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ye-olde-norrington-stan · 3 years

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I would like to hear about your OCs?? If you would like to share??? (no pressure of course haha)

Ahhh omg yes of course!! Thank you so much for asking! It might not be the most indepth coherent description but I'll try!! I'm super focused on my Star Wars OC right now, I feel like I can talk about her pretty well so I'll tell you about her. I've had her the longest, created her when I was 12 and she has a super special place in my heart 🥺🥺.

Her name is Doctor Xirea Nath, she's a human that lives on Tatooine. She's a doctor based out of Mos Espa but she has a small office in Mos Eisley as well because even a hive of scum and villainy deserves access to compassionate medical care! She travels a lot too, that's just the nature of being a medical professional in a place like that. She passes through the remote tiny settlements as often as she's able to make sure they have what they need.

She has a medical droid nurse named Fritz, that her dad bought broken from some Jawas and fixed up, thought it took a lot of tinkering and Xirea's mom joked that the droid was always on the fritz. The name stuck and Fritz hasn't been on the fritz since Xirea's dad got them in tip top shape. Fritz always offers patients lollipops and stickers no matter their age.

Xirea's mother Tili Nath was a doctor and Xirea grew up assisting in her mother's practice while her father, Zias Nath ran his mechanic shop. Small family, Xirea doesn't have siblings, no aunts or uncles and Zias' folks died before she was born. Her maternal grandparents were still in the picture when she was young, they were moisture farmers and Tili grew the herbs she used for certain remedies in the small hydroponic garden her parent's had from the surplus water gathered by their vaporators.

Tili Nath died in a speeder accident when Xirea was 17 and the loss sent Zias spiraling down in grief, he went from occasionally enjoying a drink socially to drinking heavily every day while a gambling habit he'd beaten as a youth came back in full force, all in an effort to try to distract himself from the pain of loosing the love of his life. Xirea went to assist in Doctor Mandible's practice while continuing her medical education in the hopes that someday she would be able to reopen her mother's practice. She took care of her father as best she could, trying to guide him from the self destructive path he was walking down and help him cope with the pain, but the only help he'd accept was hangover remedies, telling her not to worry about him.

A few years after Xirea lost her mom, her father was killed in a bar fight. She thought it had to be over gambling, debts her father couldn't pay but she learned that it was a hot shot hot headed pod racer that killed her dad merely because he stumbled into him and made him spill his drink. It's the first time she felt a very strong desire to do harm and also the first and last time she ever enlisted the services of a bounty hunter. She hired Boba Fett to kill the guy that murdered her father.

She's known Boba since he first showed up on Tatooine trying to make a name for himself. They're the same age and she was one of the first locals Boba befriended. Boba sometimes was severe about Xirea's kind and nurturing ways Boba but secretly appreciated them. They might have been more than friends if Xirea didn't only have eyes for her childhood sweetheart, Brentil Motto, neighbor that ended up becoming a mechanic in her dad's shop and took over running the shop when Zias' drinking really got out of control.

Boba took the job, remembering a time when Zias hadn't been consumed by grief. He'd liked him well enough, appreciated his skills as a mechanic and had felt a twinge of anger and disappointment upon learning of Zias' demise. Boba didn't take the job for free but he certainly relished the hunt more than usual, and maybe channeled his need to avenge his own father a bit in helping Xirea avenge her own.

Xirea went on to reopen her mother's practice, though she continued to work closely with Doctor Mandible and to this day they have monthly medical symposiums. Xirea and Brentil married in their mid twenties in a small ceremony attended by their nearest and dearest. There were good times and bad, Xirea's grandfather passed from a stroke shortly after the wedding, her grandmother selling the farm and moving to a small home in the city, becoming a bar tender in one of the cantinas. Xirea and Brentil often played sabacc in that cantina with Brentil's sister Peli and Doctor Mandible, though Xirea also spent her spare time making sculptures out of scrap metal.

Xirea looks back on those years with a mixture of tears and smiles, lots of grief but lots of happiness too. She cherished every moment she had with Brentil and when she lost him to cancer just six years after getting married, she was bitter and closed off for a long time, threw herself into work and her sculptures, hardly socialized outside of work, but her grandmother, Peli and Doctor Mandible wouldn't stand for it, slowly but surely helping her navigate through the grief in a way she wished she could have helped her father figure out. Even Boba helped, the two of them discussing loss at length, the way the pain of it is ever changing, never really leaving and the ways to cope with that.

Loss still hurts, but she far more accepting of it now. Life on Tatooine is going to be harsh and hard but there's beauty and joy to be found there too. Even at her lowest she never lost her compassion when treating patients and has become one of Tatooine's best doctors. Her sculptures haven't really caught on and some of her friends give her a hard time about them but Xirea loves creating so she'll keep at it.

Ahhhh this was a big info dumb, I really hope it's interesting to you and anyone else that happens to read!!

When I was a kiddo I did write a silly fanfic where Xirea parched up Boba's hurt after he escaped the Sarlaac pit and they fell in luuuuv but it's lost to time and was very ridiculous so I'm not sure I'd share it even if I did still have a copy lolololol. I may revisit the idea, idk! More likely I'll just watch The Book of Boba Fett and maybe see if I can work Xirea into things.

#thank you so much!#this really made my day #sorry it took a little bit to reply #had to string together some coherent thoughts #OC #Xirea Nath #Star Wars

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basementdwellercreaturefeature · 4 years

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You suck so bad and I fucking love you for it.

@tevinter-pariah said something that got me both excited and depressed at the same time: “Anders is everything that people fear about mages while trying to prove that they aren’t to be feared.”

Goddamn. The irony here is exquisite and why I so thoroughly enjoy this franchise. It’s ripe with this kind of shit. The cruel dichotomy we see in so many Dragon Age characters are why I keep falling deeper and deeper in love with it and its why I wheeze for my favorite shifty apostates. Especially my wife, Morrigan, who is my wife and we are married as she is my wife. Allow me this moment to rhapsodize about my favorite magical fuck-ups. Starting with the sewer doctor, moving on to the swamp witch and then finally the ethereal egg.

Now, I could talk about Anders all day and frankly I kind of do. That man is irony walking around in a trench coat, pretending to be human. His desire to remove the stigma about mages leads him down a hellspiral in which all he does is increase the stigma about mages. In an attempt to start a revolution and fight for mage freedom, he inadvertently increases the prevalence of fear-based ideology against mages that makes them cling to their Circles more and supports public opinion that they are imbalanced and dangerous. Anders does more for anti-mage sentiment than most Templars do in a lifetime and it makes me want to both punch the shit out of him and give him a hug because that is the last thing he ever intended.

The tragic irony here is both life-giving and devastating and it makes me feel a lot of shit and write a lot of blog posts. Justice enables him with the fortitude to take action for mage-rights, but the influence of Justice drives him toward a No Compromise™ solution that is so disconnected and extreme it entirely undermines his cause. It practically puts me in a coma thinking of post-Kirkwall Anders, a man who we are shown has immense compassion, realizing that he sacrificed lives in hopes of the ends justifying the means and then nothing changes it only gets worse for mages.

