity, 1 Drink Barry generously bestows physical affection on everyone he encounters. To put it plainly: he’s a hugger.

Standing outside Barry and Iris’ front door, Cisco checked his watch.

Usually at this time of night, he’d be hanging out in the cortex watching the red dot darting around on the monitor as Barry did a lap of the city, or in his lab tinkering with some new invention. Tonight, though, was different. They’d all agreed work was off-limits – time to take a hard-earned break. Cisco had been looking forward to it all week, but he guessed the rest of Team Flash didn’t share his enthusiasm, because they were late. That wasn’t like Caitlin at all. Shrugging, he lifted his hand to knock.

The click of heels made him turn just in time to see Caitlin bouncing up the stairs in her heels. “Hi, I’m here! Sorry I’m late; Frost and I couldn’t agree on an outfit.” She leaned in. “Did you bring the, uh…”

Cisco slid a silver flask out of his pocket slightly. “Sure did.”

“Then I guess we’re ready to go!”

“Damn right. …Ladies first?”

Caitlin knocked. They waited, listening to the rattle of six locks being unfastened one at a time, until the door opened to reveal Iris standing on the threshold wearing a tight red dress and a leather jacket.

Cisco whistled. “Damn. You look good.”

“You’re not so bad yourself,” said Iris as she stepped back from the door to allow them entry. “Barry will be down in a second, he got held up at work, so he’s a little behind –”

There was a whoosh and a crackle of lightning, and Barry skidded to a stop beside her with windswept hair and a grin. “Here! Hey, guys.”

“Oh. Famous last words.” Iris reached for her purse and swung it onto her shoulder. “Well I’m also running late, so I’d better get going. You guys have fun! And try to stay out of trouble, okay?”

“I’m afraid we can’t make any promises, cos everybody knows there ain’t no party like a Team Flash party!” said Cisco. “You sure you don’t wanna come with us? It’s gonna be one hell of a night.”

“Thank you, but I’m going out with a couple of the girls from CCPN tonight, so… rain check?”

“I’ll hold you to it,” Cisco warned.

“You’d better.” She rested her hand on Barry’s arm. “I’ll see you later, okay? I love you.”

“I love you too,” said Barry, and he leaned in for a kiss.

“Boo! Get a room!” Cisco hollered.

Iris rolled her eyes fondly. “Goodbye, Cisco,” she said, and headed out.

Cisco sighed. “And then there were three.” He looked from Barry to Caitlin and back again, stretching out on the sofa. “Okay, drinks!” He headed into the kitchen and returned with a bottle of wine in one hand and three glasses in the other.

“Uh, isn’t the drinking supposed to start after you leave the house?” asked Caitlin.

“Only if you’re an amateur! You always have a drink or two before going out on the town. It’s financially savvy.”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass,” said Barry when Cisco offered him a glass. “No use wasting perfectly good alcohol when it doesn’t even touch the sides.”

“That,” said Cisco, “is why you’ll be drinking this.” He pulled out a silver flask from inside the breast pocket of his blazer. “I call it 500 Proof 2,” he said, and held it dramatically aloft like Frodo holding the one ring.

Caitlin wrinkled her nose. “Really?” she said.

“The name’s a work in progress,” he admitted. “But the drink itself…” He kissed the flask. “She’s ready to go.”

Barry eyed the flask warily. “I don’t know…”

“Oh, come on, you’ve earned it. The city can manage without the Flash for one night. Go on, live a little.” When Barry continued to look skeptical, Cisco started to chant. “Barry, Barry, Barry–”

Grinning, Caitlin joined in. Barry endured it for all of thirty seconds before he rolled his eyes and snatched the flask. Caitlin and Cisco both cheered.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” said Cisco.

He splashed wine into his and Caitlin’s glasses, and passed one to her. She took it with a twinkle in her eye.

“All right, Team Flash!” Cisco whooped, and they clinked their glasses against Barry’s flask before they all drank.

Barry pulled a face. “Jesus! That’s – that’s potent.” He coughed, eyes watering.

“You’re welcome,” said Cisco. “We made a couple of tweaks to the formula. It should stay in your system longer instead of just burning off in thirty seconds flat like the first batch.”

“It tastes like rocket fuel!”

“Don’t worry about it. It’ll put some hairs on your chest,” Cisco said dismissively.

“You can say that again,” muttered Barry, massaging his chest.

“Speaking of hairs on your chest,” said Caitlin, curling up comfortably in her seat. “Did they grow back yet?”

“Not entirely,” admitted Barry. “It’s sort of a peach fuzz.”

“That’ll teach you not to get so close to my experiments,” said Cisco.

“Maybe it’ll teach you to label them better,” said Caitlin.

“Really? Don’t do me like that!”

“Sorry, it’s true.”

This triggered a bout of good-natured bickering as they debated the results of some of Cisco’s more disastrous experiments. Before long they were all laughing, loosened up by the drinks. Barry, who was perched on the arm of Caitlin’s chair, leaned against her.

“I love you guys, you know that?”

“We love you too, Barr – ooof! Oh. Okay,” said Caitlin, bewildered. Barry had slid off the arm of the chair and squeezed up next to her, taking up half the chair like a Great Dane still trying to sit in its owner’s lap.

“Look at him, he’s getting tipsy already,” Cisco teased.

“Shhh.” Barry rested his head contentedly on Caitlin’s shoulder. Amused, she patted his knee.

Cisco downed the rest of his drink. “All right, let’s get this show on the road.”

He offered Caitlin his hand – only to have Barry grab it instead. Then he grabbed Caitlin’s hand too.

“Oh, we’re holding hands?” said Cisco. “Is that a thing we do now?”

“It is when we’re running,” Barry said, grinning.

Caitlin’s eyes widened. “Oh. No, no, no runni–”

The rest of her sentence was lost to the wind.

2 DRINK BARRY: KINDA CLUMSY

When Barry became a speedster, he gained a massive boost in motor functions, including enhanced reflexes that have massively improved his coordination. Prior to this transformation, his ability to walk unhindered across a flat surface was roughly equal to that of Bella Swan from Twilight. Two-Drink Barry is harmless, but he must be kept at a safe distance from breakable objects.

Okay, so travelling at super speed sucked – Cisco would stick to breaches from now on, than you very much – but he had to admit it had its advantages. They’d beaten the evening rush by minutes and found themselves a table, where they had been comfortably situated for the past half hour. Since then the bar had filled rapidly, and now they were surrounded by people. Glasses clinked, bodies gyrated. All around them was laughter and the throb of music; he could feel the buzz of the bass against his elbows where they rested on the table.

“This is nice, isn’t it?” asked Caitlin. “No monsters, no metahumans… just the three of us having a few quiet drinks.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Cisco said darkly. “Also, I don’t know that the ‘drinks’ part is entirely accurate. The fastest man alive is about to lose his title. Where the hell is he?” Barry had offered to get the next round, but that was ten minutes ago and they hadn’t seen him since. Frowning, Cisco and scanned the room.

Just as he had started to get concerned, the crowd parted and Barry appeared with three glasses in his hands.

“It’s about time! What took you?”

