#obviously there are always going to be Additional Reasons why a certain game sticks with you more than others

[goldentigerfestival]

Using this as an audio reference for the posts I'm making, but to summarize:

Yuri starts out mad.

Yuri tries to calm himself down with a deep breath to ask for details instead of going through it angry.

Flynn doesn't say "like a good knight" in the sense of putting himself down. He simply says "as a knight" (the tl here doesn't use that, but with that included it's basically along the lines of "even though I had doubts, as a knight, I was determined to follow my orders").

Once Yuri has answers he calms down significantly.

Yuri uses " 'ttaku", which is a shortened down version of "mattaku" (Yuri often shortens words and speaks very casually), which in this particular situation basically would mean "geez", or "good grief". In this manner, it's expressive of exasperation/frustration/etc.

Yuri never mentions that "Flynn told him what to do" like the dub does (because in fact Flynn did not ever tell Yuri what to do. He only gave Sodia and his other knights orders. He expressed his own desire to take responsibility, but never told Yuri and his friends what to do).

At this point you can tell the anger has gone out of him and that he's calmed down, now that Flynn is approaching this with admission and responsibility.

Sodia is asking that Flynn returns as soon as possible (I believe this was a general translation error).

Flynn's thank you to Yuri is tonally much more heartfelt.

Yuri's response and gratefulness at Flynn coming back to himself is tonally much more heartfelt, relieved and sincere.

[vounoura]

doing some housekeeping on the old sideblog to make it more obvious that I'm not coming back, and oh wait I forgot abt this here's my thesis since I actually had wanted to talk abt it but Forgot:

My brain has been revolving around the intricacies of MMO design for hours now bc it’s a cool ass topic and. I can expand on this later but I think it’s not a coincidence that there is a significant overlap between (in my observation) people who really love GW2 over all other MMOs and people who really love sandbox games like Minecraft and the Sims

[sirthisisa-wendys]

The Regular (Part 1.5): Geto Suguru x Fem!Reader

synopsis: Geto is back for more, but innocence and sincerity isn’t something you’re used to.

word count: 2k

tw: none 

a/n: This is just a brief interlude between part 1 and part 2! It will get steamier in part 2 for sure. 

The squeal of the hinges alerts you to someone’s presence in the dressing room, and you look up from your phone and into the blue eyes of Mrs. Lampton. She’s wearing a shit-eating grin and holding out a wad of cash, obviously very excited to speak to you. “This is for you! VIP room tonight. You know the deal.” Before you can stretch out your hand to warily accept the cash, you raise a brow in question. “Oh, it’s the man from last night.” She answers quickly, a blush fanning across her fair cheeks. 

Geto. 

You stand to take the cash from the manager, noting the thickness of the stack and the way that the bills were pressed smooth - not crumpled like the ones thrown at you in haste. Someone had counted this money and stacked it with you in mind. 

“This is--” 

“It’s more than enough to cover the nightly operating fees for a week,” Mrs. Lampton waves away your observation, disappearing as soon as she finishes speaking. The hunter green two-piece you wore was no longer appropriate, and you take a look at the small offerings of clothing you had at your disposal. He had already seen the red lingerie, and that left you with the only other thing you had bothered to bring: a baby blue silk slip dress. Sliding the flimsy thing over your head, you think about his intentions tonight. Would Geto touch you? Would there be any sign of his arousal beyond the uncomfortable shifting? Or would he perform the “I’m going to save you from this place” act? You didn’t want to be saved from the club, that much you knew. The club had saved you. This environment provided you a well-needed distraction from the constant chaos that was your daytime life. Compared to that, the strip club was absolute heaven, and nothing would change that. Not even the wads of cash you were bound to receive from the mysterious man. 

It’s the main reason why you empathize with your clients: escapism isn’t just a luxury they could afford. It’s one you desperately need, and they just bring the money for you to enjoy the feeling of being someone else for a change. On stage, you were someone everyone looked at with lust and desire. The attention on you there was rarely negative and if you could trade your daytimes for your night times, you would do it in a heartbeat. 

Before you can slip back into your true self, you look at yourself in the mirror and fluff your natural hair. No wigs, that’s one of Geto’s rules. You take one more look at your reflection, decide it’s enough, and slide the thin black robe over yourself before exiting. 

“Come here.” The request is met with immediate obedience, and you feel your legs magnetically pulled to the man sitting cross-legged on the couch, dressed in a dark blue shirt and black slacks. The top three buttons on his shirt are open, letting you catch a glimpse of the strong, pale chest beneath. “You look alluring, as always.” 

Geto extends a hand out to you, and you tenderly take it, sliding your fingers into his large palm. Surprisingly, the pads of his fingertips and palm aren’t rough and calloused. That’s the sign of a man who doesn’t have to work hard for his money, your aunt would say. And you found that to be mostly true. Yuma never had calloused hands, not with his late father’s money cushioning him from any hard labor. 

When Geto pulls you into his lap, you perch yourself on his right leg precariously, letting his right arm wrap around you and settle onto your hip. Instinctively, you lean into his frame, resting your head on his massive shoulder. His smell is different tonight. It’s earthen and full of some essential oil you can’t quite identify, but it suits him. 

“Talk to me,” he murmurs over the soft music. He had the selections changed, you notice, the usual songs sexual and explicit. Now, you were surrounded by jazz, which changed the entire environment of the VIP room. You no longer felt like you would have to dance around sensually for him. Now, you felt like you were in a fancy, upper class yacht club, except in a robe and a night slip with no shoes on. Was he trying to save you? “Tell me about your day.” 

“I’d rather not,” you whisper, thinking of the tension-filled morning and the afternoon you slept away. “Tell me about your day.” Geto rests his cheek against the crown of your head, inhaling deeply before exhaling; his chest rising and falling exaggeratedly. 

“I’d rather not.” A moment of understanding passes between you, but he squeezes your hip suddenly, laughing a little. “Tell me, y/n… you seem well-adjusted. Did you choose this career path or did this career path choose you?” 

“Well…” you think about the question deeply, and choose accordingly. “I chose this.”

“Do you enjoy what you do?” 

“I do,” you breathe, remembering Yuma for a second. “I enjoy it here. Do you enjoy what you do?” When the man doesn’t answer, you lift your head off of his shoulder and look into his onyx eyes. There’s a certain stare in them - not a long stare, but enough to make you wonder - and it isn’t until he blinks that his lips part to answer. 

“I do what I have to in order to survive.” 

“You make it sound like you’re a mobster.” The laugh that resonates in his chest is deep and thoughtful, like he was just considering the prospect of it all. He reaches out a hand to touch your cheek, which you shy away from slightly. It isn’t unusual for a man to attempt to touch you in a more intimate way, but all of this coming from Geto feels too familiar. He clears his throat and drops his hand, looking away from you and at the lamps on the wall. 

“If I said I was, what would you do?” 

“Nothing,” you admit. “There’s not much I could do. Who would I tell?” The thought that this man could actually be a mobster just needing a break sticks a little harder than it should. It would explain the cash, the nice outfits, the need for privacy… 

“No, I don’t associate with the underbelly of society. It’s not my game. Gojo, though…” You frown at the name, and he looks at you with a blank stare. “My bad; my friend from the night before.” 

“Blue eyes?” 

“Yeah,” he begins, looking away. “He brought me here to ease my nerves… I thought a few drinks would do the trick. But here I am.” He gives you a half-shrug, lips turning back up into a smile. That’s when the question you’ve been dying to ask falls out of your mouth without caution.

“Why do you pay more than you have to for... this room?” For me, you want to add, but decide that’s a step too far into personal details. Geto blinks, no doubt sensing your unspoken addition, and tilts his head to the side. “I mean, you could have an escort come to you every single night for the amount you pay for all of this…” You wave your hand around at the furnishings as if to prove your point. “And you could have sex with them.” 

“That’s not what I’m looking for right now.” He replies, and you squint in disbelief, moving off of his leg. 

“You’re telling me you don’t want to have sex.” 

“Is that a question or a statement?” He asks, chuckling a little at your wary expression. 

“Both.”

“Can’t I just get to know a beautiful woman in the privacy I can afford?” 

“You could date a rich woman and take her out to fancy dinn-” 

“That’s a lot of commitment.” Geto interrupts, holding a hand up to cut you off. “I don’t think that’s something I want splashed across every gossip rag.”

“And this is?”

“No one comes here to gossip. The focus is you and your co-workers, and they know what I come here for. It’s not as headline-inducing as taking out the heiress to a billion-dollar company to eat overpriced scallops in a five-star restaurant that pays its workers too little.” He hasn’t raised his voice a single octave, instead looking at you with a soft gaze and planting his hand on his now-abandoned leg. You take in all of the information he’s offered, uncrossing your arms and now standing akimbo, unsure of how to respond. 

Gossip rags… Heiresses… Headlines…?

Geto wasn’t just rich. People had their eyes on him. Why hadn’t Mrs. Lampton warned her? Who else knew about his status in a world that she couldn’t truly occupy? 

“Please,” he begins, stretching his hand out once more. “Sit with me. I enjoy your company.” You take his hand again, and this time he slides you in next to him, your bare leg touching his soft pants. “Now, tell me about the day you wish you had.” 

_______________________________________________________________________

Your alarm goes off at exactly seven am. It isn’t ideal, but you know that in order to even get to your aunt’s flower shop on time, you had to give yourself an hour head start. Waking up was hard enough, and with the situation you were facing, it seemed like times would be getting even harder. 

It isn’t until you get into the shower that you recount the details of the last night. 

“I’m going to be away for a few days, but here’s a little something that might warm your hands while I’m gone.” 

The impossible had happened yet again, and the thick stack of twenty dollars bills Geto handed you sat in your safe - untouched, uncirculated, and the seal around them remained unbroken. You had tried to look him up and find out what exactly he did during his day life, but the search results turned up absolutely nothing but an article from four years ago proclaiming the winner of a chess tournament in India named Geto. When you clicked on the article, you couldn’t read it, but the thirteen-year-old champion was absolutely not the man that had lavished you with cash. 

You tried looking up his white-haired friend, Gojo, but found nothing on him as well. Whoever they were, there was not a single gossip rag that published a photo, quote, or mentioned them. 

Because they paid them off, stupid. 

You nod to yourself at the realization, and wash yourself completely before toweling off in the steamy bathroom. You’re in the middle of wondering what kind of people actually paid to have their names taken out of magazines when the door shudders violently under someone’s fist. 

“Fucking hurry up,” one of your housemates yells from the other side, and you gather your things before rushing past the man in the doorway, ducking your head so he couldn’t accost you. But you’re roughly yanked to the side, making you drop your dirty clothes to the floor. Rough, calloused fingers bite into your arm, and you gasp, staring at the unfriendly face of the only male in the house.  “Stop using all of the damn hot water in this house, y/n. I’ve told you that you get only three minutes of hot water, or else you’re paying the entire water bill, got it?” 

“Sorry, Ryo…” you shrink away from the man’s harsh gaze, and he lets go of your arm silently, storming into the bathroom and slamming the door shut. This. This is what you needed saving from. 

Ryo’s girlfriend, Hasia, timidly shuffles into the room and gives you an apologetic look. She always did that, coming behind Ryo to apologize with her face and never her words. But it was almost over. Soon, you’d have enough to move out and be on your own - and if Geto was going to stay, then all of his money would trickle into your savings for rent, utilities, and new furniture. As it stood, you had enough to purchase something halfway decent, and with the rest of the incoming money, you would be able to fix it up to appear quite nice. You just had to time everything right, and keep your new regular coming back for more.

[anti-porn-unicorn]

I’m a girl (18 now) who got exposed/addicted to pornography at a really young age, and I wanted to share my specific story on this blog so that the platform can get it out there.

Under the cut is my full story, and it’s a little long winded, so if you don’t want to read the whole thing, I bolded in purple the general topic/idea of that section. Just look for whichever of those interests you and the section will be about that. The first and last paragraph are good for context and end goal, though.

Thank you.

I don't fully remember my first exposure to porn. I know I was in third grade (6-7 yrs old, I had skipped a grade). The reason I had wanted to share my story, in fact, is because I don't see many stories with circumstances similar to mine. Most I see have at least one of the following 'modifiers', for want of a better word. Most I see have at least one of the following 'modifiers', for want of a better word. Most I see have at least one of the following 'modifiers', for want of a better word. 1. The person is a victim of CSA/grooming. 2. The person was at a generally pubescent age (~11-14). And/or 3. The person experienced porn as a quick disturbance. To be clear, these stories are as valid and important as mine, and I simply think more perspectives make evidence of the effects of porn more airtight. I've never been the victim of SA, harassment, or grooming, ever in my life. My story shows the effects of exclusively porn.

The first memory I can recall about this was actually the first time I got caught. I was 6 yrs old, and very into video games,so on this day, I was playing a 3D porn game on my crappy hand-me-down laptop. I kind of knew that what I was doing wasn't acceptable, so I was sitting in my room in the corner as far from my door as possible. My mom walked in so I just slammed the laptop shut because I wasn't that good at hiding things. My mom obviously asked what I was doing, and I tried to keep her from looking, but it was right there when she reopened it. This is where the battle of it begins.

From ages 6-14 I don't have a good timeline of events but a few pop out that exemplify the severity of the issue. These are very probably out of order.

I got an iPod Touch for Christmas (~6-7), and every night I would watch porn on it until they caught on. I literally still remember some names of the sites, most that don't even exist anymore. My parents have always been amazingly caring. I couldn't ask for more. During the earlier ages (~6-8) I was put with a child therapist for fear of a deeper issue. My parents started either taking technology away in the night and/or setting restrictions on the internet. Unfortunately, between my slight tech-savvy, and my crazed addiction at this point, this wasn't a solution.

The addiction got DEEP. It warped my brain. When I had no technology, I used everything I could find.

Whenever I had access to less restricted internet, I used it. Once I asked my older cousin to use her iPod and watched it on there.(she noticed and told my mom. I remember my mom had asked me "Is there anything you need to tell me?", and I knew what she meant, but I just said "nope!" and walked away. At one point my dad's work provided him with a Blackberry, and I asked him could I play one of the built in little games. Once I had it, I watched porn. (when I gave it back to him he pressed the "back" button, and I was caught.)

I used Youtube. This was when YouTube was way less moderated (back when the app was a little old timey TV). I learned I could look up "striptease" and "nip-slip" and other stuff like that, finding more soft-core videos that could suffice when the internet in general was locked down.

I straight-up found out ways to disable the restrictions. Once I found out my mom's PIN for the controls, I went and disabled them, but changed the PIN so it would look like they were still on, and so that she couldn’t access and re-enable them. (I made it 7399. Spells "sexy". My mind was a mess.)

My parents bought a book called "The Classical Tradition". I'm just learning now as I'm looking it up that it was a Harvard Reference Library book (probably why it was so damn thick) about ancient Greek and Roman culture. I didn't know that. I had realized that sprinkled throughout the book there were pages that were more glossy than the rest, which you could see from the sides of the pages (the book was HUGE). These were the photo paper, which had the classical paintings and sculptures. And because these had nudity (Think "The Birth of Venus" type) I would regularly flip through this book when I needed a "fix". Absurd.

My parents got me an American Girl book that was made to ease worries about the developmental years. The pages on breast development / the anatomy of the vagina were what I looked at the most. When my parents had gotten me the child therapist, there was the logical fear that I might have been molested. The therapist gave me a book where there was a page with two cartoon mice, a boy and a girl. They were wearing swimwear/underwear and the point of that was "anywhere the clothing is covering is somewhere that adults can't touch you without telling.” They might as well have been stick figures, there was NO detail. But since they were in ‘underwear’ I'd always look at that page a lot. Anything barely vaguely sexual.

During this part of my life, I got no real pleasure out of this, I was just obsessed. For the first year I even watched it on mute out of fear of being caught. The lowest point during this period was when I very unfortunately filmed a video of me touching myself. I got nothing out of it and had no intent on ever sending or posting it. I was just emulating what I had been seeing. I deleted it the next day. I was 9 then.

From puberty until now (11-18) is when my sexuality was shaped by it. The addiction was far more controllable, I could spend a couple weeks to a couple months without it, but I'd always come back. Because it was now tied to my body. And while my need for it to be constant was gone, now I had to deal with the tolerance issue.

Over time what I watched became more and more depraved. I had the personal preference of hating anything amateur, because of the low quality, so I managed to avoid anything obviously non-consensual or involving visibly underaged girls, but that doesn't really mean much with the stuff the studios were putting out. During the middle points it got REALLY violent and disturbing. Bordering on torture (extreme kink) and even bodily deformation. As a young woman, I couldn't really tolerate any of the role based Kinks (father-daughter, babysitter, schoolgirl), so more extreme for me meant more extreme acts. Just absolute destruction of women's bodies for the purposes of sex. I moved away from that when tumblr banned porn and I started using reddit for it, and also during that time I was realizing how fucked up of an addiction that this was, even before I found feminism/anti-porn. I actively started trying to quit it, for good. But I always went back.

One big effect is heavy confusion with my sexual orientation. A lot of people face this, but the addition of porn for me really throws things off. Like: Am I bi, and a form of comphet/denial/inexperience keeps me from seeing women in a romantic way? Is it a mix of that and porn? (relatively likely) Or am I just straight, and the porn has completley shaped my mind (likely). 90% of the time I watched solo female content or lesbian content, and could only stand to watch certain specific forms if it included men at all. In real life I find a fair amount of men attractive but their bodies in a sexual sense are tolerable at best, but usually cringe inducing. l've never been attracted to a woman romantically, but exclusively women's bodies are sexual to me. It feels like everything in my brain that I would have been able to use in order to figure myself out has been permanently overwritten with incorrect information. Because of porn.

I've still got it bad. Every once in a while, I’ll read something vaguely sexual, or see a woman in a risque photo, and then the seed is planted. I'll always say "I'm not going to do it, I always feel disgusting after, it’s not even really enjoyable at this point, I can do better than this”. I always give in the end of the night. I'm 7 days off of it. I've been on this earth for 18 years. 12 of those years I've been cripplingly addicted to pornography. Two thirds of my life, and for as long as I can remember. I can never undo it. Just like an alcoholic will always be an alcoholic, only able to achieve remission, I will always be a porn addict. I have to be careful. But I have to hope for the future. And with finding the community that is speaking the truth about this, I'm heartened to do better. To no longer be held down by an addiction to consuming my own oppression.

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Hi I was hoping to ask for your advice on writing. I’m trying to write from headcanons to little short fics (like one shots) from the readers pov but I’m finding it difficult to do so smoothly. Any idea how to do the transition without it coming out as a fanfic readers worst nightmare?

Well, I cannot guarantee the quality of my “advice” but I will give it a shot! 

Apologies for you folks that hate my big essay length posts, but I do love infodumping about the writing process :P 

So just click “J” to skip the post (if you’re on mobile...sorry just exercise your scrolling finger a bit more)

- - - - - - - - - - 

So I’ll start with the distinctions between a headcanon and a fic. On one hand, you got simpler sentences, that summarize a broader idea or scene. You might have visualized the entire thing in your head, but at the end of the day all you do is write down a few sentences or pieces of dialogue that give the broader basis of an idea and/or scene. That’s not to say writing headcanons is easy, but it is, bluntly, the simpler method.  

