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hurricanery · 4 years ago

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What’s a Soulmate?

Hi! This is my first Amelink Fic. Completely AU//Little snippets of ‘What if Link and Amelia had met at a different time in their lives?’ Also OOPS THIS IS REALLY LONG. TW: implied drug use.

_______ Atticus Lincoln is 9 years old when he discovers what a soulmate is. Not by definition exactly, but the feeling is there.

It’s a sunny afternoon in mid-august, one of the last few days of freedom before school starts up again. Few of the last chances Link will get to spend all day outside, practicing his baseball pitch with his dad.

Earlier that day, Link and his father had noticed moving trucks line up across the street. Right in front of the house where Mrs. Edelstein lived before she was put in that nursing home.

“Looks like someone’s finally moving in,” Link’s dad had said.

‘Good,’ Link had thought. No more Mrs. Edelstein and no more apples on halloween.

_______

The two are just finishing up their batting practice when a minivan pulls into the driveway of Mrs. Edelstein’s old house. A woman steps out of the driver’s side first, before chaos ensues. Both sliding doors of the minivan fly open at the same time, before a handful of young voices are heard. Link watches from afar and counts one by one as they pile out of the car.

A taller, teenaged girl and a dark-haired boy around the same age immediately sprint toward the house, the girl yelling something about ‘dibs on the biggest bedroom!’

“Nancy! Derek! Slow down!” the children’s mother yells after them. The woman sighs as two more young girls jump out of the car and start running toward the house. “Come on, Amy,” the mother speaks again. Slowly, another girl appears from the car. Immediately, Link notices the age difference between this girl and the other kids that had just disappeared into the house. She seems much closer to his age. Link is amused by her more reluctant pace, compared to her siblings. He watches as the girl’s mother begins to practically drag her toward the house.

“Why don’t you go say hi, Link? Introduce yourself?” His dad’s voice officially halts him from observing the family across the street.

Link shakes his head. “Maybe later,” he says, his gaze drifting back to the house, where he can see the children running around through the front windows.

_______

It’s a little bit after 7pm now, and Link and his dad have just finished dinner. It’s still light outside, a nice summer night, and Link wanders back outside to hopefully curve his boredom.

There’s not much to do in his backyard, at least not by himself. He feels a tug in his chest when he thinks back to earlier. The way he was completely enticed by the big, rowdy family across the street.

He wanders to the front lawn in search of his baseball mitt when he sees her. The youngest girl from earlier. She’s sitting cross-legged by herself on the sidewalk in front of her new home, focusing deeply on the pavement beneath her, sidewalk chalk in hand. Her long dark hair is pulled back into a braid, but despite that, she seems to be pushing her bangs out of her face every few seconds.

Link is a pretty shy kid and he knows that. Even a little timid. But there’s something about this girl that’s piqued his interest. He really wants to know her, and to be her friend, he thinks.

So he gains up enough courage to cross the street, not before checking both ways for cars first. He approaches the house slowly, but the girl doesn’t seem to notice his presence. Her head remains turned down, focusing on what she’s doing.

“Um hi my name is Atticus Lincoln and I live across the street,” the sentence comes out in a rush, words stringing together completely. And maybe he should have made his entrance more known, he thinks, as he watches the girl almost fall back from where she was sitting with her knees tucked underneath her.

“Shit, you scared me,” the girl gasps, blue eyes wide.

And Link is stunned. Because that is not what he expected to hear. His eyes are now just as wide as hers “Y-you’re allowed to say that?"

The girl just stares at him for a second, before something seems to click in her brain, and then she’s laughing with her head thrown back. Real, genuine laughter. The kind that Link has only seen on sitcoms, or when his aunts and uncles drink too many adult beverages at family barbecues.

He loves the sound of it. It’s making him laugh, too. "You have a funny laugh,” he tells her.

“You have a funny name,” she retorts.

“Hey,” he frowns, but it doesn’t last as he can’t help but laugh. “Well what’s your name, then?”

“Amelia.”

“Amelia?” He repeats, dumbfounded. Partly because he’s never really heard the name before. It sounds sharp. And he thinks it matches perfectly. Especially with the quick and witty words falling from her laughing mouth.

“Yeah, ya dummy. Have you never heard that name before?”

And Link, for the first time in his life, is at a loss for words. Because she is something else.

“Anyway, Atticus, do you wanna play a game?”

_______

Link is 16 years old when he discovers that high school is the bane of his existence.

Link is a decently popular kid. Apparently. A favorite student in the eyes of most teachers. A friendly face for most of his classmates. A star baseball player and a name well known in the small community. But he doesn’t always see himself the way that others do, most of the time.

He has to wear this thing called deodorant all of a sudden, sometimes his face breaks out, he is nervous almost all of the time, and on top of all that, yesterday he found out he’s the only one in his friend group who’s never kissed a girl.

He feels pressured, mostly by the fact that girls in his grade are so intimidating.

It’s friday morning and he’s running kind of late for school. But he knows that doesn’t really matter. Because as late as he is, he knows Amelia will be running even later. And he’s supposed to meet her in 2 minutes to walk to school. Like they do every day.

He wanders outside and paces the sidewalk in front of her house, waiting for her front door to swing open and for her to come barreling outside as if getting ready for school is the most hectic experience.

And like clockwork, there she is. Flying down the front steps of her porch while simultaneously shrugging on her backpack and flinging her hair up into a messy ponytail. Her face lights up as soon as she sees him, but she falters just as quick, as she almost falls facedown on the sidewalk.

“You didn’t have time to tie your shoes this morning, Ames?”

"I don’t have time for a lot of things, Link.” She rolls her eyes.

“Well maybe if you woke up on time-”

“That’s impossible.”

“Go to bed at a decent time?”

“How do you know I don’t go to bed at a decent time?” She smirks at him, a common occurrence. Link’s pulse quickens every time she pulls the mischievous grin.

He blushes before he responds. “Your bedroom is literally right across from mine. Your light is on until at least 3am.”

Amelia just giggles. That fantastic, contagious giggle that Link has heard everyday for the last 6 years.

He nods to himself, knowing fully well that Amelia’s homework routine typically takes place between midnight and 3am. He doesn’t understand how she does it. She saves everything for the last minute and yet remains to have the highest grades out of everybody. It’s like the opposite way he goes about his own academics, yet it yields the same results. Even though Amelia is far smarter than him, she has almost the opposite reputation with the teachers.

Amelia bumps her hip into his side as they walk, shaking Link from his thoughts. “You going to the party tonight?” She raises her brows at him in question.

“Probably not,” Link answers. She just laughs at him.

“We’ll see.”

_______

They both end up at the party that night. A stupid high school party. Separately, that is. Because despite how close Amelia and Link are, they have very different friend groups. Link’s friend group is mostly made up of the baseball team, while Amelia tends to flock towards a tougher crowd.

So they arrive separately, but as soon as they lock eyes in the crowded basement, they’re practically running toward each other.

“Link!!!” Amelia yells, a little too loudly, unlike her. “I’m soooo glad you’re here.” She smiles at him, but her eyes are unfocused.

“Amelia are you drunk already?” Link laughs. Amelia’s usually a pretty happy drunk. At least the times that Link has seen her this way.

She nods her head around enthusiastically. “That I am,” she giggles. “Lemme find you a drink okay?”

_______

A couple hours later and Link’s ready to leave. He’s not drunk, just a little tipsy. And he’s not really feeling like being here anymore. He looks around the room to see if Amelia is still here. But he can’t seem to find her. He shrugs it off and says his goodbyes before making his way outside to walk home.

When he reaches the front porch he halts. Because there’s Amelia. Sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest on the front steps, gazing forward as if she’s thinking really hard about something.

Link clears his throat. “Whatcha doing there?”

As soon as she realizes Link’s presence, she shakes from her daze, smiling up at him. “Waiting for you. I felt like going home a while ago but I thought I’d wait for you.”

“That was cool of you.”

“No biggie.”

Link towers over her, even after she stands up. The height difference can be almost comical sometimes. She scrunches her nose a bit at him, like she’s taking in the height difference, too. And with that, they start their walk.

Link’s pretty quiet. More so than usual, Amelia notices.

“Something bothering you?” She asks.

“Uh, no. I’m fine.” And Link is the worst liar ever.

“Link…”

He’s silent for a moment.

“Amelia have you ever kissed anyone?”

Amelia laughs, cause she was not expecting this. “Yeah, silly. Why do you ask?”

And oh, Link thinks. That is not what he wanted to hear.

“Who?”

“Well. Umm. Jake. And Tyler. And-”

She notices him go quiet, eyes glued to his feet as they walk.

“You okay, Link?”

He shakes his head.

“Well what’s up?” She continues.

Link sighs deeply before responding. “Amelia, I’ve never kissed anyone..” he quickly mumbles out.

“I’m sorry I didn't really hear you. Did you say-”

“I said I’ve never kissed anyone,” and you could definitely say his voice is raised.

Amelia doesn’t really know how to respond. “Link, that’s okay. That’s fine.”

“No. It’s not. Everyone else has. Literally everybody.”

“That’s not true.”

“You have though.”

“Yeah, but-”

“But, what?” He interrupts her, and Amelia catches on that he’s pretty upset right now.

“It didn’t mean anything. I kissed those guys on a dare. At a stupid party. I didn’t even enjoy it.”

“Still,” Link sighs. “I feel like a freak. Kind of.”

“Well you are a freak,” she smirks at him. “But not because you haven’t kissed anyone.”

Link visibly relaxes, smiling back despite the dig. They're quiet again for a few minutes before Link speaks up again.

“Amelia, can I ask you something really dumb?”

“Sure, dummy.”

He sighs again, as if he’s working up some sort of courage, because he is. “Can I kiss you right now?” He looks to her face for a reaction before he continues. Of course she looks startled and confused. Just as he’d expected. “Not like serious. Like just so I can get it over with?” He explains quickly.

“Are you for real?” She giggles, still a little drunk.

“I am.”

“No, you idiot. I love you too much."

And now it’s Link’s turn to look startled.

"You’re my best friend,” She continues.

Oh. Right.

“And I’m not letting you waste your first kiss because you 'want to get it over with.’”

_______

2 weeks later and final exams are cramming their way into Link’s life. As he wraps up studying for a chem exam, he checks the clock. 1am. He yawns, standing up and stretching, before deciding to call it a night. Link finds himself glancing across the street, knowing it’s prime time for Amelia to be studying, too. His gaze lands on her bedroom window, but he frowns as he notices her light is turned off.

Link doesn’t think too much of it. He’s actually a little relieved that Amelia has seemingly gone to bed at a decent time. He quickly brushes his teeth and sets his alarm before collapsing into bed.

On the verge of sleep, Link is interrupted by a noise against his window. He tries to brush it off, but it becomes more persistent. Every 10 or so seconds, a sharp tap against glass. He gets up, crossing the floor, peering out his window. He rubs his eyes as they adjust, looking down at the front lawn.

And there’s Amelia Shepherd. Dressed in skinny jeans and a leather jacket, looking right back at him. Link thinks he’s dreaming. Amelia grows impatient at his slow reaction, taking it upon herself to throw another small rock against the glass. Link jumps back, startled. He opens the window.

“Amelia, what-” He groans. “What are you doing? What time is it? What-”

“Can you let me in? I need to stay over.” She interrupts him.

Something about her tone of voice seems off, Link thinks. But, he’s moving down the stairs and toward the front door quicker than expected for being half-asleep.

They settle on the sofa in Link’s living room. Amelia immediately begins kicking off her ankle boots. Link watches her, noticing her glassy, blood-shot eyes. He sighs.

“Don’t be mad at me.” Amelia picks up on his disappointment right away. She leans back against the cushions, resting her eyes shut. Link is glad for it. Her eyes are absolutely stunning. He has no problem admitting it. But, he hates the way they look when they are glazed over and hinting red like that. Her eyes remain closed as she mumbles at him “Can I have a glass of water?”

Link silently obeys her request. Moving about the kitchen slowly, as to not wake his father. When he re-enters the living room, Amelia is sitting up again, playing with her fingers anxiously. Link sets the glass of water on the table before he sits back down next to her.

“Thanks,” she mumbles. “I’m sorry.”

Link shakes his head. “You okay?” He asks her.

She pauses, gathering her thoughts. “I did something stupid.”

Link is not phased by this. She “does something stupid” quite a lot these days. And, quite a lot, she ends up on his couch when she doesn’t want to face her problems right away. And Link lets her do this. He lets her hide out across the street when she can’t go home yet.

“I took Derek’s car this time,” she almost whispers. And Link’s head snaps up, glancing through the front window and to her driveway across the street. He notices Derek’s car to be missing still.

“Amelia!” It’s a combination of a whisper and a shout. “You can’t be driving around like this-”

“Oh please!” She interrupts him, matching his tone. “I just smoked a little weed!”

Link glares at her. Locking eyes with her hazy blue orbs.

“And besides...I didn’t drive his car home. I walked.” She continues.

“You walked?!”

“Hey! I left his car didn’t I? I was being safe!”

Link takes a minute to steady his voice. He can hear some shuffling around upstairs but decides to ignore it.

“I would have come pick you up.” He sighs. Amelia leans back against the cushions again. Link notices truly how anxious she looks. She looks up at him, worry and regret dancing all across her features. He sighs again, and this time he sounds more understanding. “We’ll go get his car first thing in the morning.”

She smiles a bit, grateful. She looks so tired.

“Did you leave it Jake’s?” Link asks, flinching at the thought of her even going over to his house. Link can’t stand the guy. He’s a bad influence on her, the school’s go-to dealer. Not to mention the guy is repeating his senior year. Ugh.

Amelia nods. “Yeah-”

They’re interrupted by the sound of footsteps descending the staircase. Link’s dad turns the corner a moment later. Link meets his dad’s eyes apologetically. When he sees Amelia and Link on the couch, he nods to himself knowingly.

“Hi, Mr. Lincoln,” Amelia speaks up. “Sorry to wake you.”

Link’s dad looks at Amelia, nodding with understandment. “That’s quite alright, Amelia. Just came down for a glass of water, actually.” Link knows his dad is making that last bit up. He’s just checking in. “Are you okay?”

Amelia nods gratefully at the man still standing in the doorway. “I’m okay….thanks Mr. Lincoln.”

“Yeah thanks Dad. I’ll be back up in a bit.” Link watches as his dad disappears, eyes shifting back to Amelia. Her eyes close again as she relaxes back against the couch. Link squeezes her thigh gratefully. Grateful to his dad for being practically a second parent to Amelia. Amelia smiles sleepily.

“Your dad is the best.”

“I know.”

Amelia’s smile fades and Link’s heart clenches a bit at the sight of it. He knows that his dad has acted as sort of a father figure to Amelia, especially because Amelia’s dad had died when she was so young. Link and Amelia had even bonded over being raised by single parents growing up. He feels sick with guilt. His parent’s divorce can’t even compare to what Amelia has been through.

“Alright we can talk tomorrow, ok?” Link whispers, squeezing her thigh once more before standing up. He grabs a blanket from the basket in the corner and tosses it to Amelia. She wraps it around herself before moving to lay down across the couch. Link heads toward the stairs.

“Link?”

He pauses. “Yeah?”

“Just, please-” Amelia’s voice is laced with sadness. “I, just. I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

Link sighs from the doorway. “I’m not, Amelia. It’s...just. You scare me sometimes.”

Link hears some shuffling around before he sees Amelia’s head pop up over the back of the sofa. She glances back at him.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Link just stares at her, not knowing what to say. He’d rather they have this conversation tomorrow. But, Amelia speaks up again.

“I don’t know why I do this stuff sometimes….” her voice is barely a whisper, it sounds like she’s talking more to herself. “It’s just nice to not feel...sometimes...to be not feeling everything. If that makes sense…”

Link nods quickly. “Amelia we’ll talk tomorrow, ok?”

Amelia nods in response, still looking unsure of herself.

“We’ll get donuts on the way to pick up the car, how’s that sound?” Link speaks up again, smiling at her.

Amelia beams at him. She finally drops down against the pillows. Link takes a second before he turns back toward the stairs. As he makes his way up, he hears a quiet “thank you” from behind him.

_______

Link is 18 years old when he discovers what it feels like to miss someone so much it hurts.

He’s been away for his first semester of college for 2 months now and not even weekly Skype sessions with Amelia can distract him from his shitty experience so far.

His roommate is the definition of douche-bag. Constantly trashing their room, eating all of Link’s food, staying up all night, locking him out of the room for hours at a time when he has a girl over.

Link hates it here. And he misses having his best friend. And the comfort of being so close with someone and having them near at all times.

Amelia is having a different experience. She got into college on a scholarship and immediately found her place.

Link doesn’t like to admit that he often catches himself counting down the days until Christmas, aka when he’ll see her again. Hear her laugh again, and not just through a webcam.

_______

Link learns to find new distractions. He joins the college baseball team. He meets new people. People he actually enjoys, way more than he’ll ever enjoy his roommate or the people that live on his floor.

He meets Emma. She’s on the college dance team. She’s beautiful. And tall. And genuinely funny. And a distraction.

He thinks he loves Emma, by the end of his first year of college. He feels something every time he looks at her. With her beautiful dark hair and her tan skin. Her wide smile and the way she laughs with her entire body. She feels familiar. And makes him feel nostalgic.

And he crushes any thought he has of Emma equaling his Amelia. His best friend.

He loses his virginity to Emma. It was a stupidly quick and drunken thing. By the time he returns home that summer, he can barely remember what it felt like. Or why he thought he knew what love was when he looked at Emma.

_______

Link is 22 years old when he discovers what it feels like to finally open up.

He hasn’t seen Amelia in almost a full year, although they still consider each other one another’s best friends.

It’s finally thanksgiving and they’re both returning home from their separate colleges for the weekend. He’s completely shocked when he first sees her. She looks the same but so, so different. More mature. More….something. Her hair is cut a bit shorter, framing her face. Her eyes are more intense than he remembers. Her face lights up at the sight of him and it makes his chest pull tight. He takes in what she’s wearing, the blue in her dress doing all the right things for her features.

Amelia clears her throat, drawing his attention back up to her face. “Long time no see, Link. Eyes up here.”

He shakes his head amusedly as he pulls her into a tight hug, because she’s already making him laugh within the first few seconds of being reunited.

_______

They end up at a local restaurant. The night before thanksgiving, which happens to be the busiest bar night all year. It’s also the night that everyone from high school decides to go to the same place. It basically feels like a premature high school reunion.

