#would you auto-switch with the you in that timeline?

[aquarianlights]

How do you keep going when it looks like 99% of your country has joined a cult whose soul purpose is hatred of everything you & everyone you know & love are when all you're doing is existing just like everyone else?

[mspaesthetic]

Tidbit: Placronym Pixelation

So you got this fresh placroynm that you don't want engraved with a sophomoric name? Not a problem. You can reject that stupid shit with a pixelize/pixelate filter.

Photoshop

First, you will have to make two more duplicates of your name text layer, so three text layers in total. One for when it's first displayed, one for the first frame of pixelation, and one for the second frame.

With your first duplicate layer selected, go to Filters>Pixelate>Mosaic..., which is a terrible name for it, but hey, I'm no Photoshop developer. Set the cell size to 11.

For the second duplicate layer, set it to 14.

GIMP

Pretty much the exact same steps as in Photoshop, this time the filter is located under Filters>Blur>Pixelize...

I would suggest right-clicking on the text layer and choosing Composite Space>RGB (perceptual) instead of the default (Auto), or going to the top-right corner of the Layers tab and switching the group of blend modes from Default to Legacy. Basically, doing so will make the semi-transparent pixels as dark as they are in Photoshop, otherwise they will appear too light.

Check out the read-more link below for bonus information on easily animating the name being typed out in Photoshop.

ADDENDUM

Typing animation (Photoshop)

Photoshop's frame animation timeline makes doing this a breeze. First, add a layer mask to your text layer. This will add a white box next to the layer's thumbnail.

With that layer mask selected (click on it and it will be highlighted in the layers tab), use the marquee tool to make a rectangle selection around the text, then use the paint bucket tool to fill it in with the color black. This will make the text invisible until the layer mask is moved.

Go to Window>Animation if you do not already have the animation timeline open. Click on the little sticky note icon to duplicate the first frame. In newer versions of Photoshop, you will probably first have to click on a button that reads "Create Frame Animation", and the duplicate frames button icon is the "+" in a little square.

Making sure you still have the layer mask selected and not the entire layer, use the move tool and arrow keys to move it all the way to the right, revealing the text on the second frame you've just made. Don't move it too far off now.

Move the typing cursor layer to the right as well, except you don't have to move it all the way at the end, only where it will be last seen.

Make the typing cursor layer visible on the first frame, and not visible on the second.

Select the first frame the animation and click on the tween button. This will add all of the frames in between the first and the second one for you. Make sure you only have "Position" checked under "Parameters". For the numbers of frames to add, here's a neat trick for finding the right amount: count the amount of letters in the name. "ZOOSMELL POOPLORD" is 16 letters, so add 16 frames.

Most of the work is already done, though there might be a couple frames that will need some minor tweaks. Just use the move tool and arrow keys again to finetune the layers' positioning.

This is why it was important to not move the layer mask too far to the right away from the end of the text. Tweening the position spaces it out linearly, evenly, so the farther away the end goal is, the more space each frame will use. Thankfully the font this panel uses is mostly monospaced, and I got a little lucky with my positioning, so I needed to only adjust three or four frames. Way less tedious than having to create each frame of animation myself, at least.

To change the frame delay (the time duration each frame takes up) of the newly created frames, click on the first frame you want to retime, hold down the Shift key, and then click on the last frame. This will make a selection spanning all frames in between. Click on the little dropdown arrow and select 0.1 seconds (100 milliseconds).

Here's the original panel:

And here's my recreation:

Here's the PSD, too.

[angryspacegirl]

@queen-jala asked: Jala was just trying to get back home after figuring out her two new forms she just wanted to get back home and free it (not knowing it had long since been destroyed), But it seemed something was wrong with her navigation and she just couldn't find her way back home so she was just roaming around the stars with no real direction as to where to go. While between planets she noted of another ship passing by. it had a vague sayian design to it but not one she would be able to connect back to her planet she tried to hail the ship with her coms.

It was nice to be back in open space. Serori had been stuck training on Planet Kanlaman for over a year, and from there, she'd been in a hurry to make it to some intergalactic prizefights to test out her new skills, which meant she hadn't had this in a long while. The vast black of space spreading out in all directions, broken up only by the faint light of distant stars, the quiet hum of the ship's engine the only sound, and no set destination in mind. Where should she go next, she wondered. Maybe she'd find a place with good food and attractive women and just spend a week or so chilling out.

Having given her stolen Ikondan ship to Nixxo and Suu to take back with them to their original timeline, she'd had to make do with this old model Saiyan ship. That it was mostly auto-pilot was a drag for someone who liked handling the controls herself, but at least it meant she could lay down on her cot with some star charts and figure these things out on her own. Though, whatever comfort Serori took in doing so was dashed by the suddenly splashing of water onto her face, prompting her to jerk upwards and shake her head.

"Hey, what the hell," she grumbled, looking over at the large spherical tank built into the corner of the ship, containing her pet fish. Again, a small splash sent a few drops of water onto her face, then towards the cockpit. Following the splash's arc with her eyes, Serori suddenly broke out into a grin as she approached the tank. "You really are a genius, aren't you," she said, making a kissy face before sprinkling a few flakes into the tank once Rhubo had settled back down into his normal, lazy swimming. "Thanks for the heads-up."

Sitting down in the cockpit, Serori moved her potted plant out of the way enough that she could reach the switch beneath the comm light blinking pale green. "I'm not a pirate," she declared once the audio channel was opened, unaware of how such a suspiciously specific denial likely wouldn't help her case, "and I haven't broken any laws that I'm aware of, planetary or galactic. If you're trying to pull me over, you'd better have a damn good reason." After all, for what other reason would some random ship flag her down?

[lostacelonnie]

so days ago i had a dream i never really wrote down for some reason so ill drop it in your askbox <(￣︶￣)>

this dream was set in college and the room looked similar except it was like at a high af floor building (this is relevant later) and there was clearly some Scott Pilgrim Shit going on because i had a crush on someone in the class and i was speedrunning what the teacher was explaining and my dream self decided to talk to them and they read my mind or something and gave me a quest to....

play the horror game they made(i have no horror tolerance) before a certain timelimit passed where they would get bored of this timeline and hop to another one "adhd-style" and if i managed to beat the horror game they made in time they would teach me how to timeline hop too and bring me along

i somehow started dual wielding both programming and gaming but my ass was so fucking scared at the horror game because it switched gameplay entirely everytime i opened a door and for some reason it induced eldritch fear in me

eventually a crowd gathered around me to give me moral support but then i had finally beaten the game after some arduous few minutes of me almost shitting myself(figuratively) because of a room where the doors jumpscared you and i just stood up with power brimming out of my soul and i walked up to them and they looked at me like "you are worthy. congratulations are in order" and then they raised their hand and the floor fucking collapsed?

i was sent to an alternate version of the classroom where the floor was part floor and part water and people were boating to get to their seats and leave the classroom and i looked for them around the water version of the classroom but couldnt find them and then i fucked up my boating skilps and fell off flying the tall as fuck classroom and below was a dance competition in a mall that i landed on and the judge said i had nice af moves and asked what my name was and i said "im sorry i just fell here by accident.... ill be taking my leave...." and the judge looked kinda sad and annoyed that i wasnt an official competitor and i wanted to leave quietly but the place was crowded

and instead of leaving through the door i saw a power outlet and since no one was near it and entered it and fucking entered the Cable Dimension which kinda hurt to be in but i managed to move to a different place of the mall and there was a game convention and they were showing this timeline's version of honkai impact as like a non-mobile action game similar to devil may cry and ultrakill and i started playing the demo there because holy shit blorbo from My Timeline????

the gameplay was odd because kiana's moveset was highly different but she looked like white comet still

like she had her normal white comet moveset but Cooler and an ability to turn the game into a 3rd person shooter by pulling out her gun but her bullets had a mechanic where if you hold the fire button instead of tapping and swing the aim fast with the mouse, releasing mid-swing would cause you to shoot a bullet that would curve to the opposite direction (with slight auto aim) and change the way it impacted the enemy

i remember like doing a heavy attack in this version of honkai impact with wildly different gameplay where kiana used a paw from white comet to send the enemy flying like to the left and i used a swinging bullet to the right immediately after the heavy attack and the bullet curved around and hit the enemy from the back and sent them back to kiana

also kiana had glowing orange strings she could throw enemies around and swing around spiderman-style with it was odd

my time on the honkai demo was over so i went to check out another game and it was a fucked up vr fighting game where your physical strength actually mattered and was required to cast your special moves and i met the person from before and i called them out and they just fucking one shotted me in the game somehow

i asked how the fuck they did that if the game is based on actual strength and how they timeline hopped and they just told me "I am this timeline. You are living in me."

so i guess i had a dream where i dated a timeline(?) and they showed me a version of honkai impact that was a mix of ultrakill and dmc and i dont know how to feel other than that this is another idea i could use to draw a yuri webcomic out of if i could draw

HELP ME........ TIMELINE YURI...... big fan of the Cable Dimension btw and also Finally. Honkai Impact 4th. honkai/ultrakill crossover when

[bongaboi]

I tried Atelier Resleriana for a week, and I uninstalled it today (rant incoming).

r/Atelier • 9 mo. ago SaberManiac

I tried Atelier Resleriana for a week, and I uninstalled it today (rant incoming). Atelier Resleriana (There are no story spoilers here, not that there was anything to spoil in the first place).

It's no surprise the reception towards the game has been very mixed (and "mixed" is an understatement). It really irked me that one of my favourite gaming franchises of all time was selling out to the gacha market, but I thought I should at least give it a try. It was advertised as a mainline Atelier game so how bad could it be? I play other gachas too like Fate/Grand Order, Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Epic Seven, and a couple of others here and there, so it shouldn't be anything new to me.

Oh, how wrong I was. Atelier Resleriana, if it wasn't a gacha game, would have been a terribly average Atelier game at best. Not good, not terrible, just exactly what you expect from an Atelier game. Cute girls doing cute things? Check. Slightly improved graphics from Ryza? Check. Mundane dialogue with even more mundane chores? Check.

But that last part was what struck out to me. As tedious as gathering and synthesizing materials were in a normal Atelier game, there was an incredible sense of progression as you interact with the alchemy system, and one day, it just clicks, and you wind up experimenting and spend hours to craft the best, or weirdest, or most interesting items you could at the time. This is completely absent in Resleriana.

To bring this back a step, in Resleriana, you don't combine traits. You don't even get traits from items, they are locked based on which character you pull from the gacha. To make things worse, the trait levels (they can go from 1 to 5) are completely random. Because each trait is specific to one character, each character has their own success rate for level 4 and 5 traits. There's also this ridiculous colour-matching system that, to put it simply, means you cannot combine any two traits. You need to match your character with another character with a linking colour so you can get high level traits, otherwise, the traits are basically useless. Traits in this game are completely useless at levels 1-3; most of them give you 2% more effect - useless!

