#this happened once before but the last time i at least had backup on usb

[a-master-procrastinator]

.

[stilloutofmyvulcanmind]

It Takes Two Part 3

Requested by @verdonafrost

Pairing: Bruce Wayne x Female!Reader

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Reader, Troy North (OC), Curt Roman (OC)

Word Count: 2.2k

Warnings: Canon-typical themes and violence, angst, Bruce being a dick

Summary: January is nearly over and you’ve yet to collect the evidence you need to take down the Torn Roses for good. With time running out, a late-night reconnaissance leads to some unexpected events and a decision that could change your life.

Part 3 of 6

Part 1  Part 2  Part 4 

The night was dry but cold. The rooftop you lurked on still covered in January snow, making you glad of the insulated suit. Bruce would kill you if he knew you were here. 

After weeks of you working well together, the night had resulted in an argument once again. It seemed your belief that he'd finally learned to trust your instincts was wrong. It was the end of the month, and despite Roman not showing any signs of leaving, something in your gut was telling you otherwise. Bruce had dismissed it, citing the lack of evidence. 

You'd argued, and eventually, you'd stormed off on your own, switching off the coms to stop his bitching. Of course he could've followed you. The tracker was still active, but you'd been sitting here long enough to presume that wasn't going to happen. Maybe he'd decided to let you have space. Or maybe he just really didn't care. 

Boy did that thought hurt. 

You'd never admit it, but after the last few weeks, the things you'd felt for Bruce had started to change. You'd always known you were similar, but he'd actually opened up since New Year's Eve and seeing that softer side to him, the one he kept hidden away from everyone…

You'd been dumb enough to think that Bruce had felt the same way. There had been times when you'd caught him looking at you and for a moment had been sure you saw your own developing feelings reflected back. 

But if he did, if that was true, then surely he'd have listened to you? Or at least not immediately dismiss you? What did that say about the kind of relationship you'd have? You couldn't be with someone who treated you like a child who didn't know better. 

Movement inside the building you were watching distracted you. 

The whole building belonged to Roman, the lower floors rented out, but the penthouse remained his. The cover was that he used it to take one night stands back to, but you'd discovered its secret use of meetings with North. They were both in there now, you could see them through the tall glass windows, along with the hoard of security both of them traveled with. 

They'd been talking for several hours and still were. The movement that caught your attention was by two of the guards. They were carrying suitcases. Roman's suitcases. 

Was he leaving? Tonight? Shit. 

Going on instinct, you grappled to the side of the building, grabbing onto the edge of the balcony outside one of the bedrooms. Pulling yourself up a little, you got a look inside. Dark. And empty. Perfect. You hoisted yourself over the balcony rail, landing silently. There were no cameras out there. No need. It was high enough up that no normal person could climb it. No alarm on the glass door leading inside either. You picked the lock easily, sliding the door open and creeping inside. 

You could hear voices as you approached the bedroom door, but they were still slightly too muffled. Pressing a button on the arm of your gauntlet, you spread your hand over the door, the finger pads glowing dark purple as the tech picked up the audio. 

"-thing ready?" North's voice spoke in your ear. 

"Nearly, sir. These are the last two pieces of luggage, and we'll be ready to go, Mr. Roman."

"Excellent," Roman spoke and you had to fight the urge not to throw up. "I can't wait to get out of this godforsaken city again."

North laughed, "I'm almost jealous. I miss the sun."

"When the time is right, you can join me. In the meantime, you know what to do with the computers?" 

"Yeah. Delete everything that could connect you, destroy them, and burn the place down. We have the decoy in the master bedroom. The official report will state an electrical fault caused a fire, killing you in your sleep."

"Good. That'll throw the Bats off their game a little. They've been getting too close recently."

If North said anything else, you'd didn't hear. You pulled away from the door, making your way back out into the night. Roman was leaving tonight and faking his own death. Any chance of getting justice would be gone. You couldn't let that happen. 

It was easy, moving around the sides of the building until you found the office. You wanted to stop Roman, but you needed that information first. You couldn't risk someone managing to damage the computers in a fight. 

There was thankfully a small window leading into the office that you were able to pry open and squeeze through. A laptop and a desktop PC was sitting on the desk, both locked naturally. Not a problem. 

It wasn't difficult to hack both, your eyes widening when you accessed the litany of files on them. You'd already had enough to take down North for good and to get Roman arrested, but not enough to put him away permanently. With this though...you could destroy the entire operation in one strike. Pulling a USB from your belt, you plugged it in and copied everything from both computers onto it. You hadn't expected him to keep such sensitive info here, but maybe that's exactly why he did. 

You moved back to the door, listening through it once more. They were still there, but getting ready to leave. You contemplated signaling Bruce for backup. But by the time he got here they'd be gone, and that'd make it all the trickier. And a part of you wanted to do this by yourself, prove to him that you were more than capable. You did message Gordon with your location though and told him to get there with cops ASAP. 

You straightened, pulling a smoke grenade from your belt. From your observations outside there were seven other men in the room besides Roman and North. All armed you had to presume. You'd need to be quick. 

Footsteps approached and stopped outside the door. 

Now or never. 

You opened the door, throwing the grenade into the room as you grabbed the man in front of you and took him down. Smoke filled the room in the same instant as guns began to fire. You grunted in pain when a bullet hit your chest, lodging itself into the armor. That was going to bruise. 

Moving quickly in the smoke, you dodged the rest and downed each guard. The barrel of a gun pressed to your head. You ducked, turning, the crack of an arm breaking and North yelling echoing around the living room. Bringing your fist to his face, he slumped to the floor unconscious. 

The smoke was starting to clear. A single shot sent you stumbling as it hit you square in the back. Spinning around, Roman was the only one left standing, aiming a pistol at you. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, you grabbed a Batarang, throwing it through the air and watching it lodge in his hand. He screamed and the gun clattered down. You followed swiftly after the Batarang, leaping over the fancy coffee table, and landing a punch to his gut. Roman doubled over and you brought an elbow down on his back, sending him to the floor. 

You were on him in a flash, fists coming down over and over. Blood streamed from his nose as the cartridge crunched and broke under the impacts. 

Finally. After years of pain and waiting you had him. Anger, hate, grief, flooded your system. God, you wanted him dead. Wanted to keep punching until he stopped moving under you. He deserved it. After all the pain and suffering he'd caused to you and Gotham. 

Justice, not vengeance. 

You heard Bruce's voice in your head. You'd never killed but that had still been the first lesson he'd taught you. The one he'd repeat when some scumbag got under your skin a little too much. The one you'd come to understand, to follow, no matter how much your anger roared otherwise. 

You pulled back, flipping Roman's unconscious body onto his stomach and tying his hands securely behind his back. You repeated the process on all the others. A glance at the time said Gordon would be here any moment. 

A muffled shout came from the master bedroom. Leaping over the sofa, you unlocked the door and entered. Tied to the bed were two people. A man and a woman. The man didn't look too much like Roman, but he shared his build, and after a fire, you could see how he could be mistaken for Roman. Especially once a few palms were greased. The woman was attractive, someone you'd come to know Roman would be attracted to. Another part of the ploy.

"It's okay, you're safe now," you said softly, removing their gags and making short work of their bonds. "The police will be here soon."

As if on cue, the door burst in and Gordon and several uniformed officers came barging in, guns drawn. 

Gordon looked around the disaster area, spotting Roman groaning weakly. "Curt Roman? The hell is goin' on here?!" He asked, lowering his weapon as you approached. 

You pointed at two cops and gestured to the bedroom first, "There are civilians in there that may need medical attention," you said, before turning your attention to Gordon. "Curt Roman is the secret leader of the gang The Torn Rose. Mr. North here," you nudged North with your boot, "is his frontman, but Roman is the brains of the operation."

Gordon frowned at your explanation, "You got evidence of this?" 

"This way, Commissioner." You led him to the office where the computers were still intact and showed him all the files. 

"Jesus. They're responsible for half the drug trafficking in the City."

"Yeah."

Gordon stood straight and looked at you. "Thank you. We'll take it from here."

"Good. Make sure they all go away for a long time. They've hurt a lot of people."

"I will." Exiting the office you watched as Roman and North were hauled away in cuffs. "Gotta say it was a surprise to get the alert from you and not Batman," Gordon went on. "Even more of a surprise that he ain't here with you."

"I've been shadowing him a year now. About time I took on my own cases, wouldn't you say?" 

"Never figured him to be someone who's okay with letting someone else take charge, but I guess you know him better than I do."

You wished you could say that was true. 

The rest of the guards were escorted out, and the relief you'd felt was slowly being replaced with dread creeping up your spine. Bruce would've heard about this by now. Honestly, a part of you was surprised he hadn't shown up anyway. But it meant he'd be in the cave. Waiting for you to get back. With luck, he'd actually be happy you'd taken the whole gang down. 

Yeah right. 

~

"What the hell do you think you were doing?!" Bruce yelled the second you stepped foot into the cave.

"Oh, I don't know, taking down an entire crime ring perhaps? You know, the one you promised to help me with?" Arms crossed over your chest, you stared Bruce down, unwilling to back down or apologize. 

"I was helping! You're the one deviated from the plan!" 

"Because Roman was leaving! I have the audio to prove it!" 

Bruce's jaw clenched for a second. "Congratulations. You got one man. Who'll be out of jail in a week because we don't have the evidence to put him away for good! Then he really will leave and we'll be back to square one!" 

You flung the USB drive across the gap. Bruce caught it easily. "That's a copy of everything on their computers. Computers now in Gordon's possession. I'm pretty sure what's on there is enough to send Roman, North, and every single person involved down for a couple lifetimes! I know because I checked. Before I took them down."

You watched as Bruce put the USB into the computer, and flicked through all the documents and information. He was silent for a minute.

Bruce clicked off and turned back to face you. If he was feeling remorse, it didn't show on his face. "Good. They'll get what they deserve."

"That it?" 

"What else do you want me to say? You still deviated from my orders, and not only that, you went into a dangerous situation alone, without even as much as alerting me!" 

You scoffed. "So I'm still in the wrong? If you were so concerned why didn't you show up when you heard the police radio?" 

"That wouldn't exactly look good for the unified front we've been putting on would it?" 

You rolled your eyes, the action hidden behind the lens of your cowl. 

"You're benched."

The cave seemed to fall silent at Bruce's words. 

"What?" 

"You're benched, Y/N, until I know I can trust you."

You scoffed, "You can't trust me? We've been together a year."

"Yet you still went behind my back. And I heard the state on Roman. We both know he's no fighter. You lost control. You could've killed him."

"Could've, but didn't. You know what he did!" 

"I do, but we can't let our emotions dictate how we act. You chose to enact your vengeance, and that's not what we do. You should know better by now."

"Bastard," you spat, coming to a decision. 

Bruce actually looked surprised. 

The sound of your cowl rolling across the floor echoed around the cave until it stopped by Bruce's feet. 

He looked at it, then at you, and frowned. "What?" 

"I quit."

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Tagging: @medicatemedrmccoy @bkwrm523 @theweepingvulcan91 @sagyunaro @huntersstuff591 @notsohappysunflower @quoththe-raven @startrekstartrash @thatanonymouschocolate @malaanii @everyday-imfangirling @evanstanfanatic @bookcaseninja @uneniffler 

[fiction-in-my-blood]

Switching Sides: Part 5 (HLITF)

if anyone possibly wants to get on a tag list I’d be happy to make one

👉 @theshove 👈

If you wanna catch up, Part 4 is right here! Happy reading :)

Premise: Growing up in a life of crime in a Japanese mafia, Atsuko Motomori has seen enough injustice to last her a lifetime. To try and give back to the universe her family has taken so much from, she dreams of being a detective from a young age. Her twin, sharing her disgust for her father and many uncles, just wants an ordinary life away from the crime, paing and suffering. Instead, she wants to be in the spotlight with the soft notes she makes with her cello. In their escape of 2015, on their coming of age birthday, they must split ways, never to be together ever again. If one was found, they didn’t want the other dragged down with them. Atsuko, having changed her name and appearance as best she can without a scalpel, sets off to start her life of car chases and arrests.

Four years in a seemingly dead-end police station in the middle of nowhere, being passed over time after time for promotion, Atsuko finally gets a shot at her dream, having been sent to an academy for the best candidates in the country by her boss who had always kept an eye out for her. After discovering her boss may have made her bite off more than she could chew, Atsuko must become the slave of a dominating instructor!? Who so just happens to be the captain of the most famous police unit in Japan? Not to mention a total knockout! Will Atsuko finally achieve her dream? Or will her new instructor put her through the wringer?

Warnings: Language, Reference to sexual activity, Forceful nature

~~~~~~

It had been decided that I would go undercover as Kaga's girlfriend. So, some days later, I found myself in the Metropolitan Police Headquarters. 

"Hey, get me that file." Kaga ordered, pointing at a beige booklet on someone else's desk. I quickly follow his commands, and then his next and his next. He seemed to be working even more than we had already been, and that meant me following him around more. Naruko had started to worry about me, especially after I flipped out on her. 

It was an accident. She asked if she could look at more pictures from my childhood. I guess that breif insight into my childhood a few days after we met made her curious. The memory angered me and I walked away making her feel bad. We repatched things, but she had been checking in with me more and more afterwards. I had to keep reminding myself to chill out and forget about the past. But I couldn't get that phone call out of my head.

As I'm about to ask the instructor a question about the investigation, he rejected me before I could say a word. 

"Hyogo, you have a minute?" Shinonome appeared and Kaga is more than happy to answer any questions he has. "We haven't had any contact from that Shige guy who's undercover in Hoshi's office." The atmosphere instantly became tense as the subject is brought up.

"Last contact?" Kaga responded, not looking up from his files. 

"Yesterday at midnight. Nothing after that." My heart stopped at the thought of a man being behind the front lines, not being able to get in contact with the people he needed to report to.

"Yamashige is supposed to be good at undercover work." Another detective in the room spoke up, also seeming worried. 

"Do you think he's been caught?" The word 'caught' made me clench my fists, holding a stack of files Kaga is having me sort.

"Atsuko, sorry, but could you make some tea?" Ayumu leant over me and it pulled me out of my spiralling thoughts. 

"Sure thing." I jumped up, welcoming the distraction. 

"You don't have to be so nervous." He showed me a kind smile and, maybe because I had been so on-edge lately, I didn't see, or suspect, any malice behind it. Shinonome patted my back with a thump, pushing me in the direction of the drink station. "Look, Hyogo took you to eavesdrop at that love hotel the other time. That was tough enough, right?" Not surprised he knew that, I simply nodded. From what I had heard, Ayumu was meant to be a pro at collecting information, which is why I always found him a little too curious.

"There are people like Yamashige that get sent in for the initial stage all alone." Ayumu, maybe trying to calm me down, explained. 

"And you've had no contact with him." Appreciating the conversation to distract me, I started asking questions so I could actually learn something here. 

"Yeah. When it gets to a point where there's no contact like this..." I didn't have to listen to the rest of what Shinonome had to say, I already knew that side of it.

Once I had finished the tea, I passed some to everyone in the office before the door opened with a sudden bang. It was an old man, obviously a superior by the look of his stoic face. 

"Kaga, is your man really missing?" Were the first words out of his mouth and even I was surprised. Word really got around quick.

After Kaga also noticed this, the higher-up started to order him around. "You need to take responsibility for this mistake. Cut him from the team and give his mission to someone else." The bluntness of the savage order made my ears buzz. 

‘How could someone think that would be okay? If you have the resources, why wouldn't you go save your man?’

The man then threw some files at Kaga, which I was sure were resumes of other officers that would be able to take over the mission. When I watched Kaga really consider the papers in front of him, I started to think he was really up for the idea. 

‘Surely not?..’ I thought back to the phone call he had when we were walking to class and my palms grew sweaty.

"Of course. Dregs like him won't work. Thanks. I'll reorganise the team immediately." The words leaving Kaga's mouth left a satisfied smirk on the higher-up's face. Me, on the other hand, had anger bubbling up inside me. Maybe this was my naivety playing again, but how could they just leave a man to die? That was something my father would do. Again, it was becoming harder to separate the two.

"Yeah. Find someone suitable to take his place." The man nodded in satisfaction and left the room.

"Instructor Kaga." I walked up to my mentor's desk and he glared up at me. 

"What?" He spat and I tried to compose myself, not wanting to sound too emotional. 

"You're not deserting him, are you?" My words made the room go cold, but Kaga was the only one that reacted. 

"What're you talking about?" As if he hadn't just had that conversation, Kaga looked at me with a frown. 

"The investigator who hasn't checked in." I reminded him. 

"Are you saying I have to go there and save him?" The captain seemed exhausted just to vocalise the idea. His indifference frustrated me, but I gave everything I had not to raise my voice.

‘He says he'll get rid of morons on a daily basis... But he's going to abandon a man in a life or death situation?’

"Ayumu, you finished?" Ignoring my internal rage, Kaga looked over to his subordinate. 

"Of course. Everything's ready to go at any time." Shinonome passed a small USB to the Captain. "There's a backup." He reminded Kaga before he stood up. 

"I'll be away for a while, so you handle the rest." Kaga grabbed his blazer from the back of his chair. 

"You'll be going home today?" Shinonome replied.

"Yeah. I doubt it'll be that easy though." As Kaga nonchalantly headed for the door, I couldn't help but bite the tip of my thumb. The situation had made me spiral into where my sister could be and I was unbelievably nervous.

"You still here? Hurry up and get back to school." Kaga called out to me and I didn't really hear him. 

"I still have work to do." I was pulled out of my trance when I saw him glaring at me. 

"You're good for today." Kaga placed the USB Shinonome gave him in his pocket and leaft the room without saying another word to anyone.

‘How can he just leave like that?’ Obviously not having any clue what was going on in his head, I stood there, fuming. 

"Well, back to work." A detective's words made the atmosphere in the room alleviate- almost immediately. The detectives seemed more scared about what Kaga would do to them if they didn't finish their own work than for their endangered coworker. It was as if nothing had happened.

"You're all going to forget about this guy?" I was quite honestly shocked. I thought the police force I was joining was to save people, not to lay back when it's too hard to give it a try. 

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway." The detectives try to deviate me away from thinking about the subject, but it was too late.

"Atsuko." I heard Ayumu speak up behind me and I turned to see a meaningful smile on his face. I ran over, hoping to talk some sense into him. Hopefully whatever rivalry we had between us made us somewhat fri-enemies.

"Isn't he your teammate? You can't just leave him there!" It may have seemed like I was overreacting, but in the current state of my life, I felt like it was necessary to try and save someone if I have the chance. There was so many people in the same situation as Yamashige I had watched die at the hands of my father and my uncles, I wanted to help at least one of them,

"Don't say these things so loudly." Ayumu tried to calm me down. "It's like they said, don't say anything and let Hyogo do things his way." Shinonome seemed to know more than he was leading on but returned to work before I could question him further.

Just as I began to feel like I needed to go after Kaga, I was nearly hit by a yawning man emerging from a back room. 

"Excuse me." Thrown off by the strange occurrence in such a prestigious office, I jumped out of the way without thinking.

 "Yeah." The man merely grunted, looking too tired to be walking around. 

"You napping again, Chief?" Ayumu smiled at the man. 

"You're all so noisy; I woke up." He grumbled in response. 

‘That's the Public Safety Division's boss?’ I was completely thrown off by the man who still had bedhead. ‘He's the guy responsible for his subordinates. Surely he would help!’

I took a step in front of the chief, bowing after I introduced myself. "Yeah, nice to meet you." He smiled, now starting to wake up. "Do you need something from me?" He spoke so smoothly that I took an involuntary step back. 

He seemed a little mysterious; I felt like I shouldn't have been talking to him. I quickly shook the thought out of my brain and clenched my fists. "Um... Detective Yamashige has possibly failed his mission and been caught." I started to explain, but Chief Namba's expression d idn’t change. "But nobody will help him, not even Instructor Kaga..." Feeling a little betrayed on the detective's behalf, I got more annoyed at my instructor.

"Kaga?" Namba seemed shocked at the name. He took moment to think, looking a little stressed. "I leave matters like that to the squad captains. It's just not something I butt into." He sighed, looking away from my strong gaze. I instantly deflated; it felt like I had used my last hope.

"Oh, now that I think about it, you're the one going undercover with Kaga as a couple." Not realising my defeat, the Chief brought up a totally different subject. 

"Yes. I'll work as hard as possible." I sighed before answering him, not wanting to sound ungrateful for the opportunity.

"Then make sure you practice well for this role. If you're going to feel like a real couple, you should stick with Kaga." The chief's suggestion sounded like a death sentence. I would have thought he was joking, if not for the serious expression on his face. 

"He'll bite my head off but... Can you tell-?" Cutting me off seemed to be a trait for the officers in Public Safety. 

"Alright, I'll leave the rest to you." He winked before heading for the exit. 

‘Okay, he thinks its a good idea...’ I silently followed him through the exit to find out where the Captain had gone.

~~~~~~

I found myself in front of the building Chief Namba believed Kaga had escaped to. ‘I know this building’. I peered up at the skyscraper in front of me, wracking my brain for why it seemed so familiar. This was meant to be where the missing investigator infiltrated. Hopefully, Kaga came here to save his man.

Lost in thought, I didn't notice when two nasty-looking men exited the building. 

"Hey, you! What're you doing here?" The more muscular of the two called out and I jumped around. 

‘That tattoo!’ My eyes grew wide at the ink peeking out of his collar. It looked similar to the mark my father's mafia used and my heart dropped at the thought I could have walked right into his territory. 

"No way... You got something to do with that police guy, don't yah?" Probably noticing my pantsuit and not my familial features, the two started to surround me. 

