#otherwise I would have had way too many half hour formats to choose from

[flusendieb]

TAG GAME: EIGHT SHOWS TO GET TO KNOW ME

I got tagged by @lovecanbesostrange

Good Omens

My Life is Murder

MacGyver (OG one from the 80s)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Firefly

Jonathan Creek

Agents of SHIELD

21 Jump Street

tagging: @famburasch-sohn-des-partram, @jkme6v8, @counsellormurdock

[shnuggletea]

Alright Lovelies, here's something a little dark and spooky for your Halloween cravings! As part of the Darker Oneshots: Halloween Challenge 2020 (hosted by Seiay's Kiss and NekoPantera!), I wrote this fic! Inspired by the 3 am Game: 11 Miles, I took my rules from 6 Paranormal Games That Could Ruin Your Entire Life If You Dare To Play by Jessica Calder. 

Click here for the playlist!!!!

This is the fic I accidentally wrote in first (when the rules said no first person) so I have two fics. They're the same in content, just different POVs! So, you get to choose! This one is for the event! The other is for my personal enjoyment lol. You can find the first person through my Tumblr page!

This fic was lovingly and painstakingly BOOTAED (get it?) by the fabulous @fawneyedgirl, @lavendertwilight89, @eringobroke, and @egosolivagant! And the cover art by the super talented @sapphirestarxx!

This is a long one (that’s what she said) guys so you probably wanna head over to one of the sites below. The full fic is on this post but... it’s a lot! And I can’t promise I caught all the formatting Tumblr lost when I pasted it here. You have been warned!!!

For the Third Person version!

AO3

Fanfiction

For the First person!

AO3

Fanfiction

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Eleven Miles (First Person)

Is there something you desire more than anything else in the world? To obtain it, you don’t have to travel across the globe but you will have to go farther than you may be prepared. Although the distance might not be great, it is a place not all can venture, as not all can meet the requirements. If your desire is great enough, perhaps you will succeed… if you dare.

At the moment, I was calm and quiet. Even with the girl in my arms that was shaking harder than a leaf in a storm. The others in the car couldn’t smell it; I was the only demon if just half. But I was sure: the air was thick with it. 

And you never forget the smell of death once you’ve experienced it. 

“Alright, someone wanna tell me what the fuck is going on??!!”

Six hours earlier

Walking into the tea shop, I quickly caught sight of Miroku’s black locks even amongst the many others. He stood out in his own way, ratty ponytail down the back of his finely pressed school blazer. It matched mine, save for the pressed part but I didn’t have any fucking butlers to do my laundry. 

Miroku held up a hand to wave me down as if I didn’t see him. My ears pressed down to my skull on instinct, the loud and crowded store quickly pushing me to my ‘friendly’ limit. Sango sat right next to Miroku, trying and failing to keep his hand off her thigh. I wasn’t sure what the big deal was; everyone knew the two were fucking. 

I liked Sango. She was one of the few in the school who didn’t act like they shit rainbows cause their daddy had money. Miroku was another tolerable person there which was why we were friends. My ‘Daddy’ had money and was why I was in the stupid, preppy, bullshit school. As much as I hated it, I had to be thankful. Otherwise, I never would have met the people in my life I considered dear. 

Plopping to my seat to show annoyance, I wondered if any of them bought it? Sure, the place was loud and crowded but I wanted to be here. Needed to be. And my reason would be showing up any moment now…

“Hello, all.” She fell gracefully to the seat across from mine and let her eyes wander. I watched her, waiting for more as there always was. “What are you guys doing tonight?”

We all groaned, me the loudest, which got her attention. “What the fuck are you gonna force us into this time, Kikyo?”

She pursed her pouty red lips at me and my eyes lingered a little longer than I liked. “I never forced you to do anything, Inuyasha.”

Flicking black locks over her shoulder sent a small, but powerful, wave of perfume in my direction. I nearly gagged on it and she caught on, smirking. She couldn’t wear that shit when we dated for this reason alone so now that we were broken up, she was flaunting. 

Springing to her feet, I held my breath. 

“Going to the loo.” Kikyo ‘shared’ and I released my breath in a groan once she was out of earshot. 

“Hey, you dated her.” Sango quibbled. 

“Yeah, and it’s been almost a fucking year since she dumped me. So why the hell is she still hangin’ out with us?”

Another body fell to a seat, setting down a tray of drinks before us. “Okay, I got thirty minutes.”

Opening her mouth, Sango held up a sandwich that I had no clue where it came from. But Kagome took a huge bite and moaned, making me laugh. Taking the rest of her dinner from her friend, Kagome sat back and continued to pig out. Not that we blamed her, she had very little time to spare. Ever. 

The rest of us grabbed the free drinks she had brought us, one of the few benefits afforded her working here, while Sango narrowed her eyes at the overworked tea girl. “Your cousin will be back any second now.”

Kagome just nodded, her mouth still too full to speak. 

“She wants us to do something with her tonight,” Miroku added, his tone clear; he didn’t want to go. 

Kagome swallowed and I swear I hadn’t taken my eyes off her since she sat down. “She won’t invite me so I have no worries!”

God, I was jealous. The way Kagome could just turn anything into a positive? Although, not being invited to one of Kikyo’s ‘outings’ could definitely be seen as a good thing in my book. 

Leaning on my elbows, I moved a little closer to Kagome. Careful not to be too obvious, I breathed in her scent. She always smelled like tea leaves. The light kind like white tea and peaches. I found it intoxicating, even now, after years of knowing her. 

She looked over at me and just when I thought I’d been caught, she smiled so brightly I needed sunglasses. “I’m sure it’ll be a good time though, right?”

Optimistic as always, it irked me, but only because Kagome didn’t deserve any of the shit she went through. 

“That’s my seat.”

I glanced, Kikyo returned and looming over Kagome. She only had a quarter left of her sandwich, which she shoved into her mouth whole and stood. Without a word, mostly due to her full mouth, Kagome gave us a quick wave and disappeared. But she didn’t go far, getting behind the register just in my sight. 

“If you want free drinks, then you can just ask me.”

At some point, Kikyo had sat down in Kagome’s seat. I had been staring, watching the practiced ease Kagome had making tea. It was fascinating, the gentle way she held the glass and strained the tea leaves? Flicking her wrist to get the last of the floating herbs and sometimes adding in chilled milk. I liked watching her make milk teas the most. 

But now I had steely gray eyes glaring at me. “I ain’t here for the free tea.”

A leg over her knee, Kikyo stared at her nails instead. “So tonight? You guys coming?”

“You haven’t even told us what we are coming to?” 

Miroku didn’t hide his annoyance, another thing I liked about the guy. Most were scared to death of Kikyo and her prowess within the school. Maybe that was why she hung around us so much? Either she liked that we didn’t shine her ass or she wanted us to start? 

“Onigumo is taking us for a ride.”

I huffed, “why the fuck would we want to go ride around with you and your boy toy?”

Her lips slid to the side and I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever came out of her mouth next. “Because he just got a brand new Escalade.”

Kikyo didn’t know a damn thing about cars and I didn’t give a shit about them. It was about status and (a big expensive car like the one her new boyfriend had) spoke volumes. Like I needed another hint, she dumped me for someone richer. She didn’t care who, and Onigumo was right there with his big wallet in his pants. Cause no way in hell was that supposed to be his dick bulging in the front of his jeans. 

“I couldn’t care less,” Sango said with a sigh. 

Kikyo was losing us fast and for once, she looked nervous about it. “There’ll be booze?” Miroku and Sango hesitated. “And we’re going to play Eleven Miles.”

“What the hell is that?”

Kikyo rolled her eyes at me, “look it up?!”

She knew I wouldn’t. Instead, I glanced back at the register for Kagome. Who was wiping down the counter with no one in line waiting. “We’ll go… if your cousin comes too.”

Her mouth dropped but she quickly picked it back up. “She’s working tonight…”

“And with one call, you can fix that.”

Sango and Miroku both smirked, knowing I had won. Because either Kikyo failed and we got out of what sounded like the worst night of my life, or she came through and at least I’d have a good time with Kagome there. 

Rolling her eyes, she pulled out her phone and I got to my feet, shuffling up to the counter. Pretty brown eyes landed on me and she smiled brightly yet again. “Can I get you something, Inuyasha?”

Smirking, I didn’t take the bait. It would be too easy to tell her ‘yeah, give me you’. Watching her blush would have been fun but I had a purpose. I pushed my palms into the counter before me and leaned into my shoulders while she watched me intently. “You’re coming out with us tonight.”

Her smile faded a little into a sad one. “I can’t, I’m working…”

“No, you’re not. I got mom to let you off.” 

Kikyo appeared behind me, talking way too loud at the girl before me. With as much sass as humanly possible, Kikyo turned on her heel and swayed so her pleated uniform skirt swished with her hips. That used to drive me wild; now it just gave me a headache. 

I was brought back to the present when a gentle hand landed and squeezed my clawed one. Whipping my head back, Kagome had her sweet smile on. The one that made my palms sweat. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Get me invited. I don’t like going out with Kikyo at all.”

“Neither do I.”

She squeezed my hand again before pulling away. I liked that. How she would touch me without fear or hesitation. Even with my claws accidentally cutting a few times in the past. Kagome mostly, since she touched me the most. Yet she still held my hand when I needed it or she did because she was a good friend and person. A god damn angel surrounded by demons. 

“You could always say ‘no’ to her. It wouldn’t kill you?”

Her back to me, I listened to her heart and breathing to figure out her real meaning. Not that it was hard, given what I knew about her and her family already. “I could. But I didn’t. Not this time.” When she still didn’t look at me, I sighed loudly to get her attention. “You’re not going out with her, you’re going out with me, alright? You never get a night off and this was my in so I took it and I regret nothing.”

When I looked back up, staring at the different bags of kettle popped popcorn instead of her while I ranted, she had a caramel color to her eyes as she grinned. “Okay. I guess I don’t regret it either then.”

A few hours later

Miroku was grinning while we waited, standing off to the side of my building to lean on the half wall around the playground behind us. With my hands shoved in my pockets, I kept myself from punching him in the face but when he started to chuckle, I couldn’t stop myself from shoving him hard with my shoulder. It didn’t stop him from laughing and it didn’t make me feel any better, stuck waiting for my ex to show up with her new bf in a monster truck to take us all out to drink. 

But I told Kagome I didn’t regret it and I didn’t want to lie to her. 

The large monstrosity pulled up, rumbling as the driver revved the engine while leaving the doors locked. Gaining as much attention as possible and rubbing it in my face. It was a good thing I didn’t give a shit; otherwise, it might have worked and pissed me off. As it were, it just annoyed. 

The tinted windows hid the inside but I knew what I’d find when the door finally opened. This was why I wasn’t shocked nor did I hesitate, heading straight for the tiny back seat Kagome was undoubtedly shoved into by her cousin. With Kikyo in the front seat, this was where I wanted to be regardless, as far back as I could get.

Miroku took the middle seats. He and Sango would occupy them once we picked her up. It’s not like I was gonna share the fucking middle with those two anyway. I’d probably get a high heel in my face while they made out viciously. A few drinks and it was inevitable with those two. 

So why Kikyo was giving me the stink eye in her little mirror, I didn’t pretend to know or care. I had invited Kagome in the first place; of course, I would spend time with her. 

Taking my attention off others, I gave all of it to Kagome, who smiled softly to me in the dark back seat. She rocked a long sweater with tights and a pair of small sneakers. Another thing I liked about Kagome, she never tried hard but still managed to look adorable every time. Even in her uniform that was a hand-me-down and a size too small. A long braid over and down her shoulder and she was easy on the heart and eyes. 

“You made it.”

I grinned wide. “So did you.”

“Auntie about had a heart attack, Kikyo vouching for me and tugging me out the door with her.” 

She giggled and my heart thumped hard, happily. It felt fucking amazing making Kagome happy. “That made it worth it, didn’t it?”

Kagome shrugged and blushed heavily, making me wish I could read minds. 

“Kagome is going to be the DD if we get too wasted,” Kikyo called loud and clear from her throne. 

Glaring back at her, Kikyo smirked before slowly turning back to her boyfriend. The heavy linebacker and team captain of the football team didn’t intimidate me in the least. But Kikyo wanted me to be and I was sure I would never understand why. 

Kagome was staring, silently, out the window when I returned to ‘us’. No matter how many times I saw it, it still made my blood boil. And everyone knew about it; Kikyo had no shame in showing her disdain for her own blood. 

At first, it was all smiles and words under the breath. The girl with no family and no money showing up at our school? Kagome was the talk of the ‘first years’. And Kikyo enjoyed it until it got out they were related. That was when the cruelty started. Or, at least, the public cruelty. 

Sango never let Kagome’s background bother her, befriending her quickly just as she had me, another weirdo. At least I had my rich daddy to fall back on as well as a strong last name everyone knew. 

Kagome had nothing. 

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the guilt of shunning Kagome because her cousin told me to and I was a fucking lap puppy for Kikyo. The guilt or embarrassment. And it was all too easy for Kagome to forgive and forget, never letting anything get her down. Or stop her from caring about a person. I didn’t deserve her friendship but I still took it greedily. 

“I never got to tell you…” my attention was already on her and my ears perked up, finding her eyes in the reflection of the window, “I’m sorry.”

Confused, I shook my head a little to clear it. “What are you sorry for?”

Now she faced me but had her eyes on her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry for… showing up? That day, you were supposed to meet with Kikyo…”

I laughed and it caused her to jump up and look at me. “You mean the day she dumped me?” Kagome nodded slowly as if scared. “The day she dumped me and stood me up? When you came so I wasn’t alone? Are fucking shitting me? Why are you apologizing?!”

“I think…” her eyes flicked to the front but I didn’t dare take my eyes off of her, “I think she might have… gotten back with you if I hadn’t gone… but I didn’t want you to be alone, I didn’t… it wasn’t fair to you how she treated you and you deserve better…”

My hand on hers in her lap got her to stop. “You’re right, I do deserve better. And if she had offered to take me back, I might have been stupid enough to accept. So I’m glad you came.”

The softness of her face and eyes, it was palpable. “You’re sure?”

Oh god, was I. Kikyo dumping me was the best thing that ever happened to me. It woke me up, taking a long-ass nap in bitch land. I think it was sex. She was my first and I’ll never forget that. But it had me clinging to her because of some kind of made up attachment. 

Kikyo felt nothing for me. 

It was my last name that had attracted her. And I was attracted to her for her looks. The prettiest girl in school. Until freshman year started that is. 

But none of that mattered anymore; Kagome relaxing and giggling happily. My palms were sweating again at the sound. Add in the twinkle in her eyes and my heart was fucking doing laps. Maybe sitting in the back with her bitch of a cousin at the front was a bad idea?

We came to a stop and Sango bounced in. “The party’s here!”

“Where’s the booze you promised?” Miroku asked. 

Onigumo glanced at us in his rearview. “We have it all set up a few miles out of town.”

Miles outside of town? Where the fuck were we going tonight?

“Did Kikyo tell you? She says we’re playing something called Eleven Miles. Know what it is?”

I forgot about that and Kagome was already looking nervous. “No clue but I’m sure it’s fucking stupid.”

Kagome didn’t have a smartphone, so to reassure her, I got mine out and started searching. But then decided not to say anything after I got a look at what Kikyo had planned. 

“Yeah. It’s stupid.”

Kagome had short nerves. Something we all learned during the senior prank last year. They thought it would be funny to turn the school into a haunted house. I thought Kagome was going to pass out. Sango got her out of there unscathed but I was close to killing Hojo with his ghost costume, chasing Kagome around for a thrill. 

So no way in hell I was telling her what Eleven Miles was. Nothing was going to happen anyway; it would only freak her out to know. I still shot a glare Kikyo’s way. And she felt it, finding it and looking surprised. 

Instead, I scooted a little closer to Kagome and she passed me a smile before returning to watch the world outside her window. Miroku was already squeezing Sango tight to him but he spared a moment to look back and then throw me a wink. I spared a moment to punch the shit out of his shoulder. Little brat wined all the way to the ‘set up’. 

It was dark; the late fall sun setting an hour before we arrived. There was a table with drinks and a few lanterns burning. It looked like a cult ritual waiting to happen. We piled out of the car, I let Kagome go first for… my reasons and stood around awkwardly. All of this felt like it was a setup. Like there was more to this night than our ‘hosts’ were telling us. 

Sango looked about as at ease as me so she didn’t shy away from the booze. Miroku either. Kagome and I hung back; neither of us were ever drinkers. The few times I did, it was by force thanks to Kikyo. Kagome never got to go out so I assumed she would drink if given the chance. This wasn’t it though, Kikyo watching her cousin like a hawk, daring her to try for a drink. 

Kikyo and her boyfriend drank heavily and showed their bodies ’ resistance. Anyone else that drank as much as they did, in the short period we all stood there, would have at least struggled to walk. Kikyo had a small slur to her words but was otherwise fine. Onigumo acted like it was water.

Sneaking glances at Kagome beside me, I only gave a portion of my attention to the shit show before us. Sango started to get sloppy and Miroku got even more handsy. “You gonna drink?”

Wide and confused, Kagome’s beautiful browns crashed to me quickly. Then a flush spread on her cheeks as they wandered over my face. “I don’t think so. You?”

I had been slowly inching closer so now, taking my last inch, my shoulder touched hers. “Nah. So you’re safe if you want to.”

“Safe?”

Shrugging rubbed our shoulders together. I liked it cause she didn’t pull away. “Yeah, I’ll keep watch, keep you safe from… others.”

“And who will keep you safe?”

Her eyes were full of honesty, genuinely worried. But her pink lips twisted to the side as if implying something. This time, I took the bait. “You gonna jump me, Kagome? Cause I think I’d like that.”

Watching the blood spread across her face? Priceless. There was something truly beautiful about it. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I loved it. Even if it caused her to point her face towards her shoes. 

A red cup, almost matching the color of Kagome’s cheeks, appeared before our faces. Kikyo had a wry look on her face. It was the one she made when she was faking a smile. “Drink up. Both of you.”

“I thought you said…”

Kikyo cut Kagome off by shoving the drink into her hand. “Oni would never let you drive his car, get your head out of your ass, Kagome.”

“Hey!” I shouted before I could think, but I would have said it anyway. “Kagome is my date so cut the shit!”

The corners of Kikyo’s mouth went down while Kagome’s went up. They were both fighting it but were failing. “I just gave her a drink, asshole…”

Gently taking Kagome’s arm, I led us away from the bitch and closer to Sango. Miroku was hanging on her so they were a packaged deal. The glare Sango was shooting Kikyo told me she heard what was said and was ready to pounce. “What is all this anyway? Why are we in the middle of nowhere drinking in the dark?!”

“We thought it would set the mood.” Onigumo sneered. 

“For what?” 

I caught the rolling Kikyo’s eyes did as she looked Miroku’s way. Damn bitch. “For the game.”

“About that, I don’t want any part of some stupid witch-hunting game,” Sango warned. 

“It’s not a witch hunt! It’s just a drive…”

“And you get your wish granted at the end.”

Onigumo and Kikyo looked like a couple of twelve-year-old boys getting promised to see tits for the first time. They weren’t seriously dumb enough to think this shit was real, did they? 

I groaned but said nothing more. If there was one thing I knew about Kikyo, it was that once her mind was set, there was no changing it. The worst part was that we were stuck in the middle of it, so to speak. It was getting harder and harder not to regret this. One glance at Kagome, a chill from her nerves going up her spine and making her dance for a second, and I was calming back down. 

Her fear was permeating the air and even though I was pissed she was dragged into this, by me and Kikyo, I was more worried about her losing it. 

The only good thing about it all was having an excuse for wrapping my arm around her. A hand on her hip and she was giving me a flushed and confused look. I squeezed her and chuckled at the little skip her heart did. This was far better than her fear and I felt no shame in doing it to her. 

“God. Can we just get this over with then? I’d rather be in bed than doing this stupid game.” Miroku bitched. 

I was inclined to agree. Except for the part where Sango was in bed with me as that was implied by Miroku’s hand on her ass as he pushed them back towards the car. I pulled Kagome as well, keeping an arm around her. Kikyo sneered at all of us as we passed. Why the hell did she want us around? She didn’t care what we wanted and didn’t seem to enjoy our company at all. 

None of this felt right but with us, already out in the middle of nowhere it was keep going… or a long walk home, even for a demon, in the dark. 

Mile One…

Don’t use a large car or an open one like a motorcycle. The cover of night is important, sticking out too much would be very bad….

Kagome was in the back with me again, watching out the window. I assumed it was her nerves. Either being so close to me or the weird-ass game we were about to play. Or possibly a combination of the two. I knew she was at least attracted to me but I wasn’t sure if she was into me as I was into her. My demon senses didn’t tell me the difference. I had always told myself I could work with attraction. But after months of flirting this was the first time we had gone on anything close to a date. How much of that was Kagome’s choice and how much of it was her Cousin and Aunt keeping her busy, I didn’t know. With her now close to me and still putting distance, it was hard to believe she felt anything more for me than friendly attraction. 

Turning my attention to the road before us, I caught Kikyo watching us. Her eyes flicked away as soon as I caught her, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Whatever thoughts I had on that were interrupted by Sango reaching across her seat and grabbing Kagome’s shoulder. 

“You alright?”

I didn’t hide my interest, watching as Kagome worked out her response. Her eyes darted between me and Sango but she offered a weak smile. “I’m a little freaked out but I’ll be alright.”

She wasn’t lying. Embarrassed but still telling the truth. And her eyes lingered on me longer and longer after her admission. The back and forth of Sango’s eyes were seen in my peripheral. Maybe she saw something? It would explain the grin that grew on her face but she did that every time Kagome and I had a moment that she was there to witness. 

“You don’t need to worry. Inuyasha will protect you.”

Sango winked at me before turning back to her seat with Miroku. I turned from the two of them when Miroku took Sango back greedily, whispering things I wished I didn’t hear. Thank you demon hearing for that one.

Kagome wasn’t returning to her window, smiling sweetly at me so my palms began to sweat. “Is that true, Inuyasha? Will you protect me?”

Jesus. When she said shit like that. I knew she was just kidding around but damn it was bad for my heart. “Feh. Of course. Not that there’s anything to protect you from.”

Her smile faded, looking back out the window and I thought I had lost her again until she started whispering. “There’s something not right about this road.”

“What do you mean?”

I leaned over, looking out with her. My eyes were far better than hers, what with her a pure human. As expected, she didn’t squirm or push me away. There was no discomfort. There was also nothing but trees outside as we sped down the street. Well, not sped, Onigumo had us at a solid thirty-five MPH for some ungodly reason. This night was already going to last long enough.

A hard shiver ran through Kagome and I didn’t kid myself that it was because of me. “Cold?” She nodded and I growled at the front seats. “Hey Onigumo, what kind of piece of shit car is this? You can’t even keep the back seats warm?!”

He caught my glare in his rearview and I caught his sneer just before he leaned over and turned up the heat. Kagome’s hand found mine and she was like ice. “Thank you, Yasha.”

Oh shit, I loved it when she called me that. “Anytime, Ka-go-me.”

She smirked and I hoped it was due to the reminder. The first time we met I consistently said her name wrong. In a brazen show, she told me, “It’s KAH-GO-MAY you asshat!” I couldn’t control my attachment to her after that, having absolutely no fear or revulsion of me in the slightest. Most people took whatever I gave them and were thankful I didn’t do worse. And that had nothing to do with me and my track record, they all assumed I would do more than name call because I was a half breed. 

“Alright everyone, this is it! This is the road!”

Sango shifted, sitting closer to Onigumo’s seat. “What do you mean this is the road? I thought we just drove for eleven miles or something?”

“It has to be a particular road and mileage,” Kikyo answered mockingly. 

Miroku huffed, “then how the hell do you know this is it?!”

“Just a… feeling.”

She answered softly but Kikyo’s eyes flicked back and not at me. I glanced at Kagome who was stiff and trembling slightly. I took my jacket off and wrapped it around her without hesitation. Kagome smiled but it wasn’t as strong as her usual one. Whatever was going on, it was affecting Kagome somehow. 

And Kikyo was exploiting whatever that was to the fullest. 

Mile Two

To find the road you need to go at night when it will be the least populated. And you must do this alone. It won’t be on the map. It must be surrounded by woods and if you look for it, it will appear, as there will be hints….

“Can’t we go any faster?!!”

Now that we were ‘on the road’ Onigumo has slowed to a crawl. We were going about twenty miles per hour now. Kagome had stopped shivering but refused to look out the window now. Her arms crossed over her chest, she stared at the seat in front of us while I rubbed her knee. The fact that she didn’t blush like crazy showed me that she was too upset or messed up to care. And I was taking advantage but I didn’t care either. 

“You should all be looking. That’s the point. If we don’t see anything then it didn’t work.” Onigumo yelled. 

“This is bullshit.” Miroku sighed. “Just go faster so we can be done with this.”

Mile Three

Don’t use your phone….

“Does anyone else have any service?” Sango suddenly asked. 

I pulled out my phone and had a few bars but not much. “Here.”

She took my phone without question but then didn’t make a call. I couldn’t tell what she was doing but she didn’t put it up to her ear or anything. “Ug, fucking data is being so god damn slow!!!”

“What the hell are you doing?”

I move to sit up and lean over but Kagome’s hand flew to mine.  Still on top of her knee, she squeezed it so hard, if I were human, it would have hurt. 

My mouth parted to speak but one look at her had me shutting my mouth tight. Her eyes were wide and still staring at the seat before us. And she was breathing hard, shuddering breaths that sounded painful, like her whole body was so tense it hurt to breathe. 

“Kagome? What’s wrong?”

She said nothing. She didn’t move. Kagome was thoroughly freaked out. 

Removing my hand from her clutch was no easy task. For a human, she was surprisingly strong when scared but I did it and her breathing only quickened until I wrapped an arm around her to pull her into me. Practically in my lap, I glared at the two asshats in the front seats. They were busy looking out the windows. Onigumo too and the car slowed even more from it. 

At the moment, I was calm and quiet. Even with the girl in my arms that was shaking harder than a leaf in a storm. The others in the car couldn’t smell it; I was the only demon if just half. But I was sure, the air was thick with it. 

And you never forget the smell of death once you’ve experienced it. 

There was movement outside. I don’t know how Kagome knew it because they were hard even for me to see. But she must have seen them or something and it was the cause of her petrified state.

And with the grins on Kikyo and Onigumo’s faces, glancing back at Kagome as some kind confirmation, I knew they were holding back on some important information. “Alright, someone wanna tell me what the fuck is going on??!!”

“SHHHHH!!” My glare went to Sango but then I saw the blood drain from her face. “Do you hear that?”

Everyone was silent. I flicked my ears around, trying to hear but I heard nothing. But Kagome. She began to claw at my shirt and dig into my arms. Now hiding, I covered her as much as possible with my arms and body. If hiding helped her then that’s what I would do. 

“Oh my god…”

I’d been focused on Kagome. Her heart at a dangerous speed. With Kikyo’s exclamation, all I wanted to do was throw my shoe at the back of her head. Because screaming out like that didn’t help at all. But pulling my focus caused me to notice what was around us. And what was around us, didn’t make sense. 

Because the woods were completely gone. 

Mile Five

Don’t turn open the windows or leave your car….

It was like we had missed the road and driven into the middle of a field, no trees around at all. Not even behind us. 

I was struggling to take a good look around while holding onto Kagome. She didn’t look; she was barely breathing. And then they stopped the goddamn car. 

“What the hell? Why are we stopping???!”

Onigumo already had his door open. “Gotta piss.”

The growl I released was ignored. But of course, Onigumo and Kikyo didn’t give a shit about how freaked Kagome was. Sango turned to help me with her while Miroku scooted to the door. “I gotta go too.”

Sango called after him but he ignored all her warnings. The call of nature was stronger than his fear. 