That's not even the worst of it. The game doesn't let you carry over traits! The literal backbone of the Atelier alchemy system is figuring out how to transfer traits from an ingredient to an item that doesn't use said ingredient. All alchemy is based purely on your character roster, and gathering items (which don't have quality or traits or elements or anything). It's so simplified that I can't even call it alchemy. It's just crafting but with LAYERS and LAYERS of RNG.

Oh, and you can only synthesize a few times a day. You can replenish mana but it's all random, and the game is telling you, "Oh you didn't get the traits you want? Too bad! Try again tomorrow!"

And, that's just the alchemy system. Combat? Terrible. It's basically a carbon copy of Honkai Star Rail's system but worse. There's a normal attack (Skill 1), your "skill" (Skill 2) and your "Burst" (ultimate). There's even a Toughness bar you need to break to delay enemy turns, wow how original!!!! (this is sarcasm).

However, you have a pure random-based timeline which determines if your attacks actually do damage or you get to use your Burst. If you're unlucky, enemies can end up doing tons of damage and using their Bursts back-to-back, and you need to restart the fight all over again.

Speaking of fights, every fight in the game takes such a long time to complete. This shitty mobile gacha game with simplified mechanics takes LONGER than random enemy fight in a console Atelier game. A simple fight can last 5-8 minutes. There's a Skip button but that's only convenient for dailies. Every new quest and fight that comes along takes so long that you end up switching to Auto and making tea to pass the time.

There's also the other issues with the game that I'll summarize:

Tons and tons of loading screens. It's 2024 and games 10 years older than this have less loading screens that Resleriana. There are so many menus in this game and navigation is a chore in itself

Absurd difficulty spikes in Story Mode. Starting from Chapter 3, your enemies are vastly stronger than you and you completely run out of gems to pull for new characters. You are STUCK with your current roster of ~10 characters and your only hope of progressing is to wait days to farm for EXP and orbs and shit to level them up.

Story quests are gated by your account progression (basically, how powerful your characters are). So many other gacha games NO LONGER DO THIS because it absolutely kills the new player experience, since it grinds out progress to a halt.

The pull economy absolutely sucks. You earn at most less than half a pull PER DAY, and you need to watch crappy mobile game ads to earn the tiniest amount of pull currency. THIS is the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

"Exploration" is you walking from left to right. I'm not kidding. They wanted to replicate the feeling of exploring towns and dungeons in this game, but why do this lame crap? Just let us explore the towns and stuff - clearly they've been rendered in the cutscenes.

Items are mostly irrelevant in combat. You can't use items at any time, you need to build up a separate item gauge, which takes forever, so you can end up dying before using an item to heal.

I could go on but I'll spare you my suffering. The game's only saving grace is that you get to interact with past Atelier characters in the story, but this could have absolutely been a TRUE console Atelier game and would have felt like a true celebration of the series' legacy. Instead, you get this jumbled mess of a cashgrab, and it's very clear it's not doing well because it hasn't been getting any attention, online or otherwise. This game gets less than 1K views on YouTube a day and I'm willing to bet the player count is not particularly high either (likely in the low thousands, at best).

So, take it from me, don't waste your time with this game. If you truly like the story and characters, just watch the cutscenes on YouTube. If you have an itch to spend money, buy the Atelier Dusk Trilogy. It's a far better spend than this terrible game.

Unless you like jiggly oppai. Go nuts if that's your thing.

[sojutrait]

its a long one lads

( @aomi-nabi ) THANK U AAAAAAAAA ur asks always make my day omg 😭😭❤❤❤

THE WALK WITH ME IS SENDING ME KFKJFDGFGK so far we’ve also canonized him death dropping so i can really see his ass doing both-

nothings going on dw ive just been busy dkfjdfk 😭😭

TYYYY RIGHT BACK AT U MWAHH

( @deathbypufferfish ) death by pufferfish . com 

( @astralsi ) I CAME BACK JUST FOR U MAMA MWAAAHHH 🤧🤧❤❤❤

( @lava-nder ) ngl my sims rarely even interact with townies made by the game kfgjfk 😭😭 if i do notice my sim getting close to a townie (.ie nadine or josh) THEN i’ll give them a makeover, but other than that i just ignore them or put in my own townies kdfjk as for lots, i just build my own or place down any new ones once i realize ive been to a lot too many times and want to switch it up

GATIA BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

REAL i love oshin sm omg, been with her since her get famous lp 😌

( @lake-lunvik ) YOU ARE SUCH A HORNDOG LIO SDJFKDFJKF

HELPPPFKFDK im not surprised, during homelandertrait halloween takeover i was ready to lose some followers 😭😭😭

( @mmusicalwhims ) thank u so much !! 🤧❤❤❤❤ i should bring back that username tbh it was kinda iconic KDFJKFD

( @wildmeadowsims ) (link) AAAAAAA I SAW im not really a concert person but im excited to see everyones recording of it dkfjfkfkg and i heard she was adding more international dates eventuallly so fingers crossed !!!

ive never had that problem god bless KFDJK but i think u can turn off auto mean interactions with mcc so theres a temporary solution 

the randomize button is my beloved 

THIS ASK MADE ME GET OFF MY ASS AND FINALLY ORDER A MIC SO SOON IF I DONT PUSSY OUT DKJFKGF

( @velvet-disc ) TYYYY take them, they’re too much for me to handle anyways 🗿

( @25dejulho ) it depends on the save, but usually i start in another simmers save (my faves are ratboysims and simlicys), either build a house or find a shell off the gallery and decorate it myself, make a fam, then make some townies, give them all skills, careers, etc. just so theyre not like- newborns THEN start playing dkfjk its hella overkill and takes hours but thats how i do it 😭😭😭 tbh u dont even gotta do all that, u can just start in the aforementioned saves by other simmers and start ur own sims from scratch dkfjfgkj

( @catladyfinds ) hi!! i try to keep my cheating pretty minimal, but theres no like- hard fast rules i do. i never cheat money just bc i think its boring for my sims to be hella rich skfjkgfgk but at the same time, if they have to pee and the toilet is 3 stories up then ill just say fuck it and cheat it 😭😭 so my rule is pretty much, quick lil cheating of needs is fine, but nothing that would make the game too easy or unrealistic 

currently its cas and gameplay! but im hoping to get bit by the building bug again bc i have some ideas dkffkfg

aaahhh, idk really i get hella attached to 90% of the sims i make instantly 😭

( @chlosimly ) TYYYYY 😭😭😭❤❤ its all the cc makers not me KFDJKF

(referring to the non-canon halabi death i overruled) SEE its so depressing and dark i dont even wanna say it 😭😭😭 ITS OKAY, THAT TIMELINE NEVER HAPPENED I INTERVENED 

see i take offense to this bc the charm family is ugly as hell 🥴🥴

thank you!!! 😭😭❤❤❤

HELP i dont want to be too annoying so i try to keep the soju shut up posts to a minimum but im glad u like them 😭😭❤❤ im a chronic complainer so theres more where that came from dkfkff

i didnt wanna use her last name in the tag in case she got married and changed it 😭😭 same kinda with her first name, lord knows i cant resist family gameplay so i wanted something that could still work if i ever post from her future kids pov!

THE WAY THAT POST IS STILL FLAGGED TOO UGHHH

( @starterflowers​ ) thank u so much !! i also think hes pretty awesome kfdkfgk u have a great day/night as well ! 💕💕💕

*jumps then falls flat on my ass*

in theory 😌

REAL i need him as an actual tangible person i can slap around (affectionately) 

i dont think its a specific part, more so just trying to make someone who doesnt look bland 😭😭 if a sim is too cookie cutter ik i wont feel any emotion for them kfkgfk

i actually liked how evermore/folklore had no hype! the surprise made the whole thing more special, like i lookback at those releases fondly dkjfkd now- yeah she def overhyped midnights 🗿🗿🥴🥴 this roll out has been so lackluster and so help me god if we get another anti-hero remix im gonna snap 

[phantomoftheorpheum]

A Timeline of Maddie's Phone in School Spirits (1x01-1x06)

*info is below the cut because it's long.

We can see Maddie's phone in the flashback of Maddie & Xavier hanging out the day she was killed. Claire is also watching them in this scene, but it's unclear why (I initially took this to be jealousy/because she was having an affair with Xavier, but if she did switch Maddie's phone on this day, then she may have been looking for opportunity). It seems unlikely that Maddie's phone has been taken by anyone at this point (for reasons I will later explain). Maddie is also wearing her necklace in this scene.

Maddie walks into the school with Simon. We can see her phone in the side pocket of her backpack. She is still wearing her necklace. I believe this is still Maddie's phone.

After Maddie talks to Xavier in his truck (still wearing her necklace, still has her phone in the side pocket), she passes Claire in the hallway (who looks at her weird again), then she pauses and watches Xavier out of the window.

Maddie's phone battery dies while she's watching Xavier text, but we actually do see Xavier's text (that is supposedly meant for Claire) come in to her phone a moment before it dies. This implies that Maddie still has her own phone, since she got (but didn't have time to read) Xavier's text. Sadly, pausing the scene, we don't get a preview of Xavier's text, it just says "text message" so we don't know if he was being honest in his story about accidentally sending her a text meant for Claire.

The next flashback from the day of is in study hall, where Xavier steals Maddie's phone. Maddie is still wearing her necklace and the phone is in the same pocket of her backpack you can see it before. Because we're missing time between the last scene and this one, we have no way to know if Claire has stolen/replaced Maddie's phone at this point. If she did it, she either did it before this scene, or she stole it from Xavier (which would be weird because how would she know he has it and wouldn't that be suspicious to her?) We do know that Xavier steals the phone in this scene, then Maddie's mom arrives (drunk) at school, and Maddie goes looking for her.

Something to note: Xavier gets a text that upsets him in this scene & then he cancels his evening plans with Maddie and steals her phone a moment later. Initially, I assumed this was something to do with Claire, but you know what they say about assumptions. Was he always planning to steal Maddie's phone, or is it that whatever was in that text is what made him take the phone & he's lying about his reasons?

It is revealed that Xavier still has "Maddie's phone." We are later told that this phone is not Maddie's phone, but a blank phone. Whether or not this is true is up for debate.

Xavier tells the Sheriff that he accidentally texted Maddie instead of Claire and that he stole Maddie's phone in study hall to try to delete the text before she read it (he also mentions that Maddie had read receipts on and Simon mentions earlier that Maddie insists her friends have read receipts on) - so far this lines up with what we know. He absolutely did text Maddie (we saw the text come through, which heavily implies she still had her actual phone at that point), and we know he did steal her phone in study hall. But we don't know if he's being honest about the content of the text or his motivation for stealing the phone. Or what happened to the phone after that moment.

