#my estimates say maybe 45

[reddamselette]

Nathaniel glanced at his watch. The second hand ticked with each passing car and the blinking of the stars as the minute hand moved in sync with the streetlights turning from red to green, green to yellow, yellow to red. It was half past nine and he’s pushing it—they could only do so much with distracting Riko before he realized Nathaniel has gone out and ran far enough to be out of sight.

But no matter how late it would get, no matter the awaiting pain he would have to succumb to in the near future, he waited. Nathaniel waited as he dropped his hand and stared at Andrew for the last time. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Andrew smiled bright and wide and vacant, manic as can be but even Nathaniel could recognize the look in hazel eyes. It was subtle, yet it was there. It hurt Andrew more than it hurt Nathaniel and he wondered which one of them was he convincing with the constant mantra of this is nothing. “No,” he said, “you aren’t. Your reputation precedes you, Nathaniel. The tabloids will drive themselves insane knowing your precious Perfect Court likes to lie.”

“I didn’t lie to you. I wouldn’t lie to you.” Nathaniel was, though, in this moment. He lied as he forced his voice to remain steady and sincere, to put everything away and shove it down the way his mother taught him to. The way he had been forced to while living in Evermore. He lied because it is the only thing that can protect Andrew from Riko’s wrath. “Andrew.”

Andrew said nothing. He stared and stared until he was the first to walk away.

Nathaniel may have shattered this thing they had, this nothing, this something, and Andrew may have been the first to walk away but deep down, Nathaniel knew he was the first to run away.

It would have been easier if you’d taken the blade of your skate to his throat, he thought to himself.

-

a little background snippet thing of andriel in the party and the after party (ice skater/hockey player au). andriel is our victim to the ex lovers except they weren’t actually lovers (it’s worse) to strangers to lovers.

[physalian]

How to subtly show the passage of time in your narrative

For instances where actual concrete numbers would be either jarring or unrealistic for your characters to know, like if they’re castaways in a remote region, prisoners of war, under house arrest and unable to access technology, or any other situation where a character cannot ground themselves in a reliable timeline. Or simply in fantasy settings that don't tell time in concrete numbers.

Giving your readers actual numbers can be jarring, whether it’s explicit measurements of things that invites readers to do the math that you might not have (thus risking plot holes), looking out of place in your narrative style, or giving numbers your characters realistically wouldn’t know.

Things like a 60lb bag of dog food, or an 8ft ladder, or a 2 liter bottle are different. Those are common measurements most people come across in conversation or otherwise. Taking an aside to make sure your readers know that a kiddie wagon is 3.5 feet long is… weird. Unless the story demands that, for some reason, this measurement is critical knowledge.

Passage of time is the same, and even more prone to potential plot holes. If you’re writing a story where time is critical, like characters are on a mission and timing must be perfect, then lacking numbers would be strange.

Anything else, though, and in the real world, we estimate all the time. “It’ll take maybe 45 mins” we say, not “it’ll take maybe 36 mins”.

But if you’re in a situation where characters don’t have clocks and calendars, their estimates should be broader and broader and more hyperbolic. “Talking for hours” “sleeping for days” etc. Otherwise, how do they have an exact sense of how much time has passed, and why is a specific number important? Readers can tell when a character or narrator is being hyperbolic.

If you want to get even more vague and subtle, you can either have characters notice environmental details, or clue the reader in without characters even knowing.

I think I’ve mentioned this already, but my go-to here for cases that last months is characters commenting on how long their hair has gotten, or the narration saying something like, “their hair has grown out over their eyes”.

But there’s a bunch of others

How thick the dust is on their surroundings

If the leaves on the trees have changed colors, grown back in, or fallen off

How long their fingernails are

How chipped nail polish has become

How nasty bruises have faded and changed colors

How much weight they’ve lost or gained

How much mold is on bread, or how much food has been eaten or rotten

How many cobwebs/spiderwebs have appeared

How desiccated the corpses of frogs or lizards have become

How grey their hair is, or their dog’s fur

How many weeds are growing in the sidewalk or in the gutters of their house

How many leaves are covering the lawn

How faded paint has become

How far natural roots have grown out, or hair dye has faded

All of those tend to be a more negative passing of time so here’s some lighthearted ones

How full the refrigerator door has become with children’s drawings

How cluttered the dresser is now with family photos

How worn a favorite pair of jeans/shoes or sweater is

How big kittens or puppies have grown

How many baby clothes don’t fit anymore

How many gummy fingerprints are all over the sliding glass doors

How worn the couch cushions are

How the floor is all scratched from dog nails or toy wheels

How much fur is everywhere

No matter what, even if characters do have clocks and calendars at the ready, you can still be subtle about it. Yet another example of showing, instead of telling, in about the same amount of words.

[abbyslovergirlxo]

-Bad Idea-

ELLIE WILLIAMS x FEM!READER

What happens when your drunk ex sends you flowers? Who knows. But regardless, anyone would agree it’s a pretty bad idea.

tw; moping, terrible drunk decisions, slight smut (if you squint), cursing

—————————————————————————

“shit shit shit— oh my fucking— shit!”

Ellie had tried to wipe her eyes in a desperate repetition. But when her bank statements kept reading;

TRANSACTIONS

3/7/2023 Saturday: — 62.75 FROM; Flowers and Friends

It was hard to not accept the facts. Ellie could typically hold her liquor, but as of late she wasn’t herself. You and Ellie had been broken up for two months and she had deluded herself into thinking it left her mind. But whenever a touch of liquor or weed hit her system, suddenly she was missing you so bad that she couldn’t help herself from getting out of hand. Case in point being, her spending over 60 dollars while trashed to send to your doorstep.

She called the company a multitude off times, always receiving the same frustrating answer.

“Sorry ma’am, cancellations are not prohibited after the 12 hour order mark.”

Ellie cursed herself for over sleeping with a pounding hangover. Maybe if she woke up a couple hours earlier she could’ve saved herself eternal embarrassment. At least that was until she remembered that the only way you’d know if it was her if there was a note. She was cross faded out of her mind, no way she wrote anything that wasn’t gibberish, if she wrote anything at all.

“Wait! Was there a note attached or anything?”

“One second ma’am— let me just look right here… right, okay. Yes there’s a note attached.”

Ellie cursed silently into the air. She took a deep breath and looked up to the sky in a phantom type of prayer.

“Could you tell me what it says?”

“Absolutely. It says ‘Miss you so much baby. I can’t stop thinking about you and your nose. Your nose is so fucking pretty. And your hair. And just you. You’re so pretty. Please talk to me. Please please just talk to me. These flowers reminded me of you. They’re so pretty. I miss being inside of you. I miss us so mu—‘. Um…yeah. That’s pretty much it. It seems like you ran out of room to type.”

She was going to die. She was truly going to die. Ellie was grateful with how calm the customer service worker was. This probably was no doubt her most indecent moment and she couldn’t handle it if the lady on the phone was laughing at her.

Ellie gripped her phone till her knuckles turned a hued white, she was so fucking angry at herself. She was the one who broke up with you and her she was, going crazy.

“Do you have an estimation of when the flowers will arrive?”

“…Says around 2 pm.”

She didn’t even bother with a thank you as she ended the phone call. It was 1:45. You lived 20 minutes away. It would be close but it’d be better than doing nothing.

She swiped her eyes off her nightstand and was in her car before she could even blink.

After an almost car accident, two people flipping her off, and cutting people off, Ellie had finally made it to your apartment. She stomped her way up the steps that led to the second floor. Her lungs were practically screaming at her but she was so close.

2:03 pm.