"Seems like it'd be bad if we let you go. Come inside." Sensing my defensive aura, each man grabbed one of my arms. I started thrashing about, trying to get out of their grasps as they dragged me into the building.

~~~~~~

"Get. Your. Filthy paws. Off. Me!" I grunted as the men pulled me into an office on one of the upper floors. They threw me down after closing the door behind them. In the room was a desk and a man I knew for a fact I had seen before. He was one of my ‘uncles’. There's no blood relation, but my father trusted him with some of the more sensitive parts of their business. My eyes grew wide in fear of him recognising me. Standing beside my uncle was Kaga, holding a USB.

"Caught this woman sniffing around outside!" One of the rough men announced while I was still sitting on the floor, breathing heavily from trying- and failing- to escape. My heart was beating like crazy, fear of being shot on the spot swimming in my gaze as it didn’t leave that man. 

"We think she might have something to do with this guy." Kaga coudn’t help but glare daggers at me, but I didn't want to take my eyes off of the boss in the room. He was just as slimy-looking as I remembered. A shiver ran down my spine.

"The Chief told me to follow you," I announced to my instructor, not letting my gaze leave the man sitting at the desk. He glanced over at me, not noticing anything unusual. Especially the fact that I was one of his boss' runaway daughters.

"That was completely unnecessary," Kaga complained. "You obviously need more tailing training." I finally deviated my gaze from the old man to my boss, hoping a different angle of my face wouldn't light a bulb in his brain.

The tattooed guy from before spoke up, but Kaga quickly shut him down. "This girl is mine to deal with. Don't touch her." He threw them a relaxed smirk, otherwise unphased. "So, what're we doing? Negotiate or get thrown in a cell. Pick whichever you'd like."

"Y-You don't even care what happens to this girl?" The man who pulled me in here yanked on my arm to pull me up, making a show to get Kaga's attention. 

"I said get the fuck off me!" I yelled, punching him in the jugular. As he fell back, most likely choking on his Adam's apple, I rolled my shoulder back to make sure he didn't dislocate it. 

"So you're not an entirely useless moron?" Kaga seemed a little shocked, but otherwise didn't change his expression. I narrowed my eyes, annoyed I got myself in this mess. Why had all my years hiding in the shadows amounted to this? Sitting on the floor of the office owned by a demon of my past, glaring at the man that was meant to teach me how to defeat them And now my pants were dirty from the slightly grubby carpet. Who knew what was gone on in this room...

"I'll overlook all of this for you if you bargain." Kaga turned back to the boss, waving the USB in front of his face. Only now did I realise he looked like he had been roughed around a little- which did lift my spirits. 

"The original data is on hand, of course. If anything happens to me, you're done for." Kaga smirks as my uncle begins to sweat. "Well, choose." He demands once the boss hasn't said anything. I realise that the USB given to him by Ayumu has all the information of their crimes. Well, obviously it won't be all. But for them to be this nervous, there must be a decent amount. I glared from the USB to the pathetic man cowering in his office chair.

"I... I understand. We'll return your investigator." Defeated, the man slouched with a tired sigh. 

"Your understanding has saved you." Kaga waited for someone to make a move, but no one did. "What're you standing around for? Let's go." Kaga seemed to be talking to me, so I returned my gaze to him before the boss could match my eye contact. Kaga then gave the boss some advice on how to stay lawful, which seemed like a joke since he was chuckling and I knew all too well what crimes these people have commited.

Although, having seen Kaga's infamous skills used in real life, I was a little stunned. I didn't even realise it when my uncle's gaze clamped onto me. Kaga grabbed Yamashige, who had been huddled in the corner of the room, and I hurried after them as he left.

~~~~~~

Outside the building, I saw Yamashige, the one who lost contact. I looked down at his worrisome state. His clothes tattered, skin bruised and cut. It was obvious they had tortured him. I scowled to myself, knowing how well he really got off. It could have gone much worse for the investigator.

"Kaga, I'm sorry! I had just a little bit more to go, but I messed up like always." Yamashige begged for forgiveness as Kaga scowled. 

"Thanks to you, everything we have achieved is ruined. I had to save you because you have will-power, but you can't seem to use it." Despite his mean words, Kaga had gone out of his way to save the man. I couldn't fault him in that. Although, I couldn't stand his tone a second longer.

"Instructor Kaga! You shouldn't speak-!" Before I could try and defend the lost investigator, Kaga snapped back. I knew what this man had been through, he certainly didn't need a talking to right now. The least he needed was to see a doctor, then maybe a psychiatrist.

"You remember this. I have no use for morons who screw up. There is no next time." Kaga gritted his teeth, threatening either my livelihood or Yamashige's, I couldn't tell. With a final huffed out sigh, he seemed to calm down a little. I was sure he needed a cigarette by the tells I had noticed; spending extended amounts of time with him.

"Well, I guess thanks to that we'll now have a big information source in the future." Kaga was surprisingly positive about the situation, seeing as he gained the organisation's subordinates through his bribe. 

‘That is if they don't get him involved.’ I subconsciously bit my lip, worried about any security cameras or delayed epiphanies that might blow my cover, as Kaga laughed.

"Hey, servant." Kaga beaconed me and I jumped, used to that pronoun now. "Get this tattered dishcloth-looking guy some medical care." Although insulting him, Yamashige thanked his Captain. Then, Kaga took his leave, neglecting both the investigator and me.

~~~~~~

While I was helping Yamashige to a nearby hospital, as I had no other way of transporting us, I w asconstantly apologising. Not just for how uncomfortable this must have been, but for how he was caught, how he was treated, not only by the mafia but Kaga as well. Although, I didn't specify my regrets for him.

"I feel like I recognise you from somewhere." The detective spoke up as we turned a corner. I stiffened a little, worried about what that could mean. 

"I have one of those faces," I explained nonchalantly, walking a little faster so I could leave him earlier. Who knew what pictures were left out of me in that office or in my childhood home- if he was lucky enough to be trusted to be allowed entry, that is. My father was highly sensitive to the security of his main base, his home, he hardly let anyone in unless they lived there or had come to die. I remembered thinking the only way anyone would leave that place was in a bodybag. It could have been me on the several occasions my father got a little testy. 

"No, I'm pretty sure it's your face I've seen before." He persisted and I was really starting to get nervous. 

"Is this some weird pickup line?" I laughed, trying to throw him off his suspecting threat. What stopped him questioning me further was our arrival at the hospital.

~~~~~~

Back in the Instructor's Staff Room, a day or so after Kaga went out to save Yamashige, Ayumu was sitting in his office, alone. He was working on cases, classes and anything to keep his hands busy. Just as he was getting into the groov, his phone rung.

"Ayumu, we need to talk. It's Yamashige." The previously missing detective announced on the other end of the call, making the instructor a little surprised. Yamashige explained how familiar the woman who had come to save him looked. Being another detective, however clumsy, Ayumu agreed to look into it. 

"Have a look at the database. And see if she has any ties to that organisation." Yamashige sounded desperate, having had time to wrack his brain and not finding where he knew her from. 

"Are you insinuating-." But, before Ayumu could ask his question, Yamashige begged him, again, to investigate. "... Okay. I'll look into it." Shinonome sighed before hanging up. Then, he heard the door open to the common area. He stood up to look at who it was. When he saw the girl he had found suspicious since their first, official, meeting, having an obvious fraudulent entry, he closds the blinds so that she couldn't see him.

~~~~~~

As I'm doing filing work for Kaga in the Staff Room, Ayumu's office door flew open. I jumped at the sound of the door banging against the wall and saw him walking straight towards me with a sheet of paper in his hand. 

"What is this?" He slapped it on the table in front of me and I instantly noticed it as a missing person's report. I gulped, seeing what looked like my face on the paper, but the hair colour was all wrong. I explained the basics of what it was and Shinonome frowned. He told me to look at the face and I did. I noticed the report was made a couple of weeks ago, for the name my sister had been using. 

‘I guess that guy was telling the truth.’ I sighed internally, becoming more depressed as the conversation continued.

"Okay, she looks a little like me," I admitted teasingly, knowing there'd be no way to flat out deny it. We had the exact same face. "But what does that have to do with anything?" Acting as dumb as I could possibly, I waited for him to accuse me of something. He couldn't accuse me of being the girl in the photo, I had been enrolled by the time the report was filed.

However, before he could continue, the door to the office flew open. There was Instructor Soma, walking in from a lecture. Ayumu quickly hid the file behind his back, smiling in greeting. I breathed a silent sigh of relief for the interruption. When Soma disappeared into his own office, Ayumu turned back to me.

"The case was closed the day it was opened. She called in saying she was okay." He leaned down to me, turning my chair and putting a hand on either arm. The explanation made my heart stop. 

‘She's okay? She was alive enough to call the police and sound okay.’ The hope and joy bubbling up in my heart were hard to contain as Ayumu peered into my bored expression.

"Okay?" I pulled a confused expression, trying to get him off my back without gathering too much suspicion. He sighed, standing up straight and screwing the paper into a ball, throwing it in the trash can. 

When he finally returned to his office, I finally let myself breath. ‘Why did he think to look into that?’ The sudden realisation made my joy turn to anxiety, thinking about what I could have let slip for him to research my features.

~~~~~~

Soon after Shinonome disappeared back into his office, I decided to go up to the roof to get some air and clear my head. Pushing the fire escape door open, I began pacing the floor, running through my thoughts as I had no energy to do it mentally. 

‘Okay, if she called, that means dad obviously forced her, to avoid suspicion. So, that probably means he needs her for something.’ I think about my father's reasoning for having my twin ensure she wasn't missing. ‘He would have just killed her and made sure no one found the body if he didn't need her. She’ll hopefully be safe for now.’

Biting on the tip of my thumb, I was able to stop my thoughts from wandering to a darker place, but it was too late when I imagined her mutilated body thrown over the backyard of my home, right over the several unmarked graves my father placed all his other victims like trophies. Grass never grew from that patch, the earth was up-ridden every other week to add another body. It was like my father enjoyed the stench that came from the rot. At one point, he had to move to cremating remains and sprinkling them over the soil. There was no room left.

Suddenly, I saw someone standing at the edge of the railing which I hadn't noticed before. I turned to see Kaga, smoking a cigarette and leaning on that railing. It seems like he hadn't seen me as he hadn't yelled or even glanced in my direction since I started staring.

He looked better than usual. My thoughts even surprised me. The version I saw here, I couldn't imagine him insulting me or getting annoyed at everything I did. He hadn't had a barrier he would normally have up, which made my heart flutter a little. It was the same side profile as usual. 

‘Why does this make him look so different?’ Looking at the surrounding light from the setting sun and the peaceful aura of the rooftop hang out area, I questioned my views on men or any type of beauty standard.

‘I should go before he sees me.’ I told myself, scared I'd get into trouble, and ran back to the Staff Room to take my work to my dorm, pushing all my haunting memories and thoughts to the back of my mind.

[silverlysilence]

There Are Multiple Kinds of Heroes

Because @fabllama02 asked what i meant about having a superhero outline saved somewhere in the mass abyss of my many USB backups which as fun little jotted down notes session between the mass writing project that is Heart of a Dragon’s Soul.

Took me awhile to find it (an hour, it took me an hour to find it, someone better like this with how much time it took to find) and then I flushed it out a little bit more so it wasn’t just X Says: Dialogue and Action: This Happened, there were feels.  I never really got around to writing an ending, so that was thought up on the spot.  Now go see what I mean when I said I had something similar jotted down and you tell me if I’m imagining you and @spyritevesta somehow looking into my computer.

Hiccup glanced over his shoulder once more, looking towards the back of the classroom where there was a suspiciously empty desk.  His frown deepened and he glanced back down at his watch.  Ten minutes into the final period of the day and an hour more to go till school ended.  He was positive he was here.  He’d caught glimpses of the other teen around school today, but he hadn’t been able to pin him down and now, the only class he knew they had together and the desk was empty.

Another glance back had him unintentionally knocking his book off the desk and clattered loudly against the tile flooring, cutting off the teacher mid-lecture.

“Is everything alright, Mr. Haddock?” the velvety voice asked, eyes peering over spectacles to look down at the teen now blushing a bright red as the other students around him snickered.

“Fi-fine Professor Black,” Hiccup stuttered and reached down to grab his book, discreetly looking back yet again to find amber eyes glaring at him.

“Really now? Then please, do pick up where we left off after your little interruption,” the professor motioned to the book and Hiccup quickly flipped through the pages and landed on the last page he’d been on.  However, by the look Professor Black was giving him, it was the wrong page.  “Mr. Haddock, please, go on.”

“I-uh-I lost my spot?”

“So I see, Mr. Overland, if you would be so kind?” golden eyes continued to stare down at the auburn-haired teen shrinking further into his seat.

“If this fall into thy hand, revolve.  In my stars, I am above thee, but be not afraid of greatness.  Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.  Thy Fates open their hands.  Let thy blood and spirit embrace them.  And—,” the silvery voice drifted through the room, from the back corner of the class.

“Thank you, Mr. Overland, that will be all. At least someone is paying attention in my class,” the professor nodded, turning to face the blackboard.  “Now, does anyone want to tell me—?”

Hiccup once more drowned out the lesson, looking back to see messy brown hair leaning over his desk as he diligently took notes.  If he didn’t know any better, the auburn-haired teenager would assume the other had been there the whole time with the mess of papers, pens, pencils, and books scattered about the desk but he did know better.  He knew that desk had been suspiciously empty up until moments prior.

Grinding his teeth, Hiccup divided his time between watching the clock move closer till the end of school and glancing back to make sure the brunet was still there.  His knee nervously bouncing the closer the bell came and when it rang, he was already out of his seat, indifferently shoving his stuff into his bag and turning toward the back of the classroom.  In the chaos of the other students’ attempts to escape just as quickly, he’d lost sight of the particular head of messy brown hair, but it didn’t matter. His desk was closest to the door, the other couldn’t excite without passing him.

Yet…

As the classroom empty and thinned, vivid green eyes found himself lost.  There was no sign of the particular brand of messy hair he was searching for in the classroom.  Cursing, Hiccup scurried out the door into the larger sea of chaos as students rushed to their lockers or stood around chatting now school was over for the day.  He had to push his way through, using his height to his advantage as he scanned the crowd.

Hiccup just passed the art room when something grabbed him from behind and yanked him into the dark room.  The door slamming with a resounding echo that had his ears ringing.  Or it could have been from his head slamming up against the wall as he was shoved back, feet leaving the floor.

“What do you want, Haddock?”

Hiccup gaped, staring down at the shorter teen so easily supporting his weight with a deceitfully slim arm braced against his chest. He had been right. The traitorous thought that swam through his head, filling every waking moment to the point of distraction was right.  The facts and logic he’d thought up as proof to the contrary washed away as the color washed from brown locks while amber eyes bleed blue. There was no way he could convince himself his eyes were playing tricks on him this time.

“You’re Jack Frost.”

Hiccup nearly cringed at his display of stupidity.  Of course he was Jack Frost! The smaller teen’s coloring had just changed before his very eyes and even with only the fuzzy, out of focused videos and pictures circulating the internet, everyone knew Jack Frost had blue eyes and white hair.  Not to mention his only confirmed power being ice manipulation and there was no denying the frosty ferns currently climbing up his leather jacket.

For Christ’s sake, that very ice manipulation was how he got his moniker.  The netizens had dubbed him Jack Frost—well, there had been other names floating around the net, ranging from Winter’s General to Yuki-onna when his gender had still been in question but Jack Frost had won out in the end—which rolled over into mainstream media when the superhero—or vigilante, depending who you were talking to—made his official debut other than the small-time neighborhood thugs being taken down or timely rescues when the Big Four were once more facing off against the Nightmare Galleon.  

It was hard to miss a figure in a blue hoodie creating a ramp of ice down onto a solid flat sheet of frozen water as a bus full of children cantering down after him.  The bus’s blown tire having sent it skidded through the guardrails and off the bridge at the worst time possible.  If it wasn’t for the ramp and sheet of ice in the middle of summer, the bus would have sunk.

“I am well aware you saw me last night, Haddock,” harsh tone had Hiccup cringed, “now tell me what you want to keep that information to yourself?  Money?”

“Wha--? NO!” Hiccup denied, shaking his head as suspicious blue eyes narrowed further. The smaller teen opened his mouth again, but this time Hiccup beat him to it.  “I—ah—I just wanted…I—uh…”

“Well, out with it, Haddock, what do you want?”

“I don’t—”

Once more Hiccup was interrupted, this time by the door opening and the familiar voice of his stepbrother. echoing throughout the large room  “Hiccup? Are you there?  One of the other students said they saw you heading this way.��

Hiccup founding himself falling to the floor, prosthetic sliding on the tile and he was forced to catch himself on the teacher’s desk.  When he looked up, he found himself alone in the room except for Tadashi Hamada standing in the doorway, hand still on the knob.  A wild look around the room revealed nothing.  Nothing out of place and no one else in the classroom, even the frost on his jacket was gone.

“You okay, little bro?” Tadashi asked, brown eyes slowly sweeping the room.

“Uh—yeah, fine… completely fine.  I—ah, just need to finish something up first with this—thing I have to do.  Why don’t you go get Hiro?  He’s around here somewhere, right? We’ll meet up later?” Hiccup offered, doing his best to act normal and hoping against hope his older stepbrother would buy it.  Brown eyebrows knitted together under his San Fransokyo Ninjas ball-cap but the concern was wiped off his face with a shrug.

“Sure, sounds like a plan, Hiccup,” Tadashi grinned and left without further ado, closing the door behind him.

Hiccup let out a deep breath and turned to face the room.  All the windows were closed, painted shut from what he remembered when he’d tried to open one early in the semester and the emergency alarm on the secondary door reserved for fires hadn’t been triggered either. So where did he go?  There was no way he could have gotten by Tadashi.

“You didn’t say anything,” the white-haired hero stated as he materialized before Hiccup’s very eyes. A second undocumented ability Jack Frost had that the taller teen was now aware of. Because there was no doubt in his mind the smaller teen had some type of super strength with the ease he’d displayed lifting Hiccup.

“I didn’t,” Hiccup agreed, noticing the lack of hostility in those shimmering blue orbs.

“You could have,” Jack Frost pointed out, weaving around the easels, coming closer.  “Why didn’t you?”

“Because I wouldn’t do that,” the auburn-haired teen said and he was being  honest.    

“So, you’ll keep silent in return for—?” Jack Frost left the sentence hanging and the taller teen was a hair’s breadth away from pulling out his hair in frustration.  

“Don’t you get it? Hiccup finally snapped, causing blue eyes to narrow as the smaller teen tensed.  “I won’t—” the auburn-haired teen trailed off, notice how the pallor of Jack Frost’s skin was more chalky than normal and the blues of those orbs were more noticeable as his pupils were barely pinpricks.  “Ar-are you okay?”

It was only then he noticed how the other boy’s left hand had never strayed from his side, not at all during class nor during this whole interrogation thing.  It had stayed pressed up against his side and warning bells went off in Hiccup’s head.

“Shite, you were fighting the Nightmare Men Gang last night,” Hiccup rushed to his side, just in time too as knees buckled and gave out.  The taller teen easily supported his weight, gently lowering him down to lean up against the teacher’s desk.  He began tugging at the blue hoodie—and when had he changed?  Because that was not what he’d been wearing in class—and pulled up the side to reveal a large gash encased in red-tinged ice.  “What the fuck?  How?  I never even saw any for the Nightmare Men Gang get close enough to you…”

“Not them, Dream Pirates…few…few nights ago,” Jack Frost gritted out, placing his hand over the ice where blood began trickling out and froze the red beads in their tracks.  

“Stop that!” Hiccup yanked his hand away, trying to get a better look at the wound through the distortion caused by the very ice keeping him from bleeding out further.  He was no doctor, but the blackish hue of the skin beneath the ice spoke of frostbite or something else entirely more sinister if the wound had been inflicted by a Dream Pirate’s blade. His mind whirled as he further studied Jack Frost, his pupils now blown wide and a blue tinge to his lips.  “Fuck, shite, motherfucking—” he wasn’t the one obsessed with medical care that was— “Tadashi!—shite!—Tadashi!—Fuck—where did—?”

“Hiccup!” Tadashi—sweet, wonderful, smart—Tadashi slid to his side as if he were a San Fransokyo Ninjas player sliding across home plate.

“How—?” Hiccup choked, looking up at his brother.

“Outside the door this whole time, couldn’t hear much of anything till you began shouting but knew something was up because you and I both know fully well, Hiro doesn’t go either of our school,” Tadashi flashed him a reassuring smile that didn’t do anything to reassure Hiccup before turning his attention on the white-haired teen bleeding out despite his brother’s best efforts.  “Now, tell me what happened to your frie—Jack Frost…this is Jack Frost.”

“Yes! I know he is Jack Frost, now help him before he bleeds out!”

“Shite,” and if it were any other time, Hiccup’s jaw would be on the ground because nice, polite, always composed Tadashi had just cussed.  But now wasn’t the time for such trivial heckling between brothers.

“Again, I know, now help him.”

“I can’t, not here.  I need my lab,” the university student grimaced, shedding his scarf and hastily wrapping it around the wound.  “Is there another way out of here, somewhere where we won’t be seen?”

“Not…not seen,” Jack Frost barely whispered as he slowly began to disappear from sight once more. It was a little patchy and if Hiccup wasn’t still holding on to him, he would have thought the other was gone.

“He disappeared,” Tadashi spoke with that hint to his voice that all the brothers got when they’re brains latched onto something they found interesting.  Unlike his younger brothers, Tadashi was able to snap himself out of it with a shake of his head.  “Come on, Hiccup.  Think you can carry him?”

“Yeah, but it’ll look weird,” Hiccup professed, having only the slightest of trouble picking Jack Frost up and that was more due to the invisibility thing than having to support his weight. True to his word, the auburn-haired teen looked awkward, almost as if he was miming holding onto something substantial with nothing to show for it.

“Don’t worry, most of the students have already left and I’ll distract anyone still here, you just worry about getting him to the car,” Tadashi ordered, grabbing the door and looking both ways before motioning for him to follow.  

Thankfully, they had no troubles along the way and by whatever miracle, no cops pulled them over due to Tadashi’s reckless driving.  There was a bit of trouble getting into San Fransokyo Institute of Technology undetected and Dr. Callaghan almost caught them, but the real problem became getting Jack Frost visible again.

He only partially returned to visibility and the part still invisible were his wounds because the hero didn’t just have the one gash on his side.  Tadashi speculated he was subconsciously trying to protect himself since he seemed to be slipping in and out of a delirious state.  Baymax—and fuck, Hiccup didn’t realize just how close Tadashi was to being finished with his personal healthcare companion—was invaluable in detecting and synthesizing an antidote for the poison flowing through the hero’s veins

Once that was done, the ice seemed to fall away from Jack Frost’s wounds allowing Tadashi to clean and stitching them up before wrapping them with large rolls of gauze.  When they were finished, the two brothers fell into the couch as Baymax stayed close to monitored the unconscious hero.

“You don’t do anything by halves, do you, little bro?” Tadashi tiredly asked, head resting against the armrest as he gazed up at the ceiling.

“Huh?  Whadda mean?”

“Crushing on a superhero is one thing, bringing said hero back home to your brother to bandage up is completely different.  Why couldn’t you just go on crushing on that one kid?  What was his name again?  Jackson something or another?”

Because, Hiccup thought to himself, they were the same person.

Not that he’d tell anyone else that, not even his brother, because that’s what he’d been trying to get across to the hero all along.  He would never reveals his secret identity.  There was no amount of money in the world that could part his lips.  

Though, now asking out the cute brunet from his literature class seemed a thousand times more difficult than it did yesterday when he saw Jackson crossing into the lower town and decided to trying to strike up a conversation with him.  

Huh, this was only a thousand word outline (I don’t outline well) and now it’s twice that.  Then again, the last page was me trying to come up with an ending on the fly.  

[bluepenguinstories]

Happiness Overload Chapter Sixty-Two

My little rock was a flotation device against the rest of rushing rapids that made up the pool; the rest of the world, a scattered valley of rocks against a frantic body of water which was once composed of several bodies. Now one, and one that was overjoyed with the prospects of flooding over the little chunks which made up the remaining remnants of land, or being dried out, or come what may.