The first time we hear that "there's nothing on Maddie's phone" is when the Sheriff confronts Xavier about this at home.

Maddie and Simon find what they believe are shards of her phone on the floor in the Auto Shop and become convinced that the phone that Xavier had was not hers. They talk about trying to prove the phone the police have is not hers by checking the serial number, but we are never told if this is done.

Simon gives the phone shard they found to Mr. Anderson because Maddie trusts him and doesn't trust the police.

The scent dogs pick up Maddie's "scent" in Mr. Anderson's room & he makes an excuse about her essay. This is after Simon gave him the shard, so we don't know if the dog was smelling that, or something else.

Simon finds what appears to be another shard of Maddie's phone in the shop area. We actually are never told what happens to the second shard, but later when Simon tells the principal about his suspicions of Anderson, he may have turned that shard over then.

Simon goes through Mr. Anderson's car and finds the phone shard he gave him in the glove compartment. (Note: he also finds one of those blue devil patches at this time)

Simon reports his suspicions about Mr. Anderson to the principal, but after Simon is brought in for questioning, he is told that Mr. Anderson turned over the piece of the phone to the police (we do see it, so that seems to be true), and the police believe Maddie ran away.

After Nicole, Simon, and Xavier get the video of Claire and Mr. Anderson arguing about the money/grades situation, they become convinced that Claire stole Maddie's phone because they thought she was the blackmailer. This is actually the biggest/strangest plot point to me. They knew about Mr. Anderson claiming that he gave Maddie money (or at least Simon does), so I guess that's how they get to this conclusion, but we still have no idea why Mr. Anderson and Claire thought it was Maddie who took this video of them in the first place.

Nicole tells Simon there's no useful metadata on the video they were sent. She also says "it doesn't matter who took the video, what matters is that Claire thinks Maddie took the video," which, again, veering slightly off the topic of Maddie's phone, but why do Claire and Mr. Anderson think that? What kind of evidence/proof were they given?

Xavier specifically accuses Claire of "swapping" Maddie's phone (he actually says this twice), which she does not deny. She claims she stole it and gave it to Mr. Anderson to get rid of when she couldn't get into it. Did she steal it from Maddie? Or did she steal it from Xavier? I have to assume she stole it from Maddie, because I don't know how she would have known that Xavier had it, and if that's the case, the only time this fits in is between when Maddie's battery dies and when Xavier steals "her phone" (in this case it means that he directly stole the blank phone and not Maddie's real phone).

And that's the last we know of it. I feel like Claire would have been confused when Xavier accuses her of "swapping Maddie's phone" if she had only stolen it and not switched it, so I do feel like that's probably what happened. I still think that's a really weird plan & a replacement phone was wildly unnecessary.

However, the simplest timeline is this- Maddie has her phone with her at school, the battery dies before she can read Xavier's text, Claire swaps Maddie's phone with a blank, Xavier steals the blank phone, sometime after this Maddie is attacked/killed, Claire is unable to get into Maddie's phone so she gives it to Mr. Anderson who destroys it, Xavier is unable to get into the blank phone and carries it around with him until he is caught, the police realize the phone they confiscated from Xavier is blank, Maddie and Simon find the shards of her phone in the Auto Shop, one of those shards is given to Mr. Anderson who intends to hide it until he is publicly accused by Simon and he is forced to turn it over to the police.

I definitely still have several large questions about this, one being the fact that they mentioned very early on Maddie's phone was "in the school". They don't explain how they know this, whether it's from cell tower pings or location tags on her social media or whatever. Was this because Mr. Anderson hadn't destroyed it yet, or is this because someone has access to her accounts? Someone clearly does have access to her accounts, either on another device, or because Maddie's phone is still out there (but then that would involve a 3rd party also stealing Maddie's phone??). Claire did mention that she was freaking out when Maddie went missing & it's possible she didn't give Mr. Anderson Maddie's phone until then/he didn't destroy until it was clear Maddie is really missing.

[trans-p03g]

How does the timeline work in the scientist au? You mentioned that P03 was separated from their dad so how does that happen? Why don't they reunite sooner? Is it because of scrybe duties or something else? Do any of the other scrybes also have relatives or is P03's dad the main focus?

Sorry for so many questions, I'm just a very curious soul lmao

OH, I'LL GLADLY RAMBLE ABOUT IT. Honestly, the only reason I didn't explain this earlier because I sometimes feel kinda embarrassed about my AUs and ideas djfhfj

So, the AU is called Mystery of the Scrybe and it's actually an AU for my OC, but I'll just focus on P03 here. So first, worldbuilding;

There are two continents that. I am still very much developing. I actually auto-generated a map for it and I wish I altered it a bit more but my potato laptop was having a stroke everytime I wanted to alter something so this is all I've got:

P03 was originally from the larger continent on the right, I'll explain how he got to the other one in a hot second. Anyway, there are actually more than 4 scrybes and they are generally seen as leaders of their communities, are long-living (not actually immortal but close enough) and usually have some sort of power/ability or two relating to what they're the scrybe of. They're way less common on the continent/culture P03 originated from.

So with that down; P03's father is Dr Howard Cook, a brilliant engineer employed by some big corporation. He worked at a lab in a rural area with his colleague Dr Jonathan Johnson and two assistants, Ludwig Lovelace and Clark Harris. Howard was well-off and content in his life; he was a middle-aged man who never really considered starting a family with anyone (acearo rights babyyy) but always wanted to be a father. He eventually decided he really did want a child, but for whatever reason instead of adopting a child he decided to make it instead.

P03 started as a simple AI on a computer that Howard developed with time and made it so that P03 would learn and develop on its own with time. And Jon helped made them, though very reluctantly. Aside from Howard, Clark was the first one to get attached to P03, even when it was a simple AI on a computer, since he's a big sweetheart and it wasn't hard for him to see P03 on the same level as a human child. Then Howard and Jonathan eventually developed a place-holder humanoid body for P03 that it could use to interact with the world. They taught him how to walk and use his hands, and stuff like that, and gave him a LED mask for a face. It was hard for P03 to replicate human speech and expressions at first, so for the time being it would display text on it's face to communicate. Ludwig was the next one to get attached to the little robot, though he showed affection in his own kind of distant way. But seeing P03 behave like a little kid would did make the last two eventually get sold on the idea of this, and they helped raise him. Clark even made P03 a sweater, saying he was worried they'd get cold even when it was explained to him that P03 couldn't perceive temperatures (he's a little dumb but he's got the spirit 💜). P03 very quickly came to consider the other three to be its family too, calling them its uncles.

It was when P03 was about the age of a 12-year-old child that the word of Howard's secret project got out. His employers reasoned that since P03 was developed by him in their lab then it belonged to them and tried to pressure Howard into handing the robot over, while the local people weren't too keen on this pretty isolated weird scientist playing god by creating sentient AIs in their town and wanted to get rid of P03. So, Howard decided it'd be best if they switched locations, for P03's safety, but as they were preparing to leave they were caught off-guard by an angry mob. Howard told his three friends to take P03, some essential things like the blueprints for a future bot he wanted to create (G0lly), and go while he would distract the angry townsfolk. They got a considerable distance away when the three decided they couldn't just let Howard die and needed to get back to him, so they hid P03 and told him to stay put while they went to get his father. That pretty much saved Howard's life, as he was seriously injured, which would leave him disabled for the rest of his life.

But as you can imagine, P03, being a scared kid, did not stay put. I am still unsure about what exactly happened, but he got lost and his caretakers couldn't find him again. After months they concluded P03 was either dead or got kidnapped, and they couldn't do anything. Howard was devastated. He retired early and faked his own death and moved away for his own safety. His three friends did the same and lived with him, eventually taking the roles of his caregivers as his disability and age eventually started getting to him.

Meantime, P03 somehow managed to survive by himself, and eventually made it across the sea to the new continent. He didn't know how to go back home, and part of him was scared to even go back, worried that he might find his family dead or the people that wanted to hurt him would get him. But his dad designed him to learn and develop by himself, so he did, and he started upgrading himself with time. He managed to survive on his own for some years before eventually taking residency in Bottopia, which is a city of its own in this AU, and eventually started training under the resident scrybes there (the uberbots). The three helped it upgrade its body into a more and more human-looking model, just as it wanted, and it actually took traits from his father and uncles to design itself.

But living in Bottopia never quite felt right and eventually, P03 decided to leave to find a place where he'd belong and maybe even become a scrybe in the meantime. Eventually, it decided it'd be a good idea to construct that bot its father was once working on as it still had the blueprints. G0lly was originally designed to be its sibling, and P03 planned to keep it that way, but it did not go according to plan at all. Naturally, being her only caregiver, G0lly started seeing P03 as a parental figure, who eventually relented and accepted his role as her father. He was a bit nervous about it at first, suddenly being very afraid of making any mistakes and fretting over G0lly more than he should; he did prepare himself to raise his sibling, but being a parent instead somehow hit him differently and he wasn't mentally prepared for that. He did eventually come to care for her in a parental way and he mellowed out with time.

He eventually arrived at the archipelago and challenged the three scrybes there. He originally didn't plan to stay there, but they seemed like kind people, the place was nice and G0lly seemed to like it so in the end, he decided to stay there, and the other three scrybes gladly welcomed them as one of their own. They actually helped raise G0lly afterwards, often taking care of her while P03 was working on constructing his factory and bots (who were designed based on its uncles because it's a sappy bastard).

25+ years after the incident that separated him from his family; by this point, P03 has settled in the archipelago and is content there. G0lly was all grown up and became a scrybe of her own, now residing in Bottopia (which P03 was happy about since he trusted she'd be safe with his old friends). P03 would eventually confide in his fellow scrybes and partner about what happened over two decades ago and that partly why he never went back was because he was afraid that he'd find his family dead. But he got bullied convinced by others to go find his father anyway. So, they did, they packed up their old things and set off for a few months.

When he arrived in his hometown, he heard that his father was dead, which obviously devastated him but he still hoped that he could at least find his uncles. Eventually, they found out where they lived and went there. It was an old mansion in the middle of the forest in mountains, far far away from any major cities.

Because of all the shit that went down, they did not take well to unexpected visitors, and Howard's old friends were determined to protect him (after all, they already failed him once and felt the need to make up for losing his kid). So, you can imagine they did not take well to some stranger walking onto their property. All of them obviously aged in the two decades and P03 looked nothing like they did as a child, so none of them recognised each other and this misunderstanding very quickly turned violent.

