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nevesmose · 9 months ago

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Next day reblog with some more about the Optimismverse since it got a good reception. Thanks readers! 😊

First of all a map, and a warning that I'll be using a lot of GW's goofy names for ancient Earth countries because I think they're fun.

Could These Powers Be Any More Central? (aka the Traitor Legions)

They don't match directly with particular Central Powers countries - in fact they're all more or less some variety of Imperial Jerman just because of the scale I'm working at and the fact that it's all happening just on the Western Front.

Night Lords - aka the Nachtherren, our POV scumbags. A regiment-sized unit so about 3000 troops in total but able to punch far above their weight in terms of causing general mayhem.

A literal Imperial stormtrooper. Paint him blue and you're there. Maybe a pet crow? Some skulls? Ah, you know what a Night Lord looks like.

Emperor's Children - aka III Corps although realistically it should probably be called Third Army. Gotta get the roman numerals in there somehow though. Commanded by Prince Fulgrim of Chemos which implies that Chemos is one of the states making up Imperial Jermani with its own quasi-independent military. May or may not be a principality with Fulgrim as ruler, or he could just be the heir to the throne. #NotBavaria

These guys but in purple and all either being Fulgrim or looking a lot like him. You know Fulgrim would wear a coat like a cape in that exact pose if given the chance. Props to the second guy in from the right who is hitting us with a 1910s "you know I had to do it to em"

Iron Warriors - basically just The Artillery doing a job wherever they need to be. Sorry Pert, no particular comparisons for you. I hope it doesn't cause any resentment.

And vague thoughts about some of the others:

Magnus / TSons - "Magnus the Red Baron" pretty much writes itself doesn't it? So have some swashbuckling fighter pilot wizards I guess.

They'd have to take off their giant headdress helmets though wouldn't they? Not very aerodynamic.

Horus / Sons of Horus - generic Imperial Jerman unless otherwise noted, but definitely dressed in that nifty SoH teal-green colour. Kaiser Horus himself is just regular Horus but with a pointy moustache and an ostentatious hat.

Look at this dude...

Mortarion / Death Guard - ya like gas? Mortarion likes gas. As commander of the Leibgarde (Life Guard lmao so clever) he will deploy chemical weapons anytime anywhere. What's that? They're not actually that effective and often blow back into your own lines when the wind changes? SKILL ISSUE.

Krieger? I hardly knew her!

Whose Entente Is It Anyway? (aka the Loyalist Legions)

Still quite messy and I have no idea where any particular primarchs would fit, but...

Albia / Britain

Albia is what GW mostly use to refer to ancient Terran Britain as the 30/40K people understand it, and the first Iron Hands came from "the clans of Albia" which is good enough for me to call them Scottish.

Like this but with a black kilt and grey uniform or vice versa if you prefer. Fighting in a kilt without underwear, call them the Iron Nads. Fun fact, the outer layer is called a kilt apron. Beneath it lurks the kilt itself. And beneath that... hopes and dreams.

As for England... I think you know. Dark Angels, nuff said. So Albia I guess has both Caliban and Medusa as constituent nations.

Franc / France

Lazy GW, very lazy. Anyway this is definitely Ultramar.

They're BLUE

And I guarantee you that Roboute Guilliman would dress like this in a heartbeat.

Maybe with the moustache as well if Yvraine lets him

I'm also putting the Raven Guard / Gardes Corbeaux in the Franc camp since I've depicted them as sneaky spying secret squirrel types and Team Fortress 2 is a thing 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, now I have an excuse to bring in this Horrible Histories sketch:

youtube

From which I conclude that the Fenrisians are Canadian and the Blood Angels, coming as they do from an almost-uninhabitable apocalyptic desert hellscape, are of course Australian (😘). Both nationalities gained reputations as highly effective assault troops, probably because they grew up with far more sunlight, nutrition and exercise than anybody in Europe did at the time.

Anyway, that's about all I have for now. I feel like there's more drama to be had from this idea so I wouldn't be surprised if I came back to it sometime soon. Well done if you made it this far!

A world not yet calling itself Terra. The Western Front, 916.M2.

An experiment for me in a lot of ways - writing a different style, using canon NL characters, fitting them into a historical AU, using a twist ending. Done in part as a test run for an original vampire-related project that I'm considering setting in a similar time period. Enjoy! 🦇

#i tease because i care #wh40k #warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #fanfic #fanfiction #alternate universe #historical au #ww1 au #worldbuilding #neves rambles #Youtube

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allthingsfern · 3 years ago

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More info about my reason for choosing my Sony a7r3

So, @mirzans, replied to my “From my own experience switching from Nikon DSLR to Sony mirrorless,“ asking about why I did not choose a Nikon Z camera, which is a great question and something I should have explained/added to my post: context. It is important to know when I bought my a7r3 and what my choices were.

Here goes.

I bought my Sony a7r3 back in December of 2017, on the 26th, to be exact. Sony, at the time, was the mirrorless full frame leader and neither Nikon nor Canon had yet released their equivalent mirrorless cameras. After much research, I wound up deciding between the D850 or a7r3. BTW, there were a couple of Fujis I liked, but none was full frame; yes I strongly considered the Fujifilm GFX 50S, which was almost twice as much as the D850 and the a7r3 but had 50 mp (the D850: 45.7mp; a7r3: 42.4). However, from my research, it was rated as a good camera, but more for a studio setting, and did not autofocus as highly rated as either of my 2 final choices, plus the a7r3 was celebrated for its uniquely accurate, for that time, eye recognition focus. So, when I walked into Mike’s Camera, I knew it was either the D850 or the a7r3. Let me add that in 2017, Sony was making big (mostly) positive news with its a7r3. The previous 2 a7r models were promising, but had issues like overheating and horrendous battery life, but the a7r3 had improved on those issues and was then highly recommended. At about the same time that year, Nikon’s D850 was being celebrated as a great improvement of the already superb D800.

A little background about my camera ownership history may be useful here, too, so all y’all understand why I was looking at Nikon and Fuji, and not Canon or any other brand, well, except Sony.

In 2012, I bought my D50 used form a friend. It was already 5 years old at the time. I owned 2 SLRs before that, in the mid 70s and early 90s. Both were cheap, no-name cameras and my photography sucked shit through a brick, but not because of my cameras. I just never bothered to really learn photography, thinking it was just a matter of liking the way something looked and then taking a picture of it.

Oy vey.

However, I owned my baby, my D50, for 4 years. Then I bought a new Nikon D3500 w/ a used 24-200mm lens (sorry, I cannot recall which one, but it was highly recommended by Ken Rockwell and was a great lens) a lower end starter Nikon DSLR and a used Fuji X100s. I absolutely loved both cameras. Since I figured that I was going to be trading up to a more complex model and I would, in effect, have to learn a new camera system, I knew I wanted to stick with Nikon and Fuji. And yes, Canon and other makes are good to great as well, but I figured I would stick with what I knew.

Except for the Sony. But really, since I needed to learn a new system, I figured I would go to the camera store and give them a feel, then make up my mind.

Now, to a certain degree, the D850 was slightly ahead because earlier in 2017 I got to use a D800 for a photo shoot for work. It was set up for me (the studio was ready for me, all I had to do was point and shoot; it was a special project that I got permission to do the photography for and, sadly, the portraits never were used) and let me tell you, as soon as I grabbed that D800, the ergonomics, the familiar feel, were perfect. That was one sexy camera, at least to me. Still is.

However, when i walked into Mike’s and held the even heftier d850, it also felt good, familiar, but as soon as I held the a7r3, even before I raised it to my face and looked through the viewfinder, I knew it was the one for me. It felt right and was lighter, and with the advanced eye focus, my decision was made immediately. And as I mentioned in my previous post, my camera guy soon realized I knew the specs and was looking at the 2 best choices for me, so he just left me alone and only was there to provide support, if I requested any.

Now, I believe that things are meant to happen, that time and Life give us signs that we are going in the right direction. And when I bought that first a7r3, I wanted the recently released 24-105mm f/4 G Sony lens. If I recall, it had just started shipping in late November, early December, so it was hard to get. And Mike’s had just one, that was pre-ordered, but the person who ordered it did not pick it up, and since it was sitting in the store (and not paid for) for about 2 weeks and was hard to get, my camera guy decided to sell it to me.

Talk about meant to be.

And yes, for any of you who know me who are reading this, I did get all teary eyed and freaked out a bit. I was able to drop so much money on camera equipment because a friend had recently died and left me enough money to pay off half my student loans, my almost $40K in credit card debt, and buy the cameras. (I did not mention I have 2 a7r3 bodies and a lens for each one: the 24-105mm f/4 and the Zeiss 55mm f1.8 made for Sony.) To me, the whole changing lenses thing is crazy making and as a professional photographer friend of mine said (my coworker who was the staff photographer and was always willing to talk about camera gear and was very supportive), I should have a zoom and a prime, and since I could afford the 2 bodies, I should just fucking get them. No regrets.

And to add to the “meant to be” coincidences of that day I bought my first a7r3 and the 24-105mm, while I was paying for the camera and my camera guy was explaining several perks and deals and things Mike’s Camera offered, he mentioned that there was a Sony mirrorless workshop, given by a Sony expert, coming up on January 19, 2018 at the store. That was when I knew my camera purchase was the right thing to do, since that was the anniversary of my friend’s death and I already planned to visit their grave site that day, but the workshop was at night and I could do both.

And fuck, yes, again I got all teary eyed there at the counter of Mike’s Camera.

Finally, you know that friend of mine who was the staff photographer at work, the one who was so supportive and helpful? And, BTW, who actually has a degree in photography? Well, after about a year of my buying my a7r3, I showed him some photos I took handheld at 1/30 sec in very low light w/ high ISO. He was so impressed with the quality of the images, that he ordered an a7r3 and a couple lenses for work. I think he got the 24-70mm GM and the 70-200mm GM, both f/2.8 and both with stabilization, and either the 85mm or 135mm GM. He wound up using the a7r3 for events and outdoor shoots and kept the D800 for studio portraits. That D800 is such a cool camera. But then again, I have another friend who owns a Canon 5D (also a pro photographer) and it is awesome, too.

Anyway, sorry I shared so much, @mirzans. Guess you can tell I just love this shit.

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imnotwolverine · 5 years ago

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Nerdflirt

Henry Cavill x reader twoshot (1/2)

Word count: 2.768

Disclaimer: tiny, tiny hint of fluff

Summary: There’s apparently a bit more involved than just paint and innocent flirting, when you meet a stranger on Instagram with a shared hobby.

Find the second part here.

This story is based on a prompt I received from @aestheticqueenb

(Link to my Masterlist)

‘Maybe, you can like…I don’t know…find some new hobby or something?’

Your friend had said it more as an after thought during your Zoom chat, but here you were. Thinking yet again if she was perhaps right. A new hobby. It’s not like you hadn’t tried to find some diversion in these strange times. Like. You had ordered some of these picture paint books for adults since they were all the rage, but you had grown bored of them again.

Heck. You had even asked your boss if you could help him out while stuck at home. But apparently the restaurant business was really on its ass and you’d just have to wait for things to settle down and regulations to become less restricting.

This whole COVID-19 thing had initially seemed like a bit of a fad. Like some sick joke that nobody stopped at the right time. It was just a fever, right? Well, apparently…it wasn’t. You could still remember the moment all too well when you were sent home, told to wait for news. Hours passed. Days passed. Weeks passed. But there was no sign of things soon to improve.

And thus you resorted to adult colouring books and sulking away on your desk chair.

Stretching out you pushed the chair away from your desk, the tiny wheels immediately halting as you bumped against your bed. Oh yes, it was also good to mention you were slowly losing your mind because your studio apartment was SOO friggin’ small you couldn’t stretch as much as a foot without bumping into a piece of furniture.

Not a problem when you have a social life. But very much a problem when you hadn’t. Usually you worked a lot, went out with friends, enjoyed to go for a run. And home? Home was just a conveniently placed bed in the middle of London.

Now, however, it was a constricting prison that seemed to strip away your sanity piece by piece.

As had become second nature by now you opened your phone, fingers automatically refreshing the front news page. Scroll, scroll, scroll. No new news. Then your e-mail. No new e-mails. Then perhaps look for some “inspiration” - whatever you needed that for - on Pinterest? Scroll, scroll, scroll. Okay, no, this is dumb. Going back to the mainscreen your thumb hovered over the Instagram button.

You honestly didn’t like the app much. Fake people. Fake fun lives. It just wasn’t your cuppa tea. And yet you never got so far as deleting it since you did enjoy seeing baby pictures of your baby niece.

Okay, fine, maybe there were some new pictures or something. It wasn’t like you had anything better to do and so you opened the app, only to be confronted with a somewhat confusing image. What’s this? A large pair of hands painting an absolutely tiny polystyrene figurine. Why is this on your timeline? Your eyes gazed up, even more confused when you read the name “Henry Cavill” above it. Pfft. Probably some attention whoring from another bored superstar. You shook your head and scrolled on, eventually giving up again.

You groaned, feeling the abyss of utter boredom suck you in once more, your eyes wandering to the world outside. It was sunny, a spotless blue sky, not a cloud in sight. Hilarious, ain’t it? It’s nice weather out in the UK and guess what? You’re stuck inside because the whole world is in lockdown.

So…now what? You just had lunch, your apartment was pristinely clean and you already went for a run this morning. You sighed and turned your chair back so you could awaken your trusty old friend again. Your laptop. Perhaps Google something random? See what you find? The internet’s your friend, right?

Open. Google.

You bit your lip, thinking of something. Anything. But your mind was a blank.

Hmm. Oh. You know what. Maybe it’d be fun to know what kind of fake nerd Henry Cavill actually was.

You opened Instagram again and, of course, his post was back on the top of the timeline. It was almost too easy. #GamesWorkshop #ProperGeek #Custodes. Hmm, probably one of those three tags were the secret. You decided to enter “custodes”, since it sounded the least familiar and hit enter.

Before long you had dived head first into the miraculous world of Warhammer miniature strategy boardgaming and the most ludicrous, but fascinating lore. There was a medieval variant, a sci-fi variant and some ancient Rome and English civil war stuff. All including a well-thought out background story and even more figurines then you could count. Pretty cool figures too, you thought, haphazardly clicking on “order” while scrolling through one of the webshops.

Like it contained some kind of bomb, the mailman sprinted off, leaving the small package behind while you opened your door. Fuck this corona crisis. You couldn’t even..greet the fucking mailman.

Picking up the package you carefully moved it to your desk. Would they be fragile? How tiny could tiny really be? There was only one way to find out, you decided, picking up a pair of scissors and cutting open the small brown box.

Well. Okay. That’s tiny. Tiny tiny tiny. Perhaps you had been a bit too over enthusiastic about just randomly picking up a new hobby. Like..did you even need like special paint for this? Carefully you placed the kit sheets with the hundreds of tiny pieces in them on your desk and bit your lip, deciding what you’d do next. Tiny heads, guns, wings, all stuck in a meticulously thought out grid. Where to start? Perhaps look for some inspiration? Tips and tricks?

The internet is your friend.

