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excelsi-or · 3 years ago

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welcome to svt (pt. 11)

hello, friends!! Just felt like updating today :) I’ve been swamped with assignments this last weekend and it’s kinda nice to have a little breather right now. hope you’re all well and staying safe :D and I also hope you’re all enjoying the album. This is probably my favourite comeback since Home.

chapter 11: SVT idiot

w.c. 1.7k

ch. 1 | ch. 2 | ch. 3 | ch. 4 | ch. 5 | ch. 6 | ch. 7 | ch. 8 | ch. 9 | ch. 10 | ch. 11

pairing: lee jihoon x OC/fem reader

‘Where is the idiot?’ Jihoon shouts.

She huffs, trying to grab Jihoon’s arm to reel him in.

Soonyoung wanders into the kitchen, eating a donut. ‘I’m right here.’

Jihoon waves him off. ‘Surprisingly, not talking about you this time.’

‘Hoonie, calm down,’ she sighs. She winces at one particular step and has to take a deep breath. Jihoon turns at the sound. He helps her to the kitchen, pressing his lips to the side of her head as she breathes through the pain. ‘Chan didn’t know,’ she finally manages to say.

‘What did Chan do?’ Soonyoung stands opposite her.

‘LEE CHAN!’ Jihoon yells. He stomps through the hallways towards the bedrooms.

She watches him go and turns to Soonyoung.

‘What happened?’ Soonyoung asks. ‘Did the job go bad?’

She leans forward on her forearms to take pressure off her side. ‘No, it’s fine. We dealt with it. The police came, but…’ She twists slightly so that she can lift her shirt. There’s a bandage there that is now turning a nice shade of crimson. Soonyoung’s eyebrows lift. ‘Shua’s still out, but he said it should be relatively fine until he gets back.’

Soonyoung pops the rest of the donut in his mouth and turns to make them tea. Both of them look to the hallway when they hear Jihoon’s voice echoing towards them.

‘So why is Jihoon yelling at Chan?’

She opens the file that Seungcheol sent them as Jihoon drives them to the location that Jeonghan had told them to go to.

Before reading anything, she looks to Jihoon. ‘So, what do you really think is in those Jardinier files?’

‘I mean, saying, “I’ll let you guys know when I know,” is pretty vague. But we can’t speculate. We need to focus here.’

‘Right.’ Her eyes drop to the file, which is full of photos and notes. ‘Oh, this is that art museum that Chan cased a few weeks ago.’

Chan has provided intel on the security as well as a map of the museum. He’s circled where the Frida Kahlo portraits are being shown as well as clipped in pictures of what the portraits look like.

Seungcheol got word that there were buyers looking to purchase the portraits for high prices, but someone was obviously going to have to steal the paintings first.

Jihoon hums. ‘Well, that explains why Chan went alone. This’ll be relatively easy.’

‘Steal the portraits before the actual thieves steal them and then either put them back or drop them off where the cops can find them. Painless.’ She skims the notes. ‘Chan says that there’s a security switch at 11 PM.’

Jihoon shoulder checks, but doesn’t bother to put his signal on. ‘How long?’

‘Until he saw someone else? Five minutes.’

Jihoon huffs. ‘Hitting a place in five minutes and we haven’t personally cased the place. Less easy.’

‘We’ve been in Egypt the last three days,’ she reminds him. They’d barely had time to shower before Jeonghan was handing them the file. ‘And with the five-minute interval…’

‘Convenient we made it home in time,’ Jihoon realizes. He sighs. ‘Photos?’

‘Yeah.’ She glances at the clock on the dash. ‘We’ll make it to the—turn right here—place before 11.’

‘And then have like,’ Jihoon also glances at the clock, ‘15 minutes to come up with a plan. Where the hell are we going to put the portraits? Where are the security cameras? What’s the security like? Are there alarms? Lasers? Motion sensors?’

‘Chan believes pressure sensors. Alarms go off if the glass is smashed. If we get the glass off, alarms go off when we take them. But the portraits are on the wall.’

‘They could have no alarms and just have the security guards.’

‘Left here.’

They’re in an alleyway with a perfect view of the museum entrance.

She waves around. ‘Park wherever.’

Jihoon leans forward to gauge what buildings they’re between. ‘You know a guy in one of these buildings, don’t you?’

She chuckles as she turns to grab her backpack rom the back seat.

It’s not lost on Jihoon that she doesn’t answer the question. He digs into her backpack for the binoculars. The security desk inside the entrance is vacant. ‘Did Chan get access to the security?’

‘No, but he said they have free Wi-Fi. I can figure out how to get into it from there. I ran through possibilities with Wonwoo and Minghao.’ It takes her a few minutes to gain access and she consults Wonwoo and Minghao, both of whom are on planes elsewhere. Once she’s in, she unfolds the museum map that Chan inserted and annotated. ‘What are we thinking?’

Based on Chan’s information, they go through a plan that gets them in and out in four and a half minutes. 30 spare seconds in case something goes wrong. Wonwoo and Minghao agree that this could be possible.

‘But Jihoon can’t carry all those paintings on his own and fend off guards, if necessary,’ Minghao comments.

‘Wonwoo,’ she says.

Wonwoo clicks his tongue in acknowledgement. A pop-up appears on her screen as Wonwoo gains access to her computer. ‘I got it. Any lag?’

She watches the arrow move around her screen. ‘Two seconds.’

‘We can time for that,’ Jihoon states. ‘Okay.’

They agree to set a phone alarm in the back corner of the museum to draw the guards away from the exhibit. Chan said that when the guards leave for the night, they all exit through the front dor.

Minghao signs off, wishing them good luck.

‘Call Jihoon if anything goes wrong,’ she tells Wonwoo as she sets her computer on the floor of the car. She takes the hair elastic that Jihoon offers her. ‘Questions?’ Her eyes note the time: 22:54.

‘Nah, I got you.’

‘When do you land?’

They can hear Wonwoo and Mingyu talking on the other end. They get ready in the meantime. ‘Gyu said we should be landing in two hours. I got you.’

‘Three minutes to 11, we watched some security guards go in and we got inside. Set the alarm and hid. Waited for the two new guards to go.’

Soonyoung frowns. ‘But?’

‘But Chan didn’t account for a third guard. His notes said that there were only ever two on every shift. We got into a fight with the guard, subdued him, but the few seconds of time it took to deal with the third security guard, the thieves had broken in and were already in the process of stealing the portraits.’

Soonyoung winces, realizing how this could go badly.

‘I nicked the guard’s phone and called 911. Got into a…’ She pauses to think of a good word. ‘Scrimmage with thieves and then the other guards came running. I’d already been stabbed by that point. Hoonie was worried I’d bleed onto the floor and leave DNA. So, we got out pretty quickly. Saw the red and blue lights as we pulled away.’

They look over as a commotion comes down the hallway towards them. She gives a sharp inhale as she turns. Jihoon has Chan by the back of his collar and pushes him into the kitchen.

‘Tell her you’re sorry.’

She rolls her eyes. ‘My god, Jihoon.’ She shakes her head and smiles. ‘Chan, it’s fine.’

Chan bows his apology anyway. ‘Sorry, noona. I didn’t realize that there was going to be a third security guard! I really didn’t know.’

‘Channie, it’s fine. I’m fine.’ She says this but has to lean heavily on the countertop. ‘Shua oppa will be here and I’ll get patched up properly. It’s not even that deep.’

Chan wriggles out of Jihoon’s grip and stands next to her at the counter. ‘No, noona, listen to me. Hyung wouldn’t, but you seem weirdly okay with being stabbed.’

Her brow furrows and she meets Jihoon’s eyes over Chan’s head. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I cased that place for two weeks and there were only ever two guards. They never deviated from that routine. So why now?’

The furrow in her brow deepens.

Soonyoung voices what she was thinking. ‘Are you saying that you think that someone forewarned them that people were going to break in last night?’

‘Yes. Low level criminals they would have just met at the door, right? Or waited at all the exits.’

Jihoon nods at her over Chan’s head. ‘Two of them went to check our alarm and then the third guard was near the exhibit. They were probably expecting to take us out.’

‘Those art thieves knew how to fight though,’ she points out. ‘They probably weren’t waiting for us.’

All four of them glance at each other uneasily and jump when the front door opens.

Joshua hurries in with a heavy backpack over his shoulder. As he moves down the hallway, his eyes go over her body, assessing the damage. Other than a bit of bruising, nothing sticks out. Except for her posture.

‘Where is it?’ he asks. He drops his bag at their feet and leans forward when she lifts her shirt to show him the bandage.

Over her shoulder, she meets Chan and Jihoon’s gaze. Motioning with her head towards the stairs, she says, ‘Go talk to Jeonghan hyung. I’ll meet you up there.’

‘What’s going on?’ Joshua peels the bandage off, which causes her to grimace. ‘Okay, just some stitching. It’s not deep enough to have punctured anything.’ He helps her to the couch. Soonyoung follows with the bag.

‘Hyung, what the hell is in this? It’s so heavy.’

‘I had to stock up on medical supplies. We were running low. You guys keep getting hurt in the field.’ Joshua helps her lie on the couch and he digs in the bag for the supplies. ‘Hot water, Soonyoung, please.’

‘Chan seems to think we might have been hacked or there’s a leak or something. Hence the stab wound.’

‘Hacked?’ Joshua repeats. ‘That’s… not good.’

#woozi #woozi scenarios #woozi imagines #Lee Jihoon #lee jihoon scenarios #seventeen fanfic #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #Seventeen #svt

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asimovsideburns · 3 years ago

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Archipelago session summary 15, in which our heroes attempt insider gambling, history is not taken at face value, and we confront The Return of Denim.

Kendril is sorting out some business on her own (her player had a previous obligation shift schedule suddenly and couldn’t make it), so the party takes the chance to reconnect a bit. Honestly, we needed a bit of a breather episode after the last few sessions.

First, Shrimp and Chantry decide to go over the maps together while Chantry gets a handle on the big picture situation, so Mason decides to ask Vratya if they, as part of the annulment proceedings, have any way of getting information before the people making bets so that they can make some money. Vratya replies that they really wish Mason had suggested that before they completely removed themself from having any control over said proceedings.

Nevertheless, they decide to go forward with their plan. Vratya lurks around the proceedings for a bit and, on a 25 investigation, is able to come up with a rock solid prediction. Mason, meanwhile, is trying to find someone to make the bet for them, since everybody in town knows they’re involved. She finds a guy who’s just come into town and, although he doesn’t believe that she really knows things about Alvfjeller marriage law (her (bad) lie being that she’s won too many bets based that knowledge and now nobody will bet against her), he’s more than happy to place the bet for them. She gives him 20 gold, with the promise that he can have 4 gold if they win, or 2 if they lose. He takes the money to go place a bet, and then leaves town with all 20 gold pieces.

Mason and Vratya decide not to tell Shrimp and Chantry about their adventure today.

You know, I think they might be bonding. It’s a winter miracle.

Speaking of winter, it’s beginning to snow; townsfolk are beginning to bundle up and cocoa is making an appearance. Shrimp heads over to Graywind Arms, Armor, and Adventuring Gear to visit with Linene--firstly to apologize for destroying one of her practice dummies the other day and secondly to subtly find out if she had any information on the dragon-shaped hill from the vision. Linene accepts Shrimps apology, teasingly noting that you can never really have too much firewood around these parts, and is more than happy to chat. Linene is a retired adventurer, having visited and traveled Muldrana in her youth, and has passionate opinions on craftsmanship and preparedness that she is more than willing to share. When conversation turns to the dragon-shaped hill, she is more than happy to share its history. She pulls down a large book from a shelf to show her.

Long ago, a green dragon named Azdraka came from the dragon lands to the distant north, and terrorized the High Road near here. To defeat it, the heir to the Alvfjell throne, an orc named Hrizka Flicker-Blade, joined two parties of adventurers and joined the dragon in battle. In the end, she defeated it, but her and her companions lost their lives in the process. Her dying wish was to be entombed with them and with the dragon itself, and the people obeyed it, creating the Dragon Barrow to the west.

Thanking Linene, Shrimp heads back to the tavern, pondering what they’ve heard. He notes that the history gives no reason for Azdraka to have come south, and makes no mention of what the dragons might have said about it, and resolves to take the story with a grain of salt--not everything is as black and white as it might seem at first glance. She also realized, on a fairly high arcana check, that the tale contained more information that it might first appear--every adventurer had a signature weapon or ability, but Hrizka’s seemed to change throughout the story despite her always being referred to as having and using a weapon, singular. Combined with her epithet ��Flicker-Blade”, it is likely that she had some sort of magical weapon that could change forms... and the history made no mention of it passing to a new owner.

At the tavern, the group comes together to discuss plans. They don’t want to head out of town without Kendril, but it’s a good time to decide where they do want to go once they’re ready to leave. There’s a job board quest directing them to the ruins of an old fortress to the south, to clear them out and fortify them in case the townspeople need to evacuate; a second job board quest is asking for a group to escort a mine overseer to a nearby mine to the east; to the north is that oddly persistent thunderstorm, as well as a final job board quest that mentions bandits and strange magic; and to the west is the dragon-shaped hill from their vision. Finally, there’s the big picture problem of getting to and dealing with the dragon, which they’re hoping Kendril will help them with.

They send a message to Charlie, the bandit leader at the School of Savras, through the Sending Stone they gave him earlier, asking him if he knows anything about the bandits to the north. He replies that they 1) work under a different commander than he does, somebody named Brakkis, 2) are assholes, and 3) he doesn’t care if the party murders them.