“I’m so sorry,” said Barry. “I got held up at the bar, there was a huge li–”

Whatever he’d been about to say next was cut off as he abruptly tripped over his own feet.

All three drinks spilled everywhere. Lightning flickered as he lurched forwards to try and intercept, and he managed to right the glasses, but not before the majority of their contents had ended up all over the table.

Cisco’s plastic cup floated across the tabletop in a puddle of dismally fizzing coke, which dripped steadily into his lap. Caitlin looked down at her soaked sweater, hands held up in shock. Her eyes flared white.

“This,” snarled Frost, “is a cashmere sweater.”

Barry’s eyes were wide. “Oh my God, guys, I am so sorry.”

With a jerk of her head, Caitlin regained control. “It’s fine,” she said, then winced, presumably in response to whatever Frost snarled in the back of her head. “Really. It happens to the best of us.” She pulled the sopping wet fabric away from her with a grimace. “Um… does anyone have a tissue?”

“Let me get some paper towels!” said Barry.

Cisco reached out to stop him. “Actually, Barr, maybe you should –”

But it was too late: Barry had already turned around and crashed into a guy going in the opposite direction, who slopped beer all over himself. Cisco winced sympathetically.

“I’m sorry!” Barry said, while the guy glared and shook his wet hands.

“Maybe you should take a seat,” said Cisco.

Still apologising profusely, Barry sank onto his stool and shrank in on himself, nursing what was left of his drink while Caitlin went to get something to clear up the mess.

“So I guess those adjustments we made to the 500 proof are working, huh?” Cisco said with a smirk.

“Oh, they’re working,” said Barry. “Speaking of which, can I get a top-up?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Caitlin asked, returning with a wad of paper towels. She started to mop up the table.

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I’m not even buzzed, seriously. Tipsy at best. Come on, hit me.” He waved at his drink.

Cisco and Caitlin exchanged looks. There was a slight flush to Barry’s cheeks, and his eyes were a little brighter than usual, but other than that he seemed stable.

“I have wanted to study how the speedforce interacts with alcohol,” Caitlin admitted. “Metabolic processes aside, I am interested to measure the effects.”

“What the hell,” Cisco said. He unscrewed the cap of the flask and tipped it in to Barry’s glass, pouring a generous measure. “Knock yourself out.”

Barry beamed and picked up his drink. “Cheers,” he said, and they all clinked their half empty glasses.

Three Drink Barry: Barry Dance-Pants

This Barry is able to flawlessly replicate the choreography for every single Britney Spears music video unprompted. So far we have been unable to determine where he acquired this information.

They all agreed that it was best if Cisco got the next round. He didn’t retrieve the next lot of drinks any faster than Barry had – if anything, he was slower; people kept shoving in front of him every time he got close to the bar – but at least the glasses stayed upright this time. When he returned to the table, though, Caitlin was alone.

“Where’d Barry go?”

Caitlin frowned. “I thought he was with you.”

“Nope.” He passed her drink over to her.

Caitlin worried at her lower lip.

“Hey, don’t stress,” said Cisco. “Barry’s a big boy, he can take care of himself.”

“I don’t know. He’s been gone a while, and he wasn’t exactly steady on his feet. He might hurt himself.”

“Good thing we have a doctor on call,” said Cisco, sipping his drink.

“That’s not funny. Seriously, I’m worried about him. I’m not sure he should be left unsupervised.”

She had a point. Speed and immense clumsiness wasn’t a great combination – they’d learned that the hard way. Cisco downed the rest of his drink with a grimace. “All right, let’s go look for him.”

They got up and headed out onto the dancefloor. The music was so loud that the entire room vibrated, Britney Spears’ Womanizer throbbing through the room. Caitlin pulled back and made a face as she almost inhaled a mouthful of some stranger’s coarse blonde hair. She batted it away like cobwebs.

“Ugh. Remind me why we decided to come out on the busiest night of the week?”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” muttered Cisco, craning his neck. “Man, I can’t see him anywhere. It’s like playing Where’s Wally? Hey – hey, excuse me! Can I just squeeze – guys?” He attempted to slide past a knot of people, only to give up with a frustrated sigh. “Jesus, it’s like talking to a brick wall. What the hell are they looking at?”

Caitlin stood on her toes. “It looks like...” She stopped. “Oh, no.”

“What?”

She grabbed his arm and steered him through the crowd, using him as a battering ram to force her way through. Eventually, breathless and sweaty, they made it to the outskirts of the dancefloor, where Cisco finally got a good look at exactly what had captivated everyone’s attention.

Barry was in the middle of the dancefloor, tearing it up. He strutted up and down, squatted and slut-dropped before he arched his back and pumped his hips forward in several lewd thrusts. The crowd cheered.

“Oh my God,” said Caitlin.

“He is killing it!” Cisco cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Yes, Barry!”

Barry winked and blew a kiss, rolling over to air-hump the ground with an alarming level of enthusiasm.

“Should we maybe go over there?” asked Caitlin.

“In a second,” said Cisco. He held his phone up, pressed record and zoomed in on Barry’s gyrating body, careful to keep his face in shot. “I wanna get this for posterity’s sake.”

“Cisco!” Caitlin scolded, and reached out to cover the camera.

Cisco jerked the phone out of reach. “You are aware that his ringtone for you is still thirty seconds of you butchering Summer Lovin’?”

Caitlin pursed her lips. “On second thoughts,” she said. “I hope you’re getting this in HD.”

Cisco grinned and went back to recording.

“Okay, that’s a little embarrassing,” Kamilla conceded.

“That? That was iconic,” corrected Cisco. “The man has moves. I swear he was a professional dancer in another life. I still have that video; I’ll show you later if you ask me nicely…”

“I’ll hold you to it. But none of this explains why this stuff has to be so rigorously controlled. I mean, being clumsy, affectionate, kinda sloppy, tearing it up on the dancefloor… that sounds like pretty standard drunk behaviour.”

“The first three drinks aren’t the problem,” Cisco said darkly. “It’s what comes after that you have to worry about. See, drunk Barry is insatiable. One drink is never enough. Once he’s had a taste of that sweet, sweet 500 proof concentrated speedster juice, he won’t rest until he’s had more. And while he may be an icon, three-drink Barry soon gives way to…”

FOUR-DRINK BARRY: LOUD BARRY.

Barry Allen is a hero in every sense of the word. Time and time again he has sacrificed everything for the noble goal of making the world a better place. Barry doesn't save lives for the glory or the recognition; he does it because it's the right thing to do. But four-drink Barry… he thinks a little recognition might be nice.

The final chords of Womanizer faded out into a sea of applause. Beaming from ear to ear, Barry took a series of bows, flapping his hand as if to say, ‘oh, stop it!’ After a few more moments of thoroughly enjoying the spotlight, he disengaged from his loving admirers and headed back towards Cisco and Caitlin and slid breathlessly back into the booth. His sweaty hair stuck to his forehead.

“Where did that come from?” Cisco asked, impressed.

Barry shrugged. “I’m full of surprises.”

“Clearly. I think you just earned yourself another drink!”