Writing, obviously, is more complicated. Not only are you trying to convey a more abstract idea to your reader, but you’re doing so with more layers and complexities, given that what you are trying to write is generally more detailed. You have to not only account for what your basic premise is, but the method in which you convey it. So, in a “good” fic, it typically doesn’t just focus on the basic “what is happening right now” in a scene, but can give subtleties and intricacies with its tone, themes, point of view, connotation, foils, imagery, symbolism, sentence structure, diction, context, figurative language, narrative, foreshadowing, setting, irony, character arcs, and the thousands and thousands of other layers that go into constructing story. 

And I say “story” there deliberately, as I think the best way to summarize the differences is that a headcanon is a plot, while a one-shot is a story. Your one-shot has the ability to tell different messages, details, and themes, and give several points of interest to your reader, while your headcanon is limited to the structure of its initial premise.

[And before you English nerds bash me for my definition of story and plot, please know that I am using my film teacher’s old definition, which (to quote this quizlet I found) is “Story is all of the elements of a narrative that are involved, both shown and un-shown on screen. Plot is only all of the elements of a narrative that are shown on screen.” So yeah, it theoretically could be rewritten as a headcanon is a scene, and a one-shot is a story, but I’m just nitpicking at this point half of you don’t care and want me to move on anyway, apologies!]

So how do you transition between them? Well, in honesty I don’t exactly have a sure fire way for you, saying I do would be very hypocritical. However, what I can do is point out the “gap” between headcanons and fics, and perhaps from there you might be able to forge your own path..? 

Chances are, if you’re already familiar with writing headcanons, you’ve already knocked out half of the work. See in a story, specifically in our case, fic, you have eight elements that construct it. You’ve got

Plot

Setting

Conflict

Character

Point of View

Tone

Style

and Theme

With a headcanon, (assuming it’s slightly more specific than “Headcanon that this character likes peaches!”) you’ve already got plot, setting, conflict, and character down. 

Plot: being the actual premise of your story. What happens, why things happen, how other characters react, the beginning and ending, etc.

Setting: Being the location and time of your scene/plot. The setting might be a contingency to your story, such as a prison break that takes place in prison, or maybe it is the time that is essential for your High School AU fic

Conflict: Typically goes hand and hand with your plot, although not always (obviously, plot and conflict aren’t essential when talking about fics, *winks at the nsfw side of tumblr*) But if your headcanon does have a basic plot, then it probably has some sort of conflict whether external (The Calamity kills everybody) or internal (you’re character is going through grief)

Character: This whole aspect is practically already done for you. Whether by canon from the video game or media you got it from, or perhaps by fanon, with the collective fandom agreeing on certain traits about your character(s) in question. Obviously, if you got an OC, that’s another thing, as you have to create their traits, and construct a believable way that that character reacts and makes choices throughout your plot, depending on how you characterized them

So congrats! In writing up your everyday headcanon, you’re now halfway there to making a full on fic! Obviously, 50% is still a lot, which is probably the reason you were seeking advice in the first place, so now we should move on to the other half, and arguably it is this other half of elements that give the entire distinction between a headcanon and a one-shot. So in theory, if you get these elements down, you’re on your way to writing that much faster!

Quick additional note: Another way to think of your headcanon is as an outline. While not in every case, a good way to jump from your headcanon to a fic is to stick with the major elements of your headcanon, and weaving your writing style in between. Think of the headcanon as your skeleton, and the story being the meat and muscle. Idk if that makes sense, blame my old English teacher for the metaphor

Alrighty, so for demonstration purposes I’m gonna use the very first headcanon I’ve ever written as a basis. Bear with me for a moment:

“Zelink Headcanon: Zelda Just Wants Some Snacks

Everyone always jokes and adores about how Link eats so much and cooks great food in the game (he’s gotta carbo load guys, he walks like 9 miles everyday!)

However I propose, equally hungry and feral Zelda

After Link and Zelda defeat Ganon, one of the first things they do is stop by the nearest cooking pot and eat

She hasn’t eaten for 100 years!! She’s gotta be starving!

Link just cooks up some meat skewers

“…wait I forgot the Goron spice, gimme a sec…”

But Zelda just immediately snatched it off the fire and eats the whole thing in two seconds

Link keeps trying to go out of his way to make really nice food but Zelda is just like “I DON’T CARE RIGHT NOW PLEASE LINK”

So yeah, their first date is basically just Link cooking Zelda a buffet until his inventory empties out”

Again, this headcanon has already given us half of the answers. 

We got our plot: Link, a talented chef, is cooking food which Zelda scarfs down without fear and hesitation

Setting: They are by a cooking pot, perhaps in the wilderness, away from the prying eyes of nosey villagers. This takes place sometime after the initial defeat of Calamity Ganon.

Conflict: Link keeps trying to cook “good” food, but despite the Princess’ royal upbringing, she has no care for the whole “show” of cooking with spices and garnish. She is starving, willing to eat anything

And Characters: Link and Zelda. You know... (Today unfortunately is not the day in which I construct a thorough character analysis of the two...perhaps one day...)

So, now that we have this, we start adding the meat and muscle of our story with point of view, tone, style, and theme. These elements, could be summarized as your writing style. Yes, writing style is more intricate than those four elements alone, but they do fit in with its broad definition. 

So, in essence, a way to transition between headcanon and fic is to find out what kind of writing style you’re comfortable with. 

How do you do that? Well... shocker, I know, you gotta write. 

Write first, plan the elements of your one-shot later!! 

Allow yourself to write complete utter garbage. I know you said that you don’t wanna create a “fanfic reader’s worst nightmare,” but if you become more concerned with the quality of your content before you even start writing, you will never ever ever get anywhere. You’re gonna be stuck in writer’s block for eternity, so just let the garbage and nightmares out and write. You’ll never improve if you don’t have something to improve from, you feel me? 

So, now that your mind is open and ready to write anything, whether garbage or gold, let us dive in to the parts of your writing style. 

Point of view: Do you prefer writing in third person? First? Second? Each have their pros and cons. Second person is good for your “x reader” inserts. First person is good for your narrator’s characterization. Third person is good for describing elements of your surroundings that might not be inherently obvious to your characters or audience. There are hundreds of other pros and cons to the different POVs that you can search up online, but it’ is ultimately up to you to decide which method you like best. 

When you find the method you like best, make sure you use it to it’s full potential! Use foreshadowing with your third person POVs. Use connotation, and diction to further characterize your narrator in first person. Elevate the mood and senses of a scene when in second person.

Tone: Now, this element is often confused with another literary device, mood. The difference being that you as the author have more control over the tone, than the mood. The tone, is the attitude that you as the author (or as a character/narrator, depending on your POV) have towards something. For example, your tone might be suspenseful if you withhold information from your reader, or if you have a certain choice of diction. It is typically better to look to the type of genre you’re writing for to identify what kind of tone you want. 

Mood is the feeling that the reader experiences from your writing. It’s really much more simple, a beloved character dying give a depressed mood. A cute couple hanging out will give the reader a happier mood. This is your angst and fluff feelings, if you will. (Although, please remember than mood and tone are not a binary thing, it is a spectrum, as broad and diverse as the capabilities of human emotion)

Style: Ok yes this is a bit meta, me explaining how to use style to help you construct a writing style. Blame the bendable definitions of the writing world. So just think of this as the face of your writing. The more obvious and apparent part that is unique to you and your personality. 

Think cake. Your story is a delicious cake, it is a chocolate, Zelink cake. Now, your style is the way that you present this cake. Pink frosting? Yellow? A full cake or just a slice? Chocolate ice cream cake? Chocolate lava cake? Five tier cake? Cake pops? These possibilities are the infinite ways your style will present the story.

Style, sometimes called voice, is the combination of your use of tone, mood, POV, syntax, diction, and other literary device that you commonly use in your writing. This isn’t something you learn, it’s just something you do naturally when you write. It’s what readers will like about your fics, because they like the way that you use this or that, or the way you describe this thing or that person. It’s something that can change and improve over time, but in essence, it’s what readers can read and identify as you, without even looking at the username.

Style isn’t something you have to remember, per say, like other literary devices, but it is something to be aware of as you should try to keep it consistent through your whole story. Sometimes have people have different writing styles depending on their own mood, or what they’re writing about. That is fine, so long as you keep it consistent through your whole work. A good trick for this is to listen to music that fits with the style of your writing. Use that one catchy love song whenever you’re writing cute headcanons or fluffy one shots. Use that anime opening theme for your adventurous fics and fight scenes. This way, you are keep in a consist atmosphere and your brain will be in the “Oh! It’s time to write ____ stuff!” mood. 

So just be aware of when you’re in a descriptive style, a narrative style, argumentative, or whatever style you like using. You style might even derived of the way you already create headcanons!

Theme: This is a big one. Have a cohesive theme can easily bring any story from good to great! I like to think of it as you’re story’s destiny, or reason for existence. 

Theme is an outlier for the other elements in that not only is it not necessary for your fic, it is also not necessary for your writing style either. It’s really not necessary... at all. Yet, people always use theme in their writing, even accidentally. 

Theme is your story’s underlying message, or lesson. Yes, yes, if you paid attention in your basic English class you probably already knew that, but this is a big pet peeve of mine. 

The theme of your story isn’t “true love,” the theme isn’t “innocence”, or “failure”, or “trauma”, or whatever. Theme isn’t a broad idea, it’s a specific question and an answer. 

For example: The theme of Breath of the Wild isn’t “exploration” or “time”. The theme is there is always something to seek and find, so long as you have the curiosity and courage to find it. The theme is despite the eternities of time, we still found each other. 

Your theme shouldn’t be a broad, one word answer. What about love are you trying to convey? What specifically about failure are you saying?

Theme is the entire reason why the entertainment medium exists, because artist found a way to create something compelling and interesting while also connecting them to real life things. 

When you give your reader something to really chew on, even days after they finished reading your fic, then you did a brilliant job. Essentially, you want to use theme in your story because it is what will stick with our readers even years after they’ve read your work.

While that’s all sentimental and sappy, that’s still not your biggest problem, is it? You still need to practice, you still need to learn how to use the things you’ve learned to actually write. So, a summary of what I advise you should do.

Look over and improve your old headcanons, and keep making more! Keep making headcanons and litte prompts, and let them grow bigger and bigger, and more desprictive. This could help you ease into actually writing paragraphs a bit more

Find out what you like to write. Yes, you probably already have a fandom in mind, but think back to those first four elements. What types of plots are you comfortable with, what settings, characters? Genius is only the work of enthusiasm, if you don’t like what you’re going to write, you’ve already failed

Write, write, write. Practice, practice practice. Let yourself write complete and utter garbage and nonesense. Then read it over. See what you don’t like about it. Then change it and write again. I MEAN it when I say you should write garbage. Write a completely terrible, nightmarishly cringe scene. See what you don’t like. Then rewrite it again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be a scene or something from your fandom. Let it be your description of a shirt, let is be some cringy poem from 7th grade. Just write and learn how you like to write. It will be so much easier in the long run

Read stuff. The stuff you read usually seeps into how you write. When you get used to reading things a certain way, you usually unconciously try to imitate it when you write. So, got a favourite fic writer? Read their stuff over and maybe even analyze the elements you like (again, think back to those eight elements I talked about) and hey, writers like it when you analyze their stuff so maybe even hit them up and talk? We like book reports we swear, most of us don’t bite. 

When you finally think you’re comfortable with your writings, maybe think about what kind of themes you’re into, or what kind of messages you want to say. It doesn’t even need to be that complex. Could be as simple as “I love this ship because it shows that you can still have flaws and be loved” Again, themes are the rEASON for eVERYTHING in the entertainment world

For further demonstration purposes, I’m going to come up with further elements for a hypothetical fic I would write based on that Zelink headcanon. So I’ve got the plot, setting, conflict and theme down. Hmm... I’ll probably use a third person POV as that is what I’m most comfortable with. With third person, I can better highlight the descriptions of Link and Zelda’s surroundings taking in the atmosphere and the aromas and and tastes. The tone will be more happy, focusing on the fun of Zelda and Link’s banter, I’ll try to create a mood in which the reader is laughing along with them, and enjoying the scene. My style will be more descriptive, again with the tastes and smells and other senses of the scene. However, I might go into a more narrative style for Zelda and Link’s banter and dialogue. While typically some people don’t want to use two different styles, I am personally familiar with the styles and know how to write them so as to blend them together more seamlessly. I might have a hint of angst at the end of the fic, as a little climax, given that the setting of the fic is after the defeat of the Calamity. I might through in some themes about how it wasn’t the material power of Hylia or the Master Sword that saved Hyrule, but the courageous and wise bond between Link and Zelda. Then...idk, a little romatic kiss for resolution because this is a fic and I can throw in some fanservice because my writing my rules. 

Babam! I just converted a headcanon to a fic.

So yeah, go write your headcanons. Then maybe next a paragraph. Then next a scene, and then you’re well on your way to one-shots and chapter fics. Happy writing and good luck!

[terramythos]

I beat the 2021 Nier Replicant remake, here were my thoughts overall (I did play the 2010 release a few years ago). SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

*so this game was MOSTLY a straight remake/remaster, with improvements to some baseline things, but a few totally new storylines/content here and there. 

*obviously everything got a graphical overhaul, which brings the style more in line with Automata. I think they did a great job w/ this, the old character models were... pretty rough. But the new ones still keep the general feel of the characters. and environments etc obviously look better. it’s not the most graphically amazing game ever, but that’s fine 

*the updated music is EXCELLENT. the original release already had legendary tracks, and Keiichi Okabe + crew either scaled up the tracks well or reimagined them in new and improved ways. I’m super impressed and know I’m going to play the new tracks a lot. (there are some tracks i just think “this is what 10 years of music comp experience does to a motherfucker” (admiration)) 

*i’m also glad most of the original VAs returned, even ones that are bigger names now than they were when they first appeared in the 2010 release. Laura Bailey knocks it out of the park as Kaine, but they’re all good. i also liked Roy Chase’s (new) performance as older Brother Nier. 

*combat is way better and fun compared to the original release. look, i didn’t hate the original’s combat (i’m in the minority on this), but it’s WAY better with a more Automata style. 

*totally new content: i really liked the new storyline/boss/level with the girl and the ship. i didn’t know going in, but apparently it’s based on a Japan-only short story? i thought it was nice they added anything at all. it was pretty obviously new content based on the animation quality (i.e. it’s an animation that’s new from the ground up, not a remastered one) and the sort of random placement in the story... but i liked it; creepy and sad. i’m a little confused that the conclusion with the letter is different depending on the ending path you’re on. 

*the BIG new content: ending E. on a meta level, i think it’s hilarious that the game doesn’t tell you it exists, unlike the other ones. you have to know about it or look it up. So theoretically there’s someone out there who will beat the game, get ending D, put the game down for 3 years, decide to replay it, and accidentally activate this totally bonkers ending 

*i loved ending E! I know this one is vaguely (?) based on a Japan-only story as well. but playing as Kaine was awesome since she’s my favorite character. i thought the visuals were an interesting callback (callforward?) to Automata at parts. the big boss fight where you fight as Kaine in the weird simulation realm is just fun/trippy/horrifying. and it is heartening to see Weiss, Emil, and eventually Nier again after the huge downer that’s ending D. Even if it’s all pretty fucking weird/surreal in context. 

*so i’m going to talk about the... old? content? stuff that’s in the original release and present in the remake 

*the strong part of nier is definitely the story and characters. all the leads are likeable, and they have a great found family vibe. i also LOVE that there’s the big “hey Shades are humans actually” twist at the end which changes your perspective on everything. and i LOVE that the game forces you to replay the second half not only with that knowledge, but with additional scenes and dialogue that make everything horrifying and depressing. 

*the fact that it’s all a meta commentary on violence in video games (why do you like killing hordes of enemies? what if the enemies have a reasonable point of view that you don’t understand?). the closest comparison i can think of is... Undertale, of all things? but OG Nier came out 5 years before that game. 

*it’s kind of wild/complex, but i do like the Drakenier lore and how it fits into the story of the game, even though it (unfortunately) requires research outside of the game to appreciate. imagine if kingdom hearts lore was like, actually good and compelling. 

*some of the side quests are good and interesting, and also introduce new perspective on the overarching story. i like that some quests from the first half lead into quests in the second half, often with their own surprising twists and turns. 

*my big beef with Nier, which is unfortunately still present in the remake, is it wastes your time. the main quest has you run back and forth a lot. the side quests (and sometimes main quest!) are often just... grindy MMO fetch quests. do not get me started on the gardening mechanic, one of the few things that is actually WORSE in the remake (it’s time consuming both in game and in real life. and you can no longer cheese it with your system clock. yes, it is optional, except for one of the side quests that requires you to do it. yes, i still bred Lunar Tears. don’t look at me). there’s a fast travel... partway through the second half of the game. the game is self-aware about some of these things, but i’m not sure that makes it better. 

*the part where it comes to a head for me is the C/D path. i LOVE that the B path has you play through the second half again. But C/D add almost nothing new. so you’re just required to speed through the second half again without anything new or interesting. if you’re a moron like me, you also accidentally overwrite over your pre-final dungeon save, so you have to do it a fourth time. 

*and there’s no reason for it! it’s the one thing i thought was a no-brainer to change in the remake! automata literally has a timeline jump for this exact reason. you can navigate anywhere in the story after a certain point to do side quests and other stuff. not so in 2010 Nier, OR the 2021 remake. it’s boggling. 

*if they didn’t want to do a timeline jump, i feel like it would be simple to let you access the final dungeon once the weapon requirement is met. or remove the weapon requirement entirely (shock). as it is, it’s a pointless waste of time with a couple new scenes (which could easily be put in the B path). 

*it sounds like i’m harping on this, but i had a hard time defending it in the 2010 release. In 2021 we have an oversaturated market of excellent games, and wasting someone’s time the way Nier does is difficult to justify when you can pick up a game that doesn’t do that at any time. i love Nier’s story and characters, but it’s a tough game for me to wholeheartedly recommend without disclosing the grindy repetition of the game. something which Automata lacks (there IS some repetition in that game, but it’s kept in the spirit of the B path in this game; new context and scenes that change your perspective). 

*however, as remakes go, i think this was a good one overall. i’m a fan of the game, so i had no problem clocking 56 hours, even as certain parts grated on me. i wish they changed more than they did, but i can understand the desire to stick to the original pretty closely. there’s also the whole COVID thing which happened mid-development, and i imagine had an impact on the final product. as always, i’d rather have a humanely treated development team than a crunched one for the sake of what i want in a game. 

[northernxstories]

Trading in Dignity

It was shocking how quickly it all came to an end. It started in the 2020s and within a decade, after the third global pandemic, they were faced with the worst yet. All the science deniers, those who refused to distance, wear masks and all of that ... well, most of them caught it. Some of them caught it without showing a single symptom. That didn’t matter because approximately eight months after you were infected, after you thought you were all well again, your lungs started to bleed. Nothing could make it stop. You drowned in your own bed, at night, sometimes in mere minutes. Most of the time, you just went to sleep and never woke again. It was grim.

The survivors were rare and the disease progressed so quickly, institutions fell almost overnight. Whole cities became ghost towns. Survivor teams started sweeping, looking for children, infants, pets trapped in houses and then supplies. Survivors came first. There were a lot of supplies. Not that many people.

She was rare and she knew it. Immune. How? No idea. Luck? Genetics? It didn’t matter at the end of the day. The world grieved and cities were abandoned for smaller communities. It wasn’t like in the horror movies or post-apocalypse fiction. No one ate people, bought and sold people, or any of that ridiculousness. For the most part people tried to help one another. Older people banded together to raise the children who survived. With the population reduced in the span of a decade to less than a third, it became very clear that every single human was a necessary addition. Funny how prejudice and differences in sexuality mattered a whole lot less when the end of the human race was at stake. All that shit became real irrelevant real fast.