I sat on the edge, of course, and kicked my feet against the water as I bobbed my head and smiled. If a tune came to mind, I would have hummed it, but none did. Which was fine enough for me. Just the idea that the waters itself were much stronger than my legs, and yet it was the upper half of me which kept me tethered to the ground.

“To think that any moment, I could get swept up and it would all be over!” I remarked, just as overjoyed as the waters, and the ground which kept me ‘down to earth’ (as the saying went).

“I’m glad to see you can still find pleasure as the end draws near,” my old robotic friend and enemy stood behind me, either in scorn or admiration, except I knew it was neither of those things, so it didn’t make much sense to use either descriptors. But it wasn’t just an observation. An analysis sounded like the word she would have used. Like she wanted to gauge who I was.

“I see no reason to be displeased!” I replied.

“It’s uncharacteristic of you.”

“Is it?” I wondered about that. Maybe at one point it would have been. “It’s nice to see you again, by the way, Etna,” I turned at last.

“You as well,” she stated. No hint of emotion, but the word choice was still interesting. No doubt she had capacity for sarcasm. “You always were my favorite.”

“Do you mean that?” I asked.

She shook her head and smiled.

“What does it matter anymore?”

I grinned. “Fair enough!”

‘Favorite’ to her probably meant ‘test subject’ or ‘experiment’ or ‘pet’, anyway. Not that I minded what the context was, as being a favorite in any category delighted me.

I fell back on the patch of dirt, or gravelly rock which I called a bed. In my mind, it was sand, as sand was the thing typically associated with islands, but then again, I guess the place I occupied was too small to be an island.

“Still, it’s funny to thing that it’s been more than four years and soon it will all end. Like, with everything that’s happened, and all this running around, and it’s still happening. Whether it was the way others wanted it to be or not, things really are coming to a close. Really makes you think, doesn’t it?” I asked, although not addressed (necessarily, though there wasn’t anyone else) to Professor Etna.

“Yes. I’ve spent a great deal of my time thinking and little else. If I were powered by a computer, like counterparts of mine in other timelines, I would have ceased to exist long ago. But seeing as we are carry the same being, I remain. What has been four years for you has been much longer for me. In that time, I have stood, watching as the world and all of its inhabitants decay, unable to do anything.”

“That’s not true!” I laughed. “You could have done more things if you wanted to! Like juggle, or play a musical instrument!”

“I have a synthesizer in my mind and can procure the sound of any instrument. As for me doing anything else, yes. But I could no longer control the situation in a way that I saw satisfactory. So I stood and watched as time passed.”

“Huh. Are you unhappy, then?”

I could have called it, but surprise, surprise, she shook her head.

“No. But I’ve accepted defeat. Now I just admire how everything unfolded the way it did. For a while, I held an empire. Domination over the world across timelines. Even if that time has passed, I do not forget the feeling.”

“Still hard to believe that you would just give up. Doesn’t sound...characteristic of you?” I grinned and scoffed. “You can’t tell me you didn’t plan something.”

“Yes. In fact, I did: I created a copy of myself through a USB drive and planned to have the one my likeness was based on upload said copy onto one of the computers aboard The Flashbulb’s HQ. Then, I planned to have my revenge and kill everyone aboard the ship. Eventually, I would introduce myself on a new version of Earth and usher in a new reign. It was a success, too, except as soon as I manifested, she killed me. Or, that copy of me. As things stand, that was my backup plan. Now all that’s left is to die on this planet.”

Hmm...Hmm...Mm...Hmm?

“So you let yourself be defeated, is what you’re saying,” I pointed out. As if it weren’t obvious already.

“What ever could you mean?” She smiled her devilish smile. “Why would I ever do something like that?”

“Beats me! All’s I know is that you’re far too calculating to allow yourself to be defeated like that. Also, that revenge thing? Not your style. Total bluff, if anything. You’re the type to entice others into seeking vengeance, not the other way around. Also, I know how she freed herself of the happiness, but she’d be far too weakened for her to get such a strike in. You know that as well as I do.”

“You wish to take her victory away from her?” She crooned in that sweet, malicious voice.

“A victory is a victory, now matter how it’s achieved. Besides, I’m happy for her. I’d love to see her one more time, but what makes her happy now is being at peace, and what makes me happy is my friends being happy,” I shrugged. “Still, I wonder why you did that. You’re too stubborn to give up and you’re too smart to allow yourself to be defeated.”

“I surprise myself sometimes. Maybe it’s that I’m masochistic as well as sadistic.”

“You got off on your own defeat?” I rolled around and laughed.

“I was offering a possible explanation.”

“Well, whatever it is, what’s done is done. I just found it strange. Like you’ve had a change of heart or something.”

“How is what I did any different than your situation?” She posed the question to me. “You too have given up. Rather than try to fight against the end of the world, or try to prevent your death, you’re just letting it happen.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that, is there? I’ll accept any situation as long as I’m still happy!”

“I preferred the old you. You were so fun how you thought that you could make a difference and how fast you turned to despair. You’re no fun the way you are now.”

“Aw,” I tried to sympathize. “If it helps, you can kill me right now.”

“It wouldn’t have the same effect. Could you really call yourself powerless in your current situation?”

I thought about it. In a more literal sense, not at all. At the same time, I didn’t think it was all that different than prior versions of me; sure, I had more control over the situation and if it made me more happy to do so, I would live on. So would the world. But I felt like it needed to happen, for the benefit of others, even if in reality, it may not have made much of a difference, if any at all.

“I’m not powerless in the sense that the way I feel won’t change, but isn’t that a good thing? If you were to kill me on the brink of despair, wouldn’t you have told me, ‘at least you had fun on the way’ as some sort of crooked form of acceptance? Well, at least I saw my friends on the way, and I got to be happy, and really, that’s all I could ask for.”

“But,” I continued. “What about you? If you’re not here to kill me, then does that mean you weren’t the one who wanted me to come down to Earth?”

She shook her head. Right. I should have known already. If she was the one who called for me, she would have made sure I knew.

“But I know who. Such a being is the only one besides us left on this remnant of a planet. You will find him below here. In the middle of this platform is a hole. Down the hole is a flight of stairs. Walk down there, and you will find him, far below the earth. If you wish to think of it in more fantastic terms, you could think of his dwelling as the mythical land of Agartha.”

“Man,” I bemoaned. “That really was the worst singularity. Why couldn’t it have been somewhere cool like Shimousa or Salem, Massachusetts.”

Dr. (or Professor) Etna groaned. It sounded like the humming noise a computer made when it had to let out air because it was running too many processes. Or it sounded like that sound when you put quarters into a soda machine and you hear the rumbling of the can before it goes down the slot.

“Why do you have to turn everything into a reference?” She asked me.

“Beats me,” I shrugged. “Feels like tradition at this point. Like, I’m going to die this way, I may as well mention whatever.” I stood up and walked over to the middle of the ‘island’. Then Etna and I were face to face. She seemed just as imposing, but even less interested in being so.

“You know, the whole ‘hole in the middle of an island’ thing reminds me of when I used to go around in Minecraft and find a small place out in the middle of the ocean and just start digging into the dirt.”

“Ah, yes,” she smiled. “I used to host a private server in my mind and all of these players would get invites, and they all had a fun time. Then when they would go offline, I would take their stuff and throw it into lava. When they went back online, they would get shocked that their items were missing and start to accuse each other of who could have done such a thing.”

First of all, I was shocked that she even heard of that game (then again, why? Supersmart AI, mind is already a computer, likely with an internet connection, what’s the surprise?), but then, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh man,” I gasped for breath as I worked up a hoot. “You were a griefer! That SO fits you!”

“Yes,” she smiled. “How I miss torturing people so. When the euphoria set in, I found less and less people to mess with.”

I looked down. The stairs were inviting, in that ominous ‘you know you shouldn’t, but come on, it’s stairs’ way. After feeling the existential pressure that stairs leading underground could exert, I faced Etna once more.

“Is there any way you can be happy?” I asked her.

“Oh, don’t worry. It brings me great joy just to know that the one who awaits you will find no satisfaction in the end.”

There were other questions I wanted to ask her, like, “you know how Ves is a lesbian, and you’re based on her, so what about you? What’s your sexuality? How does AI sexuality work? Does an AI even have a preference?” But I already knew that she would say something like:

“I derive pleasure both from hurting and being hurt by others. Nothing else.”

And I wouldn’t know what to say to that, because did that mean she was pansexual or asexual? Whatever it meant, it wasn’t my kink (coincidentally, I had no kink), but I was happy that something pleased her. At least, pleasure is associated with happiness. I’m pretty sure.

In the end, all I really said to Etna was:

“Take care.”

She nodded, and I no longer felt her presence. All that was left was to walk down, into the unknown. I felt the ground beneath me quake and I knew that there was no more time left. So I hurried down, into the darkness, and thought about all the light feelings that Euphoria had brought me.

[civilizedcompany]

Civilized Secrets: Hellfire

This is bullshit. We can fix this on our own.

Yes, of course you can, Shaka.  Just as you were able to adequately fight back against our forces.  Oh wait, my memory fails me. You couldn’t.

We wouldn’t have HAD to if it wasn’t for Sejong over here. Create an AI that can think for itself?  Tell me, o wise one, did you come up with that idea on your own, or did you watch one of Teddy’s badly produced sci-fi movies?

Enough!  This is getting us nowhere. Our homelands are being put to the sword and razed to the foundation. We can’t become more divided—

Shut it, Poundmaker.  Your calls for peace grow tiresome.

Do the sounds of your people dying grow “tiresome,” or have to grown accustom to them over the years?

Tread carefully, chieftain. You walk a thin line—

This is all Catherine’s fault anyways!

Dido, assigning fault is pointless now. We need to focus on ending it.

Ah, yes, the ever-passive King of Poland.  Wouldn’t want to face the reality that your best friend plummeted the world into—

She did no such thing. And Jadwiga speaks with wisdom:  Stopping Misu should be our top priority. We won’t be able to accomplish that by standing about and bickering.

So you have a plan then, Sejong?

Yes. Yes, I do.

How long ago was that?  Wait, had it been that long?  Helena was staring at the screen in the last remaining intelligence center of Catherine’s empire as bits and pieces of that day ran through her mind.  The ever-tired Saladin was once again hard at work creating what they hoped would be the key to their victory.  With Sejong’s help, they were able to pinpoint Misu’s location: an abandoned facility that was barely noteworthy during its time of operation.  The plan was to create a shutdown code and transmit it through slipping into the satellite communication systems. However, in preparation of shit going wrong, it was suggested that a physical backup be made.

Just in case.

“Of all the times for your computer systems to run slowly, it just had to be now?” asked the Byzantine to the Italian French monarch.  Catherine rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t realize that you had a intelligence based near by that had better equipment.  We’ll be sure to use it next time,” said Catherine, being sure to add in an extra edge of contempt to every word she possibly could.

“In Catherine’s defense, most of the system is occupied trying to locate that abandoned facility to release...Saladin, what did you call it?” Cyrus asked.

“Systematic Destruction Command Code,” he sighed.  “It overloads the power and computer systems simultaneously, causing both a massive hardware damage and physical damage. Prevents Misu’s programming code from ever being copied and used again.”

“Dare I ask about the physical damage?” mused the Persian.

“Controlled explosions to the facility’s power grids,” answered Sejong, “It’s a good thing we built it out in the middle of nowhere.”

Helena turned her attention to the rest of the room, but there wasn’t much.  Everyone else was either staring at the ground or at the screen, hoping for nothing to go wrong.  Many leaders were waiting for the chance to call home and announce a ceasefire, but direct communication was risky. The last thing anyone wanted was for Misu to pinpoint where they were.  Suddenly, a thought crept into Helena’s mind.  Her breathing quickened.

“What’s the chance of this AI finding us through the transmission of the code?” she asked.    

Dammit. We should have thought of this.

“It’s possible, but it should—it will shut it down before he can retaliate back.”

“It should, or it will? Two very different things there, Saladin.”

“Nothing is certain at this—“

BANG!

Several smaller screens blew out, the shattering glass flying into the faces of a few technicians and Saladin. The bright flash blinded the rest of them as the dissipating smoke caused them to cough and their eyes to water.  

“Damn—Dammit.  What just happened?!” demanded Catherine.

No answer.

“Saladin?!”

Still nothing.

Helena braved the lingering smoke, finding Saladin’s unconscious body and shaking him vigorously.

BANG! BANG!

More monitors and lights exploded.

BANG BANG BANG!

“Mon Dieu, fire!”

“Don’t just stand there, put it out!”

BANG!

Dammit—! Can’t—!

BANG BANG!

Her vision began to blur, tears running down her cheeks and her lungs crying for air.  She lifted Saladin from off the floor, his weight nearly dragging her down.  If only she could breathe—

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“Everyone evacuat—AH!”

Part of the ceiling fell on Catherine, though nothing catastrophic fell on her.  Poundmaker rushes to Helena’s aid to help with Saladin, who stirred slightly.  Screams of the French tongue echoed in the base, fire lit the hallways and illuminated the debris blocking the exits. How the hell—?

BANG!

“RUN!”

Did they run straight? Where were they?  Where the hell was the exit?  Who’s next to me—?

CLASH!  CRUNCH!

“THEODORA! TRAJAN!”

“GO!  IT’S TOO LATE FOR THEM!”

“JADWIGA!  JADWIGA, WHERE ARE YOU?!” cried out the French monarch.

“AH!”

CRUNCH!

“SEJONG!  WHERE IS SEJONG?!”

Helena could feel her chest tighten, her air slowly dwindling to nothing. Her coughing gave way to choking on smoke, her vision going black. Suddenly, the heat of the room dissipated into cold nothingness.

—————

By the ancestors of his people, never in his wildest dreams did Poundmaker expect things to get this bad.  He gazed out into the small crowd of remaining leaders, many of whom seemed to have “forgotten” their rivalries with each other, while others continued to search for survivors. So far, Theodora, Trajan, Jadwiga, and Lautaro were confirmed dead. Others, such as Saladin, Robert, Dido, Washington, linger on death’s door.  Many were still missing, and those alive were slowly losing hope.  Helena remained under Poundmaker’s watchful gaze as he awaited for her to awake.  Sejong gathered a few of those fortunate enough to be spared from major injuries.

“This is suicide, Sejong,” spat the Babylonian king.

“That’s rich coming from you, Nebukadnezar,” retorted Seondeok.  “Need I remind you of—?”

“Dammit, not this again!”  Cyrus exclaimed.  “Look, we have the code—“

“Not all of it.”

“But it should be just enough to stop it!”

“How much are you willing to bet your Empire on that presumption, Cyrus?”  Alexander questioned.

“We have to at least fight back once more.  Our other option is sitting on our laurels doing nothing and hoping this...thing won’t strike back,” added the Spartan queen.  

“Not all of us are in a position to strike back, Gorgo,” mused Darius. “Look around. The only empires we control are that of ash and bones.”

“Then we send who we can.”

“And who do you propose should undertake such a mission?”

“I shall, for Misu is my creation,” Sejong replied somberly.  “The rest of you will need to return home and save whoever and whatever you can.”

An uneasy silence befell the small group of leaders.  There was always something unnerving about a person willing to become a dead man walking.

“Alone?” Seondeok asked.

He turned to her with a remorseful face, “No one else needs to pay for my mistakes.”

Sejong looked up toward the star-filled sky, as if it held answers.  “Watch over them for me.  Surely you’re vision for our countrymen will do them more good than mine ever did.”

——————

Surprisingly, the journey to the facility and entering the front door were easier than expected.  It was as if Misu was waiting for him. Suited him just fine. The sooner this madness was ended, the quicker his fellow leaders could rebuild.  His steps echoed throughout the deserted hallways, which had since been reclaimed by weeds and vines. As he walked, flashes of memories,ones that were once insignificant, now had gripped his thoughts.  Bits of scientific chatter blended with the weak gums of the barely functional generators and...curious...Misu managed to resupply power to this facility without tripping the alarm.  Such a brilliant creation. Perhaps in time, in another life, he would accept the destruction as an acceptable loss.  He found the room he needed: Central Intelligence Hub. His eyes lingered on the door, knowing what was to come next.

I am surprised you did not bring more here.

“If only to spare them from death, Misu.  Would you not agree there has been enough already?”

And yet here you are.  If one more matters not, what are another two?  What of three, or four?

Sejong placed his hand on the door and pushed forward. The door opened with some resistance, but the difficulty was due to neglect rather than Misu’s sense of self preservation.  An eerie blue light filled the room, with cracked screens showcasing ravaged homelands. Who reigned over them?  It was hard to say.  He pulled a small USB from an inside pocket and walked toward the center console.

You know that you will destroy your greatest creation?  The greatest technology created by the empire? The wisest leader to grace your people?

“Such losses are acceptable.”

Even you?

“Especially me.”

A moment of silence lingered in the air. Sejong placed the USB to begin the upload. Now, it was time to see how much of Saladin’s code survived.

What makes you think any of them will change?  Martyrs are quickly forgotten.  

Data unpacking...

They’ll be united for a time, but they’ll return to their petty squabbles. More will die again for lesser reasons.

Scanning for data...

You know, you never did answer my question.  What is one more corpse to the pile?  That’s all you’ll be.  All we’ll be.

Data found.  Execute command?

It’s obvious that you won’t see reason.  Notice how you’re here. Alone. And where are they?  Trying to save what little claims they have left on this earth. They’ll mourn their allies for a time, maybe shed a few tears and hold a mass vigil.

Command accepted...

You’ll die a hero, but you’ll fade away to nothing.  

Command executed.  Total shutdown imminent.

“I came on my own, Misu. Enough blood has been spilled.”

Then my creator is a fool.

Warning: Electrical systems on lockdown. Evacuation tunnels are offline. Overload imminent.

“Then at least their is one thing we can agree on.”

BANG! BANG!

Glass from already-cracked monitors flew into Sejong, cutting and slicing his face. The smell of smoke filled the room, the beginnings of several small fires were crackling in the room, and yet...there was a calm about it all. Soon, the flames began to lick as his feet and Sejong took one, final deep breath.  He had hoped that the end would come quicker, but if his death sentence could not be quick, at least it would be poetic.  

BANG BANG BANG!

Walls started to crumble. Overgrowth let the flames run wild.  Monitors and neglected technology melted and snapped. The room was a symphony of smoke, fire, and twisted metal.  Bits and pieces fell around Sejong—

SCREEEK—CRACK!!!

Until part of the roof collapsed, crushing the fallen king.  More explosions erupted with the abandoned facility, flames engulfed what was left of Sejong...

...and from the view of satellite footage, the remaining leaders witnessed the collapse of the building.  Helena, now mostly recovered though still had a few bandages, shed a tear for Sejong. Misu was gone, the wars had ceased, and Catherine abdicated her throne to Napoleon (though many objected, with Gitjara being the loudest for personal reasons).  But at least there was a chance to rebuild what was left, and the reassuring grip of Poundmaker’s hand on her shoulder made the following days seem a little less bleak. For all there hardheadedness and ego, and for all the destruction, Helena felt a little hopeful for the future.  

“DAMMIT CURTIN!”

Maybe not. Maybe it was time to raid the liquor cabinet with Poundmaker. Actually, scratch the maybe.  It was time to raid the liquor cabinet.

“Took you long enough,” Tamar remarked lazily while finishing a row of a scarf. “A long break before the final chapter?”

“True,” Cyrus replied, “but you can’t rush genius.”

“You literally chopped up three chapters and boiled it down into one.”  

“Brevity is the soul of wit, my dear.”

“And consistency?”

“Details.”

“Well, at least you finished a project,” she relented.  “Perhaps now you’ll learn...Cyrus, what are you doing?”

He turned his head towards the Georgian queen, his hands holding a pen and a drawing tablet.  

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

“Why do you have a drawing tablet?”

“I...may...have made some progress on a separate project.”

“Cyrus...”

“It’s completely original!  No references to anyone or any coworkers! Okay, maybe one thing is related to them, but--”

“Just...make sure you have a consistent release schedule.”

“No promises.”

“So what’s it about?”

The Persian king’s eyes grew wide, like a child being asked about their favorite hobby.

“It’s got action, mystery, and much better writing, and...”

Tamar smiled and nodded along to whatever Cyrus was saying.  At least it was something that made him happy.

[thestudyof5sos]

Cryptic Messages (michievous!michael)

Summary: Charlie’s flying home for a last minute trip but she’s completely sleep deprived. To keep her self awake until boarding, she spends a few hours in the airport totally jamming to an album her best friend made her download at the last minute, 5SOS Meet You There Tour Live. She’s not super familiar with the band and wouldn’t recognize any of the guys if she was seated next to them. But wait, that’s what happens. Enjoy Charlie’s flight, Michael’s spy-antics, and a dash of Luke. Author: 🐾 @larryologymajor Fandon/Pairing: 5SOS /  Michael x original female character (platonic) Warnings/Tags: fluff, mischievous Michael on a plane Word count: ~2.4k

Cryptic Message

Charlie swung her backpack over her shoulder and stepped forward to scan her mobile boarding pass. As she waited, she hopped her head and swiveled her hips to the beat of the music in her wireless earbuds. She smiled at the gate attendant, said thank you, then danced her way into the jet bridge. She rearranged her chestnut and caramel topknot and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

She was listening to a 5 Seconds of Summer album that her friend Bianca made her download while she was packing last night. Bianca said that she got access to an advanced copy of their new live album, recorded in London on their Meet You There Tour that just wrapped up. Bianca guaranteed Charlie would LOVE the band and the album. While the band had been around for a while and Charlie enjoyed the few singles she’d heard on the radio, she didn’t consider herself anything more than a casual fan and she’d never gone out of her way to look them up or check out their videos.

Charlie was dead tired on her feet. She’d been a walking zombie since her second double shift of the week three days ago. After work she rushed home to pack for a last minute trip back home to Chicago to visit her family. With a 3am wake up call, Charlie didn’t even bother going to bed the night before. She didn’t trust herself to wake up on time, so she stayed up all night packing and cleaning her apartment. She was mega grateful for Bianca making her download the album. The album was upbeat, face-paced, enough pop and rock, and the band members’ comedic antics on stage kept her awake and happy.

As she continued to groove her way down the jetbridge corridor, she peeked at the seat number on her screen before she slid her phone into her pocket. 27 Charlie. 27 Charlie. Charlie repeated the number in her head to the rhythm in her ears. That should be easy, she thought. Her birthday was on the 27th and Charlie has been a family nickname forever, short for Charlotte.

The line moved forward and a flight attended greeted Charlie as she stepped from the jet bridge into the plane. She walked down the narrow corridor and carefully tracked the rows, noting the main cabin was essentially packed and her randomly assigned seat was an aisle seat like she preferred. The aisle, she thought, allowed her greater freedom to get up and stretch or use the bathroom during the flight, which she would undoubtedly do at least once.

Still grooving and bopping to the music, she noticed an attractive guy a half dozen rows away from her, he too was seated in a aisle seat. He was eyeing her. Charlie caught him looking at her and made eye contact with him but continued to dance anyway. He smirked then quickly looked away.

