#unfortunately if their audience is this small id feel really bad about doing that.

[red-dyed-sarumane]

im going to go insane the fucking. ¥600 ep i picked up on a whim bc "yeah i like dubstep i'll like this" ended up not only having a kafu song on it but its so so so fucking good i love this so much. but the only place i can find any trace of it is the crossfade where theres only a few seconds of it and uses probably the least impressive part of it oh my GOD i hate when i cant share cool voca songs this is killing meee. the producer has 53 followers on twitter 2 on yt & soundcloud thi s is insane come ON. i like the other songs too but the kafu one is so so good and u cant even tell from this. u cant. its airport themed & has such an airy & transient feel to it & kafu herself is not particularly realistically tuned & it works so well with it. i need to show so badly and YET

[damnitiloveyou]

if it wasn’t for aaron id have stopped watching already, the writing’s been even more atrocious than usual. cain’s “confession” was pathetic, are we supposed to feel sorry for him because he ended up not bludgeoning his nephew?

i really do hope this is eventually leading to a robert return because he’s the only person left who actually DOES love aaron unconditionally, idk what they were talking about going on about chas’ unconditional love for him bc it’s just not true lol

I love Aaron. Love him, but if there is no Robert return I won't be able to stick around. Everything else is just too bad. I know we're still getting through the Jane nonsense, I think, I don't know how far ahead her stories went. But I'm going to need to start seeing some kind of improvements no matter how small. I don't know if we'll get that given the other two are still there. At least for now they're still there anyway.

The Chas stuff makes me want to punch a wall. She has been insufferable since the Gracie storyline. That's years of gross, often downright cruel behavior. And nothing ever happens to her. They have used that one storyline, that is years old, as an unstoppable excuse for everything she does. And now instead of actually making her fall and having to earn the forgiveness she demanded tonight they just made her sick instead. They gave her another excuse to be horrible and paint her as the victim. I don't care that she's sick. She's past the point of salvation for me. She's also, unfortunately, not dying at the end of this storyline so none of it will matter. As for Cain I actually thought I misheard him at first, lol. His big confession was second guessing himself because he didn't beat the shit out of Aaron. I mean what??? Too ridiculous to pretend to take seriously.

It would have been odd if Robert hadn't been mentioned tonight. So I don't hold this mention to the same 👀 as the other ones, but it was still the fourth one in barely 3 months, five if we count Aaron's pause in the other episode. I don't see how we can pretend it's not a deliberate thing at this point. There's no reason to keep mentioning him. Aaron started the whole thing, supposedly, because of Liv's death, they could have kept just to that. They chose not to. They chose to remind the audience of Robert (and Seb) on several different occasions. Soaps just don't do that. The new set is still the biggest clue to me. There was no need to build that set for Aaron alone. That set screams Robron. I'm still trying to keep at least a foot in the possibility that he's not coming back, but everything they're doing is making that increasingly difficult. It's really starting to look like a return.

[elytrafemme]

Hi Mare. Let me take you on a little journey here. It's probably later in the night, likely a school night. You're doing the regular. Messaging your friends, having fun. Then, you decide to scroll Ao3. Who knows what tag you're in? Maybe you're in a collection. Either way, you end up coming across this fic, this one fic...

It doesn't seem all that interesting at first glance. Yeah, you're sure it's good and well written, but nothing about it really stands out at first. Then, you notice that it's not just a modern fic, no, no. It's a selkie fic. Now, you're interested. You know what selkies are, and you think that the premise is interesting. You're always down for some c!Tommy meeting the SBI and escaping a bad situation with them. It's hurt/comfort. It's SBI-centric, not just Tommy. It seems great.

So what do you do, Ides? You click on that god damn title. And you are not the same person 198k words later.

So...

That right there is The Case of The Fire Inside. Now let's talk about the The Case of The Fire Inside. Can we talk about the The Case of The Fire Inside, please? I've been dying to talk about the The Case of The Fire Inside all day, okay? /c

It's so rare that a fic can make a horrible person and still make them sympathic. I'm not talking morally greyness here; Dream, in this fic, is undoubtedly a bad person—but the understanding, oh, the understanding. Chapter 12 of The Case of The Fire Inside might be the thing that make this one of the best Dream SMP fanfics out there.

Spoilers from here on out, also cw for mentioned child abuse/neglect

Dream before chapter 12 is pretty easy to map out as a character. He's an abuser to Tommy, or at least his neglectful care-taker. It's nothing suprising, it happens a lot in modern AUs and it's done pretty well in this fic. Wilbur, Techno, and Phil all suspect stuff is going on at home but there's nothing so explict, and the characters feel real as they wonder and worry for their new friend but don't figure things out on a whim.

Even Tommy chapters never go overboard, it's a very nice balance and Dream is clearly written to be a bad guy without anything over the top to make it super super clear to the audience. We're not being spoonfed and it's well written! Hell yeah!

Now. Let me introduce you to chapter 12.

We start with Dream as a child and we explore his entire life. Like, 30k words worth of his life. We watch him grow from a small kid living on the docks to a teenager making friends at school. We watched him yearn for more in life, for a boat and a home with these friends of his. We watched him sail off on his own for the first time, truly feeling happy and free and we cheer him own.

Yet you just know you're just waiting for when the other shoe drops. Because you know exactly what he turns into.

And he meets Tommy. And oh god, if it doesn't hurt when he truly cares for this kid. When he tries to take care of him and keep him safe.

Then we watch the spiral. The greed, the desperation, the things he does to keep Tommy safe, for Tommy, to Tommy—oh god, the fucking dread at realizing selkies have webbed fingers but Tommy has never been described with them—because Dream really does care. That's genuine, unfortunately.

Like I wrote in the comment section: "That’s what humans do. They just don’t understand, not like I do." just kinda hits different because it feels like Dream isn't considering himself human anymore, believing himself to be the monster that he is.

He's one of the most dynamic characters I've ever read in a fic. Maybe just in general. He's so good. People can talk about redemption arcs all they want but I will never be over this corruption arc.

And like, this is one chapter. This one chapter could be a novella. There's 23 others. There's a Sapnap interlude much like this one. I haven't even touched on Wilbur and Phil's relationship. Or George? How about Quackity or Karl or Techno? Do NOT get me started on Wilbur in this fic holy FUCK. C!Crime the world but TCOTFI!Crime the universe.

It is... I am always at a loss for words about this fic. Evidently.

Sorry about your inbox I just needed to shout this to the heavens :]

your passion is admirable and my day has been made

[readingaccountability]

snow crash - neal stephenson

my playlist (because of The Way That I Am)

final thoughts:

okay, im going to be honest right out of the gate- i cant decide whether this is a book id recommend or not. it was really fun for the most part, but personally there was a lot more exposition than id like. the early portions of the novel have exposition which feels completely fair, mostly things relating to worldbuilding. stephenson creates his own vision of future america, and some places online referred to it as cyberpunk, and some as post-cyberpunk. id be more in the latter camp, mostly due to the way he plays with tropes, leaving the reader unsure of which will be subverted and which wont.

the use of language was really fun, and i enjoyed the worldbuilding a lot. his vision of a futuristic capitalistic earth feels surreal in its immediacy and recognizability. the back jacket blurb ends with "a future america so bizarre, so outrageous, you'll recognize it immediately." which, yeah. a texan info-tech magnate? two competing corporations owning the highway system? suburban city-states? this was another enjoyable thing- everything was colorfully named, and names treated totally normally, which kind of poked fun at how we have everyday things named very ludicrously and for the most part we are totally blind to it.

one aspect i really enjoyed was that the author often doesn't make certain things clear to the audience, until he does, and then it becomes necessary to reassess the entire story and setting. this goes to underscore the theme of the importance of information and the ways we take it in and perceive the world based upon it. for example, we don't learn that y.t. is fifteen until maybe 75 pages in, at which point a lot makes sense in retrospect. the same thing occurs in the worldbuilding, as suddenly a detail is given in passing and the reader must incorporate it into the setting, which by default we assume to be similar in many ways to our idea of america. it keeps the reader on their toes as well as furthering the worldbuilding. for the most part, the tech stuff didnt feel outdated to me, despite being a future projected out from '92.

however, aspects of the book are definitely very 1992. id put these into two camps: the first, being that the book does at different times use slurs. the main character is black and asian, the n word is used a few times by racist side-character/antagonist types, as are a few other racial slurs. there was also the occasional usage of the r slur, within the narrative prose itself, rather than usage as an insult within dialogue.

the protagonist, who is named, unfortunately, hiro protagonist, is a great character and felt very fleshed out to me, though at times he reminded me more of dirk strider than normally would be ideal. (its obvious that stephenson and andrew hussie are of a similar type of writer, and play with similar tropes, lmao.) hiro is a man of many worlds. he seems to shift between them easily, though never fully existing in any of them. this is reflected in his background, both in his biracial identity and in having been raised on a myriad of army bases. this is layered further in his fluidity in interacting with both reality and the metaverse, yet remaining slightly, consistently aloof. fascinatingly the first moment i sensed this drop was when we meet juanita- aka where his real and meta realities coincide. the description of them as the adam and eve of the metaverse is both insanely romantic and thematically key (good god i wish we had more than like, two conversations between them). juanita designed the facial component to metaverse avatars, doing the majority of this work when the two were together, and hiro can see echoes of both their facial tics in the face of every avatar in the metaverse. in a way, by having done this work juanita is positioned by the narrative as one of the gods of this digital realm. she is also hiro's call to action, being aware of the coming trouble and alerting him to it, as well as connecting him to the informational database he needs to prepare.

y.t., the secondary protagonist, fucking ruled. i loved that she was just a fifteen year old punkass kid whose mom doesnt know how crazy this part time job is. y.t. being worried about her mom was a great thread throughout, and a really good balance to how obviously independent y.t. is. i do wish there had been a chance to explain more about her background (she has a dad who left who is mentioned in a throwaway sentence, and a boyfriend who is mentioned near the beginning but never again.) i really enjoyed how obviously hyperaware y.t. was at all times about her own place within the insanities of the setting, while also consistently writing her as a teen maybe in way too deep who thinks about things in typically teenage ways. but like, that wasn't ever held against her? the narrative meets her where she is. it was honestly awesome. HOWEVER,

i absolutely hated the raven and y.t. scenes. how creepy!!! he basically statutory rapes her!!! we know hes at least late 20s early 30s, because hes the same age as hiro. if this sort of content is upsetting to read for you, i definitely do NOT recommend this book. (if you want to avoid reading these bits: ch 47 y.t. meets raven, ch 50 they are in a bar eating, ch 52 things happen that result in y.t.'s anti-assault device activating- she did not activate it on purpose, but forgot it was there- and raven is knocked out.)

please PLEASE dont take any of the following analysis as like, trying to be apologetic towards this scenes. because again they were awful and hard to get through and really gross. but im also cognizant that the author was obviously trying to convey something by making the choice, like the way it was written is obviously not condoning this sort of thing.

i think maybe what stephenson was trying to get at with that, was that we see hiro internally negate any potential for anything untoward with y.t. basically immediately, since he kind of senses that she might have a small crush on him (though this doesnt last more than a fleeting moment, especially from her perspective). vs raven, whose 'poor impulse control' warning tattoo eventually elicits a sarcastic remark from hiro after he finds out raven and y.t. were "a thing". i really dont think hiro knew how far it went? like it was just suuuper weird, but i figured it was meant narratively to 1. execute the chekovs gun of y.t.'s anti-assault device, 2. contrast hiro and raven (especially considering the bike-racing argument where theyre telling the story together, which is supposed to parallel them, while contrasting the differences in how they ended up?), and 3. just to get raven unconscious, i guess. but good god it was weird and i hated every second of it, why couldnt the device have like, activated way earlier?? gah. fucking upsetting. moving past that!

honestly i was really frustrated by how little screentime juanita got, because the way she was introduced was so fucking interesting and then shes mostly off doing her own thing. the bits of explanation she gives at the end about what she was up to on the raft are so sparse and im like damn, can we get a little bit of her pov in here? please? that would have ruled. additionally, shes supposed to be hiros love interest, but we see so little of them interacting outside her intro scenes. a huge portion of why hiro is getting into the sumerian mythology is literally framed as something that will help him understand juanita, but we dont get to see him talk to her about it barely at all.

the supporting characters were quite fun, i particularly liked the librarian. big surprise, i liked the overly literal ai information-dispensor, lmfao. watching him and hiro interact reminded me SO hard of geordi laforge having honest to god conversations with the computer where he tries to coax information out of it, aka one of my favorite little aspects of tng.

and lastly, the major plot themes themselves. i adore the way stephenson approached action, it was very entertaining. usually i cant really visualize action scenes written out, but his use of language was really really effective and engaging. the plot itself was absolutely fascinating, though i found the premise pretty contrived. which isnt bad in itself, i was fully suspending my disbelief until the last hundred pages or so. which for a 550+ page book, isnt too bad.

i did like the approach of linking the ancient to the modern, that is always really neat. and i think ultimately stephenson did it in an interesting way, not how i would have done it, but definitely interesting! creating these ideas about information infrastructures, and there being words that can access those and be used to control people, was wild. not sure if i agree about the equating of religion to a virus, though he did specifically establish that it was more the approach to religion, than religion itself. (maybe if juanita had been more goddamn present in the narrative that could have been elaborated on a little more. literally her perspective would have been perfect in balancing that out!!)

ultimately what did me in was the very very very long winded MONOLOGUE where hiro re-explained the whole premise, in ways that didnt really neatly organize into a cohesive argument. a lot of the scenes where hiro talks to the librarian, which are interspersed throughout the book, are really exposition heavy, because stephenson is rooting his ideas in historical concepts that need to be explained to both hiro and the audience. and i thought all that was fine, because it was a conversation where hiro was grappling with the information, and he was figuring it out along with the reader, and most importantly it was a conversation between him and the librarian computer program.

howeverrr later on we get a full rehash of all that, where hiro makes clear some stuff that was just implied for the reader, and hes literally just telling these important men whats up in this big long monologue. utterly worthless. i kept reading it and going YEAH, we KNOW, we know this we know this. and the important men barely interjected. it added basically nothing to our understanding of the situation, other than reframing it. but everything added was already an implicit thing, and didnt really need to be said again.

the resolution to the book was stellar, the last 30-40 pages, once hiro is onto the raft, were great. ultimately after reading and giving some time to digest it, i think it was a solidly great book with a few big drawbacks near the end, but which dont carry through and sully the ending.

[paladin-lynx]

SquipJere Week 2020, Day 3: Dance Dance Revolution

@squipjerebmc’s SquipJere Week 2020 Day 3: Dance Dance Revolution

Ships Involved: The SQUIP x Jeremy Heere (Technical Difficulties/Squipemy/Squeremy/JereSquip/SquipJere), Jake Dillinger x Christine Canigula (UpStage/ChrisJake), Jeremy Heere x Brooke Lohst (Puppy Love)

Setting: Canonverse, set in the time interval between “Loser Geek Whatever” and “Halloween”.

Trigger/Content Warnings: Implied child abuse; non-graphic mentions of vomiting; kissing and mentions of kissing

Author’s Notes: I actually had no ideas for this one at first, and then it turned into my longest piece so far for the week! I love DDR and games like it, so this was really fun to write, even if a lot of it is set-up. Enjoy!

Jeremy could only put off hanging out with Rich for so long. For someone who was once so eager to grab Jeremy and stuff him into a locker that was much too small for him, now Rich was way too enthusiastic about meeting up with Jeremy outside of school.

Unfortunately, it was still too early in their ‘friendship’ – could they really call it that? Was it possible to be friends with the guy who had been bullying you constantly for the past two years? – for Jeremy to feel comfortable going over to Rich’s house. Besides, he didn’t want to have to deal with Rich’s dad, who seemed like a nightmare. Jeremy would rather not have a beer bottle thrown at his head or be accused of being Rich’s secret boyfriend. Despite all the torment Rich had put him through, Jeremy couldn’t help feeling a bit bad. He could tell through their connection that Rich definitely didn’t have an easy time at home. Jeremy’s dad was an embarrassment at worst, but Rich’s was dangerous at worst, and nobody deserved that.

So instead of hanging out after school, Jeremy suggested that they do something on a Saturday. Rich, from what Jeremy could glean, tended to spend his weekends out of the house, usually with Jake. And Jeremy wasn’t exactly familiar with the ‘cool places’ in town they could go to, so he left that decision up to Rich and just prayed it would be something he could handle. There were only a handful of places that he ventured out to when he ventured out at all: the park, the old dumpy arcade, the grocery store, and the mall. The rest of town, despite living here for sixteen years, was something of a mystery to him.

Rich would definitely pick a place that would help Jeremy be deemed as cool, because Rich was cool. And Jeremy bet that Rich’s SQUIP was helping him pick, if it was anywhere near as bossy as his own.

So it came as a surprise to Jeremy when Rich said they should hit up the local Dave & Buster’s. It was like the old dumpy arcade, except less old and dumpy.

Jeremy’s SQUIP didn’t have anything against it, so plans were made. But of course because Rich was going, Jake was going and bringing Christine along. And because Jake was going, Chloe was going. And because Chloe was going, Brooke was going. And because Brooke was going, Jenna was going.

So suddenly this casual hangout with Rich felt a lot more daunting. Because it was no longer just with Rich, who was more than enough on his own for Jeremy to handle.

Nonetheless, the SQUIP urged him not to bail out. “That won’t look good at all,” it warned. “And this is your chance to be in an environment where your…geekier interests and their popular tastes overlap. You can’t give up this opportunity.”

And so Saturday came. The SQUIP convinced Jeremy to eat something before he left despite Jeremy feeling like if he put anything into his stomach, it would immediately come right back up. But by some miracle – or a certain supercomputer’s influence – he managed to get down a half-decent meal, and then off he went. The SQUIP told Jeremy to take his father’s car, since it was highly unlikely the man would notice, and it was of course more convenient than waiting for a bus or having to pay for an Uber.

Jeremy had never actually been to this place before, although from what he could recall it was relatively new. Or maybe it wasn’t, and he just hadn’t cared to notice it because he and a certain hoodie-loving ex-friend of his preferred the local arcade, even if it was more run-down and much less crowded. Or maybe that was why they preferred it.

Because as Jeremy set foot into Dave & Buster’s, he was immediately overwhelmed by the blaring music, the bright neon lights of the countless games, and the crowd of people mulling about.

“Oh God…” he mumbled, feeling his stomach turn.

The SQUIP flickered into existence beside him, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “It’s a Saturday,” it reminded. “This was bound to be the busiest day.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that? I don’t…do big groups of people, you know that!”

“Maybe it’s time to change that. It may benefit you to have an audience.”

“An aud—”

“Heere!” Jeremy’s protest was cut off by a familiar voice and he turned to see Rich bounding up to him with the rest of the popular kids in tow. Great, he was the last to arrive, but maybe he could brush it off as being fashionably late, even though he was pretty sure he was actually a few minutes early. And it was then that Jeremy also realized that he had been speaking out loud to his SQUIP, and he received a small fizzle of static against his back as a reminder to think at the supercomputer while he was around his new group of apparent friends.

“Uh, hey, Rich,” Jeremy returned, fighting back the urge to smack himself for how lame of a greeting that was. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were all here already. Hope you weren’t waiting long.”

Rich shrugged. “Nah, it’s chill. We were just wandering around checking out all the games.” He grinned and elbowed Jake in the side. “Jakey D here tried to use his fake ID at the bar and got caught.”

Jake’s cheeks flushed and he lightly shoved at Rich. “Only because you look like you’re still in middle school!”

Brooke covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. “It was only because Christine apologized and promised it wouldn’t happen again that he didn’t get himself kicked out.”

Christine smiled shyly. “I wouldn’t want the day ruined before it even started…Besides, who drinks this early in the day anyway?”

The others laughed, to Jake’s chagrin, and Christine absolutely beamed as it sunk in that she’d said something they actually found funny. Well, Chloe wasn’t really laughing, but she was hyper-focused on her phone – with Jenna not-so-subtly trying to snoop over her shoulder – so she might not have even been paying attention. Jeremy realized this place probably wasn’t really her particular speed, but she had come along because, of course, she had to keep tabs on Jake. They weren’t back together, were they? Jake looked like he was still very much with Christine. Or at least ‘courting’ her, if they weren’t actively dating.

And speaking of courting, Brooke chose that moment to saunter over and peck Jeremy on the cheek, making his face warm. “We’re glad you made it, though,” she told him. “And that we didn’t get thrown out and end up leaving you here alone!”

“Ah…” Jeremy gave a nervous chuckle and a little bashful smile. “Y-yeah, I’m glad you didn’t get kicked out. So, uh, what should we do first?”

And off they went. There was a good mix of kids and adults enjoying their Saturday, so Christine made a polite request that they watch their language – which was reiterated after Jeremy beat Rich in air hockey and gave a loud “oh fuck you, tall-ass!”, although Jeremy was pretty sure that the insult was actually more teasing than anything else. It had been quite a match to watch, considering they obviously both had their SQUIPs assisting them. Jeremy tried not to focus on the fact that his SQUIP had laid its hand on top of his to alter his movements when necessary.

Some of the games were rather well-known titles while others were so obscure Jeremy couldn’t help wondering if Michael would know them. They made their way around the entire collection, and to his own surprise Jeremy found himself actually having fun. He was better at the more classic arcade-style games but he still gave the rest a fair shot. Christine, who didn’t seem like she dabbled in video games very much at all, found out she was rather good at Temple Run and some knockoff version of Whac-A-Mole. Rich and Jake of course went right for all the shoot-‘em-up games where they could pretend to blow the heads off of zombies. Jenna was actually pretty talented at the various trivia and timing games, although Jeremy supposed that came from years of sticking her nose into everything. He was pretty sure Chloe didn’t touch a single game in the time they were there, and at one point Brooke tried to drag Jeremy into one of the enclosed games – it was a haunted house or something – to make out, to which he turned bright red and, despite the SQUIP’s insistence in the back of his mind, told her that they shouldn’t abandon the others or they’d get upset.

Jeremy was pretty sure after a couple of hours that they’d gone through almost every game in the building and he was about to suggest that maybe they grab snacks or something, but then Christine suddenly perked up and pointed. “What’s that one?”

They all turned – Jeremy thought he even saw Chloe glance up from her phone – to see a tall game station with a metal platform in front of it, and on the platform were brightly colored arrows.

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Is that DDR?”

Jeremy frowned and glanced around at the others before stepping forward to get a better look at the game. “No, I think it’s a knockoff,” he replied, looking up at the top of the cabinet. There was definitely a name there that wasn’t Dance Dance Revolution but it was in too many eye-straining fonts for him to actually make out what it said. His gaze swiveled back down to the arrows on the platform. “DDR has the arrows going left, right, up, and down, but these ones are on the corners.”

He realized a beat too late that implying he had played DDR before was probably not something he should divulge to the cool kids, but when he looked around for his SQUIP, he found it giving him a little smile and nodding in approval.

Before he could react, though, he felt a hard nudge at his back and turned around to see Rich snickering. “Well, go on, tall-ass! Dance for us!”

“What?” Jeremy immediately sputtered in a way he was positive was uncool and his face went bright red. “I-I’m not gonna dance!”

Chloe smirked at him, lowering her phone – why did she have to lower her phone now of all times? – and put a hand on her hip. “Come on, Jere. Since you seem to know about this kind of game.”

Brooke giggled. “It’ll be fun, Jer-bear.”

Christine clasped her hands together, grinning at him, her eyes almost shining. “I’d love to see how you dance, Jeremy.”

Jeremy’s gaze flicked around to each of them and he suddenly felt very cornered, sweat slipping down the back of his neck. However, a wave of calm swiftly fell over him and he released a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding. He peeked to the side and saw the SQUIP standing there, giving him a confident smile.

It reached up to gently tap Jeremy’s nose, which felt more like a tiny spark of static. “Come on, dear,” it purred. “Let’s dance.”

He knew there was no getting out of it now, so he sighed, pushing his hair back and shaking his head. “It’s not as if these games actually look like dancing,” he muttered as he plodded up to the platform. “They look more like your legs are spazzing out.”

The rest of the group quickly crowded around, eagerly watching as Jeremy stepped onto the arrows to activate the game and pull up the song list. He could almost feel the confusion as they looked over the options.

“What are these?” Jenna huffed out.

“It looks like Japanese,” Jake commented, tilting his head as if that would help him read the foreign characters better. Or maybe Jake could understand Japanese; Jeremy wouldn’t be surprised, considering how much Jake threw himself into extra skills at school.

Jeremy decided it was better to hold his tongue than admit that he actually did recognize some of these as covers of Vocaloid and Touhou songs. He was pretty sure a few on the list were actually Korean and not Japanese, but he didn’t recognize them regardless. He tapped his foot against one of the arrows to scroll through and see if anything looked particularly interesting.

The SQUIP suddenly held up a hand and Jeremy found himself frozen in place, blinking at the screen. The song title was in Japanese, but upon hearing the rhythm and a few of the words in the preview snippet, he recognized it as a Touhou song, although not one he knew well enough to recall the name of. And it sounded like a remix, nonetheless.

“‘Four Seasons of Loneliness,’” the SQUIP translated, smirking sideways at him. “Pick this one.”

Why?

He got his answer from Brooke: “Sounds hard and fast.”

Ignoring the snicker from Rich at the obvious joke, Jeremy selected the song and was about to begin the game when the SQUIP once again stopped him. With yet another smirk, it upped the difficulty to the max and Jeremy had to keep his jaw from dropping.

“Damn, look at you, J-Man, all confident!” Jake whistled, and Jeremy felt his blood run cold.

I’m going to embarrass myself, he lamented as he confirmed his selection and the loading screen came on. Not only was the difficulty at its highest, but it was set so that he’d have to use every arrow, not those just designated for a single player on one side of the two-player platform.

“No, you won’t,” the SQUIP soothed, appearing in front of him and taking his hands. Jeremy couldn’t help blushing as those familiar cool fingers curled around his already sweaty hands. “Just let me do all the work.”

Jeremy had thought that the SQUIP wanted him to become more independent. Then again, it had also recited his lines for him during play rehearsal so he didn’t have to take the time to memorize them. Maybe this was along the same lines. But this wasn’t going to be like when the SQUIP had led him in a slow waltz – honestly, he wasn’t even sure it had been a waltz, he didn’t know shit about dancing – around the imaginary Hogwarts Great Hall. This was going to be quick-paced – the BPM had been 178 and while Jeremy wasn’t a music expert, he was pretty sure that was fast – and in front of an audience.

So that was what it had meant earlier.

You predicted this, didn’t you? he accused, heart jumping as the first beats of the song came on.

The SQUIP laughed. “Perhaps. Now let’s give your new friends a show.”

The song opened and Jeremy felt like he couldn’t move, frozen with fear like a prey animal, but then suddenly the SQUIP gave his hands a little squeeze and his entire body started moving on its own. It wasn’t the first time the SQUIP had stepped in to autopilot his body but it had never been to move around like this.

He had to make sure to restrain himself from looking too surprised, because as far as the others knew – except for maybe Rich – he was doing this all on his own. So he just swallowed the lump in his throat and let his feet fly across the platform, hitting every arrow in perfect time. When he was on one side of the platform and had to get to an arrow all the way on the other side in less than a millisecond, he was suddenly over there, which he didn’t think would be possible. Even if someone was controlling his body, he was still in no way built to be a dancer. Or at least, a cool and popular one.

He looked up at his SQUIP, who was still holding his hands and grinning widely at him. When Jeremy peeked down, he saw that the SQUIP’s feet were moving in time with his and, unlike when they’d slow-danced and the SQUIP had been dancing in front of him, now their feet blended together.

One of the others whistled and whooped from behind him. “Go, Heere!” Rich called, and Jeremy could feel his excitement buzz through their connection.

And despite his earlier nerves, Jeremy found himself breaking into a grin, adrenaline pumping through his veins. To the others it would seem like he was intently watching the screen, but he was truly just watching his SQUIP in absolute awe. He didn’t even need to know what arrows to press because by the time they popped up in the game, he was already there and moving on to the next arrow.

The SQUIP even let him show off a bit – although could it be considering ‘showing off’ if he wasn’t the one actually doing it? – and threw in a few spins and jumps for flare, earning him more cheers from his friends. He would think that this entire display would be considered rather dorky, but his body was moving so fast that even if the game was childish, his so-called dancing was too unreal for it not to be impressive.

All that existed in that moment was him and his SQUIP. Even the music, upbeat and catchy as it was, faded into the background. It wasn’t like he could understand the lyrics anyway. Jeremy had had moments before when he’d felt unusually close to the SQUIP – he knew, in reality, they were always close considering that the SQUIP was inside his brain – but there had only been a few moments these past few months where he’d really, truly felt in sync with his own personal supercomputer.

And he liked how it felt.

Before he knew it, the song was over and he found himself striking a pose. He realized he was soaked in sweat, but he barely felt winded, although he had a sneaking suspicion that that was the SQUIP’s doing. He looked up at the SQUIP once more, who smiled and stepped back, dipping down to press its lips to the back of Jeremy’s hand. Jeremy was absolutely dumbstruck at the small but notably warm fizzle of static against his skin, but then the SQUIP’s form blinked out of sight and Jeremy found himself staring at the screen with his mouth open in shock.

The last notes of the song faded and his score flashed onto the screen, a chipper female voice declaring, “Yeah, I knew you could do it!” There were quite a number of ‘Perfects’ but also a good mix of ‘Greats’ and ‘Goods,’ as if the SQUIP hadn’t wanted to make it seem like Jeremy had achieved the impossible on his first try at this obscure knockoff game.

He stumbled as Brooke suddenly crashed into him in an embrace. “Jeremy, that was amazing! I had no idea you could move like that!” She put her hands on his cheeks and pulled him into a somewhat messy kiss, making his cheeks burn, but he didn’t get the same fuzzy feeling in his chest that he’d gotten before, when the SQUIP had had his hand.

“Ah…” He smiled shyly once they’d broken apart for air and his chest heaved, the exhaustion from his dancing suddenly setting in. “Th-thanks. I just kinda…went for it.”

Jake grinned, flashing him a thumbs-up. “Looks like all that DDR and dancing alone in your bedroom didn’t go to waste, huh?”

Jeremy tried to come up with a retort, but he quickly realized that more than just his small gathering of friends was watching. Quite a few of the other patrons were looking at him, muttering to each other about how remarkable that had been. He even heard one little girl squeal, “I wanna dance like him!” which earned an amused chuckle from her parents.

Jeremy gently pulled away from Brooke, rubbing the back of his neck. “Thanks, guys. Uh, you can stop staring now.”

It looked like the group wasn’t going to drop it any time soon, though, as they led him off to find a place to sit down. Jeremy couldn’t help peeking over his shoulder, expecting to see the SQUIP right by him as it usually was, but instead it had reappeared beside the dancing game, watching with a surprisingly fond smile as the little girl bounded over to the platform and started tapping away at the arrows.

Jeremy’s heart squeezed. Maybe he’d ask Rich if they could meet up here again at some point.

[readwithkay]

April Reads [ 2 Books ]

i really was expected to do 3 tests for EACH subject i do & i do 11 subjects :( 0 reading time & by tbr pile is always evolving. at least my local bookstores are opening again! FYI there is a ‘keep reading’ border bc the first book i ready in april has a few trigger warnings :) please skim over that “review” if you are uncomfy

When the Stars Lead to You by Ronni Davis (TW: mention of mental illness, death of a loved one, depression, attempted suicide) (i swear in this review)

(★★)

18-old Devon longs for two things. The stars. & the boy she fell in love with last summer. When Ashton breaks Devon’s heart at the end of the most romantic & magical summer ever, she thinks her heart will never heal again. But over the course of the following year, Devon finds herself slowly putting the broken pieces back together. Now it’s senior year, and she’s determined to enjoy every moment of it as she prepares for a future studying the galaxies. That is, until Ashton shows up on the first day of school. Can she forgive him and open her heart again? Or are they doomed to repeat history

From debut author, Ronni Davis, comes a stunning novel about passion, loss, and the power of first love.

can i just say that ive had so little books rated over 3 stars in the past couple months :(

i really wanted to enjoy this book bc the synopsis sounded good, the title is creative/intruging and i really wanted to get something about the 3 stars i was giving like every book since february

unfortunately, it disappointed me gravely

kinda insta love & this girl wasn’t over this guy she dated for 2-3 months over A YEAR AGO like ????

was expecting to be BLOWN OUT OF THIS WORLD (i think im funny-) but just felt like id been dug an early grave with how boring it was

like we get it you have daddy issues :(

the mental illness rep didn’t strike me as realistic, but i found it commendable that the non-mentally-ill MC went out of her way to do her own research

i liked the POC rep 

all of these descriptions of the deep love that devon feels for ashton but it was laid on so thickly that it felt more like being told than shown. at a certain point, the romance scenes became ew—the sheer amount of passages where they were just making out or talking about how they wanted to be together forever (paired with ashton’s extreme wealth) gave me unpleasant fan fiction/wattpad vibes

like 2015/2017 wattpad

not good overall

ALSO THIS BITCH WAS FULLY PREPARED TO DITCH UNI FOR THIS BOY?????????????? my emotionally unavailable self could NEVER

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

(★★★★)

If it weren't for the 57 bus, Sasha & Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills & attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands & attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere 8 minutes. But 1 afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned & Richard charged with two hate crimes & facing life imprisonment. The case garnered international attention, thrusting both teenagers into the spotlight.

i did shed a few tears

fINALLY something above 3 stars !!!!