Silly as it was you ended up scrolling through Instagram again, this time on the profile of some “SirEltharin” who posted daily updates on his miniature painting. And just like you, he had bought the Retributor Squad from the Adepta Sororitas, the all-female fighter division that were also known as “The Sisters of Battle”. Just thinking how ridiculous that sounded made you chuckle. Were you a nerd too now? Perhaps.

He just posted something new you noticed.

‘These ladies are hard to tame! Oops, painting accident..’ He posted, along with a picture of some smudged paint on one of the figurines. You chuckled, commenting without much of a second thought.

LadyGrim - ‘Well at least you started..I just can’t get myself to paint :X’ - 1 minute ago SirEltharin - ‘No need to be Grim, good Lady. What’s keeping you from starting?’ - 2 seconds ago

Hmm. He responded immediately. A smile reached the corners of your lips as you shrugged and typed again.

LadyGrim - ‘Painters limbo? No honestly it’s my first set and I’m out of my depth here.’ - 2 minutes ago

SirEltharin - ‘Well if large male hands can do it. Surely a Lady can do it too? ;)’ - 30 seconds ago

LadyGrim - ‘Size can be deceiving.’ - 2 seconds ago

Your eyes rested on the screen for a bit, hoping he’d respond, but eventually giving up. Your eyes turned towards the sheets with the figurine parts on the other side of your desk.

Welp, it’s not like anyone could judge you for trying, right?

You painted that whole day, finding it nerve wrecking and meditative all at the same time. You hadn’t even noticed that it was past dinner time, until your stomach really started to growl with hunger.

After cooking yourself a simple pasta dish you sat back on your desk chair, forking the pasta into your mouth while opening your phone to check on any news updates. No news. Mail. No mail. Pinterest? Skip. Instagram. Heck, why not.

*New message from SirEltharin* Hmm. A private message. You didn’t even know that you could send private messages in Instagram, but alas, perhaps you were just a failed millennial.

SirEltharin - ‘Hey :) Guess what? I totally screwed up that figurine and have to do it all over again. Started any painting yet?’ - 2 hours ago

LadyGrim - ‘Perhaps you gave me all your good luck? Just started and..maybe..it actually starts to look pretty cool?’ - 2 minutes ago

SirEltharin - ‘Which one did you start with?’ - 2 seconds ago

Damn, guess it wasn’t just you who was bored to bits. This guy was one fast responder.

LadyGrim - ‘The one with the book? At least, I think…. So many parts..’

SirEltharin - ‘Yea. Requires a bit of strategising hehe. Besides..holy fervour and good faith!’

LadyGrim - ‘So why did you chose the sisters? You’re a guy right?’

SirEltharin - ‘And that’s a problem? ;)’

LadyGrim - ‘No..’

SirEltharin - ‘Honestly though. They’re cool. Strong women.’

LadyGrim - ‘Who got betrayed by the man they promised to serve.’

SirEltharin - ‘Ah you read the lore? Yea..men are dicks haha ;)’

LadyGrim - ‘Can’t agree more.’

You back and forthed throughout the evening. Starting off with some Warhammer 40k related banter, but soon drifting off to talking about the Corona lockdown and the boredom that came with it. SirEltharin didn’t let off a whole lot about himself, which made your imagination run a little wild.

Perhaps it was this “milady” type of guy, that’d tip his hat at you, then grow annoyed as soon as you didn’t immediately fall in love with him. Or, maybe it was this skinny pimple-faced guy who only ever played female characters in games. Or a really, really fat guy. He did say large male hands. Large…could be fat? Or at least chubby? Ugh. What did it matter anyways. Men, you had decided, were always going to disappoint.

SirEltharin - ‘Hey, just curious by the way. Why did YOU decide to start painting?’

LadyGrim - ‘Are you asking just because I’m a girl? ;)’

SirEltharin - ‘Hardly. What do you even think of me?! ;)’

LadyGrim - ‘Okay. Don’t call me an idiot. But this movie star, Henry Cavill? He posted an image and though I absolutely think he’s one of those fake nerd celebrities who are in it for the attention, it did get me interested in the figurines..so..I just ordered and..here I am!’

He stopped responding after that. For the rest of the night. Did you say something wrong or did he just not see your message? Ah..whatever. It didn’t really matter. He was just some stranger on the internet. You started Netflix and crawled onto your bed, wasting away another evening bingewatching How I Met Your Mother.

The next morning he had responded again. Around 5 am. Damn. Nerds ARE night owls, you thought, sipping your freshly brewn cup of french pressed coffee while leaning against your tiny kitchen block.

SirEltharin - ‘Can’t really say that without knowing him, right?’ - 3 hours ago

SirEltharin - ‘Anything in particular wrong with Henry Cavill?’ - 2 hours ago

LadyGrim - ‘Woa woa. No harm meant. Sorry. Guess I just don’t trust ‘em pretty boys?’ - 3 minutes ago

SirEltharin - ‘How’s that so? And good morning, Lady ;)’ - 2 seconds ago

You bit your lip and let out a deep sigh. Oh this man didn’t know what hellfire could come his way, opening THAT topic.

LadyGrim - ‘Good morning ..and..I doubt you’d be interested.’

SirEltharin - ‘You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.’

LadyGrim - ‘Fine. Let’s just keep it plain and simple. Lied to, cheated on and continuously disappointed. Guess I’ll just have to become a lesbian?’

SirEltharin - ‘Don’t let a few bad ones ruin it for the rest of us. Has it been long?’

LadyGrim - ‘Long?’

SirEltharin - ‘Apologies. I mean. Since you last dated?’

LadyGrim - ‘A year or so.’

SirEltharin - ‘And how old are you? Or am I being too bold asking such a thing?’

LadyGrim - ‘It’s fine. Thirty. Had my birthday two weeks ago. So yea..becoming a bit of an old spinster hehe.’

SirEltharin - ‘Belated happy birthday and..hardly a spinster, right? I mean. I’m 37 and haven’t found anyone yet. Heck. I guess I’m the old spinster here haha.’

LadyGrim - ‘I doubt the same rules apply for men.’

SirEltharin - ‘Trust me. We are all judged.’

Weeks passed and you and Sir kinda started to really get to know each other. You both lived in London - how practical -, were pretty enthused about sports, liked dogs (he had one, you wished you had one) and were close knit with your family. You with your sister, who already had a few kids. And he with his brothers. All with kids. Teasingly you donned each other the nicknames ‘Uncle and Aunty Spinster’.

You knew he had looked on your account. Seen some pictures of you. Even made a few comments on them and liked everything new you posted. But he, SirEltharin, remained mostly a mystery. You tried to talk yourself out of your curiosity, but couldn’t help but lay in bed fantasising about him. The only body part you had seen of him to this point were his hands, and they were actually quite pretty hands. Well manicured nails, strong fingers. It meant he probably wasn’t SUPER fat. So. That’s something.

Eventually the COVID-19 related regulations were becoming less restrictive and for the first time in months you could go back to work. The very news had made you both reluctant - you liked this new rhythm of painting and chatting with SirEltharin -, but also happy. Finally getting out of your tiny apartment, finally getting back to work. It may require some getting used to again, but this was just what you really needed.

In your enthusiasm you posted a picture on Instagram of your work outfit as it lay neatly spread out on your bed sheets. Your boss had made some quirky shirts to celebrate the reopening of the restaurant: “Brunello’s back” was written in fancy white lettering on the back of the shirt. You giggled as SirEltharin liked it within a split second.

SirEltharin - ‘Back to work hmm?’

LadyGrim - ‘Yep. Its all fun and games until the rat race starts again.’

SirEltharin - ‘Sounds Grim ;)’

LadyGrim - ‘You know me too well Sir. Anyways gotta go. Bye!’

SirEltharin - ‘See ya.’

See ya. You always thought it weird when strangers said that at the end of an online chat. Clients sometimes said it at the end of a phone reservation. That was understandable though; they were to come to the restaurant. But complete strangers? There was no such thing as “seeing you around”. However in the case of SirEltharin you were willing to let it slip. He probably didn’t think anything of it.

For a first night it was already quite hectic at Brunello’s. The room, although still far less bustling than usual, was filled. People were obviously eager to pick up their social lives again, the animated chatter of guests zooming around the room while you paced past the neatly spaced white clothed tables. Brunello’s was a rather luxurious restaurant and mostly businessmen and well-to-do families and friends came here to wine and dine. Tonight was special though, as a few celebrities were sitting in the far corner. Including a familiar face: Mr. Cavill, your eyes immediately falling on him as he seemingly was giving you a questioning look.

Perhaps he just wanted to order some drinks, you thought, halting next to the table and offering them your most kind, professional smile - ignoring the curious pair of blue eyes that tracked your every move.

‘Good evening and welcome to Brunello’s. Is there anything I can help you with?’ You spoke, the sentence fluently tipping of your tongue, your eyes wandering slowly over the guests. Most of them were unfamiliar to you. And Mr. Cavill..you tried to just not give him any attention as he was still burning his eyes into you.

‘We actually could use some advice on the wine. We’d like to start white, slightly fruity, perhaps French? Though the Italian one also sounds quite nice.’ A small blonde woman spoke, peering over her menu card.

As this was not your expertise, you called for the sommelier, stepping back to make room for him. And all the while you felt those eyes, gazing at you, almost brazenly. What was up with this Mr. Cavill? Or did you maybe have something funny on your face and did nobody dare to tell you? Shyly you excused yourself, leaving the guests in the capable hands of the sommelier, and quickly made for the women’s bathroom to check your face.

There was nothing out of sort when you looked into the mirror. Strange.

Peeking quickly on your phone, a habit when you were alone, you noticed a new message popping up on your Insta-chat.

SirEltharin - ‘I think we need to talk.’ - 30 seconds ago

Go to part 2

#henry cavill fanfiction #henry cavill fluff #warhammer 40k #figurine #miniature #painting #henry cavill x reader #secretcelebrity #undercover #nerdflirt #instagram #retributors #adepta sororitas

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sd1970x · 4 years ago

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Marinette, work in progress - Chapter 1

Read also on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26203645/chapters/63770623

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“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” Simone de Beauvoir

There is almost nothing about Marin Dupain-cheng's life, an aspiring clothes designer, that makes them happy. Certainly not the bullying they keep getting at school.

Marin doesn't even know her true gender identity yet.

Both of these are about to change. But would that be enough for her to fight the demons within? ----

CW - Homophobia

Pronouns note: in the beginning of the fic, as Marin(ette) is very much closeted, I am purposefully using he/him pronouns as these capture the correct perspective feel. Pronouns will change as soon as she realizes who/what she really is.

---

So, this is my first work after almost two years of not producing any new ones. I am planning to explore mental challenges involving the crossing of the gender barrier, the very same ones I am now fighting after discovering my own gender identity, as I was writing it in a Miraculous Ladybug fic.

This work is planned to be about a dozen chapters and around 30-40k words when complete.

Thanks go to: V- for inspiring this fic and for being the amazing and caring person they are. Wonderful beta feedback and copyediting: Skye, MyKeyboardDidIt

(further thanks will be updated as goes! if you helped with beta/ideas just hit me up and i'll add you!)

------------

"Dear, your alarm’s been going off for fifteen minutes! You’re going to be late for your first day of school!”

You say that as if it’s a bad thing. As if I don’t want to be several hours late. Or days.

“Yeah Mom, I’m coming.”

Marin dragged himself out of bed, his form hunched as he made his way to his closet, regarding his clothes with indifference.

I Don’t even like any of them. And I doubt they would solve the real problem here. That I do not like what I see in the mirror.

Myself.

His hand drifted to a random shirt of no particular interest and he casually tossed it over his head. He shuffled over to the bathroom, glancing at himself in the mirror.

Ho-hum. Same old me, isn’t it?

His hair was in its usual mess on top of his head. Foregoing using a brush, he ended up lightly combing through his hair with his fingers until it looked somewhat acceptable.

I guess that’s okay, he thought while shrugging.

As he was brushing his teeth, his eyes strayed to his face. Studying it. Scrutinizing it.

I ought to shave better than this, He thought. His hand reached for the razor, but he stopped short of picking it up.

What even is the point. Either way, trying won’t make any difference.

The image in the mirror appeared to give him a judgemental look, his own blue eyes prying into the inner parts of his soul.

Well, at least these eyes aren’t half as bad. Perhaps they would have been of some use if they had been matched with another person altogether.

He sighed and turned his head away, as if that would be enough to make the thought disappear.

It wasn’t.

The stairway creaked just a bit as he went downstairs to the kitchen where his parents were already toiling about.

“Your need to patch up your shave, my boy,” Tom said. “You want to look good for the ladies, don’t you?”

I’m not into girls, Dad.

Maybe one day I’ll gather the courage to tell you that.

“Well… not really…”

After all, what difference does it make?

“Come now, where’s the spirit? Every girl is different, they can’t all be like Chloe,” Sabine interjected, attempting to be helpful but having just the opposite effect.

“Ugh, Mom, why’d you have to mention her at all?”

Marin frowned as he sat down for breakfast, unable to drive Chloe’s image away from his mind. He took a bite off of his omelette and was struck by the apparent blandness. He set the fork down, sighing quietly to himself.

And there goes my appetite. It’s not the omelette that’s the issue though....

A sip of fresh juice did the trick, the taste too strong to be overridden.

“Cheer up, buddy!” Tom came over. “Take these macarons to school, maybe a tasty start would help lighten up your day!”

“Thanks, Dad, these are awesome.” He said as he picked them up, giving him a half-hearted smile in return.

I appreciate the gesture..., but it feels more like bribing my classmates with these. Guess anything is worth a try at this point.

---

Marin walked into school where everyone was bustling about and chatting with old friends.

Bright banners greeted the students and everything still felt pristine and clean. The corridors even had flower bouquets placed as decorations. Marin took a breath of air, relishing in the floral scent, and proceeded to enter class.

The classroom was freshly painted and even the furniture had been patched with an attention to detail. Marin barely allowed himself a moment of excitement, before despair and weariness took hold again.

It may look different, but looks won’t change anything for people like me. It’ll still be an endless test of mettle against bullying and harassment.

He cautiously went for his seat and observed his classmates.

So there’s Nino, he’s kinda-sorta okay with me. Something I could never say about Kim. Max hasn’t been mean either, but he’s with Kim, so... At least I don’t see her , maybe we’re not in the same—

“What do you think you’re doing?” a loud cry halted his thoughts and confirmed his fears.

Chloe. The nastiest of them all. Here’s to an old-new welcome, a start-over that amounts to absolutely nothing.

“Ugh. Here we go again,” he muttered quietly, hoping Chloe wouldn’t pick it up.

She came over, an accusing look plastered on her face.

“That's my seat.”

“But Chloe, this has always…” he attempted to retort, then quickly backtracked.

“Fine, just… take it. I don’t care.”

“Take it? It’s always been ours.” Sabrina added, bearing the same mocking countenance.

Sabrina helped herself to one of Marin’s macarons uninvited, then made a puking motion.

“Ugh, they are so gross!” she said, even though she was quick to pocket one for her friend as well.

