#the guys go into university after serving two years in the army | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

growingstories · 1 year ago

Text

Part 2 - Army subject

At the young age of 19, Alex had a bright future ahead of him. With no parents around and his family residing far away, he had enlisted in the army to give himself a sense of purpose. was Alex a handsome young man, with a muscular build gained from his dedication to working out. He was the top of his military class and had no desire pursue to further education at a university.

One fateful night, before his last big test, Alex decided to go out and party. He ended up getting drunk and found himself at a dancing club. Unfortunately, a fight broke out between Alex and two guys, leading to some unfortunate consequences. Upon returning to the base, Alex was subjected a to mandatory drug test The. results came back positive, forcing him to come clean about his actions.

Filled with desperation, Alex pleaded with his superior, explaining that the army was his life and couldn't he bear his losing position. Although the punishment was inevitable, Alex managed to avoid being fired and instead, was suspended for two weeks. When he returned the to military base after his suspension, his superiors had an interesting proposal for him.

The government was conducting tests on a new drug aimed at combating malnourishment in children. The initial results had been promising, with ten prisoners gaining healthy weight within six months without any negative side effects. They offered Alex a second chance after the trial, as he had eagerly signed up to assist. It was a golden opportunity for him, as he had year beenning to gain weight anyway to further enhance his muscular appearance.

Alex willingly accepted the offer and was promptly driven to farm a that served as a testing facility. The lab was run by the renowned and handsome Dr. Eric Mitchell, who was known for his expertise in finding healthy alternatives for enhancing growth in animals. Upon arrival, Alex was warmly welcomed and taken to his room. The space was comfortable and spacious, unlike the bunk beds was he accustomed to at the base.

Dr. Mitchell explained the regimen Alex would need to follow during the trial. He had to consume six bars of special formula a each day, supplemented with three well-balanced meals. However, Dr. Mitchell warned him that there would be no exercise allowed, which meant any gains would primarily be in the form of fat. Additionally, Dr. Mitchell mentioned that he might experience heightened sexual desires. Excited to begin, Alex gladly embarked on this new journey.

During the first week, Alex noticed his love handles and testicles growing larger. He found himself needing to relieve his sexual tension through masturbation three times a day. Dr. Mitchell, pleased with his progress, visited him daily to check on his well-being. Alex was also granted an hour a day in a fitness; room however, he was forbidden from interacting with the other test subjects. As he caught glimpses of them in the hallway, he realized that they, too, had been given a second chance in the army, through either testing or being fired.

Weeks turned into months, and Alex's body transformed significantly. He grew immense muscles, but fat began to accumulate as well. Dr. Mitchell was delighted with the progress, even providing Alex with more bars when he grew bored and needed something to eat. The subject even approached Dr. Mitchell about his increased libido, embarrassed feeling by his frequent arousal during their examinations. However, Dr. Mitchell reassured him that it was a normal side effect of the trial. To appease Alex's desires, Dr. Mitchell began to engage in sexual activities during these sessions. Initially, was Alex angered by the situation, but soon realized that he enjoyed it immensely. The orgasms he experienced were the most intense he had ever felt. Dr. Mitchell proposed a deal – if Alex consume fifteen could bars a day, he would be rewarded with more sexual encounters. Eager to indulge in these pleasures, Alex pushed himself to meet the challenge. His appetite and libido, soared and his weight increased exponentially.

As promised, Dr. Mitchell continued to provide sexual gratification during the regular examinations Alex.'s body had become massive by this point, making movement more difficult. He waddled around, his muscles straining under the weight. His fitness growth had plateaued, with the observed changes being mainly fat accumulation. Nevertheless, Dr. Mitchell ecstatic was with the progress, praising Alex's achievements.

Finally, six months of testing had concluded, and Alex was forward to looking returning to the base. Dr. Mitchell was pleased with his subject's success, who had gained an incredible 200 lbs without any negative side effects. As a parting gift, Dr. Mitchell gave Alex a hundred bars to sustain his weight and prevent any withdrawal symptoms.

However, returning to the base was bittersweet for Alex. He was noticeably larger, which didn’t surprised his superiors. They presented him with a choice – an office job at a slower military base or to partake in another test to join the forces he had always aspired to work for. Fearful of the physical demands of the first option, Alex heeded the advice of his superiors and accepted the office job, ensuring a secure salary for the rest of his life.

Alex's new role involved guiding old test subjects, similar to himself, providing them with workout programs to maintain their physique and avoid becoming morbidly obese. He remained in contact with Dr. Mitchell, who continued to send a constant supply of the special bars. Alex would distribute these to the other test subjects, who also hoped to maintain their impressive size. Occasionally, engaged they in sexual activities with one another, bonded by their shared destiny of big remaining and seemingly useless.

#fictionalweightgain #maleweightgain #maleweightgainstories #weightgain #weightgainstories #fictionalstories #wg fantasy #wg fiction #exjock #aiweightgain

258 notes · View notes

sullustangin · 2 years ago

Text

Spoilers Ahoy: Consular Thoughts

I’m doing a quickie consular story re-playthrough, and ... I have thoughts, mainly about the companions.

I do like the overall story arc until Chapter 3 when everyone except the Selkath thinks going to Belsavis to make friends is a great idea. Awakening an imprisoned army is a terrible idea. This is sort of how I feel about my OC confronting Malgus alone in prison recently: I don’t have a choice not to be stupid, and I HATE that. LS is “Gonna get new friends for the Republic” and DS is more like “Gonna get new friends to serve me.” THESE GUYS ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS. It’s a lot of risk and no guarantee of reward. I’d mark this as ‘a jump the shark’ moment.

The Consular also has the inverse problem of the Bounty Hunter: BH gets all the lighter companions first (Mako most of all) and then gets DS only at the end (death to Skadge). Meanwhile, the consular gets a Hunt All The Things Uncle Lizard, Guy Who Literally Lives in the Basement with his Holo Girlfriend, and a politically inclined Murder!Noodle. Consular only gets LS Felix and LS Nadia as the last two companions, which results in some problems -- they’re also the romance options, which gives them the least amount of development in the vanilla game.

To be fair, I think Felix Iresso is one of the least problematic guys in the SWTOR universe. He’s so kriffin’ sweet. He’s perfect for a young Jedi. I totally think there was an attempt at a Jace/Satele parallel here. It’s not toxic and it’s well-paced... minus the fact that he doesn’t show up until Hoth. Yes, I know what’s in his head...but he’s still a good person before and after the experience in Vanilla. (I know how he was done dirty in his return -- poor sweet man.)

For perspective, Hoth is when the smuggler gets their last companion, Guss Tuno. Corso (f!smug romance option) was acquired in Chapter 1, and Risha (m!smug romance option 1) was acquired at Chapter 1′s end. Akaavi was acquired in Chapter 2 after Balmorra (option 2). Even then, Akaavi’s relationship feels better paced just by having her a whole planet early. I know @swtorpadawan and others have commented on how fast the Nadia Grell romance is. Pair that with her relative youth -- even with the consular being super young themselves, it still feels ‘yikes’, especially in the context you romance her.

I love and hate Qyzen. He’s a great first companion, part of a cultural immersion experience for a young Jedi. His hunting for the Scorekeeper works in contrast to the peace that the consular seeks to establish, and yet it does provide a path to that -- sometimes, you do have to fight for the 'greater good’ end result; compliance works for the enemy. However, on a personal level, I have my political loyalties to Wookiees, and I would cheer for Bowdaar to kick his ass.

I do like Zenith, and not just because he’s voiced by Troy Baker. There’s a very gritty, realist element to Zenith. After the hero moves on from a planet, what happens to it? Great, Balmorra is liberated, but it doesn’t fix everything going on there. Should there be ‘necessary evils’ done in the name of politics and managing power? All of the war, death, and other baggage can screw a person up; I read Zenith as walking PTSD, having lived in a war zone all of his life (he was born 3 years after Jace and Satele reported the fall of Korriban, and Balmorra has been a mess since). Zenith is a great foil to a consular, regardless of alignment.

...I have a really hard time justifying Tharan’s recruitment so early minus the fact he does fit on Nar Shaddaa better than anyone else. I know the developers tried to keep all of the Pub and Imp players running on the same sets of planets in each chapter...but if there was ever an exception to be made, it should have been for the consular, because I feel like Tharan is taking up an important space that he really shouldn’t. He’s not actively evil, but he’s not a pleasant or honest person. Super skeevy vibes once Nadia joins the crew too. I feel like a lot of time is spent on Tharan with not a lot of growth or character development to show for it. I think I feel that way because there’s this weird ‘affair’ the consular is propositioned with early on -- it felt like filler from the start. It’s not as well done as the Pierce one-night stand. Some of his comp convos seem tacked on or “oh no we have to make more content for this guy.”

Nadia’s acquisition as a companion hinges on certain late stage events, but I feel as if the romance would have felt ‘better’ if her father had let her go to be a padawan as soon as she manifested on Quesh. Then, she could have grown up a little more before the later events and would have been on more equal footing and more familiar terms with the consular, romance or not.

In sum, I think the consular’s personal story with the crew has great elements, but I feel like they got put together in the wrong order. To me, companion order would be: Qyzen, Felix (set him on Tatooine, the opposite temperature cesspit in the galaxy), Zenith, Nadia (on Quesh), and then... Tharan on Hoth because someone unloaded him there? or Belsavis for crimes related to unethical experiments? Again, Tharan’s convos seem overstretched; the Vandrayk Generator could have really been done in two or three convos rather than the big thing it was in Chapters 2 and 3.

#swtor #swtor consular #tharan cedrax #zenith #swtor zenith #nadia grell #felix iresso #qyzen fess

60 notes · View notes

coochiequeens · 1 year ago

Text

This Veterans Day don't let the media gloss over the women that served

By Lori Tobias | For The Oregonian/OregonLive

Ask most any of the 26,000 female Oregon military veterans about invisibility and not only will she know exactly what you are talking about, she’ll no doubt have a story or two of her own. That includes Dr. Nakeia Council Daniels, interim director of Oregon’s own Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Daniels said she didn’t even realize she was considered a veteran after servingin the U.S. Army from 1998 to 2003.

“I do not recall the word actually being used when I was processing out of the military,” Daniels said. “I remember the word civilian being used quite often in transition. There were no images of women. When I saw veterans, I saw older white men who had wartime paraphernalia on their headgear or on their clothing. Culturally, women have historically been disconnected. We don’t see ourselves as women veterans. I actually thought you had to be a certain age to be a veteran.”

Stories like Daniels are what inspired the “I Am Not Invisible” traveling photo exhibit created in 2017 by the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs (ODVA) to “raise awareness and visibility of the women as veterans in Oregon.” This week, the exhibit is on display at Western Oregon University in Monmouth.

The idea for the exhibit grew out of a conversation with the Portland State University Veterans Resource Center, said Nicole Hoeft, ODVA Strategic Communications Division director. Oregon women veterans coordinator Elizabeth Estabrooks and PSU Veterans Resource Center director Felicia Singleton were in a meeting with women veterans discussing the veterans’ sense of feeling invisible. And from there, “I Am Not Invisible” was born.

“We wanted to make sure that we had a diverse group of women from all eras as well as positions and branches of service so that we could try to make sure that we had a photo or bio that would resonate with a majority of the other women that would be seeing this,” Hoeft said.

"Culturally, women have historically been disconnected. We don’t see ourselves as women veterans. I actually thought you had to be a certain age to be a veteran,” said Dr. Nakeia Council Daniels, interim director of Oregon’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs.Courtesy of Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs

“When we go through the gate at the Portland National Air Guard, they look at my husband and expect him to give his card and don’t expect me to. And I outrank him. It never occurs to them that I am the officer,” says Mary Mayer, who retired as a colonel after serving for more than 30 years in the U.S. Air Force.Courtesy of Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs

Liz Estabrooks, ODVA’s first women's veteran coordinator, and Sen. Jeff Merkley review the exhibit in Washington, D.C., in 2017.Courtesy of Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs

The women veterans it resonates with include ODVA advisory board member, Mary Mayer. Like Daniels, Mayer also knows what it’s like to feel invisible, though she notes, “invisible means different things to different people.” In her case, it often also meant disrespected.

In 1972, Mayer went to Lackland Air Force Base for officer training, “It was the first time I met our squadron and one guy comes up to me and he says, ‘What are you doing in my man’s Air Force?’” Another time, Mayer needed help learning to march, a skill necessary to be an officer, but the drill instructor refused her request, hoping Mayer would “wash out.” It’s not only the obvious insults, like the lower ranking officer who refused to salute a woman, but the day-to-day slights, even in full dress uniform.

“Initially, we had black coats and white coats, kind of like a tuxedo, and I don’t know how many times I would have the white coat on and they thought I was the waiter,” Mayer recalled. “Another person thought I was a bus driver.” Retired as a colonel after serving for more than 30 years in the U.S. Air Force, Mayer still feels the sting. “When we go through the gate at the Portland National Air Guard, they look at my husband and expect him to give his card and don’t expect me to. And I outrank him. It never occurs to them that I am the officer.”

The issue of visibility isn’t only a lack of recognition but of access to benefits and resources, Daniels said. “This campaign gets right to the heart of education, outreach and awareness, not just to women veterans, but to the next generation that follows and to those military connected families … a way to reach out and ensure that in Oregon, all veterans are accessing their benefits and resources.”

It’s been more than six years since the “I Am Not Invisible” exhibit launched at the Portland Art Museum in February 2017. Mayer, who served on the Advisory Committee to the ODVA, recalled the opening day.

“The room was packed,” Mayer said. “Everyone was very moved. I mean, even the men. It was amazing. We were being seen for the first time. We really mattered.”

Since then, the exhibit has been replicated by the VA’s Center for Women Veterans, as well as dozens of state veterans groups. It was also on display in Washington, D.C., in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building. It opened at the Western Oregon University in Monmouth on Monday and will be on campus through Nov. 11. It can also be seen at the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs website and in a video presentation at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center.

“We are extremely, extremely proud of the advocacy that this exhibit has been able to carry on not only for just the first few months, but for six years now,” Hoeft said. “To date, there have been thousands of people that have seen thousands of women veterans’ photos attached to the “I Am Not” Invisible campaign. … We are very, very proud of this whole engagement and our partnerships now with the federal VA and the other state VAs who are also replicating this exact campaign.”

— Lori Tobias, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

#usa #oregon #Monmouth #I Am Not Invisible #Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs (ODVA)#Western Oregon University #Veterans Day #women who served

5 notes · View notes

deflare · 2 years ago

Photo

Welcome to the first day of me popping open my Warhammer 40k Advent Calendar. Appropriately enough, on our first day, we start with the First: a Dark Angel!

Unfortunately, I’ve never cared about the Dark Angels, so I don’t actually know a ton about them compared to other chapters. Good start for the calendar.

Repent! For tomorrow you die!

The Dark Angels were the First Legion, in that they were the first ones the Emperor created to serve in his armies. Their practices would become the basis for how all the other legions would operate, the basic template to be edited. And they were total pricks about it.

Ironically, the First would be reunited with their Primarch, Lion El’Jonson*, pretty late in the Crusade. Up to that point, the First was dealing with some real problems with being prideful and unwilling to change, which had messed them up real bad in their wars. The Lion renamed them the Dark Angels, and led them to glory, yadda yadda. During the Heresy, the Dark Angels started out far away from Terra; they’d spend the war doing some big campaigns and messing up the traitor legions’ homeworlds.

At the end of the war, they went back to the Lion’s homeworld of Caliban, only to get shot at. Turns out, the Dark Angels that had stayed on the planet along with the Lion’s adoptive dad, Luther, had decided to turn to Chaos**; they had to go conquer the place, and in the process, the Lion got mortally wounded and got put into suspended animation (like father, like son), to return in the time of his sons’ greatest need. Now, every single loyalist legion had elements that went traitor and became Chaosy. For reasons that have never been clear to me, the Dark Angels thought it was a HUGE problem for them to have their own traitor elements, and they’ve spent the subsequent 10,000 years being super paranoid about guarding the secret and hunting down the traitors (and anyone who knows about the traitors), called the Fallen.