Amelia and Link attempt to stay together for the entirety of the night, but it’s a little hard when you’re constantly interrupted by vaguely familiar faces and pointless conversations.

After Link catches up with an old buddy for what seems like hours, he moves across the crowded room to find Amelia. It’s well past 1am and Link kind of wants to go home. He has to get up early tomorrow anyway to set up for thanksgiving festivities.

He catches her eye from where she’s sitting at a table, and motions toward the door, attempting to let her know that he’s leaving.

She frowns at him before abruptly ending whatever conversation she was part of.

Link watches her as she pushes through people to meet him by the door.

“You’re leaving without me? What kind of date are you?” She smirks at him as she shrugs on her jacket.

“I wasn’t aware this was a date, Ames.” Link responds, playing along. “But yes, I am leaving. Early morning and all that.”

“Well let me walk you home.” She continues, voice laced with irony.

_______

They end up back at Link’s house, sitting at the kitchen table. And it all feels very nostalgic. Especially with Link’s dad upstairs sleeping. Link feels like a kid again. Amelia makes him feel like a kid again.

Mostly there’s a lot of catching up, and reminiscing. And conversation about the future. It’s good. And Link is happy. And Amelia is laughing, so inherently, Link is too.

“Remember that time junior year when you were so sleep deprived because 'college prep, duh’ that you slept-walked all the way across the street, to my house, and started throwing random shit at my window?”

Amelia bursts out laughing. “My sleep schedule was always a mess. But how about that time we got so drunk senior year? And we fell asleep on your front lawn? And my mom found us the next morning?”

_______

They talk about everything. All the things they used to love. All the things they missed about each other while they were both away. Everything that’s new to them.

Amelia learns everything about Link’s college experiences. All of the drunken mishaps. All of the ex-girlfriends. Even some weird sex things that she can’t ever un-hear. She learns that Link wants to pursue med school, possibly move out to the city.

Link learns that Amelia wants to follow in her older siblings’ footsteps. He learns that she loves science and wants to become a surgeon, and Link swears to her that he had always known that about her.

Amelia tells him about the relationships she’s been through. And the one she’s currently in.

“You’ll get to meet him this weekend, Link. He’s driving in tomorrow. For dinner.”

Link swallows, hard. Because suddenly things don’t feel so much like nostalgia and a happy, familiar place. Things feel uncertain.

“How long have you two been together?” He asks, feeling a tad out of place.

“We met my freshman year. We’ve been dating on and off since then.”

“On and off?” Link questions.

Amelia clears her throat. “Well, yeah.” She sighs. “We’ve broken up more than once. And gotten back together a couple of times…It’s um…” She pauses, collecting her thoughts. “It’s been, um, I mean I wouldn’t say a roller coaster, but…”

Link watches Amelia’s face fall with her half-attempt at an explanation. For the second time tonight, Link realizes that Amelia looks different. And it’s not just the confidence or the mature face. It’s in her eyes. And Link thinks she looks sad. Despite the fact that she’s been laughing freely, the same way she always has. It doesn’t reach her eyes.

Link doesn’t want to pry. But he almost feels obligated to ask. Because this is his best friend. His favorite person of practically 13 years.

“Amelia, are you happy?”

She doesn’t look up from where her eyes are glued to the kitchen table. It feels like minutes have passed before Amelia stands up on wobbly feet and walks around to Link’s side of the table. She still doesn’t say anything, but all of a sudden she’s forcing her way into Link’s lap, legs dangling off the side of the chair and arms wrapping around his neck.

She looks exhausted, he notices, when he looks into her eyes. And then she finally opens her mouth.

“I had the biggest crush on you in high school. Probably since I was 9, if I’m being honest.” And she laughs a little bit under her breath.

She lays her head on his chest so he can no longer see her face. Link wraps his arms around her waist and places a comforting kiss to the top of her head.

“And I of course was head over heels for you, but you already knew that. Everyone did.” He whispers, tightening his grip on her just slightly, giving her a gentle squeeze.

She laughs into him, and Link can feel it on his neck. It’s a tired, breathless laugh.

“Let’s crash on the couch, yeah?” He offers. “Like old times?”

_______

It’s weird for Link the next night at dinner. To see Amelia snuggled into the embrace of another man. Not even 24 hours after she’d fallen asleep in his own arms.

Link cringes when he recites it in his head. The way he’d whispered ’I’ve always loved you, Ames. Always will’ before they drifted off.

And the way that she’d responded. ’I love you too, Link. You’re my best friend.’

Link is angry, he thinks.

_______

Link is 25 years old when he discovers that he’s destined to be a father.

When his fiancé of two years, Rachel, tells him she's pregnant, he almost falls to his knees. So overwhelmed with a feeling he can’t place. He hopes it’s that he’s overjoyed, not overwhelmed, or the least bit uncertain.

He would love nothing more than to be a father.

_______

Link feels numb, three months later, when Rachel loses the baby. Waking up in the middle of the night and discovering such a thing, rushing to the hospital, only to find out it’s too late. It was draining for the both of them.

And it takes a toll on their relationship.

Rachel is defeated. And grows more and more depressed.

She takes her anger out on Link, and he does the same with her.

They decide to take a break, and Rachel moves back in with her parents. She needs some time for herself. And Link doesn’t know if he feels relieved. But he feels something. Cause he knows he was supposed to be a father.

_______

Link is 28 years old when he discovers that Seattle is his true home.

He’s graduated medical school and landed an internship at a top hospital in the city. He’s been in Seattle for almost 2 months now, and he feels like he’s in the right place for the first time in a long time.

It’s a monday morning and he’s taking his regular train ride downtown when an all too familiar brunette steps into the subway car.

The car is kind of crowded, and she automatically makes her way to a less dense standing spot. She doesn’t see him, cause she’s not really looking around.

Link is frozen in his seat, unsure of what to do. He hasn’t seen her in almost 3 years. Since they met at a restaurant in their hometown on New Years Eve. He was with Rachel at the time and things were very different.

Link realizes the next stop is his and he almost debates staying on to take his chance with Amelia.

The doors open and Amelia is getting off. And this is his stop, too. He leaps out of his seat just in time for the doors to not close in on him as he exits the train.

And he's definitely moving a little too fast and with too much force, because as soon as he’s on the platform, he’s running right into his childhood best friend.

She looks more startled than ever. And he takes a second to catch his breath. “Long time no see, Shepherd.” He smiles.

And her face lights up like never before. Brighter than before the average walk to school. Brighter than the time she first visited him at college. Brighter than a Thanksgiving reunion. She’s pulling him into the tightest of hugs, laughing breathlessly into his ear.

“What the hell, Link? What the hell are you doing here?” She lets go of him and they’re making eye contact, smiles wide across both their faces. They both seem to need to catch their breath.

“I could ask you the same thing.” He jokes.

Amelia shakes from her daze. “I..I live here now. I start a new job today. Like now, actually.”

Link just shakes his head knowingly, trying to contain the smile that just won’t quit. He doesn’t have much to say.

He’s overjoyed.

_______

Link is 29 years old when he discovers that his 9 year old self was correct. He knows what a soulmate is, by definition.

He knows what a soulmate is when he takes Amelia out on their real first date and he doesn’t even kiss her goodbye, because the timing isn’t quite right.

He knows what a soulmate is when he watches Amelia become a brilliant neuro fellow. When he watches her work. And save lives. When he realizes that he’s loved her determination since the moment they first met.

He knows what a soulmate is when they have sex for the first time. And it's way better for the both of them than it ever was with anyone else. When they take it kind of slow, reveling in each moment. Because it doesn’t feel real. She doesn’t feel real. It’s understated and overwhelming and it drives Link insane.

Amelia had asked him to stay over after they’d gone out with some of their other co-workers after a successful surgery, and when the making out and cuddling pressed into something further, Link couldn’t deny her.

Link knows what a soulmate is that night. When she looks him in the eye and goes to remove her sweater. It’s all vulnerability and it leaves him awestruck. But this is his best friend, and his soulmate. So when he asks her if she’s sure, and she sighs with words of encouragement, he takes the opportunity to learn every inch of her skin.

Link knows what a soulmate is the next morning. When he wakes up with the sun shining harshly through the window. And he turns to Amelia, who’s still sleeping, and traces the lines and shadows on her back from the bright sun.

Link knows what a soulmate is that same morning when she finally wakes from her slumber, rolling over to face him and whispering ’let’s make pancakes.’

Link knows what a soulmate is when they move in together. In a tiny apartment in Seattle. And they paint the walls a different color in every room.

And despite their first fight, Link knows what a soulmate is. He meets Amelia’s nieces and nephews. And he makes a nonchalant comment about kids one day. And she panics. And doesn’t talk to him for three days.

Link knows what a soulmate is when he learns to compromise. Because she doesn’t always have the best track record with long term relationships. She’s nontraditional, and he understands that.

And she’s still his soulmate when they turn 30. They get a bigger house in the suburbs. Link calls it 'room to grow’ and Amelia rolls her eyes and calls it 'extra work space.’

When they’re 32, and they’re attending their co-worker’s amazingly beautiful wedding, and Amelia distractedly states that ’maybe I’ll marry you someday,’ Link knows what a soulmate is.

_______

Link is 34 years old when everything falls into place for the rest of his life.

He comes home and Amelia has cooked dinner, something she never does. (Unless this is secretly takeout food, that she’s organized neatly onto their own dinner plates).

The atmosphere is different and Amelia definitely has a nervous energy about her.

Later that night when they're practically asleep, and Amelia mumbles “by the way, I’m pregnant,” Link knows what a soulmate is.

At first he thinks she’s kidding, but when she assures him she’s not, Link is up and turning on the lights. Dancing around the room like an idiot. And Amelia is laughing. Head thrown back and everything, his favorite sight to see.

And he’s never felt so happy.

_______

They settle on a name the same day they find out it’s a boy.

“Aiden?”

“No.”

“Charlie?”

“No.”

“Sam?”

“No.”

“Link, come on. Why do you hate every single name that I like?”

“It has to feel right, Amelia. We’ll know when it’s the right one.”

“Ugh. Okay. How about you come up with one?”

Link purses his lips. “How about Scout?”

“Scout…” Amelia repeats. “That’s a funny name.”

“It is,” Link smiles.

“You have a funny name,” Amelia continues, smirking.

“Scout,” Link repeats. “It’s perfect.”

Feedback please/let me know if you want me to write more amelink/send prompts!!

#amelink #amelink fanfic #amelia shepherd #atticus lincoln #amelia x link #amelinkfic #my writing

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skribbz · 4 years ago

Note

i know im sending u tons of these but ELLIE

Oh boy here we go

First impression

I actually didn’t know anything about TLoU before I played it except for it being a zombie game. Since zombies have always been a super special interest for me, I had to play it. So actually playing it was like being smacked in the face with emotions.

But I didn’t even know about the existence of Ellie, so my first time seeing her was when Joel meets her. I thought she seemed cool, but a little abrasive. She did make me laugh though.

Impression now

Oh god where do I even start.

I’m not even exaggerating when I say Ellie helped me become who I am today. I related to her in so many ways. Not just in the way she's so nerdy, but also in how she treats others. She was just a kid who was let down by the world around her, yet she still wants to do what she thinks is best for everyone. She's sentimental, holding onto keepsakes from the people she's lost. She can have a bad attitude sometimes, but is just a complete sweetheart. She goes through so much, and even when Joel gives her the option to just go back home, she decides to keep going.

Ellie came into my life when I needed a role model. The way she had gone through so much, but didn't let it break her soul, the way she always found a way to "endure and survive", meant so much to me at the time, and even now. She also helped me accept the fact that I wasn't straight. Seeing a character who I already admired so much, kissing another girl made me just break down crying.

When they said that Ellie was going to be the main character of the second game, I cried again. I think the second game just really expands on the reasons I loved her in the first one. She still tries to do what she thinks is best. It's not always the right thing, and sometimes it's very much the wrong thing. But she has so much guilt over Joel, yet still loves him so much she's willing to do whatever it takes to give him the justice she thinks she deserves, even if she knows it's not at all what he would want her to do. (There's so much more to her thoughts and actions in the sequel of course, but I feel like this is one of the most important ones.) It's just like the first game where she's willing to go to any ends to do what she thinks is right, no matter how much it may hurt her in the process.

I think in the end she has realized that her life means more than just being the cure. Her life matters just because she’s alive, is loved, and loves others, and that message means a lot to me, and I’m sure to many others, too.

I think Ellie is such a wonderful character, and one of the most well written characters I've ever seen in any media. She really changed my life, and because of that she is my favorite character ever.

Favorite moment

HOW am I supposed to choose just one.

Does the entire winter section count? It shows much she loves Joel, and how strong she has become by that point, and how determined she is to survive. She sees just how truly awful some people in the world can be, and despite it she still wants to do whatever she can for the cure.

It’s our first look into what would become a major theme of the second game. While David’s town is an enemy to Joel and Ellie, and we as players hate them, they were doing what they thought was best to survive. Cannibalism isn’t right by our standards, but that’s because we haven’t been pushed to that point. But would we be willing to turn to it if we were pushed that far? Is it more acceptable to kill innocent people to feed a whole community that’s depending on you, or is it more acceptable to just let all of those innocent lives that are depending on you die?

I think we can all agree on one thing though. David is a piece of shit and deserved to be chopped up into teeny pieces.

Idea for a story

I have many ideas. But I'll go with where I think her story can go from here, AKA my TLoU3 idea.

The story starts 12 or so years later. Putting JJ around 13. Dina, Ellie and Abby 32-33. Lev around 25. Tommy and Maria probably late 50s-early 60s

Ellie is back in Jackson. She works her ass off doing whatever manual labor she can because all she wants to do is just work herself into exhaustion. She's dealt with her trauma and she’s in a better place mentally now. Now her reasons for shutting everything out is that she’s too scared to try and really reconnect. She wants companionship but is afraid of the pain of losing it all again.

The exception is when she has JJ. He is still the light of her life. She takes him hunting and camping and plays video games with him and they geek out over comics. She has taught him to draw. She wants to teach him guitar like she promised, but hasn’t been able to yet.

The only time she sets foot outside of Jackson is with JJ.

Dina is of course doing something that uses her skills. Maybe the lead electrician at the dam. They've kept JJ very innocent. Obviously he knows of the infected, and has seen his moms kill them before, but he doesn’t know just how bad it really is, he’s never seen another human die.

Her and Ellie are amicable. They are happy to be co parenting jj but there's nothing between them (for now).

Maria holds a lot of guilt. Over sending Joel and Tommy out that day, over not giving Ellie and Dina help in Seattle, which got Jesse killed, over letting Tommy get as bad as he did after Seattle. She blames herself for the way Ellie is. She tries to spend time with Ellie, but Ellie is very elusive when she wants to be. She adores JJ though. That's her little great nephew. His auntie is the leader of the whole town and he uses that to his advantage every chance he gets. And she lets him.

Tommy has a little guilt. He doesn’t know Abby is alive, Ellie only ever told him she “finished things” and didn’t talk to him much after that. But he sees how she is a complete mess and lost her fingers. He knows that guitar was special for Ellie, plus any kind of disability is a huge disadvantage in their world. Dina doesn’t let JJ near him. JJ doesn't understand why and no one will tell him

Tommy and Maria never worked out their differences and have stayed separated, partly because of their guilt toward what happened with Ellie. They cared about her like she was their own and they both let her down

Jackson is now huge. They’ve made contact with other settlements, and have trade routes. But Maria is getting older and the town is getting too much for her to run on her own. Tommy is getting up there in age as well, and despite his injuries he still does patrols. But alone. He’s not actively trying to get killed, but he isn’t always as careful as he knows he should be.

Story starts out and you're playing as Tommy on patrol. He gets ambushed by a small group of people. And lo and behold Abby (and Lev) is there. Tommy is shocked when he finds out who it is, and he asks if she came to finish the job she started. She says no they tracked him since he left the town and were waiting to get him alone because she has news for him. The fireflies have rebuilt stronger than ever and now they’re back out for the cure and are coming for Ellie, because she is the only known source, but also as a form of revenge for what Joel did all those years ago, destroying what the Fireflies once were. They were able to get there first because they only brought a few people and set out before the main squad. Tommy asks why he should believe her, and she says that Ellie saved her life years ago and it's the least she could do to pay her back. (just like. Assume that there was enough info stored with the fireflies that Abby could work out who Ellie is). To keep Tommy from attacking or following him, they knock him out and untie him then leave.

Control switches back to Ellie who is doing her chores around town. You get to nail fences, chop wood, and carry hay bales. Fun. Later that night, as Ellie is getting home, standing on her porch, Tommy rolls up and confronts Ellie about Abby being alive. They get into a huge fight and Ellie tells Tommy that he fucked up her life. It's his fault she lost Dina. His fault she only gets to see jj when Dina allows it, his fault Jesse was killed. And its his fucking fault Joel died.

He storms off. But then Ellie notices J standing on the street coming to stay the night. She had forgotten this was her night with him. He’d been told his whole life that moms had a peaceful break up, and that dad and grandpa Joel died being heroes, but now he’s upset about what he's heard so he runs back home to Dina.

That night Ellie is woken up by fighting in Jackson. She runs out to try and find what's going on. All she can get is that fireflies are attacking. She eventually finds out that some travelers shot Maria and a fight broke out. Ellie fights through the town to Maria. She's injured with a gunshot in the arm, but alive still and kicking some ass. She tells Ellie that fireflies came asking for her, and would leave peacefully in return. She told them no and they shot her. Maria says she’ll be okay and tells Ellie to go find JJ and get him to safety.

She fights through to the other side of town. Because of the commotion, infected have broken in so there’s humans and infected running around killing. She gets to Jesse's house and JJ is hysterical, Dina is holding him down and he's like screaming and crying. His grandpa fought off a firefly who was trying to get in their home and was shot and killed. It hits Ellie that this is all her fault. People are dying because of her again. Anyway she tells dina and robin that they need to leave. Dina says she's not going anywhere without Ellie. Ellie wants to stay and fight, but JJ is more important right now. So the 4 of them sneak out and near the gates they meet up with Tommy. He’s helping get people out and sending them to one of the patrol lookouts that is secure and can fit everyone.