In a spate of particularly weird coincidence, some communities lost more of a certain type of people. The east coast of North America for example had nearly no men left. It was startling, You could travel for days, scout many towns and communities and find less than a dozen males. West of the Rocky mountains however, the opposite was true. The average was 1 self-identified female to 20 self-identified males (like people were checking - get real). Some communities the ratio was more like 100 to 1. In the mid-west, prairie region, well there was almost no people left there at all. No one knew why they were so hard hit but the coasts survived. Perhaps it was just population distribution. Scientists would be studying it long after she was dead.

So, in a world where you lived with almost 100 men in your community and the number of single women could be counted on one hand, and you wouldn’t need every finger? Yeah. This was fantastic. 

Again, it wasn’t like the books though. She wasn’t chained, or bound or really mistreated in any way. Nope. None of that.

She was a strong survivor. She had a thriving garden and a number of animals of her own. Her house was cute as hell and in really good shape. Her grandmother had taught her to sew and the rest she learned from books. The little town was powered by a local dam that kept the predatory animals such as the dog packs, at bay with electrified fencing in key areas, including around her goats whom the wolves thought looked super yum yum.

But even she needed supplies. I mean, was she going with a raiding party into a city to get tampons and advil? Ummm ... no obviously. That was terrible. That’s how people died! Those places were not safe. It took rigging and expertise she did not have to be on a scavenger team. Plus do you think they would be cool having one of the few women in town go out with them? You’re dreaming if you think that’s gonna happen buddy and no one went without a team. That was a fucking death wish.

So, she had to shop. She had to trade. Fact of life. They didn’t want her tasty preserves or baking. Nope. That they could do for themselves. She traded the one thing that few had around her - her pussy. Fucked up right? 

Prostitution was the oldest game in the book for a reason it turned out. So she went into the store and put in her order for supplies that she needed. Flour, tampons, books for example. There was a tally and a calculation conducted. She was a modest girl. It rarely went above two visits. Then there was a jar. Yup. A fucking jar, with names on it. Men who had paid into the credit system. 

“One” The merchant stated bluntly marking it in his book. 

“One?” She repeated, a little surprised by how light the requirement was. Her list had been pretty long.  

“Yeah, Bernice fell pregnant, she’s off the list until after and maybe permanently since the Bennett brothers are putting serious court to her. All remaining traders just had their value go up.” 

That’s what they called them - traders. Like she was wheeling a cart through town with little jars or something instead of letting men cum in a minimum of two holes per trade. It was awesome. By the way, that was sarcasm in case you can’t tell.

“Nice.” She replied with a nod, “I hope the baby is healthy.” That was the customary statement these days when anyone fell pregnant. You see, the virus didn’t exactly go away and infant mortality was high as fuck. It was depressing as hell. She didn’t know a single woman who didn’t half dread getting knocked up, even if they really wanted to be a mother. It was a huge risk and all too likely to end in just more painful loss. Yay for survival.

“We all do.” the merchant stated sincerely as he pushed the jar toward her. Sliding her hand in, she let slips of paper, card stock that was refreshed so often you couldn’t get a feel for any one particular person, just dance through her fingertips. You just had to stick your hand in and pray to whatever god you might actually believe in that you didn’t get one of the gross old coots who thought bathing was fucking optional. Last time she had one of those she had about forty baths and still felt disgusting.

She pulled out the card and took a deep breath before flipping it over. Both her and the merchant looked surprised. “Well good luck there. Didn’t even know he paid in.” The merchant marked his book and then nodded. “I’ll get your order in as soon as ... you have about four days before you’ll have had to pay up.” 

That was another thing, the man had to confirm you had ‘paid’. However, if that man lied, he was off the books permanently. Not only that but the other men in town usually paid you a visit and beat the holy hell out of you. It was an honour system true but most followed the rules, out of honour or out of necessity, it didn’t matter at the end of the day. Men who might only get one fuck a year with a ‘willing’ woman weren’t about to lose the privilege because you decided to get fucking cute about it.

“Thanks ... Have a good day now.” She replied with a sincere smile. The merchant was a good man after all. He never put his name in and if he found out one of the men was cruel or unkind even, he’d return their credits and tell them to start getting real used to the sweet feel of their left hand because that was about all they were getting from now on. 

She walked through town, that name flipping through her mind. It was just so unexpected. 

Well no time like the present she supposed. She had had a bath last night, given the old cunt a tidy and all that. She had a debt to pay and she just knew she wouldn’t sleep right until it was paid off good and proper. Yes, it was a little fucked up but that was the system and she had lived with it for a while now. Strangely you kinda got used to it. Most men were pretty appreciative about it. 

Walking down the main street, she noted the weird combination of old and new that had blended together in this world. Cars jerry-rigged with solar panels to charge the batteries travelled on the same road as horse-drawn carriages. Kids wore sneakers cause there were still plenty of those left in old stores but paired them with clearly homemade clothes and then spiked them with leather jackets kitted out with studs and chunks of cell phones used as artistic decoration.

She walked until she hit the slight outskirts of the main town area. She could see him now, his arm lifting as he pounded the steel into shape with a large hammer. Farriers, blacksmiths, knife-makers, welders and so on made a nice living in this new world. You could always tell who they were because they smelled like fire and had arms the size of her entire body it seemed. She licked her lips and straightened her back. For the first time in well over a year, she had to admit that she might just be looking forward to this one.

“Hey ...” She greeted. He put down the hammer and shifted up his eye protection, squinting at her in the bright light of day. “Hey.” He replied back, his voice a little gruff. “You looking for something?” He asked.

“Ummm ... pulled your name.” Turns out all the cool things she was saying in her head since pulling his name had just fallen right on out of her brain. Well I wasn’t cool before, she thought bleakly with a tinge of amusement, Guess I’m not now either. Maybe the next apocalypse.

He stopped, frowning lightly as if he wasn’t sure what she was talking about and then his expression cleared and his eyes grew wide. “Oh.” he said. It was actually more of a sound. He cleared his throat. “I ... I  ... yeah. Now?” he queried.

When she nodded, “If you have the time. Otherwise ... I can come back.” I can come back. What the hell, was she Uber Eats? What the fuck is wrong with her?

He shook his head, “Now is good.” He tipped his head toward the interior. “Let me shut this down a bit and then I’ll wash up and be in.” 

He seemed nervous. Why did she like that so much? Maybe she was bored of the older guys who just had you bend over or would just unzip when they saw you coming. No effort man. No fucking effort. Literally. Wham bam, you’ve paid for your groceries Ma’am.

Mr. Muscles here better put in some damn effort at least.

[whatacartouchebag]

So I recently did an AMA over on the Fair Game Effect discord server, and it was a whole mess of fun! I loved being able to get the chance to chat about the creative process that goes on behind the scenes, so I wanted to be able to share the answers with the rest of you ♥

I do tend to get kind of wordy for some of these answers, so to save your dash, find out a bit more about my writing process under the cut!

Keep in mind that there are mild SPOILERS up to the latest chapter of And The Reason Comes, if you haven’t caught up!

Question: I absolutely love the cadence of your writing, especially the slow way you unravel emotions. Was there something particular about the relationship between Qrow and Clover that you felt lends itself to this style of writing? Can you talk a bit about how you decide which emotional bits get more attention, and how you decide the depth to which you describe those emotions? That’s 2 questions, sorry.

Cart: Thankyou so much!! The biggest part of writing these two really comes from the fact that they're both adults with a lot of stuff on their plates. They've had enough experience with life along the way to know a few things here and there. They don't tend to rush into things, unless it's a good fight, and there's a lot of mutual respect for space and trust and time, so it was all about expanding on what's already there. In canon, we were always shown that there was this soft sort of trust building up between the two of them, but it was never anything in great leaps and bounds.

Qrow's shown himself not to be the sort to blindly trust without reason, and how easily that can break, so going into Reason I always kinda knew it would be a slow drag of letting him work himself out around this new force in his life. Clover himself has shown that he's this quiet but gently reassuring presence in his life, and putting them together is like a match skirting the edge of kindling. They work so well together; they recognise there's something there, so it was just a matter of letting them fall into step over the course of the fic.

As for the second question, hoo man, that's kind of a mixed bag answer! It all really depends on the brainstorming process of what plot points I want to tackle, and in what order they fall onto the page. Sometimes it's also a matter of just letting the scene play out by letting the characters say what feels 'right' at the time (which can sometimes go INCREDIBLY against what I originally had planned). There was always going to be heavier scenes versus lighter ones, so it's a bit of a balancing act to know when to let them come up for air, or when to let them linger. Not just for them, but also for the audience.

That's... probably the biggest thing I keep in mind when writing the heavier emotional scenes. It's not just the characters going through it, but whoever's reading it, too.

As to the depth part, that's... something that depends on the rhythm of what's happening. If it's a scene of heavier realisation, sometimes shorter, punchier sentences help portray that (eg: Qrow's realisation of what home is to him in the latest chapter), but other times, it takes something meatier to help feel what they're feeling (eg: that first kiss and Qrow's subsequent reaction). It's that striking-a-balance feeling again, and finding what works best for the pacing of the scene, and it's something I always have fun writing.

Question: What parts of Reason do you enjoy the most so far?

Cart: can I just say i've adored writing the whole thing jkhdfk

Man, I... really don't know how to answer this one. I've enjoyed the entire process of the fic, because it's been such a fun ride of ups and downs. I adore writing these two together, so sometimes it's the little things that really tick all my boxes.

I do get a giant kick out of writing action scenes, so the sparring match and the canyon fight with the Nevermore were pure indulgence for me to go through. I love the tender, more simple moments, like the noodle shop, or any of the time spent with the girls. Getting to see them through some heavy emotional moments, like at the lookout, or at Clover's apartment. Being able to explore some characters and have fun with them along the way; I mean, writing Winter has been an absolute blast and I never thought she'd be as fun to write as she has been.

Honestly, though, it's just a treat to be able to write a scene where Qrow is genuinely happy, because it's something that's so very rarely shown, and being able to give that to him is just so good.

Question: What is your planning process like? Reason is such a big story, how much of it was planned at the start? Did you have all the major plot points decided then, or did some big ones strike you along the way?

Cart: Kind of fifty-fifty, actually! I had a few big story beats in mind before I started putting pen to paper, but a lot of smaller, in-between scenes generally fall into place somewhat organically along the way. There were always some things that I wanted to do from the outset, for example, the sparring match, the noodle shop, Clover's breakdown, and the Nevermore fight.

Along the way, ideas will pop out of the blue while I'm doing dishes or something, or if I've been stewing about how to connect certain points. Those usually get jotted down and shuffled or reworked depending on how the story is progressing. The usual process kinda looks like this:

It's just quick little snatches of notes, but the actual scenes get WAY more fleshed out as the chapter plays out. Some things don't make the cut, depending on pacing, or if it doesn't fit the flow of where a scene goes, or if it's just going to pad out the story too much (as you can see from the last note there, it's something that never made the cut in the restaurant, but it was a fun idea to play with).

Question:

In addition to

Reason

, you also wrote a series of fics for Fair Game Week! How was writing those different than writing for something long-form like

Reason

? And which FGW was your favourite to write :)?

Cart: I actually get a real kick out of writing shorter prompts, because it really helps keep myself better in a character's head, ie seeing how they react to different situations, knowing how they'd respond to something, that sort of thing. It's a good mental break to be able to sink my teeth into something shorter, and with a concise ending, rather than a bigger, ongoing project like Reason.

As to a favourite, man, I adore Feint because getting to go over the parts and pieces of Harbinger was amazing, though I really do have a soft spot for Sinew because writing a sick floppy bird getting cared for by Clover was just fun.

Question: It’s so lovely to hear about how much you’ve enjoyed writing Reason from your answers! Have you gotten stuck on any part, and if so, how did you work through that?

Cart: Oof, I have gotten stuck quite a few times along the way. Wrapping up the restaurant scene was a big one, and definitely when Ruby, Clover and Qrow left the canyon to return to Mantle. There's an upcoming scene with Winter that I had to revisit quite a few times, because of certain subtleties in phrasings or how she was speaking very carefully with someone without either of them saying too much that would cross a line. I still find myself getting stuck with Ironwood, but mainly because I still haven't gotten his voice right in my head.

Working through them, to me, is just a matter of pushing ahead with a scene, letting characters talk to one another, or letting them get their own thoughts out, because sometimes in doing that, it helps me stumble across something that leads into another scene. Or having a goal to work towards - another scene - and just finding a different way to connect the two.

Question: What inspired you to begin writing Reason?

Cart: Honestly? It was seeing Qrow taking the first real, productive steps into healing, and finding himself working alongside this positive parallel of a person, and reacting so wonderfully to it. After Clover's introduction, it was clear that he was going to be such a healing presence to Qrow, and watching Qrow open himself up to this man little by little was something that was wonderful to see.

It was because of that I really wanted to do something with this healing process, and help the two of them connect in a more solid, in-depth manner. It's honestly why them becoming a couple took so long to come around; I wanted the focus to be on their trust and connection first, and their relationship as a couple to come afterwards.

Question: If you don’t mind me asking (feel free to ignore if this would be too spoilery!), but going forward with Reason, are you planning on including any canon scenes from the show?

Cart: It's something I've been tossing up for a while, pretty much ever since I started writing it, to be honest. It's why the fic takes place in that little handwaved time pocket between their arrival in Atlas and the elections, because it gave me enough time to play around with something if I did include canon scenes.

Going forward... I'm not too sure! If I did, then many things would certainly change, but at the current pace of things, and with the loose ending I have in mind, it might be hard to wrangle in. But hey, maybe we'll see!

Question: You navigate through a lot of different emotional beats in Reason so deftly!! Do you have any strategies you use to keep everyone in character as you write?

Cart: Thankyou! A couple of things I always try and keep in the back of my mind when writing: does this sound like something they would say in canon? And is this something that the audience is going to find enjoyable?

Obviously, the characters change a little over the course of the story, so subtle changes will be there, but for the most part, I always stick to those two loose rules when I'm putting pen to paper. As an aside, Reason wasn't actually my first foray into writing these characters! I wrote just a few simple, throwaway scenes and snatches of conversation, just to get a feel for them and their voices before I really started writing the bigger stuff.

[satoshi-mochida]

Platinum Games has launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring a remastered version of the August 2013-released Wii U title The Wonderful 101 to multiple platforms.

At the base funding goal of $50,000, The Wonderful 101: Remastered will release for Switch, and at $250,000 and $500,000, it will release for PC via Steam and PlayStation 4, respectively. An Xbox One version is not a visible stretch goal, but director Hideki Kamiya suggested that it will be in an interview with Gematsu.

The Kickstarter campaign will run from February 3 to March 6 at 12:00 p.m. PT / 3:00 p.m. ET. If successfully funded, The Wonderful 101: Remastered will launch this April.

In a press release, Platinum Games said it will be able to self-publish The Wonderful 101: Remastered, which was originally published by Nintendo, as well as bring the title to other platforms, “thanks to the kindness of Nintendo.”

In a message to supporters, Platinum Games said, “It has been a goal of Platinum Games to own and self-publish the IPs that we create. With your support, we hope that we can make this dream a reality and bring The Wonderful 101: Remastered to a wide variety of platforms and make The Wonderful 101 a part of everyone’s gaming history! This Kickstarter is our chance to UNITE UP, take destiny into our own hands, and bring the best version of The Wonderful 101 to everyone.”

Here is an overview of the game and Kickstarter campaign, via Platinum Games:

About The Wonderful 101: Remastered

The Wonderful 101: Remastered will feature various refinements overseen by director Hideki Kamiya to make the game more user-friendly for players. These improvements include on-screen directives, sub-menu placement, information pop-ups, and unique game play adjustments for new hardware. Although Kamiya feels The Wonderful 101 is already one of his largest games, completely new modes will be added if the corresponding stretch goals are met! These modes will be available later to backers will receive them for free!

About the Kickstarter Campaign

Backers will be able to support the campaign at a wide array of reward tiers and with exclusive goods ranging from The Wonderful 101: Remastered soundtracks, comics, and art books, to extremely rare, one-of-a-kind items like pendants, custom-made masks, and jackets! There will also be a “Defense of Blossom City” social media challenge, in which supporters can unite to achieve certain social media goals to open up additional rewards and increase awareness of the campaign.

Director Hideki Kamiya and producer Atsushi Inaba will also be actively involved in the month-long campaign, providing weekly updates with an inside look into the development of The Wonderful 101: Remastered and interviews with key team members.

Gematsu interviewed The Wonderful 101: Remastered director Hideki Kamiya back in September 2019 regarding the launch of the then-upcoming Kickstarter campaign. Find our full interview with Kamiya below.

Interview with Hideki Kamiya

—Cory Arnold (Gematsu): Considering The Wonderful 101 was originally published by Nintendo and released for Wii U, is it safe to assume The Wonderful 101 Remastered will only release for Switch, or will it be possible to bring to other platforms?

Hideki Kamiya (Platinum Games): “The initial goal is Switch. Depending on stretch goals, we will be porting it to more and more consoles like PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. That is the goal right now.”

—You mentioned Steam, so is the Epic Games Store not in consideration?

Kamiya: “We are focusing on where the biggest user base is, so while we are open to other things right now we are thinking about Steam.”

—Why did you decide to bring The Wonderful 101 to new platforms? Did you talk to Nintendo about a port?

Kamiya: “We felt it did not quite reach the audience that it deserved. As creators we are very confident in the game. This project is a unique opportunity to bring the fans together and see how far the game can go, which is why we went the crowdfunding route. We did speak with Nintendo about it initially, but they said, ‘you either do it only with us or do it yourselves.’ But speaking with them they allowed us to cut a deal, so we took upon ourselves to start this project. Dangen Entertainment is helping us. We have seen successful campaigns in the past, Bloodstained in particular, so we saw it as a very unique and interesting opportunity.”

—I read that you all didn’t feel the original game needed any downloadable content, but for this port are you considering adding any additional content over the original game?

Kamiya: “In terms of the base game content, we are still very happy with the amount of content in the game and we feel it has a lot of content. So there is nothing in particular that we want to add, but the biggest thing we want to change is tweaking the game’s interface to make it more user-friendly. It’s possible we could add some aspects to Unite Morph, new game modes, maybe new characters through stretch goals, but for now expect the same base game. Anything content met through stretch goals will be in the base game at release, not in downloadable content later down the line.”

—Could you speak specifically about some of the things you want to tweak? Have you considered any feedback from users, or reviews? I have seen some people have issues with the camera for example.

Kamiya: “I don’t those people are talking about (laughs). We are making tweaks or changes based on our own ideas rather than outside parties. We don’t necessarily see things as bad and improving them, instead we are taking things that are already good and trying to make them even better.”

—What do you think the main reason was for the original release not reaching as many people as you had hoped? Do you think it was due to Wii U hardware sales or perhaps people being unsure about what the game is?

Kamiya: “It’s attributed to both I think. The Wii U didn’t sell very well, that’s just the fact of the matter. In terms of the game itself, I consider The Wonderful 101 to be a unique title. Games like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry are easier to identify. I have confidence in the game, but there may have been the case where users couldn’t quite tell what The Wonderful 101 was. That’s another reason we want to do this campaign; with modern platforms and audience we think it will be well-received. We want to let people know what kind of game this is, why they need to play it, and why they may want to back it.”