He really sucks.

And my wife, Morrigan, who is my wife, is both harsh and gentle, cold and inviting, powerful and weak. She almost took my Warden’s goddamn kid from him and it broke my heart but man, her arrogance is somehow endearing because its so often sourced in uncertainty. The deeper you go, the more you want to reach out and offer a comforting embrace to the woman who struggles with both knowing too much and too little all at once. No, you don’t try to change her. You shouldn’t, she can change on her own. But you want to be there for her while she tears through the tangle of her own emotions, to see the untrusting swamp witch open for you when you earn it. So much of what drives Morrigan is being different from Flemythal but so much of what she does she only does because of what Flemythal herself instilled in her.

In Origins, she is innocent of so many things. Human interaction, friendships, romantic relationships, the human-built world around her. Yet she is filled with vast lore knowledge and is both wise and willing to lend you that knowledge when you need it. She is capable of childish innocence and exceptional cruelty (ex. kittens holy cow). Morrigan is only able to keep Kieran safe for as long as she is because of the knowledge she gained from the one she is protecting him from. By the time we see her in DAI, she determined to be different than her mother but is still driven toward restoration of old magics and old histories based on the values instilled in her in her childhood. In so many ways, she has grown and changed. In others? Not so much. She still knows how to manipulate, she still can be cruel, she is more concerned with gaining access to the power of the Well than protecting the culture that created it. For someone who loves ancient lore, she is willing to shit on it to get her way.

She really sucks.

Solas is... different. I don’t have the kind of affection for him per say that I do for Morrigan and Anders. For them, I want safe spaces and soft whispers and great sex and the kind of laughter that makes their stomache ache. For Solas? I want to lock him in an Eluvian without access to the Crossroads somehow so he dies alone, gazing through the glass at a world and a woman he will never touch again. No, I am not bitter why would you think that. Honestly, I struggle with a pretty intense hatred toward the Dread Egg and find it hard to empathize with his plight after he revealed his intentions for Thedas. It isn’t a plight I find sympathetic, it downright turns me into a rage beast and I am often prone to frantically smashing my keyboard about him, staring the sentence off with “let me tell you about this mother fucker” or something of the like. But as a writer? I worship that elf. Patrick, your employment of the iam keeps me h y d r a t e d. That same exquisite tragic irony is present in everything Solas does. In his desire to restore, he destroys. In his desire to remedy, he creates more complication. It’s this heartbreaking destructive cycle that never ceases to enthrall me narratively. He is weighted with regret for a cycle he perpetuates, both sure of himself and desperately divided. He is the smartest stupid person there is. In an effort to bury the tyranny of the Evanuris, he himself becomes tyrannical in his refusal to allow the people of Thedas agency in their own fate. He is cruel and kind, humble and prideful, intelligent and foolish, childlike in his enjoyment of the sensual and austere in his refusal to engage in it. Solas is the man lighting his own pants on fire screaming, “Only I can fix it!” at the top of his lungs, as the team has put it. How can you not enjoy a villain like that?

He also really sucks.

But its because the shifty apostates suck so hard that I love them so much, and in Morrigan and Anders case, why I am so deeply attached to them and what happens to them. I am new to the Dragon Age fandom and new to fandom culture in general, and I see something in this fandom that puzzles me exceedingly. Support is often equated to full acceptance and criticism is often equated to complete condemnation. I can recognize that Morrigan is cruel and selfish and still love her wit and strength and resilience. Similarly, I can recognize that Anders is reckless and self-righteous and immature and still appreciate how compassionate he is and his taste in cat names. With Solas, I can admire the eloquence of his writing and the subtle egg snark and his passionate nature while still recognizing that he is elitist and dangerous and a threatening antagonist.

Being positive or negative in commentary is not about romanticizing a character or demonizing them, in my opinion. To me, it should be more about what view am I taking here? Am I looking through a lens of understanding in a desire to empathize? Or am I looking through the lens of critique to try to be more objective? Believe it or not, I can love Fenris and Anders, Alistair and Loghain. I can be anti-Circle while still recognizing the validity of them as an institution. I can be proud to be a Grey Warden while also highly critical of Duncan and the tactics of the Wardens in general. In the morally grey world of Thedas, a black and white view doesn’t really allow you to experience the full range of everything being offered. Let’s try to be more gay and more gray.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk, have some killer piece by @withoutafuss because it really is one of the best Dragon Age pieces out there.

#meta #mage rights #dragon age #morrigan #anders #solas #critical #positive #honestly dont know how to tag this shit #tumblr confuses me #fandom #dragon age confessions

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nekoannie-chan · 4 years

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Unexpected jealousy

Pairing: Steve Rogers X Reader.

Word count: 1111 words.

Summary: The mission was perfect until Steve didn’t follow the orders.

Warnings: some smut references, nothing explicit, jealous.

A/N: This is my entry to the @jbbuckybarnes ‘ Writing Challenge with prompt #12:

“All you had to do was NOT start a fight on an UNDERCOVER mission”

Also is my entry to the @hopingforbarnes ‘s Lucy’s 250 Writing Challenge with the dialogue prompt #2:

“You’re gonna do what?”

“I SAID if he opens his mouth one more time I’m gonna shove my gun up so far up his as-”

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English, if you notice any mistake please let me know and I will correct it.

I don’t give any kind of permission that my fics be posted in other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don’t steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other’s people. The only exception is the ones I gifted ‘cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and is not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own Marvel’s characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

My other media where I publish: Wattpad, Ao3, ffnet.

If you like it please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

You had achieved the objective of the mission, however, the plan you had could not be carried out, thanks to the jealousy of your boyfriend Steve; which was completely unexpected for everyone, and he never acted like this.

The mission was simple, something routine, you had planned it so well that there was no way that something could go wrong or you could not achieve the objective, it was practically the perfect plan ... or at least that was what you believed.

An undercover mission to obtain information and a few resources that were useful to S.H.I.E.L.D. on other missions or to stop more enemies, however, it was something you had already done hundreds or thousands of times in the past.

Being the only girl on the team, usually, in those types of missions, you had to be the “partner” of your companions, sometimes you had to use your charms, the advantage was that you always took care of you and protected you.

This time, the plan you made included that you and Brock had to pretend you were a couple in order to get closer to the head of the organization and get what you needed.

At the time of planning, Steve showed no objection or resistance, so the way he had acted took everyone by surprise.

You enter easily sneak into the club and strike up a friendly conversation, everything seemed to go according to plan.

"I have a proposal for you," the chief said.

"What is?" You asked curiously.

The man smiled and put a hand on your shoulder.

"I will give you a little of my secret as long as the three of us go to one of the rooms to have fun," he suggested as he stroked your arm.

You and Brock looked like you were trying to decide whether or not it was time to talk to the rest of the team.

"I think you need a moment," he said before retiring for a few minutes.

"We'll have to use the alternative plan," Brock said.

"If we don't accept we won't get anything, we just have to follow the plan, you have everything, right?"

“Of course.”

"We have no other choice."