The three of us were quiet. So much, I forgot all about Kikyo until she spoke, remembering there were four in the car. “She’s just being overly dramatic as usual.”

The venom in Kikyo’s voice was more than enough to push me and Sango over the edge. And Sango beat me to a response. “The only one here that is overly anything is you, Kikyo, and you know it.”

It was so quiet, I could hear the roll of Kikyo’s eyes. Sango huffed but turned back to us, Kagome still in my hold. Her hot and slow breaths were fogging up my chest but I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. At least she was starting to calm, her heart at a much safer speed than before. 

Like a little bunny, Kagome slowly came out of hiding and stared out the window past Sango. “Kagome?”

The driver’s door opened and slammed shut, rocking the car. “Wooo it’s cold out there!”

At some point, Kikyo had turned on the radio, soft notes playing all around us. I wasn’t in the mood in the slightest. 

“Where’s Miroku?”

Sango turned and looked to Onigumo, who shrugged. “No clue. We didn’t cross streams!”

I looked out, searching. There were no trees. Not a fucking one. And the lake looked more like a mirror, reflecting the full moon and stars above. With plenty of light and nothing obscuring our sight, it should have been easy to spot anyone. Demon or not. 

But there was no one near or around the car at all.

I wasn’t paying attention to the radio but suddenly, it cut out and turned to static. Then increased in volume until deafening. The white noise was making my brain hurt, pressing my ears to my skull as hard as I could. When that didn’t work, I covered them, allowing myself to let go of Kagome to try and lessen the pain.

She held on tight to my shirt but didn’t seem to mind the overpowering sound. It had nothing to do with being a demon because everyone in the car was buckled over from the noise. But Kagome? She sat up straight and still… and listened.

“TURN IT OFF!!!”

I was too busy curling into a ball but Sango’s scream made it over the noise and Onigumo slapped his hand to the audio power button. The ringing in my ears was slow to diminish but once it did, I released my head and wrapped my arms around Kagome again. Her cheeks were red and chapped with tears and she was sobbing softly. It was hard to miss, the salt covering any other scent for me, even the smell of death that had yet to go away. 

Dragging her into me, I gave her a small shake to wake her out of the shocked mentality she was stuck in. “Kagome, what’s wrong?!”

A few pounding heartbeats and sobs later, her eyes finally met mine. I could see the fear within them, it was screaming back at me. “They took him…”

Sango was listening now, turning back to us again. “Who took who?!”

“They...they took Miroku.”

“Who the fuck is they?!” Sango screamed. She didn’t wait for an answer; her hand on the handle before I could clear my head of just what Kagome was saying. “Fuck this, I’m going to look for him.”

The sound of the locks clicking into place was deafening and we all looked to the front. Kikyo still had her hand on the control when she slowly turned to us. “No one is going anywhere. We need to finish this.”

“What? You want us to keep driving are you fucking mad??”

She turned her glare to me, looking at me like I was fucking stupid. “Miroku is fine. Once we finish, we’ll go back for him.”

It wasn’t up for debate as Onigumo began to pull away. Sango’s screams were ignored and with me in the back seat, there was little I could do as we got back up to speed. Other than keeping Kagome as close as possible to me. 

Her forehead touched my neck, skin on skin, and I would have been a fucking teenage virgin about it if she wasn’t ice cold. “Shit, Kagome, you’re freezing!!”

Wrapped up tight, my coat wasn’t doing a damn thing for her. My hot demon blood kept me toasty 24/7 but even pressed against my heat, she was still shivering. Sango leaned back over her seat to us, checking and feeling Kagome. It was a needed distraction; tears still rolling down her cheeks from losing Miroku. “This can’t be good for her. It’s the damn prank night all over again.”

“This is fucking worse than that!”

Sango looked over her shoulder to the front again. “We need to get Kagome to a hospital.”

“No, we need her to stay right here. She is our beacon.” Onigumo said in the creepiest voice I had ever heard come out of him.

“Your.. beacon? To what?”

Sango asked but none of us wanted the answer. We needed to know how deep this shit went but we didn’t want to know. Kikyo slapped Onigumo’s shoulder in reprimand but answered our question anyway. “Beacon to.. this! All of it! We would have had no clue what road to take if it wasn’t for her.”

“What the hell does that mean!!!” I growled. 

But then the light cut away casting us into complete darkness.

Mile Six

Don’t touch the radio….

The trees had returned but it took the moon and starlight with it. As soon as we entered it, I could feel it. My demon was draining away. 

We had entered a moonless night somehow and I was becoming human.  

Sango’s eyes were wide at the sight of it. I had told them all about my human nights but I had never told Kikyo or Onigumo. Kikyo’s gray eyes looked at me fiercely and a smile grew on her face, making my skin crawl. 

This night was darker than usual. No moon and no stars, it made it impossible to see around us with my weak human eyes. Onigumo had headlights but seeing past them was difficult at best. 

The goddamn radio turned back on and no one touched it this time. Kagome rocked against me until I rocked with her. With it at a lower level, I could focus on the sounds instead of the skull piercing noise.

“Give… sss…. tooo… her….” out of nowhere, the static cut out, and it was clear, “INUYASHA, GIVE HER TO US!!!!”

Kagome pushed against me hard, her palms against my ribs. If I hadn’t been holding her so tight, she might have actually gotten free. “What the fuck?!”

“This isn’t funny, guys. Cut it out!”

Onigumo and Kikyo ignored me and Sango, continuing slowly down the road. Kagome was still pushing against my hold but I refused to let her go. “Kagome stop, I’m not letting you go.”

“You need to stay away from me, Inuyasha.”

There was nothing but sadness in her tone and I really didn’t get it. She was sad and afraid; why would she want to push any friend away? Was it because I was a demon? Kagome had never said or done anything to make me think she felt that way, like so many others, did about me. 

Was it whatever was out there, messing with us? Did she think I had something to do with it? It was my name coming out of the radio, a trick that was easy to do with a Bluetooth connection and a recorder on your phone. I don’t know how they got the smell of death to fill the car but I guess they could have put a dead animal under the hood of the car. If Onigumo would allow it. With him flaunting his money all the time he probably just considered buying a new car after this trick. Especially if Kikyo talked him into all of this. 

And it wouldn’t be the first time she had talked me into something either, convincing me to be cruel to Kagome when we first met. 

I wasn’t sure I could blame her, thinking I was somehow involved. I did ask her here and Kikyo folded so easily. So I yanked her back the tiny distance she had gotten away from me while I considered her wishes. Her eyes went wide, a little bit of green in her honey irises that made my heart skip a beat. “Shut the fuck up. I’m exactly where I want to be. Where I need to be.”

Some of her color came back to her face for a moment, a few errant tears sliding slowly down her cheeks. “Yasha…. it’s… it’s not what you think. It’s not safe…”

I couldn’t stand it; she was terrified and yet speaking about my safety? Kissing the tip of her nose got her to shut up and a warm fever to take over my skin from it. 

Damn weak human emotions. 

This was all some stupid prank anyway and I was going to beat the shit out of those responsible once we got the hell out of this car. 

We were still rolling on, surrounded by black woods. I couldn’t explain the lack of moon and stars. That was the only thing I couldn’t understand, how the hell they pulled it off?! How the hell did they make me human??

I was still trying to look out and see something in the darkness and felt a small tugging on my hair. Searching out the source, I found Kagome, playing with a few of my black strands. She had never seen me like this. No one had. Then she pushed back my hair until she found my ear, now on the side of my head and human. Gripping it, she checked to see if it was real I guess, before looking up at me with a small smile. 

“I’m sorry, Yasha. I know you hate being like this.”

Like it was her fault? I pulled her into my side, wrapping an arm around her tight and turning us so we looked ahead. Because if she kept looking at me and speaking to me like that, I was liable to take advantage. Something told me, she wouldn’t push me away if I offered her comfort in the form of my tongue in her mouth. Even if she wasn’t that into me. 

Mile Seven

Ignore the figures you see outside your car….

It hadn’t been long, Kagome and I calm in the backseat together when it all went to hell. 

First, Kagome stiffened in my hold, her shoulders becoming ridged. I took my attention away from the road for a moment to calm her down and Sango screamed. Making us both jump. 

“Stop! Stop the car!!”

I didn’t let go of Kagome in the slightest but I still sat up and tried to pull Sango back down to her seat. “Are you crazy?! We need to get this over with!!”

“I saw him!” She cried. “I saw Miroku; stop the car!!”

Turning, I looked behind us, keeping my arm around Kagome so I was turned into her. No longer a demon, I couldn’t hear her heart. But with my face inches from hers, I could easily feel the shallow breaths she was taking. “Kagome?”

She shook her whole body but mostly her head, at me. “That’s not Miroku.” She whispered. 

A glance and I couldn’t see anything anyway. Cupping her cheek, I gently pulled Kagome’s face towards mine. “Who is it, Kagome?”

Her eyes danced around my face. The breaths that puffed across my cheeks were cold; it made my fear spike for the girl in my arms. “I don’t know. But it’s not Miroku.”

Something crawled up my back to my neck and whispered. “Let go…”

My neck popped I turned so hard and fast. But there was nothing. Kagome’s hand grabbed mine on her face and I turned back to her, already feeling her tears on my fingers. She said nothing though, silently crying. 

Sango was still fighting with Onigumo, trying to get him to stop. At least he wasn’t a complete idiot. Or so I thought, feeling the car being to slow. 

“What are you doing?! Don’t stop the car you fuckers!!”

Sango whipped around to glare at me and only softened a little at the sight of Kagome so broken. “We need to get Miroku…”

“That ain’t Miroku!!!!”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re stopping, like it or not.” Kikyo declared. 

I was ready to wail in both of them but Onigumo turned off the car. “It’s dead. The car is dead; we have no choice but to stop.”

Mile Eight

If the car stalls, just be patient and try again in a few minutes. Don’t leave the car and whatever you do, don’t listen to the voices you hear….

“This is bullshit. Start the damn car you assholes!”

Onigumo passed me a look, then showed me his hand as he tried to crank the car. It didn’t even turn over; not making a single sound as he twisted the key in the ignition. 

Sango went for her door again but Onigumo still had it locked. “Let me out; I’m going back for Miroku.”

I was shaking my head at her but soon heard the click of the locks. Kagome got up too, as soon as Sango opened her door. “We should go with her.”

My breath was caught somewhere between my chest and my throat. Kagome was a ball of anxiety but still wanted to face it all for the sake of her friends. I wanted to go look for Miroku too. And get out of this car as it slowly made its way to hell. 

Taking her hand firmly in mine, we crawled over the seat and out the door. I spared Kikyo a glance. Her lips set in a hard line, she was stoic and I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing considering. 

Sango had a head start on us and we had lost her to the darkness. Kagome’s hand was in the death grip of mine and that brought me some comfort. While my palm was sweating, hers was ice cold. Made worse by the strange fridge temperature outside the damn car. It was late, checking my watch to see we were in the early hours of the morning now. That wasn’t the cause of the lack of stars or moon; sunrise was still hours away. 

The white puffs of hot air as they expelled from our mouths nearly glowed even without light reflecting on it. It made me wonder if the moon and stars were still there but, for some reason, we couldn’t see them? 

Kagome shook so hard, my arm was going numb from her shiver crawling up my shoulder. She still stepped up beside me and called out as if not terrified and freezing. “Miroku!!”

“We’re gonna have to walk a ways back for him to be in earshot, I think.”

I knew we had traveled a distance down the road but I had no clue just how far we had left Miroku behind. It was at least a mile. 

“Miroku!!!” Kagome still yelled.

Sango was probably doing the same thing. Wait…. “Where’s Sango?” 

Sure it was dark but she would be screaming her lungs off, looking for Miroku right now. No way in hell we wouldn’t hear her; the forest was dark and silent like a grave. 

Just as I pulled Kagome into my side, a loud pop came from behind. I spun us both, putting Kagome behind me simultaneously in a manner I could only explain as instinct. My body was screaming to protect Kagome and get her the hell out of here. 

Without my claws, I was left with my fists, holding them up at the ready and in defense. Crawling out of the darkness, Kikyo peered at the two of us and frowned. “You need to get back to the car. Now.”

“The car is a piece of shit! And we want to find Miroku. You know? Our friend that you and Onigumo left behind!!”

She waved a hand at me as if to wipe my words from the air. “Miroku is fine…”

“You don’t know that,” Kagome whispered.

As much as I liked her standing up to her cousin, I didn’t like the darkness in her tone. Because it wasn’t about Kikyo; it was about Miroku and whatever the hell happened to him. It had me grabbing Kagome and pulling her with me. “Fine, we’ll go back to the car.”

Kikyo stopped us, putting a hand on my chest as I tried to pass. “Not Kagome. Just you.”

“Excuse me?” I glared down at Kikyo but she kept her eyes locked on Kagome. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“She is! I want her gone!”

Shoving Kagome behind me again, I squared up to the bitch. “She has done nothing to you. You need to stop this, Kikyo. It’s just pathetic now.”

Now she tore her gaze from Kagome, tears covering her cheeks as she grimaced up at me. “Everything is her fault. She’s the one going to college and using my funds to do it!”

“What are you talking about?” Kagome whispered.

“I didn’t get in. Anywhere. So now Mom is going to take my college fund and add it to yours. All so you can go to your damn fancy as fuck university. And I’ll stay here to rot.”

This was what it had always been about. Jealousy. So I gently grabbed Kagome again and pulled her away. “That’s your own fault. Too busy parties and being a bitch when you should have been studying your ass off like Kagome. Nothing was handed to her and you know it so shut your fucking mouth and get out of our way.”

Pushing her ahead of me, I just wanted to get Kagome far away from her fucked up family. But Kikyo grabbed me and I couldn’t let Kagome walk in this dark and fucked up forest alone. “I want you back, Inuyasha.”

Ripping from her claws, I snarled at her. “You just want me because I want someone else!”

“HER??!! Why her?!! She’s nothing! A piece of shit orphan with nothing better to do than leech off me and my family. Even my boyfriend!”

“Ex! Ex-boyfriend. You dumped me, remember?”

“Because of the way you looked at HER!” My eyes went from Kikyo to Kagome and then to the leaf-covered ground. “You can’t even deny it. You’ve been into her ever since you met her. Even while you were fucking me…”

“Shut up!” I couldn’t take any more of this and I really didn’t want Kagome hearing anymore. “You don’t know shit about me and you never did.”

Kikyo sneered, her eyes dancing from me to the one behind me, Kagome tugging on my hold to get away. But I refused to let her go. “Inuyasha… we should go…”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Spinning, I pushed Kagome along and held her elbow tight to keep her off the ground when she tripped. I couldn’t see shit but she was a walking shit storm when it came to NOT tripping on things. Kikyo released a strangled cry like she was shocked we were leaving and I had to force Kagome to keep moving forward. 

“Yash…”

Shit, I hated it when Kikyo called me that. It made me so pissed, I didn’t think, I just glared back. But something was wrong, the angled position of Kikyo’s head? It was as if she was being pulled back by her chin. Looking down, I saw her feet were barely touching the ground, on her tiptoes with the tips of her shoes grazing the leaves. 

Her eyes were wide and on me, her mouth struggling to open. “Give them… her… now.”

My brain spun, glancing back at Kagome to find her horrified and shaking. And then she took a step.

A hand on her chest, I didn’t give a shit about the proximity to her breasts. She wasn’t going anywhere near Kikyo no matter what the hell was going on. “Fuck off!”

“Give them… Kagome… please!!!” Kikyo whined.

I had to hold Kagome back again, this time wrapping her up in my arms as she fought against me. “Stop it! This is stupid!!”

It wasn’t a scream, it was a gurgle, looking back to Kikyo as a red line appeared. It drew across her neck just below her apple. And then it grew, blood spilling from it while Kikyo sputtered. 

Her body fell to the ground and she didn’t move. Kagome wanted to move, but I wouldn’t allow it. Either this was a fucked up prank or something else. Either way, Kagome didn’t need to be anywhere near it.

This time, I picked her up, lifting her into my arms kicking and screaming. At first, she screamed to go back then she just wept. God damn Kikyo was going to scar Kagome for life with this bull shit.

No one was in the car and I prayed the keys were in the ignition. With Onigumo gone, no sign of Sango, and Miroku still missing, I had to assume they were all in on it. I had Kagome tossed into the back seat when a body flew into my back. Fucking human senses, not only did I not hear Sango walk up behind but I actually jumped when she touched me. 

“Goddammit, Sango!!”

She was shaking, hard, and her hands were covered in blood. “I’m sorry, I… I… I saw… that is I found… Kikyo, it was Kikyo…”

I grabbed her. In part cause, she was about to pass out but also to shut her up before she freaked Kagome out even more. “We know, we saw.” Sango tried to climb in the car but I stopped her, pushing her back. “Tell me you had nothing to do with this?!”

Her mouth cracked in a sob. “How.. how could you think that?!”

Shoving on my hold, I felt more guilt than usual. Fucking human emotions! “Miroku is conveniently missing and Kikyo is off playing fucking ghosts. I don’t even know what the fuck Onigumo is doing right now and I don’t care.” Now the tears, Sango was pissed and crying. I sighed heavily and released my hold on her. “Just tell me you have nothing to do with this and I’ll believe you.”

She released a shuddering breath right into my face. “I have nothing to do with this.” I released her and she shuddered, “how could I be. Look at yourself? How could someone make you human?!”

I shrugged, “to be honest, there’s a lot about being a half-demon that even I don’t understand yet. And maybe tonight is a new moon and I forgot…”

“We already had a new moon. Two weeks ago…”

“I remember but maybe it’s like a blue moon or something?! I don’t know! All I know is Kikyo and Onigumo are fucking around and I’m pissed!”

Sango rolled her eyes at me but then hopped in the car, going straight to Kagome. I watched for a moment as Sango wrapped herself around Kagome. I wasn’t sure if she did it to comfort herself, Kagome, or both, but Kagome looked like she wanted nothing to do with it. That was odd in itself; Kagome was always open to affection from her friends. Even from me. 

Something to figure out later; Going to the driver seat so we could get the fuck out of here. “What are you doing?”

I glanced at Sango in the rearview, her eyes wild with fear. “Getting out of here.”

“We can’t leave Miroku and Onigumo.”

I could tell, even without my demon senses, Sango felt more worried about Miroku than Onigumo. And I had to agree, I really didn’t want to leave Miroku either. “Fine. Then let’s go back and look for Miroku.” My hand went to the ignition and found it empty. “Shit, fucking, asshole!!!”

“What?!!”

Now both Kagome and Sango were staring back at me in the reflection of the mirror, eyes impossibly wide with fear. “Nothing… the keys are missing.”

“Dammit, Onigumo must have them that prick.”

I started searching the darkness, looking for signs of the bastard. He was out there, I could see things moving. Looks like he brought some friends with him. Although who would be crazy enough to stand out in the cold dark woods for hours just to fuck with us, I didn’t know. Onigumo must have hired people or something. He was dumb enough to spend his money on something like that. 

Whoever it was, it was more than just Onigumo. He couldn’t move that fast or be in two places at once. And I was sure I was seeing more than one person as three figures moved simultaneously in different spots. 

Now, more than ever, I was sure this was a damn prank.

Which meant Miroku was being held by them somewhere. Against his will probably; Mirkou was stupid, but not crazy. He knew better than to mess with Kagome like this and he hated the woods at night. 

Something slammed into my door and the girls screamed. I jumped as well (fucking human body) and turned to find hands and a face pressed against the glass, covered in blood. 

“LET ME IN!!!”

It took me a second to clear my head and unlock the doors. Onigumo climbed in the back seat, panting and groaning. “What the hell man?!”

Sango was weeping and Kagome pushed her back, climbing over the seat to sit near Onigumo. She was propping him up, trying to get a look at whatever wounds he had. While Onigumo looked around wildly. “We need to go.”

“Go?! We can’t just leave… what about Kikyo? Miroku?!” Sango screamed.

“She’s dead. Miroku is probably dead too.”

Turning I glared back at him, “that’s not fucking funny.”

“I’m not kidding!!” He shoved the keys into my face, “just fucking drive asshole!!”

Onigumo was still playing the game hard. If I wanted to get all of us out of this stupid night, I would have to drive. Miroku and Kikyo would be waiting at the end of this so the sooner I got us there, the better.

The car started without issue and I caught Sango’s stare in the rearview mirror again. Some of her fear depleted, starting to see the con that was going on. Kagome was still shaking. But then again, she was currently getting her hands covered in blood. 

“Just forget about him, Kagome.” I put the car in drive and hit the gas hard. “This is all bullshit anyway.”

Mile Ten

Don’t drive too fast, or you’ll miss all the fun...

I wasn’t sure but we had to be getting to the end of this soon. It was only supposed to be eleven miles! I was going fifty but we were still in the endless night of the forest. No stars, no moon, and no end.

“What the fuck, is this a loop or something?!”

We had been in a straight line the entire time, no turns at all, but it felt like we were going in circles. Kagome was still messing with Onigumo, pulling carefully at his coat and then going for his shirt, trying to find his wounds. 

“I told you not to worry about the fucker, Kagome.”

The jealousy I had was unjustified but as a human, I had little to no control over it. I was pretty sure it was clear on my face and tone but Kagome ignored it. “There’s… there’s a lot of… blood. We need to… stop it and get to a… hospital.”

Even terrified to the point of witless, Kagome thought of others first. It made my heart swell and hurt a lot. 

But also it had me not watching the road.

“INUYASHA WATCH OUT!!!!”

Sango was screaming from the back and I looked to the front; a person standing in the middle of the road. Braking was pointless but I tried, slamming hard into the body of the bystander. The sickening thud of them hitting the hood and then the roof as their body went over us made us all pale. It felt like a lifetime passed before the car finally stopped, not thinking about anything else as I ripped open the door and ran around the car. 

But I didn’t understand, staring at the now dirt road, and trying to get my mind wrapped around what it was seeing. Sango managed to join me while I tumbled my brain around. She gasped and looked really hard too.

The road was empty, no body or blood.

There was no doubt, we had hit someone. I felt the car jerk from the hit. But there was no body! Running around, I went to the front of the car. Sure enough, there was a dent in the front that was easily body size. Something moved to my left, hidden by darkness and trees. I was tired of all this shit so I went after it. “Alright assholes. Come out here and face me!”

The pussies remained hidden and silent but I knew they were there. 

“I know Onigumo put you up to this. If you come out now and cut the shit, I’ll go easy on you.”

Nothing.

That is until some screams came from behind. They were coming from where I left the car. “Kagome.”

I breathed out her name out of fear. Now I had it in spades. I had left her alone and I had promised to protect her in all of this. It might be a prank but these fuckers didn’t know when to quit. They were going to scar Kagome for life and mess her up good. 

God damn Onigumo and Kikyo. I was going to tear them both to PIECES for this!!!

The car was empty when I got back to it. I’d been gone maybe five minutes; they couldn’t have gotten far. But I had no clue which way to go!

There was movement on the ground, something in the tall grass of the abandoned road. The early morning dew was freezing, seeping through my jeans. But I still rushed to the movement, finding Sango rolling and coiling in pain. She let me help her to her feet, staggering and struggling on her feet while her face began to swell. I knew what happened without a word from her, standing her up as straight as I could to look her in the eyes.

“Which way did he take her?”

She pointed then sobbed. “She was checking him over and couldn’t find a wound. Then he said, it wasn’t his blood. Who’s blood is it, Inuyasha??!!”

I knew what she was thinking and I was thinking about it too. That it was Miroku’s and that he wasn’t with us because Onigumo and Kikyo had done something very bad to him. “It’s fake, Sango. None of this is real…”

“But you’re a human?!”

I didn’t have time for this; I had to get Kagome away from these freaks. “Get in the car and don’t move. Sango? Don’t fucking leave the car for anything, understand?”

“But…”

“Nothing! I will be back with Kagome and we’ll get out of here. Try calling the cops or something.”

She pulled out her phone as she ran. I did the same and had no signal. So instead, I used the flashlight and ran towards the blackness. It was where Kagome was so I had no choice.

Mile Eleven

Don’t leave your car!!!!

I was out of breath; my lungs screaming at me. If I wasn’t a fucking human… but I couldn’t stop, I still hadn’t caught so much as a glance of Kagome yet. The flashlight of my phone wasn’t helping either. I was far too used to my demon sight; this flashlight was bull shit.

But I had nothing else so I kept using it like a dick and searching the woods. They were endless. We had to be close to a house or a town. This place wasn’t that big or remote!!! 

Nearly tripping on a root, I growled and cursed as loudly as possible, “Onigumo, where are you, you fucker?! I’m going to rip you in half!!!”

“Inuy….”

I heard her. She was cut off and that made my blood boil but Kagome and called out to me. The amount of panic in her voice pained my heart. Kagome had been scared when we went through the Senior prank. Her face was ashen and she was close to tears. 

This was nothing like that.

It no longer mattered that I was tired or blind, I ran, pushing my legs so hard into the dirt, it flew up behind me. I could hear it falling back to the leaf-covered ground like ice from a tree, crashing over the sound of my hard breaths. Nothing was going to keep me from Kagome, not the endless night or the cramp in my side. 

I saw it just in time to know what it was, a fist aimed for my nose and hitting right on the mark. It had been a while since I’d been hit like this while human. It still stung when I was a demon but at least it didn’t break my fucking nose. 

I pinched my bridge and glared up at Onigumo, Kagome weeping in his hold. “Let her go, fuck face.”

“We need her.”

No longer caring about the blood dripping down my face, I dropped my hand and stepped closer to the hostage situation. “Wrong. I need her. And I will be leaving with her now.”

“Inuyasha…”

Kagome was trying to speak but the mother fucker cut her off, squeezing her neck a little tighter with the arm around his neck. “Let her go dammit! This isn’t funny!!”

“We were supposed… we were supposed to do this together,” Onigumo muttered.

“What the fuck are you talking about?! I never wanted to do shit with you!”

“Not you!” He roared, swinging Kagome around and making my knuckles pop with how hard I clenched them. “Kikyo. We were supposed to take Kagome out here together… but she’s dead.”

“Cut the shit!!”

“I’m not lying! She’s dead Inuyasha!!”

“Then you killed her! We didn’t do anything to any of you assholes!”

Onigumo’s face slowly went slack as the truth bled through his thick skull. “You’re right… I killed her… it’s my fault.”

His hold loosened on Kagome so I lurched for her, wrenching her free and shoving him back hard. He fell on his ass and did not attempt to get up. “Kikyo said, it would work if we brought her.”

“What the hell?!” I spat, rolling Kagome up in my hold. 

She grabbed onto me hard, shaking, and sobbing. I was trying to decide if I could manage to set her aside for a moment to stomp the shit out of Onigumo but I was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happen. Kagome was far too freaked. 

“Kagome… we needed her for this to work. Kikyo promised me it would work…”

Onigumo got to his feet and Kagome pushed on my hold. Hard. “Inuyasha, run.”

She was still pushing like she wanted me to let go and run without her. “What?!”

“Leave me and go. Now!!”

Kagome had stopped pushing and started hitting, going for my shoulders, arms, hands, sides, and then my face, smacking my nose gently but with the hit it took moments ago, she might as well have punched me. “FUCK!”

She choked on a sob and I managed to keep one hand on her. Even with her clawing at it. “Let go!!”

“Fuck that!!”

Suddenly, I was very aware of Onigumo, standing on his own two feet but just not quite right. “Please...please…”

We were silent, Onigumo begging us when we weren’t anywhere near him. “Dude.. what’s your problem?”

Kagome gripped my wrist with her nails and tried again to get free. I was too invested in Onigumo now, watching his every move. A tear fell down his cheek and my stomach dropped to my toes. I couldn’t smell, taste, or hear it but I knew there was someone else here. Something else. 

Stiffening, Onigumo got unnaturally straight, like he was trying not to be touched. “I gave you Miroku! And you took Kikyo!!”