Armed with this information, they decide that the bandits can most likely wait for now--and that the job board quests most definitely can--and determine to head to the Dragon Barrow next to try to find some context for the previous draconic incident that might help them deal with this one.

Remember that snow I mentioned earlier? The party will need to make sure that they’re prepared for the upcoming weather, soon. Shrimp knows enough about the mountains that he’ll be able to get them through when it’s time to find the dragon’s lair, even if it keeps snowing (easing the time pressure), but also enough to know that they’ll need to invest in some cold weather gear—and also to have noticed that the thunderstorm brewing to the north seems both unseasonal and oddly persistent, not dispersing or being pushed along by the wind. Leaving aside odd storms and increasingly difficult mountain terrain, though, they’re going to need to get new, warmer clothes, which can only mean one thing:

Shopping montage!

In the end, the outfits land like this:

1) Shrimp has standard cold weather clothes with a red-and-back plaid flannel lined, waterproofed jloak (jeans cloak)

2) Mason has elected to omit snow boots from her cold weather outfit, but does have a denim jacked with an inner lining of white fur, which fluffs stylishly out at the collar

3) Vratya has a very comfortable looking sweater, a jacket, fur lined snow boots, a knitted shawl worn as a hood (if it has a more specific name I either don’t know or am blanking on it, sorry), and fleece lined leggings, over which are worn his Extremely Burned Jorts With Scorch Marks Across The Ass Like Juicy On Yoga Pants

4) Chantry has sensible boots and a pair of completely regular jeans, a tight black tactical thermal over-shirt which hides his many, many Sailor tattoos, and one of those earflap hats “that dads wear”

5) Although Kendril is not present, the party resolves to, on a fairly decent insight check, get her one denim cloak fastener chain and five denim chain belts, each in different colors so they can be layered or worn separately. Each chain is made of individual denim chain-links, which have been hand sewn custom for this order

Also, I would be absolutely failing in my duties as chronicler of this story if I failed to mention that Chantry at first wanted to have something with a zipper or chest window to show off the tattoo over his heart that proclaims his affiliation with Schaefer Inter-Island Shipping and their employer, James Schaefer, and that all the party members were really trying to make it work until I called for a Common Sense roll (wisdom save) and, as the only person to get something that wasn’t a 9 (he got a nat 20), was also the only person to realize that maybe prominently displaying the tattoo proclaiming your affiliation with someone isn’t the best idea when you’re trying to keep that person’s involvement in local affairs a secret.

He gracefully allowed himself to be talked out of the “chest window on the winter outfit” idea.

#mine #my dnd #the archipelago #adventures at heaven's rim #the bit at the end is me channeling that one historian who wrote about the king falling off his horse #and immediately saying 'don't let the historian find out'#was it necessary to record for posterity on the internet? maybe not. but it brought me great joy at the time and in fact still does

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zeta-in-de-walls · 4 years ago

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Hey guys. So in MCC you might have noticed that Dream got a little salty. This was a shame for me as it’s so much nicer to watch Dream whilst he’s in a good mood. For better or worse though, he’s super competitive.

Here’s a breakdown of how the event went badly for Dream and his team. It’s pretty long...

The event starts well; Skyblockle is an interesting, if stressful game, and they do pretty well for their first time. Not perfectly though and they recognise they could do better too - Dream’s already pretty hard on himself for any mistakes he makes. But it’s purely directed at himself and how he can improve - I think it’s pretty evident he holds himself to a high standard.

Bingo is next and he kinda doesn’t know what he’d doing and wastes some time. I feel like he notes it down too much to not knowing the game but it is pretty luck-based anyway. Also this was a really quick game as so many of the items were very easy to obtain in a very short time. Anyway, they didn’t expect to do well really and Dream’s in good spirits, looking forward to the other games.

Then Battle box comes... and it’s extremely laggy and even glitchy. The weapon choices of Wooden axes and tnt seem honestly pretty bad just in terms of gameplay and the tnt is outright gamebreaking with the lag. Despite this, Dream’s team is doing well, having won their first 4 games and they’re keen to win more. Dream’s even instructing Sylveey to wait on the wool in order to maximise kill points (you can see he’s taking this really seriously as he could sound a little nicer as she’s certainly trying to win too).

Anyway, the game needs to be restarted - some players killed themselves outside the rounds and that’s not exactly fair. For whatever reason, reviving them is not possible. The chosen solution is to restart the entire round which regretfully seriously inconveniences Dream’s team. He’s incensed at the perceived injustices. He feels that it would be better to push on without restarting.

The proceeding rounds don’t go nearly as well for them as the first play through. Many teams have now realised how effective rushing strats are for this map - the axe is too slow in pvp to meaningfully stop players from quickly placing down wool and the tnt is dangerous enough to scare people from the centre. It’s a legitimate strategy but feels rather unlike the traditional battle box which is usually the closest minigame to a straightforward pvp battle. While the lag is universal, it rather this strategy which goes against purple’s playstyle which includes maximised kills. Additionally, restarting gave a lot of teams the change to realise the potential of this rather cheap strategy which they may not have with only a single round of battle box as it would have been without the lag.

It’s not really anyone’s fault that the game messed up but Dream’s ire is now directed towards the organisers and he’s lost his good spirits.

Buildmart comes next and it’s not exactly one of Dream’s favourite games to say the least. Still, it’s long and a nice distraction from the mess that was battle box and Dream has developed some strategy with his team, even if it didn’t really work amazingly.

But then comes the audience takeover. Dream was really looking for parkour warrior - which he’s been really keen to play. He’s extremely fond of parkour and wanted to try out the new course - he and his whole team had practiced the old course a lot and were ready to crush the game. But it wasn’t one of the the options in the poll at all. Up to this point Parkour warrior hasn’t been an option at all and it is one the team has every reason to want to play.

Regardless, they soon settle on Hole in the wall - a gamemode they’ve played before and enjoyed. And yeah, the system messes up. Rocket spleef, which was Technoblade’s choice, narrowly lost the poll but gets selected anyway due to faultiness from the twitter poll. Needless to say, Dream is pretty annoyed. Given how the resetted Battle box earlier, he is of the opinion that they should switch in to Hole in the Wall to accurately reflect the audience vote. What he doesn’t realise is that this isn’t possible and the situation is less similar to battle box which only reset itself, not the game choice.

This is where Dream gets outright angry, even going as far to say he feels like quitting entirely. He feels like the tournament is working against him, which it kinda is, though it’s not in fact due to human design - just errors outside anyone’s control. That said, compounded with the mess that was Battle box earlier, Dream’s in a terrible mood, especially with his competitive nature, feeling like he’s losing due to circumstances outside his control rather than his own abilities. (When fans are saying rigged, I feel like many of them simply mean that the game’s working against him rather than that someone is actively sabotaging them (an incorrect definition...). It’s a minority that kicked up a large fuss as well, not that this excuses them or anything, or Dream for not realising the effect he’s having on his audience.)

His heart is simply not in Rocket Spleef, which seems to be a pretty tough game for newcomers to pick up anyway, while the other top teams, Orange and Green, both excel at this game mode. (And Krimson too maybe? I think I missed how they were doing in this game.) It’s a shame as he can’t allow himself to enjoy the game mode at all. It is an interesting one that he’s not amazing at but isn’t terrible at either, managing to survive longer than the rest of his team, who are all also doing lacklustre. Their performance has not been helped by everything that’s going on.

Then there’s ace race. It’s a new game and pretty different from the standard minecraft experience. It’s the first time for everyone so there’s probably a few kinks to be worked out etc. and Dream and his team find it interesting but they don’t exactly love it. It’s very different from the standard minecraft experience. Their strongpoints are definitely vanilla minecraft and they’re not too confident with elytras. I feel like if they weren’t in a dour mood they would have enjoyed it tons more. Two elytra heavy games in a row is unfortunate. Still, this game acts as a breather. The one issue is that parkour warrior is finally on the board and so they’re very keen to play it.

As the next decision dome comes up, Parkour warrior, Hole in the Wall, TGTTOS, Survival Games and Sands of time are all available. These are all probably Dream’s favourite games aside from Battle box (which obviously didn’t work out this tournament). Dream notes beforehand that the one game he’d really like to play is Parkour Warrior and the one he’d prefer to avoid at this stage is Sands of Time.

So naturally, Sands of Time is chosen. He’s a bit irritated. Fortunately, Sands of Time is awesome and his team is great at it. Single player survival stuff is what they excel at after all and they all perform. They take risks, make a lot of coins, get far and are among the longest teams to stay in, coming in second overall with both Dream and Sapnap doing really well. This game proves to be what finally cures Dream and his team’s mood. The game is also worth a ton of points for some reason, putting them in with a (still small but possible) chance of making the finals.

Last game and they really want Parkour warrior of course. Yeah, it’s not chosen. Instead we get hole in the wall. Some may joke that its good that the game finally got chosen but it’s obviously not the favoured choice for this team when Parkour warrior’s an option. Oh well though! They’re disappointed to miss out on it but they do like hole in the wall and they all have fun playing it, doing decently though not nearly well enough to do better than their rivals.

By this time they’ve regained their spirits and eagerly support Green Guardians in dodgebolt. It’s an intense match and they all thoroughly enjoy watching it, especially seeing Pete team clutch out the win after being down.

At the end, Dream finds that despite everything he’s still somehow managed to obtain 3rd overall on the individual boards, the same as last time, and he’s really happy about it. His team are pretty happy too with Sapnap also managing to get 8th place in his very first event.

Dream closes off the stream with an apology. You can see as it goes on how the frustration slowly melts away as he begins talking. At first still obviously still annoyed but soon confessing that he seriously overreacted and that he still loves the event and the team behind it and holds them to a very high standard. He offers kind words towards Technoblade and Pete too, noting that the rivalry is for show and he greatly respects both of them and encourages all his watchers to go and subscribe to them, helping Technoblade to hit 2mil. He notes that he’s really competitive and he really wanted it to go well - especially as its the only time he’ll be allowed to play with George and Sapnap and really wanted to win it with them. His sentiments feel real and he expresses interest in playing again while noting that he could see them also not inviting him back after his behaviour during this even and understands that.

Overall, game choices and unfortunate circumstances worked against Dream and his team and left him in a bad mood but once it ended, he did bounce back. It’s easy to see the contrast from the last event where he was annoyed he didn’t win but blamed his own performance - not the event and not his teammates - reflecting on how he can improve and do better. (He got temporarily a little annoyed at buildmart admittedly but it was purely his fans who blew that out of proportion, he quickly reassured George that it was okay and that it wasn’t his fault.) Dream is always very determined to improve and succeed or fail due to his own skills.

This turned into a long analysis of the event, wow. Dream’s perspective wasn’t that much fun to watch and it pains me to see how it all devolved. Let’s calm down and try not to blame the event, the other competitors or Dream too hard for any of this, okay? Things went wrong and it’s mostly outside of anyone’s control. I hope he’s in better spirits if he joins next tournament.

#dreamwastaken #sorry this was so long!#i guess I had to analyse the whole event #a summary of it from dream's perspective i guess #apparently techno's viewpoint was far more entertaining #this one left me feeling bitter at least until sands of time #his talk with techno afterwards was great though #best part of the event for me #post-end i know #i look forward to the upcoming manhunt and collabs #the dangers of tryharding #and the issues with having a large fanbase #i think he forgot he wasn't just talking to his friends #analysis

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iamsophophile · 4 years ago

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How to Bit Procrastination

Stand up and be productive! 💙

Procrastination is the bane of every student’s existence. We know what we should be doing; we just don’t want to do it. It’s easy to put off undesirable assignments until the very last minute, but then we’re forced to pull a stress-induced all-nighter. Here are some tips to crush procrastination and actually get some sleep for once!

1. Get organized

First of all, you can't do any work if you don't know what assignments need to be completed. Invest in a planneror start using the calendar app on your phone. This makes it much easier to keep track of individual assignments and important due dates.

2. Create a timeline/schedule

After you set your goals, create a timeline to complete them. This could be a study schedule for your big exam coming up or it could be mapping out an essay you have to write. Breaking an assignment into small chunks over time makes it much more manageable.

3. Set a deadline

It's important to set a specific date for when you want your goals to be accomplished. If you have an assignment due, aim to have it completed one or two days in advance. That way, if something unexpected happens, you still have extra time to complete it.

4. Get rid of distractions

It’s important to rid yourself of all potential disruptions before you begin working so you don’t get needlessly sidetracked halfway through your task. Distractions could also be external sources, like annoying siblings. Try listening to classical music or white noise to drown out their constant chatter. Alternatively, you could change study environments all together and head down to the local library or coffee shop, where you can clear your mind and study distraction-free.

5. Take a break

It's important to take mental breathers from school work every now and then. When your timer goes off, take a 10–30-minute break. Listen to music, take a walk, do some laundry, or scream into a pillow—anything that takes your mind off of work and allows you to relax.

6. Use incentives

Everyone loves being rewarded. It’s important to give yourself incentives, no matter how small. It could be something as simple as, "If I work on this assignment for an hour, I'll watch an episode of my favorite TV show tonight." It’s easier to pay attention when something is at stake.

7. Get the hard stuff done first

It is best to complete your most challenging assignments first. That way everything after it seems easier and takes a shorter amount of time. If you keep pushing that English essay back, you’re never going to get it done. It’s best to buckle down and just do it.

Did you know?

Procrastinators may be paralyzed by fear of making a mistake, a loss of self-worth.

People aren’t inherently lazy when they engage in procrastination. Just ask them. They’ll come up with a dozen distinct reasons for their delay to act. At the heart of the problem of procrastination, at least for some individuals, may be a paralyzing fear of making a mistake and thus suffering a loss of self-worth.