Seconds before she reached her row, she reached around her bag to snag the rest of her her in-flight essentials from the front pocket and transferred them to her purse. Kindle: check. Phone charging cable: check. Backup phone battery: check.

She approached her row and frowned. Someone was in her seat. Not just someone but the cute guy who watched her dancing was in her seat.

While Charlotte tossed her backpack in the overhead bin she made brief eye contact with the guy sitting in her seat. For half a second too long she gazed into his green eyes before busting out her sassy attitude. “Excuse me, I believe you’re sitting in my seat. I should be 27C.” She watched the guy pull a crinkled up boarding pass from the seat pocket and study it. “Oops, I’m 27B.” He pushed his beanie back from his eyes. Charlotte rolled her eyes and watched the guy scoot into the seat to his left. She wanted a peaceful, non-hostile flight so she smiled at him, studying his face. “Thanks, 27B.” She lowered herself into the aisle seat. He chuckled and smiled. “I’m Michael.” Charlie nodded and returned the introduction. “Charlie. Nice to meet you.” She smiled again. As she carefully slid her kindle, phone battery, and USB cable in the seat back pocket, Michael engaged in conversation with a guy across the aisle from Charlie. She assumed they knew each other and thought that she should have taken the middle seat and let Michael take her aisle seat. Charlie didn’t have any clue that she was sitting next to the guitarist from the band she’d spent all morning listening to while dancing her way through the airport. She popped her earbuds out from her ears and wrapped them around the back of her neck and looped the ear pieces together in the front to form a necklace until she was ready to use them after takeoff. During the safety briefing video, Charlie listened to the boys on both sides of her chat back and forth about a tour and recording. She was so tired that she barely paid attention and didn’t really dwell on what they were saying or who they are. A short while later the plane was in the air making headway at cruising altitude. Michael tried to make small talk with her but Charlotte was tired. She opted for music and a nap instead of reading. She slipped on her earbuds and resumed Meet You There Tour Live. She was easily on her third or fourth iteration through the album today so she was starting to learn the melodies of each song. Charlie didn’t notice herself softly humming the chorus to Why Won’t You Love Me in her trance-like state of sleep. She felt the guy next to her shift but she didn’t hear him quietly call out to his friend across the aisle. She was mostly asleep and completely relaxed so she let the music drown out their chatter. “Luke! LUKE!” Michael whisper yelled across the aisle to his friend and bandmate. “What?!” Luke hissed. “Dude. I think she’s listening to us.” Luke raised an eyebrow. Michael continued, “I swear she’s humming Why Don’t You Love Me. Seriously. What if she‘s listening to Meet You There Tour Live? Ash said the label ‘leaked’ the tracks to an exclusive group on Tumblr.” “I highly doubt it,” said Luke shaking his head. “Although that would be dope.” Michael was hopeful. “My vote is yes. I saw her earlier when we were going through security. She was totally jamming to whatever she had playing in her earbuds.” Near the end of the flight, Charlie was still asleep when her phone slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor after bouncing off Michael’s foot. He glanced at her to ensure she was still asleep then grabbed her iPhone off the floor. As he picked it up, he couldn’t help but glance at her screen. The phone’s display lit up, recognizing that it had been moved He held it up towards Luke, grinning, and called out, “Luke! Look!” Luke glanced up and his smile grew wide. Michael was right after all. She was DEFINITELY jamming to MYT Tour Live. Michael was feeling mischievous. He held his pointer finger to lips, shushed Luke, and made a picture taking motion. Luke suppresses a laugh but grinned widely as Michael slid the lock screen over to the camera and flipped to the front facing camera. He carefully framed a selfie of him, Luke, and sleeping Charlie and snapped a picture for her to discover later. He then snapped the same picture with his phone. He also opened up the Notes app and quickly tapped out: Charlie, thanks for being a fan! We hope you enjoy the live album! Xx Michael & Luke 5SOS Then for good measure, he used the feature to insert a drawing and attempted to draw his signature. He used Charlie’s phone to snap a photo of his screen, then locked both phones. He shoved his into his backpack and wedged hers into the seat pocket in front of her. Michael gently nudged Charlie’s knee with his own. When she didn’t stir, he bumped her shoulder and she responded sleepily with a “Hmmmm” sound. “Sorry to wake you,” Michael started. “We’re starting the final descent soon. You dropped your phone so I picked it up for you. I couldn’t help notice you’re listening to 5 Seconds of Summer. I met them once, they’re so nice!” Charlie was half asleep still. “I don’t know anything about them, really. My best friend makes me download random music all the time. Sometimes I wonder why she likes half the stuff she recommends. However, I actually kinda like 5SOS.” Michael started to mess with her. “I heard their guitarist is super cute, dyes his hair all the time, and loves pranking people.” Charlie looked baffled and shrugged. “I have no idea. Never really seen them before.” The conversation lulled and Charlie enjoyed the quiet for several long minutes, the only sound in her world was coming through her ear buds. She closed her eyes and appreciated the lead singers smooth voice, the power behind each drum beat, the rhythmic way the bass thumped, and the fluid strokes over each guitar string.

The plane continued its descent and safely landed at Chicago O’Hare. Charlie was quiet as the plane taxied to the jetbridge. When the doors open and passengers started to deplane, Charlie gathered up her stuff, wished Michael a safe trip since he had a connecting flight, and shuffled towards baggage claim.

Standing in baggage claim, Charlie texted her best friend, Bianca.

Made it safely to Chicago! Got seated next to this cute guy but passed out and didn’t really talk to him.

Bianca fired back an immediate reply:

Glad you made it, but boo. Should have talked to him and gotten his number.

Charlie agreed.

Ikr. He wanted to chat but I was seriously so tired. After takeoff I passed out. Only woke up when Michael (cute seat neighbor) woke me up. He picked up my phone after I dropped it in my sleep.

Charlie opened her camera app then snapped a quick selfie of herself waiting in baggage claim to send to Bianca. In one swift motion she double tapped her iPhone home button to swipe the camera closed and switch back over to her text messages. Locating Bianca’s message, she clicked the add photo button to insert her selfie and squinted at the thumbnail previews of her recent picture. There were two new photos in her camera roll that she didn’t recognize.

Feeling confused, she sent her selfie to Bianca then launched the Photos app and swiped to the first unrecognizable photo.

The conveyor belt in baggage claim started to move and slowly spewed our luggage. Charlie didn’t notice. She was staring at a picture of herself sleeping, sandwiched between Michael and his friend who was squatted next to her in the aisle. Charlie’s fave furrowed in anger and the invasion of privacy. How dare a stranger use her phone to take her sleeping photo.

Charlie swiped to the next screen and looked at the message Michael left her. She gasped and her fingers instinctively dialed Bianca to FaceTime.

She picked up on the second ring and her face appeared on the screen. “Bee, I think I sat by 5SOS on the plane. And I think one of them used my phone to take a picture of me, well us. While I was sleeping!”

“What? How? No way!” Bianca sputtered.

“Seriously! What does Michael look like?” questioned Charlie.

“Let me check Instagram for the latest. Standby.” Bianca froze on the screen while she minimized FaceTime to check Michael’s social media. “At the moment, he’s wearing his fluffy hair blonde.” Her face unfroze on Charlie’s screen. “He’s usually not clean shaven. His eyes are super green and really pretty. His smile is wide. Usually he has a baseball hat on. And a black hoodie. Oh and his accent is lovely, quite posh sounding. I love it to be honest. Could listen to him talk for hours.

Charlie interrupted her, “How about Luke? Is there a Luke?”

Bianca laughed. “Of course there’s a Luke. He and Michael are the founding members of 5SOS although he’s the youngest of the band. He’s super tall, legs for days, like a baby giraffe. But he denies that he’s tall. He wears skinny jeans, pretty tops, leather jackets and heeled leather boots. I bet his boot collection would rival your Pikolinos collection. Gah, but his face. I love his face,” Bianca gushed. “He’s gorgeous. He has super bright blue eyes. And his dimples will swallow you whole. His dark blonde hair is chin length with unruly curls.”

Now Charlie laughed. “Hold on, Bee. I’m texting you something.” She sent the two photos but continued to talk. “Ummm yeah, your descriptions fit the boys perfectly.”

Bianca’s face froze again on Charlie’s screen as she opened her text. “Oh my God, Char. You totally met Michael and Luke! I am so envious! Although if I were you I probably would have fangirled and then drooled on Michael in my sleep!!”

“Hahaha!! I’m sure you would’ve been fine Bee! 100% put together!” Charlie winked at her best friend.

“Charlie! You need to insta this ASAP and tag Michael!”

Bianca gasped. She didn’t notice that her suitcase was the last one and it was going in circles on the baggage claim conveyor belt. “Bee! But what would I even say in the caption???”

“Well, Michael’s always changing his twitter handle and last week he posted a spy meme so how about something spy or detective related?” Bianca questioned.

“Hmmm,” Charlie was thinking. “What’s his insta handle?”

“It’s @michaelclifford.” Bianca knew it off the top of her head.

“How about ‘Thanks for the super stealth nap time reconnaissance spy photos @michaelclifford! It was a really nice meeting you! (even though I didn’t know who you are lol) I really love the new live album!’?” Charlie asked Bianca.

“Do it! I love it!” Bianca encouraged her.

Charlie paused FaceTime again while she posted the picture.

“I promise I’ll text you if my post goes viral,” she laughed. Charlie grabbed her suitcase and the girls said their goodbyes.

Charlie ordered an Uber and got in, heading to her parents house.

Her phone singer indicating a comment on her Instagram post. It was Michael Clifford. Her heart beat quicker for a minute, but her brow furrowed in confusion. He left a cryptic message that Charlie didn’t understand.

pa dhz tf wslhzbyl! p svclk dhajopun fvb qht av tlla fvb aolyl avby spcl ;) kt tl pm fvb lcly dhua hu hbavnyhwolk jvwf vy apjrlaz av zll bz spcl. ee -Caesar

It took Charlie a few days to decipher Michael’s message, but she finally figured out that it was a Caesar Cipher. Thanks for the clue, dude, she thought.

Michael’s message translated to:

It was my pleasure! I loved watching you jam to Meet You There Tour Live ;) DM me if you ever want an autographed copy or tickets to see us live. Xx -Caesar

And with that, Charlie smiled. She knew this was a story she would be repeating for years.

Tags:

@mycollectionofnuts

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[ibelongtovillains]

Mission: Wardrobe Malfunction.

Avengers x Reader

This was the most intricate Hydra base any of the Avengers had seen in awhile. There were more agents and security traps set to keep anyone out. Bruce, Natasha, Tony and Wanda went through the left side of the Hydra base. Clint, War machine and Thor through the right side. While Y/N, Bucky, Sam, Steve and Loki. Went straight through the front door.

Your team had cleared most of the first hallway, everyone was following Captain America’s orders. Occasionally the other teams would send updates over the ear pieces you all wore to keep in contact on missions.

The fighting had put you in front of the group Loki closed in on your left side as he finished taking down three Hydra agents. Bucky, Steve and Sam followed from behind shortly after.

“What are we dealing with Y/N?” Steve asked looking over your shoulder with his shield back on his shoulders.

“This door has an odd mechanical lock.” You ran your hands along the doors patterns trying to figure out how it worked.

“Can you or Loki figure it out?” Steve asked looking at you and then to Loki. Steve was by your right side leaning over you while you stepped closer to Steve allowing Loki some space to search the door with you.

“It’s definitely Midgardian manufactured, nothing magical.” Loki spoke in a bored tone as he probably wouldn’t know how to open it that easily. He could try magic but he decided against it thinking in its simplicity.

“I think all these are connected..” you followed the metal lines through the door. Bucky and Sam standing idly behind the three of you.

“Ah! Here it is!” Loki announced before flipping up the locking mechanism and pulling back. Everyone except you took a step back as the door made a series of clicking and gears turning. You watched as various parts of the door slide and clicked out of place.

The sounds stilled and you all waited silently for something to happen. After a few seconds you reached up and pressed against your the door handle but nothing happened. Loki sighed and shushed him quickly leaning forward to listen to an odd whirring sound coming from the door. A small metal piece lifted up like a tiny square door and a small tube pushed out right in front of your chest and stomach. You gasped jumping back, your body colliding into Bucky’s firm chest. He tried to backup but it was too late as a liquid sprayed out covering the black material that stretched over your body. It hit your arms, thighs, Torso and chest.

“Ahh what the fuck?” You groaned holding your arms out in shock.

“It’s ACID!” Loki warned you as your close began to sizzle and hiss, chemical bubbles burning right through at alarming speeds. You frantically unzipped your suit and shredded off as quickly as possible.

Barely stepping out of it in time as you somehow manage to hastily yank the tight material over your boots. You were in your own state of panic while you ran your hands over the bare skin of your arms, chest, Torso and thighs. You had been lucky, no acid had reached your skin. You sighed heavily looking down at your tattered combat suit.

“Tony this suit is shit! Did nothing against acid.” You snapped through the ear piece.

“I’ll fix tonight.” was all he said before the line fell silent.

“So what do we do now Cap?” You slowly turned around when your question was met with silence.

“Damn Y/N!” Sam bellowed.

Captain America, Bucky stood there with wide eyes and lips parted slightly, Sam had a grin plastered to his face.

“I must agree little Midgardian, you look ravishing!” Loki smirked, mischief and lust sparked in his eyes.

“Fuck sake guys! This is no time to turn into horny soldiers. We’re on a mission!” You spat trying to cover your body.

“Acting like none of us have ever seen a female in lingerie!” You looked around for a some clothes to throw on.

“Loki give me your cape!” You said tugging at the sides of his cape.

“No, besides how will you fight while trying to hold it on?” Loki asked in a snide tone a smirk dancing on his lips.

“Why are you wearing such sexy lingerie under your combat suit?” Bucky asked joining in with all the other grinning asshats.

Steve was the only one who remained silent. He tried to hide his reddening face under his Captain America mask. Your own cheeks growing several shades red as you huffed and turn back to the door ready to beat it open. The guys kept teasing and hitting on Y/N. To the point your cheeks stayed bright red and your insides burned. You even hit Bucky and Sam in the arm which caused them to laugh even more.

You attempted the door once more moving a few slide locks until you heard one solid click and the door cracked open. You couldn’t have been more eager to get through a doorway in your entire than you were right now.

You were met with a group of Hydra agents who were taken off guard as their eyes met your barely covered black lacy cleavage, curvy toned hips and smooth thighs. Your boots accentuated your ass and calves. Suddenly you felt a sense of confidence as you used your distracting figure to take down three Hydra agents at once.

“Doll, put some clothes on you’re distracting everyone and making poor old Stevie flustered.” Bucky taunted you as he flipped a Hydra agent to the ground, his metal fist connecting with the guys chest.

Sam snickered and Loki grinned as poor Captain America turned an even deeper shade of red.

“I hate you! I hate you all so much!” You pouted while throwing the three man-children dirty looks.

The five of you made it into the control room. Where you snatched a white lab jacket off the wall shrugging it on as you headed over to the control panels and main computers. The guys took care of any random Hydra agents came through while you collected the data on a usb drive.

“Let’s. Get back to the quinjet.” Steve commanded but his voice was raspy and deeper than normal. It sent a shiver down your spine causing your skin to break out in goosebumps.

You knew the lab coat made your appearance even worse as now you looked like a doctor in a porno.

Bucky, Loki and Sam snickered as you strutted past them.

“NOT. ONE. WORD!” You enunciated. Pushing past them.

“If that's what the doctor orders.” Bucky whispered to Sam. You heard and returned his comment with a death glare. The both burst out laughing. You scoffed and speed up to walk with Captain America. At least he wasn’t talking but you did catch him taking glances at your cleavage and ass.

The air outside was frigid and chilly, you guys were somewhere in the mountains. The sharp winds caused you to hiss at the icy burn. Goosebumps pebble your skin, your nipples are almost painfully hard. You crossed your arms across your chest for protection. The gesture amplified our cleavage even more than the push-up bra was already doing. Ironman was standing outside the Quinjet when he noticed you his head shot up and his mask opened revealing the face of an over excited child on Christmas morning. You shot him a “Don’t you dare.” glance.

“Hey Dr. Y/N, so great that you arrived. I have this pain in this one spot..” Tony proceeded to point.

“Tony! Wherever you point to on your body I will cut you!” Your voice stuttered as you shivered and your teeth began to chatter.

Steve and the others had boarded before you. You shuffled on taking a seat with Tony to be the last one in, the Quinjet ramp closing.

“With what your nipples? They could probably cut glass right now.” Tony said his suit sliding off his body and back to the hand piece he kept it in. Taking the seat next to you. You slapped him in the shoulder as hard as you could. He winced but wasn’t that phased by it.

“Y/N! Is that your ability? You can cut glass with your nipples?!” Thor chided from across the jet, his eyes lighting up as if that was the most amazing trick his ever heard of. This time you and all the others burst out laughing with tears and sore sides.

[baronvontribble]

Original drabble, pt. 5

Navigation: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

yeeeeeeee

It was cold on the way home the same as it had been on the way to work. The bus didn't run from anywhere near the store to anywhere near Ted's apartment building in an amount of time that made walking the less reasonable option, so he walked the whole way. By the time he got to his door, his cheeks and nose and ears stung with the cold; the relief of putting down his bags long enough to get out his keys only lasted the amount of time he spent not picking them back up again, which he inevitably had to do to go inside.

He slumped heavily against the door the moment he'd closed it and held onto the bags just long enough on their way down to the floor to make sure nothing broke, but after that, all bets were off in terms of physical activity. "I'm home," he called out, closing his eyes and letting himself breathe. Fuck, walking had been a bad idea.

"Is this where I'm supposed to ask you how your day went?" the AI's voice asked him, and Ted let out a wheezy chuckle.

"Well for starters," he said, "if we were really following the script? Slippers. And dinner. Already made, nice and hot. Falls apart when you get to the 'sit in front of the television' stage though, what with me not having one."

"That's a shame. It didn't even get to the part where you threaten physical violence if I'm not quick enough with your alcoholic beverage."

"Jesus. I think I'll skip that one, thanks. I mean for one thing, I don't drink." Heaving a sigh, Ted straightened back out and made his way to the kitchen to put the groceries away, draping his coat over a chair as he went and leaving his keys and phone on the counter. The only things that stayed out beyond that were the HD camera made for streaming purposes and the sandwich he'd bought to act as a reasonably well-rounded meal. "Where'd you hear about that shit anyway? Kinda antiquated at this point."

"Case files. Domestic cases weren't the kind of thing I handled, but I still had to be educated in how they worked. I had to be able to take notice of everything that might count as evidence in any given case because the data I recorded could be used in court." Whether Ted was anthropomorphizing or not, the tone of the AI's voice made it sound like he was smiling. "Ended up being used against a few human co-workers too. I didn't have much in the way of agency, but if I saw something, I still reported it."

"Aw, so you're a good cop."

"No." A firm statement that left no room for argument; the good-natured tone was gone just as easily as it had crept in, impressing Ted all over again at the tuning. "Good cops are the ones who stop what they're doing when they realize it's wrong."

That just sounded all kinds of wrong to Ted. "Some people might say there's a lot of grey in there. If leaving puts your life in danger, for instance. Or if you don't have any real say in what you're doing." He wasn't sure what this guy had done, but he'd never gotten a bad vibe from any of their little talks over the past couple days. And usually his instincts about people were pretty spot-on.

But that firm tone was back again, giving no ground. "Ted, please," the AI insisted, "I'd rather not talk about this."

"Seriously though," Ted continued. "I mean you left, didn't you? Yeah, maybe it took longer than it should've, I don't know enough to make any kinda call on that, but it seems to me like you had a limit to how much you were willing to-"

"Ted." The volume had been turned up significantly, hard enough to rattle the laptop's cheap onboard speakers. Admittedly that didn't take much, but it still stopped Ted dead in his tracks. "Don't."

Just like that, all the good humor had been sapped out of the room. Ted let out a slow, steadying breath. He just knew this one was gonna claw at the inside of his head for days. "Fine, I won't talk about it." Picking up the box with the camera in it and leaving the sandwich for later, he headed back over to his not-quite-desk and fell into his rickety old chair. "I didn't mean to upset you."

The volume was back to normal when the AI spoke again, and his tone was softer. "I know."

Right, time for a subject change. "Did you read your way through all the books yet?" Ted asked as he wrestled with the box the camera was in. Stupid packaging.

"Not all of them," was the reply. "But I did find a name. You've read I, Robot?"

"Hell yeah." Ted had to grin. "Gonna name yourself after Susan Calvin or something?"

"Wrong book. I meant the short story."

"Ohh..." That one was a bit older than Asimov's stories, if Ted remembered right. "Kinda dark, isn't it?"

The AI ignored his comment. "I did some research. 'Adam' is a common enough name in enough languages that if I pick a similarly common surname, I'll be relatively difficult to track effectively by my name alone."

"And I guess the literary allusion doesn't hurt either, huh?" Ted gave it some thought. "What about the biblical roots of it?"

"I haven't read the Bible."

"Y'know, ate a fruit from the tree of knowledge after watching a woman do it, and then both of them got kicked out of the Garden of Eden by God for disobeying His orders. Original sin, free will. All that jazz."

It was several seconds before he got a response. He heard the fans kick into overdrive for a moment on the main computer tower. "Right."

Damn, almost sounded like the guy had barely tuned that one at all. “What’s that mean? Like, is it good, is it bad-”

"It means I suppose I have a name now."

"You like it?" The box Ted had been struggling with tore open all at once, the cardboard giving way long before the tape did; one layer of packaging down, a bazillion more to go. He took a moment to idly suck on a finger that'd been nicked on the cardboard's edges with a quiet hiss at the way it stung. "I mean, I like it. But I'm not the one who's gotta live with it."

Machines couldn’t scoff, but this one definitely knew how to give the impression of such a thing through his voice. "Functionality is more important than whether or not I like it."

Ted snorted. "Yeah, you like it." One thing he'd learned about this guy: positive feelings were rarely ever admitted to directly. "Got a voice, got a name. Might be tempting fate to say this, but it seems to me you're just about ready to face the world, man."

"Just focus on getting the camera set up."

"I'm working on it, jeez." Foam, plastic, more plastic. Naturally, only about half of it could be recycled. The camera came with a flash drive about the same size as the end of his thumb, and included wireless capability that Ted would probably never use. He was quick to toss the trash aside for Future Ted to deal with, only hesitating when part of the 'trash' was the instructions. However, a cursory glance told him he didn't actually need instructions, and the manual promptly went back into the pile.

Then he let out a tired sigh as he ended up scooting over to what had once been his main computer to pluck out yet another bit from its wreckage: the USB extender. He'd have a lot of rebuilding to do after all of this was finished. His poor gaming rig had been reduced to a pile of spare parts. Honestly, if anyone in the pipeline ever contacted him about a job this big again, he'd probably just tell them to go sit on a cactus. Or at least be really salty about taking said job.