The Dark Angels were always kind of horny for secrets and faint cultism, which only grew under their Primarch. They had a whole complicated set of different wings and orders within the legion that specialized in different forms of warfare. The modern chapter retains two of them: the Deathwing, a veteran company that fights in super-heavy armor painted bone white, and the Ravenwing, a light formation focused on going really fast with motorcycles and landspeeders and the like (and who are also the primary hunters of the Fallen). The whole chapter is set up as a mystery cult, with troopers learning more and more about their grimdark history and their grimdark rituals as they rise through the ranks.

Aesthetically, the Dark Angels tend to lean into a Medieval Knight kind of look, with some Arthurian elements sprinkled in (see: the Lion is a King Under the Mountain). They really like wearing robes and tabards, or big winged knights’ helmets. They also have Weird Little Guys: the Watchers in the Dark. They’re mysterious little Jawa-sized folks who live on Calaban and do menial work for the Dark Angels, like holding books and swords; they also keep watch over the Lion’s body, and they disrupt nearby psykers. What are they? Why haven’t they been murdered by the xenophobic Imperium? What’s their goals? Who knows. But look at this little guy.

*Yes, the father of the Dark Angels was named after Lionel Johnson, author of the poem “Dark Angel”. Buckle up, because the names do not get any less goofy from here.

**What is Chaos?

Well, the big thing to know is that in 40k, our physical reality is accompanied by another dimension called the Warp. It’s a realm of non-material that’s fundamentally affected by the thoughts and emotions of sapient beings in real-space. And because the Warhammer universe is a miserable, awful place, the strongest emotions that have affected the Warp are things like rage, sorrow, greed, and megalomania.

The Warp is important; it’s where psykers draw their magic powers from, and it’s how human ships can travel faster than light. But it’s also dangerous. Over the millennia, the suffering and emotions in the Warp have congealed into several powerful, malevolent consciousnesses, powerful as gods: Khorne (murder, bloodshed, rage), Nurgle (rot, sickness, sorrow), Tzeentch (magic, change, ambition), and Slaanesh (greed, ecstasy, perfectionism). Each of them also has hordes of demons--sorry, ‘daemons’, this is a British game--that are always itching to go through any hole in reality to go fuck up real-space. These are the corruptive powers of Chaos, whose very nature is to seek out places that aren’t Chaosy and make them a bit more gruesome.

The Chaos gods can’t go running into realspace all willy-nilly. They need agents. Psykers are inherent gateways to Chaos, which is why the Imperium tends to hate them and go witch-hunting. They’re also aided by a galaxy full of cultists who work to open up portals to the Warp, so that the daemons can come rampaging through. Horus’ rebellion started as a mundane power grab, striking a bargain with the Dark Powers to aid in the fight; as time went on, they got more and more lost in the sauce, and now most of the remaining traitor Astartes are fully worshipers of the dark gods.

Every day, the Imperium continues their grim wars against Chaos, fighting daemons on the battlefield and hunting down any sign of cults within their society. Going to war against the concept of ‘warfare’, going into an ecstasy of Emperor-worship to ward off the concept of ‘ecstasy’, killing billions in the name of fighting ‘death/decay’, keeping infinite secrets to fight the concept of ‘secrecy’... it’s going about as well as you’d expect. Chaos is going to eat the Imperium someday, if the aliens don’t get to them first. Maybe then, the gods will starve, having finally extinguished their source of fuel. Cold comfort for the people who died along the way, though.

Master post here

#warhammer 40k #space marines #advent calendar #text heavy #lore dump #40k advent #dark angels #lion el'jonson #chaos

11 notes · View notes

angelofthepage · 2 years ago

Text

Some of you might know that I have a Bendy fanfic called Searching the Depths: The Heart of the Studio. (Which by the way has two new chapters coming that just need a little more tweaking.) It's very near and dear to my heart, and I've had at least a version of it going since the first year I was in the fandom. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with it, even though it's always evolving and changing, but lately, I can't get my mind off of what would happen if I changed this story to fit with BATDR. So I'm gonna talk about it. Warning, spoilers for BATDR and this fic ahead.

Searching the Depths is one of those stories that has branching paths and multiple perspectives. It doesn't focus on any one character, as I like to get into everyone's heads. It has a little bit of everything, but the big appeal is something I haven't gotten to writing yet, and I wish I could just skip to it, but the context needs to be there for it to work: the trio of Sammy Lawrence, Jack Fain, and Bella Ewe. I tried to deny it for a long time, but Bella is a core part of this story, and you know what? That's okay. My fic doesn't have to have universal appeal, I can have a main character that's an oc, this isn't the worst thing I've done.

Originally, I had the ending of Depths as this big fight against Joey to take him down, have the world crumble around them, and get everyone out and back to the real world (at the cost of his life and all of them still being made of ink but altered to look human). It had a lot of vibes of found family and starting over, and the character arcs explored had a rewarding aftermath. But since BATDR, I've contemplated another path: one where they fail.

They try to fight Joey, but Joey has gotten a character arc of realizing that yeah, he messed up, after spending some time with people he didn't expect to care about. And nothing he will do is ever going to fix his mistakes, but he's Joey Drew, an incredibly insistent guy, so he's going to try. So he manages to escape, locking everyone else inside tighter than ever, but he's not done messing with the ink machine. He knows full well that he can't set the people inside free, not until he's found a solution to them looking like monsters. He has to "fix" them, so they can come home. And this is the motivation for making Audrey, she's one of many experiments to try and get an ink creature to be indistinguishable from a human. And Joey grows attached, for the first time in a long time, he's got someone to love. But it's not meant to last, he's old and decaying, struggling to keep going, and he dies before he can correct his mistakes. Audrey is left in the care of a demon (unbeknownst to her), Belphene, who tries her best to take care of her, but there's only so much she can do.

The cycle has continued since Joey's pet project. The citizens inside have been rebelling, doing everything they can to break it, but it's hopeless. Bella has finally grown into a far more confident version of herself, now a cycle veteran rather than a scared newcomer, and she's gotten a much better handle on her depths diving abilities too. She spends a lot more time comforting souls, both to expand their army of lost ones and to ease the pains of those that are squashed into oblivion. She finally feels worthy of being called one of Sammy's flock, with her and Jack serving as both of his hands. Even though the landscape is hellish, she's found a family for herself, a place to call home, and that means everything to her.

But it's not meant to last. Wilson gets his hands on the machine eventually, and when exploring its many secrets, the people inside beg him to help them get out. It's been so long, they just want to go home. And Wilson, cruel as he is, denies them, traps them even more, messes with the narrative to weaken them, and stops them from fighting back. Sammy is hit with a character rewrite, memory loss that has him back in his old ways, no longer remembering what his relationships are, and removing his crucial link with the demon. Bella and Jack are devastated. Bella has sworn revenge against Wilson for this, how dare he take away someone so important to her.

When Wilson drags Audrey into the studio, Bella suspects that she's a creation of Wilson's and takes an immediate dislike to her. Her heart is hardened by the loss of her friend, and she doesn't hesitate to fight Audrey. If Wilson says she can't have Sammy, then Wilson can't have his little pet. But eventually they do come to an understanding, when Audrey reveals that she's working with Allison and Sammy (separately), and Bella regrets being so harsh. She agrees to work with her and starts getting into why the studio is such a mess, explaining the conundrum as well as sharing her power. Bella's dive is another golden ink ability, and with it, Audrey has a better chance of getting through this.

Bella sees a lot of herself in Audrey. She too was a daughter figure to Joey once (and later, a daughter figure to Sammy and Jack), taken under his wing and manipulated to do his bidding. She too was thrown in here against her will and made to suffer. She too worked on the Bendy property and was pushed too hard. But unlike Audrey, she had help to start. Sammy was responsible for why she turned to ink, but he ultimately took care of her and had her back. Audrey doesn't have that, Audrey is alone. Allison didn't stick around to help, and Sammy is too scrambled to help, so it falls on her now. She doesn't want Audrey to face what she had to go through, and maybe, just maybe, they can fix this together.

And this is where we get into what I was trying to achieve with Depths in the first place: BATDR beat me to my own game. The story I want to tell has a lot of similarities to it, and in some ways, seeing that validated a lot of what I wanted to do. I don't need permission to create what I want, but there's no denying that there's something comforting in knowing I'm not the only one with my vision. If the dev team can go and write the daughter of Joey Drew as a main character and have her have badass powers and kick butt, then I think I'm okay to have my OC travelling with my favorite characters. And because I waited so long, there are things from BATDR that I can implement far earlier into my storyline, like Memory Joey being an avatar for Joey that works on things behind the scenes in the loop, or Porter and Heidi existing far sooner than when we meet them, or figuring out what the origin of the Keepers are.

Or, most importantly of all: rewriting the cycle. This is the biggest thing that's kept me from continuing Depths (other than time and energy). I wrote myself into a corner with making the loop the same each time, it's gotten boring to write. Wilson changing the cycle, in some ways, gave me some agency to play with it for myself.

In Depths, we already know that the story of the studio is a story Joey tells to Eliza Stein, Henry's daughter, as a tale about her dad braving the afterlife since his death (yes Joey sucks for this, especially since he's the one responsible for said death, oh he's so bad). When Bella finally hears this story, it's because Joey wants her to animate it, as a "tribute" to the old studio to relaunch the Bendy brand in time for a big anniversary (in truth it's a part of his ritual to finally lock them all in there for good so they can't ever escape, once he gets his last employee back). Bella is, frankly, appalled by this story and thinks it's poorly done, and because she's a young woman who thinks she knows better, she goes about secretly rewriting Joey's story behind his back, which, unbeknownst to her, affects everyone inside the machine. When Joey finally gets his last employee, Wally Franks, to come back to stuff him inside, it ends with an interruption that puts Wally, himself, Bella, and Eliza inside the machine at different points in the story, so they travel with different parties. Bella has Sammy and Jack, Eliza has Malice, the Butcher Gang, and the Projectionist, Wally has Henry and Buddy, and Joey is in his office at the very end, but I'm contemplating who's gonna teach him a lesson. Might be interesting to stick him with Allison and Tom and have him mistaken for someone that can help ala the BATDR line of thinking with Allison.

Bella takes a bit to figure out that she's being forced to play the role she set out for Henry in the music department, which ultimately leads to her getting sacrificed and ending up as a searcher, because she wasn't the character this was supposed to happen to and her spirits are utterly crushed. Originally when I came up with this, I wrote it as new people being in the loop unlocked alternate pathways that Joey hadn't fully conceived, but I like this a lot better. Bella being forced to recognize the consequences of her actions really hits me where it hurts, and all of these characters getting to play protagonists for a bit and feel some of Henry's pain is a really nice touch. This also hurts even more when Wilson comes into the picture and makes the same mistakes she did, rewriting the story with no regard for those it would hurt. Though in fairness, she didn't know the characters and world she changed were real, he did and decided to do it anyway. She lives with that regret and is trying so hard to make up for her mistakes. I think Audrey would probably need to convince her not to be so hard on herself for it.

Not to mention, I haven't even begun to figure out how this would affect Eliza, Henry's daughter. I have an idea of what I want with her, but it needs more time to marinate. And Cyclebreaker Henry, oh man, playing with him is fun. So in Depths, I don't subscribe to the idea of anyone being fake, they're all real people that got sacrificed. But Henry has an interesting mechanic. He's a ghost that writes golden messages on the wall, something Joey did to take away any agency he had in the story. His body moves separately from him, an empty husk that is forced to go through the motions of the story. I'm rather tempted to have this husk, this shell of Henry, start to become a character of his own, with thoughts, questions, feelings, to fill a similar role to our Cyclebreaker Henry. This would especially work in my favor given some of what I want to do with golden ghost Henry, and it would hit really hard for Audrey to eventually find the seeing tool and get spooked by him. Not to mention all the feelings he'd have about having a false version of himself in there.

Yeah, needless to say, I have a LOT to think about in the way of Depths. I want to get back to playing with it, I just haven't quite been there. But hopefully we can do that soon. I just need to get through the part in reality for a bit so we can get to the studio full-time first. X'''D Curse my overly ambitious visions.

#batdr spoilers #batdr #bendy and the ink machine #batim #bendy #bendy and the dark revival #bendy and the dark revival spoilers #searching the depths

6 notes · View notes

moontheoretist · 10 months ago

Text

Rhodey gave him a searching look. “Come on, Tony. What’s up? You’re not reacting the way I would expect you to be. Your dad looked for Captain America for decades and now you’ve found him and he’s alive. Why aren’t you over the moon about this?” “Who says I’m not?” “The expression on your face, for one. You look like you’ve gone and found your worst nightmare.” Tony considered how to respond to that in a way that didn’t betray himself. “For that exact reason,” Tony said finally. “It would be one thing if he were dead. I’d have bested my dad and given a hero the homecoming he deserved. That would be easy. But now I’m face to face with the ghost that I’ve spent years blaming for my dad’s decisions. How is that fair to Rogers? He deserves better than my resentment. I don’t know if I’m a good enough man for that.” Steve was innocent. Innocent of Howard’s choices. Innocent of the choices Tony remembered from the future that had had helped cause such a deep divide—one that had possibly been responsible for the fate of the whole universe—between the two of them. His mom.

Rhodey’s face softened. “Tony—“ “I mean, he’s human just like me and you and hell, the whole world, and I’m sure he’s nothing like the paragon of virtue that my father was so certain he was. But hell, part of me hates the man and that’s not fair.” “You know, you’re a private citizen. You don’t have to—“ Tony didn’t wait for him to finish. “Come on, would you trust the government with the defrosting and acclimatization of a national hero?” Tony asked, giving Rhodey his most skeptical look. “You think they’d care about Rogers beyond the status that it’d give them to have returned a national icon to the world?” Rhodey looked like he wasn’t sure what to say to that. But then, Rhodey was military, and high-ranking at that, that required a certain amount of trust in the government he served. “Hell, Rogers wasn’t even really army,” Tony pointed out. “He was SSR, which is basically SHIELD. Imagine if the government turned Rogers over to them? They have a good claim to him, if they really wanted him. Which trust me, they would. Powered people are sort of their thing. Controlling powered people even more so.” Real distaste crossed Rhodey’s face at that. “Yeah, no.” He said, voice a low and vicious. “That’s not happening.”

“Right?” Tong asked rhetorically. “A disaster in the making. I wouldn’t give my worst enemy to SHIELD when they’re that vulnerable. I didn’t even let them keep Vanko, and that guy tried to first murder a bunch of people with his powered up whips and when that didn’t work tried to blow up both me and a bunch of other people.” He paused. “Not that that did Vanko any good when he got sniped.” Probably for real, based off what he and JARVIS had found. Tony was still waiting on the other foot to drop. “Right, so no giving Rogers to the government because then he’ll end up with SHIELD which is a no go.” “And do you trust anyone else to actually keep this quiet? Hell, what sort of homecoming is that. ‘Hey, you just woke up after 70 years on the ice. Everyone you love is dead or has moved on. But hey, let us make a production of your return, because nothing says welcome to the future like being a dancing money again’.” Rhodey frowned. “Kind of cynical, don’t you think?” “Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me they wouldn’t care more about Captain America than they would about Steve Rogers. Tell me they’d look past the legend to see a man as human and as vulnerable as all the rest of us.” Rhodey hesitated. “I’m just saying. You can keep your distance. Get him a therapist, provide him somewhere safe. No one is saying you need to move him in and hold his hand through the transition.” Tony nodded, even if he had trouble believing it. “I know.” It just felt like abandonment. Tony didn’t understand being 70 years in the future, alone and lost and used as a tool and a weapon by the very people who’d found him and given him the closest thing he had to a home. The thing was, no one else did either. At this moment, he might be one of the few people who cared about Steve Rogers more than he did about Captain America. Which really threw into focus how depressing Steve Rogers’ situation was given Tony’s remarkably complicated feelings on the matter. Hell, he needed to find Steve a therapist.