Her breath got caught as she saw that familiar door mat. She had wiped her black converses on it a million times, a sort of tradition wether or not her shoes needed it. Made her feel like she was at home, her way of marking her territory. That bright yellow doormat with the corny quote that Ellie had clowned you for too many times.

“ Bee My Guest! 🐝 “

She had gotten so lost at just the sight of your front door that she hadn’t noticed the bouquet of flowers next to it. Quite a large one as well. If she hadn’t been a nervous wreck, she would’ve admired her taste. The flowers were gorgeous and she wanted nothing more than to give them to you. But she knew it wouldn’t be right and it’d be wrong. It had been months, why do something like this now?

With a sudden slowness she walked over to your front door, picking up the flowers and frowning. She had wished this were under different circumstances. That this was her on a random weekday, turning up to see you. Surprising you with flowers and soft kiss.

But that wasn’t the case. And she had gotten carried away at the idea of you. With a shake of her head, she checked the time.

2:14

Eleven minutes of admiring you literal door. Yeah, it was time to go.

“Ellie?”

Her head whipped up that sound. That sound she had been yearning to hear for literal months. She had spent many night looking over videos of you, hearing the way you spoke. It never beat the real thing, clearly.

She didn’t move, just staring at you with your pink tote bag and white sundress. She didn’t miss the way your bra was doing wonders for your chest. Fuck, was she looking?

“Um…”

You raised your brow, observing the sight infront of you. Your ex-girlfriend with a black graphic tee, green boy shorts and her favorite converses. Her hair had gotten longer but nonetheless still pulled into that familiar bun. She looked…good. You could tell she was hungover, you had been with her for too long to not know. But still she looked good, she always did.

But seeing your ex at your front door wasn’t the strangest thing, it was her holding a bouquet of flowers. This wasn’t what you expected to come home to after buying a book from your local Barnes and Nobles.

You should be pissed, sad or annoyed. But you were none of those. You wanted to be. But you had missed her. All you could feel was that familiar need for her and a touch of confusion.

“Did someone die?”

“Yes.”

Not her best lie, and after seeing your look of concern she couldn’t handle it.

“Sorry, no. Nobody died. I just— I didn’t mean to come here.”

“Oh…okay. Be safe on the way back?”

You shuffled towards your front door, brushing past her. This was so awkward and you felt ridiculous for actually thinking she came here for you. It was obvious she did, who shows up at their exes apartment complex with flowers? But clearly she didn’t want you enough to admit it. And that hurt more than you wanted it to.

With a silent curse you finally managed to get your key out of your bag. You appreciated it for all the space but it felt like you were digging through a damn vast hole whenever you needed something.

Before you could even open your door, you felt a hand on your shoulder making you look back.

“I missed you. Well I mean that I— I miss you. Now. I’ve missed you for a while. I hope that’s okay. I wish…we were okay.”

She was nervous. You tell by the way she bit down on her lip and her thumb fiddled with her ring. You were too. And you looked down at her hand, feeling sheepish about how warm it was on your skin.

It took no time for her to notice before she yanked it back. You frowned a little.

“Ellie why’d you come here? And with… flowers?”

She sighed a little, contemplating wether or not to save her dignity and leave. Pretend she never proclaimed her persistence of missing you and block you, or she could just be a human and talk to you. She had showed up like this unannounced and the least you deserved was an explanation. She didn’t want you to always wonder what could’ve happened.

“Can I come in?”

……………………….……………………….………………

“Didn’t we talk about getting cross faded? Mixing drugs and alcohol is not good for you Ellie.”

“That’s what you got from all of that…”

“Well that, and the fact you only miss me when you’re not sober.”

“That’s not— I always miss you. I just don’t know how to control it when I’m not sober. Exactly why I ordered these flowers last night.”

You grinned a little, finding it all a little funny. When she first came into your apartment that reeked of brown sugar and vanilla, it was as awkward as one would expect.

But you and her had been together for 3 years before you broke up. As her story strung out and you gave a her a cup of peppermint tea, the tension slowly evaporated.

“Right…and you did all of this just to still get caught with the flowers. Honestly Els, it would’ve been less embarrassing if I had just seen them on my doorstep.”

Ellie shifted on your white couch at the sound of the nickname. She hadn’t heard it in forever and it made her want you even more. She wasn’t even sure where this conversation was headed but she knew she didn’t want it to end.

“The note though. Would’ve given me away in a heartbeat, and I’d probably never show my face again.”

She let out a laugh at the thought. You furrowed your brows and put down your minions mug to stare at her.

“What note?”

You caught she sudden panic in her face. Ellie had purposefully left out the embarrassing note she had left on the flowers and didn’t plan on saying anything about them. The flowers now sat on your glass coffee table right next to the pink coasters.

“Note? Shit I’m probably just mixing things up. This teas like really good, you got anymore?”

You looked at Ellies nervous smile and then at the flowers. She looked at you and then back the flowers. Then you both locked eyes again. Her eyes squinted into a silent plea of ‘don’t do it.’

As if she knew you’d still do it she reached towards the flowers at the same time you did but to her horror you plucked the note card before she could stop you. You ran towards your kitchen, getting behind the island while scrambling to rip the paper out of the envelope.

Ellie didn’t hesitate to run offer you but she couldn’t quite get you with you way you kept leaping around the kitchen island just far away enough so she could grab you.

“Okay okay y/n. Let’s just talk about this? The note is just gibberish. I was drunk out of my mind and it’s just random stuff jumbled on there. It’s just so stupid. Please just—“

She reached her arm out to grab you which you dodged and moved in the opposite direction against the marble island corner.

“Give it to me. Please.”

“You’re rambling, you’re nervous.”

“Okay Sherlock, just hand me the note.”

With a quick, “nope” , you looked at the flower embroidered card and began to read out-loud.

“Miss you so much baby. I can’t stop thinking about you and your nose— really Ellie? My nose?”

She groaned as you managed to dodge her again.

“To be fair, it’s a very nice nose.”

“Uh huh… ‘And your hair. And just you. You’re so pretty. Please talk to me. Please please just talk to me. These flowers reminded me—“

“Wait! If you put the card down I’ll give you a weeks worth of weed. You know I have the best dealer and I promise you if you just give me the card I’ll swing by later and give you some. Please y/n I am literally begg—“

“Hush. I already buy from your dealer, I stole their number from your phone after that one time you smoked me out in Jersey.”

“Wait what the fuck?”

“These flowers reminded me of you. They’re so pretty. I miss being inside of you. I miss us so much?”

Ellie’s head was thrown down in a storm of shame. This was much more embarrassing than hearing the lady on the phone say it. Not to mention the way you impersonated Ellie’s voice while you said it. She was feeling like a little bitch and she even felt slightly betrayed. When the fuck was Mick going to tell her that he was selling you weed? She made a mental note to murder him and another mental note to never see you again.

“Fuck this is so embarrassing.”

After your laughter died down, you looked over the words again. Letting it all sink in. It was funny, you couldn’t lie about that.

But it was also a bit sad. You missed moments like these, with you and Ellie joking around. You missed her making you laugh and grabbing your waist from behind while you cooking in that very kitchen. The way she used to beg you to make that peppermint tea whenever she got off of work.

And she did say she had missed you, but was that enough? What even was this? Were you guys going to become friends? Get some closure and never see each other again? Or was there something more? Was it going to be Ellie and Y/n again? Or was it just you hoping that it’d be more?

The questions racked your brain. And your mood dropped quicker than you’d liked. Ellie now looked up at you after noticing your laughter swelter.

“Shit babe are y—fuck sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that, it’s just…I don’t know.”

“Ellie…what do you want out of this?”