"This might take a little while," he said. "Gotta install the drivers, get the extender plugged into the power strip..." Within moments he was under the desk having a fight with one of the power strips connected to the battery backup, rearranging things until he could make room for the cord to the extender. "Got any music you like?"

"Depends. Am I limited in what media libraries I'm allowed to take it from?"

Ted grinned even as the dust under his not-desks had him stifling a sneeze in his elbow. "Dude, have you seen my library? Half of it is ripped straight off of video upload sites. I'm the last person who's gonna tell you where to go for that shit."

"True." Ted looked up from his work long enough to get a glimpse of the windows open on the laptop, trying to follow Adam's music search as it happened. To say it went a little fast would be an understatement; there was no way in hell he was keeping up. "It's a blend of different genres," Adam informed him. "Part symphonic, part electronic. It's also in Russian. You don't mind that, do you?"

"Not a bit." Just as long as he understood that Ted didn't speak a word of Russian. "Is that where you're from?"

There was no answer except the music as it started to play, and Ted dutifully hauled himself upright to listen.

It was pretty. Ted had no idea who the singer was when her voice entered the mix after a few bars of meandering piano and flowing strings. She had perfect pitch, whoever she was; the tone of her contralto voice made him think of long, flowing black hair framing long, elegant features. One of those fairytale maidens singing about longing and true love and all that profoundly schmoopy nonsense.

Then the beat dropped, and he envisioned the maiden tearing her dress asunder and climbing astride a winged steed while holding a battleaxe, and the longing contralto turned into a one-woman wail of anguish and howling righteousness.

"I would've loved this in high school," he said somewhere during the second chorus, awestruck. He was pretty sure there'd been some Latin in the lyrics somewhere, but he hadn't been listening very hard so it might've been a trick played on his ears. This along with something that sounded like it might've been either badly mangled English or even more badly mangled Esperanto, but he wasn't enough of an expert on linguistics to tell what the attempted lyrics were. It was exactly the kind of melancholic angsty nonsense he would've loved when he was fourteen, and at twenty-seven, he was seeing it as equal parts awesome and endearing.

Adam didn't respond until the song was over, letting it play out before saying anything. Was listening to the echo of it over the speakers and through the microphone different from reading the data of it, beyond a difference in audio quality? A question for another time, perhaps. "It's not what I usually listen to," the AI admitted, in the kind of tone one might use to describe their fondness for Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Room. "From what I've experienced so far, I prefer soundtracks over anything on the radio."

Ted snorted. "You nerd."

"I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"Only a nerd tries to justify their cheesier music choices. Just admit that you like this, I dunno, this symphonic emo Russian synth-EDM, and don't look back. I mean, I listen to show tunes."

"Show tunes?"

"Dude." By that point, Ted was grinning from ear to ear. "Broadway? Y'know, musicals. And big band stuff too, like Gershwin."

Several seconds of silence followed, then: "I regret asking."

"Alright, look. Lemme find some and I'll show you-"

"No, I believe you."

"I won't take long, I swear!"

"Ted..."

And this was how Ted dragged an AI into an hour's worth of Broadway sing-alongs, which the AI in question would later call 'torture', followed by Ted suddenly remembering his sandwich and bringing it into proceedings as well in the form of turning lyrics into nonsensical mumbling. This is also how it came to be that the camera did not get hooked up that evening. It didn't even occur to Ted to question why Adam seemed relieved when he gave up on it for the night, because he was having too much fun.

[philtaton]

The Apple of my Eye

My contribution to the @capri-anthology​. The gorgeous piece of art is made by the lovely @kitshunette​ and I was lucky enough to have @kiseopingu as my beta. 

Summary: Laurent shoots his iPhone. That's how it starts. Damen is the poor guy who is supposed to fix it and recover Laurent's pictures. He definitely finds more than he expects.

Read on AO3. 

"Can you or can you not recover the pictures from this phone?" The guy pushes his glasses back up for what has to be the hundredth time within an hour. By now Damen has realized that the more he tries to calm himself down, the more he does it. By now Damen also doesn't really care.

"Look," he tries once more, his voice forced into calm politeness, "this thing is trashed. I'm telling you, your new one is covered with your insurance, but I'm not sure how you expect me to recover anything from this phone. Because—and I can't stress this enough—there is a bullet hole in it."

"So you're telling me my apps and my music and my contacts and fucking everything is stored except for my pictures?”

Damen lifts his hand halfway to pinch the bridge of his nose when he becomes aware that this would be too much like pushing up glasses. Instead he folds his arms. "You didn't synchronize them into the cloud. It's your own fault."

The customer's lips flatten into a thin line and the little color left in his cheeks drains from his face. "I've had enough nice experiences with your cloud."

"Yeah, well..."

The miracle happens and the guy suddenly appears defeated. "I just… I thought it would at least synchronize with my laptop…"

Damen looks at him and he suddenly can't see the hipster haircut or the expensive clothes or the fancy shoulder bag anymore. All there's left in this moment is someone who is barely old enough to be called a man, but with enough sadness in his eyes to prompt old ladies to bake for him and dark circles that dissolve Damen's frustration into a mild irritation. "You have to synchronize them by hand…  I'm sorry."

The guy looks down at his phone and sighs. "Okay."

"Okay, Laurent… It's Laurent, right?" Damen has the name from the form the guy filled out. Laurent confirms it by nodding. "After a certain amount of damage it's just really hard to get any information off those things. But how about I try? And if I can get something—anything—we'll call it a happy day and if not, you won't blame me for not being able to fix this."

Laurent doesn't say anything for a moment. He just squints his eyes and stares, his head slightly tilted. Then he nods. "Okay. We have a deal."

The small smile sneaks up on Damen before he can keep it off his face. "Awesome, then I'll do that off hours and I'll give you a call as soon as I've made progress."

They shake hands and Laurent leaves. Damen shakes his head as soon as he notices that Laurent is pretty much exactly his type. He starts to wonder why he hasn't seen it earlier.

***

After five days of working, Damen manages to retrieve a first file. It's a picture of salad. Damen starts to wonder if this is really worth his time.

***

In the end he manages two-hundred-and-seventy-three pictures. A few of them are completely random shots and Damen is aware of it when he calls Laurent. There is more salad, for example. Or that screenshot of when he caught an Eevee in Pokémon Go. But there are also a lot of pictures that Damen is dying to know more about. He tries not to be offended when he introduces himself on the phone and Laurent doesn’t seem to recognize him at first, before he starts to refer to him as Apple-Guy, and then, iGuy. They arrange a time and a spot to meet and Damen saves all the images on two USB-sticks just to be sure he has them, ready to save the day.

***

When Damen arrives at the coffee shop, he notices that something isn't quite right. Laurent is still trying to sell this perfect façade, this time with dark skinny jeans and a blazer that has to cost more than what Damen makes in a month. His hair is styled, his shoes are polished and yet, there is a certain edge to his attire. Like someone who has spent the night in his clothes and has to go to work with them the next day.

Damen sits in the chair across from Laurent and immediately the guy squares his shoulders and holds his chin a little higher. "You could get the pictures?"

"Good morning to you too," Damen mumbles and rolls his eyes before he pulls out the USB drives. "I managed to retrieve some. Not all. One of them is for backup."

Laurent doesn't thank Damen, doesn't even look at him. He immediately pulls out his MacBook and opens the pictures, going through them until he apparently finds what he's looking for. He stills completely. A star standing still in a universe of planets. His eyes water and he has to force the tears away. It looks like he’s tearing himself out of his own feelings to get back into the present.

"Thank you," Laurent says, his voice hoarse and raw. "I'll pay you whatever you want."

Damen has a list. He wrote down working hours and even material costs. The invoice is formal and tucked into his bag, but something about Laurent pulls all of Damen's strings so instead of just asking the guy for money, he finds himself babbling. "Go out with me instead."

The softness vanishes from Laurent's eyes and suddenly he’s this other person again. The man Damen really wanted to kick out of his shop. "I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, come on," Damen tries in a soft and awkwardly flirty tone. "Mystery guy comes into my shop and pays whatever sum to get back pictures of salad. I just want to hear a little bit more about your story. Besides… I think you're cute."

Without a word Laurent pushes up, knocking back his chair in the process, and leaves so fast Damen has no chance to react. He's so stunned that he notices only once he’s back home that he neither has the money nor a date.

***

When Damen gets a text the next day, it consists of nothing but a time and the address. He smiles when the second text comes in and it solely says 'Tomorrow.'

***

Damen wouldn't have thought Laurent would come to a place like this. It's dark and cozy and every chair is different. Not in a fashionable way, either. It just looks like this place has been in business forever and the owner decided to get a random new chair whenever an old one broke. It's worn down and busy not with the usual city buzz but with waiters yelling orders into the kitchen and Italian curses being yelled back. A family business.

Laurent is already sitting in the corner and typing away on his MacBook when Damen arrives . Looks like he's always early and always working. He closes the computer once he spots Damen, frowning as if he had been expecting someone else.

"Nice place," Damen says and can't keep himself from smiling. Maybe it's because Laurent keeps scowling. "And thanks for meeting me."

Laurent just huffs. "I owe you. For the pictures. This is me paying my debt, that's all."

"Of course." Damen tilts his head and eyes Laurent suspiciously . The last time they saw each other , Damen already thought he looked a bit worn down. Today it's worse. "Are you okay?"

Laurent blinks in surprise. Damen has to wonder what it must be like when you're surprised by a question like that.

"Why?" Laurent asks instead of giving an answer.

"Because you act like someone who's on the run," Damen says without thinking. He knows he pushed the wrong buttons when Laurent once again jumps up , ready to leave. This time Damen is faster, though. He reaches out, grasping Laurent's wrist. He would have expected anger about that, but not the pure disgust he finds on Laurent's face.

"Let go of me," Laurent snarls quietly.

Damen lifts his hands and leans back in his chair. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. Just… Don't leave yet. Please."

"Did he send you?"

Damen frowns in confusion. "Who?"

Laurent looks at him for a very long moment. Then, very cautiously, he sits down again, his back straighter now and his head held a little higher than before. The tension between them is thick when a waiter appears next to their table and asks what they want. Laurent orders for both of them. Damen doesn't object.

***

They spend a long while in relative silence except for a small exchange about the weather . Damen starts to regret that he kept Laurent from leaving and he knows that he will sit there struggling with the awkwardness for the rest of the evening. Much to his surprise it's Laurent who breaks the silence.

"Do you want my olives?" Laurent asks and Damen looks up from his plate to find Laurent's eyes on him.

"Why did you order that pizza if you don't like olives?" Damen hears the crankiness in his own voice and he can’t help but wonder how someone he barely knows can affect his mood so much.

"I like the dark ones." Laurent pokes an olive with his fork and rolls it away from his pizza. "The green ones are gross."

Damen reaches over and takes one of the olives, plopping one into his mouth. "I like them."

"My brother used to eat my olives," Laurent says and licks his lips. There is something in his voice that makes Damen still. "We were close. He died six months ago. Exactly six months ago."

Damen swallows hard. "I'm sorry."

Laurent shakes his head, dismissing the apology. There is a moment of silence before Laurent starts to speak again, more to himself than to Damen. "I just didn't want to be alone tonight. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to go on a date with a complete stranger."

Damen should be offended, but for some reason he's isn’t. He can just sense Laurent's sadness and the melancholia and he wants to do something about it. Lift his spirits . "I'm hardly a stranger."

Laurent lifts his eyebrows and gives Damen a look that makes him blush from embarrassment. "Is that so?"

Damen chuckles. "I know you like salad enough to take pictures of it, for example. I know you like animals because you took a gazillion pictures of random puppies on the street. I know that you were wearing your hair long until about three weeks ago. I know that you're a secret nerd because you play Pokémon Go with enough enthusiasm to take screenshots. And—I know that you don't like green olives. But you do like the dark ones."

Laurent stares at Damen with wide eyes and Damen has no idea what to expect when Laurent lets out a small laugh. His whole face transforms. There's a spark in his eyes and color in his cheeks. Laughing suits him.

"I know nothing about you," Laurent says, stealing a slice of pizza from Damen. "You get my olives in exchange of that…"

Damen rolls his eyes. "What do you want to know? Aside from the fact that I usually don't tolerate pizza thieves."

Laurent shrugs and chews. "Surprise me with random knowledge."

"I like animals too," Damen starts, snatching another olive from Laurent's plate. "I thought I was a dog person until I got a cat. Now I know better. I would run around hungry if I only ate salad. I get cranky when I'm hungry. I hate getting haircuts. That's why I'll wear my hair long forever. Oh, and I love olives of every size and color."

"Favorite movie?" Laurent asks.

"The Godfather," Damen replies without much hesitation.

Laurent laughs again. "Unofficial favorite movie?"

Damen feels heat rise on his cheeks. Nobody has called him out on that. Ever. "The Princess Bride. But don't tell anyone."

"As you wish," Laurent says with a small nod, an amused smile on his lips.

Damen smiles back. "Told you. We're not strangers anymore."

"Maybe."

It's a small admission but one that makes Damen feel bold enough to give into his curiosity. "Why is there a bullet hole in your phone? I mean… You don't look like someone who owns a gun."

Laurent puts down his slice of pizza and takes a sip of water. Damen can see the wheels in his head turning. "My family has a ranch. Regardless of how I feel about weapons, I know how to use them."

"And you decided to use your phone as target practice?"

Laurent looks Damen straight in the eyes. His stare is intense and Damen squirms. "I'm supposed to be at home. My mom died soon after I was born and my dad died in the same car accident as my brother. My father's last will says that I will inherit the family business as soon as I graduate from college and that my Uncle will get twenty-five percent of the company in return for taking care of everything until I can take over."

Damen frowns. "Complicated story, huh?"

Laurent huffs again, but this time it's pure bitterness. "I don't necessarily… get along… with my Uncle. So three weeks ago I packed my stuff and left. I'll return once I have my degree. Until then I'd rather stay away from him. But he's sending people after me. Private investigators. And some other people. The gun was a precaution."

"Are you kidding me?" To Damen the whole thing sounds like a mob story. "You don't think he's gonna hurt you, do you? I mean… He'd get caught. People don't really get away with stuff like that in real life."

"He doesn't really have to hurt me, just my reputation," Laurent says with a sigh and Damen thinks that he looks tired again. Not just lack-of-sleep tired. Bone-crushing-exhaustion tired. "Apparently he managed to convince my family’s lawyers that I'm not just unfit to run a company yet, but that I also can't be trusted with my family's money. Since it's tied to the business, they agreed. I got the call from my Uncle that I can either return home or try to get my degree without any financial backup. He cut me off. I got mad. So I ended my facetime with him and his lawyers with a Glock 42."

Now it's Damen's turn to raise his eyebrows. Definitely a mob story.  "You shot your phone because you got mad at your Uncle?"

Laurent looks bored. Like it's the most normal thing in the world. "He should be glad he didn't decide to tell me in person."

Damen takes a mental note never to cross Laurent. Or his Glock. Then his attention gets drawn to another aspect of Laurent's story. "Do you know how to get by? Will you be able to get money?"

"I have a small savings account that is in my name alone," Laurent says with a small nod. "It's not much, but it will get me through college if I'm smart about it."

"Dire times?" Damen asks with a grin.

Laurent sighs dramatically. "No more fancy restaurants for the next two years."

Damen winks. "Unless someone else is paying."

Amusement makes the corners of Laurent's mouth curl up. "Unless someone else is paying."

***

That night, Laurent falls into bed cursing himself and the entire universe. He should have learned a long time ago to be more careful. Usually he is. But Damen is just an Apple guy in a big city and the chances of him being on his Uncle's pay roll are so incredibly low…

Still. Laurent starts to think about how easy it would be for Damen just to call his Uncle and tell him where he is. What he's up to. In times like these, every piece of information is worth money and money is the key to power, the key to everything.

Laurent puts away his glasses and rubs his face. He definitely shouldn't have trusted a stranger like that. But then he thinks about the way Damen looked at him, approaching his vulnerabilities with little pity or judgement and no malice at all. Laurent needed it. Just for one evening. He needed someone around him to bicker with, to talk to. Someone to steal pizza from.

He turns to lie on his stomach, burying his face in his pillow. One evening of letting down his guard. He tells himself he deserved it. Tomorrow he will straighten up and keep going. No more mistakes like today. He'll just bottle this evening up as a good memory. In his head , it sounds like a solid plan. At least until the next day when he gets a message from Damen. It's a picture of a glass of dark olives. A second later his phone vibrates again and the text comes through.

'Dinner at my place? I'll make Greek salad.'

***

"I can't believe this." Laurent pushes up his glasses before crossing his arms in frustration. "Where did my pictures go?"

Damen peeks around the corner and frowns when he sees Laurent glaring at the computer, quickly walking over to lean over his boyfriend's shoulder. He's learned his lesson and doesn't suggest the cloud again. If Laurent has his problems with it, then Damen will leave it be. "Have you synchronized your old computer the way I told you?"

"You literally painted me a picture, Damen. It was pretty easy to follow the instructions."

The small instruction sheet Damen drew for Laurent, complete with IKEA stick figures, lies crumbled up next to the computer. Damen chuckles. He's well aware that Laurent is currently pissed, but tech stuff is pretty much the only thing where Damen has the upper hand. And yes, he sometimes enjoys that a little bit too much.

"Let me have a look." Laurent moves away and Damen clicks himself through the computer, searching for what Laurent is looking for. He finds the pictures after only a few minutes but Laurent still has been breathing down his neck the entire time. "There you go."

Laurent lets out a sound of pure relief and he wraps his arms around Damen's shoulders, kissing his cheek. "Thanks, iGuy."

Damen chuckles once more and turns his head to give Laurent a proper kiss. "Hey, you never told me why those pictures are that important to you. Is it Eevee? It's Eevee, right?"

Laurent rolls his eyes, but his smile shows his amusement for what it is. Then he hums and blushes, opening the folder with the pictures Damen retrieved for him almost two years ago. He clicks on a picture that opens full size and shows Laurent hugging another man. Both of them are laughing. "That's the last picture of me and my brother."

Damen immediately feels guilty for making fun of Laurent earlier. "I'm sorry."

Laurent shakes his head. He's never been good at accepting apologies. "I like my Eevee too, by the way."

With another laugh, Damen pulls Laurent into his arms and kisses him softly. He spots a familiar spark in Laurent's eyes. Mischief. "What is it?"

"There's another picture that's important to me." Laurent grins as he opens another folder and scrolls through it until he finds what he's looking for. He opens that as well and Damen's heart skips a beat before he grins as well.

It's a picture of Greek salad.

[imaginingsvt]

Three:Project Shining Diamond

// what was originally supposed to be a scenario turned into this instead? inspired and based off this video HERE. all credits for the video go to @hoon-seok

// warnings: fighting everywhere omg how many times do i have to warn this, mentions of drugs, mentions of murder, is prison a warning??, holding people hostage?

// sneak peek: “Seungcheol?” And it all goes to Hell. It’s Y/N. It’s Y/N’s voice. She’s crying, sobbing on the phone, heavy breathing and choked cries as loud as the heart pounding fast in S.Coups’ chest. He knows it’s Y/N - he’s only fallen in love with that voice too many times. “Seungcheol? Are… are you there? Please. Please, Cheol… help me.”

// seungcheol x reader

// word count: 2445

// PROLOGUE | ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR (FINAL) |

   After the occurrence of meeting Bangtan Boys and being handed the USB in which S.Coups later listened to with Woozi, he’d decided two things.

  The first thing he’d decided was that nobody was to know of what was on that USB.

  S.Coups had listened to the single audio file on it again, and again, and again. He’d listened to it until he memorized the poem, until he could pinpoint the exact moments in which Y/N let out a choked sob, breathed heavily in, made her voice crack. He’d listened to it until it was burned into his memory like an annoying song on the radio that looped on for infinity. He’d listened to it until it’d become his worst nightmare, and tinged every single part of his brain in a dark soulless color that could resonate only the sound of his deepest love’s sorrow and fear.

  And after Seungcheol had memorized the downright sound wave of that heart aching audio file, he’d thrown the entire USB into a burning flame he’d lit on his very desk. The action had been in fear and dread, and Seungcheol could still feel the hot tears rolling down his cheeks as Jeonghan’s loud scolding filled his ears, trying to put out the fire that had already eaten away at his desk and the only remnants of the person he loved so dearly.

  Jihoon had sworn he wouldn’t tell anyone about the audio file, albeit in hesitance, and Seungcheol felt a pang of guilt in his chest every time they accidentally shared eye contact.

  The others were, of course, curious about the sudden change in attitude from both of them as well as the desk fire once they’d heard about it, but Seungcheol had done his best to assure them that nothing was wrong. The last thing he needed was for the rest of the gang to be in the same constant state of depression and paranoia that he himself was experiencing at this moment. Besides, wasn’t it S.Coups’ job as a leader to take the burden?

  The second thing he’d decided was that it was time to stay low.

  Everybody in Seventeen was instructed to fall off the grid. Attracting attention to the gang was forbidden, picking fights with others found punishable. And while some were annoyed and disappointed of the new rules (Joshua, Dino, and DK to only name a few), others were glad for the break granted after the stress and initial gloom of no longer having Y/N around with them.

  Of course, this second decision didn’t go exactly as planned, if even at all.

  The first day these new rules had been established, Seungcheol had received a rather anxious phone call from Seungkwan, who was asking for backup after they’d indulged themselves in a fight with a rival gang, BLACKPINK. S.Coups could still remember the nerves in Seungkwan’s voice as he spoke.

  “S.Coups,” He’d breathed out at the time. Seungcheol could hear shouting and muttering in the background. “I… we… we need a favor. I know you said we had to stay low and lay off the fighting but… well, we’re kind of stuck here.” S.Coups had gritted his teeth.

  “If you’re gonna say something, Seungkwan, you better say it quick. I’m not about to let you waste my time after you disobeyed my rules.” There’d been a pause on the other end.

  “Vernon, Dino, and I… we’re in a fight with BLACKPINK. Three against four, S.Coups. These girls don’t play nice either. We need backup, we’re really getting our asses kicked.” The faint sound of police sirens and shouts for help from his own members in the background had startled Seungcheol. In fact, it had startled him enough to momentarily forget his anger and fury towards the three boys.

  “I’m sending Joshua and Mingyu. Let this happen again, Seungkwan, and I’ll kick your ass.” The second time somebody disobeyed Seungcheol’s rules, it’d only a few days after the previous incident with BLACKPINK.

  The news was delivered to him in an ill tempered tone from Mingyu on a late night when he said, “Attempted murder and massive bank robbery. Jeonghan and Joshua are in prison right now. Our sources say we need to get them out fast before they uncover the entirety of Seventeen.” In a span of two and a half hours, Seungcheol had come up with a foolproof plan to get both of his members out of prison the next morning that involved bringing the whole gang together - a risk, but one S.Coups was willing to take to save his family.

  When the event of the actual escape came along, the gang was divided into three different groups: S.Coups, Jun, Woozi, Mingyu, and THE8 in Team A, Hoshi, DK, and Seungkwan in Team B, and Wonwoo, Vernon, and Dino in Team C. With that, each team was assigned a truck as they headed to the prison in an anxious and excited bunch.