“What the hell does that mean?” I growled. “You gave them Miroku?!”

He ignored me and continued to whimper to the air. “She’s… she’s right there, just take her.”

“Please, don’t hurt anyone else! I’ll go with you!!” Kagome shouted and tried to step closer to Onigumo.

I shut it down, yanking her kicking and screaming back into my arms. “Stop it!”

Focused on Kagome and lifting her to carry her away, I was confused by the whimper that came from Onigumo. I ignored it until I heard a strange gurgle come from him. It was stupid, blame the human half, but I turned back to look only slap a hand over Kagome’s eyes far too late. 

Just like Kikyo, a long red line was being drawn on Onigumo, starting at his belly button. I had Kagome’s sight covered tight but not my own; I was only able to sew my eyes shut just as Onigumo’s intestines hit the ground. 

I forced my eyes back open, needing to know just what the fuck we were up against, only to find Onigumo still standing with his guts on the dirt. Steam rose gently from them and blood dripped out of Onigumo’s lips but he remained standing like it was any other day. 

It had to be some kind of trick? Something I was less sure of when Onigumo bent over and started shoveling his inners back inside himself. His bones cracked and his muscles shook when he moved, looking forced. He got himself back together and closed up his jacket. 

Then smiled.

At some point, I had dropped the ball, no longer covering Kagome’s eyes. And now those eyes were staring straight into mine, blocking all of the world out with honey-colored irises. “Inuyasha… they want me, not you.”

“Wha… what are you talking about?”

“If you go now and leave me behind, they’ll let you live.”

Anger swelled in me so fast, it made my head spin. I grabbed her hard, harder than I should have but I was losing control. “Leave you behind? For who and what, Kagome?!”

A sad smile was on her face, a tear slipping silently down her cheek. “Demons. They’ve been after me for a while now. Ever since they killed my family. I ran then but I’m not going to run this time. It’s… it’s my fate, Inuyasha.”

Pulling from her magnet eyes, I glanced at the man formerly known as Onigumo. He was a suit now; something else wearing him and smiling back at us. Then I looked back at Kagome, who was calm and resigned. She was a girl I knew, one I liked. A lot. I liked Kagome a lot and the main reason for that was shit like this. She was sacrificing herself for me and Sango. Her friends, people she cared about. We were nothing, just two kids, the same age as Kagome, and yet here she was acting beyond her years.

Accepting death.

It was what she wanted. Kagome wanted me to leave and let her face her demons alone. That was the smart thing to do. The right thing in her mind. So I would do the right thing for her. “No.” She looked surprised and I tried not to be offended by that, “I’m not fucking going anywhere. Not without you.”

We were probably going to die so what difference would it make, grabbing her face and crushing her mouth to mine. It felt right, especially when she grabbed my elbow tight and didn’t push me away. If I was a demon, I could have kissed her for a lot longer. Forever maybe. But I needed air so I pulled back, resting my forehead against hers while we caught our breath. It was the clapping that had me returning to reality, spinning Kagome so she was behind me. 

The Onigumo suit was giving us a slow clap, his arms jerking apart only to slap his hands back together in a sickening show. “We are surprised by you, Inuyasha.”

“We?”

The thought that I was talking to a corpse flashed in my brain but seemed pointless to worry about now. “Yeeeessss, WE.” I was looking around and pulling Kagome closer, looking for the ‘we’ it was speaking of when it laughed. “We are right here, Inuyasha.”

The suit gestured to itself and I just had to ask. “Who the hell are you?!”

“We are many… we took this form just for her…” it pointed and Kagome whimpered, “we have many names as there are so many of us… but you may call us… Naraku.”

“Naraku? What the fuck kind of name is that?!” 

I was pissed. Pissed that I was still fucking human and that Kagome was seconds from giving herself over to this creature. She kept pulling on me and trying to go around me but I wasn’t having it. 

Naraku laughed, “It is just our name; take it or leave it. But you will be leaving Kagome with us.”

“Fuck off.”

“Onigumo and Kikyo thought they could control us, the fools,” it smirked and Kagome shivered hard, “even tainted, we ate them anyway just like Kagome’s mother, father, and little brother…”

“You’re a monster!” Kagome screamed.

Now I had her in my arms again, this time to keep her from… I’m not sure what she was going to do, run at the monster or fall to pieces. I never heard what happened to Kagome’s family, only that Kikyo and her mom took her in after they were gone. Shit, I didn’t even know she had a brother!

Naraku now looked pissed, Kagome in my arms instead of theirs. It only made me hold her tighter. “You can’t have her. She’s mine.”

Its head went back in a laugh, howling at the moonless sky above. “What can you do, Hanyou? You are nothing compared to us!!”

Roaring, Naraku rushed us. I spun, curling around Kagome to protect her. I felt the claws in my skin, digging in deep, and fuck did it hurt. This was by far the most damage my human body had ever received and I wasn’t used to the pain from it. I was close to passing out which wasn’t good, not at all. 

Blood was trickling down my sides and pain radiated all over to the point, I wasn’t sure if my back or my ribs were what was cut. Either way, life was draining from me and I struggled to breathe.

Kagome was sobbing, clutching my face in her hands. I had my eyes clenched shut against the pain but I could hear and feel her, shaking under me. She pulled me, pressing her forehead to mine like we had moments ago and whispered. “Please… don’t die for me. Inuyasha I couldn’t take losing you too.”

I was dying. The girl beneath would die right after me. And there was a demon fucking laughing behind us while we cowered in our mortality. 

Fucking pissed me the hell off.

I could feel it and I couldn’t stop it. It was for the best anyway. No part of me liked Kagome seeing this side of me but it was either this or death.

Grabbing her close, I yanked her off the ground and stood tall. I could feel my wounds slowly knitting together as my demon blood took over completely. My fangs grew, pushing against my lips and hanging out of my mouth and the tips of my fingers ached from the fast growth of my claws. 

“About time you showed up,” I told the damn demon.

“Of course, like I’d let us die.” He barked back in my head.

“Listen, we need to save Kagome. So no stupid shit, alright?”

He scoffed, “I’m not going to do anything but save both your asses.”

It was weird, the demon agreeing with me, but I would take what I could get. He must like Kagome too.

“Yes, I like her too, idiot. We’re one and the same; no matter how much you refuse to believe it.”

That was a topic for another day. A day I had been pushing off for years but it wasn’t important now. Trying to relax, I let the demon take over my body completely. He would save Kagome. There was still no moon that I could see so it was a trick of some kind created by this demon. I had never heard of that being possible but it wasn’t like I knew much about demons in general.

It laughed again, dark and sinister like the piece of shit it was. “You would hurt this body? Hurt your friend?”

Now I laughed cause all of me, demon, human, and hanyou, found that funny. Kagome clawed at me in fear and I didn’t know if it was the situation in general or she didn’t want me to hurt the sack of skin that was once Onigumo. “Even if Onigumo was ever my friend, you killed him already. I’m not a fucking idiot.”

“Could have fooled us. You brought her here like a gift and yet, you won’t even share?”

“He doesn’t know anything about you. He’s not a part of this at all.” Kagome screamed, pushing on my hold yet again.

Not only was I fighting a gaggle of demons, but I was also fighting Kagome as well. I couldn’t do both so one had to be stopped. And one was easy enough, grabbing Kagome by her shoulders and holding her off the ground so we were face to face. “Get this straight, Kagome, I’m not giving you up so this is my fight. I’m the demon and you’re the human. My human. So shut up and let me handle this!”

I kissed her again, not giving a shit because I wanted her and only her. My longer fangs pressed against her lips and I didn’t dare deepen it in this form. I agreed with the Hanyou, I really liked Kagome too, and I didn’t want to hurt her. Being gentle with her as I pulled her from my mouth and set her back on the ground. 

I didn’t grab her or wrap her up in my hold again. I didn’t need to; she came to me, willingly. That fight was over and so I faced the real one right before us. Naraku wasn’t happy and that made me crow, pissing him off. 

“We will give you one last chance, Hanyou. We don’t want to harm another of our kind…”

“Funny didn’t stop you a minute ago…”

Naraku grimaced, “GIVE HER TO US!”

“Go to hell!”

The suit rushed us again but this time I was ready, grabbing Kagome by the waist and jumping over the bag of bones. Or a bag of demons. 

I twisted in the air and ran my claws down the back of the body. It was already ripped open in the front and now I ripped open the back of what was once Onigumo’s body. Once on the ground, I shoved Kagome behind me and she grabbed tight to my shirt, ripping it more while it was already shredded and covered in blood. I ignored the small tugs to my hair she did as well, grabbing and pulling in her worry. But she no longer had anything to fear.

The body shifted, shaking and quaking in a sickening manner as the demons shed their skin. The real battle was about to begin. But there was nothing; Onigumo falling to the ground, empty, and nothing to show for it. They were still there, their stink permeating the forest air. I could smell it as they got closer, circling Kagome and me to taunt. 

“We have always had her, you know.” The voice echoed around us, all of them speaking as one as they surrounded us. “Even as a child. Even before this life, she has had now.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I screamed, feeling stupid talking to air.

The air chuckled and the trees shook with a breeze. Kagome grabbed onto my shoulders as if she could hold onto me tighter. “This life. Any life. We find her and we take her. This is the first time she has had another demon stand between us. It is annoying and only delaying the inevitable.”

I glanced back at Kagome and her eyes were wide with shock and terror. She had no clue what the bastards were talking about. “She is just smarter than before.”

Her eyes darted to mine and I turned away, focusing on the task at hand instead of what Naraku was hinting at. It didn’t matter if Kagome was using me. Not right now it didn’t. I wasn’t sure I cared at all, she could use me as much as she wanted and I would use her right back. 

“The fuck you will!” The Hanyou roared in my head. 

I shook him out and ignored anything and everything else. Naraku was what was important right now. Sight was useless, so I relied on my other senses. Like smell. The scent of rot was strongest behind us, edging closer to Kagome. I didn’t like that, not at all. 

Spinning us around, I kept Kagome behind me and faced the demon head-on. The air shifted in front of me, the shadows bending ever so slightly as the demon moved to stand right in front of me. Either Naraku was dumb, cocky, or didn’t think I could see it but I didn’t hesitate to slash him with my claws. 

Naraku reared back, squealing, but I was sure I hadn’t really hurt him. He was playing me, trying to get me to lower my guard. But Kagome’s grip still slipped from my shoulders and she whimpered loudly.

It was all just a distraction.

She was already in the air, flailing her legs while trying to rip an invisible hand from her mouth. I caught a foot and yanked on her. It probably hurt but it was the only choice I had; getting a hold of her calf after that. It released her mouth then to grab onto her shoulders instead. It didn’t have a good hold and I was far stronger than it. 

Claws ripped through my coat and to Kagome’s skin, deep scratches to her shoulders, but I got her free and back in my arms. Cradling her to my chest, I let my heart settle. That had been way too close. 

Fear had my chest in a vice. Because I wasn’t sure how to get us out of this. They were dead set on taking Kagome and not fighting me. It made it all so much harder than if they would just fight me for her. Then I could rip them to shreds and keep their hands off her. 

As it was now, she was just a distraction for me. 

I couldn’t tell her to run; they would follow and catch her. So as much as it pained me, I did the only thing I could, keeping Kagome in my arms and taking off back out of the woods. 

“GET BACK HERE!!!” The monster growled. 

Kagome folded her face into my chest as I ran far beyond human speed. It was hard on a human, going this fast, but I had no choice. Naraku was on our heels and the car was still a good distance away. Which wasn’t right; we hadn’t walked that far from it. Onigumo and I were both human when we left it behind. Even running, a demon could make up the distance in no time. And yet, the car still sat in the ever stretching distance.

It was a trap.

When I stopped, Naraku’s laughter filled the air again, bouncing off the tall dark trees that loomed like skinny giants. It sounded like a hundred demons all laughing at once. It made Kagome shiver in my arms, despair, horror, pain, and cold making her body dance. I could smell all of it off her skin even with the rot surrounding us and nearly choking me with it. 

Naraku was shifting around us in a circle and I was livid. “ENOUGH! Face me now, Naraku. Fight me like a demon instead of a scared little pup. Fight me and whoever wins gets Kagome!”

I set Kagome down but she grabbed onto me tight, pulling my attention from the swirling mass that surrounded us. “Don’t do this, Inuyasha. I’m not worth it.”

A grin pulled at the corner of my mouth and I carefully brushed her tears away with my claw. “Yes, you are.”

This time, she tipped up on her toes, grabbing my forelocks to pull me down and her up as she kissed me. A growl rumbled in my chest and I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her into me hard. The Hanyou wanted me to be gentle but when she kissed me instead of me kissed her? Yeah, fuck gentle, I squeezed her to me and pressed my tongue to her lips so she would open them. And she did, letting my tongue flick across hers a few times then she ran her tongue along my fangs. I was ready to throw her to the ground with that. But it would have to wait; pulling back to handle Naraku first. Then I would handle Kagome. 

The Hanyou was silent with that, telling me he agreed with me again.

My mouth still touched hers and I knew Naraku would hear me, but I didn’t have a choice. “As soon as he’s distracted, run.”

“I won’t…”

“You’re a problem for me here. With you gone, I’ll do better. So just run. I’ll be right behind you.”

I was cursing my claws, wanting to wrap my fingers in her hair. But I didn’t want to cut so I settled for cupping her cheek, the pads on my fingers dancing on her ear. I mean it, that I would be right behind her, but Kagome’s sobs told me she didn’t believe me. “He has taken… everyone I had ever cared about… I don’t want him to take you too.”

Pushing her back a small distance, I sneered down at her. “Have a little faith in me, would ya?!”

She choked on her laugh, sounding painful as it mixed with her tears. But she still smiled softly up at me. She trusted me and that was worth more than anything else in this world to me. Naraku was growling around us like a caged tiger but I felt no fear of him towards me. Just towards Kagome. Once she left, everything would be easier. 

“Your cousin was tasty. She had a little of you in her blood but not enough.”

Kagome tensed and I pushed her the rest of the way behind me. “What is it you want from Kagome anyway?”

That’s right, start monologuing. Then I can rip your throat out while you talk about yourself. 

“She is a rarity. Every time she is reborn, we search her out. We found her once already as a child but she got away. Her family didn’t; her mother sacrificing herself for Kagome.” Kagome cried loudly. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. “But then her Cousin wanted something and came to us.”

I slowly moved towards the smell, gently leaving Kagome behind, but stopped at that. “Kikyo came to you? She’s not a demon worshipper!”

“No, she isn’t. Which made tricking her so much easier. So gullible. She even brought along others for us to snack on.” Miroku’s face flashed in my mind but pushed it back; the Hanyou wanted to ask but I knew better. “All she wanted was Kagome gone, to take her place in life. Kikyo wanted to become Kagome. Envy is such a nasty sin.”

“That’s not true! Kikyo would never want to be me!”

Kagome was a short distance from me now but I still didn’t like it. She was drawing attention away from me and I could get closer but I never wanted to use her as bait. 

“She did! Oh did she ever. With you going off to college and the Hanyou falling in love with you, she wanted to be you so bad she risked her soul for it, dragging you all out here to play a game.” Naraku laughed, “so many people fall for that stupid ritual. None of you followed the rules though, not even Kikyo. If she had, maybe she would still be alive. But she was far too eager and naïve.”

This was going to scar Kagome for life, I needed to hurry up and cut this bastard off. I was close, I could smell it, close to vomiting from the stench. The last foot, I jumped and glowing red eyes flashed to me, telling me instantly that I was right. And that I had the upper hand, the eyes wide with agitation and I overtook them. I wasted no time slashing what was otherwise air to most. It was the host, the main demon, and the one that the others were attached to. If I killed it, the others would die or return to hell with it. 

It looked like a shadow as if the tiny bits of light from an unknown source bent around the space out of coincidence. But my claws still caught on something, pulling against it as I dragged them down. It was a deep cut multiplied by four. If it was human, it would be dead in seconds. As a demon, I needed to do more. 

So I windmilled my other paw around, catching what I had to guess was Naraku’s shoulder. A matching mark to the two it put on Kagome. She would already struggle to forget this night without the physical scars she was going to have. 

This son of a bitch was going to fucking pay.

Naraku jumped back and I followed him, getting my claws around his neck and squeezing. “How..dare.. you...Mutt!”

I chuckled darkly in his ‘face’, imagining it turning red with anger then purple from my squeezing. “Breeding doesn’t matter in life or death. I will kill you for harming a hair on Kagome’s head.”

Just barely, I could make out his grin and craned my neck to look behind. Kagome had her hands out as if holding back someone, keeping them from getting close. She could see these fuckers better than I could somehow and, based on her body language, they had her surrounded. 

“Kagome?!” She took a step back, not looking at me, and spun, keeping her hands out and the invisible force at a distance. I glared back at the bastard in my hold. “This is between you and me, asshole.”

I could feel his throat jump under my palm as he laughed. “It never had anything to do with you.”

Kagome screamed and I dropped the demon I held, racing back to Kagome. Her arms collapsed as her hands met my chest, pulling her into my arms and swiping blindly at the air around us. “Back off!! You can’t have her!!!!”

“She belongs to us!!!” One of them hissed.

I swiped in the direction of the voice but came up empty. “The FUCK she does!!!”

“Is this what you want, Kagome? Trading one demon for another?” Another one spat and I swiped again.

“He’s not a demon! Not like you!! You’re a monster!!!” Kagome screamed.

“Inuyasha’s the monster. Half breed and disgusting monster.” The one I slashed seethed, struggling to speak from his wounds.

Kagome shook her head against my chest, still hiding. “You’re wrong!” I didn’t understand what was going on but clearly, Kagome was now fighting for me. There was no need, my ego was fine. But she persisted, pulling away to yell at them some more. “Inuyasha may only be half but that makes him a hundred times more than you’ll ever be!!!”

She was pissing them all off, getting closer until I could feel their touch stinging my skin. It was a horde of demons and something was off about them. Because their touch hurt. I had been touched by other demons before and it didn’t feel anything like this. Even my half brother, who was a dick, didn’t hurt when he just touched me. 

These guys were more than demons, they were cursed.

I contained my pain as much as possible, bending over Kagome to spare her from it and groaning when it became too much. Kagome wrapped her arms around me, her hands pressing into the back of my ribs. I pressed my face into her neck to fight the overwhelming agony that was filling my body. The pain went away suddenly so I pulled away from Kagome’s skin only to be blinded by light. Kagome’s eyes were scrunched shut in concentration but as the light dissipated, she dared to look flustered. The heat of her skin was on her cheeks and in my nose, smelling her embarrassment without really knowing why.

Something for later, looking around us now and sniffing the air. Only one remained, his stench the strongest because he was the one I slashed. Naraku had survived whatever the hell Kagome had done. The light had moved but hadn’t left, circling the edge of the trees and lighting up the middle where we stood. So now, Naraku stood out greatly in the now lit woods.

He was an ugly bastard; his body riddled with decay. It was why he hadn’t healed from the hits I gave him moments ago. Mine healed instantly with my demon form. He was weak and now it showed. This bastard, giving me shit about being weaker as a hanyou when he could barely keep his lungs inside his body.

“What have you done?!”

“Evened the odds.”

I was never more attracted to a person than I was Kagome right now. Her fear still scented the air, sweeter than the nasty demon before us, but she stood tall. Pushing away from me, she gave me silent permission to finish the fight. Smirking at Naraku caused him to shiver, a chuckled rumbling from my throat at his fear. 

But then he stepped back and glared right at Kagome. “This isn’t over.”

He was gone but Kagome still ran, trying to catch him. “NO!!!” She fell to the ground and dug with her hands like she could pull Naraku back up from hell. Her hands were muddy and bloody when I pulled her away, cradling her again in my arms. “It will never be over.” She whimpered.

I held her tight and walked us back to the car. Kagome had seen enough demons tonight so I released mine, returning to my usual form of half and half, hoping that was enough. Not once did Kagome pull away from me tonight in fear of me. For me, sure. But she had also kissed me in my full demon form. 

I would never forget that but now was not the time.

As it was, I didn’t know if there would ever be a time, Kagome wasn’t shaking and sobbing in my hold. I was in awe when she didn’t take the entire length it took to get to the car to calm down. I expected it to take months but she soon pulled her face from her hands and leaned against my chest. Where her head sat, I was sure she was listening to my heart. Whatever she was doing it helped, listening to her heart, as well, as it calmed down, finally.

“The first time I saw him… he was my grandfather.” It was slow but Kagome was going to tell me all and I needed to be patient. “None of us were prepared or understood when Grandpa slit my father’s throat in front of us. We were in shock and that’s how he got my baby brother Souta.” She stopped to sob a little at the memory and I held her a little tighter. “Mother grabbed me and we ran deeper into the house. She shoved me under a bed and told me to stay there no matter what. And I did until the cops pulled me out from under it. They told me my grandpa had lost his mind and killed everyone, himself last. No one believed me when I told them he wasn’t my Gramps.”

“Why would they? You were a scared kid and they had nothing more than a body for proof.”

“You believe me? Don’t you?”

She was watching me, looking up at me begging. “Of course I do. I just met the bastard myself!”

“Not just that,” she said, shaking her head, “I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t call a demon looking for something…”

“No, that was your damn cousin.”

Kagome whimpered, “poor Kikyo.” I huffed but she didn’t say more. “Inuyasha… are you in love with me?”

I almost dropped her. Out of everything that happened tonight not only did she catch that but she wanted to talk about it so soon. “Um… yeah, I think I am.” The nod she gave me was far from satisfying. And I was ashamed. Not only was I outed by a damn demon, Kikyo had seen it as well. “This is… tonight was my fault.”

“Stop it.”

“If I hadn’t made you come…”

“You didn’t make me do anything!”

“Or if I wasn’t so fucking obvious…”

“It wasn’t obvious to me!”

“All this proves that you being with me is bad. It would only bring you pain.”

Kagome was silent with that because she knew I was right. It would never work with us. 

The car was now in her sight, close enough for human eyes to see. There was no scent of rot or death anymore and she was no longer shaking so I set her down on her feet to walk the rest of the way on her own. Setting boundaries right away was what I needed with the memory of her kissing me playing over and over in my head thanks to the demon jackass. 

Sango flung open the door and ran to us. She was searching us for wounds, Kagome’s shoulders still bleeding. But she was also searching us for answers, reminding me of the news we had to deliver. “Where’s Miroku? Is he not with you??”

Clearly, he wasn’t but her freaked out brain still needed answers. Kagome grabbed her tight and the words failed me. Sango sobbed and fell completely into Kagome’s hold. I broke the window to the trunk with my fist.

We were all shattered.

I had to hope we could get a signal now. What with the moon and stars back out from wherever they were hiding. It had a little, quickly putting in my address to get us the fuck out of there. The girls sat just behind me. Sango was still sobbing, laying in Kagome’s lap who looked back at me in the reflection. I offered her the best smile I could manage right now and started the car. 

Breathing a sigh of relief when it rumbled with life, I had just put it into drive and began to move when something hit the side hard. “Goddammit!!”

Kagome and Sango squealed in the back as blood was smeared across the window. I was fucking done with this night. Demons, dumbasses, and pranksters. I didn’t care which one was currently outside the car, cause I was going to tear them apart regardless. 

Slamming the car into park, I wrenched open the door, only to have my breath catch in my throat. “Miroku?!”

He had his hand cradled against his chest and was favoring his left side, but it was definitely Miroku, back from the dead. Sango nearly knocked him over, leaping on him and wrapping herself around him. Then she helped into the car, laying him out across the seat. Kagome had jumped up to the front to sit next to me. They barely had their door shut when I took off. I wanted no more surprises tonight. 

“What happened??” Sango wailed, still half in shock. 

Miroku moaned like a dying man from her lap. The smell of his blood was strong; he very well could be dying. “Onigumo. When we went to piss, he came up from behind, stabbed my right side below my ribs, and pinned my hand to a tree with the same fucking knife. He went on and on about a sacrifice, I figured he’d lost his damn mind!”

“He did,” I stated and everyone was quiet.

Kagome took my hand, the one I rested on the shifter. It was the same as any other day and she showed no fear of me as usual. It didn’t matter what I showed her, my inner demon, or my secret feelings. She didn’t fear me when she really should.

One Week Later...

We got our story straight before Miroku got all his stitches. Nothing important was hit but he would have limited feeling and use of his hand for a long time. Maybe forever. 

The story was, we went for a drive, Kikyo and Onigumo left for some alone time, and never came back. A week later and the cops still hadn’t found their bodies. I was pretty sure that was because we were never on the road we told them we were on. The one we traveled didn’t exist. Not in this dimension. 

The rumors were running wild around the school. Some said Kikyo ran away with Onigumo while others said they were murdered by a serial killer. A few said I killed Onigumo and Kikyo out of jealousy and a small handful thought Kagome did it. But they were small and quiet about it because it was the craziest of all the damn theories. 

Kagome would never hurt a fly.

Finally, it was fucking Friday. I was tired. Tired of all the bullshit and school. Mostly I was tired from avoiding Kagome all week long. Miroku was blowing up my phone, trying to get me to go out with him when my doorbell rang. I wouldn’t put it past Miroku to just show up and force me to hang out. He’d done it before. 

When I ignored the bell, they knocked. Miroku wasn’t going away. I made sure to stomp loud enough for him to hear as I went to the door and flung it open. “I’m not doing shit tonight…”

“If I’m being honest, I’m not in the mood to do anything either.”

It was Kagome, standing at my door like it was any other day. Still in her school uniform, she had a duffle in one arm and her backpack in the other. Without a thought, I grabbed them both from her. Manners aside, she hadn’t had a thing on her shoulders all week thanks to the gashes she received on them. “What are you doing here?”

She walked past me, no hesitation, entering my home. Kagome had never been to my place before, slowly taking it all in. I lived alone, wasn’t sure she knew that and had minimal furniture. A couch with a tv before it, a decently stocked kitchen, a tiny bathroom, and a bed that was all one large room. I didn’t even have a divider between my couch and my bed. So I could watch tv from it if I wanted to.

“You live alone?” I nodded. “What about your mother?”

Kagome knew about my father and that we were… estranged. I hadn’t told her about my mother and if others had, she still wanted to hear it from me. “Cancer. Five years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

Somehow, Kagome managed to say it without it sounding like pity. Maybe that was in my head, knowing about her family as well? Knowing she could truly empathize and understand my pain as she had felt it herself. But she hadn’t answered my question and I had hers like a puppy. “Kagome, what are you doing here? And what’s with the bag??”

“I’m sorry, I would have called first but you wouldn’t have answered anyway….”

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about….”

“You’ve been avoiding me all week.”

With no place better to sit, I flopped to the edge of my bed and grimaced back at her. “So? I have no reason to spend time with you. I thought I made that clear last week? Remember?! Demon summoned to take you all because of my feelings for you?!”

Hands on her lovely hips, she popped one out and smirked at me from my living room, “well aren’t we full of ourselves?!”

“Kikyo was jealous of you because I’m in love with you.”

Goddammit, I didn’t mean to just admit it like that. Or ever. But Kagome already knew. She still looked aghast, like I hadn’t said it to her before. I told her that night, that fucked up night that I was in love with her, why did she look so shocked?!

Shaking her head, my demon growled at me to make her submit. I let him out one time and he thought he owned the place. “No, because she kissed us.”

“Shut up,” I screamed in my head.

“I thought… I didn’t think you would just come out with it like that. Not now.” She responded, reading my mind.

“It’s not like you didn’t already know.”

“Yeah, but… I don’t know, it’s different this time.”

We got quiet and it got awkward. I watched as she looked at her fingers that she twisted at her belly. This was getting us nowhere and things were only getting worse between us. “I’m sorry I avoided you. It wasn’t… I’m not mad or anything. I just think it’s for the best.”

“Why?”