“I—“

“You broke up with me. I thought that you didn’t want me anymore. Do you even want me anymore?”

“I want you so much I can’t even fathom it.”

“What do you want out of this?” You repeated your question.

“I don’t know… what do you want?”

“No, don’t do that. Don’t leave it up to me Ellie. That’s not fair.”

She shook her head as she moved near you, this time you didn’t move back. Allowing her to pull at your dress.

“I’m not trying to be unfair y/n. I just don’t want to say the wrong thing. I want whatever you want.”

“You broke up with me…”

“I know…I’m so sorry.”

You pushed her hand away from your dress gently. She was too close and it was making your mind jumbled.

“Look Ellie. I’ve missed you to. Too much. And I don’t want you to say something and not mean it. I don’t want you to feel cornered into caring about me.”

“I could never stop caring about you. I never stopped y/n.”

You stayed silent, getting suddenly scared at how real this all was. No matter which way this went it would be a drastic change. If she left and never saw you again you’d have to deal with a second heartbreak. If she wanted to be friends you knew you’d say yes and have to see her too much for your own comfort.

And if she wanted to get back together…well that was a monster all on its own.

“What do you want out of this Ellie?”

From your tone of voice, and it being the third time you said it, Ellie knew she had to give a definitive answer now. You deserved that. She didn’t deserve you, but she wanted to.

“I want you. I want us. I’ll be so good to you, I promise.”

You looked at her with pouty face. This was all you wanted to hear for the past couple of months and you finally got it. You didn’t want to get hurt again.

She met your eyes and tried to communicate with just those.

You remained silent. To which, she gripped the waist area of your dress fabric to bring you closer. She wrapped her arms around you and pulled you into a hug making you sigh into her neck.

She rubbed palmed circles onto your back.

“You want us back together?”

You nodded into her cologned skin.

“Yeah?”

You whispered out a soft, “Yes Els. I want us.”

She grinned into your hair, this was the first time one of her bad ideas turned into something good. But as she smelled that familiar coconut shampoo in your hair, she knew it wasn’t a good idea. It was fucking amazing idea.

She kissed your forehead.

“I really meant it when I wrote that I miss being inside of you.”

You whined a little, “Show me, Els.”

[sso-maev]

SSO timeline (REWORKED)

Consider the old timeline outdated! I’ve found new timestamps and made a few guesses based on character ages and relations to each other.

We have a few things to go off of: It’s been 20 years since Catherine died, and it’s been 45 years since the baroness left Mr Sands and Thomas was born. The old sisterhood, canonically all being born in 1977-1978, should be in their mid 40s. While I used to say Elizabeth’s age was a good jumping off-point, I think 47 is a bit too old considering the other people in her generation (like Sigry and Avalon). It would also make the gap between the failed sisterhood and Catherine’s death a bit too large.

So new theory! Sigry is 44 in the journals and probably born in 1977, and that is our reference point for the timestamps going forward. The journal ages are unreliable, but I’ll consider them canon unless contradicted by the games or books. In case of contradictions between different sso media, my canon hierarchy goes: Newer quests (Post-2018) > Books > Older quests > Journal ages > SSL.

I’ll put the source of my timeline claims in brackets. Confirmed, unmovable timestamps will be marked in green. Unclear time estimates will be marked with a ~. Let’s get into it!

1218

Jon Jarl arrives on Jorvik. [Starstable Online]

~1773

John Sandman and Rosalinda are born, ~25 years before Rosalinda’s death

1798

Rosalinda dies. She and John Sandman are engaged to be married, so they’re probably in their mid-20s. [The Legend Awakens]

1871

Mr Sanders fishes up a deep-sea creature, likely connected to Garnok. [Starshine Legacy]

1890

Owen D Sands establishes Deep Core Drilling Company on Jorvik. [Starshine Legacy]

~1890-1900

At some point during this time period, Mississippi Jones looks for the horn of Araxia. He is pursued by the presumed dead John Sandman. [Starstable Online]

1903

A cave-in/gas incident kills 211 workers and 14 civilians during a Deep Core drilling. (Sounds very similar to what happened in Old Hillcrest…theories…) [Starshine Legacy]

1904

Deep Core is forced to shut down. [Starshine Legacy]

1921

Beatrice, a soul rider of a former sisterhood, is born. She turns 100 years old in present day. [Ghost Stories from Jorvik]

1933

A former reincarnation of Starshine saves four girls who went missing on a school trip to a grave field north of Jorvik City. (Maybe this would be Beatrice’s eventual sisterhood?) [Starshine legacy]

1936

Annabelle Silverglade is born. [Starstable Online]

~1937-1940

Beatrice’s sisterhood is active.

~1949

Pi is born, most likely right inbetween Beatrice and Elizabeth.

1953

Esmeralda Holdsworth is born. [Starstable Online]

1954

Jasper Holbrook is born. [Starstable Online]

1959

John Sandman is on the Firgrove council. Herman Wetton is presumably born around this time, as he claims to have grown up in the 60s. [Starstable Online and Darkness Falling]

1964

Annabelle Silverglade marries John Sandman. [Starstable Online]

1965

Elsa Einstein is born. [Starstable ad]

~1965-1969

Pi is part of a soul rider sisterhood. [Aideen’s gift]

1970

Evergray is born. [Starstable Online]

1976

Annabelle Silverglade divorces John Sandman 45 years before present day. Thomas Moorland is born. [Starstable Online]

1977

Sigry Varanger and Caroline Westfall are born. [The Prisoner of Pandoria]

1978

Catherine Holbrook is born. [Starstable Online]

1979

Avalon is born. [Starstable Online]

1985

Dr Eiren Doyle is born. [Starstable Online]

1987

Ms. Drake is born. [Starstable Online]

1988

Rhiannon is born. [Starstable Online]

1989

Darko is born. [Starstable ad]

1995

Elizabeth arrives on Jorvik. She, Eva, Sigry and Caroline form a soul rider sisterhood. [Shadows Over Jorvik]

~1996

Catherine joins the sisterhood, but grows distant after a failed light ride. [Starstable Online]

~1997

Caroline goes missing and is never seen again. [Starstable Online]

~1999

Catherine’s horse dies after being part of a dangerous ritual. Evergray is presumably banished shortly thereafter. [Starstable Online]

~2000

Catherine and Thomas get married. Josh B’gosh is born. [Starstable Online, Starstable ad]

2001

Catherine dies. Justin is born. [Starstable Online]

2002

Rania Varanger is born. [Starstable Online]

2003

Linda Chanda, Alex Cloudmill, Lisa Peterson and Anne von Blyssen are born in the same year. Derek, Maya, Tan and Loretta are also born this year. [Starstable Online, Jorvik Calling, Starstable ad]

2010

Madison Hightower is born. [Starstable Online]

2011

Rhiannon arrives on Jorvik, ten years before the beginning of SSO. [Starstable Online]

2019

Lisa Peterson arrives on Jorvik, two years before the beginning of SSO. [Starstable Online]

2021-2022

Main story of Starstable Online.

