#stealing fire engines is a family trait

[911-incorrect-quotes-dispatch]

Bobby: C'mon we’re stealing this fire engine to help Athena. Buck, shocked: Wait, really? We're stealing together? Bobby, already tired: Yeah yeah, just get in and gloat about it later. Buck: Just wanted you to admit it.

[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

Wormville: Gen 1: Children of Dying Clans

The very last batch of worms is here! The main character here is Percy Kent - while the truthfulness of that statement is up for debate, he definitely saw himself that way. There's also Genevieve Gere, the eccentric wayward daughter of the poweful socialite, and Bennett Jilleni, the other half to the faux-incest scandal of the Beldines (and hopefully so much more). What connects the three? Besides being half-siblings, they're also the last hope of their respective clans. Some of them managed it with grace, some of them...didn't.

Contains Andreas and his fucked up deeds.

There are some things Bennett Jilleni is afraid of. One is fire, the other is bees, but the most significant is going down in everyone’s perception as “Beatrice’s mistake”. His mother’s close relationship with the Beldine brothers was a blessing, as it allowed Bennett to grow up in luxury, but also a curse, as it unfairly set him as the expected servant to Beatrice, and made it very difficult for him to foster his own sense of self, unrelated to the clan Beldine or its disgraced former heir. Other than that, Bennett is a friendly and honest young man who enjoys a healthy lifestyle, exercising and coming up with new and increasingly efficient ways to keep his house spotless clean. (that’s what’s his engineering degree for)

Now, big changes are in store for Bennett. Most of his closest social circle, Beatrice, Hannah and Felicia, decided that their families should try merging, both for financial reasons, and also because they all like each other. Every single one of them will have to adapt their lifestyle to such unconventional living, but Bennett especially. He’s excited, but also afraid of what people will think of him, being the only man in a polycule with three women. He already has the reputation of the gym bro who fucked and married his “sister”, he doesn’t need the “does that guy really have a harem?” to join the rumor mill. However, he doesn’t care enough to object.

Bennett, Beatrice and their children won't be entering the clan Devir, they'll keep their own clan identity, just like Bennett's mother when living with the Beldines. And so far, it seems that the clan Jilleni will thrive.

Beefs and bonds:

Beatrice: The same number of personality points. The same first two traits. Very similar physical features. Beatrice and Bennett can pass for twins even now, and often did when they were children. But they aren’t related at all, and Ben is tired of having to repeat that almost every day. They have a deep kinship with each other and he cannot even imagine seeing her as “just” his sister. What gives people the right to want him and the love of his life to stay apart, just because their parents were good friends?

Victor: To Bennett, Victor is the little brother he never had. He harbors no ill will towards him for “stealing” Beatrice’s position, because Bennett hated the rigid rules and responsibility she had to live under anyway, and is glad that they no longer need to cling to the clan Beldine. He feels very protective towards Victor, even though the researcher doesn’t fully realize it.

Hannah, Felicia: It seems like the existing similarities between Bennett and his wife weren’t enough, because they seemed to develop the same crushes, too. Living as a quartet will have its challenges (especially given Hannah’s 0 Neat points and Ben’s 10), but the prospect makes him happy and hopeful about the future.

Quincy: Bennett definitely has feelings for Quincy. He’s a little wary of her, because she has a very rocky history with Beatrice, but he’s open to seeing what develops between them.

Aranni II.: Bennett can’t shake the thought that there’s something seriously wrong in the relationship between her and Victor, and that’s putting him off. He doesn’t like her at all. It’s worth noting that he’s of the opinion that all three of the Fiera siblings are way too mean and self-centered to be the sole source of partnership in anybody’s life (that’s why he doesn’t mind it in Quincy, she’s not trying to be that), and if Victor married Quincy or Iulius instead, Bennett would feel that way about them, too.

Antoinette:

mother.jpg

Krystal: It seems that with Krystal Celwitch, you either hate him or love him, and with Bennett, it’s the latter. Their relationship is purely platonic, and there’s not even any attraction. They’re just very good friends.

Genevieve’s life is full of misunderstandings, mismatches, mistakes and people she misses. She’s a Knowledge Sim, yet she’s stuck in a job that she desperately wants to fit, but that doesn’t really offer her any fulfillment. She has a kind heart, yet she also has a very strong mean streak going on and many enemies. She thought she found love in the unlikeliest place, but he died, and as time flows by, she realizes more and more that he was very probably only using her anyway. Now she has a daughter that she loves but doesn’t know what to do with her, a mother who will soon die on her, too, and a full world of possibilities that seem confusing at best. She never pictured herself as a family-oriented Sim, but she yearns for stability and someone to help her with Payton when Antoinette is gone. That wish conflicts with her other desire - to discover her potential, to see what calls to her at night, what beckons her to walk outside under the stars. Maybe she could have both, after all?

What is it, luring Genevieve to play with wolves under the bright moon?

What she definitely can’t have, though, is the clan Gere. Trying to keep it alive goes against all her needs, and luckily, she’s not that attached to her clan identity either way. For the improvement of her financial situation and help with her daughter, she is more than ready to marry into any other clan and assimilate.

Beefs and bonds:

Hannah: Hannah is very important to Genevieve, and she’s glad they could keep in contact, even though it’s very unlikely they’ll ever live together again.

Felicia and Nico: Genevieve might be the only staunch detractor of the current priest. She hates his entire vibe, however the true catalyst of their conflict is the fact that it was him, Nico, and not her best friend Felicia, who got the prestigious position. In Genevieve’s opinion, Felicia is so much worthier and better suited to be the priestess, and Nico’s existence is just a joke.

Krystal: Sure, Krystal is a dickhead. However, Genevieve isn’t very bothered by that. She has a sharp tongue of her own, and as long as they get along, they will (hopefully) not unleash their mean proclivities at each other. She likes Krystal, thinks that he’s smart and interesting to be around, and she approves of his work ethics and his endurance in dealing with children. Physical attraction-wise, she’s not disgusted by him either, though her knees are definitely not going weak at the thought of him. All in all, she would pick Krystal as her partner, if he wasn’t already taken… and then suddenly, he wasn’t. Genevieve feels a little strange about her wish to get official so soon after his husband’s death, but she’s very aware that their time in this world is limited.

Victor: There’s something about Victor Beldine that just pushes Genevieve’s buttons. It’s probably the way he talks, or his general demeanor. Once she just snapped and punched him in the face. She’s remorseful, because it was really embarrassing to let her emotions take over like that, but she can’t deny it was one of the most satisfying things she has ever experienced.

Balthazar: Genevieve maintains that Balthazar is a pathetic drunkard.

The Beldines hate Percy. The Elaho-Inipps hate Percy. His partner's clan hates Percy. It wouldn't be as far of a stretch to say that not even Percy is that fond of Percy. He's a polarizing man for sure. Smart and talented, he excels when he can work alone (he even graduated college on top of his class, only surpassed in grades by Serenity Elaho-Inipp and his half-brother Victor), but as soon as he spots another Sim, chances are that he drops everything to attack. Attack, or flirt, that is, and with Percy it seems almost random. He has a passion for dance and genuine doubts whether someone could actually love him when not even his father did. His fiery death unfortunately prevented him from finding out. Which is, as depressing as it sounds, maybe a good thing, because he would discover that aside from one person (Wynn), nobody… really... did.

Percy was on the trajectory to turn his life around. After they have finished housesitting for Victor, Wynn and him planned to move into one of the abandoned houses in the Celwitch territory, renovate it and raise a family. After college, he immediately enlisted under General Aranni at his father's wish, but he genuinely despised the military and planned to get discharged and find a civilian career right after he has served the amount of time his father signed him up for. He didn't get to do either.

In his short life, Percy got into 31 brawls, out of which he won 30. The only worm to ever successfully beat Percy up was Serenity Elaho-Inipp.

Fun fact: Despite identifying with being a cis man, Percy loved gender non-conformity and liked borrowing clothes from his transfeminine partner.

Unfun fact: Before his death when guarding the Splat in Victor's employ, he cheated on Wynn and had a very passionate fling with Victor's elderly father Ares. They died together in a grizzly house fire.

Beefs and bonds:

Wynn: Wynn Celwitch was one of Percy’s closest friends, and during late adolescence and beyond, his official partner. Percy loved Wynn, even though they were drastically different people (Percy being flamboyant but very reserved, anti-authority and unpredictable, while Wynn is much more laid-back and practical). He often regarded them as his anchor to sanity, and he wanted to try to fulfil their dreams, even though he knew deep inside he wasn’t the right man for them.

Hannah, Genevieve: The relationship between Percy and his sisters (Genevieve being his actual half-sister, Hannah isn’t related, but they grew up together nonetheless) has always been rocky. There was never any enmity, but there wasn’t exactly warmth and unity either. He could feel that he was different from them, rotten, less worthy of their parents’ love than they were. That built an impenetrable wall between him and both of them. When Percy died, neither Genevieve or Hannah were particularly crushed. Sad, yes, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. With the way he lived? Everyone expected him to die young anyway.

Oliver: Oliver was Percy’s best friend. Maintaining that he was straight, that’s all they were to him - a very close friend. Of course not. Oliver was Percy’s bisexual awakening, even though he was not ready to accept it yet. Their relationship was, however, quite harmonious (which is an achievement given Percy’s track record), and they only ever fought about one thing: Percy’s treatment of Lester, Oliver’s partner. Oliver couldn’t understand why Percy was so aggressive towards them, and no amount of narratively meaningful gazes and cryptic answers from Percy made it click that they [Oliver] were the sole reason. Percy was simply jealous. It was definitely this rift that made it so when he died, Oliver was rather relieved that they were no longer torn in between their partner and best friend, definitely not the reaction Percy would’ve wished for.

Quincy: Percy didn’t judge her, she didn’t judge him. They made quite the dynamic duo, always up for mischief, always up for… bullying other kids throughout high school and beyond. There was genuine love between Quincy and him, but it wasn’t romantic. They had a lot of sex, but they stayed friends with benefits until the very end (of those benefits, when Percy ended their hook-ups for Wynn’s sake) (and of Percy’s life, too). However, when he died, Quincy’s mourning was overshadowed by a relief of her own, too. Being close with Percy held a lot of social baggage, and after his death allowed her to distance herself guilt-free, all those people who avoided her to avoid Percy started treating her much warmer.

Xenia: Xenia insisted that Percy was a whoremongering scum that would end up breaking her sibling’s heart. She tried to break his nose about it, multiple times. Little did she know that she ended up to be right, but not quite in the way she originally thought. She’s not complaining, and hopes Wynn finally finds happiness.

Victor: Percy always thought Victor had his head up his arse and wasn’t worth interacting with, especially as Percy’s family experienced poverty multiple times, and little Victor with his esteemed dad just watched out of the windows of their McMansion. When he finally reached out to Percy, offering him money for a job that sounded simple enough and included having the aforementioned mansion all for himself (even if only temporarily), Percy didn’t say no…

There’s an interesting aspect to the half-brothers. Percy and Victor were very similar (both very sensitive men with maladaptive coping mechanisms surrounding their anxiety, both Knowledge Sims and academically successful individuals, both the youngest children in the house with all that entailed, both interested in the occult), yet also radically different (posh, aloof, softspoken and sober Victor vs ratty, danger-seeking, vulgar and decadent Percy), and it’s both fascinating and sad how the game unknowingly showcased the impact of being economically and socially underprivileged on the development of a person. This would’ve been kinda a “yeah, duh” moment in real life, however I would dare say it’s an unexpected level of realism for such an upbeat life sim game. In an alternate universe, where Victor and Percy grew up on an equal footing (both in terms of quality of life and opportunities given, and love and attention received from the people who raised them), I believe they would’ve been inseparable.  

Antoinette: Percy liked his mother Antoinette better than his father, but found that even she started to associate with him less and less as he kept developing into a problem child, and it made him feel worthless and angry. They both still hoped for their relationship to heal when Antoinette started dropping in for visits in the Splat, but the fire snuffed out the hope. And, let’s just say, as disappointing as it is, that Antoinette took Percy’s death worse than Andreas, but still outstandingly well. He was the bad kid, after all.

Bennett: Another relative of Percy’s to whom he had no relationship at all. Percy’s saltiness definitely extended to Bennett and he really wished to beat him up, however they were never in the same room together for long enough.

Ares: Meeting Victor’s dad (whom Percy vilified in his head throughout all his childhood) was a life-turning surprise. Ares was charismatic, soft-spoken and oozed an aura of power that blew the repressed, still closeted Percy away. He tried to resist, for Wynn’s sake, he tried to do it for Wynn, but in the end, he gave in to that old man temptation. It’s just one night, anyway. Wynn will never know. This affair will end soon either with Ares’ natural death of old age, or with Percy and Wynn giving the Splat over back to Victor and- the rest is flames.

Looking back, I realize now that Percy and Ares had the same hairstyle. It was meant to be.

Regina of intense judgement.

Iulius: Percy liked him, they were friends, but he could sense the smug superiority coming from the young Fiera sometimes. Many times was Percy tempted to fuck him up for that, many times he resisted. Not even he would stoop as low as to beat his friends.

Serenity: Many times Percy wondered what happened between them. She was his pal, an unlikely one to boot. There was never anything else between them, just friendship. That changed when Serenity scolded him for mistreating Lester and kept at it, getting more and more aggressive and hurtful about the matter. Percy didn’t want to make peace with Lester, though, the sight of them made him too angry. He tried to placate Serenity, but it didn’t work. In the end, he ended up with an equally bad relationship with both siblings, and he and Serenity even got into a physical fight, but curiously, as far as I can tell, no physical violence between them ever came from Percy’s side.

Lester: While Percy had his altercations with half the settlement, he singled Lester out as his Nemesis. Why? Out of the combination of wanting to exercise power over someone (while they were both visibly queer geeks, Lester was way physically weaker than Percy) and pure, unfiltered envy. Lester Elaho-Inipp was similar enough to Percy to invite the comparison, but they had everything that Percy felt was taken away from him by fate. Loving family (that was ready to kill for Lester, while Percy's father barely acknowledged his existence and mother very clearly preferred his sister over him), money and comforts (while Lester had a sizable room of their own in a mansion with an on-suite bathroom, Percy had his bed in the corner of the kitchen because he couldn't fit to the claustrophobic room shared by his sisters), magical powers (Lester was free to pursue becoming a warlock thanks to their occult-positive family, while Percy's would probably see it as blasphemy and shun him), and even a boyfriend Percy also loved. He hated them to the very core of his being.

Nico: Percy and the young priest were actually quite amicable with one another. A peculiar thing to note during a ritual in which Nico extremely temporarily resurrected Percy (and then I left without saving) (priest-y shenanigans are the in-universe explanation of me needing to drag some dead Sims out of their graves once again to take screenshots of them) – Percy's autonomous reaction to Nico bringing him back was… to offer himself to him? ACR just insisted on interfering with my post-mortem photoshoot. Given that whatever happens during the corpse picture days is “canonized” as the priest's eldritch dream, I wonder whether it made things awkward for Nico to interact with Wynn…

[theancientdarkbeauty]

💚🦈- Blood, Garnet, Scarlet, Wine, Lipstick and Poppy

Alright, first, I’ll do Tera, my Half Life OC. The quick background on her is that she is a biochemical engineer who was testing the Biology Department’s HEV suit when the Resonance Cascade happened, and thus survived by pure accident. Being Australian however, she was able to hold her own against the space Australians. You don’t run into her during the game because the Military slit her throat thinking she was Freeman, but she survived! Barely! With the help of GMan and some science (and morphine from the suit). Anyways, onto the ask game

Blood- what would she do if she saw a stranger’s corpse: originally, pre rescas, depending on the place, she would’ve panicked. Whose body is this, what killed them, am I in danger as well? That kinda stuff. Unless it was like a funeral she accidentally got invited to (she would go to see if she knew anyone there and if she didn’t she would apologies) post ResCas, probably after stasis, legit that would’ve been just par for the course. Unless it had a Headcrab on it. Then she would stab the Headcrab (she hates those things)

Garnet- if they had to kill someone, what method would they choose: the most quick and painless way possible. Not a stranger to mercy kills after the rescas, she has found that shooting someone in the soft part right between the skull and the neck on the back of the head is the least painful and most sure fire way to kill someone, aiming up thru the skull ofc. If she didn’t have a gun on her tho she would snap their neck.

Scarlett- how does she grieve: She used to get real quiet, cuts herself off from people, silently reflect on times she had with the person. However, after the rescas, most all of her friends had already died, and she was in Europe now instead of America or Australia, so she just assumed that her family was dead, so she forced herself to channel the pain and grief into rage, helping her get through her rather extraneous circumstances. She really just needs a hug and a good cry smh

Wine- How does she act when she’s drunk: She’s a happy drunk, but is also a heavyweight. Think of it like Brooklyn 9-9’s “# drink Amy” system. She gets real fun (a little loud) for the first 5 drinks. After 5 shit hits the fan, but she knows her limits. (She gets really competitive at drink 7 is the problem)

Lipstick- What is her love language: she is probably physical affection and quality time. Poor girl didn’t have the time to spend with people to fell fulfilled in a relationship before the rescas, and probably never will again.

Poppy- Does she believe in a god: After meeting up with Gordon after the rescas, he told her about the Nihalinth, and so she believes in some sort of higher being, but not probably the Christian god. She is a woman of science after all.