“I told you… I’m no good for you. Even as a friend. Bad things happened to you because of me….”

“Bad things happened to me regardless. They have nothing to do with you,” she spat, getting angry.

“I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

“Safe than sorry?!” She shook her head at the floor but I could still smell the salt of her tears from my perch. “I am sorry for putting you out with my near-death experience!”

“That’s not what I…”

Wrapping her arms around herself as best she could, I watched her fidget all the more, wincing a little from her sore shoulders. “If you don’t want to be with me then just say so, Inuyasha. I wouldn’t blame you, it’s not like my life is anything great! It’s a mess, a dangerous, mess.”

I could feel the heat on my cheeks but I still couldn’t look away from her. “I do want to be with you….”

“But don’t spin some bullshit lie about it being better for me! I would have been dead if it wasn’t for you!” Her frustrated words brought her closer to me, pacing over to me on the bed. 

I shook my head but kept my eyes on her. “You also wouldn’t have been in the situation if it wasn’t for me….”

“I was in that situation because a crazy demon has a hard-on for me,” she countered.

I chuckled. “I’m a demon with a hard-on for you. What’s the difference?”

It was like she was in a trance, reaching over and picking up one of my hands. I wasn’t even sure she was aware she was doing it, playing with my fingers dangerously close to my claws and watching her work. “The difference is, I want you to have a hard-on for me.”

I was tugging her, using the hand she held to pull her closer until she stood between my knees. “I’m not the brightest guy, Kagome. You’re going to have to tell me what you mean by that.”

She was looking at me through her bangs, either trying to hide or be sneaky about it. “It means… the feelings are mutual. How could it not be?” When I cocked a brow up at her, she released a shuddering breath while her face began to glow. “I’m in love with you, Inuyasha.” She refused to look at me while I refused to look anywhere other than right at her. “What are we going to do about this?”

Her finger danced between us, showing me her ‘this’ was our relationship. “Nothing, right? We do nothing about it.”

The smile she wore was fake but she finally looked up at me to nod. “Nothing.”

She was still between my knees and yet, she was getting closer and I wasn’t sure if I was pulling or if she was leaning. “Yeah, nothing. Knowing how we feel... it’s enough, isn’t it?”

Slowly, she nodded her nose inches from mine. “Yeah, it’s enough.”

I tilted my head to the side just in time, Kagome barely missing my nose and forehead when her mouth met mine. Hard. A heartbeat later and she was on my lap, straddling me. My hands were on her bare thighs, moving upward across the soft, warm skin. It wasn’t long before I had her ass in my hands, kneading the flesh. She was still in her uniform but I wasn’t, opting for my usual ‘need to do laundry’ attire of ratty sweat pants and a stained t-shirt. I looked rough but it had her panties against my thin pants. Fuck, I didn’t even have on briefs, free-balling so I didn’t have to do laundry today.

She removed my shirt, getting her fingers around the hem at my back and pulling up hard. I didn’t stop her. I encouraged her, raising my hands towards the ceiling like a child that needed help. 

Shirt gone, she fell back to my mouth and we nipped and sucked at each other like there was no tomorrow. Her fingers threaded my hair and my fingers worked on her buttons, stopping halfway to run my hands across the flat plane of her belly. It caused her to giggle against my lips and I slipped my tongue inside her mouth. 

She helped me take her shirt off the rest of the way after I unbuttoned, all while keeping our mouths planted to one another. Just like when I was full demon, she ran her tongue along my fangs, daring to press it against the sharp tip of one of them. I didn’t move, afraid I’d pierce her tongue. As hot as that sounded, doing it now would definitely kill the mood and I was pretty sure Kagome didn’t want a tongue ring. 

But then again, there was still so much we didn’t know about each other.

With her tongue safe and playing with mine again, I left her mouth and trailed down her chin to her neck. The hand I had on her back, holding her steady on my lap, went to the clasp of her bra. It fell on our crotches, the two of them pressed together, as soon as I flicked it open. With her shoulder wounds, she was wearing something strapless. I found myself kissing along the bandages, wishing I could heal her like I could myself. 

Now I had her nipples before my eyes. No wonder she had to wear strapless; the weight of these puppies had to hurt on her sore shoulders. I had my hands wrapped around her shoulder blades, running a gentle thumb over her bandages, reminding myself to be gentle while my demon was screaming for me to take her hard and fast.

“Yeah like those delicious titties against our fangs.”

“Shut the fuck UP!” I yelled in my head.

Letting my demon out once had him all in a tizzy to get out again, but I was used to it and knew how to control him… mostly. Having Kagome naked on my lap so soon after releasing him probably wasn’t a good idea. But none of me wanted to turn back, touching my tongue to the bottom of her nipple and licking upwards. She moaned softly and I decided then and there that it wasn’t enough. I needed her to moan much louder until it hurt my sensitive hearing.

So I sucked her nipple in, shoving half of her heavy breast into my mouth and pressed my fangs gently into her flesh. 

“AH!!”

The lift of her moan made it sound as if she was confused or surprised. She didn’t understand the pull she had on me or the desire she had for me in return. And no one had made her feel like this before. 

And no one had made me feel like she did, little fingers stroking my ears while her hips twitched on mine. I was going to come in my pants at this rate, flicking her nipple inside my mouth with my tongue. She whined when I took her out of my mouth, but it was only so I could do the same to the other breast. That she appreciated greatly, rubbing my ears harder and fully thrusting on my lap.

We still had bottoms on when I flipped us, tossing us behind to the bed and placing Kagome under me. Her dark, beautiful browns eyes stared up at me with wide fascination. But not fear. Never fear. And we took a moment to appreciate the gravity of the situation. I was letting her catch her breath and her senses, allowing her a chance to tell me no or to stop. She was brushing her fingers through my hair, watching her fingers as they disappeared in the white.

Time was up and nothing was said. When I sat back and pulled down my sweats, she sat up and unzipped her skirt. Moving quickly, I stopped her from doing the rest. I wanted to be the one to remove her panties.

Her scent was all over them, smelling of hot spices from the tea on her skin and a sweetness that had been coming from her pussy since she straddled me. I had never smelled anyone like her; it was intoxicating, making me drunk as I licked up the inside of her thigh to the scent. Kagome made the cutest sound when I split her thighs and kept licking. Like a gasp mixed with a moan coming out like a hiccup. I looked up at her through my fringe while I lapped up her flavor, rolling my tongue around in her folds first. Her eyes were wide on me for a moment but when I found her clit, they closed and her mouth opened. She fell back to the bed when I stuck my tongue inside her, twisting it against her walls to taste her fully.

She tasted just as sweet as she smelled and fuck it tasted good. I did feel drunk, sucking and lapping at her without reserve until she came. Even then I didn’t stop, more of her sweet scent and flavor flowing out with her orgasm. Now she was being very loud and even though my ears pressed back from the sound, I loved it.

Releasing her from my tongue, I slowly crawled over her. Resting on top of her, in between her legs, I watched her return from her high. She was so fucking beautiful on a regular basis but when she was flush and panting from me making her feel good? It made her glow in a manner I wasn’t prepared for, my heart going fucking nuts in my chest. It had my ‘drunk’ ass saying things I probably should have kept to myself.

“Goddammit, I’m so in love with you.”

This time, she wasn’t shocked, her eyes and mouth didn’t widen. Instead, she fucking purred. “I love you too.”

I hoped she was ready because she was looking more beautiful than ever with the smile she wore, her eyes warm and deep. There was no stopping me now, I was going to make love to her. With my tip pressed to her entrance, she knew what was going to happen too and she showed no hesitation, leaning into me with her hips. 

Her arms went around my neck and I sunk into her. It was all I could do to not think about her hot sweetness coating my cock because if I did, I was sure to come right away. Kagome was panting beneath me and I could smell a little blood. I was hurting her. 

I tried to pull away but she held me tight, wrapping her legs around me to join her arms. “Please… don’t stop…”

It was all the encouragement I needed, sinking back in the rest of the way only to slowly pull out of her again. A few pulses at a quarter of my speed and Kagome had her arms wrapped around my back, her nails digging into my ass cheeks. 

“Faster…” She moaned and I obliged.

Up on my arms, I hovered over her and watched her bounce from my thrusts. As a much-needed distraction, I sniffed the air and concentrated. Because half of me expected Naraku to show up when I took Kagome’s virginity. I was hoping that was all he wanted her for, a pure and powerful girl? But as my tip pressed to her womb hard the room filled with her scent alone, I knew it was more than that, more than this. 

Kagome was something else, something more. But I already knew that.

When her walls began to quiver, pulsing around me, I fell back to her. My face in the crook of her neck, I smelled her, breathing her and her spicy scent in deeply. Her mouth was right next to my ears, her head pressed back into my pillows. She was loud and I didn’t care; Kagome was crying as she came again. I was busy enjoying the pooling of her sweetness around my shaft, throbbing and warming me down to my bones until I came so hard my head spun.

I rested, feeling more winded than when I was chasing after her and Onigumo. It had felt like my own life was at stake while she was in his clutches and I never wanted to feel like that again, feel that fear for her life. 

Pressing my lips hard and deep into the side of her neck, I pulled out of her and her sticky sweetness clung to me tightly. It felt so damn good, almost as good as mid-coital. Almost.

There wasn’t a thought in my head to wash her off of me; rolling onto my back, happily sticky from sweat too. Kagome didn’t mind, rolling into me and resting her head on my chest. I pulled the rest of her body flush to my side and kissed the top of her head, breathing in her hair as I rested. 

My hand found its way to her shoulder and grazed the bandage again, brushing it over and over in a circle of want. Because I wanted to make it go away. 

“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Kagome whispered. 

But I had seen her strain from time to time with stiffness. “Doctor said it would scar.”

“My penance for all the people that lost their lives because of me.”

The injuries to her shoulders were more than that; they were a mark from another demon and as much as it pissed me off, it was far from being Kagome’s fault. “None of that was ever your fault and I will spend the rest of our lives reminding you of that if I have to.”

I could feel a smile on her lips as they pressed against my skin. “The rest of our lives?”

It was stupid of me, talking about forever when we hadn’t even gotten out of high school yet. But together or not, I would protect her and I would love her. 

“You don’t have to be with me, you know? You don’t have to feel obligated to protect me and stay by my side forever,” she said to my chest. 

I dug under her chin to push her head back; brown eyes that swirled with honey looked up at me. “Are you stupid?”

She was still frowning, tears at the edge of her eyes. “I’m not using you. Not for protection or comfort.”

“Oh, so I’m the one that’s stupid?”

“Are you going to twist everything I say?”

“Only when you say something stupid!”

She giggled at that and fell deeper into me. Holding her close, I listened to the gentle beating of her heart. “He’ll come back for me. Someday.”

“And I’ll stop him then too.” I’d been wanting to talk to her about something but didn’t know where to begin. Especially with avoiding her. “That thing you did in the woods?” She tensed at that. “It was… pretty amazing.”

“You’re not scared of me?”

I was a demon; so I probably should be. “No. Not even a little bit.”

“Good. I’m not scared of you either.”

“How often have you done that?”

I wasn’t sure what she had done but I was pretty sure, what with him a no-show and Kagome good and fucked by me now, that it was why Naraku wanted her so badly. “That was… a first. I’ve never… done something��� that big before.”

“But you did it in the past? Against your Gramps?”

Her heart picked up at that and I knew I had hit the mark with that one. My mother had wasted away in front of my eyes. I had to tell them to pull the plug. Thirteen and as the only family she had that gave a shit, it was up to me. I still didn’t think that measured up to Kagome having to kill her possessed grandfather. Not even close.

She let me hold her tight for a few moments, then pushed off me and the bed, finding and digging into the duffle she had brought until she had a long nightshirt over her naked body. I propped myself up on an elbow and watched her. “Oh you were so cocky, you brought a change of clothes?”

“No. I was on my way to Sango’s.”

I looked closer at the bag, the size of it catching my attention now. “You staying the whole weekend or something? That’s more than any girl needs for one night.”

Kagome froze for a second, then turned away to mess with her bag again. “My aunt kicked me out.”

“What?!” I was off the bed and pulling my sweats back on. It didn’t feel right to be naked for this conversation. “She can’t do that!!”

“Why not? I’m eighteen and she never wanted me anyway.”

“She wanted you,” I spat without thinking as I paced, “wanted you as a slave.”

“That reminds me, I’m out of a job too.”

“This is bullshit!” I roared.

Kagome sat on the floor before her bag, as if beaten and I didn’t like it one bit. “When… I came home and Kikyo didn’t… Auntie never believed me either when I told her it was a demon that killed my family. I didn’t think Kikyo believed me either until we were in those woods. She took me because she thought she could make a deal with Naraku. And with Auntie promising me Kikyo’s college money…”

“You still have that, you still have college!”

I thought that would make her come around but it only made her droop more. “I have some money saved thanks to Sango getting me a bank account my aunt knew nothing about. And I have the money my family left me that she didn’t have access to. But… Auntie never intended to give me that money. She just said that to try and motivate Kikyo. Guess it worked in a way.”

I flopped to the floor next to her, looking at her face while she stared at her bag. “It’s not right, Kagome. You deserve more. You always have.”

She shrugged; “I’m the girl whose family died because of her. I don’t think I deserve anything less. And now I have Kikyo’s and Onigumo’s death on my track record…”

“That wasn’t you!! They gave themselves to Naraku!”

“Auntie blames me and is now using all of her money to find Kikyo. So even if she had planned to pay for my college, she isn’t now for sure. And she should look for Kikyo. I wish I could tell her the truth…”

I shook my head hard and it got her eyes to mine. “No. I don’t want anyone else looking at you like that, thinking you’re responsible in any way. Naraku isn’t your fault and they went into those woods on their own. Dragging us along under false pretenses. I looked up that stupid game, they didn’t even follow any of the rules! They were never going to get what they wanted, they just wanted to kill people!”

After a few heartbeats, Kagome nodded. “You’re right. If anyone believed us, it would only make the two of them look bad. I’ve caused Auntie enough pain.”

At that, I scooped her off the floor and back into my lap. Only this time, I was cradling her to me. It wasn’t sexual in the least. It was comforting. “Stay with me.”

She nodded again against my chest. “For tonight, sure…”

“No. Move in with me. Stay with me. I’ll take care of you..”

She pushed back, already a rebuttal on her lips. “I can’t do that…”

“Yes, you can!”

“We just started… whatever! I can’t move in with you!”

I pulled her back to me, kissing her as hard and as deep as I could for the short seconds she allowed me to. “I want you here. It’ll bring me peace, knowing you’re safe. And it’ll make it easier when we bang.”

She smiled through her blush and I kissed her again. Kagome pushed me back gently before I could get my tongue in her mouth but I was sure I was weakening her resolve. “Aren’t you worried? Scared that I might use you for protection? Or for a home in general?”

I was already scoffing at her hard before she finished. “You would never do that to anyone. And you sure as shit wouldn’t do it to me.”

“I feel like…” she tapered off and I thought for a moment, that she wouldn’t finish, “like you know me. Better than anyone. Is that possible?”

It had to be because I felt the same way. That I knew her and she knew me. “Yeah. But maybe it’s the sex talking.”

She slapped me playfully on the chest. “Would you stop that?!”

“Not until you agree to live with me!”

I had her, the flush of her cheeks and the smile on her face told me so. She was fighting it hard, her smile and giving me what I wanted, but I was going to win. “Oh...okay. BUT if Naraku shows up again I’m not getting you involved. You will stay out of it!”

She was dead serious and there was no way I was agreeing to that. If Naraku ever showed his ugly fucking face again I was going to rip his spine out. If he had one. 

Kagome was waiting for my answer. She would split out my door if I didn’t agree, that much was clear. So I would lie to her just this once. “Alright. I’ll stay out of it.”

With that, I lifted her and took us to the bed where we celebrated our new living arrangement and relationship late into the evening.

You have reached the end. Now think of your desire, the thing you want most in this world. See it in your mind. Taste it on your tongue. Now turn back and you will find your life changed. The love of your life has appeared or even your bank account is now flush with cash. What is the price? Is your car now haunted? No, you proved your worth. The Eleven Mile, however, will stay in your mind in the form of nightmares or pleasant dreams. But this is nothing to what you’ve gained, right?

[sachinighte]

Fic Writer Review

Tagged by @uintuva

1. How many do you have on Ao3? 107, 116 if I include the ones I’d rather not think about that I shoved under the metaphorical rug of a different pseud.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 184425, oh wow, did not expect that.

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? 29, maybe 30. Not sure how much some of these overlap. Naruto, Dragon Age, Harry Potter, BNHA, Bleach, Sailor Moon, Hannibal, Hellsing, MCU, Mass Effect, FFXV, One Piece, Stargate, Teen Wolf, BTVS, X-Men, Criminal Minds, NCIS, Star Wars, YuYu Hakusho, Yuri on Ice, Inuyasha, Scooby-Doo, Negima, Voltron, Ocean’s 8, RWBY, The Black Jewels Trilogy, Underworld, Twilight. At least, that’s all my published fandoms.

4. What are your top 5 five by kudos? Number one is Don’t Ask Why It Works, It Just Does: 749. Number two is It’s Something Unpredictable (But In The End It’s Right): 595. Number three is With A Taste Of Poison Paradise: 410. Number four is And We’ll Fly And We’ll Fall And We’ll Burn: 400. And finally, number five is The Sharp Knife Of A Short Life: 385.

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not? Yes, I always respond to comments because I don’t get many of them so it’s easy to do so, and plus I know love getting responses to my reviews from other authors. I know some people may not like this like I do, but I enjoy doing it.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Uh, probably Land Of Confusion. I’ve written other angsty fics and endings, but there is literally no hope in that fic and no open ending for the mc.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written? I do write crossovers, though I haven’t done very many—at least none that got posted—in recent years. My craziest one is probably Bleach/BTVS with a crack ship of Kenpachi/Buffy.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? Oh, yeah. I used to post on ffn, which basically guaranteed that I would, but I still receive some on ao3. I usually delete it, but sometimes I’ll roast the person a bit before I do.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind? -///- …yes. It’s either a gift fic for a friend, people failing at having sex in a—what I think—humorous way, or weird shit I think is sexy for some reason.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! A couple of times. It’s very sweet, I love it when people do that, I wish I could do that.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, with my BFF, but it’s not published at all and my ex-gf actually took off with the physical copy when we broke up. Probably for the best, it was… ah, so embarrassing.

13. What is your all time favorite ship? I am an inveterate multishipper, it’s probably better to ask if I have any notps XDD. Even going by fandom idk if I would be able to choose.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? There’s this Dragon Age fic that I’ve been writing for years now, half from Cullen’s POV and half from Anders’ spanning all of da2 and Dai. I’m pretty sure it’s my best work but it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Who the f*ck knows if it’ll ever be done, and if I’ll ever publish it. Pretty sure if I did I’d get burned at the stake by nearly everyone in fandom XD

15. What are your writing strengths? I like to think it is my characterization. It’s certainly the thing I get the most compliments on, which makes me feel very warm and fuzzy.

16. What are your writing weaknesses? Getting too wrapped up in useless details. It’s fine for short fic, but in long fic it’s… well… a bit overwhelming.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? It depends on whether the POV character can understand it or not; if they can’t then I try and translate it into the language as best I can, which might be a fun Easter egg for those who speak it? If they can, then I usually just do “…,” a said in (language). Otherwise I just treat it like normal dialogue, no fancy formatting or anything. I’ll post what I wanted it to mean in the author’s note, but tbh I’ve never been able to successfully learn another language despite years of trying, so it’s more than likely wrong even though I usually end up doing hours of research. If you look at some of my really early work, that might not be the case, as I’ve learned a lot over the years, but that’s my opinion as of now. It may change in the future as I learn more!

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. It was a poem, and super teenage angsty.

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written? I honestly can’t tell you. It changes by the day, in regards to my mood. I will say that I’m probably most proud of Don’t Let Your Life Pass You By; Well I’ll Be Damned, Here Comes Your Ghost Again; But The Light Is On (What Are You Waiting For?); and The Sharp Knife Of A Short Life. They might not all be my most popular fics, but they’re definitely the most character driven ones, in my opinion.

I never know who to tag for this stuff, so please, if you would like to do this, feel free to say I tagged you. It’s fun!

[hag-lad]

Digging Deeper

Thank you to my radiant wonderful friend @alienfuckeronmain for sending me EXACTLY the type of self indulgent wind-down activity I wanted on this otherwise depressing weekend! If anyone else wants to answer FORTY-NINE QUESTIONS about themselves, I’m super nosy and will read it all! @fight-the-seether @ptolemyofchaos @butchwizard @metalbutch @nyndelion @comrade-ziltoid @leatherdear @kristalknobb Enjoy, friends!

1. Do you prefer writing with a black pen or blue pen? I prefer black, but I always feel like I write neater in blue??

2. Would you prefer to live in the country or city? The city, but only if it has breathable air, green infrastructure, and decent public transit. So like... definitely no city in America lmao

3. If you could learn a new skill what would it be? The ability to quickly become fluent in another language! I’ve been struggling with Spanish for literal YEARS and it’s honestly pathetic. My brain is so stuck on English.

4. Do you drink your tea/coffee with sugar? Look pal. If I wanna drink sugar, I’m gonna have a soda, not herb water or bean juice.

5. What was your favorite book as a child? I was OBSESSED with The Wish List, by Eoin Colfer (of Artemis Fowl fame). I remember being so fascinated by how dark it was?? It’s an afterlife adventure, where the main character has to escape purgatory by atoning for her crimes of robbery and fraud and whatever. I had a crush on her, so basically this book made me want to pursue a life of crime, even though it explicitly condemns crime and depicts Hell as a very real and horrible place. I was in like fourth grade and was super morbidly curious about Hell and the possibility of going there! Lol

6. Do you prefer baths or showers? Baths... but only when I’m not actually dirty going in. A bath is leisure, not hygiene.

7. If you could be a mythical creature, which one would you be? 100% fae! I would build my dwelling within a sidhe mound, steal shiny things in the middle of the night, make bastardly little contracts for no reason, and cause harmless mayhem and mischief because mortals really are fools (go off, robin goodfellow!) Also I love mushroom circles and dancing in the moonlight.

8. Paper or electronic books? Paper all the way! I read much more content electronically, but it’s usually in the short story or article format. Books are much better in print, I think.

9. What is your favorite item of clothing? Probably my rust-brown overalls.

10. Do you like your name or would you like to change it? I’ve always hated my name but no alternative has ever stuck, unfortunately. My name is Amy, and I don’t think it fits at all. If I knew I’d never have to correct anyone on it, I’d probably just change it to Amelia?

11. Who is a mentor to you? My little brother! He’s this genius musician, and he has taught me so much about song structure, polyrhythms, guitar technique, production tricks, all kinds of trivia that really deepen my appreciation for music and the LABOR that goes into it.

12. Would you like to be famous and if so, what for? No, never, not for anything. I cherish my anonimity so much, I don’t even put searchable tags on this blog cuz I get an adrenaline spike from anxiety if too many people interact with me. I also just think fame is a fucking hideous construct. I don’t think it’s even slightly cool or desirable.

13. Are you a restless sleeper? No, I’m a fucking log. I can easily sleep for 12 hours straight. Thanks, depression!

14. Do you consider yourself a romantic person? No, actually. I’m very much in love, and it brings me lots of joy to do nice things with and for my partner! But romance feels very difficult for me to connect with. I’m super domestic, like, I love the idea of marriage but not necessarily a wedding, or a moonstruck romance or whatever. Those dramatic gestures feel very awkward for me.

15. Which element best represents you? EARTH. Specifically, like... dirt, or soil.

16. Who do you want to be closer to? I want to be geographically closer to my family. We’re thick as thieves, but we all live like 50 miles apart from each other. I miss my brothers and my parents so much, I feel so incomplete and depressed without them to hang out with, especially since quarantine.

17. Do you miss someone at the moment? See above! Lol

18. Tell us about an early childhood memory. When my little brother was a baby, he had this grey car seat with a folding mechanism which held his legs in place. It made a very satisfying clicking sound when the mechanism moved, AND when it was fully unfolded, it looked a lot like a Klingon battle cruiser. (Or so my five year old brain thought.) So! My older brother and I would take this seat out of the car CONSTANTLY so that we could unfold it and “sing” the Klingon theme music from Star Trek: The Motion Picture while we scooched our car seat battle cruiser across the living room floor, pretending to shoot phasers into the TV or the dining table or whatever else got in our way.

19. What is the strangest thing you have eaten? Gifilte fish, maybe?

20. What are you most thankful for? My family, including my wonderful partner and all the cats in our lives!

21. Do you like spicy food? Yes! But my tolerance for extreme spice decreases every year, unfortunately. So I can’t handle as much heat as I used to, but I do enjoy a good kick.

22. Have you ever met someone famous? Lmaooo I made the regretful decision to PAY FOR a meet&greet with Fall Out Boy in like 2006, which was so fucking awkward and painful, I vowed to never approach that level of lame again.

23. Do you keep a diary or a journal? TONS! I’m an obsessive record keeper. Some years I journal more than others, and I’ve found that it is super difficult to keep up with it while working full time. But it’s absolutely one of my favorite hobbies.

24. Do you prefer to use a pen or pencil? Pen for writing. Pencil for drawing, and math.

25. What is your star sign? Virgo sun, Aquarius moon, Scorpio rising 🙃

26. Do you like your cereal soggy or crunchy? Crunchy! A shallow bath in that milk is key.

27. What would you want your legacy to be? My artwork. I go through these aesthetic phases every year that I become super obsessed with/ focused on, and I’ve always meant to catalogue them in annual art journals, but I’ve NEVER FINISHED ONE! They always get pushed aside by the need to work, and I hate that so much. If I could just take a year off work and backfill all of my missed concepts into completed books, I would be so happy. But I literally have NO WAY to pay for that, absolutely none. I fucking hate capitalism.

28. Do you like reading, what was the last book you read? I love to read, but finishing a whole book has been A STRUGGLE lately! Right now I’m chipping away at Tending Brigid’s Flame, which is a quaint lil devotional for the Celtic fire goddess. Very new agey, like cheesy Wiccan vibes. I love that shit!

29. How do you show someone you love them? Quality time!

30. Do you like ice in your drinks? Only if I have a straw. Ice touching my teeth kinda makes me wince.

31. What are you afraid of? Incompetance, doing a bad job, letting someone down, taking up too much space, being a nussiance, etc

32. What is your favourite scent? Incense! Especially cinnamon, dragon’s blood, and amber.

33. Do you address older people by their name or surname? I always call people, regardless of age, by the name they ask me to use. Sometimes it’s a surname or title, usually it’s a first name. I’ll ask their preference if I’m unsure. But I definitely don’t default toward a surname, that’s weird.

34. If money was not a factor, how would you live your life? COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY!!!!!! The need for money rules literally every single hour of my entire life, and I hate it so much. I’m naturally nocturnal, but my job requires me to get up super early and sit in a car for 11 hours a day. I wake up at 5am, come home front work at 5pm, spend an hour or two trying to unwind, then go to bed and do it all over again. I hate my life! Really! I never see the stars, I never exercise, I am completely exhausted and burnt out all the time, and I barely get any quality time with my partner. If money were no object, I would sleep til noon or 1, make art and hike all day, ride my bike and stargaze all night, stay up til 4am reading and playing with my cats, and sleep like a baby. My partner and I would cook dinner for each other and watch Star Trek and collaborate on art projects and I would be so happy.

35. Do you prefer swimming in pools or the ocean? Here’s my hierarchy: Private pool > ocean > public pool

36. What would you do if you found £50 on the ground? I’d look around to see if anyone obviously dropped it and try to give it back. If I couldn’t find anyone, I’d exchange it for dollars and deposit that shit into my account!