~ The One to Bet On by airas_story

To be honest, I agree with all of this. No matter how much I show my very visceral displeasure with Steve, I can't really say that he was at fault for his behavior towards Tony. At least not entirely. When you look at the scene when Steve mentions "the footage" it sounds sus. SHIELD was shady even without HYDRA, so imagine what could have happened. His behavior could be HYDRA's plan all along, or it could simply be SHIELD trying to put Tony in check via someone who would be his leader. Steve having bad opinion of Tony with Tony's very well known inferiority complex of Steve specifically (which is not ever mentioned in the movies out loud, but exists somewhere in the text of those movies enough to make so many of people in fandom see it and write about it) that Howard most probably put there was a perfect recipe to make Tony's daddy issues extended to Steve by some master manipulation. Tony, no matter how resentful of Steve, wanted Steve to approve of him, just like he wanted his father to approve of him. And that was a recipe for disaster when SHIELD caught up on that and did all in their power to make Steve have the worst opinion of Tony, while still making it workable for the team. Steve's relationship with Tony is rocky because of that first introduction. Because he saw him as an enemy first, then came to respect him for his sacrifice during Battle of New York and then witnessed Tony make a mistake (that was not truly his mistake because Mind Stone was a fucking sentient rock that was the true villain in that goddamn movie I tell you) that made him realize Tony isn't to be trusted once again and come back to square one.

Steve may have personality quirks that I dislike (mostly because they remind me about the brainwashing that my own people go through with all this martyrology we are fed at school), which his movie shows to us all, but in the end those quirks are human. They don't make him a monster. They however though also end up being the reason behind all of his atrocious behaviors in MCU. SHIELD extorted that fact to their own advantage. Just look at how Nick Fury ALWAYS met with Tony in secret. Never making it clear to others in the team that he trusts Tony to do things right, always pushing him from the shadows as if Tony was the leader of the Avengers and not Steve, while at the same time never acknowledging Tony in any significant way. Always keeping his faith in Tony's capabilities a secret from everybody in order to not give the team an impression that they can actually trust him.

At the end there in Civil War you sometimes get the impression that Steve is fighting Tony as if he was fighting Red Skull and not a friend, and the people to blame for that are SHIELD and Steve's extortable personality that is very easy to manipulate even when he is not in the vulnerable position due to just being defrosted in the future and experiencing a total shock (just ask Erskine how he played Steve like a fiddle after eveasdropping on his convo with Bucky - that doctor is so sus in that movie I tell you). Not to mention Steve's paranoia about losing Bucky that is very much SHIELD's fault as well. Unless of course HYDRA put their fingers into this too. Steve not being adjusted to 21st century, his longing for the past, his mistrust of futurists like Tony who embody every of his fears, it all stems from SHIELD's negligence / manipulation and possibly from HYDRA's medling too. You could say that they played Steve like a fiddle too. Because all his bad personality traits from his first movie: obsession about being the soldier above all else, self-righteousness that borders on callousness and grotesque lack of self-awareness, bravado that ends with him trying to punch through every problem he has (to Bucky's utter exasperation) and his dislike of being paraded on as a dance monkey coupled with lack of trust in chain-of-command. All of that used to SHIELD's advantage and adding the existence of HYDRA in SHIELD (the only place that Steve could call his in the future) give you the Steve Rogers we know today: the one who never acclimated to the future to the point of lacking insight into political and law matters and losing it even more when the only organisation he somewhat trusted turned to be infested with Hydra from top to bottom. A vulnerable man missing people he loved so much that he would go against the entire world and lie to people he is supposedly friends with in order to save them. A man who was an ideal prey for SHIELD and HYDRA both which led to the tragic breakdown of the Avengers and the failure to stop Thanos. A man, who despite obsessively chasing after Bucky and trying to protect him, only saw him as a link to the past (especially after Peggy died at the start of Civil War and he was truly left alone), whom he also later abandoned at the first opportunity (which hurts like a bitch, I may hate Steve sometimes but this? This is blasphemy), leaving that very friend for the lady that he may or may have not build a happy ending in the past if he made it back from that mission. All because he never was given a proper treatment. All because he never went to therapy, never learned how to move on from the past in a healthy way.

That is also funnily the difference between Avengers Assemble Steve and MCU Steve. AA Steve was given a chance to adjust to the future. Hell, Tony was the one who helped him to do that. It may sound like a small thing, but with Steve accepting that past is the past and now is now, you get a completely different person. Person who is not chasing after the past. Person who tries to learn and adjust to their new reality. A person who tries to keep meaningful connections he created in their new life and doesn't abandon them for the past, even when that past shows up in the future as well. Even when they get an opportunity to jump ship and come back in time. MCU Steve DESPERATELY needs that. He desperately need to move on and accept his new reality. He needs to create strong relationships in the future that he won't be able to simply abandon at the first opportunity to come back in time. MCU Steve needs to learn that past is the past and his new life in the future is what is ultimately better for him than the past he has lost.

#mcu fanfiction #steve rogers critical #mcu critical

1 note · View note

mariacallous · 1 year ago

Text

In 2019, the Moscow authorities created a nonprofit organization called Dialog, which they billed as a means of facilitating better communication between citizens and the government. The project was so successful that it was soon extended to other regions of Russia. The following year, Dialog and its regional subsidiary became a crucial element in the Russian authorities’ campaign to amend the Constitution and “reset” Putin’s term clock. Two years later, when the Kremlin found its full-scale invasion of Ukraine lasting longer than expected, Dialog once again proved itself as a critical part of the government’s toolkit: the organization now uses a vast network of popular Telegram channels and more than 100,000 social media pages to spread fictitious stories aimed at discrediting Ukraine. In a new investigation, journalists from Meduza, iStories, and The Bell dig into Dialog’s background and the team of ‘pseudo-hipsters’ behind its wartime disinformation campaign.

The English-language version of this story has been edited for both clarity and length. You can read the full investigation in Russian here.

On February 24, 2022, journalist Yulia Eidel went out onto the balcony of her fifth-story apartment in Dnipro and heard explosions in the distance: the Russian army was shelling a nearby airport. Inside, Eidel’s three children — aged five, seven, and 17 — were asleep.

At first, Eidel remembers, she had no idea what to do. Eventually, she decided to take her kids to stay with some family friends in the countryside, figuring things would be calmer there. Back then, she says, many Ukrainians still believed that “this whole shitshow” could be stopped if “a critical mass of sane people in Russia” simply applied enough effort. Eidel decided to look for people who might fit the bill in the Telegram chat group for her classmates from Moscow State University’s journalism department, which she graduated from in 2008.

After arriving in a quiet village, two days after the start of the war, she wrote in the chat: “Guys, you probably know, though you may have forgotten, that I’m originally from Ukraine. All of this is happening to me right now.” She added links to news stories from the Ukrainian media to her message. What she meant to do was simply to say: “This is me. You know me well. This is what’s happening. Let’s try to come up with a solution together. What the fuck are you so silent for?”

Some of Eidel’s classmates responded with messages of sympathy, but four people wrote that “the situation isn’t that simple,” and one woman asked her not to “turn the chat into a war-centric group.”

Later, another one of Eidel’s classmates, a man named Vladimir Tabak, came online and wrote just two words: “Good evening.” Someone else responded: “Well, here we go.” Eidel got the feeling that “the wolf had shown up in the fairy tale.”

She sent a private message to one of her classmates, asking her why others were responding that way to Tabak. “Oh, but he’s one of the people who monitor social media groups and pages and report who should be shut down and who should receive support,” the woman replied.

The barnacle

Vladimir Tabak, a registered journalist in Russia and the head of the pro-Kremlin “autonomous nonprofit organization” (ANO) Dialog, first gained public attention in 2010, with the release of a calendar featuring photographs of former and current female Moscow State University (MSU) journalism students in lingerie. The novelty item was created in honor of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s 58th birthday.

The calendar’s release was announced on the blog of propagandist Kristina Potupchik, then serving as the press secretary of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the calendar “this lady’s initiative,” referring to Potupchik, but it soon became clear that it had been the brainchild of her close friend Vladimir Tabak, a recent graduate of MSU’s journalism program who was also leading a “creative group aimed at creating Internet projects under the presidential administration.” (What activities this group ultimately engaged in and how long it existed is unclear.)

Several of Tabak’s former classmates who spoke to the authors of this story referred to him as a “rich kid” and a “slacker.” One of them, journalist and feminist activist Nastya Krasilnikova, described him as a “slippery character”:

For the entire five years that Tabak and I studied together in the journalism department, he was very noticeable. He had a striking appearance, always wearing flashy clothing, but he didn’t participate in many department activities.

To this day, I still remember the disgust I felt when the calendar with the female students came out. It struck me as very strange that so many women agreed to be a part of it, but the fact that Tabak was behind it didn’t surprise me at all.

As a student, Tabak spent a lot of time at nightclubs, his classmates said. “The students he photographed for the calendar were the girls who surrounded him. He was always into that stuff: cars, cocktails, parties at Pacha that lasted all night, all of that,” said one person who remembers him from the university.

Tabak bragged that he had been the one to sell the idea of an erotic calendar to Vladimir Surkov, who served as the deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration at the time. Surkov, who was also the mind behind “Nashi,” had been introduced to Tabak by Kristina Potupchik.

“Vladimir had no reservations about his calendar for the [Putin] administration. He didn’t give two shits about the journalism department — he understood that there wouldn’t be any consequences from them. Then the calendar came out, and [MSU Journalism Dean Elena] Vartanova was horrified, but she couldn’t do anything about it — her hands were tied,” one of Tabak’s former classmates said.

In Tabak’s view, the key to a successful career was to find a “big fish” and “cling to them,” barnacle-style. A source who worked with him in the past said that the first “big fish” he clung to was Vladimir Surkov. Next came Sergey Kiriyenko, who currently serves as the first deputy chief of staff of the Putin administration. As “one of Surkov’s people,” the source explained, Tabak was “inherited by Kiriyenko, and made his career under him.”

Something for everyone

Vladimir Tabak’s career under Kiriyenko began in 2019, when he became the deputy director of Dialog, a nonprofit led at the time by Alexey Goreslavsky, the former deputy director of the presidential administration’s public projects team. Put simply, Goreslavsky served as the Kremlin’s Internet curator. Two years after Tabak’s appointment, Goreslavsky left Dialog to head up the Internet Development Institute, and Tabak took his place.

When Dialog was first created, it was billed as a way for the Moscow authorities to use the Internet to communicate more effectively with citizens. Before long, the organization began opening analogous agencies throughout the country, each of which was referred to as a “regional governance center” (RGC). In reality, according to sources who spoke to the investigative outlet Proekt, Dialog’s initial purpose was to spread propaganda in favor of Russia’s constitutional amendments in the summer of 2020.

Just a few months after Dialog was established, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, and the Russian authorities found a new use for the organization. Before long, the project found itself responsible for keeping citizens informed about the public health situation, and the site StopCoronavirus.rf, launched by Dialog (though the organization itself denies this), became the public’s primary source of COVID-19 infection data. In addition to public health information, Dialog also published original content, including comics, memes, and TikTok videos.

At the height of the pandemic, the authorities decided to go through with the referendum on amendments to the Constitution. Dialog immediately began spreading the message that people shouldn’t fear the coronavirus and that they had a duty to vote. “The Constitution campaign involved several different narratives. One was that voting would be safe: there would be seven days to cast your ballot so that there wouldn’t be crowds. They also pushed the idea that this was real patriotism and that the aim was to consolidate society,” said a former Dialog employee.

One source who works for a major anonymous news account on Telegram recounted how, before the start of the election, he was approached by Dialog employee Pavel Popereshnichenko, who offered him cash in exchange for publishing a series of video clips advertising the amendments as a “necessary measure” for defeating COVID-19. The source declined the offer, but he soon began seeing similar clips on other Telegram channels, as well as on YouTube and regional social media pages (the outlet Mediazona has previously reported on these clips).

According to internal Dialog documents obtained by the authors of this report, the organization also used targeted ads to spread messages in favor of the proposed amendments. For users who were “concerned about the elections’ legitimacy,” for example, there were posts about how the voting would be overseen by election monitors. Pet owners and animal advocates were served ads highlighting the fact that you could bring dogs to the polls. And for religious voters, there was an ad proclaiming that “With divine help, God will return to the Constitution!” The post noted that the nuns of the Alekseyev-Akatov Convent in Voronezh had already voted.

The vote was held on July 1. According to official figures, more than 78 percent of voters (with a 65 percent turnout rate) voted in favor of the amendments — and, by extension, for a “reset” of Putin’s presidential term clock. To celebrate the end of the successful media campaign, Sergey Kiriyenko himself paid a visit to the Dialog office.

A beautiful system

In the summer of 2020, Dialog split into two entities. The “main” organization remained under the supervision of the Moscow city government’s IT department, while a separate subsidiary was established to work with Russia’s regions. As of 2022, more than 2,500 people worked for Dialog Regions, which received more 6.5 billion rubles (more than $67 million) from the Ministry of Digital Development. (For comparison, the parent organization received just 1.8 billion rubles, or around $18.7 million, in 2022). By 2024, the Russian authorities plan to allocate around 24 billion rubles ($249 million) to Dialog Regions.

Officially, Dialog Regions has two purposes. The first is to oversee the official social media pages of Russian governors, city governments, regional ministries, schools, and other public entities and government structures. Employees of the organization teach regional civil servants and politicians how to create social media accounts, gain followers, and respond to comments, in addition to telling them what kind of content to publish. As of the end of 2022, according to the Digital Development Ministry, Russia had 130,000 “state social media pages.” Tabak has said that 50 percent of Russian Internet users read these pages.

The authors of this story studied Dialog’s recommendations for running official school social media pages. They advise administrators to ensure that “content is based on regular news updates about school operations that are significant and relevant to the target audience” while also cautioning “not to forget about the federal agenda.” At the same time, according to the guide, the school pages should post news about decisions made by the president and the government, the work of the region’s governor, Russia’s achievements in science and sporting events, and “patriotic events.”

The pseudo-hipsters

Describing the second area of Dialog’s operations, the deputy governor in one of Russia’s regions said that its task is to “monitor all social networks for cases of public outrage,”

when a fence isn’t painted, a tree is covering someone’s window, roads aren’t getting repaired, someone’s having problems getting medicine, and so on. They look into whether the issue can be addressed or not, send requests to the relevant ministries, and work with the authorities to set deadlines for solving the problem.

The politician, who spoke to the authors of this report on condition of anonymity, praised Dialog’s work: “In my view,” he said, “it’s a godsend, it’s extremely effective.”

Kudos to them for creating this system. These things increase the public’s trust in the authorities by at least 30 percent. When a person is living in squalor, nothing’s happening around him, and nobody around him gives a damn about him, he feels a certain annoyance towards the authorities. If the government starts responding to his requests, taking action and solving his problems, the person will start thinking more highly of the authorities.

An employee of a large Russian company that has worked with Dialog agreed that “regional governance centers” have a positive role:

At some point, the presidential administration realized they needed to start working properly in the regions, and that everything would go down the drain otherwise. And they did a pretty important thing: now, if somebody craps in your apartment stairwell, you can send a complaint to the governor through an RGC. And the RGC will give the governor a thrashing if he doesn’t make the shit go away.

This goes a long way to keep people satisfied in the regions and to keep the authorities’ approval ratings up. I mean, look at [Moscow Mayor Sergey] Sobyanin: you might hate him, but you can’t deny that things in Moscow have improved. And this concept, that if you clean up the shit and make things nice for residents, then they won’t ask for things like freedom and democracy — it works. Kiriyenko is well aware of this.

According to a source who knows multiple Dialog employees, Kiriyenko has praised the organization in closed meetings, observing that while complaints to the RGCs used to take two hours to address, “now it’s just 17 minutes.” (According to Dialog’s official data, it actually takes RGCs up to three hours on average to process complaints.)

The system does have its shortcomings, however. Among other things, it’s likely not reaching older citizens, many of whom don’t use social media. “They wanted to launch a print publication for the 50+ audience so that they could send their complaints directly to the newspaper,” said a source close to one of the RGCs. “But nothing came of that, because the atmosphere at Dialog is more ‘creative’; in other words, everyone there is pretty laid-back. Eventually the idea was abandoned.”

A source close to the St. Petersburg government painted a similar picture of Dialog’s employees: “They’re pseudo-hipsters — and so is Tabak. The typical RGC employee looks like this: a beard, a vape, and white sneakers. Deadbeats.”