Time for Jaws! You all know Jaws (hopefully) but if you don’t, they are this crime gremlin I made for Payday. Common traits among all Jaws are: extensive scarring, multiple mental disorders, propensity for explosives. But the main point is just they’re a crime gremlin

Blood- what would they do if they saw a stranger’s corpse: they probably put it there. If it’s a civilian, they’d probably swear a lot because that’s coming out of my paycheck but otherwise they would just leave it there, bc they don’t want their finger prints on the scene

Garnet- if they had to kill someone, what method would they choose: shoot them. Or stab them. They aren’t above murder, they do it often. Chemical weapons are also fun, but they aren’t allowed to use them anymore after the Safehouse accidentally got filled with mustard gas that one time

Scarlet- how do they grieve: violently. Lots of murder, lots of stealing. At the Safehouse, where they can’t lash out violently, they have this thing called a “stab pillow”, it’s a throw pillow they started stabbing when they were mad. Also they have their dogs for emotional support (Rexy and Tatsuya my beloved)

Wine- how do they act when they’re drunk: they mellow out a lot actually! Get really tired, but also usually have enough energy to play like drinking games and stuff. Very much a lightweight.

Lipstick- What is their love language: they are aroace, but with their “family”, it’s quality time. They just like being in the presence of people (they aren’t physically affectionate but very touch starved so think of them like a cat on occasion)

Poppy- do they believe in a god: no. God abandoned them.

Anyways that was for both Jaws and Tera hope everyone is doing good! (Sorry if topics got a little dark both of them come from dark source materials)

[simssprout]

sims 4 holiday legacy!

i wanted to make a fun legacy with some silly rules to shake up the traditional goal based legacies! hope you enjoy it!

general rules:

- must complete aspiration, get to level ten of career, and complete extra rules to complete gen

- can use money cheats (if you want it to be traditional legacy, start with 1800 simoleans, if not, download a nice house and have starting funds)

- physical style/dress sense are suggestions, as you can have your sims look however you want

- everyone in household must have an excellent holiday for the holiday that correlates with the gen. if the holiday didnt come with seasons, add it to the calender!

gen 1: new years

as the first holiday of the year, youre ready to get your life, body, and mind into shape!

- traits: active, dog lover, perfectionist

- aspiration: bodybuilder

- career: writer (author)

- must always be dressed “fancy”

- silvery/platinum blonde hair

- max out fitness and writing skill. reach level five of wellness

- if you have the packs, include vintage glamour or luxury party in multiple rooms of your house

- whenever you are tense, must do yoga to cool off

- have a dog with active trait, go for jogs with them often

- only eat foods that you deem as healthy

- visit every gym lot in game (could do just premade ones and/or can add your own)

- marry a sim you met a gym or spa

- only publish motivational books or fitness

- have three friends that you go out with occasionally and party

- get “juiced” every holiday

gen 2: love day

youve been obsessed with romcoms and romance novels since you were a kid. now that youre grown up, you want to fulfill your childhood romance dreams!

- traits: romantic, bookworm, art lover

- aspiration: soulmate

- career: social media, either branch

- pink/red hair

- dress “romantically” (if you have seasons, use heart dress/suit)

- max charisma and painting skill

- must go on weekly dates with significant other

- gush about partner whenever option is avliable

- paint multiple portraits of partner using paint from reference

- only read romance novels and watch romantic tv

- if you have pets, must dress them in cute dresses

- live in the city as a young adult, can move after if you want to

- always go to romance festival

- have a boy and a girl

gen 3: talk like a pirate day

youve always loved the pirate lifestyle, exploring, stealing, and meeting people all over the place. eventhough you cant have a career as a pirate, that dosent stop you!

- traits: kleptomaniac, non-commital, self-assured

- aspiration: jungle explorer

- career: mixologist

- must wear a pirate outfit/hat as an everyday outfit

- max mixology and archeology skill. reach at least level four mischief

- have at least two children with different partners

- marry someone young, divorce, and never marry again

- have multiple boyfriends/girlfriends at a time

- always sell your artifacts and any other “treasure” you find

- complete at least four “plumages” (temples)

- attempt to steal something from every lot you visit

- for extra fun, if you use mc command center, max woohoo skill

- accept any party invite

gen 4: bunny day

you love being outside! in any weather, your family can expect to find you exploring outside in the garden, fishing, or finding some frogs

- traits: loves outdoors, unflirty, clumsy

- aspiration: angling ace

- career: fisherman and have a business (selling flower arrangements and mounted fish) or gardener (floral arranger)

- one outfit should be overalls

- green/purple hair

- this sim really likes hats

- max fishing and flower arranging. reach level 5 gardening and baking

- always talk about the current weather in every conversation

- if raining, shower in the rain instead of your shower

- have a large garden, but only grow flowers

- complete frog collection

- have a full fish tank in your house

- live in a tiny house

- purchase storm chaser and water resistant aspiration traits

- have one child

- become BFF with flower bunny

gen 5: earth day

the love your parent had for nature passed onto you. you want to make sure youre enjoying outside, while also protecting it!

- traits: green fiend, maker, gloomy

- aspiration: outdoor enthusiast

- career: eco innovator

- have green hair

- have a boho style

- live in either storage container or tiny home

- max herbalism and fabrication

- when you visit - must pick plain lot and sleep in a tent

- live off the grid and/or have surplus of energy

- have a large garden full of just fruits/veggies

- gift your herbal recipes to friends and family

- have bees and bugs

- have dumpster dived furniture in every room (once you unlock smog vaccum)

- one day a week do not eat a meal, only eat harvestables

- vote for a community garden maker space if living in evergreen harbour

- optional: can become a plant sim

gen 6: simspendence day

the party lifestyle is the lifestyle for you! friends, drinking, and fun is how you live your life! but you also make time to solve and end crime in your wonderful world!

- traits: dance machine, bro, jealous

- aspiration: party animal or island life

- career: detective

- red/yellow hair

- wears sunglasses often, even in cold weather!

- live in oasis springs

- any cooking you do must be on a grill or over a fire

- max guitar, dancing, and dj skill. reach level 4 fitness

- sing karaoke whenever theres a karaoke machine present

- have gold on every event type

- get suntans often

- ride bikes and kick soccer balls often

- have a large backyard with hot tub, fire pit, and water slides

- have two kids, have a good relationship with both. no parenting interactions though.

- watch sports tv only

- have five good friends (not including family). give two of them your house key

gen 7: prank day

what can you say? pranking is fun! messing with people and rilling them up is your favorite passtime.

- traits: goofball, ambitious, mean

- aspiration: chief of mischief

- career: engineer

- max comedy, mischief, and robotics

- always do a funny introduction to people

- use voodoo doll everytime you see the person it is bound to

- go to all dance parties you are invited to after 8pm and prank people

- create a servo

- marry someone that you had a bad relationship with originally

- you really like bowling. take your dates/family bowling often

- have a sad clown painting in your house

- if theres a microphone present, perform a comedy routine

gen 8: spooky day

youve always been obsessed with the spooky season and occult sims. now that you have your own house, its always spooky season!

- traits: loner, genius, neat

- aspiration: nerd brain

- career: astronaut

- black hair

- this sim wears glasses

- max rocket science, handiness

- befriend one of every occult

- can have a spooky house or just always have it decorated spooky

- must have at least one everyday outfit that is a “costume”

- always have carved pumpkins outside your door

- complete geode collection

- visit sixam at least three times

- have a child from a one night stand. do not marry that sim. marry an occult sim

gen 9: harvestfest

cooking has been an outlet for you since your parents let you near the stove. you love creating recipes for your family, friends, and even pets to try!

- traits: glutton, lazy, cat lover

- aspiration: big happy family or successful lineage

- career: own a vet

- yellow/orange hair

- wears mostly warm (tan, brown, yellow, orange) clothes

- max gourment cooking and vet skill

- have all 8 slots full (can include pets)

- must cook homemade pet recipes weekly

- have a little veggie patch for fresh ingredients

- befriend patchy

- whenever eating food not made by you, complain about the meal

- if you cook something less than excellent quality, throw it away and make a new dish, no matter how hungry you are

- get married twice

- rake leaves and then woohoo in them

- have family move nights schedules on the calendar!

gen 10: winterfest

winter is the best! the good food, cold weather, and constant family time is what life is all about!

- traits: family oriented, cheerful, materialistic

- aspiration: lady of the knits

- career: education

- blue/silvery hair

- wear lots of sweaters and cozy clothing

- max cooking and knitting

- give presents to family members everytime you see them

- keep a christmas tree in house year round

- must declare “snow” as favorite weather

- every day there is snow on ground, you must interact with it (snowball fight, shovel, snowpal, snow angel etc)

- have at least three children

- befriend father winter (can marry if you want to)

- complete snowglobe collection

- get the cold acclimation reward trait

- have a dinner party once every two weeks and cook a grand meal everytime

- have lots of family pictures in your house

- get the polar plunge player achievement (can make a holiday)

- always have a fireplace lit

[cherryrogers]

falling for you {ch. 2}

pairing: bucky barnes x reader | high school au

warnings: swearing, some angst, some fluff.

synopsis: Unlike most teenagers, you had your life completely mapped out. You’d graduate high school, go off to the university of your dreams, and live the life that your parents always wanted you to. That was the plan. Falling for Bucky Barnes, however, was never part of that plan.

a/n: so this is kind of a long one - once i start writing i just can’t stop oops. it was gonna be longer but i was just like girl,,, chill. not a lot of bucky, but things are gonna start happening in the next chapter :) this one’s just a bit of fun... sort of. enjoy!

Series Masterlist

“Seriously, guys?” You groaned, approaching your best friend and her boyfriend, your smile turning into grimace at the sight of them heavily making out outside of the school building.

Wanda pulled back, letting out a giggle through her slightly swollen lips. “Sorry, (Y/N). Didn’t see you there.”

Feeling his cheeks going red, Vis stepped back so he wasn’t standing so close to Wanda, running a hand through his blond hair. “Alright, I think I’m gonna get to class. See you at lunch?”

The strawberry blond nodded, sending a sweet smile to the boy before he walked away, finally turning her full attention to you. Her and Vis started dating at the beginning of sophomore year. They were both new students, and after they became each other’s first friend, they’d been attached at the hip ever since.

You were lucky Wanda’s brother tended to hang out with you as well, otherwise, you’d be doing some very hardcore third-wheeling.

“You do realise you’re at school, right? Can’t you guys keep it in your pants until you’re not in the middle of a place surrounded by people?”

The girl narrowed her eyes at you. “I’ve barely seen him all week. He’s been doing a bunch of work for this science course he wants to do — something to give him a better chance of getting a scholarship for college. You know, it’s really not fun when your best friend and your boyfriend are such geeks.”

If there was one thing you had in common with Vis, it was your work ethic. You didn’t really talk to Vis unless he was hanging out with Wanda and you, but when you had the odd conversation, it would usually revolve around the topic of school, which always made Wanda roll her eyes dramatically, insisting that you guys needed to learn what the word ‘fun’ meant.

“Well, I said you could come over one day if you wanted,” You shrugged. “But, I would’ve been-”

“Studying,” She finished your sentence, causing you to nod reluctantly. “(Y/N), sweetie. I love you, but studying is not fun, at all. I don’t count ‘watching you study’ as hanging out with you. God, I’ve just had the exact same conversation with Vis this morning.”

“You know, I was having a nice morning until I showed up here and you started attacking me,” You said sarcastically, making Wanda smirk and roll her eyes. “Where’s Pietro?”

“Athletics club,” The girl responded, pulling her backpack tighter around her shoulders. “The whole club has to run five miles every Friday morning before school. No thanks. I think I’d rather watch you study for an hour.”

You softly smacked her arm with the back of your hand. “Hey, that’s rude.”

“Take it as a compliment.” Her smirk widened.

“Anyway,” You continued, ignoring her teasing. “If you see him, could you please tell him that he still owes me the five dollars I lent him on Monday? I wouldn’t have asked for it back, but it’s my mom’s birthday soon and I need all the money I can get to buy her this bag-”

“Holy shit,” Wanda interrupted, shifting her focus from you to something that caught her eye behind you. Your mouth opened slightly, about to ask the girl what she was gaping at, when the roar of an engine from not so far away stopped you from doing so. Your friend clasped her hand around your arm and spun you around so that you were facing in the same direction as her. “Is that Bucky?”

As soon as his name fell from her lips and your eyes fell on the same sight as hers, you couldn’t help but let out a confused laugh.

It was Bucky. You could tell because he was wearing that damn leather jacket that he loved so much —you didn’t even have to see his face, which was covered by a black motorcycle helmet.

Wait, a motorcycle helmet?

Now you knew what Wanda was gaping at. Bucky had his ass sat on a motorcycle. Since when could Bucky ride a motorcycle? You knew he’d been taking driving lessons for a while, but the kid failed to mention he’d soon be driving that to school. The bike was a sheer black colour that glistened beneath the sun’s rays, and it evidently stood out amongst the cars surrounding it in the parking lot.

You watched as he pulled off his helmet, shaking the brown waves out of his face that naturally fell over his forehead. The helmet was placed over the mirrors of the bike, and he swiftly swung his right leg over to the left of it so that he was no longer sitting down.

At least half of the students surrounding the parking lot had stopped whatever they were doing to find the source of the loud engine. After finding their answer, the majority of them looked away and carried on walking into school. However, your eyes stayed on Bucky, seeing a smile had appeared on his face. Two of his friends, Steve and Sam, had made their way across the lot, and looked to be admiring their friend’s new wheels. They both fist-bumped Bucky as he leaned against his bike casually, and the three seemed to have gotten into conversation.

A loud ringing from the building behind you caused your gaze to snap away from Bucky and his motorcycle. You looked at Wanda, watching her tap away on her phone before shoving it into the pocket of her dress. After quickly stealing another glimpse at Bucky, you turned to the girl and spoke quickly.

“I’ll see you in class, okay? I’ve just gotta do something before I go inside.”

Wanda glanced back and forth between you and the three boys in the parking lot conversing next to the bike, before she shot you a knowing smile. Wanda wasn’t dumb. While you constantly told her that Bucky and you weren’t a thing, she wasn’t blind to... whatever there was between you and him.

“Alright, but don’t spend too long talking to your boyfriend.”

“Wanda...”

“I’m just saying,” Wanda ignored your annoyance. “Mr. Pierce gets way too much joy out of issuing detentions to anyone that arrives a second after nine. You know, I bet he’s one of those people who thinks it’s funny when babies cry...”

“Wanda.”

The girl chuckled. “Oh, right, sorry. See you in class.”

With a final wink, your friend turned around to walk into the school building while you paced in the opposite direction. It didn’t take long for Bucky to realise you were heading towards him, and you watched as he said something to Steve and Sam, who both nodded in response. You were close enough to hear them saying goodbye to him before they too headed towards the building.

Bucky turned his gaze back to you, smirking as you eventually reached him and his new ride. You eyed the bike for a couple of seconds, and then diverted your focus to him. He raised his brows, having the nerve to wait for you to speak up first. The expression on his face caused you to scoff.

“So, are you a part of some biker gang now?” You teased, earning yourself an unimpressed look from Bucky, before gesturing your hand towards the bike. “Seriously, I didn’t know you were learning to ride this.”

“You like it?” He asked, patting his hand against the leather of the seat he was leaning against.

“I mean, yeah. Makes you look pretty badass.”

The smirk on his lips only widened. “You think so, sweets?”

“Yeah, totally. Trust me, if I wasn’t with you when you cried at the dog dying in John Wick, I’d be a little intimidated.”

And his smirk was gone.

“You know, I think the fact that you didn’t cry just makes you heartless.” He fired back, pushing himself up from the bike and tucking the keys into the back pocket of his jeans.

You began walking side by side out of the parking lot, and you let yourself bask in a few seconds of silence before replying to him. You were the only two left outside of the building, but you were sure you’d be fine for time. It didn’t take too long for you to get to your class from the entrance of the school.

“You’re probably right.” You shrugged, shoving your hands further into the pockets of your jacket.

Being able to express your emotions wasn’t a common trait in your family, it seemed. Your parents were never good at helping you feel better when you were upset. When your elementary school homework was too hard to complete, or you didn’t want to go to school during seventh grade because there were a group of girls that made your life hell, they barely even batted an eyelash at you. Even at such a young age, you knew that the way you were treated wasn’t the way anyone should treat a child. It gradually became the norm for you to simply suppress anything negative that you began to feel.

Any sort of feeling that distracted you from being productive was buried deep in the back of your mind, and you eventually just became scarily good at controlling your emotions. There was once a time in middle school where you watched the guy you had a crush on kiss another girl during recess, and you didn’t even care. Well, you did, but you refused to let your eyes even glaze over with tears. Because if you did let yourself care, then you’d get sad about it. If you were sad, you couldn’t focus on your schoolwork. And if your schoolwork suffered because of your sadness over a stupid crush, you wouldn’t here the end of it from your parents until your grades were nothing but the best.

And as for movies, books, TV shows, and videos of couples reuniting at airports after not seeing each other for years - they got nothing out of you. God, you really were heartless.