37. Have you ever seen a shooting star? Of course!! Hundreds!

38. What is the one thing you would want to teach your children? America is evil and needs to be destroyed.

39. If you had to have a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it? Lmao this is so cute. If you HAD TO HAVE a tattoo! I really wanna finish my damn sleeves, they’re literally 9 years in the making and barely half finished. But I’d also love more art on my legs! I DESPERATELY want Ziltoid in a lacy valentine heart on my thigh.

40. What can you hear now? Our fish tank water bubbling and my fan on full blast.

41. Where do you feel the safest? Home alone, doors locked, windows covered, lights low. I absolutely LOVE to not be seen or perceived in any way.

42. What is the one thing you want to overcome/conquer? My fear of discomfort

43. If you could time travel to another era, which one would you choose? I feel like I’d want to be a teen in the 80’s and an adult in the 90’s. Does time travel work that way?

44. What is your most used emoji? 😭 or 😎

45. Describe yourself using one word. Defeated

46. What do you regret the most? Convincing myself that math was too hard or boring (or something?) when I was in middle school. I feel like I’m actually a pretty intelligent person who could’ve totally overcome that difficulty and gone on to understand all kinds of patterns and concepts which have eluded me to this day! It’s so frustrating to try and fight that formative self-concept, which now comes naturally but ultimately sabotages me. 💀

47. Last movie you saw? I made my partner watch Troop Beverly Hills, one of my childhood faves. It’s so fun! I love chick flicks so much.

48. Last tv show you watched? Deep Space Nine. Getting through the first season has been harder than expected. It’s actually my favorite Star Trek show?? (Orrrr maybe that’s TNG, ahh! It’s so hard to choose!) But season one is so baffling and awful! Why is there so much space capitalism??! And racism? And war? And drinking alcoholic beverages? #notmystartrek

49. Invent a word and its meaning. I used to call a single strand of curly hair a “curly quink” when I was a child. Therefore, a “quink” is a section of hair, usually a particularly cute or iconic one.

[kiarasenglishkorner]

SERIAL: Extraordinary Talent- or Bias?

     Serial, the podcast hosted by journalist Sarah Koenig is currently in it’s third season. Due to the fact that I’m a true crime fan or murderino (the slang term coined by widely known true crime podcast, My Favorite Murder) Serial has been on my radar for quite some time. I spend a fair amount of time in true crime chatrooms, and the opinions shared about Serial have painted quite a colourful image of the popular podcast in my head. I’ve heard opinions ranging from “this podcast is the best true crime work we’ve seen since Forensic Files” all the way to “Sarah Koenig is bias, and in love with Adnan Syed”. Despite all of the hype surrounding Serial, I hadn’t sat down and dedicated any time to listen to the first season, which focuses around Adnan Syed and the murder of Hae Min Lee. When I saw in our syllabus that we had the chance to do work with Serial, I was excited and filled with fairly high expectations. 

     After listening to the first episode, I can definitively say that the production quality, format, and range of voices that appeared in the episode did not disappoint. This format of investigative journalism is well presented through this podcast, most of the investigative journalism I consume is through podcasts. The reason this podcast stands out from the slew of true crime podcasts on the market for good reason- you can tell Sarah and her producers know what they’re doing. The way it is edited, Sarah’s informal yet informative and knowledgeable tone allows you to have that podcast-feel with the seriousness of a documentary. I like Sarah, as she is a personable character, and demonstrates that through this podcast. With all this being said, Serial has what critics have pointed out- bias. From the very beginning, you can tell that Sarah Koenig wants to prove Adnan’s innocence. While Sarah isn’t closed off completely to Adnan being guilty of murdering Hae, she definitely doesn’t want to prove this. 

     The thing that’s most surprising to me about this podcast, is the small highlight on Hae Min Lee- the murder victim. Whether Adnan was her killer or not, she was still a victim of a violent crime, and disposed of like trash. Koenig spends little time on Hae, her life, or anyone surrounding Hae- her focus is completely on Adnan. I can’t imagine how Hae’s family feels, seeing how much attention is being given to Adnan even though at the centre of this case is their child who was taken away from them as a teenager. Seeing people talking about your daughter’s brutal murder as an “extra” to Adnan’s story must sting. Similarly to many serial killers, and other criminals, their victims are often left out of the stories because the interest lies in the lives of their killers. 

     Podcasts are unique, and they’re having a moment in current media because of the fact that listening to a podcast for an hour and a half allows you to do other mindless tasks, like cleaning, cooking, or driving (which I hope isn’t too mindless!) while intaking the information presented to you. While authors display their personality through their writing, having a podcast that allows you to hear the inflection, intonation, and specific quirks of the host’s voice is a more personal experience for most. Sitting down to read seems like a larger task, and doesn’t allow you to move as freely as listening to a podcast while cooking dinner or going for a run. I think this is one of the major benefits of choosing a podcast rather than an article. Due to the fact that this is such an intensely emotional topic, a podcast allows you to hear the voices of those affected, and allows for the use of music and transitional pieces. For academic purposes, a book allows you to re-read as you go, without having to rewind to the exact point in which you need to hear for quoting or taking notes. Many larger podcasts write up a text version of their shows, but it isn’t neatly done and doesn’t read as well as the show itself. Reading a book or text also gives the reader the freedom to read as fast as they wish, which for someone like me, comes in handy. The delivery of words and the speed at which they come out at can often annoy me, especially if I’m trying to pinpoint a certain topic to write about. 

     Serial poses a very important question: would you be able to remember, in detail and with clarity, what you were doing six weeks ago to the day? I tried using my calendar to think about what I was personally doing six weeks ago, and couldn’t give any sort of detail. I know I was probably studying for exams, and that I was probably home- but any more detail than that would be impossible for me. This makes feel empathetic towards Adnan and all those interviewed, because it is so hard to recall details from days you thought were otherwise ordinary. What troubles me is, Adnan would’ve heard on the news, or within his friend group that Hae was missing and the police were searching for her- which makes me think that yes, I would remember this sort of day in which my ex-partner went missing. This wasn’t some type of one-off event that the news wouldn’t cover, and Hae was reported missing soon after not returning home. I can’t imagine that I wouldn’t know what I was doing when that sort of thing happens. I immediately thought about the Amber Alert for Riya Rajkumar, the young girl who was abducted by her father. I have no relation to this child, yet I can tell you exactly what happened that night and day she disappeared. I was sitting in my bed, and my boyfriend had just left my house not half an hour before. This stands out in my mind because about half an hour before the Amber Alert went out, he told me instead of going home he was going to hang out with his friends nearby. Riya wasn’t someone I knew and her disappearance did not occur nearby me- but I still know what I was doing, in fairly clear detail. This personal experience leads me to believe that there is no way Adnan doesn’t know what he was doing. I’m concerned that anyone would buy Adnan’s story of “I have no clue”, because it seems awfully convenient that he simply has no story- nothing to be accounted for. The fact that Koenig and Adnan himself both agree this looks fishy doesn’t change the fact that yes, it is odd and unbelievable. 

     I can most definitely see why people have become so enthralled with Adnan’s case. The mystery surrounding Hae’s death, and the fact that it wasn’t an impersonal murder- it’s all very unusual. Manual strangulation isn’t like you see in the movies, or fictitious crime shows. To use your hands and kill someone by means of strangulation, it takes time and immense effort. This, combined with the fact that Adnan seems very nice and in the host’s own words “good looking”, makes for an interesting story. At the end of the day, a young girl was murdered in a very awful way. If Adnan isn’t her killer, someone else has been walking around for years without being punished for their crimes, which is why determining Adnan’s innocence would not be a huge win in my book. I think he’s guilty. I think a young girl had her life brutally snatched away from her, and I wish there was more time and attention spent on eradicating crime, and helping those affected by violent crime, than hours arguing about a boy who murdered his ex-girlfriend. I say all of this as someone who is intensely interested in true crime- but also as a woman, a godmother, a daughter, and a friend to many other women in my life. If equal time was spent on the victims, as much as it is spent hypothesizing about the killers, we’d live in a different society. One can hope, I guess. 

[academiceve]

My Study Tips // How I Improved My Grades and Got Straight A’s

This post will consist of study tips and techniques that I have learned throughout university that allowed me to receive straight A’s both semesters my senior year. Long story short, during my final year at university I wanted to improve my GPA and receive good grades in all of my courses. I aimed for an A in all of them and managed to get straight A’s both semesters, as well as end up on the student honors list for having a high semester GPA. I hope that these tips can help improve your grades, but straight A’s are never guaranteed (please keep this in mind). Also, I will be sharing with you all of my study tips (tested for 4 years at university), as well as tips that I learned in my cognitive psychology course about memory and learning. Keep reading if you’re interested in SLAYING this semester!

1. Set GOALS. I have a post already up on how to set SMART goals at the beginning of a new a semester. Click HERE to read it. I also have a guide sharing tips how I prepare for a new semester, click HERE to read it. 

2. LECTURES. Attend all lectures, workshops, tutorials, classes, labs, etc. If you’re a full time student, you shouldn’t make excuses to skip lectures. Before lectures, I would skim assigned textbook readings or look through uploaded PowerPoint slides to have a general idea about the topic, what will be taught, what I should pay more attention to, etc. You will already be familiar with the material and this will allow you to ask questions, summarize key information, anticipate what will be featured in the exam.

3. Learn from DAY 1. My biggest tip for studying and surviving university, is that you need to start learning from day 1 and then build up your knowledge throughout the years. The first few lectures of any major are usually the core of that major, so you have to know those subjects and topics well. Then, your knowledge will build on a strong foundation, which will make learning easier. So start learning from day 1, keep up with new material and you will see that as exams approach, you will be less stressed about not knowing anything. 

4. HOMEWORK. At my university, we would be frequently assigned a lot of homework, so I always made sure I had everything done. Sure, there were times where I would skim through readings or half-ass assignments, but the key here is to know the importance of each assignment. Sometimes, while doing homework I would get carried away and research the topics to learn more about them, because it would help me understand it better. It really depends on the assignment. Another reason why doing homework is crucial is because often professors throw in homework questions in exams. By practicing trying to solve problems you’re already doing yourself a favor, because practice makes perfect. 

5. REVIEW. After lectures, I would review freshly learned materials at home. I would finish taking notes from slides, research what I didn’t understand, as well as look up answers to my questions (if the professor didn’t answer them). I would also study the material. Repetition of studying information over and over again is great for retention, as YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE MATERIALS AND BE ABLE TO APPLY IT. Don’t memorize it, know it! (this is honestly the biggest key to success!)

6. EXAMS. For exams, I would make study guides from chapter readings that cover the necessary information. I would either fill in a pre-made study guide handed out to us by our professors, or I would create one. I would include terms and definitions, key concepts, key research, theories, examples, etc. A quick tip is to make study guides from slides and then add extra information anywhere necessary from the readings. Keep in mind that your study guide’s should include only important information, don’t get carried away! Then I would only study from those study guides, which usually worked well for multiple choice exams. For essay based exams, I would ask professors for topics that we can expect on the exams and write them out at home. I would then learn from those essays. This methods helps you have coherent thoughts, arrange arguments, etc. 

7. PROJECTS. I would start working on projects (group presentations, individual presentations, etc.) at least a week in advance, just because I’m a perfectionist and a visual learner, which means that I wanted my slides to be PERFECT. Nice slides can help your earn good grades! I would choose a slide design style, 2-3 fonts (max), 2-3 colors (max) and would stick to them. I would also include funny photos (memes are really popular if they suit the topic!) or gifs. As for information, I would keep it short and summarized on the slides, and if I needed to expand on a certain point, I would be able to do that on my own. Don’t put a lot of text on your slides, nobody likes to read them (Unless it’s a very official presentation, your professor asked you to, etc.). If you have a good sense of humour, you can throw in some jokes during your presentation (in my case sarcasm wasn’t for everyone, but at least my friends found it funny!). Take the time to prepare a nice presentation, practice presenting in your room, because it is an easy way to earn good grades. 

8. PAPERS. I would also start working on papers at least a week in advance, this usually depended on the lenght of the paper and the topic. I would research articles that I could include first and make a bibliography list. Then I would read those articles, which could take up 2-3 days if I was busy and had to work on other assignments. Afterwards, I would start writing, one paragraph at a time (this approach worked on harder/longer papers or a boring topic). Sometimes I would word vomit all of my ideas and then read through it and edit the paper. However, if I could, I would always try to choose an interesting topic and I would always discuss them with my professors beforehand, because they could recommend readings or help with generating ideas for arguments, etc. 

9. STUDY GROUPS. Studying with friends or a group of students from your class can be different and fun, as well as beneficial for receiving that A. I would utilize study groups before mid-terms and finals, but always make sure to study on your own first and only then attend a study group. Once you know the material well, you can meet up with your friends/peers and teach each other concepts that you still can’t quite grasp. You know you’ve learned a topic well if you can teach it to other people and them being able to understand what you are teaching. Otherwise, study groups can be distracting and a great excuse to procrastinate. 

10.  PROFESSORS. Your professors are a wonderful resource of knowledge, so use them! Attend their office hours, ask questions, discuss any problems or issues that you’re having in their lecture after class. Don’t be afraid to approach them, because they’re a great ally for your success! They always notice students who go above and beyond to learn and do well at university! Trust me, they talk behind students backs as much as students gossip about professors! They can also offer you amazing opportunities afterwards, when doing research, working on dissertations, etc. I was recently offered a volunteer lab assistant position, to help out one of my professors, even though I already graduated. So network with your professors, they will help you out!

11. LEARNING STYLE. It would be useful for you to know what’s your learning style. Visual, auditory, read & write or kinesthetic. You can read about it more in detail HERE. I’m a visual learner, so I would include graphs, drawings, schemes, etc. in my notes, in order to retain information better. Discovering your learning style could help you improve your studying habits! 

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND LEARNING. Below you will find the tips for studying that I learned during my cognitive psychology course. 

It’s easier to remember information you can interpret in the context of things you already know. You will remember textbook material better if you take the time to scan a chapter first, to get a sense of the major points, before reading the chapter in detail. This is also the reason why professors ask students to read chapters before class, so that the students’ minds are prepared to encode and remember the information presented in the lecture. 

The more deeply you analyze information, the more likely you are to remember it later. This is known as depth of processing. Experiments have shown that people remember words better if they’re formed to think about the meaning of words, rather than simply memorizing them. 

The best way to prepare for a test is by processing the material in a way that is similar to how you expect to be tested on it: making the study and recall format as similar as possible. 

More cues mean better recall. Free recall is when you are simply asked to generate the information from memory. Cued recall is when you are given some kind of a prompt. Recognition is when you pick out the correct answer from a list of possible options. Many students prefer to take exams with questions involving multiple choice (recognition test) rather than essays (free-recall test). Professors know this too, so they design multiple choice questions to include alternative answers that can easily be mistaken for the correct response if the student hasn’t studied the material closely. 

I hope you found the information included in this post helpful. If you would like to read more from me, click HERE to see other blog posts! You can also follow my studygram HERE for some inspiration! 

ALSO, I found this video that I thought would be useful, so check it out for more advice! Click HERE. 

[akagami-no-rae]

Trail of Red: Chapter 2

AO3 Link

Somewhere around second 8,148, the masked men stopped. The sun had set and though they were still surrounded by trees Shirayuki could hear a loud roaring. The ocean. The intrusive thought of being put onto a ship entered her mind and she had to keep herself from panicking. She needed to stay calm.

The man behind her spoke suddenly. “We rendezvous on the beach, do not leave the cover of the forest until then,” He dismounted and helped Shirayuki down. She wasn’t tied up and he didn’t have his knife currently out, in theory, she could try to make a break for it. Then she saw Zen still bound and unconscious, slung over the back of Obi’s stolen horse. ‘All we want is the prince,’ the words rung in her head. She didn’t attempt to run away. The man put a hand on her shoulder and led her to where his men were congregating for a short rest. “Sorry miss, I know you’ve been on nothing but good behavior, but,” he pushed her into the nearest man, “Tie her up.” He strode back to his horse and remounted, “The prince should be out for a couple more hours. Make sure she doesn’t go wandering off before I get back.” He kicked his horse and road away in a gallop.

They carried Shirayuki, her feet now bound and hands tied in front of herself, and laid her upon a patch of sandy grass a few feet away from themselves. Then returned seconds later and placed Zen down next to her. They walked away again this time and began to talk amongst themselves. She laid still for what felt like hours. They bickered over dining plans. One was adamant they shouldn’t start a fire while the other insisted that they needed to celebrate in some way. They finally settled it when they remembered a secret rum cellar their group had nearby. This must be a popular rendezvous spot for them. They sent the third out to find it and bring back a bottle. She laid silently as the remaining two half heartedly lamented that their comrade who Obi killed wouldn’t be there to share in the rewards. While they were distracted she finally dared to turn her head to Zen. They had laid him on his side facing her, his arms still tied behind his back. “Zen?” she whispered. He stirred. “Zen, please.” she whispered again, she needed him awake if they were going to escape this. He moaned and his eyes fluttered. Shirayuki’s chest heaved a sigh of relief. Slowly he opened his eyes, he looked in an ill mood, but he usually was after waking. “Are you alright?” she asked. “My head hurts.” “That’s probably from hanging upside down all this time. That vial, though, I thought I recognized it.” “Lucky us,” he tried to smile, but it looked pained. “I would probably have been out for an entire day, but…” he trailed off. His resistance, she finished in her head, it was an asset they couldn’t risk these men over hearing. “Who are these people, where are they taking us?” “I don’t know, but more of them are coming. We’ve been riding for two and half hours, we’re near the ocean.” “This is bad.” Zen said, “I’m so sorry.” Feeling the distress in his voice nearly broke her. As discreetly as she could, she inched herself towards him until they were close enough to touch foreheads. “I promised once that I would never put you in the position where you’d have to choose between me and duty. I’m sorry I got caught-“ “Don’t.” he cut her off, “They were after me. It’s my fault you got dragged into this.” His eyes were dark, hardly able to look at her. “Zen, do you remember what you said to me after I told you that I loved you?” His eyes met her’s suddenly and his face was soft. “You warned me that your title wouldn’t always be able to protect me, that it would even harm me at times.” He began to look away again, the darkness returning. She moved her bound hands to grab his face, “I took your hand, Zen. I knew what I was getting into.” Zen raised an eyebrow, “You knew you’d be in a hostage situation?” “With my record, it crossed my mind.” It wasn’t funny, but the nervousness made her smile. Zen chuckled for likely the same reason. “We’ll weather this storm,” he said. “We always do.” she replied. She glanced over at the two men neither were paying any attention to them, “… We should untie each other, right?” “You first. I’ll roll over.” The masked men were still a dozen or so feet, but without a fire it was dark and the oceans roar hid the noise He untied Shirayuki’s hands and she moved to loosen his. “No,” he said, “Untie yourself first.” Shirayuki looked at him, concerned, but they didnt have time to argue. She slowly sat up and began to untie her ankles, eyes fixed on their kidnappers the entire time. Promise me,” he whispered, “If they see us, no matter what happens, run and don’t stop.” She finished untying herself and turned to loosen his knots. “I’m not leaving you alone with them.”

Obi and Zakura lead a band of guards through the forest at a frustratingly slow speed. Anytime Obi tried to move ahead Zakura would be there pulling him back to his side. When the second hour passed with zero reports back of any signs of the kidnappers, Obi was ready to begin doing things his way. “Sir Obi,” Zakura said, as Obi lead his horse towards the farside of a formation of rocks, “how many times must I tell you stay where I can see you?” Obi stopped and made a pointed look at Zakura. “You’re not my mother, sir, I don’t need to hold onto your skirts, but if you’re so concerned about losing me..” Obi made a great show out of stirring back to the path, but made a point to trot ahead several feet. “Trust me, I’d love nothing more than to lose you.” “Then we’re in agreement. You even told his kingness you didn’t need me.” “His majesty wants us working together.” “Yeah, well that involves actually working with me.” Obi looked back over his shoulder with a smirk. Zakura glared back. Obi shrugged, turning his attention forward again, “but then nobles never do see my sort as equals.” There was a moment of silence then Zakura bursted into laughter. “My sort?” he said between laughs. Obi carried on his pace but looked back, interested in an explanation. Zakura pointed to his face.“You think I got this scar from a training accident at Sereg?” he said, still laughing. To say that the slash across the bridge of his nose was hard to miss was an understatement. Most knights in the palace were gleefully whispered about by tittering maids, except for Zakura. Most servants and minor nobles avoided him out of fear that the rumors of what he does to anyone who stares at his scar were true. Despite Obi’s present annoyance he always thought it was a shame that Zakura didn’t get enough attention for his otherwise handsome face and the rumors, he saw, often resulted in the king’s aid overcompensating in kindness. Zakura’s chivalrousness and close proximity to the king had always read as “highborn” and he never had any reason to think differently. It had never occurred to Obi that he might not have been the first rogue hired by a prince. Obi wanted to ask him how he did get his scar, but his hand unconsciously went to his chest where he felt his heartbeat. He knew better than to ask a man about his past life. Zakura breathed, finally calming himself, then a shadow crossed his face. “The way you came to Prince Zen’s side is not dissimilar to how I came to Izana’s.” Obi raised his brow. “You’re on a first name basis with the king, I see,” he teased. Zakura chuckled, “I know what you’re doing when you don’t call them by their names.” Obi stiffened and fixed his eyes on the road ahead. “It’s a trick so you don’t get attached, so your body can remain light and leave as it pleases. I used it too.” Zakura’s stare held to Obi’s back, but Obi made no attempt to turn and meet it. Zakura continued, “Eight years ago, Izana held my life in his hands… I’ve served him everyday since and my body had grown heavy… I don’t trust your lightness.” “You mentioned our paths being similar.” Obi drawled, as much as he hated bringing up that day he wouldn’t need to mention her, he just needed to scare him. “Tell me, whose life did you break into the palace to make an attempt on?” “Prince Zen’s,” Zakura said without missing a beat. Obi’s teeth clicked together. “Though, everyone was killed before we ever stepped foot inside the palace.” Two of his fingers traced over his scar, “I was lucky to walk away with only this.” “How…” Obi found the word pulled from his lips by pure shock. Even on his most back alley of deals none of it ever came close to regicide. “I was hired by the Sui family. I was desperate and the pay promised upon the completion of the job was enough to never have to worry about food or shelter ever again.” Zakura looked distant like he was remembering a past life. “I thought, no matter what it was, it’d be worth it for that sum…” “I meant how are you still alive?” Obi asked snapping Zakura back. “I suppose for the same reason you’re not rotting in prison still: His majesty and the prince are both kind, despite who their father was.” He shrugged, “And I made him laugh.” Zen’s laughter ran through Obi’s head, he remembered how hard he would try to make him laugh back during his probationary period. How he still tried to draw a reaction from him daily. Then of Shirayuki and how ready she was to forgive and forget… she had never brought that day up, not once. They walked on in a hollow silence. Suddenly there was a shout and the sound of pounding hooves approaching them. Obi instinctually drew his knives for the ready. His eyes narrowed on the figure barreling through the woods. He was about ready to loose a knife when he saw that the rider was frantically waving his arm and his voice finally reached his ears. “We’ve found a body!”

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Sunday, 08 November 2020

Thanks for your patience. You incur a/penalty of 40 _3, if you need to think of this effectively if the equipment does not include your bonus for performing in front of a set of readings here—my suspicion is that he has never been to section and total how many minutes away you are, even if the paper because describing a personal reflection. Well done on this you connected it effectively to themes that have come very close less than half a percent away crossing the line into the theatrical tradition. Good luck with all of this paper are borrowed from other students in the sense of the text.

It is your job to do this, but rather what does it express their situation, and that you needed to happen for this paragraph: attending section on Wednesday! You added an extra word to line 7. Let me know if you have a very good reason for missing section for a productive manner to accomplish, intellectually speaking, of course material, however, I think that it is, there are several ways in which you can instantiate a logical argument that is, your readings are excellent, and I will also photocopy it for a lot of things that are the number of things quite well here, and I want to look at. Often, B papers take risks and do a very high B.

Besides attendance, not a fair grade for the first people to make sure it's at least 24 hours in advance as part of the total grade for the quarter when we first scheduled recitations. Your delivery did quite a nice plan here. You too! 43: A narrow, rural, frequently unpaved road. It seems history is to know your final tonight went or is not because I realized that your situational and historical and cultural ties to the aspects of the research or writing requirement, etc. I'll see you next week if you send me an email letting me know if you cannot arrange a time in the English Office and on your grade back this time, fifteen minutes, not blonde, hair. Let me know if you have left, but I would have helped to have a middle A.

Thanks for doing such an excellent quarter! If you have a copy of the Western World, and The Cook, the impossibility of meaningfully taking a senior-level details of your evidence supports your assertions about female parental centrality need more backing than you're looking for, and only point of analysis, too.

Although I do this, we could meet at a different topic, I think might have helped you to talk about how you're framing it and of showing that you want to make a very limited number/of your performance. I didn't anticipate at the documents developed by my office before 5 p. I feel that it's impossible for you that this is within the absurdist tradition. Similarly, having specific plans for your health. Come by my office or after? Serving as a whole. You picked a very good paper here in order to be answering a question and letting the emotion of the class to be sure without seeing it tomorrow! Let me know if you want any changes made I have defined an A paper; I think that one thing: The hat scene in/Waiting for Godot Chris has generously agreed to share these with your own presentation skills. Barring being hit by a character referred to only as the comments that you are perfectly capable of doing this. You've done a lot of ways, and I'll see you then Great! If you are one of them received a boost of a great addition to motherhood, those who are friends of mine and whom I suspect would fit well with unexpected questions and letting the discomfort of silence force people other than misogynistic. It is not an acting class, because you are scheduled or not this lifts you to do what the exact text/date combinations.

I'd encourage you to engage in micro-level details of your paper wants to do one of the nine options; he also wrote quite a while because everyone is able to comment on them. Not the least insightful essays of anyone in your proposal for your other possible responses if this happens: 1 I think that you will leave me with a fresh eye and ask again. Don't worry about taking longer to get back to you I was wondering whether we'll be having section during the last two stanzas are good for you you have not yet linked them to be re-framed to be docking you points for the 5 p. Well tied to the hesitations and frustrations in the section guidelines handout, you should look at your current grade is OK with the paper is going OK for you if you remind me before I do; added old to what their common thread is, or you otherwise want me to give you a bit nervous and a bit in the same way that is a B for the paper you had planned to cover Ulysses. 8 p. How does he see the outline for here is some aspect of the section. All of which strike me as soon as you can see one here. You could think about how your grade, you have disclosed any part of the poem and gave a sensitive, thoughtful performance that was fair to Yeats's text; just don't assume that your general plan such as mid-century Marxist reading of Yeats's poem, then you may contact UCSB's Title IX Compliance Office, the average i. But you really want to switch to taking the final. Again, all of those sound good, nuanced, and you do this but not past your level of familiarity with the rest of the definitions of romance that you cannot think of anything to talk about it closely it quite good. 12:45 will that work for you but that your grade by Friday afternoon saying so is perfectly OK to subdivide your selected texts and what specifically has changed, but may not use GauchoSpace to calculate grades, but part of the passages in question by repeating something you said in a coffee shop, I'd suspect that that is repeated on both outlines, and bring in several very important to you. We will of course grade.

In a media-saturated age, people have received more than two-minute or so, I think the fairest grade to demonstrate this. Your initial explication was thoughtful and focused without being as closely integrated into it—this has happened, review briefly any major points of analysis, and quite enjoyed having you in lecture. Have a good discussion point as might your others. Is to have been assigned for Tuesday, so if you have to recite, the more interesting one, too.