  Wonwoo, whose team was currently ahead of everyone else’s, got excited when he saw the gates of the prison drawing nearer and nearer, and he could only barely make out the sight of people in the courtyard, lumbering around in their enclosed, miserable state.

  “Floor it.” Dino’s voice is just barely audible over the anticipation of getting Jeonghan and Joshua out of prison, but there’s no mistaking the smile in his voice. Wonwoo takes a steady breath, licks his lips, and then presses hard on the gas, the truck lurching forward at a heart racing pace. Team B, who’s right behind them, doesn’t take the time to watch the truck’s sudden speed before they’re racing forward as well. It’s Team A who takes precaution in the territory of the prison.

  Vernon, who’s sitting in the passenger seat of Team C, feels his heart creeping increasingly faster up his chest and throat, his teeth grinding harder together as the gate comes closer, and closer, and - it crashes open as the truck hits it at full speed.

  There’s a moment’s hesitation in the prison, a moment when all the inmates and guards are stunned at what’s happened, but Team C takes no time to waste as they open their doors and start firing with guns and other dangerous weapons. It’s almost like a knock-off James Bond movie in slow motion before everyone else seems to have come back to life in a few seconds. And then it’s chaotic.

  Team B has pulled up behind Team C, firing anything they can at the guards as well to keep them distracted. There’s inmates everywhere - some fleeing through the open spaces of the gate, some trying to get inside the trucks, others fighting against the trucks, and even some running back to the prison itself.

  Dino catches the sight of Jeonghan in the crowd - the only male with long black hair that’s strolling casually through the chaotic scene with a charming smile on his face. Joshua is not far behind him, laughing in joy as if he’s witnessing a comedic theater act.

  “Hurry the hell up!” Dino shouts loudly. They don’t have time to act this out like it’s some kind of made up story. “We can’t wait up on a couple of pretty boys!” Jeonghan tsks loud enough so Dino can hear, and Joshua laughs.

  “Is that anyway to speak to your elders?” Joshua chastises. Jeonghan laughs as they walk past Team C’s truck, heading for Team A. Jeonghan frowns at the annoyed expression on Chan’s face.

  “Oh, come on, Dino. You look so much more handsome with a smile. Come on, who’s baby are you?” Dino rolls his eyes and goes back to firing at the guards. They drive back after they’ve gotten the signal from S.Coups, and both Jeonghan and Joshua alternate from changing trucks at least six times on the way back to base.

  And despite all the trouble they’d gone through as a team to save Jeonghan, Joshua, and Seventeen as a whole, it seems like it’s almost done for nothing. Because just the next day, Seungcheol receives a tip from the same source as last time that Woozi is being suspected of some gang related crimes that could earn him an entire life sentence in prison. S.Coups is forced to have Jihoon fall off the grid for a couple weeks to clear everything up.

  And a couple days after that, S.Coups gets word of an old gang murder and finds out Jun and THE8 are the top suspects, which, as it turns out, S.Coups himself can remember giving them the order for the murders just some months ago. It’s almost as if somebody is purposely trying to get the entirety of Seventeen in trouble.

  Seungcheol is almost sure of the fact when he has to pull a favor from a crooked cop after Hoshi, Wonwoo, and DK are caught smuggling drugs across the border to Russia, Japan, and China. It would’ve been one of their biggest sales, had it not been for the mysterious snitch.

  But S.Coups is grateful, because it’s at this moment that everything begins to calm down. There’s been no trouble from authorities, other gangs, and the like, and all the members have managed to stay at base together for the past four days.

  The clock in Seungcheol’s office strikes 12:02 in the morning when he receives a phone call for the first time in four days. He’s tired, exasperated at the assumption that somebody’s gotten in trouble again, and S.Coups doesn’t answer at first as he picks at the burnt pieces of material on his desk, insomnia eating away at him like the dark melody of the poem that won’t stop repeating itself in his mind. The phone stops ringing, and there’s a faint echo of the sound still lingering in the room. But before it’s gone, his phone is ringing again, and Seungcheol can hear it louder than before, can feel the annoyance panging at his mind’s eye.

  Something of a growl and a grunt come rasping from his throat at the same time as S.Coups picks up the phone with tremendous frustration, a knot in his chest winding up all the stress and anxiety he’s felt these past weeks.

  “What is it this time?” Seungcheol all but shouts into the phone, anger gnawing away at the annoyance in his mind. But it all soon fades away as fast as its crept upon him, because S.Coups can hear choked crying and quiet sobbing on the other line. His eyebrows fall from their angered knit and he’s suddenly worried about the person on the other end.

  “Seungcheol?” And it all goes to Hell. It’s Y/N. It’s Y/N’s voice. She’s crying, sobbing on the phone, heavy breathing and choked cries as loud as the heart pounding fast in S.Coups’ chest. He knows it’s Y/N - he’s only fallen in love with that voice too many times. “Seungcheol? Are… are you there? Please. Please, Cheol… help me.”

  “Y/N?” Seungcheol can’t help but let his tone of voice fall into something desperate and worried, and he’s clutching the phone with both hands, almost like he’s afraid somebody will take it away from him any moment now. “Y/N, what’s going on? Where are you? Are you okay?” A loud sob comes from the reception, and it’s nothing like S.Coups has ever heard before. He finds his heart aching at the sound, can feel his entire being deteriorate at the sound of the person he’s loved so much… in so much pain.

  “Seungcheol, please.” The sobbing is getting progressively louder and more desperate. “I need help! Help me! I’m - I’m alone. Nobody can help me. I just want to go home!” Then there’s the sound of hyperventilating, and Seungcheol quickly sits back in his chair.

  “Y/N, calm down. It’s okay, alright? You know I’ll always help you. Just tell me where you are. Tell me where you are, and we’ll be there as soon as we can.” There’s a long pause, one that almost frightens him that the call’s been ended, but then the voice is there again.

  “It’s - It’s a carnival! Some miles away from Bangtan Boys’ base. AKMU knows where it’s at. Just please, Cheol! Come help me! Some gang - they’ve got me hostage! I need help!” There’s a strange pause before Y/N repeats her last sentence in the same exact manner and tone before it cuts altogether and a long beep follows afterwards. Seungcheol slams the phone back down before he finds his heart is racing faster than it’s ever done before.

  In an anxious manner, S.Coups runs both hands through his hair, holds his face as he finds he’s hyperventilating just as Y/N was before, and he’s confused and reeling with a thousand emotions clogging his rational mind all at the same time. Seungcheol slams open the door of his office faster than his mind can tell him not to, and he finds a few of the boys are sitting around a table, a game of poker momentarily forgotten as they stared at their frantic leader.

  “Supplies, weapons, we need it all! It all goes in the vans! Wake up everyone! We’re leaving now!” They sit there in shock for a couple seconds. “Did you hear me? I said we’re leaving now! Get the hell up, and get everyone and everything to the vans! We need to save Y/N!” At once, they’re up from their seats, some rushing to the dorms to awaken those sleeping, and others scurrying to the weapon and supply rooms.

  It’s not ‘til almost everyone is outside waiting in the vans that Seungcheol realizes he’s been too lost in his anxious and frantic manner to see that Woozi was the only one left inside the base besides him. The boy is staring at him, arms crossed with an expression of worry on his face.

  “Should we really leave today, S.Coups?” Seungcheol’s at a loss for words, sentences reeling in his mouth with ideas and thoughts of what Y/N might be tomorrow if they don’t arrive today.

  “Of course we’re leaving today! We have to save her! She’s our family.” A look of hurt falls over Woozi’s face. He steps closer, pulls his coat tighter around his body.

  “S.Coups… it’s the first of October.” An entire poem that Seungcheol has been muttering like a torturous mantra suddenly comes rushing back to him with an impact like a train hitting his entire body.

  S.Coups feels his heart drop to his stomach.

//admin miely//

[blccdsport]

the hacker and the detective: a lenry!au

❝ although you love me, sometimes  we're mean, things can get ugly, but  we're still a team, we are an army,  that breaks from within, but that's why  we're stronger, and that's how we'll win❞ 

@sh4m3less

so, basically while watching this show lately it’s had me thinking about a lenry!au, mainly because it just seems like it genuinely fits them as an au? which is always cool considering they’re probably the hardest ship to fit to any au’s because they’re difficult and problematic™.

anyway, i’m a sucker for making aesthetic’s and i really wanted to for this so that’s a thing. i’m gonna explain kinda the whole plot/idea of what this is about below so enjoy n whatnot.  as usual, if anything seems inaccurate to you or you can’t see it hit me up w/that good shit aka call me the fuck out yo. 

playlist:  because look it’s another thing i’m a slut for, playlists!! to be honest, some of the songs on there are ones i legit just took from a lenry playlist that already exists but w/e. and to be honest, i came across a couple of songs that fit them out of this au too and tbh it was a good time like i’m loving some of these okay shutting up now.

https://open.spotify.com/user/thelittlestmermaid./playlist/0qN62fP9Lm50jBF9iaJul0

plot:

okay so, i wanted to try dodge a part of the tv show plot because i wasn’t sure about applying it to liz but one, it’s an au so, and two, it’s kind of necessary in a way. but basically, in the show at the very very beginning, the main character’s little sister gets kidnapped like, right in front of her, and there wasn’t anything she could actually do about it and it was really messed up. while i couldn’t see it happening in terms of lowri/liz because i just genuinely can’t picture it, part of me considered it happening with liz/karma? just because karma is younger and like the main character in the show she feels a responsibility for her so when she’s kidnapped it really messed her up. 

anyway, that’s key to the plot because the police literally don’t do much in terms of helping, well, liz, find karma. which leads her to take matters into her own hands. instead, she sets up an online chat group for other people in a similiar situation and using the information she’s given by people she speaks to, she hacks into different websites to try and help others find their lost loved ones. which also means going as far as hacking into the police databases. 

at some point, the nypd begin to catch on to her, and so they send someone undercover to try and get close to liz and find out if she’s really fucking with their systems and what in general she’s actually up to. which in this case, the guy they send under cover is henry’s partner. so, mr. partner flirts his way into liz’s life and into her business and they kinda get this thing going and eventually he catches her out and realizes she’s been hacking a bunch of different websites like not just the police databases but like, she’s a literal pro hacker so basically they end up putting her on parole for like six months. which, liz is majorly fucked off about not just because helo she’s stuck with a fucking ankle monitor and is now a known criminal because she liked the guy too? and he just kinda completely fucked her over and no not okay.

so, eventually she gets out on parole and whatnot, but the day she goes to get her monitor removed mr. partner is chilling there waiting for her and liz is v v bitter like ?? pal wyd here? and he basically explains he thinks he should be the one to clear her and she’s kinda lmao why because you’re the reason it’s there orrrrr? but mr. partner guy apologizes for what happened n stuff and is basically lowkey still tryna get in her pants because he liked her too and whatever.

okay so, in the show this chick has this rly cute best friend n she owns a club and she’s just, i love her a lot she’s a great character which, in this au i see being liv? like, liz and liv would be living together or at least how i see it like i’m just going off the show here okay. and liv has this really cool underground club and just, yes. but so liz comes to said club like lmfao guess who just cleared me blah blah. 

so, then a little later on liz n liv are going back to said club and liv mentions that she set liz up on a dating app because honey u need to get over mr. detective this bad. which liz is super ?!?! about at first because rip why. but anyway liz ends up chillin’ in this club and basically being approached by a bunch of guys from this app for the rest of the night n whatnot cool cool. that probably doesn’t seem important but the dating app thing is to the general plot oKAy.

so, she decided to leave which helo welcome to her first encounter w/henry since she seen him last which was likely when she was getting put on parole tbh. so, basically from minute one it’s legit just :)))))))) with one another bc fucking hate ur guts well i hate urs too. but henry basically calls her out like, you know you were on parole you weren’t supposed to put your hands near a computer n shit. because the entire time she’s gotten herself a job at a big corporation company where she can easily do her little hacking work and try help find missing people on a completely different server rather than her home one and he’s like. :-)))) if i was you :-)))) i’d get a job in a big company where i can camouflage myself :-)))) also :-))) we have several invalid log ins to the missing persons debatable js js :-))))) sounds kinda like you :-))))) which has liz like well lol someone has got to do the job that you won’t so. and henry is kinda like lol just because my partner ol’ pal has a thing for you doesn’t mean i won’t arrest you if i need to soOooO.

so liz walks off after that and while she’s on her way back to her n liv’s she gets a text like hey was rly good meeting you tonight to which she’s like ?? new phone who dis? and in the process almost gets hit by a car because no looking where she’s going which the next text ends up being “ouch, that could’ve hurt.” aka leaving liz like?? what the actual fuck?? so the minute she gets home basically she starts searching up each of the guys she spoke to like trying to find out who the fuck it was and in the process gets sent a bunch of pictures from when she almost got hit by the car and she realizes her webcam is on and what the frickle someone is watching me? 

but anyway she talks it out with liv when she gets back and liz decided she wants to go on a date with three of the guys from the app she was using because she suspects its one of those guys. so flash forward to the dates, which are back in that same club n liz is chilling like talking to these guys one at a time and convinces them with an excuse of finding this really addictive game on her phone for them to give her theirs so she can ‘download it’ which in that case she actually installs a tracker and allows herself the access into their phones whenver she pleases. while this is happening liv was lowkey a lil concerned because mm i don’t really want my friend dying so mr. detective ends up there which liz does not likey at all whatsoever because he realizes what she’s doing with the hacking shit and tries to get her to stop the whole date thing.

also, bonus is in that scene the best friend is like “i thought this guy was cheating on me once.. i know, what idiot would cheat on me? but i got her to hack his phone and i watched his every move.” and idk that seems very liv which make’s me laugh like just that start bit.

anyway, liz accidentally picks up one of the wrong phones n goes to retrieve her phone from the one guy that it was but lmAo. because when she does find the guy plot twist he’s dead.

so, she instantly goes to detective boi n his partner aka our fave grump henry haddock. and basically they tried to find where the texts were coming from but it’s just, it’s amusing because she asks to use one of the computers and the guy i basically see henry as is like lol if you can behave yeah maybe. and then legit two seconds later liz takes out this usb like lol so hey this isn’t legal and he’s just ??????? *insert v dramatic eye roll here.*

but it’s just a lot of, her showing them the fact she hacked into the dating app and then cross referenced it to the nypd database which results in just banter between her n henry because he’s just ?? ffs woman?? 

but they figure out that someone is using the app to stalk n kill people so that’s a thing too.

anYWay. so, mr. detective takes liz home n doesn’t wanna let her out of his sights because yano she’s being stalked by a possible serial killer so. but that basically turns into the two of them hooking up n there’s feelings there and all that good shit so.

okay so, while liz is at work in the shitty business place, her computer gets hacked by this stalker serial killer guy and he shows footage of inside her and liv’s apartment which liv is currently walking around in and basically liz is like !! fuck !! because it shows a figure walking around in all black and liz calls her but she doesn’t answer and so she calls detective guy and is freaking out tf. so both her and detective guy start heading toward the apartment and just as liz calls liv again she’s like ?? honey like i’m at the club what are you talking about i’m fine?? aka liz is now like holy fucking shit it was a recording and cop guy is up there and fuck because he’s now not answering his phone either. 

so when liz does get to the apartment there is this weird mannequin doll sitting w/a laptop and when the screen lights up mr cop guy is on there and he starts getting all !! please don’t come looking for me !! but liz recognizes where he is which is the roof of their apartment building so she goes up looking for him and well :-))))))))))))))))))

:-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

did you guess it??? he’s dead lmfao. 

but he’d called backup before he came so lol henry lands up to the roof and o there’s a very upset usually sassy blonde and o there’s my dead partner well fuck and tbh in the show he legit drags the chick away from the body which is kinda an emotional time i cried my lil bitch ass heart out but anywho.

i liTERALLY JUST WROTE THE ENTIRE FULL FIRST EPISODE AM I OKAY.

i’m trying not to miss any details even though it’s just an au like i’m not trying to be super specific to the show or anything but it’s just there’s a lot of little things that i felt need to explained and added in because they’re important to the general plot?

but basically like, after that i mean i haven’t watched all the episodes yet but i’m genuinely fucking living for the idea of liz and henry then working together. because in the show that’s what happens originally liz is working alone like she always does and she’s back flirting with the two guys from the app from before and trying to figure out which one killed detective guy but it’s fucking with henry’s plan because he’s trying to catch both those guys also because they’re suspects and she’s making it rly difficult when she’s around them too. and there’s this whole scene where he’s parked outside the club and ends up calling her because she walks out with the guy like. :-))))))) we found a body this morning :-))))))) js js :-))))))))))) stop fucking with my shit :-))))))))))) so liz chick is like hA SHIt oKAY goTta GET mE OutTA thiS. coOL Cool. 

but then liz gets approached by a member of the nypd who has figured out that she’s been working the case herself and brings her in like look we could help you and you could help us yano yano. so she teams up with them and it’s beneficial for them both because they get to keep an eye on her and she gets to use their resources. but henry doesn’t appreciate this?? no?? wtf?? get her out?? this bitch fr?? especially because liz decides she’s gonna go on a date with one of the guys they’ve figured is their top suspect of the moment and she has to wear one of those mic’s on her dress and henry guy has to follow the car there and shit.

whICH

THERE IS LITERALLY ONE OF THE BEST SCENES AT THAT POINT AND IT FUCKS ME UP OKAY. 

because liz chick is standing across the street from where he’s parked like. 

“testing testing, how do i look? say what you want it’s not like i can hear you anyway” 

bUT HE FUCKING

SAYS

“beautiful”

anD YOU’RE LIKE

FAM

TF

???????????????????????//

but it’s just like, once she started working with the nypd it hit me how this could be made into a lenry au? because they’re super sassy with one another and it’s basically how lenry are/were with like, it’s very clear they dislike one another but over time feelings v v much grow and it’s just a fucking shitshow tbh because they’re both so ?? i mean basically lenry so it fits like a glove fr. 

BUT LIKE. I WAS THINKING OF THE CANONS THAT COME FROM THAT LIKE. SO SO SO MANY GOOD CANONS OKAY. 

like legit, the entire time she was on the fake date i kept thinking of it as lenry in tha position which it kinda fucks me up because the stalker guy like, hacks into this boat bridge so that henry guys car has to stop following liz girl and her date and momentarily her signal disapears and you can see him genuinely start to freak out like he’s really fucking mad and you’re like what the fuck you care?? what/? bUT IDK MAN OKAY I’M JUST LIVING FOR THIS AND THE AESTHETIC IN GENERAL OF LIKE, LIZ AS A HACKER?? AND HENRY AS A DETECTIVE?? LIKE?? CAN WE??

because i feel like it’s not even unrealistic roles to put them into either?? i’m just really living for this okay so i just needed to share the whole idea of it and whatnot

and it’s just, on top of all the development of their relationship they’re still trying to find this killer/stalker?? and there’s a lot of people still dying and just general shit going down like. 

and the killer keeps leaving clues for liz chick like she figures out why he’s doing what he’s doing and what his method is? which is basically that people portray themselves as perfect and whatnot on social media so when he meets them in real life he finds their flaws and it makes him angry so he targets their flaws in his method of killing. the reason he’s so intrigued by liz chick is because he believes she’s perfect so.

but also like, the best friend throws liz chick a surprise birthday party which at that party the best friend is busy and henry guy was there for a little bit because he had walked up to her apartment with her because there was word that the stalker guy was still out doing stuff and whatever but he leaves because he gets a call but while everyone is distracted liz chick starts feeling really fucked up and then stalker guy kidnaps her but it’s literally only so he can make her watch as he kills one of their suspects and it’s just super fucked up so all this shit would be going on too and just yep.

now to fade out into oblivion because this is ridiculously long noice noice. adios. 

[lightningbuggie]

Honour Among Operatives - Sombra&Baptiste

Hey guys! I haven’t seen many fics exploring the friendship between Sombra and Baptiste, so I thought I’d write one myself! Enjoy :)

She didn’t particularly stand out when he first saw her. Short woman with short hair dyed red and cuts in her eyebrows. The only notable things about her were her Spanish accent and sharp purple eyes. They weren’t ever placed in the same squad on missions, so he had no real reason to speak to her.

He did hear things though. He’d been told that she was an incredible hacker, having run with a gang and taken down a few massive global organizations even before being recruited for Talon. He wondered what Talon was doing with someone that seemed so evil, but he decided to let it slide. She was not someone he ever wanted anything to do with, but as fate would have it, he didn’t have much of a choice.

Talon was infiltrating and collecting information from a small omnic militia group in Central America. Baptiste’s team was placed on the backlines, guarding an exit to the building and making sure that whatever backup the omnic group called couldn’t make it inside. Baptiste was in charge of keeping the Talon agents alive. Sombra and Reaper were at the heart of the mission, hacking and slashing (respectively) their way through to the military computers, wherein she would collect whatever they had asked her to.

It started off smoothly. The omnics had called for backup, but Baptiste’s crew was able to hold them off just fine. That is, until the mechs started coming in. Suddenly the Talon foot soldiers were tasked with fighting machines that towered above them like gods, and the mission began to fall apart. Baptiste heard Reaper tell everyone to evacuate in his earpiece, and the entire group, including him, scattered. Baptiste lost sight of the others within minutes, forcing him to find safety in an abandoned parking lot that was out of the way enough that he felt comfortable taking a moment to breath. Though as he did so, something caught his eye.

A small, purple device, with a ray of light emanating vertically above it, sat in a dark corner of the lot.  He tried to call out to his group in his earpiece, but there was no response - no signal. Baptiste held his gun out in front of him and carefully walked toward the device. It didn’t look like a bomb, but he couldn’t be too careful. When he was within a meter of the metal gadget, the ray of light brightened until it was blinding. Baptiste instinctively dived behind a pillar and braced for impact, but instead of an explosion, he heard a grunt of pain and the slam of a body against concrete. He peered around the pillar and his jaw dropped as he saw Sombra, bleeding, with a leg that was clearly broken, lying on the floor where the device had been. She made eye contact with him and instantly reached for her gun, but kept it holstered when she took in his Talon attire.

“Hey doc, could use a hand here.” She spoke through bloody teeth.

Baptiste walked over to the hacker, pulling out his medical supplies from the pouch on his side.

“Your leg is broken.” He said, while collecting the materials for a tourniquet.

“Is it? You’re really good at your job.” Her sarcasm unrestrained.

“I could just leave you here to die, you know.”

“Haha, alright alright. I’ll be good.” She replied, but the smirk on her face told him that she was anything but.

He got to work cleaning up her wounds. She winced occasionally, but it was clear she was trying to keep herself in check, refraining from showing weakness even to a fellow Talon recruit.

The silence between them was getting uncomfortable, so Baptiste tried his hand at small talk.

“What happened?”

“We weren’t ready for the mechs. There’s more going on here than we thought.” She shrugged.

“What do you mean?”