What if Bucky truly thought that? Even if you were horrible at the whole ‘emotions’ thing, you didn’t want Bucky to know that. Not that you cared what he thought about you, because you didn’t like him — not like that. Well, maybe a little- nope. No. That’s another feeling you’re meant to be suppressing—

“Hey, you okay?” You whipped your head up to look at Bucky at the sound of his voice, noticing his furrowed brows and the concern laced in his tone.

You hadn’t even realised that you’d made it to the doors of the building, until Bucky reached around you to push one of them open for you. See, this is what happened when you started thinking about your damn feelings.

“Thanks,” You muttered, stepping inside and waiting for the door to shut behind you before you answered his question. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know; you tell me.” His blue eyes searched yours for any sort of answer, but you quickly averted your gaze, pulling out your phone to check the time. There were two minutes until class started, and unless you wanted a twenty minute phone call from your mom scolding you for having ‘bad punctuality’, you had to depart from Bucky.

“I’ve gotta go.” You said hurriedly, pulling your bag tightly around your shoulders.

Your breath hitched slightly when Bucky placed a hand on your forearm. “Just... give me a text me at lunch, okay? So I know that you’re alright.”

Nodding quickly, you stepped out of his hold, letting his hand fall back to his side. “You don’t need to worry about me, Bucky. I’ll see you later.”

It only took a second for you to turn away from him and hurry off to class, just hearing the unconvinced ‘yeah, see you later’ that Bucky had mumbled back to you.

Once you reached the stairwell and you knew that you were alone, you let out a deep exhale. Hopefully, he didn’t take your odd change of behaviour personally. It wasn’t his fault that you got hit with the sudden realisation of your trouble with expressing emotions on a Friday morning.

You were never thinking about your feelings ever again. Period.

You’d give him that text at lunch, and after you’d reassured him that you were okay, the situation would hopefully be forgotten. The last thing you wanted to do was burden anyone with your emotions, especially Bucky.

When you got to class, it was seven seconds past nine. Seven fucking seconds. As you expected when you saw the time, Mr. Pierce wore a smug look on his face as he handed you a detention slip.

Your eyes landed on Wanda as you walked to your seat at the back of the class, and she gave you a sympathetic smile. After lazily returning a lopsided one, you crumpled the slip in your hand and shoved it into your bag. Slumping down in your seat, you rested your chin in your left hand and huffed quietly.

What a great start to your Friday.

* * *

“It’s just one detention, (Y/N), I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“You do know that my parents are horribly overdramatic, right? I haven’t had detention since the eighth grade. They’re gonna freak, I’m telling you.”

Wanda sighed, opening her box of sandwiches and handing one to Vis, who took it in his left hand while typing away on his laptop with his right. Lunch had finally came around, but that still meant you had two classes left, as well as a thirty minute detention to attend. Vis, Wanda and you were sat at your usual table on the far side of the cafeteria. Your back was pressed against the wall and your feet were resting on the empty seat next to yours, while the couple sat on the opposite two chairs.

“Please, don’t worry about your parents for now,” The girl said, swallowing a bite of her food. “You can cross that bridge when you get to it, okay?”

After nodding and sending her a hesitant smile, you watched as Wanda’s kind expression soon turned into a curious one, while a smirk played on her lips. “So, did your boyfriend let you let you sit on his bike?”

You saw Vis quirk an eyebrow at the mention of a boyfriend, and you shot both him and Wanda a glare. “Bucky is not my boyfriend,” You confirmed, more to Vis than Wanda. “And no, we didn’t get a lot of time to talk about it before class started, but I was late to the stupid thing anyway—”

“Oh my god, (Y/N) was late to a class? I never thought I’d see the day.”

The voice in front of you caused you to raise your head, and your eyes narrowed seeing the familiar silver-haired boy leaning his hands against the table.

“Pietro, I don’t need your sass right now.”

He chuckled loudly. “Well, what if my sass and I want to take you out for lunch?”

The annoyed expression fell from your face, turning into a confused one. “You wanna take me to lunch?”

“Sure,” He shrugged. “I don’t have any cash on me, but I have my card. I know you’re on my ass for not paying back your five dollars, so how about I buy you an exquisite box of noodles from the Chinese place down the street and we can call it even?”

“Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.” Wanda chimed in, noticing your hesitation.

Maybe getting lunch with Pietro would lift your spirits a little. You didn’t spend much time with the boy on your own, but you considered him a good friend. Probably your second best guy-friend, after Bucky, of course. Not that you’d ever give the kid the satisfaction of calling him your best friend, because he’d never let you live that down.

You’d texted Bucky before you met Wanda for lunch, assuring him that you were completely fine. He even offered to come and sit with you for lunch, but you didn’t want to take him away from his group of friends, who you assumed were probably excited to get a proper look at his motorcycle. You’d see Bucky on Saturday or Sunday anyway, because he knew if he didn’t persuade you to go out at the weekend, you’d be holed up in your bedroom writing up notes until your hands went numb.

“Sure, why not?” You finally decided, smiling at Pietro as you shuffled from your position against the wall to stand next to him. You turned to say goodbye to Wanda and Vis, and ended up scrunching your face in disgust for the second time that day at the couple. In the two seconds it took you to get up from your seat, Wanda was holding onto the boy’s arm and whispering in his ear, causing his lips to tug into an embarrassed smile.

You twisted back around to Pietro, seeing that he shared the same appalled expression. “You know what? Let’s just go.”

“Yup.” He nodded quickly, almost sprinting out of the cafeteria with you following behind.

Once you’d both made it out of the school building, you slowed your pace down, enjoying the cool air blowing against your skin and through your hair. You barely ever went out for lunch, usually because you were all too lazy to go anywhere further than the cafeteria. But this time, you were glad to get out for a while.

And because Pietro didn’t really know a lot about your personal life, your conversation never revolved around your parents, or Bucky, or anything that was complicated to talk about. It was refreshing, and that was very much what you needed that day.

“Your noodles, m’lady.” Pietro handed you the warm box along with a wooden fork.

“Thanks,” You smiled, immediately scooping up some of the noodles and bringing them to your mouth. Stress made you hungry, to say the least.

As soon as the flavour of the food reached your tastebuds, you couldn’t help but purse your lips in displeasure. Not that you were in any position to be a food critic, but damn, those noodles were not good.

Before you could make your own comment about the food, the boy next to you beat you to it. “Oh my god, you’re tasting this too, right?”

“Uh huh,” You stirred the noodles around with your fork in the box, simultaneously feeling your stomach rumble. “I am pretty hungry, though.”

“You’re gonna finish them?” Pietro looked at you as if you’d just proposed the craziest idea he’d ever heard of. Well, the noodles were rather unappetising.

“A girl’s gotta eat, Pietro,” You shrugged. “Plus, it’d be a waste of money and food if I just tossed them in the trash.”

“(Y/N), I’m not sure they could even pass for food.”

You chuckled, elbowing the boy lightly in his upper arm as you walked slowly back up the road to school. “Screw it, I’m eating them anyway.”

In the corner of your eye, you could see Pietro shaking his head as you scooped another fork full of noodles into your mouth. ��I’ve never been more disgusted.”

“Shut up,” You rolled your eyes light-heartedly. “Now you’re just being rude. I honestly don’t know why I’m friends with you and Wanda — all you guys do is bully me.”

The boy scoffed. “That’s not true.”

“Oh, really?” You raised your brows questioningly. “I can’t talk about studying without your twin telling me I’m the most boring person alive, and now, I’m just trying to make the best out of the worst noodles I’ve ever tasted, and you can’t even respect me for it.”

“Well, I kinda lost all respect for you when you said that you were late to class this morning. I truly thought you were better than that, (Y/N).”

“God, don’t remind me,” You groaned, shoving your fork into your noodles again. “That asshat Mr. Pierce gave me detention. I was seven seconds late, Pietro. Seven!”

“Yeah, that guy gives me strange vibes. He seems like the type of guy that enjoys seeing babies cry, you know?” As the words left his mouth, you almost choked on your food.

Once you recovered, you couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s exactly what Wanda said! You guys are telepathic, I swear.”

Pietro let out a laugh, shrugging his shoulders innocently. “Maybe we are.”

“Really?”

“(Y/N), if I told you, it would take all the fun out of it.”

Rolling your eyes, you bumped your shoulder against his and talked with Pietro some more, eventually realising that you had already arrived back at school, and your next class was almost about to start. Time flies when you’re having fun, apparently.

While you and Pietro made your way through the school gates, Bucky, Steve and Sam were hanging out next to his bike in the parking lot. You didn’t notice them, but you happened to catch Bucky’s eye.

His eyes squinted, making sure it was actually you before making any assumptions, but because the person’s bag looked way too stuffed with textbooks, he could quite easily tell that it was you. With Pietro.

Huh.

The boy knew that you usually hung out with him, but he thought it was only because you were best friends with Wanda. Apparently, you and Pietro Maximoff were good enough friends to go out for lunch with each other. Alone, together.

Bucky wasn’t jealous, he was just... curious. That was all.

However, even though it was just curiosity that sparked his interest in the two of you, he couldn’t help but wish it was him walking back with you from lunch. Him that you were bumping shoulders with.

She doesn’t like you, Bucky said to himself internally, shaking his thoughts away. He couldn’t think about you like that. Not anymore.

Perhaps he could have lunch with you another day.

* * *

Series Taglist:

@americas-ass-assins

[mexcine]

 Parasite (2019) review: A Tale of Three Families

           The Academy Awards don't mean that much to me. Most years I see only a handful (at most) of the nominated films, and rarely do I have a dog in the fight.  This year, I'd only seen part of one Best Picture nominee (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, losing interest about halfway through), but almost literally at the last moment (the afternoon of the day the Oscars were awarded), I watched Parasite.  

           I thought it was well-made and thought-provoking, and the awards it won were certainly deserved.  It’s fascinating, nuanced, and entertaining.  It’s slick and “accessible” to all audiences (although I suspect Koreans will pick up on aspects that others will not, similar to Roma). I'd read little about the film before I saw it, and have not read any critical analysis since then, so if the following repeats conventional wisdom, so be it. [Note: spoilers follow.]

           There are many aspects of Parasite worthy of extended analysis, including the visual schema, the various references to the USA (including the two Kim children going by “Kevin” and “Jessica” in their positions in the Park household), and of course socio-economic class/conflict. However, I’ll focus here on the film’s depiction of family. Parasite is structured around three families: the struggling Kims, the wealthy Parks, and the family of the Park's housekeeper. 

          The Kims and the Parks each consist of 4 members: Mr. Kim, Mrs. Kim, grown son Ki-woo and grown daughter Ki-jung; Mr. Park, Mrs. Park, teen daughter Da-hye, and young son Da-song.  The housekeeper Moon-gwang and her husband Geun-sae have no children.  All of the major characters belong to one of these three groups; Ki-woo's friend Min appears briefly (and plays a key role in getting the plot started), and the Park family's chauffeur has a small part, in addition to some other minor characters.

           The 3 families are presented in neither a wholly negative or positive light--any actions they take are done to protect or benefit the family, and are thus seen as justified.  For example, Ki-woo essentially betrays his friend Min, who arranged for him to become Da-hye's tutor.  Min does this out of friendship but he also trusts Ki-woo not to seduce Da-hye, because Min himself is romantically interested in her.  Ki-woo almost immediately reneges on this promise (and pays for it later, getting bashed in the head with Min’s “scholar’s stone” gift). Later, the steps taken to remove the chauffeur (and replace him with Mr. Kim) and the housekeeper (so Mrs. Kim can take her place) are directly harmful to these individuals (whereas Ki-woo and Ki-jung got their positions with the Park family through deceit but no one lost their positions so the Kims could be hired).  At one point the Kim family makes a passing reference to the chauffeur, assuring each other that he probably got "a better job," but they don't even try to do this when they engineer Moon-gwang's dismissal, and in fact utilise her potentially serious peach allergy to stigmatise her and thus achieve their desired outcome.  

           The first part of Parasite is structured as a humorous, "heist" story, as the Kim family schemes to improve their standard of living by obtaining positions in the Park household.  However, the Kims are not robbing the Parks: they actually provide the services for which they've been contracted (well, Ki-jung is not exactly a qualified "art therapist," but she seems to get along with Da-song), and are not skimming from the household accounts or anything of this sort. As noted above, the means by which they secure their new jobs become increasingly dodgy, but the ultimate goal of their plan is not to defraud or steal from their employers.

           As Parasite begins, Ki-Woo (aka "Kevin") seems set to be the protagonist, and he does ultimately have slightly more footage than his parents or sister, but the Kim family becomes a collective protagonist as the film goes on (with somewhat more emphasis given to Mr. Kim and Ki-Woo than to Mrs. Kim or Ki-jung, but a fair amount of time is spent on the whole family's interactions).  It's never specifically stated what brought the Kim family to its current station in life: were they middle-class before, or have they always been living in a precarious economic state?  Clearly, they are willing to work hard to improve their lot in life, but why can’t they find opportunities to do so?

           The second family group in Parasite is the Parks.  Mr. Park is a prosperous businessman, Mrs. Park occupies herself with her children and her social circle, Da-hye is cramming for her high school examinations, and Da-song is a hyper-active boy with a mysterious "trauma" in his past.  Although the Parks pay handsomely for Da-hye's tutors, Da-song is the focus of his parents' attention.  Is he, as Da-hye bitterly remarks, faking it?  Later in the film, Mrs. Park orders a special dish (ram-don) prepared for Da-song; when he doesn't eat it, and Mr. Park also turns it down, Mrs. Park consumes it herself. Da-hye points out that she was never offered any: it's as if she doesn't exist.  On the other hand, Da-hye seems to be a moody teen-ager who shuts herself up in her room a lot, so perhaps Mrs. Park simply forgot her daughter existed for a moment.

           The Kims acknowledge the Parks are “nice” rich people, while making the observation that perhaps they’re nice because they’re rich.  In other words, they can afford to be pleasant and generous, since they’re not in a frantic competition for their daily bread, unlike the Kim family (in one scene, Ki-woo practically begs for a part-time pizza delivery job). One trait of the Parks which ultimately has deadly ramifications is their fastidiousness.  The Kims live in a crowded, roach-infested “semi-basement” that is literally flooded with sewage at one point, while the Parks live in a spotless modernistic mansion.  Mr. Park is offended when his chauffeur apparently has sex in the back seat of the Park’s auto--not even in his “own” space, the front seat!--and leaves a pair of panties behind as evidence.  Mrs. Park dons rubber gloves and uses tongs to pick up the underwear, and Mr. Park almost seems more upset by the unhygienic nature of his driver and the man’s violation of his (Mr. Park���s) personal space than by the act itself.  

          Mr. Park also remarks to his wife about Mr. Kim’s odor, comparing it to “boiling a dirty rag” and says he’s smelled the same thing on the subway. Young Da-song also detects and remarks upon the similarity of the personal odors of  Ki-woo and Ki-jung, a breach of courtesy. During the birthday party massacre at the climax, Mr. Park grimaces when he has to move Geun-sae’s corpse to retrieve the keys to his car (it’s been previously established that Geun-sae’s subterranean life has resulted in an unpleasant body odor); Mr. Kim sees this and--having previously overheard his boss talking about Kim’s smell--is inspired to stab Mr. Park.  Snobbish and classist to be sure, but believing “poor people smell bad” is hardly worthy of a death sentence.

          The third family group in Parasite is revealed only in the second half of the film.  Housekeeper Moon-gwang is fired when the Kim family convinces the Parks that the woman has tuberculosis, a contagious disease.  Prior to this, the housekeeper is a neutral background figure, with no particular personality.  However, she returns to the Park home and explains to Mrs. Kim (her replacement) that Moon-gwang’s husband has been living in a secret bunker underneath the house for several years.  The shocked Mrs. Kim berates her predecessor but holds the moral high ground for only a few moments, until the Kim family full-employment conspiracy is revealed. This leads to conflict between the two under-class families, and ultimately to a protracted bloody denouement.  

          There are a few loose ends in the Moon-gwang/Geun-sae story.  Possibly the Parks would not have hired Moon-gwang as a live-in housekeeper if they knew she was married (or wouldn’t have permitted her husband to live with her), and apparently her salary wasn’t sufficient to allow him to live alone (he’s unemployed, but then again so are the Kims as the film opens, and they have an apartment, shabby as it is). As noted earlier, I haven’t read any analysis of Parasite so I don’t know if the issue is raised at all (or raised and debunked), but there is a slight hint that Moon-gwang and her husband may be North Korean emigrants.  In one scene, a manic Moon-gwang mimics a North Korean propaganda broadcaster, castigating the Kim family for their scheme to “defraud” the Parks; at another point, Geun-sae pointedly says he doesn’t qualify for a government pension.  

          Additionally, Moon-gwang indicates she’s been taking food to her husband and he’s been starving since she was fired, yet we see Geun-sae has the ability to enter the main house at will (in fact, he’s the “ghost” who traumatised Da-song several years before): why didn’t he simply do this (i.e., steal food from the pantry and refrigerator) when his wife failed to show up?  In a clever bit of dialogue, Mr. Park earlier admitted Moon-gwang was a good housekeeper but she “ate enough for two people”--yet Moon-gwang indignantly tells Mrs. Kim she paid for her husband’s food out of her own salary.  This changes the Moon-gwang/Geun-sae family dynamic: all the members of the Kim family contribute to their general welfare, Mr. Park is the (traditional, male) bread-winner in his family, but it’s Moon-gwang who supports her unemployed husband: he takes the dependent economic role of a child or a grown slacker offspring, living off his parent’s salary. Geun-sae is at once a pitiful and a weirdly creepy character, his long sojourn underground costing him his mental stability.  He worships Mr. Park--who is (through the medium of Geun-sae’s wife) the "provider from up above," and his last word (to Park) is (in English) "Respect!" On repeat viewing, it appears Geun-sae deliberately attacked Ki-jung (after having already badly injured Ki-woo), since he then calls out "Chung-sook" (Mrs. Kim) and tries to stab her (but is defeated by the feisty Mrs. Kim, who runs him through with a sausage-laden sword).