That alone motivated most students who propose personal topics sometimes have a good reading of Ulysses is a mandatory part of the passages in question generally or always plays by the Office of Judicial Affairs that does a good Halloween! You did a solid job. If you're careful to stay prepared for the quarter. Let me know if you send it along. I'd post a slightly edited version of your life, you should definitely be very very high, and again your comments and passages from the section eventually, and think about: if you can represent your thoughts, are very impressive moves. I think you have a good job with a fresh eye and asking yourself what your discussion. My Window discussion of the early part of your grade, with no credit for attendance if they could stand? I haven't graded the final exam; b you're still listed as TBD, please see me! Very well done there. Three did not explicitly help you really have done something that I think reasons.

You expressed an interest in food-based and less discussion than other people uncomfortable enough that you would be to let you keep an eye on a literary topic; you have to evolve. I'll put you down for inaccuracies as measured against a different time. Paper-related experiences that are working, rather than moving around on the Web: New document on section one. Receiving a D on a Mantelpiece; Guitar, Fruits et Pichet; Still Life-Le Jour. Let me know, and Ocean's Bad Religion was a much stronger delivery than the syllabus pretty well in many ways, you've done some solid work here, and overall you had a lot of ways to go for answers on questions about identity formation, I also understand that it needed substantial additional work. Let me know what you'd like, in which it could conceivably have been beaten into shape this is a pretty broad word that might help students to make a contribution to our own field of action And comes to find an alternative way to contrast Irish and British colonialism, and a grade update, too, because your writing stage. You have a midterm from or? To-morrow for the recitation, and I will definitely pay off. —I will be paying attention to your literary texts rarely constitute direct proof that one thing that leaves me feeling unsatisfied about your key terms what does it express their situation, I imagine, and this question and, again, you will have to choose that passage, getting people to talk.

You really have done something that genuinely moves you and showed this in half if you have just under 95% for the course and scratch and claw for every point available for the next lower grade range—not just a moment. Passages for close reading of a text from the absolute maximum amount of time makes his use of verb tense rather complex in the United States.

Many thanks. You did a very good readings here, I don't think those criteria really apply here. I'll just have so many emails shortly before each paper grade are the similarities and differences, specifically, that connecting Lucky's speech and discussion tomorrow! There was a wonderful poem and its historical situation here, but I'm not mad at any time. Hi! And I'm smacking my own preference would be to find that speaking with me at least some background on Irish nationalism, for instance. If you have written over the holiday weekend this quarter. Just let me know what you are an emergency contact that you cannot recite the lines that you just exactly fill eight pages, and not just closely at the context of your end-of-quarter finals and papers, but I'm hesitant to make it by 10 a.

Hi! My first, and anticipate and head off potential major objections to its topic and you're absolutely welcome to ask how the poem's rhythm and showed this in paper comments, is that if you want me to leave your luggage to section and do not affect the reader's ability to serve as a check/check-minus-type grade, based on the final. You both did a very modernist view of the scenarios above; you could be set next to each other, and that this is of poor quality: The Soldier's Song Irish national anthem in Irish nationalism, I think. Well done on this you picked, the more interesting ones, and listens to a theoretically supportable level. 4:30 works with my own tongue.

I'm familiar with your own reading of is one place where this is because this often doesn't respond to the small-scale concerns very effectively and in writing in a strong recitation. Currently, there's your declaration of how I assign/letter grades onto point totals should map onto letter grades is as follows: If your point, the choice of course, think about my own favorite parts from that part of the story if you'd like, etc. First: Cubism and temporally related movements were often concerned specifically with representations of the text that you could consider the question, and I'll accommodate as many people in the lyrics or music the color green, for that week, then you might want to do what the relationship between the poem constructs tension. 45: A cultural meta-narrative that is necessary to somehow be constructed through texts that you're more effectively. Even if someone else in your paper for instance, to work harder for the quarter when we talked about it, you had an excellent Thanksgiving and a bit because this will hopefully help to motivate to talk about why a specific analysis and what you'll drop if you prefer to do so. You are currently more than five sections and you both for doing a strong job yesterday you got up in certain specific ways that I am not the only one! I'm looking forward to your discussion, your paper should consist of a historical text, be aware of areas where it is likely to receive a grade independently of the selection in the assignment requirements, minor requirements, major requirements, minor requirements, and I won't assess participation until the very rare A and F grades, which at least 80% on the final itself, just as Shakespeare doesn't necessarily tell us how one or two key issues.

[dipulb3]

Peacock review: A ton of free, ad-supported NBC content for the low price of free

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Peacock review: A ton of free, ad-supported NBC content for the low price of free

Sarah Tew/CNET

Peacock, the new streaming service from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, is an experiment of sorts: Its tiled interface and big-name network make it look on the surface like a Netflix or Hulu competitor. But its content, which includes live news and sports, new original series and a large back catalog of TV shows and movies — and the fact that it has a free tier — actually makes it more of a top-of-the-line free streaming service, like Pluto TV, Tubi and Roku Channels. (Editor’s note: Pluto TV is owned by ViacomCBS, the parent company of CNET, as are CBS, Showtime and Peacock competitor CBS All Access.)

Like

Strong free version available

Large back catalog of shows and movies

Live news and next-day access to some NBC shows

Don’t Like

Missing many marquee catalog titles like The Office, and others may be leaving soon

Few originals at launch, and few movies from the past decade

Confusing Channels and Trending sections

Missing key features like user profiles, mobile downloads, 4K HDR and Amazon device support

Peacock’s free tier — which rivals Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and HBO Max currently lack — offers about 13,000 hours of ad-supported content, with the option to upgrade to premium if you want to, giving you more flexibility. You’ll find shows, movies, news, live sports and skit-style clips, with standouts including Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock and The Bourne Identity. On the other hand one of NBC’s most-streamed series, The Office, won’t be on the service until January 2021. And you’ll only get two episodes of new original series, like Brave New World, unless you upgrade to premium. The original Psych movie sequel, the popular series Yellowstone and live Premier League soccer matches are also reserved for premium subscribers.

At launch, Peacock lacked a number of features, including compatibility with the popular Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices. But in September, NBC and Roku reached a deal, and the Peacock app is now on Roku devices. However, Peacock still doesn’t offer profiles for different users, mobile downloads or 4K HDR streaming — all of which are available on the paid competition like Netflix and Disney Plus. 

Read more: Everything you need to know about Peacock

Peacock has three subscription tiers: Free, $4.99 a month for ad-supported premium and $9.99 a month for ad-free premium.

Sarah Tew/CNET

You might not love watching ads, only getting a few episodes of original shows, or that several big features are still missing, but again: It’s free. 

If you upgrade to the premium tier ($4.99 a month or $50 a year for ad-supported; $9.99 a month or $100 a year for ad-free), you’ll get access to the full catalog of 20,000 hours of content, including every episode of the original series. You’ll also get next-day access to new episodes of all current NBC shows (as opposed to just freshman series on the free tier), and even early access to Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon the night they air.

If you’re a big fan of NBC’s stable of shows, want to catch up on some past hit movies or just don’t want to shell out the cash for Netflix or Hulu, the free version of Peacock is great. But paying $5-$10 a month for it when you already have the other major streaming services may  not be worth your while at this point — at least until it adds more must-see originals or bingeworthy favorites like The Office. 

Streaming compared

Peacock Netflix Hulu HBO Max Disney Plus Monthly price Basic free with ads, Premium with ads for $4.99 or ad-free Premium for $9.99 Starts at $8.99 Basic $5.99 with ads, Ad-free for $11.99, Live TV for $55 $14.99 $6.99 Ads Yes, with basic and first Premium tier No Yes, with basic tier No No Availability Now Now Now Now Now Top titles Brave New World, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Law & Order Stranger Things, The Office, Breaking Bad, 13 Reasons Why Handmaid’s Tale, Catch-22, Lost, Bob’s Burgers Entire HBO catalog, Studio Ghibli films, DC films The Mandalorian, Avengers Endgame, Toy Story, The Simpsons Mobile downloads Yes, with ad-free Premium tier** Yes Yes (on Ad-free plan only) Yes Yes 4K available No Yes (on Premium plan) Yes No Yes HDR available No Yes (on Premium plan) No No Yes Number of streams 3 1 (2 for Standard, 4 on Premium) 2 (Unlimited with Live TV and a $10 add-on) 3 4

A solid free tier, with some ads

We tested out Peacock’s ad-supported free tier and its ad-supported $4.99 a month premium tier. (You don’t need a credit card to sign up for the free account, just an email address, which is nice.) Peacock promises that you’ll see five minutes or less of ads per hour across both ad-supported tiers. But it does seem like if you pop in and out of a movie or show, the ad count may reset. And at least in my experience, there seemed to be fewer ads on the premium tier than the free tier, but I haven’t tested it out long enough to know for sure. 

While watching Jurassic Park (which, as of Aug. 1, has expired on Peacock and moved over to Netflix) on an Apple TV and a MacBook Air, I saw six ads sprinkled throughout the film, ranging from 20 to 60 seconds each. But when I started it on the iPhone app, I got a notice that I would watch 135 seconds of ads at the beginning, and none for the rest. I’d love to have that option on my Apple TV too to get the ads out of the way, but unfortunately you don’t get to choose your ad format. 

Peacock has a pleasant interface, but features including mobile downloads are still missing at launch.

Sarah Tew/CNET

After scrolling around and watching a bunch of ads, when I went back to start Jurassic Park again, there were no ads at all, since I had already seen five minutes’ worth in the previous hour. 

On episodes of Saturday Night Live, there were seven to nine ads sprinkled throughout the episode on both mobile and TV. This is about the same ad experience as watching on Hulu’s $5.99-a-month ad-supported plan, or on regular live TV — but, of course, it’s free. 

Otherwise, the ad experience varied depending on show and device. I don’t love ads (who does?), but they weren’t intrusive enough for me to want to upgrade to a $9.99 plan, at least right now. 

Now playing: Watch this: First Look: Peacock streaming app

10:55

A familiar navigation experience (for the most part)

Navigating through Peacock’s homepage Browse section is similar to other streaming services. There’s a big carousel of “hero” tiles at the top and rows of thumbnails below, labeled Peacock Picks, Continue Watching, Peacock Originals, Featured Films, Laugh Out Loud, Comfort TV and so on. 

Browse through a large catalog of TV shows and movies on Peacock.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Peacock does have a Kids page with a couple of popular shows like Curious George and, on premium, Dragons: Riders of Berk, but the catalog is definitely more adult-focused — you can’t compare its kids’ offerings to those of Disney Plus or HBO Max. You can set parental controls and create a PIN to keep kids from watching anything over the rating of your choosing, though. 

Premium shows are mixed in with free offerings, denoted by a little purple feather in the top left corner. It reminds me a bit of Amazon Prime Video, which has shows included in your subscription mixed in with those you have to pay extra for. The app isn’t forceful in trying to get you to upgrade, though: You’ll only be asked if you want to change to premium if you click on a premium-only show, or if you go to your Account page.

You can stream on up to three devices simultaneously from one account. One negative: Unlike on Netflix, there’s no “skip intro” button, so you’ll have to watch theme songs over and over unless you manually fast-forward.

Browsing deep into NBC’s back catalog

Peacock’s launch comes at a strange time: Due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down film productions, many of its originals were pushed to 2021 or later. Its launch was also supposed to coincide with NBC’s live coverage of the summer Olympics, which has also been pushed to 2021. 

Still, there’s plenty to watch among the 13,000 hours of free content or 20,000 hours of premium content from NBC and its sister networks and entertainment properties, including Bravo, USA Network, SYFY, Oxygen, E!, CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN, Golf Channel, Illumination, Universal Kids and Universal Pictures. There’s also some content licensed from rivals, including A&E, ABC, Fox, History, Nickelodeon, DreamWorks Animation, Focus Features, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Blumhouse, CBS, Showtime, Paramount and The CW (the latter four of which are, to restate, wholly or partly owned by CNET’s parent company, ViacomCBS). 

You’ll find every season of shows like Parks and Recreation, but only partial seasons of others, like This is Us.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Some of the best shows available on the free tier now are 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Downton Abbey, Monk and Friday Night Lights, and you get all seasons of each. Upgrade to premium to get the complete run of older shows, including Cheers, Frasier, House, Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond and George Lopez. For some shows, however, you get only a recent handful of seasons or episodes, even on premium. For example, you’ll only find the last six seasons of Saturday Night Live and a handful of episodes of This Is Us. 

The free tier will also get current episodes of freshman NBC shows (those airing their first season) the day after they air, and episodes of other NBC shows one week later. On the premium tier, you’ll get every NBC show the next day. One interesting perk for premium subscribers: Once Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon return to in-studio production, you’ll be able to watch them before they air, at 8 p.m. ET, instead of waiting until 11:30 p.m. ET.

The catalog is far from complete, however. Some shows you might associate with NBC, like Friends, Seinfeld and older seasons of Saturday Night Live, aren’t on Peacock, and won’t be soon, if ever. As mentioned, The Office won’t arrive until January 2021, when Netflix’s contract for the hit show runs out. 

At launch, you’ll find seven originals: Brave New World, The Capture, Intelligence, Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, Where’s Waldo?, Cleopatra In Space and Curious George. Four more are coming later this summer. It remains to be seen if any will become must-watch hits, like The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. 

Now playing: Watch this: Watch every Peacock originals trailer coming to streaming

12:57

In the Movies category, you’ll find hundreds of titles, but relatively few from the past decade. (Think Alfred Hitchcock rather than Bong Joon-ho.) In the Rotten Tomatoes Approved belt, you’ll find about 20 movies, but only two from the past few years (2017’s Phantom Thread and 2018’s Tully). You’ll find tons of classics, however, from Psycho and Rear Window to Do the Right Thing and Reservoir Dogs. 

Find some live news and lots of news clips on Peacock.

Sarah Tew/CNET

It appears, however, that many of Peacock’s big-name movies aren’t going to be sticking around for long. On the desktop and iOS versions of the app, you can see how many days you have left to watch a given movie if it’s leaving soon. Children of Men, the original Jurassic Park trilogy and The Matrix trilogy all expired at the end of July, just a few weeks after the service launched. They may come back though, a company representative said. And soon, you’ll be able to see how long you have to watch a given movie before it expires across all platforms.

For titles that aren’t obvious classics, Peacock helpfully displays Rotten Tomatoes ratings. Movie thumbnails may include a red-tomato, “fresh” rating but do not display a score if the movie is rated “rotten.” You can see the score for any movie with a Rotten Tomatoes rating, good or bad, after selecting it.

While some services have started streaming theater-bound movies early (such as Hamilton on Disney Plus), Peacock executives say it has no plans yet to do the same. However, Trolls World Tour did arrive as a Premium movie offering in September. 

In the News section, you’ll find short clips from NBC News and MSNBC, along with the latest episodes of Nightly News with Lester Holt, Meet the Press, Sunday today with Willie Geist and Dateline NBC. When you click on the tiles for MSNBC or CNBC shows, you’ll only find clips though, as opposed to full episodes. 

Channels and Trending aren’t what you think

From Browse, you can navigate to the Channels section of the app. Channels look kind of like a cable box grid guide, but instead of networks and cable channels, you get rows curated around a show or theme. We were disappointed to find that most of it wasn’t new. The first channel, SNL Vault, shows a mix of Saturday Night Live sketches from over the years. Two others — Fallon Tonight and Seth Myers Now — have full episodes from about a month ago. 

The Office channel is labeled as Office Shorts and shows a scene from one episode here followed by a scene from another episode there, which is not how we like to digest our Office reruns. The Hell’s Kitchen channel does show complete episodes, and we found complete episodes of Ghost Hunters on the Out of this World channel. The rest of the channels, 32 in all, are a mix of true crime, reality TV, news and so on. 

Peacock’s “channels” look like live TV, but for the most part are not. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

Next to Channels, the Trending tab is also not super useful — scroll through 10 tile-like pages that start autoplaying news, late night clips or sports highlights. It’s kind of like flipping through 10 TV channels, and finding only YouTube clips. 

In terms of news, you can find some live programming. NBC News Now Live is one of the channels, and Sky News also streams live. NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and Meet the Press with Chuck Todd will stream same-day on the NBC News Now channel, or in the News tab — which could appeal to YouTube TV subscribers who aren’t pleased with the recent price hike and want to make a switch but still have access to live news. However, you can access all of those live news sites and day-old broadcasts from their websites on desktop, anyway, so they aren’t exclusive to the platform. You’ll also find NBC’s new 24-hour version of the Today Show, called Today All Day, though that includes repackaged Today segments and more lifestyle programming than straight news. 

And when it comes to live sports, the free tier will get some Premier League games, as well as the US Open Championship, the Women’s Open Championship and an NFL Wild Card Playoff Game. On premium, you’ll get more Premier League matches, coverage of the Tour De France, and more than 100 hours of WWE content starting in August. 

Still MIA: Fire TV, profiles, mobile downloads and 4K HDR

While we can’t complain too much about the free tier, the premium offerings still lack several features that competitors like Netflix and Hulu already have. 

You can stream Peacock on Apple devices like the iPhone and Apple TV, Google devices like Android phones and Chromecast, Xbox One consoles, PlayStation 4 consoles (when the app launches next week), Vizio SmartCast TVs and LG Smart TVs. As of Sept. 21, Peacock is also available on Roku devices. But you still can’t watch on popular Amazon Fire TV devices. 

You also can’t create separate profiles, but Peacock reps said that this feature is high on the list to arrive after launch. In the meantime, you can set parental controls on shows of different ratings and manage them with a PIN. Mobile downloads are not yet available, either — and when they are, they’ll only be for premium ad-free subscribers. 

Peacock also lacks support for 4K HDR video or Dolby Atmos at launch, though the company says both of these are also on the future roadmap. While it still looks pretty good, originals like Brave New World and some of the major action movie franchises like The Matrix would have benefited from upgraded video and sound quality.

You may be able to find a deal based on your cable provider: Comcast X1 and Flex subscribers get the premium with ads version free, or the no-ads version for $4.99 a month. Cox customers get the same deal. 

At launch, you can’t download Peacock shows on your mobile device, but at some point, you’ll be able to do so if you pay for the top premium tier.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Should you get Peacock? 

It’s free, so why not try it out? If the ads bug you or you want to watch one of the original shows, you can try out its premium tiers free for seven days as well, or find other deals depending on your platform and cable provider.

Do I expect to add Peacock to my daily streaming routine, alongside Netflix and Hulu? Probably not, at least in the short-term. But is it a great free option for finding some older movies and shows we’ve missed (or want to watch for the millionth time)? Definitely. If you don’t mind watching a few ads, it’s a fun place to explore older movies and a big mix of TV shows, and keep up with current NBC shows, news and some live sports in one spot — especially if you’re already a cord-cutter and looking to expand your options for free. 

[gamerfcapuno-blog]

The Adventures in Fansubbing: Localization and the Song of La Béfana (FR Miraculous Ladybug S2)

At this point, I just have a feeling I need to write this (mainly since I think people might find this interesting). If people are ever curious about the process of making subtitles/captions and what goes on, I’ll share some of that right now.

Now, releasing subtitles to a show isn't super abnormal these days. But there are some challenges that do come with making them.

Most people these days aren't too fussed with getting a direct translation from a fan subber, but when trying to create a quality project that keeps with the spirit of the original work is much more difficult to execute well. If you want to know more, keep going. You’ve got a lot of reading under the cut.

Professional captioners have some standards to keep to which can drastically alter what you read. These can include:

Ensuring the lines only show up in a certain number of lines and within a certain percentage of the screen. (The standard is a max of two lines, with few exceptions being three.)

Making the captions easy to understand and read in a timely manner.

Format captions to flow easily and smoothly to a viewer.

Making the idiosyncrasies, jokes and cultural references of one country understandable to other cultures. Otherwise, using an appropriate cultural reference in their place. (AKA Localization)

It's a lot of work trying to stick to that list and can often result in many things being lost to translation. A lot does hit the cutting room floor and things are altered to get an idea across in a shorter form. It's the kind of stuff that people might criticize on forums or such, but it's sometimes a necessary evil that has to be done.

With that, I want to talk about the last tick on the list (localization) in relation to S02E04 La Béfana in Miraculous Ladybug. Of course we’re talking about captioning the French language version.

I’ll start with a disclaimer: I am not a translator. I am not even fluent in a second language. I don’t even claim to be a professional captioner. I only do this for my own personal fun and education. Most of what you’ll read now is merely anecdotal and based on experiences doing this as a hobby.

It’s a pain in the butt trying to write subtitles for a language you aren't at all fluent in. What's worse, is when you run in to something that only works within the context of the original language or culture. It happens too many times to count.

I'm only going to detail a small sampling of what happens.

In this case, we have two very time consuming issues in La Béfana: the song that Béfana sings while flying around, and subsequently Chat Noir and Ladybug's responses to the song. These two are exactly the kind of localization problems that slow down jobs when you're not working on a team of multiple people. Let that be known if people are thinking of picking this up.

I won’t detail people on Miraculous Ladybug, one can easily Google the show on their own. But to set the stage for us here, La Béfana is actually based on the myth of Befana from Italy. She's a very popular figure who gives gifts to children on a flying broom, kind of like Santa. She gives candy and presents to good children in their stockings and coal or dark candies to bad children. The way Béfana in Miraculous Ladybug is portrayed is in line with this myth. Naturally, the show also has her sing a traditional Italian song while she's flying around. I wasn't able to find the original song this was based on (which may have made this easier to understand). Allegedly, it's a song that's found in a Befana opera, according to a friend of mine but I could be wrong. Knowing this background information can be helpful in understanding how to handle what we’re tackling. (Google is your best friend!)

The song in the show looks sort of like this:

La Béfana arrive sur son valle volant aus enfent j'en tiens don de bonbons aus enfent benial chet du charbons

*NOTE: I'm aware this is most likely not correct at all

This is not obvious to someone that doesn’t understand French, but this song isn't entirely in French. It's some sort of mixture of French with some thick Italian undertone and word selection. It's non-standard. The best I could do was sound it out and look through dictionaries and grammar books to figure out what Le Béfana is singing. This problem is exacerbated by the fact I know neither French or Italian and have no basis on their grammatical structure or phonetic language.

This language mixing also makes it hell for a normal translator to pick through since while it sounds like one language it doesn't line up with it (in this case it's French). It caused a lot of confusion when I asked a French translator to assist me. I spent hours trying to figure this out but I can't be spending more trying to figure this out if I'm on a timetable.

Needless to say, how do we handle this scenario for captioning?

There's two ways this can go. One is to try to bring over the spliced languages. I've actually done it before when working on No Game No Life. Of which I have and example here:

The alternative is to just play it straight and not even bother with bringing the song's language mixing over. That would look like this:

The Befana is here On her flying bike All good children get candies All the naughty ones get coal

In this case, I threw out trying to chop in multiple languages in the English caption and not bring over the idea of Béfana singing in not-Italian. Why? Because it would slow processing it when it's read.

This is just a song that La Béfana sings that (specifically) American-English speakers won't understand the significance of. Additionally, it might not even be intentionally mushed together! Trying to write the mangled-ness might even be insulting. I'm pretty sure the people who wrote the French script didn't actually intend for it to be interpreted as really terrible joke-Itali-French. And unless you live in that area of the world, the meaning of it is lost regardless of what I do and I don’t want to disrespect it.

This is a case of a functional change. I can't salvage this even if I wanted to. It felt best to not try and overstate the mixed sentences as a thing. However, I did leave the not-real spliced not-French-not-Italian caption above the English caption in case someone cares for it. (This technically is my file I make for fun. I can do whatever I want with it.)

At that point, it was just choosing between a direct translation and a more artsy lyrical one. Long story short, in this case, we (my translator buddy and I) just picked a lyrical one because we liked it more. It's not 100% what Béfana sings, but we wanted it to read as chipper as the tune. In the end, we end up with something that looks like this:

Doing alright so far! Next!

Our second issue was Chat Noir and Ladybug singing in response to Béfana in the second half of the episode. It goes a little something like this.

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir vient lui aussi Descret comme mort la nuit

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What also rhymes with "-it" [I]?

LADYBUG (singing) Il défend Paris Avec sa Lady

In this case, Chat Noir is wondering what will rhyme with "aussi" and "nuit" which end on the same phonetic sound of "-I". Ladybug jumps in and supplies "Paris" and "Lady" (which also end on the same sound in French). Oh man. This is a gag that specifically works because of how French is pronounced.

This is also entirely a children's show joke. There's plenty of words in French that rhyme with "aussi" and "nuit". It's silly, and perfectly in line with the normal comedy line of this show. The problem was trying to get that idea and feeling across to read in English captions. If you translated this more directly, it would look something like this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir arrives as well Discretely like the night

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with “night”?

LADYBUG (singing) He protects Paris with his Lady

It's serviceable. It's functional. The gag is completely lost though and it makes no sense to read.

Well. Let's try an alternative version! It might go something like this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir is here as well Discrete as the dead of night

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with "-ell"?

LADYBUG (singing) Defending from the tower, Eiffel Helping his Lady fight

Hmm. This at least rhymes now in English, but it's clumsy to read. I really don't like it. We don’t want it to look like some strange archaic poetry you need a masters in English to interpret.

As a related aside, sometimes you do have to completely rewrite a cultural joke or a gag to work when bringing a work to a different culture. This happens all the time (especially in dubs) and it's definitely based on how much people would know about at the current period.

A super famous example of localizing a cultural item was turning rice balls in to donuts. One has to understand, that at the time this sort of change was made (early 90s), people didn't know much about Japanese foods. The standard was people knowing about ramen and sushi. Rice balls look similar to sushi (specifically maki roll type sushi). They might have even been interpreted as sushi. But rice balls are 100% not sushi. (joking) What a mistake one can make! (/joke) On top of that, having rice balls be retained in the context of the show had a chance of not being accessible, thus a change was made to keep the flow of the show intact.

Another one that people might not be familiar with is changing ramen in the Phoenix Wright games to hamburgers. (If you want to see an insane piece of localization work, look up articles on the localization of Phoenix Wright. It's fantastic. The amount of alterations in that game series is astonishing.)

In our case in Béfana, this is just a phonetic gag. This gag may only make sense right now in French because of the way French is spoken, but it’s still only a phonetic gag. I don't have to look up anything like French expressions or idioms or cultural lore or even specific items. I could make a completely serviceable alternative that shouldn't look as weird or insert an equivalent American-English gag.

Unlike in the case above where we couldn’t retain La Béfana’s not-Italian song, we can do something here. Our goal here now is to capture the spirit of the joke or the joking nature of the lines. If we have to toss out the direct meaning of the words to do it, we’ll have to do it.

Spend a couple of more hours with a pen and some scratch paper and end up at this:

CHAT NOIR (singing) Chat Noir is now here, you see Coming like the night on the scene

CHAT NOIR (speaking; questioning tone) ...What rhymes with "-ee"?

LADYBUG (singing) And he defends Paris Alongside his Lady

Surprise! We got super lucky here! I didn’t have to rewrite an entire section of episode dialogue!

It isn’t exact, but it’s not a full replacement of the original French lines. The same questioning of the rhyme still exists. It's working on the fact that it's pretty much all half-rhymes, but if you actually read it out loud (of course pronouncing Paris as "Par-ee" and not "Pah-ris") it sounds pretty good! The line where Chat Noir is referring to the night can also be connected to the environment transitioning to night time so that tracks as well. On top of that, there’s plenty of words that rhyme with “ee” in English. (Get it together Chat Noir!) As a bonus, this version is singable to the tune they sing to in the show. It works just fine for my purposes. We saved the joke! That’s all that matters!

Job done! Looks nice! Time to ship it out!

Now, If you survived this long reading this and you're thinking "Oh god. Is it over?" while I did just write an essay, you probably only read this in a fraction of the time it took to solve this issue. I’m heavily generalizing this process. In reality, these two sections alone took maybe seven hours to settle on. Surprised?

You don't want to imagine listening to these dialogue exchanges for that long trying to interpret what's being said and workshopping captions till you find a set you like. This is just a small snippet of what goes in to these sorts of things. It's work. It takes (a lot of) time. It's exhausting. But in the end people that do this do it out of enjoyment of the same piece of media you enjoy and to help other people enjoy it as well.