Cisco handed him the flask, and Barry clinked it cheerfully against Cisco’s beer bottle before he tipped it back and swallowed with a grimace. His eyes watered.

“Damn. That never goes down any easier.”

“Well it is just concentrated alcohol,” Caitlin reminded him. “Speaking of which…” She pulled her testing kit out of her purse. “Four drinks should be more than enough to start showing some side-effects. Let me take a quick blood sample.” Before Barry could object, she stabbed a lancet into his finger.

“Ow!” Barry put his finger in his mouth and sucked on it.

“Everything okay there?”

They all turned. A blond man in a grey t-shirt stood a short distance away, looking at them in concern.

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m good. Just hurt my finger.” He held it up ruefully.

Blondie moved closer. “Well it’s your lucky night: I’m a nurse. Why don’t you let me take a look?”

Cisco plastered on a smile. “That’s real nice of you, but our friend here is actually a doctor, so –”

Barry held out his hand, overriding Cisco’s objections. Blondie took it and examined it, tracing his palm with the tip of his finger. Cisco rolled his eyes hard and took another swallow of his drink.

“I was just watching you out on the dancefloor,” Blondie said. “Those were some impressive moves.”

“Oh, it was nothing,” Barry said modestly.

“No, it was definitely something. If I busted out a routine like that I’d be laid up for a week. What’s your secret?”

“Funny you should say that, cos…” Barry leaned in and said impishly, “I’m actually the Flash.”

Cisco choked on his drink. It went straight up his nose; his sinuses were on fire. He coughed hard, eyes watering.

“Are you okay, man?” the stranger asked concernedly.

“Great,” Cisco managed.

Satisfied, Blondie’s attention returned to Barry. “Well, I think your finger’s okay.” His thumb pressed against the inside of Barry’s wrist and his forehead creased slightly. “Your pulse is pretty fast, though.”

“Is it?” Barry said, resting his chin on his hand. “I hadn’t noticed.”

Caitlin rolled her eyes.

Blondie released him, but he showed no signs of leaving. He looked Barry appraisingly up and down. “So you’re the Flash, huh?”

“Yep,” Barry said. His eyes twinkled. “Fastest man alive.”

“Mm. Maybe we’ll have to test that.”

At this point, Cisco decided, enough was enough. He slapped Barry on the back hard enough to make him stagger and complain, “Ow!”

“Ha!” he said. “This guy. He’s a kidder, right? A real riot. Hey, uh, Barry, can I talk to you for a second?”

Before Barry could object, Cisco had grabbed him by the back of the shirt and pulled him out of the main bar area into the corridor, where there was a line of people waiting for the bathroom. Out here it was cooler and while he could still feel the throb of the music through the sticky soles of his sneakers, at least he could hear himself think.

“Dude,” he said. “Seriously? What the hell?”

“Oh, come on. It’s just a little harmless flirting. Iris and I, we have an agreement–”

“I’m not talking about the flirting! You can’t just –” Cisco stopped and made himself take a very deep breath before he lowered his voice. “You can’t just tell people you’re the freaking Flash!”

Barry gave a slow, confused blink. “But I am the Flash.”

He didn’t say it quietly. Several heads turned their way.

Cisco gave an uncomfortable laugh and rolled his eyes, before darting them at Barry like, ‘this guy, am I right?’ After a moment, the bystanders lost interest and went back to their conversation, and Cisco lowered his voice. “I know that, Barry, but it’s a secret, remember?”

“A secret?” Barry’s eyes widened and he clapped his hands over his mouth. “Oh! Right, I forgot. I’m sorry.”

“You know what? It’s all good. Just a little misunderstanding. But uh, let’s keep that one under wraps from now on, okay? Lips…” He mimed zipping up his mouth.

Barry nodded dutifully. “Got it.”

“Okay.” Cisco exhaled heavily. Jesus. Babysitting a drunken speedster was hard work.

Barry patted him on the shoulder. “M’gonna go to the bathroom. I’ll be back in…” He held up two fingers. “Two seconds.”

“You’d better be. And remember –” He made the zipping motion again.

Barry imitated it, pretending to lock his mouth up and tossed away the imaginary key. Then he went to join the queue.

Feeling like he’d just aged a decade, Cisco made his way back to their booth. Mercifully, Blondie had gone to chat up some twink at the bar. Cisco sank back onto his stool and buried his head in his hands.

Caitlin, who was squeezing a few droplets of Barry’s blood onto a testing strip, made a sympathetic sound. “Not having a good time, huh?”

“I’d be having a great time if Black Canary over there could quit singing about his secret identity for five freaking minutes.” Cisco snatched the silver flask off the table and screwed the cap back on with a sharp twist. “We’re cutting him off right now, before we get into any more trouble.”

“Oh, come on, cut him a little slack. He doesn’t exactly get to let loose very often.”

“There’s letting loose and then there’s whatever the hell this is.” Cisco shook his head. “It’s like –”

A high-pitched shriek cut him off, and Cisco grimaced as it rang throughout the room. Everyone turned to the source of the commotion – and Cisco’s heart sank. Barry stood on the stage, fumbling with the microphone stand.

“Is this thing on?”

“Oh God,” said Caitlin.

Cisco launched himself at the stage, fighting through the crowd. As he did, Barry continued to ramble into the mic.

“Hi. My name’s Barry, Barry Allen, and I just wanted to say something real quick. Because I love this city. It’s like… my favourite city. And I love all of you. Especially you.” He pointed unsteadily at someone in the crowd and gave a clumsy wink. “Anyway, I’m gonna tell you a secret while I’m here. You guys can keep a secret, right? Shhh!” He put his fingers on his lips. “See, I’m not supposed to tell you this, but…” He leaned in so close that his lips brushed against the mic. “I’m the Fla –”

Just in time, Cisco jerked the mic away from him. “Flaaa–ha! Okay, that’s quite enough of that. I think my buddy here needs some air. Come on, Barry, let’s go.”

Luckily, Barry didn’t resist. He whooshed cheerfully as Cisco shunted him back to their booth and into his seat, then lolled sideways against Caitlin, who – with reflexes well-honed from constantly grabbing flying paperwork – managed to save her testing kit from being swept off the table.

Barry giggled. “I’m fast,” he said.

“Okay,” Cisco said resignedly. He turned to Caitlin. “Got any better ideas?”

She shrugged. “Pray that six-drink Barry is a little more tight-lipped?”

It sounded like a terrible idea. But when had that ever stopped them? With a shake of his head, Cisco withdrew the flask from his pocket.

“Hold on.” Caitlin’s voice had dropped an octave, and silver began to creep down from the roots of her hair. “I wanna see this,” said Frost. “It’s gonna be a total shitshow.”

Unfortunately, Cisco suspected she was right. He splashed more alcohol into Barry’s glass. “Here you go, big guy. Drink up.”

Barry looked down at his drink and frowned. “Can I get ice in this?”

Frost passed her hand over the glass and a chunk of ice dropped to the bottom with a clink.

“Awesome,” Barry said, and downed it.

“Oh God,” said Cisco. “We are so gonna regret this.”

“Okay,” said Kamilla, looking up from the binder. “I think I’m kinda starting to see the problem. But we won’t have that issue tonight. Everyone at this party knows Barry’s the Flash.”