Ellie sends Dina, Robin and JJ off. Ellie gives JJ Joel's revolver and tells him to keep mom and grandma safe for her. She goes back to Tommy and the two get back to Maria. When they are very close to her, an infected ambushes them and Tommy gets bit. They get to Maria who is losing blood fast and doesn't look well. After a lot of arguing from Ellie, the pair decide to stay. They tell Ellie they’re old now. Maria wont last long with her wounds, and tommy has no chance of surviving his. They apologize to Ellie for the way things turned out and how much she has meant to them all these years. They give her all their ammo except for one bullet in each of their guns, because that's all they need now. Ellie begs them to come along, and she’ll figure something out for them. But they eventually convince her to go. Ellie leaves crying, and Maria and Tommy maybe get a cute moment before cutting back to Ellie.

Ellie makes it back to where the survivors are and is depressed that there's way less than she was expecting. JJ has cried himself to sleep and Dina notices Ellie is acting strange and pulls her away to ask her. Ellie tells her what happened and Dina holds her while she cries. It's the first time anyone has really been physically affectionate with her in a long time so Ellie clings to her as she lets it all out

The last survivors decide that Jackson isn’t safe. It's too damaged, filled with infected, and no one can figure out what the fireflies were doing. Ellie can't bring herself to say anything about it.

The next morning, everyone wakes up and is discussing what to do. JJ is still inconsolable. Ellie decides to take him away from the group to get some fresh air. She tells him to hold on to Joel's revolver. They chat and JJ asks what happened to auntie Maria and Tommy. She decides to be honest with him. She expects him to cry, but is shocked to see him become angry instead. He basically swears revenge for them and for his grandfather. This of course stirs up a lot of very negative thoughts in Ellie, but she decides to let him grieve in his own way for now.

That’s everything I have written out in detail for now. But the main idea would be Ellie becoming a leader to the few remaining survivors as they make contact with the other settlements that Jackson is allied with. She would take responsibility for all of these lives. They would be her reason for fighting now.

Over the course of the game, Abby would come back and her and Ellie would be forced to team up. There’s no more animosity between the two though, they’re both over it and don’t want to go back down that road. Over the course of the story they would come to understand each other’s actions. They wouldn’t become friends, but they can at least rely on each other.

JJ would find out that Abby is the person responsible for Joel and Jesse’s death, and she came from the group that killed his grandfather, Tommy and Maria. He’d go into a rage and try to attack her and Ellie would have to hold him back. He wants to know why Ellie is defending the person who hurt everyone they loved. Ellie would have to finally tell him the whole story, and try to keep him from giving into his anger and sadness like she did in the second game. She won’t let her son become like her. She wants him to stay her innocent baby boy, but she knows that’s just not possible in their world.

Other stuff that I have yet to flesh out:

More about Dina’s backstory. Or at least her last name.

Lev being a big brother to JJ.

Dina and Ellie falling in love all over again as Dina sees Ellie doing so much for the rest of the community. It’s gonna be emotional.

Ellie teaching JJ how to play guitar, and tearfully singing Future Days to him.

Unpopular opinion

I’m not sure of what people’s opinions on her are. I know most people love her and anyone who doesn’t isn’t entitled to an opinion.

I guess one is I’m not a fan of her farm hairstyle. Her Seattle look was just so cute. Why did you do that to your head, girl.

Favorite relationship

Dina of course.

I feel like Dina represented what Ellie could have if she wasn’t stuck in the past. Joel represented her violent past, and her traumas. Dina represented her future, her home, her family. Ellie was so stuck in the past, that she couldn’t see the future standing literally right in front of her.

It’s a great representation of how she holds onto the people she loves, but also how PTSD works. The past keeps coming back to haunt her.

Favorite headcanon

I hc her as autistic! I kinda feel bad because everyone else hcs her as having ADHD. But I’m autistic so I say she is too *sunglass emoji*.

Why I think she’s autistic:

Obviously her special interests would be space and dinosaurs, and the way she talks about them reminds me of how I get when people let me infodump about my SIs.

The way she plays with her fingers looks hella like stimming to me. In fact, that’s one of my stims!

Her interest in art and music.

Her interest in general nerdy stuff like comics and video games.

She collects cards, and collecting is a big autistic trait.

The way she’s sort of untidy and cluttered, yet labels all of her boxes of shit. The ordered mess is such an autistic thing.

#apocalypsebutch #this is 2861 words

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supermanshield · 5 years ago

Text

Started this a couple months ago, finished it in home isolation. Superbat, 3k words.

Summary: The Justice League decides it's time to get to know each other out of costume. Some people are less happy with this than others, but eventually even Batman agrees.

Note: This doesn't comply with any canon, because I made my own. I even have a timeline and everything.

AO3 Link

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

“If that is all, I would like to hereby close this meeting,” Superman said.

“Superman, I would like to have a word with everyone.”

“You had your chance, Diana. Meeting’s over,” Batman interjected while getting up from his seat.

“This doesn’t concern League matters, Batman. Barry and I have been talking, and we think it beneficial to share more time together. As friends.”

Barry looked at Batman narrowing his eyes while gripping his chair. He cleared his throat. “Yes. Uhh… It would be good for the team to see each other out of costume, like a dinner party, picnic or game night. Just something not trauma or crisis related.”

“Oh, but game night would end in massive trauma for all of you,” Dinah interjected, laughing. Before Barry could continue his invitation, Batman growled, “And a picnic would end in crisis, so if that’s all, I’ll be on my way.”

“Batman, wait,” Diana started. “On Themyscira, my warrior sisters and I would often spend time together in the bathhouses after training.”

“Now that’s a reason to visit Themyscira. Ow!” Dinah elbowed Oliver in the ribs. Diana shot him a glare, “It also helps with team-building and finding mutual respect for each other.”

Barry was about to consider his efforts a lost cause when Superman came to the rescue. “I think it’s a great idea! It would be nice to get to know each other better outside of hero business. What do you think, Batman?”

“It’s a waste of time. Everyone’s busy enough as it is.” This was it. Lost cause. No approval from Batman meant no picnic. “…But if you really must, you can organize it without me.” With a swoosh of his cape, Batman stalked out of the room.

“His loss. More food for us, right buddy,” Hal laughed while elbowing Barry. “Exactly! Let’s try to come up with an activity and set a date.” It would be fine without Bruce; he would just bring down the mood anyway. Although his manor was probably the most suitable and private location, so now they would have to figure out an alternative.

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

As Superman floated into the Batcave later that night, the computers were whirring, Bruce typing quietly. The past couple of weeks had been good to them. No intergalactic missions, no supervillains breaking out. To be honest, there hadn’t been that many league missions at all, which was a good thing. Clark had been able to catch up at work, Bruce had had time to work on new gadgets and actually attend meetings at WE on time for once. They were still busy, still patrolled their own cities and Clark did a sweep around the globe once a day, but life was almost… normal.

When Clark got close to Bruce, he didn’t even look up from his work. Yet somehow, he still heard Clark’s unasked question in the silence.

“They’re right you know, it’s been scientifically proven that teams are more efficient if the members get together outside of work. It helps with trust and communication.”

“So…? Why don’t you want to get together?”

“…I was thinking about proposing something like this myself.”

Clark smiled. “Looks like they beat you to it, then. So… does this mean -“

“That’s not what I was saying, Clark. I don’t need any more prying eyes into my life. Our lives.”

“Just humour them, Bruce. You know they’d want to do it here.”

“Which is exactly what I don’t want. More chaos in this house.” Bruce rubbed his temple.

“Like you would notice any more people or accidents between the kids and the pets.”

A sigh. “I just don’t need to share every part of my life with them. It’s unnecessary.”

Bruce was making lame excuses, trying to discard the scientific proof he’d found. Which of course he couldn’t ignore. But Clark knew him. He had one last trick up his sleeve. “All right. If you don’t want to do it for them, then do it for me? Maybe I want to share my life with my friends.” He looked into Bruce’s eyes with the brightest smile he could muster in the faint lights of the computer screens. Bruce looked down, thinking. After what seemed like an eternity of Bruce probably going through every scenario about the get-together in his mind, he finally looked up at Clark again.

“Hmph. Fine. But,” Bruce said while holding up a finger, holding off the incoming hug, “on one condition. Not here. At Oliver’s.” Then Clark hugged him.

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

On Sunday afternoon, Dinah was in the kitchen putting the last of the sauces and dips together. She put everything on a big tray and carried it outside, where Oliver was just firing up the barbecue. Grilling had been his idea as soon as they had decided to do the party at their house. So now Oliver was juggling spatulas, flipping patties and throwing cheese on them, trying to proof her wrong about not being able to make enough burgers for Flash, Green Lantern and Superman.

Dinah hadn’t been in the League for very long yet, and she hadn’t seen everyone together in civvies before. She wondered if it had ever happened. Barry and Hal were friends and spent time together, and she knew Clark and Bruce hung out. There was proof of that in the news often enough. She wondered how much it was just Clark covering Bruce’s galas and fund-raising events, or a façade to gather intel for joint missions, and how much it was them actually being friends. Diana would spend most of her time she wasn’t needed here, back on Themyscira.

So, it was nice having everyone here together in her garden. It was a warm day, the cool tiles of the kitchen welcoming on her bare feet and when she walked outside with her tray the grass tickled her toes. Today there was no pretending. Even Bruce had showed up and was actually making small talk with Hal. Probably judging Oliver’s barbecue skills together.

“You need help with that, Dinah?” Barry said as he rushed over and made enough space on the table for her tray before she even had time to reply. “Thanks, Barry. I could use some help with the veggies too.” “Oh please, let me help,” Diana said, pointing her thumb back at the guys as she walked over. “They are discussing how to make the best burgers and I have no interest in it.” Dinah laughed. Every time Oliver made burgers, she and him would get into an argument over how to shape the patties for the best flavour. Oliver was very defensive of his rather thick burgers.

Vegetables were cut and then grilled on the barbecue, and Oliver had assembled an impressive stack of burgers. He persisted, and Dinah loved him for it. When everyone joined at the table, they sat at the head end. Dinah stood up and said “Thank you all for coming! I hope you will enjoy your meal and each other’s company, especially after that disastrous camping trip Hal keeps telling me vague stories about,” She winked.

“Ha! As long as this doesn’t include sleep overs or making fire, we should be good,” Hal smirked.

Before Clark could start defending himself, Barry already cut in urging everyone to talk about something else and just eat. So they did. And it went well; there was laughter and conversation, the sun slowly setting in the background. They talked about normal things really, the weather, politics. Hal’s plans for the summer. Clark told them he would go back to the farm at the end of summer to help his mother with the harvest, Barry shared stories about his co-workers at the crime lab. It wasn’t that they avoided talking about league stuff, they just didn’t need to. Dinah looked at Bruce. He’d been silently observing, laughing along with the jokes. Sure, batman cracked a joke occasionally, but to see him genuinely laughing and being himself was different. Yet, it was hard to get a read on the man. Like today, he was clearly enjoying himself, but somehow all of it was still shrouded in secrecy; he didn’t share much. On the direct opposite of that was Clark, a man who shared everything he stood for. Except-

As Clark reached across the table for the ketchup, the sunlight hit it. A silver (or was it white gold?) band around his ring finger. How no one had noticed it so far, she wasn’t sure. But now, it was very clear. Barry was the first to speak. “Oooh, who’s the lucky lady, S?”

Clark was visibly shocked, looked at his ring for a moment as if it hadn’t been there before, then around the table. “Huh? Uhh… oh, it’s not important.” Not important?

“Not important?” Oliver voiced her thoughts. “Someone married Superman, and we didn’t even know about it?”

“Scratch that! Who got to take Superman home is the real question here,” Hal snickered. “Does she know you’re… you know, him?”

“Oh, trust me, they know,” Clark said calmly while putting the bottle of ketchup back.

“So, who is it?” Hal prodded.

“Yes, who Clark?”

“Is it Lois? Have you finally tied the knot?”

“I haven’t been with her for years, Barry.”

“Someone from Smallville then?”

“No.”

“Then who?”

“Tell us Clark. Don’t keep us in suspense!” By now, Clark looked seriously displeased, stammering excuses.

“How did you meet?” Diana tried. Smart move, narrow down the suspects. “Uh… through work?” Clark offered. Great, there must be over a hundred people working at the Daily Planet. That didn’t help. Or it could be someone he’d interviewed, that made the pool of potential Superman spouses even bigger. Discussion broke out, theories being thrown around and the chaos was complete. Everyone, including Dinah herself, was too busy to notice Clark shooting a mortified look at Bruce, who scowled back.

“Enough.” Clark said in a calm Superman voice, making them all quiet down in an instant. “I’m sure we’ll be ready to share it someday. Let’s please just get back to eating now.” His face was stern.

Everyone quieted down, but the atmosphere wasn’t the same. Diana tried to ask Bruce about his charity work and steer the conversation to a more pleasant topic. The air was full of questions and few words were spoken. Oliver suggested they all just clean up and go inside to share a drink and play some darts. “Come on, you and Bruce would win that by a landslide!” Barry protested, but Bruce politely declined and started saying his goodbyes and thanked Dinah and Oliver for dinner. After that, Clark left quickly. Then Hal, Barry, and finally Diana. “I’m sure they will come around eventually, Dinah. Just give them some time.” And flew away after a quick peck on her cheek.

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

Over the next month in the watchtower, whispers and guesses about Superman’s secret spouse were going around. They’d stop as soon as Superman walked into the room, which was stupid of course, because he’d probably already heard them. Clark started looking more cheerless every meeting, until by some miracle, the core members of the justice league all got invited to have dinner at Wayne Manor. Bruce had apologized to Dinah for how the barbecue had ended, and to everyone’s shock proposed a new get-together. So now she and Ollie were pulling up on the driveway to a massive mansion atop a hill in Gotham city. Oliver had been there before, but she had never seen it, aside from pictures. It was intimidating. “I thought we had a pretty big villa…” She whispered to Oliver. He smiled. “Just remember to close your mouth when you see the great hall, babe.”

As they were making their way up the stone stairs to the front door, it was opened by Clark. “Hey guys, welcome! Come in, come in,” he said, reaching out his hands to them. He was wearing jeans and a simple t-shirt, no glasses. Inside, he took their coats and put them away in a little room off to the left. Because of course, the hallway closet was just a separate room. Despite what Oliver had said, Dinah was in awe. The entrance hall opened up to reveal a two-story room, complete with chandeliers, two winding stairs going up to a balcony, and actual armour displays.

“I know, I was kind of starstruck too, the first time I came here,” Clark appeared at her side. At that moment, Bruce appeared from a room behind the grand staircase. He was wearing a turtleneck and slacks. He shook Oliver’s hands, kissed Dinah on the cheek. “Welcome, welcome, do you want a drink? Let’s go to the study.”

“Where are all your kids, Bruce? I half expected an ambush here.”

“Not here, thank god.”

“I’ll be in the kitchen helping Alfred.” Clark declared and disappeared down a hallway.

“How many do you have now, anyway?” Oliver asked.

“Too many- Maybe you can make your burgers for all of them some time,” Bruce teased Oliver.

“Shouldn’t you be the one helping in the kitchen?”

Bruce stared blankly at Dinah. “I haven’t been allowed in there all day.”

Bruce showed them to the study, where they sat down on some very comfortable couches, and poured them some drinks. Soon, the rest of the league arrived. Dinah made her way around the study, inspecting the massive bookcases, until she found the music section. She wondered if there was a library with even more books.

“Oh Bruce, please tell me you have a music room.” This many pieces of sheet music, someone in this house had to be talented. And Bruce would have the means to have a full-blown orchestra hidden somewhere. She picked up a book about saxophones and sat down at the desk. “We do, actually. Damian likes to play a lot.” So Bruce’s youngest was the talent. She didn’t know much about him besides that he was the current Robin. “Ok, you’re going to have to show me that after dinner.”

She flipped open the book, Top tones for Saxophone, and read something about note placement. And then she saw it. Bruce’s desk was large, mahogany, and very organised. There was a laptop – closed, an expensive looking pen set, some paperwork, and glasses. But there were more personal items too, photos. The picture frames were facing Dinah, so the rest of the group couldn’t see them from where they were sitting on the couches. There was a picture of Kara and two other girls, one blonde and one black haired. One with the four Wayne boys, she knew them – had even worked with Red Hood once, and many times with Red Robin – but out of costume they were hard to tell apart. Then there was a picture of a bunch of teens and Alfred with a mickey hat at Disneyland, castle in the background. She knew Bruce was protective of his sidekicks and partners, but never knew they were such a normal… family. So, all of this was a slight surprise, but manageable. At the last picture however, her mind simply stopped. And started up again. And then a lot of things started making sense. Because that was Clark. And Bruce. Their hands on each other’s arms. Clark was smiling at whoever took the picture, and Bruce was looking at Clark in a way Dinah had never seen on Batman. Love.

In the middle of the room, Oliver was telling everyone a story about Kite-man. Hal was picking away tears at the corners of his eyes and Barry was slapping his thighs with laughter. Even Diana was laughing along. Dinah looked at Bruce. Clark had greeted them at the door. Bruce had said ‘we do’ when Dinah asked about the music room. He’d been very quiet last month when they were making fun of Clark’s secret marriage. He was the one that apologized for how the barbecue had ended, even though he had nothing to do with it. But apparently, he had everything to do with it.

While her mind was racing through all this at a 100 miles per hour, Bruce caught her eye, winked, and raised his glass at her. On his ring finger, a white golden band.

As if on cue, Clark then came in the room to tell everyone the starter course was ready to be served. Everyone made their way out of the study towards the dining room and took a seat.

At dinner, they were joined by Alfred, who Dinah had never really met before besides earlier tonight and in the cave downstairs. The table was set decadently, loaded with soup, a stew, bread, vegetables and wine. Bruce was seated at the head of the table, with Clark to his left, and Alfred to his right.

“Oh my, I’m terribly sorry but I seem to have forgotten a ladle for the soup. Excuse me,” Alfred started pushing his chair back, but Clark cut in. “Don’t worry Alfred, I’ll get it.”

When Clark came back with the ladle, he started passing out soup to whoever wanted. It was too easy. Dinah just couldn’t resist saying “So Clark, you know your way around here pretty well it seems.” Clark, ladle halfway towards Barry’s bowl, calmly said “I do, yes. Bruce and I work together a lot and I- “

“Clark.” Bruce cut him off. “She knows.”

“Ah. Hm.” Clark cleared his throat. He had stopped passing out soup and stood up straighter now. Looked at Bruce. “Well, did you want to…?”

“Yes.” Bruce stood up too now.

To her right, Barry leant over and whispered, “What’s happening? What do you know?” Dinah remained silent.