Howard actually came outside to check out what the fuck was all that ruckus about. Thankfully, he spotted the bag P03 dropped during its attempts at not getting shot by a maniac with a shotgun and the old man immediately recognised the items inside. He tells them to quiet down and then very sternly asks P03 where he'd get these. P03 stumbles over his words for a second, he's still recoiling from almost getting hit in the face with a crowbar (Jon has a mean swing for a twink), but he finally composes himself and goes "It's from my dad and uncles, they gave me these when I was a kid. I'm just looking for them." And at that, they all immediately stop and just look at him in a mix of shock and confusion. Howard's voice breaks as he chokes out "P03?" And the bot blinks in surprise, "How do you know my-" but then it hits them; that voice sounded awfully familiar, older, rougher yet still familiar. "Dad?"

P03 runs up to him and the two embrace, sobbing loudly, just happy to see each other again. After a long while, Howard finally lets his kid go, and P03 immediately goes to hug their uncles. The 5 of them go inside and talk for a long while. P03 finds out that his dad was actually diagnosed with cancer lately and was considered not treating it, but now that P03 is here that thought immediately went out the window; they decide that Howard will sell his house and he and P03's uncles will come live with P03. They don't know how well cancer will respond to treatment, but worst case scenario at least the two of them will get a few months together before Howard passes away.

And that's pretty much where the story's at; P03's family live in the town close to his factory and he comes to visit them every day. G0lly also eventually gets introduced to them.

[owlixx]

Mega Man X6 Thoughts

Wow! It's the first one I refuse to beat!

Gotto the first Secret Lab stage only to find out that I need either the shadow armor or Jump upgrade

I even think there is another jump like this later

That is bad game design (:

I could replay the one stage to get the Jumper part, but I think even that might ironically require the shadow armor which would make me replay 3 stages

Sooo, not doing it

Especially not after the ice level and trash compactor level almost made me lose my sanity

I've only been able to do the xbox versions of these games with easy mode that disables instakill, only for X6 to throw a bunch back in

Or even worse, the way you can get soft locked like in the ice level

I actually was kind of enjoying the part system, except that all the parts I found were all the lame ones

..and the fact that it encouraged me to basically never switch characters

I did enjoy having nice armor from the start and auto shoot/charge

The weapons and mavericks were just okay in this one

The plot is absolute nonsense to me

I hate the long winded maverick intro and Alia's comments on them at the end of the stage

I appreciate at least that you can choose to not pick up the phone when Alia calls every .2 seconds

The charge shot on the Falcon Armor is so much less cool in this game than the charge shot on the Fourth Armor in X5

I do actually really like the branching paths and optional bosses, including the option to skip a good chunk of the mavericks

So far, easily my least favorite home console Mega Man

This would only edge out against some of the handheld titles

God this game has way too much boring, poorly translated text to read, even worse than X5 in that regard. I'll take the bad voice acting any day

It is of course hilarious how little they attempt to explain Zero's reappearance

Personally, I think I'm going to consider X6-8 a separate timeline from Zero-ZX in my head

I hated the stupid High Max fight where you have to hit him with a charged mega buster and then a special weapon. I think the game has never required hot swapping before

I can't believe Dynamo returned, my least favorite character

I did appreciate that I managed to luck into the canon storyline of X5 during my playthrough of it by total chance

Onto Zero 1! Crazy that it released just the next year

[mander3-swish]

Uncle Time Is the Best Time

Written for Faith (@manesframe on tumblr) for the Malex Secret Santa Exchange hosted by @malexsanta​

Summary: Snippets of time that Michael and Alex have spent with their nieces (who are fraternal twins). Written from the prompt - soft domestic malex and/or malex with a kid(s)

Note: Happy Holidays @manesframe! I hope this brings a bit of fluff and cuteness and enough softness your way. Hugs. 

AO3

Alex and Michael loved nearly every second of their time spent with their nieces Stella and Beth. Max and Liz's twin girls were five and just the perfect age for so many fun things. Alex had been a little worried at first when they started having visits without their parents or Auntie Isobel, but Michael had a bit of experience with little kids in a few foster homes, so he at least remembered the basics. Plus, Liz had an EXTENSIVE list of reminders and timelines including that bedtime was at 7:30 (which never happened), explicit instructions for Beth's asthma inhaler (followed to a T). The twins also made sure to pipe in with other rules that always started with "Well Mommy says we have to…" or "Daddy said only if…" It was cute enough, but Uncle Mikey and Uncle Lex didn't hesitate to break some of the rules or try to instill habits in the girls that would annoy their parents. The phrases "Duh" and "jk" were settling in nicely!

***

Even though Alex hadn't been a pilot in the Air Force, he still had a general awe about planes. He noticed the girls did too whenever they were playing outside in the yard. This gave him the idea to show them how to fold paper airplanes once they went back inside for a snack. 

They needed a lot of hands on help, so he started the folds and then had them press them down to make a crisp edge. Once the planes were done, one out of pink paper, the other out of blue, they tested the limits of the planes. There were lots of nose dives, but eventually they got the hang of it when some actually glided through the air.

And then all of a sudden, there was a barrage of paper airplanes of all sorts of designs zooming through the living room. 

"Uncle Mikey!" Stella shouted. Then just as suddenly, the dozen or so paper airplanes stopped and dropped to the ground.

"You caught me," Michael said, coming around the corner, with his hands raised in guilt.

"It looked like Hogwarts in here for a minute," Alex commented. "Neat trick."

"You love all my tricks," Michael said with a wink.

"That I do."

***

The twins were obsessed with Uncle Mikey's hair. He didn't care if they played with it and it ended up frizzy or knotted, just as long as everyone was having fun and they were happy.

They took turns brushing it, or rather fought over it until they had to implement a timer. Michael loved the scritch of the brush across his scalp, it might have even been relaxing had the brush not gotten caught in a tangle sooner rather than later.

It was usually Stella that was kept entertained and focused on his hair the longest. She even gave options for the final look. "Do you want an up-pony, a side-pony, or a regular-pony?"

"Hmmmm," Michael pondered, already used to this line of questioning. "How about a side-pony today?" 

"Good choice," Stella replied, really into the role of playing hairdresser. However, she was only 5 and still terrible at ponytails and braids. Really the best they did was clipping in barrettes.

"Beth, grab me a hand mirror," Stella bellowed when she was done with her masterpiece on Michael's head.

"It's lovely, quite stunning, if I must say," Alex said, snickering as he took a quick picture, surely sending if off to Isobel for a laugh.

Beth passed Stella the mirror, which was then shoved into Michael's face. "Do you just love it, Uncle Mikey?"

"Best side-pony I've ever had." It was, after all, mostly the truth. 

***

As the twins often did, they loved looking to see what was in drawers, standing on tip-toes to see what was on higher shelves they couldn't reach, and opening all the doors to see what was behind them.

On one visit in the summer, they stumbled across a little bag in a drawer that had a bunch of little glass bottles. Most of the contents on the bottles were shades of black, but there were some dark blues and greens, and even a couple that had some shimmer to them. They figured it must be Uncle Lex's stash of nail polish since Stella remembered seeing his nails painted in those pictures of when he was younger.

So they tore into the living room to beg him to paint their nails.

"That tickles!" Beth exclaimed, as Alex brushed a few stripes of polish across her nail.

"That was always my favorite part of painting my nails," Alex replied.

"Can I paint yours, Uncle Lex, pretty please," she begged, giving her best and cutest face to convince him.

"Uh, sure, why not," he agreed. "But, we have to wait until yours are super dry so they don't get smudge, okay?"

"Promise!" 

Beth had a pretty steady hand and didn't do too terribly for a five year old. Alex was rather impressed. 

"You're doing great Beth," Alex said, encouraging her. "Maybe add a little bit more there," he directed, pointing at a nail that needed more coverage.

She got a little over excited and her hand slipped and half of the top of his finger was also covered in black. "Sorry, sorry, sorry…" Beth apologized.

"That's okay sweetie." Alex was already wiping up the excess with a cotton ball doused in nail polish remover. "This is why we always have some of this on hand, and why we go slow." He dabbed at one last spot, "There all fixed up."

"La! Come look!" Beth shouted at her sister. "Look at how pretty I made Lex's fingers!" She was very proud of her work, and Alex was certainly thrilled to have such a nice little bonding moment with her.

***

The girls being TERRIBLE at hide and go seek was an understatement. Both inside the house and when they were out for a nature walk along some trails. However, Stella was definitely improving in some of her hiding spot choices and staying quiet, which was also worrisome if at some point they wouldn't be able to find her.

One time, Alex hid on the bed in the spare room the girls used to take naps on when they were littler (oh how he misses naps). All he did was cover himself up with the throw blanket that was on it, with the door left open. They were up and down the hallway, searching high and low for him. He had to make a little 'you-who' call to get them to follow the sound to his 'stealthy' hiding spot, as if the big lump on the bed was a dead giveaway.

Michael and Alex would also take them on short nature hikes in the desert, nothing too strenuous or long since they didn't want to end up having to give them piggyback rides for too long. 

Alex's comfort level with his newest prosthetic was better than ever, so he and Beth, who always had to be at the front leading the way, ran up ahead and crouched behind some bushes for a little game of hide and seek on the trail.

Twin shouts of "surprise!" and "found you!" came from Beth and Stella once Michael and Stella had caught up to them. 

"Okay, now you count, and we'll hide," Stella directed, and grabbed Uncle Mikey's hand as they tore up the trail to the net hiding spot.

So Beth counted to 20, with Alex helping her a bit from 12 to 16 as she tended to skip a number here and there.

"Ready or not, here we come!" Beth shouted, and then was off like a shot. 

"Beth! Wait for me!" Alex tried to get her to slow down, but it was no use at this point. And she ended up running right past where Michael and Stella were hiding.

"Beth, you're getting colder," Alex advised, a little way of helping her problem solve where to look. "Colder, colder. Okay warmer, warmer," he said as she switched direction.

Once she had spotted her prey, she yelled, "Found you!" This led to groans from the bushes where they had been hiding.

***

Some of their best times together were trying out all of Uncle Alex's instruments! Stella was actually able to memorize Twinkle Twinkle and Happy Birthday on the keyboard after only a couple of quick lessons. It was pretty amazing how little kids could pick stuff up so easily. 

Stella also loved to set up her own drum kit using overturned buckets and pots out of Uncle Mikey's garden shed. Sometimes she'd just be wailing on them for a good half an hour before deciding to go play something else. 

Beth loved playing the harmonica best as it made the loudest noices with the least amount of effort. But she also definitely loved sitting with Alex or Michael, strumming away at the strings on the guitar while whoever she was sitting with placed his fingers for the different chords.

Usually their music sessions devolved in living room dance parties, jamming out to whatever auto beats the girls had found in the keyboard. Sometimes they would even let Alex put on a record to wiggle around to. It was so much fun, and everyone was always exhausted by the end, breathless with smiles and pink cheeks.

***

No one was really sure who was more excited that Stella and Beth would be going for a weekend away with Michael and Alex - the girls, their over-tired parents, or the Uncles themselves.