Chloe paid no heed to the macarons as she was already busy teaching Marin the new rules.

“Listen. Adrien's arriving today and the last thing he needs is someone who needs straightening like you giving this class a bad name. Stay away from him, get it?”

Marin tried his best to ignore the obvious insult and focus on the more pressing question.

“Who’s Adrien?”

Both Chloe and Sabrina chuckled, making Marin regret asking.

“Adrien is a famous model. Pretty, rich, glamorous, someone to look up to. Like me. And just like me, he’s everything you’ll never be and everything you’ll never have.” Chloe fawned over her imaginary description as Sabrina took up the task of reprimanding Marin for the question.

“A loser that doesn’t even know who Adrien is, needs to sit as far away from him as possible. You’re enough of an embarrassment to our class as is.”

Marin opened his mouth as if to deny every word, but opted against it.

You’re wrong. One day, I’ll be a famous and successful designer and every single one of you will be sorry for how you treated me. I just have to persist through this. I won’t bite it this time.

He picked up his bag wordlessly and slowly went towards his designated seat.

At least that’s what he planned to do, but the new girl pre-empted him as she grabbed him by the hand and helped him to the seat next to her. Apparently she had overheard the conversation and didn’t plan on letting it slide, at least as far as her expression read as she looked towards one Chloe Bourgeois.

“Hey! Who elected you queen of seats?” She cried out.

“I did. Good luck dethroning me with your pariah friend.” Chloe laughed at her.

It was then that Miss Bustier entered the class, finally putting a timely end to the whole ordeal.

“Has everyone found a seat?” she called.

“Hey. Don’t let her get to you.” The new girl turned towards Marin again.

He nodded.

“If only I could… She makes my life miserable. My only comfort is the thought that I’ll be free once I graduate.”

“I’m Alya, what’s your name?”

“I’m Marin” He replied. “Pleased to meet you.”

“For those of you who don't yet know me,” Miss Bustier called yet again, “I'm Miss Bustier and I'll be your teacher this year.”

At least with the lesson going on, I should be safe from unnecessary trouble.

Marin pulled out his history book, the same one from last year, bearing yet another reminder. "Marin the Gay-boy" scrawled over the cover, courtesy of Kim.

Safe, huh.

“Everything you’ll never be, Everything you’ll never have.”

Like a clean history book.

It was then when the memories came back to life, a flashback from last year.

---

“Who did this?”

Marin looked about, trying to discern any dead giveaways by his classmates. Too many of them seemed to be smiling too mysteriously to be able to get anything out of them.

You need to stand up for yourself! Show them weakness and they’ll hunt you down like prey!

… easier said than done.

He took another good look at his history book. A small red scrawl was now adorning it, not unlike a barb stuck in flesh and equally painful.

“ Marin the Gay-Boy ”.

“Please… tell me who did this.”

Weariness engulfed his voice as it went weak.

I’ll find out who did this! I’ll…

Drip.

Drop.

The book’s hardcover had just won yet another adornment, as Marin’s teardrops started collecting over it.

Marin picked up the book, tucked it by his side and blasted away from class, his legs carrying him as far as he could, a bout of laughter coming from his classmates in his wake.

By the time Nino found him, his tears had mostly dried out.

“I saw it, dude. It was Kim.”

Marin sighed.

“Thanks, Nino. I… there’s nothing I can do about it, now can I?”

Nino nodded.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

---

I may have missed first period and the picking of seats, but I haven’t missed out the first day entirely. I guess luck is somewhat on my side, today.

“Hey there, Adrikins. Here’s your seat, I saved it for you. Right in front of me!”

So, I have that going for me as well!

“Thanks, Chloe, that’s really nice of you!”

As Chloe and her friend Sabrina went to do something else, Adrien found it to be an opportunity to introduce himself to other students around. What caught his attention the most about the nearby student were his orange headphones, seemingly a fixture of his appearance.

“Hey, I’m Adrien, pleased to meet you!” he offered his hand and got answered with a sturdy shake.

“Yo, I’m Nino. So, you’re that guy Chloe mentioned earlier?”

It was at that moment that he caught something happening out of the corner of his eye.

“What’s that all about?” he called towards Chloe and Sabrina, as both were putting gum on one of the seats.

“The brat that sits here needs a reminder of his place in the hierarchy. I'm just commanding a bit of respect, that's all.”

“You think that's really necessary?”

“Ah, you've got a lot to learn about school culture, Adrikins. Watch the master.”

Hardly convinced, Adrien went about trying to remove the gum from that seat, as he heard another male voice.

“Oh. So that’s your method of choice. How original.”

The voice sighed as Chloe and Sabrina laughed.

“Uhhh… I…” Adrien tried to protest, as he turned towards who he presumed was the seat’s owner.

The first thing that struck him about this boy is that he had a good amount of untapped potential. Smooth black hair, bright blue eyes… given proper care, he could look so much nicer, but he was relatively unkempt and his clothes were poorly matched too.

“And to think I imagined this year would be any different. Stupid, stupid, stupid. ” The boy lamented.

“No, no, I was just trying to take this off!” Adrien tried to salvage the situation, but to no avail.

All the while, Chloe and Sabrina continued to laugh.

“I see you’re in cahoots with Chloe. You don’t need to play pretend with me.”

“See?” Chloe said, “Gay-boy here knows his place. As he should.”

Marin just covered the gum with spare tissue paper and sat by Alya.

“There you go. Adrien Agreste, daddy's boy, teen supermodel and Chloe's buddy.” Alya quipped.

“I bet he’s used to not seeing or caring how people beneath his status feel,” Marin muttered.

---

Alya had little interest in the class, but much more interest in her table partner. She quickly learned that Marin wanted to be a famous designer after he graduated. While she wasn’t a professional, the sketches Marin gave her seemed really good. But there was something else to watch for, too. How his face had lit up when he handed her his sketches. For a moment there, he seemed to be another person altogether. His face brightened up as he took at least a hint of pride in his handiwork.

And you should. Not to mention that a smile looks so much better on you than that sad face you had on earlier.

They had a free hour just after class, so Alya was only mildly surprised when Marin caught her hand and pulled her towards somewhere as he ran forward.

“Where are you taking me?” She asked.

“The best place this school has to offer.” he grinned and continued to dash forward.

“I present you… the art club room!” he exclaimed.

It’s as if he’s another person entirely.

Marin waded in, showing Alya all the different areas the art room had to offer.

A wall for street art, mostly cleaned from past works but still bearing color marks of older works. Desks used for writing, pen scratch marks still visible even after having been cleaned for the new year. Drawing stands, also marked by some uncleanable paint blots. Then there was...

“... Here it is. A state of the art sewing machine, My best and only friend in this entire school.” he laughed, but in a moment the smile dropped from his face.

“That… I…”

He sat by, not nearly as happy as before, and pulled a derby hat from the nearby drawer.

“I worked on this last year and haven’t managed to finish it yet.”

Alya picked up the hat and casually caressed the fabric. It felt somewhat sturdy yet comfy.

Marin flicked the machine on and seemed to be mulling his next move. Eventually, he just turned it back off without doing anything.

“We technically shouldn’t be here without a teacher, so let’s go.” His passionless voice took over again.

Alya could see this was nothing but an excuse, but she declined to call it out. Her instincts told her there was no chance on earth Marin wasn’t keen on violating this rule more than once.

“It really is a lovely place.” She tried to brighten up the atmosphere, with mild success.

“And I loved the hat.” She said as she handed it back for Marin to place in the drawer again.

That seemed to work a bit better.

“Wait ‘till it’s complete, then. I’m sure it will suit you well.” Half a smile crept to Marin’s face.

---

Marin bid Alya farewell as he left the classroom and slouched towards the school’s main doors.

He cautiously opened it, only to find rain pouring outside and the sky filled with grey clouds.

A fresh start, huh? The morning’s nice weather is already gone. At least the bleakness isn’t hiding anymore.

He stood by, still sheltered, when he found out another person was standing next to him.

That Adrien guy. And he just noticed me. That’s the last thing I need right now.

“Hey!” Adrien called.

He slowly sidestepped to maintain a safe distance between them and turned his head away, muttering a slight ‘hmph’.

“Hey, listen buddy… I really was trying to remove that gum from your seat.”

Marin turned his head around and looked at Adrien, wide-eyed.

I… I must be dreaming. Did he really just say that?

“S-so… you weren’t…” he tried to piece together his words and found himself unable to do so.

“Of course not. I came here to study, to make friends… I’m not here to harass or insult people, where’s the sense in that?”

He is sincere about it. Somebody that doesn’t see me as the “gay punching bag” everyone else does.

“I didn’t even get your name.”

“It’s… It’s Marin.”

Marin’s heart nearly skipped a beat, one that he was sure Adrien managed to hear even with the rain’s sound muffling it.

And then, there was an inaudible sound he missed.

A cracking sound, as the nearly-impenetrable shell, one that was built layer over layer of self-defence from bullying and mistreatment, sealing off his emotions, gave just a little bit of way.

Adrien let his hand out of the shelter, feeling the raindrops accumulating.

“So, Marin, It’s raining and I’ve got a ride, need an umbrella?”

He nodded ever so slightly and Adrien pulled out a black umbrella. A click and a whoosh and it was now open, handed for him to take.

Marin cautiously reached out for the umbrella Adrien handed him, his hand shaking and trembling.

That’s… so nice… so… so unlike…

No sooner than he had picked it up though, his hand slipped and triggered the activation switch, the umbrella closing shut over him.

Adrien laughed for a brief moment and gave Marin a slight friendly shoulder bump.

“You keep safe, alright buddy?”

“A… al… alr-...”

Marin barely even noticed his bag dropping, hitting the ground with a ‘thud’ and his personal effects rolling about on the wet pavement. His eyes were transfixed as Adrien waved goodbye and proceeded towards his pick up car.

He’s not going to insult me or beat me or humiliate me.

Someone I can trust. Someone I can rely on.

I feel… safe next to him.

Oh, Adrien!

Maybe things were going to be different after all.

---

Unnoticed by them both, there was another figure watching the exchange, clad in a hawaiian t-shirt and accompanied by a green looking creature.

“Are you sure of your choice, master?”

“Yes. He will make a fine Chat Noir…

… and she will make for an unforgettable Ladybug.”

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #fanfiction #trans marinette #trans-AU #fanfic #ladybug #umbrella scene

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carryonmylovelies · 4 years ago

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😎 fic writer interview 😎

thank u for tagging me @carryonsimoncarryonbaz and @bazypitchandsimonsnow and @fight-surrender 🥺🥺 ily guys thank u so so much 💘💘💘

Name: raegan!! some cute bitches on here call me rae which i also like. im thinking about going by casey at some point too so any are sexy and work for me 🐸

Fandoms: omg carry on is my main one have u guys heard of it???? its literally amazing 🤩 i also am majorly slutty for captive prince and the raven cycle 💕💕 but um currently i am tiddies deep in the haikyu!! fandom its kind of crazy 🤡 i watched it at the beginning of quarantine and it took over my entire life. i probably wrote over 30-40k words of random haikyu fics over the summer but i didn't post anything so they just live in a 90 page google document on my laptop 🤪 i also wrote a bit for hunter x hunter and demon slayer. carry on anime stans PLEASE interact 😩😩 i also read a shit ton of webcomics and manhwas so 👀 @milo-fanarts this bitch knows

Where you post: ao3, that sexy drop dead gorgeous love of my life fanfic site 🥵🥵 i also throw my shit on ffn for absolutely no reason except clout. i haven't read anything on there in a Century

Most popular one-shot: uhhhhh Baz's Willpower Vs. Black Leggings has that spot in the bag. it was very fun to write and takes place while they're still at watford for extra flavor. im glad its my most popular one-shot hehe

Most popular multi-chapter: literally the fic i wrote most recently 🤪 you're coming down, i'm warming up. its definitely the fic im most proud of AND it has TWO super sexy pieces of fanart for it i literally scream and pass out every time i look at them. (@lotus-of-light @wunder-kin) two chapters are t and function as a whole fic and then the third chapter is e and is bonus material pretty much 💋

Fic you were nervous to post: uhhhhh probably the last chapter of that one ^^^ bc it was my first time posting smut lmaooooo. but my darling smut beta @milo-fanarts helped me knock that shit out 😎 plus the comments ive gotten on that chapter have all been sooo nice and positive so i think it worked out 😎

How do you choose your titles: my clown brain. occasionally some songs. or i go bother @bazypitchandsimonsnow and @lifeasafail

Do you outline: sorta!! sometimes ill scribble shit in a notebook or my notes app

Do you take prompts: i used to!!!! but um college drains me of my energy and life force like a BITCH so i haven't written anything since before school started :/ not very cash money at all. i am however taking a slutty gap year and getting a full time job since im finishing my associates degree this year so i want to write LOTS on my year off 😈 will probably open prompts up again

Complete: everything on my ao3!!!

In progress: well ive probably got like 3 or 4 LONG fics that i started and never finished rotting in my google docs rn so im hoping to get to those....at some point. im more excited abt the au ive screamed to @milo-fanarts too much abt 👀👀 there are also some longer anime fics i wanna write too so i guess we'll just have to see 😩😩

a big sexy shoutout to @lifeasafail bc she's not only read and helped me edit like all of my snowbaz writing but is also like the one person who has read almost of ALL of the anime shit i churned out over the summer. girl we need some help that shit was crazy.

idk who's been tagged yet im a mentally ill ghost these days akebjwshd ummm @lifeasafail @makedonsgriva @lotus-of-light @theflyingpeach @adamarks @maddy-does @satsukii and of COURSE anyone whose eyeballs read this. tag me tag me tag me i want 2 see 👁👁

#tag games #fanfiction #snowbaz #ME

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kpopfanfictrash · 5 years ago

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The Monogamy Monologues (Preview)

Status: Currently writing

Posting Date: February 7th (tentative)

Creative Contributor: @underthejoon for this lovely banner!

Genre: Rom-Com / Humor / Smut

Pairing: Jungkook / Reader

Synopsis: The year? Some point after college. The occasion? Namjoon is getting married and the Rich Man’s Crochet Club has convened once again. Somewhere between the drinks and the laughter, everyone has the same realization: Jungkook has never been in a serious relationship. In the name of all that is holy (Overwatch and booze), the club’s mission is revived. Now though, their goal is much more perilous. Now, they aim to find Jeon Jungkook a girlfriend. (Part of The Rich Man’s Crochet Club series)

Estimated WC: 40K

Rating: 18+

Preview: 2,088

“JIMIN!”

“JEON!” Waving wildly, Jimin flags Jungkook down as he steps off the escalator.

There are still several people between them, but none of them prove to be a match for Jungkook. Dodging them easily – spinning, at one point around a family of five – Jungkook dramatically runs towards the exit.

“JIMIN-SSI!” he yells. “I’M COMING!”

Jimin rolls his eyes at the display. “Get your ass over here, Jeon! Sorry,” he apologizes to the same family of five.

Although the mother shoots them both a dirty look, she hurries her kids towards the Taxi stand and does not look back. Jimin opens his arms just as Jungkook crashes into his chest.