“Um,” Bruce starts. Batman nervous, never thought she’d see that. “Clark and I are both hosting tonight.” Okay… it’s a start. But still-

“What? Clark paid for half of all this food?” Barry wondered out loud. On the other side of the table, Hal was trying hard to contain his laughter.

Diana sighed and put her face in her hand. “Just tell them already.”

What’s going on? Oliver mouthed at Dinah. She shrugged, curious to see how this would play out.

“Superman’s secret spouse. It’s me.” Bruce said curt. And at the same time, “Bruce and I are married.”

Barry’s mouth fell open, Hal finally started laughing but quickly regained control and raised his glass. “Well, congratulations you two!”

“So, to come back to your question from earlier Oliver, we have about 8 now.”

“8 what?” Hal asked, confused.

“Children.” Clark now had his arm around Bruce’s waist, and probably the brightest smile ever on his face.

“Okay, remind me to never babysit here if I need some money.”

Oliver turned to Dinah. “How did you know?” “Figured it out just now. A picture on Bruce’s desk. Very cute by the way.” She smiled. “And he has a wedding ring that matches Clark’s. I don’t think it was that much of a secret.”

To Dinah’s left, Alfred whispered to her, “Mrs. Queen, there are loads more pictures of them. I’ll show you their wedding album after dinner if you are interested.”

Before Bruce could protest, Barry seemed to finally catch up to the situation. “Wait, stop! You’re telling me we missed the wedding of Batman and Superman?! You owe us a do-over.”

Clark laughed at that. “I think it’s time we started dinner. Enjoy!”

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

Later that night, Bruce and Clark were seated on one couch in the study, the guests huddled around Alfred with the wedding album on the other. Bruce watched them and couldn’t stop a smile forming around his mouth. Alfred was positively beaming with pride, and the crowd laughed as they were now undoubtedly looking at the cake-cutting pictures. Bruce interlaced his fingers with Clark and leaned into him some more. He felt the other man relax.

“See? Not so bad, was it?” Clark whispered. Bruce hmm-ed back in response.

And indeed, there was something to be said for spending time outside of work with co-workers. With friends.

#superbat #write write

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britesparc · 4 years ago

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Weekend Top Ten #472

Top Ten Suggestions for Future Star Wars Games

Concluding an accidental trilogy of Top Ten lists that feature the word “Star”, here we journey back to a galaxy far, far away. This is also one of those lists that’s been bubbling under for quite a while, since the announcement (feels like ages ago now) that Disney have shopped the Star Wars licence around to a number of developers, and we’ll get future games from companies other than EA. But really it goes back even further, because for me Star Wars and gaming are inexorably linked. I associate my teenage PC gaming phase very closely with Star Wars, because it occurred in the mid-nineties, when Star Wars games were truly ascendent. In a run that I would argue stretched from the release of X-Wing in 1993, right through to Knights of the Old Republic in 2003, it felt like just about every genre was getting a nod from the House of Skywalker, and generally speaking the games were excellent. This time also saw the resurgence of Star Wars as a multimedia powerhouse, with the films getting reissued on video (and in Widescreen!) before the 1997 release of the Special Editions, the subsequent DVD releases, and then in 1999, the beginnings of the Prequel Trilogy with The Phantom Menace. You could argue that that’s when the wheels fell off, because even with the “Han Shot First” controversy and mixed reaction to some of the new effects shots, the late-nineties releases had been warmly received, Star Wars felt cool and exciting all the time, and anticipation was building to fever pitch at the thought of new movies. Amidst the Jar Jar hatred there was, I think, a bit more antipathy towards stories set in the Clone Wars, and although there were still some very good games being released (the first LEGO Star Wars came out in 2005!), the spark of the Golden Age was mostly absent.

Could we be entering a new Golden Age, or at least a Silver Age? Maybe; hopefully! I really, really enjoyed Jedi: Fallen Order and Squadrons, even though neither are perfect and both have plenty of rough edges. Now that the Skywalker Saga is out of the way and the franchise as a whole is spreading out into new areas (check out the number of Disney+ shows on the way), perhaps we’ll see all different facets of the galaxy explored in games too. And that’s what this list is: ten possible games, set in the Star Wars universe, that I think would be cool.

For the most part I’m not trying to invent a whole game; rather, it’s “Star Wars in this genre” or “Star Wars with this hook”. There’s probably an exception or two here and there, but you’ll get the drift. Some of these have been in my mental wishlist for years, from right back to when I first played X-Wing on my mate’s Mac, or when I installed a friend’s copy of Dark Forces from floppy disk (we, er, did that in those days). One of the best things about Star Wars is that it contains multitudes; George Lucas really did create a whole galaxy full of weird side characters, intriguing backstory, and funky-looking locations (aided and abetted, of course, by a bevy of talented collaborators). What corner of the universe couldn’t support a game of some kind?

So here’s to the future, to the newly-rechristened Lucasfilm Games, and to ten titles that could all benefit from beginning with those classic blue words on a black background.

Jedi Padawan RPG: I’ve wanted a game like this for about twenty years: a third-person action-RPG where you play a Padawan. You create your character and build your lightsaber, and then follow your master on missions around the Republic, learning the ways of the Force and developing your character. In a way, Fallen Order has adopted some of these ideas; the fact you only use a lightsaber and Force powers, for instance. But in my mind this is more similar to something like the first Fable, or maybe Mass Effect, where you’d have a hub to return to (the Jedi Temple) and then go off on missions that you could choose. All the while there’d be a plot bubbling up, and an arc to follow, and all sorts of quasi-open-world Jedi shenanigans. It’d be cool if they could make lightsabers feel like the really dangerous one-hit-kill weapons they are in the films, or if you could use them to, y’know, open doors and stuff. Maybe this could be set in the “High Republic” era we’re starting to explore.

Deus Ex-style first-person RPG: I suppose this one could be reductively called “Cyberpunk on Coruscant”, but the idea is you’d play someone – not a Jedi, in my mind – going on quests or solving some kind of mystery, shooting people in first person whilst also upgrading your body and abilities in typical RPG style. I wouldn’t want it to be too dark; I don’t like it when people try to make Star Wars “edgy”. But that Mandalorian or Rogue One tone of seriousness interspersed with Star Wars’ typical melodrama and weirdness would be good. I see your character as a small-time crook or maybe a minor mercenary who by circumstance is forced to take missions for either the Rebels or the Empire (or maybe First Order and Resistance); perhaps mirroring Poe Dameron’s journey from spice smuggler to X-Wing superstar. It’d be cool if there was Fallout-style hit-modelling on characters, and if your arm or whatever got damaged, you could have it replaced with a robot one.

Star Wars meets Elite: I even have a title for this one: “Scoundrel”. Basically, like I say, it’s Elite but in the Star Wars universe; you have a ship, you fly from planet to planet, you trade goods or offer passage, you spend your money on upgrading your ship or buying a new one. You’re Han Solo, basically; hence “Scoundrel”. In my mind it’s set at the dawn of the Rebellion, so you can choose where your allegiances – and your ethics – lie. Take on official Imperial assignments? Help their war effort? Stay neutral but legal? Stay out of the politics, but, y’know, smuggle a little bit? Run a bit of spice? Or do you go all-in and work for the Rebellion – even take part in military action? Maybe it could even run all the way up to Return of the Jedi and give you the chance to fight in the Battle of Endor! C’mon, this one has “hit” written all over it.

Clone Troopers turn-based “Tactics” game: by “Tactics” I mean like X-COM or, well, Gears Tactics; turn-based team combat games. I think of all the groups of military characters most suited to this style, it would be the Clone Troopers; they’re a well-organised military force that functions as part of a team. We know there are loads of types of Troopers, with different uniforms for different jobs, so there’s lots of room for customising your team, as well as experimenting with different classes. Plus if they die there’s more to come, they’re just in vats! Get Temuera Morrison to voice them all for added authenticity.

A point-and-click adventure: this was the first ever idea I had for a Star Wars game, because at the time I was really, really into adventures. This could be anything; I’m not too fussed on the plot. Some kind of mystery obviously lends itself to the format. Whether you play as the same character all the way through or switch protagonists (a common genre trope), I don’t mind. But I want it to be a fairly straightforward, old-fashioned point-and-click game, with no action or QTEs. Make it look like Thimbleweed Park, make it look like Clone Wars or Rebels, make it look as real as possible, it’s all fine; just give me a slow-burn narrative adventure story in the Star Wars universe please.

Lemmings, but with porgs: yeah, there’s nothing more to add to this. Maybe you play one of the Space Nuns, or even Chewbacca, and you have to help out all these crazy porgs? They’re just wandering around, getting into mischief, chewing on the Falcon or playing with a lightsaber, and they’ll kill themselves if you don’t help. That’s it. That’s the game. Lemmings, but with porgs.

Rebel base construction/management game: my template here would be stuff like Evil Genius or Two Point Hospital: real-time games where you build different rooms or services in a given play space. So, the Rebels are constantly darting all over the galaxy, setting up shop temporarily and then evacuating when the Empire comes a-calling; here, you have to kit out the different bases, often to service different aims (a recon base, an aerial support base, a training centre, etc), and in different planetary conditions (think Hoth, Yavin, or Crait). Obviously there are essentials: communication, power, accommodation. Then you can build starship docks, weapons arrays, bacta tanks, astromech services, even Jedi training rooms. Instead of attracting “customers” the idea is to be recruiting new Rebels, so the bigger and better your base, the more troops you have. Maybe there can even be some kind of meta-game where the progress of the war is smoother if your bases are better? But there’d be virtually no combat, apart from maybe shooting probe droids or scaring away wampas. Anyway, I think it sounds cool.

Rebel Commandos cover-shooter: I guess this could also be a Clone Trooper game, but we’ve already had a Clone FPS, and I just invented Clone Tactics up the page a bit, so let’s spread the love. It’s basically Gears of War but with the Rebel Alliance. Think about the Battle of Endor or the Battle of Scarif; teams of well-trained and battle-hardened troopers up against superior odds but still kickin’ ass. Unlike the rent-a-clone nature of the Tactics game, this would be more story-driven, with a small team (four, maybe, as it’s a good number for co-op) who have to infiltrate and/or assault heavily-fortified enemy positions. I think this could be good with a nice narrative behind it, fleshing out the Star Wars universe, and maybe offering a bit of those Rogue One-style shades of grey.

Fallout Shelter-style Jawa Sandcrawler management game: utini! Jawas are great aren’t they? Whether it’s electrocuting Artoo, cheering at podracers, or just eating the shit out of a great big egg, everyone loves a good Jawa. How can you make a game about Jawas? Well, what about if you’re this tribe or group or whatever of Jawas, and you’ve got your own knackered sandcrawler. And as part of the game you have to develop it, tart it up a bit, recruit new bands of Jawas, and then, y’know, rob droids and flog ‘em. Like Fallout Shelter, you have to build and maintain different rooms in the sandcrawler to grow your people and earn more cash from droids, but you’re constrained a little by size. The sandcrawler can’t be expanded too much, and although you could upgrade to bigger ones, you have to make strategic decisions about where to allocate precious space. I see this as being quite low-fi and stylised (bring back Yoda Stories!), and working as a kind of chilled-out time-wasting game on Switch or something.

Homeworld, but in the Clone Wars: and we’re back to the Clone Wars again! But here, we kind of have to, as it’s the only war in the Star Wars wars that features two huge and evenly-matched armadas (Rebels vs Empire and Resistance vs First Order are both very much “scrappy underdogs up against vast organised militaries”). Playing as the Republic or the Separatists, you have to maintain huge fleets of capital ships, support craft, fighters and bombers, and go on missions to attack, defend, or escort. It’s probably the best way to recreate the feeling of that absolutely vast battles we see in the opening minutes of Revenge of the Sith. Maybe an add-on could even give us ground battles too, recreating scenes such as the Battle of Geonosis. Anyway, sounds cool don’t you think?

Incidentally – and speaking of the Star Wars of it all – this is the first week that we’re not watching a War for our family movie night. We’ve done ‘em all! All the episodes of the Skywalker Saga, the two live-action spin-off movies, and even (well, me an’ the eldest) the animated Clone Wars movie. I might do another Top Ten ranking them, based on the kids’ opinions; that’d be interesting. Although – of course – we’ve only got a couple of weeks to wait until the two Ewok movies hit Disney+. What a time to be alive!

Now, the Ewoks – there’s a good idea for a game there…

#top ten #star wars #games #gaming #lucasarts #lucasfilm games #jedi knight #fallen order #squadrons

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usfwspacific · 5 years ago

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Creature Comforts – I Like Being “Stuck” at Home, Probably Because I am a Pacific Lamprey

Hello humans! Wait, please don’t let my looks put you off – I am a nice guy once you get to know me. I know, I might not seem as cuddly as some of the other critters asking for your attention but just give me a chance. I think we can help each other! I am literally “stuck” at home right now, and like you, I need certain elements in my environment to help me thrive. If you learn about and help protect my home, I might be able to teach you a thing or two about going with the flow during challenging times – I outlasted the dinosaurs after all!

Allow me to tell you a bit about myself and my often-misunderstood species (Entosphenus tridentatus):

- We are important! Not to brag but we Pacific Lamprey are native to this region and play a vital ecological and cultural role.

- We are legendary! Dinosaurs get a lot of credit in the ancient world but we are even older. Lampreys first appeared in the fossil record over 400 million years ago. Dinosaurs were around between 250-65 million years ago while salmon are 6 million years old. You humans are a mere 100,000 years old. Did I mention that lampreys have survived at least four and possibly five mass extinction events. How is that for iconic?

- We are survivors! You don’t get this old without skills. We are a very adaptable species. Though our physical form has remained largely unchanged since the oldest fossil record, Pacific Lamprey have co-evolved with our host species. We are parasitic and rely on a wide range of host species. But don’t worry, we don’t kill our hosts while we feed. Like I said, I am a nice guy once you get to know me :)

- You need us around! Our biological and cultural connection to humans goes way back. We connect communities of humans and other species of fish. Did you know that we help protect salmon from other predators? It’s true! We lampreys are a predation buffer for salmon when our populations are plentiful thanks to our tasty high fat content – other animals would rather eat us than salmon.

- We are a “first food”! Thanks to our rich, fatty meat, we play an important spiritual, medicinal, and cultural role for many tribes in the Columbia River Basin, coastal Oregon, Washington and California.

- The ecosystem needs us around too! Pacific Lamprey provide critical ecosystem services each stage of their life cycle. At every stage, we are a food source for several species and we act as filters for water and sediment during our larval stage to keep our rivers clean. Our bodies also return nutrients to aquatic ecosystems once we die, providing a crucial connection between the ocean and the river.

- I am unique! As far as looks go, I am definitely one of a kind. I belong to a primitive group of fishes that are eel-like in form but that lack the jaws and paired fins of bony fishes. I have a round, sucker-like mouth, no scales, and seven holes on each side of my body that open to my gills. Make no bones about it (I can’t because I don’t have any!), I am a probably one of the most flexible friends you’ll ever have; my backbone is made of cartilage, like the stuff that makes up your ear. Let’s not forget my alluring “eyes.” Adult Pacific Lampreys have two blue eyes that they use to see. We use a third ‘eye’, a light spot on the top of our head, to sense light and dark and to practice some deep meditation.

Photo: Check us out! We Pacific Lamprey can go vertical thanks to our powerful suction mouths! Credit: Toru Tsuzaki

- We are “egg-cellent” at reproducing and swimming! Unlike humans and other species, which only produce a few offspring in their lifetimes but spend a lot of time raising them, Pacific Lamprey females produce between 100,000-300,000 eggs! We are also some of the most energy-efficient swimmers. Our swimming movements generate low-pressure zones around their body, which pull rather than push our bodies through the water. We like to swim close to the bottom of the stream, river, or ocean to avoid detection and attach to rocks to save energy. Since we are anadromous like salmon and move from freshwater to the ocean and back, we often hitch a ride with our host species in the ocean so that we can travel great distances. Beats taking an Uber, right?

- We are not the same species as that other lamprey! Pacific Lamprey are different from sea lamprey. That other guy is a species from the Atlantic Ocean. Sea lamprey are native to the Atlantic Ocean and are a healthy part of the ecosystem. But some of you might know that they have been stirring up trouble in other places. They began causing problems in the Great Lakes after gaining access to through navigation canals that bypass Niagara Falls in the 1830s. In the Great Lakes they are an invasive species. Consequently, Great Lakes fisheries evolved without the presence of sea lampreys and are highly vulnerable to their predation and competition. For the most part, hosts do not survive predation from sea lampreys. Yikes.

- We are neighbors! Yep, you can find us in streams and rivers in your backyard! Our native range includes parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California and Alaska. We could be in small streams and rivers in your backyard, and you most likely wouldn’t even know it! At the beginning of our life cycle, we are very small and burrow into the bottom of the stream, so it’s pretty tough to spot us. If we return as adults, you don’t have to worry about our teeth because adults don’t eat when we are in freshwater – how is that for a cheap date?

Photo: I love a nice cool, clean stream to come home to! Credit: Jeremy Monroe

- We need nice homes! Healthy habitat is vital to the survival of lampreys at each point in our life cycle. We need cool and clean water in rivers and streams and favorable oceanic conditions. We need stream habitat with gravel for spawning, fine sediments for rearing, cool water temperatures, unpolluted water sources, riffle and pool habitats. Like our friends the salmon, we need favorable ocean conditions that include plentiful hosts, clean water, and low levels of predators. Of course, we also need to be able to get to and from the ocean so barrier free passage is essential.

- We are facing threats! Sadly, over the last 100 years, our populations have seen a dramatic decline. Along our already arduous journey, we face a number of threats:

- Unsafe passage like culverts, dams, and water diversions impede our ability to get to the ocean

- Technology used for salmon passage like ladders aren’t as passable for us

- Habitat degradation caused by urbanization damages our spawning grounds

- Poor water quality caused by pollutants, contaminants and warming climates

- Changing ocean conditions that decrease the populations of our host species while increasing the populations of our predators.

But don’t let these threats get you down! Pacific Lamprey are designated as a species of concern by the tribes, US Fish and Wildlife Service and state fish and wildlife/ game agencies and we can all work together to conserve my species. Partners are working together at state, federal and tribal levels to modify and remove passage barriers, share research, and plan a better future for us lamprey. Here are some ways you can make sure I continue to have a home worth being “stuck” in for another million years!

- Keep water clean: Be aware of what you flush down the drain: don’t dump pollutants in streams

- Volunteer: Work on a stream restoration project

- Share what you’ve learned: Tell others that you have found a new pal in your ancient neighbor the Pacific Lamprey and that he is, despite the myths, a pretty nice guy. Thank you friends!