“I agree”

Brock went to talk to the boss, then you approached, you went to the room, you managed to get everything under control, in fact, Brock was about to gag the guy when the door opened and Steve entered.

“But what…?

Out of nowhere, Steve knocked the guy unconscious, causing you and Brock to look confused.

“What are you doing here? You had to wait for our signal, everything was under control, and we already got almost everything we needed “Brock demanded.

Steve ignored it, so you proceeded to take things and took the guy with you, the rest of the team kept the rest of the place under control when you saw that Steve had entered.

You were silent on the return trip until you decided to speak.

“How will we explain what happened?”

"It's all Rumlow’s fault," Steve attacked.

"No, it's all your fault Rogers, we had it under control" Brock replied.

The two men started arguing again, you were already getting tired, you needed them to shut up in order to think, you couldn't believe you were acting like little children fighting over candy.

“All you had to do was NOT start a fight on an UNDERCOVER mission!”

The two fell silent and turned to see you, not knowing exactly what to say to defend themselves.

“We are no longer in high school to make these scenes, mature! You continued.

"Rumlow just wants to sleep with you," Steve complained.

You let out a groan stifled by despair, you had started fighting again, and you were already frustrated.

"If he opens his mouth one more time I'm going to shove my gun up his ass to shut him up," Brock threatened.

"You're gonna do what?" You asked.

“I SAID if he opens his mouth one more time I'm gonna shove my gun up so far up his as-”

You slapped the two of them to shut up already, causing the rest of the team to startle and the two of them looking confused.

"I’m tired, you are supposed to be adults, I will make the report and all of you are going to read it and that is what officially happened during this mission and I don’t want any complaints or anything else, understood?".

Everyone around you nodded without daring to contradict you, you had never seen you angry.

"And if you don't like it next time you two were a couple or go on a mission just the two of you," you threatened.

With that, the fight ended, as soon as you and Steve arrived at the house you started working on the report.

"Honey, I'm sorry about what happened, it's that I can't tolerate him being around you," Steve apologized.

"You know I love you," you replied without taking your eyes off the computer.

“I know but...”

"But Steve nothing, the mission could end badly" you interrupted him.

In one movement you closed the computer, the report was already finished and you had sent it to everyone on the team. You turned to face Steve, who was looking at you with his typical puppy look, he never liked that you got mad at him.

"I'm sorry," he apologized.

You saw him without changing the expression on your face, in fact, it seemed to him that he was trying to look completely like a scolded puppy to try to soften you.

"Jealous," you murmured.

His attitude was beginning to take effect on you, you were beginning to make an effort not to kiss him.

"Truly love, I'm sorry, you're the only one that matters to me and I'm worried that something bad could happen to you," she said.

“What would have happened if the mission had gone wrong because of your interference?”

"I would have protected you, seriously," he replied.

You made a gesture of exasperation, you got up to leave when he stopped you.

"Forgive me, I don't like that you're angry," she said, starting to fill your face with little kisses.

You couldn't resist anymore and you kissed him.

"You are so beautiful," he said, pulling apart a little.

"You are the only one I love," you assured him.

“Me too, I would do anything to remedy it," he said, giving you small kisses on the lips.

"Anything?" You asked maliciously.

He understood, he carried you to the room you shared and closed the door, he had a lot of work to do to fix his mistake.

#jbbuckybarnesBirthdayChallenge #hopingforbarnes250writtingchallenge #writing challenge #Steve Rogers #steve rogers one shot #steve rogers fic #steve rogers fanfiction #steve x reader #steve x y/n #steve x you #captain america #captain america fic #captain america fanfiction #captain america x you #captain america one shot #marvel fanfiction #marvel fic #marvel one shot

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drunklander · 4 years

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Drunj!Der Yells About Outlander

Thoughts on Ep. 502

Watched this episode after winning Wynonna Earp trivia (fuck yeah, The Shit Tickets!) at a bar, put on by a queer af podcast, followed by going to see a queer af movie, and was all ready to get my Beauchamp fix... And it was like oh here’s a taste and a hint that we’re gonna end up in a story line similar to what we’ve already done multiple times, but now on to the menfolk.

For real though, this episode was like an OL greatest hits clip show. It had all the stuff we’ve seen before. A time traveler who wants to go home? Check. Rape PTSD? Check. A man being a dad to a kid who isn’t/might not be his? Check. That same man being the absolute worst? Check. Claire being reckless with future medicine? Check. Townsfolk questioning Claire’s medical knowledge in favor of the local Man of Importance? Check. Jamie trying to be on both sides at once? Check. A villain who seemed to have died the previous season and should have fucking stayed dead? Check.

We’ve literally seen all of this stuff before.

For a show that spent the first part of season two claiming to be a political drama and then last season claiming that they “weren’t political” I see we’re back to just leaning hard into politics that have direct parallels today.

No fucks left to give about the system Murtz is kind of my favorite Murtz. Like this dude spent his whole life living by a code and an oath and was fucked over by the system so many fucking times that he’s ready to just burn it all down. Curious to see how they walk the domestic terrorist vs. freedom fighter line with him for the rest of the season.

Got all excited about the bread title card because yay medicinal mold, but of course, the lead character was relegated to the B story.

Old timey medicine baffles me. Like the fact that bleeding someone was like a catchall remedy boggles the mind.

I feel rull bad for Mrs. Whoeverthefuck though. She tried.

Also, shit like this makes me be like, yo Claire, you sure you wanna stay here? Jamie’s really not all that and a bag of chips. But you do you, boo.

Speaking of Jamie, his hair looks really good. A thousand fruit baskets to the new wig person.

Lulz at Knox thinking the Gathering was about being loyal to king and country. Dummy.

Srsly though, Murtz Valmurtz is really getting under their skin. Is he like the *only* Regulator leader?

The convo between Knox and Jamie is literally as relevant today as it is in the 1770s. But yeah, the show IsN’t PoLiTiCaL.

The fact that fuckers think those at the bottom should be happy with their lot because “lol it could be worse” need to be punched in the face and taken out of power. Stat.

Also any time someone in power talks about civility as a reason not to rise up against injustice, I want to punch them. Because they deserve it.

I want to punch a lot of things.

This whole episode is very Les Mis, tbh.

Literalol at Claire covering dead guy’s face and not his body cavity before Bree comes in.

Aw Bree, why you gotta be a buzzkill? We were cheated of badass Doctor!Claire in S3. Let us have this.

Also, yeah, Claire, Bree’s fucking right. Which you’d think you’d know by now what with alL THE FUCKING TIMES YOU’VE BEEN CALLED A WITCH. AND NOW YOU’RE UPPING YOUR GAME TO LIKE NECROMANCY?!

Also the more she says no one will find out the more annoying it is because *clearly* someone *is* gonna find out and we’re gonna be back on the “she’s a witch!” “I’m not a witch!” “you literally have a dead guy in your closet!” merry-go-round again.

Today in most on-the-nose shots ever: How convenient that Marsali just happens to be doing some butchering right there, right then.

Petition for the show to go full Shondaland and just turn into a backwoods medical drama with Claire and Marsali, and all the others (cough the men cough) can fuck on off.