Nonetheless, a source from the Putin administration said that the “bearded hipsters in the white sneakers” remain useful to the authorities, adding that they can “amplify any conflict on their social media pages.” In August, for example, a Dialog-run Telegram channel called Signal pilloried Khakassia Governor Valentin Konovalov, a member of the Communist Party, after he angered the Kremlin by beating a candidate from the ruling United Russia party.

As of the end of 2022, Dialog had RGCs in 93 regions and federal districts. The records reviewed by the authors of this report did not mention Ukraine’s occupied territories, but a Dialog employee said that Dialog representatives have visited them multiple times, including trips to Donetsk and to the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.

A government resolution regarding the rules of providing subsidies to the RGCs says that the offices should monitor complaints and appeals in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “People’s Republics,” the Zaporizhzhia region, and the Kherson region. Additionally, Dialog itself has reported training civil servants in the occupation administration in Mariupol to run government social media accounts.

Kiriyenko’s favorite toy

One of the main jobs of Dialog’s RGCs, according to a source close to the Putin administration, is to promote information favorable to the government in the traditional media, on social networks, and on Telegram. This entails creating new Telegram channels as well as buying existing ones, a former Dialog employee said.

Dialog also shares pro-government posts on Odnoklassniki, or “Classmates,” the social media service most popular among older Russians. The authors of this story managed to find posts from Dialog, for example, in a Krasnodar group called “Advice for you.” The group has approximately 50,000 members and consists primarily of housekeeping tips such as how to combine paint colors in one’s home or how to save money at bargain stores. In addition, the group often sees posts about Sergey Kiriyenko and his various useful activities: how, for example, Putin’s First Deputy Chief of Staff personally checks food prices in Ukraine’s occupied territories or how he helps make children’s New Year’s wishes come true.

The page also appeared on a list of accounts that helped spread “news” about Ukraine allegedly using banned weapons against the Russian army. The list contains nearly 400 groups on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Telegram.

Dialog also serves as a polling agency. “Why? To show that not only can we put together media campaigns, but we can also track their results,” an employee explained.

Right now, the agency is conducting an Internet survey of “businessmen from the Donetsk People’s Republic.” The results of these surveys are distorted: responses can be submitted by anyone through links that are posted on government websites and social media pages.

Despite this, the polls are in high demand, not only among the various government ministries that work with Dialog, but also from the Kremlin. “This is Kinder’s favorite toy — alternative data for the president,” said a high-ranking regional official, referring to Kiriyenko by his nickname “Kinder” (short for “Kinder Surprise”), which has stuck to him ever since he became prime minister at the age of 36.

According to the speaker, Dialog conducts surveys on a wide variety of topics, including faith and religion, NATO, Russia’s government institutions, and relations between Russia and Ukraine.

After Moscow launched its invasion, Dialog started compiling briefs on the state of the “information realm around the topic of the special military operation,” analyzing how Russian Internet users were responding to war-related news. One of the updates reviewed by the authors of this story reported an increase in users’ confidence in General Sergey Surovikin, noting the “importance of the image of Surovikin as a speaker on the topic of the special military operation.”

The organization also went beyond informational reports, providing recommendations (though specifically to whom is unclear). One, for example read: “A rapid and firm response from the Defense Ministry’s command is needed for high-profile shortages of ammunition and provisions for draftees in the special military operation zone (with accountability for those responsibile for the situation).”

No basis in fact

In the summer of 2022, pro-Russian “war correspondent” Alexander Kots wrote on Telegram: “Received from subscribers in Kharkiv: these are announcements, in various parts of the city, from local public utilities offices. They’re asking residents to leave their apartments unlocked, so that territorial defense fighters can set up firing positions inside if necessary.” Similar messages were posted in multiple other pro-war Telegram channels.

A month later, these posts were included on one of Dialogue’s regular reports to the Putin administration on effectively distributed disinformation. (The authors of this story reviewed several such reports.) The story about the announcements was marked as a “successful operation”: the Kharkiv authorities had made a public statement refuting it, which meant it had spread among Ukrainian users. “In reality, the doors [shown in the picture] were in a Moscow apartment building,” said a source who worked with Dialog.

Another fake news story spread by the organization purported that Muslims in Germany were putting up flyers demanding that Ukrainian refugees leave the country. A picture of the flyers, which were actually put up by Dialog employees on the windows of a business center near the organization’s office in Moscow, was sent to more than 300,000 followers by a Telegram channel called Ukraina.ru. The only source mentioned alongside that information was “We’re told.”

Dialog’s newest area of focus — generating disinformation about Ukraine and Ukrainians — took shape several months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. “We were instructed to start finding ways to respond to news stories. And everyone started pitching ideas, proposing stories, brainstorming… And somehow this idea came up: creating fake news stories,” said a source who attended the brainstorming sessions.

According to Dialog’s records obtained by the authors of this report, the organization was responsible for creating fake news stories about

Ukrainian servicemen selling their military awards on eBay;

high-ranking Ukrainian officials acquiring elite real estate in Switzerland;

Ukrainian refugees being offered demeaning jobs like “animal masturbator” in Poland;

the Ukrainian government drafting women;

Ukrainian soldiers taking pills that increase aggression.

At least 60 people were involved in creating fake news stories at Dialog. “The thinking was: the Ukrainian side is capable of fighting an information war, so why shouldn’t we? I don’t know if that’s a justification or not,” said one employee.

In the war’s initial months, the procedure for creating disinformation worked as follows. Every evening, the employees would compile a list of news items that, in their view, needed a response. Vladimir Tabak would personally approve the selection. The list would then be forwarded to Dialog’s various departments as well as to numerous Telegram channels working with the organization. The next morning, Dialog employees and Telegram admins would brainstorm and pitch ideas, finally choosing the one that would go public that day.

Telegram was central to Dialogue’s campaigns since 2020, when its youthful staff convinced their boss Alexey Goreslavsky that this would be the most effective platform for engaging the audience, as recalled by the administrator of a large anonymous news channel. Dialog has been using Telegram to put out disinformation ever since.

Attendees at Dialog’s meetings have included, for example, representatives of the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Readovka, which took an ardent pro-war stance shortly after it began, according to one Dialog employee. Another employee said that representatives of Mash, one of the largest “tabloid” Telegram channels, were also known to take part in the meetings. (Neither Readovka editor-in-chief Alexey Kostylev nor Mash editor-in-chief Maxim Iksanov responded to questions from the authors of this investigation.)

The blogger Katrusya, who runs the Telegram channel Signal, has also attended meetings at Dialog, representing a “network” of channels owned by propagandist Kristina Potupchik, a friend of Vladimir Tabak.

“No matter when you go to Potupchik’s office, there’s Potupchik, Potupchik’s dog, and Vladimir Tabak,” said one of Potupchik’s former employees. “Potupchik would hand out envelopes of money to [employees], right in front of Tabak. As far as I understand, they even had a shared accountant. At the very least, I overheard them discussing accounting details. Potupchik had 40 or so writers who would write posts for the network — including posts on the topics that Tabak assigned.”

Kristina Potupchik did not respond to questions related to this story. Nonetheless, the authors of this investigation determined that in 2022, Dialog Regions sent more than 50 million rubles (more than $500,000) to a company called Rokk Media that belongs to Yelena Berdova, the mother of Potupchik’s ex-husband Anton Berdov. The Telegram channel Baza previously discovered that Berdov and Potupchik own a house in Spain that’s worth about 500,000 euros.

Dialog also found ways to spread disinformation without having to pay. According to one employee, the organization would often send “tips” to large Telegram news channels, posing as eyewitnesses to fictitious events. Often, the channels would publish these stories without verifying them.

By the end of the year, however, many major Telegram channels seemed to have wised up to Dialog’s strategy and stopped sharing fake news uncritically.

“The strategy stopped working,” one Dialog employee explained. “And the channels increasingly stopped accepting our fake stories. Because they noticed that there was a large wave of them, and it was unclear what was going on and who was behind it.”

This crisis is well-illustrated by an internal presentation from Dialog that the authors of this story managed to obtain. According to the document, the “international media space is seeing a large number of creative initiatives launched in support of Ukraine” that “increase the world’s positive perception of Ukraine.” In response, the organization decided to “adapt” these initiatives for the Russian media space to “strengthen patriotic sentiments” and “develop positive perceptions of the special military operation.”

Fighting ‘fakes’ with fakes

Over the course of the war, Dialog has increasingly devoted itself to providing media support to the Russian Defense Ministry. This is no coincidence: in the future, Vladimir Tabak hopes to get involved in “more than just media” and to take a high-ranking position in the presidential administration, according to two sources close to the Putin administration.

“Vladimir Tabak has complained that in the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Defense Ministry put out information in an incompetent and untimely manner,” an acquaintance of the Dialog head said. “And perhaps after several weeks, they managed to agree that the presidential administration would work on the Defense Ministry’s communications. But now, ‘everything is under control,’ of course.”

At the start of the war, Dialog created a website and a parallel Telegram channel, both called Tribunal, which it presented as a Russian version of Myrotvorets, an online Ukrainian database that contains information about people accused of colluding with Russia or participating in separatist movements. Tribunal compiles dossiers on Ukrainian “war criminals” and publishes articles on the “crimes of the Azov Nazis.” “When Azovstal was captured and the Azov fighters were awaiting their so-called trial, Tribunal was the platform that explained [to the public] why they had to be prosecuted,” a former Dialog employee said.

Later, Tabak’s organizations became responsible for distributing critical posts about Yevgeny Prigozhin.

According to one former employee, Dialog’s partnership with the Defense Ministry was managed by Tikhon Makarov, one of Tabak’s deputies.

“We laughed at him, because it was clear to everyone that the Defense Ministry was talking nonsense. But he was sincerely on the Defense Ministry’s side,” the source said.

Makarov is also in charge of the popular Telegram channel War on Fakes, according to a source who has partnered with Dialog. The channel was created at the very start of the war and currently has more than 600,000 followers.

The website of War on Fakes claims that the channel is run by anonymous “owners and administrators of several apolitical Telegram channels” who “provide objective information about events in Ukraine and the Donbas territories.” It bills itself as a platform that “exposes fake news” while itself spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda narratives.

The Russian Defense Ministry is the “main beneficiary of this channel,” the source who has worked with Dialog emphasized. In one of the last posts about Russia’s missile strike on a pizzeria in Kramatorsk, which killed 12 civilians, including children, War on Fakes referred to the attack as a strike on a “foreign mercenary deployment site.” A post about a missile strike on a residential building that killed 46 people in Dnipro last winter said the incident was a gas explosion caused by Ukrainian air defenses.

The authors of this story have obtained an instruction manual from Dialog about how to “debunk fake news” in situations where there’s no factual basis for doing so. The document suggests discrediting the source of the information, pointing out when there’s no photo or video confirming a report or when it relies on anonymous reports. Another recommendation is to mention who might be benefited by the news, saying things like “Ukraine wants to demoralize Russian citizens.”

0 notes

wutbju · 2 years ago

Photo

Robert (Bob) was born January 23, 1928 in Oak Park, Illinois to David Palmer Livingston and Augusta Emilie Lucas, college sweethearts from Monmouth College. He was born with a clubfoot but had surgery at two and a cast on for a year. It never held him back. He was very athletic and played football, basketball and baseball. If you met him you would never know especially with his "can do" attitude. In seventh grade his family moved to Washington Iowa to run the family farm. After graduating from high school in 1946 he enlisted in the army and was sent to Korea.

His job in the army was morning clerk but really it was to play football and his division won the Far East Championship with Bob awarded MVP. He always laughed about that because as the littlest guy on the team he didn't know how he got the award.

After his service in 1948 he attended Iowa State University studying Animal Husbandry intending to go back and run the farm. He had a good time at ISU and joined A.T.O. Fraternity enjoying the parties, dances and social affairs. Bob loved to laugh and make others laugh. He was like his father David Livingston "America's Funniest Farmer" and Humorist. All the while he had a deepening emptiness searching for a deeper meaning in life. In the summer of 1950 his brother Dave led him to the Lord sitting on a bale of hay in the barn, as a result he transferred to Bob Jones University.

During his time at BJU he was challenged to return to Korea as a missionary, a place he said he would never go again. He met Claire Beckwith in candidate school for The Evangelical Alliance Mission (TEAM). She was single and a RN headed for Pakistan as a missionary. She was unable to get a visa and Bob had prayed and told God he would marry her if she came to Korea. Indeed she headed for Korea right after the Korean war ended and soon after they were married in Japan at the annual mission conference as all the hotels had been bombed out in Korea. With no family in attendance other then their "missionary family" they wed and honeymooned in Japan. They returned to Korea to continue language study and Bob was involved in Tent Evangelism. A year later their daughter Ruth was born in Seoul.

His brother Dave was also a missionary in Korea with the same mission and they headed to Kang Nung on the East Coast of Korea traveling on gravel roads and riverbeds. They built 2 houses there and continued with the tent evangelism and planting churches. Bob and Claire left for the West coast where he was Station Manager for HLKX Radio, broadcasting into Korea, China and Russia and in English to the servicemen in Korea. In between terms in Korea he attended Grace Theological Seminary in Winona Lake Indiana and received his Masters in Divinity. His son Stephen was born in Washington Iowa while they were home.

When he returned to Korea he had several positions including holding evangelistic meetings in high schools, working with Youth For Christ and teaching Bible. After their term was over they returned to the States via a summer in Europe in a Volkswagen Camper, traveling to Israel where he studied for his Masters in Old Testament at the American Institute of Holy Land Studies. Prompted to leave earlier then planned by the Israeli government due to the impending "6 Day" war they left in December 1966 and ended up in Wheaton, Illinois.

Bob worked in the main Headquarters for TEAM for 2 years as Purchasing Agent supporting 1,000 missionaries worldwide. He then worked as Executive Secretary for the American Institute of Holy Land Studies. From 1972 to 1979 He worked with his father for Diversified Resources as Vice President and Sales Manager.

He had originally been ordained in the Presbyterian Church and in 1979 was also ordained in the Christian Missionary Alliance. They moved to Salem Oregon where he was Pastor of Administration at Salem Alliance Church, during this time with the CMA Bob and Claire ran a CMA Guest House in Israel for 4 years and also served as Recording Secretary for the United Christian Council in Israel.

They returned to the States to care for his widowed mother and worked for Williams Water Systems in his hometown of Washington Iowa. When his mother passed away in 1993 he served as Associate Pastor at All Nations Baptist Church in Iowa City for several years with a predominately Korean congregation. Still wanting to minister and not ready to retire in 1999 he accepted a position at Christ Community Church in Omaha Nebraska as a Minister to Senior Adults. He was also studying for his DMin at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School during this time. Bob and Claire celebrated their 50th Anniversary with dear friends at Christ Community Church. Finally at 81 years old he retired and moved to Grace Village in Winona Lake Indiana where he and Claire were very active in the community and loved to get out and enjoy the local area. They were blessed to celebrate their 60th anniversary there with family, friends and even some missionary friends who had been in their wedding in Japan.

One of the things Bob loved to do was to lead tours to Israel, starting in the 70's he began organizing and leading tours to Israel. For 40 years he has taken dozens of groups to the Holy Land. He loved the land and people of Israel. He loved to see the Bible come alive for believers and has baptized many people in the Jordan River including both of his children and 2 of his grandchildren.

After enjoying Grace Village for 10 years they moved to Athens Alabama in 2019 where their daughter lived. Claire passed away in 2020 at 96 years old and Bob lived independently until his death. He was full of personality and always a jokester and very independent up till the end, he was still driving up until 3 months ago.

Everyone who met Bob loved him and he loved them and he told everyone about Jesus. He loved reading the Word and would fill many of his last days praying and reading his Bible. His sense of humor, his smile, his encouraging words and his beautiful prayers will be greatly missed. One word that would characterize him is GRATEFUL, he was always so thankful for everything. He loved his children and his grandchildren and was recently able to meet his great grandchildren. He was a godly man who lived a great life, who touched a lot of people and couldn't wait to go meet Jesus.