          Moon-gwang and Geun-sae wind up the losers in this three-way Korean Family Feud, killed by the Kim family; the Parks lose Mr. Park and possibly Da-song, while only Ki-jung of the Kims dies (although Ki-woo is badly beaten by Geun-sae, using the "scholar's stone" given him by Min).  Why do the Kims "win"?  Because, one might surmise, they're the family that is truly united--despite some occasional arguments, they stick together to the very end, whereas the Parks and Moon-gwang/Geun-sae are less cohesive, more dysfunctional, and have more "weak links" than the Kims--neither of the Park children is assertive and capable (a function of their age as well as their privileged upbringing--although Da-hye does step up to carry the injured Ki-woo to safety), and Moon-gwang and Geun-sae have no children (and Geun-sae is, as mentioned, somewhat emasculated by his living situation).

          Parasite obviously deals with the issue of socio-economic class, viewed through a specifically Korean prism that outsiders are not privy to (What's the unemployment rate in Korea, etc.). However, equally important, the film seems to say, is family.  The Parks aren’t obviously evil just because they’re rich, and their wealth doesn’t directly contribute to the misfortune that befalls them. Conversely, Moon-gwang loses her job and this removes the safety net she had been providing for herself and her unemployed husband: this is directly the fault of the Kim family.  So, the underclass preys on itself, rather than uniting in solidarity?  

          I’ve now seen 4 Bong Joon-Ho films: The Host, Snowpiercer (I had some issues with the basic premise of this one), Okja, and Parasite.   Parasite is the only one of these with no fantasy elements, which makes its themes somewhat more subtle, less didactic, and less overt.  But the ideas are still there.

[magic-and-moonlit-wings]

Zadra, 3Below series finale: “For keltons, House Tarron has protected Akiridion-5.”

Protected it from what, exactly? 

We’ve heard about Queen Coranda and King Fialkov taking a super-weapon off-planet after the (most recent) time that mercenaries tried to steal it; choosing to fortify planetary defenses instead of sending their army on a vengeance-hunt against the Zerons after a major bombing, according to Vex; and arguably ‘preserving the resources and interplanetary political interests of their own planet’ by withdrawing aid from another planet that was tearing itself apart through warfare. Also sacrificing their lives to power a laser cannon fired at the guy who stole their throne and turned himself into a ‘god’.

“Voltar? That planet still exists?” “Barely. It’s been mostly reduced to rubble after a keltons-long war.” s2e4, Mother’s Day “When my planet was besieged by war, we begged House Tarron for help. When we needed help the most, they left Voltar to burn.” s2e5, Ill-Gotten Gains 

I mean, we don’t know a ton about what happened with Voltar, but I assume Coranda and Fialkov had some way of justifying that decision to themselves, and from how the Heirs To The Throne hadn’t heard about it, it sounds like withdrawing aid from Voltar did not have a large-scale negative impact on Akiridion-5′s interplanetary reputation. It certainly didn’t affect House Tarron’s on-planet reputation, considering their citizens seem to worship the royal family. 

(Really. It’s literally described as ‘worship’ when some of Morando’s soldiers bust up a shrine to the missing royal family. 

“The royals are dead. Public worship of royals is forbidden by order of King Morando.” s1e13, Bad Omen)

The first episode also implies that the formation of House Tarron stopped a long-running civil war on their own planet. 

“For hundreds of keltons, Akiridion-5 stood divided between two houses; the House Akrom, of my ancestors, and House Ventis, of my husband's. Today, we celebrate the joining of these two great houses into House Tarron.” s1e1, Terra Incognita Part 1 

This means House Tarron has only been around for a short time, depending on the lifespans of Akiridions and how long Coranda and Fialkov have been married. Unless Krel and Aja have a sibling we never met, or relatives who symbolically left their ancestral houses to join the new one, House Tarron has only had four members.

Morando accuses the royals of ‘holding back’ Akiridion-5′s tech and weapons development. 

“For too long, the technological advancement of our planet has been repressed by the hollow virtues of House Tarron. But under my leadership, the brilliant minds of Akiridion-5 have been liberated. We can now finally guarantee the everlasting security of our people. From here unto eternity, our enemies will surrender, or they will die at the hands of this Ocular Mechanically Engineered Neutralizer.” s1e9, Lightning In A Bottle 

This was at least partially an excuse to justify his own construction of a robot army after taking power, but if he really expected that justification to be accepted, it raises the question: 

What, exactly, do the Akiridions believe they are in danger from, against which they need a royal family to ‘protect’ them?

Is it just ... general protection? Like, does the royal family act as a security team for the planet, like the Trollhunter does for Trollmarket? 

“If this Omen-Blank is as dangerous as you say, we need the royals now more than ever.” s1e11, Truth Be Told

That would explain why Krel was expected to spar during his coronation, and why Coranda and Fialkov took an active role in defending Galen’s Core from the Zeron Brotherhood ... but in that case it makes Absolutely No Sense that Aja, as a Princess, wasn’t supposed to be taught to fight. 

(I’d been ‘justifying’ that as House Ventis having different traditions and Krel getting the same coronation ritual his father had when he was recognized as Heir, while Aja would’ve undertaken whatever the ritual was for the Heir to House Akrom; except that flashback about the time the Zerons nearly stole Galen’s Core showed Coranda was a fighter as well. Maybe she, like Aja, trained despite tradition against it. I don’t know.)

Or is it an abstract, imagined protection, possibly something that Akiridion-5′s "great houses” have used to claim and retain their power? “We protect you, so you don’t have to be afraid!” “Afraid of what?” “Exactly. You’re welcome.” 

Or is it a metaphor carried over from the legend of Seklos and Galen? Seklos had four arms, which Vex tells Blinky is a ‘royal’ characteristic. The fact the cannon that killed Morando needed to be powered by two royal cores, rather than, say, Vex’s and one of the royals’, suggests the cores of the various Akiridions have different physical properties and/or energy wavelengths. 

(Also, if the cannon needed two cores for its power source, how did Seklos beat Galen on her own? Did she have a double-core? Akiridion equivalent of a parasitic twin? Was she pregnant? Was she of similar ‘godly’ power as Galen and just needed the cannon to give her an edge in a fight?) 

Anyway, the legend as the Tarron siblings knew it said Seklos protected the universe from Galen, and if that legend is well-known and four arms are an uncommon trait, I could see a belief developing in their culture that four-armed people are good protectors and leaders. 

But, tie that into the bit about Galen’s Core originating on Earth, and Krel choosing to stay on Earth, and ... 

If there is some specific threat that the people of Akiridion-5 think their royal family protects them from, is it going to come into play in Wizards? 

[simthesia]

Pokémon Legacy Challenge by Simthesia

Pokémon Legacy Challenge by Simthesia

Hey guys i decided to make my own legacy challenge based on the Pokémon Series as its one of my favourite games ever and I wanted to find a way to incorporate both! Each generation is based on a popular Pokémon from the series and there are 10 gens. 1.Each heir may bare resemblance to the Generation Pokémon but is not necessary for the challenge, but try and keep to the colour such as yellow hair for Pikachu etc 2. You are fine to use money cheats if you want to, although this may make it a lot easier for you , this is not a rags to riches challenge, unless stated in the generation! 3. Each generation needs to complete both the career and aspiration of the heir, and don't switch the aspirations around. 4. Keep the lifespan set on normal 5. I have added optional rules as i know not everyone has every pack , so if you want to chose some of these to do that's fine or even all of them if you have the correct packs. If you don't,  they are not necessary to the challenge

If you decide you wanna try the challenge feel free to tag me with #simthesiaspokemonlegacy so i can see it !

Generation 1 - Pikachu

Pikachu (Japanese: ピカチュウ Pikachu) is an Electric-type Pokémon introduced in Generation I.

You wanna be the very best , like no one ever was ! You're goal is to be the best at your career , solve lots of crimes and to fall in love with that special person! You love your friends, tomatoes, and are generally always happy! You have a big fear of water and struggle even taking a shower. You quite like getting electrocuted and thunder storms are your absolute favourite !

Traits: Cheerful, Self Assured, Ambitious. Aspiration: Soulmate Career: Detective, Secret Agent

Rules: Master Handiness Skill Learn at least 1 Instrument Have at least 3 Best Friends ( Max Friendship ) Marry your first and only love! (optional: must be called Ash lol) Have at least 2 Children Reach level 10 in chosen Career

Optional Rules: Master Dancing Skill (optional with GT) Everytime there is a ThunderStorm throw a thunderstorm party and celebrate! (if you have seasons)

Generation 2 - Bulbasaur 

Bulbasaur (Japanese: フシギダネ Fushigidane) is a dual-type Grass/Poison Pokémon introduced in Generation I.

You love all things nature, and your happy place is being outside among the plants! You feel as though sometimes they even speak to you. You want to achieve all with nature that is possible and gardening is your biggest passion in life. You love to meditate and just be at one with your thoughts.

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Neat, Vegetarian (if you don’t have CL, you can use a random trait) Aspiration: Freelance Botanist Career: Gardener (can only earn money from selling plants unless you have Seasons !)

Rules: Master gardening skill Have at least 20 different plants inside and outside the house Attempt to create every type of Hybrid Plant Have 6 Children and refer to them as your 'seedlings' Marry as a Young Adult and then have your spouse die tragically after completing your family

Optional Rules : Master Herbalism (if you have OR) Master Floristry (if you have seasons) Master Wellness Skill (if you have Spa Day)

Generation 3- Charmander

Charmander (Japanese: ヒトカゲ Hitokage) is a Fire-type Pokémon introduced in Generation I.

You're a fiery personality with the opinion your above everyone else ! You never fit into your family seeing them as 'weak' and want to strive to be the best, and when you can’t it causes you a lot of anger You're loyal to those who earn your trust but are reluctant to let people in Nothing is really ever good for you , you always strive to be better, and your family come second to work

Traits: Hot Headed, Snob, Perfectionist Aspiration: Mansion Baron Career: Engineer (if you have DU) /Run your own business if you have GTW or Business if not

Rules: Reach level 10 in Chosen Career Max skill in Logic and Programming Marry as an Adult, but always be very suspicious of your spouse When you get halfway you can change a trait , as you mellow out Have at least 2 children with spouse, but you aren't a very good parent Achieve 500000 simoleons in money ( no cheating for this)

Optional Rules : If you own Discover University this sim must attend university , with the intent to do a degree relating to the Engineer career Beat Spicy Curry Challenge (if CL is owned)

Generation 4 - Squirtle 

Squirtle (Japanese: ゼニガメ Zenigame) is a Water-type Pokémon introduced in Generation I.

The opposite of your parent you are super mellow and love a good joke ! You also love to play pranks on your family and friends You love water and always want to be in the sea or the pool,  and strive to protect it at all costs. You also love food and are not afraid to take other peoples!

Traits: Glutton, Child of the Ocean (if IL not owned choose any), Goofball Aspiration : Beach life (if playing in Sulani) OR Master Chef Career: Conservationist with Marine Biologist (if playing in Sulani) OR Culinary

Rules : Must live in a different world to parents (if island living is owned it must be Sulani) Max Cooking Skill and Mischief Skill Reach level 6 in fishing skill Have triplets (you may cheat for this ) and they are your only children. Refer to them as your Squirtle squad

Optional : If Island living is owned , they will strive to become a mermaid as they love the ocean and all things water

Generation 5 - Eevee

Eevee (Japanese: イーブイ Eievui) is a Normal-type Pokémon introduced in Generation I.

You have always wanted a big family and to just be the best parent you can be! You love children and caring for others! Your weakness is food just like your parent but you are very particular about where it comes from, and will only eat food you have cooked yourself. You have a creative streak and love to get arty.

Traits : Family Oriented, Foodie, Creative Aspiration : Super Parent ( or Big Happy Family if you don't have Parenthood) Career: Culinary or Stay at Home Parent (earn money from painting)

Rules Must have 8 children and one on these has to be adopted Marry teenage sweetheart and stay married to them for the rest of your life Master Parenting Skill Master Painting Skill Master Gourmet Food Skill Be at least good friends with all of your children Move to live in Newcrest

Optional: Take a family holiday every summer season (if OR or JA is owned )

Generation 6- Mew

Mew (Japanese: ミュウ Mew) is a Psychic-type Mythical Pokémon introduced in Generation I. 

You love to wonder around and explore, you don't like to stay in more than one place at once, and you prefer to be alone. You want to see everything you can and hate being tied down. You love to collect things and hoard them in your house, you could be considered messy. Your child is not ideal for you but you love them all the same.

Traits : Loner, Non Committal, Genius Aspiration: The Curator Career : Begin as a Scientist, leave Job and become a Critic, leave job again and Freelance

Rules : Have only 1 child Move at least 6 times and must live in at least 3 different worlds. Master Rocket Science Skill Go to Sixam Complete Elements Collection Find Sylvan Glade Find Forgotten Grotto

Complete fossils collection

Optional Rules : Have a trusty companion , either a dog or a cat who follows you everywhere you go (Cats and Dogs only ) Explore the Selvadora Ruins (if JA is owned ) Master Photography Skill (if Get to work is owned)

Master Selvadoradian Culture Skill (if JA is owned)

Generation 7 - Porygon

Porygon (Japanese: ポリゴン Porygon) is a Normal-type Pokémon introduced in Generation I.

The opposite of your parent , who loved travelling, you want to live a more grounded life, and prefer to be inside and stable and everything to be clean. You love computers and your passion is gaming, you want to be a top esport athlete and so put all your time into practice, hoping one day you can be the best. You also have a very unique look , some would say mismatched but you think you look amazing. You don't really like other people, you have a lot of social anxiety and going outside is a struggle.

Traits : Neat, Geek Aspiration : Computer Whiz Career: Tech Guru

Rules: Master Video Gaming Skill Master Programming Skill Win a top esport tournament Have 4 Children You refuse to celebrate any holidays as you hate socialising Cant marry a human

Collect all the Mysims trophies

Optional Rules : You build your own Servo and marry it (Optional with Discover University) (if you do this and want the children with the servo, use cheats to become pregnant by yourself or adopt) Master Robotics Skill

Generation 8 - Absol

Absol (Japanese: アブソル Absol) is a Dark-type Pokémon introduced in Generation III.

You have a dark aura about you, and feel a pull to the evil side of things. You love fitness and exercise but at the same time you cant help your desire to become a criminal as you just love to steal things and cant help it Your not necessarily evil just misunderstood and people generally fear you and keep away from you, partly due to your strange upbringing. You also love making drinks and seeing what blends you can come up with. You like going out to strange bars and pubs

Traits: Kleptomaniac, Gloomy, Active Aspiration: Public Enemy Career : Criminal

Rules: Reach Max Fitness Skill Reach Max Mixology Skill You meet your partner who turns out to be Law Enforcement Officer When you reach Criminal level 8 you can optionally have a change of heart and leave your bad path behind you ( must complete public enemy aspiration first) and become an athlete Have at least 2 children. Make at least 3 enemies and regularly torment them

Generation 9 - JigglyPuff

Jigglypuff (Japanese: プリン Purin) is a dual-type Normal/Fairy Pokémon introduced in Generation I. Prior to Generation VI, it was a pure Normal-type Pokémon. 

You love everything musical and are a master performer with a beautiful voice ! You want to be famous and will do anything to get there. You are quite extravagant and love to show off your wealth and love modern luxury

Traits : Music Lover, Materialistic, Aspiration : World Famous Celebrity (if Get Famous is owned) if not chose Career: Actor/ Actress (if Get Famous is owned ) if not Entertainer

Rules: Master Piano Skill Master Singing Skill Master Violin Skill Master Guitar Skill Have 5 children Your partner needs to be another celebrity , and you are viewed as a power couple 

Collect crystals and display them in your house

Own a home worth more than 300,000

Optional:

Become a 5 Star Celebrity (if Get Famous is owned )

Generation 10 - Goomy

Goomy (Japanese: ヌメラ Numera) is a Dragon-type Pokémon introduced in Generation VI. 

Naturally curious you are a very strong personality , you've grown up with a famous parent and lived always in the spot light and are a very confident individual. You want to be the 'hero' of your own story and are convinced you are a modern day 'superhero or James bond type character' Your heart is in the right place, but you've always been a little wacky and out there. You want to have adventure and then write books about yourself. You have a fun spirit and many people enjoy your company and find you fun to be around

Traits: Outgoing, Insane, Bookworm Aspiration: Strangerville Mystery (if you have this pack )OR Grilled Cheese Aspiration Career: Secret Agent

Rules : Solve the Strangerville Mystery (if you have this pack ) Reach the top of the Secret Agent Career Path Max Writing Skill Write 3 Bestselling Novels -Once you have finished your books you may change the Insane trait to something else Have 6 Children who love your fun spirit Date 5 People before you find the right person Die as an Adult in an accident leaving behind a brilliant legacy

You can obviously carry on after this if you like! 