Lowering his cheek to Jimin’s hair, Jungkook closes his eyes to whisper, “I think you got shorter.”

“Fuck off,” Jimin grunts, shoving him away before laughing.

Jungkook grins. “Anyways,” he says, slinging an arm about Jimin’s neck. “Are you ready for the best weekend of our lives?”

With a good-natured shake of his head, Jimin leads Jungkook out of the terminal. Always the excellent host, Jimin actually parked his car at the airport and walked inside to greet him. Jungkook cannot remember the last time his family did that for him, let alone a friend.

“Ready to assist Namjoon, you mean?” Jimin gives Jungkook a look. “You know – on his wedding day?”

“Yeah, yeah. That.” The moment they step outside, Jungkook takes a deep breath. “Ahh,” he groans, slowly exhaling. “You smell that, Jimin?”

“Car exhaust?”

“No. Lack of humidity.”

Jimin snorts, striding forward when the crosswalk turns green. “Still not sold on Miami?”

Jungkook opens one eye. “Miami’s fine,” he says automatically, following Jimin as they enter the garage.

Over his shoulder, the garment bag keeps banging his ass. As much as Jungkook hoped this would keep his suit from wrinkling, it is looking more and more like he will need an iron.

Not believing a word Jungkook says, Jimin raises a brow. “If you say so.”

As they reach the next aisle, Jungkook takes in deep gulps of air. Jimin shakes his head at his antics, but Jungkook could not care less. This city always smells like home to him. When they reach Jimin’s car, though – a sensible, gray Subaru – Jungkook’s feet falter.

“What happened to Liz?” he blurts, taken aback by the trade.

Liz was their college nickname for Jimin’s car, stemming from the infamous Liz Lemon of 30 Rock. So dubbed because Jimin’s old car was a complete piece of crap – a lemon, from the time he drove it off the lot.

Jimin pauses, flipping the keys in one hand. “Traded it in,” he says stiffly, pulling open the door. “Too many memories.”

Realizing what Jimin means, Jungkook winces. He had nearly forgotten about the break-up. Granted, it has been almost four months since Jimin and Olivia called it quits, but the two had been dating since college. Slightly longer than Namjoon and his fiancée.

Whereas Namjoon and his fiancée grew closer after University though, Jimin and Olivia were the opposite. Jimin graduated summa cum laude with an acceptance to one of the top medical schools in the country. His painful notetaking really paid off, as Namjoon was wont to say. When he moved to Chicago and began med school in earnest, Olivia left for New York to join a consulting company.

With their busy schedules and early twenties lives, the two drifted apart. Jimin was the one who held on, not wanting to end things with the first girl he loved. It was only when he surprised Olivia in New York over Valentine’s Day he realized it was over. Not that Olivia was cheating on him, or anything – maybe it would have been easier if she were. At least then, there would be somebody to blame.

No, Jimin merely realized they did not fit anymore. Olivia had her friends and interests; he had his and the two no longer meshed. Without realizing it, they had both reached a fork in the woods and turned down different paths.

Ever since their break-up, the chat has been wary of even mentioning her name.

Jungkook glances hesitantly at his profile. “You okay, man?” he asks as they enter the car. Tossing his duffle bag over the backseat, he prays it does not land on his suit.

“Okay?” Jimin places the car in reverse. “Could be better, I guess. Could be worse.”

Jungkook nods as they pull from the spot. Slouched in his seat, he stares out the window because in times like this, he is useless. When it comes to matters of the heart, Jungkook considers himself to be woefully inept.

“Sorry man,” he says quietly. A car honks in response as they get on the highway. “Wish I could say we always hated her, but you know that’s not true.”

Jimin snorts from the driver’s seat. “Yeah, I know. I can’t really bring myself to say that, either.”

“Well, maybe you two will –”

“No. We won’t.”

Seeing Jimin’s face, Jungkook shrugs and resumes looking out the window.

After a minute, Jimin exhales. “So, how’s Miami really going?”

Jungkook’s head whips sideways to face him.

The corner of Jimin’s mouth lifts. “Thought you hid it well, huh?”

“Better than five minutes into the car ride, yeah.”

“Well, you don’t.”

Jungkook snorts. “Miami is… fine. I don’t know. It’s not really Miami I have a problem with.”

“Your job, then?”

“Yeah, and… I don’t know. Everything.”

“Be a little more vague.”

Jungkook’s lips twitch. “I just…” He pauses, collecting his thoughts. “It was so much simpler in college, you know? Things were difficult, but it all had an end date. Right? Get through four years, and you’re done. I’m starting to realize… this doesn’t have an end date.”

Jimin’s lips purse at the road. “The end date is whenever you want it to be, JK.”

“I guess,” Jungkook grumbles, slouching lower in the seat. Any further, and he might slip off the edge. “But then I’d have to admit that I failed. That I spent eight fucking years of my life either in this job, or working towards it. What was the point if I quit?”

“What’s the point of spending another eight years doing something you hate?”

Jungkook stubbornly chews the inside of his cheek, knowing Jimin is right. The problem is, though – even if he quits, Jungkook has no idea what to do. Sure, he likes photography, but the field is competitive as hell. Jungkook wants to do something he loves, but he also wants to succeed. Taking such a massive leap terrifies him.

“Let’s talk about something else,” he mumbles, turning to Jimin.

Although Jimin arches a brow, he reluctantly lets the subject go. “Sure. Let’s talk instead about how Seokjin is bringing a date to the wedding.”

“Seokjin?” Jungkook’s brows shoot so far up, they near-disappear. “Who?”

“Some girl from LA.”

“No shit,” Jungkook exhales, slowly shaking his head. “Wow. We’re all settling down, huh? Soon, it’ll just be you and me, Jimin,” he grins, leaning over to punch Jimin in the arm.

The wheel jerks at the action, swerving them towards the next lane. “Hey!” Jimin blurts, straightening them out with a scowl. “At least I dated someone during the past five years, Jeon. Who’ve you been seeing?”

“No comment.”

“Huh. I don’t remember her. Was she the blonde?”

“Shut up,” Jungkook laughs, reaching out for the stereo. As the latest pop song fills the car, he pointedly stares out the window.

Jimin smiles, shaking his head. Namjoon’s wedding is being held in the city. His fiancée’s father is some big shot at a downtown law firm. From what Jungkook has gathered, the ceremony spiraled from a small, romantic affair into one of the biggest events of the season.

Jungkook’s lip quirks. That is how you know Namjoon’s fiancée’s family is rich. They use phrases like event of the season and christen their yachts with only the most expensive champagne. Having been to several yacht-christenings in Miami, Jungkook has never understood the event. What is the point of buying something expensive, only to ruin it?

Actually, maybe that is the point.

Pushing Miami from mind, Jungkook stares at the highway as they drive towards the city. The wedding has taken on a mind of its own, according to Namjoon. So detailed, so elaborate, they were forced to hire a wedding planner. Jungkook can only imagine Namjoon, micro-manager to the extreme, being forced to trust someone else with his life.

It has been a while since Jungkook last visited Chicago. Namjoon’s family is from here, and whenever they visited in college, they always had a great time. His mom sent them off each morning with fresh fruit and eggs – it was sweet; reminded Jungkook of home.

The familiar skyline arching above brings a smile to his lips. All in all, Jimin and Hoseok do not realize how lucky they are. If Jungkook lived here, he would – cutting the thought off, Jungkook sits up in his seat. Jungkook does not live here, so there is no point pretending.

Glancing down at his phone, Jungkook feels a modicum of guilt. After placing himself in airplane mode, he has not turned the device back on since he landed. Jungkook knows there will be a fresh wave of texts from his boss and for now, wishes to delay the inevitable.

“Where’s the wedding again?” Jungkook asks, turning his head.

Jimin shrugs as he rolls down his window. The night wind ruffles his hair, sending strands flying all over the place. “Some hotel by the river. Hear it has a great view.”

“And what’s the plan for the weekend?”

“Jungkook!” Jimin scolds, turning down the radio. “Did you even read the agenda Seokjin sent?”

Jungkook glances at him guiltily. “Um, I looked at it.”

Seokjin’s is Namjoon’s best man for the wedding. It makes sense – the two of them have been roommates since sophomore year of college, not to mention they both live in LA. Jungkook knows Jimin has also helped Namjoon with wedding details, since he lives in Chicago.

The look Jimin gives says he knows Jungkook is full of bullshit. “There’s a copy of the itinerary in my glove compartment,” he says with a nod. “I printed out a few just in case.”

“Why the fuck,” Jungkook grumbles as he opens the clasp. “Alright, here we go. Wednesday.”

“That’s today,” Jimin prompts.

“I know what day it is.” Jungkook clears his throat. “Alright, Wednesday. Bridesmaids and groomsmen arrive.”

“That’s us,” Jimin adds, shooting Jungkook a look.

“Yep, yep. Thursday – booze cruise. Woo! Seriously?”

Jimin rolls his eyes. “You really didn’t read this, did you?”

Ignoring him, Jungkook continues. “Friday – rehearsal ceremony and dinner. Be at the church by 4:00 PM.”

“Dressed.”

“Doesn’t seem like a necessary clarification,” Jungkook says, flipping over the paper. “Saturday, ceremony starts at 2:00 PM. Photos and reception following. Sunday, brunch.”

Jimin nods. “Don’t be late.”

“Jimin.” Jungkook lowers the sheet. “It’s Wednesday. How can you seriously tell me not to be late to brunch on Sunday?”

“Because I know you.”

“Touché.” Jungkook grins, crumpling the paper despite Jimin’s groans.

There are not many people heading into the city on a Wednesday night – turning on his blinker, Jimin switches lanes to pull off on an exit. As they slow, the buildings around them seem to stretch towards the night sky. Craning his head out the window, Jungkook exhales. When he pulls back, he finds Jimin watching.

“What?” Jungkook asks, somewhat defensive.

Jimin’s upper lip curls. “Nothing. You know, Hoseok and I’s roommate leaves at the end of the month. If you ever wanted to come to Chicago…”

Jungkook glances away. “C’mon, man. I can’t quit my job.”

“Can’t… won’t…” Jimin trails off at Jungkook’s expression in the mirror. “Anyways, the offer stands. Think about it, okay?”

Slowly, Jungkook nods. “Alright, I’ll think about.”

Jimin smiles, appeased and returns to the road. His hands stay firmly at the ten and two ‘o’clock position, which is so Jimin, it makes Jungkook smile. As they wind through the streets, Jungkook cannot help but think about what it would be like to live here.

He would probably be miserable if he simply transferred to Chicago. Maybe a little less so, since Hoseok and Jimin would be here – but nothing would really change in the long run. If he quit his job, though. Jungkook sighs. For now, that type of change remains firmly in the abstract.

“There!” Jimin squints at the building ahead. “That’s the hotel.”

[ TO BE CONTINUED ]

#preview #jungkook fanfic #bts fanfic

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vampire-in-a-trench-coat · 4 years ago

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Fanfiction Update

Hey, guys! So, I’m getting some questions here on Tumblr and some comments on AO3 asking me if I’ve abandoned a story or if I plan on continuing it because I haven’t updated it in so long, so I wanted to make a post about everything that I’m working on right now, on what stories are getting updated next, etc.

Also, if anyone’s interested, I made a Twitter, for some reason? I’m still not entirely sure what exactly I’ll post over there, but it’s there now. 😂 I might talk about how my writing’s going, maybe?

Anyway, I’m HeyItsVamps over there, if anyone’s interested. 😉

So, these are the chapters that I’m currently working on:

Coming Home - Chapter 2 (current word count: 19.3k)

A Drop in the Ocean - Chapter 30 (current word count: 4.3k)

Game of Survival- Chapter 9 (current word count: 3.5k)

Love Me Like You Do - Chapter 3 (current word count: 2k)

Chapter 2 of Coming Home is probably the next chapter that I’ll post. I still haven’t figured out whether I’ll split this one into two parts or not, so I guess how fast I update will depend on how many more scenes I’ll actually be writing for this one, and how many will get moved over to chapter 3. I really wanted to end this one in a specific place, but I’m pretty sure the chapter might go over 40k if I do—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, really, I just can’t decide if I should do it or not. 😂

After that, I’ll be updating either A Drop in the Ocean or Game of Survival. It’s way too early to tell which one of those two chapters I’ll finish writing first, but I’ll keep you guys updated on that.

In addition to all that, I’m also working on two short works that will be posted alongside Coming Home. They were originally supposed to be 2 chapters of that story, but I’ve decided to post them each as a separate work, just under the same series. One of them tells the story of how Cas fell in love with Dean, up until 15x18, and the other tells the story of how Dean fell in love with Cas, up until 15x19, and then Coming Home picks up right after that. I planned for both of those to be only one chapter because they were supposed to be short, but in true “me” fashion, they’re both turning out long enough to each be a separate story, so... yeah. That’s a thing that’s happening, too.

And in case anyone’s wondering, I didn’t actually abandon When It All Falls Down. I had to pull that story back to the drawing board because I basically changed my mind about everything, so I plan to go back to updating it once I finish posting Love Me Like You Do. Until then, I’m trying to get a lot written in advance, and to finally get rid of all the issues I had been encountering with all the plot changes I made.

I also have 3 more Destiel AUs that I’ve been working on for a while, and that I plan to post at some point, but I made a promise to myself that I would only do it once I have most of them written, and when I have the whole thing planned out. One of them is a Modern Royalty AU, the other an ABO (Alpha Dean/Alpha Cas), and the last one is an AU where Dean is a hunter and Cas is human, and they meet under completely different circumstances. I really want to post all three of those someday.

And finally, I have a little list of finale fix-its that I plan to work through, but those will all be a lot shorter than Coming Home. They include Death!Dean, Angel!Dean, and a few other different scenarios for 15x20. One of them even includes time travel, which might be fun. I’m not sure if I’ll post any of those, but if I do get around to actually writing them, I probably will. Right now, those are just ideas that have been floating around in my head for the past few months.

And that’s it! That’s all I’m working on at the moment. And I hope that also explains why I’m hesitant to take any fic requests right now, because I’ve been getting a few over the past few months, and I feel super bad about turning them down, but right now, I really don’t think I can do it. :(

Also, if you have any questions about a specific story, please feel free to ask! Sometimes I even give out spoilers. 😉

Much love,

~Vamps ♥️

#destiel #destiel fanfic #destiel fic #destiel fic rec #deancas fanfic #deancas #A Drop in the Ocean Destiel fic #Game of Survival Destiel fic #Coming Home Destiel fic #Love Me Like You Do Destiel fic #When It All Falls Down Destiel fic #Vamps says things #Vamps cant write anything short

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catsafarithewriter · 5 years ago

Note

Hey there! Can you recommend some good Haru/Baron fics? Btw, I've been reading yours and its awesome 💕

Sure thing, I’m always up for spreading the fandom love! I’ll be recommending between both AO3 and FFnet - our fandom is older than AO3, the fandom originated mostly on FFnet - actually, here’s a rundown of the writers who shaped the early fandom:

YarningChick: The Big Name Writer. Over 50 TCR stories. Her stories are actually what made me realise fanfic could be hella decent, and the reason I started writing TCR fanfic. Most older fans will be familiar with her work, and her influence is pretty wide-reaching across the fandom. Her earlier stories are predominantly fluffy fairytale stories, but her more recent stories are darker and longer in comparison.