________________________________________________________________

Stuck on saving future generations of Pacific Lamprey? Check out these additional resources:

- Pacific Lamprey Conservation Initiative

- Pacific Lamprey Educational Handout

- Pacific Lamprey Exhibit at the Oregon Zoo

-The Lost Fish Video

- Pacific Lamprey Activity Book

#lamprey #pacific lamprey #conservation #salmon

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sparrowkingsley · 5 years ago

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New Legends 00 Cont. 5

“Oh hey, Sara we were just talking um, I should probably go huh?”

“Probably for the best, Indie. I need to talk to Laurel alone and you really should be getting back to the facility.”

“Right, yeah so totally right! Righty, right.”

Embarrassed Indie scrambled out of Laurel's bed and practically ran to the door. Nervous she spun around to look back. She needed to say something cool. Something cool and memorable.

“Lo, I’ll um, I’ll see you or I’ll um, talk to you or, I’ll k-um no I mean, I’ll miss you! But like see you, when your sentence is like over and we’ll hang and stuff, um yeah. Bye?” That. That was so very much the opposite of cool.

Then Laurel flashed that smile at her. Her genuine smile. That perfect, beautiful smile that she always seemed to save for her.

“See ya, Heywood.”

Laurel watched her best friend smile brightly at her before then walking right into the doorframe. She was such a goof. How could someone be so utterly and perfectly ridiculous? Even after she had left the room Laurel found herself staring after her. Everything else forgotten in her mind.

“So you and Heywood, huh?”

Oh right. She had so totally forgotten about her mom being there. What did she just say?

“W-what?”

“Oh you know, I was just saying that you two are absolutely adorable and you need to make a move and stop leaving her pining after you already.”

Laurel didn’t think her face could get any redder but suddenly she felt like she might burst. “I was, we were just talking, it was, it wasn’t anything like that okay.”

“Right. Is that why you’re blushing right now? Because you and Indie were just talking? She adores yoooouuuuu. And you liiiikkkeee her.”

“Mom, stop!” Laurel ran her hands down her face with a groan, “Seriously just, can you just stop making a big deal out of nothing and just get to the lecture already? I can’t take it when you act this way.”

“Well if you’re so eager for me to provide you with a lecture, I got one just for you, kiddo. Which lecture did Ava lay on you by the way?”

“Lecture number four.”

“Right and which one was that again?”

She started counting off her fingers, “Point one, I just don’t understand what you were thinking. Two, do you want to end up in jail? Because that’s what’s going to happen if you keep doing this. Third, the whole I am disappointed, you are better than this argument. Ending with point number four, wait till your mother gets here.”

Sara laughed, “Did she make me bad cop?”

“No. She pretty much laid down the law letting me know I’m stuck in this house when I’m not doing my community service. Basically lock down mode is my life. You’re just here to back her up.”

“Sounds about right.”

“You already talked to her didn’t you.”

“Obviously, now scoot and come sit next to me.”

Together they sat on the edge of her bed. Moments like this were her favorite although she would never admit it out loud. Just sitting with her mom, with either of them, she was at her most content. The one thing that she never had to question was them. The love they had for her.

“Want to tell me what’s going on in that head of yours?”

“Too much. Like always.”

Sara pulled her into a sideways hug, “What can I do to help?”

“Hmm I don’t know. Maybe give me permission to have a pet dinosaur.”

“Ha, again with the pet dinosaur routine. You’ve been pulling that one since you were three.”

“Um, cause dinosaurs are awesome and we have full access to be able obtain one whenever we want.”

“Okay, well first you’ve watched Jurassic Park movies your whole life and you still don’t get having any in modern ages is a horrible idea? Having a t-rex come charging at you is not fun. I literally have real life experience of such an encounter. And second, one of us has officially lost their time travel eligible status. Literally less than an hour ago. Lockdown mode, remember?”

Laurel groaned, “Don’t remind me. Being stuck in one time is so boring and yeah I know, actions equals consequences I get it.”

“You know, you were set to graduate the program next month and now who knows when you will be able to. I have a feeling that there is a definite connection to that and your latest reinvention of reality. Am I hitting the mark? Cause I’m sensing a bull’s-eye and I always hit my target. Trained assassin, remember?”

Laurel bit down on her tongue. Her mom was right, obviously. Sara could always see where she was going three steps ahead of whatever plan she had. Ava was always the one to react and pull her back into a safety net whenever she did ever take things too far.

When Laurel was four she started climbing up a tree Sara had told her not to. It was too tall and she would get scared. Laurel kept doing it anyway. She climbed so high, Sara watching her, letting her learn for herself. Then she looked down and froze. Scared, terrified. When she started crying, Ava came running and had her back down as quick as a speedster. Her moms argued about it for the whole day.

“Sara, you can’t just let her go head first into danger like that!”

“She was fine. I was right there and you know I wouldn’t have let anything happen to her. She needs to figure things out for herself. The good and the bad. We are just here to support her through it all.”

Of course they made up later. Her moms could never stay mad at each other for long. That memory was one of her most solid memories. Memory that told her that her moms were both there for her. They would never let her down. They would love her no matter what. And yet…

“It is a possibility I suppose. You haven’t been an active assassin in so long. You’ve probably lost your touch.”

Her mom put her in a playful headlock, “Oh yeah, you sure about that? Maybe a noogie will make you think twice about that, kiddo.”

“Okay, okay! Stop!” She spurted with laughter, “Mama, seriously? I take it back, cut it out already.”

Sara released her, “See, I still got it.”

“Yeah, yeah you do.”

“Serious talk time. I know you don’t want to talk about it right now and that’s okay. But I need you to hear me, playing with time like that, just for kicks, you know that’s not the right thing to do. The timeline is sacred. Yes. I’ve told you time and time again. I get it. You’re seventeen, you don’t need to know everything you want right now but you can’t keep running away from it all either. No matter what you decide or if you change your mind down the line, your mom and I are not going anywhere. We are co-captains of the ship named supporting and loving you always. Even if you are someone who wants to put all her energy in being some kind of time rouge. Don’t ever forget that. I love you.”

Laurel sighed but smiled. She let her mom pull her into a full on hug now. She returned it with no resistance. Her mind and heart settling as she found comfort. Comfort in the knowledge that she would always have a place to come home to. In the arms of her parents.

“I love you too.”

“Come on, let’s go downstairs. You have your other mother literally about to go up the walls. Her pacing is burning a hole through the floor and the least you could do is tell her that you’re going to at least try and behave yourself for awhile.”

“Hmm, no promises.”

“You’re a literal nightmare, you know that?”

“Geez, wonder where I get that from?”

“Oh yeah? You want to play that game?” Sara jumped up and hurried to the door, “Guess I should tell your mom what you and Heywood were doing up here then.”

Laurel stumbled as she followed out the door after her, “Wait, don’t! We weren’t doing anything! Don’t say anything about whatever you think happened! You don’t have proof of anything!”

“Right, so you were just casually staring deeply into each other's eyes then? You never had a spark like that when you were dating that guy Josh last year. You need to go for it like I said. She won’t wait for you forever.”

“It is not like that! She is my best friend!”

“Best friend you have the hots for! Let’s let your mom weigh in. Oh, Ava! Guess what!”

They made it down the stairs and the chase continued all the way into the kitchen. Ava nearly getting barreled over as the two started grappling with each other. Laurel trying and failing to keep her mama silent. Sara laughing as she painted a picture of the love scene to Ava as she told her what she walked in on.

“Oh, so you two finally confessed to each other then? About time. That Josh you were dating never made enough effort the way Indie does to be there for you. I am so happy for you but you’re still grounded. When you finish your community service and prove you’re not going to be breaking the timeline again, we’ll help you plan your date together.”

“Indie and I aren’t dating! We aren’t, seriously both of you are making a big deal out of nothing.”

“Your face says otherwise, dear.”

“See. You two have sparkage! You liiiikkkeee her. You want her to be your giiirrlllfriend!”

“Uggghhhh, why are you both like this? So embarrassing.”

“Easy,” Ava pulled her into a hug, “Because we love you. We want you to be happy. Even if you are a time criminal. I’m your mom and as frustrating as you can be you’re still my little sunbeam. No matter how old you get that will never change.”

“I’m so reaching my limit of this lovey, dovey mom junk. Please. Stop.”

Sara joined in forming a family group hug, “It’s part of your punishment so you’re going to have to deal with it for a little while longer. Got it, kiddo.”

“Fine. Whatever. Just get it over with.”

Oh but the truth? The truth was that Laurel wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right then. No other time. No other moment. This was the right time and there would never be a wrong time for moments like this. Moments in time like these, with her moms, could never be broken. She would make sure of it.

#new legends #legends of tomorrow #avalance #avalance kid #family dynamics #moms just embarrassing their kid #all time and space but nothing else compares

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ademocrat · 5 years ago

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Mark Takano is taking charge of protecting veterans & LGBTQ people in Congress

Representative Mark Takano is one of seven out members in the current House of Representatives. He has served California’s 41st District, covering mostly Riverside County, since its inception in 2013. Takano was also the first person of color that was openly gay upon his election to Congress, and now he is one of two in the legislature, alongside Native American Rep. Sharice Davids (D-KS).

Takano also co-chairs the LGBTQ Equality Caucus alongside the six other LGBTQ members of the House, which works with over 160 other members, and serves on the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Additionally, since last year, he has also served as the Chair of the House’s Veterans’ Affairs Committee – the first, and only LGBTQ Representative currently, to have the distinction of chairing a committee.

Related: EXCLUSIVE: Maxine Waters cheers Mayor Pete’s likely Iowa win

That’s a lot of communities and constituents that one person is expected to proudly represent, but Takano is up for the task. Topics of importance to him as of late have included ending conversion therapy, gun control legislation, and protecting Medical Care for All. He has also called for an official Congressional Office of Technology to deal with the modern issues of our time.

He spoke with LGBTQ Nation live at the 2020 Millennial Media Row, hosted by his fellow California Rep. Maxine Waters. “I have a gavel, just like Maxine,” he says about chairing the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, “and like Maxine, I know how to use it.”

I had the opportunity to talk with @DanReynolds from Imagine Dragons about the effort to end conversion therapy nationwide.

Dan is using his platform to shine light on the struggles LGBTQ youth face and spreading love and acceptance. I'm grateful for his work. #ImagineEquality pic.twitter.com/h91g5QYBrM

— Mark Takano (@RepMarkTakano) February 6, 2020

No child should EVER have to endure the immoral and dangerous practice of conversion therapy.

19 states have already banned this despicable practice, we owe it to #LGBTQ youth to ban it nationwide.#DefundConversionTherapy

— Mark Takano (@RepMarkTakano) February 5, 2020

Takano begins to speak on his experience working on the Committee, reminding us that “VA is the second largest department in the federal government – only second behind the Department of Defense.”

Speaking on the population he’s tasked with serving while acting as chair of the committee, the self-declared “Gaysian” talks about the uncertain population of LGBTQ people under his purview. “The Veterans’ population is becoming more diverse, we know 15-20% of all service members are women…I can’t tell you an exact number of LGBTQ people, but there’s going to be more of them that are open, because 10 years ago, we overturned ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.'”

Takano remembers to point out, however, that trans people are not within that group. “They’re mistreating [trans people] in the army, and the navy, and the military…you know, don’t get me started on what this President said he was going to do for the LGBTQ community, and made it sound like he was an alright Republican.”

“He turned out to be someone who’s going to discriminate [and] promote discrimination against our community,” Takano says.

As a former teacher, Takano first tells us about how personally he takes Trump’s “undermining” of public schools, most effectively by allowing Betsy DeVos – “an enemy of public schools for most of her life” – to run the Department of Education. “This is not a good thing for minorities, and especially LGBTQ people!” Takano declared.

“They want to move in a direction where federal tax dollars can be given to private schools that can discriminate against LGBTQ people,” Takano tells LGBTQ Nation, “and, that’s a terrible policy, it’s a horrible thing. We need a strong public school system where everyone, regardless of who they’re attracted to, regardless of their gender identity, regardless of their race, regardless of their gender…is protected by laws, and they have rights, and that no citizen’s dollars are being used to discriminate.”

We ask Takano to explain to us what he plans to do for the remaining Congressional session, with up to a year left in the current administration. How does he hope to help the LGBTQ people under attack by Trump, DeVos, and so many others? What about Veterans and current military members? What can be done to support trans military veterans?

Takano answers, “I have a lot of legislative agenda that I want to achieve in terms of preventing suicide among veterans, that’s a whole agenda in itself…people who are most vulnerable to suicide are people who have been subjected to military sexual assault,” explaining that men are committing most sexual assaults against men within the military, although the sexual assaults against women happen at a much faster rate. “There are ways in which I think we need to reform our process, so that people who have been subjected to assault will come forward, and will report what has been done to them,” Takano says.

He also looks forward to pushing an agenda in order to protect student veterans that become targets “from predatory, for-profit schools…because of their generous veterans’ benefits.” He points out that “these aren’t specifically LGBTQ issues, but they are issues that affect all veterans, and actually, affect all students.”

What Takano believes is “the most important thing to do” is holding everyone accountable for better results. “Hold this administration accountable, hold the VA accountable, to serve veterans well – to make sure the VA is a welcoming and inclusive place.”

Specifically in regards to trans people, he says that the overall treatment of trans veterans has been positive, “as far as I can tell.” Alluding to the struggle in clear results caused by the Trump administration’s policies, Takano admits that “we need to make sure.”

“I just want all trans people to know that I’m here to listen to trans veterans, who need better access,” Takano promises. “The Veteran’s Health Administration treats veterans on a medical basis, they don’t – they’re not supposed to be discriminating, and as chairman, I’m going to keep it that way.”

In looking ahead to the next Presidential administration, Takano speaks on Pete Buttigieg’s success in becoming a ‘leading’ candidate (“I was going to say, ‘on top’, but that expression, in our community…” he trails off.)

“It’s amazing that an openly, gay, VETERAN is leading in Iowa,” Takano exlaims. He clarifies that he has “not gotten behind any candidate,” but he finds Buttigieg’s performance “remarkable.” Looking ahead to the upcoming New Hampshire caucus, Takano points out that Ann McLane Kuster – one of two Representatives of the state – has endorsed Buttigieg – “So 50% of the state,” essentially.

“I think [people saying], ‘Oh, I can’t believe the mayor of South Bend is gonna really get to the end’ – we don’t know that,” he says of Pete’s electability detractors. “…so, my congratulations to him, for representing our community, the LGBTQ community, and showing those LGBTQ teenagers across the country…'[you can] have worth in themselves, and you too, can run for President.'”

In his parting words, Takano urges Democratic voters across the country to get out and vote – “take these names down,” he requests – so something special can happen in Congress.

He names four candidates – Ritchie Torres, Georgette Gómez, Jon Hoadley, and Gina Ortiz Jones as “just a few LGBTQ [candidates]” of color that can be elected into Congress in the upcoming year.

According to Takano, here’s how the candidates shape up: Torres, running in New York’s 15th District, “could be the first Afro-Latino who’s gay to become a member of Congress.” Gomez would be “a[n out] Latina [from] San Diego” if elected, and Hoadley is a Victory Fund-rated ‘game changer’ that is “running out of Michigan”. Jones is a veteran vying to represent Texas’ 23rd Congressional District on her second attempt at the seat.

Takano actively wants to welcome these candidates to the House chambers, having even endorsed some of them. Why?

“Actually, I could start a whole new caucus,” he says. While he remains “the only Gaysian, still,” he says that along with Rep. Davids, they could form a subcaucus within the LGBT Equality Caucus that would represent LGBTQ people of color.

“That’s not only going to be LGBTQ diversity, but intersectional diversity, right? I think that’s very cool.”

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purplesurveys · 6 years ago

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381

Where did you get what you wore to bed last night? I decided to stay over at Gabie’s place at the last minute and didn’t bring a change of clothes, so she lent me one of her duster dresses. Do your parents smoke? Nope. Do you know anyone who has a ton of real fur clothes? As far as I know I don’t, and I hope there really is no one. If Britney Spears came to your town, would you go see her concert? It’s a cool prospect, but I wouldn’t go. What about Hedley? See I don’t even have the slightest clue who they/that are/is.