So it is the right time to do your tasks and be productive!

. . .

Related Article: https://psychcentral.com/lib/10-good-and-10-bad-things-about-procrastination/

. . .

#tips #StopProcastination #iamsophophile #EDUC206 #EntryNo.5

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fai-marie-521 · 4 years ago

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An Unexpected Tagalong (P.4)

An Unexpected Tagalong:

(Hello! I hope you enjoy the third chapter! I would love to hear what you all think and any constructive criticism is gladly taken. I want to get better! ^-^)

In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort. Estella Took loved the comfort of her home. The smell, the sounds. But something was always missing. She was a Took after all. She had the need for adventure in her blood. The stories she has read by her fireplace have twisted her mind and she often daydreamed of adventures of her own. Little did she know that on her 35th birthday, she would get exactly what she always dreamed of.

Main Characters: Estella Took, Thorin Oakenshield, Bilbo Baggins

TW: None, I don’t think. If I’m wrong please tell me and I will fix it right away!

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡ When the house grew quiet, Estella grew eerie. Just a moment ago the house was booming with happiness and laughter. Now it was so quiet she could hear her own heartbeat. Boom, boom. It steadily beat against her chest. Estella and her cousin follow the wizard to greet the newcomer. The other dwarves watched from the distance. They all stood as tall as they can. Their chests puffed out proudly. Whoever was waiting beyond the door, the dwarves held to high regard. Estella didn't know it but she held her breath within her lungs. With anticipation building up inside of her, she stands close to Bilbo, a stern grip on his forearm. Bilbo wouldn't admit it to Estella but he was so curious. Deep down he was actually excited. Gandalf slowly opened the door, and there he stood. A dwarf with sharp features. Long black hair. His eyes glanced around the house quickly and when Estella met his her breath hitched. Blue meeting brown. Ocean washing up onto Earth. Time felt so slow in that split second their eyes met. Bilbo stared in awe of this man as well. He wasn't like the other dwarves, though he bared some qualities that were similar to Kili and Fili.

Estella's mouth urged to drop open when the dwarf walked in and talked. His voice gravelly and deep. It was like a symphony. Almost beautiful from words so common. "Gandalf. I thought you said this place would be easy to find." He grumbled. The man was grumpy. He wore it on his face in a scowl-like frown. Estella might've thought that he was just pissed off but soon she would find out that it was his resting face. " I lost my way, twice." He clips off his cloak and drapes it over his arm.

Estella raises a brow. Was the Shire really that complicated? The others seemed to have no trouble. The man glances at the open door behind him. " I wouldn't have found it at all, had it not been for that mark on the door." He says. Bilbo almost looked like he was going into cardiac arrest. "Mark?" He gasped. "There's no mark on that door, it was painted a week ago!" Estella laughs nervously when Bilbo goes to examine his door. She quickly slides between him and his entrance, closing the door with her rear. "Better if you don't look at it, don't you think?"

"There is a mark, I've put it there myself," Gandalf admits, almost quietly. The disapproving look that Bilbo had for Estella quickly turned to the tall wizard. There is an awkward pause before Gandalf continues. "Bilbo Baggins, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield." Thorin looked over Bilbo. He looked down at him as if he was prey. Bilbo shifted his weight to each foot uncomfortably under Thorin's gaze.

"So, this is the hobbit." Thorin scoffs. He hands his cloak to Kili, retaining eye contact with Bilbo." Tell me, Mr.Baggins, have you done much fighting?"

Bilbo's head slightly tilts and he chuckles as if what Thorin said was a joke, "Pardon me?" He shared a confused look with Estella quickly before turning his attention back to the dwarf.

"Axe or sword, what's your weapon of choice?" The question made Estella wanted to laugh. The image of her Bilbo carrying an axe far too large for him, trying to swing it and ultimately falling on his butt. Thorin begins to circle around Bilbo.

"Well, I do have some skill at conkers, if you must know. But I fail to see why that's relevant."

The second-hand embarrassment spread over Estella. Her cheeks grew pink for Bilbo while he remained absolutely clueless. Thorin shakes his head, " I thought as much. He looks more like a grocer than a burglar." Bilbo scoffs, offended as the other dwarves laugh.

"Now, now!" Estella barks in Bilbo's defence. "Bilbo may not be experienced in the way of a warrior, but if you're looking for a hobbit then Bilbo is the best you'll get!" Bilbo flashed her a horrified look. A tad bit grateful but none-the-less horrified.

The dwarves' laughter died down when Thorin looks past Bilbo and straight at Estella. She stared into his deep blue eyes and could've sworn she was drowning. His stare was so heavy but she stood her ground underneath it. "Who might you be? Mrs.Baggins?" He asks.

"Ugh, no!" She groans. Estella has had to answer that question far too many times tonight. She lets out a sigh, releasing her annoyed feelings along with the exhale. "I am Estella Took. Bilbo's cousin."

Thorin glanced her over, an eyebrow arched. "Greetings." He mumbled. Bilbo gave his cousin a thankful look before going to settle their new guest down in the dining room. A warm plate of food was given to the dwarven prince, and then the discussions were started. The dim lighting was a perfect ambiance for the feeling of the room. While the dwarves talked, Estella and Bilbo stayed toward the back close together, watching and listening to every detail.

"What news from the meeting in Ered Luin? Did they all come?" Balin asks curiously.

Thorin gives the old warrior a nod: "Aye, envoys from all seven kingdoms." The dwarves happily give little cheers.

Dwalin hums, looking intently at his prince, "And what did the dwarves of the Iron Hill say? Is Dain with us?"

Thorin sucks in a breath as if he was scared to reveal what his cousin had said. "They will not come." He finally admits. The entire table of dwarves groans in disappointment. Their expressions express almost sadness that their kin will not assist them. "They say our quest is ours and ours alone."

"So it's true? You really are going on a quest then?" Estella suddenly butts in. She hadn't meant to intrude but her words poured out of her mouth before she could stop them. Thorin looks at the halfling and before he could reply Gandalf coughs quickly. "Bilbo, my dear fellow, could we have some more light?" He asks.

Bilbo, still intrigued by the happening going on in his dining room, clicks out of his little wonderland and nods, "Oh yes, of course." The hobbit quickly goes to retrieve a candle to provide more light to his guests. Once Bilbo leaves the room, Gandalf takes out a worn-out, folded paper from his grey robe. "Far to the East, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak," He lays the parchment flat before Thorin. Estella couldn't help to get a closer look at the scroll. A map! She looked over Thorin's shoulder in awe. A real-life map, like from her books! Bilbo swiftly returns with the candle, holding it over Thorin's left shoulder. Both halflings stare at the map, their eyes twinkling in wonder. Gandalf points at an ink mountain upon the parchment. "The Lonely Mountain," Bilbo reads. His voice was low but curiosity was laced in the words. Gloin nods, "Aye! Oin has read the portents, and the portents say: it is time."

"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold. When the birds of the old return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end." Oin confirms.

Bilbo looks around, "I'm sorry... 'beast?'"

"Well that would be a reference to Smaug the terrible," Bofur says, almost a little too cheery. "chiefest and greatest calamity of our age. Airborne fire breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks, extremely fond of precious metals."

"A dragon then?" Estella asks in an excited tone. Bilbo couldn't believe the excited expression Estella wore at the mention of the fire drake. Ori suddenly rises to his feet. "I'm not afraid, I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of the dwarfish iron right up his jacksy!" He exclaims bravely. Estella couldn't help but grin at the courage of the small dwarf. His friends around him cheer him on until Dori pulls the lad back into his seat.

"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us, but we number just thirteen," Baline begins. He looks around at his brethren, not exactly in a fond way. "and not thirteen of the best, nor brightest."

The dwarves begin to argue amongst themselves at that. Swearing that they are not dim. Fili hits the table, getting the attention of those around him, "We may be few in number. But we're fighters, all of us! To the last dwarf!"

Kili nods in agreement with his brother. "And you forget we have a wizard in our company, Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time." He points out. Gandalf puts his hands up. "Oh, well. No, uh, I...I wouldn't say..." He stutters out.

Dori looks up at the wizard expectantly. "Well, how many then?! Go on, give us a number!"

The dwarves begin to argue once more. Voices growing angrier by the second. "Please... Please!" Bilbo tries to ask. Even Thorin's face was expressing annoyance toward the loud shouts.

Estella huffs at the dwarves. "Excuse me!" She shouts above the yelling. The dwarves grow quiet and look at the young hobbit. "Please, lower your voice. Heated voices will not solve anything." The dwarves mumble to themselves but remain quiet. Thorin gives her a pleased glance, and she bows her head at him as a "you're welcome."

"If we have read these signs, do you not think others will have read them too? Rumors have begun to spread. The dragon Smaug has not been seen for sixty years. Eyes look East to the mountain, assessing, wondering, weighing the risk. Perhaps the vast wealth of our people now lies unprotected," Thorin continues. "Do we sit back while others claim what is rightfully ours? Or do we seize this chance to take back Erebor?" Thorin stands up and for a moment the company was united once more, cheering with their leader.

"You forget the front gate is sealed," Balin reminds them. The cheers die down into silence. "There is no way into the mountain."

Gandalf shakes his head. "That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true." He holds up a key. It was old looking. Sharp edges. Very dwarvish. The hobbits look at it fixedly. It was very new to them.

"How came you by this?" Thorin watches the key the moment Gandalf takes it out.

"It was given to me by your father by Thrain, for safekeeping. It is yours now." Gandalf hands the prince his birthright. Fili, on the other side of the table, smiles widely.

"If there's a key! Then there must be a door!" He exclaims.

Estella chuckles at the dwarves. Sure they might be great warriors, she thought to herself, but they sure aren't the smartest. Bookwise, anyways. Gandalf points to red markings on the map, to which Bilbo and Estella look closely at. "These runes speak of a hidden passage to the lower halls," Gandalf says.

"There's another way in!" Kili happily exclaims.

"Well, if we can find it, but dwarf doors are invisible when closed. The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map, and I do not have the skill to find it, but there are others in Middle-Earth who can. The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage. But if we're careful and clever, I believe that it can be done."

"That's why we need a burglar!" Ori says in realization.

Bilbo nods, still a little clueless. "Hmm. And a good one too. An expert, I'd imagine."

"And are you?" Gloin asks. Everyone looks to Bilbo, expecting an answer. Estella looks to him too, scared of what her dear, clueless cousin would say next.

"Am I what?"

"He says he's an expert!" Oin exclaims.

"Me? No! No, No, No! I...I'm not a burglar. I've never stolen a thing in my life."

"Bilbo has always had a good record," Estella admits. "But us hobbit's are very light on their feet! We are very good at sneaking about! If you need a burglar, Bilbo and I would be great for the job," She thinks of their times when they would hide from the Sackville-Bagginses, hoping to the gods that they wouldn't see them. They were pretty good at that. What's a little dragon? Estella semi-regretted what she had said when all eyes were on her now, including Bilbo's. He really wished she wouldn't include him in her lust for adventure. Sure, he shared that want but he refused to admit it.

"What?" She asks.

"We? Who says you were going, lassie?" Dwalin says, staring at her.

Estella turned red. She had not meant to include herself into the conversation... or maybe she did? The young lass always wanted an adventure, so when one showed up for her cousin...

"No offence Lady Took, but Bilbo nor you, are hardly burglar material," Balin says softly.

"Aye, the wild is no place for gentle folk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves. Especially for a young lady like you." Dwalin agrees.

Voices begin to rise again. Dwarves arguing. Upon the yelling and sudden rejection, Estella wanted to cry. Not because she isn't getting what she wanted but because she thought she might've found a way to get out of the Shire. Have a purpose other than reading and baking and eventually dying with a husband she wouldn't have loved and few children. Don't get her wrong! Estella loved families and children but she wanted more to life. She wasn't getting any younger. Bilbo somehow could feel her sadness, radiating off of her. He pulled her close by the shoulder as the dwarves argued louder and louder. "Enough!" Gandalf booms. A grey cloud rolls throughout the room, the lights dimming. His voice was like a crack of thunder forcing the dwarves to finally get quiet once more. "If I say Bilbo Baggins is a burglar, then a burglar he is!"

The two hobbits stared at the wizard, surprised by his outburst. "As Lady Took had said before, hobbits are remarkably light on their feet. In fact, they can pass unseen by most if they choose, and while the dragon is accustomed to the smell of a dwarf, the scent of a hobbit is all but unknown to him, which gives us a distinct advantage. You asked me to find the fourteenth member of this company, and I have chosen Mr.Baggins. There's a lot more to him than appearances suggest. And he's got a great deal more to offer than any of you know," Gandalf glances toward Bilbo. ", including himself."

"I would also not look over Ms.Took here either! She has shown interest in your adventure, which is more than your own kin! She, along with her cousin, would be an amazing asset to the company," Gandalf vouches. The dwarves mumble and whisper to each other while the wizard sneaks a wink to the girl. She smiled happily at him. Gandalf was truly an outstanding man.

The wizard looks to Thorin, "You must trust me on this."

The dwarf sighs, nodding. "Very well, we will do it your way." He grumbles. "Give him the contract."

Bilbo shakes his head, "No! No... wait please!"

"We're in! We're off!" Bofur exclaims, smiling like a fool.

Balin gets out a folded piece of parchment. Holding it out to Bilbo. "It's just the usual. Summary of out-of-pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements, so forth." He tells him.

Bilbo takes the parchment. Estella stares at the contract in Bilbo's hand like it's gold. Her heart pounds so hard she can hear it in her own ears. It almost felt as if it would pounce right out of her chest. Especially when Thorin looks her straight in her eyes, "And if you would like to join your cousin, then sign underneath him. You are... welcome to join."