Based on the real life story of a white Oakland agender teen attacked by another teen while riding the bus, the book is both insightful & balanced.

Sasha (the victim) & Richard’s (the attacker) backstories are fully explored.  Oakland itself & Richard’s backstory are paid careful consideration. & after learning about both a clearer picture emerges. 1 where Oakland, 1 of the most diverse & deeply divided cities in the country, & the criminal justice system play a role in shaping events.

dashka slater could have EASILy formed a narrative casting richard as our villain. they didn’t. instead, richard is a goofy, often quiet but smart TEEN who was raised in poverty & who desperatey tries to avoid conflict/getting into trouble. he is NOT a supervillian. he is NOT inherently bad or evil. 

BUT the book doesn’t condone/excuse his actions; we’re just provided with the context: a favour not always granted by the media. in this story, the media manipulated both richard & his mother’s words by giving them a differing narrative and ripping away their substance.

this book is also a compelling indictment of the criminal justice systerm, where richard (WHO IS SIXTEEN YEARS OLD) is tried as an ADULT. & in being tried as an ADULT (WHICH HE IS NOT) he loses the protection granted to juveniles: he loses anonymity and a reasonable punishment/sentence. MEANING ADULT PRISON. 

like what the actual hell???? THIS HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE PEOPLE. as a teenager, richard is still developing. he physically & mentally has less impulse control than adults who would be imprisoned; YET HE IS TREATED THE SAME AS THEM?

made me very angry but very interested

still, the story does not excuse his actions; it critiques & explores the systems that foster these types of attacks & the legal responses. 

IN FACT, sasha (THE VICTIM) & their family PUBLICLY disagreed with the court’s decision to try richard as an adult. 

sasha is also provided equal narrative. from the get-go the book educates its audience on nonbinary gender identities & sasha’s journey of discovering their pronouns/gender identity. 

not a 5 star bc i wasnt always that keen on the writing style :( still a brilliant book, especially if you want educated on what it’s like to be nb/the justice system 

[little-lee-stories]

Hello! Sorry to bother you but I was wondering where or how to start getting into the protest thing, I’m a small child and idk how this stuff works but what those officers did was BEYOND disgusting and I wanna help protest! So if you have any info you could give me that’d be awesome and I’d really appreciate it! I love your blog btw ^^

Hi! You’re not a bother at all! But I did see from an ask you sent thetickleeraven that you are 13, and I would highly recommend that if you do go to any protests, you do so with someone you trust over the age of 18. Your enthusiasm for activism is wonderful, but a minor is still a minor, and that comes with a host of issues - parental consent is probably needed or you could be forcefully taken from the protest and brought back home by the police. People around you could be accused of kidnapping or other unsightly activities done to a minor (even if they didn’t do it, anti groups and cops will take any advantage they can get, and we’ve already seen them assume guns in the hands of people that literally had empty hands so) and therefore arrested for crimes they didn’t actually commit. Plus, protest or no protest, the streets aren’t safe for unaccompanied minors.

But! If you do have a trusted adult in your life willing to go with you, here are some minor-specific tips: Stay With Your Adult. If approached by a cop, or even by anyone you don’t trust, coordinate beforehand to have the adult respond for you so that it is clear a) you are not being forced, and b) you are with an adult who is taking charge of your actions and wellbeing during the peaceful protest. Have responses prepared in advance to leading questions that would try to make you “admit” you’re in an unsafe position, as this could again cause the adults around you to be accused of and arrested for fabricated crimes. Unfortunately, I would say that if you can’t go with an adult, don’t go: the danger to both yourself and the movement is too high.

Do Not act out, no matter what anyone else at the protest is doing. If your accompanying adult does something dangerous - such as threatening the police with violence, committing vandalism, etc - DIP. Get out of there, because that person is not concerned for your wellbeing and may well drag you down a road that can get you hurt by or in trouble with the police. In general, despite protesting you want to stay on the good side of the law - don’t give the police any reason to react to what you’re doing. Chanting, marching, things of that nature are fine, but don’t spit in the face of a cop - that’s assault right there. The more peaceful the protest, the less chance of the police being able to justifiably threaten and be violent towards the protesters. If you’re unsure of what to do, stick to something more passive, such as simply repeating “black lives matter,” rather than letting your anger and disgust get the better of you.

Now that you’ve got general conduct down, let’s talk about supplies: food and water, definitely, as protests almost always involve walking multiple miles. Don’t be afraid to stop when you’ve reached your physical limit; no one will be mad. General first aid supplies (personally I would bring a literal first aid kit, but also I’m a safety nut, ha) and protest-specific supplies like a water bottle with baking soda (3 teaspoons of baking soda to every 8 ounces of water, well shaken) for flushing out your eyes in case of tear gas. Response to rubber bullets unfortunately depend on where they are, but it seems cops are mostly aiming for the face so - facial wounds bleed a lot, and that can be scary, but they usually aren’t as bad as they appear. I suggest watching a wound care first aid video before going to a protest and using that to make sure you have what you need to do things like stop bleeding and treat superficial face cuts. IF it can be done safely and without causing more damage, remove any particles in the wound before disinfecting to prevent infection due to foreign objects; if not, leave it to a professional or someone with more experience. With how young you are, I’d honestly say not to mess with much more than a nose bleed on your own. I don’t doubt your ability, but there will be more experienced people around that you can help by fetching water or giving your spare first aid supplies - always follow the lead of the most experienced person when giving aid. If they say back off, back off. If they tell you to put pressure on something for them, do that.

Dressing for the occasion - you want to wear clothes that cover as much of you as possible, with no logos or identifying features. Preferably all black clothes if you can. Use clothing to cover identifying features - a mask on your face, a beanie over your hair, cover any tattoos or piercings. Wear goggles to prevent the effects of tear gas as much as possible, with the added bonus of obscuring your eyes. As my friend likes to say, no face = no case. If they don’t know who you are, you can’t get in trouble regardless of what you do, especially as a minor. Do not use blue shoelaces - they imply that you have either killed or are planning to kill a cop. Do use appropriate footwear, protective boots would be great if you have them.

Last but not least, your “in case of emergency” plan. Hopefully you won’t need it since you’ll be with an adult, but just to be on the safe side I’ll add it in. First of all, make sure you have a safe, secure ride to and from the protest. You do NOT want to be stuck in the area once the protesters leave, as that makes it more likely for you to be singled out, identified, or followed by police. Have a back up if need be. If you have an iPhone, use the Medical ID feature under health in the settings to set up not only information on any illnesses or medications you may have, but also to list emergency contact information so it can be accessed without having to unlock your phone (picture below)

Hitting emergency in the bottom left corner will take you to the emergency call screen, with a Medical ID button at the bottom left again that will display all the info I just mentioned. From there a person can just click one of your emergency contacts to call them.

In addition, there is this feature:

This will let someone automatically call the local emergency services AND send a message to your emergency contacts giving them your location and letting them know you had to contact emergency services. When you’ve got this set up, make sure to tell the people around you at the protest that if anything happens and you can’t do it yourself, you need them to either use your phone to contact emergency services as shown above or to call one of you contacts on the emergency screen. DO NOT have these numbers readily visible on your person, as the media has often made a point of recording the numbers and allowing the audience to use the knowledge to abuse the contacts without regard for your or their safety.

Make sure you know where you’re going, who you’re with, and what to do if you get separated before you even step out of the street. Have a game plan, and stick to it the best of your ability. I would suggest not being directly in the front, back, or outer sides of the protest until you reach adulthood - the likelihood of you being hurt is far greater in those areas, and those people on the side are the ones most likely to branch off in order to do harmful or illegal activities.

Phew, sorry that was so long! I think that’s the best I can give you. Good luck, and if you have any more questions, or just want to talk, I’ve got my asks and my pms open for you! Good luck and stay safe 💕

Edit - I just realized I didn’t mention how to find a protest! Social media is the best place to hear about local protests; personally I recommend Facebook because it “schedules” events with when, where, and sometimes how many people are attending (remember the Area 51 raid? That started as a Facebook event, and see how many people responded to that?). Find a protest you want to/feel safe as you can attending, and start planning (supplies, emergency contacts, transport) from there! I would find something that gives you a few days notice to get your things together.

[dxitydoo]

So... the iPhone SE...

Alright this one is gonna be a long one so scroll on past if you’re not interested. If you are, then buckle up because here’s a multi-part essay about my opinions on the new SE.

For anyone that saw my post about getting a new phone and wondered what phone I got, I got the new iPhone SE (yes, I’m an Apple person. Don’t come for me).

At first, I was seeing videos of people getting excited over the phone but now, as time has gone on, those same people are now making videos criticising the phone.

Admittedly, they have some good points to bring up. The battery of the new SE is not amazing. It doesn’t outlast my dad’s XR which is somewhat annoying to say the least.

My counter-argument to that is that it lasted a whole day of me playing games on full brightness in the sunlight and didn’t die on me once which is honestly incredible after the last phone i had but anywho we’ll discuss this later.

My problem with a lot of those videos is that I feel like they’re getting the wrong end of the stick about what the SE is trying to be and they’re comparing it to the wrong phones.

The Original SE

The original SE’s main selling point (seriously why did Apple name them like this this is confusing) was that it had the newer internals of the 6S (so the faster processor, the better camera, etc) in the smaller body of the older 5S.

That was why I, and a lot of others I’m sure, liked it. Because it was a newer phone but in a size I preferred.

It also didn’t break the bank.

The old SE was praised for combining new and old in a way that complimented the old form-factor and rejuvenated in while also allowing people to access the newer features that were coming out in updates. At the time of writing this (27/04/2020), the old SE still supports new iOS updates and runs iOS 13 with minimal hiccups (not counting the fact that iOS 13 isn’t the most bug-free of updates).

But now, in 2020, the new SE is released and people are criticising it for the same thing they praised it for back in the day. They’re complaining that it has Touch ID, that it doesn’t have a edge-to-edge display, that it’s small, that the battery isn’t good, that the camera doesn’t stack up.

Look.

Everyone is free to have their own opinion. If you don’t like the SE, that’s fine. You don’t have to. No one is forcing you to. Just keep scrolling coz I do like the SE and I’m about to defend it til I run out of breath.

The “Old” Body

The SE combines old and new. That’s it’s schtick, that’s its gimmick. It was the thing for the 2016 SE, its the same for the 2020 SE. Although I would’ve loved to see an SE with an edge-to-edge display like any of the X or the 11 range, I’m not super surprised it hasn’t happened.

In fact, the small changes they have made, such as all colours now coming with a black bevel (and the better colour matching between the bevel and the screen), make it look really high-quality and beautiful honestly.

It has the same body as the 6, yes, but it doesn’t look like the 6 because of that colour-matching. And I appreciate that.

Oh! And the back being the non-metallic colour? God that’s sexy. The back is more reminiscent of the 11 (or the XR, I suppose, depending on what colour you got) than the 6 or 7. So it’s not unchanged?

Touch ID and Haptic Touch

Again, a controversial topic. The Touch ID in the SE is like the 3rd Gen or something?? I don’t actually know. But it’s several generations in at this point and it shows.

I came from the original SE, which had one of the first ever generations of Touch ID (if not the first) and the speed with which this new phone unlocks is incredible compared to the older model.

I tap the button once and the phone unlocks instantly. That is it.

Maybe it’s cumbersome to have Touch ID back again after all this time but if you’ve come from a Touch ID phone, especially one of the older models (which really... I think that’s probably the intended audience), it’s a big improvement.

And look no further for someone who was viscerally against the fake button Haptic Touch thing.

I hated the idea of it. My view was I either wanted the real button or no button at all. Full stop. End of story. You’d never change my mind.

Yeah... the new SE changed my mind.

I have the haptics turned up to the highest setting and it actually feels like a real button. Its less spongy than a real button, of course, and feels stiffer (kinda? Maybe just shallower) but its actually a really satisfying feature.

I remember first trying the fake button on the 7 and it vibrated at the wrong time or you’d try to press it to do one thing and it’d do another. It was confusing and made it very difficult to use.

I will say now I haven’t actually tried using an 8 so I can’t pass judgement on that but i like the SE.

And the Haptic Touch is really really nice.

I never thought I’d have a phone that has built-in rumble when playing games but here we are. This is the future.

Aside from being kinda nifty to feel the vibration in your hands when something happens on-screen, the Haptic Touch vibrates under your finger when interacting with the rotating dials to set timers or reblogging posts on tumblr. It’s a weird experience but not an unpleasant one and I like it way more than I was expecting to.

The Small Size

As for the size?

I really like it.

It’s big enough that it feels like a step-up from my old phone but not so big that I’m struggling to hold it (*cough cough* the XR *cough cough*).

Okay so my touch-typing is suffering a wee bit at the moment but tbh I started to struggle on my old phone before I upgraded coz the screen was just a little too small so it’s more a me thing than an it thing. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The camera.

I feel the need to mention that my last phone was the 2016 SE so, maybe it’s because my standards are really low, or maybe I’ve never owned an 11 and, therefore, have no comparison for it that way? But I don’t think the camera is bad.

In fact, I would even go so far as to say the camera is really fricking good.

After using a phone with a front-facing camera that could barely shoot 480p, stepping up to 1080p on the front is Wild™. The difference between this new camera and the old one is incredible.

If you want a camera that shoots good quality photos, has good colour balance, can actually show the sky as blue when shooting through a window (yes this is how low my expectations are), then omg this phone is incredible.

Obviously, its never gonna beat the 11 with its two cameras and its not gonna be able to contend with the 11 Pro series with their three cameras but hey, the phone is like half the price so??

The Battery

Okay, so lets talk about the battery.

I know this is a bit of a sore spot with people because iPhones recently have been coming out with bigger and better batteries every year.

I did a quick check through and, according to Apple, the battery life is about the same as both the 7 and the 8, which makes sense as they all share the same body. Unfortunately, that means that its probably a size issue. As in, thats the longest a battery of that size can last in a phone. Which is kinda annoying.

But, this is a post about my experience with the SE and I haven’t ever owned a 7 or an 8. My mum owned a 7 and the battery on that was god-awful and I’ve had a much better experience with my SE than she did.

First of all: some context.

Again, a friendly reminder my last phone was a four year old SE. It was a 64GB one as well, so you know I’m being legit (they stopped selling the 64GB (in the UK at least) about a year after the phone’s initial release).

So the battery on my old phone was absolutely fine. At first. As time went on and the phone got older, it did, unfortunately, begin to struggle.

As a reference, a few months before I replaced it (given lockdown doesn’t give the most accurate overview of what it was like to use on a day-to-day basis), it wouldn’t make it through a day at school without dying at least once, sometimes twice.

I had to carry a portable charger with me everywhere I went.

I left my house when it was on 100% and, by the time I got to school after an hour on the bus, it would be on 60-70% on a good day.

Letting your battery die everyday is really not good for it but, try as I might, I couldn’t stop it from happening.

I tell you this to let you know that my criteria for a good battery is literally just “lasts me through the day”.

I’ve had my new phone for about three days now and it hasn’t died on me once.

I played games on it in bright sunlight with the phone on full brightness for several hours straight yesterday and yet it still lasted me through the day and then some. After being off charge for 11 hours, it just about hit 20% before I put it on charge.

Today, I was on social media: tumblr, instagram, youtube, for the majority of today. Both tumblr and instagram had an uncanny ability to completely decimate the battery life of my old phone. They could reduce it from 50% to 40% after 5 minutes. But, again, no problemo for my new phone.

It got to about 50% today before I put it back on charge to go have dinner.

I’d say that lasts through the day quite nicely.

Especially given it’s getting a lot more use than it would normally because a) I’m stuck inside with nothing to do and b) shiny new phone!!!

But I digress.

So, Why Does The SE Exist?

I’m gonna be real. I don’t think the iPhone SE (2020) is trying to be anything fancy. It’s not trying to be the next iPhone 11, it’s not trying to replace the XR. If anything, it’s replacing the 8.

I don’t think the SE is a bad phone. It does everything it says it does and it does it well.

I think the YouTube reviewers have it slightly wrong. I don’t think they should be comparing the SE to the 11 or the XR because, realistically, the people who own those phones aren’t gonna be buying the SE for themselves.

The people who are gonna be buying the SE are the people who have the 5s or the old SE or the 6s or even maybe the 7. (I’m not sure how noticeable the jump would be from 8 to SE, given they have very similar specs).

They’re the kind of people who want a new phone but don’t have the money to go for the more expensive XR or 11 range.

Or maybe they don’t want a giant phone because idk bout you but I have small hands and the XR is both large and heavy and that’s not practical. Plus, the XR with women’s jeans? Really? Not happening.

So, while I understand why reviewers are comparing the SE to the 11s or the XR—because the SE has the internals of those two and is closer to them in terms of release date—I don’t think it’s actually realistic.

TL;DR

YouTube reviewers are comparing the SE to the recent phones when they should be comparing it to the older ones, which is the more likely transition. The iPhone SE has a lot more going for it than people say and I really like it.

[beyards]

Plance cashier au where Lance is the cashier and Pidge is the one customer who walks in at closing to get one item

Closing Shift

pidge/lance

1478 words

gen audience

support it on ao3

fic requests are open!

It was 9:51:47 PM, which meant Lance had exactly 8 minutes and 13 seconds before he could officially lock the doors. Unfortunately, someone else was having just as long a night as he was.

Lance slumped over the counter, staring ahead at the sugary rainbow of check out candy neatly stacked and ordered. Within an hour of opening tomorrow they were sure to be a mess, but he was kind of proud of how hard he’d worked to make them look nice. It was one of the few things he actually got joy out of in this miserable job, miserable life really.

It was 9:14:47 PM, which meant Lance had exactly 8 minutes and 13 seconds before he could officially lock the doors. Everything was accounted for, every other register closed out, everything cleaned up, but he couldn’t leave until exactly 10 PM. Damn corporate policy. Nobody was even going to come in the damn store. He’d worked closing for the past 4 days and hardly anybody ever came in after 9:45. That might have something to do with Keith shutting off the lights that spelled out the store name at that time, but still. Finally, Lance caved. Fuck it. It was only a minute or two until 10, and it’s not like Shiro was going to write him up for that, he was a pretty chill manager.

Suddenly the door chimed, signaling somebody entering the store.

Lance, figuring it was pretty much 10 PM anyways said “Sorry, we’re closed-”

“No you’re not, it’s 9:54.” Snapped a voice.

Internally, Lance groaned, not even bothering to look up. He didn’t have the patience to deal with any more bullshit today. He already had that one lady try to cuss him out when she accidentally put the card reader in Spanish and couldn’t figure out how to change it back. She said that it was a damn shame that now she couldn’t even get groceries without ‘witnessing the assault of American culture by the gangs and rapists from Mexico’ and told him Trump was going to deport his whole family. He didn’t have the heart to tell her he was Cuban.

Lance flipped his light back on and rebooted up his register, grumbling the entire time. He couldn’t even punish her by faking a register problem or faking a need to call management. He wanted to go home. He’d just have to rely on karma to get this entitled customer in line.

To his surprise, he heard footsteps rounding into his lane and put something on his counter by 9:57. As he thoughtlessly reached for the big ass chocolate bar this cretin was purchasing, he heard a sniffle. It was faint, and if the muzak that usually played hadn’t been shut off a few minutes ago he surely would have missed it. At first Lance waved it off as allergies as he passed the first item over the scanner, but then on a whim he actually looked up.

Her eyes were red and puffy, a tear slipping down her reddened face. He froze, unsure what to do. He was trained to handle all sorts of situations like active shooter, robberies, fake IDs, suspected human traffiking, and mislabeled merchandise, but Lance had never been through a course on how to comfort a crying customer.

“Uh,” Lance said, setting down the item in a bag, “are you okay?”

She wiped her eyes and shot him a glare. It would’ve been petrifying if it wasn’t for the fact more tears were spilling out already. Realizing what she was doing wasn’t working she looked away.

“I’m fi-ine.” She huffed out, the declaration punctuated by another sniffle.

“You’re crying in a grocery store at 10 PM,” Lance pointed out bluntly, “I think that’s like, the opposite of fine.”

“Well,” she tried wiping her eyes again, and this time Lance noticed little mascara smudges and a hint of a shimmery powder on her lids, “it’s closing and you probably have a girlfriend to get home to.”

It was almost like she was just throwing the words haphazardly at Lance. There was an edge of bitterness, but for the most part it was just sadness and maybe a hint of jealousy behind it. He took another look at her appearance. She was wearing sort of nice clothes, nothing formal or fancy, but really cute he had to admit. It was nice shorts with an off the shoulder top. Her hair was in soft ringlets, probably looser now than they’d been earlier, so clearly there was some effort put into it. All that combined with the makeup pointed at the strong possibility that she’d just been burned by Cupid.

Lance snorted, starting to ring her up. “Nah, I’ve been single for nearly a year now. I found out my last girlfriend of 3 years had been cheating on me literally the day I was going to propose.”

He flushed, realizing that he didn’t know why he’d just told her that. It wasn’t any of her business, and in fact Lance had told 3 people the truth about why he and Nyma weren’t together anymore. Maybe he just felt bad for her.

“Oh shoot,” the girl mumbled, “I’m sorry, that sucks.”

“Yeah, but don’t feel too bad for me,” Lance added dully, “I’d caught her cheating the month before but she promised it was a mistake and that she was so sorry. So I forgave her. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise when I walked into our bedroom and saw her being fucked by two guys at once. I should’ve known she didn’t just stop, I was the ultimate cuck.”

The customer cringed, but chuckled a bit. “Oh god, and I thought I was having it bad.”

“Well, whatever you’re going through,” he sighed, finalizing the sale with the cash she gave him, “I’m sure it’s not as bad as getting cucked.”

“Probably not,” she mumbled, accepting her change, “I just got stood up by guy who was dared to ask me out as part of his fraternity rush.”

Lance shut off his register as the lights in the back of the store went out. “Wait, you knew he was a frat boy and you still accepted?”

“He was my bio partner,” she explained, following him as he made his way over to the time clock, “and I didn’t know he was joining a frat. It’s not like he mentioned it to me and I don’t talk to people on campus who are part of that crowd, so I just didn’t know.”

You didn’t look this guy up on social media or anything?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow. The pair made their way towards the exit. “That’s rule one of dating in college.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “I don’t really know those rules. It’s not like anyone ever told me about them.”

“Okay, fair,” Lance said, leading them over to a park bench so they could talk some more, “so this guy asked you out and you said yes.”

“I guess- I mean, yeah.” The girl sat down next to him, jiggling her foot, “he’s always been super sweet, talks to me in the hallways, and we would text a lot too. He’d ask for pictures of my dog like every day.”

“Ah, animal loving,” Lance whistled, “that’s how they get ya.”

She glowered at him, but continued anyways. “I agreed to meet him for a milkshake, and I waited 3 hours but he never showed up. Finally one of my friends texted me saying there was a timelapse of me sitting at the diner barstool for the first two hours taken from a security camera up on social media. I guess one of the fraternity members works there…”

Her bottom lip trembled and Lance’s heart really hurt for her. “Wow, that’s just… wow.”

“Yeah,” she let out a shuddery breath.

They sat there in silence for a bit, the cool night breeze playing with her curls. He couldn’t help but steal glances at her every now and then. He felt really, really bad for her. He’d been the victim of some cruel pranks in the past too, and he knew what it was like for someone to just toy with your feelings. He bit his lip, hesitant to offer this. Was he even ready?

“Hey,” Lance said, after a few moments, “do you still wanna get that milkshake?”

She looked up at him and he could see she’d been crying again.

“Only if you want to,” he added hastily, feeling his face heat up, “and it can just be as a friend thing, or well, not a friend thing, I’m just your cashier but like, hey, I don’t want this asshole to ruin your night, you know?”

She gave him a small smile. “Actually, I think I’d like that.” She got to her feet, offering her hand. “I’m Pidge, by the way.”

“Lance,” he grinned, accepting her handshake before getting to his own feet. “Let’s go bring all the boys to the yard.”

(like the story? reblog it! let me know if you want a sequel!)

[fairycosmos]

hey i’m super sry 2 bother ive just been struggling and i know u understand how i feel..i’ve never been this bad in my life. i feel so stupid agonizing over smth like my physical appearance but my reflection genuinely makes me nauseous and throws me into a breakdown each time i see it. i cant help but feel like id much rather kill myself than spend the rest of my miserable existence being so revolting and grotesque. i hate being conventionally unattrctive- going out in public is just the worst:(

hey angellll i'm sorry 2 hear you're dealing w this rn. you're not bothering me either, it's cool. :(( also i got your other anon and don't worry, i didn't think you were calling me ugly djekdkekk,, but i mean i AM lol. and i can definitely relate to feeling viscerally disgusting in your own skin......you're not over exaggerating, i promise. you are always going to have the right to feel a certain way about something that seems to dictate so much of your life. countless women are going through it. i struggle with this every single day myself and i honestly don't have all of the answers of even half of them, unfortunately. and sometimes nothing can calm me down from the shame i feel about being who i am, but here are a few thoughts/ideas that soothe me and may soothe you if you allow them to:

1. our perception of beauty is always being manipulated. they keep moving the goal posts and narrowing the standards to get us to chase these totally false ideals, purely because it makes money. that's it. they plant the insecurity, market a fake 'solution', and profit. when we look in the mirror a life time of conditioning looks back at us and the only way to get around it is to be consistently aware of that fact. once you begin examining and questioning why certain features are seen as attractive and others aren't, you realize that none of it really holds any ground. it has very little to do with our bodies, and everything to do with controlling them. it's all the result of a never ending advertisment, and engaging with it for too long is certainly going to exhaust you and fuck up your self perception. the way you see yourself is not as accurate as you think.

2. we are all going to be old and therefore conventionally unattractive someday any way. a defining factor of this game they force us to play is that we will never win. due to circumstance, or time, or just cause we're human. seems like for women we're not allowed to reach a day over 40 without being ridiculed for it. but i really do believe that getting older affords a certain amount of freedom. when you get to that point in your life, you're going to know yourself so much more than you do at the moment. your perspective WILL be different. you're not going to be basing your worth off of how you look because you'll have lived what you're capable of, and it's so much more than.......appearing a certain way for a moment in time. curating a life worth living pales in comparison to looking flawless. and i know it seems like you can't do that because you feel so gross, but you can - insecurity doesn't have to stop you from putting your best foot forward. you are worthy because you're here. you deserve to live because you are alive. at the end of the day, you don't have to like yourself, but you have to like BEING yourself. you have to learn how to enjoy your hobbies and opportunities more than you hate your skin or your face or whatever.

3. your body is here to experience and relate with the tangible world. it is the vessel with which you are able to walk, talk, love, eat, play, and enjoy. it is very very unconcerned with being palatable to the masses. ultimately, that is not what you exist for. it always comes back to that, no matter how much the world demands a performance of you - you don't have to give one. even if the so called audience doesn't like it. it takes time to truly accept that, i still can't. but working on neutralising the self is key. if you can't love yourself, just acknowledge yourself. these are my hands that allow me to create. these are my eyes that allow me to see. they are doing their job. they are okay. they can't be right or wrong. they just are.

4. self destructive thoughts are always over dramatic, always temporary, and often entirely untrue. it's ok to experience those urges, but do your best to find the line between having them and acting on them. it's alright if it takes a while to learn how. as long as you're attempting. that's all that matters.

5. try to consciously practice healthier thinking patterns on a daily basis. realistically consider how you judge others and why you're being so harsh on yourself when you would never act like that towards anyone else. understand that your energy, your presence, the way you smile and comfort and work, what you can give and receive - all of that is more important to pretty much everyone, than how you look. after a while, especially when you love or care for someone, their appearance becomes a total secondary characteristic. nobody is worrying that much over these self perceived flaws you're so stuck on, as much as you are. if they do take the time to mull on you, it's more likely they think something simplistic such as: oh there's that girl who lent me her homework or who always wears cool shirts, or whatever. they're too busy stressing about themselves.

6. attempt to build your own confidence. this is another thing i can't grasp either but. basically. you are going to be you for the rest of your life and that is a fact. the only realize you think it's a bad thing at the moment is because that's how you've been taught to feel. but you can unlearn, you can let go of what hurts. and that starts with accepting what you can't change and controlling what you can - your self esteem, your internal narrative, how you take care of your body and mind. even engaging in small, seemingly dumb exercises like pointing out three things you like about yourself in the mirror, can make a difference. you have all of the time in the world to learn how to be friends with yourself. but you might as well start now. baby steps are good. if you hide, spend half an hour outside, even once a week. get used to the discomfort. treat yourself. let it all contradict. growth is totally inevitable.

unfortunately, there's no all encompassing answer. you can know all of this logically and still feel Bad. and you're obviously allowed to be frustrated, to cry and break down, to have moments where you just feel entirely overwhelmed with self hatred - i can't figure out how to stop them, and i think they will remain with us for a while. maybe the goal is to just to cope with them in a decent way and not to prevent them all together. but those episodes are not an excuse to take your own life, ever. i can't think of a bigger fucking tragedy than the world losing you before you even had the chance to attempt living by an alternative narrative. you deserve so much better. i can't stress it enough. you have a whole open future just waiting for you, a healthy body to see it all with - it's going to be beautiful, it's going to surprise you even when you think you're a totally hopeless case. you're not. that's just another lie. your humanity is never going to depend on your physicality and anyone who can't accept that can fuck off!!! anyway i hope you know that there are genuinely so many resources available if you feel like this is getting Too much to handle by yourself. you're honestly not alone and if this is having a big impact on your overall stability then you're totally entitled to professional or medical support. it doesn't have to be a big deal. suicidal thoughts are not normal and there are people who will enable you to dissect and overcome them, you just have to make the initial choice to reach out. even if your brain is screaming otherwise. whether it's through school or a hotline or your doctor - communication WILL put your pain in perspective eventually, in turn lessening it. please consider it. even if takes you your whole lifetime to appreciate yourself, the fact that you're here and trying and navigating this shitty world is more than good enough. i'll be rooting for you from a place of total understanding until the end of time. please take and let me know if you need a friend. i'll be here.

*sorry if this didn't help. the other day i was having an Episode and nothing anyone said could've changed how absolutely disgusting i felt. sometimes it's like that. but this will always be here for you to look back on when you're in a more fair and objective state of mind.

[xxwinterchillxx]

Halloween Dance and Some Unfortunate Events

Summary:

Levi is willing to go all the way to get Eren to go with him to the Halloween Dance. But things get complicated since Levi cannot show any sign of intelligence around the German hottie. However, he isn’t taking no for an answer.

Rating - Teen and Up Audiences

Categories - M/M

Relationships - Levi/Eren, background relationships, Moblit/Hanji, Armin/Erwin, Krista|Historia/Ymir

Chapters - 3/?

Read below cut or read on AO3

Chapter 3 : You free tonight?

Last week was kind of a mess. Krista believed us and didn’t stir up any more trouble. Anyway, I think the incident kind of broke her spirit for now cause apparently, she doesn’t feel like going to the dance anymore. But there was a lot of unnecessary drama and shit. So, I’m really looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

The guilt will eventually creep in but for now, I’m just really glad that there’s one less competition.

6 days left till the dance.

I’m not even sure that I’ll be going to this thing though, honestly. It’s very complicated. I mean, I want to go but only with Eren. And I’m not fucking confessing to my crush.  God, it’s so embarrassing just thinking about it. And I go all gooey once I see him. Assuming that I ask him out, what if I go gooey while we’re dancing? Oh shit, I just realised. I can’t even fucking dance.

This is just too much. I’m just gonna go and take a nap.

 Tring~ Tring~

“Huh? Wa-?” I shot up, my mind hazed and clouded. I felt like a dehydrated zombie, which is why you should never take afternoon naps. “Mom! Someone’s calling!” I managed to shout, despite my sore throat.

Tring~ Tring~

A muffled voice came from the next room, “Pick it up for me, will you, hon? Mommy’s in the shower.”

I stumbled out of my bed and literally rolled down the stairs when I tripped on the blanket I wrapped myself with.

“Ouch!” I winced when my head banged against the floor on the last step.

I could distinctly hear mom saying, “Are you okay, Levi?” Yeah, sure.

I picked up the phone and rubbed my eyes, mumbling sheepishly, “Ah…hello… thi- this’… Levi.”  

I could hear some sort of muffled voices on the other end and someone whisper-shouting, “Quiet! Quiet! Shhh!”

Honestly, I’m too tired to deal with Isabel and her bullshit. So, I was about to put it back on the holder before-

“Uh!...-uhm h-hey Levi, It’s Eren.”

I could hear someone on his side mimicking him, “IT’S EREN!!” And then sounds of hitting each other.

“Oh Isabel, fuck you.”

“No no, it is me! Eren!! We sit together in some of the classes, remember?” the person on the other end quipped.

I looked at the caller ID. And my eyes literally went from half dead to shot alive. I could literally feel my stomach drop-     ‘Jaeger’

“Levi? Are you still there?”

In response, I giggled out, “Uh-huh, nyyesss~?” Oh my fucking god, I giggled. I giggled. What’s wrong with mmeeee????