“Listen,” said Cisco. “Four-drink Flash is a cake-walk. The worst is yet to come.” He flipped the page. “Let me introduce you to five-drink Flash.”

5 DRINK BARRY: THERAPIST BARRY

Five-drink Barry got a little too invested in Iris’ Intro to Psychology textbook in college. He’s all heart, zero clinical training.

Leonard Snart lay back on his bunk in Iron Heights, one leg resting lazily over the other, flipping through a nudie magazine. At least, that was how it appeared from outside the cell. Tucked between the pages was a blueprint of the prison, which his sister had smuggled in during her last visit. The bed creaked as he shifted his weight.

One of the guards struck the bars with his baton. Len glanced up.

“Snart. Get your ass out here. We’ve got a phone call for you.”

“Who from?” Lisa didn’t usually call so soon after a visit, and Mick never called at all; the signal on the Waverider was terrible.

“What do you think I am, your PA? Just get your ass out here.”

Interest well and truly piqued, Len tossed his magazine aside, careful to make sure the blueprint stayed safely tucked between his pages as he crossed the cell and waited for the door to be unlocked. Given his status as a high security prisoner, the guard cuffed him before leading him to the payphone booth in the reception area, the walls marked with grease stains and graffiti. With some difficulty, Len picked up the phone.

“Hello, this is Leonard Snart speaking. How may I be of service?”

The quality of the call wasn’t great. He could hear the throb of music, people talking and shrieking and laughing in the background.

Then a familiar voice said, “Snart? Is that you?”

Len’s forehead creased. “Barry?”

“Shmart. Snart.” Barry cleared his throat. “Hi. Are you okay?”

“…Peachy.” Len flicked a glance over his shoulder. The two prison guards stood watching him with folded arms and distinctly unimpressed expressions. “Can I ask if this is a business or a personal call? Because this isn’t exactly a secure line.”

“I just –” A loud, deep burp echoed down the line. “Wanted to check in n’ make sure you’re doin’ okay.”

“What?”

“Because I wanted you to know,” Barry said, his voice thick and indistinct, “that it’s okay not to be okay, you know? You shouldn’t bottle up your emotions. You gotta let ‘em out, you know? After everything you’ve been through with Lewis, I just wanted you to know that if you ever needed to talk…” He choked up, before recovering. “I’ll be here.”

“Barry, are you drunk?” Len said incredulously.

“See, there you go again, changing the subject. Have you ever noticed that you often use de… def… deflection as a way to avoid talking about difficult subjects?”

“I’m hanging up now,” said Len.

“No, no, no, no, wait! Wait!” Barry said urgently. “You need to talk about what bothers you. Don’t just bottle it up. Your emotions are a beautiful thing. Emotions are what make us–”

“Barry?” came another muffled voice on the other end of the line. “Who are you talking to?”

“No one,” Barry said immediately.

“Barry, give me the phone.”

“No.”

“Just give me the god damn –”

The sound of static and scuffles crackled down the line, and Len grimaced, lifting his head as far away from the speaker as he could to keep from being deafened. Over the commotion and the continued music blasting in the background, he could hear Barry shouting.

“You can be anything you want to be! Your past does not define you!”

“Okay,” said Len, and went to put the phone down.

“Wait!” said Barry. “Before you go, do you have a number for King Shark? Because I wanted to check in and make sure he’s doing okay. I know he looks scary, but underneath that slimy exterior he has the heart of a –”

Len rolled his eyes and hung up.

Sober Barry was a seasoned fighter, with speed, agility and hard-won experience on his side. Fortunately for Cisco, however, Drunk Barry’s combat skills comprised of slapping and some half-hearted attempts to bite, which meant that he was able to wrestle the phone away from him fairly easily. As he hung up, he glanced at the caller ID and blanched.

“Seriously? You’re making phone calls to Iron Heights? Are you gonna tell all the bad guys your secret identity too?” He held Barry’s phone up. “You know what? I’m keeping this; you clearly can’t be trusted.”

“My phone!” Barry said, and made a pathetic grab for it.

“Nope. Not happening, pal.” Cisco tucked it into his back pocket.

Barry pouted.

“Hey, don’t give me that look. I’m going to give it back later, I promise. I just need you to sober up first.”

“Okay,” Barry said sorrowfully. His bottom lip started to tremble.

“Oh, no,” Cisco said. “Not the lip – oh God, Barr, you’re breaking my heart here.”

“What’s happening?” asked Frost, returning to the table with two more beers, frost creeping down the side of the bottles. She gave a disinterested look at Barry, who was staring at the table with tears brimming in his eyes. He sniffed hard.

“Uh-oh,” said Cisco. “Six-drink Barry must be…”

SIX-DRINK BARRY: SAD BARRY

Shortly after his fifth drink, Barry loses his well-honed ability to repress and crumbles under the weight of well over a decade of trauma. In times of crisis, he can be medicated with chicken wings or, in a pinch, large servings of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

Cisco turned to Frost for help, but she inched away, rapidly shaking her head. Great, thought Cisco. Super helpful. He rubbed Barry’s back tentatively.

“Hey, Barry. You doing okay there, bud?”

Barry looked up. “I just got off the phone with Snart. He’s having a really hard time, you know? I mean, some people just can’t catch a break. He had a crappy abusive drunk for a father; he practically raised his sister. In and out of juvie, never graduated high school – and in spite of all of that, he comes up with these brilliant heists – like seriously impressive – and then the Flash comes in and totally ruins every single one of them. I mean, come on. The guy’s gotta make a living somehow, am I right?”

“Uh,” said Cisco.

“I always said to him, you can do better.” He poked Cisco clumsily in the chest to emphasize each word. “You have what it takes to be a hero. So the guy joins the Legends, becomes a hero, and then he freaking dies in an explosion. Kaboom! And then he comes back, returns to Central City to start over, robs one lousy bank and gets thrown straight back in prison. How is that fair?”

“Jail time seems like a fairly reasonable consequence for grand larceny,” said Frost.

“It’s just a bad habit,” Barry said forlornly. “He deserves help and compassion, not a prison cell. Do you know what it’s like in Iron Heights? The food is terrible. My Dad spend a decade in there and he always said…”

He trailed off. For a moment Cisco thought he’d gone into a trance, as he stared down at the table, forehead slightly creased. Then he saw the haunted look in Barry’s eyes. The face of a man who had seen terrible things.

They needed a distraction. Luckily, Cisco had just the thing. “You know what?” he said. “Maybe the food in prison isn’t great, but you know what’s awesome? The food you can get delivered right here. Nice, starchy, alcohol-absorbing food. Let’s look at a take-out menu and see what we’ve got.” He pulled up JustEat on his phone. “We could get you a pizza… maybe some fries… a couple of burgers; that sounds–”

“Chicken wings,” Barry said distantly.

They both turned to look at him.

“Chicken wings?” said Frost sceptically.

“Chicken wings,” Barry insisted.

“Okay!” said Cisco. “We’ll get chicken wings.” He added one portion to the basket. Then took another look at Barry’s face and hit the plus button several times. “Lots… and lots… of chicken wings.” He locked the phone. “Okay, food should be with us in a couple of minutes. So what now?”