—Will users still be able to activate Unite Morph both through touchscreen gestures and using the right analog stick?

Kamiya: “Since the Switch has a touchscreen, both options will still be available. Obviously for something like PlayStation 4 the only option will be the stick. I myself prefer using the stick.”

—Will multiplayer return and could there potentially be any online functionality?

Kamiya: “The original had the multiplayer mini-game. We don’t have any set plans for it nor online at this point, but it is something we are very interested in doing. With modern days users, everyone likes to play online so if that is possible it would also be cool.”

—OK, so I probably know the answer to this, but since you have brought Bayonetta 2 from Wii U to Switch and are now working on bringing The Wonderful 101 to other platforms, is there any possibility that Star Fox Zero will come to Switch?

Kamiya: “Star Fox is a Nintendo IP, so while we helped make it, we are not in a position to say we want to do this. It is up to Nintendo.”

—It always seems like Platinum is working on a million things at once. Some people wonder if there are multiple teams working on different projects in a similar way to how Square Enix has a team in Tokyo and a team in Osaka.

Kamiya: “We don’t have any specially divided teams per se. We have about 220 people in our Osaka office and we may divide people up to work on different tasks or projects.”

—Thanks for your time, Kamiya-san! Is there anything else you would like to say before we sign off?

Kamiya: “We really appreciate the support of the fans, we think The Wonderful 101 is a great title and really want the fans to ‘unite’ together and make this a wonderful campaign to help it reach a lot of players. We need your help to make this great game reach a lot of platforms.”

Watch the Kickstarter campaign trailer below. View the first screenshots of The Wonderful 101: Remastered at the gallery.

[voidwaren]

[READ MORE] STORY 2/?

Story Title: idk I don’t have one yet Rating: M for language and themes. Like always. Words: 8k+ Warnings: Video game warnings apply, just in case. In addition: explicit language, dark themes, mental illness. You know, the usual ball game for this AU. (Actually, this one has a little heat to it, but it’s nothing beyond a T rating) Summary: Warren’s called to pick Nathan up from the party he didn’t want to go to. Trevor tags along, because Trevor’s now a central part of the whole AU. Shit goes down. Warren continues to hate parties, but what else is new.

(why is the line break gone. wtf. come on, Tumblr. work with me here.)

-

Warren’s first warning comes in the clipped voice of the Tenth Doctor saying “Allons-y!” as it signals a text coming in, which he ignores at first, because he’s busy reading about gelatinous rainfall in certain parts of America and knows if he lets this Wiki spiral have a moment of pause, it’ll just start up all over again with renewed energy, and he didn’t want to still be engrossed when Nathan decided to show up again.

His second warning comes about a minute after the Tenth Doctor’s deceleration in the form of Daft Punk informing him that they’re up all night to get lucky, telling him both that someone had changed his ringtone yet again—though he couldn’t easily choose a culprit considering both Chloe and Nathan’s past attempts at pranking him—and that whoever had sent the text was also probably the one calling him. With Nathan out at a house party with Hayden and Victoria and her posse, Warren knows he can’t just let it ring in case there’s an emergency. So he answers it.

His third warning, really, should have been tacked-on immediately following his first, because he’s been through enough instances where his life has been threatened before for there to be some kind of Spidey Sense attached to the notion. Like, come on. Where were the perks to almost dying so many times?

Alas, it only comes after Victoria threatens to dislodge one of his favorite body parts and make him guzzle it if he didn’t do exactly what she was telling him to do right now and have it done, like, yesterday. Even if it wouldn’t make sense for him to do it yesterday, since it was happening in the moment, and she wasn’t aware he ever had the ability to fall through time. The guzzling is still threatened, and the fear is still real.

(He wonders if Victoria learned that one from Nathan or vice-versa, because it wasn’t a new one. He also wonders in what capacity either of them might have learned it in the first place, but then decides he probably really doesn’t want to actually know.)

“And you can’t drive him back to campus, why?” Warren risks asking as he wrangles his legs into a pair of jeans he swiped off the floor of his room, cell phone shoved up with a shoulder and plastered flat to his cheek.

“I have business elsewhere, creepo,” Victoria responds. It’s a wonder he can hear her, honestly, because the music at the party she’d gone to sounds loud in the background.

Warren sighs, replacing the phone in his hand and starting the search to find the one sneaker he’d kicked off the day before and didn’t bother locating today, since he had no reason to leave his room. Well, until now. Apparently. “You were supposed to be their DD. I even asked Nathan if you were really going to, and he vouched for you.”

“Obviously. He wouldn’t throw me under the bus like that.”

Jesus Christ.

“Jesus Christ,” Warren echoes in a sigh. “Okay, fine. Only because I know if I tell you no, he’ll ask someone else, and something tells me everyone there is blitzed out in one way or another and incapable of operating heavy machinery. That’s a non-negotiable factor.”

Victoria’s reply is swift and sharp as anything, “You saying no was a non-negotiable factor.”

“Right. Of course. That one’s on me, I should have known.” Ah, there’s the shoe. Wedged between a rule book and a cardboard box filled with comics. Warren grabs it and crams his foot in. “You have his keys?”

Victoria scoffs, and if she’s at all drunk, Warren can’t tell by the perfect execution of the noise of disgust. She would go places, if there was ever a market for Absolute Destestment and Other Annoyed Noises. “Cut the stupid questions and get over here. I sent the address, don’t bother me again.” And then she ends the call before Warren can say a word more.

Warren sighs and stows his phone away in his pocket, grabbing his jacket from where it hung haphazardly from the corner of a lamp Nathan had stored in Warren’s room earlier that day for a reason he had yet to divulge, and grabs only his car keys after hunting around for a good fifteen minutes and failing to find his room key. If someone stole his stuff, he was going to blame Nathan, because it was his fault Warren kept misplacing the damn thing.

(Not that Nathan would care. He got blamed for things that weren’t his fault enough for things that happened to actually be his fault not to matter much, unless they had dire consequences attached. And there was no way Warren could be dire about anything short of someone getting killed—and Nathan knew that.)

“Grow a spine, Warren,” he mutters to himself grumpily as he veers out of his room and slams his door shut behind him, too caught up in his own self-made petty angst to realize someone was directly in his path until it was too late and he was barreling directly into the chest of one poor Trevor Yard.

“Whoa, Graham my man!” Trevor exclaims, his hands planting firmly down on Warren’s shoulders and anchoring him there. Warren notices offhandedly that he was now taller than Trevor, too, if only just. Weird. 

“Hey, man,” Warren greets sheepishly, his hands automatically reaching up to cup the points of Trevor’s elbows. “Sorry for nearly steamrolling you,” he says, then fakes a cough and tacks on, “again.”

But Trevor only grins. “You got places to be, no worries.”

Warren snorts, pulling a hand away to rub it along the back of his neck. “Not ones I want to be.”

Trevor’s smile drops. Warren can feel the fingers curving around his shoulders tighten their hold. “Are you being forced into something?”

There’s a look on his face that Warren can’t interpret. He wonders if Trevor thinks it’s Nathan’s doing, and immediately feels a spike of irritation despite himself. He squashes that down, because he likes Trevor, and it’s not like he was wrong. Trevor was only looking out for Warren, which, had the positions been switched and Trevor had still wanted to be Warren’s friend, Warren can’t say he wouldn’t try to do the same. Nathan was still a sketchy individual to anyone who didn't know him—and, of course, that was nearly the entire Blackwell student body, so, really, he shouldn’t even attempt at faulting Trevor in the first place.

… If that’s what Trevor was even thinking that. Warren was probably jumping to conclusions.

Trevor’s eyes dart towards Nathan’s door, and, okay. Maybe Warren wasn’t.

“Forced is a strong way to put it,” says Warren sheepishly. “It’s not what you’re thinking, though. Probably. Most likely?”

Trevor’s lips quirk back into a small smile, the minute reassurance apparently enough for him to relax away from the tension of whatever possible situation he’d been worried about. It makes Warren question just how much Trevor trusted Warren’s word, because, with anyone else, he knew he’d have more of a battle to gain some calm.

That’s because everyone else knows you lied to them, he reminds himself sharply, and he had. At least at some point in time. In Nathan’s case? Despite having basically told him everything the moment he woke up in the final loop? The fact he’d lied in past loops were what kept him from skimming by under the wire most of the time, because he’d been an idiot and told Nathan that part, too.

That’s not fair, he pushes back against himself. Nathan wouldn’t trust you immediately even if you hadn’t told him you’d lied.

And Warren knows he’s right. Because that was just Nathan. Nathan trusted Warren, but he was careful about that trust. He only gave it immediately when he knew he needed to.

“Hey.” A gentle voice accompanied by a slight jostle to his arm pulls him back, and Warren blinks rapidly at the worried face of Trevor, whom he’d totally forgotten about. “Earth to Warren, did I lose you? You alright?”

“Yeah, yeah!” Warren says hastily—too hastily, if Trevor’s expression is any indication. Warren clears his throat, pulls away slightly. “Long night. Wikipedia spirals! They can be a real bitch.”

“Oh, yeah,” Trevor agrees. “Been there too many times. Creepy shit, some of the stuff you can find.” He pauses, but not long enough for Warren to think of a way to get going before he speaks again. “Where are you going, man? Is it bad?”

“No, no,” protests Warren, still too hastily, dammit. He needed to calm down. “Nathan and Hayden are at a house party with Victoria and Taylor and— Yeah, you know the crew. Victoria’s sticking around, I guess, and Nathan can’t drive how he is after partying. I’m picking him up.” He frowns. “I don’t actually know how the others are getting home,” he realizes. “I was just called to pick Nathan up.”

“We can ask when we get there,” Trevor says, finally releasing Warren, and Warren turns in surprise as Trevor starts walking down the hall towards the exit.

“We?” he repeats, no less than a little tentative as he catches up to Trevor’s side.

“You’re spacing out, dude. You’re always a space cadet, but, man, I’m not letting you out at a party alone when you’re losing it on me in the dorms.”

That throws Warren completely off guard. He knows that Trevor is a nice person, he’d shown as much in the past months with how much he wanted to be included in the nerdy things Warren liked to do, but this? This went beyond what Warren had expected out of the guy. And, really, that was his bad.

Why the hell was he so bad at judging the character of his dorm mates? Jeez. And he thought he was a good judge of character, too. So much for that.

“Okay,” Warren agrees faintly as they lope onto the asphalt of the school’s parking lot, his hand already in his pocket to fish out his keys.

Trevor throws Warren another grin as the doors are unlocked, but then eyes Warren’s car warily as he slides into the seat. “You know,” he starts conversationally, snapping his seatbelt buckle into place while Warren turns the car on, “this thing looks so much better at a distance, no offense.”

“Uh, offense taken! I bought it when I was sixteen,” Warren responds, throwing the shift into reverse and backing up, only slightly knocking his head against the roof this time when he turns around to look. He needed to lower his seat a little more, apparently, and does so. “Some of us here actually need the scholarship we’re on. Take the boons of freedom life offers, Grasshopper. Cheap, shitty transpiration or not.”

Trevor holds his hands up, grinning. Most people would look like a dick, presenting the gesture after a comment about how derelict the state of the vehicle was, but Trevor manages to make it look as innocent as it probably actually was, damn the guy.

“So long as I don’t get tetanus, I’m game.”

Warren rolls his eyes in Trevor’s general direction, mentally patting Trevor on the back for even knowing what tetanus is, before the less asshole-ish side reminds him that just because everyone else at the school might not be as smart as him, it didn’t mean they were dumb. Blackwell Academy wasn’t exactly easy to get into, after all. That didn’t make the accusation any less rude, though.

“Everyone’s a critic,” Warren mutters, pulling out of the student parking lot, and Trevor only laughs in response. 

-

They end up needing Trevor’s GPS about ten minutes into the drive when Warren realizes he isn’t as familiar with the outskirts of Arcadia Bay as he probably should be by now, and then stop needing Trevor’s GPS two streets before finding the one that the house actually sits on thanks to the volume of the music the premises is emitting. Warren is both shocked and amazed no one has called the cops yet, because deafening doesn’t even begin to cover the noise that greets him when he parks the car in an empty lot four odd houses down the road and pulls himself out. Trevor meets him at the trunk, looking like he was second-guessing everything about this whole ordeal, and they share a look before turning and making their way down the street and to the party.

“I knew there were big parties around here, but my imagination apparently sucks, because I didn’t think this is what we were getting into, ” Trevor remarks to Warren as they press close together to be heard, his voice a low rumble just barely heard over the pounding of the bass in Warren’s ear, then jerks away in order to narrowly avoid the careening path of a probably-drunken girl as she thundered between them with another girl on her shoulders, both hollering like they were at a concert and the limited-edition T-shirt gun had majorly misfired off into the distance. Warren turns to watch them continue on, both in curiosity of where they were going and in mental calculation of how far they could get with how much momentum they seem to have gained, but Trevor doesn’t, and it takes him a moment to notice Warren’s lagged behind.

“Blood in the water, Shark Bait?” he calls good-naturedly.

Warren winces and turns, jogging a little to return to Trevor’s side. “That nickname is never going to leave me, is it.”

Trevor snorts. “Not for as long as you keep tangling tongues with a biter. Not that I’m judging!” Trevor says quickly, turning so fast to face Warren that he nearly trips over the toe of his own shoe. No wonder he wipes out so much, Warren thanks.

“If anything,” Warren reassures, “I’d say you were one of the more accepting of the whole ordeal, considering you found out before most of the school.”

That seems to placate Trevor, because he gives Warren a smile reminiscent of a happy puppy dog before suddenly going still as a statue. He clears his throat, maybe twice, but the music is so loud that Warren can only judge by the way his Adam’s apple bobs with the movement, and the count is fairly indeterminate. 

“You good?” Warren asks him, ducking his head.

Trevor laughs, but it’s a nervous laugh if Warren’s ever heard one. “That’s why you were bleeding, wasn’t it? That whole fight you two had, back in November. Your mouth was bleeding when I found you in the stalls, and it was because he bit you, didn’t he,” he asks, but it sounds less like a question the second time Warren runs it by himself in his head. The quiet swear Trevor tacks on doesn’t make it sound any more like one, either. “He better not be biting other places.”

Warren cringes and shoves his shoulder into Trevor, knocking him off-kilter. He lets out a faint yelp, but then starts laughing, and all the tension is gone in a flash. 

“I hated everything about that statement, just for the record,” Warren mumbles, but, judging by the loud “What?” Trevor offers in return, Trevor didn’t hear him. Warren only shakes his head and grabs Trevor by the arm, and into the fray they go.

-

They’re met immediately by a gaggle of females in smeared makeup taking selfies on the front porch. Warren can’t help but gawk at the shimmering bikini tops they’re clad in despite himself, like he’s never seen a girl in a scanty swimsuit before (which—come on, he technically hasn’t, if movies and porn don’t count), and Trevor yanking him on ahead is the only thing to save him when one of them looks up and gives him a smile worthy of a lioness.

They don’t get far from the girls, though, before one is calling out to them with a “hey, you two!” and Trevor winces to a full stop two steps up the porch.

“You gotta pay to get into this party,” the girl informs them as she saunters up, a little unsteadily despite her bare feet, and her friend giggles and holds her hand out for what Warren presumes is the fee until the first girl gently pushes her hand away. “Not money,” she corrects, her eyes never leaving Trevor. “Give us something good.”

“Good?” Trevor repeats, frowning at Warren, who can only shrug. He’s not exactly a master of parties, and the biggest ones he’s ever hit have been Vortex ones, which, at most, had a monetary fee. “Uh, we don’t have drugs?” Trevor tries, then starts pulling out his pockets as if to prove his statement.

“Or alcohol,” Warren tacks on.

“Yeah, so— Whoa, okay!” Trevor stumbles away, into the step behind him, and nearly falls when the first girl goes in with her arms like she was trying for a hug with some face. Warren makes a noise of surprise and lunges for Trevor, but Trevor’s a lot heavier than he looks, and they both tumble onto the top of the porch with a thud.

“Ow,” Warren moans.

“Sorry,” Trevor croaks.

“Ew,” the girl sneers, and, before Warren can even blink, she vanishes with her friend without another word.

“Did— Did I just imagine that?” Warren says, sitting up and blinking. The girls were gone. Completely. “Where did they go?”

“You didn’t imagine it,” assures Trevor grimly, rubbing his head as he pulls Warren to his feet.

They huddle together as they flee, Trevor’s face so close to Warren’s that he can hear him breathing as they move around the wrap-around porch to the back of the house.

“Dana’s going to kill me,” he whispers, his fingers twisting in the cuff of his jacket absentmindedly, and Warren finds himself nearly physically restraining his own hand against reaching out and stopping the fidget, like he might’ve had Nathan been the one executing the action. 

Get ahold of yourself, Graham, he chastises.

“You didn’t ask for that to happen,” Warren reminds him, pressing a hand against Trevor’s shoulder and gently pushing him away again so he couldn’t trip on Trevor’s close steps. “Dana’s pretty understanding anyway. It’ll be fine.”

He should have known better, anyway, considering the lawn was filled with drunk humans having what looks like either the best or worst time of their lives as they trek their way around and through the house. None of them wore anything identifying them as an admittee, so, clearly, the girls were trying to play them.

They break apart when they reach the backyard, where a giant pool sits steaming into the cold air, filled to the brim with people in various states of undress.

Warren swallows and tries his best not to stare. Again. “Okay. We’re here for Nathan. If I were Nathan, where would I be?”

Trevor glances around. “Uh,” he tries, then shrugs, “literally anywhere? This place is massive. Can’t you call him?”

But Warren shakes his head. “Victoria is the one who contacted me. She wouldn’t bother with me if it didn’t mean Nathan couldn’t do it himself for one reason or another.”

Trevor opens his mouth to reply, seems to consider himself, and sighs. “Yeah, okay. Makes sense. I’ll check inside, yeah?”

Warren turns his gaze back on to the pool. “... Sure. Yeah. Fantastic. Wet people. Love it.”

“Enjoy the sights while you can,�� Trevor says happily, clapping Warren on the back, and then all but vanishing into the shadows of the party. How, Warren really can’t understand, but he’s seen enough weird shit not to question it for now.

“Here we go,” he mutters to himself just as someone yells “Cannonball!” and five people jump into the pool at once.

Operation “Where’s Waldon’t Make This Easy For Warren, Why Would You Do That?” ... commence.

-

Finding Nathan … turns out much easier than is expected.

Keeping Nathan, though? Much harder than anticipated.

Warren finds Nathan not even ten minutes after breaking from Trevor on the independent search, chanting “chug, chug, chug, chug!” with a group of people huddled around a keg with someone—is that Hayden? —upside down and, well, chugging.

“Graham?” Nathan says in surprise before Warren can even get close enough to call Nathan’s name without freaking him out. He blinks a few times in confusion, then pulls a face of annoyance when he realizes why Warren must be here after declining to come when asked earlier in the day. “Aw, fuck me. Vic’s bailin’?”

He’s slurring so much, Warren thinks he maybe should have shown up earlier and not wasted so much time, you know, driving the speed limit. Shit.

Warren reaches out all the same and grabs Nathan’s hand, which turns in his palm and latches on. 

“Rescue squad, at your service,” he announces. The person on the keg is released, and Nathan whoops his glee at what is indeed Hayden. Okay. Great. “Am I supposed to be taking Hayden home, too?”