Grignard: Was in the fandom about a decade ago, has mostly branched out into others now, but I still remember being hella excited when they wrote a new fanfic in 2013. 7 TCR fanfics, mostly fairytales.

fringeperson: Also was in the fandom over a decade ago, wrote 30 TCR fics. Their stories are mostly oneshots and short multichaptered fics - the latter either fairytale AUs or sequels.

There’s a big skew towards fairytale AUs, thanks to the influence of the early fandom writers, so that gets its own category, but most of the authors I mention below have written multiple stories for the fandom and/or are active members of the fandom. Please support them and leave reviews!

More recommendations of my personal favourites below the cut!

[EDIT: Tumblr hates my read mores, so just imagine there’s a “read more now” option here and not stuck in the ask.]

FAIRYTALE AUs:

Falling From Grace? by fringeperson. Summary: The simple fact of the matter was that to be the only ex-human in the court of the Cat King was not a safe position. Especially when His Majesty's mental capacities are deteriorating. Chapters: 11. Words: 12K

The Reluctant Royal by Grignard. Summary: Haru must complete three impossible tasks given by her Uncle, the King, while assisted by the mysterious Baron. Chapters: 5. Words: 13K

Till Next We Meet by ArtsyChick. Summary: Two men compete in a race against time to discover where four lovely princesses disappear in the night. The prize: one lovely princess bride. Chapters: 20. Words: 29K

Shades of Green by YarningChick. Summary: Life can be really tough when you're a witch, green, and happen to be despised by everyone that even hears of you. Chapters: 39. Words: 50K

MULTICHAPTERED FICS:

A Cat’s Repayment by Elz Durden. Summary: It began with a cursed candy. Don't the best stories? (Cat’s Note: basically a Ghibli cameo story, light-hearted and feels like reading Stardust. Go read!) Chapters: 15. Words: 33K

Engel’s Zimmer by Pashleyy. Summary: Haru, a senior in high school, bumbles upon the memory of her dearly beloved friend and visits him years after they last met. But what she finds is a nightmare beyond any warm and cozy Bureau. Chapters: 10. Words: 18K

Soul Searching by Ana the Romantic. Summary: It seems like it's always another day, another adventure for the bureau. Now that Haru has become a member and joining the adventures she and Baron only grow closer. But what happens when a new kingdom comes into play? Not to mention a new princess? (Cat’s Note: This was the first TCR fanfic I ever read, and it has a special place in my heart for it.) Chapters: 14. Words: 40K

Chaos & Change by QueenHeadphones Summary: It's Haru's first day working alongside The Cat Bureau, serving a very important role that has them depending on her. Although she's taken every precaution to prepare as much as she can, she'll find that some things can't be planned for. Chapters: 5. Words: 18K

To Know Oneself by YarningChick Summary: Sometimes, in order to find out who you truly are, you need to break a few rules. Or as many as possible; whichever works. (Gotta fit a YC story in here somewhere!) Chapters: 29. Words: 156K

ONESHOTS:

Groundhogs and Russian Dolls by deedeeflowers Summary: Russian Doll AU. For the 2019 Birthday Bash. Haru is stuck in a time loop which keeps ending in her death and has to find out why. Far less dark than it sounds, seriously just go check out all deedeeflowers’ Birthday Bash work. Words: 7K.

Bittersweet Cinnamon by Sindy Sugar. Summary: Haru didn't know what to expect when she moved into her family's old home by herself. She had hoped for some peace from recent events. The last thing Haru expected was to be revisited by two familiar cats she thought she long forgotten. One-Shot AU. Horror. Words: 14K

One Last Cup of Tea by thedrunkenwerewolf Summary: Her adventure with the Bureau in the Cat Kingdom over, Baron has to let Haru go back to her own life in her own world. The only problem is, as soon as she does, she'll forget. Shortfic. AU. Angst. Words: 500

One Hit Wonders by YarningChick. Summary: The new home for my Cat Returns one-shots, two-shots, deleted scenes, and ideas that never evolved into a full-fledged story.

So, You Summoned the Ghost of Your Ancestors by Rowena Bensel Summary: [Written for the TCR Secret Santa 2019] Hiromi's best friend is a paranormal investigator, but she never really believed in ghosts and such. When she and her fiance find a ritual to summon their ancestors, they figure it wouldn't hurt to try it out. After all, there's no such thing as ghosts, right? Words: 2K

the happiness i’ve found with you by BookRookie12 Summary: He doesn't know how long this will last. He doesn't know if, when it ends, he'll ever see her again. But they've made sure he'll remember her forever, and isn't that kind of love enough by itself? Borrower AU. One-shot. Words: 2K

The Incident by Chaos Valkyrie. Summary: The Incident. That would go down in Feline Infamy forever. And will never be spoken of again. EVER. A humor fic. Words: 900

Cinderella by Nanenna Summary: When the king decides to hold a royal ball in his son's honor to which every eligible young lady in the kingdom is invited, it's not hard to guess just what his aim really is. Not that such things matter to Haru, she just wants to have a night off for once. Words: 6K

Haru at the Theater by Casandravus Summary: A regular member of her local theater troupe, Haru's been cast as the beautiful Christine Daaé - but on opening night, there's not a Phantom (or his understudy) to be seen... Words: 2K

New Eyes and Extra Color by Kangoo Summary: Hiromi has known Haru for so long, it's easy to notice all the little ways she's changed lately.

The Lady or the Tiger by StripedSunhat Summary: By the time Hiromi realizes the truth she’s already been gone for more than a year. Haru is gone. Hiromi is left picking up the pieces, sorting through them for the truth. Haru is gone. Hiromi is left, trying figure out what the truth is worth. Haru is gone. 7K

#Anon #replies #yes fairytales get their own category #cause fairytale aus are a big thing in this fandom #also uh I kinda got carried away and listed a lot XD #fanfic rec #fanfic recommendations #also there's apparently a lot of oneshots I love #the cat returns #let me knovv your fav stories folks!

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jakey-beefed-it · 4 years ago

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Musing about a potential Ultramarines list under the cut so you can keep scrolling if you don’t give a shit about the gameplay of 40k

Thinking about playing a very gravis-heavy army once I can actually get some games in again, mostly because I fucking love gravis armor. Thinking a couple squads of heavy intercessors (plus one of regular intercessors b/c you gotta have 3 troops) for troops, 3 squads of eradicators for heavy support, 3 squads of aggressors for elites, and 3 squads of not-gravis-but-still-5-toughness outriders for fast attack. HQ would be Marneus Calgar Alexander Titus Maximus and a couple lieutenants I guess; add 2 or 4 Victrix Guard to watch Alex’s back, points/power level allowing. Repulsor Executioner “Praxis” to ferry Alex and the Victrix around, Impulsor for the regular intercessors. Potentially could have the regular Repulsor for a squad of Heavy Intercessors but I think I’ll be using them more as a firebase. Looking at it that’s probably going to be far too many points for far too few models to be remotely competitive but boy will it be fun when it does its thing.

Anyhow I just really like the idea of making this force look as blinged out and elite as possible so it can represent some hardcore veterans hand-picked by Alexander Titus to serve as the spearpoint he leads from the front. It’s got lots of really great firepower in the 30″ or so range, between 5 to 10 regular Bolt Rifles, 10 Heavy Bolt Rifles, 9 Melta Rifles (well, probably 8 and a multi-melta), and all the vehicle-mounted stuff which has a minimum range of 24″ but also at least an 8″ move. Including 9 twin bolt rifles on the 3 squads of bikes. Bolter Drill benefits both kinds of intercessor and all the bikes. Everybody but the lone squad of regular intercessors, 2 lieutenants, and the victrix guard has toughness 5... I think it’s not bad. I mean it’ll get stomped into the dirt by anyone playing a tournament list but it’ll be very good at killing the SHIT out of up to even half of a bleeding edge tournament list before getting tabled, i suspect. Hell, it’s durable enough to take advantage of the Ultramarines’ fall back and shoot at -1 ability against most melee attack units. Like, no, 5 heavy intercessors are not going to survive a dedicated death company blitz, but anything short of that they should have some survivors to fall back and shoot and more importantly let everyone ELSE shoot at the assaulters. The firebase of heavy intercessors and eradicators is resilient as hell, the outriders are great objective grabbers, and there’s enough high-strength weaponry to handle other elite forces well.

The place it would struggle is mostly just against horde armies due to the relatively low number of high-quality shots. Blasting a vertus praetor with a melta rifle for 4 damage is neat, doing the same to an ork boy is just silly amounts of overkill and his 29 friends are going to make you regret it. I can potentially make up for that with some of the choices on the repulsor(s) and through intercessor and outrider bolter drill, but fundamentally the list is really designed to work like breachers basically. Find the strongest point in the enemy line, and obliterate it. If the strongest point in the enemy line turns out to be the 180 hormagaunts ranging ahead of a single neurothrope or smth, it’s gonna be rough.

40k does trend toward rock paper scissors mentality, of which this is basically rock, my craftworlds army is basically scissors, and your default horde army is basically paper. there are exceptions (death company blood angels plays like scissors but will absolutely destroy my ‘rock’ here) but in the broadest sense that understanding is workable. unless you’re both very good at actual gameplay and very current on the meta, you’re not generally able to build and play a proper ‘take ALL comers’ list. I’m not great at the game itself, and covid means it’s been a year since my last games and it’s likely to be months more if not another year before i can start getting in regular games again, so I’ve no fucking clue what the local meta would be like.

But! I also kinda don’t... give a shit about winning, so long as I have fun and my opponent does, too, and I feel like this army is thematic enough to be fun to play and to play against. Strong enough that even if I get trounced, I can pick a ‘secondary objective’ along the lines of ‘Okay... you’re gonna win.... but I’m gonna kill that FUCKING leviathan dreadnought’ and be happy even when I lose.

anyhow if you read this far, thanks, and I’m sorry. if you have any thoughts you’d like to share, please do.

#Jake plays Warhammer 40k #oh and the aggressors should at least SLIGHTLY deter aggro assault lists

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theastrophilearchitect · 4 years ago

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Reworking the plot & getting my hands dirty.

Writing journey #2.

Sat 06/03/2021 - Word Count: 28,150 19.38 So, a month ago, today, actually, I started writing a book. For context, I've sorted out scenes and planned my plot; I'm now simultaneously writing my first draft and outlining scenes in more detail - I'm just into act two of my draft and just into act three of the outline.

I included today in my first writing post, which you can find here, but, while outlining, I realised something that will result in a major plot change (even though I probably should wait until revisions, it sorts out the climax I'm currently incredibly vague on, and will help me actually be able to complete the draft), and felt it was time to start a different post, because the other one was long, and already had its own focus.

Previously, I've been setting mildly insane word count goals, and even though I'm sticking to vague targets, I'm going to drop that, because I need to do a major plot change, and that'll mean the word count isn't going up that much for a while.

So, I have my first and second acts good, but while outlining act three, I've realised the event at the start of act three would work better as a climax than the vague battle idea I have. It just seems more original, more effective, but it means I need to shift events around and re-figure the first block of act three. I'll begin tonight, but it's already 8pm, so I'll probably do most of it tomorrow.

Sun 07/03/2021 - Word Count: 28,365 08.24 I'm reworking act three, and I think I may just drop drafting for the moment and focus on incorporating the edits I have in mind, then start drafting over. I know all the advice says not to go back and edit, but this is a big change I can't wait to do, so it seems opportune to just make the others, too.

08.31 I've now finished reworking act three, and I'm much more satisfied with it than I was before. I do now need to go through the scenes again, however.

13.57 Still re-scening. This is frustrating, but I've decided when I'm back to drafting, I'm going to drop my daily minimum to just 500 words - even though I'll make very little progress at that pace, it's more realistic considering I'm about to be plunged back into the world of homework and commuting, and it's something I'll always be able to meet to help me keep in the habit of daily writing. Word count isn't applicable when I'm doing re-scening like today, though.

Something else I've noticed, when I'm writing literally anything, I'm just scribing the words I'm literally hearing in my head, which is a little bit of a problem because where I wrote 'meet' just now, I meant 'meet' but heard 'eat' in my head and wrote 'eat'.

17.07 I feel like I'm finally making some progress - I've been writing on-and-off all day. My word count has actually decreased a couple hundred words since yesterday, but Scrivener is convinced I've written 42,000 words today, which I obviously haven't. I've typed a lot of words, but not that many, not all of which added to that since deleting words takes words off that number. It thinks I've written so many, however, because I duplicated my act one folder twice (then deleted it, obviously, because I don't need three copies of the same act) but Scrivener doesn't take off the words when you delete the file, only when you literally hit backspace.

17.50 Sorting out my climax, I'm realising how bad it was before. Which I guess is good, because it shows internal criticism and growth...? Or something...?

21.04 I've totally planned out the majority of act three, but I haven't finished it because where I'm up to ends with my characters essentially making a game plan, and since I'm not yet sure what that game plan is, I can't outline the bit where they carry out the plan, but I'll do that later. I've incorporated some of the edits I wanted to make, though I've left a couple out because they're less drastic and I'm not sure whether or not to include them, so I'm going to sort that either during or after my first draft.

Since I've made quite a few changes that will affect the parts I've already drafted, I'm going to start my draft over, and reset my word count, but I'll do that tomorrow. For now, Scrivener thinks I've written 42,385 words today, which I absolutely have not, and my word count is currently 28,365, but I'm going to remove every outline and drafted piece I've done so I can start from zero for what I'm going to call draft #1.4, because I already wrote a version of about 40% of it.

God, my word count has gone back to 0 of my minimum 50,000. That hurts. It really hurts. My actual goal is more 70-90K, but 50K is my minimum, so that's what I'm going with for now.

Anyway, goodnight, and good luck me.

Mon 08/03/2021 - Word Count: 820 So, I wrote 820 words before school, then got home, attempted to do some homework and lost all motivation and will to do... anything. Which means I'm very glad I did over my 500 words this morning.

Tue 09/03/2021 - Word Count: 1,367 15.07 I called this a #1.4 draft, but it's more like a #1.3. Anyway, writing is so much less stressful when I'm working from something I've already written - with the first section, so far, at least, I'm basically just editing the writing itself rather than the events because I'm pretty happy, at least at the moment, with my first couple chapters. Very little thinking required.

Also, it's been over 30 hours since I've written because I did my writing before school yesterday, but haven't written yet today because I've got so much work to get done for school. It feels like it's been forever.

16.17 I've finished rewriting chapter one, and still have a lot of fuel in my tank (that's a hideous metaphor) but I think I'm going to cut off today at 547 words, just because I have quite a lot on my plate this week, and I'd like to invest some time in actually reading the book I started eight days ago, and am only 200 pages of the way through.

Wed 10/03/2021 - Word Count: 2,082 I could write significantly more than 500 words most days, but it really is easier to set a minimum that doesn't feel like a strain, so that's what I'm sticking with for now.