“More drinks!” Barry said.

“No! No more –”

It was too late; there was a crackle of lightning and then the flask slammed back down onto the tabletop.

Cisco closed his eyes in defeat.

8 Drink Barry is a Michelin-star chef

Sober Barry’s cooking is average at best, but 8 drink Barry reveals a deep inner passion for the culinary arts.

It was a little past two am when a breach opened at the top of the stairwell, pulsing and flickering with pale blue light. Frost and Cisco staggered out of it, each holding one of Barry’s arms to keep him from escaping.

“Okay, almost there,” said Cisco. “You’re doing a great job. Can you let us in?”

Barry patted himself clumsily down until he found his keys and tried to open the first lock. He kept missing the keyhole. After his third attempt, Barry sighed and collapsed forwards, head resting against the wood panelling. Then he started vibrating.

Cisco suddenly realised what he was trying to do. “No, no wait, don’t–”

There was a buzzing sensation, a sickening lurch, and then all three of them fell straight through the front door.

Frost gave a full-body shudder and released her hold on Barry’s shirt to rub her arms.

“Never do that again! It makes my skin crawl.”

“I feel like we should have a rule about phasing under the influence,” Cisco muttered.

Together, they managed to get Barry onto the couch, where he lay blinking up at them, floppy as a rag doll, barbecue sauce smeared down his chin. More of the wings had ended up on his face than in his mouth, but Cisco hoped the restorative properties would kick in soon.

“Hey, Sad Flash. How’re you holding up?”

“I’m hungry,” Barry said. He clawed his way to a standing position. “Gonna make food.” Yellow light blazed as he sprinted into the kitchen.

Frost turned to Cisco. “He’s still hungry? He had like, eight servings of chicken wings!”

“Just go with it,” Cisco muttered, and then the alarming sounds of crashes and bangs came from the kitchen. “Barry? Do you need some help in there?”

Lightning crackled erratically as Barry sped around the room. Within seconds, every available surface was strewn with culinary equipment: a chopping board; a stained knife; various ingredients. A knife flashed as he rapidly diced an onion and swept it into the pan too fast for the eye to follow, and then the burner came on with a click and a whoosh. Oil sizzled as Barry dropped a steak into the pan. He grabbed a wine bottle off the side, yanked the cork out with his teeth and spat it across the room; it missed Frost by inches, and she recoiled in disgust. Barry sniffed the wine, and after a moment of consideration, he sloshed a generous amount into the pan. Flames leapt skyward, and Barry expertly tamped them down.

“Uh… what are you doing?” said Cisco.

Barry flipped the steak with a flick of his wrist. “Cooking.”

“Yeah, I can see that, but I thought you were going to make pasta, or fries, you know – normal drunk people food, not –” Cisco inhaled. “What even is that?”

“Braised steak in a red wine sauce, with asparagus on the side,” Barry said.

“…Right,” said Cisco. “Sorry I asked.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” said Kamilla.

“It isn’t,” said Cisco. “It’s goddamn awesome. The problem with 8-Drink Barry is that hot on his heels is –”

9 DRINK BARRY – SLEEPY BARRY.

On the night the particle accelerator exploded, Barry went into a coma and remained unconscious for nine months. During that time, his score on the Glasgow Coma Scale was a 5. Rumour has it that nine-drink Barry scored even lower than that.

“This is the worst night out I’ve ever been on in my life, and I share a body with Caitlin. Her idea of fun is wearing hideous pyjamas and watching documentaries on Hulu,” Frost hissed.

They stood on the doorstep laden with plastic bags while Cisco searched through the assortment of keys Barry had given him, trying to find the one for the first lock. “Look,” he said, inserting one into the lock with a crunch, “I know it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing, but hopefully he’ll have got the rest of it out of his system while we were out breaching to every grocery store in the city.”

“Right, because Gordon Ramsay in there had to have…” Frost slid the bottle of wine out of the grocery bag. “Whatever the hell this is. Chateau Belair Mona–whatever. As if a hundred-and-fifty-dollar bottle is going to taste any different than the fifteen-dollar fifty bottle from the liquor store.” She rolled her eyes. “What the hell is he even going to do with it?”

“To be honest, as long as he doesn’t drink it I could care less what he does with it. Just keep him distracted for long enough to get some more food inside of him and make sure any breakable objects are out of reach before he gets down to the two-drink level.” He shook the keys in frustration. “Jesus, how many keys do they have?”

“I still don’t see why we had to–” Frost paused and narrowed her eyes. She sniffed sharply. “Is something burning?”

They looked down. Thick grey smoke billowed out from underneath the kitchen door.

Seconds later, the door burst off its hinges in a cloud of icy fog.

Inside the loft was total chaos. Barry slumped at the kitchen table, dead to the world, his hand still loosely clasped around the flask of speedster booze. A small puddle of drool on the table shone in the firelight. Behind him, his frying pan lay abandoned on the range, smoking violently while flames leapt towards the ceiling.

The piercing shriek of the smoke alarm tore through the room. Frost blasted the frying pan with a thick stream of ice and cold energy crackled from her palms, barely making a difference in the temperature of the room. Cisco grabbed a damp tea towel off the side and beat at the flames, trying frantically to extinguish the blaze. Behind them, Barry didn’t so much as twitch, his snores drowned out by the alarm.

“Okay, I think I get the gist,” said Kamilla, looking up from the folder. “No-booze Barry is the way to go.” She hesitated. “But just out of morbid curiosity, what about nine-drink Barry?”

“Unchartered territory,” Cisco said darkly. “We figured eight drinks was enough.” He closed the folder conclusively. “So yeah, it sucks that Barry can’t drink with us, but with great power comes great responsibility. And sometimes responsibility means making sure your friend doesn’t accidentally break the sound barrier by doing the worm at Mach 2.”

Cisco went to slide the folder back onto the shelf. As he did so, his gaze caught a framed photo on the countertop. He paused and picked it up, smiling sadly. It was a picture of himself, Caitlin, Barry and Thawne – or Wells, as they’d believed back then – from the early days. They all looked so young, grinning at the camera, hair tousled where Barry had sped out from behind the phone before the shutter clicked. His chest ached.

Kamilla put a hand on his arm. “You’re going to miss them, aren’t you?”

“Always.” He put the photo down. “But we gotta keep moving forward. Speaking of which, it is beyond uncool to be late to your own party, so we’d better get shaking.” He held out his arm. “Ready?”

“You go,” said Kamilla. “I just have a few last-minute things to take care of. I’ll catch up.”

“Okay.” Cisco kissed her on the cheek and slipped out of the room.

Kamilla glanced over her shoulder, bit her lower lip. Then her gaze slid over to the fridge.

Tiptoeing across the room, she approached the container and input the code again. Her hair tossed as she glanced over her shoulder to make sure that no one was watching. Then she slid out a single blood red vial and tucked it into her purse.

Just in case.

#DCTVGenPrideMonth #the flash fanfiction #my fics

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victorromeofox-blog · 4 years ago

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VRF Website and Community

VRF Website and Community - Soft Opening Coming Soon!