When you're cranky, do you take it out on others? Yep. Have you ever worn a pair of leather (fake or real) pants? No. I’d die from how hot it would be. Are you older then sixteen? Yes. If the last person you kissed asked you to marry them, what would you do? I always talk about how excited I am to get married, but if she asked me at this moment I’d find it freaky and say that it’s too early to do such a thing. What color pen did you last use? Black. Do you know who Craig Owens is? I don’t think so. What was the last message you received about? I was just talking to Gabie about her dad and asking her for reassurance that he likes and approves of me. He’s really nice, but he’s intensely quiet, and as a mass communication major who’s used to being surrounded by talkative people and filling the silence with noise, his quietness unnerved me quite a bit. Side story: The three of us had dinner last night and even though I begged her not to, Gabie went to the washroom, leaving me with her dad for several minutes. Filipino parents would normally break the ice and ask questions, but he immediately went on his phone and DID. NOT. TALK. TO ME. As if I wasn’t there. It wasn’t necessarily rude, it’s just the way he is according to Gab. It was straight out of a movie, I was so uncomfortable–even mortified to an extent–and looked around at other tables for a bit and wondered if we were gonna stay like that for eternity. I put my masscom skills to the table and came up with a topic, which thankfully lasted until he came back. Do you ever suddenly jolt awake when you're almost asleep? It happens sometimes. What shoes do you wear to work out in? I don’t work out. Has a bookshelf or desk, etc, of yours ever randomly collapse? I don’t remember that ever happening. What's the longest you ever stayed at someone else's house? Idk, I never really overstay. The longest has probably been at Angela’s - I’d sometimes stay close to a full 24 hours there. What is your favorite aunt's middle name? I think it’s Josette. What was the subject of the last science fair project you did? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA can we forget fucking investigative projects please omg those made my high school life HELL Do you think making a guy/girl jealous is a good way to get together? It’s certainly petty. I like petty. Is your math teacher married? I haven’t taken a math class since freshman year; but no, I don’t think that prof is married. Name something you used to wear that you thought you looked SO good in, but now when you see it is actually hideous? It’s not hideous, but I had a stiletto phase when I was 13 and would wear 6-inch heels to the fucking mall. It’s so embarrassing to look back on, especially when I realize now that people weren’t staring at me because they were impressed with my heels, they were staring because I looked fucking dumb. Do you miss your last ex? I missed her too much I got back together with her. When you believe in the Easter Bunny, what did you think it looked like? Chandler Bing from that one Halloween episode. What about the tooth fairy? I didn’t really have an image in mind, I just wanted her to give me money. Do you/did you have a religion class in school? I went to a Catholic school, so yes. But the school I go to now prohibits any kind of religious promotion. There are religious orgs and people of any and every religion are allowed to step into the university, but coaxing people to prayer or something of that manner isn’t allowed. Has your best friend ever ditched you for a guy/girl? Never. Do you ever get jealous of your friends? Sometimes, but they’re my friends so it passes. Do you think it's stupid when people online out over little spelling errors? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. Is there someone who calls or texts you every night to say goodnight? Gabie. If your best friend got cancer, would you shave your head with them? I would probably do it for Gabie or Anj. Did you kiss anyone on New Year's this year? No, my girlfriend and I always spend the holidays with our families. Name someone you know who is Buddhist. I’ve heard one of my classmates from high school is a Buddhist, but I never got that confirmed cos I never really cared for her. Has anyone ever purposely made a food of you? What does this even mean? Like a cupcake with my face on it? No. Would you rather work at a fast food restaurant or be a garbage man? Fast food but I’d rather stay inside the kitchen or have a role that won’t require me to be social. I wouldn’t want to deal with pissy old people. What was the subject of the last essay you wrote? Chinese-Filipino relations in the Philippines from the 1970s to the present. Does your mom wear makeup? Yes. Do you kiss your boyfriends/girlfriends in front of your parents? I held Gabie’s hand while we were with her dad last night, but no I don’t kiss her. Have you ever spent Christmas alone? I’m always with my family, but I do feel mentally alone. Have you ever spent your birthday alone? Yes. Do you say attractive, hot, or sexy or something else about guys/girls? Um I mean I say ‘pretty’ a lot. Is there a member of the opposite sex you'd do ANYTHING for? Gabie’s dad tbh. Does your favorite uncle have any children? No. Has anyone ever kissed you when you were so not expecting it? I’m sure it’s happened before. Was it a good surprise kiss? Or bad? Good, cos all my kisses always come from my girlfriend haha. Do you know which has more alcohol: beer or vodka? It’s gotta be vodka, right? Name a Nintendo 64 game. Mario Kart 64. Hahaha, easy way out. Do you use gift bags or wrapping paper? Gift bags, because I’m absolutely hopeless with gift-wrapping. Do you ever day dream about the person you like? She comes up from time to time, yes. Have you ever sat in front of a kicking and crying child on a plane? No thank godddddd. Name all the members (first, middle and last names) from your favorite band. Hayley Nichole Williams, Zachary Wayne Farro, Taylor Benjamin York. Do you still have any Pokemon cards? Nah, those disappeared like a decade ago. How many cards are in your wallet? I’ve never really gotten to counting them. YouTube, Facebook or Bzoink? I mean I use them all for different reasons. I’d go to YouTube for videos, Facebook for work, and Bzoink to find surveys. Have you ever tried to make something right but it just messed it up more? Do you mean all the time? Has someone ever approached you and offered you drugs? Never. I’d be so shocked and probably get an anxiety attack haha. ^ What did you do? Do you like the picture on your ID? NO. It had been drizzling and I had no umbrella + I was late for Math class ON MY FIRST DAY AS A COLLEGE FRESHMAN so I was so hassled. You can make out my wet hair a bit in the photo. What would you do if your favorite artist came to town but your parents wouldn't let you go? Find a way. Do you type really or rly? Both. I’d type rly if I was lazy, talking to a friend, or if I’m lazy and talking to a friend. Do you say everything in inititals because saying the full thing is too much work? Only with close friends. Have you ever found someone on the Sims to be attractive? No??? What was your first kiss like? Clueless and lots of fumbling around from me. Gab kissed me as though she’s done it a thousand times though. Is there someone you pretend to like but they really piss you off? I remember so many people. What does AP stand for? As a journalism student I understood that as Associated Press. What's something you wish was different? The country I live in. Do you ever say 'I'm rotted?’ Never said that in my life. What's the last color of jeans you saw? I saw? Light blue. Do you know anyone who refuses to swear? Yeah there were a couple of goody two shoes in high school who would absolutely refuse to. Who knows, college might have changed them. Have you ever heard a young child swear? No. Have you ever heard your grandparents swear? My maternal grandfather did, but I’ve never heard the other three do so. Have you heard all your friends swear? DUH hahaha.

#survey #surveys

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salty-dracon · 6 years ago

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ace hang plays calling cipher part 2

(Last Time on Calling Cipher... )

Lily, screaming, and banging her hands on the table: LET RILEY SAY FUCK

(jump cut)

Lily, screaming: LET RILEY SAY FUCK OUT LOUD! NOT IN HER HEAD! WE ALL SAY FUCK INTERNALLY! AAAAA

Brid: Lily, I am begging you to calm down. This is a video game!

Lily: *literally falls off her chair*

Brid: Lily? Lily, are you okay? Lily?

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

Brid: Hey guys, Ace Hang is back again with more Calling Cipher! I’m Bridget!

Lily: And I’m Lily!

Brid: When we last left off, we finished the prologue, met our protagonist, thirsted over her...

Lily: Mostly that.

Brid: She was so cute, though...

Lily: We also met a few characters, thank god we’re not the only girl here, learned there was some kind of conspiracy going on, and now we’re playing detective because we’re dumb and foolish, and we’ve recruited our friends to help us. Because we are all dumb and foolish.

Brid: So what exactly did we learn?

Lily: Maybe they should have watched the first video in the series.

Brid: ... Yeah. Anyway, we stole a file from a school computer and some short kid thinks we’re our long-distance boyfriend.

Lily: Plus we ran into our ex, and also got teased over us accidentally thirsting over our calc professor.

Brid: By everyone and their mom. And our mom too. Like damn, she’s thirsty.

Lily: Not fun.

Brid: I think the fact that we’re making a second part makes us qualify as masochists.

--------

Lily: Oh, hey. Chase. What’s up?

Brid: Rich people things. The economy. Republicans. Nyu hu hu hu hu.

Lily: Never say that again. Anyway, we’re really diving right into the investigation, aren’t we?

Brid: Yeah. Wrong route, girl.

Lily: Nah.

--------

Lily: She’s out here wondering if he has a swimmer bod.

Brid: I don’t actually know any swimmers, so... no wait, actually, Narin’s older brother does swim a lot, so...

Lily: But you’ve never seen him shirtless.

Brid: Yeah, no.

(five second asexual silence while music plays in the background)

Lily: Are all straight people like this?

Brid: Aw, he just winked.

Lily: AW????

(some lines of text later, the protagonist just straight up says that the professor has a spider on his head, without making any side comments on how stupid that move was)

Brid: W O W. that was... a move. Not a power move. A move.

Lily: She doesn’t even regret that one. Holy shit.

Brid: If I said something that stupid I think I’d die of embarrassment. “Hey, Mr. Balls. There’s a spider on your head, that’s why I was staring at your piercing.”

Lily: I love how he fell for it, too!

Brid: Fucking hell. He might actually have a personality that isn’t just “horny”.

Lily: Oh my god, isn’t it funny that he joked about the spider and his name is Mr. Parker?

Brid: There is no way they’re going to pull a spiderman joke.

(the option to pull a spiderman joke)

Lily: OH MY GOD

Brid: THE ABSOLUTE MADWOMAN

Lily: AN ICON! A LEGEND!

Brid: LET ME MARRY HER

--------

Brid: So Riley wants to take over her parents’ network security company, while Chase wants to take over the pharm business, and...

Lily: Guess so. And?

Brid: Well, my parents do financial consulting, and they want me to take over. And you know how Nick’s parents are, like, huge stockholders in Kronus Technologies?

Lily: ... Nick... who?

Brid: Nick Kronus. I don’t think you’ve met him, but he stays at Mr. Perch’s place sometimes. He and Val... don’t exactly get along.

Lily: Oh. So... rich prodigal son.

Brid: Yeah. So.... actually, it’s kind of cool that both Riley and Chase want to take over their respective businesses. I mean, I don’t, and like... I’m hoping Mr. Perch will let me take on an internship or something.

Lily: Dude, you know he’d do anything for you. He likes you more than he likes his own kid.

Brid: I feel bad, honestly.

(dialogue)

Brid: “What are you up to, Chase Colton? What’s your deal?” Oh, man. He’s trying to look for information on Reynolds, isn’t he?

Lily: Yeah... We did tell him, yeah?

Brid: Of course. He was with us when we were looking over the computers.

Lily: Wait, but familiar word-

(Matt walks in)

Lily: GOD DAMN IT

Brid: I KNOW THIS IS YOUR ROUTE BUT FUCK YOU

Lily: WE ARE BUSY

Brid: YES YOU ARE INTERRUPTING SOMETHING

Lily: Oh, he knows who Chase is, too.

Brid: Oh no. Also, I love how Chase is taller. That’s so funny.

(dialogue)

Brid: Oh yeah, I forgot that this was a community college. Yeah, why is Chase attending a community college?

Lily: I love how Matt is just chipping into him.

Brid: Man, Riley doesn’t even give a fuck.

--------

Lily: Oh. “There are rumors of an undercover cop working the case”. That’s interesting.

Brid: Wait. Wait. Could that be referring to Kai?

Lily: ... Huh?

Brid: Remember he was chatting with that guy that called him “shorty”?

Lily: Oh, yeah.

Brid: But first, lemme go grocery shopping!

(The let me take a selfie song plays in the background with a bunch of grocery store vines displayed on screen for like 30 seconds)

--------

Lily: Love this elevator music.

Brid: (laughs out loud) She hit someone with a shopping cart!

Lily: Fucking disaster bi! Lily: OH MY GOD IT’S THE FUCKIN. THE FUCKIN CALC GUY

Brid: SORRY WE FUCKING RAN YOU OVER WITH A SHOPPING CART DUDE

Lily: JE NE REGRETTE NEIN

Brid: I REGRETTE IT

Lily: “so anyway you just killed my foot”

Brid: “no i didn’t”

Lily: “fuck you i’ll sue”

Brid: “you’re poor”

Lily: “and now you’re roasting me”

Brid: “shut up and i’ll buy you coffee”

Lily: “and now you want to poison me”

Brid: “ha joke’s on you i’m a mess”

Lily: This fucking banter, dude.

--------

Brid: She’s a PALADIN who rides a GIANT FLYING MANTA???

Lily: I LOVE her.

Brid: I’d die for her.

Lily: Damn, he sure knows a lot about network security. HMMMMMM

Brid: Oh would you calm down?

(more witty banter until he calls her cute)

Brid: “HE JUST CALLED ME CUTE!” Fool, I’m in love with her too!

Lily: You’re out there, and she’s- OH SHIT! SHE JUST GOT HIT IN THE FACE WITH A DODGEBALL!

Brid: Ouch!

Lily: Okay, but like, seriously? I’ve gotten hit in the face with dozens of balls and yeah. Ouch.

(romantic scene)

Brid: She is so cute.

Lily: Wait. He has a ponytail?

Brid: So? Sam has one. Anyway, she’s precious.

Lily: SHE THOUGHT FUCK AGAIN-

-------

Brid: Great. We call our mom and get even more roasted.

Lily: I. Hate this. But at the same time, I wish my mom were, like, cool.

Brid: Okay, but like, yeah. I’d take being roasted over the bullshit I have to deal with every day.

Lily: Anyway, I now know where she got that sass of hers.

Brid: “WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS??”

Lily: “I’m a romantic, honey! Also, like... make sure you get me some of that”

Brid: Oh, she’s asking about that program that deletes the original from the original IP.

Lily: Right. I love how the mom’s just like- “no. don’t do this again, honey. you promised”

Brid: This fucking MC... she is so valid.

-------

Lily: Oh hey. It’s Kai.

Brid: Time to pull out my Val impression.

Lily: Can’t wait!

Brid: “How the hell should I know? Did you give all of the computers nicknames?” Pff. I love doing my Val impression for this guy. It’s so on point.

Lily: What did Val say about your Val impression, anyway?

Brid: He said that my voice was too high pitched to sound anything like his voice, but Arthur said the inflection was spot-on!

Lily: I definitely see that, yeah.

Brid: I mean, he’s so Val, though...

Lily: Don’t start assigning kins, now.

Brid: I’m not looking to get murdered by one of my co-stars. Oh, hey, Chase is here.

Lily: And looks like we’re actually going to learn something.

-------

Brid: Dyphine!

Lily: A drug they’re working on. Stolen two years ago...

Brid: And Jennifer Reynolds stole it and deleted every other copy.

Lily: Damn.

Brid: And you could net a lot of cash for it.

Lily: ... Wow. And he needs our help to track her down.

Brid: Do you trust him?

Lily: Do I trust anyone?

Brid: Yeah, good point. I mean, it’s Big Pharma, but at the same time, he’s been earnest with us.

Lily: Oh, but wait! We have the formula!

Brid: Yes! Let’s solve this case.

Lily: I swear to god, if we head back home and it’s deleted. Because that’s totally going to happen.

-------

Lily: OH NO. We’ve been hacked.

(text on screen pointing to brid with her eyes wide at the art)

Brid: Well, shit. Cinematic hacking time!

Lily: And this music is epic! It’s like final boss shit!

Brid: Go girl! Go counter hack them!

Lily: YEAH BABEY

Brid: “If I’m going down, you’re coming with me, motherfucker! Yeah baby!”

Lily: I can’t believe she’s spamming the connection with pussy pics.

Brid: ... did you have to phrase it like that

Lily: Hey, they’re saying something. I’ll voice it. “Bitmap? Really?”

Brid: “SORRY NOT SORRY”

Lily: “You have something of mine...” Oh no, it’s Jennifer!

Brid: Oh my god.

Lily: Wait, no...? “I’m the guy who’s about to break your last shield”...?

Brid: What?

Lily: Wow, this is intense. “Nice job with the flooding btw.” Damn. “Would have worked if I weren’t on Egon.” Where was that mentioned before?

Brid: Huh.

Lily: “Cute pic, though. Later, kitten.”

Brid: ... Is it... the teacher?

Lily: Let’s see... yarn... crap, I can’t see past the dialogue box.

Brid: Mah girl’s fired up! What’s next, baby!

Lily: ...

Brid: ...

Lily: THERE’S AN UNRELEASED PART 2??

----------

(post video)

Brid: So what are your theories regarding Calc Daddy?

Lily: ... did you have to call him that

Brid: *snort*

Lily: Okay, like in all seriousness... hold on, give me like, fifteen minutes to collect my thoughts, because I have a lot of theories and they need some time in the Brain Oven.

(one jump cut later, Lily is holding up a sheet of paper, which Brid is trying to look at, but Lily isn’t letting her)

Lily: Okay, so my conclusion from what I saw so far is that there is a 90% chance that he is, at the very least, connected to Juh-Reynolds and he’s either Jennifer herself, or working with her. My reasons are thus. First, you saw in the prologue that he called Ry-Ry “his little thief” indicating that she stole something from him. And he traced it using an IP address. So unless ya boi Cipher somehow VPN’d and made us a puppet, that file was somehow “his”. But wouldn’t it belong to Jreynolds, since Dyphine was HER research?

Brid: A-jreynold-in.

Lily: Fuck you. Second, and this one’s more of a symbolism thing, you might recall that password for the file was “icarus”. You know who he is, right?

Brid: Yeah, the guy who sculpted wax wings, flew into the sky, and then they melted and he fell.

Lily: You know how his sprite has a necklace shaped like a wing when he’s not wearing clothes?

Brid: When he’s not wearing clothes?

Lily: When he’s not wearing his suit and tie. Oh my god, we’re not at third base yet!

Brid: *laughs* Okay, but like, actually... that is interesting, I never made that connection.

Lily: Third, you saw how hard he grilled Chase over the whole “why the fuck are you attending a community college” thing. We didn’t notice because he was literally doing exactly what we wanted to do, and giving us the answers without us even needing to ask.

Brid: Yeah, and Riley was like, “yeah, keep saying shit”. I don’t know if he thought we shared the same goal or something... or if it was just a coincidence. Or, no! He probably wanted to know what we needed to know for J. K. Reynolds.

Lily: And number 4 does fit in with all of these, plus it also gives a clue to his motive. He said some things that would sound normal, except, they might not... I forget the exact context, but something about buying something expensive came up, and Riley said something like “aren’t you a community college professor, why are you doing something expensive, you don’t get paid for shit” and I think it was about moving into the neighborhood, though I could be wrong. And like, even though Riley is attending a community college, her parents are like network security people, she’s rich. And he’s... not?

Brid: Okay?

Lily: Recall that Chase said that you could make a shit ton of money from selling that formula. If he’s not J-Money herself, I think he’s working with her for a cut of the profits. More than enough to buy a house.

Brid: Right, and whatever answer he was about to give, we never got to hear it because mah girl got hit in the face with a soccer ball.

Lily: Also, this one might be weird, but remember when we were hacked and we were sent a kitten picture?

Brid: Yeah?

Lily: Wasn’t the kitten sitting on a really pink blanket?

Brid: Yeah, it was, I think. Why are you asking?

Lily: It was shown off, so I think it’s relatively significant. This might be a long shot, and it does have a few conditions, but recall that he said at some point that he was staying with a friend. And I think he does chat with Riley at some point about high level computer stuff. Assuming he was the hacker or knew the hacker, I think from that, and the fact that the blanket was pink, that we can infer that his friend is a woman. And who’s the only adult woman in this series? ... besides our dirty minded mom?

Brid: It’s Jennolds!

Lily: That was... actually really clever. And we know that she can’t exactly show her face with Chase around. So she might be sending someone to do her dirty work for her. *eyes light up* ... wait, who’s the professor he replaced? Because he said that he’d be subbing for someone, some female professor, and then he cancelled all of our tests-

Brid: ...

Lily: ...

(they both dive for the keyboard)

(Text pops up on black: It was “Professor Mendez”, not “Reynolds”. Well, shit.)

(More text: The wing necklace part was correct. The grilling Chase part was also correct. However, though the pieces about him not getting paid much as a community college professor was mentioned, there was nothing about how much it cost to move into the neighborhood. We might have been thinking of the cosplayer character. But we forgot the fact that he happened to know network security programs pretty well when we were talking about the manta ray mount.)