[paper-mario-wiki]

i'm loving seeing you post more of your art!! out of curiosity, how long have you been drawing? is there anything specific you do to practice or do you just pick something and draw it? (i've been trying to learn to draw myself for the past year or so, and seeing your art more often has become somewhat of an inspiration for me!)

ive been doodling all my life! thought when i say "doodle" i mean "as an unmedicated youth i was unable to focus on a drawing for more than 45 minutes at a time"

here's some posts from an art blog i had in middle school, and the first year of highschool.

what most critically separates this art from the art ive been doing recently is that i NEVER used any refrence. ever. i looked at stuff to make sure i knew what it looked like, but the rest was always roughly estimated based on what i thought would look good (which was largely based on cartoons).

but i only ever started trying to "learn how to draw" over the past year. here's the thing: spending a bunch of hours practicing drawing cubes and cylinders is like. all you have to do to see yourself start improving in real time.

draw a bunch of cubes and cylinders, and learn how to make them look realistic in proportion to each other using references to guide you. practice drawing stuff like basic buildings, cans of soda, maybe a cake (3 short fat cylinders on top of each other) if you're feeling daring. then try to draw slightly more complicated shapes, like spheres and cones and stuff. layer these shapes on top of each other to make more complicated shapes. you're gettin the picture.

infuriatingly, basic shapes is like 40% of the "getting it to click" work done.

after than, move on to 30 second sketches of nude models using this site. yeah, only 30 seconds. it doesnt matter if it comes out looking like shit, the point is learning how to simplify complicated shapes down into their most basic lines. dont waste time erasing. dont waste time pressing ctrl-z. erasing is your enemy. you arent learning how to erase, you're learning how to draw. (you'll get your eraser back later).

do this hundreds of times. yeah, hundreds. put on a podcast or something. get in a voice call with your friends. but ya gotta practice this one. that's the next 20% of making it "click".

now, unfortunately, the last 40% is just a matter of slamming your head against the wall of art until things slowly start to look better and better. it's sort of like a chemical formula, in that the closer you get to 100% purity, the more and more difficult it becomes to distill it.

the key is to ALWAYS use reference. you cannot learn how to realistically draw something you've conjured from your mind if you cannot depict something that's right in front of you realistically.

im currently in this valley, as most artists are. in fact i dont think it's possible to make art "click" in your mind 100%, but it sure is fun to inch closer and closer!

below is a bunch of art in chronological order from april to now. you'll see that it's not really a straight road of getting better and better, but you'll see my lines slowly getting more confident and details becoming more clearly defined!

[feralrabidcrow]

How Old I Think The Mercs Are

This is more so just for my own reference, also some bonus characters. These are their ages in 1968.

Scout: 22

"The Naked and the Dead" takes place in 1972. In this issue, Spy reveals that Scout was conceived 27 years ago, making him 26/27. I know a lot of people take this at face value to mean Scout is exactly 27 but it does take 9 months to make a baby. Subtract 4 years, we get 22 in 1968.

Soldier: 44

Based on vibes

Pyro: 30

Based on vibes

Demoman: 36/37

In WAR! his mum says no demoman worth his sulfur had an eye in his head past 30, so I think that he's past 30 and an outlier.

Heavy: 44/45 Zhanna: 39 Bronislava: 35 Yana: 31

This is where I get a bit insane. Heavy and his family were sent to the gulag in 1941. Using the photo from "A Cold Day in Hell", I estimate Heavy in this photo to be maybe 18, Zhanna 12, Bronislava 8, and Yana 4. I also don't know how children look like at different ages at all so maybe I'm way off but those are my estimates.

Engineer: 40/41

It does take a long time to get a PhD, even more time to get 11, but knowing Engineer he could probably grind through them in no time. It's also stated that he spent 10 years in the Texas oilfields, so between that and the PhDs he isn't exactly young anymore, but not super old either.

Medic: 46/47

I know a lot of people headcanon Medic to be in his 50s or later, but this number is based purely on the very elaborate backstory I have for him. Besides, by the time we get to 1972, the time of "The Naked and the Dead", he would be 50.

Sniper: 26

New Zealand sunk 40 years ago in the times of the comics, and 10 years later Sniper's father tries to escape in a rocket, only for baby Sniper to get in the rocket instead and crash land in Australia. This makes Sniper 30 in the comics, and thus, 26 in 1968.

Spy: 47

Spy states he was young and foolish when he dropped a sex bomb on Scout's mother, so I think he was about 24 when Scout was conceived. Leaving him at 47 in 1968.

Miss Pauling: 24

I imagine she's only a bit older than Scout, but she has worked for the Administrator a long time, since she was rather young.

[tedious-waffle]

I know its already been done but I’ve got Quibbles with others math so, imma put my Tommy Kinard Age calculations out there:

So, one thing I’ve seen is people using the Modern service requirements for the army “high school to flight school” program.

The minimum service comitment was changed 6 to 10 years only in 2020, so we can bring that down to 6 years for tommy.

With parental approval and either high school diploma or a GED, you Can enlist and join the “high school to flight school” program as early as 17 years old (and i bet tommy’s shitty dad would totally approve lmao) Soo theoretically if we give tommy the absolute Fastest possible route:

He joins at 17 and goes for the army’s “high school to flight school” program: so has 6 months of basic training + at minimum 1.5 years of flight school and warrant officer training.

So he’s at minimum 19.

Then I’m of two minds:

1) If he serves the full 6 years, he’d be 25.

2) There is a possibility thats he is even younger if he didnt serve the total of his 6 years if he was discharged.

Could be cause of injury or other reasons. Since he would be serving prior to 2011, we could even assume he got discharged for “Homosexual Conduct” under DADT lol. He could have gotten an Honorable Discharge, a General Discharge, or an Other Than Honorable (these were Technically Possible to get with a DADT violation, and wouldnt cause as much trouble with the LAFD like a Dishonorable Discharge would). If were really speed running him through it we could then estimate that he was only 19, right after flight school, and maybe Just started service before his discharge.

Either way, either he doesn’t re-up or gets discharged, lets say he then IMMEDIATELY decides to join the LAFD. Assuming he gets accepted right away, the academy in 6 months of training, and then hes got a minimum of 1 year as a probationary firefighter. So minimum +1.5 years.

So hes either 26.5 if be served his 6, or minimum 20.5 if he was discharged earlier.

If we assume he has Just finished he probation when Chim joins in 2005, that means that in 2024, 19 year later, Tommy is at the at between 39.5-45.5

So being like literally the MOST generous: having him enlist at 17, And even with the minimum 6year service hes 45. And even having him discharged as soon as possible after finishing flight school at 19, he’s still Almost 40 at minimum.

And all of thats is assuming like no gaps: that he joins the military as soon as possible, that he wasn’t at the 118/ in the LAFD for linger before Chim joined, that he didn’t serve More than his initial contract, that that contract was actually the absolute minimum of 6years and not more, and that he didnt re-up for more that one tour (and i mean based on the implication of him having a house with room for a car lift and muay thai up in LA, like… he would make a lot more money the longer he served lol.

So anyway with 45 being the minimum if he wasnt discharged, its really not that hard to very reasonably get him up to his 50s

[evertidings]

— AUGUST 2023.

accomplishments.

uh, so aside from almost dying of heatstroke yesterday (not literally, i'm just dramatic, though i will say i felt faint) i've been good lately. what about you? ahem.

writing's been going. going well, you could say. going horribly wrong in other ways, you could also say. last i updated, i said i had about 35% of the opening branches done. we're at 80% now. whoooooop! i'd estimate maybe about 50% of the chapter is done then? maybe 45%, but i'm trying to be optimistic here. because they're branches and kind of repetitive (it's basically writing similar things in different fonts), you may have seen me vent out my frustrations once or twice. maybe three times. K was the bane of my existence for a bit before the title was given to Rylan, where i could actually feel them mocking me for my writer's block. thankfully, that's over and done with and i only have one left so, fingers crossed i don't start slamming my head against the wall again.

as previously mentioned, the next half of the chapter is much more linear and should (emphasis on should) be easier to write, but as i was just saying on patreon, these things kind of have a life of their own. i say that and then i'll be typing something completely different from what i have planned, making it twenty times more difficult than it should've been. that's just how i do things.

in case you missed it (typing even this makes me giggle), i recently went on an angst fest and posted some super fun, fluffy and heartwarming drabbles for each of the ros. no hurt involved. just a bunch of cutesy things. so so adorable. you can find them here <3

take care of yourselves everyone :))

stats.