I've been a little less active here in the last little bit, but have been working behind the scenes to build up the VRF website and planning around community-building. I'm just about ready to start opening the site to semi-public access and start inviting trusted people to the Discord within the next week! There is some information below introducing some of the content and features of the site and Discord server. Please contact me (Ask or email preferred) if you would like access - I recommend reading the rest of this post before you do, but it is not required.

If you’re looking to better understand BDSM and kink, participate in a community of rational, respectful, and conscientious kink practitioners, and contribute to protecting, uplifting, and helping others - while still enjoying some fantasies - you are exactly the type of person who would be a great fit for this space.

If you’re “just here for the porn”, this website and community are not going to be what you’re looking for. They are specifically a pushback against that very mentality, and the rampant toxicity and problematic discourse in the online BDSM/kink space, especially CNC kink, and your needs will be better met elsewhere. Same goes for those who are just out to get nudes, roleplay online, organize hookups, or find a submissive - there are other spaces geared toward that.

In the meantime, I'd like to explain what this all means to me, where VRF is headed next, and what factors I'm taking into consideration as I continue. This is going to be a fairly reflective post - almost like a letter of intent - but I'm putting it out there primarily for transparency and also for those of you who want some insight into my thoughts and process.

VRF - A Quick Recap

When I started VRF in 2015, I didn't really have a goal. I was just looking to curate the kinds of porn I enjoyed the most on Tumblr and occasionally added some captions that came to mind as I did - and accidentally cultivated a sizeable following. As the blog grew and began to have more interactions with others on the network, I realized that I couldn't stay in-persona all the time - not without sending a potentially dangerous message - so I started answering asks and giving advice out of character, as myself. These "real" interactions, as well as the reality checks that kept rolling in, set the tone for what VRF would become - and made me feel much more comfortable with running a blog featuring questionable content.

I stepped away from the blog and went on hiatus in 2016; I saw a sharp rise in hateful, bigoted, and violent voices online and no longer felt comfortable that my posts would remain firmly in the realm of fantasy for the majority of readers. Although the original @violent-rape-fantasies was terminated in 2019, I made a fairly complete backup of the entire blog before it went down. I returned in late 2020 to start again from scratch, try to rebuild my following, and reconnect with the community - that effort was terminated by Tumblr in 2021, leading me to the two blogs I currently have (@VictorRomeoFox-blog / @violent-rape-fantasies-2) and to create a self-hosted website containing the original VRF archives with major quality-of-life improvements to the Tumblr experience.

This process made me consider what my goals are for VRF, how I want to achieve them, and what promises I make to the community as part of that journey.

VRF - Mission and Values

VRF's mission is to be a safe, inclusive, and collaborative space that promotes affirmative consent, healthy relationships, and conscientious kink, where consenting adults can explore their kinks, enjoy fictional fantasies, and uplift one another without overbearing guilt or shame.

Let me quickly break some of this down:

safe: I want people to feel comfortable consuming and interacting with me and my content - not only the kinks and acts depicted in the fantasies, but in the entirety of the space that VRF projects, including knowing that their personhood, privacy, anonymity, and emotional safety are important to me.

inclusive: although I focus primarily on male-on-female scenarios, people from all walks of life are welcome so long as they are good citizens of the community and conscientious kink practitioners. This also means rejecting hate, bigotry, and willful ignorance.

collaborative: VRF is discursive, both in-persona and out-of-character; the content and direction I take is often influenced by the conversations I have with followers, the asks and submissions I receive, and the state of the community as I see it. I want to always be in conversation with the community to understand its needs and goals so that I can better meet them.

affirmative consent: as discussed in a previous post, I highlight affirmative consent because it centers around positive action as opposed to consent, which can be a passive state. I believe this is critical for conscientious kink.

healthy relationships: the relationships we hold shape who we are, who we become, and how we interact with the world around us. I believe that healthy relationships build healthier, happier lives - this concerns all relationships, from friendships to families to romantic or sexual partnerships. I have seen less emphasis in this community on relationships, and interpersonal interactions in general, and think that this is a major oversight.

conscientious kink: kink can be dangerous or harmful when not practiced with care and consideration - not just for physical health, but for mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. It requires reflection, introspection, and communication in order to form intentionality - the understanding behind what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

reducing guilt: this is one of the concerns I get most often from followers - how to reconcile their guilt for enjoying consensual non-consent, and whether it is morally wrong or an indication that something is wrong with them. I believe that CNC, like most kinks, can be practiced in a conscientious way to reduce and mitigate the potential dangers, but that it requires consistent effort, education, and research.

Aside from these, I identified values which are important for me to maintain in order to meet the mission. Some of them are:

transparency: I try to be as transparent as I can, while maintaining my privacy and anonymity, so that people know that I have nothing to hide. I cannot build a safe space without building trust, and I can’t build trust without being honest and transparent.

leadership by example: if I am positioning myself as a resource and giving advice to others, I must embody the values I put forward and lead by example, not by words; otherwise, what I say is worthless and lacks substance.

data- and research-driven: I want to provide people with a deeper understanding of themselves and their kinks; while anecdotal information can at times be helpful, I want the things I posit to have weight and justification behind them. This means an intersection of data, research, and analysis around all of the factors involved, including moral philosophy, psychology, sociology, and biology.

care and patience: these kinks are difficult and hurtful to some people, and confusing or conflicting to others. I need to be caring, considerate, and patient in order for people to feel comfortable engaging with my content and interacting with me.

contextualized: these kinks and fantasies don’t exist in a vacuum and must be contextualized in order to remain conscientious of the relationship it maintains to the real world. This means that I don’t want fantasies misrepresented as reality or reality misconstrued as fantasy, and the onus is on me to ensure that followers are seeing both sides of the equation.

quality over quantity: I have a limited amount of time that I can dedicate to VRF work, and want to make the best possible use of that time. I want to focus on high-quality content, both in-persona fantasies and out-of-character advice, research, and resources, without worrying about how much or how frequently I’m posting. It also means that I care far less about the number of followers and viewers I have, and much more about whether I am cultivating the kind of followers that match my vision for VRF and its community.

There are other factors and values as well, but these are the biggest ones for me. They drive how I present myself, how I interact with the community, and what kinds of content I put forth.

VRF Website - Content and Features

What does the website allow me to do that I couldn’t on Tumblr?

No censorship, frustrating filters, or threat of termination - I can focus on my content without running into blockers at every turn, or worrying that I’m going to lose all my work without warning.

Better content controls, organization, and layout - I can group posts logically and have different ways for users to access and view them instead of being one monolithic stream of posts.

Tagging and search - I’ve tagged my archive with kinks, features, toys, actions, positions, locations, and more to make it easier to both find content that you want to see and avoid content that you don’t. The VRF site features granular search controls, including tag combinations, so you can engage with the site how you choose.

Random Post/Random Caption - sometimes, you’re in the mood to mix things up. Instead of seeing a temporally-sorted feed of posts, you can go to a random post or caption from the menu bar.