Tarring and feathering is like the old timey version of #AlwaysPunchAFascist but dialed to 11.

Oh the baggage behind Jamie saying redcoat man will someday wear his scars with honor that none of these fuckers know about...

Ok so clearly the English know that Claire’s a doctor so whenever shit hits the witchy dead dude fan, can we please have a quick resolution and not that dumb af “Claire goes to jail and of course her cellmate is a lesbian because Diana sucks at writing queer characters” nonsense?

Man Jamie is *not* subtle with this convo at the jail. Like Knox is right there and he’s just like hey buddies, I have people and we’re Scottish and y’know how we feel about protecting people vs. obeying the English.

I AM SPARTACUS FITZGIBBONS!

Aaand, naturally, the fuckwit preaching civility is the one to kill a man in cold blood. Rise up, motherfuckers. Rise up.

THANK FUCK ROGER IS A TERRIBLE SHOT BECAUSE IF THAT SQUIRREL DIED I WOULD LEGIT QUIT THE SHOW. RUN AWAY AND BE FREEEEEE YOU PRECIOUS LIL WILDERNESS FLOOFER!

Roger is, and I cannot stress this enough, the fucking worst.

He’s like look how shitty I am at being a soldier but then bitches about having to try to learn. And then he bitches about how dumb it is to shoot at squirrels as if being able to hit a squirrel wouldn’t make hitting a much larger thing, like a man who is shooting back at you, that much easier. And also, how the fuck does he think they get meat to eat? Shooting it, you twatwaffle.

And he’s like so fucking butthurt about being left behind. Like no shit, asshat. You’re bad at being in the past and have made no real effort and you whine a lot and are generally the worst. Of *course* you were left behind. Stop being emo about it and maybe actually try.

“He doesn’t respect me, Bree.” Yeah, no shit. Because you’ve done LITERALLY NOTHING to earn his respect. WHY ARE YOU SO TERRIBLE IT’S LIKE THEY’RE INTENTIONALLY TRYING TO MAKE HIM SUCK.

He also is like butthurt that his wife is a better shot than him when she gets the turkey he misses. How the fuck are we supposed to ship this. Ugh.

#BreeDeservesBetter

Oh Bree, sweetie, Jem won’t get hit by a car, but there are like eleventy million ways to die in the past. Just stick with the “you want to stay with your family” stuff.

Roger clearly doesn’t want to stay and is gonna pull a Fred and make Bree feel bad about wanting to all season, isn’t he. Fahkin’ doucherocket.

“I want to go but I’ll stay for you and look how magnanimous I am as I whine about it and make no effort to acclimate to the time.” Take your martyr card and shove it, Rog.

Shorter Jamie Fraser: “If you stand for nothing, Knox, what’ll you fall for?”

I’m already over Roger singing all the time tbh. Mostly because it reminds me that soon he won’t be able to do that anymore and we’re gonna be subjected to like half a season of him being more insufferable than he already is.

Wait, was Joan already born last episode? Or was there another time jump? Is Marsali preggers with baby #3? I lost track.

I love this scene between Claire and Marsali with my whole heart. Marsali especially.

CAN WE PLEASE JUST HAVE A WHOLE SHOW OF THESE TWO BEING ALL BADASS AND DOCTORY TOGETHER!?

Although, quick question, how fucking long is Claire planning to keep that un-embalmed body lying around in an un-refrigerated surgery/root cellar? Just curious...

Because you know someone’s gonna find it eventually and that’s gonna be a whole to do and I really need to stop being preemptively annoyed at plot lines that haven’t actually happened yet.

And with all this talk of plowshares and swords, I really am going to be singing Les Mis for days...

How long have these biddies been living on the Ridge? The fucking Leoch folks spent like a minute with Claire before they were like yep, she knows what’s up. These folks have apparently been here for months and are like loool, pass. They live in the fucking woods. You’d think they’d be more open to Claire’s brand of medicine.

Omg are they like the accidental antivaxxers of the Ridge?

#VaccinateYourFuckingKids

I mean, Bree, I think there’s some difference between Claire pretending to be a dude doc and telling folks to wash their hands and Otter Tooth.

Season 2 Claire and Otter Tooth on the other hand...

Ok so Jamie needs more men so that means next week is AHS: Beardsley Farm and then maybe (hopefully) instead of being like lol jk you can all go home, it actually goes right into the battle thing. Still not sure if they’re gonna do Roger getting hanged as the mid-season big thingy and then do the Bonnet nonsense in the back half or keep trying to do both of those at once.

Hey, Roger, pro-tip, next time you see Morag MacKenzie, maybe don’t fuCKING MAKE OUT WITH HER YOU FUCKING DUMBASS.

Claire’s totally right about how they should go back. Honestly, they should. But instead of talking with her like Claire is now with Roger, he’s just being all moody about how he’s bad at the past and wants to go back. You’re shooting yourself in the foot, broski.

Oh hey Husband the Quaker. And is that a fellow Quaker named Hunter with him? Are we gonna get Denny and Rachel this season?! Please and thank you that’d be great, I love them.

Murtz talking to his squad is full on Enjolras being like don’t worry fam, Marius will stand and fight with us. His place is there, he’ll fight with you.

The two very different but very similar ways Murtz and Jamie approach being Laird of their squads is fun to explore.

Bree lecturing Claire about changing the future by saving a few backwater hicks like Claire didn’t spend years trying to fucking change all of Scottish history is a bit rich. Like writers, we get it, you’re trying to be like oh snap, wait for the consequences of this bread!science! But like come the fuck on. We sat through all of season two.

“You’re a good dad, you know that?” Oh man, I’m getting that déjà vu about a shitty man getting kudos for being a good dad to a kid as if that negates all of his shittiness.

Oh hey, Bonnet’s back. Clearly we couldn’t have just let him die last season. Gotta drag shit on for longer than it has to. This is the [Outlander] Way.

If they were gonna keep him around as a villain, they shouldn’t have (in addition to all the other reasons) included him raping Bree. Jamie, Murtagh and Bonnet all making choices within and outside of the law to various degrees in order to make their living in the Colonies would be a really interesting contrast. But nope, gotta just go all in. BeCaUsE tHe BoOk.

Also I hate with the passion of a thousand fiery suns the Jemmy’s paternity stuff. Le sigh.

Remember in season one when the show was about Claire and she was in episodes for longer than 10 minutes?

I miss Claire.

#*#outlander starz #outlander 5x02 #drunj!der yells about outlander

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joycequinn · 3 years

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An Inside Check out the DigitalMarketer Editorial Refine

We yap right here about the content procedure for content marketing, specifically exactly how to record your messages in a content schedule. But we wished to break down what this looks like in practice. After all, we intend to instruct you reliable techniques, emphasis on the tried part.

And also because we have actually just recently settled a sleek new content procedure, I believed it was the best time to take you via it, reveal you some examples, and with any luck motivate you to take your content calendar to the next level.

But initially, I wish to discuss why this also important in any way.