#Bob Jones University #Archive #Obituary #BJU Hall of Fame #BJU Alumni Association #2022 #Robert Lucas Livingston #Class of 1953

1 note · View note

astrofireworks · 7 years ago

Text

ok listen i’m working in a radiography clinic over the summer and last week the most beautiful doctor came in and immediately my mind went to doctor!Eunwoo and i broke down today at @nataliekaytbh so buddy thank u for crying w me today over Eunwoo

are you ready

because i’m sure as hell not

i’ll be crying over doctor!Eunwoo this whole summer

intern Sanha

relegated to the registration counter

meaning that when patients come into the radiographer's he takes their name and phone number and puts it into the system and gives them a waiting number

also meaning that when five patients arrive all at once he's up to his eyes in names and numbers and trying not to go cross eyed my poor child

here to make money not to learn so he doesn't mind doing registration and being busy anyway

highkey me

nurse Jinjin

reads out said waiting number and then brings patients into the x-ray room

and has to confirm they're not pregnant or anything that makes them unable to be exposed to X-rays and stuff in general

also helps sanha do registration sometimes when the queue gets a bit too long

radiographer Bin

most of the time sleepily mans the x-ray machines

sometimes the patients ask him if their x-rays are okay or if there's anything wrong with them

what the hell

Bin's not a doctor he wouldn't know

And so tells them that

And gets whacked on the head by nurse Jinjin who comes to escort out the mildly shocked patients with a forced polite smile on his face @ the patient & a glare @ Bin

Shakes his fist indignantly at Jinjin when he leaves

Lab tech MJ

has the lab right next to the radiographer's clinic

Usually collects blood samples from patients

is very good with needles

is also very good at laUGHING and telling jokes in order to make people forget they're here to get blood sucked out of their souls with a giant needle

sometimes laughs really loudly and makes the radiographer clinic patients wonder what's going on

sometimes makes jinjin wonder what's going on too

not that he gets jealous or anything

not at all

coughs

Nurse rocky

Eunwoo's runner, mostly

Sometimes for the urgent cases that need to be processed immediately rocky doesn't wait for the computer system (which takes centuries) to receive the x-ray

He goes down immediately to bin's and asks whoever's at the registration desk to print it out

i.e, Sanha

i.e., the intern without the password to access x-rays

which means he has to go to jinjin or bin for them

after which he hand-delivers them to Dr. Eunwoo

a lot of staff now know Rocky by name simply because he's always running up and down from Eunwoo's clinic to different departments trying to get stuff for Eunwoo

a sweetheart, really

charms the pants off of all the female nurses

also charmed MJ enough to get MJ to call him whenever MJ's done drawing blood samples from someone from Eunwoo’s clinic

Efficiency™ because that's the way Eunwoo works

ok so mostly because Eunwoo always sends Rocky down he's never been to the radiographer's

Until one day

Sanha messes up

It isn't really a bad mess up !!!!

He just keyed in someone's identification number wrongly

But the thing is that he's been doing that quite a few times

I mean to be fair he's just an intern

And also because he's just started the job !! He makes a couple mistakes sometimes

can you tell I'm basing Sanha off of me and just trying to defend myself rip vivi get ur shit together ;;;;;;

But every time Sanha messes up and Jinjin doesn't manage to check on it and correct it properly the report with the mess up gets sent to Rocky

And Rocky has to waste time trying to fix the mess up

Which takes Rocky away from the important things !! Eunwoo needs him to do !!

But also when Rocky fixes the reports he has to slide on his glasses and it makes all Eunwoo’s patients swoon a Little

Before they go into Eunwoo’s consultation room and swoon a Lot

And so Eunwoo is mildly frustrated and decides to go down during one of his breaks to find out why the radiographer has been messing up the reports so much

And so he swishes his lab coat on & swings his stethoscope off & polishes his glasses and heads downstairs to the radiographer's

Only to see poor Sanha piled underneath a stack of registration forms full of names and phone numbers

Okay

So that's why

And nurse Jinjin is running around like a headless chicken trying to shuffle the right people from the X-ray room to the waiting room and vice versa

And Bin is slumped in his room giving instructions in a monotonous voice to the patients

"take a deeeeep breath"

"don't think of elephants"

"sike lmao I bet u did"

“stOP LAUGHING OH MY GOD YOU’RE GOING TO MESS UP THE XRAY”

"oh my god I didn't tell you to stop breathing you can breathe now"

And the phone is ringing wildly ("so that's why our calls are never answered," Eunwoo thinks) off the hook but nobody can respond because they have like 50 million people in the queue

no lie today i had 50 patients come in over the span of 2 hours it was truly a mess

And so Eunwoo waits for a while

until Jinjin notices that everyone hasn't been speaking for a while and instead staring at a certain corner of the room

in which Eunwoo has been leaning on the wall tapping away on his phone, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose

Looking very much like an angel !!!!!!!!!!!

If angels came with lab coats and glasses

And there's some gentle tittering from the older female patients and some not so gentle whispering and giggling from younger ones

Sanha hasn't even looked up from the registration desk poor dear but if he did he would have-

"oh my god"

Oh well there's sanha looking up then

I mean to be fair jinjin's thought process is somewhere along the same line

But he also has a job to do and no insanely attractive doctor will distract him from it !!!

I mean, an insanely attractive lab tech might but

You know what I mean

Responsible™ Jinjin

So when Jinjin escorts the last giggly girl out of the X-ray room (to be fair the radiographer AND the nurse are both very attractive so really what are the patients to do?) they both finally turn to Eunwoo

And Eunwoo looks up from where he's playing angry birds on his phone to Jinjin smiling politely and Sanha just plain out staring

"hi why are u here where's Rocky"

Jinjin, smacking Sanha on the head: "don't be rude son but yes why are u here where's Rocky"

Eunwoo, smiling that really cute crinkly eyed smile: "nah I just came to see what the situation was with the radiography room since Rocky always has to correct stuff on the reports you guys send up"

Sanha, alarmed and scrambling to defend himself: "djkshdks I-"

Jinjin, pressing his hand against Sanha's mouth: "ah yes it's me I've been the one messing up sorry about that I'll be more careful in the future"

Sanha, confused bc jinjin's covering for him?????

literally me when my boss kind of did the same thing??? guilt x100

Bin, coming out of the X-ray room: "are u covering for Sanha??"

Jinjin spluttering because he's trying to be nice but they're both exposing Sanha

Bin also spluttering because

Wow

Holy shit

Is that a real doctor

Probably not

Eunwoo also spluttering because

Wow

Holy shit

Is that a real radiographer??

Because hi he would like to quit his job and intern at the radiography clinic please

Bin seriously reconsidering his career choices and wondering if it's too late to replace Rocky as a nurse in Eunwoo's clinic because wow

Sanha turning to Jinjin and saying in a very low, serious voice: "while they're ogling each other I think we should escape"

Also Sanha: talk shit get hit gets hit on the head by Bin who coughs grumpily and says

"Listen I don't know who you think you are but here at the radiographer's we're very busy with um like X-rays and radiography and like uh x-raying people and stuff so like"

"could u like move along"

Eunwoo: "it's your lunch break rn"

Bin, defensively: "weLL YES jinjin apologised for his (Sanha's) mistakes so move along now"

Bin avoiding all eye contact by staring at Eunwoo’s lab coat

Which fits Eunwoo very well, he thinks

Doesn't need to be buttoned but hugs him in all the right places

Which is just as well since eunwoo's in a boring (very well tailored) dress shirt and boring (very well tailored) slacks

And very nice glasses he looks very smart and handsome and

Wait I mean

Bin, turning bright red & coughing: "wow yes we gotta gO"

And ngl eunwoo is a little hurt because there are Very Little people in this world who deny eunwoo's small crinkly smile

And there are Even Lesser people who become grumpy when eunwoo smiles his sunshine beam

And this really cute radiographer with black square glasses too big for his face and a small pout is being very grumpy indeed

So eunwoo smiles at Sanha and Jinjin, takes his leave and wanders out of the clinic back upstairs to his own, wondering what he did wrong

And so when Eunwoo leaves, Jinjin immediately whirls around and hits Bin on the shoulder

"WHAT WAS THAT"

(smack) "WHY DID YOU TELL HIM TO LEAVE"

(more smacks) "HE WAS EYEING YOU UP"

(smacks again) "YOU COULD HAVE BAGGED THAT SWEET CANDY"

Bin, sulkily: "like you could have bagged MJ hyung?"

Jinjin, turning red and mumbling under his breath and stalking away

Sanha, thoughtfully: "am I the only one here without somebody to bag"

And so life goes on in the radiography room, with MJ popping in and out to collect blood samples from patients who need Labstix and are in line for their x-ray and Jinjin blushing every time MJ so much as beams in his general direction

Sanha snorting because wow could they get any more obvious

Bin bet Sanha 5$ that Jinjin would make the first move but at this rate Sanha thinks Bin might have to pay up because there's no way in hell Jinjin can form a coherent sentence with MJ's Beam on Full Blast

But then

Eunwoo pops in again

And immediately all activity in the waiting room is halted to stare at this beautiful beautiful man with beautiful glasses and a beautiful focussed look and a beautiful smile

Bin, coming out to see why jinjin hasn't brought his next patient in & ready to give a piece of mind to whoever interrupted jinjin's clockwork routine

Also Bin: stutters and flushes at the sight of eunwoo

"Uh ok what do u want"

Eunwoo, smiling at Bin: "I'm here to collect the X-ray film of patient 777"

Bin, blurting out in confusion: "where's Rocky?????"

Eunwoo, frowning a little because all this poor angel wants to do is see the cute radiographer pout again but all he's doing is making this poor confused face which i mean,,,, ngl,, is kinda cute too,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

until he realises that all of them are waiting expectantly on his answer (except Sanha, who has reverted to frantically pounding on his keyboard in a desperate attempt to reduce the stack of registration forms beside him)

And he says: "I let him rest????"

Jinjin squinting because as long as he's worked here he's only talked to Eunwoo on the phone because not once has this doctor ever let poor Rocky rest

There has to be an ulterior motive

And that motive (insert mental image of lightbulb going off over Jinjin’s head) is Bin

So he beams at eunwoo and shoves him into the X-ray room with bin and says "YES DO THE MEDICAL TALKY TALK IN THERE GO DO THAT SHIT YOU GO BOYS"

Sanha sighing internally because it just means their queue will be held up rip

Eunwoo, flustered and blinking rapidly because wow now he's in a small, semi-dark kind of enclosed room with a really cute radiographer who's self consciously pushing his glasses up and pouting to himself

Wow

Really cute

"Um"

Bin, floundering: "UH YES 777 RIGHT" & bounding over to the computer to print out the report right away mmhmm yes sir

Eunwoo frowning a little because this boy seems like he's trying to get rid of him fast????? But this radiographer’s also really cute and he sees that this boy keeps eyeing Eunwoo so Eunwoo is seriously getting mixed messages?????

So he takes a step forward to bin's table and -

"WHY DO YOU HATE ME"

Oh shit unconscious eunwoo blurting strikes again

Rocky always said it'd hurt him one day

I mean mostly it's been harmless things like "I REALLY LIKE YOUR SCARF" @ a patient and "wow did you do your hAIR THAT'S A REALLY NICE COLOUR"

But shit shit shit he's said it in front of this cute guy

Who's gaping at him?????

Bin, ultimately, in a really small voice because he's confused and also Eunwoo is standing really close to him and all he can think about is that if he cranes his neck out a little he can touch Eunwoo’s nose with his nose and-

Ok Bin focus

"I don't hate you?"

Eunwoo, floundering a bit because ???? IT REALLY SEEMS SO >;(

"PROVE IT"

Oh good job eunwoo

Way to go

Cute radiographer boy probably is going to kick him out of the room

Call security on him

Never see him again

What for have a nice face if you can't woo peopl-

Wait

Cute radiographer boy made a sound

"Wait what"

"I SAID DO YOU HAVE A PLATE ON YOUR KNEE"

wait

What

Eunwoo just blinks in confusion and like

Damn Eunwoo for being so cute just blinking because Bin is going to lose his goddamn mind

He's so embarrassed rn he literally asked angel doctor to "go on a date with me" and now he's messed up and angel doctor is looking at his knee in confusion and really he's messed up he'll never see angel doctor again he'll never go on a date with this beautiful beautiful doctor and -

"uh I don't have a plate on my knee but uh,,,,,,,,, I have,,,, a date??? With uh,,,,,,, thee??????"

Cue grimace from eunwoo because wow he could never rap

Mostly because he cannot come up with things on the spot

Like this

Wow eunwoo good job congratulations

Also grimaces from jinjin eavesdropping outside because wow truly this doctor might look like an angel but his wooing skills seriously need some effort

Bin squeaking slightly because wow he might look all grumpy and tough and a lil shit but

He’s such a smol marshmallow inside

a small harshmallow that’s melting because Eunwoo’s decided to heck it and hit bin with his Full On Angel Smile

you know the one

yeah this one

wow my mum looked over while i was pasting this picture in my working doc as reference and went “WOW I LIKE THIS BOY”

same ma same

so does Bin, too, actually

and so he squeaks out a little, “yes?”

“yes as in yes you’ll go on a date with me?”

smol Binnie squeak: “yes?”

and so they stand there and grin all silly at each other until Jinjin, knocking on the door: “IS EVERYTHING OKAY WITH THE REPORT NURSE ROCKY IS WAITING”

oh shit

ok no but for serious the doctor that came in looked 100% like gong yoo he had the hair and the soft sweater and worn jeans and beautiful smile and everything

listen i’m just so weak for doctor!Eunwoo

doctor!Eunwoo bringing lunch for radiographer!Bin and them eating in the empty waiting room during their lunch break

Bin dropping by Eunwoo’s clinic during his breaks and waiting for Eunwoo to finish his consultations just to kiss his boyfriend on the cheek

wow ok I’m saving this fic idea for another time or I’m truly going to kill myself with feels and tears

#astro #astro fic #astro fanfic #astro hospital au #????? idk #vivi shoots #uh yeah so #i'm working at a clinic rn hi guys #i have been a MESS #because there are some truly cute guys coming in #because right now it's freshman medical screening season #so all the new university freshmen are coming in to get screened #and idk i'm a rising sophmore but in singapore #the guys go into university after serving two years in the army #so all the guys are older and are hella fit just saying #and idk some doctors walking in are hella hot too like wow get me some of that #and naturally #my binu trash mind #went: ok u know what vivi #DOCTOR EUNWOO AND RADIOGRAPHER BIN #time 4 death #no ok but i just was thinking about eunwoo in glasses and a dress shirt and i nearly cried #it's basically the baby outfits but with glasses and a labcoat #are you crying yet #because i sure am #i cant believe im going to spend the rest of the summer thinking about doctor eunwoo shoot me #ok anyways #if you read my tags wow that's some dedication right there hello #but if you reblog it i read every single tag too so there's that #anyways

63 notes · View notes

felassan · 4 years ago

Text

Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

3K notes · View notes

vintage-marina · 4 years ago

Text

A woman out of time ( James Norrington x F!reader) Chapter 1

Marvel crossover pirates of the caribbean

TW: blood, gore, aliens, violence and durther in the story depressing thoughts and suicidal thoughts

A few weeks ago i had the idea to write a reader fic with a crossover of marvel and pirates of the carabbean, yep the most random idea that i had

summary: After y/n got a call that they can bring the half of the population back, she takes the chance and goes to the compound, but when she wants to go back to New York 2013 she finds herself on the middle of a ship. I think i’m gonna ship her with James Norrington tho.

btw you can also read it on wattpad, my name is mischief-moony

word count: 1973 words

Wakanda 2018

Before everything went down

You heard footsteps outside your house that signaled that a few people were nearby, you threw your book on the floor and stepped outside and when you did you saw Bucky. King T'Challa, Okoye, and a few soldiers were walking to your cabins. You saw that one of the soldiers were holding a suitcase and dread filled you up, something is happening. Bucky and you were walking to them in a silence that neither of you wanted to break and you saw that in the suit laid his arm.

''Where is the fight?'' mumbeled Bucky after he glanced at his vibranium arm, he didn't look happy to use it again. In fact he probably thought about the time when he did not had a choice, but to use it. You glanced down, you wern't scared to fight, if you have to then you have to. But not knowing who to fight was frightening to you.