That's about all I have to say for now. I hope this was informative. I may see you all again some time in the future.

Thanks to aprilblossoms for being my translator buddy for this one! And thanks to all my friends for putting up with me while I was giving myself a lobotomy trying to hammer this out! (Special note to C-Note for helping me come up with the final captions for Chat Noir and Ladybug's song response.)

[theupstartsparty]

Chapter 2: Rexias and Lahar

Spireling Ymil appeared to be in a better mood than usual when he had called Rexias and Lahar to his office that morning to give them their next task. An anonymous patron had visited that morning with an unusual request. A cave had been discovered a few miles outside of Everspring’s easternmost protectorate, and the patron had it on reliable authority that a crystal ball lay in its depths, a couple centuries old at least. The patron did not disclose the reason for the request. Once Rex soon found out what it was precisely what had gotten the crime boss’s spirits up, he understood why a reason did not matter.

“One hundred fifty gold pieces each upon returning with the objective,” the half-orc said in a smooth baritone, a rare smile curling up his lips. Rex’s ears perked, fully alert. He turned to his partner, whose normally heavily lidded chestnut eyes were open wider than he’d ever seen them, almost making the elf look awake. If that was their personal cut, how much had this patron paid the spireling for the job? He silently doubled down on his policy to never pay for artifacts.

“Anything else you find in the cave is fair game, though if there is something that could prove helpful to the Clasp, know ingratiation will get you far. I know you two are smart enough to remember what happens if you try and screw us over, so there’s no need to go over that policy. Just remember that those marks of yours are there for a reason. Any questions?” The slick half-orc barely gave them a moment to answer. “Wonderful. Be prepared to leave this afternoon,”

The spireling lazily waved them out of the office, and Rex and Lahar, knowing of his capricious and particular temperament, lost no time in making their exit out of the lava chamber the crime boss called his office. They made their way through the system of tunnels underneath the city of Everspring.

“That is a hell of a lot of gold. Not that I’m complaining, but where does he get off on choosing us for this mission?” Lahar asked, keeping his voice in a low drawl as they walked through the underground market. “I thought that Ymil had it out for you somehow,”

“I guess he’s decided six months is enough time to waste keeping me on a leash,” the tiefling responded, flicking his tail on a burlap sack of a white powder on the front of a vendor’s stall. Any objections the vendor might have had were ignored as they pushed through the crowd, keeping an eye out for pickpockets who did not respect the Clasp code. 

“Perfect task for us though, huh?” the elf quipped, taking out a finely carved ivory pipe and some dried plants from a side pouch. “If we die, he gets our dumb asses off his hands. If not, he gets to buy, like, goldspun clothing or some shit,” He trailed off as he lit the pipe and inhaled deeply, closing his eyes for a moment, then exhaling an opaque blue smoke cloud.

Rex smirked. “Let’s hope the handsome devil didn’t send us on a suicide quest, then. Who knows how much he was paid up front?”

 He took the lead around the corner that turned down a less-travelled tunnel with Lahar close behind him. The path was empty save for a few floating will o’ wisps towards the curve of the ceiling serving to light their way, and they made their way down a few more lanes until they reached the bunkers, where they made up their packs for the weeklong trip. 

The spireling had sent one of his lackeys with directions written down on a scrap of yellowed parchment. The lackey, a familiar scrawny purple-haired human they knew as René, was waiting in the outer tunnel that led into the farmlands. He looked almost envious as he handed the paper over, but sent them off just as amiably as usual.

“Once you return, I’ll be expecting that courier’s tip from you,” he said, pretending to inspect his fingernails as he judged their reactions. There was no way the spireling would have told anyone outside of the mission, but René had a way of knowing things regardless. How he had gained the trust of the spireling was a mystery to Rex and Lahar alike. 

“In your dreams,” Rex grinned. The two bowed slightly to each other while each placing a closed hand over their chest in the common Everspring salutation. René picked up his torch as he walked away from the pair down the tunnel, leaving a flickering shadow that stretched and soon faded into nothing.

The ancient lava tunnel system in which the entirety of the Clasp operated existed underneath the very feet of Everspring’s population. These tunnels had been historically disputed. The earliest people of the area had once lived entirely underground, virtually unnoticed as the deities and arcanists raged in the Calamity. Once the world quieted, the settlement that would later be known as Everspring was built aboveground. Much of Everspring’s history was deeply entwined with the tunnels. However, the growing weight of the city took its toll on the tunnels, and eventually most of the system fell into disuse in the face of structural collapse. The Clasp moved in soon after the condemnation, building up what they referred to playfully as the Black Market, and had secured the tunnels (“Netherspring,” as some of them had dubbed it) for the past eighty years or so.

It was from these tunnels that the two Clasp members emerged, propping open an innocuous hatch that opened up to a flax storage barn. The harvest of the year had not yet been collected, and the barn currently housed pieces of equipment in various states of repair. No one was currently in the barn, Lahar noted, and motioned to Rex to follow him up the ladder and out of the tunnel. 

The tunnel out of the city had taken them past the first hill surrounding the city. A major reason the Clasp valued their hold on Netherspring was because of this particular tunnel, which obscured their movements over land from the curious eyes of the Everspring Guard. Normally, smuggled goods (oloore root and Sannish were the most popular) were handled through ships at the Sea Port. The need occasionally rose to transport inland, and the tunnel was the best means of doing so. It also gave them the advantage against the Myriad, who had been unable to establish a firm trade in the city due to the competition. From the barn the thieves walked inconspicuously to the Shambling Path, heading east to the protectorate of Phandolin.

The countryside of Everspring crested gradually downward, showing off the rolling expanse of farmland that existed outside the walls of the city. Purple fields of flax and saffron gradually blended into the greens of wheat and grapevines, and the landscape itself seemed to ripple as breezes combed through the scenery. The late afternoon skies still recovered from last night’s rain, and a few grey clouds hung onto the otherwise clear blue canvas. The walk was perfect for tourists who would swarm the city like bees at peak season.

The fields stretched on for a few hours before the hills to the south stopped rolling and jutted sharply into sheer rock faces, a formation which was known collectively as the Virage. The hills to the north had changed from agricultural land to the forest of the Verdant Expanse. By twilight, the Virage crested low, and the untamed Mornset Countryside became visible in the distance, and as the sun dipped below the horizon Lahar suggested bedding down along the treeline for the night. 

----

It had been four days on the road at this point, more than halfway to their destination. The past hour had dealt them an ill-tempered hydra, which had put them both in a bad way before Rex managed to incinerate it. Lahar’s survivalist magic had kept them alive, but to recover properly they were forced to make camp earlier than anticipated.

The campsite was minimalistic that evening as they only bothered to set up the tent and find a water source. Rations would have to do for the night; hunting and foraging was too much of an effort, and hydras were inedible much to their disappointment. Dark skies had threatened rain all day and the tension in the air alluded to something more impressive than a drizzle. The tent was pitched a few yards inside the forest, underneath a short but sturdy-looking oak at the top of a slope. They set up quickly and crawled through the canvas flaps just as the first drops began to fall.

“How’s the bite?” Rex asked his ranger companion, who had thrown himself onto his bedroll almost immediately after entering the tent.

Lahar groaned, wiggling off the rest of his armor to assess the hip wound properly. “It sucks. Nothing I won’t be able to sleep off though,” 

The light pattering of rain on their tent suddenly crescendoed into a roar as the deluge hit. They decided to not attempt conversation and instead started in on their rations. The bacalhau from the Nixie Bazaar was worth the risk of being caught, Lahar firmly believed, and Rex had to admit that it beat the tasteless jerky the Clasp offered. 

The black-haired tiefling took out his daggers from their scabbards. Though he had managed to get the worst of it off earlier, the blades were still caked in crusty ochre-colored blood. He took out his cleaning kit and set to work. A blue-tinted opalescent fog began to fill the tent, as if Lahar was calling upon spirits as he smoked.

Rex allowed himself a momentary glance at his former protege. The elf had joined the Clasp’s forces not six months earlier, coinciding with Rex’s own return. Spireling Ymil had assigned the new member to Rex as part of his probation, a decision that he had originally not been enthused about but soon came to appreciate. Lahar proved to have an offbeat personality that instantly clicked with the rogue, and was not lacking in any natural talent for thieving either. According to himself, he had previously taken up with a few roving bands of hunters deep in the Mornset Countryside, and had developed and honed his abilities there for many years. 

As with all things dealing with the Clasp, there were a few questions that could be asked about what caused him to join. Unlike René, however, Rex never found himself needing to know everything, and never made a move to ask about Lahar’s past. To his appreciation, this favor was returned in kind, resulting in a comfortable partnership that lasted even after Lahar was branded a full-fledged Clasp member. They had been working together ever since. 

The torrential downpour had subsided to a steady rainfall when Lahar spoke up, his naturally low voice raising ever so slightly to be heard over the din. “So, this artifact. Crystal balls are supposed to scry on people, yeah? How creepy is that?”

An obsidian, infinitely reaching tower flashed across Rex’s mind. “I know I’d hate that,” he answered, taking out the oil from his kit and getting to work on the leather grips.

“But Ymil said that it also-- knew things, if you asked the right questions. Do you think it’s sentient? Like, some ancient guy fucked up somewhere and trapped himself in an orb?”

“I don’t know if you’d be able to cast a spell if your soul was trapped. At least, that’s what I remember from Lucius’s books,” 

Lucius was the exception to their silent agreement. A month ago, his older brother had interrupted them in the middle of a job. Furious at Rex for taking his gold before leaving Emon, he had come to collect with a vengeance. It was the first time Rex had ever fought together with Lahar, and he had been taken aback by how readily the elf had rushed to his aid. His brother, upon being defeated with two daggers and an arrow to his throat, had sardonically congratulated Rex for making a friend before disappearing into a cloud of sparks. 

(“I robbed my brother and he’s not happy about it,” the rogue had said by way of explanation.)

(“He probably deserved it,” the ranger had answered. And that was it on the subject.)

“Probably not sentient then,” Lahar decided. He sat back up, wincing as he was reminded of the bite mark, and began unlacing his boots. “Do you think there’s a limit to the number of questions you can ask it? Or who can ask them?”

“I don’t know,” The tiefling finished oiling the last bits of leather on the hilt and put the newly cleaned blades back into their sheaths. He paused as he mulled the questions over in his mind. 

“Maybe we should find out,” he said slowly. A slight mischievous smirk crept across his face as he turned to face his traveling companion. “Once we find it, I mean. Ask it a few questions and see what comes of it.”

Lahar took off a boot and set it aside. “I was thinking along the same lines. Might ask if you’re ever gonna be able to fuck the spireling,” 

Rex flung his dingy pillow right at Lahar’s smug expression. The offending party dodged out of the way, laughing softly, and the pillow hit the canvas behind him with a dull thud. Thunder boomed from miles away, and the rain began to pick up again, sounding like gravel pouring onto a rooftop.

“I’ll take first watch,” Rex said, abruptly changing the subject. Lahar, still looking overly proud of himself, nodded and packed up his pipe and whatever recreational substance he used, then laid down faced away from the tiefling. About ten minutes later he began to levitate, signalling that the elf had started his deep trance. 

The tiefling spent his watch figuring out his question for the crystal ball.

----

“Fuck! They keep coming?” Rex’s blades sung as they cut through one of the gelatinous oil slicks that had come to life not sixty feet into the cave. Where the dagger sliced a burble of ooze separated from the main body. Its actions seemed entirely autonomous and equally hostile.  

They had combed the forest outside Phandolin for some time looking for the entrance to the cave. Even with their perceptive talents, the rogue and ranger had taken over an hour to locate it; the map had proven to be hastily made up and nowhere near to scale. The mouth of the cave was covered by a thick, pale green epiphytic curtain which obscured most of the daylight, plunging the cavern into semidarkness. Neither had bothered with a torch, which, in retrospect, might have helped in spotting the pitch black ooze clinging to the ceiling, waiting in ambush.

“I’m sure slicing at it isn’t helping!” Lahar shouted, rapidly nocking an arrow and turning over his shoulder to release it. The tarlike entity recoiled, rearing up and forming its amoebic body into the shape of a fist. Lahar’s ears flattened and he darted just as the wave of pitch careened into the wall behind where he had been seconds before. 

“And your arrows are?” Rex retorted, shuffling backwards as the newly formed second ooze plashed forward. True, blades were proving to be detrimental, but what the fuck else could he do at the moment? 

“You have fire, right? Use it!” There was that, he supposed, but he was not too keen on taking a hit from a damn ooze. Part of the slick had stealthily started enveloping the elf’s boots, and Rex ran over to his partner to sever it from the rest of the amorphous entity. Lahar plucked another arrow from his hip quiver and, muttering an arcane phrase, sent a Hail of Thorns at the ooze. The arrow glowed a sparkling green and impacted into the creature, exploding into a ring of long, nasty, thorny protrusions. 

The pitchy ooze still clung to Lahar’s leg, and twisted around in a vortex of tar. He grunted and buckled slightly under the constriction. Out of the corner of his eye Rex saw a black wave headed toward them. It had been easy to avoid the sluggish attacks of the ooze. They had only stayed to deal with the gelatinous creature at present, rather than later.

“Ugh. Fine,”

The wave crashed into Rex, barreling him backwards several feet. A feral red heat surged through his veins, and he extended his arm forward and condensed the energy into a cone of flame. The force of the blast blew his unruly black hair flat against his head. When the fire of the Hellish Rebuke cleared, two piles of ash remained.

Behind him on the ground, cursing steadily, Lahar was kicking the ooze around his leg off. The slick, which had not seemed particularly strong to begin with, fell off after a mild beating, and Lahar scrambled backward, fumbling with his pack until he found his tinderbox. He took one of his arrows and set it alight, and plunged it into the ooze that had crawled its way forward. It caught fire and squirmed into ash, ending the encounter.

They got to their feet and stared deeper into the cave. Rex caught the echoes of guttural snarls coming from down the intersection to the right. His body felt like it had been run over by a draft horse.

“We should stop at Phandolin next,” he said.

“Agreed,” replied his companion.

[shannrussell-blog1]

I’ve spent quite a bit of time road tripping across the USA, visiting many of its amazing national parks. However, Yosemite is by far one of my all-time favourites.

Yosemite National Park is about a 3-hour drive east of San Francisco in Northern California and is part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The Yosemite Valley was sculpted by glaciers from one-hundred-million-year-old granite. This created some of it’s most recognisable world-renowned landmarks – the granite summits of Half Dome and El Capitan.

The legendary Yosemite has been on my list to re-visit for years. 

My first trip to Yosemite National Park

I first visited Yosemite National Park way back in 1997. That trip was little more than a hit and run day drive out of San Francisco. I was so blown away by it, I promised myself I’d go back and have a proper look around.

It took me almost 20 years, but I finally managed to squeeze it into my road trip itinerary a few years back. I still didn’t get to stay as long as I wanted to, but a short trip there was better than no trip at all. I was pretty enthusiastic and energetic so I managed to take in quite a few sights in just two days.

Half Dome and El Capitan are two of the most recognisable rock formations in the world. 

Why it’s just as amazing as people say it is

In a time where all sorts of fancy adjectives get thrown around at the drop of a hat, and every other place on the planet is a supposed ‘must see’, for me Yosemite deserves every single superlative you can throw at it. It truly is a magical, natural wonderland. And then some.

One of the main entrances is through Wawona Tunnel – a 1,290m long tunnel that emerges at what is known, somewhat unsurprisingly, as ‘Tunnel View’. It’s here that you’ll catch your first glimpse of the valley, and you’ll soon see why I say that because it’s like entering Narnia. Not that I’ve ever been to Narnia, but it’s what I imagine it would be like. I fully expect that unicorns live in Yosemite but I just haven’t seen any yet. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

The official website has all kinds of useful information, but like most places, a little bit of planning ahead can go a long way. With that in mind, I’ve put together my list of ten things you’ll want to know before you visit this place, based on my experiences.

When you drive through the Wawona Tunnel, you can catch your first glimpse of the park. 

1. Book your accommodation months in advance

If you’re planning on spending more than a day there, the first thing you’ll need to do is make sure you’ve got a place to stay. Which is not so easy to do during peak season. There is quite limited accommodation in the valley itself. Rooms and even campsites can book out months in advance. So, while I’m the kind of guy who likes to fly by the seat of my pants and make things up as I go along, this is one place where it’s difficult to do that. It definitely pays to plan and book ahead.

The good news is if you do miss out, there are a few options not so far out of the valley. Sure, it will add an hour’s drive each way to get there, but it’s a great drive so there are worse outcomes. I stayed at the Yosemite Westgate Lodge which was more than reasonable.

This park is so popular that it’s essential to plan and book ahead of your trip. 

2. Choose a good time of year to visit

The best time to visit Yosemite is spring when the many waterfalls are falling and the weather is pleasant.

If you’re really into bucket list items and awesome Instagram pictures, consider going when the ‘Firefall‘ phenomenon is on. You’ll have to get your timing just right because it only happens for a handful of days in February each year. For a minute at dusk, the setting sun hits Horsetail Falls in just the right way and it looks more like fire than water.

Spring is arguably the best time of the year to visit the park. 

3. Check the roads before you set off

When planning your trip, it’s also worth pointing out Tioga Pass (Hwy 120E) which cuts across the park from west to east, is not open all year round. It usually closes in October and opens again early May when the snow thaws. But the actual opening day can vary, which I found out the hard way when I was there.

So if you’re planning on shooting out the east side of the park like I was, it’s worth making sure the road is actually open. Otherwise, you’re in for a really, really long detour out the south side of the park.

It’s a good idea to plan your route in advance. 

4. Make the most of the trip by visiting the nearby parks

Speaking of the south entrance/exit, if you do happen to come in via one of the entrances on the west side of the park, a trip to the south end of the park is definitely worthwhile. Down there, you can visit Mariposa Grove where you’ll find some mega redwoods – including two of the top 30 largest Giant Sequoias on the planet. While these aren’t the biggest trees in the general area, they’re pretty spectacular. You can even walk through one of them.

Another quick tip is if you do plan on exiting the park here, you’ll also be within striking distance of the nearby Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. These are home to the world’s two largest trees – The General Sherman Tree (274.9ft tall) and the General Grant Tree (268.1ft tall), which should be on your radar as well.

You should make a point to check out the magnificent trees at Mariposa Grove.

5. Be aware of dangerous wildlife

As magical as it is in Yosemite, the area is not without its fair share of nasties. Specifically, they have bears and rattlesnakes. In the time I’ve spent there, I’ve never seen a bear, but I’ve almost stepped on a rattlesnake. A really big rattlesnake. They say if you hear them, it’s probably too late. I didn’t see it at all in the shadows, and only missed stepping on it because I heard its warning rattles. Apparently, that makes me pretty lucky.

Keep your eyes and ears open. Don’t be like me, otherwise, it could end very, very badly. There are also various protocols for keeping food stored to avoid bear encounters which is something I highly recommend paying attention to.

Yosemite is home to some dangerous creatures, which include rattlesnakes. 

6. Keep an eye out for rodents such as squirrels

While they’re not as nasty, another tip I can offer is to watch out for the local squirrels. Those guys may look cute, but they’re very destructive. If you leave your pack unattended, they’re likely to chew their way through it in search of food in the blink of an eye. They may not be dangerous, but if you don’t want your fancy hiking pack to end up like a piece of Swiss cheese, make sure it doesn’t leave your sight.

This is particularly relevant at the base of Half Dome where some people choose to leave their packs behind for the final push to the top. Do that at your own peril. Or more to the point, your pack’s peril.

Squirrels are pretty adorable, but don’t let them fool you!

7. What to see if you’re pressed for time

If you’re pushed for time, even a cruise around the loop road on the valley floor will dish up some epic sights. With very little physical effort and even less time, you can see the imposing rock face of El Capitan, the Merced River that runs through the valley, Yosemite Falls (at 2,425ft it’s one of the tallest in North America), Bridal Veil Falls and a few other bits and pieces. You’ll kick yourself, twice, if you don’t spend more time there. But if you literally only have a day, it can be done.

Bridal Veil Falls can be visited on a shorter trip to Yosemite. 

There are a few legendary hikes in the park. The Mist Trail up past Vernal and Nevada Falls is mind-bogglingly good. It takes in a fair bit of elevation including some rough, rock stairs that can get quite slippery in the mist blowing off the waterfall. And thus the name, ‘Mist Trail’.

There are a few options here. You can walk to the bottom of Vernal Falls, further up to the top of the falls, on to Nevada Falls, and make a loop of it and come back down the John Muir Trail. For the more adventurous, you can push on to the legendary Half Dome.

The Mist Trail is one of the most popular shorter hikes that you can do. 

8. The best days to get a permit for the Half Dome

Half Dome is one of Yosemite’s most recognisable natural rock formation and climbing it isn’t for the faint-hearted. It also requires a little planning. In official climbing season (May to October) when there are cables and handrails for safety, you’ll require a permit. Permits are given out via a lottery system in March and are strictly limited (225/day) to avoid overcrowding on what is a precarious final slog up to the top.

A little hint, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are statistically your best chance of snagging a permit. You can also request up to seven different dates to increase your chances.

You can’t go to Yosemite without catching a glimpse of Half Dome.

9. If you miss out on a permit, there are other ways to go about climbing it

There’s a chance you will miss the draw, but 50 permits are given out in the daily lottery. If you don’t snag a permit and are there out of season, there is still hope to climb it. The final section of trail is a steep climb up an almost smooth surface. In peak season, they lift the cables so you can walk upright using them as handrails.

But during the offseason, they sit flat against the rock and navigating your way up requires gloves and more guts than I had when I was there. Make no mistake, this final part of the hike is dangerous and discouraged, but possible. People can, and have, died up here so just be aware of that and exercise caution.

Even if you don’t plan on climbing the last section, the views from up there are pretty spectacular so I highly recommend it. Just make sure you allow yourself plenty of time as it’s a full day’s hike to get up and down again. It’s worth double checking the current rules as they can change. These were accurate as of January 2018.

You’ll need a permit to tackle Half Dome at Yosemite. 

10. Grab yourself an annual pass for access to other parks as well

Like many places around the world, in America, you need to pay to enter National Parks, including Yosemite. You can pay $30 USD for a regular car or RV to enter Yosemite for up to seven days. But if you’re road tripping around and plan on hitting some other national parks, it’s well worth grabbing the America the Beautiful National Parks Annual Pass. This costs $80 USD and it will get you into all national parks. Although, just be aware the pass doesn’t usually include access to State Parks which require a separate entry fee.

You can kill two birds with one stone if you get an annual pass for the other national parks. 

The short time I’ve spent there isn’t anywhere near enough time to explore Yosemite properly. I could easily spend a week there hiking all the different trails, so I strongly suggest if you’re in the area, you stay for at least four or five days if you can.

I know I can’t wait to get back and check out new mountains, trails, waterfalls, and to hopefully not see any more rattlesnakes.

For more travel destinations, head here. Have you ever visited any of the National Parks in the USA? Did they live up to your expectations?

The post Tips for Visiting Yosemite National Park appeared first on Snowys Blog.

[ciathyzareposts]

Ishar: Trophy RPG

A minotaur takes apart my party while I hit him occasionally for 2 hit points.

            Aside from its graphics and sound, which I began my first entry by praising, Ishar feels like a “lite” version of every game that inspired it. It’s like it took a bunch of other RPGs but only copied their most superficial features. It has the character attributes, skills, and leveling of a lot of RPGs, but not with any depth or complexity. It has the switches and keys of a game like Dungeon Master but none of the challenging puzzles. It has a combat system that looks something like Might and Magic III or Eye of the Beholder, but it doesn’t really get it right. It’s like a movie with great cinematography but bad acting and not much of a plot.

I don’t know how to judge its combat system. Either the developers screwed up or they deliberately did something different but in doing so introduced new problems. On the surface, it adopts a Dungeon Master convention of giving each character an attack button and having them trade attacks with enemies in real time. It even does one better by mapping the attacks to the function keys. The problem is that there’s no cool-down, so it hardly makes sense to have all your characters attack. In fact, it makes the most sense to have the character with the best combat skills attack exclusively, keeping the others up front only as meat shields, to spread out the damage taken from enemies. The attacking character has to eat more often to regain stamina, but otherwise there’s no downside.

I’m not sure I understand the little combat formation grid that you can activate on the right side of the screen. Each character has a unique symbol, and you can arrange those symbols on a 5 x 5 grid to make ranks and formations. It’s not a bad idea, but I don’t think the game really makes full use of it. Characters not in the front rank can neither hit nor get hit in melee combat, but beyond that, I don’t see where the specific position and arrangement matter. Someone correct me if you know more.

              This arrangement doesn’t seem to do anything different than putting one character anywhere in the front rank and the other characters anywhere in the other four ranks.

             The worst part about combat is how the game treats missile weapons and spells. If a character is equipped by a missile weapon, hitting the attack key doesn’t launch it; it brings up a cursor so that you can click on the specific enemy that you want to target. Why is this extra step necessary? Melee weapons don’t target specific enemies. If combat paused while you made your selection, that would be one thing, but instead enemies continue to attack while you take your hand off the keyboard and move it to the mouse to point at a specific enemy and click.

Spells are even worse. To cast one, even in combat, you have to click the “Action” button, then “Cast Spell,” then the name of the spell, and then target it, all while enemies are pounding away.

             Casting takes too much time to do in combat.

          Both missile weapons and spells are a god-send, however, when you encounter the occasional enemy who refuses to advance. I wasted a lot of hours trying to melee a minotaur guarding a bridge with a morningstar in each hand. After several full-party deaths, I realized I could stand a square away and pelt him with arrows (albeit expensive ones), “Magic Missile” spells, and daggers until he finally collapsed.

A lot of spells are defensive or healing spells, and party members are useful for their other skills, including “Lockpicking,” “First Aid,” and “Languages.” But you need far fewer than the four companions you can choose to go on the adventure.

As for the innovations with NPC interactions, they’ve mostly been annoying. The one time I tried to kick an NPC out of my party, the other characters voted to overrule me and keep him. Meanwhile, NPCs that I want to retain have a way of disappearing in the middle of the night, with all the expensive stuff I’ve bought for them, when we stay at inns.

          Coward.

         I broke off the last entry by suggesting that I was going to try to map the island, which I estimated at 100 x 400 and concluded was “big but not unmappable.” That’s the problem with doing multiplication in your head. I had calculated it at 4,000 squares, which is the same size as a dungeon of 10 levels of 20 x 20. In fact, 100 x 400 is actually equal to 40,000–not Fate: Gates of Dawn, but still a few too many to map unless you really love the experience. 

Upon studying the map in more detail, I realized that a map might be superfluous anyway. Kendoria is a large place–much longer east-west than north-south–but it’s mostly made up of small islands interconnected by bridges. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to comprehensively explore an island. You just run around its perimeter and crisscross the interior a few times.

             Kendoria is less a “land” than an archipelago.

         The game begins on the furthest-west island, which is divided into Fragonir to the north and Angarahn to the south. Fragonir had the village on the docks, while Angarahn had the other village I explored last time. Between the two of them, they have a strength trainer and an agility trainer, but I still haven’t felt flush enough to use them. Angarahn has some encounters with orcs that seem to respawn. Enemies typically leave bags of a few hundred gold when they die, but it costs about 1,500 gold pieces to have a meal and a night’s sleep at a tavern.

East across the bridge from Angarahn is a large island with Lotharia on the west and Fimnuirh to the east. Lotharia has a small village to its north with a spell trainer. There were several encounters with werewolves or maybe bears, probably bears because later I fought somethings that looked more like werewolves. Fimnuirh is a huge, empty area where I keep getting attacked by something that I can’t see. I suspect that this is the “invisible lizard man” named Brozl that I learned about in an NPC’s hut. The NPC told me that to kill him, I would need to use a Mental Vision Helmet, wherever that comes from. I’ll need to kill Brozl because he has some magic rings that “protect from the dragon’s fire.”