“Oh, uh. I’m having a party tonight-”

“Dumbass, it’s tomorrow,” someone whispered.

“Ah right, fudge. I’m… having a party on Sturdy- Saturday night. And it’s kind of like a costume party, no biggie. Soo it’s gonna be super cool and I want you there…”

I think he said some more stuff about whether I could come or some shit, but my useless brain just stopped at ‘I want you’.

“What did one beach say to the other? Shore.” I made a gun-click sound with my tongue.

I didn’t wait for his response as I literally smashed the phone into the wall, face fuming. Why am I like this? Why am I like this? Oh god, why the fu-

Mom came down the stairs, “Honey? Why is your face all red? And why are you curled up in the middle of the living room?”

I looked at her distastefully. She probably doesn’t even know I’m gay. Huh, I don’t even know if I’m gay. I dated this girl, Annie for 8 months, which is pretty long for a high-schooler. But it kind of just faded away. We haven’t talked in like forever. Huh, we haven’t even broken up. Eh but I guess it’s kinda implied?

Well, whatever. I yanked out my iPhone from the charger and sped up to my room, making sure to close the door.

“Hanji, you’re not gonna believe this!” I chattered out happily, plopping down on the bed and squishing my pillow.

“No no, wait, don’t tell me. Lemme guess.” I could hear her shuffling through something and then a thud sound.

“What are you even doing?”

Not bothering to answer my question, she asked, “Is it Moblit?” I mentally head banged myself.

Moblit. Moblit. It’s always Moblit with her. What’s up with that? Don’t get me wrong, I love that my friend’s in a relationship but please for the love of God, stop. Even I don’t talk that much about Ere- wait, nevermind.

“No, it’s about Eren.”

She hummed, “Did he refuse?”

“What? The fuck, no, Hanji, he didn’t refuse-”

“Gee, alright, don’t get so worked up.”

It’s so hard to not yell at her sometimes.

Taking a large patient breath, I said, “He asked me to come to his costume party tomorrow night. At his house!”

“Whoa, holy shit. Hold up, Levi. I’m coming over.”

And that’s how we ended up in my room. She brought along Petra and Erwin and much to my horror, she brought Armin along. We were actually supposed to discuss my costume but having that blonde brat there made it so damn suffocating, especially since he is Eren’s best friend.

Dragging Hanji into a room, I hissed, “Why did you bring that moron?!”

Hanji viciously hissed back, “What was I supposed to do, huh, Levi? Erwin was making out with him when I climbed to his window.”

Swallowing back my vomit, I gagged, “Ew, don’t tell me that.”

We were spitting out hurtful insults at each other (you know, just like friends do) when Armin came up to us, smiling sweetly, “Can I get refill on the tea? It tastes amazing.”

Hanji and I looked at him for like a full minute before I moved, “Yeah, sure.” He isn’t a bad kid really but now, whenever I look at him, I see a very disturbing mental image of Erwin giving it to him hard. Gag. I led him into the kitchen and poured out another cup of tea. Armin sat on one of the chairs near the kitchen island.

“Eren expects you at the party, you know.” Slip. Crash.

“Jesus! Shit- W-what did you say?” I tried to play it cool as I mopped up the spilled boiling tea carefully.

“He doesn’t invite a lot of people. Well, not directly.”

I hummed positively in response as I handed him his tea. A million thoughts were processing through my head and every one of them had Armin as my very supportive wingman. After all, he is Eren’s best friend. I wanted to ask him so many things. I just couldn’t figure out how to bring it up. I wanted to ask mainly about stuff like ‘What does Eren say about me?’ ‘Have you, by chance, seen his-’

“So, what are you wearing?”

A bulb went off in my head and I almost wanted to French make out with Armin, “Oh, I don’t know…um… what.. what does he like?”

Armin scratched his head, not suspecting even a tiny thing, “He likes lots of things. Mainly stuff like superheroes, cars, transformers…” He laughed out lightly, “You know, everything a 10-year old would like, haha.”

I pretended to smile and pressured him more, “Any idea what he’s wearing?”

“A cop, I heard. He thinks it’s cool, protecting stuff.”  

I smiled. Handcuffs. Dear god, I’m so fucking gay.

“He likes cute things though. You know, small, tiny and cute?” He made a gesture with his hand as if to signal I’m short.

I cocked an eyebrow and growled, “What? You calling me tiny?”

I could see Armin was starting to panic when Erwin came in, “God, you two were in here so long. What were you talking about?”

I hopped down from the counter and headed up to my room, whispering bitterly into Erwin’s ear as I passed by, “Your tiny dick.”

 ~~oOo~~

 I sat on my sofa, swimming through dozens of my old Halloween costumes. Most of them were really crappy, to be honest. A coat and a cap (Sherlock Holmes), something greenish (Elves or Peter Pan, I don’t care) and some others. I mean, I like Halloween for the scary movies, not for candy. As a kid, I never liked going trick-or-treating that much. I liked to stay home and mooch off the candies we keep at home. Much to mom’s annoyance.

Hanji came out from my closet wearing a frown, “Don’t you have anything else?”

I looked up from an old magazine, “No.”

“Jeez, you’re fun.”

When I made no reply, Hanji walked over and plopped down next to me on the floor, “Then we’ve to buy something.”

“We?”

Ignoring me, she continued, “Something petite and cute… cute and tiny… hmm”

I listened to her humming for a split second before flipping another page of the magazine. There was a whole page advertisement for a pet shop or something. Flipping to the next page, I sighed, “I wish I could get a rabbit.”

“Say what?”

I grunted nonchalantly in response. Hanji ripped out the book from my hands earning a distraught ‘hey!’ from me.

“This is it!!”

“I was reading that, you know.”

“A bunny!! It’s cute and tiny, with its little nose and you’re so cute and ti-”

I cut her off, “Bunny costumes scream – hey, what’s up? Let’s fuck.”

Hanji winked at me, “For Eren?”

My face steamed to bright red before I screeched, “Shut up!”

And that’s how I ended up ordering a bunny costume from Hanji’s (shady) ‘guy’ or so she calls. Hanji promised me that it wasn’t one of those revealing sexy types. She said it bent more towards the ‘cute’ side, with ears and a fluffy tail.

I don’t know about the ears but I’m cutting off the tail once that thing gets here. I don’t need people wondering if a cloud was attached to my ass all night long. According to what Hanji said, Armin told Hanji that Eren likes people who acts cute in general. So currently, I am revising the habits of the ‘school cutie’ Krista. She sort of bounces her head around, smiles and makes a lot of weird noises. Not creepy ones like I do, but noises like ah’s and oh’s.

I tried practicing my smile. Tried.

The rest of the afternoon, I tried out different looks with myself. The only thing it did was to remind me why I should stick to my style. Then I talked with myself in front of the mirror, you know, for conversational purposes. It was actually really beneficial cause I found out that if I laugh too freely, my eyebrows raise up weirdly and I make noises like a pig. I also found out my eyes look cooler when I apply some eyeliner. At the end, I had everything planed out – how I’ll smile, what to talk about, how to approach Eren and pull off the ‘cute’ rabbit look like a boss.

Hell yeah, I’m the boss.

That night, I lathered my face with some herbal fluid mom made. She said my face will glow like a princess in the morning if I keep it on overnight. Ha, I’m a princess.  

I kind of looked like Shrek at the moment though so I Facetimed Hanji. As soon as she picked up, I yelled at the top of my voice, “GET OUT OF MY SWAMP!”

Hanji laughed tensely in return. I looked at the screen for a moment before retorting, “What? Don’t you get it? I have a green face.”

On the other screen, Hanji scratched her head nervously and croaked, “I get it! … hehe… Levi you’ll find this funny…. But umm…”

I stopped goofing around. Taking in a deep breath, I glared at the screen and prepared myself.

“You know that sexy cute bunny costume we ordered?”

“Yeah, the one I paid for. What about it?”

“Well, it came at 6 in the evening today and…”

“That’s great. I’ll pick it up in the morning.”

“Well, it’s not exactly sexy…or high school…ish.”

“What do you mean ‘not high scho-’ Oh my god.”

All the strength left my knees as I gazed upon the monstrosity that Hanji was holding up. I must not have done a great job at hiding my shock because Hanji started looking all worried and she tried to console me, “At least it’s cute. Right? Right?”

She was holding up a motherfucking bright pink rabbit jumpsuit. No, Hanji. It’s not cute.

  ~~oOo~~

 Hanji and I spent all morning trying to fix the costume. The measurements were too big and I looked like I was wearing an oversized onesie pyjama that I occasionally use as a sleeping bed. In other words, it looked absolutely horrifying.  

I bleached the whole suit and put it in the washer for like, 6 hours. Fortunately, the shocking bright pink colour faded to a soft whitish-pink hue which looked less in-your-face. Mom took care of the rest. But the costume proportions were so wrong she practically sewed the whole thing over.

However, I still had a onesie by the end of the day.

Distraught, I looked at the mirror in vain. My hands felt around the costume and I felt my heart sinking. One of the rabbit ears flopped over to the side while the other stayed upright. The hood fell to my shoulders and the fluffy cloth hung around my tiny frame.

Hanji quipped from the other room, “You look cute, okay? So, stop worrying.”

The party was in an hour. I sighed heavily, my hands patting the giant rabbit ears. I look like a freak. Only my whiskers were on point, drawn on by Hanji.

“Oh, and I’ve been meaning to ask you this since morning.”

I turned away from the mirror and looked at Hanji, “What?”

“Why is your face so damn smooth?”

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[lost-highwayy]

hi!!

oh totally dude!! even if it's just one small part too😁

thank you!! it makes me really happy to hear words like that about my art💙. yeah me too!

ooh that's interesting! i like christmas/sarajevo 12/24 (the trans siberian orchestra version), wingers version of happy christmas(war is over), please come home for christmas (eagles), carol of the bells, and blue christmas! yours?

aw youre welcome! i hope everything goes well for you!!

thank you!! this helps immensely, especially seeing so many kids doing what i want to do because they started earlier or any number of combinations, but gotta think positive!!

that sounds fun!! ooh you're making me want hot chocolate now😅!! and it's the perfect day for it here too--its 27 degrees out! i like to curl up by the fire(if im home) or wrap myself up in blankets and be comfy. ive got 2 dogs! jj is a leonberger/saint bernard mix and waylon is a greater swiss mountain dog mix! we got them from the rescue we foster from(jj was a foster fail last year).

dude i don't mind at all!! top 5 albums would probably be long cold winter, appetite for destruction, a night at the opera, pull, and (to go back to my folk rock phase) either 'the king is dead' or 'ill be your girl', both by the decemberists.

if i could talk to any musician, id probably pick jeff labar. id thank him for the wonderful music, and ask him for tips on playing in general, but also cause i plan to get into guitar over break, and ask him for chef tips cause his cooking videos made me happy. id also like to ask any musician who's ever had stage fright or really bad anxiety over performing how they overcame it, cause it's something i struggle with, even just playing in front of one other person. what about you?

what's your favorite animal(mythical included)?

is there a song you mostly like, but there's one specific part that you don't like as much?

do you have a song that brings up a good childhood memory?

- 🎁

hi! ☃️💜

dude, I'm definitely sure that your art deserves such words and, in principle, support for creative people is very important, it seems to me.

Oh, Christmas Eve Sarajevo is just something incredible! and in general, you have a very cool selection of songs, they are very atmospheric. I really love Alan Jackson's album - Honk Tonk Christmas (my passion for country definitely did not go in vain haha) Tom Petty's version of Christmas All Over Again, Jethro Tull - Another Christmas Song and definitely it wouldn't be me if I didn't say that I love the version of Please Come Home For Christmas by Jon Bon Jovi 😂. By the way, Tom Keifer has a wonderful version of Blue Christmas!

yes, you definitely need to think positively! everything will definitely work out! it's just that sometimes we get very upset if something doesn't work out, but I'm sure we can't give up and try again!

Oh, it's a wonderful way to spend the day! Oh my God! I can imagine what wonderful dogs you have! I think they are very beautiful. I hope that JJ quickly got used to your family!

wow! what a wonderful choice of albums! each of them is definitely a masterpiece. Oh, I would have chosen Jeff, too. I haven't been listening to Cinderella for very long compared to other favorite bands, but Jeff's death was a real shock. He was definitely the musician who made my day better. it seems to me that he was definitely the kind of person with whom you can talk for hours. And I'd love to talk with him.

and I believe that you will definitely cope with the fear of performing in front of an audience! Unfortunately, I can't give any advice about this, but I'm really sure that you will cope with it and will feel comfortable and enjoy your own performance! 🤍

I'm a big fan of cats! I'm sorry, but I like to show my cat to everyone haha

dude, your question literally described the Rocket Queen song! my parents were big fans of the pop rock band Smokie (maybe you've heard of them) and the song Wild Wild Angels reminds me of my childhood. what about you?

btw, do you like to travel? where would you like to visit and why? which album would you choose to travel to? do you have a place that you always return to with joy?

[boomtown-adventures]

Boomtown: Chapter 9 - Behind the Mask

This is a journal of my adventures at the festival called Boomtown Fair; a record of the encounters I have had with the wonderful street theatre team at the festival which is all part of the underlying narrative of Boomtown. This is one of the many things that make the festival so special.

I was hoping to get this finished back in October but unfortunately ended up in hospital with a virus in my brain. It’s taken me quite a lot to be able to think clearly and write again. I fear some of the adventure is a bit blurry to me now but thankfully I made substantial notes including some recordings that I made onto my dictaphone so hopefully it’s reasonably accurate. Sorry for this being super long but a lot of stuff happened! Anyway, let’s get on with the story!

Previously at Boomtown Fair….

And now the continuation….

(*intro comic from Boomtown Fair Programme)

After a year in hiding following the fall of the regime, I returned once more to Boomtown for the annual fair. The effect of the loss of Central Administration was still very much palpable as we arrived at the city gates. Clamp downs by both the police and Bang-Hai Security coupled with the fair's popularity meant that our arrival was an ordeal to say the least. This  was not something that could not deter me or even any of the other loyal citizens of Boomtown however. People were returning to the town en masse under Bang-Hai Industries’ promise of a safer city.

Darkness had long since fallen as I wearily moved into my new home in Mayfair just off the Hippy Highway, halfway between the hospital and the Paris Heights Hotel. Mayfair had been the last remaining bastion of our regime during the revolution. Nowadays however the neighbourhood was apparently under the corporate influence of Bang-Hai Industries (BHi). My new carefully chosen digs came with one of the best views in the entire city and it’s very own picket fenced front yard. The view from the front porch stretched all the way out across Downtown, with the brand new Bang-Hai Towers lit up and dominating the skyline. As I settled down for the night I marveled at the sight and lay down to dream of what would await me in the morning as I explored the sights and sounds of what BHi had brought with them.

Friday

I awoke on the Friday morning still feeling the great tiredness from the past few weeks of hard graft which had helped pay for my journey back to Boomtown. I freshened up, having still been in a state from the grueling journey here and headed over to Trenchtown, grabbing a large coconut smoothie along the way.

I settled down on the grass slopes in time to watch Toots & the Maytals open the 2018 Fair at the Lion’s Den Temple. This performance would include one of three renditions of Monkey Man that I would witness performed across the weekend. It was a great and energetic start to the weekend and already the hassles of the day before began to float away on the wind.

As the audience broke into its final applause I sat on the side of the hill watching the crowds and pondered the situation, I was back in Boomtown but I needed direction. Without a Central Administration or military and with our glorious leader Comrade José missing I found myself without place or position. During a quick scout on the way over to Trenchtown it had seemed there was no sign of Charlie Brown’s mob to be reunited with either. The Job Centre was offering a whole range of positions but was now under corporate ownership of Bang-Hai Industries. Bang-Hai claimed that they wanted to help us become the best versions of ourselves we could be. Their true intentions seemed unclear however as there seemed to be much more to it than they were letting on. With one breath they seemed to embrace the revolution but in the next they claimed  the Masked Man had now abandoned us and that they were the only people we could now rely on. Were they part of the revolution which led to the fall of our beloved Comrade José or were they against it? Either way they seemed to be too close to it for my liking and were not to be trusted. BHi were part of our daily life now however, even down to the social media platform that now integrated into our mobile phones. Everyone was signing up for the latest Social Media Platform ‘Bang-Hai People’ and the highest scoring citizens were becoming famous across not only the platform but the city billboards, screens and posters as well. Despite not having accepted Bang-Hai fully into my life as others seem to have I felt the need to pursue my score (which only seemed to be going down) and make my own mark on the town. Various bugs and connection problems to the city’s communications networks however were hindering my progress.

I was walking past the prison by the town centre when I saw one of the inmates was clearly trying to get my attention from a small round barred window on the fortified exterior.

I approached the window and he pointed at the visitor’s phone next to it. Curiously I lifted the receiver. The Telecon brand phone and prison had obviously seen better days as we found ourselves struggling to hear, shouting down the phones to try and make ourselves understood. This made the whole situation seem a little surreal but did intensify its urgency. From what I could make out he said there was a problem with all the communications in town but that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

The man had been imprisoned for attempting to hack into the Bang-Hai Industries Mainframe. He claimed that himself and his fellow hackers were doing no wrong and that Bang-Hai were the bad guys. He said that he was only after the truth and that the truth would set us free. They were being wrongly imprisoned and needed to get out. The only way he could gain his freedom was if I managed to find evidence that would prove his innocence and the corporation’s wrong doing. It was his last and only hope of being saved.

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for this man holed up in the the heavily fortified jail. My curiosity and my rising distrust of BHi got the better of me and I promised him I would do my best to help and free the prisoner from his confines. I decided the best place to begin my investigation would be to question the man’s captors.

The jailer was stood out in the yard by the visiting area dressed head to toe in some greenish overalls which were adorned with a belt which held a large bunch of keys and an ID badge clipped to their pocket. He seemed to have strangely yellow skin as if they had been transferred over from Springfield and clutched a clipboard on which they were currently writing someone a ticket for a disruption of public order offence outside the front of the building. Once they had finished serving up the fine and the offenders had been dispersed I approached them cautiously but in a friendly manner.

“Excuse me.What’s with these men here? This is some kind of jail?” I said said as innocently as possible.

“Why who’s asking?” replied the jailor still a little suspicious.

“Erm... I am! I’m Jonny. Nice to meet you.” I said holding out my hand out to the jailer who shook it seemingly now off his guard.

He flashed his name badge which indicated he went by the name of Tony Danza.

“Oh Jonny! Lovely to see you! Now.. did you want to book an appointment to see the prisoners? Are you a friend or… erm?”

“I am a friend! I’ve already spoken to this gentlemen” I indicated at the inmate I had conversed with  “I’m sure he’s a friend of mine.”

“Oh he’s a friend of yours is he? Awww, well that’s nice. Although he is one of the most notorious hackers ever!!” exclaimed Tony.

“Really? I never would have taken him  or one. I know he always locks himself in his room but I thought he was up to something else.” I said sounding surprised.

“You know what, he’s got a split personality. He’s not to be trusted!”

“So what’s he done then? What did he hack?” I asked hoping that I could garner some clear details, having struggled with the phone line.

“He’s called the Nuclear Wasteman and he hacked into the CEO’s accounts and tried to halt the development process on the Nuclear Power Plant. Because he’s really environmentalist, he’s like ‘Oh no! Everyone recycle. Everyone be environmental.’ He doesn’t care about money!” she said as if she was disgusted by the notion.

“Well we can’t just leave it there though.” I replied thinking about the great hulking nuclear plant in Sector 6.

A second prison officer approached, equally as yellow and interrupted “Are you flirting with this man??” they asked Tony.

“Noooo. I’m telling him about Nuclear Wasteman.” said Tony to the other officer giving the impression that such questions from their colleague was a standard occurrence.

“So is Sector 6 going again?” I carried on trying to keep my line of questioning on course.

“Sector 6 is going, yeah yeah yeah yeah.” Tony nodded enthusiastically “Sector 6 is running better than ever. Our CEO, he’s made everything wonderful!” he said with a pleased grin.

“I’ll have to have a look then…. Well thank you very much for the information.” I said taking my leave with a parting handshake before either of them could start to suspect my questioning was anything more than innocent curiosity.

I had a new mission, but it was still lunchtime so I picked up some Falafel for my brunch on the main street. As I finished it I spotted a familiar face walking up from Oldtown, one of my chief contacts from the fair. He goes by many names and monikers but I know him best as Martin of the Dank Parish. We had a quick catch up before he had to rush back off to work. He told me he was now employed to head up some of the chief operations in Mayfair District following his redundancy from Central Administration. He gave me the heads up that I was after a piece of the action it was a good place to poke around. So after a quick costume change more befitting the upmarket class of Mayfair I went to see what the deal was.

I entered the grand doors of the Mayfair Bank with the hope of changing my old outdated currency into brand new crisp Boomtown Dollars. A queue had formed at the entryway of the building but after a brief few moments we were beckoned in by one of the staff into the bank itself. The place was bustling and loud with citizens hustling and trading amongst themselves and the financial elite. Soon enough a very well dressed but sleazy looking man approached me asking me what I needed.

“I’m just after changing this for some new notes.” I said pulling my cash out of my wallet.

“Ah, you’ve got the old currency do you?” he asked ���I don’t know if that one’s gonna fly.”

“Is there an exchange rate, or…” I started before being interrupted by the employee who, like everyone in here, seemed to be in some kind of rush.

“Yeah… I tell you what… all of that, for this.” he said holding up a single $100 note.

“What about two of them or…” I interjected but was then myself cut off.

“How much you got?” he said with greed in his eyes.

“I’ve counted out about $280 worth of notes of old currency.”

“What’s that??” he said pointing at a couple of my odder looking notes.

“That’s a bit of Downtown money. I don’t know if that’s valid up here?” I queried.

“It’s no use up here.” he said shaking his head.

As he did so a young woman approached me waving a handful of cash around offering to exchange it herself.  “I’ll give you the money if you give me all of that.” she said excitedly and another round of haggling commenced. Back and forth it went as she relentlessly tried to do me out of pocket with greed shining in her eyes.

“No deal! It’s not happening” I told her dismissively.

I turned away from her and the bank employee had disappeared off into the crowd like a devil disappearing in a puff of smoke and I was still stuck with my out of date currency in hand.

I hovered around from group to group for a time searching for someone that could help.

“OKAAAAY. FINAL CHANCE FOR MAKING SOME MOOLAAAH!” shouted one of the bank’s employees above the cacophony of the crowds “WHO WANTS TO MAKE SOME MONAAAYYY?”

I found myself swept up in the excitement and the crowd as we formed a little huddle in earnest interest.

“WE NEED INVESTMENT IN PEOPLE!” he proclaimed “It’s all good when it’s a Bang-Hai Economy! Who likes mundane tasks?”

“NO ONE!” I declared with enthusiasm.

“I don’t like them. But I do find them very fucking easy.” he replied. “Now, who finds mundane things easy?? You two! Up you come sirs. Up to the front!” he beckoned two eager young lads forward from the crowd and stood them in front of us.

“Alright! Who wants to make some money on the mundane?? It’s just liking wiping your ass. It’s that simple, you just gotta be good at deciding who is gonna be able to complete this task. RIIGHT! All I need you two to do is quite simple. It’s just swapping clothes, it’s easy. But I mean everything! You can’t start yet. You’ve got a minute to do it. If you can do it in a minute then the investors win some money!” he said holding up one bucket. He held up a second bucket and waved it at the crowd “Bet against them though and you could still make money! Who thinks they can swap clothes in a minute?”

The bank worker and a colleague of his then went along the crowd with some buckets. I decided to put some of my money in betting against them completing the task, hoping that I could get something back on my investment and maybe some 2018 banknotes.

“That’s everything under one minute!” he re-iterated “And that’s everything. EVERY-THING.”

The crowd placed their bets into the two buckets and the countdown began.

“Five, four, three, two, one! GO! COME ON!” he shouted.

The two lads began flailing about trying to undress in the middle of the bank. Various cameraphones suddenly appeared as they struggled and fought with items of clothing, hopping about from foot to foot. As I had suspected however they avoiding exchanging their underwear. As the timer counted down and I could feel the excitement increasing to a frenzy.

The 60 seconds timed out and both groups cheered thinking they had won, but my side was soon vindicated.

“They did not change pants soooo…..” He held the winning bucket high up and we grabbed our winnings from the two buckets. Shouts of victory were heard as we grabbed our cash feeling the rush of gambling and capitalism in one brief rapture.

I checked my wallet and found I still had plenty of the older notes to exchange so milled round for a bit trying to find where I might be able to swap them.

Out of the crowd a woman approached me. “Can I borrow your elbow for one second please?” she asked.

“Erm, surrre.” I replied slightly confused as she dragged me over to the Cashier’s Desk. An attendant stood at the transaction window and nodded at us both seemingly satisfied by the bounty “Okay, yeah. Now, can we unsheathe the elbow, please? Yes?”

“Yeah.” said the woman who had dragged me over “Get it out… Please… Sweetheart.” she said encouragingly, so I roll up my shirt sleeve.

“Now we’re trying to make sure we have the right clientele.” explained the cashier. “So I just need you to give it a little kiss.”

The woman began kissing my elbow as the cashier continued “And show it some love. Really yeah, take it out for dinner. Oh yeah! That’s it! Make love to it! Oh that’s good, yeah!”

“Do I get paid for this?” I asked hoping for a few more notes to help me through the weekend like the elbow whore I am.

“Not you! She does.” replied the cashier with a little disdain that I had dared even ask.

“Oh okay. Well that was payment enough!” I said as I was thrown back dismissively into the crowds by the woman having finished with my elbow.

With all the front desks busy I meandered over to the one nearer the back labelled ‘Exchange’ thinking it would probably be my best option, but it seemed to be closed. The desk next to it was serving customers however so I queued patiently behind a young couple. The banker currently seemed to have them each performing crab impressions in order to obtain some form of information. I struggled to overhear what exact information it was that was being exchanged but it must have been exciting and urgent as the couple left in a hurry and bolted towards the door as soon as they had it “Goodluck and come back if you can’t find it!” the banker shouted after them.

I approached the desk and made my plea again to swap old for new.

“This is no good. That money’s no good. Like I can’t believe it’s touching my desk!” she said in a bratty eastern european accent.

“It said in the Daily Rag Newspaper that we could exchange it in the bank? Surely the rag wouldn’t be mis-reporting?” I said dismayed.

“You know what? I’m really good person. I really am. I’m gonna open a bank account with you. What’s your name?” she asked pulling out some paperwork.

“Jonny”

“And your last name?”

Not wanting Bang-Hai to be keeping any more tabs on me I decided it was time for a  fake name. I had to think quick though and used the old trick of just reading the first thing you saw which happened to be the sign on the desk.

“Errrm….Open.” I lied “Jonny Open”

“Open?” she said dubiously.

“Yeah!” I replied looking from side to side in a rather suspicious fashion.

“I kind of get the feeling you are lying to me Jonny. But you know what? I’m a nice person. Imma open a signature account with you Jonny. And with a signature account, what happens is you get a thousand dollars for opening an account with us, because we are nice people and we are here to help you!”

“Yeah, I can see that. I can see that.” I said nodding my head.

“Yeah but there’s a procedural charge when we open this. I can give you 500 today to spend it. You wanna give me all that money.” she said indicating at my old currency.

“Here you go.” I said handing over my old cash.

“Amazing. One hundred, two, three, four, five.” she places the notes into my palm. “And if you don’t mind just putting your signature there.” she indicated to a form which I dutifully signed J.Open. “Amazing Jonny.” she continued “And you know what, just because I like you I’m going to give you a piece of advice. Be careful where you stick your dick and your signature.”

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you very much! Have a great day!”

“You too!” she bid me farewell as I disappeared back into the crowds, putting my money safely into my wallet as I left the bank back out onto the streets of Mayfair.

I soon find myself on Butler’s Alley, where all the most exclusive boutiques in Mayfair lay. On the steps of the Tat Modern gallery stood Boomtown’s own version of Neil Buchanan who was gathering a small group of art enthusiasts around him in preparation for an Art Attack.

“So what we’re doing is we’re making art all day here!” he declared to the group “So who here is the artist in this group?”

A young lady by the name of Ella was edged proudly forwards by her friends.

“What you’re gonna do, Ella, is have a look around. Take it all in. Take it ALL in. Take my big Art Attack in. And what you’re gonna do is you’re gonna choose something to paint and we’re gonna count down from 60 and you’re gonna have 60 seconds to make a brilliant bit of art.”

“Let me just think… what am I gonna pick... what am I gonna pick??” Ella said sounding increasingly more panicked.

“The art begins as soon as I… you’re not allowed to paint anything until I start counting… so here I gooo….60, 59, 58, 57…”

Ella began to scribble furiously onto a piece of high quality art paper with a bunch of low quality crayons looking at the shop window opposite which seemed to consist of various doll body parts arranged for unknown reasons.

A great cheer went up from the group as the count reached zero and the artwork was complete.

“Now? What are we giving this out of 10?” asked Neil.

“10!” we all shouted.

“And what are we gonna pay for this?”

“400!” shouted a girl from the crowd.

“Anyone up from 400? Who’s gonna buy this beautiful work of art?” asked Neil but no higher bids arrived.

“I tell you what.” he continued “We like to support new artists so we’ll take that off your hands. You’re gonna loan it to us and if we sell it we’ll take a commision and give you the rest back, okay?”

Neil took the piece of art from the lady and welcomed us in to the gallery to browse the other works that were already on display.

I looked around the gallery browsing each piece and examining the exorbitant prices on each. The main hall was full of art lovers and aficionados who milled around the room discussing the finer points of each display. The music of string quartet could be heard throughout the gallery bringing a kind of calm serenity to the room. A group of people stood around a piece of crumpled paper that had been accidentally dropped in the middle of the floor taking a close look at it and admiring it’s artistic properties. One man leaned towards it with his hand outstretched.

“Don’t touch it! Look but don’t touch.” I said worriedly.

“It’s an exquisite piece called Garbage” said one local expert to the gathered onlookers “It’s the most unexpected piece in here.”

“I like it!” I declared in an affirming yet surprised manner.

“It’s the most expensive and valuable piece in the gallery” continued the expert.

“I can feel it’s emotion! I can feel the emotion around it!” declared one woman “I’m smelling blue, I’m smelling purple.”

“I’m smelling something.” I said “I don’t know if that’s what purple smells like.” I scrunched up my nose deciding it was probably something a bit less arty and a little more farty.

Looking about it seemed that this gallery was maybe a little out of my price range but I took in the other works hanging around the gallery with all due diligence and respect before I made my way out. Maybe though, if I worked very hard over the Fair I could come back and return with one of the less disturbing painting to my humble abode by The Heights.

Out on the street a newspaper seller was handing out copies of the Daily Rag. Taking one I went to find a nearby bench to do a little bit of catching up on the latest news and gossip. SECTOR 6: REACTIVATION DEMONSTRATION stated the frontpage. Turning the page there were various articles and adverts that seemed to be cashing in on the previous year’s revolutionary movement, of most interest however was an article regarding the Boomtown Bobbies.

Boomtown Bobbies have said they are keeping the Boomtown Bingo Bonanza at Grandma’s Livingroom 5pm Old Town, under close surveillance. Grandma’s Livingroom has, for a long time, been a hot-bed of radical-bohemianism thought, and there have been suggestions the bingo game could descend into a ‘throwback Friday’ mimic of last years revolutionary takeover by the Masked Man’s followers. The Bobbies have advised all citizens to avoid the area during ‘kicking-out time’

It wasn’t much but it was the best lead I had at the moment but worth a follow up so I folded up the paper, placed it in my back pocket and was on my way.

Heading up Mayfair Avenue past the bars and tube station I saw one of the many huge BHi TV and Advertising screens trudging through the latest programming. An image of the masked man appeared on the screen but when the mask was pulled down instead of the expected smiling face of Nikolas Boom the cackling smug face of the Bang-Hai CEO Rothchild was revealed instead. He soon slithered off into the background and my eyes were greeted with the ongoing steady stream of celebrity based ‘reality’ shows flashing across the screen. I stared dumbfounded and bamboozled by the imagery and began to reflect on both this and the articles I had read in the newspapers over the last couple of days. Could it be that Rothchild really was the man behind the mask all the time? Had he orchestrated the entire uprising and government collapse just to give himself and his cronies more power? Or could it be that the masked was Nikolas Boom after all but Rothchild had either had taken him prisoner? Or even more ghoulish, had Nikolas Boom been buried alive under the concrete the Corporation had flushed into the tunnels  the rebels had been using beneath Sector 6? If either of the last two options had been the case then Bang-Hai would have been able to take the actual rebel uprising and use it to their own benefit. I had a lot of questions but as of yet no answers. I could only hope that my investigations would bring us all closer to the truth.

I made my way to Old Town searching the streets for any clues as I bided my time for the evening’s Bingo session. The streets and alleyways seemed to weave in and out of each other making the town into a maze in itself. These roads were familiar from the previous years but it was still possible to feel rather lost in-between the old tudor style buildings. I passed by the various pubs, venues and shops of the district peeking round every corner for signs of the revolution. If anywhere sounded a likely venue for revolution it was the People’s Frontroom, but the building seemed to be all locked up and strangely silent at that point in the day. Nearby however a large crowd had gathered to see the Stance Crew performing on the Busker’s Wharf. I had come across the crew outside the city limits the previous day. Their uplifting drums, and brass section had brought some much needed uplift and joy to us as we had sat queueing to get through customs. Currently the crew’s Mushroom Person Overlord was dancing merrily to the sounds of the accordion player.