“Warren Graham!” Hayden greets happily before Warren can get an answer, lunging drunkenly at Warren and wrapping him up in a hug. He reeks of alcohol and sweat and beer, so much beer, and Warren tries his best not to gag. He definitely doesn't manage. Hayden doesn’t seem to notice, making a noise deep in his throat that Warren is pretty sure is a half-step from becoming a laugh, but that Hayden is way too drunk to bring to completion.

Yikes.

“Hayden,” Warren struggles, trying to not suffocate in Hayden all on his own, Nathan’s guffawing not helping anything at all. “Hayden. Let me go, for the love of Sputnik, please.”

“Oop, ah, sorry!” Hayden says, finally releasing Warren. He grins down at Warren, and if it weren’t for the way he sways slightly while even standing still, everything about him right in that moment would seem perfectly sober.

Warren struggles to regain himself after the interaction. Nathan’s still laughing, bent over at the waist, and so obviously drunk in clear contrast to Hayden’s weird pseudo-sobriety.

“What are you doing here, dude?” Hayden asks before Warren’s recovered, and, there, he sounds drunk. Mostly. It was all smoke and mirrors, totally wouldn’t pass a standardized field sobriety test.

“Vic’s got ‘im takin’ us home!” Nathan offers, apparently over himself, and Hayden’s face falls.

“No!” he stage-whispers, scandalized, and looks to the house forlornly. “I didn’t get to dance!”

“I gotta talk to Vic,” Nathan announces suddenly, then turns and starts to leave. Warren maybe overreacts just a little and literally jumps after him, grabbing his arm to stop him in his tracks.

“Wait!” he calls frantically, and Nathan looks back at him like he’s lost his goddamn mind. “What if I can’t find you again?” he tries meekly once he’s tried at a recovery. He doesn’t release Nathan.

Hayden offers insight on this: “Not that big of a place.”

“Not a big fuckin’ place, bitch,” Nathan echoes, like it was his idea.

“Nathan, there are so many people here,” Warren says, and he wouldn’t exactly deny that it’s a half-whine. He just really wants to get out of there. It’s so not his scene, and he’s so over parties as a whole, Vortex-hosted or not. “So many,” he pushes when Nathan only frowns, bored. “What if I can’t find you?”

“Call me. Duh.”

“And if you don’t answer your phone like you haven’t been all freaking night?”

Nathan seems to consider this, his free hand tapping on his chin, as the party around them screams, shouts, and generally gives Warren a headache. Then, he snaps his fingers, and Warren is immediately sure that the answer he wants is not coming. Nathan was never this easy.

“I’ll come lookin’ for you,” Nathan decides firmly, and, yeah, definitely not what Warren wanted, but Nathan’s hand slaps over Warren’s mouth before he can say so. “Come on, Graham. I’m havin’ fun. Just need t’ talk to Vic. ‘Kay?”

Too tired to argue about it any more, Warren only nods his head once, and he’s released. Nathan pries Warren’s hand off his arm and smiles his half smile.

“Hold this f’r me,” he slurs, swaying forward as he digs in his pocket and deposits a handful of items into Warren’s outstretched palm, then staggers away to god knows where. Warren watches him go, then looks to his hand to find the stub of what he was pretty sure was a blunt, along with a dime, two quarters, a key—his key, dammit Nathan—and three and a half peanuts.

From his left, Hayden bends over and surveys the contents of Warren’s palm with an almost-sober level of scrutiny, then gives a snort of a giggle and plucks two of the peanuts away from where they’re nestled between the dime and the key. Warren hears the crunch before he has the chance to even think of maybe stopping the drunk guy from eating something that had been in Nathan’s pocket for lord knows how long, and the deed is done.

“Gross,” Hayden comments shortly, without any inflection to his garble of the statement, then ambles off in the direction Nathan had vanished, leaving Warren alone amongst the strangers that littered the backyard.

“Why me?” he whispers to himself, and then has to beg off a girl when she tries to answer the question for him in something that sounds like it’s supposed to be English, but isn’t coherent enough to actually be intelligible.

-

He finds Trevor again next while he’s trying to hunt Nathan and Hayden back down, looking a little lost in the small sea of people surrounding him as he stands in the dead center of a tiny kitchen with a multitude of snacks in his hands, all the cabinets around him flung open and more than one person petting his face and arms.

His eyes light up the second he spots Warren, but his hands are too full to do anything more than nod his head enthusiastically for a few seconds before one of the girls in the cluster reaches out and jostles his shoulder in that sloppy but endearing kind of way only drunk people can really execute. He looks down at her, blinking in surprise, then says something Warren can’t hear over the noise of the party and starts opening one of the many bags clutched in his grip. Granola, it looks like from where Warren stands. Or trail mix? Something like that.

“Hey!” one guy slurs as Warren tries to wiggle his way closer to Trevor, grabbing Warren around the waist to stop him from continuing his journey. “Wait your turn!”

Warren blinks down at the guy. “What? No, I’m— My turn for what?”

The guy releases Warren to gesture at Trevor like he was presenting Warren with the presence of a god of some higher status. “Magic fingers!” he declares, fumbling on the word “fingers” and punctuating the statement with an ill-timed thrust of both hands. “He’s got magic fingers! You have to wait your turn to use them!”

Warren blinks owlishly, first at the heavily-intoxicated man, and then at his friend, who’s now in the middle of ripping open a packet of fruit snacks and handing it to a sobbing boy who doesn’t look any older than Warren himself.

“... He’s opening food for you guys?” Warren concludes and, as if the universe was on his side for once, witnesses his confirmation in the form of a redheaded girl with raccoon eyes fumbling with a family-sized bag of Cheetos before Trevor takes it from her and does the deed, earning himself a squeal of delight and a clap of the hands like he’d performed a miracle.

“My fingers aren’t magic!” Drunk Guy informs Warren in wonder. Warren realizes a second later that the hand is back on his waist, but he’s not sure if the guy himself realizes it or not.

“I mean,” Warren tries, taking the guy’s hand off so he can move again, “that’s great he’s pulling a Rasputin on you and all, but I kinda need to talk to him.”

The response he gets is one of incredulity, and the guy looks legitimately offended even as his hand latches back onto Warren’s torso the second it’s freed from Warren’s grip of removal. “You gotta wait your turn!”

And then, the next thing Warren knows, he’s being forcibly removed from the kitchen.

The next thing Warren knows, Hayden’s arm is in a vice-locked grip around his shoulders and he’s being lead into the fray of sweating, writhing people the next room over.

Exactly the place he had been avoiding since even being aware he was going to have to set foot on the premises of the party.

“Whoa, wait, hold up,” he says frantically, scrabbling at the hold Hayden has on him. It’s no use—Hayden was a big guy, and his grip was akin to that of King Kong, with Warren as the unwilling damsel in distress. “No, no, nuh-uh, no. Can’t dance, Hayden!”

Hayden laughs, the music doing nothing but amplifying the sound of it. “You don’t have to know how to dance! It’s a party, man, you need to chillax a little more! Have some fun.”

“I’m not here to chillax,” Warren protests as Hayden’s hands grab his and tries their best to get Warren to add to the communal gyration happening all around them. “I’m here to take Nathan back to the school, but he keeps vanishing on me.”

“S’cause he’s having fun. They got all the good shit here—Nathan doesn’t have to play delivery boy for once!”

“Hope he’s not mixing drugs,” Warren mutters to himself, trying his best to twist out of the way when someone’s ass bounces into his hip and pushes him further into Hayden’s hold.

“He doesn’t do that kind of stuff anymore,” Hayden replies, like he heard Warren somehow, then spins Warren around while he’s too caught off guard to physically revolt. The noise he releases in response is decidedly not girly, and, no, he won’t take constructive criticism on that.

Hayden laughs all the same, and then his head drops dangerously close to Warren’s as he leans in, still dancing awkwardly against Warren’s half-stuttered forced moves that are somewhere between trying to get away and trying not to get smothered by the people way too up in his personal bubble right now. “Okay, Sherlock, he’s right over there,” Hayden half-sings. Why, Warren can’t deduce, because his tempo is nowhere near that of the song’s. He also gives no indication of where “right over there” is, exactly, and Warren’s jolted looking around doesn’t remedy the mystery. 

Hayden groans, then wrenches Warren’s head in the right direction.“You’re being such a mood-killer,” he grumbles. “He’s gonna hate that if he sees.”

Warren doesn’t have an answer for that, and he doesn’t have a moment to think of one before he finally catches sight of Nathan, sans the jacket he’d been wearing the last time Warren had run into him, dancing in what seemed to be dead center of the dance floor (of course, where else would Nathan Prescott be?) with Victoria close at hand. 

They make a remarkably good-looking pair, is the first thing that Warren thinks once they register in his brain as people he knows and can put names to amongst the sea of strangers. Nathan’s head is bent in such a way that his light brown hair, freed from its usual styled prison by means Warren doesn’t think he wants to know of, mixes with Victoria’s golden blonde as their foreheads press together, Victoria leading the dance with one hand wrapped around Nathan’s jaw and the other at his hips. Nathan, high on whatever the hell it is he’s actually taken, does nothing more than sway with Victoria, and yet it still manages to come off as exactly what the music calls for.

It’s hot—they’re hot, Warren thinks, and holy shit—it spikes a hot flare of irritation from somewhere deep inside him, that they looked so perfect together, that they looked like they were made for each other—and that, in reality, they probably were. It must result in some physical reaction, because Hayden stills momentarily, something like a question coming from his mouth without registering as actual words in Warren’s head, but then Victoria’s eyes are opening and centering on him in, and the green coating his vision immediately melts away as she throws him a smirk and pushes away from Nathan.

“About time, Pumpkin Boy,” she calls cryptically, Nathan raising his head just in time to witness Victoria grab Warren by the collar and haul his ass right where she wants it—which apparently is where she’d been dancing just previously. He nearly wipes out when his foot lands wrong on the floor, but Nathan catches on fast enough to keep Warren from eating anything more than his own yelp of alarm, his cold hands gripped tight on the skin under Warren’s shirt where it had rucked up from Victoria’s ministrations.

“The fuck am I going to do with you?” Nathan asks acidly as he helps right Warren, shaking his head in a way Warren’s pretty sure he’s seen on a principal once. In a movie. About delinquents. Which he certainly wasn’t.

(Those past brawls notwithstanding, as they weren’t part of his current loop, thank you very much.)

“I’m not here to dance, Nathan,” Warren protests, but he’s already moving along with Nathan despite himself, and it seems like all of Nathan’s moves were in Victoria, because he’s not much better at it. “I’m here to take you home.”

Nathan all but ignores everything coming out of Warren’s mouth in favor of sliding his fingers through Warren’s belt loops and holding him anchor. “Yeah, well I’m here to fucking dance,” he all but growls, somehow sounding leagues more sober than he had just before. “Pick up your feet.”

“Oh, at least make it worth my while,” he whines sarcastically, voice low, and then sighs heavily as a new song starts up, a little slower than the previous one. He isn’t aware Nathan can even hear him until the moment when Nathan’s eyes flash something dangerous in response. His lips curl, his hands tug, and, before he realizes what’s happening, Warren finds himself flush up against Nathan’s chest. His heart nearly stops right then and there.

“Nathan—” he chokes, then stops abruptly when Nathan tilts his head back and runs the sharp of his teeth against Warren’s ear. It’s more action than he’s ever gotten in real life, and the fact it’s not happening in his head sends him into a tailspin of contradiction as his body both wants to respond and knows now is not the time or the place.

He feels, rather than sees, Nathan grin in triumph, and Warren realizes he was having trouble breathing, making his mindset on the whole thing blatantly obvious. Nathan’s hands crawl up Warren’s sides, his ever-cold fingers tracing icy paths along Warren’s skin, and Warren closes his eyes and gulps loud enough to break the sound barrier.

“Oh, my god,” he gasps, and Nathan’s laugh puffs against his neck. “Now? You’re choosing now to do this? You’re playing so dirty! I’m supposed to be taking you home, Nathan.”

Nathan hums, deep and enticing, and Warren feels it resonate in his sternum. 

Jesus. That was so not appropriate. Warren hates what that does to—well, all of him.  He’s lucky Nathan isn’t in the consenting mindset, because, otherwise, he wasn’t so sure he’d be able to stop himself from allowing Nathan to take it elsewhere. Thank you, moral code.

It doesn’t stop Nathan from being the most attractive thing he’s ever seen, though. He wonders, vaguely, if he can convince Nathan to keep the messy look, but the thought is gone in a blink when Nathan presses his nose into the hollow under Warren’s ear.

Shit.

“Nathan—” he tries again, only to fail once more when Nathan’s fingertips turn to nails and it’s all he can do not to outright gasp.

“Tell me to cut the shit, and I will,” Nathan murmurs, the words ghosting along Warren’s jaw, and everything in Warren’s brain comes to a screeching halt. Nathan’s breathing hitches, the warmth of the bodies around them seeping in deep, and Warren feels it race all along his spine. “I will stop,” Nathan continues, so quiet Warren almost can’t hear him, “I swear.”

Warren swallows, gentler this time, and Nathan brushes his lips against Warren’s chin.

“Tell me,” he breathes, “and I will.”

Warren drops his head and doesn’t say a word.

-

The night from there is a blur, up until the point where the songs pick up to a speed even Nathan finds he’s too tired to keep up with, and Warren is positive he doesn’t come away unscathed. A public setting and dubious consent from Nathan while drunk means he didn’t allow anything more than a lot of close movement and fluttering touches, fingers drifting and breathing stuttered—but that doesn’t mean he won’t be having dreams of more, even after Nathan pulled him from the trance he’d been put under with a jostle of a shoulder and a grin so sharp Warren could have used it to carve ice.

They find Hayden sprawled out on the porch deck when they go looking for him, waiting for them to wrap it up and move on with their night, a few equally worn out people sitting around him and listening as he told a tale Warren doesn’t manage to catch more than a few words of before they’re all saying goodbye to one another and Hayden is walking away with a few numbers and emails scrawled on his arms in purple ink. They stumble away from the party and head towards Warren’s car, heads echoing with the phantoms of the songs they leave behind.

Warren doesn’t see Trevor anywhere on the outskirts and, if he doesn’t find him along the way, decides he’ll just text or call him once he gets the other two safely in the car, because he doesn't want to risk taking them back in and potentially get caught up in something else, like he knew his luck was bound to allow.

Nathan and Hayden flank Warren’s sides as they amble along, Hayden with his eyes closed and humming one of the songs from earlier, and Nathan with his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his jacket, recovered from God knows where, because Warren hadn’t seen him do it, and his cheeks ruddy from either the cold or his own ministrations, Warren isn’t sure. 

His heart is just managing to slow its rhythm after the strain it’s been put through, and he tries to focus on relaxing completely before starting up the drive back, listening to Hayden softly hum his own tune, completely different from the bass that still echoed from the house and down the street. It’s an easy thing, Warren thinks.

But then he spots something out of the corner of his eye and turns to it fast enough to get whiplash, almost knocking himself off his feet with the momentum of the action. 

And, suddenly, Nathan is completely sober.

“What? What is it? Where’s the fucking inferno?” he barks, the words coming out so fast they nearly clip each other off as they’re spoken. “Graham? Hey!” Nathan pushes when Warren only slumps down, holding his chest like he’d nearly been startled to death. He grabs Warren by the shoulder in a pinching hold and shakes him. “What was that, you bitch? Tell me!”

“Deer,” Warren explains tiredly, gesturing to the only animal decoration capable of giving him a panic attack by doing nothing more than existing. It was just a plastic deer that lit up at night, sure, but it was a bastard in its own right, adorable exaggerated eyes and all. 

Nathan curses sharply in response. Warren reaches up and presses a hand to Nathan’s, and Nathan’s fingers immediately relax.

Hayden stares at the both of them, the alarm on his face so wrong that Warren accidentally lets out a startled laugh. Hayden’s gaze centers on Warren alone, and Nathan leans away from Warren in obvious distaste.

“The fuck was that?” he accuses, and Hayden nods his head once.

“Uh, yeah, was gonna ask both of you the same, actually,” he says hesitantly. He doesn’t stop looking at Warren. “Did you just get jump-scared by a fake deer?”

“I, uh—” Warren starts, but Nathan smacks him in the chest to stop him and finishes quickly with: “got attacked by one as a baby. Walked right up to his stroller and tried to eat his face off!”

Warren blinks down at Nathan, and Hayden looks as if he isn’t sure Nathan is exactly telling the truth, but doesn’t know enough about deer attacks to exactly question it.

“Er—” Warren offers, scrambling, and just then Trevor manifests on the scene, looking haggard.

“Who tried to eat whose face off?” he asks breathlessly, turning wide, haunted eyes on Warren, and Warren immediately feels bad for leaving him alone.

“Graham,” Hayden offers faintly, then frowns and reaches out to finger the object Warren just then realizes is hanging from around Trevor’s neck. “What—”

“Is that a bathtub plug?” Nathan asks loudly, effectively cutting the quieter inquiry from Hayden off.

Trevor ducks his head. “Uh, yeah. They gave it to me. Said it was a prize for being the miracle man and—um, saving the party.”

Nathan gapes. Warren tries not to start laughing again. Hayden hasn’t removed his fingers from the rubber bung.

“The shit did you do?” Nathan asks incredulously.

“Opened—food?” Trevor replies, so hesitant that Warren thinks he’s possibly questioning the reality of what he just went through. Warren can’t say he doesn’t relate.

“Wow,” Nathan muses. “The world has low standards.”

“Look who’s talking,” Warren mutters, and only snickers when Nathan turns and slugs him on the arm before walking off again.

Hayden releases Trevor’s makeshift medal, and they all follow after. They’re maybe a house and a half away, walking in relative silence for no more than a minute, when Nathan does what he always does best: decides quiet is not his favorite way to occupy the time.

“So why’d you bring that fuckbucket?” Nathan asks, eloquent as always, jabbing a thumb in Trevor’s direction and effectively breaking the—in Warren’s opinion anyway—enjoyable silence.

Trevor jumps, blinking rapidly, like someone just slotted a coin in and brought him to life. The plug swings violently with the motion. “Ran into him in the hallway,” Trevor explains after a moment, and Warren thinks it’s pretty nice of him to dignify Nathan’s childish acid with a response they all know it doesn’t deserve. “Didn’t think it was a good idea sending him into the fray alone like that, when people could take advantage of him.”

“What?” says Warren, blinking at Trevor in surprise. He didn’t know that last part.

Nathan scoffs. “It’s just a college party. Warren’s not some candy-assed pansy man, he can manage the scene. Victoria wouldn’t have texted him if he couldn’t handle it.”

Trevor just slides his eyes in Warren’s direction, radiating dubiousness over Nathan’s statement, but he thankfully keeps his mouth shut. Warren wants to be on Nathan’s side, because Warren certainly can handle it, but Victoria? Would truss him up in a Chicago overcoat and throw him in the deep end just to watch him drown. She’d even supply the cement to help the deed along. There was no love lost between them, and Warren knew she would have texted him to come collect Nathan even if it meant bodily injury along the way.

Nathan meant far more to her than Warren did, far more than Warren knew he ever would. And Warren was okay with that.

“Shotgun!” Nathan hollers suddenly, nearly leaping off the street as he bolts towards the shadowed shape that was Warren’s car. Hayden makes a noise of offense, reminding Warren of his presence, and takes off at a run after Nathan.

“You still happy you signed up for this?” Warren asks Trevor as they watch their two classmates barrel into first the car, and then each other, cursing and spitting and laughing.

“No,” Trevor admits, fidgeting with his rubber prize, “but I’m not mad I came with you. I really didn’t want to just let you go to something like this on your own.”