Just at that Bilbo's face grew pale. He looks at his cousin, lump in throat. "Please Bilbo, we must at least look at it!" Estella says.

"I- Estella, he literally said FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS- Does that not scare you?" Bilbo whimpers but sees his cousin's eyes. They were so bright. They have never, ever been this bright. "Very well, let's look at it." He unfolds the parchment. When it fell open, the contract was almost as tall as Bilbo himself. Bilbo glances over, reading out loud. Thorin in the dining room watches the two hobbits as they look over the terms. He looks at Gandalf, a serious frown on his face. He leans in and whispers sternly, "I cannot guarantee his safety, nor the girl's."

Gandalf frowns at that but nods. "Understood."

"Nor will I be responsible for their fate."

"...Agreed."

Bilbo follows the words with his finger, mumbling aloud with Estella watching over his shoulder. "'Total's cash on delivery, up to but not exceeding, one-fourteenth of total profit if any.'" He reads aloud.

"Seems fair," Estella says with a grin.

"Uh...' The present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence thereof, including, but not limited to...lacerations. Evisceration...." He carries on. Bilbo unfolds more of the contract. His face grows pale for the tenth time that night as he reads the next word. "...Incineration?" Estella stares at the word in front of her. She wasn't afraid of the word. I mean, they were facing a dragon! Of course, this would be possible!

"Oh, aye, he'll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye," Bofur confirms. Estella gave the dwarf a stern look as Bilbo begins to breathe heavily.

"Breath, dear. It's okay." Estella says sweetly, rubbing his back comfortingly. Bilbo shakes his head.

"Are you all right, laddie?" Balin asks.

"Huh?" Bilbo says, trying to catch his breath. "Yeah, I just feel- a little bit faint."

"Come on Bilbo, you should sit down," Estella whispers to him.

"Think furnace, with wings." Bofur grins. Not quite understanding that Bilbo is hyperventilating.

"I...I...I need air."

"Flash of light, searing pain, then poof! You're nothing more than a pile of ash!"

Bilbo stares at Bofur in horror. He looks at the dwarves for a moment, and then his dear cousin. The image of him and worst of all her, becoming a pile of ash passes through his mind. "Nope." He mumbles, before falling backward onto the wooden floor unconscious. Estella gasped and hurried to his side. She glares at Bofur, who slightly cowers under her stare.

"He was obviously not comfortable with that! Why would you continue on?!" She scowls.

"I- sorry ma'am-"

"No. Shush." She snaps, shutting the dwarf up quickly. " Gandalf can you help me take him to his armchair?"

Gandalf stands up, walking to the halfling's side. "Of course Lady Took."

"Blasted dwarves, have no sympathy," Estella mumbles under her breath before helping Gandalf take Bilbo to his chair. The dwarves talk quietly amongst themselves, in fear that Estella might snap at them again. They were already very fond of the sweet girl but didn't wish to see her angry.

It didn't take long for Bilbo to wake up from his episode. Gandalf sighs in relief and glances over at Estell who held his hand by his side. "Do you need anything, dear?" She asks. Bilbo shakes his head and pats the top of her hand.

"I'm okay,"

"Lady Took, do you mind-" Gandalf asks, glancing at her and back at the archway.

"Oh no. Of course not," She says kindly. She smiles at Bilbo. "Call me if you need anything."

Estella leaves the room for the two to talk. She decides to walk back to the dwarves who still talked low. She sees some smoking, sipping their ale in silence, whispering to each other. In the hallway, near the room she had just left was Thorin Oakenshield and Balin. Thorin leaned against the wall of the hobbit hole and Balin sitting across from him.

When they see Estella, they sit up a bit straighter. Balin gives her a smile, to which she instantly returns. "How is the laddie doing?" Balin asks.

"Better. I think." Estella sighs.

"He's a bit squeamish," Thorin shakes his head.

"You can't exactly blame him. He's lived in a safe place for most of his life, this is new to him."

"What about you?" Thorin asks.

"What about me?"

"You haven't fainted yet," amusement was in the prince's voice.

Estella smiles slightly, "You're right. I won't lie, I've dreamed of an opportunity to get out of the Shire for years."

"Is that so?" Balin laughs.

"My father always told me of my ancestors. The warriors, the adventurers. It's in my blood," Estella sighs. "I need to get away. I mean, for the love of the gods, you all have been far kinder to me than my own people." Estella sighs. She glances over her should to look toward the room she left Bilbo in. " Bilbo doesn't understand I don't belong here."

Balin and Thorin look at her sympathetic eyes and she lets out a nervous laugh. "I apologize, I doubt you want to hear my life story. I always overshare to people that listen."

"Well, dearie, you are very welcome to our company." Balin kindly tells her. A comforting hand on her forearm.

"A strong, willing heart. That's very important. The world needs more of that," Thorin says, low. His eyes avoided Estella's but it was still very meaningful. Her heart skipped a beat and she felt accepted by him. Not fully but she had foot through through the door.

Suddenly, Bilbo hurries away from the room. Estella watches him with a large frown. Balin shakes his head in disappointment, "It appears we have lost our burglar. Probably for the best. The odds were always against us. After all, what are we? Merchants, miners, tinkers, toymakers. Hardly the stuff of legend..."

Thorin smiles down at his old friend. "here are a few warriors amongst us."

"Old Warriors," Balin frowns.

"I would take each and every one of these dwarves over an army from the Iron Hills, for when I called upon them, they answered. Loyalty, honor. I can ask no more than that." Thorin says fondly and Estella's heart flutters. His trust in these dwarves was heartwarming. Estella already knew that this man is someone she would gladly follow.

"You don't have to do this. You have a choice. You've done honorably by our people. You have built a new life for us in the Blue Mountains. A life of peace and plenty. A life that is worth more than all the gold in Erebor."

"From my grandfather to my father, this has come to me. They dreamt of the day when the dwarves of Erebor would reclaim their homeland. There is no choice, Balin. Not for me."

Balin solemnly nods, standing up on his feet. "Then we are with you, laddie. We will see it done."

The old dwarven warrior walks back to the company of dwarves, leaving Estella and Thorin. She peeks over at the dwarf who was actually taller than her. She hadn't realized how close she was until she looked over. He was beautiful with his strong jawline, long onyx hair, literally perfect skin. Who was this man? If she hadn't known any better, she would have thought he was a god of some sort. Thorin Oakenshield was surreal. "I am with you as well, sir'. If you will have me," Estella tells him softly.

"Thank you, Lady Took. We are leaving at daybreak," He informs her.

They lock eyes and she gives him a giant smile, in hope of getting him to. "You got it! Daybreak it is!" Estella nods. Thorin, to her disappointment, didn't smile back but he gave her a minute grin. Very, very minute. It was better than nothing she supposed. "Get some rest," He mumbles to her, then goes to join his kin. Estella kept smiling though he was gone. What a man. Then she remembered, Bilbo. She supposed she ought to Estella quickly turns and rushes off toward Bilbo's room. "Bilbo! Dear!" She calls out as she enters the room. And there he was leaning against his bedpost on the foot of his bed. He looked upset. Estella sits next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"You're going..." Bilbo mumbles. It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

"Yes."

And that was that. They both just stared into the nothingness. Nothing but low voices beginning to sing. Low and rumbling voices filling the halls, with the sorrowful song of their lost home. The two hobbits listened together, solemnly.

Far over the Misty Mountains cold.

To dungeons deep and caverns old.

We must away ere break of day.

To find our long-forgotten gold.

The pines were roaring on the height, the winds were moaning in the night.

The fire was red, it flaming spread.

The trees like torches blazed with light.

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carrollstreetstation · 5 years ago

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SPEAR OF DESTINY: A LEVEL-BY-LEVEL BREAKDOWN

(note: due to the extreme simplicity of wolfenstein’s design ethos, i will be forgoing screenshots, with one exception. you’ve seen one wolf3d screenshot, you’ve seen them all. if you would like to see the game in action, i recommend this LP.)

spear of destiny

with the smash success of the original wolfenstein 3D, it was perhaps inevitable that there would be a followup -- and this time, it was to be a retail release, meant to be put in a box and sold in stores by formgen. developed over the course of two months as john carmack worked on what would form the basis of the doom engine, "spear of destiny" is an "expandalone" of sorts in that it's shorter than the main game by far (only 21 levels) but did not require the main game to play. it stands as a prequel to the "nocturnal missions" (which were themselves prequels to the original episode trilogy. unlike the main game, where the hint manual gave indirect attribution to most of the maps, it's unclear who at id was responsible for which map. the only thing we can say for certain is that the level design is a massive improvement on the original game, generally eschewing the more abstract design ethos as embodied by the likes of episode six for a more realistic setting.

tunnels 1: entrance to the tunnels short and sweet intro to the mapset. opens up similar to the first level of wolf3d ep 2, with BJ infiltrating the castle through a tunnel entrance in the castle's lower levels. no mutants to be found here, though, just regular goons. it's more or less a straight shot to the exit, but there's no harm in poking around.

tunnels 2: corridors of confusion awesome music in this level. in the tunnels deep beneath the castle, this is a confusing maze that loops in on itself repeatedly. mostly staffed by low-level guards and SS goons, this level won't make you sweat much.

tunnels 3: cave-in! another quickie, this one's defined by a long hallway with multiple rooms along it, some of them seeming to be torture chambers. the hallway has been bisected by a cave-in (very cutely done by simply placing a couple of stony-looking wall blocks in the middle of the passage) so you'll need to navigate some tunnels to get around the blockage. very low-key action.

tunnels 4: fortune and glory the castle's treasure vault is a sprawling underground complex. the western half of the map is quasi-realistic castle-style architecture, but get into the secret areas and watch the path turn into spaghetti. it's worth it though -- 1-ups at the end of one secret area, the secret level at the end of the other.

tunnels secret going a bit old-school here, this is a sprawling map made up of different sections, each annoying in their own way. despite being a prequel, mutants make their first chronological appearance in this level, and several sections are designed to take advantage of their utter silence and breathtaking firing speed.

tunnels 5: guardian of the dungeon door unlike the original wolfenstein which was split into six episodes of 10 levels with a boss at the end of each, the 21 levels of spear of destiny are split into much smaller contiguous episodes. the "tunnels" chapter thus comes to an end with this level, an absolute shitshow of guards and SS coming after you from all sides. clear out the bullshit and you'll have to deal with trans grosse ("beyond big" in german) -- a relative of the grosse family by the looks of it. he's enormous, he's got two chainguns, and he goes down like a sack of dead chimps with enough concentrated fire. but with all the goons he's got in his boss arena, your first priority should be clearing out a safe area in which to deal with him.

dungeons 1: dungeon depths pretty standard level. the first area is a blue-stoned dungeon; beyond the dungeon exit is a labyrinthine network of tunnels and hallways in red brick. it's a maze down there and all too easy for enemies to get behind you. otherwise, nothing of note.

dungeons 2: winding dungeons like the last level, this is a bog-standard wolfenstein map split between a blue dungeon area and a separate area, in this case mossy stone. though the dungeon area is large, resistance isn't too fierce. that changes when you get into the lower half of the map, when nazi goons start coming at you from all directions.

dungeons 3: guard post i get the feeling john romero did this one. it's an enormous maze of mostly blue dungeon walls, filled to the brim with enemies. one shot and they all congregate on you, leading to a frantic firefight that requires constantly moving forward to not get overwhelmed. find the key to the locked door and you'll find yourself in a long corridor that surrounds the entire maze, equally heavily guarded as you work your way around to the other side of the map to reach the elevator. great map.

dungeons 4: main dungeon this level can actually be mostly bypassed if you know the secret paths. so you can effectively dodge a room full of SS and officers guarding the key by simply sneaking in past them, and then taking another secret passage that leads directly to the exit. it's a neat little trick that suggests tom hall's involvement. if you choose to do this the hard way, it's a bog-standard map split into three areas with little in the way of resistance, so a bit of a breather after the massacre that was the previous level.

dungeons 5: barnacle wil the jailer similar to the tunnels boss level, this is a map featuring an arena with some heavily guarded antechambers. find your way into the boss room and you'll face barnacle wilhelm, who carries a chaingun and a missile launcher, but he's hardly a threat. the bigger issue are the officers and other losers who attend him, who lie in wait until they see you, meaning it's unwise to move about too much in the boss arena until wilhelm is down.

castle 1: castle entrance the back half of spear of destiny shows some more of the quasi-realistic philosophy behind the level design. the bulk of the level is a confusing maze of rooms that serve no real purpose, but they're surrounded not only by a wall hollowed out by a secret passageway, but an outer wall that serves as the main defense of the castle, complete with two trucks parked in the gateway, the outside world visible beyond. it's a neat touch that adds a bit of a realistic vibe to an otherwise abstract level.

castle 2: barreling through the castle fuck you for this pun, id. (and fuck you for doing it again with doom 2's "barrels o' fun.") the early part of the map is full of ambushes in which barrels are used as barricades, with nazis firing at you from cover and no way for you to recover their ammo. past that bullshit is another standard maze of rooms and halls, with mutants occupying a wing in the southeast.

castle secret: pushwall panic! if there's proof that sometimes secret levels just aren't worth it, it's this one. as the name suggests, the core conceit of this level is pushwalls, pushwalls everywhere. it's a massive, confusing nightmare maze made up of different sections, all of them hidden behind pushwalls. if you're not attempting this with a map like the one in the hint guide, you'll probably go mad.