Why an Editorial Schedule

This is NOT the very first time DigitalMarketing has covered the advantages of a content calendar Consulting Selling. As well as directly, I am a significant, major fan. And creating an editorial schedule does not need to be complicated or difficult. Yet it is very important.

In fact, maintaining a well-organized content schedule can make or damage your material procedure, particularly if you are a larger group (or a one-person team), as well as even more if you are trying to integrate linking methods like the Material Cluster Method.

See, the technique is tracking points. The whole objective of a content schedule is monitoring the important things that are necessary to YOUR organization. By documenting vital information regarding your post or content, you enable on your own to:

1. Area as well as fill topic holes

2. Know what key words you've targeted in the past

3. Easily navigate to older articles

4. Locate old posts that are good to upgrade

5. Track relationships in between website traffic changes and what you have actually released

6. Plan days, weeks, as well as also months ahead of time

7. Conveniently discover articles for internal connecting

Yet knowing something is very important as well as in fact doing that crucial point are 2 entirely various ball games. This is why I'm providing you the within scoop on just how we, the DigitalMarketer web content team, maintain our editorial schedule in line and our process running efficiently. Well, as efficiently as it can.

What We've Tried

But before we enter the meat of it, I wish to quickly break down a couple of the other things we have actually attempted in the past and why they really did not function. That way, you can pick up from our errors rather than needing to make them on your own.

1. Monday.com

Currently I have nothing versus Monday. It can be a really effective and also structured job management system. However when we attempted to integrate our content procedure right into Monday, it simply kind of failed.

Part of the problem was human (isn't it always?). Our group was merely bad at relocating things around, as well as considering that not every person on the web content group used the program routinely, we ran into an issue with maintaining it as much as date.

We likewise tried to get Monday to do something that it just had not been well matched for: long term paperwork. Trying to scroll through hundreds of concepts, and after that numerous already published articles was complicated and unpleasant. It simply really did not jive with us the method we desired it to.

So when you seek a software remedy, see to it you are discovering a program that your whole team is excited about and will utilize consistently.

2. Simply Making Use Of the Google Sheet

Remember the Ed Schedule sheet I showed you prior to? Yeah, there was a while, a long period of time actually, where that was all we had. And also it was really, actually fantastic for the specific thing Monday was not terrific for: long-term documents.

Yet trying to arrange the actual web content development procedure in a 1000-row Google Sheet was nearly impossible. And when we really did not have any other services, we simply really did not document the development procedure.

That was working with what as well as the status of any given blog post lived just in my head. And if you've ever before been in my head, it can be a messy and also chaotic place. So I would certainly-- extra frequently than I would love to admit-- lose track of articles or neglect whether an article had been modified.

Clearly, this was not sustainable.Then earlier this year, one of the content team members found this article, that talked about using Trello, a job administration software program, for an editorial calendar. Much of us had actually already been utilizing Trello for our very own individual order of business, but once we saw its operations abilities, we knew we had to try it.

And also now we're hooked.

What We Utilize Currently

I recognized, when we began our schedule in Trello, that I didn't intend to encounter the troubles we would certainly had with Monday, so I selected a 2 pronged method.

Then, we have our documentation archive in our preferred Google Sheet.

And also to demonstrate how this process works, we can comply with the actual course this specific message took in its development. It will obtain very meta.

Every one of our articles start in the exact same location. Ideation. Someone has a thought, or brings a client material demand, or I see a void in our web content, and we publish it in the ideation checklist in the Trello board.

When we decide that, yes, we are in fact going to write as well as release that message, it carries on to the rundown (usually if it is an external writer) or the writing stage. The card for that message obtains a little even more information in this stage, like a description and also a label (labels can be any classification you intend to track-- as an example we label content based on its end goal, like cluster or marketing or enjoyable) and a production checklist, so employee recognize when it is their rely on take the baton.

When the article is written, it keeps moving down the line to editing, obtains a publish day, and then mosts likely to Plan Development. The bundle is what we send out to the boss of uploading the blog post. It generally contains the SEO details, record file, and any type of images for the post.

Some of these use paid Power-Ups, like the due date (you'll see this in action momentarily) and the personalized areas. Yet I will show you exactly how you can do similar things without paying any type of money later in this post.

Then, the uploader puts it into WordPress and either schedules or immediately publishes the article, moving the Trello card down the line respectively.

When the message is all published, we ensure to record all of the essential information (URL, keyword phrase, web content collection, writer, day, CTA, and so on) in the Content Calendar Google Sheet. In this way, we can conveniently do a command-F search to find the post in the future.

When it involves arranging out messages in the future, we use the Schedule Powerup in Trello, which lets me establish the "due date" i.e. the release day.

That is our content process! This is still a fairly new process for us, so chances are, we will face kinks and find spaces as we continue to utilize it, yet no procedure needs to be fixed.

And given that some of our process included paid tools, I wished to break down some complimentary means to obtain the very same results.

Free vs Paid Company

Material marketing is something every brand name can as well as should succeed. Yet I know that for lots of organizations, the concept of investing a number of cash into something that is more of a long game when it comes to ROI can be far-fetched.

So in order to maintain the obstacle to entrance low, right here are a few ways you can obtain the very same results without investing a lots of cash (or in this instance, any kind of cash).

While we do utilize paid Power-Ups, like the Calendar, Custom Area, and also even Slack alerts, none of this is required for an operating Trello editorial calendar.

Rather than using customized fields for marking keyword phrases and also author as well as such, basically every one of that info in the Description area for an article card.

And also rather than making use of the calendar Power-Up, utilize a good-old-fashioned white board to write out when posts are releasing, or simply add them right into the archive Google Sheet ahead of time, if you like digital documentation.

Whatever your spending plan, and regardless of what your company is, preserving your editorial process and documenting your content's info is mosting likely to assist you develop better content faster. So get out there as well as set up your very own editorial procedure so you can fly even additionally in your material marketing efforts.

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brightly-painted-canvas · 5 years

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Hi! I've noticed you wrote rami and joe being roommates in one italian joe fic and i love the idea!!!! Do you mind sharing maybe more hcs?

Hi! Sorry for being so late >.(since I couldn’t finish today and tomorrow’s entries for the Sledgefu week, I figured I could at least reply to your request that was sitting for some time in my ask box)(it still took some time to write ‘cause I tend to get a lot invested in these things… hope you don’t mind!)