(More text: Also, we were wrong about the pink blanket. It was more of a grey-ish-purple, but there was also a ball of yarn and a folded blue striped something on the blanket. Wonder what it could be?... seriously Lily thought it was his tie, but the text box is a bitch)

(More text: Anyway our conclusions are the same. Unless these were a bunch of red herrings.)

#ace hang #and i'm finally done with this for now #thank god this actually works in firefox #seriously this is a great game and i can't wait for part 2!

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dedalvs · 7 years ago

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Does it bother you that your work (or at least the work you’re best known for) is to supplement other people’s creations and not your own?

I guess this question would be more appropriate for an actor, since nothing they ever do is their own. Of course everyone working in Hollywood knows this and doesn’t care. There are hundreds of people that work on every single television show and movie. There may be only a handful of people that get the praise or blame for any given project, but nothing that anyone sees is free of influence from someone other than the creator. The very notion is kind of up in the air. Look at Defiance, for example. The original “creator”—the one who came up with the names “Stahma” and “Datak”, for example—never wrote an episode of the show (this is Rockne O’Bannon). He gets credit for co-writing the pilot episode, but what happened was he wrote the pilot then left the show—and then a new showrunner (Kevin Murphy) came on and rewrote the pilot. And the whole thing was an adaptation, anyway, of a property developed by a video game company, Trion. I guess no one who worked on the show really created anything, if I’m following the logic of the ask correctly, since it was all done to supplement Trion’s game. I don’t think anyone working on the show cared much about that fact.

This is one of the main differences between Hollywood and, say, fiction writing. Everyone working in Hollywood looks at each endeavor as a team project, whereas writers write a book that others help them with (i.e. this publisher is publishing my book; this artist is doing the cover art for my book; this publicist is working to advertise my book, etc.). You can see the difference in attitude when it comes to language creation. A producer/director hears about language creation and says, “Ooh, cool! We’ll have to hire someone to do that!” A fiction writer hears about language creation and says, “Ooh, cool! I should do that! I’m probably great at it!” (Or alternately, “Oh, brother… I guess now I have to do that too so my readers don’t complain…”)

Anyway, there are lots of different aspects to this question, so let me try to address all of them.

First, in case it’s ever seemed like I’ve indicated otherwise, I really love what I do. I may not like deadlines, and translation is not my favorite aspect of language creation (and translation constitutes 90% of my job), but there’s really very little difference between what I’m doing now and what I was doing ten years ago, vis-à-vis conlanging. Really, the major differences are that there are deadlines, I get paid, and some people outside the conlanging community care about what I do. It’s still language creation. It’s always fun to come up with a new project, and I’m certainly doing that more now than I would have been otherwise. So the simplest answer is no.

I guess, though, you might think I was just putting on a positive face publicly…? I mean, no. In creating a language, there always has to be some pretext—some reason for the language to exist. If you’re creating a language you want to use in your own life, the pretext is very simple: I want to use this language in my life, therefore I’m creating it. The pretext is less simple when creating a naturalistic language. After all, if I’m creating a language for my daily personal use, why would I bother with a fictional history and sound changes, etc.? I’d just create something simple whose sound I like and whose grammar corresponds to what I find easiest to use. For those of us who find naturalistic conlanging interesting, though, the pretext is a necessity. I never liked conworlding or conhistories (or fantasy, to be honest), so in the early days when I would conlang, I’d basically pretend like I had a conworld/conculture, when in fact I didn’t. Really, though, what that amounted to was that I had a lazy conculture: One I didn’t think too much about and didn’t write down. It’s funny. The same attitude a lot of writers have about conlanging (that it’s a timesink that takes away from their story) is the attitude I had about conculturing. Once I realized what a huge role that plays in the lexicon, though, I came to think of it as a necessary evil. And if I had a language project I was really excited about, I would frankly find it very daunting to have to come up with an entire world and people and systems of government and clothing, etc. Seemed like a drag, to be honest.

Creating languages for other stuff is great because I can cut out all that nonsense and let someone else do it. The resultant culture may not be very good (”Oh, sure, that social model is totally sustainable! I’m 100% sure that patriarchal fantasy is super realistic!”), but (and this is the important part) I didn’t have to do it—and I don’t have to take credit for it. Instead, I can just play around with the language. It’s just delightful!

Like right now, for example, I’m running this D&D campaign, and it is so exhausting to have to come up with every single little detail! It’s fun to act out the characters, and there are other parts I like (like coming up with flags and names), but figuring out exactly how many towns and of what size there should be in a given area is just too much! My hat is off to all DMs out there. It’s a lot of work!

Anyway, as for what I’m known for (the parenthetical part of the ask, which may be the main part of it), I might have had a different answer ten years ago, but now, I honestly do not care. I figure if someone cares about anything else I’ve done ever they’ll find it. Those that don’t, why would I care what they think? About anything? I don’t know them. I’ll probably never meet them. And honestly, have you seen some of the stuff that people talk about wrt conlanging? “What’s a better ConLang: Gallifreyan or Tengwar?” The ones who only know me for what I’m best known for are probably not very discerning. But if they don’t care, why should I?

It took suffering through the George W. Bush economy for me to really figure out what I want in life, but I did, and it’s fairly simple. I want to spend as much of my life as possible financially stable and with my friends and family—while pursuing my interests. Previously I thought I also wanted my friends and family to also care about my interests, but I’ve come to learn that that actually isn’t important to me either. No one else needs to care about what I do so long as I think it’s worth my time and effort. Honestly, with the internet and digital file storage, if there’s someone out there who desperately wants to know every little thing I’ve ever done in my life, that will likely be possible. It’s not like last century: That stuff will probably be available indefinitely (barring societal collapse).

Even if you filter all this out and just focus on language creation, I care much more about the status of conlanging in general than I do what I’m known for or not. It bothers me that it’s been almost ten years and neither Hollywood nor the general public really gets conlanging. It’s gotten better, but since conlanging has gotten a lot of widespread attention, it’s also amplified the ignorance. I feel like I get the same questions over and over again and give the same answers over and over again but there’s still the basic assumption that the quality of a conlang is equivalent to the fame of the conlang. I guess language itself is always going to be something that’s fairly opaque, but it just bugs me that very few people have any idea what they should be looking for in a conlang. It’s like watching someone pick up one of Picasso’s really abstract pieces and also a drawing by a four year old and trying to judge which one is more realistic by comparing the colors in each one to the colors of the shirts worn by their family members in the pictures in their iPhone photo album. Like you can try to say, “Hey, maybe realism isn’t the best thing to look for in either of these,” but there’s just so much nonsense in here that why would you even bother?

The only thing that gives me hope (and not just about this, but in general) is that the younger generation seems really amazing. I’ve said that before about the generation before the youngest generation (I think there’ve been two since me…? I honestly don’t even know how you count these things), but honestly, it gives me hope every day seeing the amazing things that even teenagers are doing. It’s an awesome thing to witness. If you’re a part of the 25 and younger crowd, you should feel really good about what you’ve done and the lives you’ve led thus far. (And that’s an in general type thing. If you’re 26, you didn’t miss the cutoff, or anything.) From someone who went to school in the 80s and 90s, do you know how cool it is just to see teenagers be cool about friends and classmates that are LGBT+? Because that so didn’t happen when I was in school. That’s what you did by just living your lives the way you’re living them. That’s awesome. Really makes me believe that we can actually fix the things we (my generation) were told had already been fixed in the 90s.

Not sure how I got there, but I hope that answers your question. Again, the tl;dr answer is no—no matter which way you meant it.

#conlang #language #Defiance #Anonymous

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terryblount · 6 years ago

Text

Here’s All The Game Announcements At The Game Awards 2018

The Game Awards 2018 promised over 10 new game announcements happening while they dole out the glamorous awards. And it certainly did not disappoint. Just like what we did last year, here’s a rundown of all the big game announcements that happened during the show.

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Sayonora Wild Hearts

A Pop Album Video Game. Published by Annapurna Interactive and developed by Simogo. This team specialises in making mobile games, including Device 6.

This time, Sayonara Wild Hearts will be out on Nintendo Switch.

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Journey To The Savage Planet

By 505 Games and developers Typhoon Studios. Alex Hutchison, director of Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 4, is part of the team. Not a battle royale. Not a survival game. But an adventure game.

Solve the mystery of the savage planet. More info will be revealed next year.

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The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, Out On Consoles

2013’s narrative-driven comedy that throws you off every moment and, will be out on consoles. Now with new content and new endings.

It is also coming to PC.

A little teaser trailer pic.twitter.com/VfC0IAN3uz

— Among Trees (@AmongTreesGame) December 7, 2018

Among Trees

By Fjrd Interactive, it is a beautiful looking first-person adventure, coming to Steam Early Access in 2019.

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Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

The sequel to the Diablo-style action game is coming to Nintendo Switch. Featuring many of your favourite characters from the Marvel universe, including the X-Men.

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Rocket League New DLC: McLaren 570S Car Pack

A real car as DLC in Rocket League! McLaren has been flirting with gaming for some time and this is further commitment that they are seriously courting us gamers to like the Woking-based automotive company.

youtube

Far Cry New Dawn

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal, it’s post-apocalypse Far Cry 5, set in the same map of Hope County.

Featuring more crazy weapons, beaten up vehicles, a very pinkish hue and two new leading ladies. It’s coming out on February 15th and hinted that it’s following a timeline set up by events of Far Cry 5.

Hades

A new game by Supergiant Games, creator of Bastion, Transistor and Pyre. Looks like it plays more like the combat-oriented of the earlier two games married with the visual-novel artstyle in Pyre. It is also a rougelike.

Hades is available now on Early Access at the Epic Games Store.

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Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

New, actual gameplay of Patrice Désilets’ Panache Digital Games. The creative director of Assassin’s Creed Games takes you on a singleplayer open world adventure through the times. Starting as a monkey and into the early parts of civilizations somewhere in Africa.

Ancestors is set for release sometime in 2019.

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Scavengers

Developed by new studio Midwinter. Powered by SpatialOS, the first tease shows a cold, frozen wilderness. Described as a multiplayer ‘co-opetition’, sign-ups are open at the official website here.

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Dead By Daylight Darkness Among Us DLC

The asymmetric horror multiplayer game is getting another DLC. And boy does this game have a lot of DLC.

Also, the game is getting dedicated servers by Summer 2019.

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New Anthem Trailer

A new trailer for Anthem, EA and Bioware’s upcoming looter-shooter. Here’s more plot and world-building for this new IP.

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Crash Team Racing

The remaster of is introduced by the iconic man in the Crash Bandicoot suit. This is the same treatment as the previous Crash and Spyro remasters/remakes. The same game you know and love but built from the ground up with the latest tech. Beenox is handling the development.

It will be out in June 2019.

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The Outer Worlds

The new game and universe by Obsidian and Private Division. It is a single-player first-person sci-fi RPG. It features an old-timey aesthetic in space played in the first person. A hint of Borderlands, but more gritty and you can make meaningful story decisions, hopefully.

This is the game the original creators of Fallout that joined Obsidian a few years ago, Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, worked on. It will be out in 2019 for the PS4, PC and Xbox One.

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Dauntless On PS4, Xbox One and Epic Games Store

First announced at the Game Awards, the Monster Hunter-style action RPG will be coming to the PS4 and Xbox One.

For PC, aside from its own launcher, it will also be available through the Epic Games Store.

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The Last Campfire

Hello. From the creators of Joe Danger and No Man’s Sky, Hello Games’ next title is a very surprising one. It is described as “a story of a lost ember trapped in a puzzling place, searching for meaning and a way home”.

A calming looking adventure game.

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New Winter Map for PUBG

New map Vikendi has been revealed. The map is smaller than the usual maps but larger than its small map Sanhok.

New weapons, new vehicles including a snowmobile and snow. Snow will play a part on strategy as it leaves tracks.

The map is now available on PC Test servers and are on its way to Xbox One and PS4, soon.

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Atlas

New game by the developers of Ark:Survival Evolved. A world of pirates, knights and cowboys? and magic? Every fantasy trope collides in this open world survival MMO, with 40,000 concurrent players.

It will be out on PC via Steam on December 14th, with a release on Xbox One via the Preview Program coming soon.

"I suspect you have questions…" #TheDreadWolfRises pic.twitter.com/oT7L6LOFKA

— BioWare (@bioware) December 7, 2018

New Dragon Age Teased

A new Dragon Age game has been announced. While it’s an open secret one is existed, it’s good to finally have it properly revealed.

Though no name has been attached to it yet, but the tease suggests the next game will continue directly after the end of its last game, Dragon Age: Inquisition.

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The Pathless

From the creators of Abzu comes a new adventure game, featuring fantastical ruins, forests, flaming mythical beasts, an eagle and archery.

It will be released on PS4 and PC via Epic Games Store.

Stranger Things 3: The Game from @BonusXP is coming to all platforms. Hold onto your quarters. #TheGameAwards pic.twitter.com/m00x1nGeFy

— NX (@NXOnNetflix) December 7, 2018

Stranger Things 3 The Game

Developed by BonusXP, the same developers that did Stranger Things The Game. Now it’s in a 16-bit style aesthetic instead of 8-bit and will follow along the adventures that will happen in Season 3 of the Netflix show.

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Mortal Kombat 11

While Ed Boon was presenting an award, it cuts to the announcement of Mortal Kombat 11. It is a CG trailer but the game will feature a new graphics engine and Custom Character Variations.

A full reveal for the community is set to happen on January 17th with a full release on April 23rd for the PS4, PC, Xbox One and Switch.

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Psychonauts 2

A new trailer for the long-in-development platformer Psychonauts 2.The trailer details the setup for our hero Razputin’s next mission.

It is still set for release sometime in 2019.

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Demo May Cry Coming First to Xbox One

The demo for Devil May Cry 5, which we are dubbing as Demo May Cry, will be out on Xbox One December 7th. This is the Nero demo as seen playable at various events this year.

Alongside that is a new trailer, including a glimpse of how V, the third playable character.

Fortnite

The world of Fortnite literally changed with the introduction of The Block where the coolest content from the game will be featured. Goodbye Risky Reels. For now.

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Rage 2

A wild new trailer for Rage 2 dropped. Featuring more of the wacky post-apocalypse open world.

There are no words! Joker from Persona 5 in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate!? Wow! #TheGameAwards pic.twitter.com/uga2qxQluT

— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 7, 2018

Persona 5’s Joker In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

For real?!?! It’s real! The Persona 5 protagonist is the coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the first of five as announced earlier. All DLC characters will be new to Smash and will be of this sort of wild pick.

Lookin’ cool, Joker!

For the list of award winners for The Game Awards can be found here.

Here’s All The Game Announcements At The Game Awards 2018 published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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riverdalee · 7 years ago

Text

The One With The Red Lipstick

Pairing: Jughead Jones x Reader

Summary: After Jughead throws you under the bus to help the Southside during a school assembly, you decide to get some payback when he gets transferred back to Riverdale High.

MASTERLIST (mobile and desktop) (you can like it and save it for later!)

The school hall was filled with anxious students and parents alike. Addressing the assembly was a task that’d been dumped on you the night before when Mayor McCoy approached you with her request.

‘You’re an upstanding citizen and student of Riverdale’

You couldn’t argue with her, it would’ve raised too many questions if you refused to give the speech, but as you stood on stage, you became more afraid that this would only put the Black Hood’s next target on your back.

You may have been an honour student and co-captain of your cheerleading squad, but you also had a heavy drug problem that you’d only managed to kick a few months ago. Few people knew about it, but those who did, knew how serious it had been.

It didn’t seem right that someone like you was giving a speech at an assembly to ‘reassure the community that if they are upstanding citizens, they have nothing to worry about’ – the Mayor’s words, not yours.

You take the stage, your hands wrapped tightly around the microphone that was balanced on the podium.

“Welcome everyone,” you say, taking a second to clear your throat, “Thank you all for being here today.”

A round of applause spreads through the auditorium.

“Mayor McCoy has asked me to speak today on behalf of the school and the student body. I know there are a lot of concerned parents and citizens but I’m here to reassure all of you that you have nothing to worry about. This town has been through a lot as of late but what keeps us strong is staying together and supporting one another.”

You were shaking. You didn’t believe a word coming out of your mouth.

‘Honesty’ you think. If you’re honest, you’ll get through this faster.

“We cannot give into fear,” you continue, “We cannot be frantic, short-sighted or make any rash decisions. Sheriff Keller and the police department are working hard on this case and we must believe the killer will be caught,” you force a smile, “In the meantime, try your best to stay off the streets at night and-“

You’re interrupted by the sound of clapping echoing through the room. It takes a minute for you to isolate its source in the crowd – Jughead.

The room falls to silence as he walks up the aisle between the rows of chairs until he’s in the middle, staring right at you.

“Isn’t that just rich coming from Riverdale’s biggest drugs abuser?!” he calls out, scoffing loudly enough for you to hear, “You’re such a hypocrite standing up there.”

Before you can reply, Mayor McCoy nudges you aside, taking the mic for herself as the room bursts into murmurs.

You go backstage, taking the exit door into the back hallway near the music rooms. You rest your head against the door, squeezing your eyes shut as you try to calm your heart down as it pounds against your chest.

When you open your eyes, Sheriff Keller is standing in front of you with a deputy by his side.

“Y/N,” he sighs regretfully, “Mayor McCoy is insisting I check your locker.”

You shake your head stiffly, “You can’t seriously believe what Jughead said in there!”

“It’s not up to me to decide if it’s true or not. You can either open your locker for me or he can,” he says nodding toward his Deputy who had a crowbar in his hand.

“Fine,” you grumble, leading the way. You turn you lock until it clicks and let the door swing open, stepping aside.

The Sheriff drops at least half it’s content out onto the floor before he’s done, turning to his deputy in defeat.

“She’s clean,” he says, turning back to you, “I’m so sorry for the misunderstanding.”

You don’t accept his apology as you usually would – you felt too humiliated.

“I’ll let you get back to the assembly,” he says, turning away awkwardly and heading back inside.

You breathe in and out forcefully, trying to get yourself to calm down. Trying not to cry.

“How did you pull that off? Last time I saw your locker it looked the setting for an episode of Narcos.”

You look up to find Jughead watching you, leaning against the wall across from your locker. Suddenly you’re furious and you’re walking over to him and grabbing him by the collar of his Serpent jacket.

“Why would you do that?!” you exclaim, “What have I ever done to you?!”

“It’s nothing personal,” he says, dusting your hands away, “Southside High got raided the other day because of the Mayor’s stereotyping. I just wanted them to know Northsider’s are no different. Especially you.”