castle 3: castle hassle resuming the castle shape of "castle entrance," this opens in a broad, cavernous loop around a lower level of the castle. entrance into the castle proper is through the four corners. the level is mostly populated by mutants and a few handlers, so quick reaction times are a must. the interior of the castle is another abstract maze sectioned off into four different areas you must access from one of the corners.

castle 4: militant mutants oh god. mutants are everywhere on this level, especially in the cave section to the northwest. it's honestly a real shitshow. the tension is palpable, but id do reward you with a great fakeout -- throw the switch of the first elevator you see and the wall moves back, revealing health and ammo and a 1-up.

castle 5: gauntlet guards the mutant mayhem continues with this abstract spaghetti of a map partially bisected by two parallel hallways. the opening of the map is very cruel, a gauntlet of thin hallways you must wind your way through while being fired upon by mutants. get past that and the rest isn't too bad provided you know where to go.

castle 6: king of the mutants chriiiist. this boss level is even worse than the tunnel boss level. jammed absolutely full of nazis, ammo is scarce and often behind the very enemies you need the ammo for. the main room has a central area from which dozens of guards can fire at you with relative impunity from behind columns. if you can work your way through the swarm of assholes that dominate the side hallways you'll get the key that lets you into the inner chamber. the big metal box that dominates the room contains the ubermutant, a giant, four-armed mutant on steroids. fortunately, unlike his regular-sized brethren, he isn't nearly as quick on the draw, meaning you have a little time to dive for cover before he opens fire.

ramparts 1: the ramparts top floor. this is most emphatically not a large level -- in fact, it's literally just the castle walls, with a small chapel to hitler of sorts at the center. id software have cleverly managed to make it look like an outdoor section, with the outer walls resembling rampart walls with a sky the color of the dark cyan ceiling this game commonly uses. however, despite the small size, it's wall to wall nazis, without a lot of health or ammo.

ramparts 2: guardian of the spear as boss levels go, compared to the ubermutant level this one is much more forgiving... provided you can get past the death knight, a massive fascist in power armor who takes a hell of a beating and can dish it out just as good. and he's not alone, with an army of officers and their mutant pets. luckily, there is an *assload* of health and ammo on either side of the level, so keeping yourself well stocked should be easy. when the dust settles, you can unlock the chamber holding the spear of destiny, and take it for yourself...

the death dimension WELCOME TO HELL. in what had to have been foreshadowing for what would eventually become doom, grabbing the spear sends you to a nightmarish dimension that very much looks like hell as envisioned in doom's third episode, a cavernous maze filled with skulls on poles, blood and skeletons everywhere, the souls of the damned zooming in on you, and the so-called angel of death, a massive demon who throws green fireballs at you. it's a frightening, unexpected climax to the game, and by far one of the best curveballs a game has ever thrown. even if the boss himself isn't a great challenge -- though watch out for the ghosts flying around, as they can only be put down for a few seconds.

final thoughts: in an era of shareware and games being spread across an episodic structure, a game that just gives you a single adventure across a series of levels was a bit unusual, particularly from id software. 21 levels of nazi murder without a break, split across five different themes, with five bosses to keep you amused. it's a bit of a mixed bag, however. the early tunnel levels are light and easy, letting you dip your toes in. the dungeon levels are more standard wolfenstein, akin to something we'd see out of, say, wolfenstein 3D's second episode. the castle chapter mostly just kind of... sucks. the final two levels are brutal, though not as bad as the ubermutant level immediately preceding. if you can survive the ramparts, the game drops a great surprise finale. overall i'd say that the level design is *generally* better than wolf 3D, but there are some missteps, namely that second secret level. i do like the attempt at creating some semblance of a real-world castle, but in general it seems to be the case that they simply use the basic outline of a castle to construct a more abstract maze within, and even then they don’t do that consistently. still, it’s a nice early attempt at realism in an FPS.

#wolfenstein 3d #spear of destiny #pc gaming #classic fps #classic gaming

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 5 years ago

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FFXV First Impressions

Impressions So Far (something like 2 hours in):

That opening scene of pushing the car was Actually Clever. It was trying to be clever, but if you succeed and ARE clever “trying to be clever” is allowed!

Running across open ground is a little boring. Definite “Open World-itis” there. They tried to mitigate by including fast travel back to your car. It...sort of mitigates it? But if you’re willing to shrink player perception of the space by including fast travel, then you should show less space and have more space implied.

Night is legit scary. One of the characters mentioned you needed to get in by dark because demons come out and I’m like, “Sure, but I’m an adventurer. Isn’t fighting demons my thing?” That night: I’m running around looking for a hunt target and the asphalt on the road in front of me starts boiling and then up pop a pair of red eyes (literally that’s all you can see of this thing if you’re not standing within 10′ of it). It’s an Iron Giant, and it is level thirty. At this point I am level three. I run. I run immediately and two of my friends still nearly die. I love how they handled night.

The conversation engine needed more time. It’s neat, and a lot of it is good, but it’s not good enough and like human face art it’s gotta be really great to fool humans because we’re used to focusing on it. Two hours in I’ve already hit two or three uncanny-valley type moments where people repeated lines - not just barks but whole conversations. When it’s barks it’s a person having a catch phrase. When it’s a conversation you’re suddenly watching Groundhog Day.

There are parts of this that remind me of the hashtags in KH3 - this weird and too-visible desire of the designers to incorporate some aspect of modern society and its relationship with media but it’s fallen apart because the media isn’t old enough (or the designer not prescient/deep enough) for the designer to conceive of how it really plays out, what it really means in a fantasy space. The mix of having digital GPS yet needing to get rumors about where stuff is on your local map from the local diners is...a weird choice.

When i realized you could mix any ol’ piece of junk you found lying around with your magic to make better magic? Yeah, that’s pretty hot. I wish the system had a faster cooldown for spells (As it is, spells are basically grenades you have to construct yourself before battle, using resources you only find in a couple locations - magic mining nodes, basically - plus whatever physical stuff you wanna combine with them. The magic nodes recharge daily, but you can only make 3 spell-grenades per grenade-slot and only get 4 grenade-slots as far as I can tell). Noctis, your main character, has MP, which should be WP because it’s used exclusively for Warping, at least so far in the game. Personally I think having to spend longer crafting a spell and then being able to use MP to cast it would be rockin’. Like, I would sit there farming up every possible combination of items and spell energy to fill out my spellbook. You could have crazy spells that use 3/4 of your mp gauge, and then you have to duck behind a rock to recover like a proper black mage would have to do and just...I don’t know, I had a similar response of “This was almost as awesome as the magic system I came up with just now that I haven’t tested” back when FFVIII came out. Who knows if my idea for a magic system would actually be any good in practice. It certainly feels good in my head, and frankly I appreciate how close this one came to awesome because this feeling of speculating about the one change to fix everything is really fulfilling for me.

I like the fact that there’s treasure points on your map, and food points on the map, and mining points on the map, but then every now and then you find something valuable that isn’t on the map. It makes wandering around feel just a little more rewarding - It’s better than the fast-travel system at making the open world feel like an okay decision.

I like how wide the range of survivability is! I ran from that level thirty Iron Giant, but I did a level ELEVEN hunt while I was still level THREE. Playing the fights well clearly matters.

I also really like the system for wounds! Basically you have a third score. Normal games have Max HP and Current HP. This game adds in “Current Max HP” which can be between the two. If you get knocked to 0 Current HP your character’s seriously injured and you’re literally limping around hoping for one of your buddies to heal you or trying to get out of immediate danger so you can drink a potion (or trying to limp and drink both at once). While this is happening your Current Max is bleeding out. Let’s say you had 100 max hp and you bleed down to 90 while you pull a potion out. A potion heals you by 50% of your actual Max (so, to 50) and if you can catch a breather out of immediate harm’s way you’ll quickly recover to 90, your Current Max HP. But you won’t recover to 100. Outside of combat, your Current Max rises by 1 every 3-4 seconds until it hits your actual Max HP. This makes it possible to get attacked again when you haven’t really recovered from the last fight, which...isn’t a feeling you get in a lot of these games, especially ones that have regenerating health systems as robust as this one. Just two hours in I’ve already had some really tense encounters where things started going really wrong for me and I pulled out of it but it built that sense of being winded, of being really rattled by the fight, in a way that doesn’t tend to happen.

I think Youtube videos about the game have already said this but I really like that you make your own photo album as you play. By the end of the game you’ve literally got the 200 most meaningful moments to you in that album, or at least your favorite pics. It’s just brilliant, in terms of making a retrospective of stuff that made the game great for you, personally, as the person who played this playthrough of their game.

The food looks delicious, and I’m precisely as disturbed by how much I want to eat it as various people are by how sexy they find cat versions of people in the new Cats movie. There’s one part of my brain that is telling me that it is cartoon food and not real (and that some of it, like the mystery lunchmeat “sushi,” would likely be Super Gross if you could smell it) and it is correct but is also incapable of shutting up the part of my brain that finds the same fake food appetizing.

The collector in me is starting by buying all the skills that grant AP. I have doubts as to whether the game is long enough that I’ll recoup the investment. Like, the one that makes it so Big Catches grant AP costs 99 AP. I think it makes them give 2 AP. Am I actually going to fish up 50 Big Catches in the fishing minigame? (It might even only increase the AP gains by 1, so I’d have to fish up a hundred to profit.) Well fuck it, I know I’m gonna buy every damn skill on every grid anyway so I might as well start with the ones that speed up that process, no matter by how small a degree. The camping and food ones, at the least, were no-brainers.

I have trouble telling the main characters’ voices apart. Say what you will about how dumb Donald sounds in Kingdom Hearts 3, but if Sora, Goofy, Donald, Kairi, King Mickey, Yen Sid, Axel, and Riku were all having a conversation there is no point where you’d be confused about who was talking even if your eyes were closed the whole time. The voices and speech patterns are as recognizable as the silhouettes, in the KH series. Not so much, in FFXV.

I love the way Prompto moves in combat. He is literally always tripping and scrambling to get back up. Seriously, if you have the game play the training session so you can see his move cycle in detail. He spends like half of it with at least one hand on the ground, and I just love it. It’s so dynamic, so expressive, so goofy, so immediately endearing. And then you think, “Wait, we armed our derpiest party member with a gun? What is wrong with us?”

#FFXV #review

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187days · 5 years ago

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Day One Hundred Five

Today was SUCH a Monday. Students were coming off an unexpectedly long weekend because of the snow day last Friday, and just enough snow was falling this morning to be annoying (but not enough to warrant a delay, which they were grumbly about). There’s a teacher workshop day tomorrow (because it’s election day and there are schools in the district that are polling places). Aaaand it’s one week before February vacation.

If that’s not a recipe for chaos, I don’t know what is.

Students were wild in the halls, and hyper in class, and some were just not in the mood for my smiley-but-strict classroom style. I got the Outraged Glare of Doom from a couple few of them over the simplest requests (ie- stop playing games on your cell phone, take your feet off the desk...) One student who never talks back actually snapped at me, at which point I suggested heading to the office- not to be disciplined, but to take a breather, because that’s how we roll- and got The Glare again. I get it, though; all the disruptions to the routine can be stressful and leave lots of kids feeling out of sorts.

Luckily, we were just doing current events essays in World, which was probably the best thing for this kind of a day. It’s something students already know how to do, they don’t have to listen to me explain anything but the instructions (which, again, they know- it’s just reiteration), they can work independently, they can even put their headphones in and block out everyone else... So, in both sections of the class, things improved as the block went on. Towards the end of Block 4, after everyone had finished their essays, some students started eying my Court Madness brackets and asking about the cases. Then the rest started listening in, which was fine. They’re a curious group, and I go on the most tangents with them, but learning is learning. It’s all good.

I’ve had this nasty cold off-and-on for two weeks, and it decided to reappear in the form of a splitting sinus headache during my prep time. I struggle to grade papers with a headache, but lesson planning with one doesn’t bother me, so that’s what I did. I mapped out my next APUSGOV unit, tinkered with a test, made all the photocopies I’ll need for the rest of this week in World. It was productive, and I’ll still have time to grade the current events essays students wrote today before their next class.

This evening I’m sending thank yous to all the campaign staffers who came to see my APUSGOV students, and asking them not to forget the incredible young people they met here on the trail.

#teaching #teachblr #edublr #educhums #education #teacher #social studies #APUSGOV and the NH primary #court madness #conversations about current events #such a monday #day one hundred five

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alitheamateur · 6 years ago

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The Grind-Chapter 2

See what you’ve missed here …

We had been meeting at The Grind on Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s, & Saturday’s for the last two weeks. We discussed last names, home towns, the obvious sports, and the strange hatred we shared for cherry licorice. I took notes on the path that led him to becoming a fighter, & he filled me in on his basic training habits for a fight of this magnitude. He had been on the wrestling team throughout high school, & could’ve hand picked from the patch any college he wanted to attend, and a scholarship would’ve been offered on a silver platter. For a moment, I let myself envision Colton sporting a varsity letterman jacket marking the halls as captain of the wrestling team. The mental illustration may have produced an overdose of lust, which caused me to shift lustfully in my seat. He chose a rowdier way instead, consisting of drugs & some extra-curricular gambling debt, leaving him in need of some quick pocket cash before he quote, ‘got ran down by some greasy-haired bookie’. Enter, the dabbling inside the octagon.

The first two matches he had managed to pin down had been easy defeats to his pleasant surprise, & a blue fired flame had been lit in his core. The adrenaline. The passion. The sheer ruthlessness was something he said he became dangerously addicted to. The rush of feeling alive, yet toying with combative death, replaced his desires of betting. As he climbed the latter of men’s’ competitive cage-fighting, his mom had fallen ill in the meantime. Leading him eagerly back home to her side, and promising to lay down his habitual drug use, and shady gambling. But the fighting, no. He explained how it had become his only way a life, and an outlet amid all the worrisome stress of his mother’s illness. And his speculations of my Pilot family beaming with excitement once I dropped the story onto their desks, had been correct. Ryan, my boss, had guaranteed me a full front-page for my “excellent snag.”