As I meandered onwards I saw posters had been pasted to the outside of the Barber’s shop ‘Jack The Clipper. The posters were all protesting against Bang-Hai Industries planned construction plans to ‘spruce up’ the old weathered district streets. This was in stark contrast to the great billboard nearby which had been erected on behalf of Bang-Hai Real Estate promising that it was ‘Building a Brighter Future.’

Peeping around the ramshackled corners and side streets I eventually came upon the library. The sign read a closing time of 4pm so I checked my watch. Time had definitely flown as it was now 10 minutes before. Best to have a quick poke around before they closed, I decided, who knew what information could be found amongst the dusty tomes.

The library was a reasonably elaborate affair decorated with old antiques and all decked out in fancy carpets with the finest dark wooden bookshelves. The usual quietness of such an establishment however was non-existent as the noise from the Fair outside poured in through the open front doors. As I entered I was greeted by a friendly librarian who looked up at me over the top of her glasses from her desk. Our exchange of pleasantries was shortly interrupted as a gentleman approached with his girlfriend who was on the lookout for borrowing a copy of Catcher In The Rye. I left them to their exchange as I browsed the nearby shelves taking in the various titles available. The nearest shelving to me displayed their eclectic collection of Ye Olde VHS tape. They seemed to have all the classics, Mad Max, Terminator, Steptoe & Son, Father Ted, Twelve Monkeys, Small Soldiers, Tarzan, Wallace and Gromit, Snow White, The Matrix and Captain Scarlet.

“Don’t steal! Or we’ll hunt you down like a dog!” a second librarian shouted at from right beside me at a shifty looking patron on the other side of the room, causing me to jump a little. As I spun around to see what was going on she calmed again and greeted me with a warm hello.

“Hello!” I replied still a little taken startled.

“Hello dear!” she responded again loudly over the sound of the brass band which seemed to be performing just outside.

“It’s a tad noisy in this library.” I remarked.

“We’ve been telling them to quieten down but they just won't have any of it.” she exclaimed frustrated.

“Have you shushed them?” I enquired.

“Oh we’ve been shushing them all day long. They don’t even listen!” the librarian lamented,

“Terrible! Terrible!” said I.

“Oh that’s a very popular one” said the other librarian at the desk to a man who was wielding the Top Gear Alternative Highway Code “Neil Hammond. Jeremy Clarkson. It’s all there dear.”

I continued to browse the shelves, admiring a large map of the city that had been hung on the wall. I pulled out my pocket watch and took a glance “3 minutes to closing time I’d better head off” I thought, emerging into the noisy streets and deciding I’d pick up a library card at some other point.

Looking about, I caught sight of the Boomtown Costumes Company further down the street. The look of the shop from the outside was reminiscent of the old Mad Hatter’s store where the revolution had previously been rooted. I figured this was definitely a good place to try. When I reached the door I was greeted by a woman in a hat and goggles wearing an intricately styled outfit.

“Do I know you friend?” I asked her.

“I don’t know if you do. Are you from Oldtown?” she asked me suspiciously looking me up and down and inspecting my own garb. I was still dressed in a rather presentable fashion following my trip to the bank with black smart trousers, a white formal shirt and a black fedora.

“Well originally I’m from Barrio Loco. I have lived in Old Town but I’m currently living in Mayfair.”

“Typical Mayfair scum!” she said “You are not welcome here!” as she slammed the large wooden gate in my face locking it behind her. I knocked on again but there was no reply. As I looked up two oldtowners, wearing similar hats and goggles stared down at me in distaste before one pulled out a gun and fired off some warning shots forcing me to dodged and run for cover. Not the reception I was hoping for… I would have to try and be more careful with what I said to people.

I managed a rapid and evasive retreat down the road before finally managing to find a nearby alcove in which to hide. Taking a momentary breather I took a calming sip of rum from my hip flask to calm my nerves which I had stashed in one of my back pockets. From my vantage point I eyed up the Pyrite Traders & Thomas Crook establishment nearby, keeping a close eye on the band of brigands who were hanging around the building. The pirates had never really proved to be much of a reliable source of information in the past but I decided it was at least worth an ask. I entered the den of scurvy sea dogs which was trying terribly hard to maintain facade of being a respectable business (but was falling far short). A woman sat at her desk in a large throne-sized chair looking as if she was queen of the pirates herself. By her side stood a scurvy wench who hovered around the desk waving her cutlass nonchalantly in a dangerous fashion. Various pieces of nautical navigation equipment sat on the desk amongst maps and scrolls. How the rest of this exchange went however  is fairly hazy to me now but that could be to do with the failed attempt at billy-clubbing and a little too much rum. Flashes of maps, parrots, gold pieces, treasures and sea-weathered faces are all an incoherent blur.

I staggered out the pirate’s den with a sore head and the smell of booze on my breath in a slightly confused state. I did however recall that they had been very keen to save the Oldtown Port from the grimy hands of Bang-Hai Industries who wished to bulldoze the whole neighborhood in order to build a swathe of luxury hotels and condos. What I did remember for sure was that the  woman sat in the large chair had recommended that my next stop should be to check out the Wild West and speak with the landlubbers there.

As I passed what seemed to be some kind of shop window I caught sight of the message ‘HACK THE MAINFRAME. DON’T BELIEVE THE LIES’ which had been stuck to the glass using a series of post-it notes. Inside the room seemed to be some kind of computer repair shop with various components and monitors lying about. The building seemed quiet at present though with no sign of the post-it bandits at present.

As I turned around I caught sight a suspicious looking man in a hoodie take a couple of people in through the side door of the Town Hall. I made my way across the square and inspected the now locked door. I recalled that this door lead into the heart of Central Administration itself. After the uprising and a year of disrepair the building was beginning to look worse for wear with it’s boarded up windows and crumbling facade. As I was inspecting the lock on the door a group of tourists approached me

“Is this the town centre like right there?” asked one of the girls.

“Yeah.” I replied

“But like how do I get into THERE?” she says pointing at the door.

“He doesn’t even work here!” said another one of the girls from the group.

“Hello? Anybody in?” said the first girl knocking at the door. “I want to go innnn!”

The group decided to hang around with me by the door, waiting to see if the mysterious figures would re-emerge and drinking from a bottle of rum that was being passed around as we talked amongst ourselves.

After a good few minutes of this the door opened and a hoodied figure popped his head out.

“You seek attentions?” he said in a soviet accent.

“Do I know you friend?” I asked him.

“Yes. Come in, come in.” he said beckoning us through the door and down a dark corridor.

The room was full of computers, monitors, keyboards and machinery that looked like it had been pulled together from the remains of the Central Intelligence service rooms where that I once reported to. The screens displayed scrolling code and command lines with everything networked up to various communications systems. Another two figures, both in black hoodies, were both examining the instrumentation but turned to check us out as we entered. The man who had greetd us took me to one side as another of the three hooded folk spoke to the group.

“What information you have?” he asked me.

“Bang-Hai Industries have been locking people up. They’ve got them all trapped over in their new jail.”

“Oh fuck. Shit man.” he exclaimed.

“Are they friends of yours?” I asked.

“Yeah yeah, of course but we not go to jail, we are secret!” he declared.

The two other hackers seemed to have english accents and had meanwhile begun briefing the tourist group asking them to go round all the small venues in Oldtown to look for evidence to free their friends from the jail. All they needed to get started was a passphrase. They all gathered around him eagerly repeating what they needed to say to progress through their mission “Do I know you friend?” they chanted.

“The future is in your hand.” said the soviet “Your children, they will love you. Come come come, start the mission.”

“GO! GO! GO!” shouted the female hacker as the tourists ran back out onto the streets ready to join the mission.

“Are you friends with the hackers who are all locked up over there then? They said they need some help!” I said to the englishman.

“We are everywhere!” replied the englishman.

“Well you’re definitely here and you’re definitely over there.” I affirmed.

“Who sent you?” asked the woman.

“The gentleman that’s locked up over in the jail.” I replied.

“Have you got the evidence?” asked the englishman.

“Not yet. But I’m looking. Do you have any leads?”

“The entry point into the maze is in Old Town.”

“I’ve been to Old Town. I went to speak with the pirates. I used the passphrase and they sent me to the Wild West so I guess that’s where I should head next?” I asked.

“They sent you to Wild West? Sounds like a red herring to me.”

“It sounded like a red herring to me as well. I thought you might know something different.” I said remembering the times the pirates had sent me on a goose chase in previous years.

“You need to go back to Old Town and ask around again, you have until 6pm. Now go go!” he said and they sent me back into the streets.

I headed back to Old Town, eager to progress in my mission. The only clue I had at the moment was to try Grandma’s Living Room, the place where the wrinkled residents of Boomtown came together for bingo, beats and battenberg. When I arrived at the house the Living Room was packed from wall to wall. A female grime MC in a sports jersey was causing quite a ruckus from inside the the large painting that hung over Grandma’s fireplace. Various geriatric jivers danced amongst the crowd waving their walking sticks around dangerously. I had a peek around the rest of the house combing it for possible clues. There didn’t seem to be any sign of revolution in here at the moment, only an enthusiasm for Lyle’s Golden Syrup and a house that was starting to look very much trashed by all the weekend’s antics. The kitchen and dining room were without any inspiration for my quest so I decided to check upstairs. To my disappointment however the only thing to discover upstairs was a pile of strung out youths giggling on granny’s bed clutching a bag of cans for the lads.

Having checked through all the house I took a seat one of the armchairs waiting for something to actually happen. The MC and DJ were both going in pretty hard spinning up nuff rewinds and the crowd and grannies were definitely loving it. Time crept on and the advertised time of 5pm Bingo had passed and gone. A new DJ emerged in the painting and took to the decks and still nothing happened. Nothing resembling any kind of revolution seemed to materialise and I had found nothing new to go. The hackers at the Town Hall had said I only had another hour to find the next clue so sitting in the living room all night didn’t seem like it was going to get me anywhere, so I left the ruckus of Grandma’s and went back to my street by street search.

I wandered the streets of Old Town checking every nook and cranny (and granny) I could find. From Rimski’s Yard (which was bustling with junk traders) to a large group of Pro-Trump Moles Protestors, to the gathered folks trying to find salvation with the nuns; the whole town seemed to be teeming with activity. Down one of the back alleys of Oldtown Port I came across a couple who were loitering near a suspicious looking doorway. We got talking and they told me that they were both on the trail of getting to the bottom of the mystery of Old Town. The girl, who seemed to be Irish, was quite excited about the prospect and believed they were getting close. The guy sounded like he was also some form of Celt also, but seemed content to let the girl do most of the talking as he flipped through his guidebook and map. Suddenly a face appeared in a small hatched window at the door staring at us all with wide eyes.

“Do I know you friend?” I asked him.

“What did you say to me??” he asked squinting at me with suspicion.

“I said do I know you….friend.” I repeated firmly.

“Are these two with you?” he asked checking out my two companions.

“These two are friends as well.” I assured having got a good measure of them already as they had spilled the details of their own investigations to me.

“Do we know you friend?” said the Irish girl to try and reassure the disembodied head at the hatch.

Down the alleyway strode a gentleman dressed in a black corset tied with red ribbon wearing a black top hat and holding a cane with stockings that came up above the knees. Alongside him was a big hulking cyborg bodyguard with a cage around his head and a large fuel supply tank on his back. He wore khaki combat pants and had pieces of protective leather armor strapped to him.

“Good evening.” the gentleman with the cane said to the three of us who were still stood outside the door as he approached us.

“Get rid of them. Get rid of them.” whispered the person behind the door who had disappeared closing a curtain across the opening.

“Errrrrr. How you doing guys?” I asked the strange pair trying to pluck up some courage and wile.

“We are good. How are you?” said the gentleman twirling his cane.

“Well I’m pretty good! What brings you here?” I asked.

“Erm, alcohol mostly!” he replied.

“Alcohol? There’s an excellent bar just over there! Have you been there yet?” I pointed towards the tavern near the back end of the port.

“Have we been to that bar yet?” the gentleman asked his hulking companion. The cyborg grunted and shook his head.

“I think you should! Say you’ve spoken to Jonny and you might get a free drink!” I blagged.

“Thank you Jonny.” said the man tipping his top hat slightly to me.

“Have a good evening!” I said as they walked back down the alley towards the tavern.

Once they had cleared the corner I gave it a moment before knocking on the door.

“Coast is clear!” I told them.

“Quickly! Quickly!” the person behind the door said urgently.

Rapidly the 3 of us scooched into the building into what looked like the innards of a former sailing ship. The back wall however was covered in monitors and hacking terminals, just as I had seen in the old Town Hall. The room barely seemed to be lit other than the glow from the screens and equipment.

“Line up here please.” said a woman kitted out in the same kind of hoodie the town hall group had been wearing.

“I’ve got to scan you.” said another who was waving some kind of device around us.

“Arms up! Yes, arms up!” said the first woman “A bit higher. Thank you. Just checking you’re… yep.”

“It’s looking clear. Yep, yep. Virus free. All clear! All clear!” said the scanner.

The three of us were now lined up against the wall with me in the corner. The one who had scanned us turned round to the computer terminals and entered some data “We’re looking good on the system.”

All three of them turned and stood in front of us, the man from the door, the one who scanned us and the other woman who seemed to have the air of authority out of the trio.

“Well greetings all.” I said to them.

“Greetings comrades.” said the man. “This is the Hackers Hub. Have you been on a mission?”

“We’ve not been on a mission yet.” I responded “I spoke to some people in jail. Also for hacking. I presume you know them? They were asking us to find some evidence.”

“And they sent you here?” he asked.

“They sent us to Oldtown. I think we’re in the right place?” I said with hope.

“You are in the right place! Are you committed to bringing down Bang-Hai Industries?” he asked us.

“There’s something definitely wrong with it.” I said thinking back on what I had seen so far.

“It’s more than wrong.” said the hacker.

“They’re talking about bulldozing Oldtown? I’ve grown to love Oldtown!” I said reflecting on the good times the last few years had brought.

“It’s a creeping gentrification with a sinister underbelly and we’ve been working night and day to bring them down from the inside. But we need operatives. Are you up to the mission?” he asked us.

“We’re ready for the mission!” I said having taken the lead.

“Are all of you up for it?” asked the authoritarian woman staring down the other two of my companions who had been yet to speak.

“Yes.” said the Irish girl.

“I’m not sure about this guy.” said the hacker who had been briefing to the Celtic lad who was yet to speak “I can’t even see you, come here!”

“It’s quite dark.” I quipped “Have you considered installing lights?”

“We don’t need lights” said the boss lady as tough as nails.

“Ahhh. Carrots. Lots of carrots.” I concluded.

“We need committed operatives.”  said the male hacker. “This isn’t piss around time!!!” not taking to my comments. He took a moment but then decided to carry on “What I need you to do is to go to the Wild West. It’s a lawless place. There are our operatives, there are counter-operatives. I want you to maintain a very low profile. What you need to do is to go there with your passcode that you used to get into here. You need to use this passcode and do what they tell you to do. I don’t know what their disguise is but find them and use the passcode and they will give you further instruction.”

“Understood, thank you.” I said “We won't let you down.”

The three hackers thanked us for our support and gave us a bit of encouragement for our mission.

“They are everywhere and the walls have ears.” said the one briefing us “Remember, the crow cries twice at midnight.” he grabbed the door handle that would lead us back out into the alleyway. “Three, two, one!” he opened the door quickly.

“GOGOGOGOGO!” I said as we sprinted for the end of the alley back into the port.

In moments we found ourselves back in the bustling Old Town Port. A band played the Cantina Theme on a nearby stage and people jostled about getting on with their more mundane activities.

“Thank youuu! It was nice to meet you.” the Irish girl said to me giving me a smile, then her and her fella disappeared off into the crowds towards the west. I took a moment and then continued on my own path, meandering out from the port, a lone agent once more.

When I arrived in the Wild West of Boomtown the locals were already in the midst of a full brawl with punches thrown and gunshots sounding. The Town Drunk stumbled out from the saloon to lie in a heap on the woodchipped road as the harlots looked on and laughed. Once everyone had tired themselves out, the  brawl came to a conclusion as the tusslers wore themselves out and the defeated crawled off without any fatalities on this occasion.

“Yeah yeah. I’ll be waiting for you!” shouted one as the fighters crowd dissipated.

“You’ll be hearing about this!” replied one of the opposing cowboys as he himself slunk off to tend to his wounds.

“What the hell’s going on in this town now?” I found myself thinking out loud.

A bearded man in a wide brimmed hat was stood nearby at the front of the main street bank nursing his bruises from the fight.

“Do I know you friend?” I asked.

“You might do sir. You might do. Pleased to meet you.” he replied in his distinctly old west accent

“What’s been goin on?” I enquired.

“You know about them Rothchilds and those Bang-Hai tryin ta take over errything with their corporation and their greed?” he asked me.

“I’m very well aware of this.” I said in a grave tone.

“Nikolas Boom founded this town. It used to be a good town. Folks in this town take care of each other. Yeah, we got a few brawls but y’know we take care of each other. That there, that deputy that’s wanderin around here. I KNOW that he’s in their pocket. But that kinda makes one suspicious cos he banged someone up in that jail over there. Didn do nuffin wrong. Folk tryin to hearsay that he knows sumthin.”

“The same seems to be going on over in the town centre!” I said seeing that this was definitely not a localised one off incident. Again I found myself wondering what had happened to Charlie Brown and other key district leaders who had seemed to have disappeared over the last few years.

“I know it’s everywhere, son. But they ain’t our problem. But errm, see that Deputy there. Try an be careful he don’t hear what you sayin when you talk to that prisoner, hear? He knows things, son. I know he knows things! Good luck sir.” he nodded at me and with a tip of his hat he sent me on my way.

I made my way down the street from by the bank where the brawl had been towards the Lawless Halls of Justice. On the corner of the courthouse was the jail. A man stood behind the bars looking worse for wear gripping the bars in his hands.

“Do I know you friend?” I asked.

“I knew you’d say that! Someone sent you to say that?” he replied with a crazed grin.

“That man over by the bank sent me. Rumor is you’ve been locked up for no good reason.”

“Yeah I’ve been locked up for no good reason. I been locked up! I’m an innocent man! All I did was speak the truth! I’m  the editor of a rag which would bring down the Rothschilds. The Lizard People. I’m Jeremiah Hucksley.” he introduced himself.

“So you’ve got some dirt on the corporation?” I asked him.

“Erm, yep yep. Here’s the evidence!” he said as he pulled out a newspaper he had been hiding in his jacket.

“This is what I’ve been looking for!” I said thrilled that I finally had something.

“It’s all part of the puzzle. You get all the little pieces together and you make innocent people free.” he said pleased to be making a difference.

I spent a little while just talking with Jeremiah as he shared his tale and ordeal. The poor guy said it felt like he had been trapped in there for years.

“One way or another justice will be done. Thank you sir. Power to the people!” he concluded.

“Power to the people!” I echoed.

“Freedom of speech, people! Freedom of speech!” he shouted as I left the jail and headed back down the road the direction I had come.

I weaved through the people who strolled down the road keeping a careful eye on the deputy sheriff making sure to stay out of his way.  Momentarily I took refuge in the train station which was packed full of travellers. I recalled that the train station had been taken over by Bang-Hai Industries the year before so made sure I didn’t linger long and soon slinked down the back street to one of the covered wooden porches. Four ladies by the name of The Screaming Harlots were stood out in front of The Rusty Spur singing harmonies for the passers by. I pulled out the piece of newspaper that Jeremiah had given me and began to read it over.

By the sound of it a mysterious group of people had been trying to obtain Boomtown since the very early days and the founding of the town. They had brought claims against Nikolas Boom saying the land was theirs and were going about taking it from him in a rather heavy handed fashion. Could this be the same group of people we were dealing with now? Could this be the Rothchilds, the figures behind Bang-Hai Industries and the current takeover of the city. Could these be the very people who have conspired to overthrow the government over 200 years later to take control of the town? Could this even be the rumored Boominati? It wasn’t much to go on but it was something.

Evidence securely back in my pocket I made it over to the Town Hall to try and find out what our next move might be. When I got to the side door however it was securely locked with no sign of the hackers or any other way in. By the door there was a newspaper rack that had earlier contained saturday’s edition of the Daily Rag. In its place sat a lone document that seemed to have been left by the hackers themselves. This was far from the Rag which was now in firmly under the influence of Bang-Hai. This was Wikileaks scale news, the truth for the people…

I now had both this and Jeremiah’s article but where to go next? Looking round the town centre for inspiration, the prison caught my eye once more. I returned to the jail once more in order to consult with Nuclear Wasteman. I informed him about where I had been and what I had found out so far and he advised that I return to the Town Hall the next day at 1pm, saying my next contact will meet me there. He told me that this was much bigger than just getting him and his friends out of jail. Getting to the bottom of this could not only change Boomtown, but the world at large. We needed to take down the Corporation for the good of everyone before it was too late. I just needed to bring together as much evidence as I could in order for this to happen. Visiting hours were nearly over so he wished me the best of luck and I left quickly before Tony Danza or his colleague noticed that I was back and started asking their own questions.

When darkness fell I decided it was best to have a break and a bit of a knees up. Reel Big Fish were headlining in the town centre and this was one of the bands I really didn’t want to miss. When I arrived in the centre a large crowd had already gathered. The giant screen on the stage was displaying the current highest scoring citizens from the Bang-Hai People Social Network as the roadies finished setting up. The lights dimmed and we were momentarily plunged into darkness before a burst of fantastic lighting from all around as colorful masked performers appeared dressed in the top-hat and goggled style of the past revolution.

After this odd display of possible mass brainwashing of the populace by BHi, the band came on and started their show. Weirdly enough they seemed to follow the theme with one of the highlights being their performance of ‘Sell Out’. It had taken me a while in life to catch on to how much I loved this band. Their Boomtown Fair performance really brought that notion home as song after song I knew and really buzzed off. The crowd danced and bounced around with it proving to be one of the most fun performances I’d seen for a while.

The town crier called a close to the town’s main stage for the night and the crowd slowly dispersed as the skies clouded over and the rain began. As I sought shelter under the arches at the bottom of the main street, I bumped into a couple of my friends, Jack Redeye and Kiva. They introduced me to a couple of the people they had been adventuring around the city with. One of them, Dave, mysteriously looked the spitting image of the drunk I had seen earlier in the Wild West. Dave said he was an expert guide in these parts and recommended that we visit the Asylum for a quick check up.

When we reached the waiting room it was already packed full of citizens sat on the benches that lay along each wall of the cramped room. After a short time an orderly came to fetch me and Jack taking us into one of the patient's room.  The walls were absolutely covered with pictures of cats and a young lady in a tattered old dress with a wild look in her eyes was sat on an rickety spring bed.

“Good evening.” I said to her as she stared up at me smiling, “How you doing?”

She mumbled something, smiling to herself as her eyes swept the room.

“Do you like kitties?” I tried asking.

“Yes.” she said quietly yet warmly.

“Do ye likes dogs?” asked Jack.

“Dogs and Cats don’t really get on.” I said to Jack as if that was news.

“Oh, you ask if I like Dogs? No I don’t like Dogs. I like only cats.” she replied in some kind of eastern european accent.

“Only cats.” I confirmed “You’ve been drawing cats?”  I said examining some of the artwork on the walls “Which one’s your favorite?”

She had a brief think before saying “It’s like picking one of your childs, you know?”

“I understand that.” I nodded sympathetically “Yeah….they’re a lovely bunch.”

“No… there’s only one pussy for me.” said Jack pausing for a moment “That one!” he pointed at a tabby in a picture of two kittens together.

“Yes. They were born together.” she said said pointing at the pair.

“Awwwww.” I said looking at the sweet little furballs.

Abruptly one of the nurses poked he head through the door “Are you showing my pussy? Just here. This my pussy. Her name is Ginger!  This is my pussy.” she said pointing to a lovely ginger one.

“Not bad. Not bad.” I said examining it before we introduced ourselves to the nurse. The nurses name badge either read Steffanie or Cheffy although this was a topic of much debate for a moment. It was not a mystery we would solve however as we were soon beset upon at the doorway to  the room by a male patient dangerously wielding a pair of scissors that he was licking with his tongue.

“Hi!” I said greeting him “You probably shouldn't do that. It’s dangerous. Especially don’t run with them.”

“Is he disturbing you?” asked Cheffy.

“Well he is running about with scissors. Although I think he may be the one that’s disturbed.” I said.

“We’ve been trying to get the scissors off  him.” said Cheffy shaking her head as the patient began to try and stick the scissors up his bum.

“Erm….uh-oh!” I exclaimed indicating the issue to the nurse.

“Here we go. One….two….threee!!” said Chefft as the patient jammed the scissors up between his cheeks as this was a normal and acceptable occurrence in this facility.

The patient screamed loudly before breaking into giggles, grinning at us all impishly.

“I LOVVVVE EEEHHHT!” he shouted removing the scissors and offering them to me.

“No. I’m okay, thank you!” I said backing away a little. “Are you gonna…?” I said to Jack.

“How much for that?! Fuckin hell” Jack said enthusiastically.

“Awww. We having special times!” exclaimed Nurse Cheffy, who I was now doubting the credentials of.

“You want some?” the patient said to Jack, grinning as he dragged my friend off into what looked like some kind of closet.

“You’ll burn in hell if you go in there!” shouted another nurse from behind us, with an accent from the american deep south.

The door was locked as it shut “He might regret that.” said the newly arrived nurse in her southern drawl.

“I’m thinking he might.” I said waiting nervously hoping he would re-emerge.

I stood out by the closed door looking around feeling rather uncomfortable in the cramped corridors, ill at ease with both the patients and staff members now.

“You’d best check your friend.” said the southern nurse, urging me to check on my compatriot.

“Jack?! Are you alright mate?” I shouted. A few grunts and strange muffled noises could be heard from behind the locked door.  “I think there’s problems going on.” I said to the nurse.

Then came a series of loud screams and a gurgle.

“Jack? Are you still alive?” I shouted at the door before another shriek from the other side was followed by an evil laugh and then silence.

Suddenly the door opened and the patient with the scissors emerged….but not with Jack. With a completely different man.

“Oh…….. what happened there?” I said eyeing up the two figures.

“This your friend, right?” said the scissors patient.

“Erm… I’m not so sure. He looks a little different.” I said confused

“Yeah, this is your friend here.” said the scissors patient.

“Oh... Of course. Hi friend!” I said deciding it was best to accept the situation and shaking New Jack’s hand.

“Out we go now!” said the southern nurse encouraging me down the corridor along with my new friend.

New Jack seemed to be wearing some kind of hospital outfit and was much taller than the original Jack.

“Are off to have a rave? Is this the way out?” I asked as we made our way down the corridor of the asylum. New Jack lead me to a door, but it was definitely not the way out. We entered what seemed to be the medication dispensary room and my new friend shut the door behind us.

“So… yeah… this is the medicine…. do you take any medications?” I enquired thinking it was probable.

New Jack reached for what I originally thought was going to be some pills but turned out to be a hand full of wax crayons. “Oh. And some lovely crayons here. Do you want to do some drawing?” I asked him. He pointed at the wall where it appeared someone had already been scrawling some babblings.  “Oh I see you’ve done some already.” I said trying to decipher it.

“Draw on the wall! Somewhere fresh!” New Jack spoke for the first time.

“Draw on the walls?”

“Draw on the walls. Make it creepy. Make it creeeepy! Make it super creepy! Like something fragile and needy!” he said to me.

I began to join in with this preschool form of graffiti art writing a distress message of my own when I suddenly I became aware that one of the senior doctors was stood behind me peering in through the hatch that was used to give out the medication. I felt like I had been caught red-handed and began to fear the possible repercussions.

“What are you doing in there?” questioned the doctor curiously in a posh yet foreign accent.

“He’s drawing on the walls something fragile and neeeeedy!” said New Jack.

“Ah! Drawing a penis are you?” said the doctor as if diagnosing a patient.

“Erm…. is that what needs to be done?” I asked feeling like I should be complying. The doctor’s commanding stare seemed to indicate that was indeed what needed to happen so I somehow found myself drawing genitalia on a wall in the medicine store of an asylum in the wild west. I could feel the evening spiraling out of control already.

“Is that good?” I said drawing a large one on the wall.

“It’s not particularly graphic! I like graphic!” said the doctor.

“Oh… like how many penises do we need to draw?” I asked staring at the canvas.

“Oh no, I mean something disturbing like real labia and shit.” the doctor replied.

“Oh… well I’m not really an artist you know.” I said “I went down to the Art Gallery earlier but it didn’t really work out for me as a career path.”

“Oh shit, I see. Do you need group therapy?” said the doctor sympathetically leading me away from the medicine store further into the asylum leaving New Jack drawing on the walls with his crayons. I tried to decline the offer but before I knew it the doctor already had me through the door of the therapy room.

In the centre of the room was a circle of benches and on these benches sat various people who I had seen in the waiting room including Original Jack’s friend, Dave, the town drunk’s doppelganger.

“Ah. It looks like there’s already a group in here.” said the doctor.

“Erm. Hello group.” I said waving sheepishly as the doctor urged me forwards

“Ah yes. Come sit down. There is much therapy available.” she said to me as I took a bench.

The therapist seemed to be sat with one of the permanent residents who she currently who seemed to be inappropriately intermingling with her. “This is a no touching station!” she exclaimed to him batting him away. Her struggle with the patient continued for a short while as she kept trying to reassure us that everything was fine and under control.

In the end, unable to continue with the session due to the patients incessant pestering, she finally flipped.

“GET BACK IN ZE CAGE!” she yelled smacking the patient who made a rapid retreat away from the nurse.  “I didn’t mean to touch you. Sorry about zat. But you had best be off and shut ze door on the way out.” she said to the misbehaving miscreant, who slammed the door heavily on the way out.

“He is very violent. Zat is why I don’t touch him” continued the nurse to the group “Okay now…. On viv ze session. Just say your name cus we’ve all said ours now.” she said addressing the person who was sat next to me on the bench.

“Oh my name’s Peter.” he said giving a little wave.

“Oh. And yourself?” the therapist said looking to me.

“Oh, I’m Jonny.” I said kind of nervously aware that everyone was staring at me.

Thankfully the attention then returned to the rest of the group as people shared short tales and said a bit about themselves. Once we were settled in we moved onto the next part of the session which apparently was going to involve us expressing ourselves through art, which seemed to be a recurring theme at present.

“Now straight our fingers up in ze air like dis.” the therapist instructed, indicating for us to hold an index finger out in the air. “Now you want to look deep, deep into ze mind. Then begin to draw viv your finger vat you see.” she paused and watched as we all began to trace out our pictures. “Now….dost anyvone have any requests of a song for vhile you are drawings?” she asked

“Freebird! Play Freedbird” shouted out one of the therapy circle.

“Yes. I think it goes something like zis… Freebird.  Yeah, I vant to be freeeeee birrrrd...” she sang before we were interrupted by another person peeking in the door.

“Ahhh. Come in! Come in! Welcome to ze therapy session.” welcomed our host. “Don’t vurry, please take a seat. We are just doing ze art, yes.”

Our fingers continued to trace shapes and lines through the air creating our incorporeal artworks.

“Okay… It seems about people have finished ze drawings. ” said the therapist looking around the group before she turned to the newcomer “Before we continue vuld you like to say your name for ze rest of the group?”

“My name’s Dave.” said the newest arrival adding a second Dave to our lineup.

“Hello Dave!” said the group with a slight encouragement from our therapeutic leader who looked directly into the newcomers eyes and said in a deadpan yet matter of fact tone “You’re my wife now Dave.”

While the therapist was distracted one of the men from the group made a run for the door and bolted.

“BYYYYYEEEEE!” said the therapist in a slightly psychotic way before turning to us and telling us “Zey were here because they were particularly troubled.”

“Awww. I’m glad you could help them” I said to her.

“Now ve have settled matters I’m sure he will be fine. Now….I am just looking around ze pictures ve are havings. And I am seeing some very lovely pictures. Now you of course…” she said to the first participant “You have drawn a house as you have issues with your mother.”

The first artist nodded as the therapist turned her attention to the next drawing in the circle. “And you of course, you have drawn a small panda, is that right?” she asked.

“Yes it is! You’re absolutely right!” he replied quite pleased with himself.

“He has problems with his mother.” she said knowingly.

“Oh boy do I have problems with my mother! You’re very intuitive!” he confirmed.

“See. I am very very well trained.”

Eventually she turned to look at mine horrified by what she perceived.

“Do not look at zat picture!” she warned “If you look at zat picture, it vill be in your mind forever! Vat I am seeing there is quite pervy and disturbing! You have a very dark mind!”

“It was supposed to be a giraffe.” I said sadly.

“Well zat is not vat I am seeing  I don’t know know if you should be in group therapy or an art class!”

“I keep telling everyone, art is not working out for me today.”

“I think there is a problem with you….but if we all work together we can cure him, yes?” the therapist said to the circle. The group nodded in agreement so she continued “Now everybody, put your hands on ze man. Whose name….. is gone from my mind.”