It all starts because Rami has to move to NYC to film Mr Robot and the flat he had decided to rent for the first months in the city is suddenly no more available (for an unlucky coincidence of bad maintenance from the previous owners, delay on reparation works from the current owner and Rami’s lack of time to get directly involved in these matters) and he has to ask to his New Yorker friends for a place to crash, promising it would be only for the time it takes for his flat to get fixed

of course Joe is the first friend to reply and the most enthusiastic one because he’s like that and he’s always there to lend a hand

of course (2) Rami’s own flat’s works get delayed over and over again and at the end he’s finishing shooting S1 of Mr Robot and he’s still living with Joe (and loving the shit out of their shared routine)

since the first week of their cohabitation, Joe has Rami saved under ‘Roomie Malek’ on his phone (and finds it hilarious, thank you very much)

he steals Rami’s phone at some point and saves himself as ‘Joe Roommazello’ (also hilarious, he’s born to make great puns)

Rami never changes that for some reason (reasons different than his inability with technology I know how to make my phone work Joe fuck right off)

problems with Rami’s real inability with technology start manifesting when Joe, who at that moment is a 30 years old single and ready to mingle boi, realises it’s impossible to successfully end a date with Rami as a roommate, since he doesn’t check his phone EVER and he always misses Joe’s texts about needing the house for himself until at least 11 pm

the times Rami walks in to Joe and a gal/bloke making out on the couch reaches uncountable amounts very fast

Joe is very uncomfortable and Rami is always apologetic but he simply seems unable to solve these recurrent awkward situations by checking and maybe replying to Joe’s desperate texts and phone calls

Joe tries to find a remedy by buying a large whiteboard he hangs on the kitchen’s wall. He divides it in seven sections for the seven days of the week and then instruct Rami to use a red marker while he uses a blue one

the whiteboard is to keep tracks of their schedules so that everyday they know what they have to do and at what hour they should be expected home without having to call the other’s manager

it starts off pretty well but then it becomes so convenient that they begin to leave messages on each other’s daily space, written in their marker colour but in opposite handwritings (‘remember to buy milk’ ‘I’m lactose intolerant’ ‘from Rami to Rami: remember to buy milk’ - underlined - ‘from Joe to Joe: remember to buy regular milk for Rami and soy milk for you’ ‘trip to LA in one week’ ‘I’m gonna miss you’ ‘you’re coming with me’ ‘oh right I forgot’ ‘this is what the board’s for’, etc.)

(a third marker is added to the board. It’s green and it means things they do together)

(it’s still impossible to prevent Rami to catch Joe in compromising positions with his dates because even writing ‘DATE NIGHT’ - underlined - on the board doesn’t mean Rami’s sleepy and tired mind after a full day on set is going to remember that he needs to give Joe his private time at home before he can have dinner, take a shower and fall into bed)

(trying to have sex while Rami’s eating cereal in the kitchen is an absolutely miserable experience, Joe finds out)

Joe stops dating altogether at some points. It saves him the stress to try and find a date and getting ready and spending lots of money for nothing. Moreover, his evenings are already plenty of fun with his and Rami’s late dinners and movie nights and script readings and scene rehearsing and lazy cuddles on the couch

cuddles are a must in their house, by the way. It’s written in their Roommates Contract which they never actually redacted but they quote from all the time since they rewatched S1 of TBBT together (‘before the show turned to shit’ ‘please don’t say that in public’). They’re both very tactile, affectionate men and they really really don’t care about any toxic masculinity crap, especially in the privacy of their own home

they mostly cuddle in the evening on the couch under a blanket (watching old movies they both love like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ which is Joe’s favourite and always makes him cry a bit at the end) or on Joe’s bed when Rami comes home very late from set and really needs a hug before going to bed. Joe is always willing to hug someone in distress, even if that requires being woken up at 2 am with a armful of yawning Rami Malek complaining about skipping dinner and feeling NY’s freezing winter weather into his very bones

(Joe hugs him closes and then gets up to make him a ham sandwich while Rami takes a boiling hot shower)

Rami doesn’t date. There are multiple reasons why, but mostly it’s because he’s too busy with filming his first leading role in a tv show and because he’s not one for one night stands so he prefers skipping the dating process altogether while he’s too into his job to really make an effort

plus, Joe’s enough of a reassuring, calming presence in his life at the moment. He’s someone Rami can trust wholeheartedly, from that time he calls him from set panicking about forgetting to turn off the stove that morning (to which Joe has to run home and check if that is true and their apartment is on fire - it isn’t -) to that other time he fell sick with the flu and Joe cancelled his plans to take care of him and make sure he didn’t die of dehydration and lack of medications

Joe is also someone who makes Rami laugh and smile and be happy and he does so all the time, effortlessly. It is probably the characteristic that Rami loves the most about Joe, together with his intelligence and his good manners and his profound respect of others

(basically, everything about Joe is nice in Rami’s eyes)

(and it seems everything about Rami is nice in Joe’s eyes too)

because Rami is also enough for Joe. He’s there for the whole writing process of Joe’s directing debut ‘Undrafted’ and when Joe needs help rehearsing or proof reading a scene, he’s willing to sacrifice all his free time to lend a hand. Rami’s presence in Joe’s home is comforting to the point he find it difficult to fall asleep or remembering things like doing the laundry or going grocery shopping when Rami’s back in LA or somewhere promoting Mr Robot because what’s the point?

(Joe doesn’t like to do things alone anymore)

Rami makes Joe feel safe and grounded. Joe has always been a bit of an anxiety-prone person, always fretting about this or that but at the same time incredibly inclined to fall into profound boredom during lulls in activity between jobs. Rami’s presence somehow prevents him to get too caught up in his own mind during busy times and too lazy to function as a regular human being when he’s got nothing to do

it somehow reminds him of when they first met, on the set of The Pacific: Rami had been an anchor for him at that time too, the ‘one who makes it great’ with his hard work and grace under pressure and willingness to always strive for more, better, best. Their great connection and synergy had started back then and never left. This knowledge makes Joe sad sometimes, thinking about all those years in between when they hadn’t been as close, hadn’t kept in touch enough

sometimes they call Martin just to bother him at odd hours (mostly when it’s already late at night in Ireland) and they always invite him to the US to spend some time together, even if they’re all very busy with their works. Some other time they arrange nights out with Noel and Brendan and all those other The Pacific kids they’re still in contact with because they still get along like brothers and New York is the place where all their roads cross at some point or another

members of their families come to visit and arranging sleeping accommodations when the Maleks are over is the most complicated task: they have two bedrooms with queen size beds and a couch that can accomodate one more person, but they always refuse to let Nelly sleep on it and both offer their own bed to Rami’s mom

after hours of offerings and complaints (Italian hospitality having a fitful match with Egyptian proper manners… the Mediterraneans are all stubborn and prideful in their own ways of being good people), she accepts to sleep in Rami’s bed while the twins take Joe’s bed and Joe creates a nest for himself on the couch

(Nelly wakes up early one morning during their stay to find the couch empty and her three boys all asleep on Joe’s bed with Joe’s laptop still open showing its screensaver and Sami curled up against Rami’s back as Rami’s head is on Joe’s shoulder and Joe’s right arm is under Rami’s waist)

(she closes the door quietly and prepare breakfast for the four of them and doesn’t say a thing when they all emerge sleepy and messy from Joe’s bedroom, but she smiles knowingly at Sami when he catches her eyes as they witness Joe and Rami’s perfect coordination in serving each other toasts and coffee with the right amount of milk and sugar without having to say one single word)

when Yasmine comes to visit, she usually stays in a hotel with her fiancée/husband so they only have to worry about dinner and entertainment

when Joe’s sister comes to visit with her family, Rami gets so excited to see Joe’s nephews that he can’t fall asleep the night prior. He loves chatting with Mary and her husband but the kids are an absolute joy to have around: they play board games and watch movies and one time they all go ice skating together and Rami almost tears up when the youngest calls him (albeit accidentally) ‘uncle’ for the first time

soon (too soon) Mr Robot S1 is over and Undrafted is ready to go into production and while they’re very excited for their new projects, they feel like they’re slowly drifting apart and they don’t like it one bit