448,542 words (+16,450)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Nnamdi Egwuonwu at NBC News:

President Donald Trump told NBC News he plans to hold several events to celebrate U.S. military victories this year, including a “big, beautiful” military parade in Washington, D.C., to commemorate Flag Day, which also happens to fall on his birthday. “My birthday happens to be on Flag Day,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a wide-ranging interview at Mar-a-Lago that aired on Sunday. “I view it for Flag Day, not necessarily my birthday. Somebody put it together. But no, I think we’re going to do something on June 14 maybe or somewhere around there. But I think June 14. It’s a very important day.” The parade won’t be cheap. Defense officials told NBC News that the estimated cost could be as high as $45 million, with individual Army units ultimately bearing the cost of the parade — which could potentially impact funds used for training. Trump said it would be worth it. “Peanuts compared to the value of doing it,” Trump said of the cost. “We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we’re going to celebrate it.” The event, which will also mark the Army’s 250th birthday, is expected to include 6,600 soldiers, an Army spokesman said. Defense officials familiar with the planning said it is also expected to feature more than 50 aircraft and 150 military vehicles, which could include wheeled vehicles such as Humvees and trucks, and so-called tracked vehicles, like tanks. The military parade is just one of several events Trump said he intends to host this year to mark America’s wartime achievements.

Trump said he was inspired after speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron about Victory Day celebrations in Europe commemorating the end of World War II. He said he was considering celebrations on separate days to commemorate the end of the two world wars. 

Speaking to Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet The Press Sunday, Donald Trump defending the waste of taxpayer money military parade that is set to happen on June 14th, which coincidentally falls on Flag Day and DJT’s birthday.

[itsallpoliticsstupid]

So I'm really unwell. I have been for a number of years and I'm only getting progressively worse. My memory has been failing me for a long time. But recent, more worrying, symptoms have started to manifest

I have spasms. Mainly in my neck and head area. I will be sitting here and my head will be jerking. Almost as if I'm having a seizure, but I'm fully awake during it.

I'm losing some of my balance and am starting to exhibit muscle weakness. I can be walking and suddenly I feel like I'm going to fall, or my left leg will completely give out on me.

I have persistent pain in my arm and wrist. My main one which I write with, and I need to be strapped up basically all the time.

I get dizzy spells.

And on top of all this, I am sick maybe 3 or 4 times a day. Which can make it very difficult for me to go about my daily life.

What's my point in all this?

I honestly thank god I live in a country where we have a taxpayer funded healthcare system.

That's not to say it's perfect. There are some major issues right now with it. But I literally couldn't afford to get medical care with my rapidly degenerating brain and body in the United States, and I would probably die very quickly.

Don't get me wrong. I am still dying very early in my life. My life expectancy has dropped another 5 years in the last year and estimations are now that I may make it to 50 if I'm lucky, but realistically I may not be around by the time I'm 45. But at least I can get the medication required to help with the pain in the meantime.

Anyway, don't vote for somebody who is going to try and take even more of your health rights away.

[crestoflaminee]

The Lifespans of the Branded

Short version: by averaging out the average life expectancy of a human today with the average life expectancy of each laguz tribe in-game, we can guess that Branded with Beast Tribe heritage live around 132 years, those with Bird Tribe heritage live 156 years, and those with Dragon Tribe heritage live 548 years.

Long version:

[[MORE]]

The following are categorized by laguz heritage and are rounded to the nearest whole number. The United Nations estimate for the average life expectancy of a human today is 72.6. This is the number I used to represent beorc life expectancy.

The Beast Tribe

- Cat: 138 years (72.6+204)/2 = 138.3 - Tiger: 132 years (72.6+192)/2 = 132.3 - Lion: 126 years (72.6+180)/2 = 126.3 - Wolf: 135 years (72.6+198)/2 = 135.3 - Average Branded life expectancy: 132 years (138.3+132.3+126.3)/3 = 132.3, 1–(72.6/132.3) = 0.45 = 45% longer lives than beorc

There is no information in-game for how long Wolf laguz live. Given that they are members of the Beast Tribe, I would expect their lifespan to be of a similar length. An interesting fact about the Wolf laguz is that they are weaker than the Tiger laguz, but stronger than the Cat laguz. Looking at strength vs. life expectancy, the weakest beasts, the Cats, live the longest, while the strongest beasts, the Lions, live the shortest. Treating strength and age as an inverse relationship rather than a coincidence, I placed the lifespan of the Wolf laguz at 198 years; however, because this is not a canon statistic, I excluded the Wolves from my calculation of the average Branded life expectancy.

The Bird Tribe

- Heron: 186 years (72.6+300)/2 = 186.3 - Raven: 141 years (72.6+210)/2 = 141.3 - Hawk: 140 years (72.6+207)/2 = 139.8 - Average Branded life expectancy: 156 years (186.3+141.3+139.8)/3 = 155.8, 1–(72.6/155.8) = 0.53 = 53% longer lives than beorc

The language on the Laguz Wiki page changed from saying ‘average’ or life expectancy’, as it did for the Beast and Dragon Tribes, to saying things such as, “They usually reach age 210″ for the Bird Tribe. For simplicity’s sake, I have kept the calculation the same, treating the given lifespan as a life expectancy. 72.6 years is an extremely generous number for human life expectancy prior to modern medicine besides. Apparently, back before germ theory, humans were lucky to live beyond thirty. I would expect the beorc to use Heal magic to treat many physical injuries that would have otherwise led them to an untimely death through blood loss, infection, or disability. Even with magic, given what we know about the plague in Daein, magic ain’t got nothin’ on infectious diseases and a lack of resources.

The Dragon Tribe

- Red Dragon: 537 years (72.6+1002)/2 = 537.3 - Black Dragon: 546 years (72.6+1020)/2 = 546.3 - White Dragon: 560 years (72.6+1050)/2 = 561.3 - Average Branded life expectancy: 548 years (537.3+546.3+561.3)/3 = 548.3, 1–(72.6/548.3) = 0.87 = 87% longer lives than beorc

It is important to note that there is only one Branded with Dragon heritage mentioned in canon: the child of Almedha and Ashnard. So technically, given this individual’s parentage, the most accurate estimate of his average lifespan would be 546 years. But this is all theory anyway.

This special individual is also the only Branded with one human and one laguz parent mentioned who is alive during the events of the games. The Branded are stated to mostly live quietly within beorc society, so we can assume most Branded individuals have much more human blood than laguz blood. Yet, we don’t know whether this potential dilution would impact the laguz powers the Branded receive. Maybe the average lifespan of the Branded (excluding the aforementioned child) is actually much closer to that of the beorc, and an average between beorc and laguz lifespans is insufficient when trying to figure out how long they live.

Another fallacy with my strategy comes from the Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Memorial Book Tellius Recollection: The First Volume book, a collection of official documents regarding the worldbuilding and character design of Tellius. This book mentions that Branded with Black Dragon heritage have a lifespan of 185 years, those with Lion heritage, 94 years, and those with tiger heritage, 65 years. Yet the Branded Wiki page points out that these numbers “contradict in-game information about how the Branded and Laguz age”. So, I have avoided experimenting with these numbers.