Thank you for taking a look and if you decide to try it like I said let me know

I will be playing my challenge myself on my youtube channel  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyiWXIF0SurXUhO-ktDsaWw?view_as=subscriber

link if you want to see it !

[cherrycherrys]

Marital Status: 15) Fullhouse: In this roll, you've got your sim and three others. Yes, THREE others. All restrictions are off as to what relationship the four sims are to each other.

Number of Children: 3-6) 2 Children

Income:

6) Law Enforcement

28) Private Investigator

45) Freelance Scientist: 

Spend your time searching the galaxy, solving problems over the computer. 

Freelance Scientists may also catch insects and collect meteors/space rocks to sell. 

If you have the University Life expansion, your Freelance Scientist may use the Science Research station to perform experiments and sell the samples: 

At level 9 of the science skill, they may clone those samples and sell them for even more money. 

Level 6 of the Science skill unlocks the ability to Correlate Scientific Data at the Science building for cash; a Freelance Scientist may do this as well. 

48) Animal Wrangler: Your Sim makes a living from wrangling collectable wild animals to sell. These include birds, reptiles, insects and rodents (but not horses, dogs or cats). Your Sim's cat may help with this career by stalking prey which may also be sold.

Generation Goal: 7) Living Green: Must live Eco-consciously:

Must never take taxis. Carpooling to work or using the fire engine is ok, but sims must bike at all other times. Sims caught out without a bike must walk or jog until they arrive at a lot where you can give them a bike.

Must use an eco-friendly laundry system. This consists of the expensive washing machine and a clothesline. You may have multiple washing machines and clotheslines.

Must grow your own produce and fish your own fish. You may purchase meat, dairy, eggs, etc from the store, but nothing that you can normally grow in your own garden or fish out of water. Cake and baked goods from the toy oven are okay to eat. Your sim doesn't have to eat organic or vegetarian food, normal food is ok, as long as you've grown the produce yourself.

Must not waste fuel flying around the world. Your sims may only take one vacation per week.

You may not purchase 'new' furniture via the buy mode this generation, with the exception of bikes, bike racks, recycling bins, and your eco-friendly laundry system. You must obtain it 'used' from the junkyard, from dumpster diving, or steal it from community lots and other homes (Klepto trait). 

Your sim must either create a new park/nature-themed lot from scratch or improve significantly upon an existing lot. In both cases, the sim must fund the project by subtracting the cost of the improvements or entire lot from the family funds, or by buying the lot. Fishing spots and beaches count for this.

Miscellaneous Fun: 4) No Strangers: You may not call any service sims to the lot. This includes pizza delivery sims and babysitters; if both of your sims have to work, tough! [Optional: do not have any burglar alarms or fire alarms on the lot, as they may summon service sims.] 

[metalchickaf19]

The Bowers Gang: Ship #16 - Victor Criss

Request: Hello! (I apologize in advance if this message is very long!) I am 5”4 japanese girl with a petite pear-shaped body who has moved to the United States from Japan four years ago with my family (my father, five brothers (three younger, two older), and older sister). I have long wavy hair (for now, I have every intention to cut it soon), aviator framed glasses, and light freckles that run across the bridge of my nose. I have a friendly, laid back, and humorous personality though I have been known to possess an awkward streak and can be quite shy in certain situations. When it comes to my expressing any deep emotions, especially ones stemming from sadness, anger, or anything of that sort, I tend to keep myself guarded and try not to wear my troubles on my sleeve. This is a bad habit that I am trying to overcome but acknowledging my shortcomings, let alone communicating them openly, embarrasses and sometimes frustrates me as I am not use to speaking about them thoroughly with other people. I still have an accent as well as a slight stutter that arises whenever I begin to speak too quickly (this typically occurs when I get into passionate conversations). I enjoy listening to music, watching films and animated shows, reading books and comics, playing video games, learning about new subjects, and building things! (I aspire to pursue a career in mechanical engineering one day!) 

Hey, guess what?

You sound adorable, and I loved reading your request

All the guys have crushes on you of varying degrees (because height + accent + basic personality traits), but Victor won you over because he was the only match for your general softness 

... And your intellect, but that’s rude, so let’s act like I didn’t say it  

You originally met both Belch and Victor in your 4th-period Algebra 2 class, where you and Victor did some serious bonding trying to help Belch pass  

It was a total twist of fate, dude, I kid you not - the three of you were seated at the same table, and you just chimed in one day when Belch was having a hard time understanding something Victor was explaining to him

... Which ultimately led to group conversation, table-wide companionship, and you and Victor hardcore strategizing how to explain linear equations to someone that had managed to fail freshman shop

Aka: You joined the fight for Huggins’ academic success, and the world loves you for it

Anyways, though - Belch passed the class (with a whopping 69%), Victor asked you out, and you were introduced to Patrick and Henry soon afterwards  

... And you know what was really great about that? 

Henry never gave you problems of any kind about joining the group

Not. Once.

Entirely because, even though you were a new kid from another country, word spread quickly that you had five brothers - and Bowers didn’t like those odds 

So you made it into the gang without being beaten and/or verbally bashed in any way, shape, or form - congratulations 

... The guys still make an inordinate amount of jokes about the fact that you’re Asian now that you’re friends with them though, so have fun with that (You: *Says something about being hungry* Patrick: “Don’t worry princess, we’ll pick you up somethin’ at the dog park in a second - bulldog or beagle?” *Incredibly ignorant Hockstetter laugh*)

Sorry, dude - just the price of doing business with The Bowers Gang 

Victor once took you on a private date to the arcade (because video game interests) 

... but you’d only gotten through two rounds of Defender together when Patrick, Henry, and Belch showed up “by coincidence” 

Which meant the remainder of your afternoon consisted of trying to detach from the group (unsuccessfully), getting food from the confections counter while Victor stared daggers at everyone, and beating Henry at Street Fighter until his temper literally couldn’t take it anymore

... The beating Henry thing helped a little though, so it wasn’t a bad date overall

* Cute, not at all upsetting side-note *

You and Henry have an unspoken bond that most people can’t explain

Though you typically don’t interact much, you seem like you have a silent connection to one another - like you each understand something fundamental and secret about the other that no one else gets  

... And, honestly... you do

Even though you and Henry are primarily opposites, there’s something about each other you both get:

Not knowing how to cope with negative emotions 

Whereas Henry explodes, you keep things inside until it’s no longer healthy for you - and it’s as if you can each sense that you have the same basic problem, even if it manifests in completely different ways

So you and Henry tend to walk next to each other when you’re going places with the guys, sit next to each other during group hangouts, stay in one another’s general vicinity at house parties - small things that highlight your unconscious connection, despite the fact that you rarely ever talk

Quick version of all this: You and Bowers are tight on a cerebral level because you have the same deep, internal issues

Yay, emotional illiteracy (?) 

* Cute, not at all upsetting side-note ended *

You and Victor go to the library every day after school to study (learning about new subjects? I think yes)

Victor once built you a scale model of the Tokyo Tower as a reminder of home 

Seriously. The dude scoured the junkyard for 3 days straight looking for the material, took over a month to finish it, and presented it to you on your birthday with the proudest, most exhausted Victor Criss smile on his face

The guy loves you, kid - appreciate it

... And don’t let Hockstetter steal your model (he’s tried to twice already - I assure you fire will be involved if he gets it)

Lastly, all the guys love it when you stutter

Love it

It usually happens when you’re arguing with Patrick (who wouldn’t get passionate when a 6 foot prick steals their glasses?), but it makes all the guys erupt into (slightly aroused) laughter whenever it happens 

Overall, such a sweet relationship, and one I approve of wholeheartedly 

Don’t let them corrupt you, girl - your purity is what makes this so right 

[nanigma]

Leon Fanbook Translation: Questionnaire Results

Link to the Takumi Fanbook

Introduction

Profile

Famous Lines

Relationships

Leon&Kamui + Words of Love

Daily Routine + Cooking Showdown

Fashion Check

Dream Change

Interview

Sorry for the wait, but there was just so MUCH text involved in this update. I think I spent about 10 hours total translating this over the past weeks. It had even more text than the Takumi version, since they added some additional comments and reader answers. Just one more update to go after this one and I’ll have finished it. Gonna take a break from translating for a while after I get back to the promised translations I couldn’t do in the meantime.

Part time job is still going and paying decently well. Still, more always helps, so if you’d like to support my work, consider buying me ko-fi or two.  

- All the photos on this post were taken by the lovely @zaziki7

My comments in italics

Questionaire Results

Pages 40-41

Page 40

The part were you and me talk about Prince Leon!

When we commemorated the release of our Prince Leon magazine, we also send out a questionare through the official Nintendo Dream twitter account. For 10 days, from July 13th 2018 to the 23rd, we accepted 560* filled out questionnaires and will now publish the results. We will convey the intense and simply overwhelming love that Leon's fans have for him, their explanations for it, and the heartfelt well-wishes towards him.

*Interesting to note that Takumi had 627 questionnaries filled out.

Questionary Demographic

Gender = Backed overwhelmingly by women!

Graph

Women: 89,5%

Men: 7.3%

Unspecified: 3.2%

Age = Over 80% in their teens and twenties!

Graph:

Twenties: 50.4%

Teens: 28%

Thirties: 16.5%

Unspecified: 2.8

Fourties and older: 2.1%

These are the results. The percentage of Leon's female fans almost reaching 90% is a deviation that surpasses all imagination. Surely the percentage of women is as high as it is, because we were asking for a magazine. Conversely, isn't it sort of unfair that male fans of „Fire Emblem“ do not have a character fanbook appealing to them? At least that's what we think... Gentlemen among fans, raise your voice!

They already get 90% of the figurines. I think they are more than compensated.

Q1. (Of course Leon's most attractive feature is that pretty face of his!)

“What about Leon do you like? Please choose three options.“  

Graph (no actual numbers given, so I'll just approximate)

His face: ~325

His voice: ~200

His heart: ~225

His outfit: ~75

His behaviour: >75

His strength: ~125

His retainers: ~25

Everything: ~250

Q1. Picking out the other answers:

“The way he uses magic!!“

Zola: “I-is this my cue?“

Odin: “Not you. Sit down.“

Other answers: How he feels inferior to his older brothers. It's quite human./ His slight clumsiness/ When he acts like an older brother/ How he is sweet to his brother or sister, even when facing them as enemies/ How he is kind to both his family and subordinates/ His lower eyelashes/ (English comment passing through) Smart, condescending, well written character, and a great unit to boot. His design with the black and purple designs reflect light beautifully/ How he always does his best to use his wits to approach others with nonchalant friendliness and to dodge the scrutiny of his opponents./How he is the kind of man, who, while not always used to flirting and occasionally showing surprise, will take the lead when it comes down to it and spoil his partner./ First answer repeats here for some reason/ How his character, face, magic and entire existence make him the very image of a stud. But I also like his less icy character traits a lot.

Q1. Picking out the other answers:

“His lower eyelashes!!”

Aqua: “Yes... Leon's eyes are quite sharp.”

Zero: ”That’s not what you should be paying attention to...”

Page 41

Q2. (Cute? Cool? In either case, he makes you want to protect him!)

“How would you describe your feelings for Leon? Please choose 3 options.“

Graph

Cool: <400

Cute: <450

Strong: >150

Healing: ~250

Want to snuggle up to him: <150

Hope to interact with him: >50

Beautiful (and other answers): <5

Other answers: Even though he is an excellent take on the old-school, collected hot guy, I always love it when his collar is inside out./ I want to spoil him/ I want to worship him/ I want to pat his head/ I want to support his feelings for Camilla/ I want to see his sleeping face/ I want to watch him from afar/ I think it's very human how he appears to be able to do anything, yet there are many things he cannot do/ etc.

Leon ol’ pal, there is actual support for your darkest secret out there...

Q2. Picking out the other answers:

“I envy your popularity!!“

Marx: “Who? Who could have left this answer....”

Macbeth: “W-Why are you looking at me?”

Q2. Picking out the other answers:

“I want to marry him!“

Elise: “Eh, then I want to marry him too!”

Camilla: “My... stealing isn't nice, alright?”

Am I really supposed to believe Elise is in her teens? Also, what is this family?

Pages 42-43

Page 42

Q3 (Those fleeting moments, where he breaks from his cold-hearted and unfeeling persona show Leon's true self!)

“Tell us which one of Leon's scenes and lines is the best of them all.“

1st Place (at 34.8%): Birthright Chapter 18 – Prince Leon of Nohr: His scene with Kamui after the map is cleared.

“... I lied, sister. I lied about hating you.“

2nd Place (at 20.5%): When doing a critical attack.

“Turn to dust already!“

3rd Place (at 18.2%): Prologue Chapter 1 – Nohrian Brethren: Scene with Kamui

“Eh!? My collar is inside out!? T- Then say so already...“

Other answers: Birthright Chapter 18: “The true blackness will paint over everything... your life, your future, it will all come to nothing...“/ Birthright Chapter 18: “That's quite the thing to say. If you keep looking, it should become obvious soon enough. Come on, I am already... this close after all.“/ A-Support with Odin: “It doesn't matter which world you go to, you'll always continue to be my retainer.“/ A-Support with Elise: “Yeah. Even if we only share half of our blood, even if all we are doing comes to naught.... so long as we accept each other, our bond will not be torn.“

Q4. (With the way it makes his pale skin shine, the Dark Knight outfit is far and away the most popular!)

“Tell us which one of Leon's possible classes (outfits) is your favourite!“

Graph:

Dark Knight: 79.7%

Sorceror: 0.6%

Butler: 0.4%

No percentages from here

Strategist

Dark Flier

Grandmaster

Others

Below graph box

Overwhelming approval for the Dark Knight! Straddling his horse adorned with golden ornaments, the armour carrying the elegance of the night sky, and the garments lightly dancing around his figure proudly represent the official outfit of Prince Leon! It's befitting of a king!

Translating this made me come close to crying from frustration.

Page 43

Q5 (The bond between master and servants are strong! Zero and Odin come at number one and two!)

“Tell us which character is your favourite besides Leon.“

1st Place: Zero (at 111 votes)

2nd Place: Odin (at 61 votes)

3rd Place: Elise (at 57 votes)

4th Place: Marx (at 45 votes)

5th Place: Camilla (at 38 votes)

6th Place: Takumi (at 36 votes)

7th Place: F!Kamui (at 32 votes)

8th Place: M!Kamui (at 30 votes)

9th Place: Foleo (at 21 votes)

While within the story, the bonds between the Nohrian siblings run deep, the popularity of Leon's group in general is superior even to that. But Zero has the most overwhelming support of them all. When adding in his personal history, one can't help but grin at seeing the viscously distant Zero having close banter with Leon. Surprisingly (?) big brother Marx beats out Kamui and gets into 4th place.

Pages 44-45

Page 44

Q6. (Most think he seems the type to join a social sciences type of activity like the student council! On the other hand, many also believe he wouldn't join any club at all.)

“If Leon went to a modern day school, what kind of club do you think he'd join?“

Graph

Student Council: ~70

None: >50

Literature/Literary Club: <45

Chess Club: ~35

Equestrian/Horse-Riding Club: >25

Science Club: >25

Gardening Club: <25

Wind Instrument Club: >20

Book/Reading Club: <20

Astronomy Club: >15

Tennis Club: ~15

Shogi Club: ~15

Chemistry Club: >10

Supernatural/Occult Club: ~10

Fencing Club: ~10

Art Club: 10

Other: History Club/ Basketball Club/ Board Game Club/ Mathematical Research Club/ Soccer Club/ Light Music Club/ Magic Club/ Theater Club/ Debate Club/ Broadcasting Club/ Science&Engineering Club/ Newspaper Club/ System Appliances Club/ Go Club/ Conversational English Club/ Table Tennis Club/ Tomato Appreciation Club/ Handicrafts Club/ Swimming Club/ Biology Club

Most answers we received weren't about any club activities, but the school council!! No matter the circumstances, he still gives off a regal image. On the opposite extreme, many were opting for him to not join a club at all, probably reflecting his attitude of wanting to make his own path without being tied down by other people. The other answers referred to his demonstrated rationality and reasoning with clubs such as the literature and literary clubs, or his desire to raise tomatoes with the gardening club. Within the 'Other' answers, there was certainly a theme centering around the „Debate Club“ (likely because Leon is skilled at fighting with words alone).  

Q7. (So Leon really is the the indoor type? Books were his key item* all along.)

“You are going on a date with Leon! Where do you think you'll go?“

*dating sim reference

Graph

The library: ~70

An art gallery/museum: <50

Some kind of tomato plantation: ~45

A spot from which to gaze at the night sky: ~35

A high-class restaurant: >30

The cinema: ~30

A stylish café: ~25

An aquarium: <25

A planetarium: >20

A theme park: <20

Some Nohrian place: >15

His place: ~15

Others: ~140

Other answers: Watching a play at the theater/ The park/ The cinema (this was already in the graph?)/ A forest/ His home/ My Room (as in the Fates one)/ A flower field/ An antique shop/ Exploring the castle/ A place from which to watch the night sky filled with stars/ We'd have walks from the Sakurahommachi station in Nagoya, where I would drag Leon, who hates getting his feet wet, to the beach. We'd visit the Landmarktower in Yokohama and see the whole city sprawled out below from the viewing platform. Then finally, while riding a ferry's wheel, I'd want to watch as Leon would blush and become embarassed at failing to work up the courage to congratulate me on my birthday by the time we reached the top./ To an orchestra performance/ A botanical garden/ A horse ride/ A curiosity shop for tomes/ A haunted house

Some have clearly put more thought into this than others...