“It’s Jonny.” I reminded her.

“If I had had to guess I would of said Jonny….or Dave.” she said. Both Daves nodded knowingly as the chances of a Dave in these parts seemed high “Okay, put your hands on ze Jonny.” she continued as the group all stood up and laid their hands upon me with arms outstretched. “Now sometimes violence arises from ze people. You need to create a violent environment for them in order to draw out ze violence. Let us think of ourselves in ze jungle and how we might be in zere or in ze farmyard. Focus on ze violent sounds and make ze most violent environment for him. Okay… after three. Von, two, three!!!” she declared as a cacophony of animal cries erupted from all around me. The sound was almost deafening as it seemed to resonate from everywhere at once. I closed my eyes and cringed waiting for it to be over as the sound washed over me.

Eventually after what seemed like an age the sound subsided and I heard the therapist's voice once more. “Okay. Now I vant to look in your eyes.” she said.

I opened my eyes and I was now face to face with the therapist peering at me with a medical curiosity “I am seeing…….. a clear mind” she said relieved.

A great cheer rose up from my group including myself as we all celebrated our achievement in the exorcism of apparent dark thoughts (or giraffes) from my mind.

“Go Jonny! Go Jonny! Go!” the group chanted as we all did a little happy dance that carried on out the door as we were released with a clean bill of mental health once more. The partying continued out into the corridors of the institute once more which was breaking out into what seemed to be half giddy riot and half post-apocalyptic rave. People ran rampant shouting, laughing and screaming as drumming broke out against all the doors and walls throughout the asylum to a resounding chorus of “Ohhh Jeremy Corbyn!”

People ran up and down the halls and colorful plastic balls were flung everywhere. Anarchy now reigned in the West and we partied out into a night of saloons, race tracks, dens, sideshows, burlesque and brothels like a wave of energy.

Saturday

After a Pumpkin Katsu Curry brunch I headed into the Town Centre, avoiding enemy agents along the way, to await my next contact with the hackers. Thankfully this worked out well and allowed me to take in one of the Fair’s performances I had been looking forward to, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5. I had seen them the previous year in at Tramways in Sheffield but they were totally worth seeing again. An hour of classic hip-hop with some of the greatest legends of the game? Not to be sniffed at. I even managed to run into some friends from Bolton, Hannah and Sophie, and we happily danced about to the Five and guests who totally smashed it bringing the good old skool vibes.

Once the show was over and my friends had headed off to go and see another band I hung around keeping an eye on the Town Hall. Eventually I saw a head peering out of the side door so I carefully approached them looking around for any sign of counter-agents.

“Do I know you friend?” I asked the hooded man peeking out from the gap in the door.

“I don't know if you do.” he said seeming very suspicious of me. This didn’t seem to be one of the hackers I had met the previous day but the way they all tried to hide their faces I was not sure.

“I’ve brought evidence from the Wild West.” I told him.

"Come on then! Quickly!" he said letting me in and securing the door behind us. We made our way down the corridor into the dark interior of the Town Hall.

“Now did anyone see you come in?" asked the hooded man concerned.

"No, not as far as I could see. But I did have to avoid some enemy agents in Wild West on the way up to the town centre earlier.” I told him.

“Double Agents? Hmmm….” he said seeming to mull it over for a moment. A second hooded hacker seemed to be busy in the background typing information onto a computer terminal, this one looked like the woman who had been in her the day before.

"Show us what you've got for us." the man continued.

I explained to him about Jeremiah Hucksley having been locked up at the Lawless Halls of Justice and that it appeared as if the corporation may have been there since the start. I pulled the newspaper out of my back pocket and unrolled it for him handing it over.

“It looks as if we've got some hot evidence here! Quick, get it on the system!” he said passing it to the woman who then took it over to the machinery and began scanning, analyzing and uploading it onto the system.

Another hacker then entered the room, talking excitedly to his colleagues as switches were flicked, commands were entered on keyboards and buttons were pressed. The room became a hive of activity as they bolted back and forth between panels and screens.

The one I had been speaking with brought over a large control box covered with switches and dials which was attached and suspended from the ceiling by a thick cable.

“Hold this.” he said to me handing me the heavy box which I diligently grabbed from him.

“Turn that dial!” he said to me and I rotated the large dial all the way up to maximum “Now enter the code.”

“The code? What code?” I said feeling like I had missed a clue somewhere.

“Enter the 3 digit code!” he said urgently.

“Errrrm…..123!” I said giving it a panicked stab in the dark and punching in the numbers on the keypad.

"Now multiply it by 10." he said taking me off guard once more. My brain stopped in panic and I had what I call one of my ‘maths freezes’ - It didn’t matter how easy or obvious the answer was, it was too late.

"Rachel Riley!!! Where are you when I need you?!" I shouted up into the sky crying for help.

"Erm.. try putting a 0 on the end of it." said the female hacker who sounded very much unimpressed by my failing at doing something so obvious and easy… which it was.  Rather embarrassed I typed in the second half of the code and the screens were filled with computer code scrolling past. It seemed that the key to unlocking the code had been hidden in the newspaper print all the time.

"I've never seen anything like this." said the guy in the background on staring at the terminal screen.

"What is it?" asked the female hacker.

"This code looks like it's from the future!" said the other one staring at it in amazement.

"From District 5 maybe?" I suggested thinking of the alien-tech influenced space port downtown.

“Mission 1 is now complete. Well done” said the leader to me taking the control box back and putting it aside. “What I need you to do now is go and see a man by the name of Andy Roid. He can be found at The Kiosk in Chinatown. Take this symbol and show it to him. He will know what it means.” said the hacker handing me a small square piece of paper displaying the same symbol as they wore on their garments. “Tell him where you have been and that we need help to decipher this Future Code. He will know what to do. Good luck.”

And with that I was sent back out into the world with my second mission started and hope in my heart now I was finally on the right path.

I figured that finding the place would be a challenge to find but it was pretty much the first place I laid my eyes on; a small windowed kiosk on the edge of Chinatown next to the picnic area. It’s green sign read ‘Tech Repair Kiosk’ and was stylised as half barcode/half circuit board. Within the hatched window sat two figures surrounded by all kinds of pieces of technological scrap, parts and tools. Neither of them seemed to look like Androids or even Chinese, but I guess you never can tell. Both looked rather bohemian and were dressed in dark well used formal jackets with slightly battered hats. Looking at them I could have sworn I had seen them both at Rimski’s Yard amongst the rebel rousers previously.

“Do I know you friend?” I asked discreetly flashing the hackers symbol I had been given at him “I’m looking for Andy Roid.”

“Andy Roid? I am not sure if he is here right now. We will see, but first we need to make sure you are really a friend.” said the man who now stood at the hatch as he grabbed some kind of scanning device from the behind him and passed it over me a few times.

“What’s in your pocket?” he said to me.

“Just my phone, wallet and sonic screwdriver.” I said pulling out the contents into my hands.

“Yes. We will just need your phone for one moment then.” he said and  I passed it over to him.

“There.” he continued “You seem to be clear enough. I am Andy Roid. Pleased to meet you friend. Now what can we do for you?”

I related to him what we had found so far and the things that had been happening up on Hilltop.

“Yes friend, we have already received the first part of the code and it is indeed from the future.” he said “But we need more of the code to crack this wide open. Much more code.”

His colleague gave him a phone battery which he then handed to me and he continued “What we need you to do is take the phone battery here to the Telecon up the street and give it to a friend there. The battery has the code hidden inside it. Take it to them and use it to gather more evidence and get more code. Things here are going from bad to worse. We need to hack the mainframe, uncover the truth and spread it. Get it all up on the big screens! The people must know! Make your way up the street to Telecon but stay on the middle of the path and do not stray. The enemy lie in the shadows and they are out to stop you.”

“Stay in the middle of the path. Got it.” I confirmed before briefly going through the details with Andy once more to be sure.

“Oh and you probably want this.” he said taking my phone from his colleague and returning it to me “It’s all clear now so they won’t be able to track you.”

“Thank you Andy. I’ll get the code and we will get the truth!” I said confidently.

“Good! Good! Now go and remember to stay in the middle. Quickly now!” he said waving me off as I made my way onto the main streets of Chinatown.

Chinatown’s wall to wall advertising and neon lights didn’t quite look as in your face during the day and the whole place seemed a bit more relaxed. The Tek Shops, Boutiques and Digital Funfair were all busy with activity as all kinds of crazily dressed fair-goers strolled around, some looking worse for wear following the night before. The Bang-Hai Industries Telecon building was at the top end of the street in an old run down building near the Monkey King Temple.

As I entered 2 customers seemed to be mid-debate with the man who was sat on the front desk and other angry voices could be heard from an adjoining office. Along the back wall were a wall of customer service desks where various annoyed customers waved pieces of paper angrily at the representatives. The door swung open from the side office and 3 people ran out scampering for the buildings exit “FUCK OFF THE LOT OF YOU AND DON’T COME BACK!” shouted a greasy looking man in a shirt and tie before retreating back into his office and slamming the door. Going for the least threatening route I joined the queue for the customer service kiosks.

“Do I know you friend?” I asked the lady at the window when it was my turn, confident that this would progress my situation somehow.

“I don’t think we’ve met, no.” she said looking at me as if I was trying to pick her up.

“Oh… okay. You just looked familiar.” I said trying to cover for myself inadequately.

“So… can I help you? Did you want to make a complaint?”

“Yes. I’d like to make a complaint!” I said thinking it was the only course of action to save face.

“Then just take this form, fill it in.” she said handing over the form with a surprisingly warm smile given the arguments other customers seemed to be having.

I went and sat at a nearby desk to fill out the form. Coming up with a list of grievances regarding the state of the communications links was easy given the fact I had been struggling to get a signal since I had arrived in town and the public phones about town all seemed to be dead as well. I wondered… could it be a deliberate communications blackout to quash the progress of any resistance or were Bang-Hai Telecon really just inept? Frustrated I scribbled down my complaints on the form thinking that I might as well now I was there. While I did so I managed to go through about three different pencils as each one seemed to break in turn. Another complaint to add to the form I guessed, trying to jot it down before another faulty pencil snapped.

Once I had completed the form I handed it back to the lady at the kiosk who diligently signed and stamped it before handing it back to me and advising that it was to be deposited in the letterbox out the front. I followed her instructions but as I stood outside peering through the glass, watching the complaint-o-matic at work, I resigned myself to the fact that the representatives perceived helpfulness was just a ruse. There I understood the real value of our opinions to Bang-Hai as I watched my letter fall straight into a shredder.

Bang-Hai prided itself on wanting to hear about our lives and thoughts and dreams across all their media platforms…. However both that and the entire corporation was just a facade. They didn’t give a shit about anything we had to say; all they wanted were our souls.

Knowing I couldn’t leave empty handed I went back inside, even if I had to face the shouty man I would come out with something!

I approached the front desk and spoke to the man on reception and tried again. “Do I know you friend?” I asked.

“Ahhh…. I’m not really in the loop with the whole thing, sorry. The guy you need to talk to has gone out for a short while. But…. I think he was meant to give you… this. It’s some kind of code?” he said fishing under the desk and handing me a small USB Drive.

“Ohh… thank you very much. Much appreciated.” I said examining it “And you don’t need this?” I said holding the phone battery with the code out to the man.

“Erm. No thanks. You can keep it.” he said looking at it puzzled.

“Oh okay...thanks. Have a great day!” I said thinking that had been probably tons easier than it should have been. Telecon was clearly falling short on the Data Protection front as well and I walked out with the data I needed safely in my pocket.

When I arrived back at the Tech Repair Kiosk, Andy Roid was there to greet me at the window. His partner was seemed to be absent and likely off on a mission of his own.

“I’ve managed to retrieve this from Telecon.” I said subtly sliding him the USB stick making sure no one could see “Apparently it’s got more code on it for you.  I don’t know if it’s of any use?”

“We’ve gotta wait for 3 more of these and but for now we can send you somewhere else. Are you up for it?” Andy asked me.

“I’m definitely up for it! Ready to go!” I said enthusiastically.

“Have you heard about The Scientist?”

“The Scientist? That guy from District 5?” I said wondering if he meant the infamous Dr. Benway, Mob Boss Muuti’s lead scientific expert.

“No, you need to go and find the Mad Scientist of Barrio Loco. And I need you to take this.” said Andy handing me what looked like a cassette tape.

“The info is on here? Or it’s got some kind of virus on it?” I said puzzled by the rather oldskool media form wondering if it was going to load up in some kind of ZX Spectrum,

“It’s not about what’s on the cassette tape. It’s more about what’s in these numbers here” Andy said pointing at the label on the tape indicating a short series of numbers “So anyone that finds it will just think it’s a music tape. We’re getting very close now. Take this to Barrio Loco, there’s a Pop Art Shop, go in there and you should find this Mad Scientist.”

So a short time later I found myself waiting in an Art Shop in the vibrant neighborhood of Barrio Loco stood with two men who were dressed as pigs. The store was attended by a couple of workers who located themselves behind the shop counter, both of whom looked rather out of place in the establishment. They did however confirm that I was indeed in the right place and that The Scientist could indeed help me on my quest. He was was currently dealing with a few other people however so I could be waiting a while.

The shop was quite busy and the wait was indeed very long but I entertained myself by discussing the impressive pieces of art with their creator who was hanging around by the front. On further illumination and examination the majority of the artwork seemed to follow an anti-establishment theme of uprising which did seem a suitable but not very subtle front for the outfit. The rest of the time I spent bopping around to the nearby sounds of the 24 Hour Garage Girls who were throwing one of their famous street parties nearby, and discussing the latest news and events with the two little pigs.

Eventually one of the shops attendants came in from the back door behind the counter to let me know that The Scientist was able to see me now. I climbed the steps over the counter and through the small door at the back of the shop. The room I entered seemed to be a laboratory full of beakers, flasks and tech. The only lighting in the blacked out room seemed to be from a selection of UV lights which illuminated the trippy glowing decorations. The Scientist himself was kitted out as expected in his long white lab coat and goggles and he seemed unperturbed by my arrival.

“Good afternoon friend.” I began “I’ve been sent to find you by Andy Roid. He said you might be able to help us.”

“I've been trying to phone Andy for 2 days now but haven’t been able to get through to him. I’m glad to hear he is okay.” said The Scientist.

“I know the phone signal is terrible. Bang- Hai has put up all these aerials and dishes and I still can't get a signal!” I said still annoyed with the service that the Telecon Company had been providing.

“Bang-Hai are not what they claim. They are built on greed.”

“I know, something about them just isn't right and we need to get to the bottom of it.” I agreed.

“We need to put a stop to the constant oppression. The head of Bang-Hai is not what he seems to be.” said The Scientist.

“Do you mean Rothschild?” I asked.

“Yes. We must bring his system down and stop the corruption.”

“Andy sent me over here from the Kiosk with this tape.” I said handing over the cassette. I explained to him that the number sequence should be the key to decoding additional data. Taking it from me he put the tape under his magnifying glass and examined in closely.

“Ah yes, I see. Yes, this is excellent. The code we have gathered already does indeed seem to be from the future. In order to gather the final bit of data we require, we will have to go into the future and retrieve it from the mainframe itself. You will need to go to District 5, which is itself the future of Boomtown. A mob boss rules there.”

“You mean Muuti?” I asked having met the cyborg mobster previously.

“Yes. Have you met him?” asked The Scientist surprised I knew of him.

“I have but that was at a previous Fair, not in this version of the future.”

“He's a little shady but he can help us with a backdoor into the mainframe. When he asks you what kind of world you want you need to say ‘A world without Masters.’ He will try and distract you by sending you to a Virtual Pleasure World. Go into it but don't look straight at it. Turn the opposite way and follow the green hacker symbols.”

“Like this one?” I said showing him the hacker symbol I had been given at the Town Hall.

“Yes, that’s it. Follow the symbols in the opposite direction and upload the virus into the mainframe. Remember once you are in, look behind you and make a note of any numbers you might see. Once you have done this then let Andy know.”

“I will do so. Thank you very much.”

“Now all I need to you to do is to sit in this chair here and I can begin the procedure to send you to the future.” he said indicating an odd looking seat that was surrounded by electronic equipment.

What happened next is still hazy to me but I seem to recall switches were flicked, buttons were pressed, lights flashed in front of my eyes and there was smoke, lots of smoke.

“Welcome to the future!” I heard The Scientist’s voice say “Once you leave these doors you will find you have jumped forwards in time and are indeed in the distant future. I wish you the best of luck! And remember.... a world without masters!"

The Year 2122

I arrived through the mists of time into Boomtown’s future and found myself on the outskirts of Dstrkt 5 in the year 2122. The buildings were in poor repair and it looked like the area had been in steady decline since the departure of the alien spaceship Arcadia all those years ago. The aliens had left not only advanced technology but a whole series of diseases and viruses that had literally plagued the people. Technological advancement had sadly taken a toll on both the human race and the environment in this time. Atop of an old scrap metal tower in the centre of the district stood the last tree in existence. Oxygen and fresh air was at a premium and not everyone could afford it. The people were clearly desperate and struggling to survive in these dystopian remnants of society. The town’s population seemed to consist of mutants, cyborgs, aliens and thrillseekers come to dance and fuck through the last gasping breaths of humanity. After oxygen and technology, the other main commodity that seemed to have survived was sex. From the brothels to the the latest Sex Robots being churned out by the Robotika Factory, man found his baser instincts were one of the few things that could survive out on these streets. All the while the cold shadow of the nearby Bang-Hai Towers still loomed over Boomtown.

I knew Muuti’s office from previous visits so despite the low key abandoned shop facade I knew where I needed to get to. A queue had formed outside as various denizens and visitors to the district were hoping to petition Muuti for one thing or another. Despite the power wielded by Bang-Hai, when it came to it, on the ground at Dstrkt 5, Muuti was the person you came to. Nothing happened in the district that he was not aware of. His henchmen guarded the door, managing the crowd and staring down anyone that approached.  Every so often the door to the office would open and a single person would be ushered inside. Most would end up being unceremoniously thrown out after a short while having angered the mob boss. Very occasionally though a citizen would disappear completely never to re-emerge. Muuti could be a great ally but it seemed he could prove to be an even greater enemy if you got on the wrong side of him.

At what seemed like an age I arrived at the front of the queue and I became very aware of my weapon holstered on my belt as I eyed up the massive assault weapons that the bouncers were wielding. I had not come unprepared and had brought with me all the future tech I could muster for this venture including tools and the latest in futuristic eyewear. The woman in front of me was giving me a deathly stare and I was glad to have the glasses to at least partially hide behind. Her jaw and mouth were obscured by some kind of cybernetic mask that probably doubled up as some kind of air filter so she wasn’t breathing the same poisoned air I was currently having to deal with.

Eventually our staring match came to an end as the door opened and I was beckoned in by another armed woman. I stepped inside into a short dark corridor which then opened up into the familiar well furnished office of the mob boss. This time however the room seemed to be brimming with a large assortment of plants. The air seemed rich with oxygen and fresh air and I took a deep breath. Muuti sat in his throne like chair behind a large desk. The tension felt like I had entered the headmaster’s office…. if the headmaster had guns and an inclination to vaporise people.

The cyborg henchwoman who had brought me in was now pointing a laser blaster at my head “Arms up!” she commanded and I reached for the skies. I volunteered that she take my Anti-Time Blaster I was armed with to show my good will. Going into Muuti’s den with guns blazing would only get me killed and possibly mulched into Soylent Green.  “Any blades on you?” she asked.

“None, just this screwdriver.” I said nodding to indicate the device attached to the other side of my belt.

“Sonic?” she asked me. I nodded in reply. “Yeah, take it off.” she confirmed. I reached down carefully and safely unclipped the screwdriver handing it over to her. She also had me remove my cyber-eyewear stating she needed to see my eyes. I removed the glasses and powered them down looking her straight into her own eyes. Her own eyes were definitely not her originals but cybernetic replacements. She brought out a scanning device and began searching me for any additional weapons or devices I may have stashed on me.

“Do you know where you are?” she asked me.

“Muuti’s office.” I replied.

“It is. When you’re in Muuti’s office you play by Muuti’s rules. You do what Muuti says. You answer his questions. You don’t piss about otherwise you don’t keep your head attached.” she said in a cold harsh fashion.

“Understood.” I nodded affirmingly as she finished her search of me.

“He’s clean.” the henchwoman told her boss, taking my equipment over and place it on the far side of his desk before indicating for me to take my place in front of the desk.

“Good evening sir.” I greeted him as he looked me up and down with disdain before turning his attention to my sonic screwdriver which he picked up for a closer inspection.

“Nice to meet you again.” I said warmly.

“Sit down.” commanded Muuti.

I walked forwards and took my seat. As I sat down I felt like I has shrunk as Muuti loomed over me from his chair. “It’s been a while” I said.

“I’m a very very busy man. I can’t remember everyone that comes through here...” he said in his usual gruff voice.

“It’s okay, you get a lot of people through…” I began before I realised that due to the time travel I wasn’t actually saw how long it was since I had seen him.

“You keep on interrupting me I’ll definitely throw you out! You understand?? Now sit back please and answer my questions.” he said annoyed “I ain’t got a lot so don’t interrupt. What you ‘ere for?”

“I was sent by Andy Roid and The Scientist to try and obtain more code and hack into the mainframe.” I explained as the henchwoman played with the settings of my Sonic Screwdriver curiously.

“Well that is very honest of you and very up front. But you know who I am?”

“I know who you are.” I replied “You have a reputation. Firm but fair.”

“Is that who I am??” asked Muuti.

“Only you really know who you are.”

“Oh this is getting very fucking philosophical isn’t it??” Muuti said rolling his remaining human eye at me.

“You’re the boss of The District.” I said getting down to the basics.

“Oh there we go. That’s a bit more real isn’t it. Now you giving me facts and not a bunch of suggestions of me being whoever the fuck you want me to be.” he said in an intimidating tone. This did not seem to be going well so far. “I am a district leader. District 5. You know, I run this town. I run this district! I make sure everyone’s safe. I make sure no law enforcement, no government officials, tamper with my social control.” he said before pausing thoughtfully and then staring at me as if he was waiting.

“Understood.”  I said trying to sound confident.

“I protect everybody. I keep everyone safe.” he continued “I like it and all our population likes it. Of course, in our district, not much air to breathe.” he points to his collection of plants “I can jar that and give as much as I want, and I do generously do that for my population. There’s also not many plants apart from my specimens that you see around you.”

“An excellent collection” I said admiring the rich foliage.

“And there’s definitely no animals.” He continued. “So there’s no food. I control that as well. So you’ve come to me, to ask for my services. But what can you actually offer and provide for me?” he asks.

“What is is you want?” I enquired.

“What have you got that I might need?” he asked.

“Oxygen?” I asked… if I went back in time again I could probably manage to bottle a good deal of air from the various forests of Boomtown.

“Oxygen? I’ve got it.” he said in a cocky and unimpressed fashion.

“Well…” I pondered “I’ve got Data.”

“You’ve got data have you? What kind of data ‘ave you got?”

“Future Code” I declared

“Future Code! What could the future code be for?”

“That’s what we’re trying to look into. We were told you could help us.”

“Okay. Let’s just restart. I’m gonna ask you a question. It’s a bit off the beaten track but answer it truthfully and honestly. And don’t deep think about it.”

“Okay, go ahead.” I said prepared for what was coming.

“What is the most pleasurable experience you’ve ever had?” he asked me.

I took a deep breath and pretended to think about it “Virtual Reality?” I said

“Virrrrtual Reality.” he said “That’s absolutely nothing compared to what I’ve been working on.”

“Really?” I said intrigued

The henchwoman continued to play with the sonic screwdriver as we spoke inspecting it closely as Muuti continued “Now it feels to me you have two options in your life.” he continued “You surrender to your pre-ordained destiny… or you stand up and you evolve! So what future is it you actually desire?”

“A world without masters” I said confidently hoping he would buy it, although in my heart my loyalty still lay with Comrade José.

“A world without masters?” he said clapping his hands in congratulations “Now we’re getting somewhere! However….if I give you this chance are you prepared to go through the rabbit hole? And you must fully understand….once you’ve gone through there’s absolutely no turning back. You will never return! Are we prepared to make that commitment?”

“I’m ready for that!” I said with determination.

“You’re ready for that? Well please… follow my assistant.”.

“Take your gun.” the henchwoman said handing me back my sidearm “You’ll need it.”

“Thank you.Your help is much appreciated.” I said to the both of them as I retrieved the rest of my equipment.

Muuti’s assistant pointed me to a strange hatch low down in the wall which lead into darkness. I got on my hands and knees and crawled through the unlit tunnel. Muuti had told me I couldn’t turn back but I remembered The Scientist’s words and looked behind me as the hatch closed up. I was looking for some kind of numbers that would be my next clue but in the darkness I was no longer able to see. I was about to reach for my torch when I emerged from the tunnel into some kind of waiting room. At a desk sat a strange woman with three faces dressed in white who sat at some kind of reception desk. Was this part of the simulation? Had I entered a new dimension completely? I wasn’t entirely sure. The room was adorned with various inkblot tests on it’s walls and had sets of chairs lining the walls. There was a small side table where one would expect to see a pile of magazines but the room seemed surprisingly blank with it’s white walls as if it were the waiting room for the afterlife. A soundscape of ethereal noise seemed to fill the air as if echoes of angels reverberated to the sound of crystal resonance.

“Welcome to Doctor Benway’s office.” said the three-faced woman “Do you have an appointment?”

“Errr… As far as I’m aware…” I said “Muuti has sent me.”

“Excellent. You can take a seat and fill out this form. Bring it back to me when you are done.” she said handing me a clipboard. Taking the forms from her I claimed one of the seats which were all currently vacant leaving just me and the three-faced woman in the room. She sat at her desk sifting through a pile of documents at her desk as if she was looking for something in particular. The form seemed to be a medical disclaimer for undergoing some form of surgery for a cybernetic upgrade. Given the fact I had already had cranial implant installed by The Bodyshop technicians 2 years previous this did not worry me though. In fact my implant had seemed to have been malfunctioning since and could definitely do with a round of maintenance.

Once I had finished filling out the form form I took it over to the desk and handed it over to the mysterious woman.

“Okay Jonny, you will need a number.” she said indicating a ticket dispensing machine on the wall. I pulled a ticket from the machine and looked at it.  

“And what number are you, Jonny?” she asked me,

“36” I replied waving my ticket.

“Okay, just sit down there.” she said to me as I sat back down clutching my ticket. I wondered if I really was the 36th person to have gone through the rabbit hole. And of those 36 people had any successfully made it into the mainframe? There was still plenty of opportunity for failure at this point in the mission.

“Can you see what’s in front of you there?” the three-faced woman asked me indicating to a series of inkblot tests on the wall ahead of me.

“Patterns.” I replied keeping it vague for now.

“Have you seen something like this before?”

“I’ve seen them in the Wild West’s Asylum.” I said remembering the doctor’s office there.

“It is the Rorschach test. It tests your personality and your brain. Which one are you most drawn to, Jonny?”

We slowly went through the patterns with her asking what I associated each one with. She advised me to say what came into my mind first each time.

A butterfly, flying free.

A plant, bringing oxygen.

Speckled Frogs (sat on speckled logs).

Two Gymnasts flying through the air.

And a couple of  robots victoriously high-fiving.

“I see. And why have you been sent here Jonny?” she asked making notes on the paperwork as we talked.

“To get more code and hack the mainframe”

“Who sent you?”

“The Scientist and Andy Roid” I said keeping to the basics. The sounds in the room were growing louder and louder. A rumble of bass trembled through the floor and my ears struggled to hear over a growing cacophony of sound that seemed to emanate from the very walls.

“And you were with the Revolution last year?” she said asking the exact question I had been avoiding all weekend.

“Well, not quite. I was drafted into the military before the regime fell.” I replied keeping it as vague as I felt I could.

I remembered back to that golden age of Boomtown and my loyalty to Comrade José. Both were long gone now though and it seemed increasingly possible that Bang-Hai Industries that had caused this.

As if she was following my train of thought she then asked a follow up question “And have you heard of Bang-Hai?”

“I have.”

“What is your observations about what is going on?” she inquired continuing to check through the paperwork making notes.

“I feel that things are just getting worse, worse and worse. Something needs to be done.” I declared

“What do you think needs to be done?” she asked me.

“We need to overthrow this corporation, get rid of it.”

“You think we can have a future without leaders?” she asked.

“A world without masters!” I replied in my most convincing voice knowing this was a crucial point.

“What do you think your responsibility will be in that world?” she continued.

“Looking out for all the citizens of Boomtown?” I pondered out loud.

“As a Warden? A Safety Officer?”

“In whichever way I can help.” I said as the cacophony of sound seemed to increase again. It was as if cymbals were clashing or a great steam powered industrial machine was crashing through it’s motions. I struggled to hear the follow up question and had to shuffle closer and get her to repeat herself.

“Does destruction seem to follow you around?” she asked.

I thought back to the events previous, the battles of the revolution and beyond. “I’m afraid so. I saw the districts burn last year. I’m not sure if it was necessary or not, we don’t seem to have got anywhere.” silently I cursed the masked revolutionaries. They said they had wanted to make things better but things were now worse than ever.

“You agree with violence?” she asked.

“Well violence hasn’t solved it, we need a different kind of revolution.” I declared.

“How would you police this new world?”

“I hope everyone could police each other.”

“For who’s benefit?”

“For the benefit of Boomtown and the world as a whole.”

She paused before asking “And what do you do Jonny?”

“At the moment I’m a mercenary, which is how I ended up in the military and how I had previously done  work for Muuti.”

“It is nice that you are loyal.” she said without emotion. I wasn’t sure if she was congratulating me for helping out Muuti or condemning me for my mercenary work.

“What would you say are the gifts that Muuti gives you?”

“So far he’s given me this cortical implant but unfortunately it seems to be faulty now and is in need of repair.” I said rubbing the back of my neck where some of the cybernetics had been imbedded previously.

“What is your goal?” she asked me.

“Hopefully to save Boomtown.” I declared.

“Have you been to the bank?”

“Yes, to exchange money from the previous years. They gave us a terrible rate, especially on the Downtown money. They said the Downtown money was worthless. They wouldn’t even give me anything for Muuti’s dollars.”

“Terrible. Yes they are used to doing things their way. How does that make you feel?”

“Disappointed at the time but at the end of the day the money doesn’t mean anything. It’s almost like the Oxygen is the currency here and now. Just the one tree outside in the square, it’s a shame. If only we could have done something to prevent it. I hope we can do something in the past to fix the future.” I said as if in conclusion.

“While we are here, we will explore what the future holds for us.” she said before a momentary pause as she scribbled something on the bottom of my form.

“Now… I have some information for you.” she said beckoning me over.  “When you go to see the Doctor he will give you two ways to go, take the option that seems harder to you and you will have an opportunity to overthrow the entire mainframe. When you are presented with the headset there are two paths you may take, one is going forward and although it may seem counteractive, if you turn round 180 degrees, you should see this symbol.” she explains pointing at the now familiar symbol on a paper on her clipboard “This is the hacker symbol and it is the opportunity to take over. The doctor will see you now, good luck!”

Feeling like I had won over a new ally already, I thanked the three-faced woman and made my way out through the only door in the room, the way I came in now being closed to me. I walked through some sheets of plastic and emerged in a laboratory. The room was full of scientific equipment of various sorts and the beeps and chirps of computer banks could be heard. The walls were coated with a plastic membrane and the room was lit by a series of white lights that adorned the wall. On the far side of the room were two built up enclosures, each with a VR headset by it.

Standing in the laboratory was a crazed looking mustachioed gentleman with longish hair who was wearing a long white double breasted lab coat, black rubber gloves, and large dark lensed laboratory goggles. Straight away I recognised him as the one and only infamous Doctor Benway. He was accompanied by one of Muuti’s cybernetically enhanced minions who seemed to be fulfilling the role of lab assistant.

“Hello. Good evening.” I said entering the laboratory.

“Please remove anything from him that might interfere with the equipment.” said Benway to his lab assistant “Thank you, your effects will be kept safe.” he advised me as I removed all my tech and my hat onto a small metal tray the woman brought over.

“You need to drink this. Please tilt your head back as I put this in your mouth.” he took a test tube from one of the racks in the laboratory that contained some kind of blue liquid and poured it into my mouth. It definitely tasted artificial but I couldn’t quite identify the contents. “Very good” he continued “Swallow it back for me.”

The doctor examined various scientific instruments in the room and then peered back at me “That’s perfect.” he mumbled.

Next he then proceeded to go through various reflex and reaction tests with me, making a few notes to himself as he did so.

“I have had a cybernetic implant previously, will that affect things at all?” I asked concerned.

“I will only know at the end of this.” he replied. “My name is Doctor Benway. In a moment we will ask you to stand inside the cage here, a headset will be place upon you and you will enter a virtual world. It’s fully immersive and three dimensional which means you will be able to look all around you and experience everything that’s going on. Your first job once the headset has been placed upon you is to look for this symbol.” he pointed to a hacker symbol on the wall for me “It’s very important, you just need to look at this for a few seconds; this is the key, this is the gateway, this is the entrance to your experience. Do you understand?” he asked me.