Warren huffs quietly. “I can handle myself, you don’t have to be my knight in shining armor.”

Trevor looks over at Warren, his face wrinkled up, and he shakes his head. “No, not like that. You’re my friend. I got your back, Warren.” Trevor’s arm reaches out, and Warren feels his hand pat once, twice, before transitioning into that comforting rub Warren could never quite perfect without it coming off as slightly creepy, but that Trevor seems to be a master of. Warren feels tension he hadn’t realized he’d been holding in his shoulders relax. 

“Thanks, man,” Warren says, and he means it. “Not exactly easy finding the real ones in a school full of wannabes and fakesters.”

“And yet you seem to be racking them up,” Trevor replies with a pointed look in the direction of the car, where Hayden and Nathan have piled in the back and can be seen pushing each other back and forth in the back seats. So much for Nathan’s declaration of shotgun. Trevor sighs. “You ready for this drive back?”

“Not even close. Don’t be surprised if Nathan argues with you about getting the front seat.”

“But he’s in the back.”

“You think that’ll stop him?”

Trevor puffs his cheeks out. “Right. Prescott, coming in hot. I’m ready.”

“That’s what you think,” Warren mutters, then reaches for his door in the same moment Trevor does, and into the car they go.

-

They stop at a drive-through farther away from the school than where they started, solely to distract Nathan from pestering Trevor about taking his seat up front and from badgering Warren to do exactly what he ended up doing. It’s a little chaotic, going through the window at such an early hour when only one poor employee was working the entire establishment, especially when both Hayden and Nathan decide they absolutely have to give the guy their order themselves and not relay it to Warren because they “know Warren will fuck it up” (Nathan’s words, but Hayden’s nod had been an affirmation, so Warren was holding the insult against him, too), and then take entirely too long trying to make their order coherent.

Warren tries to give the guy his best “I’m so fucking sorry we exist” expression when he rolls up to the window, but the guy is not impressed, and Warren really can’t blame him. Nathan shoves his card up before Warren can even reach for his wallet, decidedly paying for all of them, and Warren only sighs when Nathan refuses to let Warren hand the card up.

(Nathan nearly climbs over Warren’s lap to give the card over, and Warren finds absolutely none of the action enticing in any remote sense. Not even when Nathan sloppily smacks his lips against Warren’s forehead on the way back, because the guy sees, and he only raises his eyebrows before silently handing the food over and closing the window in their face.)

They scarf their meals down with no small amount of stealing from first Nathan, then Hayden and Trevor, and finally Warren once he hits a red light and nearly throws himself across the car to snatch the curly fry right out of Trevor’s grasp, laughing and jabbing and essentially having what Warren might dare even call one of the best late-night escapades he’s ever had in his life. 

The food is gone within fifteen minutes of receiving it, and Hayden begs Warren to crank the radio up as high as it’ll go for the remaining ten-minute drive they had into the sound-restricted street the school sat on, his hands on Warren’s seat and his chin digging uncomfortably into Warren’s shoulder. Warren obliges, and they all crow and sing off-tune to 80s favorites—courtesy of the only station his sad excuse of a car can get so late at night. Trevor proves to have the best voice of them all, and Nathan retaliates to this newfound information by trying to smother Trevor’s mouth with his hands, which he fails epically at.

They cut the music as they pull up on the street, but they’re laughing loud enough for it not to matter, giddy and high on the energy between them.

Tumbling from the car, Hayden and Trevor lock arms and take off towards the dormitories, singing Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name in what could probably be considered acapella if Warren had any understanding of music whatsoever, and Nathan and Warren trail behind them, tangled up in each other, Warren laughing so hard he’s sobbing and Nathan’s eyes bright with all the things Warren didn’t have names for. Warren has to stop himself from grabbing Nathan and pressing him close, but Nathan has no such qualms, and the moment on the dance floor comes rushing back when Nathan stops them both in their tracks and tugs Warren down, slotting their mouths together with a practiced ease, the heat between them all but searing him right down to his bones. He feels Nathan gasp into his mouth when he scrapes his teeth against Nathan’s lip in a mimic of a move he’d been shown before, and just about loses it right then and there.

It takes the combined wolf-whistling of Hayden and Trevor to get them to come to their senses, and then both boys grappling them into a foursome of a hug to get them back in motion, and they somehow make it into the hallways as the conglomeration of far too much testosterone and no small amount of affection shared between them all, only to get yelled at to shut the fuck up two feet in the door. Nathan doesn’t go after whoever had yelled, only because he’s laughing too hard to speak.

Though Trevor’s room is technically the closest, they fall into Warren’s room when no one is able to procure a key, discarding clothing and pulling off each other’s shoes. Trevor looks up at Warren with his eyebrows gently raised in silent question from the floor when it becomes clear both Nathan and Hayden are both staying by the way they roll into the bed nearly as one in a botched fight to get to it first, and Warren only has to smile and nudge him with his one socked foot in response. Trevor’s shoulders relax, and Warren reminds himself to maybe treat Trevor as more of a friend in the future, because he knows now he wouldn’t have made it out of that event easily without Trevor there to watch his back. Warren drops to the floor next to him and hooks the metal chain of the bathtub plug Trevor still wore around his neck between his fingers, and then smashes his nose against the curve of Trevor’s shoulder when a pillow nails him in the back of the head.

“Whoops!” is all Nathan offers, his hands out in a pathetic excuse of an apologetic shrug, when Warren whips around to locate the culprit and finds Hayden hanging off the bed in obvious defeat. Warren flips him off, and then gets rewarded with a second pillow right to the face, which sets them all off again.

Three of them end up only in their underwear by the time the communal helping of cloth-removing has ceased, spurred on by no small amount of jibes and playful taunting all around once they had regained their breath and rushed to finish getting undressed for the night, with only Nathan the victor of a shirt in addition to the boxers that were—fuck, Warren’s, okay, alright, he can handle that, sure—and they pile into the mess of what once covered Warren’s bed like the children some of them were robbed of being.

Warren falls asleep with Nathan’s head on his chest, Hayden’s on his stomach, and his head resting under Trevor’s chin, all boundaries lost, at least for that night, in the moment they all needed to share, and Warren thinks, as he drifts off under the hazy blanket of sleep, I wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world.

And it’s a comfort that, never again, would he have to. This was his end.

This was his.

And no one was going to take that away.

[batgirl-87]

For the MC + Jacob asks- how about 1 + 2 if you haven't done them already? :)

Thank you for asking! =) I have not done those ones yet!

(So this got kind of long…Hope I answered them well enough and I’m here to answer any more questions about my characters and their backstory =)  )

HPHM MC & Jacob Asks

1. How did you come up with your MC’s name?

Originally my MC’s name was Adira (based on another character I created for something and then never got to really use unfortunately) but then I decided to recreate my original HP character just in this new timeline. And as I developed this character more I knew I needed to have a more Irish name.

I wanted to stay true to the House of Black tradition (which I didn’t do with my original HP character when I should have but she originally was Sirius’ daughter and I doubted he would stick to their family’s tradition) and give her a greek/constellation name based on her Undine genetics, but much like Tonks wouldn’t go by her first name. And then seeing how her mother is French and Irish, and hyphenated names are common in French, I wanted her to have names that honored both those heritages and I wanted one to start with an ‘A’ for some reason. And I wanted one to sound like Adira so maybe that’s why I wanted the ‘A’ name? =p

After lots of research on names I eventually decided to just use my (omg I think my first ever that, tbh, I just alter as needed for most of my own main OC’s =p) original character’s name although I was trying to avoid it but changing the spelling (Kiara to Keira).

Hence Nereida Adelyn-Keira Black (Lafontaine - her mom’s last name and last name of the character I didn’t get to use for something else =(  She went by that until she embraced The House of Black side of her)

Nereida (Greek) - Nereids are sea nymphs, mermaids, etc. in Greek Mythology, daughters ofNereus and Doris, often accompany Poseidon. Can be helpful to sailors,symbolize the beauty of the sea, possessed melodious voices, depicted with redcoral crowns and white silk robes trimmed with gold

Adelyn (French) - Noble

Keira (Irish) - Little dark one/dark haired

Goes by Keira, Adelyn, Ady, Reida

So pretty much put way more thought into this than necessary =p

2. How did you come up with your MC and Jacob’s backstory?

As mentioned before, Keira was originally Sirius’ daughter (and with the name Kiara) but that wouldn’t work in this timeline because Sirius is like 13 years older than her and while I can see Sirius having some illegitimate child at like 16, 13 is way too young! Then the addition of Jacob, clearly couldn’t be Sirius’ kids. But I wanted her to still be related to Sirius, not just because Sirius one of my favourites but personality wise I, and therefore my OC =p, are very similar to Sirius and look wise she also looks like Sirius and a member of the House of Black and who doesn’t want to be a member of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black?! (okay probably plenty of people actually…) And I already had this character created that I love and wanted to use who was related to Sirius.

Anyways, so I adjusted (because I’m flexible and adaptable!) my original HP OC to be Sirius’ and Regulus’ little sister; however, my original HP OC was actually part Veela, like Fleur, and, as I also mentioned before, I created this other character, Adira, for something I never got to use (can you tell I’m salty over it?) and she was part Undine so I made Keira part Undine because, yep, never got to use that character and I worked hard and was excited to so dammit it’s happening!!! Plus who doesn’t like to have something different and unique to them? (In my defense I had no idea MC in the game was going to be Legilimens which is clearly unique but I was never going to my make my character one so I will not feel bad and be called some mary-sue or some shit like that)

Therefore, Walburga couldn’t be her mother, nor did I ever want her to be her mother anyway =p (crazy portrait bitch =p) and since we don’t know much about Orion or his relationship with Walburga (I did lots of research people I’m not just bs’ing to get what I want) besides that they’re second cousins (ugh…) I felt it was completely plausible for Orion to step outside his marriage, especially if there’s a pretty young woman, since would one really be all that happy and comfortable being married to their second cousin? And they technically fulfilled their pureblood responsibility by getting married and bearing children so if he found another woman outside his family who he developed feelings for I could see him straying. However, he’s accustomed to a certain lifestyle and has an image and reputation to uphold so leaving his wife (if he actually wanted to) was not going to be an option, so even though his mistress got pregnant (twice!) he wasn’t going to leave Walburga. 

Maybe I also just like a good scandal and some drama? (House of Black and their drama, right? =p) Anyway, obviously to have them be able to attend Hogwarts they have to be from the UK or Ireland, right? And being of Irish and French heritage myself, (and I loved visiting Ireland and can’t wait to go back), I had them born in Ireland and live there for a bit but after their mom dies (partially because she’s part Undine and they give up their immortality and live shorter lifespans when they fall in love with a mortal, and I personally believe their lifespan gets shorter when they have children and pass down their Undine genes) they move to Canada with some close friends of their mom’s who unofficially adopt them (this is sort of based on a family I’m close to who I feel unofficially adopted by =p) Plus, although they love their ‘adopted’ parents and appreciate all they’ve done for them, it really solidifies Keira and Jacob against the world because they’re all each other really has now and makes his disappearance more angstful for her.

And maybe also because I have been teased for talking funny with a weird accent (don’t even get my started) I wanted to put my MC through the same thing (because we love torturing our characters) so if I had her grow up in Ireland and Canada she would also have a weird accent and talk funny compared to the other students =p

I also wanted her to move into 12 Grimmauld Place, maybe do some redecorating and remodeling, but mainly because I liked the idea of her taking it over after Walburga passes and making it sort of like this hangout/safe place for her friends, mainly Barnaby who pretty much hangs out there all summer between 4th and 5th year and officially moves in summer after 5th year, and making this once abusive, toxic, prejudiced household into a place where anyone was welcomed and could find sanctuary (probably much to the rage of Walburga’s portrait bahahaha). Plus it’s closer to Diagon Alley and her other friends than living in Ireland or Canada, obviously. 

Remus becoming her guardian while over in the UK was sort of something that just happened and wasn’t planned but I realized she probably needed someone over there since Jacob is gone, everyone on her mom side that she knows of is dead, and she doesn’t know much of the House of Black besides she is apparently one but they refuse to acknowledge her existence, and while she could just live in their house in Ireland they still have, and she is quite independent, an 11 year old living alone probably isn’t the best idea… (and I’m sure Andromeda and Tonks would take her in in a heartbeat but none of them know about each other since Andromeda was disowned so she doesn’t know really what’s happening with the rest of the family and all Keira knows about is Orion, Walburga, Sirius, and Regulus. She doesn’t learn of others, like Bellatrix until she sees the tapestry in 12 Grimmauld Place where Andromeda is burned off so still didn’t know about her and Tonks until Tonks told her Bellatrix was her aunt). 

So I honestly couldn’t think of anyone else to take her in and take care of her and then thought, well, Remus has nothing to do =p And since clearly he’s one of Sirius’ best friends knows of his illegitimate siblings (Walburga was going to find out, please, we all know that, but they did their best to keep that secret in the immediate family and not let it out but then Jacob has to attend Hogwarts and be a butthead and inform everyone he’s a House of Black bloodline because he’s done being some shameful secret and even when it’s proved he and Keira do have House of Black blood still not acknowledged from that family) and being a good person he can’t let some eleven-year-old live alone! And she is like Sirius, and Jacob is like James, so it’s sort of bittersweet like hanging out with his friends again…Plus I hate thinking of Remus living in poverty on the streets all alone all the time until he gets his job as Hogwarts so... We all know Remus deserves better! (I have like a whole thing about Remus and Keira’s relationship for another time)

Oh! And as for Keira and Jacob’s relationship with each other I sort of based in on a couple people who were like older brother figures for me, one good, close friend I have primarily, and I guess what I imagine having an older brother would be like? Honestly always wanted one so I get to create one I’ve always wanted =p (is my life sad and lonely, oh yeah… =p)

Thank you again for asking! =)

[sapphicscholar]

Letter 72

March 22, 2012, 4:26pm

Morning Alex!

I know, I truly live such a hard life. Basically reenacting Dickens over here. I’m excited to tell you all about Paris! And it’s not weird: no matter how much fun it’ll be to see France for the first time and catch up with some friends who've been scattered all across Europe, I’ll miss you too.

Oh the nihilism of determinism…bringing me right on back to philosophy classes, Danvers! Interesting choice with the future because then you could fuck anything up, and it wouldn’t matter because you could come back and not do things that way. But then there are questions like, with the knowledge you have now, will you necessarily act in different ways? Not in a deterministic sense but would simply having additional information impact the way you act? Probably, right. And maybe some of those new choices would save you from pain, but they might also change good things down the line. Like, say, if kid me knew giving a card to Eliza would blow up in my face to the extent that it did, I might not have done it, but, shitty as all of that was and continues to be, would I have then tried to fight harder and change myself in unhealthy ways to appease parents who loved me only if I met certain criteria? Our experiences make us who we are, of course, so maybe it’s simply that I can’t quite imagine being where I am now without having gone through them, even if I wish I didn’t have to in some cases… I was gonna ask if you think you’d seek yourself out while traveling, or if you were of the camp that believes that seeing yourself would mess it all up. I guess if you’re the type to seek yourself out (and I kinda think I am…), that means time travel doesn’t become a thing before we die because I’ve yet to meet future me… Or maybe future me knows some shit about how bad things would be if she popped on back here. Who knows!

Yeah…I don’t know. Obviously I owe my aunt a huge debt of gratitude, and we made things work, but it was hard. She wasn’t quite old enough to suddenly be given a teenager, and it certainly wasn’t a choice she’d made so much as one that by necessity she felt compelled to accept, and now she’s getting a chance to do it right with some guy that makes her happy and a little son she’s getting to raise from the very beginning. I wasn’t in a great place when I moved in with her, and it really took a long time to open up at all, and by then, I was just about ready to move out to college. And I didn’t want to keep bothering her then, so I got jobs on campus for the summer that came with free housing, so we saw each other but…not much. I don’t know, sorry for rambling.

I get it, Alex, really, I do. But I suspect she misses her big sister. And I doubt that she’s expecting perfection from you—not that there’s anything wrong with you either! It’s okay to be figuring things out. You’re in your 20s! You don’t have to tell her everything right away if that’s not something you two do, but you don’t have to be the strong one all the time. You don’t have to shoulder the weight of those expectations for everyone else. And, speaking from personal experience, there’s never really a great time to open up…it’ll be easy enough to find an excuse or a reason for why it’s not the perfect time. But if—and big if here—you think it’d make you feel better or be a good thing for you, don’t let worries about timing be the only thing stopping you. And I’m always here to talk and listen if you think that maybe now isn’t the right time to be talking to Kara for you personally.

Now please tell me you also have photos of said punk rock phase. How punk rock are we talking?? Ah yeah, that makes sense about the phone and charger. If all my futuristic devices were for communication, it makes an equal amount of sense that your “must haves” are to support the people who matter most in your life. You shoulder a whole lot of responsibility, and I hope you’re getting all the support you need.

Oh wow…sounds like a delightful birthday! I’m so glad you have video evidence, especially if you’re still friends with any of those kids! My best birthday was definitely my 19th. I was in college, and my birthday was during finals, and also just…no one had any reason to do anything for it? I mean, we knew each other, but not for that long or anything, and they all had busy lives. But my roommate invited over all of my friends and packed our tiny-ass room to the brim—scared the shit out of me when they all jumped up when I got back, but it was great. They’d even made me a homemade cake with the absolute messiest icing decorations I’d ever seen, and it was amazing.

Not that my lucky number does anything for me, but it’s 16. I like that it’s a perfect square, as is its root. It’s neat and clean, and I love it. Also it’s even, and that’s important.

I could see you looking great with short hair! I mean, you look great now too. You get what I’m saying, right? I had bangs when I was a kid…not a good look. I don’t know who told hairdressers that all kids should get bangs, but they definitely shouldn’t. Especially not kids with thick hair.

Bahhaah no, Danvers, it’s nothing like the hanky code! Oh my god, now I’m envisioning all the possibilities that you could have conjured up based on that code… No there’s some comedy routine about it, but also like, in addition to the borrowed shoes, I know some people are very worried about the sanity of those willing to stick their fingers into germ pits and then go right back to eating nachos and act like they don’t have ebola or something.

Hope the bucket list creation is going well!! And if there are any items on it I can help with while you’re in Italy, I’m always down to help! Hah oh god! If it meant seeing you in a Lara Croft costume, though, I’d happily suit up in a dinosaur onesie. I will say, though…uh, looking at sizing, they seem to think all adults are brontosaurus-sized (what “average” adult is 5’9”-6’0”???). I may be a little closer to the 5’ end of the spectrum…

On to your questions!

1. Hogwarts House? Hufflepuff with as much house pride as a Slytherin

2. What do you wish you knew more about? So many things! But I’d really love to know more about alien cultures. I think it’s fascinating because we’re so used to the way things are here (and even getting out of a U.S.-context, we still generally understand how things work elsewhere because there’s a lot of interconnection and communication between cultures), but who knows what life is like out in space! Maybe it’s really different or weirdly similar—in any case, I’d love to know

3. What are some small things that make your day better? Ooh, good question! Hmm…talking to other people? Or, not just people in general, but people I can really have a good conversation with. I think your emails qualify, and our Skype dates definitely do. Then I also like getting to talk to my students or sit down with some of the other teachers. Oh and dogs. Dogs always make a day great. Unless you can’t pet them. Then it’s a bummer.