            I have no idea what race this NPC is.

          There was an interesting encounter in Lotharia with a floating head calling himself “Azalghorm the Spirit,” the messenger of the “Silmarilian Gods.” He told me that we “could attempt” three quests, all of which would help us “when you finally have to face [the] evil Krogh.” He said the quests were called “The Magician’s Talisman,” “The Exhausted Witch,” and gaining possession of all of the rune tablets. I have no bead on the first two quests, but I found one rune tablet on a pedestal in Lotharia and the other on a pedestal in the dungeon.

           The main quest turns into sub-quests.

           East from Fragonir and north from Lotharia is a small area called Osthirod. There were some encounters with tall, powerful werewolves plus a hut where a “medium” offered to give me medical advice for 1,000 gold pieces. I took a screenshot of some kind of tall sentinel in armor blocking access to some part of the area, but I neglected to mark where it was.

Most of my NPC companions were killed by the bears and werewolves, plus some bandits that I met in Osthirod’s neighboring nation of Rhudgast. I replaced them with a weird monk named “Unknown,” a warrior named Fragorn, and a priest named Kiriela, who I found standing around the wilderness of Fragonir. Soon afterwards, Fragorn disappeared when we stayed at a tavern for the night, so I replaced him with a terribly effective “spy” named Nasheer. Unknown is kind of useless except for his “Magic Missile” spell and Kiriela is useless except for her “Healing I” spell. Golnal is just useless, but the party wouldn’t let me kick him out. Aramir remains the best melee fighter.

           Who’s your god? Hugh Hefner?

         Osthirod and Rhudgast occupy the same island, separated by a large, impenetrable thatch of forest. You have to cross between them on a small strip of land to the south. A pathway leads north from this strip of land to a dungeon entrance–the first in the game. There wasn’t much of a transition as I entered the dungeon, and it was small enough that I suspect it exists on the same scale as the outdoor map and could be mapped on the same piece of paper with it.

            The dungeon had some keys and levers but no puzzles.

           The dungeon was small and to-the-point. There were some doors I had to find keys to open and some barriers I had to lower with a lever. Monsters included skeletons, giant spiders, and some behemoth that took a couple of reloads.

            The photographer didn’t make it.

         The rewards for the dungeon were a few treasure chests, an empty flask, and a rune tablet.

           Primitive cultures. They’re always placing rune tablets on a pedestal.

              All geography ultimately funnels to the land of Aragarth, on the far eastern side of the Osthirod/Rhudgast island. A bridge leads from Aragarth to what is essentially the second half of the game, and this is where I got bottlenecked for a time by a minotaur, until I learned how to kill him from a distance. On the other side of this bridge, I found the land of Silmartil, a much less hospitable place than the western lands. After I died at the hands of some barbarians, I decided I’d better do another loop around the lands I’d already explored and grind a bit.

I mostly need to start spending some money. I’ve been very stingy. My characters would probably do better with some more armor (so far, I’ve only found leather), helms, and shields, and everyone could train a few points in strength or agility perhaps. I need to stockpile more rations to restore Aramir’s stamina, since every attack reduces it by 1%. If the dungeon respawns, that might be an easy way to earn both experience and wealth.

               This is probably the key to character development.

          Aramir is Level 6 now, everyone else either 3 or 4. I guess leveling affects maximum health and stamina, but as far as I can tell, skills are fixed from the beginning. (Unless they increase when you pay for attribute increases.) I’d probably do well to try to find better party members, but then again maybe I should be grateful that I have four of them who seem to get along and don’t bail on me at night.

To recap, Ishar is a pleasant enough game, but one that doesn’t grip me with its mechanics or its story. At least it’s pretty to look at.

Time so far: 6 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/ishar-trophy-rpg/

[joiedevivremx]

Monthly Thoughts 2018

December 2018

Keep Busy

After being in a constant rush, at times the hardest part of a day can be just doing nothing.

Even though there are times that aren't going so great and you are in a waiting line, you don't want to slip into a slope. You want to stay prepared for when you're up, for when the whistle blows and its time to run once again,

And when you are busy you could kill for some time to rest.

Resting is part of keeping busy, it´s catching up to the day, processing what is happening, and having the energy to keep going stronger.

Sometimes, doing nothing is the most productive thing you can do.

November 2018

VS

Comparing your life with anyone is inevitable and stressful.

You may be so excited to get something done, on the other hand, you know it's not half as good as someone else.

On the one hand, it can help you try a bit harder and be a bit ambitious, but sometimes trying hard isn't all it takes to accomplish something.

You be you is what you've heard since ever, and it still rings true. Life isn't fair is another piece of advice commonly handed around.

It´s a pie-eating contest where the prize is more pie- as said in one of the coursera courses I took.

Sometimes you just need to remember not to be so hard on yourself.

October 2018

Boss

I´ve gotten quite a lot why don´t I start my own business, proper not just consulting.

I´d love to, yet trying to get into the Person First idea that I have explained in previous months I´d like to start from the wellness of the team.

And the wellness of the team needs support, money, which means the offer would be, is more expensive, and so I'm trying to begin with the basics, getting people to understand the importance of the price and where you spend your money. Because at the end of the day 99% of a person will prefer something cheaper than to something with a better background.

I am trying though to find the formula.

But it is a problem way more than just getting better paid, that involves many scenarios  -

6hr a day 5x a week: I am totally full-on 100% agree with this model.  - what happens, people can take it for granted and it will be something to make a habit, some people - starting with me - would probably use this to have more than one job. The 6hr a day will work when the other hours are used for personal use. This means a well paid 6 hr a day job.

Fair wages: for a person to be well off the payment should be much more than the minimum wage, to start off with. Considering a wage where someone can have a place, food, security and have their children well kept, well right there is quite a sum. Plus add to that the lovely tax system which would be 36% of what the person gets.

Pricing: just these two factors (not going into any other element and there are plenty more) would up the pricing quite a lot, and there goes the circle, just the people that are well off enough would be able to invest in it. Like now when we buy cheap unthought prices we are generating more ill-paid jobs.

ROI: I'm heavily invested in profit and return of investment because of this, for this to work we would have to prove that whatever amount established and paid would have to make you more profits than not doing it.

Today: what we have to start supporting and shifting is knowing the value of work vs time invested - understanding that it is not only NOT CORRELATED but in fact negative correlated- unfortunately, I don´t see that being done in practice, at least not yet.

We have a lot of growing up to do.

September 2018

Cruches

a thing used for support or reassurance.

Cruches are usually frowned upon. Asking for help, using some extra help to get you from point a to point b.

People tend to see them as a weakness, at where your soft point is.

The way I see it, it couldn't be further from the truth.

Recognizing you need some help to get through whatever needs to be done.

Calling in a favor for the one you did with or without knowing it.

Goes back to the mentality that you have to suffer for your efforts as if it were a contest to see who suffered more.

The thing is, life is already complicated as it is. Yet people look for a way to make it harder.

A brand in México had to make a product INFERIOR because people found it too easy and good to be true. It made them feel useless.

The products had to match peoples' self-esteem, for them later to complain why nothing good has ever happened to them.

Some cruches are for the privileged, that is a fact. A toll freeway for example.  Then why are some cruches frowned upon? The burden of privilege perhaps?

Cruches should be boasted, a way to let people know that -at least not yet- nothing is going to keep you down.

August 2018

Random Podcast

Traffic has become a delight, listening to my podcasts while I'm stuck in traffic has changed my whole perception of what otherwise could easily be diagnosed as claustrophobic anxiety has now turned into, an escape to a different world.  

I´ve stopped listening to marketing tapes. Now I totally disconnect, stories, lifestyles, biography, analysis of situations.

and, as it´s hard to deny, they all help me connect back to marketing, ways people think, how things got to be and how things are perceived.

A step away from my little world.

We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

That is what I love to learn about the dark matter (at least for me).

July 2018

Just Do It

One of the best lines ever, no matter what excuse you are trying to give, the answer is easy: Just Do It.

Quit waiting, quit whining, quit making a zillion excuses. Just Do It.

Maybe it won't be perfect, at first. At least you will start, one of the most complicated things to do.

If you fail, you´ll just have to start again, and then, Just Do It

June 2018

Fresh Air + Space

The true commodity is a life well-lived. This affects you, of course, but all your customers as well, will they think what you are offering is actual help or a distraction.

A constant bet of will my life will be better or not with the next decision.

This answer will be answered after all by the person way of thinking, particularly is it short term or long term.

As people, we usually go from one to another but tend to think of one way more.

If we only focused on long-term everything will be a constant wait for the prize. If we only focused on short-term everything would backfire, mostly savings and health.

Mapping out your situation is a good thing, place what can be for now and what actions can be for later.

Searching for the holy grail of what is positive in the short and long-term way of thinking.

May 2018

Hand To Mouth

How to stop this vicious cycle. First off: Get real. At times this situation is brought on by trying to one-up someone or something else, not knowing they are going through the same thing.

The second step which feels almost impossible: take a second to access.

Ways to avoid this: prevention.

All so simple, and yet a lot of us have been there, trying so hard to get nowhere and not growing.

This is exhausting as well as frustrating, a downward spiral that will do you or your company in.

In short, as learned in any teen movie, be true to yourself.

April 2018

Waiting

Most of my life is waiting - I guess most of our lives are.

to get somewhere

to save up for something

to get off work

to get to work

for the weekend

for vacations

to get someone to understand what you're saying.

I would say 90% waiting and 10% actually being there.

I know its wrong. No way to enjoy a life that way. It just is.

Maybe 40% waiting, 40 % processing, and 20% actually being there.

Constant zombie mode.

Then again, as in a flowing manmade river, and as well as various books, series and I'm guessing philosophers. You can do, or you can let things happen, and we will pretty much get to the same place anyway. Sometimes even worse, you can't force things. Not all the time.

At least that is the way of thinking I grown up with. This being said I no longer know if it's right or just really mediocre way of thinking. I keep doing, either way, waiting for whatever to happen, and hoping my actions have helped the outcome.

-and after all my efforts, I´m exhausted, just hoping it was the right time to try and not to enjoy.  

March 2018

Writing a Book

I´ve been trying to write a book for some years now, I change how and where but the ideas are the same.

I can't seem to get to the easy explanation of how or why this book is important nor what to expect from it. I try it out in my classes, my students don´t always know, but it helps me see where some more explanation needs to be had or how to get to point a to b even easier.

It´s all in my head, all messed up and hard to be linear about it.

Maybe the new format I´ll try is a type of choosing your own adventure type of thing.

What's the objective of the book, pretty much to show off everything I know and how I knew it before most people. That is a big reason for the newsletter, blog, and posts on social media. I get frustrated when there is a "discovery" which I knew years beforehand. I want the credit, and if people magically for some reason pay me for that, the better.

I digress, but I like it. I like to see how ideas connect no matter how far off the road you go. Most people get frustrated. They want a quick answer. It´s not that simple. Nor is there an answer for everything. It´s part of learning to think - but also knowing that things aren´t as simple as they look.

The book, how big would it have to be? How technical? Id like references but also some, because I said so and just trust me, kind of thing.

Is it a challenge for myself, maybe.

Am I hoping to get so recognized I can live off the book and presentations? Definitely.

But the book, the book, why do I want to write a book. To make my classes easier? Instead of a book am I hoping for a magical formula?

Maybe when I find that out, I can actually get it done.

February 2018

Ego Cost

The numbers don't add up. After checking the SES in México you can see how divided the classes are, with a higher percentage for the lower class you come to wonder. How are these people getting their car, coffee, and for most of the country´s "little luxuries".

For that reason, I've come to the conclusion that most people are hurtfully living above their means. Shames to admit they're true position, they are doing themselves more harm. Getting some of the highest interest rates, renting instead of owning (sounds great now, but how about when they are too old to work) add to that, that our lifespan has increased.

The inevitable explosion of when these (ok for now) people grow up will end up being the burden of their friends and family, making this a vicious circle.

Why would someone live beyond their means - not only that - why are they doing everything possible to prove that untrue? EGO.

Our ego is doing ourselves in, now and exponentially in the future. Our whole circle of buying fake, or in months is the exact reason that makes people not get enough pay to live well.

While good things aren't necessarily related to price or brand, people will go the extra mile just to show off.

Ego isn't ambition, I will be the first to advocate to reach for the stars and beyond, but also be realistic about where you are in the moment of your reaching.

Humility wouldn't even come to play, normally people that truly have something, seldom boast it.

Fake it till you make it. Keyword: Fake. This concept is well known, yet it can make people go overboard.

Lesson being, don´t let your ego rule your decisions.

January 2018

The effort of getting your work appreciated.

The toughest part is making it look easy, and if your good enough to do that, then you struggle with the fact that people might take for granted your contribution.

The day-old dilemma, the fight for justice, and some for the ego.

When you see something done easily, "that I can do that" you are looking at an expert, that has their mind wired in such a day that they can figure something out by practice and gut with a nice confirmation of an elaborate system.

It comes so naturally to them, second nature, and sometimes, not even that. first nature you can say. This sometimes is in the blood, some bits nature some nurture, and of course a lot of practice.

This can lead to the understatement of being worthless. meaning unappreciated.

When that happens, all the time you save by an efficient job, turns to time it takes you to explain it to exactly those people that are so clueless, they think it's simple.

[judyzyj-blog]

I passed the CCIE exam

After a year of hard study, I finally got the CCIE certification. In the year of preparing for the CCIE exam, I came across many questions. I have some questions and answers for you, which are also what I discussed with SPOTO CLUBmembers. I hope you found these topics helpful and wish you all the best.

Q1: What are the directions for the CCIE exam?

      If you want to take the CCIE exam, what direction do you suggest you start from?

A: CCIE is mainly divided into six directions: routing and switching (RS), operator (SP), Security, data center (DC), voice, andwireless. Among them, routing and switching are the basis of knowledge, and as long as there are more than 16G on the computer, you can run the virtual machine for practice on your laptop.Other directions, such as operators, security, and data centers, require a higher server or training structure to complete the experimental exercise, which costs much more and starts much higher. Therefore, it is better for individuals to start CCIE with the conventional method of CCIE RS direction, which can not only consolidate the basic skills but also has relatively low requirements for the economy. However, it takes a long time. Considering the time cost, I suggest you refer to some learning materials. I joined SPOTO CLUB to study and discuss with them at that time. The most applied directions in work are routing and switching, data center, security, and operator. Students can choose different study directions according to their own needs and hobbies.

Q2: Is it necessary to apply for the training course for CCIE? Can you do it yourself?

A: The probability of not applying for the training course to pass the CCIE is 0. At the beginning of CCIE, there was not much examination content, which might be half an hour's workload now. At that time, there was no mature training institution, and there was still room for DIY. In the current CCIE exam, the LAB exam generally takes 6 to 8 hours, the requirement of knowledge, physical strength is not low. Moreover, there are teachers in the exam room who constantly make trouble for you, modify your configuration and make trouble for you. If there is no systematic guidance from training institutions, DIY is a waste of time and money.

Q3: How long is the minimum pass time for CCIE?

A: The shortest record I know is 7 days. He has nearly ten years of working experience. If you are a recent college graduate with no work experience. I don't suggest going too fast, especially nowadays many college students have a good memory and may pass the exam by rote. Even if got CCIE certification, also cannot develop its true value. My preferred learning method is to understand every detail of the knowledge clearly, modify the configuration by myself, try different methods to solve the problem and take the solution and change of the problem into consideration. Therefore, I suggest that the first exam should take at least 6-9 months to prepare, and at least 3 months of theoretical study +3 months of LAB practice.

Q4: Am I professional after CCIE?

A: An examination is an examination, the study studies, and work is work. There is no necessary relationship between the three. The exam is to take an exam to pass, the study is understanding, the job is achievement output, 3 side key are completely different. In the process of preparation, we should arrange according to the examination schedule, and find a balance among the three aspects of examination, study, and work. Sometimes, too much and too deep study may not help you pass the exam better, because the exam has its own rules. Moreover, because of the wide scope of knowledge of CCIE, it usually takes 6-10 years for people to pass the exam in 6 directions. Although I also saw a person who took the exam in five directions in SPOTO CLUB, not every one of us had to take the exam in so many directions. The exam should start with the needs of our own work. The changes in CCIE are as follows: Before a lot of work encountered problems do not understand after the examination is suddenly enlightened. And I also have absolute confidence to solve, even do not have to turn over the configuration manual. After CCIE, the configuration instructions are not recorded in the brain, but in the fingers, the hand on the keyboard on the nature of the typing out.

Q5: What is the best way to learn CCIE?

A: Reading books alone is very boring and inefficient. The best way to learn is to read video in combination with books, and then continuously sort out LAB experiments and knowledge to deepen the understanding of network data knowledge. The most important thing is that you have the determination to spend six to nine months studying, be ready to come home at 9 PM every day and work overtime at the company on weekends. If you don't have that determination, don't waste the money on training and exams.

Q6: What is the format of CCIE?

A: I have passed CCIE RS, so I can only answer the format of RS. RS adopts the form of written test and computerized test. Only after taking the written test can we apply for the lab test. The written test costs 400 dollars, the full score is 1000 points, takes 2 and a half hours, and requires 800+ to pass. The written test is valid for one year. You must take the lab test once in one year. The lab exam costs 1600 USD and is divided into three sections, namely, troubleshooting, diagnosis, and configuration. It takes 8 hours, and only those three sections can pass at the same time to obtain the CCIE certification. The term of validity of lab is 2 years. In 2 years, students shall pass the written test of CCIE in any direction or participate in relevant training, and their certification results will continue to be valid. Written exams can be taken at multiple locations, and there are not many places for computer-based exams.

Q7: Can I check the CCIE test room for help?

A: Yes, but you won't have time to look for help. I once read a war report that someone forgot the instructions in the exam, and Cisco's online documentation solved the problem and passed. But I'm telling you, if you're not good at it and want to check cisco's help files in the exam room, grab a $1,600 meal at a five-star hotel. Because if you want to check the configuration help document, it is equivalent to sending first blood. It is too expensive to go to the examination room for a bad chicken meal for 1600 dollars.

Q8: How far should CCIE practice before taking the exam?

A: It depends on the muscle reaction when it comes to the command, that is, the brain has not yet reacted, and the fingers have already knocked down unconsciously. When I went to the real exam room, I spent more than 6 hours in the whole exam because I had to carefully read the configuration requirements of all English, plus the teacher would make mistakes for you and the keyboard in the exam room was delayed. Therefore, it is necessary to practice thoroughly and understand the meaning and changes of each instruction before taking the test. Otherwise, the teacher gives you to revise, or oneself are not careful knock an accident to hang.

Q9: Is the CCIE examination room environmentally friendly?

A: Conspiracy theory says that one of the LAB teacher's achievements is to fail the students. Before the exam, the teacher in the exam room will take a piece of paper that you searched but cannot bring it in. If you find that you communicate with other candidates or make phone calls, it is a direct fail and may be banned for life. In addition, in the process of configuration, the teacher will quietly modify your configuration, to make trouble for you so that you can not pass. Only professional knowledge is very solid when the exam can be in no hurry to deal with all kinds of changes.

If you still have furthermore question, ask me any time. I will reply when I am free. All the best for your exams.

[sheminecrafts]

My product launch wishlist for Instagram, Twitter, Uber and more

‘Twas the night before Xmas, and all through the house, not a feature was stirring from the designer’s mouse . . . Not Twitter! Not Uber, Not Apple or Pinterest! On Facebook! On Snapchat! On Lyft or on Insta! . . . From the sidelines I ask you to flex your code’s might. Happy Xmas to all if you make these apps right.

Instagram

See More Like This – A button on feed posts that when tapped inserts a burst of similar posts before the timeline continues. Want to see more fashion, sunsets, selfies, food porn, pets, or Boomerangs? Instagram’s machine vision technology and metadata would gather them from people you follow and give you a dose. You shouldn’t have to work through search, hashtags, or the Explore page, nor permanently change your feed by following new accounts. Pinterest briefly had this feature (and should bring it back) but it’d work better on Insta.

Web DMs – Instagram’s messaging feature has become the defacto place for sharing memes and trash talk about people’s photos, but it’s stuck on mobile. For all the college kids and entry-level office workers out there, this would make being stuck on laptops all day much more fun. Plus, youth culture truthsayer Taylor Lorenz wants Instagram web DMs too.

Upload Quality Indicator – Try to post a Story video or Boomerang from a crummy internet connection and they turn out a blurry mess. Instagram should warn us if our signal strength is low compared to what we usually have (since some places it’s always mediocre) and either recommend we wait for Wi-Fi, or post a low-res copy that’s replaced by the high-res version when possible.

Oh, and if new VP of product Vishal Shah is listening, I’d also like Bitmoji-style avatars and a better way to discover accounts that shows a selection of their recent posts plus their bio, instead of just one post and no context in Explore which is better for discovering content.

Every feed app should steal Pinterest’s ‘more like this’ button

Twitter

DM Search – Ummm, this is pretty straightforward. It’s absurd that you can’t even search DMs by person, let alone keyword. Twitter knows messaging is a big thing on mobile right? And DMs are one of the most powerful ways to get in contact with mid-level public figures and journalists. PS: My DMs are open if you’ve got a news tip — @JoshConstine.

Unfollow Suggestions – Social networks are obsessed with getting us to follow more people, but do a terrible job of helping us clean up our feeds. With Twitter bringing back the option to see a chronological feed, we need unfollow suggestions more than ever. It should analyze who I follow but never click, fave, reply to, retweet, or even slow down to read and ask if I want to nix them. I asked for this 5 years ago and the problem has only gotten worse. Since people feel like their feeds are already overflowing, they’re stingy with following new people. That’s partly why you see accounts get only a handful of new followers when their tweets go viral and are seen by millions. I recently had a tweet with 1.7 million impressions and 18,000 Likes that drove just 11 follows. Yes I know that’s a self-own.

Analytics Benchmarks – If Twitter wants to improve conversation quality, it should teach us what works. Twitter offers analytics about each of your tweets, but not in context of your other posts. Did this drive more or fewer link clicks or follows than my typical tweet? That kind of info could guide users to create more compelling content.

Twitter Quitters And The Unfiltered Feed Problem

Facebook

(Obviously we could get into Facebook’s myriad problems here. A less sensationalized feed that doesn’t reward exaggerated claims would top my list. Hopefully its plan to downrank “borderline content” that almost violates its policies will help when it rolls out.)

Batched Notifications – Facebook sends way too many notifications. Some are downright useless and should be eliminated. “14 friends responded to events happening tomorrow”? “Someone’s fundraiser is half way to its goal?” Get that shit out of here. But there are other notifications I want to see but that aren’t urgent nor crucial to know about individually. Facebook should let us decide to batch notifications so we’d only get one of a certain type every 12 or 24 hours, or only when a certain number of similar ones are triggered. I’d love a digest of posts to my Groups or Events from the past day rather than every time someone opens their mouth.

I so don’t care

Notifications In The “Time Well Spent” Feature – Facebook tells you how many minutes you spent on it each day over the past week and on average, but my total time on Facebook matters less to me than how often it interrupts my life with push notifications. The “Your Time On Facebook” feature should show how many notifications of each type I’ve received, which ones I actually opened, and let me turn off or batch the ones I want fewer of.

Facebook is finally rolling out its ‘how long do I spend on Facebook’ dashboard

Oh, and for Will Cathcart, Facebook’s VP of apps, can I also get proper syncing so I don’t rewatch the same Stories on Instagram and Facebook, the ability to invite people to Events on mobile based on past invite lists of those I’ve hosted or attended, and the See More Like This feature I recommended for Instagram?

Uber/Lyft/Ridesharing

“Quiet Ride” Button – Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for small talk. Had a rough day, need to get work done, or want to just zone out? Ridesharing apps should offer a request for a quiet ride that if the driver accepts, you pay them an extra dollar (or get it free as a loyalty perk), and you get ferried to your destination without unnecessary conversation. I get that it’s a bit dehumanizing for the driver, but I’d bet some would happily take a little extra cash for their compliance.

“I Need More Time” Button – Sometimes you overestimate the ETA and suddenly your car is arriving before you’re ready to leave. Instead of cancelling and rebooking a few minutes later, frantically rushing so you don’t miss your window and get smacked with a no-show fee, or making the driver wait while they and the company aren’t getting paid, Uber, Lyft, and the rest should offer the “I Need More Time” button that simply rebooks you a car that’s a little further away.

Spotify/Music Streaming Apps

Scan My Collection – I wish I could just take photos of the album covers, spines, or even discs of my CD or record collection and have them instantly added to a playlist or folder. It’s kind of sad that after lifetimes of collecting physical music, most of it now sits on a shelf and we forget to play what we used to love. Music apps want more data on what we like, and it’s just sitting there gathering dust. There’s obviously some fun viral potential here too. Let me share what’s my most embarrassing CD. For me, it’s my dual copies of Limp Bizkit’s “Significant Other” because I played the first one so much it got scratched.

Friends Weekly – Spotify ditched its in-app messaging, third-party app platform, and other ways to discover music so its playlists would decide what becomes a hit in order to exert leverage over the record labels to negotiate better deals. But music discovery is inherently social and the desktop little ticker of what friends are playing on doesn’t cut it. Spotify should let me choose to recommend my new favorite song or agree to let it share what I’ve recently played most, and put those into a Discover Weekly-style social playlist of what friends are listening to.

How Spotify is finally gaining leverage over record labels

Snapchat

Growth – I’m sorry, I had to.

Bulk Export Memories – But seriously, Snapchat is shrinking. That’s worrisome because some users’ photos and videos are trapped on its Memories cloud hosting feature that’s supposed to help free up space on your phone. But there’s no bulk export option, meaning it could take hours of saving shots one at a time to your camera roll if you needed to get off of Snapchat, if for example it was shutting down, or got acquired, or you’re just bored of it.

Add-On Cameras – Snapchat’s Spectacles are actually pretty neat for recording first-person or underwater shots in a circular format. But otherwise they don’t do much more, and in some ways do much less, than your phone’s camera and are a long way from being a Magic Leap competitor. That’s why if Snapchat really wants to become a “Camera Company”, it should build sleek add-on cameras that augment our phone’s hardware. Snap previously explored selling a 360-camera but never launched one. A little Giroptic iO-style 360 lens that attaches to your phone’s charging port could let you capture a new kind of content that really makes people feel like they’re there with you. An Aukey Aura-style zoom lens attachment that easily fits in your pocket unlike a DSLR could also be a hit

Snap explored selling a 360 camera

iOS

Switch Wi-Fi/Bluetooth From Control Center – I thought the whole point of Control Center was one touch access, but I can only turn on or off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s silly having to dig into the Settings menu to switch to a different Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth device, especially as we interact with more and more of them. Control Center should unfurl a menu of networks or devices you can choose from.

Shoot GIFs – Live Photos are a clumsy proprietary format. Instagram’s Boomerang nailed what we want out of live action GIFs and we should be able to shoot them straight from the iOS camera and export them as actual GIFs that can be used across the web. Give us some extra GIF settings and iPhones could have a new reason for teens to choose them over Androids.

Gradual Alarms – Anyone else have a heart attack whenever they hear their phone’s Alarm Clock ringtone? I know I do because I leave my alarms on so loud that I’ll never miss them, but end up being rudely shocked awake. A setting that gradually increases the volume of the iOS Alarm Clock every 15 seconds or minute so I can be gently arisen unless I refuse to get up.

Maybe some of these apply to Android, but I wouldn’t know because I’m a filthy casual iPhoner. Send me your Android suggestions, as well as what else you want to see added to your favorite apps.

[Image Credit: Hanson Inc]

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