Just for fun… (skip to avoid game spoilers)

Soren’s character designers stated that he is “physically” a sixteen year old in the games. If we take that literally, that would mean he is… 16/72.6 = 0.22 = 22% of the way through his life. If we use the suggested lifespan I calculated earlier, it could mean that Soren is… 0.22*546 = 120.3 years old! Obviously Soren being that old is impossible since he only discovered he was Branded during the events of the duology. I think Soren is actually sixteen at the start of Path of Radiance. Edit: I made a whole post about my investigation into how old Soren is and the answer is not sixteen. Read more here! I don’t know what the devs meant by “physically a sixteen-year-old”, but let’s be honest, Fire Emblem gets very sketchy with the “physical” ages of dragons, gods, and their direct descendants.

In conclusion,

none of this makes a whole lot of sense. Such is the way of Fire Emblem. But, I think these numbers are an alright guess of how long the Branded can be expected to live. If we substitute 30 years for the average beorc life expectancy, then Dragon heritage Branded live an average of 527 years, those descended from the Bird Tribe live an average of 135 years, and those descended from the Beast Tribe live an average of 111 years. Believe whatever you wish about the Branded, because at the end of the day, Tellius is a fictional place full of fun characters to project onto. Go wild.

[frostyreturns]

I hate when stupid people are on my side of something and then are very vocal about it. Listening to this woman yelling about how Klaus "Swab" is planning to kill 45 billion people. If you can't say the peoples names right and your estimate of the worlds population is off by 42 billion....maybe sit this one out. Maybe discourse isn't for you, you're making us sound retarded. You will literally be a better help by just shutting up.

[sistermclarens]

Hungarian GP 24: McLaren Race Radios 4

Speeding towards the end of the race is Oscar Piastri, narrowly avoiding the head on collision between Lando Norris and the McLaren pit wall along the way.

Laps 1-30 | Laps 31-39 | Laps 40-54 | Laps 55-70

Lap 55

TS: "Hamilton last lap 22.6. Gap to Hamilton is 8 seconds."

WJ: "Ok Lando the position behind is Oscar's 3.8 behind, then Hamilton and Leclerc are 12, and Max is right behind him. We need you to save more tires please, and we do wanna let Oscar through." LN: "Eh, well you should have boxed him first then, surely not?" WJ: "Doesn't matter." LN: "I mean. It does. To me maybe."

Ok. Listen. I have a bit of sympathy for Lando in that he wants those extra 7 points in the driver's championship. Yes, rationally, logically, to me especially as I am very much both of those things, it's basically impossible for him to win it. I think the estimates I've seen are that Lando has to score an average of 7 points higher than Max in every race for the rest of the season, or Max has to DNF three times, or some combination of the two. Here, tho, is I think one of those reasons I'm finding F1 so interesting: the drivers are NOT rational. They're soooooo driven by instinct and emotion and pure raw ego when it comes to their own self-assessments. They ALWAYS believe they can win; they HAVE TO always believe they can win. Lando is demonstrating exactly that in this moment. To him, the championship is in reach, and every point counts.

On the flip side this is like a half-step away from a toddler throwing a temper tantrum lol like Lando has known since his pit stop in lap 45 that he was supposed to give P1 back to Oscar. If you count the pre-race agreement that whoever lead into the last round of pit stops would be uncontested P1 after that, then Lando effectively agreed to give up the lead to Oscar before he knew he had even lost it. To suddenly act shocked like "why was I boxed first? why are you making me switch?" is just disingenuous at this point.

Lap 57

WJ: "And Lando we still think you're using the tires too much, turn 4, turn 11, and the rears at exit turn 6, turn 9. Oscar's 3.5; I know you'll do the right thing."

Andrea Stella's message to the media about McLaren drivers being penalized for disobeying team orders really starts to come into play here. It particularly gives new light to WHY Will is trying so hard to convince Lando to give up P1--his seat with McLaren could be in jeopardy if he doesn't. "Do the right thing" is in this case both "do what is best for enduring teamwork" and "do what is best for your personal career." In my broadcast analysis I criticized the team for putting Lando in a position where he had to go against his own best interest (winning in general but especially winning championship points compared to Max) in order to be a team player. But it's clear now that the McLaren has set up their internal institutional structure to punish poor teamwork, which means that Lando's personal goal of winning the championship IS aligned with the organizations focus on teamwork. As Will says in a few laps, Lando can't win a championship without the team--because he LITERALLY CAN'T, as in, he may lose his seat on the team for being a bad teammate in the process of trying to win a championship.

Now, you can either love this or hate this as a McLaren tactic. (Personally, since I'm quite literally a political institutions scholar, I love whenever an organization lines up their carrots and sticks nicely so as to incentivize the same type of behavior from either reward or punishment.) But like it or not, we have to accept that these are the rules under which McLaren is operating this season. By refusing to give back P1 to Oscar, Lando is refusing to play by previously established rules, and he is running the risk of being slapped with a previously established punishment. He knows what he's doing, and he knows the potential consequences. He's either banking on McLaren not having the guts to go through with getting rid of their more experienced (and more sunk cost) driver, or he's caught up in his anger that the pre-established rules of the game are working against him because Oscar is doing better faster than Lando ever expected him to. Or a combination of both. Never underestimate the ego on a rich white man 😂

Lap 58

TS: "Ok behind, Hamilton is uh still the car behind. Verstappen passed Leclerc. Hamilton is 10 seconds behind you." TS: "Ok there's now 12 laps, ah, 13 laps to go. Would you take a safety car here? Would cost 1 position to Verstappen." OP: "Yes."

This is a fascinating look into Oscar's mindset--he's willing to give up P2 and settle for P3 if it means avoiding the possibility of his tires cooling down/wearing out to the point that he loses even further positions after the (hypothetical) safety car. Bird in hand, etc. I think people overlook how calculating Oscar can be because he's quiet and mostly seems content to go along with Lando's shenanigans in media things. Oscar Piastri let me put you in an MRI and run scans on your brain 👩‍🔬👩‍💻

WJ: "Lando, Hiroshi is stressed about the tires energies. Got a question for you. Ah, safety car with more than 8 laps to go. Would you take it?" LN: "Yes."

Lap 59

TS: "Ok we're in the full safety car window. Full safety car only."

WJ: "And Lando the full safety car window is therefore open." LN: "Okay." WJ: "Turn 4, turn 11. It's gonna get boring."

WRONG, Will, it's ALREADY boring 😭 we're at something like 6 or 7 reminders about turns 4 and 11 to Lando but I've fully given up counting because it's seriously so repetitive.

Lap 61

TS: "10 laps to go, 10 laps."

WJ: "Ok Lando, 10 laps to go; we think both cars are using their tires too much. Just remember ever single Sunday morning meeting we have." LN: "Yeah, well, tell him to catch up please."

Ok, I think this line from Will about Oscar's tires is bullshit. Obviously I don't have all the tire data here so maybe he knows something I don't. What I CAN tell you is that Oscar has not gotten a message about his tires since quite literally lap 49 when he got scolded for running off the track again. Nor does he get any specific "manage your tires better" messages later in the race, just a constant reminder for "best pace" which does involve tires but isn't ONLY tires.

The "Sunday meetings" line I discussed in my broadcast analysis, and I still stand by that: I think it makes the most sense in the context of Lando's interview answer where he mentions that every time they have a meeting they reaffirm their commitment and loyalty to the team. The reminder from Will is both a carrot (remember how good things are) and a stick (imagine how bad things could be).