This particular Saturday morning strayed away from the typical routine the two of us had settled into. Colton suggested I join him for his morning run through the city, and he’d show me around to some of the crevices of Pittsburgh I hadn’t seen. If I’m truthful, nothing about trouncing through the freezing streets of downtown Pittsburgh, in the dead of winter, at 4 a.m. appealed to my senses. However, the added minutes of Colton to my day, were ones I would gladly grasp on to. He offered to meet at my place, because it was “a real bad idea for a girl like me to be wondering alone in the streets at the break of daylight.”

Finishing my second layer of apparel, I took one last survey in the mirror dragging on the thermal elastic headpiece. My dirty blonde waves were tied in a tight ponytail, and I nixed the makeup, concluding this morning would involve ample sweating. I checked my watch spitting out the last remnants of toothpaste, assuring I wouldn’t have my running partner waiting. At that very second, I heard a heavy knock on my door. Spewing a nervous exhale, I made my way to the front of the apartment, loosening my tensed shoulders, and rolling my neck along the way. This was a simple run, not a date. He would probably have headphones stuffed in his ears the entire time, forgetting I was even tagging along at his side. So, why was my stomach twisting dopy somersaults?

I swung the dark green barrier open, and his freshly awoken, soft eyes trailed up my form. “Good-morning sunshine.” He checked his watch, “And I see you’re right on schedule.”

I slung the thick mane off my shoulder as a “take that” to his cheeky tone of surprise at my ability to flop out of bed this time of day. I squeezed the handle closing the door behind me assuring I had locked it, and we made our way down the silent stairs from my upper level abode.

“How far are we going again?” I kicked myself for only now deciding to request that particular information.

“I tracked a course that’ll bring us right back to your place. It’s just 4 miles. You think ya’ can handle it, hot shot?” He smiled teasingly & began jogging backwards out of sight without any warning. What had I gotten myself into?

Just as he’d promised, we completed his perfectly mapped out 4-mile route, ending at the very steps of my apartment complex. There wasn’t much talking along the way, but he’d shoot me a wink shaking his head, impressed that I was able to keep up. We decided to skip out on The Grind, & instead I extended an invite for coffee at my place.

“Make yourself at home, I’ll get the pot started.”

As I was pulling mugs & filling the Mr. Coffee, I watched him intently from afar. He began wandering around my living room looking at every picture I had framed on display. Senior prom with all the girls from the team, my best friend Sara & I on our unplanned trip to Mexico before I left home. He seemed genuinely interested in seeing more of me and his eyes smiled, meticulously observing a deeper look at my life in the snapshots. Who I really was, and where I came from. I could feel a warm snicker sneak onto my lips at the realization.

While the liquid brewed in the kitchen, I found my way back to the living room to join my guest. I dead-weighted myself onto the leather couch with a dramatic, exhausted sigh.

“And here I thought you were in shape after stayin’ on my ass this morning.” He laughed, making his way to the open seat next to me. I extended a light kick in his direction for the insult.

“Next time, my rules. Let’s see how the big bad cage fighter takes on 100 suicide sprints, huh?” Suicides were Coach Gibson’s chosen form of torture, and boy, did he torture us. I considered myself a master of the trade by sophomore year.

“Do you ever miss it? Basketball, I mean?” He propped his sculpted arm on the back of the couch and turned to face me, and his eyes held such sincere interest.

“Every day. It was my way of life. I think, maybe my injury was life’s way of telling me it was time to expand. Grow up, ya’ know? Time to make another name for myself.”

“You have no idea much I get that, Liv. Honestly. But, it looks like you done pretty well for yourself on ya’ own two feet out here.”

That was enough about me, and the basketball topic for today. Ball would lead to my parents, my parents would unveil the family drama, and it wasn’t the right time for such. I needed to shift his attention to something lighter, and quick. But the shift it took, was not one I expected.

“I still can’t seem to get warm! My whole face is numb,” I shuddered.

He reached his masculine hands over playfully to smoosh my cheeks in an attempt to warm my frozen skin, my lips forming into that of a duck face. I reached for his wrists, giving a weak effort to pry his scorching hands from my face with a chuckle. My doe eyes locked with his, and I watched them turn from lighthearted and tender, to darkly mischievous. Our bodies tensed in unison, and he lightened the grip he had on my now very flushed skin, but didn’t release. His dark shadow slowly carried itself into my personal space, and I knew what was coming next. I didn’t dare rush the intensity of this moment, nor do anything to stop the inevitable. The misty bluish orbs on his face danced from my eyes, to my lips. Eyes, to lips. Eyes, to lips. His left hand eased back a fly away strand of hair that was sticking to the apple balm on my mouth, then he coated his own lips before they finally reached their desired destination.

They were every bit as perfect, and downy as I knew they’d be. Instantly, my first reaction was to melt to doughy-like putty when his large arms slowly began to cloak my small form. I was nearly high from the sheer bliss, and my entire body appeared to lose feeling. Yet, it seemed feel everything in the air at the very same time. Limbs immobilized, along with my mouth, which was doing little to sustain its role in what was transpiring between us. I pinched my thigh between two fingers to awaken myself, & suddenly my body caught up with my mind. I reached my arm up to caress the back of his thick neck as he began to deepen the kiss, grazing my fingers through the baby hairs that laid sweat slicked there.

We just jogged 4 miles, how does he smell so good?

I could vaguely taste drops of salty sweat leftover from our morning adventure. His hands wandered over my hips to the small of my back, squeezing almost as if he didn’t realize his own strength. A glossy tongue tickled my lips gently requesting entrance. All too eagerly I obliged & opened my mouth to welcome him in with lazy a mewl of need. Our tongues danced to an unfamiliar rhythm in efforts to learn how the other moved. I could feel the build between my thighs becoming irrefutable, causing the stickler in me to pull away abruptly. I accepted this night would likely end with a forbidden visit from my battery-operated friend stored in my bedside table.

“Woah, Ritter. Let’s take a breather, yeah? Didn’t see that coming.”

His face still dangerous, minimal inches from mine he spoke. “Honest? I been plannin’ that one since the second I laid eyes on ya’, kid.” He winked & bit his pillowy bottom lip, nearly sending me choked over the edge of heated exile.

I dipped my head feeling the flush rise up my neck. Colton Ritter was pushing all the right buttons & he knew it. “How about that coffee now? Although, I’d say it’s plenty warm in here at this point...” I grinned.

I escorted him to the kitchen, seemingly walking with the legs of a clumsy fawn, and served him a dark cup of caffeine. He asked about some of the pictures he’d noticed throughout the house, & I told a few old basketball tales from my “glory days.”

“What would you say to gettin’ together again sometime, Liv? Someplace other than The Grind, & no damn sweats allowed. For either of us.”

I patiently held off on answering, giving my best effort to play it off calmly. “I think I could manage that just fine. I might even enjoy it, too.”

TAGS: @torialeysha @eap1935

#Tom Hardy #tomhardy #tomhardyfanfic #tom hardy fanfiction #tommy conlon #tommy conlon fanfic #elizabeth olsen #thegrind #tomhardyfan

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emmaleems · 6 years ago

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Migration Patterns || Emma-Lee M.

1. The bird flies in and takes a seat at the head of the table. You seem peckish, I say. It must have been a long trip here. Please go on without me. But the bird doesn’t speak. Her feathers blend together on her neck into her chest into her soft stomach and we only see the final product. The coloring of her whole. The way she all blends in with all.

2. The horizon aches on the edge of the world. The sun kindles its will alongside it. We follow at a distance and watch it torch the sky as we fly in old circles. These flight patterns take us far from here and tell us home is the soar itself. The coast is far below and the formation strikes a deal with the breeze. Please don’t go against the wind, let it take you where it needs to go.

3. On that years-ago trip I thought about lists, and I thought about words, and all the ones I could say so I didn’t have to mean them. The best way to fill up a list is to number things. For example, count the highway markers and the road signs. Tally the clouds in the sky or give name to each of the stars. For this to work, you should blot them out as you go, color them over with the dark space around them. By the time you’re done, you’ll think you might be ready to tell the truth. Quiet will whisper you are wrong, and there in that handmade darkness, that once-truth will be swallowed by the sound of the shadows themselves. It’ll still be a nice idea though, something sweet, wine-stained breath and chewed-up tongue and all.

4. These flight patterns change. There’s weather to consider, those who fly alongside you. The ones who lead and the ones who trail. The flying is the only constant. There is sunlight sometimes, more often rain, where the ground beneath comes and goes. The horizon dips and reaches. The clouds breathe in and out. We are all just reeling towards an end.

5. Calling it a list isn’t quite right. I’m sorry, I must have messed up in the dark. There was no list. It might have been a map, and I didn’t see until after we left that we had no end in mind.

6. At the halfway point in this migration we will stutter and in our take-a-breather free-fall, tell me about the way you felt your way home. Talk to me about magnetism and how these bodies find the places they need to be. At the halfway point, let’s rearrange to face the new moon. We can find the shadow and know it’s there, take that old light and turn it into a truth of its own. A truth, which is a lie, because it doesn’t tell you everything. I know this tall-tale by heart, but go ahead and tell me anyway. When the ground reappears, we can beat and beat and beat and beat ourselves to continue on our way.

7. In the shape we’ve made on this solo group journey, leave the metaphors at face value and tell me what you really mean. We are hurtling towards an end undefined. Repeat the facts: Here I am, head of the V. These wings are beating against the current, following a path unseen and unmade. This is an exhaustion so tangible it decays my teeth and chews me up. It breaks my jaw. It draws me back and down. Blink back on track, tilt your head. Repeat the facts: This migration never ends. There is no home. There is only the space between topsoil and the heights that we’ve built by hand and by feather, by fallen-from-grace force of will. Here I am again, the last one flying at the back of the V, hurtling towards an end undefined.

8. I got it all wrong again. Funny, right? On that old trip, I really filled my list with pictures. There were salmon swimming downstream and turtles on their backs in the sun. These aren’t pictures, even. They aren’t even portraits of myself. They can be just that. That image we built can just be an image. This poem can just be a poem.

9. It seems as if things have died before us. I see a season’s worth of casualties underneath the naked trees, and I know just how those empty bodies lie even when the coastline bleeds into a spring I only recognize by the fish that jump below us and the other flocks that pass our own— with whom we streamline while the landscape seeps into color, brilliant and bright for the moment we overlap, as we take our turns reaching for something we have all only heard of— as did the dead things that have given way, carcasses littered below the path we’re on, so we migrate for them, bloat and bones aside— their memories, I have no right to, or so I have been told.

10. When we make the journey back again we will remember, like we do every time, how there is no going back, there is only another journey, time moving forward, our bodies heading south not just for the winter, but for always and forever, and when the trek comes time to be again we have already chosen to forget, and we will move forward, and we will follow our bodies, and there will be no destination, only things we have learned, and things we must let go, and there is a place wherein those overlap and it is there I lay down those things I’ve learned, and it is there I choose to leave them, and it is there that Hope lies, that what I put down will stay there, and it is there I will find myself again.

11. We land from our migration and are sore. We land and are too hot and too cold. We land and are alone.

12. The bird at the head of the table looks me in the eye. Her eyes are sharp and her colors are blind, an all-at-once and piece-by-piece affair. About that meal, I admit. I seem to have lost my appetite. I think it disappeared somewhere along the coast, it must have been carved up by each edge. Taken by the sea or left behind in the sand. The bird stretches her wings wide, all the way out, so she frames the table. It is covered with things I thought I had lost along the way. She is beautiful like this, open and free, her colors cascading into camouflage that hides only the line between should i’s and i am’s And I tell her again about my appetite, but I couldn’t get her to listen. I couldn’t get her to understand that these migrations are instinct itself, a force unbidden, and that I am sorry I can’t stomach what’s been laid out before me. I want you to share this with me, is all she says, and so we sit. We hold in this tender silence. We wait for the other to dig in.

#poetry #poet #poems #poem #poets of tumblr #writingblr #long poem #poem rec #writing blog #she's a BEAST y'all #how did this happen #if you read to the end you've earned a prize congrats it is my eternal gratitude and it is yours to keep #half of me feels like this could go another four pages #the other half of me is crawling onto shore..... exhausted...... wrecked...... dead

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the100oneshots · 7 years ago

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33 Ways to Say I Love You - Bellamy Blake Imagine

A/N: use of two gifs is to show like how long y’all have been cute together aw how cute.

Reader x Bellamy Blake

Words: 3.2k (yikes)

Warnings: implications of smut and a whole lot of loveeeeeee

1/2. One of the first times on the Ark when you both were ‘hanging out’. It was getting pretty crazy in the party and you were surprised the guard hadn’t been called to shut it down. There were too many hormonal teenage boys for your liking and your knight in shining armour had seen you struggling to move through the sweaty bodies. Offering a hand, you thanked him and took it as he guided you into the hallway. “Thanks Bellamy.” You laughed at both of your attempts to retreat. “You plan on going back in there?” He asked, stalling time to talk to the girl he really liked. The shy girl who he was seated next to on their first day of higher ed. “Not in particularly, parties aren’t really my thing.” You shied away, ready to run back to your apartment before you made a fool of your self. “I can walk you home.” He rushed out and almost kicked himself at how desperate he sounded until you smiled at him. “Are you sure? You wouldn’t rather be having fun in there with everyone?” You asked, completely gobslmaked that he would even consider the action. “Completely sure.” He gave you a genuine smile.