Rami is conflicted about moving back to LA for the months he has before S2 starts filming and taking his stuff with him to finally free Joe of his presence. He’s got enough time to look for a new place to stay on his own while he’s back living with Sami, but somehow he doesn’t want to proceed with this plan

Joe’s rarely at home enough to sit down and have a serious conversation about it, but at the same time Rami doesn’t think this is a topic they can discuss over the phone so he delays his flight and he delays having to think about it until

one evening Joe comes home tired and stressed out and crushed by the amount of pressure he’s under to make this movie (HIS movie) work

Rami is there to comfort him and force him to eat dinner and have a shower and going to bed and when Joe breaks down crying in his arms sobbing about not being good enough it takes Rami 0.01 seconds to decide to cancel his flight and stop worrying about what’s right and what’s proper because he’s needed HERE RIGHT NOW and he has to stay but most of all he WANTS to stay

he’s never gonna be perfectly sure he’s the right person to do this for Joe, if Joe needs him because he is conveniently already there in his life or if he’s there because he has been good all along (chosen maybe), because they made it work and it’s working perfectly, because somehow they’ve become exactly what the other needs for it to be right

he’s never gonna be sure but they don’t really have to talk about it either because they both wants this and they’re ready to make an effort to make it right and keep it being right

(Rami thinks Joe makes him a better person because he is inherently a good person. Joe thinks Rami makes him a better person because he is inherently a good person)

soon (2) it’s time for Mr Robot S2 and Rami never really went away in the meanwhile, but that’s okay. Joe is editing Undrafted and it’s maybe not going to be the best film ever made but it’s good and Joe likes it (and Rami likes it a lot) and that’s okay. They’re still living together and their families still love coming to visit them and their whiteboard is still full of things to do written in green and that’s okay. Rami stops looking for flats to rent or buy in NYC and that’s absolutely okay

they celebrate one year of being roommates with dinner in a fancy restaurant downtown (Rami’s choice) and a walk in the park and when they get home they watch Netflix on Joe’s bed and Joe says ‘if I’d known the only way for you not to ruin a date night was having a date night with you, I’d asked you out sooner’ and Rami laughs until there are tears in the corner of his eyes

they are (more than) okay.

#anon ask #hc request #mazlek #rami malek #joe mazzello #I don't even know if half of these reference are true (especially about their families)#but I don't want to look into it 'cause it's their private life :)#roommates #rommates mazlek

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canaryatlaw · 5 years

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Okay so I’m currently in a car on a potentially periled freeway somewhere in Wisconsin driving home from the P!ATD concert with Jess in the snow, so that’s fun. Today’s been pretty good though. I was glad I was actually able to get my ass out of bed when my alarm went off at 8 this morning because I was tempted to sleep in but I knew that was stupid when I get to sleep in all damn week because I’m not doing anything with my life right now. But I got up and got ready, took the 8:41 bus off to church. The temperature when I woke up and looked at my phone was precisely 1 degree, so I went ahead and retrieved my single digit weather monster coat that I save for these circumstances when it’s really really bad because it’s fucking huge and a pain to deal with (but actually rather successful at staying warm, so that’s good). Made good time despite the weather and got to church like ten minutes before the service started (which is like optimal). The service was very good, as always, but our female pastor was preaching and I always love her messages, lol. She was preaching about being redirected in life and used the time when Moses was stuck in the wilderness for 40 years with the Israelites and particularly the use of his staff (because God would be like “hit this rock with your staff and water will come out” when the people needed water) as a way of leading and just like trusting God and listening when things do not go according to our plans for them. So that was good and the music was really good too. After the service I went to the kids volunteer lounge (where I was late for our little powwow since I didn’t sneak out of the service early because I was sitting more in the front than usual) where we chatted quickly to hear what the game plan was and go from there. Once we had that figured out I went to the babies room and we started getting babies. We only had a few when the service started but then it picked up and we ended up with like 15 lol but we had five people helping so our ratio was still okay. Overall things were actually really calm, only really had like one kid crying at any given point so that was pretty good, I bounced around between a few kids, had a very cute little boy that I was handed when his parents dropped him off who seemed snuggle-inclined at first so I thought he might be clingy but he steadily worked his way off of me and into playing. He was like 8 months old so he was doing a lot of crawling and like turning himself over and such. One little girl had a diaper blow out that looked real bad but thankfully I didn’t have to deal with that. Then I had a little girl for a while that wanted me to sit on the chair in the corner with her on my lap so we did that for a while. But yeah, overall it was pretty good, no real complaints. It was slightly warmer when I was getting ready to leave but I didn’t have enough patience to do public transit an hour home once again so I opted for an Uber pool that was not badly priced. Got home at like 1:50, at which point I retrieved my almost completed Italian rainbow cookies which I had to cover in chocolate still. So I got them out and melted the chocolate candy coating I’d bought for this purpose because it melts really smoothly and is easy to deal with, which it was, and spread it over the top then put it in the fridge to harden for half an hour while I changed and grabbed stuff to get ready. Depending on how snow turned out we wanted to be prepared about the possibility of getting stranded in Milwaukee overnight if it were snowing because Jess’ windshield wipers have been frozen to her car for a few weeks so if that wasn’t remedied and it snowed we could’ve been fucked, so I grabbed a bag and packed pajamas/meds in case we needed to drive back early tomorrow morning. Half an hour later I took the cookies out of the fridge and cut them into actual cookie pieces because it was just one giant cake like thing that had been assembled in layers and now has to be cut. The chocolate cracked a lot on top while I was cutting it despite my efforts to warm up the knife some so that wouldn’t happen, which I was semi-frustrated about but I also knew it was inevitable up to some point because these cookies just tend to be very messy and difficult to keep assembled, but overall I wasn’t that mad. I put them in two Tupperware containers, one for my fridge and one to take with me so Jess can take them to work with her tomorrow (her coworkers are definitely under the impression that we’re lesbians and this will not help that at all but it’s funny). Shortly afterwards Jess came and picked me up and we were off on our way to Milwaukee. So we made most of the drive ok, we were seeing if we could unfreeze her wipers by keeping the heat and the defroster on for the like hour we were driving up to the first Culver’s when we cross over the Wisconsin border (because cheese curds) but they were still frozen in place. So we got food/ice cream (I got ice cream and cheese curds, Jess just got cheese curds and a coke) which we ate there and talked to a few teenage employees who noticed our P!ATD shirts (that we bought yesterday) and asked if we were going to the concert. When we were ready to head out we looked up where there was like an auto shop store of some sort in the general direction we were going and headed there to see if the windshield wiper issue could be fixed. Jess’ little brother had said to get some de-icer fluid to pour over them that should help and we found that but then we talked to an employee who brought us this can of spray (which was much cheaper than a like, gallon of wiper fluid) that was for that specific purpose and had like a scraper at the end of it to assist in removing ice. So we checked out and returned to the parking lot to do this thing. We turned the car on (because heat) and started spraying it everywhere and trying to remove ice where we could. They were pretty solidly frozen so at first them were just like not moving at all but we kept spraying and trying to get them to move and idk if it was something in the spray or just like prolonged exposure to ice but both of us had like, the most painfully frozen fingers while trying to do this, like ohmygoodness it was SO BAD like my fingers have gone numb before but this was just like raw pain and SO COLD so this was truly torture but we kept spraying (and like we were wearing gloves but neither of them were waterproof because we got the same ones from forever 21 in like October when we were freezing in NYC so they were just getting wet and not helping) but we kept fucking spraying and slowly, painfully, we got the wipers free and felt very victorious and then returned to the car to drive the rest of the way and try to unfreeze our very frozen fingers which took like 20 minutes to regain full feeling in our fingers. So we drove the rest of the way to Milwaukee and to the concert venue which when then parked a bit down the street from for the venue that was $15 because the attached parking garage was $40 and we ain’t about that 😂 so we parked and walked and got on a relatively short outdoor line to go through the metal detectors and get our tickets scanned. When I got the tickets from stubhub they were like “must print! Don’t just have it on your phone!!” so I printed them and then we got there and the lady was like “do you have them on your phone? We don’t actually do printed tickets at the venue at all” and I was on top of my shit and had them pulled up on my phone (and because Jess was pestering me to have them ready to go) so we got through without issue. We were up in the nosebleed seats way at the top that had a very steep incline with concrete steps which I am so not about after watching a woman fall down such steps at my cousin’s graduation like two years ago and it was absolutely horrifying so ever since that I’ve been very paranoid about such steps so I was not happy about those but I managed to get to our seats which I was mostly okay with as long as I wasn’t looking directly down and at the stage area instead, lol. So when we got in there there was a girl with a not-excellent blonde wig on singing with two male dancers, so they did that for a while, apparently her name was Betty Who and she was Australian, to her credit she was definitely u Sent from my iPhone