Lando's response is a lot less defensible than I found it to be in the broadcast analysis, tho. "Tell him to catch up" like what? There's a pre-established agreement that whoever had P1 going into the last pit stop would be the winner. That's Oscar. There's a pre-established agreement that whoever doesn't obey team orders is in danger of punishment from higher-ups, potentially involving losing their seat. Why is Lando testing the boundaries of that? He's known since before his pit stop that the purpose of pitting him was to cover Lewis, NOT to undercut Oscar. Will reminded him of this again directly after his pit stop. Why is he pulling this?

Lap 62

OP: "When are we planning on swapping?" TS: "Ah Oscar we'll get that done soon. We just need best pace from you, best pace from you, for 9 laps."

Another one for turning Oscar Piastri into my mad science lab rat. He asks now AND next lap AND lap 66 about when the swap will occur. He's a lot more impatient about getting the win in hand than I think people realize again because his public persona is so mild. He's 🧍‍♂️ blending into the background, and that masks a lot of the fact that he's obviously got the same competitive spirit and confidence in his own race ability that the other F1 drivers do.

Lap 63

OP: "If there's a safety car with three laps to go, then [there would be no?] swapping." TS: "Understood, Oscar, we're on it."

Again, he's polite about it, and he's smart to do so on what he knows is live & recorded radio. But it's still a subtle signal of impatience with the pit wall. They've been telling him since around lap 48 that Lando would turn the position over to him, and now he's close to the window where a safety car would solidify the final race order with him in P2. He's not, as people said post race, unemotional or uncaring about winning. This is a pretty clear sign of impatience stemming from his competitive drive, so long as you know what you're looking for. He's just picking his words strategically when he knows everything he says is going to be recorded and picked over and analyzed by lunatics like me.

WJ: "Lando, he can't catch you up. You've proved your point, and it really doesn't matter." LN: "He's on much quicker tires, and fresher. I mean I would have tried to undercut anyway. If I didn't, I would have gone long." WJ: "Mate, we did the stop sequence in this order for the good of the team." LN: [interrupting] "Yeah and I'm fighting for a championship. Am I not?" WJ: [interrupting] "I tried to protect you mate. I promise, I'm trying to protect you."

"I would have tried to beat him anyways" this is like, middle school level behavior. Although given how much school athletes tend to miss in pursuit of their careers, I guess I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of these guys were under-socialized during important development years, so maybe it literally is middle school behavior. And Will's line at the end--that was so shocking to hear on the broadcast, but now we can put the pieces together and understand that he's reminding Lando of the very real possibility of repercussions stemming from ignoring a team order.

Lap 65

TS: "Ok. Keep it really tight, Oscar, keep this really tight. Just maximum focus now, best pace. Safety car window is closed."

WJ: "And Lando the safety car window is closed."

Lap 66

TS: "5 laps to go." OP: "The longer we leave this, the riskier it gets." TS: "Understood, Oscar, we're managing it."

WJ: "And Lando there are five laps to go. The way to win a championship is not by yourself; it's with the team. You're gonna need Oscar, and you're gonna need the team."

Do I even really need to talk about these last few radios or am I just repeating myself at this point? Lando has known for a ridiculously long time that he is supposed to give up P1, and he knows (better than we do or probably ever will) what the punishment would be for ignoring that team order. And it IS a team order, even though we haven't heard it be given command phrasing over the radio yet, because they were both given it as a pre-existing order before the race even started. I do feel bad for him that the team put him in this position by boxing him first. But he's not acting mature about this in any way shape or form.

Lap 67

WJ: Lando there is no threat behind; Hamilton is 20.3, then Leclerc, then Max. If there's a safety car now it's gonna make this very awkward. Please do it now.

Lap 68

TS: Ok, three laps to go. Lando's letting you through.

LN: Yeah you don't need to say anything.

If you didn't want anyone to say anything then why did you do all of this Lando 😭 now we've ALL said EVERYTHING 😭 but at least now my brain is empty and ready for Belgium this weekend 🍻

[deathbydarkelves]

How do you handle travel time in Azeroth for your writings? The game lets you take a ship or zeppelin to a whole other continent faster than you can fly a hippogryph to the next city lol

I handle it realistically, or as realistically as the story needs.

I don’t know if we have a canon size for Azeroth (regardless the in-game world isn’t to scale lol), but when laying the groundwork for my AU I wanted to size it up to my own preference anyway. So I semi-arbitrarily decided modern Kalimdor is slightly smaller than South America (roughly 4,000 mi/6,400 km north-south, compared to S. America’s ~4,700 mi/7,500 km), and I use that as my general reference for the other landmasses.

I don’t pull out my calculator every time there’s a timeskip between chapters or a travel montage, because that’s a lot of extra work that really doesn’t add much in my style of writing. I go for semi-realism, not hard realism. But when drafting, I do look at the average speed of whatever modes of transportation my characters will be using, compare that to an estimate of the distance they’re covering, then add a little more to their travel time to account for physical and plot obstacles they’ll run into.

I also look at other adventure-fantasy stories and compare the scale of the story to the time it took. The entirety of Lord of the Rings takes place over about a year. So I sort of... compare the scale of my stories to Lord of the Rings and go from there, as one more way to guesstimate time taken. I'm very bad at visualizing numbers, so I gotta find workarounds lol.

The end result is that an on-foot trip from, say, Stormwind to central Duskwood will take about a week to a week and a half. In my AU hippogryphs, gryphons, and similarly-sized flying creatures can reach top speeds of 45 mph/72 km/h, so that same trip in a straight line, going at max speed whenever possible and accounting for necessary rest stops, would take VERY ROUGHLY three to five days.

When it comes to the sailing ships, I just use the irl speed of those as well. Traveling between the E.K. and Kalimdor via ship takes two to six months, give or take depending on your ship, the winds, weather, and the season. Zeppelins are a lot faster, but considering this is WoW and we’re working with… not-WWII-technology… I do considerably slow them down in this setting (to maybe a max of 40-60 mph/64-96 km/h, ROUGHLY). So the same trip between the E.K. and Kalimdor would take anywhere from a week to two months. Again, depending on the ship, winds, etc.

When it comes to that sort of intercontinental travel you do have to keep in mind everyone has to avoid the Maelstrom, which adds gods-only-know how much more travel time lol

So TL;DR it’s whatever feels best for the story, informed by real-world equivalents to the modes of transportation my characters use :)

[rise-my-angel]

I’m sure there’s some psychology explanation for it, but dating apps are literally just a cesspool for breeding toxic interactions :( the way guys act over dating apps versus in person is night and day. you REALLY need to take everything with a grain of salt in the thunderdrome

which is easy to say. but. then what? “go meet a man in the places your ideal men go.” okay. where does modern au hotgw jon go? work? the gym maybe??? two places where it’s totally socially unacceptable to grab numbers? whoops looks like it’s back to the dating apps hELP

the “it’s estimated that 45% of women ages 25–44 will be single by 2030” statistic is both a relief knowing we’re not the only ones and a CURSE

I hate it because I get so emotionally attached so quickly and then am just abandoned and it completely fucks with my head that I'm am that disposable to someone I thought I had a connection with.

Sure it's my fault I get attached but I don't go into it wanting to be attached and now I don't know if I'm attracting the wrong guys all the time or if I'm chasing them away somehow. And it sucks because I'm so weak that I always come crawling back to them if they want. Which happened again today. The guy I send nudes to finally got back to me and I started sending him stuff apologizing for the lack of pics the past few days.

I dont know, I don't know how to navigate dating when my self worth is so dependant on if men want me no matter how toxic and damaging I am fully aware that is. And I don't know how to attract any guys that are decent enough to be helpful in me fixing that...