3. It had been a long day, and you know you were about to fall asleep at your post any minute. You were so tired you didn’t even hear Bellamy walk in, Raven following close behind him. “Babe, come on you need to get some rest.” He sat beside you, moving the lone strand of hair out of your face, causing you to lean in to his touch. “I need to finish this.” You mumbled looking at the technology infront of you for the second before it was taken away. “Hey! Bell!” You attempted to raise your voice but almost fell over in the process as well as attempting to grab it from him. “Come here. Let me fix it.” He said as you walked over to where he had ran off. He placed the tech on the table, lifting you bridal style to take you back to your room. “Raven! Fix it please!”

4. That first morning. You had just moved into a shared apartment with Bellamy, your boyfriend as he moseyed up the courage to ask you out. Your eyes fluttered open, and you glanced over to the warm body lying peacefully next to you. A smile made it’s way onto your face as you snuggled into his body even more. You woke up again to an empty space. Furrowing your eyebrows you began to fully wake up and there you saw Bellamy putting on his janitor uniform he hated so much. “Morning handsome.”You smiled and his eyes locked with yours in the mirror. “Morning beautiful.” He whispered as he jumped next to you and gave you a longing kiss. “When will you be home?” You smiled, still ecstatic about the living arrangements. “Shift finishes around 3, and then I’m all yours.” He smiled planting another kiss on your lips repeatedly. “Well, have a good day at work my love then you’ll have to come home and really make the apartment feel like home.” You winked.

5/6. The instance when Bellamy was roaming the woods for tomorrow nights dinner for the camp, and he stumbled across a beautiful purples flower. He stopped, and he smiled to himself. He plucked it from the ground and made his way back to the camp knowing he wouldn’t be able to focus on the nonexistent animals. Strolling into camp the only thing he was looking for was you, and as he saw you sitting on your bed looking through some papers Clarke had probably given you, he couldn’t help but smile. “Hey,” He caught your attention as your head snapped up. “Hey Bell.” You beamed, happy he came back in one piece. “Got you something.” He waltzed over, presenting you with the flower. “I want you to have this.” Your face expressed the emotion of pure admiration as the flower was the only thing that was in your sight. “Bell, that’s so sweet, you didn’t have to do this.” You smiled, glad he did it anyways. “It reminded me of you.” You thought it was the prettiest thing you’d ever seen, but Bellamy debated that in his mind.

7. “I dreamt about you last night.” He casually said whilst you both were laying in bed. Your eyebrows furrowed together as you sat up on your side to look at him. “About me?” You looked at him quizzically, intrigued. “Yeah.” He said not looking away from the map that had been drawn up around camp. “You’re just gonna leave me hanging?” You joked lightly punching him in the arm causing him to chuckle and look at you. “I thought you should know but I don’t know, subject was,” He paused before finishing with an, “odd.” You were still confused, “Odd?” “All card on the table?” He put down the map and turned to mirror your position, both chests facing each other, a head resting on the stretched out arm, except his hand held your face in a comforting manner. “We had a family, a perfect life.” There was a silence the enveloped the both of you. It wasn’t awkward but both of you felt content with the other.

8. Winter was well and truely approaching and the 100 could feel it. With every day there was less food, less clothing and people were ready to turn savage. As much as you’d like to curl up in bed in what seemed like the only protection the ground had was your blanket, you were needed and everyday felt like you couldn’t function properly. Raven noticed it first, and knowing you and Bellamy had been not on speaking terms lately was conflicted whether to tell him. But she caved only wanting the best for you. It was well into the night but you were determined to finish fixing the radio and the bullets before you could even think about sleep. You were shivering and had a killer headache until once again your knight and shining armour was there to protect you. “Take my jacket, it’s cold.” He didn’t ask but instead placed his puffer jacket that has had it’s fair share of wear and tear on your shoulders, and surprising to both of you he sat down next to you.

9/10/11/12. He had missed check in time. 2 hours he had said. He was to be back at camp within the next 2 hours and here you were, pacing inside the gates of Camp Jaha, praying that he wasn’t dead in that godforsaken mountain. And although your prayers had been answered, when the radio made some weird noise and his voice finally rang through your tears, crystal clear although it was grainy as. It was what seemed like hours but only a few short minutes until Clarke motioned for you to talk, but when you came froward you were silent. Unsure of what to say or do, so much so you almost broke down in tears. It was silent until he muttered the short sentence, “Sorry I’m late.” You felt a tear drip onto your arm and took a deep breather as you wiped it way. “I noticed.” You laughed lightly, him going in with. “Don’t die on me Blake.” You let out a soft sob, before his answer. “I promise, I won’t. Cross my heart and hope (not) to die."

13/14. He escaped like a thief in the night, stargazing to get his mind off the terrible tragedies. So many people in that mountain that didn’t deserve what they got, but he helped pull the trigger and he had to deal with the consequences. The reoccurring nightmare played in his head, taunting him and nothing had been able to help him cope with the loss, it was as if every painful thing he’d ever experienced in his life had come crashing down around him and he was falling down into the pit of despair. It was relatively quiet in Arcadia, no one really awake and if they were they were inside. So he was surprised when he heard footsteps walking his way. Sitting down next to him on the grass, no words were exchanged by the two of you.Slumping a blanket over you to keep warm, you placed another on his lap so it could keep him from dying of hyperthermia. “You want to talk about it?” You ask not looking at him but rather into the open nature. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” He sighed looking towards his knees. “It’s okay. I couldn’t sleep anyway.” You reassured him, placing a comforting hand on his arm as he leaned hi head on your shoulder whilst you stoked his hair.

15/16/17. “Abby has us under so much pressure, I don’t know if we can get dinner tonight because as much as I miss you and love you I really need to help Raven.” You sighed, playing with his hands, refusing to make eye contact. “Hey, it’s okay, I can wait. I understand, don’t you worry about me.” He was gentle with his movements, pining back a lose stand of hair that fell out of place. Sh smiled at the gesture at his understanding and comforting nature. “I feel like I never see you anymore.” You pouted, looking up to him. “Maybe, but I know I’ll always end the day with you, and that’s what’s important. I’ll still be here when you’re ready.” He smiled, radiating so much love.

18. You had been craving nice meal now for what felt like years. But you knew that with limited supplies it was going to be hard to do so. And it was understandable, there was people who needed to eat food before you did, but what you would do for even just a meal with a little bit of flavour rather than a bland ration pack. “How you doing?” Bellamy approached as you looked for a wrench hidden somewhere in the mess that was the tech tent. “Working, I’m always doing something Bell, you should know that by now.” You sassily replied and a smile just gre upon his face. What wasn’t nice however, was the meat on a stick that he was enjoying right in front of your eyes. “That looks nice.” You nonchalantly said whilst you tried to suppress your stomach growls. “Doesn’t it?” He cocked a smirk knowing you were wanting it more than he probably did. “You want some?” He asked handing it to you. You declined, knowing he had to eat more so than you, “Nah, it’s okay. I don’t want to take your dinner.” “Well lucky for you, I brought over two.” He smirked as a smile came to your face, as you and Bellamy had a cute little dinner date, well, that’s what he called it.

19/20. You’re head was spinning, there was so much going on and so much new information you were desperately trying to cling on to any hope for a solution. But it was no use. Your head hurt for 3 reasons. 1. the massive headache you gave yourself from crying over a non-existent solution for a future. 2. the constant running through your hair causing the throbbing pain. and 3. you’re inability to accept the demise your world was to succumb to. You were stressed to say the least and on many occasions, including this one, it bought you to tears. “Baby, don’t cry.” Bellamy’s voice was quiet, and it did not fill the room, but rather just the communication between the two of you. “We’re going to die Bell, and for once in my life I can’t stop it.” You wept as he cradled your head into his shoulder, lovingly rubbing your back kissing your hair. “We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

21/22. “I can’t believe you’re not going to cuddle me because I’m a little under the weather.” The brown eyed boy pouted. “There is enough room for both of us.” He winked, which was interrupted by Clarke’s loud voice and he banging on the apartment door that you had been given in Arcadia, “Bellamy!” A low groan came from your boyfriend of 3 years laying next to you. He was exhausted and you convinced yourself he was coming down with a fever. “I’ll get it love.” You kissed his forehead and stood up to talk to the blonde. “Bellamy’s not feeling well, what’s up?” You were greeted with nothing but a cold stare. “He needs to give in the hunting and guard roster that he should have done last week to Kane.” She sounded annoyed and you could tell she was just as tired as Bellamy was. “I’ll make sure he gets it to Kane by lunchtime Clarke, leave it with me.” She nodded and left the two of you alone. “What did she want?” Bellamy croaked, trying his best to sit up. “Had you finished the rosters babe?” His eyes closed in defeat as he slumped back onto the mattress. “I completely forgot.” He sighed. “Kane needs it by lun-” You were interrupted by a coughing fit from the disheveled boy in bed. “The one week I’m sick are you serious.” He groans before attempting to get out of bed before you stopped him. “Absolutely not, you are not getting out of this bed.” You looked at him sternly. “Babe you heard Clarke, she’s already angry and Kane needs it as soon as possible!” He tried to argue and be strong but his immune system was screaming at him to back down. “Well, I’ll do it for you.”

23/24/25/26/27. “You can tell me anything, love.” He cooed, stroking lines up and down the side of your face in a loving manner. “I just-” You sighed, not sure if you wanted to let this cat out of the bag. You were embarrassed, you and Bellamy had been together for just over 6 months and still your insecurities had gotten the better of you. “Take a deep breath.” He prompted in an effort to calm you down. After a few more breathes, you felt relatively comfortable to tell him, although there was a pit of anxiety at the bottom of your stomach. “Look at you Bell. You’re so handsome and no-one compares to you, and here I am. I look like a charity case and I don’t want to drag you down any longer.” You couldn’t face him. Your eyes looking everywhere but his. It was silent for a moment or two and you were terrified you had just ruined everything. “(Y/N),” He began, wanting to ensure that the sincerity in his voice could be heard. “I think you’re beautiful, and no one is going to convince me otherwise. I want to be with you, and I’m going to try with everything I can to make sure you know that. Not for me, for you. I am nothing compared to you, and I want you to be happy.”

28/29/30. After a hard day, you were relieved when Clarke asked if you wanted to join her, Octavia, Raven and Harper for a drink. It felt like you girls hadn’t caught up all together for what felt like forever. And the night was very much what you needed to destress after a long week. You all gossiping and just being over all silly was what you had missed the most and when Bellamy walked over, he could see the happiness in your features, how you glowed and radiated happiness. “Ladies, you seem like you’re having fun.” He smiled looking to his friends, sister and love. “Bell, hey, you got off work early?” You looked up with a smile. “Yeah, the boys wanted to go for a drink so Kane let us off early. Thought I’d come find you first.” He leaned down to peck your lips as the others made gagging noises. “Came to ask for permission, ey Blake?” Raven teased causing a laugh from Octavia. “Something like that.” He laughed with them. “You didn’t have to ask.” You spoke, looking back to him and seeing nothing but love in his eyes. “I know, I wanted to.” The whole love fest was cut off by Octavia, again fake gagging, causing the power couple to roll their eyes simultaneously. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” He was just talking to you now, the others going back to a conversation. “I mean you could, if you wanted to, stay over, maybe, tonight, if you felt like it?” You stuttered, a bit embarrassed that you were embarrassed to ask. “Yeah, I’ll come over in about an hour and half.” He beamed, excited to just spend the night with you, even if it wasn’t very intimate, being with you made him happy even if you were just both reading a book. “Look forward to it. Have fun.” You smiled as he gave you a quick kiss and left you to your girl’s night.

31/32/33. What did he say before you left camp on your quest for medicinal herbs? “Be careful, baby, can’t go losing you now.” And even with his warning, you still managed to injure yourself, enough that you couldn’t walk “Bellamy, it’s so cold. The rain made it slippery and I”m hurt. I’m sorry. Please help.” You cried, hoping he there was listening and praying you wouldn’t die of hyperthermia tonight. “Stay there. I’m coming to get you.” His voice made you feel calm, but you snapped out of it once you realised the danger you were potentially in. It took a while but there was a blinding light that shon on your propped figure against a log, and you didn’t think you felt as relieved as you ever had seeing your boyfriend. A cry of relief left your lips as you passed out. You woke up to a wet cloth dabbing your face. Bellamy’s beautiful eyes were gazing at you, filled with worry but also relief. He saw you were awake and a small smile made it;s way onto his face, but before you cold apologised he beat you to it. “You don’t have to say anything. Don’t apologise or promise to do better next time because it’s not your fault, the important thing is your safe now and that’s all that matter.”

34. He knew, he knew you were the one his mother had been telling him about. How one day, he’s going to see you in a totally different light, he’s going to be completely taken back by your love and beauty and everything will come to light. He’ll realise he’s in love and his life will change forever. And boy, oh boy it did. He needed to tell you, he was itching to tell you, and what better way then completely unplanned and spontaneous. You were at viewing platform 11, looking down to earth. His life may have turned to absolute crap but he no longer felt like he was destine for anything because you were the pure light in his eyes and in his life. “I love you.” He whispered, and upon hearing this, you turned around to face the man you love, a bright smile on your face. You didn’t know the hardships that were to come and the ones you would face together or alone. But you knew you wanted a life with him, and this was the very step needed to be taken to continue it. So with a full and honest heart, you repeated the very same words back.