“I understand” I acknowledged

“At the end of your experience, when everything comes to a stop, have a little look around, there should be a little message instructing you to remove the headset. This is your queue… to remove the headset! Do you understand?”

“Ah yes. That is rather cunning!” I said.

“Please enter the cage.” said Benway indicating to the enclosures on the other side of the room. I ducked under the safety bars and stood in the middle. The doctor’s then came over to me and placed the VR headset on me and adjusted the straps.

Darkness turned into light as I was transported into the Virtual World. I found myself in a long tripped out patterned tunnel. A friendly feminine voice welcomed me as I looked around to get my bearings. Ahead of me was a red version of the hackers symbol. I turned myself around and sure enough floating behind me was the green symbol. I stared at as the headset finished it’s configurations and we were off speeding down the tunnels of this information superhighway. I flew through tunnel after tunnel chasing the green hacker symbol, deeper and deeper into the system. At every turn Bang-Hai Industries tried to distract me from my mission throwing adverts and pop ups at me, trying to lure me down the wrong paths. All I had to remember was to ignore the red symbols, follow the green symbols and keep myself focused. At each checkpoint a timer was displayed on the screen counting down the seconds I had left, each time I hit a checkpoint I would gain more time, but had to keep going at top speed to get from point to point. All the while I heard a voice very quietly in my ear, encouraging me, advising and guiding me. But this was not the voice of Benway or his assistant but someone who was directing me from inside the system. I was unsure if this was AI or one of the new revolution guiding me but either way it was good to have a friend and ally with me. Meanwhile in the real world I felt someone take my arm and hold it out in front of me before injecting me with something. The metal felt cold but not unexpected given that I was expecting some kind of cybernetic upgrade to be taking place. In the virtual world I rushed and flew through tunnel after tunnel, turn after turn, chasing the green symbols and making sure I didn’t go the wrong way.

Eventually I managed to find my way to what looked like a physical computer terminal. A window popped up asking if I wanted to upload the virus into the mainframe. I clicked okay and the upload began, the security system tried to counter it but it was too late. The virus finished it’s upload and the entire system began to glitch out. The voice in my ear congratulated me saying my mission was now complete and a message popped up in front of me saying the hack would be fully activated on sunday at Bang-Hai Towers at 23:45.

The message advising me to take off my headset then popped up and I carefully removed it.

“Thank you.” I said to the doctor and his assistant “The mission was successful. Your help has been much appreciated.”

“Keep right there please. Please try to keep your eyes open; I’m going to shine this light into them, it’s going to be very difficult. Ah yes….that’s very good. That’s wonderful. It’s definitely taking effect.” he said as he shined the light straight into my eyes. “Can you tell me what your name is?” he asked.

“Jonny”

“Congratulations, Jonny! You have been specially chosen. You are now being upgraded. When you entered the room you were given a small amount of blue liquid. Do you remember? You may have felt me administer an injection. You now have nanobots, tiny little robots coursing through your veins, fusing to your central nervous system, flowing down your neural pathways. Do you feel that?”

“I can feel them coursing! Coursing through my veins!” I said.

“That’s wonderful! They are upgrading you. There’s a few procedures we need to go through to make sure this is happening. What I want you to do is just raise your hand up like this in front of you. That’s it, arm in the air, the hand down. I want you to focus on your hand. As those nanobots are integrating into your subconsciousness. If Jonny’s subconscious is willing to have this experience this hand is going to move. It’s going to move. That’s wonderful. Now Jonny I don’t want you to move it yourself, I don’t want you to resist any movements either. Let the nanobots take full control. I want that hand to move. It might just be a finger twitching but it will move.”

My fingers began to separate slowly as I held my arm out in front of me following each and every instruction.

“That’s very good! The little finger’s going there and the fingers are starting to seperate. That’s fantastic, you’re doing this perfectly. And now the hand’s going to turn towards the face as those nanobots take full control of the nervous system. That is wonderful, isn’t that a bizarre experience. And then you’ll notice the hand starts to move towards the face and as it does, it will get quite close, it will make contact and then the eyes will close.” as he finished he clicked his fingers, my eyes were closed and everything was darkness.

The doctor had a very serene, reassuring and calming voice, almost hypnotic in nature in fact….very hypnotic.

“Now, the subconscious is being rebooted” he continued “It’s nothing to worry about, it’s normal. You will be fully aware and able to hear what I am saying. When I count to three I will snap my fingers, your hand will drop down, by your side, your eyes will open and you’re going to feel 10 times more wonderful than you did when you entered this room. One, two, three.”

“AAAAYYY!” I said grinning like an idiot.

“Are you feeling good?” he asked smiling

“I’m feeling good! Are you feeling good?” I said euphorically.

“I am feeling wonderful. I think everyone in here feels wonderful! We’ve all been upgraded! Are you willing to have an experience you haven’t had before? We will see what upgrade you have been given.” he said checking his notes and equipment.

“You have been given one of my favorite upgrades. Do you understand the word Psychokinesis?” he asked me.

“Moving stuff with your mind?” I said unsure if I recalled correctly or not.

“Very good! That’s wonderful. Do you want to try this out?” he asked.

“I’d like to give that a go.” I replied.

“Okay, we can only start with small things for now but as you go over time, over the next few days you will get better and better at this. We will start with something small. First of all can you take a step back please?” he asked.

I stepped back as far as I could towards the rear safety rail of the construct.

“Okay. I’ve got this pen.” he said picking one up from his work bench. “I’m going to place this pen on the shelf here.” he said resting it on the flat safety rail in front of me. “Jonny, what I want you to do is I want you to look at the pen. I want you to really believe that you have the power to reach out in your mind, to move the pen, believe you can do it. Say in your mind ‘Pen move! Move pen!’ almost like you’re going to reach out and touch it and move the pen but you’re not going to use your body, you’re only going to use your mind! Say ‘Move Pen! and as those nanobots integrate into your system that pen will begin to move. Say move pen! Move pen! Tell the pen!”

“Move pen, go on move, do a little move.” I whispered at it willing it with all my might “Move pen. Move pen! Come on you can do it.” I encouraged the object when all of a sudden the pen wobbled and fell over the edge making a cracking noise as it hit the floor. “WHOAH! When I was least expecting it!” I exclaimed impressed by my new ability.

“Wonderful! Usually the pen just moves a little bit, you managed to make it fall off the edge. That’s wonderful Jonny!” said Doctor Benway very pleased at the results of his experiment.

“As soon as I stopped thinking about it, it happened!” I said happily.

“Now look at your hand, really focus on that hand and as the hand starts to move closer, the changing focus of the eyes and as it reaches your face it makes contact and it brings your eyes to close.”

The darkness enveloped me once more.

“I want you to listen carefully to me Jonny.” started Benway “Today when you leave this lab you are going to feel better than you’ve ever felt in your whole life. You will be the best version of you, that there has ever been. You will be more confident. You will be more chatty. The music will sound better, the colours will be brighter! You will feel so wonderful as each minute passes, more and more wonderful and all you will be able to think about is your experience here and if anyone asks you about your experiences here you will tell them what an incredible time you had and how important this was in your life as you feel better now then you have ever done in your whole life! And then you will say ‘I am District 5. I am for Muuti.’ Now when I count to three and click my fingers you will be wide awake. Your eyes will open and your arms will drop to your side and you are going to feel so incredibly wonderful, your going smile at me and we’re all going to feel better. One, two, three.”

And with a click of Benway’s fingers I opened my eyes speaking the words “I am District 5. I am for Muuti.”

“Jonny! Congratulations! You are fully upgraded!” declared Doctor Benway before turning to his assistant. “He’s ready to go.” he said to her and she began to prepare for my release back into society.

With my new re-purposing I would spend a good bit of time in the future of Dstrkt 5. From the busy Spaceport to the Sewage Workz I took it all in. People raved in the streets as they tried to forget their troubles. Even in the Robotika factory’s shipping yard the party raged on to the futuristic sounds of drum, bass and dubstep which reverberated the metal containers that lined the area. While I took in this auditory experience, I was pleased to run into my friends, Cait and Badjah, who were visiting the district to take part in this end of world dance. Up on the platform in front of the factory proper, performed the likes of the legendary Aphrodite and Caspa of the Dub Police to mark this apocalyptic dance experience.

Probably the most curious thing of all in this time however was hidden behind the toilets. At the back of the main loos was a very uniquely decorated ‘Portal-Loo’ - And if you thought the queues for the normal bogs were long, this one left them to shame. Curiosity got the better of me; the general rule of the Boomtown Fair seemed to be that if there’s a queue, it’s worth queuing for. A sign outside read ‘Virtual Reality Peep Show’ and following my flight around the mainframe this was something that definitely peaked my interest. Rumor was that inside a pocket dimension through the portal was a secret members club where the dethroned elite were hidden among some of the most decadent settings in the galaxy.

The queue was being patrolled and managed by two women in elaborate outfits who were covered in far out face and body paints, who said they were aliens visiting from another dimension. I managed to get chatting with a blue haired one about the state of the district and about the Portaloo itself.

“Muuti's VR is shit compared to ours.” she told me, which is an interesting thing to say by someone who’s VR system is inside a toilet.  “You’ve experienced nothing like this before. Anyway, Muuti is nothing but a bastard.” she continued “He's stealing all the air from District 5 and selling it back to us for his own profit. He cares nothing about the rest of us.”

“I am District 5. I am for Muuti.” I thought to myself as the words seemed to echo in my mind. I felt inclined to argue with her but as I wanted to get inside so I saw fit to remain tight lipped.

After an eternity it was my turn to use the loo. It was a good thing I wasn’t desperate! I took my seat upon the plastic throne and one of the women handed me a VR headset which I placed upon my noggin. I found myself flung back into the virtual world and down a shaft of lights and pulsing shapes as if I had arrived in some kind of hyper-lift. I floated out through a grand cityscape of cyberspace tower blocks. The city seemed vast and was full of virtual avatars strolling amongst the buildings. Ahead of me I located some steps which lead down into a multi-level underground club full of digital clubbers. In various places throughout this virtual world I kept coming across signs and billboards that curiously read the same slogan ‘They Sleep. We Live.’ - I pondered the meaning of the saying as I floated around this virtual setting.  I passed through the club and into a small room. Looking down I saw another sign but this one instead stated the words ‘Don’t look down’ but it was too late and I found myself falling down a great pit.

‘GAME OVER’ flashed the message on my headset and I removed it. Once I did so I heard a voice from behind me which asked “What is this password?”

“They Sleep. We Live.” I told the voice.

There was a clunk and the wall behind me disappeared and I was taken through the Portaloo and into the pocket dimension.

The walls of the club glowed in the ultra violet lights and exotic dancers from across the galaxy strutted their stuff upon their podiums. One wall had a series of holes across it which let in light like a field of stars. If you put your eye to them within each was contained it’s own peepshow. The members club itself wasn’t as vast as the virtual club I had arrived through but it was definitely more exclusive. A bar was found near the back and there were various small chairs and tables around the room. After taking in the shows however I found it was getting late (if time existed or not in this dimension) and I had other places I needed to be. Thanking the staff I excused myself and made my way back to my own dimension.

2017

Before I knew it I was back in my own time and having completed my mission I headed back to the Tech Repair Kiosk. When I got there I found that there was no sign of Andy and it had been locked up for the night. A note was affixed to the inside of the window:

‘We had to leave. We had a problem with housekeeping! We need your custom. Please come back tmrw between 1-6PM - FUCK Banghai’

With the rest of my day now free, and the hack not being fully activated till the evening after, I decided it was time to really take in some of the entertainment the Boomtown Fair had to offer.

I made my way up to the Lion’s Den in Trenchtown and sat relaxing on the hill with a tray of Canadian Poutine. I took in the grand sight as the sun set over Ziggy Marley’s performance and I settled in to watch The Specials, for my third helping of ‘Monkey Man’ (having already seen Toots & The Maytals and Reel Big Fish both play it).

This was then followed by the one and only Skindred at the town hall which was just as amazing as I could have imagined as the square turned into one big moshpit. The energy in the city was amazing and the yearly fair seemed to be going well. I had to admit that even the output at Bang-Hai Towers was super impressive with the likes of The Prototypes and Ed Rush rocking the downtown area. I managed to meet up with Badjah and Cait again and we all had a damn good dance.

Meanwhile in Oldtown Bang-Hai Industries had already moved in it’s team of surveyors who were measuring things up against their plans to demolish the neighborhood.  Fights and skirmishes broke out as pirates and angry locals turned up to protest against the destruction of their home. Regardless all around them the party seemed to carry on as if oblivious.

Before bed I decided to sit down in Oldtown myself to watch a puppet show story of how Nikolas Boom had discovered the Lion’s Den Temple back in the day (This is something I’d really like a full video of if someone has one). I wondered to myself were Nikolas Boom might be, was he alive or dead? A mystery for another day. Before I knew it the night had grown old and I settled down back at my home on the hill, looking out across to the ongoing laser light show at Bang-Hai Towers.

“Party on for now Bang-Hai! Because tomorrow, we strike.”

Sunday

It was a beautiful morning in Boomtown and I decided to take a long stroll up to Whistlers Green while I took in the sunshine. At the very peak of Hilltop those that hadn’t overdone it the night before mingled with those that were still up, as they lay on the grass by the large sculpture that overlooked all of downtown. New paths had been routed since I was up here last including a rather pleasant stroll through the woods, the sunbeams streaming through the canopy as a gentle breeze blew through the pages of the books that were suspended from the branches that hung above the way. I emerged from the trees up by the Junkyard Golf course via a beautifully carved archway that had been crafted by the Tree Pirates. The windmills had expanded since the previous year but most of Whistler’s was still very familiar with it’s circles of gypsy caravans and tipis. Arts, crafts and café’s were plentiful up here along with some of the more traditional fringe features. A large group of people gathered out the front of a tent saluting the sun in one of the Fair’s Yoga sessions. Children ran around a Giant Chess set and guitars could be heard strumming on the wind. It was certainly a far cry from the scenes of struggle and corruption that seemed to be prevailing elsewhere in the town. I spent a while pottering about, examining sculptures, art displays and browsing the farmer’s market. As the sun passed mid day however I decided I’d better make my way  down the hill (and the giant steps) in order to give Andy the good news about the mission.

I made it downtown much faster than I had imagined so spent some time just wandering the streets. Over the weekend more and more fly posts had appeared around the town that featured the symbol of the hackers. Some included a mysterious phone number but I still couldn’t manage to get any signal either on my cellphone or from any of the Telecon Booths around town. Accompanying these were the opposing propaganda, wanted posters that were to be found all over the city and across the front page of the Daily Rag featuring citizens that had been found to be associating with the hackers. Big rewards were now being offered for Bang-Hai Industries Most Wanted. Thankfully I had managed to stay under the radar so far but even when I had trolled the staff at Chinatown’s Bang-Hai People Support Office I had managed to stay off the radar so far. Sure, my wristband tracker was on the system but with Andy Roid’s wizardry and tinkering with my phone I seemed to be covered so far.

I got to the Tech Repair Kiosk just after 1pm, checking and making sure no one had followed me. Andy had returned there again by himself and was just settling in for the afternoon. “Good Afternoon Andy.” “Good afternoon. And what can I do for you?” he asked me casually as he looked around making sure no one was listening in. “You told me to return once my mission was complete.” “And is it complete?” he asked. I relayed to him what had happened in Dstrkt 5 and that I had successfully managed to upload the virus into the Bang-Hai Industries mainframe as planned. “Ahhh! My friend! That is really good news! Thank you! Thank you!” he said shaking my hand with a grin on his face. “I was very happy to help.” I said smiling back “Any time you guys need anything.” “The takeover will happen over there somewhere tomorrow.” he said to me nodding at the massive Bang-Hai Towers which stuck up in the sky dwarfing all the other buildings. “Yes. Bang-Hai Towers. Quarter to 12, tonight” I affirmed remembering the information the helping voice had given me within the Virtual World. He thanked me again and with nothing left to do until the evening I went off to have a well deserved relaxing day enjoying the Fair.

And lots of fun was indeed had that afternoon starting with a good ol’ post-mission celebratory cider drinking with The Wurzels in the town centre. They may be getting on a bit but those West Country folk sure know how to party! I sat in the forests for a good while after that taking shade from the sun and sitting in the nice cool sand listening to Kiko Bun performing and watching the shadows of the leaves dancing across the ground. Street parties had broken out across town protesting the Bang-Hai Regeneration Projects, from Mayfair to downtown, unsanctioned events, causing BHi both figurative and literal headaches. I was taking it easy though and Mr. Vegas was definitely another highlight of the day. Vegas was smashing out the dancehall classics as I lay on the hill in Trenchtown. II was really starting to feel the tiredness creeping in from the busy weekend at this point though. I grabbed a drink to perk me up a bit and decided to hit the Mayfair Theatre to take in a show and to watch the sun starting to go down from the balcony there. It seemed the other citizens were feeling the burn as well and as I passed the markets near the helter skelter I saw a group of people lounging around on the grass. One of the group was wearing a long dark hooded trenchcoat. On the back of the garment and near the tip of his hood were sprayed the ancient symbols of Boomtown. I was impressed, the details were very accurate, in fact it was spot on to the badges worn by the Masked Men the year before. He had a bag with him and sported a very long impressive moustache and long scraggly hair. At the time I thought nothing significant of it, just another fairgoer in a great costume I had assumed. Looking back on that moment since however I can’t help but think the man was the spitting image of Nikolas Boom himself the founder of this very city….

I tried to keep it a little civilised for a while and tried to check in to The Park Hotel. My best suit and my passphrase wasn’t of much use however as they said it had now expired for the year and I was too late to use it but should check back again next time I was in town. I stopped a while and listened to the live band on stage and to mingle with the more sophisticated elite of Mayfair. I just couldn’t stop myself from going out to join the partying out on the street though, that was where the real buzz was at this point in the Fair.

Counter agents and bounty hunters were still everywhere, especially with the new Most Wanted List being up everywhere but I found they were easy to avoid now as long as I was careful. I spotted the two from the alleyway climbing the Hippy Highway but managed to stay hidden from view and even track them for a short while myself.

Once darkness hit though I decided that if I was going to hide, I would just hide in plain view. I managed to dig out the brightest outfit I could find complete with flashing lights and raved my way all around the town giddy from my caffeine, rum and general smug sense of achievement. From the UV forests of the Rave Yard to the Tribe of Frog to Downtown, I strutted my stuff and skanked the hell out.

The time flew and eventually it approached the witching hour, the hack was about to go down and the best place to see this was at Bang-Hai Industries very own communications hub at The Towers. I knew a good few of my friends were in the audience to witness the finale of the Fair but the square out the front of the towers were jam packed. I tried hanging round one of the raised platforms on the left hand side where I had bumped into friends on previous nights here but the crowds was so dense it was hopeless.

As Black Sun Empire finished DJing their final tune, the lights dimmed for a moment and the nightly broadcast by Bang-Hai Industries began….but this time it would be with a twist. The grand finale had arrived….

Following my hack of the system and deployment of the virus into the mainframe, all BHi systems had been compromised and we had been able to download all the data we wanted, before they were able to reboot the machine. This meant we were able to take all their dirty little secrets and broadcast them across the city for everyone to see across every TV set and screen.

Bang-Hai Industries had been humiliated and the true depth of their abuses were now public for the world to see. BHi would crumble and the people would rise up empowered by the truth. A world without masters would rise from the ashes of the great corporate machine! Or so we thought….

To be continued….

Back to reality

I would just like to take this opportunity to again thank all the creative team at Boomtown Fair for allowing me to take part and experience this with them. Everyone from the actors to the set designers have done an amazing job and really brought the city and the story to life.

Unfortunately life imitated art and instead of getting a virus into the machine, a couple of months after the Fair, a virus managed to get into my nervous system somehow and I was taken into hospital. It meant lots of injections and tubes but unfortunately not the fun kind Dr. Benway uses. At this point in time (March 2018) I am still not fully recovered and getting my journal written this year has been a long hard slog but one that has kept my mind stimulated and allowed me to relive my adventure (as best as I can recall it now).

I very much hope to make it to Chapter 10 this year so I can continue my adventures but at this time I’m not 100% sure if I will be well enough for my usual antics or even have the money to do so as I am currently unable to work. I remain pretty hopeful though and will count the next few months as training to build my strength back up.

Thank you for reading if you still are and hope to see some of you at Boomtown in 2018!

Epilogue

[devilishlyvintage]

The Text-to-Speech Man (A Big Hero 6: The Series Fanfic)

Name: The Text-to-Speech Man

Fandom: Big Hero 6

Words: 4,209 (okay that’s a lot, like ten pages xD)

Summary: Nobody knows who the Text-to-Speech Man really is, only he knows that.

Note: we call bangs fringes in the UK. Just thought i’d clear that up to avoid any confusion.

OC VOICE CLAIMS (I tried to include well-known voice actors/actresses amongst the cartoon community, though included some other famous faces as well):

Daniel Henney as Sunny Elemente

Nolan North as Sunny’s Text-to-Speech watch

Dolly Parton as Aspen Murdock

Greg Cipes as Zach Evans

Jonah Hill as Ted Baxter

Ashly Burch as Natalie Worth

and finally Tara Strong as Danika Kurosawa

It was pressing on into morning, the clouds and sun mixing together to create dusk, the colours of the sky a concoction of reds, oranges, yellows and light pinks.

“Hello, my name is-”

No, that’s not right, thought the man, turning the screwdriver once more. Come on, you’ve got this. You can do this.

“Hello, my name is Sunny-”

Come on, work you stupid thing! God damn it, cursed the man, programming was one of your top subjects, this shouldn’t be so hard!

“Hello, my name is Sunny Elemente.”

The young adult came to a standstill when he heard those words, the words he had been wanting hear for the past four hours. He pressed the tiny button on the silver metal, erasing the current sentence displayed on the holographic screen and typing something else in its place using the keypad.

“I understand that me not talking has caused some concern, but you do not have to worry about that anymore. With this little watch, I can speak to all of you whenever I want. Pretty great, right?”

Unfortunately, the computer didn’t recognise abbreviated language (much to the dismay of its inventor) but, it was better than no result at all. Sunny Elemente relaxed into his spinning chair with a sigh of accomplishment, lighting a cigarette to celebrate his victory.

You did it, man. You did it.

The clock struck 4 AM, a time were people were usually asleep. But no, not Sunny. As much as he wanted to, he was unable to sleep. He thought that things were bad during the day, though at night…

At night, it was a living hell. The flashback, the memories, the screaming echoing in his ears…it was far from soothing. Leaning his head back, Sunny blew smoke out from his mouth and placed the cigarette between his lips, watching the paper burn.

“Sunny?” his friend questioned him as she stopped in the doorway, causing him to quickly sit upright and put his prize out in the ashtray on his work bench. “Is that you?”

Sunny nodded out of habit, though his shielded eyes glanced at the watch on his wrist. He didn’t hesitate in putting it to use, inserting a response so that he could talk with his housemate.

“Yes. It is me. Hello Danika.”

Danika was startled at first; she hadn’t expected to hear a robotic male voice address her so casually. She raised a brow, now more confused than anything.

“How are you doing that?” she asked, walking over to him. Sunny tapped the glass of his modified watch, and then motioned to her to look up. Danika did so, in awe at what her friend had been able to do with just a few simple tools and components.

“Awesome, right? Now I can talk to you and the others without even having to move my lips.”

“Yeah…” Danika said with a nod, a smile spreading across her lips. “Yeah! Sunny, this is fantastic. I can’t believe you were able to make something like this in such a small space of time…except, that’s wrong, isn’t it? You’ve been up for hours, haven’t you?”

“Yes. I have been working on this bad boy for four hours straight; have not gotten a wink of sleep. Now before you say anything, yes, I know I need to rest but…I cannot. Things have not been easy for me recently.”

Danika’s happy expression soon turned to a frown when she heard that. The fourteen year old grabbed a chair and sat opposite her care giver, her dainty hands meeting his padded shoulders.

“You’ve been acting strange for weeks now.” she said, becoming serious. “This isn’t good, not at all. You haven’t been eating or sleeping properly for a while now, it’s…it’s scaring me. You’re scaring me, Sunny.”

Sunny could see the pain glisten in her chocolate eyes; it hurt him to see her like that. It hurt him more than text-to-speech could ever describe. His gloved hands made their way to her face, cupping her cheeks. Their foreheads lightly touched, thumbs brushing away heartfelt tears.

“Do not cry, Danika. Please.”

Danika’s breath hitched, she couldn’t help how she felt. She was worried for someone she cared deeply about, a friend who she would do anything for. Smaller hands rested over larger ones, though not even that could stop the emotions that were falling.

“I-I’m sorry,” she apologised, if anyone should have been crying it was Sunny, he was the one who was suffering. “I-it’s just that…y-you’re my f-f-friend and I…I care a-about y-you. It hurts, you know…I wanna h-help but I…I d-don’t know h-how.”

Sunny said nothing, instead bringing her into a hug. His chin sat on the top of her head, the tears wanted to come out but they simply couldn’t do so.

“You being here is enough. Thank you, for wanting to help me, but there are some problems that you cannot fix. I know that might be hard for you to hear, though it is true. What I am going through is something that I have to help myself recover from, though with you and the others by my side…I feel like I can do anything.”

Lifting his scarf down from the bottom half of his face he kissed Danika’s forehead before pulling it back up, looking at her through his sunglasses.

“You should head back to bed; we have a pretty big day ahead of us.”

“Oh yeah,” Danika remembered, she had completely forgotten until now. “We have the presentation at that college tomorrow, the mutant awareness one, right?”

“Right.” Sunny replied, moving away from her. “See you at breakfast, Danika.”

Danika kissed Sunny’s cheek, humming with content. “See you at breakfast, Sunny.”

Sunny saw the teenager leave from the corner of his eye, a regretful breath passing him as he gently shook his head.

Why…why am I such a coward?

-Mutant Awareness Presentation Day-

“So what’s this presentation Professor Granville wants us all to go to?”  wondered Hiro, holding the straps of his back pack as he walked alongside his friends.

“Beats me.” GoGo shrugged her shoulders. “But, people have been getting pretty hyped about it. Whatever it is, it’s gotta be good if everyone is making such a big fuss.”

“You guys haven’t heard?” Honey Lemon asked, saying a quick ‘hello’ to a passerby she knew. “Apparently people with 'special talents’ are gonna be there, how true that is, i’m not sure. If I had to guess, they’re probably just some really, really smart scientists.”

“I agree with Honey Lemon,” said Wasabi, 'special talents’, his ass. “All their gonna do is show off some top of the range invention and try and convince the audience that it’s gonna 'change their lives’. To be honest, I think i’m just gonna skip it and get breakfast instead, I haven’t eaten anything all morning and i’ve got a really bad headache coming on.”

The muscular rule follower rubbed the side of his forehead, trying to settle the twinges of pain that would make his eyes twitch every few seconds. Hiro could see that Wasabi wasn’t having the best start to the day and stopped, taking his bag off of his shoulders and rummaging through it, handing the darker skinned male a container and plastic fork.

“Here, you need this more than me.”

Wasabi declined; he couldn’t take Hiro’s breakfast.

“I appreciate it the gesture and all, Hiro, but this is your breakfast. I don’t think your aunt would be too happy.”

“Wasabi, I insist.” Hiro said, a small smile on his face. “I wouldn’t want you to get sick. I can get something when we get to SFIT. Please, take it.”

Wasabi glanced at the container of food, a warm expression settling onto his features.

Just like Tadashi.

“Thanks, Hiro.” he thanked, putting the plastic case in his satchel. “Don’t expect me not to buy you lunch for this. Next time, i’m treating you to breakfast”

Wasabi ruffled Hiro’s hair in a friendly manner, earning a toothy grin from the adolescent.

When the nerd gang arrived to SFIT, the presentation was under last minute preparations. The stage was decorated with a large banner saying 'Mutant Awareness 2k32’ and students were setting up the speakers and projectors.

This must be important, thought Hiro. Really important.

“Are you guys hyped or what!?” exclaimed Fred, startling everyone when he arrived. “Sorry i’m late; I was at a comic signing. I met three awesome dudes while I was there; turns out we’re in most of the same fandoms! We exchanged our PS4 ID’s too, so we can play online any time!”

“That’s great, Freddie.” Honey Lemon beamed, happy her friend had met some new people. “I’m glad you made some new friends!”

“Yeah, that sounds awesome, Fred.” Hiro said. While not a huge comic book fan, he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed a light read once in a while. He had been reading some of Tadashi’s old comics from when he was around his age, and good lord did they make him cringe. His older brother definitely had some weird tastes as a fourteen year old. “If they’re at the presentation, maybe you could introduce us to them.”

“You got it, dude.” Fred smiled; he couldn’t wait to keep in contact with his new buddies and beat their butts on multiplayer. It was going to be sweet!

“I don’t know about this you guys,” said Sunny and Danika’s friend, Aspen, with uncertainty. “What if they don’t like it?”

Aspen was nervous about having to talk in front of a huge crowd of people, though Sunny simply took her hands and offered her reassurance.

“It will be okay. Do not worry so much. If anyone wants to poke fun at you, I will kick their asses.”

Aspen chuckled when she heard that, she had become used to her friend’s choice of words that she no longer called him out on his swearing.

Typical Sunny.

“Thanks, hon.” she replied, going to take a look around. She and her friends had a few minutes to go before the presentation began, so she figured she would use the time she had to get a better look of the venue.

“I can’t believe we’re presenting this at my dream school.” Danika looked at SFIT from the distance; she wished she could have applied to study at the college, but the fees were simply too high. Someday, she hoped. Someday.

“You’ll get there, Dani.” her best friend, Natalie, linked her arm. “With your know-how and charm, you’ll be the best for sure. Come on, let’s go with Ted and Zach, they said they wanted to meet that Fred guy the three of us met at the comic store.

Danika smiled sadly, no matter how hard she hoped, no matter how hard she wished, she knew that deep down her dreams were never going to come true. Though she always applied herself to any situation when it came to robotics, having to present an invention of her own at a showcase seemed too daunting, and she had no doubt in her mind that she would freak out and mess up.

"Look who it is,” grinned Ted, gaining Fred’s attention. “Our buddy from the comic store. Didn’t think we’d see you here, man.”

“Dudes!” Fred greeted the two, fist bumping. “Guys, these are my buds Ted and Zach.”

“Hi!” waved Honey Lemon.

“Nice to meet you.” said Wasabi.

“Great, more nerds.” GoGo rolled her eyes, folding her arms. One Fred was bad enough already, she didn’t need to get to know two more.

“And what’s wrong with being a nerd, hm?” Ted put his hands on his hips, raising a brow. Compared to Honey Lemon who was rather tall for a woman, he was huge! “Are you..nerdist?”

Zach gasped dramatically, it all made sense now! “You’re a nerdist!”

“Nerdist!” Fred defended his pals. “Nerdists aren’t cool, dudette!”

“Nerdist!” Natalie joined in, turning away from GoGo with a 'hmph’. “Come on, guys, let’s go talk somewhere else. We shouldn’t have to be around someone who’s a nerdist.”

“I’m not a nerdist!” protested GoGo, she was puzzled as to what was even happening right now. “What even is that!?”

“Now that…” Hiro paused before speaking again. “Was the most confusing thing i’ve ever seen. I guess Fred was right when he said being part of a fanbase is like being a member of a family. Who knew?”

“They’ll cool off in a couple hours; they don’t stay mad for long.” Danika reassured the gang. “Hi, nice to meet you, i’m Danika. Danika Kurosawa. I’ll be one of the presenters for the Mutant Awareness presentation.”

“Mutant…Awareness?” Hiro asked, he could have sworn he’d heard her right. “What’s a…mutant?”

“Yeah, I don’t think i’ve ever heard of them before.” Honey Lemon added. “I mean, i’ve watched movies about heroes with special talents and…no…no way!”

“Yes way.” Danika grinned, if she could she would have given a demonstration, but she had to save it for the show. “I know it may seem hard to believe, but if you watch the presentation later you’ll see it all for yourself. I’m sorry, I know we’ve just met but i’ll have to get going, the presentation starts in ten. It was nice meeting all of you!”

Danika dashed like a bolt of lightning, fast on her feet. Honey Lemon squealed a little in excitement.

“She seems so nice!” she spoke giddily. “And those jeans, I need to find out where she got them!”

Hiro was thinking about Danika’s surname, it somehow seemed familiar to him.

Danika Kurosawa…hmm…have I heard that name before?

***

“I am aware that a lot of you have been looking forward to this and I apologise for the lack of information that was given, I will be sure to fix that error for future events.” Professor Granville spoke into a microphone, clearing her throat as she stood on the stage. “Without any further ado, I would like to introduce you to Mr Sunny Elemente and his friends.”

Granville put the microphone back onto its stand and stepped aside, applauding along with the audience. Sunny appeared from behind the curtain, as did his mutant companions.

“Thank you, Professor Granville.” he said via his watch. “As you already heard, my name is Sunny Elemente and these are my friends. I would like you to meet Aspen Murdock, Zach Evans, Ted Baxter, Danika Kurosawa and Natalie Worth. We are here today so that we can spread awareness about the mutant community and hopefully help give you a better insight about who we are. For your safety, I would advise that all of you each take a step back, because things are about to get hot.”