“Especially me?” you repeat, scoffing, “How can you say that? We used to be friends!”

“Yeah, Riverdale’s golden girl,” he shrugs, “We were friends until you joined Cheryl and her group of pom-pom waving idiots.”

You wanted to punch him right in the face but that would only put you in a worse position with all the eyes that would now be on you.

“You made a big mistake, Jughead,” you growl, taking a step away from him, “You may not have known it, but I have always been on your side. I’ve always advocated for the Serpents and the South Side.”

“Because they’re your drug hook-ups? Everyone knows about your special relationship with the Ghoulies,” he scoffs.

“Because FP had my back when I was in a bad place,” you say lowly. Jughead tenses – his dad had never mentioned you.

“I owe him a lot,” you say, lowering your voice, “Why do you think you weren’t arrested when they raided your school even though you’re a Serpent?” you hiss, “You’d be surprised how much influence I have over that new Deputy that stormed the halls with Sheriff Keller.”

Jughead’s jaw tenses.

“And you’d be surprised how many times I’ve made sure that you and your Serpent buddies have stayed out of trouble.”

“Am I supposed to be thankful?” he asks, rolling his eyes, “I don’t care what you’ve done for me. You’re still a terrible person.”

Those particular words stung coming from him.

“You may not care about what I’ve done so far,” you scowl, “But you’re sure as hell going to care about what I do from here on out.”

“Is that a threat?” he scoffs.

“I guess you’ll find out,” you spit.

In the few weeks that followed that particular embarrassing incident, most of Riverdale High had forgotten about what had been said about you – since it hadn’t been proven.

Jughead may have found out through the Ghoulies at his school but you sure as hell weren’t going to let anyone else find out.

You’d crafted a perfect plan for payback – what you hadn’t expected was for Jughead to transfer back to Riverdale high with the Serpents by his side.

It didn’t put much of a dent in your plan except for the fact that your vision went red with fury each time you laid eyes on Jughead.

You hadn’t bothered to stand with Cheryl on her ‘Anti-Serpents’ crusade. You didn’t have anything against the rest of the Serpents. Still, you were glad someone was bothering Jughead while you weren’t.

“I didn’t see you at practice today,” Archie says, walking over to you as you watch Cheryl and Reggie talk about game plans to drive the Serpents out.

“Hmm?” you mumble, distracted.

He rests his hands on your shoulders, turning you to face him, “I said I didn’t see you at practice today. Or yesterday. Where have you been?”

“I’ve just had a lot going on,” you mumble, forcing a smile, “I’m fine though, Arch, honestly.”

Archie stares at you in concern, “This isn’t about Jughead is it?”

You stay silent, your jaw clenched stubbornly.

“Look, I know what he did was wrong but in his own way, he thought he was doing the right thing. You know, a long time ago, the two of you were friends,” Archie says pointedly.

“Yeah, when we were kids,” you say, “And then he stopped talking to me because I joined the cheerleading squad in Junior High.”

“You have been kind of different ever since,” Archie says, “I mean, this drug habit-“

“It’s in the past, Arch,” you interject, “You’re the only person I told so please don’t hold it over my head. You can tell I’m doing better, right?”

“Exactly,” he says with a soft smile, “I don’t want you to fall back into bad habits by working yourself up over this tiny thing.”

“It’s not a tiny thing,” you argue, “Arch, it hurt even more because Jughead used to be my friend. He treated me like a total stranger that night. I know we haven’t talked in years but it was like I meant nothing to him. And after everything I’ve done for him-“

“You did that stuff because FP saved your ass from the Ghoulie’s,” Archie interrupts.

“I did it because it was the right thing to do. I’ve always looked out for Jughead. I always kept Reggie off his back even when he went here,” you explain.

“Well, he could use that right now,” Archie sighs, nodding toward Reggie who looked devious as he connived with Cheryl, “He could use you on his side. Everyone loves you at this school, no matter what. They all follow you blindly.”

“I’m counting on it,” you smirk.

Archie rests a hand on your shoulder, “What are you up to?” he asks in concern.

You rest a hand over his and the other on his cheek, “Nothing you need to worry about, Arch,” you laugh. With that you head to class, leaving Archie feeling anxious.

“So, what’s she planning?” Jughead asks, interrupting Archie’s thoughts.

“Huh? Nothing,” Archie lies, shrugging too much to look casual.

“You’re a terrible liar,” Jughead states.

“You shouldn’t have done what you did,” Archie says, crossing his arms over his chest, “She didn’t deserve that.”

“It wasn’t personal. Plus, heaps of kids here do drugs, it’s not like anyone cares,” Jughead says pointedly.

“She cares,” Archie huffs, “She wasn’t doing them to look cool – she was genuinely struggling. Her and Reggie broke up-“

Jughead rolls his eyes.

“And then her parents passed away.”

“Whoa, what are you talking about?” Jughead interrupts, his brows furrowed together, “W-what happened to her parents?”

“Car crash last year,” Archie says slowly, “You were still at school with us. Didn’t you know?”

Jughead shakes his head, “S-so where is she staying now?”

“With me actually,” Archie says, “She’s barely home though. I have no idea where she’s been these past few days.”

Jughead sighs in relief. Now he definitely felt like a complete asshole. He’d assumed the worst about you – he thought you were just one of Riverdale’s privileged party kids without a care in the world and all this time you’d been struggling.

“She could use a friend,” Archie says to Jughead, “There was a time when the two of you were inseparable, remember?”

Jughead nods reluctantly, “I’m in her class right now. I guess I could talk to her.”

Archie smiles in relief, clapping Jughead on the back as he heads toward you. When he gets to class, you’re already seated by the window, scrolling through your phone.

He sits down beside you.

A wave of whispers spreads through the class making him regret it instantly.

“Do you have a death wish?” you ask, not bothering to look at him.

“Archie told me to make nice,” he explains, “And occasionally I can admit when I’ve made an error in judgement.”

“That’s a shit apology,” you say, standing up, about to change tables. He shoots up, wrapping his hand around your wrist to stop you.

“I didn’t know about your parents, okay? I didn’t know-“

“You don’t know anything,” you say through gritted teeth, “And if you don’t let go of me right now, I swear to god I’ll punch you right in the fucking face.”

“Do it then, you think I deserve it, don’t you?” he asks lowly.

“That’s the difference between you and me,” you reply, “I would never do anything to actually hurt you.”

You rip your wrist out of his grasp, collecting your bag and walking out. He’d made a spectacle out of you twice already which was enough to last you a life time.

Yet still, he follows behind you. When he finally catches up, he doesn’t touch you and instead walks backwards in front of you when you refuse to stop.

“I’m sorry, okay?” he says, “I should’ve never called you out like that. I thought you were just another one of those idiots-“

“And what if I was?” you ask, “What if I just enjoyed it, huh? You still shouldn’t have done what you did, Jughead. We were friends!”

“I know,” he sighs, shaking his head, “I know. I wasn’t thinking. Sometimes, I just – I don’t think, okay?!”

“Another shitty apology,” you scoff. You stop walking and cross your arms over your chest, “Give it up, Jughead. The only reason you’re trying to make this right is because you’re afraid I’ll do something to you or the Serpents now that you’ve transferred here.”

“And you’re not planning to?” he asks.

“I’m not an asshole,” you say, “No matter how much you make me out to be. I didn’t change when I joined the Vixens, you did.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he says, “I guess I was just afraid you’d end up forgetting about me, so I pushed you away instead.”

“And now we’re strangers,” you state, “Look, hat-hair, to be honest, I’m over trying to get you back and I haven’t even started. All this-“ you point between the two of you, “-is exhausting. I’m not going to go after you, so you can stop trying to kiss my ass-“

“Hat-hair?” he chuckles, interrupting you, “You really don’t have a mean bone in your body if that was all you could come up with as an insult.”

You shrug, walking around him.

“Wait,” he calls out. You turn to face him again, this time agitated by the expression he wore.

“I really am sorry for how I’ve treated you and for what I said at that assembly,” he says, “You’ve always been good to me and I’ve taken it for granted and-“

“And?”

“And honestly I’ve been so worried about what you’d do to me after you yelled at me that night. I’ve never seen you that mad so I’m kind of relieved you’re calling this off,” he laughs, “So, should we call a peace treaty?”

“Last time you said that to me we were eight and fighting over who could ride shotgun in your dad’s truck and when I finally gave in to you, you kissed me,” you frown.

“My first kiss,” he smirks, “It sucked.”

“Wow,” you frown in disbelief.

“Seriously, it was like a punishment for calling a peace treaty,” he says, “I scrubbed my lips for days.”

You inhale slowly, “You know what, scratch what I said about not hurting you,“ you say, taking a threatening step toward him. You grab his face in both your hands and press a messy kiss to his lips, smearing your red lipstick from his nose down to his chin, “Consider that your punishment since I’m such a terrible kisser.”

Jughead was staring at you as though you’d punched him in the face and broken his nose – in fact, all the red lipstick almost made that a believable explanation.

His expression only made you laugh harder until it dawns on you that he’d kissed you back. You look down at his hands which were rested on your waist.

“Did you just kiss me?” you ask.

“Y-you kissed me!” he stammers, incredibly confused.

“Yeah but I was kidding!” you exclaim. Despite your genuine shock, you found yourself unable to pull away from him.

“Were you?” he asks softly, “That kind of kiss is pretty hard to fake.” He runs a finger over his bottom lip, smirking.

God, that smirk drove you insane in a way you couldn’t explain. It turned you on and made you furious all at once. Jughead may have been an outsider but he was the John Bender of outsider’s.

As if things weren’t awkward enough, you spot Archie walking over with a curious look on his face. You pull away from Jughead, clearing your throat just as Archie comes to a stop, his eyes wide as they land on Jughead.

“Wow you guys literally kissed and made up,” he says, laughing loudly.

“Would you shut up?!” you hiss.

“And what a cliché! The cheerleader and the loner boy.”

“Loner boy?” Jughead scowls, looking unimpressed.

“So, what? Are you guys like together now?” Archie asks, clearly rooting for the two of you.

“No,” you say, grinning, “Jughead’s punishment is that now he gets to pine after me until I’m ready to forgive him.”

“I thought that kiss was my punishment?” he argues feeling both embarrassed and disappointed.

You click your tongue, “Not when you so clearly enjoyed it.”

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mstonecollins · 7 years ago

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A tribute to my Father

My Father passed away on Father’s Day, 4 weeks ago today. on Friday June 22, I delivered a Eulogy at his funeral. It was the hardest public thing I’ve ever done--and I thought I would share it today in his honor.

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I’m honored to stand before you today to celebrate the life of my Father. I promise to do my best, but I’ll ask your forgiveness in advance if I am unable to complete today’s mission.

There are many “naming” associations in life I am proud of…Kim’s Husband; Lauren’s Father; John Junior’s Brother; Douglas and Rachel’s Uncle. Family is truly all that matters in this life. The greatest of these—and where it all started—is being known as John’s Son.

As some of you know I retired last December after more than 30 years in business. Over the course of my career I was fortunate enough to rise to a position of responsibility beyond anything I’d ever imagined—one of the top 100+ executives of a Fortune 10 Global Company with more than 250,000 employees.

Any success I enjoyed in the business world started with the foundation my Father instilled in me -- leadership principles I utilized over these past 30+ years. Absent his coaching and development, it simply wouldn’t have happened. As a tribute to him, I’d like to share three of them with you today as a testament to the kind of Father, Leader, Husband, and Friend he was over the course of his 90 years on earth.

HUMILITY

According to Jim Collins-not my Uncle Jim, but a world-renowned professor at Stanford University, author of best-selling leadership books like “Good to Great” and “Built to Last”, the difference between a very good leader and a world class executive can be distilled down to the existence of a single trait: Humility. He explains it like this: In the sports world, head coaches that personify these humble leaders credit the talent of their players when the team wins championships. When the team loses, they shoulder the blame, and take the responsibility for providing the team with the necessary preparation or game plan that would allow them to be successful.

This principle is critical to get groups of people to work together for a common goal. Whether people admit or not, human beings enjoy being recognized for their hard work and their role in achieving a goal. Leaders that attempt to take credit for their team’s success don’t have successful teams or talented players very long.

As my brother can attest, Pop demanded humility from his boys during our formative years. No self-aggrandizing behaviors were tolerated in any way, shape or form! Any inkling of hot-dogging, trash talking, bragging, or basking in the limelight on the basketball court or baseball field would be met afterward with a stern-and I mean stern! rebuke. He knew what our young minds could not comprehend—business and life are team sports. You’ll rise and fall based on the capabilities of the people you surround yourself with. Be a good teammate-someone that values the individuals of the team and the overall team above yourself—and you can put yourself in a position to have the privilege to lead others, and be surrounded by great people that can lift you up.

SETTING EXPECTATIONS

Successful leaders set clear-and high expectations for performance. If you don’t know what is expected of you, what are you supposed to do? Show me a team or company that doesn’t have clear performance expectations, and I will show you a losing team or failing company. And, of course, expectations are pretty meaningless if you don’t put in the hard work it takes to achieve them. Perhaps Pop’s favorite mantras were “the harder I work, the luckier I get” and “Luck is when preparation meets Opportunity”. I heard these words hundreds of times from him.

Pop set very clear and very high expectations for performance, whether it was work in the yard, personal behavior, academics, or athletics. I must confess that early on, I could get discouraged with his feedback. No matter how many points I scored, games we won, or courses I succeeded in at school, he had the annoying ability to find something that I could improve upon. He was never satisfied-or at least I didn’t think he was.

At the time, I didn’t realize or appreciate the value of the gift he was giving me. First, he was instilling the principle that all good leaders know well—people can always do more than they think they can. Left alone, as human beings we typically are content to reside within the confines of our comfort zones. Great leaders push us out of them-and get us to do more. Second, expect the best from yourself, and then you can expect the best from everyone you work with. Finally, it instilled self-confidence in me that I would need in the future to be successful. My wife Kim would likely tell you that he outdid himself on that one! In all seriousness, when he pushed me to do more—after I got over my anger and frustration and actually tried, I usually found success. I gained confidence in knowing I could do more-and believed in myself, no longer needing a push from him. Over the course of my career, not once did I have a leader of mine have to ask me to do more. I was trained by my Dad to set high expectations for myself and my teams, and more often than not, we out-distanced our internal and external competitors as a result.

Later in life, after he was satisfied that he’d done all he could do to shape me, he was always quick to let me know how proud he was of me…giving me reinforcement in my darkest hours, giving me the support and confidence I needed to keep moving forward. Many Father’s Days over the last 15 years I would write him a simple note or tell him in a conversation—based on his leadership and the expectations that he set for me, that anything I did right in my life, he should take credit for; correspondingly, anything I did wrong he should be absolved from. I knew what “right” was supposed to look like, which leads me to my final principle.

DEMONSTRATING THE DESIRED BEHAVIOR

People listen to what you say, but they watch what you do.

I’m sure you’ve heard this over the course of your life. It means that people believe in you based on what they actually see you do. Words, as we know, are just that. But deeds matter.

I used to tell people that worked with me that when you’re in a position of leadership, what you do is on display 7x24x 365. It’s a simple concept-they’re always watching you, whether you realize it or not. What you actually do is far more impactful than what you say. When faced with a crisis, do you remain calm or lose your cool? Do you support people when they need time for a family member, or only when it is convenient for you? When things go bad, do you take responsibility, or blame others? When you are faced with illegal, immoral, or unethical behavior, do you join in, cover it up, or do the right thing? When no one is looking, are you working hard or goofing off? Can you be trusted to finish the job to the highest level even if no one stops by to inspect your work?

No man is perfect, but my Father consistently demonstrated the desired behaviors to me over the course of his 90 years on earth. Simple things he did spoke volumes—like the dedication he had to the company where he worked for more than 35 years, getting up every day and working hard-never complaining. Not a single time-not once-did I ever hear him complain about his customers or co-workers. Turning down job and career growth opportunities to keep his family centered in a place he knew was a good place to live and raise his sons. Showing up for every single game of my high school basketball career, and hundreds of other sporting events over the course of my life growing up here in Clemmons. Caring for our neighbor’s yard – the missionary daughter of the original property owners--for more than 20 years, never asking for anything in return. Offering support and assistance to another neighbor who tragically lost her husband with three small children; riding bicycles with the youngest child that lost her Father too young. Being faithful to my Mother, and God, and the Churches that mattered to him – the Francisco Presbyterian Church, and the Clemmons United Methodist Church. Honoring my Mother with his presence at her bedside every day for the last two and half years of her life, navigating his way with the help of friends and his caretaker – and, as he referred to her, his “adopted daughter”—Bebee as he was unable to drive himself due to his vision challenges.

In his later years, after my Mom died, in our conversations he’d often wonder why he was still here. He knew his body was failing him, and he worried he was only a burden to those he loved. He’d then rebound and cheer himself up, thinking of all of his friends in the community, specifically the Clemmons Kitchen. If he couldn’t do anything else, he thought God wanted him to show kindness to others, especially those who needed it most. Based on how many people tell me “I love Mr. John”, I know he succeeded in what he thought God wanted him to do. What I want you all to know is that he got more out of that than he gave, and he considered it a privilege to be able to give of himself to others.

A TRIBUTE

I’ll end with an anonymous writing that my Cost Accounting Professor at Duke provided to me back in the fall of 1993. As you can imagine, it must be pretty good if it was a Cost Accounting Professor-CJ Skender, a great guy -- not exactly my favorite subject-and it still resonates with me 25 years later. I’ve often thought if Pop had written down his expectations, this might have articulated them. More importantly, though, in my view, it’s what he actually did. It’s titled “Live Each Day”. It’s my tribute to him and my gift to all of you.

Live each day to the fullest. Get the most from each hour, each day, and each age of your life. Then you can look forward with confidence, and back without regrets.

Be yourself – but be your best self. Dare to be different and follow your own star. Don’t be afraid to be happy. Enjoy what is beautiful. Love with all your heart and soul. Believe that those you love, love you.

Forget what you have done for your friends, and remember what they have done for you. Disregard what the world owes you, and concentrate on what you owe the world. When faced with a decision, make that decision as wisely as possible – then forget it. The moment of absolute certainty never arrives.

Above all, remember that God helps those who help themselves. Act as if everything depended upon you, and pray as if everything depended on God.

Thank you, Pop for everything you’ve done for me. I wouldn’t be the man I am today without you. I love you and will miss you more than I can say.

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