Leon love for tomatoes is carried by a deep knowledge of them! Speaking of, the library, art galleries and museums, are places that do the most to challenge his intellectual mind. Next is something normal people would never have thought of: A tomato plantation. Probably to go gather tomatoes. Enjoying your favourite person's favourite together must be a very fun activity. It makes us imagine Leon with a carefree smile on his face.

Page 45

Q8. (While his image is all over the place, the common feature happens to be the intellectual elite!?)

“If Leon were to enter the modern workforce, what kind of job do you think he would have?“

Graph

Something IT-related (including management): ~60

Scholar/Researcher: ~30

Lawyer: ~25

Company President/ Member of a Company President's family: <25

Company Employee: >20

On a Tomato Plantation: <20

Secretary: ~15

Teacher: <15

Company Manager: ~10

Marx's Confidant: <10

Government Employee: <10

Company director: <10

Librarian: <10

Doctor: <10

Bureaucrat: >5

Others: ~190

Other answers: Accountant/Whatever it is, he'd be wearing a suit/ Strategist/ Flower Shop Owner/ Human Resources/ System Engineer/ Diplomat/ Public Prosecutor/ Model/ Greengrocer/ Actor/ Employee at a pharmaceutical company/ Policeman/ Administrative Scrivener*/ Day Trader/ Playing in an Orchestra/ Bank Employee/ Designer/ Investor/ Translator/ Real Estate Agent/ Publisher/ Bartender/ He'd come from a good family, graduate from a famous university, find employment at a leading company and be a very promising newcomer there./ Idol/ Astronaut/ Free-lance Designer

*From Wikipedia: Administrative Scrivener(行政書士 Gyōsei shoshi)is a legal profession in Japan which files government licenses and permits, drafts documents, and provides legal advice around such interactions.

What overshadows the minority opinions are results strongly influenced by Leon's reputation as a schemer. He, who even during the plot stuck to his own methods and views, would surely acquire expertize the business world of our time and establish himself with his own abilities in the blink of an eye. Futhermore, most people see Leon at the top of some kind of organization, rather than below someone like Marx, when our previous impressions of him saw him as someone's number 2.

Q9. (The impression of him having a preferance for scientific subjects is strong! It's surprising to see English were it is... we assumed it would be German.)  

So it's semi-officially confirmed that Nohrians are meant to speak German?

“If Leon was a teacher at a school, what kind of subject do you think he'd teach?“

Graph

Math: >100

Natural Sciences: >75

Chemistry: ~55

English: >45

Physics: ~45

Science: >25

Japanese ('Native Language'): ~25

History: <25

Biology: ~20

Social Studies: <20

History/World History: >15

Others: <30

Other answers: Economics/ Ethics/ Philosophy/ Civics/ Music/ Art/ Geography/ Magic

The impression that Leon is the science type was certainly shared by many, so as a result Math and the Sciences all stand at the top. His Strategist class (That is a tactician. Many have pointed out that in our age it would propably translate to being an expert speculator) also left quite the impact on these results. Although it's possible to say his love for books within the story has certainly been noticed, even when considering at answers for subjects like socials sciences, Japanese and English, the overwhelming majority still leans towards scientific subjects. While strict his methods would also be precise, so there can be no doubt he'd make an excellent teacher.

Pages 46-47

Page 46

Q10. (This is a bit biased, but it's the cool Leon we are talking about, so we want to hear his whispers full of sarcasm.)

“Tell us the one line you would want to hear from Leon.“

1st Place: “You really have the worst luck.“

2nd Place: “Turn to dust already!“

3rd Place: “I love you“*

*It shows both „Aishiteru“ and „Daisuki“ here, both of which are commonly translated as „I love you“. However, Aishiteru is a lot stronger in meaning than Daisuki. You wouldn't say that in everyday life even to your spouse of 10 years. It's inappropriate for all but the most dramatic situations. Like 'someone is dying' dramatic. This has been a language PSA.

Other answers: “How foolish“/ “My collar isn't inside out, right?“/ “My collar is inside out“/ “... Good grief, you really can't be trusted without me around.“/ “Jeez... looks like I have no choice. I'll protect you.“/ !You are pretty lucky.“/ “Eh... Sister you are sca-... Too close! You are too close!“/ “Do you want to eat tomatoes with me? Sister?“/ “I love you“/ “Are you stupid“/ “Despicable fool.“/ “Death shall be your redemption.“/“Look only at me, think only about me.“/ “I love you.“/ “Can I hug you?“/ Upon telling him his collar is inside out: “Ugh, say so earlier!“/ “I'll destroy you with black arts.“/ “Jeez, I'm no match for big brother.“/ “Pull yourself together, sister.“/ “Feel free to become Foleo's wife“/ “It's a lie that I hate you.“/ “That was well done.“/ “Welcome home.“/ “I want to eat your miso soup.“ *chokes*/ “Thank you for cleaning everyday“ (Maid setting)/ “How clumsy.“/ “You are always hard at work. I expect much from your services.“/ “Aren't these clothes inside out? Eh? That's how they are designed? Uhh...“/ “My collar is inside out!? … Tell me that sooner!“/ “Huh...?“/ “Traitors are a disgrace to the Kingdom of Nohr. Death shall be your redemption.“/ (In English) “I love you so much, please love yourself.“/ “You really can't do anything without me.“/ “Do you also want a tomato?“ (as in eating one)/ “Let's eat tomatoes together.“/ “I love it when you turn redder than a tomato.“/ “Don't say I have a woman's face.... I'd rather have you say that I'm cool instead of cute.“/ “Isn't your coat inside out as well? … Hehe, I'm kidding.“

Everyone's love is bursting from these answers. We can fully understand both the group that wants to be disparaged and the group that wants to be treated gently. Seeing just how many fans aren't satisfied with just a tsundere, but desire a cheeky little brother who verbally abuses them, we get the feeling we have found Leon's true appeal.

Kinkshame 100% appropriate.

Page 47

Takumi VS. Leon!!

Just like in this book, we also made a questionary to celebrate the release of the „Prince Takumi of Hoshido“ fanbook. Both of the questionaries included 5 questions pitting Leon and Takumi against each other. Although it appeared mostly like a popularity contest, we also gathered many responses and explanations that were overflowing with love. Although we have obviously published these answers in the Takumi fanbook as well, we will be publishing the comments that came with choosing Leon only in this magazine.

Q11. (Their popularity is almost exactly the same! Those who answered with something else mostly commented about how they „wanted to watch team X from afar.“)

“If you had to choose a side between them, which one would you pick?“

Graph

Leon: 45.1%

Takumi: 43.9%

Others: 11.0%

Q12. (Although they share many of the same habits and outlooks, it seems Takumi came out on top on this one.)

“Who do you think makes for the better father?“

Leon: 48.8%

Takumi: 51.2%

Reasons for choosing Leon: He praises Foleo from the dephts of his heart. He is able to truly accept him./ He hasn't known love from either of his parents, so he seems to put great effort into raising his child/ He seems very good at giving out praise!/ As a strategist he seems like he's be great at planning out child-rearing and lifeplans./ Because he seems to have an understanding of his child as a human being/ After apologizing to his son for rejecting him without even listening to his side, he is able to come to a mutual understanding with him/ Because he seems great at applying the carrot-and-stick method/ Because he is someone who holds his family dear. Together with his child he is able to learn from both success and failure and grow as a person./ Since he knows what he wanted for his own childhood/ He seems great at calming people down/ He seems the type to help his kids with their studies

Q13. (Just like with Question 12, Leon comes up short in the results. Could it be that he is a bit of a complex father figure?)

Could it??

“Whose son/daughter would you want to be?“

*I orginally translated this question wrong in the Takumi fanbook. The additional ansers here gave it context. I’ll correct it there as soon as I get around to it.

Leon: 43.6%

Takumi: 56.4%

Reasons for choosing Leon: While he is strict, he seems like he'd take care when teaching magic arts./ Although I also want to be Foleo's sibling, mostly I just want to be praised by Leon./ If I conveyed my love for him all sweet, I am sure he'd be grateful./ I'd have a beautiful daddy/ Because I could support Foleo no matter what his dreams were/ He seems very cold, but I think his love runs deep/ Because he seems the type to passionately devote himself to helping me study/ Human nature/ I want him to praise me by saying „That's my child!“/ He seems like he'd be a good hugger when he is in the mood to spoil/ He'd probably be a doting father/ Although he seems like he'd be a very careful father, I want to be there to see him be careless at times/ I want to see how his usually calm presentation as a father gets disrupted by his subordinates/ Because Team Leon has Zero in it/ Although he'd deny it at first, someday he'd become a father who understands his love for his child./ Because I want to have a knowledgable father/ Although cruel, he is nice to his friends and family/ It'd be fun being around Zero and Odin from a young age.

Q.14 (Their popularity is the same here, leading them to share perfectly identical results! There were several heated comments explaning the decision!

“If you could have one of them as your own child, which one would you choose?”

Graph:

Leon: 50%

Takumi: 50%

Reasons for choosing Leon: Although he'd be a bit careless, I can see him becoming a son worth boasting about./ I want to coddle him/ He'd be an obedient child growing up. Also, since he's grow up to be very beautiful I would want to dress him up a lot./ He would probably need to be helped out a lot, which is just too cute!/ Because I want to spoil Leon!!/ Because I want a well-mannered child/ I want to watch over him with a smile whenever he is clumsily rushing through life/ Because being both smart and friendly is very cute!/ Because I want to defeat Leon's unbelievable loneliness with praise!/ I want Leon to have more confidence in himself/ Until I die, I want to continue seeing Leon as an irreplacable presence in my life, more valuable than anyone else./ I hope to decrease Leon's inferiority-complex even a little/ Since he is starved for motherly-love, I want to be the one to show it to him/ Because I want to feed him lots of delicious tomato dishes/ So we can read lots of books together/ He seems to be the obedient, quiet type/ Since Leon's relationship with his mother can't be called good, I want to raise him lovingly this time around./ He|d be a smart, hard-working son to boast about/ Because I want to have him enter a boy's choir group/ He is just so cute!

Anyone else get the feeling some of these people would be better served with a doll than a child?

Q.15 (An indoor type like Leon can't hope to compete in this with an outdoor type like Takumi...)

“If you were stranded together on a deserted island, who do you think you could rely on most?“

Graph

Leon: 39.1%

Takumi: 60.9%

Reasons for choosing Leon: I bet he could do something with Brunhilde (such as harvesting fruit)/ I think Leon would be better at staying calm and make the right decisions during such circumstances.  Then he'd use magic to light a fire, dig a waterway, cut down trees and gather materials to then use them to build a house/ I think he'd be able to stay calm about it/ Utilizing his vast knowledge, he'd likely be able to provide safe water and food./ Because he can grow apples/ Either of his retainers would give it their all/ Unlikely to panic, he'd be a calm guide/ He can make fire with magic/ As he is called 'Gravitymaster', he can manipulate the earth as much as he likes and provide a lifestyle that way./ Having magic that can manipulate gravity seems useful/ No matter what happens, I am sure he'd be able to use his knowledge to get by somehow. Plus, I am sure big siblings Camilla and Marx would rush in to the rescue.

So what do you think of the results of these 15 questions? We truly thank everyone who gave their answers within such a limited time. Although we think that there were a lot of unexpected questions relating to our modern way of life, but do you not agree that in this way we were able to more clearly solidify our image of Leon? If all of you continue supporting and showing your love for Leon... we can only call that the correct result.

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

Next update will finally be the last. It may take a bit to get out, but it should happens faster than this. I just realized I’ve spent over half a year on this project...I want to sleep 100 years..  

[robot-unicorn-attack]

☽ WIDOWMAKER, 26

"God may forgive you, but I never can." (attributed to Queen Elizabeth I)

Real Name: Eleni Landry

Agency: ʟᴀᴢᴇʀ

FC: Binx Walton

Unicorn Name: Voidmaker

Place of Birth: Ser'hld IX, a mining asteroid under Lava World's jurisdiction, before the gravitational pull from the black hole tore it apart.

Appearance: Tall, severe, with her curls cut short. Elbows like bolts. Legs jittery, like she's half-ready to start running. Burning eyes. Two piercings in her right ear and one through her left eyebrow. Never laughs. Sometimes smiles.

Wardrobe: Black leather jacket, black turtleneck shirt, loose black trousers, oxfords and boots. The occasional black button-up. No heels. No makeup unless she has to. When she goes onto interviews, she tells them to put as much stage makeup onto her face as they would for a man's. She wears gray durasteel piercings, made from the scraps of the first pieces she ever stole for Voidmaker. There's always a watch on her wrist; it doesn't work. It's stopped at 1318 Standard hours, fifteen years ago.

Places most likely to be found: The edges of meeting rooms, the corners of bars and restaurants. The engineering department of her agency, tinkering with Void. 

People mostly likely to be with: Flame, who's nice enough and talks enough for two. Her agents--probation officers, more like. Other Lava Worlders, some of whom come up to her with fervent hands and eager words.

Strongest character trait: Her resentment

Public Image: They first tried to brand her a rebel, but she refused to give up that part of herself and her past to the greedy masses. It made her furious in a way that few things did, the thought of selling her anger and her history. They then tried to brand her as the femme fatale, but she refused to don their dresses and their sickly-slick lipstick. They felt wrong on her skin. The agency gave up then. She became the mysterious one, quiet and severe and short-spoken, and strangely enough, the people liked that. The agency built on that, and soon a new biography was built for her: the child of a secret agent, high up in the Estrellan Federation's political echelons, cool and suave and likely trained to kill. 

Racing Strengths: She knows her Void like the back of her hand and can handle her with a mastery unseen even by the Snow Queen herself. The pair of them are quick and agile and nimble.

Racing Weaknesses: In the early days, her agent would scream at her after her races--you need to give a shit about the race, Landry! we kept you from Estrellan jail because we thought you had it in you to give a damn, we can't keep you here if you keep racing like that--so she learned to try. Or to see least act like she was trying, because the fact remains that Eleni doesn't give a shit about winning the races. It's just bread and circuses to her, keeping people too happy and entertained to recognize their crumbling cosmos.

Personality: Quiet, taciturn, but eloquent and measured when she finally speaks. Uncomfortable in the spotlight, for all that she commands it well. Holds grudges like it's a competition; falls quickly into righteous fury. She doesn't have a lot of friends, but she will go through hell for the ones she does.

Biography: She remembers the day when the world ended. She was just old enough to understand that earthquake drills were not just a game they played at school. The alarm sounded inside their little house, louder and more insistent than it ever has, and her father pulled her out the door and started running. It's happening, he said, and she grew horribly afraid, because she had never seen him cry before. It's happening, Ellie, you need to run, they have shuttles for the children, you need to get out--

They were separated by the crowd. She followed his directions and ran. The last thing she heard was him shouting her name, before an official in uniform pushed her into a rescue shuttle and the doors close behind her, and they took off.

They were the last ship to make it off the moon.

Her mother was an overseer in the mines. She would have been among the first to die, as the gravitational pull of the void pulled apart the fissures in the moon's surface made by mining shafts and yanked all of the people there into deep space, scattering them into the airless black. The same would have happened to the people on the surface not long afterwards. The gravity swell that had destroyed Ser'hld IX made the shuttle groan and rattle. Eleni had just gotten a watch for her eleventh birthday, and the spacetime distortion from the black hole's swell broke it. 

1318, on the second. That was when her world ended. 

The children rescued from the destroyed moon were declared wards of Estrella. Eleni attended boarding school in the central Lava province until she couldn't stand it anymore. The Federation had the capacity to travel faster than light, to build floating cities and terraform entire planets, to build horses of light and arenas of fire and ice for the pleasure of their rich benefactors. They had already conquered space and gravity and time--so why did they leave her moon to die? They could please the powerful all they wanted and put up a show of mourning for the dead--but that didn't change the fact that they left her family to die, her city, her people, the people who mined the metal and ore used to build Estrella's gleaming wonders.

The Federation left Ser'hld to die. The moon should have been evacuated three decades ago, before she was even born, but the mines were too lucrative. 

She snuck onto a cargo ship when she was 14 and flew back to the backwater provinces where she knew she belonged, where the ground rumbled beneath her feet with every fluctuation from the black hole. She found other mining refugees there, who like her no longer had homes because of Estrella's neglect. They stole and bartered for a living; she learned how to hack security systems and plan raids on government facilities for oxygen dispersers and power cells and other necessities the Federation hoarded for itself. They talked about other things, bigger things--like separating the planet from the Federation and making Estrella pay. She learned she was damn good at fixing systems which were broken and even better at breaking systems when they needed to be broken.

She was 15 when she snuck into a facility and saw engineers developing robotic horses for some--racing game. They needed the metal to fix air purifiers in the area; mining smog corroded the filters like nothing else. That night, she and a couple others went back to scavenge sheet metal from the discarded prototypes, and she saw that there was one horse still running its program, LED eyes blinking in the dark, its body dark as a void.