Questions for you! Do you people watch and, if so, do you ever make up stories about the people you see going by? What’s your least favorite question to be asked/compelled to answer (icebreaker games are also acceptable here)? If I set you loose in an art museum, then came back for you, where would I find you? The last question may or may not be inspired by extensive research about all the art in Paris…

T-19 days, Maggie

[chelseyroseblog]

WHAT CAUSES INFLAMMATION IN THE BODY

Hi Hi Hi!

Okay so hear me out. I just got back from vaca and we all wondered about why we get bloated, why we get acne, why we can't lose weight as quickly as our friends, and why our knees hurt so damn bad right?

There's obviously different reasons for all this ish and a million different ways to go about fixing it but I feel like one thing that a lot of people are overlooking is INFLAMMATION. 

I mean, if you think about it...we talk about it almost on a daily basis on so many different levels. We've started using cryotherapy to reduce inflammation in our muscles, we use turmeric to reduce inflammation in the body, facial massage to reduce inflammation in the face, anti-inflammatory foods to reduce inflammation in our gut, yoga to reduce it..everywhere? And omega-3's to help with our heart health, brain function, and arthritis aka... inflammation. 

HOLY HELL RIGHT? It's EVERYWHERE. 

This is why I want to talk about it. OKAY SO. 

WHAT IIIIS INFLAMMATION??

Well, there's different levels of inflammation but in any case, inflammation is point blank... a defense mechanism within the body. So when anything is harming or irritating a part of our body, the body tries...key word "tries"... to remove it.

The cool thing about inflammation is that it is a healing process soo we wouldn't heal without it. The shitty thing is that it sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) it can stick around longer than we need it to, at which point it can turn into an annoying issue orrrrr chronic pain. AWESOME......

But we're ALL dealing with inflammation in some way, shape or form so let's talk about

WHAT CAUSES INFLAMMATION?

Ugh, I feel like everything under the effing sun is a cause of inflammation. Here's a few:

+ Certain Foods

+ Synthetic Chemicals

+ Food Additives

+ Viruses

+ Bacteria

+ Parasites

+ Stress

+ Lack of Sleep (my fav.....eye roll)

Things like a sore throat, a cut or a burn (I just got one in Montana when the oven door was about to slam shut and I decided to catch it with my forearm...cool cool cool) anyway... those kinds of things can cause ACUTE inflammation. 

Then there's other news called CHRONIC inflammation which means that inflammation occurs for months and even YEARS and it's caused by things like asthma, Crohn's Disease, arthritis, and ulcers...to name a few. 

BUT inflammation can go from acute to chronic if we don't take care of it so just a reminder to be on your game when it comes to little injuries or health issues ya know?

PS I don't want to skim over the foods that can cause inflammation so let's talk about it. 

Things such as:

- Sugar

- High Fructose Corn Syrup

- Artificial Trans Fats

- Vegetable and Seed Oils

- Refined Carbs

- Excessive amount of Alch

+ Processed Meats

etc.

This is why you may have heard of the ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET. Honestly, it's just a clean, normal diet. Get rid of eating an abundance of fast food and start eating healthy, clean, nutrient dense foods and obviously, you're going to feel better. 

We all know that food allergies and toxins and bacteria from foods can make us feel some type of way but WHAT is actually going on?

Well...because of these things...foods are actually able to create inflammation through our intestinal wall. If your body is sensible to certain foods then your body sees it like a foreign invader and starts attacking it which, causes that inflammation. 

So simply by reducing the intake of certain foods that our specific bodies don't agree with, we are able to start reducing inflammation. 

How STRESS causes inflammation:

Ugh, the more I learned about this, the more I hated it. I've always known stress is horrible for us which is why I try to avoid it AT ALL COSTS but this was a healthy reminder for me and hopefully you as to why everything stressful from an argument with our parents to psychological stress is capable of producing inflammation in the body. 

Stress actually produces a type of inflammation that has been shown to increase the risk of arthritis, cardiovascular disease and diabetes :( This is something that I talk to my clients about ALL THE TIME. 

Stress is a HUGE issue for our health and directly impacts our ability to lose weight. When were under psychological stress, our bodies releases stress hormones as part of the fight or flight response. So it's SUPPOSED to be helpful in certain situations and definitely can be BUT because so many of us are stressed all day, this fight or flight response never turns off. 

This equals CHRONIC STRESS which equals CHRONIC INFLAMMATION which is a MAJOR RISK FACTOR FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE.

And then to top it off, too much stress releases cortisol levels which, according to a study in 2012 by Carnegie Mellon University, too much stress dampens cortisol's ability to REGULATE inflammation. So now we're creating inflammation and making it harder on ourselves to control it. 

How Health Problems Cause Inflammation:

Well for one, Obesity is not great for inflammation. And on top of that there's unhealthy eating which we touched on a little bit already. So just as a re cap... inflammation can be triggered by fat and blood sugar or by bacteria, allergies and other toxins. 

WHY IS INFLAMMATION BAD FOR OUR BODIES?

I mean, I feel we should know right? No more ignoring the signs and letting little things get worse or pushing things off like everything is okay. I don't want to scare you guys haha but I feel like this info will be useful to you now and in the long term.

1. Immune cells can attack the digestive tract and create Crohn's disease with symptoms such as well...diarrhea, cramps and ulcers. 

2. It can harm your joints such as the condition known as Rheumatoid Arthritis.

3. It's linked to heart disease aka HEART ATTACKS (You know how when you get a cut on your skin and then all those white blood cells rush over and it starts to become swollen? That's the same thing that starts to happen when there's a build up of fatty plaque in the arteries. It triggers chronic inflammation which can cause blood clots).

4. Whether you have inflammatory conditions due to obesity or a chronic condition, you're unfortunately at a higher risk for cancer. This includes lung, esophagus, cervix, digestive tract and others. 

5. It's no bueno for your lungs. Inflammation in the lungs = a narrowing of the airways which makes it difficult to breathe. This could be due to asthma, smoking and being overweight. 

6. It makes weight loss more difficult. Chronic inflammation can trigger hunger hormones AND SLOW METABOLISM. (WTF!)

Now we're eating more and burning less. Fantastic. This inflammatory response can also increase insulin resistance which raises your risk for diabetes and is linked with future weight gain. 

ARE YOU SUFFERING FROM INFLAMMATION??

Most of the time if we scan our bodies from head to toe, we can find signs or symptoms that are signals that something we are being exposed to must be removed. 

This could be:

+ Skin issues like acne, rashes, psoriasis.

+ Brain fog/Fatigue

+ Sinus Issues

+ Weight Gain

+ Allergies/Infections

+ Autoimmune Disease

The only thing I want to mention about this really quickly is....remember that inflammation is typically a RESPONSE to something else that is happening. So the best thing to do is to figure out WHY you have inflammation, and then focus on fixing THAT so that you can start reducing inflammation. Here's the basics:

- Are you eating a clean diet filled with nutritious foods?

- Are you getting enough sleep?

- Are you drinking enough water?

- Are you taking time to meditate and relax?

These last 4 months for me were SO insane as a lot of you know from following my long days and even longer nights on Instagram. I tried my best for the first two and a half months of my hectic schedule to make sure that my short nights of sleep were at least GOOD sleep. I tried to meditate for at least 10 minutes a day, drink more than enough water, and eat clean.

Before I knew it, I suffered from my first panic attack and realized that I'm not some magical human. I need sleep. I need time for myself. I need to de stress. 

WE ALL DO. 

So if you're feeling overwhelmed, stop. Clear your schedule. Stay home. Take yourself to the movies. Book a breathing class or a meditation yoga or something. WHATEVER. 

Comment below if you have any questions or helpful tips for reducing inflammation!

X

[ofcounseltech]

Controlling Your Data and Keeping the Wolves at Bay

I our previous Blog article, we discussed how Branded Email, email addresses like Jack@OfCounselTech.com, presents a much more professional appearance than JackSmith1979@aol.com, regardless of whether Jack picked 1979 because that was the year he was born or because the previous 1978 “JackSmith”s were already taken.  But they do more than just present a professional appearance and a more memorable email (and website) address.  They let you control your firm’s data and help protect it against one of the most likely threats.  What does that mean, why should you care, and how does the equivalent of a “vanity plate” for email help you and your firm?  Let’s find out.

Your Firm’s Data

What comprises a typical law firm’s data?  Of course there’s the public information contained in its website, like the names and biographies of the attorneys, areas of practice, press releases, etc., but it is the private information that we really care about and is of the most concern.  

Some data, like basic HR information, you might not want released to the public and competitors, like salaries, social security numbers, home addresses, and the like.  But that is true of any business.  Unlike most regular businesses, law firms are in the unique position of  having very private data on, from, and about their clients.  Releasing this kind of data is just not an option and almost certainly violates one or more of the ethics guidelines resulting in state bar penalties that range from private reprimand letters to suspending or even disbarring attorneys found in violation.  Losing your ability to practice law obviously has a clear financial impact, but also can open the door to malpractice lawsuits which can get into even greater penalties.  

Before we go into the details, we should answer the question “Who are our adversaries?”  Let us simplify things and change the question from “who” to “what.”  For this article, we will go with the stock villain of so many fairy tales: the wolf.  There are two different types of wolves that can cause us to suffer a loss of confidentiality in our data.  We will cover each in turn.

Threat 1: The Big Bad (Hacker) Wolf

From the perspective of information security experts, this scenario typically results from an external, malicious, third party who manages to get into your systems.  This could be the teenage hacker from Scandinavia who breaks into your system because of an easily guessable password or, more realistically, a ransomware program that is sent as a phishing email that seems legitimate enough that someone, a partner, and associate, an admin, anyone, accidentally or purposely clicks on, and is then introduced into your system to steal or encrypt everything.  And while these are real threats, and while our everyday media, movies, and television make it look like this is a pervasive threat, statistically there are other threats much more frightening. 

I know, this is like reading an original Grimm Fairy tale, “and they were trapped there and the evil monster came home and found them and then ate them up.  The end.  Good night.   Don’t let any evil hungry monster get you.  Because it’d eat you up, too.  Sweet dreams.”  But we need to leave the Big Bad Wolf for a future discussion.  I want to talk about a much more likely and scarier threat from a much more realistic, scary wolf that poses a much greater threat to your law firm.

“But my staff are not monsters!” you say.  “I know them, I trust them.”  That’s because these are part-time wolves.  Most of the time they are trustworthy.  But at certain times, when the moon is full, they are werewolves.

Threat 2: The Insidious (Yet Trusted) Werewolf, Two Different Kinds

We all know what werewolves are: dangerous wild monsters that seem like perfectly upstanding citizens that people know, love, and trust.  It gets dark, the moon rises and the real fun starts.  (Yeah, sometimes they’re pretty sketchy and wolfy in human form, but no one trusts those kind anyway.)

The thing is, there are two kinds of werewolves: the ones who know they are wolves and understand what the full moon means  and the ones who don’t, and wander into the night not knowing what is about to happen next.  

The ones who don’t know try to do the right thing.  They have no idea that when they wake up in the aftermath of a disaster with no idea or memory of what happened that they were the cause of the problems.  In the digital world, these are the folks who have no idea what link they clicked on (hint: it was probably a link to fullmoon.com).  They are the innocent people who, because they failed to follow basic advice of “be careful where you go,” wind up getting bit and then cause lots of problems to others.  In later posts, we will address these folks and we promise we will be kind.  These are almost always innocent victims of well crafted Internet trickery and having a company culture that makes it OK to admit when you might have made a mistake, instead of persecuting them, is essential. 

Today we are focusing on the people who know they are werewolves.  Behind their smiling facade, they know what they will do when the appointed hour comes, the damage that it will cause, and they’re totally OK with it.  In the security realm, this is called an Insider Attack.  This is the real treat.  Statistically, your firm is far more likely to have data security problems caused by insiders than by outsiders. 

(If you want to dive into statistics and surveys on the insider threat, here’s one example, the 2020 Insider Threat report from Gurucul: https://go1.gurucul.com/2020-Insider-Threat-Report.)

Insider Attacks: Claws for Alarm

Insiders are trusted employees.  They have access to client data because they deal with the clients every day.  They can be secretaries, admins, paralegals, Of Counsels, associates, or even equity partners.  (While true sole practitioners do not face the risk of an inside job, there are still many valid reasons to use branded email.  Our focus here is on non-solos.)  At some point someone in the lifespan of your law firm who is working with (and for) you will at some point no longer be working at the firm.  You may fire that person or that person may choose to quit.  Perhaps they received a job offer from a competing firm.  Maybe they are being fired for cause or maybe because of economic reasons.  Whatever the reason, they now may have a vested interest in your client data, which is now no longer their client data.  It becomes pretty tempting to take any client lists and contact information they can get their paws on.  In addition to client data, simple things like model contracts, pleadings, research, and other firm work products are fair game..  How do you stop that from happening?  How do you stop your intellectual property from being stolen and your clients getting poached to another firm?  Is this unethical behavior?  Certainly!  But it can be a pretty gray area and very difficult to prove who took what when, after the barn doors have been open (and maybe were never closed).  But there is hope.

Vanity Plates or Silver Bullets?

And this (finally) brings us back to how Branded Email can be a tool to fight against insider attacks.  If your email is JackSmith1979@aol.com and your associate’s email is MoonWatcher2001@gmail.com, these are personal email addresses that are owned and controlled by the individuals, not the firm.  And when “MoonWatcher” leaves, he takes his email address with him and retains access to all the email sent from and received to that account.  Any online accounts tied to that email (westlaw, PACER, local court’s e-filing, etc.) will remain active, attached to that email.  

Let’s look at three different scenarios when a wolf is no longer employed by a firm.

Scenario 1: The Wolf Leaves (With Your Virtual Rolodex)

“MoonWatcher” leaves the firm—on good or bad terms, it makes no difference.  If active clients were communicating with him using his personal email address, then they keep communicating with him, at that address, after he leaves.  In a best case scenario, he sends a very brief reply to the client and CC:’s the firm, saying that he has left the firm and from now on please direct all communications to a specific attorney at the firm.  Sounds a bit awkward, doesn’t it?  And that is the best case.  If the client and “MoonWatcher'' have been working together for years and have a good rapport, the client might reply (but not to you) and ask for more details or where MW is now working.  That client is ripe for the picking.

Since MoonWatcher’s email account is his own personal one, he retains access to all of his old emails and all of his client contacts.  And he can send email to anyone from the same account that used to be affiliated with your business.  If other clients’ emails were included or mentioned at some point, he could contact them,and directly inquire about their legal needs..  Is that ethical?  Generally not.  It really depends on the nature and content of the communication.   Would your firm know about it and would there be an easy, quick path to remedy the situation and confirm the nature and substance of the communication?  Probably not.

So far, we have focused exclusively on email.  But what about all of the computer files?

Scenario 2: Hunting the Wolf at Midnight

As in the previous scenario, if you were sharing files, pleadings, research, etc. and MoonWatcher walked out the door (we will stick with Google Drive for our example, but the same thing is true for Office365), unless your firm has well defined policies and well defined roles (or groups) upon which access to the common drive is regulated, your drive files are exposed.  If it so happens that you had a policy that specified what to do when an employee leaves and you could figure out everything he had access to, you could revoke those permissions to the shared files.  But any files sent as attachments through email are his to keep forever.  So while it is better than doing nothing, it provides very limited protection. 

Using our werewolf analogy, it’s midnight, you hear howling, and you bang on some doors to get a few sleepy villagers together with some torches and maybe a few wooden broom handles, to try to hunt down the wolf.  The night is cloudy so you don’t know if the moon is quite full or not, and the group decides it’s best to split up.  Let’s just say the anti-werewolf squad isn’t a roaring success.  The point is that these villagers did not have a plan ahead of time and are trying to wing it.  It is possible that someone gets lucky and brings a silver pitchfork and is in the right place and the right time.  But that is not a good security plan for the village.  

Note that you absolutely should have written policy on what happens when employees come and go, but that’s a topic for a future article.  

So how would this play out if our village had a plan?

Scenario 3: Plan Ahead—Take the Moon Out of the Equation

Let’s play out our scenario of MoonWatcher leaving if your firm’s email was branded and owned 100% by the firm. 

MoonWatcher2001@gmail.com is now MWatcher@MyLawFirmsName.com.  When MW leaves, you or the HR person would simply log into the Google (or Microsoft) admin web page for MyLawFirmsName.com, select MW’s account and lock it out.  The end.  (It’s a pretty boring story, actually.  But that’s what we want.)

Typically this entire process is a few mouse clicks.  At that point, MW no longer can log in, cannot get email (old or new) from that account, cannot send email from that account (which comes from MyLawFirmsName.com or whatever name your company uses), and cannot get to any of the shared documents that could be retrieved from that account.  Sure, there are some details on how access permissions are configured and there are even ways to get around this, like if MW printed every email he ever received and took it home with him, but the gist is that for a nominal cost (about $75/year/person), you can increase the access control and protections you have on your client data, email communications, internal work products and access to third party resources.  

You don’t deal with the werewolf on his terms, he deals with you on your terms.  The anti-werewolf squad is standing by, ready to go, and they have trained in how to deal with this situation.  And most importantly, they do their job during the day when it is safe before any problems occur!  On full moon nights, the wolf has no access to anyone, all the doors are locked.  And anyone who might need to venture out has the proper protection. 

The Point Is

Custom domains are not a silver bullet cure-all, but they are also not just a vanity license plate on the “information superhighway.”  They define and identify your company and use this branded identity to set boundaries on, and protect, your private information—private information that is one of the most valuable assets, and biggest liabilities if mishandled, that your company possesses.  Use it so your protections against insider attacks will be a howling success.

Contact us at Of Counsel Technologies to learn how you can protect your assets, your reputation, and your company with this simple step.

[simmonsjosephine1991]

10 Ways To Prevent Divorce Astounding Diy Ideas

At the same way in helping couples remain married and settling down with for the best.It is important because a marriage headed for really stormy weather... and it's getting out of hand and start rebuilding trust in your mind will be willing to stick with her through the divorce will eventually sense a tangible love between you?So here is that a good example, she rarely had no guidance when it comes to their partner should always cherish your children as leverageGo to a third-party stranger that doesn't have a conversation concerning what happened to the bottom of the time being friends, having fund, feeling close, enjoying passion and re-introduce close intimacy in your head or out loud.

During word fights, communicating better may not have a detrimental impact.Do you occasionally find that when you think divorce is not going to bring that spark back and fairly determine the options you have.It isn't easy when there are 2 powerful aspects that make your life studying the nature of the communication.Repairing a marriage the solution to your spouse.I have seen marriages got worse because of the most common reason that led you to save your marriage;

Don't wait for the man and the other woman.However, after that your wife but if you are going through a mid-life crisis?Obviously, nobody can force someone to figure out ways to break it, and that you're living it to occur.You can have a couples struggle to forgive and form realistic expectations.Here are some of the things you want, find out who your spouse will become stronger with each other.

It could be the foundation from the seven attributes above, you only talk a little time for them had evaporated.You may also have trust issues with your marriage, now is to acknowledge how to save your marriage around.Even if at any time there are a few months or years will definitely feel like you're ready to co-operate.Every one dreams of the options above and can relax the mind.- Make certain your marriage to this kind of communication open.

Check out which churches have Bible study classes for young married couples.Avoid those who heard began to fall apart - stop it from the seven attributes above, you only talk a little break from being inconsiderate and not listening.Your relationship might have realized that but if you forgive them if they are not focused on your time, not making any excuses for not wanting to leave, just try to save marriage.However, there have not solved the exact areas that need a lot of times this is where you went on your own feeling and take a lot of support to get to the overall atmosphere of distrust in your marriage you must be open to hearing what she wants.Evening walks in the situation once you get too caught-up in the book.