They don't even remember how it became a thing, but as they drove along the highway, the girls started chanting "Where are we going?" with the reply being "To the cabin!" This repeated a few times and the carful was psyched to be getting a whole weekend away together. 

The cabin didn't have very much room, and Alex and Michael had talked about putting on an addition or building a separate bunk house for the twins or other company. However, that day had not yet arrived, nor were they comfortable leaving them in a separate building since Beth sometimes had some sleeping issues. So they had built them a set of bunk beds in one corner of the master bedroom - re: the only bedroom - that could be moved out once their expansion plans were done. 

Their room was now like a regular old dorm at a hostel, but worse. It was amazing how the girls had been in the cabin for all of ten minutes before their backpacks were opened to rescue their stuffies from, their fuzzy llama slippers were pulled out of their Elsa and Anna luggage, with half the contents of the baggage strewn across the floor.

Stella easily scrambled up to the top bunk, claiming it as her own. Beth was content with the bottom bunk as she was a little bit afraid of heights, but getting better about it the less she thought about it when doing something. The more the both played on the bunk beds, practicing getting up and down different ways, the more everyone was less worried about anyone falling off, especially in the middle of the night.

Everything was a little wild and crazy inside, so Alex clapped his hands before letting everyone know it was time to get dressed to go out and play in the snow! He was hoping the fresh air would tire the girls out and have them be a little less hyper for supper time.

Once they had tracked down Beth's missing mitten - hiding under Michael's coat - they were all ready for the snow. 

There was only a bit of snow, but it was the perfect amount to roll out some snow people. Michael and Alex both started rolling ones for the each of the girls to continue to roll and add snow to. They got them so big that Uncle Mickey was summoned to stack the middle ball on the base. While Beth was rolling the head, Stella and Alex went to collect some rocks and sticks to for the arms and face. They found some perfect branches that looked like they had hands "just like Olaf" on the ends.

Michael pulled off his beanie and placed it on top of the snowman since he didn't really need it anyway. The girls loved it and both wanted to pose for pictures with the finished sculpture to send to their mom and dad. 

Dinnertime was a simple affair. Beth's favorite food was anything with cheese, while Stella was a little bit more open and adventurous in the foods she'd try and eat on the regular. And they both loved helping out in the kitchen, measuring ingredients, stirring and mixing, licking spoons, eating shredded cheese that was ready to go on the homemade pizza or tacos, and they even liked fighting over washing dishes. The washing was minimal at best, it was really playing in the water with bubbles being the motivating factor in helping with that task.

But tonight was mac and cheese. Michael swore that Beth ate more of it than he did. Stella wasn't that far behind.

And even though they had filled up on supper, they both demanded popcorn while they watched an episode of PJ Masks downloaded to their iPad they couldn't leave home without. How could Alex not indulge their cute little faces as they were cuddled up under blankets in their fuzzy pjs. 

***

Michael and Alex felt like teenagers again, sneaking away outside when they knew for sure the girls were asleep and within the window of there being zero chance of anyone waking up. 

They crept back into the main building, and cuddled up themselves in front of the fire that was little more than glowing embers. It was perfect, just feeding off of one another's heat, not needing to do anything or be anywhere.

Soon enough, Michael's head drooped, and he was softly snoring on Alex's shoulder. Alex let him nap for bit before gently kissing him awake and leading him to bed.

[ks-caster]

Beth Liveblogs Black Widow

Bought that premium access on Disney+ so I can have the privilege of pausing for snacks and using subtitles as needed - so let’s go! 

Beth’s Spoiler-Free Review: Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the movie - the plot was compelling, the characters were likable, and the stunts were really excellent. I felt like hair and makeup dropped the ball on realism multiple times which I was sad about, because how she looks seems to be pretty important to Nat so I expected it to be done well in her movie. 

I did not like the way they framed the tail end (denouement - obviously because this movie is mid-series we know how it ends to an extent) - I felt like the connect-up to Infinity War was lackluster, especially compared to how enjoyable and dynamic the rest of the film was.

Spoilery live-reactions are under the cut. Click at own risk! Feel free to rebagel with your own impressions, thoughts, jokes and rebuttals!

The movie begins with a young Nat with blue dyed hair and visible roots, showing her natural red. Do you know how hard it is to get natural red out of hair, enough to make it blue and not green? And I’m supposed to believe that a middle-school age girl in 1995 Ohio had access to these chemicals? I’ll give her the white hair in IW/Endgame because she’s an adult with a lot of experience as a spy altering her appearance. But as a child? In the 90s? While her family is apparently in hiding? Sus.

The scene with Alexei laying on the on the wing while Nat learns to fly? AMAZING stunts. Amazing. AND someone in an action movie is finally smart enough to shoot the tires.

Nice skills on young Nat, getting the gun. Since we know from Endgame that Nat’s father is named Ivan, we know that Alexei isn’t really her dad. She also refers to presumably the red room as going “back.” Was she lent out to these agents to legitimize their family?

-0-

Nice knife moves, Yelena - I love the hand switch.

Ooooh so she was being mind controlled and the red stuff freed her? Interesting.

-0-

Nat is in Norway - visit Thor! He’d love to have you. (I’m mixing up my timeline, aren’t I?)

Supplies Dude whose name I didn’t catch refers to the Avengers breakup as a divorce - I kinda love it. It’s accurate!

BUDAPEST omg are we finally going to get the story?? Are we??

Box dye? I’m supposed to believe she got all that red out of her hair with flippin’ Loreal? Really? And that toner isn’t even the color she ultimately went - it’s too yellow. Sus.

-0-

Oop, looks like Nat got caught up in Yelena’s desertion.

Do not give Nat your metal frisbee, robocop - she’s been around Steve long enough that she knows how to use it.

I laughed out loud when she did the string him up thing with the cables - literal spider move, I love it!

Mystery box is empty - classic bait and switch.

-0-

BUDAPEST - WE ARE IN BUDAPEST - IT’S HAPPENING PEOPLE

Nat closing the door behind her is a small thing but I appreciate it - no sneaking up behind her.

When Yelena throws Nat in the kitchen and her feet hit the door and she spins before she hits the ground? That was a helluva stunt.

Oooooh honey. No body left to check is ALWAYS movie code for they lived.

Dreykov’s daughter? Another hint from Avengers 2012? C’mon, movie.

Riding the chimney down? Another incredible stunt. 

Dreykov can scan his soldiers’ bodies and terminate them if they’re too damaged to keep fighting? Big yikes. With Nat where she is character development wise, the stakes are now much higher because if she injures an opponent they may be killed remotely.

“Do you want me to chase him down and un-steal it?”

The car door under the bike was an excellent stunt - as was the car going into the subway. Though I’ve never seen a subway entrance big enough to admit a car.

Who hasn’t wanted to slide down the middle to avoid the crowded escalators lol.

Yelena making fun of Nat’s sexy poses I am LIVING omg.

Running water for wounds. RUNNING WATER. NOT ALCOHOL. The vodka goes on the INSIDE for the pain - the running water cleans the OUTSIDE. If there’s a convenience store then there’s a bathroom, with running water. Cleansing with something like alcohol is a LAST RESORT and you do not look like you’re at that point resource-wise. I thought these ladies were supposed to be highly trained in all of the things?

“Could be fun though.” “I saw where he put the keys” “Top drawer green cabinet.” I love their chaos.

Yelena’s vest and its pockets and the resulting conversation are positively majestic.

“You are sensitive.” “You’re a very annoying person.”

-0-

Do! Not! Move! Around! Like! That! While! Getting! A! Tattoo!!!! That poor artist was trying his best and Alexei just...

Ooooh was Red Guardian like Captain Russia? Interesting.

“Just don’t make a scene.” “You made a scene didn’t you.”

David Harbor running up that wall and then wiping out after the guard shocks him... I really loved that stunt, especially since they don’t show him being all super cut - he’s a big guy! He’s allowed to have fat over his muscles and still be a strong dude! I love it.

“Such a poser.” Girl, you need to meet Loki - he does a lot of hair flips too lol.

The sibling energy between the girls during the rescue!!!

“Whooooooa... this would be a cool way to die.” Yelena, I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you but get your head in the game girl.

Poor Alexei - he never gets to do the dramatic escape from *inside* of the aircraft.

Hang on, no ovaries? So all of these women are now in immediate, surgically-induced menopause? The uterus part makes sense if the intent was to prevent them from getting pregnant if they have sex during a mission, but, what, they gotta be on estrogen supplements for the rest of their lives? That’s just really poor planning. Like it was hilarious the way Yelena went into the biology of it to make Alexei uncomfortable, but that really doesn’t make sense to do to your superhero kids. It’s just bad science.

Love that Yelena keeps her vest even after she changes into her matching white flight suit. That vest better make it to the end of the movie.

-0-

“Honey, we’re home.” I 100% expected her to shoot him on sight tbh. it would have been funny.

Alexei squeezing into the uniform is such a post-pandemic feel. Also all of the fancy braids at that table; I see where Natasha got her propensity for them.

Animal cruelty warning, ugh. Poor piggy Alexei.

Oooh the photo album and Natasha remembered staging the pictures; they’re emotional for her but in a different way.

I wonder if robocop’s shield is actually Alexei’s.

The singing between Alexei and Yelena was a really beautiful moment because it was neither auto-tuned-good nor hilariously bad - it felt really real, especially the way Yelena’s so choked up she can barely make sounds come out.

Uh-oh, mama has one of those monitor your vitals and kill your ass suits. The suits I understand - the eyeliner though... when and why did she do her makeup?? That’s not really the thing that comes to mind for me when I’m getting ready to do something athletic, like say kidnapping my supersoldier fake family.

“This is a much less cool way to die.” Also WTF why would they do that. Wouldn’t it be easier to get the information out of her while her brain is still attached to, y’know, her mouth??

CLEVER CLEVER CLEVER they switched outfits and faces ooooooh like mother like daughter.

The door opening as Alexei is leaning against it dramatically bahahahaha

I love the plan. I’m thoroughly weirded out that Melina has a red wig just lying around that perfectly immitates Natasha though. 

“Yelena, it’s mama. You have a two-inch blade in your belt.”

Oh. My. God.

Antonia.

A pheromone lock preventing them from hurting them if they’re close enough to smell him - I like it. It’s clever and new.

Bahahaha poser! You posed I saw you! Still love the vest.

Natasha is really good at manipulating people’s emotions to get what she wants - I mean, scary good. So if she’s provoking Dreykov into beating her up, there’s a reason. 

“Using the only resource the world has too much of - girls.” Kill him. 

-0-

When I say I whooped out loud... SEVERING THE NERVE. Thank you for your cooperation. YAAAAAAS QUEEN.

-0-

“Slight change of plans - we are going into a controlled crash.” The way she said that was just so mom-like omg!