Thu 11/03/2021 - Word Count: 2,801

Fri 12/03/2021 - Word Count: 3,405

Sat 13/03/2021 - Word Count: 32,211 07.40 I've just had nothing extra to say the last couple days, which is ironic considering how much I wrote each day of the last post, which went up yesterday! Anyway, it's finally Saturday, and even though I have exactly zero motivation to do anything this morning, I've been awake for two hours already (I recently discovered I like mornings??) and I think it's time to get going. Still sticking to my 500 word minimum, but since it's Saturday, I'm going to invest most of the day in writing, so I should surpass that.

08.20 I don't think I've mentioned yet that I dubbed this WIP Bay Tree in this post. Sorry if I have, but I skimmed this post and can't find it. So, this is about to get messy. I'm basically just cleaning up my prose, but there's so little point doing that when I'm not certain each scene will stay. There's no point editing a chapter unless I know it's sticking around.

So we're reverting, and this is about to get messy. I didn't quite finish my initial draft of chapter seven, because I wasn't sure how exactly the event at the end of it would happen, but I think I'm just going to delve into it. I'm going to add everything, including outlines, back to my word count, finish writing chapter seven, then pick up where I left off in chapter nine. Okay. That's why my word count is jumping around.

And, just like that, I've gone from 4,074 to 28,864. Well, 500 words accomplished. Surpassed, in fact, by just 24,290.

I'm going to aim to just hit 30K by the end of this weekend. I can easily do 1,136 words in two days.

As I've mentioned before, I haven't outlined all the way to the end and through the climax--I have a fairly clear idea of how I want it to do go down, but I'm not sure what I want the characters' plan to actually be, so I currently have 21 chapters, but I'm projecting 23-26, which, at about 3,000 words each, is pretty damn good, especially when it'll just get longer as I redraft (she says optimistically).

Already feeling more motivated now my word count's higher.

09.54 Oh! Also, I logged onto Tumblr today to find someone reblogged my last writing post with a really positive, encouraging comment. It's nice to think I'm bringing someone else a little joy with this.

11.13 And we hit 30K! I'm not quite done for the day, but I do need to go pack. Also, I've been operating under the impression the minimum word count for a novel is 50K, but it's actually 40K, which, though I'm only about 40% of the way to my projected total word count, I'm officially 75% of the way to being able to say I've written a novel.

I'm so glad I've gotten as far as I have, and I just hope I can keep myself going to the end.

12.27 This post is going to look really strange to read - if you're only looking at the word counts, it looks like I've written nearly 27K words today. That makes sense.

Oh, and I finished chapter seven. Like an hour ago.

13.52 At this point, I have literally no idea what continuity things I've already established, so I'm just going by a let-my-future-self-suffer philosophy.

14.36 That's chapter nine done. That leaves chapters 10 to nobody-knows. I'm going to stop writing now, but I wrote nearly 4,000 words today (plus recounting about 20K) so I don't exactly think this cut-off will be detrimental.

Sun 14/03/2021 - Word Count: 35,548 07.58 I’ve written over a thousand words already, and it isn’t even 8am yet. Being a morning person is genuinely the best thing ever as an introvert--I’m asleep when people want to socialise, and awake when no-one else is. That makes me sound like a hermit. I love it anyway, and feel like I’m stacking up for a good writing day. 35K is probably a little overambitious, but what’s life without aspiration?

09.04 As I’m going, I’m realising my plot is actually coherent, and being surprised that I can actually make a story without plot holes (as of yet.)

09.21 And that makes the first eleven chapters drafted!

...And, Houston, we have a problem. Dammit. Eleven chapters, and I haven’t established one of the most important world-building points. Which is especially irritating because it needs to be established by chapter twelve. Unless I can establish it at the start of chapter twelve? We’ll go with that, so I don’t have to go back, then I’ll sort it out in edits or draft two or something.

I’ve just started writing chapter twelve, but I think, having written 2,600 words today already, I need a break. I have less than 500 words until I hit 35K, but I’m going to leave it for now, and come back this evening. I should be able to hit 40K this week.

18.19 And that makes 35K. Chapter twelve is only two scenes, and I’ve written one, but having written 3,000 words so far today, I’m going to leave it until tomorrow.

Mon 15/03/2021 - Word Count: 36,337 17.19 So there’s a crucial plot point just after my midpoint, and I’m not completely sure what to do. I mean, I know what I’m doing--I just wasn’t sure exactly how I wanted it to go, but now I know. The issue is other stuff needs to be pre-established, and I’ve worked out where it needs to go, but I don’t know whether or not I want to go back and write those bits now, or just make note of it and add it in draft two.

I think I’m just going to make note, plough ahead, and deal with it in draft two. I’m trying to figure out exactly how I’m going to operate after this draft: things generally say put it down for a few weeks, come back for edits, then go into your next draft, but I feel like I’m already going to have so many edits gathered by the time I reach the end of this draft, I should just go back into it, but time will probably be beneficial. Not that it actually matters now. I’m only just halfway through an under-draft (by that I mean it’s going to get a lot longer). I’m going to add new scenes in my next draft and generally fiddle with plot aspects, but as quite a linear writer, I think I’m more naturally inclined to just incorporate aspects in a draft rather than as edits. I’m not sure. Does that even make any sense?

Depending on when I finish this draft, I think I’ll plan to pick it back up May 1st, and just see how I’m feeling. But, again, this all depends on when I finish the draft, and how I’m feeling when that time comes.

Tue 16/03/2021 - Word Count: 37,025 I bought my Scrivener license today! Yay!

Wed 17/03/2021 - Word Count: 38,408 08.04 This is mostly irrelevant to my project, but I just wanted to mention the odd fact that I’m definitely a plotter when it comes to longer pieces, but when I do shorter pieces, creative or essays, for school, I hate planning, and just start immediately, then go back and edit. Huh.

Thu 18/03/2021 - Word Count: 38,950 I’m going to edit this, but writing the date just now I noticed I’ve put 2019 for the last three days. It’s absolutely not, and I know why I did that, but still.

14.31 Also, Oxford commas? Found out what they were. Granted, that was actually a few days ago.

Fri 19/03/2021 - Word Count: 40,139 06.55 Even though I wrote 500 words yesterday, I didn’t quite reach my goal of 39K, just because I had to stop writing 50 words off, and by the time I had the opportunity to go back, I just wanted to go to bed. So, today, my goal is to hit 40K words, and officially be able to say I’ve hit the minimum word count for a novel.

Honestly, I’m starting to lose my love for this project. I’m still enjoying working on it, don’t get me wrong, but I’m anticipating finishing it because I know exactly what I want to write next. I feel like I’m mostly still working on it as a lesson, and I know it’s not what I ultimately want to write--mostly because it’s not super high-concept, and high-concept stuff is what I want to be writing. I am still enjoying working on it, I’m just not sure I’ll get to the ‘final line-edits’ stage. But who knows?

10.19 And that marks 40K. We’re in novel terriority, people. And, yes, I could correct that spelling, but I’d like to draw attention to how bad I am at spelling when typing. I’m excellent at spelling in writing, and wrong spellings bother me, but when I’m typing, my fingers are just trying to keep up with my mind, which means I try to type a letter and the one after it at the same time, and often end up with letters in the wrong order and punctuation in the wrong place. Or I just hit halfway between two keys instead of the key I’m going for, and type a wrong letter. Anyway, that was meant to say territory. See? I can spel..

Or I just double the punctuation instead of the last letter.

So I’m definitely not meeting my old goal of 80K words or a finished draft by the end of the month--that’d be another 40K words in just 12 days--but I’m definitely on track to finish by the end of April.

Sat 20/03/2021 - Word Count: 40,692 15.30 God, second acts are hard. I hate being in the middle. At the start, you have novelty, and at the end (not that I would know from experience) you have the knowledge you’re near the end, that you’ve already written most of it.

I’m currently operating the reminder, ‘You’ve written an act before, why not again?’, in hopes that’ll eventually extend to, ‘You’ve finished a draft before, why not again?’ and ‘You’ve written an entire book before, why not again?’

I’ve literally written 243 words so far today, and I just don’t want to. Normally, I sit down, I slog through the first hundred or so words, then pick up momentum. Maybe it’s just because chapter 13 is a boring part to write. Ha. 13. Just my luck.

I’m being nice to myself because a lot has happened in my life over the last few days, but I still want to write a minimum of 500 words, even though most Saturdays I can write more like 3,000.

21.41 I’d like to be asleep. That sounds like fun. Today slipped through my grasp, and I haven’t even written 300 words, but I am going to try to at least hit 500. And then maybe write thousands and thousands tomorrow, but I’m also going to bake a cake, and I’m notorious for being able to make cooking and baking take at least three times as long as is necessary.

21.57 So I got just past 500. Relatively speaking, that’s not that impressive for me, but it’s more words than most people in the world added to their manuscripts today, so I have to give myself some credit. (I’m working on crediting myself for productivity rather than degrading myself for not being productive--I could go on for hours about how much it pisses me off that capitalism teaches us productivity=worth in everything, not just business, but I’m going off on a tangent.)

Sun 21/03/2021 - Word Count: 41,466 08.08 Cakes baked! And I’ve come to a conclusion about how irritating I am to myself--I didn’t fully outline the latter half of act two (by which I mean I have each scene and a purpose of each scene, but virtually no detail) which I can absolutely cope with, but it does slow me down. Anyway, I’m waiting for my cakes to cool, then I can ice them.

14.28 I wanted to write up to 42K this weekend, which I don’t think is going to happen. I’ve written 774 words, so passed my 500-word minimum, but haven’t yet reached 42K, and don’t think I’m going to this weekend. I just don’t have much motivation, which may just be because of the part I’m on, but I’d rather work through this part really slowly then pick up the pace when I get to the part I want to be writing, than force myself to write this section quickly and poorly, then not want to continue into act three. So, sticking to 500 words a day; I may do more later, but I’m leaving it for now.

Mon 22/03/2021 - Word Count: 42,006 17.56 God, I don’t want to write today. I’m going to anyway, because I haven’t yet failed 500 words. They can be a shitty 500 words, but they have to be 500 words. Also, the scene I wrote yesterday? Absolutely getting deleted. But I’m leaving it for now because I refuse to lose those 800 words.

I really enjoy putting edits at the bottom of scenes in brackets and making them unnecessarily wordy so Scrivener thinks I’ve written significantly more words than I actually have.

18.31 Yay, did it. I’m really hoping I can just work through this low spot and don’t have to take a break. I’m on the penultimate chapter of act two, and the first few chapters of act three are really exciting, so I’ll know if I need to take a break based on whether I get motivated when I get to that part.

Tue 23/03/2021 - Word Count: 42,124 16.37 GOD, I need a break. I don’t have motivation, even for 500 words. You know what? I’m just going to make a note of the scene idea I had earlier, and I’m going to take a week’s break. Unless I get antsy, in which case I may end it earlier, but, I’m not going to write again until Tuesday the 30th. Unless I get antsy. FUCK.

I’m just reminding myself breaks are good and important, but I still hate that I’m taking one without finishing my first draft. Tue 30/03/2021, I will be back! Though my word count may increase between now and then as I note down any ideas I have, which I will update with. Okay. Just leave it.

Sun 28/03/2021 - Word Count: 42,150 10.47 Since Tuesday, I’ve made some notes on my phone of little things I want to change, but haven’t added them to my project file, so the word count hasn’t gone up.

Last night, I was just thinking about how badly I wanted to get back to this project, but this morning, I just... don’t. I’ve been thinking it through, and I’m not ready to drop this project yet, but I’m just not happy with what I have at the moment. So, I’m going to add my notes to the file, and then leave it for a few weeks, so I can return with edits in mind, apply them, and then start what I guess will be like a 1.7 draft, because I didn’t finish this draft.

In the meantime, however, I do want to keep writing, so I’m going to start another project in the meantime, which I can work on a lot in the next few weeks because, in a few days, I get a couple weeks off, which won’t be completely free of work, but will give me a lot more time to dedicate to this.

I think I’m going to say I’ll return to Bay Tree (or at least review, if, say, I just want to dedicate a little more time to whatever phase of the new project before I move on) on May 10th, because that’s basically when I get to relax after my exams finish.

So I’ll add the notes I have so far, keep making notes on my phone, and return on May 10th.

Which wraps up this writing update--a new one will come with my new project!

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tristikov · 4 years ago

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Laptop CPU swap: Complete

WE INTEL MOBILE CORE 2 DUO @ 2.3GHz NOW BOYS!

So to tell a little story my folks got me an HP Pavilion dv8000 for school back around Christmas of ‘06, and it was pretty sick back then, with a Core 2 Duo @ 1.8GHz, 2gb of RAM and Windows XP Media Center Edition, with 2 120gb HDDs (one of which wasn’t enabled until I discovered it later lol.)

I used this thing for rendering 3DS Max projects and also playing a lot of Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, and even as time marched onward and I got better desktop systems and newer OSes, I always kept this trusty old boat anchor around (seriously, this thing is like the FAL of laptops.)

While painting a room in my new residence about 6 years ago, I was playing a movie on the laptop when it suddenly had some massive graphical corruption which did not go away on reboot. I thought this was the end for the laptop, but I had more immediate projects to get to so I sadly put it away, suspecting that time had finally caught up with it.

...Well at some point in the future, I decided to try turning it on again, and to my surprise, it booted up with only a warning message about using default BIOS settings! Apparently the CMOS battery had just died and caused some weird results until power cycling.

I didn’t use the laptop for too much over recent years, until a few months ago when my main system’s boot drive failed and I need to quickly get a new SSD and reinstall Windows. Having the laptop as a backup was useful during my initial trouble shooting, and later when I’d done some upgrades to my main system, I found myself with an extra SSD left over from work...

Given how slow running Windows XP off a 5400rpm HDD felt, I decided to try installing it on the spare SSD, as my laptop, though old, at least used SATA 2.0 and could mount a modern 2.5″ SSD. Long story short, XP was a huge pain to install, and frankly I don’t know how they got it on there in the first place, because I couldn’t, even with slipstreaming SATA drivers into the installer.

At that point I decided to just put Windows 7 on it, since I had updated my main machine to Windows 10 (and spent several hours nerfing its telemetry.) Fortunately that went pretty smoothly, and on the SSD the laptop feels like a brand new machine!

After that success I decided to just go all out and find every possible upgrade I could for it, just because I could, and so that it would continue to be moderately useful as a portable system and not merely a nostalgia trip.

So in the end, I got a new factory battery, added a PC Card CF card reader (actually handy since I’m also trying to set up my ~30 year old 486 to boot from CF card), an Express Card USB 3.0 hub, a new 1TB 7200rpm HDD for storage, the “new” 240 GB SSD, 4 GB of RAM (though only 3 is usable right now due to 32-bit Windows) and as stated in the title, now a Core 2 Duo T7600 in place of the original T2400!

Temps are about the same so far, maybe even better at idle (hard to tell how well the thermal paste is bonded, as getting at the CPU on this laptop is about as easy as replacing the engine and transmission on a Subaru Outback) so fingers crossed the increase in TDP is within the capacity of the old cooler. Though now I’m only using this for light work on occasion, not the all-night DoW marathons of my teenage years!