[agirlwithbigdreamsforher]

THE HONEYMOON

THE NANNY: ONE SHOT

THE HONEYMOON

Pairing: Andy Barber x Annie Johnson-Barber (OFC)

Summary: It’s time for their honeymoon.

Warnings: this is fluff and porn! So buckle up kids! If you are not 18, please DO NOT READ THIS.

A/N:  I research the flights and when it is a direct flight, the estimate time from Massachussets to the Bahamas is 3 hrs. and 30 minutes. It’s more if you take a not non-stop flight. The rest of the information related to the hotel it’s totally made out hahahaha.

Word count: 1380

Disclaimer: I do not give permission for any of my works to be copied, used, translated nor reposted anywhere else but here on this blog. Do not steal what you didn’t work for. Minors and ageless blank blogs don’t interact with me or my works. Reblogs and likes are always welcome. Thank you for reading this work of fiction.

GIFS not mine, you can find the credits in the gif :)

                                     ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Sebastian was driving to the airport, with Sharon on his side and the Barbers on the back.

“Are you sure you guys can handle Jake for a week?” Annie said concerned.

“Of course we can!” Sharon said.

“I’m not worried about you, I’m worried about him.” Annie said looking at Sebastian.

“Hey, I’m good with kids.”

“Since when?” Andy asked.

“Since always! Just have a little fate, we can handle him. We will have fun, right Jake?” looking through the rare mirror.

“Can I juf stay wif uncle Tom?” Jake asked.

“Traitor! Come on! We’re all going to be fine.” Sebastian said as they arrived to the airport.

Everyone got out of the car, Sebastian helping Andy with their bags. While Jake held Sharon’s hand.

“Alright, Jake. Behave and do everything they say, ok?” Andy said.

“Yes, daddy.” And then hugged his dad. “You come soon?”

“Just 7 days, buddy. Say bye to mommy.”

The little kid ran to Annie and hugged her tight.

“I miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too, baby. Don’t do anything naughty.” She kissed his cheek and then whispered to him, “Maybe a little mischief won’t hurt.” The boy giggled in his hand.

Andy and Annie walked into the airport and headed to the gate Andy said. Annie didn’t know where they were going. Beside the song the dance in their wedding, Andy begged her now wife to left him choose the destination for their honeymoon, and of course, not telling her the place. He was nice enough to tell her what to pack, and since he said bathing suits, Annie assumed it was a place with a beach.

“Passengers of the Flight BA333, with destination to the Bahamas is now boarding in gate 19. Passengers of the Flight BA333, with destination to the Bahamas is now boarding in gate 19.” The voice a woman was heard on the speaker.

“That’s us.”

“We’re going to the Bahamas?”

“Yeah!”

“Never been there before!” She said excited.

“Me neither.” Andy took his backpack, “Let’s go.”

They boarded the plane and at 7 p.m. they took off. Annie nap most of the flight, while Andy opted for reading a book and glance at his wife as she cutely mumble in her sleep.

It was around 10:30 when they landed, and by the time they went out of the airport a car from the hotel was already waiting for them. The happy couple arrived to The Royal at Atlantis Resort nearly at 11:45.

Once in the hotel the receptionist welcomed them and after signing some papers, she gave Andy the key of their room. The bellboy showed them the way and helped them with their bags. The number 550 was on the door. The man at the front of the open the door and let them in.

“Welcome to the Royal.”

The room was huge, it had a kitchen, a dining table, a small living are, a balcony with a view to the ocean that right at that hour was lighted by the moon light.

“Oh, my god!” Annie run to the balcony feeling the breeze on her face, “This is amazing!”

“And wait till you see it in the morning, ma’am. The view is incredible.”

“I bet!” She then run towards the room. A king size bed with a fluffy white comforter, she let herself fall, “I love it!”

Andy gave the man a tip, and he left them alone. When Andy walked into the room Annie was sitting on the corner of the bed giving little jumps.

“This is comfy.”

“Yeah?” Andy said walking towards her.

“Mhm.” Andy leaned in and kissed her, taking her breath away. “Nice view too.” She said not taking her eyes off of him.

“I agree.” And kissed her again. He tried to lay her down the bed, but she pushed him.

“Wait. I bought something nice to wear tonight.”

“You are the nice thing I wanna wear tonight.” He said playfully.

“I mean it. Can you wait for a bit while I change?”

“Argh, fine.”

Annie sprung from the bed, took her suitcase and headed to the bathroom.

“Get yourself comfortable while I change.” She winked at him.

As soon as the bathroom door closed, Andy stripped his clothes leaving only his black boxer briefs on. And sat on the bed against the headboard.

A couple of minutes later passed and Annie finally came out of the bathroom. Her wavy hair framing her face, she was wearing a white lace babydoll, completely see-through, a white vow on each of her shoulders. Andy could he her naked form underneath, no bra, no panties.

“Wow.” Andy said and Annie smiled to him.

“I knew you’ll like it.” 

“I love it. Come here.”

Annie walked towards the bed and made her way to her side of the bed. As soon as she got comfortable Andy kissed her. Soft and slow, his mouth exploring hers. His tongue dancing along with hers. His hand went to her waist and pull her closer to his body.

They slid down on the bed until Andy was on top of her. His kisses trailed a path down her neck, while his hand caressed her thigh. This went for a couples of minutes, Annie’s arousal growing with each minute that passed. She loved when Andy kiss her neck, she became putty in his hand whenever he did it.

“Andy…” She breathily moan.

He pulled the fabric that was covering her breasts. His mouth immediately found her nipple and suck on it. The pebble begin for attention on his mouth. He licked and bit the small nub and the flesh around it. He alternate his ministrations in each of her breast.

“Mmmmm.”

Annie took his hand on hers, and took his fingers in her mouth, sucking softly on the digits. She places his hand between her legs. His middle finger sliding up and down her slit. He kept his movement until he stopped right where her clit was, making slow circles on it.

“Oh god.” Annie move her hips to match Andy’s movement and he kissed her as her pussy grew wetter.

He place himself between her legs, her glossy slit begging to be touched. He parted her lips looking at her arousal covering her hole. His lips attached to her clit pulling out a loud moan form Annie. His tongue lap at her juices, the tip of his tongue poking her hole slightly as his nose bopped in her clit.

“God, please.”

He sucked on her clit again while his fingers rubbed circles in her entrance.

“Oh god!” Annie’s hips moved harder and faster. ANDY!” and she came against Andy’s face.

He moved to be on top of her and between her legs. She felt his hard clothed cock against her bare pussy. She touched him through his boxers, he felt hot and heavy. Her fingers hook in the elastic of his boxers pulling them down until his dick sprung free. Annie grabbed his cock and pump it slow, feeling his entire length in her hand. The head hitting her entrance but never breaking through. Andy’s kisses became sloppier as she jerk him off. Soon the movement stop and Annie placed his tip on her entrance indicating Andy she was ready for him to take her, so he pushed.

They moaned into each other’s mouths and Andy silenced her with a kiss.

His hips began to move, his cock coming in and out of her, their moans filling the silence of the night. Andy’s pace increase once he felt her squeezing him.

“Andy, please.”

“I know, baby. I know.”

Their moans became louder and louder as their orgasm approached. Annie’s throw her head back feeling Andy’s cum covering her walls.

Andy stood still inside her while he recovered his breath. When he looked down Annie was staring at her with big doe eyes.

“I love you.” She said softly.

“I love you too.” Andy smiled and lower himself to kiss her and nuzzled his nose against her.

A little after that, Andy moved to his side of the bed. Their naked bodies staring at the ceiling.

“Wanna go again?” Annie asked.

“Yeah!”

Andy moved to be on top of her again making her giggle. It was definitely going to be a long night.