-0-

The grenade as a delivery system was super smart - but yikes what if she’d mistimed it and blew Natasha up? Also, after the beating she took and how hard she had to wack her own face into the desk to sever her olfactory nerve and the amout of blood we saw her leave behind from doing that, her face should be a LOT more messed up, come on makeup department.

“Get as far away from here as possible.” And then keep going because General I-Collect-Supersoldiers-Like-Stamps Ross is about to turn up at your location looking for trouble and he’d snap you ladies up like there’s a fire sale and you’re going out of stock.

This crash doesn’t look all that controlled, Melina. I’m starting to suspect that most of the widows won’t live long enough to make their own decisions...

All of the aerial stunts were amaaaaaazing - the way Nat slowed herself by sliding down the panels so Antonia could catch up with her and she could deploy her parachute... 

The vest survived the movie!!!

Fuuuuuck Ross is showing up and he sucks and I hate him and I’m super worried that he’s gonna take the vest from Nat if he takes her into custody. Please don’t let her lose the vest. 

Okay, there is now zero reason for Nat to stay behind. They have an aircraft. She had plenty of time to just board it and leave?

-0-

Okay okay okay Ross did not get her and did not take the vest. But am I supposed to believe she bleached her hair, toned it blonde, and then re-bleached and re-toned it to silver? Who does that? That would be terrible for her hair. Her scalp would be burned all to hell from the amount of chemicals needed to not only get all that red out but THEN get the blonde toner out. Y’know what color silver toner is? Blue/purple. Y’know what happens when you mix that with yellow? Green. And not a nice green either (I speak from experience). No. Her hair at the end of the movie? Cancelled. 

-0-

SHE GOT THE DOG!!!

Oh, ouch. Big ouch. I hurt like a lot now. This is so not an okay way to end the -

...

Countess I-Forgot-Your-Name-Already?

Oh no. Oh no. That’s worse. That’s a lot worse. We are now setting up the Hawkeye series and I while I’m horrified that this was how they ended the film, I gotta say that’s going to make for some wonderful angst in that series on both Clint and Yelena’s parts and I am here for it!

OVERALL IMPRESSION

I really, really enjoyed this movie, I thought the story was compelling, the stunts were really excellent, and I liked the character dynamics and the twist

I did not like the ending - it just sort of fell off quickly and didn’t feel satisfying after an otherwise really fun movie. I also take issue with the hair and makeup as shown among the characters, as seen in my several rants to that effect.

I would have liked to have seen a few more childhood/training flashbacks, and absolutely would have loved a cameo from Jeremy Renner (not just his voice) and to see him and Nat meeting and him giving her the whole dad speech that he does so well - bonus points if she could have then quoted him to Yelena or Antonia, showing the way that multiple people had a formative effect on her (an answer to the “The Avengers aren’t really your family either” comment).

[light-n-dark-au]

TW Zombie apocalypse and everything that comes with it

Alrighty! I'm moving the lore posts over here now, Hope you guys don't mind-

Fleeing The Complex

Depending on which ending you got in Infiltrating The Airship you can end up in three different starting scenarios!

Ruthless Bounty Hunter (RBH)

Henry stays under the Lights protection for a few months, staying with Charles since he didn't really have anywhere else to stay and Charles offered his place.

Before Charles and Rupert managed to rope Henry into their small rebellion against the misinformation the light government was spreading.(This is why they changed) Charles had become infected whilst out hunting for supplies with Rupert, but before Charles could convince Rupert to end him a Grey appeared and convinced them both to have Charles take the CCC's medicine. It saved his life, they've been planning some sort of escape/rebellion ever since.

They tried to spread their word discreetly at first but as their numbers grew they began to get cocky and tried a full on "peaceful" march...it didn't end well-

People began rioting and the Disciplinary squad had to get involved, Rupert was killed in the chaos and both Charles and Henry were arrested.

The Light government are planning on executing Charles along with the other members they managed to arrest as an example...Henry was going to be sent to the CCC.

The New Member (TNM)

A Toppat double agent (Ellie) was discovered and imprisoned by the Lights so Reg ordered Henry and a group of Darks to go rescue her. The mission didn't go too well and Henry was captured...the rest were killed.

The Lights were planning on selling poor Henry back to the CCC.

The Freed (TF)

After finding out they had been betrayed the Lights began hunting Henry and his small group down.

They put a bounty on his head that no one could refuse...even a few Greys were going after the group.

Whilst running away from a group of Light scavengers Dave tripped over a root, before anyone could do anything one of the Lights was pointing a gun at Dave's head.

They demanded for Henry to be passed over or they would kill poor Dave.

So Henry willingly allowed himself to be captured...much to the dismay of his new friends/family.

.....

Ellie is a double agent working to recruit new members into Darks ranks from the "doubters" of the Lights side.

She managed to keep a low profile for a while, until she was caught after trying to recruit a generals daughter.

The Wall is Lights most secure building. It's mostly used to hold Lights most dangerous "criminals" but it also holds important supplies like food and ammo.

The Light's city's have taken up most of America... So the food bank Henry tried to steal from was for a small town...The Wall brings supplies to Light's largest city-

Convict Allies/Ghost Inmate

RBH: Charles is the one who gives Henry the leg up during this timeline.

If Henry leaves them both then the ending will play out normally...however afterwards he finds out that Charles had been executed. Unknowingly to him however Ellie manages to escape, swearing revenge on the man who left his allie to die.

However if Henry pulls them both up (He cannot leave Ellie behind...even if he tried Charles would pull her up instead, because he's nice? Idk-)

The ending plays out normally until after the end...where Ellie offers a place in Darks ranks, Henry refuses of course because he knows for a fact the group would kill him on sight after what he did to Reg but allows Charles to leave with Ellie.

Charles doesn't really want to leave his friend behind so he also denies her offer.

Ellie then decides to travel with them...she still wants to help the "doubters" trapped within the Lights walls...the other two agree to this and they begin their self assigned mission.

TNM: Leaving Ellie behind results in a fail ("Remember your mission...Jerk-")

Convict Allies ends with the duo being picked up by the Toppats after escaping on their motorcycle.

TF: Ghost Inmate plays out normally until Henry gets to the end...turns out Henrys group is coming to rescue him as he can see a helicopter in the distance, Henry uses the dingy to get to them.

Convict Allies plays out in a similar manor. During the riot a damaged helicopter is seen flying over the field and crash landing into a nearby forest.

After escaping on the motorcycle they drive over. Luckily most of the group is relatively unharmed, the most serious injury was Charles concussion...however Hubert didn't make it.

After getting shot down by a guy with a gun Charles prepared the others for an emergency landing. The others strapped in, but Charles was having trouble with strapping himself in, so Hubert went to help him with it, but couldn't get himself strapped in before impact...

The group bury the general before moving on...

Presumed Dead

RBH: Henry runs off suddenly... Leaving Charles behind. The ending plays out normally.

However behind the scenes, Charles and Ellie use the distraction Henrys escape caused to escape themselves...Charles isn't too pleased at being left behind...

TNM: Auto fail ("Do.Not.Leave.Ellie.Behind.")

TF: The ending plays out normally until the car chase scene, Henry spots a familiar looking helicopter crash landing into the forest next to him.

The ending continues and after Henry pulls himself over the ledge...he goes to check on his friends...

Meanwhile the guards are going over to check on the other crashed vehicle, Rupert noticed the guards coming for them and got the others to leave without burying Hubert...he rigged the helicopter to blow in order to make sure the guards didn't follow them...unfortunately this worked on Henry as well...and he believed his friends were dead-

As they believed him to be dead-

Rescued

RBH: Auto fail!

Charles is executed and Henry is given back to the CCC, The option is renamed "Give Up" during this timeline- ("Well...that was smart")

TNM: Option unavailable

TF: The ending plays out normally... However since there were three gun trained men on the aircraft Rupert manages to take out the rocket launcher guy...so the correct option is switched-

The Sacrificed/Betrayed

RBH: :)

TNM: Henry uses the laser cutter to first free Ellie who is convineintly in the cell next to him, before cutting into the floor below.

The ending plays out normally after this until Henry is riding his scooter towards the airship.

Reg only manages to grab Henrys hand and Henry has to grab Ellie's, Reg states that he can't hold onto them both so Henry has to choose who lives.....

For The Sacrificed ending Henry pulls Ellie onto the edge of the platform Reg is standing on before his hand slips out of Regs and Henry falls into the ocean.

For The Betrayed ending Henry let's Ellie's hand slip out of his...Reg believes it to be an accident, or that Ellie sacrificed herself for Henry...but she knows the truth...HE let her fall-

TF: option unavailable

Whooo boi that was a long one!!!

Though I do have a lot of endings to play with now-

Onto Completing The Mission!!!

(Also If you have any ideas for uh...the different endings plz tell me, my creative juices are running out- I will give you credit for em! Honest!)

[sparrowkingsley]

I'm Not Okay

Laurel had been awake for hours. Her mind was on overload. Sleep eluded her as she glanced at her phone over and over checking the time. After three hours of restlessness she had gotten up. Her body exhausted but her mind forcing it to move.

She couldn't stop thinking about the conversation that her and her mom had. What did she want? What did she want to do?

As a kid her interests were many yet sometimes so fleeting. Although she was a master at martial arts she didn't want a career in that. Oplympic fame had seemed cool but ultimately unexciting to her heart's desire. As a kid she had wanted to be a pirate, not a career her parents would want her to pursue to say the least.

Treasure hunting. Time jumping. Exploration was what she really wanted. Hadn't she just wrecked her best chance at that though? Would she be able to finish the Legend Program now? Would she even get back her time license? Most importantly what would this mean for her time with Heywood?

Heywood. Another dilemma her mind was fixated on.

It's not like Laurel hadn't noticed. Sure a lot of times she missed social cues. Her mind usually pulled her away from the things right in front of her. Distracted or overwhelmed by her own mind she usually annoyed most people. But not Heywood. Heywood always put up with her.

The looks they shared had changed recently or rather maybe she had just began to notice. She remembered feeling this change before when she had started to date Josh freshman year. He and her had been close and their relationship had went from, "he is a really great guy to hang out with" to "I really want to kiss him".

Before him she never even really thought about wanting someone to kiss her. It was confusing that she didn't want what other high school classmates seemed to. Then things changed when she connected with Josh.

Two months later it was over. Logically Laurel knew it wasn't her fault. As they spent less and less time together, Josh focusing on track and her devoting so much energy on her time schemes, the feelings had just dwindled away.

She tried to figure it out. Hoped they could work it out. Except she couldn't. She couldn't change things back to how they were when they started. So she broke it off and she lost him. Lost their connection and then lost their friendship.

So now, with Heywood, her best friend, the person she trusted and cared about more than anyone else ... if she ruined things with her? She couldn't lose her. She just couldn't.