..Whew, didn’t mean to type up a huge novel, but I guess I’m just happy to have had success in upgrading this piece of old hardware I have many fond memories of, and I’m glad that it is still around being useful after so many years and all the things in my life that have transpired in that time.

#computers #laptop #nerd shit #upgrade #tl;dr #no matter how 2020 things get sometimes you just gotta longpost about some tedious thing that makes you happy

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wizardoftrash · 6 years ago

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40k Survey and Representation

The big Warhammer Community Survey is here

... and just like last year, I’m dedicating some significant space to tackle the significant issue of representation in the tabletop gaming hobby. Anybody who plays minis games will be able to relate here, there just aren’t very many people of color or women who play, and a significant part of that is due to the fact that the product selection makes them feel unwelcome. Age of Sigmar is in a much stronger place right now, as there are good gender mixes in the armies and they are designed to be pretty ethnically ambiguous.

But 40k still has a serious problem, especially as it relates to representation of women. Even with the sisters of battle overhaul on the horizon, there’s a huge imbalance, much much bigger than most players are willing to admit (based on the twitter discussions I’ve been having on this topic). Let me break it down for you.

First, there’s this ancient issue that Women can’t become Space Marines. This first cropped up in White Dwarf issue 98, which came out ~30 years ago. The notion was that women simply “couldn’t survive” the process, that its incompatible with XX chromosomes (and they continue to pretend that intersex syndromes doesn’t exist). That tiny bit of lore continues to get reference here and there most recently in the Novel Scars which is only 6 years old.

Cool, so there’s a reason that women can’t become old style space marines, but there’s a whole wave of entirely new space marines, that don’t include most of the genetic flaws of the old marines. This is cannon, its the Primarus Marines, and they are making wave after wave of new kit for them. This is the perfect time to make those factions more inclusive, Cawl re-engineered them from the ground up!

“Hey, Sisters of Battle are all Women, and Space Marines are all Men. That’s fair right?”

NOPE

So Space Marines represent armies in both Chaos and the Imperium. Codexes that are made up of space marines include...

Adeptus Astartes (Base book)

Space Wolves

Dark Angels

Blood Angels

Grey Knights

Deathwatch

Heretic Astartes (base chaos book)

Death Guard

Thousand Sons

So that’s 9 entire codexes that are 100% men canonically, and in the minis range, and only 1 codex in the works that is 100% women canonically. There are currently only 22 codexes out, and that means that nearly half of them are “no girls allowed”. Comparing “space marines” to sisters of battle is a false equivalency

Lets take that further. On top of these 9, there are several factions that are supposed to be mixed gender, but have zero or near-zero actual representation in the product.

Ad Mech: all models present as male or ambiguous

Imperial Guard: 1 woman model exists and she’s limited edition resin, and does not appear in the codex

Custodes: The Sisters of Silence (the only Talons of the Emperor unit that are women) don’t appear anywhere in the codex or in the product page for the faciton

So that means that 12 of the 22 current factions in the game have zero or near-zero representation of women in their range.

If GW released a primarus marines kit (and I guess a corresponding chaos kit) that included a few feminine unhelmeted heads, that would correct this problem instantly...

...and it wouldn’t take a tremendous amount of work to justify either. If the Adeptus Astartes could use Cawl’s new marine formula to recruit from men AND women instead of just men, that would double the potential applicant pool. More applicants = Better soldiers, why on earth would they not do that (other than for sexist reasons)?

Chaos would have an even easier go at this. For one, Fabius Bile has plenty of Primarus specimens to experiment from, and chaos is much more willing to break with tradition.

Recent releases have been much better regarding gender representation. The new models in the Genestealer Cult army, Blackstone Fortress, and Kill Team Rogue Trader have all worked women into multiple levels of the military structure, and in most cases without sexualized armor or gear. That’s huge progress, but compared to the huge imbalance we already have, it’ll take years to catch up unless they lift the ban on Women becoming Space Marines.

Besides, Age of Sigmar has the Stormcast Eternals and they are widely popular

AND they are widely diverse! In AOS, the Stormcasts are selected and re-forged by their god into supersoldiers which is... well it sounds like a Fantasy version of the space-magic used to make space marines.

So, how about you ask *politely* for women to stand as an equal to men in 40k

#warhammer #warhammer 40k #survey #community survey #gaming #tabletop gaming #feminism #miniatures

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huntertarot · 6 years ago

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Day of Rain - An Apocalyptic Tabletop Adventure - Log 1

(Warning! It’s a bit of a long read! I apologize!)

For a little background information, Day of Rain is an original tabletop system and lore that a friend of mine came up with for a campaign revolving around a Zombie infestation and testing how long we can survive for in a ball-busting, hardcore style of difficulty. The DM wanted us to create characters that were meant to be fitting representations of us, and he checked each to make sure they were fitting to each of our actual strengths and weaknesses. The party consisted of me (Hunter), Harley, and Trenton. Our rolling was based on d100 rolls, where we had to either roll lower or exactly the same as our stat or skill in something, sort of like Warhammer 40k.

The story began in our little town in Tennessee. We were all sitting around, enjoying a fine, Saturday evening when the TV changed over to an emergency broadcast. The infestation of an unusual virus had recently been found in several animal species, namely deer, but had been covered up till the announcement to prevent mass panic. The government had tried hunting down all the infected animals to the point of complete extermination and burning the corpses, but the plan seemed to backfire. What would later strike us as odd is the fact the newscaster would claim that the hunters burning the animal carcasses and a cult were the causes of what would come next. Apparently, whether due to said burnings or cult, the virus had somehow mixed with nearby water sources and, most importantly, made its way into the clouds around the same time as a large storm system was making its way across the nation. We began to question how exactly either of those explanations made sense, questioning if their information was wrong, if another cover-up was happening, or this was some kind of gigantic prank. The emergency broadcast was interrupted by an announcement by the US military, stating that any infected, no matter how far gone from the virus they were, were going to be eradicated with deadly force. Anyone so much as wandering around in the rain, whether covered or not, was going to be shot on sight. At that point, the storm system was passing over us, and we could actually hear a commotion coming from outside. Guessing this must have actually been for real, we each began to move around, trying to grab as much stuff as we could before the shit hit the fan. Harley managed to come across backpacks for him and Trenton, and I managed to dig up an old duffel bag of mine, with each of us tossing some spare clothes, food, and water inside. Mr. Jesse, the father of a friend of ours who owned the house we were in, contained a number of goodies for us, including a pistol for each of us, ammo, a police flashlight, and a large medical kit. Before we could try to find anything more, Harley remembered that we needed to lock and barricade the doors so no one could get in. He ran to the front door and locked it, and I ran to the back door. Unfortunately for me, the back door was in a laundry room that had a small step down, so I tripped and clocked my head on the washer. Harley came to check on me after he heard me yell, and also tripped and landed on me. Trenton, who had been trying to stack stuff in front of the windows, came to figure out was going on and also tripped and fell on top of us. For the record, I’m 5′8″ and about 160 lbs, while Harley is 6′3″ and about 280, and Trenton is 6′4″ and 400 lbs. I took about half of my health from hitting my head and getting squashed by those two, while they only took a small amount.

Harley managed to untangle himself from the pile and locked the door, but not before we all heard some screaming and followed by the sound of something smashing against the backyard fence. Just as Trenton and I were standing up, someone began pounding on the back door and begging for us to ‘save me and my daughter’. It was then that the DM introduced a ‘quick time’ system to the campaign, by giving us about 30 seconds on a stopwatch to discuss and figure out what we were going to do. I mentioned that saving them wasn’t exactly our problem, but that I was all for letting them in if the other two wanted to, which they did. Harley, as he has children, is a bit more of a sentimental person when it comes to kids, so he pretty much had the door flung open before we could discuss much more. Once the woman and her kid were in, he slammed the door shut and locked it back, followed shortly by the sound of something slamming into the door. In a state of panic and adrenaline, Trenton and I wheeled a large, chest-height toolbox/cabinet in front of the door.

At that point, we could hear something similar happening at the front door, with loud pounding sounds coming from that direction. Since our options were pretty limited, while the other two were arguing how to get to one of our cars, I suggested hiding in the attic. The only entrance to the attic was in my room, which was essentially a refurbished garage that was attached to the living room. They came around to my way of thinking, and I helped the woman and her daughter (which we would later find out were called Allison and Emma) get up into the attic while the other two threw some last minute things in front of the doors and windows. Once we were all up in the attic, we tossed an old, cobweb-covered couch over the door and moved stuff around in a quick attempt to make space for ourselves. After we cleared out a corner for ourselves to huddle up in, we all sat in silence and waited for the inevitable. Each of us were aiming at the door to the attic, ready to blow away anything that potentially figured out we were here. We had no idea how these zombies worked, and we were all hoping they were slow and dumb or something along those lines.

Eventually, both the doors collapsed at about the same time, and we could hear the sounds of a small horde moving around below us. It didn’t sound exactly like they were running around, more so like they were moving at the pace of a tired jog, but it was hard to guesstimate their individual speeds with how many there were moving around at once. After a while, we heard a raspy voice say, “Here!” somewhere underneath us. Out of character and in character we are all freaking out because it seemed that the zombies could speak somehow. Despite the shout from the zombie, it seemed like the undead couldn’t actually figure out where we were. Like they could smell we were near, but they couldn’t find us no matter how close they actually got to the smell.

By the time that night came around, most of the zombies had seemingly wandered off, probably more than a little annoyed that they couldn’t find us. The only reason we got that impression was that the zombie who had spoken before, shouted, “We’ll be back!” before seemingly shambling off elsewhere. At that point, the population downstairs had seemingly become only one or two moving around in other parts of the house. Trenton, being the bravest son of a bitch I’ve ever known, decided to go on a scouting mission. We thought he was just going to see what was going on in the house, but he actually was headed towards his car. He managed to get out of the attic and out of the house without making any noise and avoiding any zombies, but his luck sorta ended when he got outside and there was a zombie just staring at the house that suddenly jerked its head in his direction. Moving at a speed we normally didn’t expect out of him, Trenton made it into his car and managed to back out of the driveway at terribly illegal speeds. He cruised around most of the town, looking for a gas station that wasn’t filled to the brim with infected, nearly walking into a Speedway that he couldn’t see immediately into that had about 40 zombies in it. He managed to come across one that was across the street from the police station, filling up his backpack with random bits of food, water, and tobacco that he came across, and turning on the pump for the gas. He accidentally set off the alarm when he pried open the cash register, so he ran out and filled his tank up as quick as he could before driving off. At this point, he receives a text from Harley asking him where he went. We were all still able to get cell service (granted my phone was on 5%, so I turned it off to conserve it for later), so Trenton was able to report what was going on to us in the attic. Trenton then drove around more and scoped out what places and areas were crawling with infected, before turning around to come back home. On his way back, the street lights cut on fully, and the zombies that were following his car began to slow down heavily, information that was shared as he drove on.

Back at the ranch (and by that, I mean the house), Harley and I were concocting a plan of our own. Harley wanted to see if he could get out of the attic and get Allison and Emma to my car and let them get out of here before anything happened to them. Like I said, Harley gets incredibly sentimental about stuff like this, whereas I was making worst-case scenario plans of using the mother and daughter as bait or trading them off to no-doubt coming about raiders that were going to form in this new apocalyptic society. I didn’t want to upset one of the members of the party and messing up our teamwork and dynamic, so I went with Harley’s plan and moved to the other end of the attic and stomped as hard as I could, attracting the zombies over to the area I was standing above. There was a flurry of movement towards the area I stomped over, and I even heard a voice under me say, “Stop running.”. Harley moved the couch off of the door to the attic, and attempted to creak open the door just a smidge, only for the door to fall open completely. The sound of the hatch swinging, combined with the ladder smacking the floor attracted the attention of a zombie that was just walking in the house. All Harley heard before he saw the zombie was a loud, “You!”, before the infected tried climbing the ladder. Since the zombie was too heavy, he couldn’t just knock it off the ladder, so he pulled out his .357 Magnum and blew it’s brains out before essentially yanking the ladder back up and slamming the attic door shut. I managed to sneak back over to the corner we here hunkered down in as fast as I could and asked Harley ‘what the hell happened’.

It was at this point when Trenton texted us and told us he was close to the house. Our relief was cut short by the sound of crying that suddenly became present somewhere below us, followed by the sound of a young girl’s voice asking, “Mommy?” At this point, Harley and I were staring at Allison and Emma, and they looked just as scared as we did. For a moment, we panicked because we desperately did not want to have to deal with whatever little demon was skulking around below us and looking for whatever it considered it’s ‘mommy’. From the small window in the attic, we could see Trenton’s headlights as he was pulling back in. Since we were pressed for time and couldn’t tell Trenton about the little girl zombie in the house, we came up with a plan in the thirty seconds allowed to us from the ‘quick time’ event. We tried to squash the zombie by trying to combine our weights and jumping up and down on the couch and have it go through the attic floor, but that only resulted in the couch leg getting stuck in the attic door. At that point, we went with plan B. We were going to bumrush out of the attic and move as fast as we could towards Trenton’s car, not caring about any noise we made along the way. Harley essentially slammed the attic door open again after we tossed the couch aside, rushing down the ladder, police flashlight out and on its strobe setting, with me coming behind him and protecting Allison while Emma was sat on Harley’s shoulders. The problem we hadn’t considered was that my eyes hadn’t completely adjusted to the dark, but Harley’s had. Harley was blinded to the point he could barely see a foot in front of him. When his charge all but halted, so that our momentum and element of surprise weren’t completely lost, I reached into my bag and put a bayonet in Allison’s hands and pushed Harley in the direction we needed to go, also helping to guide his arm to shoot at anything that got too close. We didn’t spot the little girl zombie on our sprint to the car, but, with my help, Harley was able to empty five bullets into the zombies that were still milling around from when I stomped around earlier. He was down to one bullet when we climbed in, whereas me and Trenton hadn’t fired a shot yet.

Just as Harley was sliding Emma off of his shoulders and put her into his lap, I was yelling that we needed to get out of there. Trenton started to back up while asking us what was going on, but his attention was quickly stolen by something landing on the hood of his car. It was a little girl, dressed in ratty clothing, unhealthily pale skin, bright red eyes, and had nails that were about a foot long in length. “Where is my, Mommy!?” She screamed at us, which caused us all to start panicking. Trenton drove as fast as he could away from the house, hoping to shake her off by driving like a maniac. Harley was trying to keep Emma safe, taking rather audible note of the fact that the zombie (which we were OOC referring to as the Little Witch, cause we started comparing her to some combination of a Little Sister from Bioshock and the Witch from L4D) was looking at him and Emma. I told Harley and Emma to cover their ears and I took aim with my Smith & Wesson Model 15. I fired twice, the first shot embedding itself in the Little Witch’s stomach, and the other missing entirely. The infected girl didn’t seem very bothered by the bullet lodged in her sternum and began cutting through the windshield with her nails. Harley took aim with his last bullet and missed as well, and spent the rest of his turn trying to find his bullets so he could reload. Trenton was too busy trying not to hit zombies in the road and trying to shake the Little Witch off of us to reach for his Glock. Before I could get another shot off, the Little Witch finished cutting through the windshield and proceeded to strike at Harley. “There you are, Mommy!” was what she yelled as she thrust her clawed hands at him. Luckily, only one of her nails struck him, piercing through his side and missing all of his organs. The other nine nails went through the seat and were just a few inches short of hitting me as well, and, while I was trying to readjust myself to get a better shot, Harley took a reaction and snatched my gun away from me. He put the barrel of the revolver under the Little Witch’s chin and pulled the trigger, killing her instantly.