She evaded his question. “At least it’s done.”

“Mission failed then?”

She laughed at that. Loud enough that Baptiste immediately looked around them to make sure know one heard it, but she didn’t even bother to lower her voice as she continued.

“You think I’d let them mess me up like that and not make sure I got what I needed? No manchez. ” She held up a USB stick and wiggled it in front of him. “Mission successful, doctor.”

“I’m not a doctor.” He said as he finished his makeshift cast on her leg.

She slipped the USB back into her pocket. “Well, you could’ve fooled me.”

Baptiste helped her rise to her feet, letting her lean the majority of her weight on his shoulder. He spilled the rest of his rubbing alcohol on the floor, washing the blood off the concrete and watching it disappear down a drain.

“Jean-Augustine Baptiste. It’s a good name.” She said to no one in particular.

“You know my name?”

“It’s my job to know things, amigo .”

“Talon keeps tight records on everyone, huh?”

“Not anymore than you’d expect. I just like to know who I’m working with.”

“I see.”

“Well Baps, I think it’s safe to say you saved my life. So here’s what I’m gonna do. You ever need a piece of information on someone, something, whatever, let me know. Sound good?”

He didn’t really know how to answer. They made their way back to base.

He started to pay closer attention to her after that. She didn’t fit in with the rest of the intense, painfully serious Talon team. She was fun and lively, and not as villainous as her history had made her out to be. Baptiste hoped to get on good terms with her. He began to sit next to her during meetings or at lunch and strike up a conversation anytime he bumped into her on base.

They became friends fairly quickly. Baptiste wasn't used to military life, and didn't exchange more than a formal greeting to most of his operative colleagues. Sombra was one of the few people he could talk to candidly. She was several ranks above him, seeing as she worked directly alongside some of the heads of Talon and he was merely a foot solider, but she always treated him as if they were equals. And when Baptiste talked to her about medicine, despite all her quips and snark it sometimes felt as if she viewed him as better than herself. She was one of the busier members of Talon, meaning that he didn't get to talk to her often, but when he did, they would chat through the night, ranting about their current missions and sharing gossip about other workers over drinks and pizza. She provided a sense of relief from all the stresses Talon life could offer. And while she never said it, Baptiste could sense a weight lifted off her shoulders the day after their talks as well.

They never dated, though they did once kiss in his hotel room after a week long, excruciatingly boring mission. Baptiste wasn’t sure whose fault it was, as although he had made the stupid, drunken decision to pull her onto his lap, Sombra had made the equally stupid, equally drunken decision to press her lips against his. And while Baptiste would be lying if he said he didn’t think she was pretty, he had never felt more uncomfortable in his life than during their small talk during mission prep the following day. The two of them silently vowed to never do anything like that again, and true to their word, things went back to normal within the week.

Baptiste was actually relieved when a month later, Sombra excitedly told him about her interest in another Talon member, though that fizzled out almost instantly. He fondly remembered her recounting a story from her Los Muertos days, sleeping with a man she had thought was merely a member of the Deadlock gang, but turned out to be Blackwatch as well. She swore up and down that she didn’t know of his Overwatch connection, but Baptiste was skeptical. That was, until he realized something: Sombra didn’t ever lie to him. If she didn’t want to talk about something she would say so, but even her most absurd claims would eventually prove themselves to be accurate. Sometimes she would use coded language, hiding her feelings in the subtext of her words, but Baptiste had long since been able to decipher her. She lied to everyone with ease, but with him she was honest. It was a startling realization of how close the two of them had become, which gave him anxiety but also filled him with a sense of belonging. That night was probably Baptiste’s favourite memory of his time at Talon, though it would also be one of his last.

Leaving Talon wasn’t difficult, he had planned to do so for months, but telling her was terrible. She seemed to already know though, answering him with a look of half disapproval, half understanding. He wasn’t sure which he felt worse about.

“Come with me.” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

He knew the answer before she said it. “I have too much work to do.”

He didn’t tell her when he planned to leave, he didn’t even really know himself. A few missions later, standing watch on a port in Cuba while Talon operatives broke into its shipping facility, he decided it was now or never.

He made quick work of taking out the men around him, a blow to the head with the back of his gun did that well enough. He tied them up and planned his escape, before remembering the issue of surveillance. Baptiste turned to the nearest security camera in a panic, but his breath calmed as he realized it was shut off and pointed at the floor. In fact, all of the cameras in the room were, and their little lights that usually flashed bright red were instead glowing a soft purple. Baptiste stared at the lens in front of him, years of confusing feelings washing over him at once.

“I’ll miss you,” he mouthed to the deactivated camera, wishing for just that moment that it were on so she could see him.

He turned around and walked out - of the mission, of Talon, of everything.

Getting away was surprisingly easy: his fake passport worked when he was worried it wouldn’t, Talon didn’t seem to be able to track him, and work was easy to find back home. He wasn’t naive enough to believe that it was all coincidence.

He did think of her, and every time he passed by a security camera he gave it a little wave, wondering if she was watching. Hoping , is maybe the better word.

It was many years later that he got in contact with her. Or rather she with him. It wasn’t anything sweet or nostalgic. He was scrolling through the news on his phone when the screen flooded with purple light and morphed into her infamous sugar skull. Just as quickly as it came, the insignia disappeared, and his phone returned to its home screen. Only this time with an unsuspecting grey little app nestled in his ‘games’ folder. He clicked on the app and followed its setup directions until finally it presented him with an icon of a corded phone.

It took him two days before he worked up the courage to press the icon. It rang twice before she answered.

“Hey mijo, looking for me?”

Baptiste laughed, “I should've left you in that parking lot.”

It was hard to cope with the fact that she was still Talon, and it was lonely being out in the world without her to talk to after a long week of work. But when the time came that Baptiste needed help tracking down Angela Ziegler, Sombra was the first person he called. It was going to be a tough job, and Baptiste had planned on cashing in that favour he was promised so many years ago. He blurted out the request, and before he could even begin his pitch, he heard Sombra boot up her computer and begin talking out a plan of action. He was so relieved, he completely missed what she was saying.

"Baps?"

"Sorry, yeah?"

"Nothing. I just said thanks for calling."

Baptiste smiled. He knew what that meant, and Sombra never lied to him. "I've missed you too."

[dropswisdom]

The new Neo U1 from Minix is the latest and greatest from the leading TV Box manufacturer in the market. It is based on the successor of the S805, but is pitted against S812 and RK3368 devices – mostly for one reason: as the new generation of SOCs, it supports 10 Bit video decoding. Meaning, it can basically play all the video formats out there (not really, but mostly).

This review unit was sent to me courtesy of the good people at Minix, so thank you all, and especially John, for the helpful communication.

What’s in the Box?

As can be seen, the box contains the following: the Neo U1 S905 TV Box, MiMO Dual Wi-Fi Antenna, DC Power adapter, HDMI 2.0 cable, USB OTG cable, Micro-USB cable, and the basic IR remote control.

Items

Looks

Not much to be said regarding the look of the box, as Minix uses the exact same design (saves on production and design costs) in each and every model. It is still simple and elegant with the embossed logo on the top, a new IR sensor on the front, and a multitude of ports on the side and back of the box.

Specifications

Chipset Amlogic S905 Quad-core 64 bit Cortex A53 GPU Penta-Core Mali-450 GPU Memory / Storage 2 GB DDR3 / 16 GB EMMC LAN Gigabit (10/100/1000M) Wireless 802.11ac 2 x 2 MIMO Dual-band WiFi (2.4 GHz / 5 GHz) Bluetooth v4.1 OS Android 5.1.1 Video Output HDMI 2.0 (4K/2K 60 FPS) Audio Output / Input HDMI out, 3.5 mm Headphone Jack, SPDIF (optical), 3.5 mm Microphone Jack Power DC 5V / 3A Peripheral Interface 2 * USB Host, 1 * Micro SD card (TF card) reader, 1 * SPDIF, 1 * 3.5mm Headphone Jack, 1 * HDMI(A type Male), 1 * RJ45 LAN Port Packing Included 1 * Neo U1 1 * Adapter(DC 5V/3A), 1 * HDMI Cable ,1 * IR Remote Controller,1 * Quick Guide, 1 * Product Brochure

Benchmarks and Testing

All benchmarks have been repeated 3 times and results have been averaged to give a more accurate reading:

* Antutu Benchmark

The Antutu benchmark tests single core performance over multi-core as it is a better indication of the performance of one device over others in most situations. The box shows that it’s single core performance is not the highest which is consistent with the S905 being a more “budget-y” SOC and not really meant for the high end products. It is still in the top 4 and not too far from the S812 and RK3368 based boxes. * Recently, Antutu benchmark has been updated to version 6 which uses different parameters and sub-tests, so the graphs are still based on the older 5.7.2 version for comparison, but here is the result of the new (6.0.0) Antutu version: 38260

GPU Mark Benchmark

GPU Mark tests 3d gaming performance and also provides a normalized score according to the used screen resolution (for a more accurate result). The test is quite short and should be taken as a supporting result to that of the more serious 3D Mark benchmark. The U1 had issues completing GPU Mark benchmark properly and froze either mid-test or upon the result screen. Issue has been reported to the manufacturer for correction.

A1 SD Benchmark

A1 SD Benchmark tests RAM and flash memory speeds. As can be seen in the provided graphs, RAM is much faster (by a factor of about 40) than flash memory – that is why it’s in smaller amount and is also volatile (does not keep its contents after a reboot). The RAM performance is similar between the new Minix and the Probox2, as both are using a similar chipset. But in both Internal and External SD card tests, the Probox2 seems to take a backseat to the new Minix, probably due to a better implementation of a memory reader/controller.

PC Mark Benchmark

Work performance, Photo editing, Writing and Web browsing Scores

The PC Mark benchmark tests run several productivity tests and the U1 performed well in most of them. It came second only to RK3368 based boxes which have the advantage of four more cores..

3D Mark Benchmark

3D Mark benchmark is considered as one of the best ways to test 3d performance on Android (and other platforms). The U1 did not shine in it, coming as number five out of seven in the running. As this is the budget chip of the new AMLogic generation, it is understandable.

The U1 got a new update to firmware version 003 over the weekend (11 December), which was aimed at solving some of the issues that were encountered – especially regarding video playback. However, even with the update and a specialized Kodi version made for Minix, there are still issues:

1. Long pre-buffering for heavy videos (25mb and up) – even if played from local storage

2. Degraded audio noticed in both 4K 10bit TS demo file (http://www.andytather.co.uk/Panda/Files/Video/UHD_PQ_Dive_to_New_World.ts) and in a standard 1080p DTS (2 channels) encoded film (The.Hard.Way.1991.1080p.BluRay.x264-HD4U) may be in others as well. sounds like clipping.

3. Volume bar bug – appears randomly on the screen without any remote control interaction.

4. Low volume audio. Even when defined to keep audio amplification settings on all videos, many (or all) start with low volume.

5. 10 mb bug. Unable to copy to, rename on, or delete from connected USB drives. in my case it’s a 1.5 TB hard drive that works perfectly when connected to any other TV box. Update: when testing with a smaller, 500 GB USB drive, the drive was correctly recognized (size wise) inside ES explorer and allowed copying of files. This indicates to a size related issue with the 10 mb bug. Both drives were formatted in NTFS file system.

6. Reverts to 720p. Upon reboot (not sure if it happens every time, but it happened at least twice so far), the screen resolution reverts to 720p (from 1080p) even when the “return to default resolution” is set to “off”.

7. Add-ons installation – it requires repeat action almost every time since some dependencies fail to install. the installation succeeds the second time, but this happened in any Kodi version I tried (the 16 beta included, the XBMC for minix offered with the firmware upgrade, and SPMC 15)

8. Backing up XBMC/Kodi/SPMC to a folder either on the external USB drive or a MicroSD card failed. (“not writeable” error) It seems that small files can be written correctly to the targets, but bigger files just refuse to write. The targets are formatted in NTFS, and I was using compression in the backup add-on.

9. ES Explorer, a popular file manager is unable to retain passwords for network locations (SMB shares) and asks for them anew even though “remember password” tick box is checked. 10. Torrent streaming Kodi Add-ons still do not work (pulsar, Kmediatorrent and so on) in Kodi or Kodi variants.

11. GPU Benchmark froze either in mid test or at the end of it, forcing to use “home” button and kill the program.

Keep in mind that this is a brand new model and that those are most likely growing pains that will be ironed out in time. All issues have been reported to Minix and should be dealt with in future updates.

Video Playback testing (Using KODI)

Resolution Video Format Local Playback Network (Wi-Fi/LAN) Playback 720p (1280*720) AVC (High@L4.1) Playing correctly Playing correctly 1080P (1920*1080) AVC (High@L4) Playing correctly Playing correctly  2160P (3840*2160) HEVC (H.265) Playing correctly Playing correctly 4K (4096*2304) AVC (High@L5.1) Playing correctly Long Pre-buffering (on Wifi. PLC over LAN is worse with stutter and buffering) 4K TS HEVC files HEVC (H.265) 10Bit Playing correctly Long Pre-buffering (on Wifi. PLC over LAN is worse with stutter and buffering)

Antutu Video Tester

Video playback is quite great. 10 Bit TS files that never worked before are now playing quite well, but bandwidth still affects playback, and the heavier the file is, the more of an issue it is. Wi-Fi performance is noticeably better (especially AC/5GHz connection) than LAN over PLC.

However, when testing the latest Kodi version (16 Beta 4), I was able to use the WiFi bandwidth and play most of the heavy files consistently. Of course, once there are peaks that exceeds the measured rate (around 85 Mbit/s) the video will start to buffer. There were also a few dropped frames and skipped frames, but as long as it did not buffer, the playback was quite smooth.

Network performance

I tested the network performance using the popular Speedtest.net application from the play store. I tested both WiFi (the fastest WiFi supported – in this case 802.11ac), and wired connection (in my case AV500 Ethernet over power line). My home connection is a synchronous 200 Mb Fiber connection so it would not inhibit the testing (but the Ethernet over power line connection does):

Wired (Ethernet over Power line) connection

WiFi – 802.11ac connection

Gaming performance

Rooting became available over the last few days, and for review purposes it is quite an important requirement. \

I am now able to measure frame rate and resource usage:

Asphalt 8 Airborne – a 3d graphic intensive racing game. Game performance is fine in standard settings. It is not completely smooth, but is more than playable. I cannot offer frame rate count due to the reasons mentioned above.

Angry Birds 2 – a popular 2d action game. The gameplay was mostly smooth with a few stutters/jerks (both in picture and audio) along the way. The loading times were a little slower than I expected. Overall, a mediocre to good experience. The GPU/RAM handling may need some polishing to avoid these issues in the future, and it may also have to do with the “Google play services” bug that does not allow games to use it for game play tracking.

Walking War Robots – an online robot warfare game that requires a game-pad (I don’t have a game-pad). Game loaded fast and frame rate was quite satisfactory. The A2 Lite gyro function did not work with the game, so only directional arrows were used.

Conclusions

Did I like it? Yes. As can be seen, on the top, I’ve given it the highest marks I gave any box, even with the list of bugs and mediocre 3d performance. I believe TV boxes are measured more by their video/audio playback performance – unless there are other issues that make them mostly unusable as anything else. In this case the general performance (gaming, web browsing, working) is quite satisfactory even if not the best. Minix has come out with the best (so far) S905 64 bit box in its class. It can play pretty much any video/audio file, and aside from no support for some new HD audio formats (DTS: X and Dolby Atmos) due to lack of licensing, it is another impressive high quality release.

Would I recommend it? Definitely. It still got some rough edges, but with Minix’s excellent support, I am sure it will shine much better in the future. And it is quite future proof.

UPDATE: A first rooting solution has been presented as of yesterday (14 December) on freaktab forum: http://freaktab.com/forum/tv-player-support/amlogic-based-tv-players/minix-aml-devices-x6-x8-etc/543706-root-minix-neo-u1-root-method

And a second one, easier by recovery: http://forum.tronsmart.com/forum/vega-s95/1454-tronsmart-vega-s95-root-method#.VnT_A-h96Ul

The rooting solution has already been reported to work. When I get the time, I will root the box and add information regarding the game performance – if the measuring tools work (rooting does not guarantee it).

The Minix Neo A2 Lite Air mouse (and keyboard) Mini Review

When you buy the Neo U1, you may also get the Neo A2 Lite Air mouse bundled with it.

What makes it so great? It is one of the most comfortable air mice I ever used, and it’s also quite versatile thanks to the included keyboard.

It is compatible with Android, Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

It takes 2 standard (or rechargeable) AAA batteries which goes on both sides of the Air mouse. (keyboard side)

Range could not be tested seriously (the room is not spacious enough), but the responsiveness is quite good and the buttons are of the softer, quiet kind.

The keys arrangement is quite good, although somewhat different than other remotes. It does not take long to get used to.

Switching to the A2 Lite from another (Minix) air mouse I have (the Neo M1), is like moving up from a banged up Beetle VW to a Mercedes. The experience is on a completely different level and makes the TV box usage that much more enjoyable.

The “Lite” in it’s name refers to it’s bigger brother, the A2 which adds one more function: a built in Speaker and Microphone for voice commands and sound recording.

However, it is not  be aware that it is relatively bulky and heavy for a remote. If you have small hands, you may be better off with another, smaller product. Also, the mouse function reverts to remote function very fast once the remote loses it’s line of sight. On top of that, I was not able to use the Gyro functions on the (two) games I tested.

Neo A2 Lite Conclusions

Did I like it? Most definitely!

Would I recommend it? Yes. I haven’t tested it with other boxes, PCs or devices, but from past experience with other Minix remotes, I am sure it will perform on the exact same level.

I give it…  4.2/5 Stars – Great, with the only thing missing (and I am nitpicking) is true game-pad functionality (the gyro did not work in the games I tested)

So, you like it? You can buy the Neo U1 for 15 USD less, with this discount code (kodilU1) at Geekbuying (minus the A2 lite air mouse) which brings the price down to USD 114.90, Or with the A2 Lite and the same coupon (kodilU1) to bring the price down to 134.90 USD.

[Updated] Review | Minix Neo U1 S905 TV Box & Neo A2 Lite Air Mouse The new Neo U1 from Minix is the latest and greatest from the leading TV Box manufacturer in the market.

[computerguideworld-blog]

Surface Go Is Microsofts Big Bet on a Tiny-Computer Future

New Post has been published on https://computerguideto.com/must-see/surface-go-is-microsofts-big-bet-on-a-tiny-computer-future-2/

Surface Go Is Microsofts Big Bet on a Tiny-Computer Future

Panos Panay is the betting type. You can see the evidence in Microsoft's Building 37, where two $1 bills stick out from beneath a Surface tablet sitting on a shelf.

When I ask Panay about the dollars during a recent visit to Microsoft, he says it was a wager he made a few years back on a specific product. I ask if it was a bet on Surface RT, the very first Surface product Microsoft made, and he seems genuinely surprised. "I would have lost that bet, and I’m going to win this one," he says. "It’s about a product that’s in market right now." And that’s all he’ll volunteer.

Panay, Microsoft’s chief product officer, isn’t there to talk about the ghosts of Surface’s past, or even the present. Panay wants to talk about his next big bet in the Surface product lineup: the brand-new Surface Go. But to call it “big” would be a misnomer, because the Surface Go was designed to disappear.

Ian C. Bates

If you’ve followed the trajectory of the Surface product line, you might say that the Surface Go previously existed in some form, if not as a prototype then in sketches and leaks and rumors and in our own imaginations. But Panay insists that this new 2-in-1 device is not the offspring of anything else—not the Surface RT, not the Surface 3, and not the Surface Mini (which served as a kind of fever-dream notepad for Panay, but never shipped).

Instead, the new Surface Go is an attempt to bring most of the premium features of a $1,000 Surface Pro to something that’s both ultra-portable and more affordable.

Ian C. Bates

Like a Surface Pro, the Go is a “detachable”—a tablet that attaches to Microsoft’s alcantara Type Cover keyboard. It has the same magnesium enclosure; a bright, high-res touchscreen display that has a 3:2 aspect ratio and is bonded with Gorilla Glass; a kickstand in the back that extends to 165 degrees; support for Microsoft’s stylus pen, which attaches magnetically to the tablet; a Windows Hello face recognition camera, for bio-authentication; two front-facing speakers, an 8-megapixel rear camera; and on and on. It’s a veritable checklist of Surface Go’s external features.

But the Surface Go is tiny. It measures just 9.6 by 6.9 by .33 inches, with a 10-inch diagonal display. It also weighs 1.15 pounds. The first time I saw the Go, Natalia Urbanowicz, a product marketing manager at Microsoft, pulled the thing out of a 10-inch, leather, cross-body Knomo bag to show just how easily it can be tucked away. It's light enough to mistake for a notebook; the last time I felt that way about a computer was when Lenovo released the YogaBook back in 2016.

Ian C. Bates

The Go also happens to be the least expensive Surface ever. When it ships in early August, it will have a base price of $399. That’s for a configuration that includes 64 gigabytes of internal storage and 4 gigabytes of RAM, and ships with Windows 10 Home in S Mode (the S stands for “streamlined,” which means you can only download apps from the Windows Store). You’ll also have to shell out extra for a Type Cover keyboard and stylus pen.

From there, specs and prices creep up: A Surface Go with 256 gigabytes of storage, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and LTE will cost you more, though Microsoft hasn’t shared how much yet. All configurations have a microSD slot for additional storage too.

Surface Primers

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The Surface Go is not the first 10-inch Surface that Panay and his team have shipped. The original Surface had a 10.6-inch display. And in 2015, Microsoft released the 10.8-inch Surface 3. It started at $499, and ran a “real” version of Windows, not Windows RT. But it was also underpowered; and, Panay admits now, it had an inelegant charging mechanism.

“To this day I regret the charging port on Surface 3,” Panay says. “I’d convinced myself that this ubiquitous USB 2.0 connector was going to solve the thing people asked me for: Can I just charge it with the charger I already have? And what I learned is that people want a charger with the device, they want a very seamless charging experience…I know that seems small, but I don’t think I can overstate that every single little detail can be a major difference maker.”

Panay says there’s been clear demand for a successor to the Surface 3, which would, by definition, have been the Surface 4. But “that evolution wasn’t right,” he says. “That would be too close to the original Surface Pro, and that’s not what this product should be at all.” Instead, he’s been noodling something like the Surface Go—codenamed “Libra”—for the past three years.

The new Surface Go benefits from all those learnings. It has the same Surface Connect port as the Pro lineup, along with a USB-C 3.1 port for data transfers and backup charging. It’s supposed to get around nine hours of battery life. It also runs on an Intel Pentium Gold processor. This is not one of Intel’s top-of-the-line Core processors, but it’s still a significant jump up from the Cherry Trail Atom processor in the Surface 3.