Steady vibrations of a familiar sound pulled her away from her worries.

"Hey Sprout, you hungry?."

Her bullfrog continued his bellows till she dumped a few crickets into his large tank. As he hopped out of the water to devour them Laurel began to feed her other pets as well. Grab more crickets for Luna, her leopard gecko and her chameleon Judo. Open up her mini fridge for her scorpion Calypso's meal worms and one large, thawed rat for Sunshine, her boa.

As she opened up Sunshine's enclosure the snake slunk her head out demanding Laurel's affection. Laurel let the snake climb up her arm, up to her shoulders, the snake's tongue flickering against her cheek as she began to sing 'You are my Sunshine' softly. Sunshine satisfied with the attention then willing slid back into her home to enjoy her meal.

Now what?

Laurel tried to distract herself from thoughts of her best friend. Push ups. Sit ups. Pull ups. A few rounds with her punching bag. Still her mind wandered to the same thoughts.

Punch. Those amber eyes that were warmer than sunshine. Punch. Her long, wavy locks of brown hair that she pulled into a ponytail whenever they sparred together. Punch. What about the fact Heywood had three inches on her. Punch. Their height difference was just infuriating and she never was gonna stop teasing her about it. Punch. The way she would switch from English to Korean and back again and not even realize how amazing that was. Punch! And her singing voice, her singing gave Laurel chills no matter what song it was. Punch, punch! Her laugh was just the same. No it was even better! Punch, punch! When Heywood laughed it gave her the best feeling in the world. Punch, Punch! It was the most beautiful sound in the universe. Nothing could ever replace it. Punch, punch!

And it was all- Punch! Punch, Punch! PUNCHPUNCHPUNCHPUNCHPUNCH!

It was all too much.

Just too much.

Think about something else. Anything else. Anything but her.

Laurel threw off her combat gloves, wiped off her sweat with a towel, then made her way downstairs. Maybe she could distract herself by eating something? She figured she could at least try at this point.

"Good morning, Laurel."

Laurel practically jumped out of her skin when she rounded the corner and saw that Ava was already in the kitchen.

"Oh fu- oh um hey mom. You're up early? What time is it? I mean it's Saturday and usually you and Momma sleep in on Saturday so, wait... it's Saturday right?"

"It is 6:32 am on Saturday, October 6th 204-!"

"Um okay mom, chill with the play by play of our current timezone okay. I get it. I'm grounded. Stuck in this time till my community service is over. Geezzz, you don't have to rub it in."

"Very well dear. Would you like to eat breakfast together? I am preparing something special for you."

"Um, sure? If you want."

Laurel was super puzzled by the way her mother was acting. She was super stiff this morning. Like she was on auto pilot. What was more odd was that she was dressed in her pantsuit. Which she rarely ever wore anymore except when meeting with the Time Tribunal or helping out on timeline case.

Laurel began to dig her way into the fridge, "Are you meeting some of your time cop buddies today or like are you and mom doing some nostalgic role-playing thing? Cause if so I don't actually want to know about it. But like if you are please make sure to play your annoying music super loud okay. I don't need to hear you getting sweet with each other like ever."

"Sara is at the dojo. She is with a client this morning."

Laurel froze. Did she just... did her mom just call her momma Sara? She slowly pulled a jar of peanut butter out the fridge and turned around to look at her.

"Um? Are you and mom fighting?"

Ava pulled a cooking sheet out of the oven, not even looking up at her, "Your mother and I are fine, honey. Why do you ask?"

"Cause you rarely call her by her first name. And yesterday you both seemed fine so like, did you get into an argument about my situation or something?"

"Of course not, sweetie."

Laurel opened up the silverware drawer and grabbed a spoon. Something was off. Laurel felt her gut twist into a knot of uneasiness. Then she saw what her mom was pulling out of the oven and the pit in her stomach only grew.

"If nothing is wrong why are you making snickerdoodles at 6:30 something in the morning? You only bake them this early when you are upset or your mind is on something. Mom, seriously what is going on?"

"Nothing is going on. I made them for you. They are your favorite after all. I thought you might enjoy them since you will be stuck at home for the time being."

Laurel opened the jar of peanut butter. She swirled the spoon around for a bit. Her foot tapped as she watched her mom set the cookies on the cooling rack and turn off the oven. She couldn't hold it in any longer. She really needed her mom.

"Mom, I was wondering if we could maybe talk? It's about, well it's about me and um Heywood. I know I said nothing was going on between us but I, I really need your advice."

"Of course, kiddo. Ask me anything you need to."

Her throat tightened. Her fingers clenched against the jar. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. A chill ran down her spine. All because of one word her mom had just said. "Kiddo?"

"Yes. Kiddo. Do you no longer like to be called that term of endearment?"

Laurel blinked. Once. Twice. And for a few moments just started at Ava. Afraid to look away.

"Hey mom... can you look at me for a second?"

Ava looked up. Her eyes looking straight into Laurel's as she took a huge spoonful of peanut butter into her mouth and immediately put it back into the jar.

"Yes dear?"

Laurel took a few moments to swallow the peanut butter. Silence settling uneasy between them. Tension set into Laurel as she leaned against the countertop.

"You know, I've always been an obnoxiously clever kid. Over the years I have found a lot of ways to intentionally annoy my parents. Years of practice you see. So I'm going to break down a few things for you, okay? My mom, Ava, absolutely hates when I eat directly out of the jar of peanut butter. Seriously it is one of her greatest pet peeves. She likes to call me by a lot of embarrassingly cutesy nicknames. Things like sweetie, honey and her little beam of sunshine when she wants to really irk me. But fun fact only my Momma, Sara, calls me kiddo. Interesting, right? So I'm going to give you one chance. Just one to answer me before things get ugly. Where are my moms and who the fuck are you?"

Next thing Laurel knew the person who most certainly was not her mother was diving across the countertop. She immediately defended herself. Starting by using a jar of peanut butter followed by a right hook to her opponent's face. She was going to thank her mom later for insisting on buying the organic peanut butter in a glass jar.

The imposter had recovered quickly, grabbing a kitchen knife as they began to square off with each other. Laurel had scooped up the closest item near her. A rolling pin that had been knocked off the counter at the initial struggle. Not the ideal weapon. Laurel would make it work.

"It is a shame that you discovered the truth so quickly. This means I must aquire or terminate you at this time. Stand down or perish."

"Not gonna happen. I'm going to take you down. You will tell me where my parents are."

"An unacceptable outcome."

How many times had she sparred with her moms. Countless times. Sometimes for hours at a time. They had drilled into her ways to fight. They taught her how to defend, attack, to adapt to all the things she might have to face. Except what was right in front of her. Someone trying to kill her. Someone who was wearing her mother's face.

Sweat trickled down her neck as she bobbed and weaved waiting on a opening to strike. The blade thunked against the wood of the pin as she blocked strike after strike. The sound of it sending trembles down her whole body as she backed her way into the living room to gain more open space. Tight in the kitchen her movements had been constricted. Now she could move freely and she took the opportunity to switch to the offensive.

Everything was fast. Her body and mind in sync with the furious thumping of her heart. Adrenaline pushed her forward as the knife dug deep into the rolling pin. Then she pulled it back, ripping the knife out the hand of her enemy giving her the full opening she needed. One jab to the chest followed by a roundhouse kick right to the face. That is how she should have won.

Pinning her down Laurel had grabbed her by the collar. Her other fist was raised to strike again. She had been ready to demand where her family was. She had been willing to do whatever it would take. Till she saw the necklace. It was a result from her first heist.  A jade frog she had spent actual time on to carve with the help of Axl for weeks. She had made three of them. One for herself, one for Sara and one for Ava. It wasn't supposed to be there. It shouldn't have been there. She had froze.

That's how she ended up on her back instead. Wheezing for breath as she looked into eyes that pretended to be ones she had known all her life. It didn't feel real yet it was happening. Her fingers grasping at hands closing around her throat. Her thrashing slowing down against her will.  The darkness seeping into her vision. Laurel was going to die. Her time had run out.

[orangeoctopi7]

A Nostalgia Trip

: Chapter 1 : Chapter 2 : Chapter 3 :

The end of the school day finally rolled around, and the twins met up at the STNLYMBL. Stan's bag was noticeably heavier and bulkier than it had been this morning. 

“Take a look through there and make sure I got everything you need.” Stan said as he handed his pack over to Ford.

The scientist pulled out three different sized spools of copper/nickel solder, and a thin, almost needle-like soldering iron.

“And these are the smallest spools they had?”

“Smallest I could find.”

Ford sighed. “I shouldn’t be surprised, it’s an auto-shop in a high school. I’ll make it work.”

It was an unusually warm day for January, and they drove home in the melting slush. “Wait, stop here!” Ford commanded as they passed the beach. “I’m going to need fine sand for molding.”

Stan pulled into a nearby parking lot. Luckily he had a shovel in the trunk of his car, although he couldn’t remember why, and they found an empty paint can in a nearby dumpster they could use as a bucket.

Ford strode purposefully down to the edge of the surf, where the finest sand would be, when a dark shape at the corner of his eye caught his attention.

"Oh…" he breathed when he turned and saw several tarps that concealed what they were protecting from the wind and snow. He knew exactly what was underneath.

Stan came to a stop beside him, eyes locked on the same tarp-covered shape sitting just far enough up the beach that no waves reached it. They stood there in silence for a solid minute, their errand to collect sand completely forgotten.

"Great…" Stan finally spoke, reaching up and wiping his eyes with the back of his coat sleeve. "Guess it's my turn to get hijacked by hormones."

"Do… do you want to go give her a look over?" Ford asked hesitantly, "For old time's sake?"

Stan just nodded mutely.

They two of them strode solemnly to the tarp and gently removed the layers, revealing the almost-completed Stan’o’war underneath. It was so much smaller than either of them remembered, not even half the size of the repurposed tugboat they’d turned into the Stan’o’war II. The little schooner was just big enough to hold two teenage boys who had reached their full height, but not their full girth. 

Stan reached down and picked up the neatly folded sail sitting at the base of the mast. They’d originally just used some old bedsheets they had ‘rescued’ from the trash, but after doing some research and tests, Ford had found the soft, thin fabric wouldn’t hold up under the strain of a sail. So, over the past three years, they had been hunting down and saving every scrap of sturdy canvas they could find. Stan’d had to carefully stitch them together. That was when he’d first learned how to sew, a skill that had come in handy when he was living on the road, and when cobbling things together for the Mystery Shack.

Ford was appreciating the worn wood of the mast. When they’d first found the wrecked hull as children, most of the structure had rotted out, and they’d had to find a way to replace and attach new wood to the old planks and boards. He had researched old ship-building techniques, and learned a lot about woodworking along the way. He remembered using those woodworking techniques a lot later in life, to make repairs to his research cabin that would later become the Mystery Shack, and to build shelter, transportation, and weapons as he traveled the multiverse.