Clear disclaimers and view control - instead of my content being blended into a sea of posts, which creates difficulty in carving out that safe cognitive space for engaging with these kinks or necessitates rapid context-switching, all of my posts will be in one central repository with clear disclaimers where I have control over how things are viewed.

The VRF Archive - the content from the original @violent-rape-fantasies blog have been restored to the VRF website.

There are some downsides, of course - like the lack of network discovery, limited server space and resources, cost, maintenance, and effort. But the benefits greatly outweigh the additional overhead.

VRF Community

What’s the VRF Discord community all about?

This is a new idea I’m playing with - I’m not new to Discord or community management, but combining that with VRF is a new endeavor for me. Since I’m going to be shifting my focus from Tumblr to the VRF website, some of those network and community interactions from Tumblr will move to Discord instead, such as interacting with followers, taking requests, feedback, and suggestions, and delving deeper into kink philosophy, fantasy, and practice.

I’ve set up the Discord in a way that different sections can be partitioned - like general discussion, BDSM/kink discussion, CNC fantasies, member content (submissions), and so on. The different sections are accessible to different levels of membership and verification to maintain that safe, inclusive, and collaborative space. For example, agreeing to the rules and guidelines gives you access to the general discussion section; verifying your age gives you access to BDSM- and kink-related sections; and being an active and trusted member who contributes to the server over time gets you access to the private sections.

This will also be a much easier way to get in contact with me, and keep the majority of my interactions with the community in one place, instead of hunting across Tumblr messenger for both my accounts, Asks, Twitter, Discord DMs, Telegram, Kik, and email.

VRF - Next Steps and Future Work

In the next few weeks, the VRF website and Discord community will soft-open and move toward general opening. This is a new direction for me, but after assessing my priorities and goals, it is the solution best suited for what I want to achieve. I will continue to use Tumblr, but will likely be focusing the majority of my time on the website and Discord.

The mission and values I’ve identified leave quite a bit of room to explore various ways to express these kinks and share knowledge. I’m not hard-set on VRF being a blog with porn and captions, and could see changes or pivots in the future. I would love for this work to be able to generate some modest revenue in the future in order to cover basic operating costs, support survivors of abuse as well as kink education and safety, and commission custom content. As an aside, if you read all of this, please start your request for access with the word “potato” in all caps to let me know you got this far.

I also want to move toward a more ethical and sustainable model of captions and fantasies. My first step toward this is in creating gifs myself and fully crediting the source, which I started doing when I returned from hiatus. Concurrently, I am working with my partner, who is an artist, to develop illustrations and animations to accompany captions instead of commercial pornography - we’re still in the R&D phase for this, but hope to share some early content soon (including a fantasy and sketch that we’re working on to accompany a follower submission). Ideally, we would be able to collaborate with submitters and sex workers to create fully original, credited, and compensated content - but that’s a huge stretch goal for the future.

We are also considering other formats for fantasy and knowledge delivery, including a visual novel format or interactive media (i.e., games) if the art development turns out well and proves sustainable. We’re both fairly busy people in our personal and professional lives, and in situations where we have to maintain a fairly strict separation between kink involvement and our everyday lives, so carving out time for VRF work is challenging at times!

I look forward to seeing folks on the VRF website and Discord community soon!

#vrf #blog #website #community #about

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javitrulovesims · 3 years ago

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Check in Tag ✔️✔️

I was Tagged by @batsfromwesteros and @eggysimblr so... Let's go

Why did you choose your url?

My Name is Javi, Last name Trulove and I like to play sims. Not big explanations here lol

Any side blogs? If you have them name them and why you have them.

Well I only have a side blog @tempusetspatiumsims, might be a little more active once the new pack drops because will be dedicated to my History Challenge.

How long have you been on tumblr?

Technically 2014. Even though my archive says that my oldest post is on 2016.

Do you have a queue tag?

Not really, Nowadays my blog is under renovations trying to figure out what type of content im happy to share. Maybe in the future.

Why did you start your blog in the first place?

I created my Simblr on a time when I was running away from a very toxic Spanish Forum that i was part of. I used to only post TS2 pics and i remember being so embarrassed about posting TS2 content while many people was doing amazing things on TS4. Most of those posts are gone now that's why my archive says Jun 2016 is my oldest post i have now.

Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

It's my portrait, made by a freaking talented Twitter friend (which BTW i have the biggest Crush) it works perfectly with my "Branding" and my overall personal style.

Why did you choose your header?

It's a generic green velvet curtain texture. I felt that looked luxurious and rather cool

What’s your post with the most notes?

Probably my Jane New digs Coat and I'm super proud of it because was my first TS3 conversion ever. Although, I'm thinking on give it a bit of an update.. I've learned Sooo much over the years.

How many mutuals do you have?

Too many to keep track. The Historical Simming community is quite small. The Drag Queen Sims scene is even smaller LOL.

How many followers do you have?

2894, i though it was WAAAAAY less than that... oh Well!

How many people do you follow?

407. Quite the number <3

Have you ever made a shitpost?

IDK what is like the official definition of "Shitpost" but probably i had..

How often do you use tumblr each day?

Sometimes 2 - 3 hours per day...

Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

Nah... i'm a nice guy. I try to stay away from the drama... (But i like to read the drama too) LOL

How do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts?

Meh.. I only reblog things that makes me feel inspired or if some of my talented besties publishes ANYTHING

Do you like tag games?

Yes, Keep them coming

Do you like ask games?

Yes... i like them too :)

Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

Define "Famous" because i do feel some of them are pretty popular but they deserve even more <3

Do you have a crush on a mutual?

I have a Crush for their sims TBH... IDK how @budgie2budgie and @glammoose makes their gorge Male sims but *sigh*

#Check in Tag #Another Tag Thingy #Thank you this was fun <3

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lacetulle · 5 years ago

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Hey there! Aspiring fashion designer here! I'm getting more and more into fashion and designing/ planning more and more outfits and I was wondering if you have any tips to get more into haute contour and fashion in general. Your blog has really helped me get a grasp of what I like and I all around love it!

I’m happy this blog could help in figuring out what styles you like! There are a ton of different mediums to get into fashion! I’ve compiled a list of options via videos, websites, and books. So strap in, this is a long post.

Since you already have an idea of who you like, I always suggest reading up on that brand/label/designer and going through their archives. For me, when I realized how much I loved Dior and knew I wanted to learn more, it was overwhelming at times because the label has such a long history. If you really like newer labels, like Zuhair Murad, Elie Saab, Iris van Herpen, etc., it’s a little more manageable to read up on the history and designers just because they were founded in the ‘90s/‘00s.

In terms of websites, I have a few to talk about.

Vogue. This is the easiest avenue to get into fashion. I’m not knocking it, because I use it the most for photos, but as far as websites go, it’s the most dumbed-down. But I mean that in the best way! The features, trend reports, and runway news appeals to even the most casual fashion fan. Vogue focuses mainly on big name/commercialized brands (Dior, Valentino, Gucci, etc.) rather than smaller ones (like Guo Pei and Ralph & Russo, two big couture names these days, get minimal coverage with Vogue). Vogue is a great resource for runway looks...it was my gateway into studying older runway collections. All in all, in terms of websites, Vogue is the tip of the fashion media iceberg. If you want to get into the more meatier parts of fashion, there are better sites.