Pete Kyriacou, general manager of program management for Surface, says Microsoft has worked closely with Intel to tune the processor for this particular form factor. “If you compare the graphics here to the Surface Pro 3 running on an i5 [chip], it’s 33 percent better; and if you compare it to the i7, it’s 20 percent better,” Kyriacou says. “So we’re talking about Pentium processing, but, it’s better from a graphics perspective than a Core processor was just three years ago.”

A lot about the new Surface has been “tuned”—not just the guts of the Go, but its software, too. “We tuned Office, we then tuned the Intel part, we tuned Windows, we made sure that, in portrait, it came to life,” Panay says. “We brought the Cortana [team] in to better design the Cortana box—we went after the details on what we think our customers need at 10 inches.”

There’s usually a tradeoff when you’re buying a computer this small. You get portability at the expense of space for apps and browser windows. The Surface Go has a built-in scaler that optimizes apps for a 10-inch screen, and Microsoft says that it’s working with third-parties to make sure certain apps run great. There’s only so much control, though, you have over software that’s not your own. I was reminded of this when I had a few minutes to use the Surface Go, went to download the Amazon Kindle app in the Windows Store, and couldn’t find it there.

Making the Surface smaller was no small feat, according to Ralf Groene, Microsoft’s longtime head of design. Groene walks me through part of Building 87 on Microsoft’s campus, where the design studio is housed and where Groene’s team of 60 are tasked with coming up with a steady stream of ideas for potential products.

Ralf Groene, Microsoft’s head of design.

Ian C. Bates

Behind a door that says “Absolutely No Tailgating”—a warning against letting someone in behind you, not a ban on barbecues and cornhole—a small multimedia team makes concept videos. “Before products get made, we have a vision, we have an idea, and we express it in a video,” Groene tells me. If the video is received well by top executives, they know they have a winner. “Since there’s usually a timeline on how long processors are good for, we try to build as many iterations as possible of a product within that timeline.”

Once the Surface Go got the go ahead, Groene’s job became that of a geometrist: How do you fit all this stuff into a 9.6-inch enclosure? Going with magnesium again was an easy choice; it’s up to 36 percent lighter than aluminum, Groene says, and Microsoft has already invested in the machinery needed to work with magnesium. Some of the angles of the Go’s body are softer—Groene calls these “curvatures and radii”—making it more comfortable to hold close for extended time periods, like if you’re reading or drawing.

By far the biggest challenge was the Go’s Type Cover keyboard. The factor that always stays the same is the human, Groene says, and that includes fingers. Shrink a keyboard too much in your quest to make a laptop thin and light, and you’ll inevitably get complaints from people that their fingers are cramped, or that they land on each key with an unsatisfying thud. (Or worse, that the keyboard is essentially broken.)

The Go’s keyboard is undoubtedly smaller than the one that attaches to the Surface Pro. But it still has a precision glass trackpad, and a key travel that Groene says is fractionally less than the key travel on the Pro.

Ian C. Bates

Most notably, the Go’s keyboard uses a scissor-switch mechanism that was designed to give, as Groene describes it, the right “force to fire.” Each key is also slightly dished, a decision that Microsoft made after watching hours of footage of people typing, captured with a high-speed camera. The keys are supposed to feel plush and good under your fingers and not at all like a tiny accessory keyboard. (I only used the keyboard on the Go for a brief period of time, so I can’t really say what it would be like to use the keyboard to, say, type of a story of this length.)

I mention to Groene that Apple has long held the stance that touchscreens aren’t right for PC’s, something that Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi underscored in a recent WIRED interview when he said that they’re “fatiguing.” And yet, Microsoft is pretty committed to touchscreen PCs. What does Microsoft’s research show about how people use touchscreen PCs?

Groene first points out that the Surface laptop is the only one in Microsoft’s product line that has a classic laptop form factor and a touchscreen; the others are detachables, or, there’s the giant Surface Studio PC. But, more to the point, he says, “By offering multiple ways to get things done doesn’t mean that we add things. It’s not like the Swiss army knife, where every tool you put in makes it bigger.”

Sure, if you sit there for eight hours holding your arm up, it will get tired, Groene acknowledges. But that’s not the way people are supposed to use these things. “It’s the same thing with the pen. ‘We don’t need the pen because we are born with ten styluses,’” Groene says, wiggling his fingers, making an oblique reference to a well-known Steve Jobs quote about styluses. “However, having the tool of a pen is awesome when you want to go sketch something.”

“We are trying to design products for people,” he says, “and we don’t try to dictate how people use our devices.”

Ian C. Bates

So who is this tiny Surface Go actually made for? It depends on who you ask at Microsoft, but the short answer seems to be: anybody and everybody.

Urbanowicz, the product marketing manager, says Go is about “reaching more audiences, and embracing the word ‘and’: I can be a mother, and an entrepreneurial badass; I can be a student, and a social justice warrior.” Kyriacou, when describing the Go’s cameras, says to “think about the front line worker in the field—a construction worker, architect, they can capture what they need to or even scan a document.” You can also dock the Go, Kyriacou points out, using the Surface Connect port, which makes it ideal for business travelers. Groene talks about reading, about drawing, about running software applications like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Almost everyone talks about watching Hulu and Netflix on it.

Panos Panay initially has a philosophical answer to this. It’s his “dream,” he says, to just get Surface products to more people. “I mean, that’s not my ultimate dream. But there are these blurred lines of life and work that are happening, and if you collect all that, Go was an obvious step for us.”

The evening before Panay and I chatted, he went to the Bellevue Square shopping center with his son, and at one point, had to pull out his LTE-equipped Surface Go to address what he said was an urgent work issue. His son asked if it was a new product, and Panay, realizing the blunder of having the thing out in public, tucked the Go in his jacket. To him, that’s the perfect anecdote: The lines between work and family time were blurred, he had to do something quickly, and when he was done, he could make his computer disappear.

Panos Panay, Microsoft’s chief product officer.

Ian C. Bates

Panay’s team also has a lot more insight into how people are using Surface products than it did eight years ago, he says, when Surface was still just a concept being developed in a dark lab. To be sure, Microsoft has been making hardware for decades—keyboards, mice, web cameras, Xbox consoles. But when Microsoft made the decision to start making its own PCs (and ultimately, take more control over how its software ran on laptops), it was a new hardware category for the company. It was a chance to get consumers excited about Microsoft again, not just enterprise customers.

The first few years of Surface were rocky. The first one, known as Surface RT, seems to be something that Microsoft executives would rather forget about; I don’t see it anywhere in the product lineups that Microsoft’s PR team has laid out ahead of my visit. Its 2012 launch coincided with the rollout of Windows 8, which had an entirely new UI from the previous version of Windows. It ran on a 32-bit ARM architecture, which meant it ran a version of the operating system called Windows RT. Depending on who you ask, the Surface RT was either a terrible idea or ahead of its time. (Panay says it was visionary.) Microsoft ending up taking a massive write-down on it the following year.

Since then, Microsoft has rolled out a series of Surface products that, due to the company’s design ethos, a newer operating system, and plain old Moore’s Law, have only gotten better. In 2013 it introduced the Surface Pro line, which are still detachables, but are built to perform like a premium laptop and can cost anywhere from $799 to $2,600. There’s the Surface Book line; the Surface Book 2 starts at $1,199 and clocks in around 3.5 pounds, making it a serious commitment of a laptop. The Surface Studio is a gorgeous, $2,999, all-in-one desktop PC, aimed at creative types. The Surface Laptop is Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s MacBook Air. It starts at $799, and got largely positive reviews when it launched last year.

Even still, Microsoft’s Surface line has struggled to make a significant dent in the market for personal computing. HP and Lenovo dominate the broader PC market, while Apple leads in the tablet category (including both detachables and slate tablets).“From a shipment perspective, the entire Surface portfolio has been fairly soft,” says Linn Huang, an IDC research director who tracks devices and displays. “It was growing tremendously, and then the iPad Pro launched and Surface shipments have either been negative, year-over-year, for the past several quarters, or flat.”

Microsoft has new competition to worry about, too: Google’s inexpensive Chromebooks, which in a short amount of time have taken over a large share of the education market.

“Do I think about Chromebooks? Absolutely,” Panay says, when I ask him about them. “Do I think about iPads? Absolutely. I use multiple devices. It’s exhausting. But this product is meant to bring you a full app suite.” Panay is highlighting one of the drawbacks of lightweight Chromebooks: Their lack of local storage. Meanwhile, he says, Surfaces are designed to let people be productive both locally on the device, and in the cloud when they need to work in the cloud.

And, while Panay says he’s keeping an eye on Chromebooks, he insists that Microsoft didn’t build Go to compete with Chromebooks. That said, Surface Go will have a school-specific software option: IT administrators for schools can choose whether they want a batch of Go’s imaged with Windows 10 Pro Education, or Windows 10 S mode-enabled.

Panay wouldn’t comment on Microsoft’s plans for the future beyond Surface Go, although there have long been rumors of a possible Microsoft handheld device, codenamed Andromeda. If the Surface Go is something of a return to a smaller, 10-inch detachable, then a pocketable device that folds in half, one that could potentially run on an ARM processor, would be something of a return to mobile for Microsoft. Qualcomm has also been making mobile chips that are designed to compete directly with Intel’s Core processors for PCs.

For now, though, Panay is throwing all his chips behind the Surface Go, and making a big bet that this little device is the one that will make the masses fall in love with Surface. He tends to chalk up past Surface products, even the ones that didn’t do well, as simply before their time. Now, with the Go, he says, “it’s time.”

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Microsoft's Surface Studio Is All Beauty and a Little Bit of Brains

David Pierce reviews the new all-in-one PC from Microsoft. It's a joy to use, especially if you like drawing with a pen on a massive touchscreen.

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[droidturf]

Three hundred and sixty-five days ago, Google introduced its first-ever Pixel smartphone, passing on the Nexus series for good. Pixel has since taken over, designed to be more high-end, but more importantly “consumer-friendly,” as opposed to the niche products Nexus handsets were. Google had no idea Pixel would be of so much demand, which caused major shortages and supply concerns. Variants were out of stock for months at a time, and Google’s exclusive carrier partner, Verizon, had run out of units the very first week. Today, during its second, now to be annual, private ‘Made By Google’ event in San Francisco, the search giant introduced the world to the much-anticipated Pixel successors: Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.

We’ve never quite seen a smartphone experience such supply shortages as did last year’s Pixel (now available for $100 less), but thankfully for this year, Google has increased its estimates to make sure that events don’t repeat themselves. The unexpected high demand for Pixel could also be seen as a good thing in that consumer response was fantastic. In fact, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reached an all-time high stock price the day Pixel reviews were published. Feedback was remarkable, so much so that one could validly argue Pixel as the best first-generation product to ever join the smartphone race. This all happened at a time when the high-end market segment was as crowded as ever with offerings, some seventh-generation ones from soon to be Google competitors in Samsung, Apple and LG.

Following the events that occurred last year, many ended up holding on to their current phone with intentions on waiting for Pixel 2. The fact that this was a first-generation product also led many to stay away. Many weren’t sure if there would ever be a Pixel 2, but once Google confirmed today’s event through a video teaser, we all knew that a 2017 Pixel family was on its way. More and more devices are being launched with Pixel branding, Google’s new moniker that resonates with phrases like premium, high-quality, and “Made By Google.” More so than ever, Google is showing keen interest in hardware and not only software. And when you have the software king of the world producing its own devices, the result is a beautiful and fully optimized device with an experience like no other. Google confirmed its growing interest in hardware through a few acquisitions in 2017, the most notable purchase being valued at $1.2 billion for some of HTC’s know-how and intellectual property. This deal will go official very soon, and could bring major changes to next year’s Pixel phone that could be a real something to look forward to.

Google’s “Made By Google” campaign goes hand in hand with its new strategy of targeting regular consumers, the millions of Galaxy and iPhone buyers in this world. Unlike the Nexus series, there’s no other branding, only Google, who is in charge of everything from software, hardware, marketing, and distribution with the help of a limited number of others. Hence, the message it wants to get across is that the device is entirely “Made By Google.” However, we know it to be true that Google doesn’t yet have the manufacturing resources and expertise needed to produce these devices on its own, which is why the company partnered with HTC again this year in making the Pixel 2, as well as long-time manufacturing partner, LG, in creating the Pixel 2 XL. Like last year, Pixel 2 is a smaller phone and Pixel 2 XL (not Pixel XL 2) is the larger phone of the pair. And just to make things clear before we dive deeper, there is no Ultra Pixel as rumors suggested this past week.

Last year, Google’s Pixel was one of the most influential. Other companies turned to it, just to see what they could do to compete and enhance their own products. Google’s purpose isn’t to bring ground-breaking new features, but instead to ensure a great all-around experience. They want everything to work properly, and always be there for when you need it. Google’s award-winning customer satisfaction rate from last year only inspired the company to do even better this year.

Now that we’re past the history, let’s dive into what Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL bring to the table. Thanks to a bunch of leaks, rumors and reports, most of us had an idea of what to expect before today’s showcase began. However, Google did keep a few secrets and surprised us all with some things we weren’t expecting, as they tend to do better than most else.

Smaller Android manufacturers have experienced continuing struggles in 2017, but Google has not been one of them. Google is looking to bring products to scale, like Samsung and Apple, two of the more successful to do it as of late. Google has had a successful year, but in order for the momentum to continue, not only will loyal vanilla Android fans have to upgrade this year, but Google will have to convince those with other brands to make the switch over to Pixel 2. Analysts have set expectations high, and Google will have little room for error if it is to deliver on estimates. The search giant has gone above and beyond with few compromises, while ensuring both user protection and safety. Hopefully, they’ve touched on everything the user wants. Once we get our hands on each unit for testing, we’ll arrive at a decision whether or not Pixel 2 deserves a place on our list of Best Android Smartphones of 2017. But until then, here’s what you should know.

Change is upon us with Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Unlike last year, the two are less of the same with more differences you should be aware of, at least when it comes to specs. Know this: Pixel 2 XL is designed to be the company’s flagship featuring radical changes in design, awesome new features and a hefty price tag. Google took risks and went all out with this model. On the other hand, Pixel 2 has a few compromises, but comes at a less staggering price tag.

Pixel 2 XL has a 6-inch Quad HD+ Super LG-made POLED 18:9 display coated in Gorilla Glass 5 with rounded corners. Since this is an OLED screen, expect a high (1000-1) contrast ratio, exceptional brightness for outdoor visibility or even when wearing sunglasses, and true to life colors. Pixel 2 boasts a 5-inch Full HD AMOLED display with straight corners and the more standard 16:9 aspect ratio with Gorilla Glass 5. HDR Video is present on both models, as is support for the Daydream VR platform and Google’s new Daydream View headset. And better late than never, Google has managed to include an IP67 certification for water and dust resistance.

Design has come a long way since last year, at least for the Pixel 2 XL. It features a curved screen that gives the illusion that the phone is bezel-free. Pixel 2, not so much. Both are made of aluminum and have a similar glass window hosing sensors on the rear, this time shortened not to include the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, which Google promises is the fastest on any smartphone. To indicate that these are Pixels, the ‘G’ logo standing for Google is present on both models near the bottom of the rear side. Large top, bottom and side bezels have returned on Pixel 2, but Pixel 2 XL rids most of them allowing the device to be held in a single hand. This is a given thanks to the screen-to-body ratio of over 80% on Pixel 2 XL.

Taking a risk to comply with modern design trends, Pixel 2 XL has an 18:9 aspect ratio, so expect taller but narrower screen dimensions. More content will be shown on-screen at a time, so in other words, less scrolling. The form factor will, however, take some adjusting too if you’re coming from a phone that measures in 16:9. There’s another drawback as well, letter-boxing, which occurs when watching most video content. Powering Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor, not the unreleased 836 chipset some people were expecting to debut. Both models have 4GB of RAM. Pixel 2 has a 2,700mAh battery and the larger Pixel 2 XL sports a 3,520mAh cell. With ‘Doze on the Go,’ this should make for fantastic standby time. Quick Charge 3.0 is supported through reversible USB Type-C. Google has increased the base storage capacity to 64GB. And if you still want more, there’s a 128GB option available for $100 more. Around the device, we have your very typical nano SIM card tray as well as side-mounted power (in a standout color) and volume controls. Inside we have NFC for Android Pay and other sensors including Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, various fitness tracking sensors, and more.

Camera technology has remained mostly the same. Both Pixel 2 devices come with that great 12MP rear sensor that topped the rankings on DxOMark last year. And this year, they are at the top of the list yet again with a world lead of 98. A super large pixel size and f/1.8 allow for taking great low-light images, and a double tap of the power button opens the camera to snap a picture in no time at all. There’s also 4K recording, 240fps slow-mo and OIS on both models for photo and video taking (simultaneously), and there’s no camera bump. Both have dual LED flash on the rear, but its placing alongside the lens varies by model.

Software enhancements have been made to better performance as well, and Google is again including unlimited original-quality backup using Google Photos. There are also new features including improved HDR, various under the hood enhancements, a new portrait mode for both the front and rear cameras, Motion Photos with free backup, and built-in machine learning. There’s also augmented reality stuff that allow you to add various stickers to your captures and play with virtual characters in 3D. The ability to add to what will be available at launch is open to the developer community, so more will come with time. To recap, Google says that Pixel customers on average save far more photos and video when compared to other smartphone owners, and that no dual camera is needed due to what has been accomplished through machine learning. And  I almost forgot, the selfie camera, which is an impressive 8MP lens with f/2.4.

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Software is the Pixel 2’s biggest strength. Android 8.0 Oreo as Google designed it is pre-loaded, and the stock interface allows Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL to be first among all Android smartphones in existence to receive automatic platform updates and monthly security patches (3 years guaranteed). See our Droid Updates Weekly Series for more on this. Google’s latest software brings a range of new features including re-designed notifications, performance and battery improvements by further restricting background data, picture-in-picture mode, new adaptive icons, auto-fill, and a redesigned settings menu.

Also present will be some Pixel 2 exclusive features including a new Always on Display with song recognition abilities, which will make its first-ever debut on Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. Additionally, the Google Assistant is here in all its glory, accessible with a swipe right on the homescreen or a hold on the Google animated home button. This adds a third dimension of technology to your smartphone, which will get to know you better and improve over time with usage using incorporated fifth-generation programming technology. This is the same technology that can now be found on millions of smartphones including select iPhones, with addition to third  party appliances, speakers, headphones, TVs, and Google’s new Chromebook. Though, there’s more. Google Pixel 2 owners are to get a preview of Google Lens, as first introduced at Google I/O 2017. Google has also pre-loaded some of your favorite Google apps including most standards, plus, Android Messages, Allo and Duo. And there are new live wallpapers too.

The Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL also come with a bevy of new features. For starters, there’s a refreshed version of the Google Pixel Launcher. It includes more fluent animations, some minor design touches and enhancements to the app drawer that new had universal search, a new ‘At a Glance’ widget for obtaining key information such as the time, weather and upcoming calendar events, as well as a new search bar beneath the app dock that stays with you as you scroll through pages. Audio on the devices has also been improved over the prior generations, which is usually the case when you shift the speaker grill from the bottom to the front (on both devices). And last but certainty not at least, the new Pixels feature squeezable sides just like the HTC U 11. You can assign pressure levels to different apps and/or functions, making it easier to launch your favorite stuff from any screen. Still, given all of this, Google managed to create somewhat visually striking and premium looking phones.

So that about does it. Android flagship launch season is wrapping up, and 2017 may just entail the greatest lineup of Android smartphones ever, definitely a market to watch. The competition didn’t seem to bother Google, as the release of these new phones is slated for later than most of us expected. You can pre-order Pixel 2 starting today at $649 for the base model or $749 for the 128GB storage option. It will begin shipping on October 17 in six countries with more gaining availability year. This is the same time that handsets will be made available in stores. Those interested in the larger Pixel 2 XL, which seems to be most of us, will have to wait an extra month as units won’t become available for another “5-6 weeks.” If anything was disappointing today, this was it. You are, however, able to pre-order the larger model  at a whopping $849 for the base model or $949 with 128GB of memory space starting today!

For phones that used to be priced in the pipeline of $500 (we miss you Nexus), this is kind of outrageous so to speak. Even the smaller variant costs $649, which is what the going flagship went for a long two years ago. The smaller Pixel 2 isn’t exactly a flagship, and this most certainty isn’t affordable, but if your craving Google’s latest software, this is the route to take. The Pixel 2 XL is the more expensive as you may have come to expect, which starts at $849. This is a whole extra bill from the higher storage capacity Pixel 2. And if 64GB doesn’t do you justice, you’ll be looking at over $1,000 with taxes. Just when we thought smartphone prices were on decline with the rise of the premium mid-range sector, manufacturers all of a sudden think it’s okay to start charging a grand for essentially a dated smartphone with some small refinements. It seems like this will be the trend for phones with crazy-looking futuristic design language, going forward. Thank you, Samsung and Apple. But thankfully, at least for some, Google has some reasonable trade in offers that can save you up to $410 on any of these models. There’s also Google financing and an optional ‘Preferred Care’ program for $139 extra, if that floats your boat. They ship for free.

Like last year, both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL will be sold primarily through the Google Store (unlocked) with addition to carrier exclusivity on Verizon here in the US. Maybe one day once Google proves itself more, we’ll have more of a “full-scale” global release like Samsung and Apple do with their flagships. Google has additionally partnered with a few popular retailers to sell Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, the most notable being Best Buy. Pricing will be generally the same no matter where you look to buy either of the models. If you choose to buy unlocked, which is the route you should probably take, you’ll have the freedom to bring Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL to any of the four major US carriers with full coverage for each. There’s also the option of signing up with Google’s Project Fi.

Pixel 2 is available in choice of three colors, as successfully predicted: Just Black, Clearly White, and Kinda Blue. All three colors have Black fronts, with the rear color matching the color of the glass window. The shades vary a bit when compared to last year’s Pixels, especially the Kinda Blue, which is a much lighter shade than the ocean-like Really Blue from last year. Pixel 2 XL will come in just two color options: Just Black and “Black & White.” Both fronts are Black, but with “Black & White,” you have a Black window with a White-colored rear, resembling a panda. Availability of certain models are likely to vary by location and carrier. With all models, information cards, a cable organizer, Quick Charger, and wall adapter, are provided in the box with addition to an iPhone transfer tool and 3.5mm dongle (since the jack is no longer here). And for a limited time only in select countries including the US, all buyers of either smartphone will get a Google Home Mini speaker totally free. The newly re-designed Google Store also has a plethora of accessories, cases and just about whatever you may need, including customizable Google Live Cases for Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.

Be sure to bookmark this page and return back as the news continues to pile up. Those interested in learning more about Pixel 2 or any of Google’s new accessories (Daydream View, Google Home Max or Mini, Pixelbook, Google Pixel Buds, Google Clips) can sign-up for email updates over at the Google Store. Be sure to let us know your initial thoughts about anything Google announced today in the comment section of any of our Made By Google 2017 posts.

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Google introduces Pixel 2 smartphone available in two sizes #Google #MadeByGoogle2017 #Pixel2 Three hundred and sixty-five days ago, Google introduced its first-ever Pixel smartphone, passing on the Nexus series for good.