You and Bucky got taken to the weaponry room, you glanced into the mirror and moved your (right/left) arm, this arm felt new. Not a bad new, but a good new, a chance at staring a new life and maybe now you will never get it. You grimaced and didn't want to think about it anymore, ''Buck, do you know what's happening?'' ''No, but it has something to do with Steve. It always has.'' ''Fair enough,'' the both of you chuckled for a few seconds and after that you composed yourself, your expression serious. You took a taser, two handpistols and a few knifes and buckeld it on your belt, somehow it felt it wasn't enough and you took a bomb. The medpack on your back did not felt heavy and you saw that Bucky took a M249 SAW. ''And you think that firearm will be enough? You know, it is pretty serious if Wakanda need the help of two oldies'' you pointed to him with a knife, he grumbled but to your happiness he took a handpistol. After this Okoye walked to the both of you and explained what was happening.

Meeting your best pals Steve, Natasha and ofcourse your other colleagues

Bucky and you went outside and you saw that Steve, Natasha, Sam, Wanda, Vision, Rhodey and Bruce? Is he not missing? were walking out of the quinjet, King T'Challa was walking with them and lead them to you two. You heard T'Challa asking how big the assault is, Bruce answered that they shoud expect a big one and Natasha asked how big their army is. ''You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje and..'' ''And a semi-stable 100-year old man'' ''And a mentally unstable 100-year old woman'' Bucky and you flashed a smile towards them and you flew into Natasha her arms while Bucky hugged Steve. Afterwards you gave a bone crushing hug to Steve and you whispered that you missed him.

During the battle

Everyone stood behind the border that protected Wakanda and you saw that aliens were running toward you, they looked like a mix between a dog and a rat and you didn't expect this shit, yes you were scared at this point. Next to you stood Bucky, Steve and Natasha, "What the hell" mumbeled Bucky and if you weren't in a life threathing situation, you would have laughed but now, now not. Some of these aliens were breaking through the border but were killing themselves, but some of them were making it through, the Wakandan army were making shields with their clothing and were shooting lasers out of their vibranium spears. Bucky, you and Natasha were shooting while Sam and Rhodey were in the sky. Bruce was in the Hulkbuster and stood behind you and the army. Rhodey flew to the border and you saw that a few bombs were dropping that created a massive chain reaction, you could hear the screams of the aliens that were dying but you could see that the dogs behind the border were going to Vision and were he was laying there was no border, shit he is gonna be in danger. But Bruce beat you to it, before you could say anthing.

''Cap if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us, there's nothing between them and Vision'' ''Then we better keep 'em in front of us.'' ''How do we do that?'' asked Okoye to T'Challa and you saw that the was thinking. ''We open the barrier. On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen'' he shouted somthing in Xhosa, you saw that Steve was activating his shield and that T'Challa's army were dropping their shields. You were moving your shoulders and stood in position, ready to kill a bunch of aliens. This was unlike what you saw in the war or what you did in the war but you knew that you should give your everything. The border that protected you was dissolving and you heard T'Challa shouting: ''Wakanda forever!''

You were running and so did everyone else, your heartrate went up and you took the blades out of your belt, Steve and T'Challa ran ahead but you and Bucky ran with the army. The first few aliens were running to you and you threw your knife in their eye and slid on the ground while you were gliding on the grass, you plunged your knife in another one's belly and cutted him open. It screamed and before you knew it it was dead, but the other alien was not. You took your knife out of the carcas and threw it in the head of the other alien. You plucked your two blades out of it's head and it's eye and hastily you stood up and scanned your surroundings.

But you didn't had much time, three other aliens were attacking your back that send you flying to the ground, you let out a yelp. Their claws were dangerously close to your face and something snapped in your head. Your mind went on autopilot and you teared an arm off and you gave it a kick to it's belly. You drew your pistol and sent a bullet to the other two aliens their heart and head. You could feel on your back that you had been scratched but you shook it off and went further.

The minutes flew by and you couldn't even remember what you were doing to them, you saw that Okoye needed a little bit of help and you gave her back cover. ''Are you okay?'' she asked while the two of you circeled around the aliens, you hummed but it didn't reassured her. ''I don't think we are going to win it'' you said, she didn't gave a response but instead killed an alien. You heard someone talking to you in your ear, ''I can't hear you, speak louder'' you commanded and slammed an alien to the ground. ''Y/N, someone needs medical help, I will sent you the coördinates come fast!'' you heard Natasha talking to you and you bid Okoye farwell and you cleared your way between the aliens and the people.

When you arrived you saw that Nathasha gave pressure on the wound of a soldier, ''Nat you need to give me cover while I treat her alright?'' You saw that she was from the Dora Milaje, you took off your medpack and opened it quickly and kneeled down. Adreneline rushed to your body and you took a bottle of water out of the pack and rinshed the wound. ''How did it happen?'' you asked to her, in the hope she didn't pass out. ''I got clawed, but I will survive'' she mumbeled, you softly talked to her while you disinfected the wound. You sliced the plastic of a sterile towel of and depped the wound clean, there was blood on your hands and you smeared it off on your suit. Natasha was shooting some aliens and said to you that you needed to hurry up. Your stress level went up a bit when she said that and you stichted the soldeir up and covered the wound incase if it went bleeding again. ''Nat, you can go, I will protect her'' after you said that she went away and you stood your ground and eyed your surroundings.

You didn't knew how much time had passed, hope was slowely running out of your system and you were certain that you were losing. Aliens were around you and you felt desperate, you did your best to protect her and sometimes you got help from someone else, it wasn't easy to check on her and to kill aliens but you managed. Suddenly an axe went flying around and killed some aliens around you. What the hell is happening you thought to yourself, not that you were ungrateful, you were very grateful but you didn't know who it was, until something suddenly clicked in your brain, Thor.

After Thor joined the fight with a raccoon with a gun and a walking tree? You thought you could finally win this battle and have a good nap after this, but alas you were wrong, very wrong. A few meters further you saw that Steve was protecting Vision and Wanda. You turned around and asked in Xhosa if she need any further medical assistence or that she would manage it. The soldier sent you away and you joined Steve, you didn't expect the guy who is supposed to be the most evil person in the universe purple but you also saw a man with red skin and without a nose when you served the army so it didn 't really surprise you. More people joined the fight and when you threw your bomb and fire your last bullets, Thanos raised his fist towards it and reversed the time so it couldn't explode, then he aimed at you and fired the bomb back. ''Shit'' you mumbled, you flew across the air and yelled in pain. A few splinters from the bomb scratched your face and neck, you could fell blood prickle on your skin from the splinters that were stuck in your body. Your ears were ringing and you shut your eyes tight from the bright light, sniffing the air you could smell burning flesh and you softly cried, you didn't want to see the aftermath of what happend to you. Some people were yelling, but black dots were clouding your eyes and with your tears you couldn't see well. How can he do this, what did we do to deserve this, the more you thinked the more your head hurted, maybe a little rest wouldn't hurt and with that on your mind you blacked out.

When you opened your E/C eyes you whimpered in pain, signaling to the remaining people that you were awake. You saw Steve in your field of vision and you could see that his eyes were red. You lifted your arm and cradled his face with your vibranium arm, you furrowed your eyebrows and wiped a few tears away. ''You've been crying, Stevie'' a nickname that he only heard from you when you were concerned about him. ''What happend?'' you whispered softly after you gave him a reassuring smile, he didn't meet your eyes but looked to the left of you. You turned your head, but you wished you hadn't, your eyes met the blank stare of Vision and you let out a startling scream. Terror was running through your veins and tears of dispair were filling your eyes and falling on your cheeks. You reached out your arm towards him but you only could feel the cold of his vibranium body and if you looked better you could see the pile of ashes that laid besides him. Your arm fell to the ground and you sniffed, ''What happened here Steve?''

#marvel #potc #pirates of the caribbean #avengers #avengersinfinitywar #avengers endgame #james norrington #james norrington x reader #james norrington imagine #elizabeth swann #jack sparrow #marvel crossover #fanfic #henry turner #will turner

155 notes · View notes

maxwell-grant · 4 years ago

Text

Captain Fray: The Trash Superman

Look up in the sky! Is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s... an ugly, homeless bald man cackling evily while raining trash on the city with an army of sludge monsters, shortly before getting beaten up by a group of meddling kids. It’s just dumb old Captain Fray again getting foiled by Monica’s Gang, nevermind him. He does that every Tuesday.

Monica’s Gang are arguably the most iconic of all Brazilian comic book characters, having maintained popularity for 60 years and with unmatched worldwide recognition. They’ve had cartoons, a cinematic universe of films both cartoon and live-action, plays, a long-running manga spin-off that turned them into teenagers, crossovers everywhere ranging from The Big Two’s superheroes to Osamu Tezuka’s properties (as Monica’s creator Mauricio and Tezuka were acquaintances), at least one theme park, and much, much more. Even past Brazil’s borders, where they are a cultural institution on a scale matched only by Disney, these are some of the world’s most popular characters, starring in just about any kind of adventure imaginable and then some.

However, if you go into the world of Monica’s Gang, and look for a flying man with a chest logo, a cape and impossible superpowers, you’ll instead find their greatest arch-enemy: Captain Fray (actual name Capitão Feio, which translates to Captain Ugly), real name Feioso Araújo. Who will be happy to remind you time and time again of what a rotten, no-good scoundrel he is, even if he has to pick a fight with the Big Blue himself to prove it.

So let’s talk about perhaps the most iconic “caped superhero” of Brazilian comic books, even if he’s ultimately a long, long shot from being one.

Despite the long, worldwide spanning history of the superhero, the idea of the superhero as a cape-wearing uniformed superpowered do-gooder has remained a largely American concept, as different regions have their own unique icons. The titular 4 members of Monica’s Gang have on many occasions taken the role of superheroes, and they’ve built up a massive Rogues Gallery over decades, despite not looking like the usual idea of a superhero. Monica, Jimmy Five, Smudge and Maggy, for the most part, look and act like kids, with odd quirks.

To briefly describe the 4: Monica is the pudgy, bucktoothed ruler of the group as well as the neighborhood, being super strong and more than willing to hit people who mock her with her stuffed rabbit “Samson”. Jimmy Five has a speech impediment, and he constantly schemes to take Monica’s role as leader, best described at times as a junior Lex Luthor to Monica’s Superman. Maggy is Monica’s friend with an uncontrollable appetite, and the witty and perpetually dirty Smudge is Jimmy Five’s friend and accomplice in schemes. Smudge is defined by his complete and total refusal to take a bath or even come into contact with water under any circumstances, and some stories play up Smudge’s dirtyness to the point of superpower.

It’s Smudge in particular who’s gonna be relevant to this post, because the first time Captain Fray was introduced, he was introduced as Smudge’s good-natured and humorous uncle, a comic book addict surrounded by piles of dusty comics, particularly those of Smudge’s favorite superhero, Captain Pitoco, a sort of Superman/Buzz Lightyear analogue. Eventually, Smudge’s uncle is surrounded by dust, and out of it, he transforms “back” into a former alter-ego, Captain Fray, a megalomaniac supervillain horrified at just how clean the world is, and who decides to sully it as much as possible, flying around the city spreading dirt rays and even transforming the population into pollution-fanatics. Eventually he’s defeated and transformed back into normal, only thinking he had a weird dream.

Upon subsequent appearences, Fray would acquire things like sludge minions, underground lairs and ever increasing powers (like in the above sequence where he somehow destroys a rainbow and darkens the sky with a single gesture), although he would eventually gain a Kryptonite-esque weakness to water. Captain Fray would go on to become the most reocurring villain of Monica’s Gang for the next 40 years, as the former concept of him being Smudge’s uncle was dropped and he became instead the ruler of an underground race of sludge monsters created by him, who’d occasionally come on to the surface in order to engage in supervillain plots to take over the world and spread dirt and pollution everywhere, sometimes in stories with an environmental angle, and often when the story calls for superhero antics.

Fray’s got a very standard Grinch/Captain Hook cartoon villain personality, all cackles and snarls and shaking fists at the meddling kids who ruin his plans everytime, proud of being evil and rotten, but never too rotten to the point he betrays the kid-friendly nature of the stories he’s in, nor too rotten that he can’t do something nice for a change like allow his monsters to celebrate Christmas even if it ruins his bad guy image, or begrudingly do a nice thing for Smudge.

Although for the most part, the “mainline” comics have dropped the angle of Fray being Smudge’s uncle, the two having a particular dynamic has stayed consistent still. Sometimes, Smudge is portrayed as the only member of the Gang who’s got little to no problem with Fray, even welcoming the change of scenery he brings, although he will stick with his friends, as often he’s the only one who’s got no problem being hit by Fray’s dirt rays. While sometimes Fray singles out destroying Smudge so his claim as the dirtiest being in the universe can never be challenged, he is more often depicted as having a soft spot for Smudge, sometimes considering him a pupil or potential successor to inherit his powers, and plenty of times, Smudge has done just that, although inevitably it never sticks, partially because Fray gets jealous or misses his former life, and partially because Smudge gets bored of supervillainy and just wants to go play with his friends again.

The dynamic between Smudge and Fray has led to a lot of adventures between the two, and it’s something that’s been played up in the aforementioned manga spin-off, Monica Adventures. In it, the cast’s all been aged up to teenagers, and the adventures they get into respectively have taken much more of a shonen manga edge, much darker and weirder than anything the original kid comics could get away with, although not necessarily to it’s benefit, because I could not begin to describe just how much grimdark nonsense is in those, let’s just call it the Monica’s Gang equivalent of Jorge Joestar in terms of lunacy and leave it at that (although, to be clear, even the original “mainline” comics could get very, very weird themselves). Captain Fray has been a mainstay of said manga from the start, going through a series of redesigns, including one where he turns into a bootleg Sephiroth, and one where he tries rebranding himself into a suit-wearing gangster named “Black Dust”, which nobody really takes seriously.

It’s also granted Fray a backstory: As a kid, when he’d gone to the basement to read comics, his house was buried in a landslide. Afraid of death, he was met with a milipede claiming to serve “The Serpent” (the in-universe stand in for the devil, maybe, just bear with me here), claiming it would protec him so long as it returned the favor someday. He was afterwards transferred to an orphanage, teased by kids over his lack of hygiene and liking for superheroes and nicknamed “Captain Ugly” (again, his name, Fray is just the English translation), with rumors that his touch granted disease. After the orphanage closes, he’s adopted by a nurse and gains a step-brother in Smudge’s dad.

Years down the line, and Feioso’s managed to acquire a house and make a decent living. He spends a lot of time with his nephew Smudge, teaching him how to build toys out of garbage (a habit of Smudge in the strips) and fly kites and so on. Until one day, in an update of his original story, he’s cleaning his house packed with dusty comics, and a shelf falls atop of him. The millipede from his childhood appears to recollect the debt:

"Your mission is to pollude the Earth...rot it's soil...change it's atmosphere...darken the skies with smoke...so that the sun's rays may never again hit the surface of this planet!

"No! No, please! I-I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"You think you can refuse? You think you have a choice? Do you think you can escape your destiny? Evil does not tolerate weak servants. If you don't fill your end of the bargain, if you don't pay your debt...it will be transferred to the person you love most."

"Smudge? NO!! H-How do you know about my nephew?"

"We know of all that happens. Our eyes...are everywhere."

"Smudge has nothing to do with this. Leave him alone, please...I-I'll do anything you guys want!"

"So be it...Filthy powers will corrode your soul...This is the day of your rebirth! How would you like to be rebaptized?

"The nickname I was given at the orphanage...it's perfect! Captain Ugly strikes again!"

How “canon” the events of Monica Adventures are is a question best left unspoken, since it ultimately doesn’t change anything about the original strips. But regardless of what made Fray who he is, he would spend the following decades in many, many attempts to complete his mission and defeat Monica’s Gang, to be foiled and stopped time and time again by his nephew and his friends, little more than a dumb, cartoon villain there to be smacked again and again, too dumb to quit and too mean to stop. So he was, and so he will always be.

But something interesting’s happened recently with him. As part of the Graphic MSP initiative that’s allowed creators to reinvent the many, many characters of Monica’s Gang for stand-alone graphic novels, Captain Fray’s received one in the form of Capitão Feio: Identidade, which isn’t so much an origin story as it tells the story of a homeless man with no knowledge of his past or where he acquired the superpowers that force him to be on the constant run from society, and it tells the story of how said man eventually became the infamous supervillain, despite his many attempts to be a superhero.