Harper’s Bazaar. Like Vogue, it’s easy to navigate and leans more towards the more well-known fashion brands. Pre-covid, they always had a weekly street style recap as well. They have great lists but stay away from the business side of fashion. I typically use Harper’s Bazaar for the street style/every day fashion inspiration and news.

Who What Wear. A great site for following trends. They don’t focus so much on brands, but it’s a great resource for seeing what’s trending and options to buy said trends. For example, Who What Wear is the first place I went when I wanted to find a list of brands who were starting to sell masks.

WWD. Supposedly most designers prefer WWD to Vogue coverage. And it shows, since parts of the site require a subscription. WWD is one of the more technical sites and could be overwhelming for someone who doesn’t really understand the industry. They talk about the comings-and-goings of creative directors, financial news, and general fashion trends/news. It also has runway recaps and photos, which is typically what I use it for. If you’re really want to be in the know with breaking fashion news, they do offer email newsletters as well for a more condensed version of the site. Also, a super helpful page I’ve had bookmarked, their fashion dictionary.

Business of Fashion. The name is pretty self-explanatory. BoF is another one of those meatier sites that could be overwhelming at first. It’s also one that has a subscription service. BoF has great profiles of designers, so I’ve used the site as my starting point when learning about someone new. The BoF500 also showcases anyone and everyone who has a hand in shaping the industry.

The Impression. The cheapest of the subscription sites and the one I had until I cancelled a few months ago (not because it sucked, but, you know…corona). I mainly used them for their runway pictures. They were so fast to upload them, with details and backstage footage. The big draw is the fashion week/runway photography, but the talk about street style, short films and ads from brands, as well as fashion trends. At the end of every fashion week (New York, Milan, Paris, etc.) the put together a recap list of biggest trends, top shows, top models, and break down the numbers. I love the site for its minimalism and whenever the industry decides to have fashion weeks again, I’ll renew my subscription.

Magazines: Most people would say Vogue is the holy grail for fashion magazines, but I don’t think it’s that great (at least the US version). Vogue Paris, Italia, and UK are better in my opinion. And just because I don’t think the print version of US Vogue is the holy grail, doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I have a subscription and read it every month. Other options I really like are Harper’s Bazaar (any country’s version), Elle, InStyle, and W.

Videos: Other than the first one listed (which can be found on Netflix or Hulu, depending where you live), everything can be found on youtube. And now i’m constantly getting fashion recommendations on youtube, so it’s an easy rabbit hole to fall into.

First Monday in May. I’ve talked about this documentary before, but it bears repeating. It’s a gorgeous journey of how the Met Gala and Costume Institute Exhibit was put together. It’s about the ‘China: Through the Looking Glass’ exhibit in 2015. They interview big designers about how China has influenced some of their collections, and takes on the debate of whether fashion should even be in a museum. It was the first fashion documentary I ever watched and only made me fall more in love with fashion (and want to see every fashion exhibition).

The September Issue. Vogue’s September issues are always the biggest of the year. This documentary follows the process of designing the famous September issue of Vogue. I believe it was filmed in 2007 or 2008 so it’s dated, and digital media has changed the game, but it’s a good watch to see just how influential and important the September issue is in terms of forecasting fashion trends for the following year.

Savoir Faire: Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2011. A 50 minute video on how one, just one, piece from the couture collection was designed. It’s a great insight on just how much work goes in to creating a couture collection.

7 Days Out with Karl Lagerfeld. Another great showcase of the week leading up to a couture show, this time with Chanel. The documentary follows the 2018 show, which is one of Lagerfeld’s last few couture shows before his death.

Battle At Versailles: The Competition that Shook the Fashion Industry. It’s no secret that Paris is the epicenter of fashion. The couture houses are all based there, so France is typically where you needed to be to be a world renowned designer. In 1973 French and American designers competed against each other and brought American designers into the spotlight. There’s an hour long documentary on youtube and there’s a book that I’ve linked below. I’ve seen the video and I’m currently reading the book, so you have options here.

Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams. A good look at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs exhibit for the 70th anniversary of Dior. This documentary gives a nice, condensed look at each of the artistic directors of Dior and showcases some of the most iconic Dior looks. I knew about it, but didn’t go see it. I only saw pictures, which were beautiful…but to see it all come together on video was a dream. They talk to Celine Dion for a minute at the end, and her words sum up my feelings best about Dior, “I would love to wear one of these dresses one day, maybe in one of my lifetimes, or every night in my dreams.”

Books:

Inside Haute Couture: Behinds the Scenes at the Paris Ateliers. A gorgeous book with tons of photos about the intricacies that go in to a couture collection.

Kate Spade New York: All in Good Taste. I originally bought it for my coffee table collection, but it has some great style tips.

The Battle of Versailles: The Night American Fashion Stumbled into the Spotlight and Made History. Just in case you’d rather read about this legendary fashion show than watch. I’m currently reading it, so I can’t give you my final take on it. But I’m loving it so far.

Dior by Dior: Christian Dior’s autobiography. Who better to tell you about the history of Christian Dior, than Dior himself.

Elsa Schiaparelli: A Biography. I’m a big fan of Schiaparelli and would love for her legacy to be more widely known. She was a very private person, so when this biography dropped I was excited to read more about her. Elsa Schiaparelli was Coco Chanel’s biggest rival and was a household name in her time, but most people know Coco’s name over Elsa’s today. This is a nice dive into Schiaparelli’s life, since most people focus on Chanel’s legacy (and let’s be honest, Chanel is very idolized, which is so unfortunate, given her Nazi ties, but I digress.)

Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. I tend to rave about the designs by these two, so it’s a good look into their journey in fashion.

The Beautiful Fall: Fashion, Genuis, and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris. If you’re interested in Lagerfeld (pre-Chanel days) or Yves Saint Laurent, it’s a great retrospective look at their rivalry.

Champagne Supernovas. If ‘90s fashion is something of interest, this book is a great read on how some big name rebels (McQueen, Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss, etc.) in the industry remade fashion as we know it.

Any of the Met Gala books: Camp: Notes on Fashion, Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty, Manus x Machina, Heavenly Bodies, etc. My first one was the McQueen book, and at the time I didn’t know it was the official book from the Costume Institute Exhibit. They’re not all hardcover coffee table-esque books, but if you can’t attend an exhibit it’s the next best thing. They’re all great in-depth resources for learning about a certain area of fashion. They can be expensive, so I wouldn’t suggest investing in them unless you’re truly interested in that specific aspect of the industry. This year’s exhibit - whenever it opens - is About Time: Fashion and Duration. The exhibition book is already available and I think it’ll be an incredible exhibit of how current designers pull from older designers and trends.

The Fashion Book. It’s expensive. It’s massive. And it gives you a wealth of information. It’s essentially an encyclopedia for fashion. It’s not just designers; it highlights models, high profile photographers, style icons, and all those who influenced fashion.

I know this was long, but these have been the resources I’ve used over the years. I hope this can help you along your journey and if anyone has other things to add, please do!

#ask me anything

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