Eleni took it with her when they left, and it trotted silently behind her like it had been trained.

It made her something of a legend in her new home, a girl with sunken eyes and a horse as dark as night, who stole from the powerful and would help you for a small price. Her horse--Void, she called it, dark as space--came with her team on raids, stepping silently behind her and carrying their loot. She had to steal from more and more well-guarded facilities to keep Void working, and one day, when she was 21, she got caught by a guard with LAZER on his uniform.

He gave her a choice--prison in central Estrella, or to race with Void for them.

She came back to her home--the backwater province where she stole and bartered for all of her growing years--a full year after she vanished, and she raced the course with her heart pounding, and she won. And she heard the roaring of the miners and shippers and cargo guides crash over her like a wave, because one of their own had won against a top-rated Ice Worlder. One of their own had won. The girl with sunken eyes and a night-black horse was back.

She doesn't want to race for Estrella. Lazer can go to hell, for all she cares. But every revolution needs its symbol, and Eleni might have just become her own.

Relationships:

Snow

Sky

Ice

Supernova

Sunbeam

Flower

Flame

Nyx

Playlist:

"Revolution" by The Score

"Vesuvius" by Sufjan Stevens

"The Angry River" by S. I. Itswa

"Running Up That Hill" by Meg Myers (Kate Bush cover)

"Conquest of Spaces" by Woodkid

Pinterest: N/A

Headcanons: N/A

Agency Bio: https://robot-unicorn-attack.tumblr.com/database-widowmaker

[personaehq]

INCOMING MESSAGE …

FULL NAME: yun sol ALIAS: n/a DATE OF BIRTH: 2117/10/31 ALIGNMENT: neutral OCCUPATION: freelancer; thief / odd jobs AFFILIATION: n/a ACCOMMODATION: ecostay apartments, sangenjaya FACECLAIM: lee taemin

ACCESSING: BACKGROUND …

he isn’t known, yun sol. his name is lost among the thick of the people that swarm the city. faded in the eerie glow of neon and rumors that swell bigger than anything he’s ever been apart of. that’s how he likes it. that’s what he says. it’s easier that way, to live. slinking alley cat sleek past the shadows and taking what he can. it’s easier, when you go unnoticed. that’s what he’s decided.

here’s how to fall through the cracks.

start with parents that are more focused on losing themselves than raising a child. distractions are endless, and addiction bountiful. living on scraps and immigrating for survival, that’s what can be traced back in sol’s family line. not that he can follow it far, not anymore. not that he wants to. everyone’s just as unimportant as he is in the long run.

you could call it a family tradition.

he grew up without guidance. that’s a nice way to say it. neglectful would be the worst, but he considers it to hang somewhere around the middle, let’s himself mold his own reality. that’s the story they’re all spinning nowadays anyway, right? like you can be in control. reshaping the future, yourself. playing god if you’ve got enough money for it, and then conning people into believing they might be able to pile together scrap long enough to pretend they can achieve that non-goal.

there’s ai, and creatures sculpted with the idea of perfection in mind. realities combed over in fantasy. idols and your own flaws blacked out in an attempt to believe you might be perfect. that everything’s perfect.

sol’s been slumming it long enough now that the lie has started to taste a little stale. there’s nothing for him to chase. there’s no perfection to be found, unlocked, reshaped out of him. he’s a throwaway – the same as most everyone else – he figures. but there’s a recognition found in that. a freedom it manages to unlock. a certain disregard for his life.

it probably happened around the time he was a teen. that’s when everyone thinks they might be important, right? and sol was no exception. a hope there. but there was no ladder to climb, no way to pull himself out of the rubble and into something glamorized. his parents weren’t gone, but they may as well have been. on the rocks, the both of them. the soundtrack to his childhood might as well have been a 2-pack cd, side a – constant screaming, side b – a freeze out of static and pointed, painful quiet. like he cared ( that’s what he says, anyway ).

so what’s a kid to do, too young to work above the books and already falling in line with that less-than-appealing crowd his mother never had the sense to warn him about?

he started lifting. wallets, or watches. jewelry. anything that sparked interest. anything that looked like he could pawn it. he was a wiry thing, quick with a penchant for hauling himself up fire escapes and sliding through slivers of buildings meant for rats. it’s not glamorous, not the way he does it. there’s nothing flashy or impressive. he’s not armed to the teeth with intel strapped to his arm or projected and mapped out in futuristic hologram, he’s running in blind and hoping for a paycheck.

that’s how he’s been living, since he moved out of his home. and that was at, what, seventeen? he used to lie though, about how old he was. bumped himself up a year or two to try and get a deal on an apartment. hacked id cards and sol got decent at that sort of small-time crime. kiddie script, load a code and run it with a few extra numbers attached. hope whoever was checking didn’t know the tells to look for. half-checked out from the world with he kinds of establishments they were running anyways. would lie his way into a hotel, for a night. for six. escape out on someone else’s bill.

it continued, that same chaotic sort of blur. there’s no purpose to sol’s life, not really. he’s not well-connected enough to assume the role of a criminal. gang-pin, whatever flashy name they’re calling themselves. he’s not running out on hits. he’s not trying to pull himself out of his lifestyle and make a name. he doesn’t much care what goes on between humans and ai. he’s floating, at first. and then sinking. into his own bad habits. into an acceptance that there’s not much for him to live for. to want. going through the motions of reckless endeavors, and sol’s not sure how long it’ll all last. what promising advancements they’ve promised he’ll witness, that he’ll be alive to see.

but what’s it matter?

he’s already slipped through. unassuming. a ghost among the masses. busy haunting himself.

ACCESSING: PERSONALITY …

POSITIVE TRAITS: adaptable, charismatic, clever NEGATIVE TRAITS: stubborn, impulsive, reckless

sol’s got a mouth on him, but not much else. that’s what his mother used to say, he’s got too many opinions bottled up inside of him, and they snap out ferocious. he twists them up sometimes, like weapons. sharp and tipped with vitriol. but that’s all he’s got in the arsenal. there’s nothing much to back it up. no bite to his bark. not unless you count that missing wallet noticed half an hour after he leaves.

he’s clever in that way that an old teacher might sigh out. if only he’d made something for himself or else, he can’t find a footing in academics, but he’s so bright… and he’d always taken that as nearly insulting. he’s got a good read on people, maybe that’s what they mean. can read a situation, too. well enough to save his own neck a few times. well enough that he’s still alive now, despite the numerous amounts of terrible decisions he’s put himself through. has got scars to show for it. an addictive personality he never really got a handle on. a rage that can’t be drowned out in bottles of spirits.

but he doesn’t put it to good use, whatever he’s got rattling around inside of his head. he reads people to steal from them, mostly. or to social engineer his way into a little more cash. some information he can sell on the side. maybe some spare parts he can fiddle around with on his down time. a self-taught study into electronics and modifications and maybe he’s doing alright for someone who grew up half on the streets, but he’s certainly not going to be impressing much of anyone who could make his life a little nicer.

he’s bad at that, the planning for something nicer. everything’s lived out in impulses. maybe he inherited it from his parents. a series of bad decisions that mold his life. he acts, and then he thinks. maybe he speaks somewhere before it all. it’s a mess, in the end. sol as a person is a mess. lives his life like he might have a death wish, mostly without a regard for anyone else around him. and what can they do for him, anyway? sol’s abandoned that thought, the idea that he might find something meaningful. someone.

he thinks humanity’s fucked. maybe those robots have got it right.

… END OF MESSAGE.

[cherokeegal1975]

Unexpected Cargo, Ch. 2

Refuge       Little Girl landed tiredly next to him on the steep sandy grade a few yards away from the cave entrance.  Goldie leapt off of her withers and onto Johnny's back as he lay prone with his forehead pressed against his left forearm, trying not to vomit as the cramp subsided.       "Get up!" Goldie squeaked urgently in his ear as Little Girl pushed him with her wet muzzle, dampened with tears of fear and worry, soaking the cloth of his robes as she started to cry again.  "They are too far away to see us, but I can still hear their noisy engines coming our way."       Johnny shifted and Goldie jumped off his back.  He tried to breathe as slowly and deeply as he could.  He had already retched up everything in his stomach several miles back.  The next time, a couple of miles later, he only got the dry heaves.  As his queasy stomach began to settle, he made it to his hands and knees when he felt a warm and sensual ball of electric heat formed in his lower abdomen.  It spread rapidly in a matter of seconds to every part of his being, causing him to shudder uncontrollably while it held him in its thrall.  Just as abruptly the sensation had come, it vanished and he felt better.  No upset stomach and no bad cramps.       The whole experience lasted only a moment and Johnny was finally able to stagger to his feet unassisted.  Somehow he knew the sudden attacks were over and that he would be fine now. Little Girl shape shifted back into her human child form so she could fit more easily through the cave's opening and swung the satchel over one bare slender shoulder.  As it was often her custom, she went nude (since clothes could not change with her), finding clothes unnatural, impractical and confining.  Generally, the only time she put on clothes was when they went to town, which Johnny insisted on for her own safety.       Goldie went into the cave ahead of them, eager to be inside before the sandstorm she knew was coming in about an hour's time.  It was another survival adaptation that made desert rats such useful companions to those who had them.  Johnny entered the cave himself behind Little Girl's slight frame.  He had to duck and squeeze through the crack in the rock, snagging his robes and his loose pants before he could make it through.       Once inside, the passage opened up immediately to a spacious room with a small crack in the ceiling that let in daylight and could serve as a smoke hole should anyone need to build a fire.       He paused only a moment to let his eyes adjust to the dimness of the cave, then walked straight back to where Little Girl and Goldie crouched at the edge of a small spring in the stone floor.  With a sigh of relief, he knelt between them, pulled back his sleeves and reached out with his hands to the gently rippling surface of the life sustaining water.       He glimpsed his dim wavering reflection in the pool before he cupped his hands to fill them with water and drank, reliving his parched throat.  He resisted the urge to gulp it down as a precaution against upsetting his stomach again.  The stubble on his face was prickling his hands as he drank and he thought he needed a shave.  He hadn't managed one since the day before yesterday.       Johnny was dusky skinned with fine and sharp angles in his features, high cheekbones, fine black brows, high arched nose, big liquid black eyes with long black eyelashes and full masculine lips.  He was handsome, even charming when he tried.  His hair was covered with head dress made of a reddish brown cloth that was held in place with a woven black head band.  Under it his shining black hair was long enough to fall all the way to his feet.  He kept it bound in a tight bun at the base of his skull most of the time to keep it out of the way.  It was considered to be a sign of strength and masculinity for a man to never cut his hair, a tradition he had adopted soon after joining his tribe as a boy.       His body was long, lean and hard muscled.  His long fingered hands were strong and callused from years of rough work.  He could never get fat, what he didn't work off, the desert sun seemed to sear away.       Little Girl in her human form was similarly lean and hard muscled.  Her skin was golden brown and her nearly waist length wavy and curly auburn hair glistened with golden highlights.  Her eyes were large with chocolate brown irises, fine brows, full pinkish lips and the general cast of her facial features was rounded, angelically perfect and amazingly gorgeous.       In her dragon form she was also quite beautiful.  Elongated triangular head with powerful jaws, almost raptor beak shaped lips and dog like teeth with the upper canine elongated just enough for the tips to protrude slightly.  Powerfully muscled all over, with a horse like neck, lizard ears, large cat eyes the color of topaz with hints of light emerald green in the centers.  Each eye was protected by a single thick and smooth bony brow ridge.  Her hard scales, smooth as a serpent's, were a deep goldenrod color that blended well with the hues of the desert.  Most dragons have snake-scoot like armor plates that run from just under their chin all the way down to just past the base of their tails.  However, Little Girl's kind didn't have that particular feature; she was just smooth scales all over.       An unusual feature of her species is that the females have a marsupial like pouch to carry their eggs and young.  Her powerful hind limbs were slightly longer than her forelimbs, the better to jump into the sky.  Another feature unique to her species was the reddish brown feathered eagle wings and soft fur like feather mane that ran all the way from the top of her head to her withers that stood straight up.  Along the top of her tail she had a similar strip of feathers from the base to its tip.  Both were the same color as her hair in human form, only in her true form, the golden highlights were iridescent metallic gold colored patterns.       Little Girl's feet closely resembled monkey paws with sharp curved dark brown claws with rough scales on the bottoms that gave her better grip for climbing.  Her forepaws were every bit as nimble as a human's hands.  Her head, wings and feet looked slightly too big for her.  Her head was just a bit more rounded and softer in appearance than the adult dragon's.  As she aged to maturity her features would harden into a fiercer countenance and her body parts would look less ill proportioned.       And Goldie?  Well, she just looked like a big healthy and slightly plump rat the size of a small domestic cat.  Her shining fur was her most unusual feature, even for her kind.  It was a golden, streaked here and there with copper and bronze without being metallic in hue.  The bare skin on her tail, slightly enlarged ears, feet and nose were brownish with pink undertones.  She had another unusual feature for a rat, her forepaws were actually hands.  She was quite lovely in her own way.       Her black beady eyes, the way she moved and interacted with her environment, belied her high intelligence.  Desert rats were magical creatures with talents for food and water detection, weather sense, teleportation and human speech, though not all bothered to learn to speak a human language of any kind, preferring their own rat language.  The exception to this was the companion rats living with some of the nomadic tribes of the deep Red Sands Desert.  Constant close contact with humans, who treated them with kindness, respect and spoiled them rotten made them want to be more helpful and communicative with their human friends.       They were tough and well adapted to their desert environment.  They could go for days without water just by getting moisture from the plants and animals they ate.  They were amazingly good swimmers and had a special magic that prevented them from drowning.  They could remain immersed in water for days by using their magic to form an air bubble over their noses and mouths that constantly replenished itself from the oxygen in the water.  This saved them from drowning in the lowlands when it sometimes flooded during the rainy season, as they could accidently be swept away in the torrential waters that nearly always originated in the distant mountains to the east.  This magical talent also enabled them to hunt for small aquatic cave creatures like blind fish, small cave shrimp and salamanders.       Another odd trait of her kind was their extreme longevity.  Normal mundane rats averaged about two years in their life span, desert rats could live eighty or more years.  They were not as prolific since they didn't need to be.  They mated as often as they wished any time of the year, but females only became fertile once every three years.  When they did have litters, they often did it in a big way, having as many as fifteen pups at a time.       The odd family trio took their time drinking from the spring until they finally got their fill.       "Ahhh," Johnny sighed after dabbing his hands and mouth dry on his sleeves.  He sat back on his heels as his two family members finished drinking.       They were all exhausted and in need of food and rest.  Johnny wondered what was in the satchel Little Girl had been carrying for so long through the sky.  He hoped she had at least managed to steal some food from the camp because he hadn't eaten since yesterday morning.  He was pleased to note that his current gastric discomfort was mere hunger and not the bad cramps and nausea head been enduring the past week.  He was feeling better and better by the moment in spite of being so tired.       "What's in the bag?" Johnny asked Little Girl as she too sat back on her heels, facing him as she did so.       She wrapped her small arms around her legs and leaned her chin onto her knees.  She looked up at him with those big liquid eyes and answered with a regretful sigh, "Not much.  Just the royal seal in its box, a few ration bars and some tubers I managed to dig up a few miles back.  I was looking for the charmed mirror grandmother gave you,  but I think I found it smashed with the other things the guards broke.  One of the men almost saw me and Goldie wanted me to hurry up.  So I hid and started singing so she could help you."       Johnny smiled at Little Girl's thoughtfulness and practicality.  "You and Goldie did alright, baby girl.  Though I would not have been upset if you left the royal seal behind.  Just this once I wouldn't have minded not being able to fulfill my contract with Princess Elena.  That seal is more trouble than it's worth."       "You're not mad?" Little Girl said as she stared at him with wide eyes.  She looked surprised and half pleading for him not to be angry with her.       "No, not this time," Johnny said affectionately as he reached out and tucked a loose strand of her silken hair behind her right ear.  Then he waved an admonishing finger at both of them and added with a gentle smile, "Just don't make disobeying me a habit.  I would rather you two stayed safe."       "It was my idea to come back after dark," Goldie said stubbornly.  "If she hadn't come with me I would have done what I could alone."       Johnny smiled and stroked Goldie's head with love and gratitude.  "Thanks both of you, I don't know when I could have escaped if you had not come back for me."       Johnny stood and retrieved the dark brown satchel and passed out the sweet potato like tubers the purple berry thorn bushes grew and the three ration bars between them.  As they ate, Johnny tried to think of what to do next through the increasing sleepiness that was slowly dragging him down.  After a few moments he could think of nothing else but to go back home to his family.  He'd been putting it off, fearing the royal guards would follow him even there, but now he saw no better option.       Johnny could hear the increasingly strong wind howling outside through the cave entrance and the small crack in the ceiling.  He looked up and saw the flying sand that was rapidly dimming what little of the morning light that managed to filter its way through the crack.  Good, their pursuers won't be able to hunt them in this weather.       "Goldie, I need to get a message to Mom," Johnny asked, as his rat nibbled on a piece of ration bar.  He didn't have much hope that Goldie would make it to his mother's tent just now.  Storms could interfere with certain spells, especially when a big electrical charge was built up in the atmosphere.  Teleportation was just one of those spells that were affected negatively by fouled weather.       Goldie regarded him thoughtfully over her piece of ration bar with her beady black eyes.  Then she tilted her head back and stood up on her hind legs, looking up and through the crack in the ceiling.   Long whiskers twitching, she tested the air with all her senses, detecting things only she could with her magic.         Then she dropped back down to her heels and looked at him.  "Can't do it.  I promise to go when the storm passes.  It will blow itself out in a few hours.  What is your message?"       "I need you to bring us home.  My sand ship has been captured and vandalized by Prince Richard's guards and they are still hunting us.  We are hiding in the Crack in the Rock Spring Cave."  Johnny paused to think of anything else to tell his mother.  Then he thought better of it, best to keep the message short and tell her everything when she found them.  "That should do for now."       "I can remember that," Goldie nodded and then resumed nibbling on her bit of ration bar.       They tried to make themselves comfortable as possible on the cool and uneven cave floor to get some sleep and wait out the storm.  Little Girl stretched out next to him in her full dragon form, hugging him and flipping a huge wing over him like a blanket.  Goldie snuggled under Little Girl's wing and made herself comfortable on Johnny's belly.       Little Girl and Goldie were soon fast asleep, but in spite of his exhaustion he found it difficult to fall asleep himself.  His mind refused to stop working.  How has his life turned out so right and so wrong at the same time? 