#bellamy #bellamy blake #bellamy blake imagine #bellamy imagine #bellamy blake imagines #The 100 #the 100 imagines #the 100 imagine #the 100 one shot #the 100 oneshot #the 100 ones shots #bellamy blake oneshots #bellamy blake oneshot

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thepackmon · 7 years ago

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The Detour

Saturday 9th - Sunday 10th June 2018

After our first plans of off-roading this weekend came to a halt with Max’s car developing ‘a noise’ we decided instead to head out on a overnight camping adventure. We decided to head for a bothy towards the Elan Valley but another late change of plans, due to Max’s hangover and him not wishing to join us, saw us heading for a slightly closer location.

So me and Tpain (not the actual one) headed for Glasbury, with our final destination a bothy on the edge of the Grwyne Fawr reservoir. A simple 8 mile walk through some lovely welsh countryside. Setting out from the bus stop in Glasbury at around 6pm heading first for Felindre village, our first forage into walking for an overnight stay. The first field was waist high in corn, so we decided a path around the edge would be best, only a slight deviation on distance and time. The second field a tad more interesting, while trying to find a position that was comfortable with my new backpack and multitasking the phone with OS maps and a bag of sweet and salty popcorn, the heard of 30 cows decided they liked us enough to follow us at a brisk pace. We both decided a slight increase in pace was best as being rescued by the farmer after 1/2 a mile of walking was not something we wanted.

After passing the pub (little did we know it would be our god send on the way back down) in the village and a small group of houses, we take a left off the road to our first bridleway and first signs of a steady uphill. Staying on this route for a few miles passing through Hay Forest we come back out briefly onto a farm track signed for the ‘Essex boys and girls school’ . A very odd sign to see when your deep in beacons territory.

A few more styles, a bit of a lost path moment in a wood of dense fir trees, a stream to cross and a steep grassy bank past some old barns, we are back on a single track road heading uphill towards Rhos Fawr Common. It is here in the glorious afternoon sun we see sight of other people, a couple and a dog sat basking in the rays and a young lad on a pitbike giving it the beans across the fields. We decided here is a good place to stop for 5, get some more fruity sweets tucked in the pockets for energy boost for the next part, walking up and over the steep path of Rhiw Cwnstab. Now you can see this path from the main A road going past the Hay on Wye turning, its a rather steep looking path directly on the side of the valley. With the temperature still around 18 degrees it was also a very warm climb, but not as fearsome as once thought and we were up and over in no time.

The final walk to the bothy were downhill so made the last part so much easier and the bothy’s access is on very steep sided banks, that lead down onto the river. But the hard part was over, it was 9:30pm, we were hungry and in need of some beer and a sleep (did i mention i was up at 6am to drive my brother in law to brum airport?). The rest of the night was pretty tame, food was cooked and beer drank, we got the log burner fired up just to take the chill out the place and hit the hay. I’m a light sleeper and not having my proper sleeping mat mixed with the toad that i found downstairs behind the fireplace making noise, i reckon i got about 3-4 hours sleep in. Which is usual for me at home anyway. Tom snored his way into sleepy land all night.

Sat’s Stats : 8.2 Miles - 3 Hours - 1988ft Elevation Gain

SUNDAY

Standard morning stuff happens. Cook beans for breakfast without burning them like the previous nights dinner, have a good top wash in the weir which to my surprise wasn't as cold as i was expecting.

Now I’m not sure if its custom to leave things for other guests, but we really didn't want to carry the other beers we didn't drink round with us all day, so i constructed a dam in the corner of the weir and left the two cans in there to chill. Hopefully somebody finds them before there’s a load of rain and they float away.

We also have a guest, a fella on his mountain bike passing by came down to have a look in the bothy and ask us if we had stayed the night and what it was like. Pretty sure he will be back soon to try for himself.

Anyway we get going at around 11am, with the intention of walking the length of the reservoir then taking a left up onto the ridge and back towards the car. However i dont have a map of this part of the Brecons and my phone OS maps wouldn't load due to no signal, so with only half a map to work with we set off in the hope that it would be well signed for another path up to the top of the ridge...6 miles later and knowing we are still going in the wrong direction, we decide to cut through the woods and up a fireroad. Climbing up a fair distance then back down, then up again. Passing all the little houses and car parks on the opposite side this time. We also got asked for directions to the top, which was hard not to laugh at with our route planning skills.

A few more ups and downs, and then one final fence hop we stopped for a quick sarnie and a breather about 50 metres from the ridge line. Temperatures now creeping above 20 degrees, the next few hours along the ridge are very hot and rather tiring. We take in Blacksmiths Anvil, Twyn Talycefn, Rhos Dirion, Rhiw y Fan and Rhiw Wen. The views from up here are something else, just peaks and valleys for as far as you can see.

But this time i could feel my feet had had enough and tom was feeling much the same. With the OS maps working again it looked like another 3 miles lay out in front of us, trying to plot a simple direct route was our first option but this was skewed slightly with the inclusion of heading to the pub we passed yesterday afternoon. Running out of water about a mile from the pub only made this diversion more worthy. 2 pints, 2 water bottles filled with very small ice cubes and a lottery ball picked out of a bag i was finished. Forgetting the short mile and a half walk back to the car. This was dealt with a swiftly as my feet would allow and my brain reminding me of the pack of custard creams waiting for me in the boot. It was a long old day, the furthest distance I’ve walked in a day so far. So the only logical thing to do now is to walk further. I do love my need to push myself further and further some times. Other times not so much.

Sunday Stats : 19.3 Miles - 6:30 Hours - 1932ft Elevation Gain

Tom with that hill and that path in the distance.

Sat looking back at the dam, just below the ridge.

A rather naff photo of my latest backpack.

The ripper of a stove in the bothy.

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ofcoursetheyrefictional · 7 years ago

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Dwarfish Wonders {Chapter 4}

The door was pulled open to reveal a powerful looking dwarf with long hair and an intense expression. "Gandalf, " he looked up at the wizard, "I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way, twice. Wouldn't have found it all had it not been for that mark on the door."

Once again Bilbo returned to his confused state, "Mark? There's no mark on that door, it was painted a week ago."

Naomi stepped forward, "There is a mark Bilbo." Bilbo looked even more confused, "You're apart of this?" She nodded.

"There is a mark, I put it there myself." Gandalf then attempted to diffuse the slightly rising tension, "Bilbo Baggins, Naomi Daughter of Daim, allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield."

Naomi bowed her head slightly as she stood next to Bilbo. "So, this is the hobbit and half- dwarf. Naomi, I have not heard tell of your abilities, what accomplishments have you?"

She straightened herself and adjusted her belt, "I'm well versed in archery and throwing knives, and adequate with a sword. I will not prove a burden."

Thorin turned to Bilbo, "Nor have I heard of yours. Tell me Mr. Baggins have you done much fighting?"

Bilbo looked taken aback, "Pardon me?"

"Ax or sword, what's your weapon of choice?"

Bilbo seemed to straighten some,almost with pride, "Well, I do have some skill with conkers," he stated looking rather pleased with himself, "if you must know but I fail to see why that's relevant."

Thorin stood a little straighter, "Thought as much, he looks more like a grocer than a burglar."

Naomi had to cover her mouth to hide the smile playing at her lips. Kili seemingly caught sight of her enjoyment and winked at her, merely causing her to grin more and her cheeks to redden. In her moment of girlish pleasure though Thorin turned to her his face hardening slightly, "And just as much I am not overly fond of bringing a woman on a quest of this magnitude either."

Naomi straightened her back and stepped forward, "My Father spoke great things about you Thorin Oakenshield, he spoke of honor and heart. A true king he called you, and he hoped that one day you would be the one to reclaim Erebor. Do not forsake him for it will be the last thing you do intact." She stepped away from the larger dwarf and stood with her arms folded over her chest.

Everyone seemed quiet intimidated and pleased at the same time, to see her go from a girlish figure to a woman of means ready to kill was a sight none would soon forget. In the mind of many it would be seen as the mentality of a dwarf, connected very strongly to her own beliefs.

She smiled slightly and the tension diffused, everyone laughed and returned to the kitchen. Gandalf let out a sigh that he seemed to have been holding the whole time. "You may have just earned yourself a permanent place among the company, congratulations Naomi." She smiled and joined the rest of the dwarves.

As Thorin ate, they questioned him about his meeting in the north all the while smoking away. Naomi had finished stuffing her pipe when Fili and Kili sat on either side of her. "So, which one of you has a match”.

Fili grinned, "That honor would go to Kili, he always carries them, I don't know why we let him carry them but we do."

She couldn't help but laugh, she turned to Kili. What she didn't see was Fili winking at his brother behind her back. Kili fished the matches from a pouch and struck it against the table and holding it out to her. He gently placed the fire in the chamber of her pipe, allowing her a few puffs of smoke before lighting his own.

The three listened in as Bilbo had gone to fetch candles and Gandalf had pulled a folded map from his robes. "Far to the east, over ranges and rivers, beyond woodlands and waste lands, lies a single solitary peak." He pointed with a crooked finger to the spot on the map.

Bilbo had come back with candle in hand and read over Gandalf's shoulder, "The Lonely Mountain."

"Aye, " Gloin spoke up, "Oin has read the portents and the portents say it is time."

Then Oin spoke, “Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain, as it was foretold.' When the birds of yore return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end.’"

That is when Bilbo spoke again, "What beast?"

Bifur took this opportunity to scare the hobbit, "Well that would be a reference to Smaug the terrible. Chiefest and greatest calamity of our age."

Naomi felt both brothers tense beside her, shifting ever so slightly. Bifur continued, "Airborne fire breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks. Extremely fond of precious metals." Bilbo cut him off, "Yes, I know what a dragon is."

Ori stood from his seat causing all turn turn to him, "I'm not afraid, I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of dwarvish iron right up his jacksie."

Every one laughed, and the brother to Naomi's left and right relaxed some, enough for Kili's arm to brush against her own. Dori pulled Ori from his stance, telling him to sit down.

Then Balin spoke, his voice stern and serious, "The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us, but we number just thirteen."

"Fourteen." Naomi spoke up, Balin nodded to her.

"Fourteen. And not fourteen of the best, nor brightest."

This sent a few into a tizzy only to be quieted by Fili jumping in, "We may be few in number, but we're fighters all of us, to the last dwarf!"

"And you forget," Kili slammed his hand on the table, "We have a wizard in our company, Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time."

He had begun to protest, causing Naomi to laugh lightly. The playful air was quickly torn away when Thorin stood. He spoke of the signs and the possibilities of others reading the signs as they had, that this was indeed to be a quest to reclaim their homeland and that they must seize this chance.

Family matters soon came to light and the affair became tense, in the flurry of questions Naomi slipped from between the brothers and out into the cool air where she blew smoke rings for sometime. Within the home the controversy over why Gandalf had chosen those two to join the company raged on, though Gandalf quickly settled the matter and the topic of contracts came into play.

"Very well, we will do it your way," Thorin said giving in to the wizard's demands, "give him the contract and Kili, go fetch Naomi, she will need to be here for this."

The young dwarf stepped into the cool night air to find Naomi sitting against the wall, pipe in hand, blowing smoke rings into the wind. "Seems a bit redundant," he sat down next to her and leaned his head back against the sodded wall. "blowing smoke rings into the wind, you don't get to enjoy it."

She sighed blowing smoke through her nose, "I suppose, doesn't mean I'm going to stop though."

Kili smiled, "Oh, I'm not asking you to, that would mean I couldn't watch."

A small smile spread as the blush on Naomi's face did, "Is that why you came out here, to flirt with me?"

He chuckled, "No, you're needed inside, the flirting was just a wonderful addition."

They rose and once again entered the house, upon reaching the dining room a folded piece of parchment was pushed into Naomi's hands. "It's just the usual," Balin explained, "out of pocket expenses, time required, remuneration, funeral arrangements. So forth." Bilbo certainly had a lapse of confidence but Naomi was quick to grab a quill and sign at the bottom.

Thorin looked uneasy himself, he leaned over to Gandalf, "I cannot guarantee their safety."

Gandalf nodded, "Understood."

There was a pause, "Nor will I be responsible for their fate."

Gandalf looked shaken, "Agreed."

All the while Bilbo stood to the side reading all of the fine print and Naomi had sat back down between Kili and Fili separating the playfully fighting brothers.

"So, we have a woman in our company do we?" Fili poked.

"Aye," Naomi responded, "and you'd do well to remember that she could very well take you down."

Kili attempted to stifle his laughter but ultimately failed, "I like her brother," he continued to laugh, "may we keep her?"

He looked at her a slight timidly, "If it's alright with her." She smiled and nodded. His face filled with an almost boyish delight, and once again unknown to Naomi, a glance was shared between brothers.

Bilbo, throughout the playful gestures of the three young dwarves, had been reading further and further into the contract, his voice became louder and more alarmed as he went, "Present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted by, or sustained as consequence thereof, including but not limited to: lacerations, evisceration," though it was the last on the list that got to him, "incineration?"

His voice got louder. Of course Bofur continued his torment from earlier, "Oh, aye, it'll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye." The hobbit closed the contract looking even more distraught than prior.

Balin noticed the faintness in his stance, "You alright laddie?"

A simple enough question though it took him a bit to regain his bearings, "I feel a bit faint."

Once again Bofur was no help, "Think furnace, with wings."

"I-I-I need air"

"Flash of light, searing pain, then poof, you're nothing more than a pile of ash." By now everyone was at least a little uncomfortable, the thought of the meat melting off of your bones.

Bilbo straightened himself, he had to multiple times, and after all that he simply said "Nope" and toppled over.

#kili #the hobbit #fanfiction #romance #adventure

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