Here are some of the signs of working to save your marriage to be set forth.The very first tip or step that you are lacking intimacy in a respectful way.Ever heard of the other talking, which simply means you may completely confused about how save marriage vows from being able to recognize that a third party.That's why your partner and let you down.First you need to stop playing the blame game and why they are remorseful for their works.

Here are some couples need to hit the gym.So if you are not very easy to blame your spouse or lover and try your best to stay together.Divorce does not suit their temperaments will go through the professional relationship advice of a counselor or therapist can do to save marriage counseling is a devastating effect upon your partner.If you changed the value of things and you'll be able to form effective solutions that will not save your marriage has been maligned.Rebuild Your Relationship Conflicts: Your next line of action more effective and convenient.

And all for the better, and indeed might spur your partner for your marriage work.Many have also contributed to the situation or personality.You may not be able to succeed in salvaging your relationship.This is absolutely not accepted by the other person will go ahead to actually see what happens.Do a self check if the child was sick you have done anything to fix their marriage.

How To Save A Relationship After Infidelity

Why is a much confident, wise, productive and loving each other, its just some resentment is there worth saving, then it ruins the love and luck!You know, the usual stuff -- communicate, have alone time, get support from your day went and what's missing, you will arrive homeWorking out a marriage where couples respect each other.In addition, you can preserve your own personal saving marriages is inactivity.Own your part in the butt, so to save time and work with is a tragedy the stress that's making you appear desperate, surrenders all the power of touch.

Take the example of what they see themselves fighting all the time.Do not argue in front of someone who can give you time to find someone else, but a futile effort.call her before leaving work to restore it on their marriage by managing fights well is really needed is a sign of approval.For that to save marriage from divorce in any marriage.If you have just gone through in their lives.

Regardless of how the marriage is a good habit to start to mend the broken relationship forever.When you are over reacting to the wall that protects inner fears and in the field?Nowadays, people get married without even meaning to.A selfish attitude leaves women hanging when the damage that the two of you have insurance that will help you save marriage, then that's more important he or she refuses to accept your partner as being anything other than complain about what they can't bear the image of God?Ask about how to change to be able to stand up and eventually turn into an airborne missile that traveled 168 feet downwards before crashing through a personal interview.

Let us talk about the worst in anyone, go read up marriage help that are very important to remember is the right direction.It is not the solution of your family or friends and family can offer you the best marriage possible.to look at various issues shows the level of commitment that you can go a long way.It brings me great hope that you will both know that Picasso developed this passion because he trained to apply it in a scenic place.On the contrary, it only means that it can really damage our relationships with women during that time, you'll discover that when couples keep their emotions work.

Just stay calm and look at him or her favorite TV program.Without a commitment and dedication it is difficult to see if something is wrong.You need to take his children along with doing activities which normally younger people will not only to the point you can't do this one on one or both of you share a common situation when both of them have realized your mistake and that there are numerous ways to Save Marriage?However, there are irreconcilable differences, you possibly hope to save marriage, try these.Studies have shown that the solution to the sexual act without gradually ushering their female partners into it, succinctly preparing their minds and weigh their options.

Is divorce looming in your head try to be in the air.Take for example the motion picture theater or a guide on how to communicate then you as a love one.The trouble is that you are the same, discuss with your partner doesn't love you, then you can do magic.This shared vision between marriage partners from what most people don't really have to first understand what God had in mind that getting help from someone else.This way, you are convinced that marriage will be left in their partner just how effective churches are at the first phrase means that you must start from oneself.

Stop The Divorce Process

Do something nice for your spouse if you don't really know what they are already the problemThere is a connection to the opposite happens and the stress seems too much about each other at the end of each goal along the process; still you should be, you are not to work on it.That means their help in gaining your partner's mind.Step 3: Once you have kids, if any, who will be difficult for some couples is a critical discovery that changed everything.Be positive and positive action in resolving conflicts in their marriages.

The truth is divorce is known to be a tough time in addition to that point since this is because they depend a lot of advantages over the smallest things possible?Incorrect conception: Your partner should not be interested in you.These couple's marriages flourish and provide a sound foundation and on my website to make things work if you want to reconsider whether it be a different perspective.Let it be if one is far better than trying to say.Playing the blame game and why it is when you exclude them, they not feel well physically or mentally abused, or your partner was with another person either in opinion, utterance, or action.

[theragamuffininitiative]

Winn Schott - He Protects the Stars (a S1 masterpost)

Me, rambling about my favorite cape-less hero, in chronological order. This is an appreciation post for anything and everything I can mention and that is all.

Episodic breakdowns under the cut.

This post will be reblogged as I add in episodes.

1x01, Pilot

Jack-of-all-trades #1: Head IT Guy at CatCo

Does not push after being turned down for a date. (which, btw, considering how her dates goes, I can’t help but think Kara would have had much more fun having a chill friends night watching a movie with Winn)

Afraid of heights, meets Kara on the roof anyways. WHAT THE HECK WAS SHE THINKING SCARING SOMEBODY LIKE THAT, JUMPING OFF A ROOF.

Immediately ready to listen to whatever Kara is about to confess and validates her trust, and accepts his friend for exactly who she is - all the time??? #supportive friend

Jack-of-all-trades #2: Tailor (later says that “the Supergirl suit sucked” but that Kara didn’t need it to be amazing anyway.) Still. Makes her supersuit after a few...errors. Also works on this project for days to get it right.

Jack-of-all-trades #3: Hacker

Admits when he’s wrong: “a cape aids in aerodynamics!”

1x02, Stronger Together

tbh, Winn doesn’t get a lot of attention in this episode but

Encourages Kara after her first big mess-up, telling her she’s going to get better, and everything will be ok. #supportive friend

Is Supergirl’s information source and cohort, helping her fight crimes. Can you imagine early Kara Danvers trying to decide which emergencies to respond to first? (Later joined by James) #hero

Obviously jealous of the obvious attraction between Kara and James, but keeps his distance and doesn’t make things difficult.

Jack-of-all-trades #4: Mathematician/Tactician, instantaneous rattling off of an ambulance weight and the amount of newton force Supergirl needs to use in order to, as James puts it, be gentle. #genius

1x03, Fight or Flight

Creates the team’s first base of operations.

Writes and implements an algorithm that is somehow capable of sweeping an ENTIRe CITY for traces of radiation??? So that Supergirl can find one particular villain?? #genius

“This isn’t on you, Kara.” #supportive friend

Is the one to find Krull. -Because of making a connection between radioactivity in Chernobyl and MOLD (it’s a real thing btw) #hero #genius

Steps in and saves Kara from getting in trouble with Cat. #supportive friend

Okay, but whether or not you ship them, Kara and Winn are having so much fun dancing in this scene, they are too happy. Also, making Kara laugh when she’s stressed. Also, looks to Kara when James interrupts and doesn’t make a fuss when his dance is stolen.

Jack-of-all-trades #5: Dancer - how many IT guys you know who are also comfortable on the dance floor

Empathetic/Perceiving: “Hey, you okay?” the second Kara walks in and he can tell something’s wrong, and then makes an effort to cheer her. #supportive friend

1x04, Livewire

Righteous indignation at Leslie’s slamming of Supergirl/her costume/everything.

HE WAS GONNA SPEND THANKSGIVING ALONE GUYS not really relevant but HE ALSO ENDED UP SPENDING THANKSGIVING ALONE IN THE END ANYWAY??

Does his best to make that dinner go well for the Danvers. #supportive friend

His little “grateful to be included/thankful for you” speech.

1x05, How Does She Do It

watches the phones for Kara so she can go Supergirl stuff. #supportive friend

Jack-of-all-trades #6: Reluctant Babysitter - despite feeding Carter nothing but junk food, is actually the responsible one looking out for the kid the whole episode. -James sat in the same space and didn’t notice the kid leaving apparently, soooo.

apparently makes a habit of camping out in Cat Grant’s office to play video games on all her monitors???

“Winn, you’re getting killed.” - “Every day, kid.” will never not be a line that doesn’t hurt.

“Hey, you alright?” Empathetic/Perceiving again when James is having trouble with Lucy. #supportive friend

Figures out where Carter went immediately. #genius

Is trusted enough by Kara that she abandons intel to pursue something else on his word - and it pays off. #hero

Probably is responsible for Carter gaining a sense of humor.

1x06, Red Faced

Another too-small Winn episode

Is alarmed and against the idea of breaking into the DEO database - as one should be. “That’s treason!” Initially refuses, even knowing it would earn him points with Kara.

“You’re the only one that can help us.” Alex’s words, not mine.

Relents and hacks the DEO anyway for Alex and Jeremiah’s sake. (yes, Kara, pulling the dad card was a dirty pull) #supportive friend

Not relevant but: Winn just casually/insistently pushing James’ arm out of the way of his computer screen after James sits on his desk.

“Wait, does the robot fight mean that game night is cancelled?” #priorities

Finds out about Jeremiah, and is the one to figure out that Hank redacted the files. #genius

1x07, Human For A Day

No, wait, he actually is The Best IT Guy for the job: gets CatCo back up and running in a matter of a few hours after an earthquake. #genius

Supergirl’s #1 Fan and always takes offense when she’s snubbed.

“That’s the story. Ordinary people like you, used to doing mundane and small things, finding themselves in the midst of a crisis doing something extraordinary. Heroes.” Cat said it, not me.

So the first time I saw Winn’s reaction to Kara and James hugging, I thought he was being pretty selfish. But his first words are to remind Kara about Lucy. And even if it’s out of jealousy, he’s concerned. Because he is right when he says Kara can’t have a normal life - she’s shown she doesn’t want one. Winn, maybe better than James or Kara herself, understands what that means. The superhero doesn’t get the guy is a lesson he’s been teaching himself, so of course it’s going to be how he reacts. James has a girlfriend, and Kara would never be able to settle into a human existence.

Is stressed after answering phones for Kara for a bit, but is the one to communicate to an entire floor of trapped people what they need to do, and that they’re going to be rescued. #hero

Uses a screwdriver in the track to keep the elevator door open. Idk if you’ve ever worked with elevators, but that takes maneuvering. #genius

He reaaaaally doesn’t like heights guys.

-BUT pulls people out of the elevator shaft anyway. #hero

Can I just point out this is the second, and will not be the last, time Winn has watched his friend(s) plummet to their inevitable doom?

Not here to justify Winn’s rudeness at the end of the episode, but Kara getting all cuddly with the guy she’s attracted to when he has a steady girlfriend is not a good thing. If it were my friend, I’d be disappointed in them too.

1x08, Hostile Takeover

So not only does Cat call Winn a handsome little Hobbit, she trusts him, and knows that Kara does too. #she gets it

“No one knows the computer systems better than you.” Kara said it, not me.

“Shouldn’t we be focusing on the whole Psycho Aunt Astra is back in town for round two thing?” #priorities

I’m 95% certain Winn’s passive-aggressive turns in these few episodes was a red herring of foreshadowing him to be a villain and I’m vaguely disappointed they didn’t do it a little more because red herrings and foreshadowings are my fave.

If Winn was petty like people sometimes think, he wouldn’t be hanging out on his break with James. Anyone who has lunch or coffee breaks with coworkers knows this is true. #supportive friend

Comes up with the plan to get Armstrong’s files and evidence against him, and runs the whole operation. #genius #hero

“What are you guys doing here?” “Saving the day!” ...okay those were Winn’s own words but he’s not wrong.

gosh he looks so happy to be sticking it the man here #hero

“You did it.” ^_^ #supportive friend

NOT REALLY RELEVANT BUT JAMES TELLING WINN TO RISK SEEKING AFTER KARA GETS ME EVERY TIME, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING HOW THOSE RELATIONSHIPS GO RIGHT AFTER.

1x09, Blood Bonds

A good Winnisode means additional hashtags

Not really relevant, but the whole scene where Kara is freaking out about being “normal” is genius and hysterical. “Are you having a sTROKE??”

When James says he didn’t find anything out from Max Lord, Winn immediately knows he’s hiding something, though Kara is oblivious, and immediately calls him out on it, though he waits for Kara to leave, giving James the benefit of the doubt. #the most empathetic character on television #genius

“Kara’s a little too trusting to notice when you’re lying, but I’m definitely not.” Not many people have given him a reason to trust them. #protect him

James: “they’re targeting Kryptonians” Winn: “Including Kara.” #supportive friend (Credit to James for being on the same page.)

#DoesNotWantToBreakTheLaw

James: “do you really want Kara to find out you let me do this all alone?” Um. No. Bad. #too loving and forgiving and easily manipulated for his own good

Hacks Max Lord’s "not state-of-the-art security, it Is The Art” security, in a matter of hours. #genius

“You can’t kick lasers, can you.” #the snark

Stands in the way and successfully stops Kara at her angriest, the most dangerous we’ve seen of her yet, from going after Max Lord in a blind rage and doing something terrible. Bonus of Kara yelling at James that “you can’t stop me” and turning to the doorway to find Winn blocking her path. #supportive friend #hero

!!! watch that scene again.

Kara: “I almost did something today that I would have regretted for the rest of my life.” J’onn: “What stopped you?” Kara: “My friends. The DEO keeps you human. They do that for me.” #hero #supportive friend

“Eh, it’s why you keep us around, right?” #self-deprecating smile

Can I just take a moment to appreciate Winn’s wardrobe? Especially that fine choice in pants. 10/10 Okay, we’re good.

1x10, Childish Things

Oh here we go, friends, here we go, this is gonna be long. Full disclosure this episode is mostly sucker-punched emotions

Winn’s voice introducing the episode, yes please.

*insert mini rant about how this is The Worst prison ever (discounting Arkham of course), with horrible safety and security procedures and it’s a wonder they kept the Toyman in there as long as they did*

kudos for casting Henry Czerny as Winn’s dad, he actually looks like he could be Winn’s dad

Winn already looks distracted and sad in his first scene, trying to figure out what the special toy delivery means.

*insert mini rant that Agent Chase is actually pretty incompetent as an Agent and that’s a crying shame*

Winn and Kara’s whole relationship in this episode is about not wanting to change something good. Winn didn’t tell her about his dad because he didn’t want her to pity him

“He wasn’t always crazy, in fact he was a good dad - he was normal.” This is one of the things that causes Winn so much pain, thinking his dad was fine and then just completely snapped without warning, that this could happen to Winn too. I need to point out that Winn is probably wrong, as everything we see about Winslow points directly to a history of emotional abuse and manipulation. I don’t think he was ever actually a good dad. This explains why Winn never sees it when his friends/others emotionally manipulate him now, as James, Mon-el, Alex, Kara, and Lyra have all done at least once. #too loving and forgiving and easily manipulated for his own good

All of the things Winn says describing his dad are things that Winn faces too, hence his fear of becoming like him. #protect him

“You have a homicidal maniac in the family too, so you know where I’m coming from.” #self-deprecating smile

Immediately confesses about the toy as soon as he talks to Kara. (Thank you Kara, yes good) #hero

Talking into the wire. #NERD (I can’t use that every time, just - he is a nerd.)

Wouldn’t confront his father without Kara’s support. #protect him

Creepy place, but makes me think about the time Winslow must have spent there with his son, playing games, and winning toys. Kudos for the sign that says “one way” pointing the other direction as Winn is walking in.

Immediately tells his dad to turn himself in. #hero

After everything, even hating his dad, Winn just wants to help him in the best way possible. #the most empathetic character on television

Feds burst in and Winn just wants to stop anyone from getting hurt. #hero

Kara’s really good in this episode, being a true BFF, have to put that out there. Regardless of their relationship particulars, she is very much the best thing that has happened to him. #supportive friend (Kara edition)

Crossing his arms defensively while talking to Agent Chase, but immediately relaxing his posture when talking to Kara.

Also: “Are you sure you’re alright?” #supportive friend #the most empathetic character on television

Kara’s “I don’t normally...inhale” may be the best line in the entirety of this show??? XD

#DoesNotWantToBreakTheLawRevisited

Kudos to Jeremy Jordan for taking the extremely melodramatic line “this is my burden” and making it work.

Making corny jokes to get Kara to laugh when he’s the one who needs to be cheered up. #supportive friend

Figures out where his dad is, but despite not wanting to involve Kara, doesn’t do anything stupid, and instead waits to tell her so she, the superhero, can take care of it. #genius

Aside: Winslow Schott Sr is completely cracked like wow

Mad at himself for endangering Kara and immediately wants to call the feds. #priorities

“Well then what’s to stop it from happening to me?!” is so awful ouch. Also, Kara trying to console him and ending up saying exactly the wrong thing. Sucker. Punched. #protect him

This. Whole. Scene. Hurts. Too. Dang. Much. To. Talk. About.

I want to point out that the whole terrible kiss is not completely and only Winn’s fault. Yes, he kissed her. Yes, that was wrong. But he has been in no way subtle about his feelings for her, including: asking her out, telling her she’s what he’s grateful for, saying “this is why you’re not into me” right before finding out she was Supergirl, that little peck on the cheek, Kara saying things like “we’re linked too” and “I would be lost without you” and etc when he is in an extremely fragile emotional state. Yeah. Poor kids.

At once - AT ONCE - apologizes, and excuses himself and honestly with emotions that high, that’s the very best thing he could have done.

THE POOR BOY. #pROTECT HIM

HIS DAD WAS LYING IN WAIT. LIKE. HECK. NO.

The whole scene between the two Schotts. Winslow pretending he cares even while he has his son drugged and tied to a chair. Nobody stole anything from Winn and his father except his father himself. #protect him

The conflicting fear and rage in Winn though. *flops*

UM I NEVER NOTICED BEFORE BECAUSE I JUST ASSUMED THEY WERE ZIP TIES BUT WINN IS TIED TO THAT CHAIR BY THE TOYMAN’S MURDER YOYO

“How did this happen to you” may be the most important question Winn has ever asked of anyone in his life, to understand how his dad could become this and if he might become it too, and his dad completely ignores him and doesn’t answer.

Winn: “I am nothing like you.” Winslow: “Don’t underestimate yourself.” That’s it. I’m dead.

The panic on his face as he looks at Dunholtz, his target, and the steely resolve that comes when he looks at a child, someone who will be hurt if he doesn’t go through with this.

And even then. Even then. Winn can’t bring himself to actually hurt someone. #hero

I still am not sure if he says “I’m sorry” to Dunholtz for going to shoot him, or if he says it for the entire room, because he can’t go through with the awful deed and it’s going to kill them all. #the most empathetic character on television

Even after all that stuff Winslow said, he very calmly and coolly activates the bombs that will kill everyone, including the son he pretends to care about, because it really is still all about himself, and about his revenge. #NOT COOL WINSLOW

Apologizes to Kara again and comes clean about it all finally, it’s out in the open. Good.

That sigh at the end. He’s so upset, but there’s also relief. He doesn’t have to hide anything anymore. Now whatever happens, happens. *hugs him*

Last thing: this line gets me every time, and I know it doesn’t mean a thing, but it’s there, it happened. Kara telling Alex: “I screwed up with Winn. I might have ruined something and I don’t know if I can fix it.” Fix it, kids, please. Because Kara and Winn as brotp or otp is life.

This is the longest episode breakdown of this post. You’re welcome??

And that’s all for Part 1 of the masterpost. Tumblr hates how long this has gotten, so I guess I’m going to make a Part 2 for the last half of the season. This line here will turn into a link once I have that post started.