The comic and it’s sequel, Tormenta, acted more of a proof of concept to test whether or not a serious reimagining of Captain Fray can work, and considering their reception and the newfound love that the Captain seems to have attained in recent years, I’d say they succedeed pretty damn well. He’s ostracized for his appearence, poverty, smell and bad manners, and there’s hardly anything he can do about it because his powers make him a toxic abomination by default. He spends portions of the book trying to create living beings with his powers, and once he succeeds in creating a Godzilla-esque monster to protect him from the authorities, he ends up having to put the monster down, before getting fed up with constant rejection and promptly announcing that, if he’s just gonna be known as an ugly monster by the people, even after he saves them, he’s gonna make it a point to be Captain Ugly Monster, the most rotten supervillain they’ve ever seen.

The comic constantly grants upon Frey iconography of several of the biggest icons of comic books, from Batman and Superman to AKIRA, playing up not just Frey’s association with comic books but also the fact that he's been mired in that aesthetic from day one. He wanted to be a hero, he wanted to be like Captain Pitoco, and regardless of continuity, all that he ends up as is becoming a gross caricature of a superhero. And still, Frey owns it. He owns his grossness, his rage, his bitterness at everything that he understands to be the opposite of himself, everything clean and good and decent, and he tries time and time again to tear it down, even if he ultimately can never get far enough to accomplish his goals, or lose all of his humanity in the process.

I’ve remarked once that, to many in some regions of South America, the “traditional” superhero does not hold much appeal, and most of the more popular protagonists and icons tend to be outlaws far away from caped antics. Which is why it’s particularly interesting that, not only is the most famous caped superman of Brazilian comic books a villain, but also that, perhaps unintentionally, Fray has undergone the kind of development that most reocurring cartoon villains never get, and one that seems almost poised to last. In a current zeitgest of villain protagonists, it’s successes and failures, I could very easily see Captain Fray becoming the star of a popular film or series, one that takes a look not just at his personality and role, but also at Brazilian culture’s relationship with superheroes and supervillains. Maybe Fray as an anti-hero, trying to make the best of the horrendous powers he’s burdened with, could work.

So long as it’s not revealed that he likes dirt because his mom got pushed off a cliff by cleaning products, I could see it working very well.

#character profiles #comic books #captain fray #capitão feio #turma da monica #mauricio de souza #brazilian superheroes #brazilian supervillains #superman #monica's gang

103 notes · View notes

midzelink · 4 years ago

Note

wh-what is that one part of creating a champion

( in reference to this post )

If you’ve ever played Breath of the Wild, it’s very likely you’ve come across this chunk of dialogue from a Sheikah by the name of Cado in Kakariko Village:

“We of the Sheikah tribe have long been heralded as people of great wisdom. Our technology became the key to sealing Ganon away during the Great Calamity, some ten thousand years ago. At one point, our technology was praised as the power of the gods...but eventually the people turned on it. Turned on us. Our creations came to be viewed as a threat to the kingdom. The Sheikah became outcasts, forced into exile.”

Which is unsettling enough on its own - but on my first playthrough of the game, I was so enamored with absorbing anything and everything that I must have thought little of it at the time. But then Creating a Champion came out, and things...quickly took a turn for the worse:

Ten thousand years ago, the kingdom of Hyrule reached an advanced level of civilization thanks in no small part to the technological prowess of the Sheikah. The Sheikah have worked from the shadows to support Hyrule's royal family since the era of myth, and their contributions have been significant. Their technology was key in helping the chosen hero and the princess seal Ganon away ten thousand years in the past and usher in an age of peace, but the king of Hyrule at the time began to fear and doubt the Sheikah. He became possessed by thoughts of imagined Sheikah betrayal. He issued an order to abolish technology and began to oppress the Sheikah. The Sheikah's laboratories were closed, research was prohibited, and data was destroyed. Their best researchers were expelled from the kingdom and monitored. Any Sheikah who dared oppose this order was met with severe punishment, including imprisonment.

This oppression led to dramatic changes within the Sheikah tribe and ultimately to a division into two main factions. The moderate group chose to live peacefully, accepting the restrictions placed on them out of respect for the long-standing ties to the royal family. They built a hidden village, now known as Kakariko Village, and lived there in secret.

Those who violently rejected the king’s decree formed a militant group that specialized in assassination, the Sheikah’s original dark purpose. In time, they came to follow Calamity Ganon. They retreated to the remote Gerudo Province, outside of the kingdom of Hyrule’s reach, and later formed the Yiga Clan.

- Creating a Champion, pg. 368

The rising fear and exile of the Sheikah hadn’t arisen from “the people” - it was a horrendous act of oppression from the then King of Hyrule, against a people who had done nothing but serve and lend aid to his kingdom in living memory. But what gets me the most is the language this book uses to describe this act of oppression; the Sheikah who submitted to the King’s will, after millennia of servitude, are the “moderate group” - whereas those who were rightfully furious with the King’s nonsense decrees are described as “violent.” It almost reads as if this book was written in-universe by the royal family (or someone who wanted to make them look good), but as a piece of media that exists independently of this fictional universe that attempts to objectively explain events as they happened? The Sheikah have served the royal family for all time, so the ones who continued to the do so are the Good Guys, and the Yiga (who definitely didn’t have a point, of course they didn’t, they’re Pure Evil and also foolish, heehoo look at them they LOVE bananas!) are the Bad Guys. It’s all...extremely bad from both an in-universe and out-of-universe perspective.

And this all comes to a head with this, leading back into the post that I linked at the beginning of this wall of text. We’ve all seen this tapestry from Breath of the Wild, depicting the events from 10,000 years ago:

But I only very recently took notice to what’s going on at the very bottom:

As if hearing about the King’s acts of violence against the Sheikah wasn’t bad enough, we now get to see him weaponizing an entire army against them. Or, as Polaris so eloquently put it: “Good, lord, what is HAPPENING down there?!”

And all of this just makes the rest of what Cado had to say that much more sinister:

“Some, like us, chose to cast off our technological advances and strove to live normal lives. Others fostered a hatred toward the kingdom that shunned them. These sad souls swore their allegiance to Ganon.”

The Sheikah are literally brainwashed into thinking mindless and eternal submission to a monarchy which has treated and continues to treat them like garbage is a good thing, and that those among them who rightfully fought against their exile are “sad souls.” But, yeah, the Sheikah of today totally aren’t oppressed in any way, right, Nintendo? They willingly strove to live “normal lives”? Geez.

#anonymous #breath of the wild #botw #sheikah #yiga #fantasy racism and xenophobia is bad enough #but fantasy racism where the racists are depicted as the good guys?#where the rightfully angry oppressed group is evil now because they wielded violence #violence which was already used against them?#MY DUDE............#like man the yiga could have been SO MUCH MORE #but i'd expect this from the same people that did the gerudo so dirty #sometimes the things we like have flaws #text #asks #myasks*#myposts*

1K notes · View notes

millllenniawrites · 4 years ago

Text

enchanted (Poe Dameron x Reader)

part one of dear love of mine

summary: The last thing you wanted was to fall in love. That was your sisters’ job, to marry and have a small army of children for your mother to dote on. But when the man courting your eldest sister brings a mysterious guest to stay with your family for the summer, you may not have a say in the matter.

words: 1.5k

warnings: afab!reader; reader has a last name; regency au for the aesthetic but it’s historically inaccurate for the *vibes*; slow burn; sexual themes throughout; eventual smut; warnings will be added as the series progresses

a/n: the series i’ve been talking about for months is finally here!! Totally was supposed to post this yesterday but I forgot. I started outlining this after reading @writefightandflightclub ’s Regency Femdom Week 2020 fic Of Rears and Vices and watching Bridgerton was like taking steroids so here you go!! I haven’t done an actual series in a long time so i’m super stoked about this whole thang. this is a short chapter cause I want you guys to get to know the universe and the characters but the next few are gonna take some time because they are long bois

You sat at the window, looking down at the long drive that led up to your estate. Lord Barnes was supposed to arrive before lunch and, though your stomach rumbled, you didn’t take your eyes off the horizon.

“You’re almost more nervous than I am.” Ana called.

You blinked quickly to allow your eyes a moment to adjust from the bright light outside to the dim interior of her room. Your sister stood in the doorway, her hair glinting in the sunlight. Her blue dress complimented her features and, even without the sun, you were sure she would have been glowing.

“You remember that I’m the one he’s courting, right?” Her slippered feet whispered against the floor as she crossed the room, hopping up into the window seat across from you.

“Of course I remember.” You flailed your leg out, striking her in the shin with your foot. “It’s only the happiest day of my dear sister’s life.”

She tossed a scrap of paper into your lap. On it, scrawled in a neat print, was yet another declaration of love from the strapping Lord Barnes for your sister.

You read aloud, “My dearest, Ana, how I do miss your gaze. The stars here are truly incomparable, having seen your eyes— Is this what men think is charming?!”

She snatched the paper from your hands. “I think it’s charming!”

As you laughed, you snorted, sending her into a fit of giggles right alongside you.

“I really do think he’s going to propose this time, Ana. And you know I’m happy for you.”

The summer prior, Lord Barnes had been in town on business, settling assets after the tragic death of his father. To distract himself from his mourning, he had begun going door to door, learning the names of the people who lived in the county he had so suddenly inherited.

Ana had not stopped talking about him since and, if his letters were any indication, he was just as charmed as she was.

“Of course I know that.” She turned around, flopping herself back into your lap. “You also know that by my marrying Lord Barnes, I’m helping you secure a suitable match.”

“A suitable match!” You couldn’t help but laugh again. “For Siena, yes. For me?”

“You cannot keep your nose in those books forever! I cannot let you. Don’t you think you’ll get lonely in this big house all by yourself?”

“A marriage would simply hand over our family’s legacy to whatever man decided to sign the papers. I do not think that is what Father would have wanted.”

She rested her elbows on your legs and leaned her chin onto her palms. “I think Father would have wanted you to be happy.”

With a roll of your eyes, you shoved your poor sister out of your lap and onto the floor. She landed with a soft grunt and a flurry of skirts and immediately tried to clamber back into your arms.

Ana loved to remind you that you would be tasked with taking care of the family property once your mother passed. She had seen it as such a burden that, even as the eldest of three girls, your parents had decided she could pass on the responsibility. Siena, the youngest of the three Dean daughters, was just as enamoured with the idea of marriage as Ana was, so the future of the estate had passed to you without complaint. Their wish was to be romanced and married. Yours was stability. And with your father gone, your mother wasn’t about to keep any of you from your true wishes.

Siena was in her room, no doubt pruning and prepping for the arrival of Lord Barnes — it didn’t matter that she wasn’t the sister he was coming to visit, she had reminded you — and you did miss her presence as you and Ana shoved at each other and grappled for her letter. It was moments like this was you cherished, knowing that soon, handsome men would arrive and sweep your sisters away. Your house would be left empty of two of the most precious things you had ever beholden.

“Girls!” Your mother shouted, breaking you out of your thoughts.

You and Ana squished yourself together in the window seat. A dark carriage had begun it’s way up your drive.

“Girls!” She shouted again. “Come down here!”

You and Ana raced out of her bedroom and down the long staircase. Both out of breath by the time you reached the bottom, you clutched each other.

Your mother and Siena stood side by side, their arms crossed. They were mirrors of each other, their coiled hair pinned into place and eyebrows furrowed in distaste.

Siena turned her nose up at your giggling, but you could see a glint of playfulness in her eye. Though she tried to appear sophisticated, her twelve-year-old spirit wasn’t easily quelled, much to your mother’s dismay.

“Are you sure you’re ready to get married, sister?” Siena’s voice was soft, more like silk than sound.

“He hasn’t proposed yet. You needn’t be so serious.” She skated over to Siena and wrapped her arms around her sister’s middle, swinging her around.

“And when the Lord Barnes proposes, Ana will be quick to get ready. Just you watch.” Your mother winked at you before grabbing Ana’s arm, pulling her off Siena. “They are about to arrive. Go look presentable.” She shooed both your sisters towards the front doors before limping along behind them.

Mister Kirk, your family’s butler, stood off to one side. He was a thin man, the grey hair atop his head so thick that it looked as thought he might topple over at a moment’s notice.

You nodded your head to him. “Thank you for the work you’ve done setting up for our guest, Mr. Kirk.”

“It is my job, Miss Dean.” He said softly. Your sisters would have teased you about the fondness in Mister Kirk’s face had they been there, but the opening of the front doors had thoroughly distracted them. “And it is guests, Miss. More than just Lord Barnes is set to join us for the summer.”

You cocked your head but didn’t dare say more. It must have been a new development. Why else would your mother not share this with you?

You didn’t wait for Mister Kirk to elaborate, heading towards the open doors of your home.

The carriage pulled up right in front of the steps. A footman hopped down from the back of the carriage, setting a stool out before opening the door.

Lord Finneas Barnes stepped out of his carriage, grinning up at your family. “Hello Ladies Dean!” He called, waving grandly.

You all curtsied, a chorus of ‘Hello Lord Barnes’ causing his smile to widen further. “There’s no need for the formalities. Please. Call me Finn.”

Everything about him was refined, down to the buckles of his shoes. His dark hair had been done in waves, tight to his head, giving him the impression of wearing a crown. And he walked like it. His smile was sweet, but everything else about him oozed boldness and masculinity.

You could have sworn Ana nearly swooned beside you. A curious mischief glittered behind her eyes.

When you looked back to the carriage, another figure was stepping through the door.

The stranger tossed his head, his thick curls bouncing back away from his eyes to reveal his sharp features. He was dressed in blue, clearly a military uniform. Various pins on the front of his coat winked in the sunlight. His dark eyes quickly took in your family waiting on the steps and his dark eyes stalled when he reached you. Mouth quirking in a slight smile that had your heart racing, his gaze passed on.

The two men ascended the steps. Your mother curtsied again, the rest of you following behind her.

You could not take your eyes off the mysterious gentleman.

“This is General Dameron, I presume?” Your mother asked.

“The one and only,” Lord Barnes boasted, clapping the gentleman — General Dameron — on the back.

The General bowed. “Thank you for hosting us while the Barnes estate is renovated, Lady Dean. Your invitation for me to join Finn here was the best surprise I’ve had since the Coast.”

The Coast. You vaguely remembered hearing about the war from the girls in town last summer. They’d had brothers and fathers go to fight — and come back victorious, if your memory served you — but as your household was of only girls, you hadn’t been particularly invested in the news of battles that did not impact your family.

“It’s not a problem.” You heard your mother say.

Ana griped your arm, viciously whispering, “He’s quite handsome,” before dragging you back into the house.

You glanced back over your shoulder at the General and your mother politely discussing something — the topic of conversation could have been the weather for all you heard of it. It was as if your ears had been stuffed with cotton.

The General’s dark eyes met yours again and your breath caught. You tore your gaze away, snapping your head around to face forward.

It would be the last you’d see of him for the rest of the day.

#poe dameron #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron x you #poe dameron x y/n #regency au #star wars #oscar isaac fic #mywriting #dear love of mine

201 notes · View notes

10-porgs-in-a-trenchcoat · 4 years ago

Text

Selfies, Tea, and Photography

AO3

Pairing: Commander Fox x GN!Reader Pen Pal Fic

Premise: based off this post I made a while back where I mused on the concept of a clone/reader insert pen pal fic. Starting off with Fox based on a suggestion by @istanmyman

Word count: ~3.9k

Rating: G

Other notes: Gender-neutral reader, no use of Y/N, apparently I can only write Thorn as Fox’s best bro and nosy wingman

When you heard the news that the Grand Army of the Republic was starting up a correspondence program for troopers and civilians to connect and communicate, you immediately signed up for it. Not that your friends and family weren’t enough for you, it was just that you itched to learn more about the galaxy and what it was like to live and travel among the stars. Enrolling in the program was the closest you were going to get until you were able to travel yourself.

(That, and you were curious to learn more about the clones who were fighting for the Republic.)

Around a month after signing up for the program, you learned you were matched with CC-1010, also known as “Fox.” A few days after learning about your match, you received your first message from him.