(This book can be bought on Amazon either as a paper back book or as a Kindle.  Just type in Unexpected Cargo by Meriah Smith and it will pop right up.)

[theladyarwen-archive]

Light (光)

Description: Light: (verb) Make (something) start burning; ignite.

AO3 Link

Prologue: Push (推):

“People like to think war means something. What can you learn from your opponent? More than you think. Who will master this love? Love might be the wrong word. Let’s admit, without apology, what we do to each other. We know who our enemies are. We know.” -Detail of the Fire, Richard Siken

~*~

Before: Using the Earth u was inevitable, people were prepared for it when it happened, and when she finally gave out they moved. They terraformed as many new planets and moons as they could. There were hundreds of them at first, all with different climates, different people and different problems.

More centralized planets formed the Alliance. They considered themselves to be more civilized, more worthy of power over all of these little colonies. All because they were richer, and filled with newer technology.

The outer-planets disagreed with this idea. The way they saw it, it wasn’t fair for an outside government to control them when they didn’t even know their struggles. They didn’t trust a government that wanted to stick its nose into things that they had been handling on their own for years.

People that didn’t welcome the Alliance’s “help” called themselves the Brown Coats (Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere were among this group,) and fought against what the Alliance wanted.

They lost after three years of fighting for their freedom. It left a bitter taste in their mouths, the kind that lingered.

After the Alliance got their way things didn’t get much better for the outer-planets. Most were left dirt poor, trying to make ends meet by farming, trading and owning small shops. The only thing that had changed for them was now, every once in a while they had to answer to a government that wouldn’t give them the help they needed.

Others never went back to living on a planet. They decided they would rather live in space, where the outer-planets couldn’t control their every move. They would rather live on a ship than have their freedom taken away by a government that didn’t know jack about struggling.

~*~

After: Joe Toye spent years building up a crew of people he could trust. He pulled them from all over the system, taking some from unsatisfactory situations, others from loving families. He never felt guilty about picking up strays, it was something his mother did often when he was young, and it just felt natural to him. Like it was the one good trait he picked up from her.

Buying Light was based solely on a gut feeling. The second Joe had seen her there was a pull, like she was the home he had been looking for all his life. She was in need of a good wash, a few repairs and a fresh coat of paint, but she stood there like a beacon of hope in his life.

A light.

~*~

Bill Guarnere, Joe’s best friend and second in command, complained about the ship the second he saw her. And Joe knew he would.

(“It’s a bit… Rundown don’t ya’ think?” He asked, a smile tugging at his lips because he knew somehow Joe would find some luh-suh ship that looked like it wouldn’t even get off the planet, let alone handle well out in space.

Joe just shook his head, trying not to roll his eyes, “Shut up, you haven’t even seen inside her yet. For all you know she’s a beauty on the inside.”

Guarnere did roll his eyes at that, “Yeah, I’m sure she looks better than this inside.”)

Joe and Guarnere had grown up together. Well, together as you could be when you both lived on ranches miles away from each other. Joe was raised by his mom and a few farmhands what she had taken in when he was younger. Guarnere was raised by both his parents, and even helped them raise his two younger sisters. .

Neither of them had much of an education from growing up on an outer-planet with parents that didn’t have money to send their kids to school every day. Not when there was a farm to look after. But they both had a knack for getting into trouble, though their parents thanked God it was never anything too bad.

The older boy, Guarnere, was like a firecracker, and was always willing to back Joe up on anything. It was something that always drew them to each other throughout their childhood. That’s why they ended up going to war together, and lost their legs together.

They were brothers, even if it wasn’t through blood.

~*~

Joe never heard a complaint from Guarnere about the pilot he hired.

Frances was a small girl who had a fire in her eyes that made her look hungry, though Joe wasn’t sure what for. Her hair was a mess of black curls that never seemed to stay in the ponytail she tried to keep it in. She had a temper that matched her eyes, and even challenged Guarnere’s.

But she was also sweet, and fell in love with Light as soon as she saw her. Joe trusted her right away based simply on the fact she wore her feelings on her sleeve. There was something brave about doing that, especially in their line of work.

(“Please call me Fran. Only my mama calls me Frances,” Fran had laughed as she shook Joe’s hand. “Would you rather I call you Joe, Toye or Captain?”

She spoke fast, and it threw Joe off at first. “Toye or Captain. There’s only a few people who call me Joe when they’re not holdin’ a gun to my head.” Fran laughed again at that.)

Part of him knew her and Guarnere would end up together. And he prayed he wouldn’t lose a damn fine pilot if their relationship went sour. What surprised him was when they decided to get married.

And he would never say it to Fran, but sometimes he wishes they hadn’t gotten together at all.

~*~

Picking up Ronald Speirs was more of a surprise than anything else.

The man was scary even to Joe, who was used to being the scary one. And he was pretty sure the man was about to kill him and his crew. (If you could call three people a crew.)

But the guy was clearly a talented mercenary, and the men holding them up in that moment really weren’t paying him enough to be doing what he was for them.

(“You’re a damn talented gunner, where’d you learn to shoot like that all the way out here?” Joe asked, trying to ignore Speirs’’ current boss in the hopes that he wouldn’t just kill him right there. “And what are they payin’ you?”

The compliment threw everyone off, and Joe heard Guarnere mutter a warning. That of course he was going to ignore.

“I taught myself,” Speirs sounded like he was trying not to brag, but he had the right to. “They pay me ten percent of everything.” Joe snorted, rolling his eyes, “Work for me and you’ll get twenty, and your own room.” He said, ignoring the threats from the other gunners.)

Even after Speirs joined the crew he and Joe had their differences. Especially when it came to getting into fights with people they had no business fighting with.

~*~

Finding George Luz was part happy accident, part pain in Joe’s ass.

Their first mechanic was always flakey, and even though none of them knew anything about fixing an engine (or most things on the ship for that matter,) they were pretty convinced he was on the same boat. Sure, the first kid was likable, but he wasn’t too great about thinking about things before he did them. Which left the crew in bad situations more often than not.

Joe found Luz one afternoon sitting on the floor tearing apart his ship’s engine, the actual mechanic of his ship nowhere to be found. He was too shocked and confused to even kick him off the ship.

(“I’ve been lookin’ for you for hours where the--” Joe paused, staring down at a kid who he was sure couldn’t be older than 18. The kid had the brightest smile he’d seen in a while, “-- Who the hell are you?”

Luz was up in a flash, dropping the parts he had been toying with, he wiped the greasy from the engine off on his pants before grabbing Joe’s hand to shake it. “George Luz, at your service. You can just call me Luz. Your, uh, mechanic let me in. I don’t know where he went, though,” He shrugged, dropping Joe’s hand before turning back to the engine.

“But I do know, he’s not very good if he couldn’t fix this. It’s an easy catch, even with the extra parts,” Luz gestured around as he spoke, and Joe was sure he hadn’t seen anyone this jittery in his life. “It was a real simple fix, too,” he sat on the floor again, pulling Joe down so he could see what he was talking about. “See, you don’t actually need these two parts. So all I did was take those out and then I took these wires and connected ‘em to this. These two are just there for show, mostly. Some engines need ‘em, but yours sure as hell doesn’t.”)

Luz was a whirlwind of energy, with the messy hair to match. He never knew when to quit, or when to be quiet, but that was what was most endearing about him. His eyes were almost always bright, and even on their worst days he took the time to cheer everyone up.

Joe’s never understood how he does it, but he’s pretty sure Luz keeps the ship running on positivity alone.

~*~ Edward “Babe” Heffron was a small, scrappy kid the crew found in the Eavesdown Dock on Persephone. He looked rough, clearly keeping himself alive by picking pockets, and it was just his luck he ran into Light’s crew.

They picked him up just a few months after adding Luz to the crew, which made the two fast friends. Part of it was their closeness in age, and the other part was understanding how scary it can be to just join a crew of strangers who knew so much about each other already.

(“They kid robbed us, Toye.” Speirs was still breathing heavily. After spending what felt like hours chasing Babe through streets and alleys he wasn’t familiar with. He was lucky Guarnere caught him before he was completely lost. They had to drag the kid back to the ship, and he put up a pretty good fight the whole time.

Babe had the decency to look guilty, whether it was because he got caught or not Joe didn’t really care. “Yeah, he did, but you caught him didn’t you?” Plus he’s just a kid.” He rolled his eyes at Speirs frown.

“I promise I’m sorry, please don’t take me to the feds. I don’t have anyone to bail me out, I promise I won’t steal from you again.” Babe spoke fast, sounding desperate. He was clearly scared they would turn him in, or worse.

Guarnere sighed loudly, shaking his head before turning to Babe, “Alright, how about this. You’re a pretty talented thief, especially if my friend here didn’t even feel you grab his credits right out of his pocket,” Babe seemed to preen at that, he’d never had anyone compliment him like that before, “You give us your name, and you can come with us. You’ll get your own room, daily meals all that junk.”

Babe yanked his arm out of Speirs’ girp, and for a second they all got ready for him to run again. Instead he dusted himself off, though it didn’t really help, “I’m Edward… but everyone calls me Babe. What makes you think I want to travel around with all of you on this junky ship?”

“‘Cause I got a feeling you don’t have anywhere else to go ecept back on the streets. You look like you could use a shower and some clean clothes.” Bill shrugged, “You don’t gotta come with us, though.”)

In the end, Babe decided to stay, because even though the ship looked like it could fall out of the sky at any moment, it was better than going back to sleep on the streets of Persephone. And no one had offered him a home since his mother died two years ago.

Joe trusted Bill’s judgement on the kid, and he knew if anything bad did happen, Bill would take the blame.

~*~ Joe loves his pain in the ass, ragtag family. They’re an odd group, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He would do anything for them, and knows that in the long run they would do the same. They’ve all stuck together through some of the hardest times, and some of the easiest.

Joe knows that if it came down to it, he can trust any of them with his life.

[ruinationrp-blog]

FIRST SERGEANT MIHAI “PUPPY” BALAN · 28 · HEAD AERIAL ENGINEER · SHADOWED COMMANDO · TAKEN

" Deep in the ocean, dead and cast away. Where innocence is burned, in flames. A million miles from home, I am walking ahead; I’m frozen to the bones, I am. A soldier on my own, I don’t know the way. "

ORIGIN:

Botosani, Romania

TRAITS:

+ Loyal, Easy-Going, Compassionate

- Headstrong, Compulsive, Vengeful

BIOGRAPHY:

THERE IS A WAR OUTSIDE, COME SEE THE BULLETS FLY.

Reporters and politicians would say that the second world war began in September 1939 with bullets flying and countries falling to their knees; but for some, the battle had begun much earlier. Mihai Balan was born in the dead of winter, seconds after another child, Viktor Balan, twins. With this simple biological fact it was easy to understand why the brothers were attached at the hip. Identical in physical terms, the only thing that made them different were their minds. Mihai was quick witted impulsive, able pick apart the problem and put it back together within seconds. Viktor on the other hand was a thinker, taking his time in decision making to make sure that every possible option was considered.

The Balan family lived a modest life on in the Romanian country side, tilling the land and raising cattle to get by. It was a meek existence but the family was a lively one, always seeing the sliver of light in a raging storm. When it seemed the boys were no longer boys, and instead men needing to start their lives and take wives, their father faced an untimely death and their mother welcomed a new life into a time of grief. As Iris Balan took her first breath, Alexander Balan took his last. It was both a joyous time and a forlorn one, but love eclipsed the pain and time continued to move forward.

To make extra money for the family Mihai turned into a gambling man, betting his wages on his own strength and speed. Boxing was his muse and winning was his goal. The bruises and lacerations that decorated his skin like tattoos never seemed to dull his enthusiasm for life, and the Balan name became a well-known one in their town.  Somehow, with battered and often fractured hands Mihai still inherited his father’s keen sense for mechanics. Intensely he would listen to the purr of engines and radios, diagnostics firing through his brain at a mile a minute before a conclusion was reached. A bang here, a loose screw there, or a complete rewiring all around, Mihai could fix any machine set before him and eventually grew bored of fixing and began building instead. At first his contraptions were crude, and with time they became elaborate and something worth selling. He would spend hours designing new things to help the family become more efficient and eventually his talents spread to neighbors and the town, everyone wanting a genuine Balan contraption.

Life seemed alright for the Balan’s, but the whispers through town could not be ignored. Hitler’s name was already a household one and his power was like a slowly heated bath. The world would already be boiled to death before they realized the catastrophic evil and unimaginable circumstances were at their back doors.

DO YOU HEAR THE BATTLE CRY?

No one tells you how artificial bullets sound. Maybe if Mihai had known the real thing could sound so fake, he would have acted sooner. It was only the screams of neighbors, the shouts of surprise and pain that woke the Balan family on June 3rd 1939. Darkness had become illuminated by reddish orange flames licking their way up the walls, smoke and soot clinging to their lungs and igniting their throats with an incomprehensible pain. The brothers found each other instantly, weaving through the shadows with a spiritual connection guiding them to one another. The spoke only briefly, devising a plan of action before vanishing back into the smog. Mihai would go find Iris and Viktor would find their mother before meeting outside at the barn.

Somehow Iris was still asleep when Mihai found her. At only four years only she was easily scooped up into his arms and carried outside where clean air awaited them both. Chaos had erupted around them, the town lit ablaze created an imitation sunrise in the distance with firing guns creating the thunder. It seemed like an eternity had passed yet Viktor has still not appeared. Desperately Mihai wanted to charge back into the crippling structure he once called home, but he dared not leave Iris alone, and those crashes of thunderwere only getting closer. For once, a decision did not spark instantly in his mind. Mihai could stay and go looking for his mother and brother, or he could accept the high probability that they were dead and instead take his sister and run. No one tells you how your heart can physically break.

Hours turned into days and eventually days turned into weeks but still they dragged on. With Iris clung to his body, Mihai soldiered on through the country side determined to get her to safety. He was the only thing she had left, and in turn she was the only thing keeping her alive. The summer months meant that the elements were not currently working against them, so hidden groves and grasslands became their hotels for the days, and the stars became their guidance at night. At this time there was no one to trust, the world had turned a blind eye while physical evil manifested its self in the form of a man and in the form of seemingly innocent citizens going about their lives. It was astounding how similar Nazi’s looked to mothers and grandmothers, fathers and brothers. And though Mihai could easily blend into the Aryan race, compassion was the foundation of his being and now only vengeance filled the cracks in his heart.

Sometime in late July, solace was found. The Balan’s had found their way into Greece, a local family opening their home to the destitute travelers that had agony in their eyes. For Iris, she adjusted easily, taking a liking to the generous family and trusting them with only the innocence a four-year-old could muster. For Mihai, the process was slow. He laid wide awake at night by Iris’ side, their small amount of belongings ready to go just in case chaos came to steal another life; but it never did. This family, the Rosso’s had somehow escaped the troubled times and had no malice in their bones. They heard Mihai’s story and felt sorrow in their hearts, offering the one thing they desperately sought, security.

Only now that his sister had a new place to call home could Mihai address the rage pent up within his soul. His family was everything to him and within an instant they were ripped away. He became withdrawn and vengeful, aching for a way to curve the destructive feeling within his chest. The call to arms was his new beacon of hope. With hardship he left his sister with the Rossos and a charred picture of the entire Balan family. He vowed to return to her no matter the cost.

Though Mihai was eager to shoot, to hear those artificial bullets slice through the flesh of the wicked, his engineering talents did not go unnoticed. With the need for new technology and advanced weaponry, Mihai’s skills were harnessed by the army and did not go unnoticed. He quickly climbed the ranks though no amount of stars and stripes could satisfy him. The routine was numbing and familiar, mechanical parts transported him back to the Romanian countryside with memories sending him into a trance as he crafted new machines out of nothing. It allowed him to somehow shut out the carnage and anarchy the world had erupted into, a gift not soon wasted.

Eventually his grease covered hands would feel the violent vibration of a machine gun within them. They needed men to fight, and Mihai would cure the vengeance in his heart one bullet at a time. His carnality and skill are what landed him within the ranks of the Shadowed Commandos, his loyalty is what would earn him his place.

FACECLAIM: Charlie Hunnam