Cupping both of his palms, Sunny presented a big ball of fire to the audience. It appeared out of thin air and hovered over his skin, which immediately got the attention of those attending the presentation.

“Are you really doing that?” a member of the crowd asked, with Sunny nodding.

“Yes. What am I doing is real, it is not magic of any kind. Unless, you consider mutants to be magical, that is up to you.”

“Amazing…” Hiro trailed off, in complete amazement.

“Tell me about it.” Fred agreed, he’d never been this interested in a public show before.

“That is not all I can do.” Sunny said, making the fire ball disappear. “Watch closely.”

With a click of his fingers he was able to light up candles that had been put on a table for the demonstration. The crowds were close to going wild, but they kept their cool out of respect and a want to see more.

“That’s cool n’ all, but I got a few tricks up my sleeve as well.” Danika smirked, a hand on her hip. “What do you all think of this?”

Granville was not a woman who smiled often, (let alone at all, really) though on this particular occasion she allowed a small one to settle on her lips. She could tell that Danika was a talented individual, a girl who had hopes and dreams just like everyone else.

A young woman who is wise beyond her years. Very good.

The audience went ape like fans at a concert, watching Danika zip and zoom through the air with purple shocks of electricity following her every move and occasionally firing the odd bolt or two. Landing back on the stage gracefully, she gave a bow and blew a kiss to those standing in the audience.

The presentation lasted for a good hour and a half with Natalie, Ted, Zach and Aspen demonstrating their powers. Metal, plant, light and air manipulation were what they individually possessed, and it was amazing to watch. Light made everything seem that extra bit brighter, and with a cool breeze the warm weather was becoming more bearable by the second. The wind blew in Honey Lemon’s hair, catching Ted’s attention. He began blushing, though was able to hide it well from the crowd.

Except from Zach.

“Ooo, someone’s in love.” he teased with a whisper, laughing when Ted playfully punched his arm.

“I am not.” he answered. “Come on; let’s just go answer some questions. Sunny’s getting kinda bombarded, we should go help him out.”

After things had died down and people were going to get their lunch, Sunny and the other mutants had been given the opportunity to have a private tour of SFIT. Professor Granville was being polite to the guests, showing them the different facilities that were offered.

“And this is the lab that belonged to one of our popular students. He unfortunately passed away in a horrific fire, though his legacy lives on in the hearts of his peers.” Granville explained, noticing that Sunny had stopped dead in front of Tadashi’s lab. “Mr Elemente? Is everything all right?”

Sunny could feel the tears coming and this time, he would be unable to stop them. He hated making scenes like this in public, but he couldn’t help it. His breath caught in his throat and his legs felt like jello.

“May I? Please?” he asked the professor, seeing her hold her clipboard to her chest. “Tadashi was an old friend of mine…I…I used to be a student here a long time ago before I dropped out. Other priorities, you see.”

“I was not aware that you were a former student, Mr Elemente.” Granville said. Despite the way Sunny got his words across, she could sense that he had a great deal of pain going on inside. “All right, I will give you a few minutes. But please, try not to break anything. I would like everything to stay exactly how it is, for Mr Hamada’s sake.”

“Of course.”

Sunny walked into the lab, closing the door behind him. Danika was about to go in after him, but Granville stopped her.

“He needs a moment alone, Miss Kurosawa. To remember his friend.” she told her, proceeding on with the tour. “Over here is where our students are working on the next best selling equipment, an upgrade for current virtual reality systems.”

“Wow…” the mutants looked on in unison.

Sunny stood in the centre of the room, enjoying the blissful silence. Unable to hold back any longer, the eighteen year old fell to his knees and cried, burying his face into his hands as he did. He wanted to fight it, he wanted to fight the sadness, but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.

“Why…why, why, why!?” he kept asking himself over and over, the burning sensation in his eyes should have caused him distress, though it was nothing of the sort. “Why did this…why did this happen!? Things shouldn’t have been like this…they shouldn’t have!”

Sunny cried and cried, tears sizzling and evaporating into the floor due to their heat. He wanted to stand up and rejoin his friends, though he didn’t have the energy to. His whole self felt numb, deathly numb. It was like time itself had frozen as he reflected on memories, memories of much happier times. His hair hung in front of his face, the sunlight shining on the red streak that was in his fringe, a little touch he had added to make him feel a bit better about himself. Plus, regulars at Good Luck Alley always dyed their hair; he was no exception to the rules of that God forsaken place.

Good Luck Alley…Good luck at getting out alive.

There were times Sunny had feared for his life in that alley. Running away from Yama and his gang of thugs to accidentally using his powers on an innocent civillian who had done no wrong. The Mutant Awareness presentation made life for the gifted seem easy, but in reality it was just as hard as being a regular human being.

“Mr Elemente? Are you all right now?” Professor Granville interrupted Sunny’s moment of peace, the onetime were he could have had some quiet, and she had to ruin it. “Your friends have grown quite worried about you; perhaps you should consider rejoining them.”

“I will rejoin them when I am ready. Please, just a few more minutes.”

“Mr Elemente if you are having personal issues I would highly recommend talking to the people who care about you.” Professor Granville suggested, her conscience telling her to run for some reason. “If it is a mental health problem you are suffering from, I know people who may be able to help.”

“That will not be necessary. Now get out.” Sunny demanded, who did this woman think she was? Telling him that he needed help? He didn’t need help of that kind, he was perfectly fine!

“Mr Elemente, please, there is no need to get angry. I was simply recommending seeing a doctor for your own benefit.” Granville’s hand was searching for the handle, her heart beating faster. “If I have offended in you in some way, then I apologise-”

“GET OUT!” Sunny screamed at her, getting to his feet. Fire surrounded him and fresh tears stayed still on his cheeks; Granville had succeeded in pissing him off even if she hadn’t intended to. “GET OUT! YOU THINK YOU UNDERSTAND ME!? LIKE HELL YOU DO! GET OUT!”

Granville was shocked, lips quivering. Taken aback by the fire mutant’s outburst, she noticed that he was trying to calm down by the way his breathing sounded. Clenching onto her clipboard, she did her best to compose herself, but it was no use.

“So…you can actually speak?” she asked, attempting to break the ice a little. “If you are able to communicate, why do you use text-to-speech? I’m confused.”

“Are you always so nosey?

"Are you always so rude?” Granville retorted, putting her clipboard to the side. “Mr Elemente, you strike me as the type of man who has been through a lot in life. It may surprise you, but I do have feelings. I have emotions just like you or anyone else. I think that behind this act of yours, you are simply someone crying out for help. As I have said, I know a few people who specialise in dealing with matters of the mind.”

“And as I have said nothing is wrong with me. Please, leave me alone.”

Sunny pushed passed her, leaving Tadashi’s lab. He shoved his hands into his pockets, not bothering to join Danika or the others. He couldn’t be bothered with people right now; all he wanted was to be left alone. Was it really too much to ask for?

***

“He just left, without telling anyone?” Aspen asked a student, she was becoming worried for Sunny’s well-being. She knew he hadn’t been himself for a while, and she was scared that his problems were only going to get worst if he kept silent about it all the time.

“Yeah.” replied the student, feeling bad that she wasn’t able to help out more. “I don’t know where he went though, sorry about that. I wish there was more I could do to help. If I see him around, i’ll let him know you’re looking for him.”

“Thank you.” Ted said, hand on Aspen’s shoulder. “Take care.”

“You too.” smiled the student, going back to her friendship group.

“Maybe he went back home?” Natalie suggested, the situation wasn’t getting any better, she could tell that much. “Then again, I think he would'a told us if he was planning on it.”

“Natalie’s right.” said Danika, worried about Sunny just like Aspen was. “Come on, guys, we gotta go look for him. I don’t think…I don’t think he’s in a good state of mind right now.”

Without a second thought, the mutants went to look for their friend, hoping it wasn’t too late to stop him from doing something he would end up regretting later on.

To be continued…

Author’s Note: I apologise for any mistakes in this. I’ve been writing this since 12:00 PM (GMT) today and it’s now 9:15 (so 8 hours worth of writing). I will go back and fix any errors that I think need fixing, and there will be a second part to this. I’m not sure when that will be, but it will happen.

[lady-une]

Chapter 1

 Sarah

 The days are getting colder and I’m loving it!

 I thought as I was getting ready to head to the club. It’s my first night off in months and here I am still going back to my job. I let a little laugh out at that stupidity of the thought. I clasp shut the handcuff on my belt and put the keys around my neck. I take one quick look in the mirror. I thought I looked cute, nothing to write home about but I was average I guess. I was 5’3 about 125lbs with a lovely tan to my skin and brown curly hair that is at the moment a little lighter from being kissed by the sun. Tonight I opted to be a little exotic with my eyes, I didn’t want to see the dull ever boring brown in my pictures. Instead I put in my ice blue contacts that made my eyes not super icy but a nice looking blue. I grabbed my bag and walked out of my apartment locking the door and heading off to the club. Tonight would be interesting, since it was my first night off in forever I planned on having some drinks and just letting loose. The only thing I worried about was my boss who was also my father figure trying to weasel me into working on my day off. It wouldn’t surprise me if he called me to break up a fight or to help behind the bar if it got crazy, but if he did he better be prepared to pay up. I had a new tattoo I have been putting off for awhile because it was going to cost me big time, not nearly as much as the one on my back but still would cost a pretty penny.

 It didn’t take long for my uber to pull up in front of the club. I looked up at the flashing neon lights “dragon kiss” not a very interesting name to be honest but the inside is what kept people coming back for more. The loud music could be heard outside and you could feel the buzz in the air from the base in the song. I skipped the long line and went right up to my friend manning the door and waved at him as I walked in. Working here had its perks obviously, no need to wait in a line that could only get longer. It has gone around the corner a few times with people trying to get in during a special performance night. I walked into the back beyond the employee only door to the locker area. I waved at the people working and stashed my bag, there was no need for an ID or cash since employees can have an open tab and pay at the end of the night without leaving their card. I walked back out and right to the bar.

 “Hey sexy lady how about a drink?”

I yelled out to one of my only best friends Hua, she was a small girl about my height with lots of spunk. She bounced over to me with her hot pink hair spiked up making her look like she was recently shocked by an outlet or something.

 “Isn’t tonight your night off Sarah? What the hell are you even doing here?”

“You know me I can never escape this place. I wanted to have fun and well this is one of the best night clubs in my area. Now how about my drink? Give me a double of tequila with some salt and a lime.”

“Starting off strong with a double eh.” She shakes her head as she grabs a glass and my sweet sweet lover jose. She fills the glass up and puts it down with my salt and lime.

“Hey just don’t be switching up your booze, stick to one or you will be sick tomorrow.”

 I wave her off while I lick my hand to prep it for the salt. I wasn’t dumb, I knew if I moved from tequila to something else I would be super hungover tomorrow. I down my shot and I could feel the burn slowly warming me up. I blew her a kiss and made my way to the dance floor. It was about 930 and the place was already packed for it being a Friday night. People were bumping into each other as they let their bodies move to the music. I felt bad for the people waiting in line outside because I doubt they will see the inside of this place tonight.

 Before I knew it I felt a pair of strong arms come up from behind me and snake their way around my waist. I could smell the stench of beer coming off the man behind me when he whispered in my ear how sexy I was. I rolled my eyes and pulled away from him.

 “No thanks.”

 I moved around on the dance floor dancing with some regulars who recognized me. I was enjoying myself so much listening to the music and feeling the base vibrate through my body. I loved music, I really did. Most of the time you would find me humming or singing along with the music, I have notebooks full of lyrics that just come to me throughout the day. I slowly made my way towards the DJ booth where my other best friend Park was currently blasting the music.

 “Park you sexy bastard how are you?”

“Sarah what the hell are you even doing here?” “I missed your face and decided to come see you!” I laughed as I climbed up into the booth and sat on the bench behind him.

“If I were you I would be at home sleeping because tomorrow is going to be insane!”

 I nodded, I knew that’s what I should be doing. He was right tomorrow was going to be insane since it was a performance night. Not just any kind of performance night like how we would have with the locals. No this was a big time show that sold out in a matter of minutes. It was Jay fucking Park and his AOMG crew coming to perform a few songs. Jay was trying to get his boys names out there in the Asian communities’ state side. This was his last stop before him and the boys flew back to Korea. To say I was excited would be an understatement, I fucking adored Jay and his boys. They were obviously good looking but it was their voices that really drew me in, the music they put out was just amazing!

 “Hey since you are here how about you do a little MC work? The boss wants to get everyone hyped for tomorrow, not like its needed but whatever. He wanted me to have a little karaoke sing off with some of the patrons tonight. Let them pick a song and have the audience pick who is the best. What do you say? Will you help me out? I really don’t want to do the music and MC it.”

 I knew someone would ask me to work tonight. I closed my eyes and just chuckled at his question. He knew I wasn’t going to say no, I am always one to help out. Maybe it’s because I was the youngest one here out of the employees or it was because it’s just in my nature to help others.

 “Sure Park I will help yeah out, but call over Chu and have him bring me another double of tequila. I’m not getting up there without something in my system.”

“Sure thing Sarah, just watch your intake. I’m not carrying your ass home tonight.”

 We both laughed because he knew damn well that if I was shit faced by the end of the night he was in fact carrying my ass home and making sure I was in bed safely. Chu came over quickly with my order and I downed it quickly without my normal salt and lime. The dj booth and stage were connect and you could easily just swing down from the booth onto the stage. This is what I did and Park handed me a mic. He turned down the music so he could speak and the crowd got quieter.

 “Hey sexy people!!!! Y’all having a good time?”

 The crowd yelled out with happiness.

 “That’s what I like to hear. Are you excited for tomorrow? Jay fucking park and his AOMG crew will be LIVE on this very stage tomorrow!!”

 The crowd this time exploded with cheers and people jumping around.

 “Yeah that’s what I thought, I know I’m excited for this! So to get us in the spirit for tomorrow we are doing a little contest. Whoever wins tonight gets the full VIP treatment tomorrow! No waiting in that long ass line and you get a VIP room with bottle service on the house! What do you think about that?”

 I thought the crowd was crazy before but this time it was even more crazy with the cheers and hollering and they had no idea what they even had to do yet.

 “I know it’s an awesome prize! But if you want this prize you need to sing you heart out! Yup that’s right it’s a singing contest! The winner will be chosen by you the crowd! To help with this we talked everyone’s favorite spit fire Sarah to MC this little contest! It’s her day off and she still came to grace us with her presence, so let’s show her some love!”

 I walked out and gave a sweet little curtsy to the crowd.

 “What’s up chi town!! Some of you might know me as the ever popular bartender and some of you unfortunate people might know me as the spit fire who is hauling you out to the cops when you get to rowdy!”

 The crowd laughed as I emphasized cops by tugging on my handcuffs that held my belt together.

 “Now let’s get to the rules. We will have two women and two men up here. Each of you will go and let Park know what song you will sing and he will que it up for you. You will have the stage to yourself to do what you want. Please just don’t be taking off all your clothes, save that for the strip club. Everyone will have two minutes to sing their song and do their thing, so keep that in mind when you pick your song. After everyone completes their song it will be up to the rest of you to cheer your heart out for your favorite! To make this fare I ask that anyone who wants to take part please come put your name on a slip of paper and I will pick the two random ladies and guys for the contest. You have 10 minutes to get your name on a piece of paper.”

 With that Park turned the music back up and I sat on the edge of the stage taking names and putting them into a bowl for the ladies and for the guys. The 10 minutes was almost up and Park only had one more song to go. Park knew my love of the AOMG boys so of course he had to throw on a song and I couldn’t help but sing along with it. Bouncing around in my spot as I took names singing every now and then. The song ended and I got up from my spot and took the bowls and danced my way towards the middle of the stage and sat the bowls down.

 “Make some noise for our very own dancer. SARAH!”

 I laughed but went with it, I knew most of the songs dance moves and just had some fun with it. The crow was whooping and hollering for me and it fueled me on. I wont lie, I love the feeling I get whenever I’m on a stage. It’s an adrenaline rush really and the more cheering I hear the better the feeling. The music got quieter again and I knew it was time to pick our 4 contestants.

 “Hell yeah that was fun! I hope you’re ready to have some fun to cause it’s time to pick our 4 names!!! Let’s let the ladies go first, now I don’t want any sour faces if your name doesn’t get picked!”

 I picked up the girls bowl and stuck my hand in making sure to mix all the names around a few times. I grabbed two slips of paper and put the bowl down.

 “Ok ladies here it is the two lucky ladies for the night! First off we have Lin Chang, come on up here Lin Chang!!!”

 A very energetic woman who I assumed was Lin Chang rushed towards the stage with a fruity drink in hand. She walked up the stairs and stood by me downing her drink.

 “Hey Lin you excited for tonight?”

 She grabbed my mic and tried to bounce away with it while she yelled a big hell yeah towards the crowd. I quickly grabbed my mic back before she could get to far with it.

 “Good to hear Lin. Now for the next lucky lady we have Sue Smith! Sue Smith get your lucky ass down here!”

 A woman dressed in the tightest pair of pants I have ever seen came strutting to the stage like she owned it. I knew she would be a favorite for most of the men in the crowd, those pants looked like they were a second layer of skin on her. She winked and blew a kiss to the crowd earning her some whistles and hoots from the males in the club. I just shook my head and grabbed the other bowl that held the guy names.

 “Now that we have are two ladies lets pick the guys for tonight!! Ladies while I do that go and let DJ Park know what song you want for tonight, remember you only get two minutes!”

 I mixed the bowl and quickly picked two names. This contest was already becoming too long and I wanted to get back to my night off. Park is so going to owe me for this! I thought as I glanced in his direction. I sat the bowl down and prepared to announce the two guys.

 “Let’s get this going shall we, the night is still young and we all have some fun that needs to be had! Let’s have Mike Kang and Daniel Nam come down to the stage. Let’s go boys!”

 The guy named Mike came rushing the stage, he was average height but a little on the chubby side. The guy name Daniel was tall and you could tell he hit the gym every day.

 “Alright we have our lucky 4, the ladies are all set with their songs so they will go first. Boys if you could go do the same and let DJ Park know what songs you want that would be great. Lin come stand here and Sue stay by the DJ for now.”

 Lin walked over to me with that liquid courage still running strong and grabbed the second mic from me.

 “Hey DJ Park drop that beat.”

 SISTAR “touch my body” started to blast through the speakers and the ever energetic Lin started to dance around the stage having the time of her life! I was at the other end of the stage from the DJ booth just enjoying the show. She had some good dance moves but that liquid courage she has going for her was also causing her to slur her words making the ever popular pop song sound off. The buzzer rang at the end of the two minutes and I walked back to the center.

 “Woot woot Lin has some moves on her! Lin go walk over to the guys and lets have Sue come on out and show us what she is working with. “

 Once Sue was at the center CL “Baddest Female” started up. I shook my head because I knew where this was going. She was going to use her sexiness to win this crowd over. Poor Lin had no chance in hell against Sue. I had to admit she did have a nice voice but the tightness of the pants limited her ability to really dance. The guys especially liked it when she got on all fours and started to hump to the floor. Thankfully the buzzer went off because I could see this going bad when she started to pull at the hem of her shirt.

 “Hey hey hey Sue, keep that for the strip joints. Let’s give a round of applause for Sue. Sue go wait with Lin and let’s have Mike come out here.”

 Once Mike was at the center ZICO “Eureka” played and the crowd loved it! Mike could sing and the boy could dance. He was working the crowd with his moves and his quick tongue action not missing a single word. I was even getting into it dancing a little bit on the stage. The buzzer went off again and I thanked Mike and welcomed Daniel to the stage. His song of choice was Sik-K “Habibi”. This boy better know what he is doing because this happened to be one of my favorites of his. I was kind of surprised he picked a slower song but he had the body to pull off some of the sexier moves. The guy all of sudden turned towards me and started dancing his way towards me. He grabbed onto me and pulled me into the dance having me grind right back onto his knee that was between my legs. I knew he was a good dancer and maybe it was the booze but I was really feeling this dance.

 “Woo when I found ya lips fuckin wet and I start to kiss im like French im like damn”

 I just about lost it when he winked at me after that verse. He let me go and I just stood there dumb founded at what just happened. This boy knew what he was doing that’s for damn sure. I kept moving with the song now that I was alone again at my end of the stage. Everyone was so into the song that no one was watching the clock, his two minutes were up and finally the buzzer sounded but he kept going.

 “yeah habibi habibi really, you nasty don’t swallow my kids”

 The males in the crows especially liked that he was able to finish that part.

 “ok ok now Daniel, don’t be putting that business out there.”

 I gave him a quick pat on the back and everyone laughed.

 “So people what did you think of our lucky 4? Can you pick a winner?”

 The crowd cheered on. I put my hand over each of the contestants giving the crowd a chance to pick their winner. As I thought the two with the least amount of cheers was Lin and Mike while the ones with the most were Sue and Daniel. I thanked Lin and Mike and asked them to step back. I had Sue on my left and Daniel on my right. I asked the crowd if Sue was the winner and they all cheered and clapped. I then asked them if Daniel was their winner and the crowd erupted with their cheers and the winner was chosen. I thanked Sue for participating and grabbed Daniel’s hand raising it in the air and crowning him the winner of the night.

 “There yeah have it people! We have the winner for the VIP night tomorrow. Daniel my man make your way to the boss man by the bar so he can get your contact info and whatever else he needs. Ladies and gentlemen lets hear it for our little spit fire Sarah who looks like she herself had a little fun! How about you give us your own two minutes of a song, I have the perfect one for you!”

 The crowd cheered at Park’s idea but I shook my head ready to get back to my night.

 “Oh come on Sarah, boss man says he will make it worth your effort.”

 I looked towards the bar where my father figure gave two thumbs up and moved his fingers together telling me I will have some cash coming my way for playing along.

 “Fine, fine. You all win. Park you better not have picked something dirty!”

 The crowd cheered in excitement and crush’s “give it to me” came on. I mentally made a note to kick Park’s ass later that night when this was over with. The lights got a little dark and a red hue was added to them. That man was going all out for this and probably having fun at my expense. I just went with it. Slowly moving my body with the music making sure my moves matched the music and lyrics.

 “Gonna take you on a ride. Our Skin will touch tonight. Forget about your man for a moment, ooo baby. Lying is bad so I will blame it on the alcohol. Start by taking your clothes, I wanna melt your body.”

The crowd was loving it! I made sure to do some turns and to give the crowd some attention. I slowly did some body rolls and made sure I dragged my free hand from my breast all the way down to my crotch. I walked down the stage and went into the crowd, they cheered even louder when I did that and started to sing to some ladies in the crowd. I almost dropped my mic when jay’s verse came on and it wasn’t the track vocals that was coming through. Myself and the crowd looked back towards the stage and saw none other than Jay park dropping from behind the DJ booth.

“Welcome to my bed, baby. Welcome me in between your legs, baby. Tonight, I’ll be your teacher, baby (let’s get it on). Let’s start with some simple math, baby (oh year). First, take off your clothes. Second, separate your smooth legs. Me plus you is a hot night, a sexy night. I’ll never let you go (ooo woo oh oh oh).

Fight or flight was kicking in but I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. I was a grown ass woman and I was going to own this chance to be on stage with this sex god. I went back up and finished the song. It was so weird to be on stage with him. He oozed sex at the same time was so gentle with his touches. He pulled me into an embrace and we swayed around doing the most erotic dance I have ever done in my lifetime. His embrace was lighting my body on fire, and his smell…..was euphoric. There really was no way to describe his smell, but it only added to the fire burning inside me. If this song didn’t end the moisture between my legs was going to get into my pants and I would die right then and there. Thankfully he let me go and helped me finish out the song. I thought the crowd was loud before but this time it was so loud my ears were starting to hurt.

 “Put your hands together for Jay Park people!”

 I clapped along with the rest of the crowd when DJ Park introduced our surprise guest.

 “Thank you, thank you. I hope I didn’t interrupt. Me and the boys were stopping by to talk to your boss and I heard the song and couldn’t help it.”

 I blushed a little and my heart sped up with the fact that this man was talking to me. Me a nobody from Chicago!

 “Oh no don’t worry! Thank you so much for even coming up here. I don’t compare to the original singer but it’s always a fun song to do. I just hope you all enjoyed it!”

 I turned to the crowd in hopes they could save me. We both thanked the crowd and DJ Park turned the music back on as we walked towards his booth to turn in our mics.

 “You know you’re not bad at all with your singing and you really know how to work the crowd.”

“Um thanks Mr Park, it’s always fun being up there. But you probably already know that.”

 Lord kill me now before I make a fool of myself!

 “Please call me Jay, if you’re not doing anything how about you join me and my guys up in the VIP room?”

 What girl in her right mind would reject that offer. I shook my head and followed him towards the stairs that lead to the VIP area. I looked back towards the DJ booth and saw Park give me two thumbs up and a wink. The place was packed still but people parted like red sea for this man and cleared our way to the VIP stairs. With every step I took my heart was racing faster.

 Get yourself together Sarah! Don’t make a damn fool of yourself! Just be yourself and make sure to speak clearly and don’t forget to use the formal words if you have to speak Korean!

 Giving myself a pep talk and remembering to breath was starting to become easier. I knew exactly which room he was going to, it was the biggest one we had. I was actually the one in charge of this room on my bar tending days or when I was requested as a bouncer. I took pride in the fact that this was my room and I designed it. We walked into the room and my heart skipped a beat. Sitting down without a care in the world were my favorite Korean hip hop artists and producer. When you enter the room you are faced with a big couch that can seat 5 it’s made of leather which would be easy to clean when accidents happened. It was all black with silver stitch work that made it sparkle if the lights hit it just the right way. In front of it was a white marble coffee table that had the normal spread of bottled liquor sitting in a chiller and fruit platters laid out. On either side of the couch were winged back chairs also made of leather but these had a mahogany wood work on the arms and around the top of the chair. Sitting in the chair on the left was ChaCha Malone in all his glory, he was taller than I thought but still just as attractive. On the couch near him was Gray sipping on a glass of what looked like orange juice probably mixed with vodka. Behind the couch was Loco looking at the pictures I had displayed of previous VVIP members who have partied here. They were a mixture of fellow musicians or actors, either way it was a great display for us to have out and our way of kind of bragging about the club. I honestly hoped that I would get a picture of these guys to put on our display before they left for the night. Jay walked right in and sat down in the other winged chair across from ChaCha.

 “Hey guys this is Sarah, she works here and the one singing down there. Sarah since you sing in Korean let’s keep the conversation also in Korean for the two younger boys. Their English isn’t that good yet”

 They each said their hellos and I also said my hellos.

 “Jay I’m not sure if the person in charge of your room told you but this is actually a door.”

 I grabbed on to the door and started to slide it shut.

 “It’s actually a two-way mirror. It’s to give our guests a bit of privacy but still allowing them to enjoy things going on in the club.”

 They looked surprised at this and I knew I was going to have to talk to whoever was in charge of the room on my day off. I figured if they didn’t talk about the door then they probably didn’t talk about the rest of the room. I walked over to the tv behind Jay and started to do my normal speech on the room.

 “This TV here actually is hooked up to the stage and allows you to watch whatever is going on the stage or you can click and you can see the dance floor. You also have cable access if you need it.”

 They all shook their head in understanding and I made my way to the back-left hand corner. I pushed on the diamond that stood out more than the rest of the diamonds that littered the wall. Upon my pushing the wall popped out revealing an emergency access.

 “This isn’t something we would show civilians who are renting the room but for our VVIPs we do give you an emergency exit in the event of needing it. This way leads downstairs where only employees can access and right out to the back exit where a car can be waiting if needed. It’s not something that is used that often but when needed it turns out to be extremely helpful.”

“Wow this room is really something else. Who designed it?”

 I looked at Loco who was staring at me in aw.

 “Actually, I did. We had some clientele come in and they wanted a bit more than what we originally had. I sat down with them and listened to what they would like to see. I then did that with everyone who came in for the rest of the month. I wanted to make sure everyone was happy when they came here. After I had all my info I designed it and gave it to boss man and he went to work on it. I’m really proud of this room and we haven’t had an unhappy customer since.”

 I smiled with pride and felt my confidence go up. I could do this. I could be in the same room with these guys and totally be fine.

 “Please sit, you’re not working right now. Take your jacket off and enjoy yourself.”

 I thanked Jay and did take my jacket off. I was so lost in everything that had happened I didn’t even think to remove my jacket. It was just a normal black blazer that was a bit shorter and went well with the black jeans I was wearing. I crossed the room to hang it up. My top was a dark red shirt that was completely open in the back. It was tied at the top and hugged my chest while leaving the back open and then hugging my waist.

 “Wow, that’s an interesting tattoo.”

 It was ChaCha that spoke this time. He was sitting forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together under his chin. I walked toward them and stopped right in front of the coffee table, not sure if I should sit or stand.

 “Oh my tree? Yeah it was something I had always wanted to have done. When I was little I really loved cherry blossom trees and use to ask my parents to go buy me one. They would laugh at me and tell me it’s not something we can have here. So when I got older I decided I would finally get my tree and had an artist friend draw it up.”

 “Do you have any more tattoos?”

“Gray let the girl sit and have a drink. Please Sarah come and sit here and have something.”

 I laughed and walked over to sit on the couch near jay and poured myself a shot of tequila. I had a feeling I would reach my limit with drinking tonight if I didn’t watch myself. I quickly downed my drink and sat the cup back down before sitting back and turning to Gray.

 “Actually, I do, I have three more tats but they aren’t visible unless under certain circumstances.”

“Oh really what might those be?”

 I turned to Jay and he had a sly smile on his face. I didn’t doubt this is the same smile that many women see when he is trying to charm his way through something. Who could possibly turn down anything when they are faced with that smile, but I wouldn’t be caught up in it.  I could play this game too Jay.

 “Well the first shot you have of seeing them is if I’m swimming and I was wearing a two piece that is small. The other chance you have is if you become a lover.”

 I also put a sly smile on my face before Loco plopped down between me and Gray laughing extremely loud.

 “Jay I like this girl, let’s keep her!”

 Loco pulled me into a hug and rustled my hair a bit. Everyone started to laugh at his comment and a knock came at the door. I got up and walked to the door and opened it a bit to reveal the head bouncer Bobby.

 “Hey Sarah I really hate to do this but I need your help. Some girls came out and said there are two girls fighting in the ladies room. I need you to go down there and break it up. Boss man says whatever you want you can have if you do this. He doesn’t want us guys in there with this fight.”

“Damn it Bobby where is Mary? It’s her day since I’m off?”

“Mary is handling something for the boss man. We need you. Please.”

 I felt him before I heard him come up behind me.

 “Is something wrong Sarah?”

“Just duty calling Jay, everything is good. I have to go handle something and then I will be right back.”

 I pulled my necklace out that held the keys to my cuffs and unlocked them from my belt.

 “I didn’t think those were real.”

“These? Yeah they are real Jay, they help scare the rowdy ones and they help me stay safe until backup arrives. I will be right back. Bobby right here will take care of you guys until I come back.”

 I walked down the stairs and towards the ladies room. I was pissed. Of all the times for a fight to break out it had to be now. I hope these two girls knew it wasn’t going to be pretty for them.

  Jay

 I watched the girl walk away and couldn’t help but become even more curious of her.

 “Bobby, come sit and tell us about this Sarah.”

“What would you like to know?”

 I sat back in my chair while he stood at attention by me.

 “Well how old is she? What exactly is her job here? Just give me a run down.”

“Sarah is 25, she lives alone and has no family. She is the youngest of all the employees and boss man treats her like his daughter. She started off as a bartender here but after she got her black belt boss man started to put her in charge of handling the female altercations to avoid sexual harassment law suits. She also does the MC work when needed and is in charge of the VVIP guests when they come here. She is actually really popular and brings back at least 85% of the people coming in as VIPs. She loves music and when she was bar tending she use to do a little song and dance routine with her friend at the bar. The guys really loved it but boss man stopped it after a couple of guys tried to grab her. Now she is only allowed to dance or sing when she is on the stage because it’s easier to keep an eye on her for me and the rest of the bouncers. Anything else you want to know?”

“Does she have a man in her life? Know anything about her future plans or wishes?”

“No man, boss man keeps an eye on her to make sure she stays safe. When he brings up the topic of marrying her off she always threatens to run away. The only future plans I know of is her saving for a trip to Korea. She has always wanted to go there. She grew up here in the community and after her parents died the community took care of her. Some of the older moms have saved up to send her but she doesn’t want to use their money.”

“Why hasn’t she looked into becoming a singer? She has the talent?”

“She has but she isn’t what the American industry wants.”

“Interesting. Thanks bobby. You can go, we will be fine until she returns.”

 Bobby bowed and walked out the door closing it.

 “Jay what are you thinking?”

“Nothing much Gray, I just have this feeling she could be something with the right help. She won’t get it here.”

“So what you want to help her? Why?”

“I just do gray. I know I shouldn’t but the girl has talent and it needs to be polished. She isn’t what they want here…”

“She won’t be what they want back home either, she isn’t Korean.”

“They don’t need to know that. We could give her a Korean stage name and just test her out on some of the tracks we are working on. See what the people think.”

“Well looks like you have it all planed out. So much for not thinking of much. How are you going to convince her or her boss?”