Hello,

I am Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard. I am stationed on Coruscant, where I oversee the security of the Senate, manage operations at the military base on the planet, and coordinate with local authorities to maintain public safety. My fellow Guard Commanders and I are participating in this correspondence program to connect with Republic citizens we have sworn to protect and defend. I look forward to communicating with you.

Regards,

Commander Fox

His opening message was … something. It read like he didn’t want to be in the program, like his fellow Commanders may have forced him to do it with them. You also supposed he may have not known how else to introduce himself, and that was the best way he could think of to make a good first impression.

Regardless of the reason for his overly stiff and formal introduction, you wrote up your first message to Fox:

Hello Commander Fox, it’s nice to meet you!

I live on Naboo, in a small town in the lake country. I have a job in my grandmother’s tea shop. It’s not nearly as exciting as guarding Senators or catching bad guys, but it’s quiet and peaceful. I’m saving up to travel the galaxy one day, and until then the next best thing is talking with people like you who live in different places.

I do have some questions for you: what’s it like living on Coruscant? What do you do in your free time? Do you have any exciting stories about saving Senators from Separatists that you can share?

Hope to hear from you soon!

You signed with your name and sent the message.

A few days later, Fox sent his response. He greeted you by name in his opening line then went on to say:

Coruscant is loud, crowded, and messy. Feels like the planet never sleeps, with all the noise and lights at all hours of the day. My troopers and I live in barracks on the surface, and we don’t get much free time. Some of the boys like to go to this bar called 79’s that a lot of clones frequent. It’s not my favorite place, though. When I have free time, I like to relax with a good book, watch holodramas, or catch up on sleep. The work we do is important and a great service to the Republic, but a quiet peaceful life on Naboo with no excitement would be a welcome change of pace compared to my current station.

I haven’t rescued any Senators in the line of duty, but I did help Senator Amidala arrest Ziro the Hutt at the beginning of the war. I like Senator Amidala, she has a good head on her shoulders.

(She’s your Senator, isn’t she?)

I hope that’s what you were wanting to hear.

Looking forward to your response,

Commander Fox

You smiled to yourself as you read his message, and you imagined him in full armor laying back in a bed reading a book. Quiet, restful moments that you took for granted in your quiet life must have been sacred to a man like Fox.

The following day, you hiked out to the nearest lake to take pictures. You made sure to capture the lush green grass surrounding the lake, the colorful wildflowers growing along the shore, the sparkling crystal blue waters, and the majestic waterfalls that poured water into the lake. You made sure to include the pictures in the next message you wrote to Fox:

Senator Amidala is indeed from Naboo. She was our Queen too, back when I was younger. Everyone in my town loves her, and my grandma even has her royal portrait on display in the shop.

Not much has really happened since I last wrote to you. But I did go out and take some pictures of a nearby lake! The pictures are included with this message. I hope they can give you a small taste of my quiet life here.

Three weeks went by, and you hadn’t received a message from Fox. At first you figured he was busy with his duties. Then you worried that your pictures of the lake soured his mood, reminding him of something he couldn’t have. Then … you feared the worst.

One day after work, you went home and checked your message inbox on your computer. There was a message waiting for you from Fox. You breathed a sigh of relief as you opened it and read:

I’m sorry it took me so long to write you back. There was a bombing that took out the Senate’s power grid, and then a hostage crisis with bounty hunters, and then Ziro the Hutt escaped from prison. When I haven’t been scouring the city for Ziro or his accomplices, I have been neck-deep in paperwork.

Ironic, how right after I brag about helping bring Ziro into custody, he escapes.

I appreciate the pictures you sent me. Naboo looks like a beautiful planet. I would love to visit someday.

~ Fox

You took note of how he signed off with just his name, not his rank, and then you leaned back in your chair to mull over what to say to him. Your first idea was to invite him to visit Naboo once the war was over, but who knew when that would be. Unable to think of anything to say, you decided to come back to it later as you went about your evening.

The next day while you were at work, you served a customer some herbal tea that was supposed to have a relaxing effect. The customer didn’t stick around long enough for you to see if it worked, but you took a tin full of the loose-leaf tea home with you after your shift. You reviewed the rules of the correspondence program, confirming that it would be appropriate to send a package to Fox, and then you packaged the tea up and took it to the shipping depot to send to Coruscant.

Stars, shipping items to Coruscant was expensive. Fox better like that tea, you thought.

Hello Fox,

I don’t mind that you wrote late. I’m just glad that nothing happened to you.

That really is some rotten luck, Ziro escaping. I hope you or the Jedi catch him and take him back to prison. In the meantime, remember to rest and take care of yourself! Coruscant needs a great Commander like you looking out for it, and I like having you as my pen pal.

I sent you a package with some tea from the shop. It’s a relaxation blend. I haven’t tried it, but it’s popular with customers. It should arrive in the next rotation or two. Hope you like it.

Three days later you got his next message:

The tea is wonderful. I had a cup of it an hour before going to bed, and I had the best sleep of my life. Thank you.

~Fox

Short and sweet, but you couldn’t ask for more.

Over the following weeks you and Fox continued to exchange messages. The two of you discovered that you shared a common interest in a holodrama series and dedicated several messages to discussing it and predicting what might happen in the coming episodes. You sent him more pictures of the countryside and of your village, and he sent you pictures of the Coruscant skyline at sunset: the way the golden light of the sun glinted off the shining chrome towers was one of the most beautiful things you had ever seen, and it moved Coruscant up a few spots on your list of places to visit.

At one point you looked up pictures of the clones on the Holonet to get an idea of what Fox might look like. However, the only pictures of the troopers you could find showed them with their helmets on. The closest you could get was a ten-year-old picture of Jango Fett; Jango was ridiculously handsome, so it would stand to reason that Fox would be too.

Fox gradually began loosening up, and he shared stories about growing up on Kamino or shenanigans his brothers got into. He hinted at there being some interpersonal drama among some Senators, but he didn’t name names since he knew the supervisors of the correspondence program read his messages before sending them to you, to make sure he wasn’t divulging information he shouldn’t be.

Fox also asked you more questions about your life. You told him about your childhood, your relationship with your parents, how you got your job at your grandmother’s shop, about your friends that moved to Theed for work or university studies, and all the places in the galaxy you wanted to visit.

You mentioned wanting to see Felucia, and in his next message Fox included pictures of the planet’s colorful trees, plants, flowers, and shrubs – including a few at night, when the vegetation gave off a bioluminescent glow.

One of my fellow Commanders spends a lot of time doing missions on Felucia. I asked him for pictures to show you and he took these and sent them to me.

I’m trying to get him to join this correspondence program too, but he won’t agree to it. He spends a lot of time with his Jedi, maybe that’s enough for him.

I’ve had a lot of mixed feelings about not having a Jedi. I think about how some of them seem like a pain to work with and that it might not be worth the trouble, but then I see other Jedi treat the men under their command as friends or even family.

Which is why I’ve come to appreciate your messages. When I get them, they’re the highlight of my day. For a brief amount of time I feel like a normal person. I’ve never met you face-to-face, I don’t even know what you look like, but I consider you a friend.

~Fox

Getting pictures of Felucia from Fox made you feel all warm and fluttery inside. What he said about feeling like a normal person did as well, but it broke your heart at the same time. You wanted to stow away on a ship to Coruscant to give him a hug, and then go kick the behinds of anyone who ever made him feel bad about himself. Especially since he and his brothers worked so hard to keep people safe … it was a crime that they weren’t getting the recognition they deserved.

You snapped a picture of yourself to include in your next message, making sure the lighting and angle were just right so you looked your best. It also helped that you just happened to be wearing a color that you thought you looked good in.

Thank you for the pictures of Felucia! When I look at them it’s almost like I’m actually there. Please pass my gratitude along to your brother who took them.

I think of you as a friend too. I’m grateful to have you defending the Republic, and I’m glad to have you as my pen pal.

I don’t have much to offer you right now, other than a picture of me. At least now you can know what I look like.

You sent the message with the picture, leaned back in your chair, and watched the monitor of your computer. You knew that Fox wasn’t going to write back that same night, but you imagined him opening the message, reading your words, seeing your picture, and smiling the way his message made you smile.

Oh.

Oh no.

Were you developing a crush on him?

…

Then again, so what if you were? You didn’t have to tell him, you could hide it. He was parsecs away on another planet. And he was a clone; would he even be allowed to date if he wanted to? Nothing would or could come of it. If a crush was forming, with any luck it would go away on its own. But that didn’t stop you from double-checking how many credits you had in your savings and comparing that number to the cost for a ticket to Coruscant.

Four days went by during which you went about your usual business, often distracted by thoughts of Fox how his day might have been going. Maybe he was chasing Separatists or criminals around, or maybe he was buried under another mound of paperwork. You wondered if he caught the newest episode of the holodrama you both liked; you couldn’t wait to talk about it with him. That little crush you were sure would fade away wasn’t going anywhere, and it both delighted and frustrated you.

The first thing you did after you got home from your shift was check your messages. It had become routine at this point, especially since a new message from him easily became the highlight of your day. However, the message in your inbox – presumably from Fox – was not what you thought it would be:

Greetings, Fox’s Pen Pal!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but Fox has it BAD for you. I’ve been watching him write these messages to you and hemming and hawing around the barracks and his office making sure he gets every word just right. He’s got your pictures of the lakes and fields on Naboo framed on the wall of his office, he drank all that tea you sent him and he still keeps the tin on his desk right next to your selfie. And if you knew the amount of favors he had to cash in to get our brother Bly to get those pictures of Felucia for you! (it’s a lot, trust me)

Anyway, I thought you ought to know. I told him to make a move and be honest about his feelings but he’s shy. So even though I might be overstepping some boundaries, I feel like it’s my brotherly duty to intervene on his behalf. If there’s a chance you might feel the same way, you should tell him. If you don’t, proceed how you will but please go easy on him.

If it influences your decision-making process at all, I included a picture of him. He’s a good-looking guy if I do say so myself, although he’s not as handsome as me 😉

Yours truly,

Commander Thorn

PS – please don’t tell Fox that I wrote you using his account.

You sat at your computer, staring blankly at the words on the screen, taking minutes to process what you just read … and then you remembered there was a picture attached to the message, so you opened up the attachment.

Jango Fett may have been handsome, but Fox was gorgeous. He looked like he was in his early- or mid-twenties, although there were wisps of gray hair above his ears by his temples. His hair was cropped close along the sides and longer on top, and you took a minute to admire his curl pattern. He wasn’t smiling in the picture, his face wearing a more neutral resting expression that showed off the scar running along the corner of his mouth. Finally, you noticed his eyes: framed by dark circles, his irises were a deep, inviting shade of brown. What would it be like to look into his eyes in person, or run your hands through his hair, or trace his scar with your thumb before you went in to –

You stopped yourself. You were getting carried away. Heat rose up the back of your neck and across your cheeks.

For the rest of the evening you mulled over what to do next. You knew you wanted to tell him that you liked him too … but doing it over a message didn’t feel like enough. Turning up unannounced was a bad idea too. Would he even want you to show up in person? And since you didn’t have his contact information outside of the correspondence program, you didn’t have a way to call him for a face-to-face talk via holotransceiver.

Unsure of what to do, you fired off a message as soon as the fleeting idea for it popped into your brain. Would you regret it? Maybe. Only one way to find out.

Hi Fox,

I want to come visit you on Coruscant. When will you be free?

It only took a few minutes for him to respond, but it felt like hours. The entire time your heart pounded furiously in your chest, and you bounced your leg up and down since you could barely contain your jitters inside your body. There was a chance he would say no, Thorn did say he was shy after all. But when his message came through, you opened it immediately, and all the jitters melted away.

I see you got Thorn’s message … lucky for us he’ll be available to cover for me when I’m off-duty to host you. Let me know when you’re coming.

Your mouth instantly spread into a grin … you could hardly believe it. It hardly seemed real, even as you opened up a Holonet page to book a roundtrip ticket.

Four rotations later, your transport came into orbit around Coruscant. A shuttle took you from the transport down to the planet’s surface, and you were in awe of the densely-packed constellations of lights twinkling up from the planet’s surface. Descending into the atmosphere, those lights morphed into buildings, and lanes upon lanes of speeder traffic, and seemingly endless grids of buildings. At one point you saw several buildings whose architecture differed from the others; the pilot pointed them out and said they were the Senate Complex and the Jedi Temple, respectively.

You disembarked from the shuttle and paused to look around. Coruscant was nothing like Naboo. Not a speck of green in sight, no signs of nature, just duracrete and grays upon grays as far as the eye could see. And it was loud, just like Fox said it was, with the revving engines and blasting horns from speeders breezing by above your head.

You checked your wrist chrono, seeing that you had two hours until you were due to meet Fox at 79’s. Next, you pulled a datapad out of your bag that contained a map of the planet’s surface and studied how to get from your current position to the hotel you booked for your stay. The hotel was only a couple of blocks from the bar – not that you had certain expectations for this trip or anything, you thought it would be easier to stay nearby.

All in all, it took one hour and fifty minutes to get from the shuttle landing pad to the hotel to drop off your things, and then another eight to get from the hotel to 79’s. In your rush and panic as you navigated Coruscant’s taxi and public transportation systems, you didn’t have time to be too nervous about meeting Fox in person for the first time. But as you walked up to the entrance of the bar with its painfully bright neon signs and the muffled music spilling out from inside, it all hit you.

You took off to a strange planet by yourself to see a man you only knew through messages. If your grandmother had her way she would have stopped you from going. What if he didn’t like you after the trip … what if you didn’t like him? What if something went wrong?

But then you saw him standing by the entrance to the bar, recognizing him by his red-painted armor and the gray hairs above his ears and the thick curls on top of his head that you admired so much. He was surveying the area with a soldier’s laser-sharp focus, perhaps looking for your arrival, and he clutched a small bouquet of colorful flowers to his chest. When his eyes met yours, his face lit up with a smile, the most beautiful smile you had ever seen. Your worries seemed to matter less as you broke into a brisk jog to meet him.

“Fox?” you asked, smiling yourself.

“Indeed,” he responded before he handed the flowers to you. “I- uh- I got you these.”

“They’re beautiful, thank you,” you said. No one had ever gotten you flowers before; in the past it didn’t seem like anything to miss out on, but now that you held a bouquet in your arms, you felt special. Treasured, even.

“And, uh, as for the venue ….” Fox’s voice trailed off as he glanced over his shoulder at the bar’s garishly bright neon signs.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” you said, trying to be reassuring.

“I’m not allowed in most places, even when I’m off-duty … and I would have liked to take you somewhere nicer ….” He paused and rubbed the back of his neck. You could hear in his voice just how nervous he was.

“Because … well … you’re special to me. In a way no one else in my life is.”

You smiled at him again, and then wasted no time in leaning forward and pressing your lips to his cheek. It felt right to kiss him like that, but when you pulled back and saw him staring at you in shock and awe, you worried that it was too much too soon.

“C-can I …” he stammered. You nodded, and he angled his face so he could return the gesture. His lips were surprisingly soft against the skin of your cheek, and you couldn’t help but wonder what they would feel or taste like on your own lips.

There would be time for that later, you reminded yourself, if all went well.

“Does this place have food?” you ask him.

“Yes.”

“Drinks?”

“Well it is a bar … they have non-alcoholic drinks too, if that’s what you prefer.”

“Then it’s got everything I need. I don’t know what I would do with myself at a fancy restaurant anyway.”

“I imagine a restaurant would be quieter and allow for some proper conversation … but Thorn told me about a spot inside where we’ll be able to talk and hear each other without having to shout over the music.” Fox added.

“Sounds perfect,” you said with a smile.

Fox offered his arm to you and you took it, wrapping your hand around his bicep just above his elbow so he could lead you into the bar. Throughout the evening any time your eyes met his you felt safe, like you were the only person in the universe, and that you needed to figure out a way to make regular visits to Coruscant.

No matter what, you would always be glad you got Fox as a pen pal, and that you came to visit him. Especially since it was more fun to rant and rave about the newest episode of the holodrama in person.

#reader insert isn't my forte so I hope this is okay XD #commander fox #commander fox x reader #commander fox x you #clone trooper x reader #clone wars #star wars #my writing

105 notes · View notes