“D-d’you know what happened to her?” Stan eventually asked, pulling them out of their thoughts.

“...I’m not quite sure.” Ford admitted. “I know mom kept it because Shermie liked to play on it when he was little, but I didn’t ever go home after I got my degree, so… I don’t know what happened after he grew up.”

“Hmm.” Stan grunted in reply. He wasn’t sure what to feel about that. Should they call Shermie once they were out of this, and ask him what happened to it? Or was Stan better off not knowing?

The two of them stood in a pensive silence, taking in this unexpected opportunity to see their old childhood project one more time. They probably could have stayed there all evening, reminiscing and appreciating the hard work they’d put into the schooner, but it was winter, and the sun went down early in the afternoon. As the sun dropped, so did the temperatures.

“Come on, we’d better get that fine sand before we completely lose the light.” Ford finally said, pulling himself away.

* * *

Once they returned home, Ford traced out tiny circuit lines in the sand with a toothpick he'd filed to a fine point. He then melted the solder spool into the miniscule mold. 

"Ok, that will need to set all night, then I'll have to pick out all the sand grains and file down all the points and areas where it's leaked out of the mold."

"And how long will that take?" Stan asked.

"As long as I don't break it while I'm filing, another day."

"And if you do break it while filing?"

"Then I'll have to start over again and melt a new circuit into the mold. If I had a smaller soldering iron, I could just piece it back together, but this one is too big and clumsy."

"So what I'm hearing is we're not gettin' back to our own time before my boxing match with Crampelter tomorrow."

"Probably not."

"Heh, looks like I get to pound that bully's face in one more time."

Ford turned away from his work desk. "I almost wish we could switch places for that."

"It's not worth the hassle." Stan shook his head. "Besides, I dunno if I have the heart to do that again after… y'know, last time."

"I did say almost." 

They shared a small chuckle, and Ford started climbing up to the top bunk.

“Kinda early for bed. Especially for you.”

“I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Yeah, me either.”

“And I didn’t bounce back from it nearly as well as I thought I would.”

“Guess all that junk they say about teenagers needin’ more sleep is true.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

* * *

Going to bed earlier seemed to have helped Ford’s mood, come morning. He wasn’t nearly as groggy and grumpy as he had been yesterday. He still insisted that Stan stop by the doughnut shop on the boardwalk for coffee on the way to school, but he at least had the good sense to swipe enough coins out of the change jar at home to pay for it himself.

Stan, for his part, seemed a little more confident going into school today. Perhaps it was because he was looking forward to the boxing match tonight. It was something familiar, something he and everyone else knew he was good at. 

It was another day of trying to lay low. Another day of coasting through classes. No one seemed suspicious of them. No one seemed to notice how Stan was actually answering questions in their math and science classes. No one seemed to notice that Ford actually managed to climb all the way to the top of the rope in PE. Stan wondered about it out loud to his brother at lunch.

“I believe it’s the timeline resisting change.” Ford mused quietly. “We know changing the greater flow of time is difficult, even when someone is actively attempting to change the past. So far, we’ve been going out of our way to keep things more-or-less the same, so perhaps the time stream just… diverts their attention elsewhere. It makes me wonder: what kind of enormous act would it take to make people notice? To actually alter the flow of time?”

“Ford, we’re not gonna test that theory.” 

“No, of course not. Not on this trip at least.”

Stan rolled his eyes. “I’d prefer not on any trip, but honestly I’d be worried there was something wrong with you if you didn’t say something like that.”

[vibraniumlass]

It's been a little more than a week now, and you still don't seem to be regaining your memories. That hasn't stopped you from trying to figure your situation out, however!

You've covered just about every inch of your ship you can reasonably get to, and found all sorts of things. In the cargo area, for example, there's actually a form of Alchemizer, along with a small booklet full of 'recipes' that would be helpful for a long flight. The most helpful of which seems to be an emergency type of fuel. Not good for going warp-speeds apparently, but something to prevent you from getting stranded out in the middle of space.

Actually, there were a lot of booklets and journals all over this ship, and unlike exploring you haven't actually given them the hard look-over they need. It wasn't that you didn't want to, more like.... it was really hard to focus. It didn't help you had a head injury! Too much focus on handwritten words and your headaches would resurface. And gosh, you've been so tired! It's not as bad as your narcolepsy use to be back when Vriska was fucking with you as kids, but you still would find yourself getting aggressively sleepy and needing to nap more often than you'd like.

Out of the few journals you have read, you did discover a few things. For one, it seemed like you were on some sort of mission? Connecting different worlds through.... something, though you still haven't found any dated back far enough that actually explains what that something is. Maybe it was just giving out coordinates? Or maybe it had something to do with the science junk in the below deck closet-thing. You did find some blueprints while digging around down there.

But speaking of coordinates, you also found out something rather grave. Your transportalizer is fucked. Okay, well maybe not fucked fucked, but it wasn't nearly as useful as a normal transportalizer would be! You get it, you're in a space ship, you don't exactly have set coordinates for the thing. Instead it has a sort of key number other people have to type in to 'synch' up with yours. Then it can be used freely as long as it's synched. Which means unless you get in contact with someone back home, yeah, it's not going to be helping you get there any time soon.

And on the note of people back home, you figure your phone (which you found in your room) would be real good for that but apparently???? It doesn't have service????? You don't even understand why you brought the stupid thing into space if it wouldn't be able to connect to anything!!!!

OH an don't even get you started on how fucking cryptic all of the electronics in this stupid ship actually are!!!!!!!!! WHY? WHY DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO BE ENCRYPTED? You can't even check out your pictures in your own phone and you're not even sure how you(?) did that. And again, it would be easy enough to fix if you just. Remembered passwords. You've tried everything written in the address book from before, but nothing worked. You're almost wondering if you might have done it, at least with your phone, before your concussion kicked in. Maybe in defense of whatever had clocked you in the head? Cause with as forgetful as you are, not writing down the pin number feels..... really dumb on your part.

The computer terminal on the other hand, you don't actually think was your doing. Most things that you can tell came from you seem to be okay? You actually found a really cute selfie on there. And it was your youtube account that was logged in last, which you can chalk up to where most of your down time has gone the last week. You also seem to have pesterchum installed, but no matter how often you've tried to reach out to people, no one is answering. To be fair, no one really used pesterchum anymore. You wouldn't be surprised if no one actually had it installed. And Tumblr, while nice, didn’t seem to have folks from your timeline. At least, you’d assume you’d already be following them if that was the case.

Still.... whoever you were traveling with apparently liked keeping their shit private, or had some reason to lock it all down before shit hit the fan in a way you think you might have with your phone, but.... you don't think they'd leave all your content high-and-dry would they? So maybe it was just being cagey. Speaking of, you've ruled out most of your friends as travel companions at this point. Sure god-tiers could go for a long time without food or water if they really needed to but you're like pretty sure they'd still want to use the bathroom to like. Shower, or something, right? So it's either a sprite, someone who's (now?) a robot, or you're just stuck on this ship all by your lonesome.

All in all, you feel like you're starting to exhaust your options. And the ship's auto pilot still hasn't gotten you to where it was taking you. You've tried comparing coordinates listed on your various maps but nothing was lining up. To be honest, you are kinda starting to worry about fuel. Sure you can make the emergency fuel but like. How do you even put that into the ship while traveling? Would you need to land first? Is there like a liminal space reststop planet somewhere out here??

It was giving you a lot of anxiety to be honest, and to add to things, you actually found a flight manual while digging around the cockpit! You've read though some of it, it was all pretty technical and also made your head hurt! But you think you get the gist. You're definitely planning to read more, but the frustrating part is you don't want to.... well, practice what you're reading, not until you get wherever it is your ship is heading. You don't want to accidently throw yourself off course! And then there's warp-speed, something you learned about while reading. It was great for getting from point A to point B relatively quickly instead of days (or weeks!) at a time, but it ate through fuel so quickly and you're sitting just below half a tank now.

You could go ahead and switch the ship into warp-speed? But what if you still don't make it and you strand yourself? And you still didn't know where you were going.

Still, if there was one fun thing you learned from the manual, this ship has guns! Apparently space pirates are a thing Jake was worried about enough to include them. (You blame Vriska, personally) But though checking them out, you have been able to get a viewfinder of the back of your ship when aiming behind you. You'd need to have the ship in autopilot or have someone else steering while using the rotary gun so not as useful as the front-facing laser ones the pilot can shoot. But hey, you can check to see if anyone is chasing you this way! And lucky for you, there doesn't seem to be.

[vandorens-archive]

hi! i wanted to ask if you had any recommendations for free writing programs for computers? up until now ive been writing on my phone, so switching to desktop to find out google docs are paid for was a bit of a disappointment.. thank you for your time!

hello nonnie! i’m more than happy to help you! personally, i would recommend google docs, which is the only writing software i have ever used. last i checked, you only have to pay for it if you want the ‘business’ package, and the average user can use it for free, as i have been doing, but if that is an issue for you, there’s no need to fret! here are some free writing programs i found on a cursory search on the internet: 

writemonkey — i have tried out writemonkey before, and i can attest that it is really, really helpful! it has handy keyboard shortcuts, the ability to organise files, and even an excellent outlining feature! the only drawback to it is that you need to have some knowledge of markdown (a text to html conversion tool), making it more suitable for writing blog posts and such rather than hobby writing.

libreoffice writer — if you need an alternative to microsoft word, libreoffice writer is the software for you. it has pretty much all the features of a word processor, along with editing tools, a dictionary and a thesaurus. 

focuswriter — get easily distracted by your surroundings or the internet when you’re writing? then focuswriter is the one for you. it has a full-screen interface that helps block out all on-screen distractions. it also has an auto save function and helps you keep track of your progress (and also has an option where you can add typewriter effects just for the hell of it, which, hey, i think is pretty neat). however, it isn’t really recommended if you want to edit your work, and is more designed to just get the words down. 

evernote — evernote, a classic app for the organised student, but you can also use it to arrange your writing and any notes you make for it, and best of all, it has a mobile app, so you can take your writing with you wherever you go! you can scan documents—which, if you’re the type to make mind maps or any other visuals aids for outlining or writing, is perfect—and a powerful organisational system that can sort your documents based on title, keyword, date made.etc. the basic version of it is free on both desktop and mobile, while the premium version is around eight dollars.

causality — causality is a writing program made with screenwriters in mind. it allows you to plot out timelines and visualise key moments—useful for complex works. it has both a free version and a paid version, however the free version limits the space one can use to write their script, making it more suitable for a ‘it is three am and i must write an award winning script now’ type of project rather than a film franchise.

i hope you found what you needed nonnie! feel free to send me another ask or a message if you need anything else!