“I doubt it will take much to convince a girl who has always wanted to go to Korea. Her boss might be a bit harder, I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to let my daughter run off across the world with a group of guys who I don’t know. But I’m sure I can talk him into it. I’m jay park, I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t know how to sell an idea.”

NEXT CHAPTER

[texanredrose]

Would you consider doing the prompt #12, (the one person is locked out of their room and begging the other person to let then stay) Pyrruby/Ladybug/whatever else. The idea of bed sharing and the locked out unfortunate sharing the others pajamas is just so adorable and cure and uwuuuuuujiiuu

Okay, Pyrruby coming up, and WOW this was actually really difficult because I’m terrible at writing these two, apparently, so I hope it’s not too bad! Sorry it took so long! This takes place in the same universe as yesterday’s prompt fill.

Pyrrha moved around the room, tidying up as she went while keeping her scroll pressed tight to her ear. While most students were out spending Saturday night with friends or sleeping to recover from the week, she’d decided for a nice, quiet night in, organizing her room and talking to her mother. Between the two activities, the former certainly took less time than the latter, seeing as she’d nearly finished but the older woman had hardly gotten started.

“Yes, Mother. I’m taking a little time off from training.” She smiled, putting away some freshly folded clothing from her load of laundry earlier in the day. “I worked very hard to be here but a little break won’t hurt.”

“I know that, Dear One, and you need to take time to rest.” In her mind’s eye, she could see her mother’s slight frown and the furrow to her brows. “But you are not one inclined to being idle; I’m just worried. Are you sleeping well enough? Eating? What of your studies? Is there something troubling you?”

“I’m fine. I just… want a little extra time to hang out with my friends. That’s all.” Pyrrha chuckled, grabbing hold of her device and switching to the other ear to lessen the tension on her neck. “How’s Mom?”

“Fretting, as usual.” Her mother sighed. “She’s doing everything in her power to convince your sister that studying abroad isn’t nearly so glamorous as your stories make it seem. I’d wager she’s losing the fight, but she’ll never admit defeat.”

It struck her as strange, sometimes, how her mother spoke, like a warrior of a bygone era still adjusting to peaceful times. Then again, her classmates often remarked on her own speech pattern, so perhaps it ran deeper. Adjusting to life in Vale as opposed to the one she’d known all her years in Mistral certainly brought with it some challenges, like the co-ed dorms and the variety of people attending the college, but she’d thought she’d done well in making the transition. It hurt, leaving her family behind, but she wanted to see more of the world and all it had to offer.

“For what it’s worth, I think all of you should come to Vale sometime. It’s certainly beautiful.”

“Thank you for the offer, Dear One, but you know your Mom. She’ll not be whisked away from her work by anything less than risk to life, limb, or eyesight.” Her mother chuckled. “She could learn from you to take a break every once in a while.” Suddenly, someone knocked on her door, causing the redhead to raise a brow. Nearly everyone she knew had gone out- a few even invited her along, though she politely declined- and it was a bit too early for drunken college students to be returning from the downtown bars and knocking on the wrong door. “What was that? Are you alright?”

“It’s just someone at the door, Mother.” Pyrrha walked over, peeping through the little hole set at about her chin level. Most people didn’t have to duck a little bit to use the thing but she’d adjusted to being taller than the average person years ago. “Oh.”

Perhaps if she hadn’t been so surprised, she might not have let that single syllable slip, but… well, she didn’t expect much on this particular Saturday evening, least of all the cute young woman on the other side of the door.

Despite a few degrees of separation- they’d met through a mutual friend and shared absolutely no classes together- Pyrrha had come to find Ruby Rose, the engineering prodigy two years younger than herself, a delightful breath of fresh air. She was the excitable sort, who could go on and on about her interests regardless if she had an audience, and her perpetual optimism even in the face of daunting expectations and grueling coursework brought a smile to the redhead’s face every time.

“Oh? What do you mean ‘oh’?” Suspicion infected her voice. “Is it a boy?”

“N-no, Mother, she’s just a friend-”

“Ah, it’s about time you made a 'friend’, Dear One!” Her mother laughed while the redhead cringed, a slight flush coming to her cheeks. “Now it all makes sense. Your Mom and I will want to hear all about her when we call next week.”

“Mother, it’s not-”

“Just be careful; make sure you leave enough time for your studies between dates.”

“Mother-”

“And use protection.”

“Mother!”

“Alright, I’ll let you go; you deserve to have your fun. Love you, my Little Flame.”

Pyrrha sighed, unable to help the way her lips curled into a smile at the childhood nickname. “Love you too, Mother. I’ll call next week.”

Hanging up, she took a moment to compose herself before undoing the lock and opening the door. She was a tad surprised by the way Ruby straightened up and took a step back, almost as if she hadn’t actually anticipated the door opening.

“Oh! Pyrrha! H-hey!” She smiled, silver eyes darting around while she absently ran a hand through her short hair, the typically brunette locks tinged red. It was certainly a new look but one she wore rather well. “Fancy meeting you here!”

“Well, this is my dorm?” The redhead offered, a little lost. Why did the young woman look so nervous; she’d seen Ruby on a sugar high, frantically drawing out designs for some class or other, and uncomfortably keeping to herself in the corner of a room during a party, but never genuinely apprehensive like this. Surprisingly, that was something her gregarious and outgoing older sister seemed prone to, despite Yang’s propensity to make friends with nearly everyone she met. Apparently, the reputation she had around the campus brought with it some glaring negative side effects, but Ruby never seemed to share that problem aside from periodic bouts of social awkwardness. “Is there… something I can do for you?”

“Uh! Well!” She played with the red fabric of her hoodie, tugging on the hood like she was about to pull it up and over her head but just barely refraining. “There actually is, something, but you can say no! I understand if you do, I mean- this is super sudden and you might not be comfortable and-”

“Ruby,” she said with a little chuckle, offering the other woman a soft smile. Occasionally, Ruby’s mind worked so fast, she skipped entire sentences in an effort to keep up, and it sometimes brought to mind the caricature of a brilliant scientist pursuing some theory beyond her comprehension, but moments like these reminded her that her fellow Freshman could definitely trip herself up if someone didn’t lend her a hand from time to time. “Slow down. First, I need to know what you’re asking before I’ll know how to feel about it.”

“Right, right, sorry.” For a moment, nothing followed, but when she finally did speak, the words quite nearly came out too fast for the redhead to parse. “I locked myself out of my room again and it’s the fourth time this month and I kinda can’t afford spending seventy-five dollars on getting it unlocked again and Weiss won’t be back until tomorrow night and I’m sorry I probably shouldn’t ask but can I spend a little while with you please I can sleep on the couch in the lounge for the night but I just don’t want to stay there all night and-”

“Hold on.” Pyrrha reached, putting a hand on the shorter woman’s shoulder and pinching her brows together in slight concern. “You’re locked out of your room? Do you have all your essentials?”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah.” She ducked her head, putting the items out of her hoodie’s pocket as she listed them off. “Scroll, wallet, Student ID, scooter keys- I got everything. Just… not my room key. Somehow. I could’ve sworn I’d grabbed it before I left.”

“That’s alright; it happens to everyone,” she said, feeling slightly more at ease knowing she wasn’t entirely cut off. Idly, she wondered what Yang was up to that she couldn’t offer a place to stay, but opted to remain silent on the matter. If Ruby had a reason she wanted to disclose, she’d likely do so in due time. “Come in, and pardon the mess. I was just in the process of tidying up.”

“Heh, I think we have way different definitions of 'mess’.” Ruby offered once she’d stepped inside, absently fiddling with the string of her hoodie again while gazing around the room. “Weiss would love to have you as a roommate, though.”

“I thought the two of you were getting along better?” Weiss Schnee- a young woman from Atlas and heiress to a high profile company- was one of the mutual friends they shared, the former’s roommate since the beginning of term. While the first month or two was rocky, they eventually settled into a more amicable relationship and, with winter break on the horizon, she’d thought they’d become friends. Weiss spoke more fondly of the younger woman at the very least, whenever they studied together, thanks perhaps in small part to a little… light nudging on the matter.

“Oh, we are! But, still, I know it bugs her when I get into my engineering projects, and not all of them are for school, so…” She shrugged, flashing a small smile. “I just know she’d rather go more than a week without something almost exploding in our room but I don’t have anywhere else to work yet! They won’t let me use the labs until I’m a second year student.”

Pyrrha closed the door and offered a smile, glad to see things were going smoother for the roommates. “Well, she might not be too fond of me after I finish practice, either.”

“Yeah, but I heard you were taking a break for a while.” Although she was doing her best to be polite, silver eyes kept glancing towards the various items left out with shining curiosity and it made her smile grow. A lot of people would dismiss the trinkets from her homeland out of hand but Ruby always seemed genuinely interested in whatever caught her attention. “Yang said you needed some time to relax. How’s that going?”

“Good!” The blonde had often raved about her genius sister, but had never actually brought her around the lacrosse field. Something about not wanting to give her any funny ideas about playing full contact sports; the woman often spoke of her sibling as a mother did of their child, which the redhead found highly endearing. She understood the two had a difficult childhood growing up, in a different way than Pyrrha and Weiss, and admired their strength just as much. “Honestly, it’s exactly what I needed. Having some time to just catch up on the little things is great.” Leading the younger woman over to the bed, they both sat down, her task set aside for the moment so they could catch up. “I’m surprised Weiss is off campus, though. She seemed very… reluctant to return to Atlas.”

“Oh! Actually, she went to Menagerie!” Ruby smiled, lowering her voice as she continued. “You know Blake Belladonna, right? Yang’s roommate?”

“Of course.” With a pleasant smile, Pyrrha did her best to react to the name as any other; considering her Mom always seemed neck deep in Mistral’s political cloud, she’d heard the Chieftain of Menagerie’s name quite a few times and suspected Blake might be related to the Faunus leader in some fashion or other. But, seeing as no one had mentioned it yet, she assumed the information wasn’t commonplace and opted not to be the one to bring it up. “She’s from Menagerie, isn’t she? Did they go together?”

“Yeah, Blake’s taking Weiss home to meet her parents. Apparently, they’re a big deal in Menagerie, and Weiss wanted to learn more about the Faunus from them,” she said, smile growing wider and leaning closer conspiratorially. “But I think it has more to do with the fact that they’re dating.”

“Really?” She couldn’t help but betray her surprise. While Weiss had certainly become more comfortable and relaxed in many of her formerly held world views, she’d always thought there would be a limit to the amount of progress one could make in a few months’ time. Apparently, she’d underestimated the shorter woman. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, they haven’t come out and said it yet, but… they spend a lot of time together. At the library, in our room, in Yang and Blake’s; like, a lot of it is either schoolwork or deep conversations about politics and stuff but sometimes, they just sit next to each other and read books.” She shrugged. “Weiss seems happier now, and Yang swears she’s seen Blake smile more in the past two weeks than since semester began.”

“Well, I’m glad they’re fond of each other’s company.” Pyrrha nodded. “It’s good to have friends like that, and if something more comes of it, then all the better.”

“Yeah, but it seems like everyone’s getting boyfriends or girlfriends or crushes.” Ruby laughed, and it almost sounded a touch nervous. “I mean, Nora and Ren finally got together after being joined at the hip for years before coming here, Blake and Weiss are practically dating, Yang has a crush-”

“Wait, Yang?” That caught the woman’s attention, mainly because she never imagined the blonde would have much of an issue asking anyone out. Although her reputation had spread across campus fairly quickly for being a bit of a brawler, it had evolved to include a host of other not-always-flattering descriptions that made her someone nearly every student on campus wanted to date. Depending on the version, it wavered between her being impossible to satisfy- which some seemed to take as a challenge- and being impossibly gifted in certain activities- which others took as a promise. Although the blonde often acted as if the rumors didn’t bother her, her friend suspected differently. Perhaps she was right. “Has she talked to the person yet?”

“Nah, she’s nervous.” The younger woman giggled. “I know she talks a big game, but she’s always been the biggest softie. I think she’s worried about certain… expectations coming with confessing that she’s not comfortable with, ya know?”

“I can certainly understand her concern,” she replied, letting out a sigh. “I’ve been there a time or two myself.”

“Really? So, you’ve dated before?” Silver eyes darted her way before focusing on the far wall, a light blush rising in her cheeks. “I… guess that’s kinda a personal question.”

“It is, but one I don’t mind answering.” Pyrrha offered a smile, continuing to show that she truly had no problem with it. “I dated a few girls back home in Mistral but it always felt… like they expected something more of me than I was willing or able to give.” She offered a small shrug. “Much like Yang, my reputation gave a lot of people a false impression of who I am, but coming here freed me of that, to some extent. I dated Jaune during the beginning of the semester but we agreed we were better off as friends, so I’m single at the moment.”

“Oh, he- he never mentioned that.” Suddenly, her blush intensified, to the point she reached up and pulled her hood down with a groan. “I feel so silly now.”

“Why?”

“No reason!” Ruby quickly responded, adding a laugh at the end and waving her hand. “It’s just- I dated a girl for, like, a week back home, and Yang made such a big deal out of it! She was all 'look at you, all grown up’ and I really haven’t dated anyone else since.” With a shrug, she started picking at the laces of one boot, rolling the red and black fabric between her fingers. “I got really nervous. I know Yang didn’t mean anything by it but, ya know, sometimes she can be a little… much. But she means well.”

“Well, if she gives you any more 'well meaning’ trouble, just let me know.” She smiled. “I can end my break at any time and keep her in the gym until she’s too tired for teasing.”

“I think you underestimate my sister’s stamina, but thanks.” The younger woman flashed her a sweet little smile, some of her embarrassment falling by the wayside. “I appreciate it.”

“But now I wonder, has anyone caught your eye since you’ve been here?” Keeping her voice neutral proved to be a slight challenge but, considering what they’d just discussed, she didn’t want to sound too hopeful or forceful. “I mean, you did mention that everyone seems to be catching the love bug.”

“Oh, well, uh, m-maybe there’s someone, but it’s, well, I don’t think it’d work out.” Suddenly, the flush in her cheeks came back, nearly rivaling the shade of her hoodie and Pyrrha worried for a moment that it couldn’t possibly be healthy for that much blood to rush to a person’s face. “I mean, I’ve talked to- to them before, and they’re really nice, but it’s just… ya know. I’m younger than almost everyone here, and a lot of people know that.”

“Do you think that your age changes the way people see you?” She furrowed her brows, a slight frown on her lips.

While she had more than enough experience with being considered nearly a deity by some- a perception she direly wished she could escape in its entirety, though that seemed unlikely- no one had ever considered her as being less before. People could expect perfection of her without seeing a problem with that but those very same took umbridge to the idea that she could be just as fallible as the next person, something that honestly stressed her out more than she’d ever admit. Thankfully, her mothers had never placed such heavy expectations on her, unlike Weiss’ own parents, and she’d already learned so much about how that little bit of support from her family had made it all easier to bear throughout the years. Not that their situations were entirely comparable, mind, but she at least had their unconditional love and understanding; though her Mom would’ve preferred she study in Mistral, she understood Pyrrha’s reasons for wanting to attend Beacon and supported her, though somewhat grudgingly.

“I mean… yeah? How can it not?” Flopping back on the bed, Ruby stared up at the ceiling, a frown on her lips. She’d seen a lot of emotions splayed across the younger woman’s features but the sort of sadness portrayed now made her heart ache. “People think I’m not as mature and… sometimes, I think they’re right? Yang says I shouldn’t worry about it, that they’re just being mean, but it gets to me sometimes. 'Cause I can get really excited about things and I just… ramble on and on-”

“But that’s not a bad thing,” she quickly said, turning towards her guest. “Personally, I enjoy listening to you when you get excited about things. You have a raw passion for the things you do and learn, and I don’t see that as a sign of immaturity.”

Turning her head slightly, those silver eyes sought hers out as they shone bright with hope. “Really?”

“Of course!” Pyrrha nodded, glad she’d already made some headway and opting to continue with it. “Everyone has things they love to talk about and you are knowledgeable and experienced in your field. I’m quite fond of listening to you talk about the things that interest you and I admire the dedication it took for you to pursue your passions in the first place.” She shrugged, smiling gently. “Not everyone is so enthralled by their chosen field of study. Just because you are doesn’t mean you should be made to feel bad about it. If anyone gives you any grief, please, let me know.”

Ruby laughed, shaking her head. “What, are you going to work out with everyone on campus who gives me a little trouble?”

“If I must.” Perhaps it was a touch overprotective but she stood ready to protect any of her friends however she could at a moment’s notice, and that held especially true for those she wouldn’t mind as being closer with than simply 'friends’. She didn’t think herself remiss for having such thoughts, either. Carefully, she put one of her hands over Ruby’s, squeezing gently. “You’re special to me.”

The last two words didn’t seem to register to the younger woman, her expression pinching into one of exasperation. “But, see, that’s another thing! The ones who don’t think I’m immature just- just assume I’m some sort of super special prodigy, like I know everything just because I’m already attending Beacon.” She pushed herself up, her face pleading as she clasped her hands in front of her. “Pyrrha, I swear, I don’t know anything about ancient Mistrali poetry, or Atlesian agriculture, or- really, if it doesn’t have some sort of internal combustion or dust infusion, I probably don’t know much about it!” Her shoulders dropped. “I just want to be a normal student here for a while, ya know? But it feels- it just feels-”

“Like everyone else has a set expectation of who you should be, and that somehow failing that is your fault, even though you never asked for it?” The redhead gave her friend a sincere smile, setting a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me, I understand how burdensome that can be.” She straightened up. “So, henceforth, you aren’t special to me. You’re just a regular young woman with a good heart whom I’m happy I’ve met. How’s that?”

“And boring!” Ruby added, a smile on her lips as she giggled. “Regular, boring, totally not special Ruby Rose, that’s me!”

“I’m not so sure about the boring part.” She raised a brow. “I don’t think a boring person would’ve locked themselves out of their room four times.”

With a laugh, the younger woman nodded. “Well…”

“Plus, you did almost set the dorm on fire two weeks ago.”

“Okay, you got me there!”

She leaned over, nudging Ruby’s shoulder. “I’m afraid your life’s just too exciting for you to be a boring person.” Suddenly getting an idea, Pyrrha reached over to her desk, grabbing her scroll and expanding it out to its tablet form. “But you know what would be boring? We could watch a documentary I downloaded a few days ago. That’s a very boring way to spend a Saturday night, isn’t it?”

“Yeah! But, ya know, no complaints here. Just two regular, boring gals enjoying some learning.” Mirth slid away as she briefly looked a bit horrified by her own words. “Uh- not that you’re- you’re really interesting, Pyrrha! Not boring at all!”

With a playful smile, she shook her head. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“No, really! You’re super interesting! I mean, remember a few weeks ago when you explained how Nora can eat as many pancakes as she does without getting sick? That was really cool to hear all about nutrition and digestion and stuff!”

“Well, I’m glad someone enjoyed the lecture.” The bit of light teasing seemed to set her the other woman at ease, both of them remembering their friend’s blank look until Ren relented and said he supposed another stack would be alright. How the woman could stand to eat that many pancakes in one sitting boggled everyone’s mind but, considering her lifestyle, it wasn’t too alarming. Yet. “So, we’re both really interesting but totally boring people, agreed?”

“Works for me!” Ruby scooted closer before casting her gaze around the room. “Oh, you could finish cleaning up first, if you want. Not that it bothers me! I just don’t want to be a burden and set you behind-”

“Nonsense; I’ll attend to it later.” The redhead pulled up the file in question, trying hard to control the blushing in her cheeks. Although she’d chosen to pursue a career in the health field- she’d actually like to open a gym here in Vale centered around Mistrali fighting disciplines rather than become a sporting professional- other subjects had caught her eye, especially those related to her friends’ majors. The documentary in question was a brief history of the engineering sciences behind dust usage, which instantly had Ruby lighting up in delight.

“Oh my- I’ve never seen this one! Did it just come out?” Thrumming with energy, she crossed her legs under her, silver eyes alight with excited wonder. “The last one they did was released over ten years ago and didn’t even touch on the incorporation of purple dust into-” Cutting off abruptly, Ruby ducked her head. “Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t spoil it for you! It’s a really long explanation, too.”

“Well, hopefully this will give me the basics, and then you can tell me more later?” Pyrrha offered, glad to see that her guest didn’t seemed discouraged in the slightest. She’d honestly downloaded the file in the hopes of being able to understand Ruby’s explanations a little better; listening to her talk about the engineering quirks of different dust compounds was interesting, but she usually only understood about half the terminology used.

“You’ve got a deal!”

With that, they settled in to watch the documentary, shoulders and knees touching as they leaned back against the wall. It wasn’t the most comfortable position but, for two hours, it certainly wasn’t bad, especially when Ruby would occasionally tap her arm and excitedly whisper additional information regarding whatever subject was being covered, pointing out various things she’d studied or worked with during her brief time at Beacon. Thankfully, the majority of the documentary remained easy to follow, and what parts brought a furrow to her brow were quickly expanded upon by her companion, allowing Pyrrha to have much more confidence in following along with the subject matter, asking a few more questions at the end.

They talked about all sorts of dust applications for at least an hour, until Ruby cut off mid explanation to yawn, throwing up both hands to try and cover it. “Sorry! It’s kinda been a long day. I should probably head to the student lounge and see if the couch is open.”

“Hold on, there’s no need for that.” She gestured at the room. “You can stay here for the night.”

“But, you’ve only got one bed,” she said, silver eyes glancing around.

That was true; due to a mix-up earlier in the year, Pyrrha hadn’t been given a roommate and the school had removed the second set of furniture from the room to put into storage. It meant more space for stretching- an absolute necessity considering her workout routines- but it did present a slight problem now. Honestly, she’d always been a touch envious of how most everyone else she knew had a roommate, though their stories varied from the rocky start between Ruby and Weiss to the almost instant friendship between Yang and Blake. It always felt so… lonely coming back to an empty room, so she certainly didn’t want to pass up the chance presented before her, even if it was only platonic in nature.

“You can have it; I have a mat I can use for tonight.” She started to get off the bed, so she could retrieve said mat from it’s spot in her closet, but a hand on her arm stopped her.

“Wait, I can’t kick you out of your bed!” Distress splayed across her expression, the blush rising in her cheeks likely out of embarrassment. “That’d be really rude!”

“Well, I can’t possibly have a guest sleeping on the floor while I’m comfortable. That would make me a very rude host,” she said, a small smile on her lips. “Really, it’s no trouble.”

“Still.” Ruby frowned, twiddling her fingers together. “I kinda feel bad.”

Sensing there would be only one easy way to alleviate any guilt regarding the situation, Pyrrha opted for the route of full disclosure. “Well, the other options are that we sleep together- sharing the bed or the floor. That would be fair.” The younger woman’s blush burned brighter and the redhead had to admit feeling a bit of heat creep into her own cheeks. She’d meant the offer in a completely innocent way and quickly clarified, shifting the focus to her own concerns. “But I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable. The beds are… rather small and, considering my height, I’d be worried I might squish you.”

Unfortunately, that seemed to have the opposite of her intended effect as Ruby ducked her head and tugged at her hoodie. “Oh, well, w-when you put it like that, maybe we should… try it out first? To see if we’d fit?”

While that certainly wasn’t the reaction she’d anticipated or tried for… she could admit a certain weakness to the idea of cuddling up to someone, especially Ruby. “Are you sure you’ll be comfortable with that?”

“Yep!” She squeaked out, looking up briefly before nodding. “I-I mean, testing it out, no harm in that, right?”

“You have a point.” Pyrrha walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Are you certain this will be alright?”

Silver eyes darted around for a moment before she nodded, this time a little more surely. “Yeah, I just- I’m fine. I’m really sorry about all this, again.”

“Really, it’s no trouble! I’m happy to be of assistance.” Satisfied by the outcome and only slightly worried about how red Ruby’s ears were turning, she scooted back to press against the wall. “I usually sleep on my side, so this will be rather comfortable for me. Do you have enough room?”

“Oh! Right! Laying down! I should do that!” A smile touched her lips as she watched the other woman lay down, obviously leaving a fair amount of room between them. “This, uh, this is good. I could totally fall asleep, right here, right now.”

“Well, let’s hold off on that until I’ve found you something more comfortable to wear.” Carefully, they both sat up, allowing Pyrrha to climb off the bed and head over to her wardrobe. She pulled out a shirt that fit loosely on herself, went to her waistline, and composed of rather soft material- one of her favorite sleep shirts. “Here, this might be better suited for sleeping, and I should have an extra pair of athletic shorts somewhere.”

The other woman gave out a small laugh. “No offense, but what you consider shorts will probably be pants on me.”

“Well, would you like to try them on anyway? If you’re too warm, I could always open the window.” She offered, giving the young woman the borrowed clothes after an affirmative response. More than accustomed to changing in front of others, Pyrrha shucked her shirt and shorts, switching to pajama pants and a matching tank top. She took her time, listening to the shuffling behind her with a small, though slightly sad, smile. Knowing that Ruby had an infatuation with someone, it didn’t feel right to try and pursue her own romantic interests in the other woman. It seemed the better course of action lay in helping her friend gather up the courage to talk to whoever it was, perhaps offer some ideas about conversation starters and the like. It would sting a little bit but… well, she really just wanted to see Ruby happy, so that would fade quickly. “Does everything fit alright?”

“Uh… well.” Curious, she turned, entirely unprepared for the sight that awaited her. While the shirt would usually come to the Mistali’s hips and elbows and the shorts to just above her knees, on Ruby the former looked more like a dressing gown and the latter brushed halfway down her calves. The collar of the shirt, stretched out from years of wear, was nearly slipping off one shoulder as the other woman offered a smile. “They’re staying on, so yeah.”

Pyrrha couldn’t help but laugh; Ruby looked absolutely adorable nearly swallowed by the clothing as she was but she made to return to her wardrobe regardless. “Perhaps I can find something better suited-”

“No!” Waving her hands, silver eyes lit up the same as her expression. “This is great! The last time Yang gave me her hand-me-downs, she hadn’t hit her growth spurt yet. I’ve never worn clothes this big before! It’s kinda neat!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yep!” Ruby nodded. “It’s just to sleep, right? One night, it’s not a big deal, and I really appreciate this, Pyrrha.”

“It’s no trouble!” With a smile, she went to hit the light. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be!” Despite the mostly chipper tone to her voice, there remained a thread of nervousness as well. Mentally, she acknowledged that Ruby probably worried what others would think if they found out; considering how quickly rumors spread, she likely worried that her crush would hear about it and lose any potential interest. However, Pyrrha could be the best of secret keepers, and mentally swore to never mention the events of the night to anyone without her guest’s express permission.

Without further ado, she flicked off the light and returned to her bed, following the path from memory. When she reached the edge, her eyes had adjusted enough to the dim light coming through the cheap curtains, and she managed to slip beneath the covers with ease. She laid down, waiting for her guest to get comfortable before pulling the covers up. It probably wouldn’t be a comfortable fit every night but, for just one, it wasn’t bad.

“Good night, Ruby. Sweet dreams.”

“Heh, yeah, you too.”

With that, the room fell silent. Well, nearly silent. She spent a considerable amount of time laying awake, listening to the sounds of someone else being in the room with her, Ruby’s breathing soft and eventually deepening as she fell asleep while her every minute movement shifted the covers. It seemed strange, being so hyper aware of another person’s presence, but she’d had very little opportunities to acclimate to such a thing; she’d never shared a room with her younger sister, considering their age difference, and her entire college experience thus far hadn’t provided her with a roommate, either. Honestly, she wouldn’t mind having one, and especially not Ruby, no matter how potentially dangerous her projects became. Weiss would probably thrive on the newfound independence, especially if she truly was dating Blake- but that seemed a foolish suggestion, in light of their conversation earlier and her own internal decisions. Ruby seemed interested in someone else, so best to leave those idle fantasies alone and focus on getting some rest.

Beyond her room, she could hear the faint sounds of her floormates returning from their various escapades, a typical staple of Saturday nights, but managed to ignore it as she drifted off to sleep herself.

In the morning, she awoke in a slight panic but managed to catch herself before showing any sign of waking aside from a heavy sigh. They must’ve moved in their sleep and she could feel a blush rising in her cheeks as she realized her arm was draped around Ruby’s waist, having unconsciously pulled their bodies closer together in the middle of the night.

Oh no.

They were spooning.

As much as she liked it, Pyrrha realized this was a grievous overstepping of boundaries and immediately prepared her apology, dimly aware of another voice whispering in the small space of her room. By the time she felt ready to 'wake up’ and string the words together, however, she noticed that she wasn’t alone in her realization and… apparently might have to reevaluate a few things.

“Ruby Rose, how did you get yourself into this? Why did you listen to Jaune? Okay, first, why didn’t he tell me he used to date her! That’s pretty pertinent information to be sharing! I swear, the next time I see him.” Cracking her eyes open, Pyrrha glanced down at the top of her guest’s head. “But now, what do I do? Just leave and hope Weiss gets back soon? No, that’d be mean; I gotta stick around, maybe ask her out to breakfast? No, no, you don’t do that, you don’t snuggle up to your crush in her own bed and then ask her to breakfast the next morning! Wait, maybe I should, as an apology? And thanks?” Ruby whined, squirming in her distress, but not enough to be noticeable were Pyrrha still asleep. “Why is dating so hard? And we’re not even dating yet! I haven’t even gotten to the hard part yet!”

She blinked, slightly confused. Perhaps she was still in the process of waking up and hadn’t processed all the information yet… but… it sounded like the person Ruby had a crush on… was actually…

Did Ruby have a crush on her?

“What if she gets mad when she wakes up? Like, I doubt it, because she’s always so nice, but I really wouldn’t blame her! I don’t think she’d be happy about me squishing her into the wall. And what am I supposed to tell her now? Hey, Pyrrha, good morning! I bet you’re wondering why I decided to use you as a personal space heater! Well, funny story, I actually have a huge crush on you and this is probably all my fault because I totally left my room yesterday with the intention of asking you out on a date and forgot my room key because I’m a spaz, so I’m pretty sure I did this without even realizing it no way I can’t tell her that after she wakes up and finds us sleeping together.”

Wanting to save the other woman from a minor panic attack, Pyrrha chose then to speak up. “Technically, neither of us is sleeping right now.”

“Okay, yeah, fair point, but-” Ruby jumped, slowly craning her head back to look up at the redhead. “You’re awake.”

“I am,” she replied, a small frown coming to her lips. Before any apologies or explanations could come forth, though, she quickly got to the heart of the issue as concern pinched her brow. “Did you really think I’d think less of you purely because of your age?”

“I… well, I mean…” She sighed, tilting her head to a more natural position to break eye contact. “Yeah? Just a little bit. It’s just… every time I saw you- around campus or practicing or in the hall- you just seem so sure of yourself and you’re friendly with everyone and I’m… not. Dad always said it’s something that comes with getting older and meeting more people but I’ve always been more comfortable with compounds than conversations, machinery over meeting people. But you make it look so effortless!”

“Well, I’ve had lots of practice but, for what it’s worth, I think you’re rather marvelous at conversations.” She smiled, watching the top of Ruby’s head. “Every time we’ve spoken, I’ve learned something new.”

“… really?”

“Yes. About dust compositions or structural integrity of various metals or your other interests or your family- all subjects I find fascinating. I truly enjoy your company, Ruby.” Pyrrha paused, deciding to go ahead and take the plunge considering the woman hadn’t seemed to relax one bit since she revealed she was awake. “And, if we’re being honest, I think I’ve developed a bit of a crush on you.”

A moment of silence passed before Ruby pushed herself up, swaying on her hands and knees for a moment before blinking, wide eyed, at the redhead. “Wait. You have a crush on me? But, but, last night-”

“Last night, I told you I was single. I never said I didn’t have a crush.” She offered a half shrug, seeing as she was still lying on her side. “I… didn’t want to make you uncomfortable, considering you’re locked out of your room. Then, when you said you have a crush yourself, I didn’t want to be unfair.”

Rising up to her knees, the other woman threw her arms out wide, a pleading look on her face. “Next time, could you be a teensy bit more selfish so I don’t spend half the night freaking out? A little help would be nice!”

With a growing smile, Pyrrha propped her head up. “Very well, then. I accept.”

“… accept?”

“Your offer for breakfast. You meant it as a date, correct?”

“Uh…yeah.” Slowly, Ruby lowered herself down to sit on the bed, legs folded under her. “You’re being serious.” She nodded. “Okay… I mean, yeah!” Beaming, the other woman scrambled off the bed, going to fetch her clothes. “Let’s go on a date!”

With a chuckle, the redhead eased herself up, stretching her arms above her head before getting off the bed as two thoughts crossed her mind. First, she acknowledged that the seventy-five dollar fee wasn’t as harsh a stipulation as she previously thought, considering the unintentional side effects of this particular lock out. The second, of course, being how insufferable her parents would be during next week’s phone call when she told them she had a new girlfriend.

As Ruby pulled the hoodie over her head, beaming as bright as the sun outside, she acknowledged that it would be her absolute pleasure to suffer through the questioning.

1) You will wrest the headcanon that Pyrrha was born and raised on the Remnant equivalent of Themyscira from my cold, dead fingers.2) Getting to subvert the ‘no boys!’ trope amused me.3) I can finally check the ‘bed sharing’ trope off my list.4) Holy crap. WHY ARE THESE TWO SO HARD TO WRITE!?