After that, we drove around while trying to find a place to sleep for the night after patching up Harley. While we were driving, a broadcast came over the radio from the military, stating that those within a large radius of the Arnold Air Force Base were going to be detained. Trenton eventually came across an abandoned Taco Bell, and, after we cleared it out, we all slept in the freezer after making sure it wasn’t on. Harley, Trenton, and I set up a rotating schedule where one of us would keep watch for two hours before switching out with one of the other two. Harley took the first watch, which went by without incident. Trenton took the second watch and learned quite a bit. He watched as a zombie managed to figure out how to open the door to a pick-up truck, which had the corpse of someone who had shot themselves inside of it. Then, after eating what was left of the brain of the corpse, the zombie began fiddling with the keys to the truck, eventually turning it on. It then pushed the body out and began experimenting with reversing and driving back and forth for about 10 minutes. Trenton had a bright idea, and tore off one of the seat cushions from inside the Taco Bell and drew the zombie over by stepping out of the restaurant. The zombie got out of the truck and actually had a small conversation with him. “I can sense your life.” “And you’re a lot more intelligent than I thought you would be.” “That’s understandable. My intelligence is fueled by the Hunger, and it grows stronger with time and meals.” “Ah. I suddenly feel very dead inside with that knowledge.” “You certainly don’t smell dead.” At that point, the zombie rushed Trenton, but he managed to kick the infected in the knee, knocking it down to the ground. Trenton then took the cushion, put it up to the zombie’s head, then put the barrel of his Glock up against it and fired, the seat silencing the bullet. When it was time for my shift, I came out of the freezer and Trenton explained to me what happened. Nothing happened on my shift (besides seeing that zombie’s in sunlight are a lot slower than they are at night), so I got everyone awake and we started thinking of what the plan for the day was. There were plenty of gas stations and liquor stores in the area, so we made some plans to hit those up after a while. The three of us eventually managed to jury-rig a way to hitch Trenton’s car to the truck, making plans to start a small convoy/train of cars.

When we were in the middle of that conversation, the sound of treads coming over the bridge caught our attention. This Taco Bell was technically on one of the main roads in town and was right before a bridge that went over the interstate and connected to the part of town where the Wal-Mart and Home Depot were. Harley, Trenton, Allison, and Emma made it back inside and proceeded to hide in the freezer, whereas I tripped and landed on my face instead of making it inside. Since there was no way I’d be able to make it inside before whatever was coming across the bridge could spot me, I climbed into the truck and tried to hide. A cursory peek allowed me to see that it was, in fact, a tank rolling up that was causing the noise, followed by several jeeps and men on foot. The men began to fan out and search the area, two of which were coming towards me. I had fifteen minutes to figure out what I was going to do, and, since I couldn’t think of any obvious ideas to hide or disguise myself, I just held my hands in the air and yelled, “Wait! Please don’t shoot!” They aimed at me but quickly became very uninterested in me. I told them that I was not infected and what had happened to me since yesterday, taking care not to mention the others in my group and implying I was by myself. The military personnel informed me that I was free to continue surviving if I wanted and told me to not bother them again unless I was actually infected in some way shape or form. When I brought up the announcement about the detainment, they explained they were only on the lookout for those who were infected but hadn’t turned yet. They couldn’t give two shits about me or anyone that wasn’t infected, and they weren’t going to help or harm me as long as I stayed out of their way.

I went inside and informed the others on what happened, and we were more than a little perturbed about what the military personnel had told me. We decided to go check out the nearest gas station to clear our heads and get some more supplies. We left Allison and Emma behind in the freezer, Harley leaving them his gun and bag, only taking a large knife with him. As we got up to the gas station (a Circle K that was across the street from the Taco Bell), Trenton moved in first, noting that there was about five zombies inside the building. After alerting them to his presence, he moved back towards the pumps to draw them out of the building and make them easier to deal with. Harley was still by the door and I was keeping a lookout further back, essentially hiding behind a car that was parked by the air pump. Before the zombies that Trenton had spotted could file out and attack us, a loud grunting sound began to come out of the Circle K. I, believing this could be some special kind of infected like the Little Witch from last night, moved pretty much across the street and kept my gun aimed at the door. Trenton held his position, and Harley tried his best to get as far as he could away from the gas station.

What came out of the building was what we would later call a Tanker. It could best be described as an infected riot cop, that stood at about 7′9″, weighed about 800 lbs, had a reach of about 5 feet, and its riot armor had melded with its skin and grown alongside it to become a monster of muscle and armor. Harley barely managed to dodge out of the way of the Tanker’s first strike, which broke the asphalt where he had just been standing like it was nothing. Trenton and I shared a similar idea about luring the Tanker over to the pumps and finding some way to blow them and it up. I fired a shot and it bounced right off of its arm didn’t take its attention off of Harley. Trenton spent his turn actually prying off one of the pipe covers that connected the pumps to the tank of gasoline that was under them. Harley continued moving back and trying to dodge the Tanker’s attacks, but eventually fell down and had no choice but to block an overhand strike from the infected. The blow broke both of Harley’s arms, the pure force of the attack fracturing the bones in several spots, and sent him rolling for a few seconds before he came to a rest near Trenton. Since he didn’t have the luxury of carrying the med-kit or time, Trenton, realizing he didn’t have anything to start a fire with, stabbed his pocket knife into his phone, causing the lithium battery to spark and oxidize, and dropped it into the pipe. As the tank of gasoline was halfway between the gas station and pumps, the Tanker was actually in the perfect position for the plan, as, when the explosion went off, not only was the Tanker caught up in the ensuing fireball, a large portion of asphalt was launched at it and tore off several of its armor plates, revealing it’s flesh underneath. Harley and Trenton managed to essentially brace for impact and got as far as they could from the suffering Tanker. A few bullets from me and Trenton managed to put the mutated creature out of its misery.

And... that’s where we’ve left off for the moment. I hope that entertained or intrigued you in some way shape form or fashion.

#dnd #tabletop #zombie #apocalypse #zombie apocalypse #day of rain #long post

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eloarei · 7 years ago

Text

WIP Game

List the things you’re excited to work on this year in as little or as much detail as you like, and then tag some friends!

Tagged by @enchantedtalisman (and again it won’t tag you. Tch. Sorry. But thanks for the tag!)

(Behind a cut, because you don’t want to read all that. ...Or maybe you do?)

In no particular order, because my level of excitement changes at the drop of a hat: 6 BNHA fics, and one each FFXV and FO4. 1700 words of synopses and babbling. (Friends who read my stuff: if you wanna skim through these and tell me which one(s) (if any) you’d most want to read, that’d be rad. =D Will it influence what I work on? Who knows? My inspiration is fickle as shit. But it couldn’t hurt.)

1. “Touch2” -- current WIP, 10k + notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 20k? Picking up right where “Touch” left off, this fic is a slightly more detailed/slow/slice-of-life story than its predecessor. The 10k I’ve written so far takes place over the course of only 2 days, and it’s mostly Toshi and Izuku getting to know each other, and Toshi being yelled at by his manager (an OC called Suzuki). The general plot of the story doesn’t deviate very far from canon, as far as I’ve planned. “Touch2” will probably cover at least up to the entrance exam, but I’m not entirely sure. Given that leisurely pace, there’ll probably have to be a Touch3 and 4 as well, if not even more. I’ve been slowly hacking away at this one since the start of December, just in between whatever else I might be working on. Kind of got to a point where I need to actually think about what happens next? ^^; Also, it’s gotten too long to be a one-shot, I think, but I’m going to have to be careful how I split it up. It’s not written for splitting… Well, I’ll figure it out. Just gotta keep writing first.

2. “Make the Most sequel, and side stories” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: lots??? I’m lumping these all together, but this includes quite a few stories, some of which I have plans/notes for, some only ideas. One of the first is a fic that might be, at most, half the length of MtM, which is the events of MtM from Toshi’s POV. This was actually requested by a friend, but it was something I kind of already wanted to do, which is cool. Other side stories include perspectives from other characters, some things like dates and vacations, Izuku learning to use his powers, and some extra NSFW scenes, because why not? After all of those, I intend for there to be an ‘official sequel’, taking place towards the end of Izuku’s college run, which might function as more of an epilogue than a sequel, due to the potential lack of actual plot. Geez there is just so much potential for this series to go on in side-stories and extras and etc. I actually get a little mad at myself whenever I neglect to continue it, because it’s sort of my main, well, IP, I guess you’d say. It’s my kudos breadwinner. XD I should just do it!

3. “Loveless epilogue” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 7k? A short...er sequel/epilogue, taking place roughly a year (I might change that) after the main story, revolving (spoiler alert) around Toshi figuring out if/when/how to propose to Izuku, and summing up how things have gone in the past year. Mushy because I love marriage, okay guys, I just love it so much, and also a little bit morbid because of an in-universe tradition that could be considered either romantic or creepy, depending on your views. =D I actually ought to write this one like… immediately, while the main fic is still fresh in my mind. It’s extremely self-indulgent, maybe more than just, y’know, my normal writing. But I think at least some of the people who read LOVELESS will like it. ^^ And I will, I think. And that’s all that really matters, right?! *shakes head ‘no’*

4. “Waste” -- current WIP, 1k + notes. BNHA. Dekumight(-ish?), and Deku+friends. Estimated total: 15k???? No. Probably more. A Fallout fusion. Vault 211 (21-1 or twenty-one one) has been carefully breeding superpowers into its population for the past 200 years, but if yours doesn’t show up by your 18th birthday, prepare to be kicked out on your ass into the unforgiving wasteland. Guess who’s the newest resident of the wastes? Lucky for Izuku, he meets a frightening creature who takes to looking out for him. ‘Human’ under some description, he’s sure, this guy has radiation levels through the roof. Burly super-mutant by day, gangly rotting ghoul by night, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of friends, but boy is he good at surviving in the hellscape that the world has become. I freaking love Fallout a whole lot, and look, Toshi/All Might is so very much a ghoul/super mutant, and vaults just give you so much free reign to give people powers and etc etc, look, it just seemed like something that would work. Not sure really how it’s going to go, but we’ll see. =]

5. “Nana/Toshi darkfic” -- only notes. BNHA. Nana/Toshi (probably NSFW) and Dekumight. Estimated total: 20k??? His mentor was beautiful, kind, strong-- perfect. He didn’t realize she was being eaten away by a dark pit in her heart. He didn’t know if leaving her alone would help it. He just wanted to be with her so badly, to please her, to make that smile real, and she lacked the fortitude to refuse him anything that would make him happy. A fic about Nana and Toshi becoming perhaps too close, and Nana struggling with depression. Following the canon timeline moderately closely, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it will include a major character death, and the fallout surrounding it. Hoo boy did the desire to write this fic just hit me like a ton of bricks a few weeks ago. This is going to be a dark, sad, uncomfortable story, most likely. And although it will end with Dekumight, the large part of the plot will still revolve around Nana/Toshi, so I’m not sure most of my normal readers will want to touch it. XD;;; I think the inspiration to write this came somewhat from the feeling that the ending to LOVELESS was not nearly as dark as it could have been, haha. Every so often I just want to challenge myself and see how many boundaries I can push. ^^;

6. “Feed” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 15k? In a world ruled by a vampiric shadow known as All for One, Izuku’s group has been trying to find ways to fight him. Nearly everyone is of this man’s blood now, since he started handing out powers to gain followers. But it’s said that an artifact of some sort exists still which can give the power to defeat him. Izuku, with the purest blood of his group, is chosen to seek it out. But the artifact is a vampire, the last of AfO’s first ‘children’, frozen and starving after failing to defeat his ‘father’, and Izuku almost doesn’t survive the encounter. I want to write this fic, and I think I should do it while it’s still cold and gloomy, because that’s the feel of the setting, but if I get distracted and don’t get around to it, I probably won’t be too upset.

7. “Parents AU” -- current WIP, 6k + notes. FFXV. Gladnis + Ignis&Noctis. Estimated total: 40k? Teenage Ignis and Gladio happen to be babysitting the toddler prince when the Empire attacks, and in the chaos they manage to get safely mixed into the crowd of civilians fleeing the city. They decide to treat him as their own until they can be sure it’s safe to return him to someone with more seniority. But will it ever be safe? Fifteen years in hiding says no, and even when Noct is old enough to be asked to save the world, there’s no way in hell his parents are going to let him go it alone. I tried to continue writing this the other day and it was terrible. Painful. I almost cried. Literally every word of the 30 or so I managed before I gave up were the hardest things I’ve ever written. I think if I go back and play the game again (which I’d like to, since there’ve been updates and DLC), I think it will be easier. Honestly though, this is one of my favorite things I’ve yet written, so if I don’t see it to fruition, I will be moderately pissed.

8. “Same Heart” -- current WIP, 30k + notes. FO4. Estimated total: 90k (35k for act 1) The great synth detective Nick Valentine is recaptured by the Institute, remade and reset. He awakes to his new life underground, unaware that he ever roamed the wasteland-- except for the rare moments when they plug in his old memories so they can grill him for info. Though the memories are gone again after every session, they leave an aftertaste of distrust for the people he’s working with, until it’s too much to ignore. Meanwhile, he finds himself as the only person who seems to truly care about the little boy they’re all calling their savior, doing his best to help him grow up with some modicum of love in this sterile environment. When Nick finally decides to break out of their fancy little prison, it’s not a question whether he’ll take Shaun with him, and it’s obvious where they’ll go: to find the parents the Institute stole him from. This one haunts me, because I spent like 3 months doing practically nothing but writing this last year. I got almost, almost all the way through the first act (out of 3), and then… stopped. Now I know it’s going to be impossible to get back into. And this is already a very different story for me, because it’s essentially a gen fic. The intention is for acts 2 and 3 to focus on Nick and the ‘sole survivor’ Nora, but the whole first act is about him half-raising her son, Shaun. I really want to finish this, or geez, at least the first act! Because it is painful having 30k sitting around that nobody has ever seen. And it’s pretty decent! But even though I have 6 chapters done, I don’t want to start posting it until it has a halfway decent ‘conclusion’, so I need to finish the act. I have to.

And I’ll tag… uh… @oldseablues, @braincoins, @thenightisdarkandfullofbooty, @orionskingdom, @animeuzumaki7, @blessedblooduniverse, @rangrids, and anyone else who’s reading this and is also a writer. =] Tag me back so I can see it, please! ^^

#elo talks #elo fics #tag meme

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