so that was me getting home and emailing my draft from my notes on my phone to my laptop where I will continue typing it now. I just bought like 6 songs off iTunes that I knew but didn’t own lol because the same one is stuck in my head, but now I write. but singer lady to her credit was definitely singing live so that is good. they had a second opener then, two feet, who was fine, they were just...not P!ATD.....and that went on till like 8 so we’d been there for an hour and we’re like....can they just come out now please? but then they’re offstage for a bit and then a ten minute timer appears and that counts down to when they actually get onstage. The musicians were like on three slightly elevated squares in the back of the stage, three brass instrumentalists, a drum set, a set of stringed instruments (two violins and a cello, I believe) who were only onstage for some songs, and then there were there two guitar players (one female, which was cool) at the corners and then there was a front triangular stage area coming out from that (because it was like the symbol of their new album or some shit like that) and then finally as the timer hit zero Brendon Urie popped up to the stage from a little circular area and he like came up relatively fast and jumped as he did so it was just like he was shot out onto the stage, lol. I know they're a band and not just a singer, but he was definitely doing at least 75% of the work. There were some backup vocals from the guitarists but most of it was just him. He had really intense stamina, I know doing a tour like they’re doing takes a ton of energy and he was on top of it the whole time, and his voice was very strong, he used his falsetto a lot and there was never like, a sour note or anything (I know he was in Kinky Boots for a bit and you could tell he had a Broadway-caliber voice). But they started with the newer stuff of course some of which I knew and then brought a piano up and did Nine in the Afternoon which was fun. Then he made his way through the crowd which took like an enter song because he was stopping to hug like every person on the way and it was really cute, at one point there was apparently a nun in the audience and he was like “sister, I’m so glad you’re here!” and he found a kid at one point and talked to him for a few moments which was cute. But he eventually made his way to the back area where there was like vocal equipment and such and there was a piano, not sure if it was the same one or not, that’d been lowered down on a circular stand onto which he got and then he proceeded to play a song while they lifted the piano on the stand up into the air and flew it over the crowd all the way back to the stage and like. I was having so much secondhand anxiety watching him lol which is literally ALL PHANTOM OF THE OPERA’S FAULT because this never used to be a thing but now I’m always like “what if that falls????” and I’m not great with heights sometimes too so I was cringing a bit at that lol but it was overall very impressive. All of the music was very good, prior to when they came onstage they had passed down the row these little pink paper hearts which said on them to put over your phone light during the song “Girls/Girls/Boys” so when that came on we did it and like, whoever organized this whole thing (apparently her name is Leah, so thanks Leah) did a really fucking good job because each like second had the same color hearts but all differed from each other and then the floor seats had a bunch of random colored ones that created a very rainbow effect whereas the other seating areas were more of the blocks of color on the other LGBT flags (or that’s what I thought of it, at least). I’m pretty sure he ended up with like, three pride flags by the end of the song from the audience, he was holding one, had one on as a cape, and then had another one somewhere and like, it was honestly really touching and I was basically on the verge of tears lol it was just so sweet and well done, it was a really good moment. I was happy to see that I did recognize at least a majority of their stuff, I didn't like, follow them super closely over the years but I knew their major stuff and some of their new stuff, so I was satisfied with that, and a lot of the new stuff I’d heard around enough to have a general idea of what it was (the whole thing that started this was the song “High Hopes” because back when we were trying to win Jingle Ball tickets by calling into radio stations every single time the song they’d play to signal the time to call in was High Hopes so it kinda became our joke and then we ended up at the concert, lol). Then when the concert “ended” they of course came back for an encore, during which they sang the classic “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” which he described as “the song that started it all” for them and they had like shots from the music video on the screens at the back of the stage which was definitely a blast from the past lol but it was very fulfilling to see in concert all these years later. He was saying that he’s pretty much been doing this for 15 years now since he was 17 and just like how thankful he is for all his fans that come out and make all this possible and I was feeling very soft about all of it, lol. But yeah, I think that’s the highlights, the whole thing was really very good and I enjoyed it a lot. Once it ended for real we headed out, we were both thirsty but of course all the food vendors had closed up by then and we opted to skip the very long bathroom line on the thought that we’d hit up a gas station or mcdonalds once we get on the freeway. We managed to find the back staircase which was much less crowded than the escalators/main stairs so we managed to make it down relatively quickly. Walked back to the parking garage and made it to the car, only to be stuck in a very long line to check out because the people running the parking garage decided to have people pay going out instead of coming in, and then we discovered they were only accepting card and not cash, so this all resulted in a very, very long and slow moving line that spanned several floors of the parking garage and we had to have spent a solid 25 minutes waiting to get out of the damn place, and Jess was getting nauseous at this point so we just really wanted to get out of there. We finally made it to the front and had to scramble to get a card instead of the exact change we had ready for them in cash 🙄 but then at least we were free and got to the freeway relatively quickly. It had started to snow at this point so visibility in general and especially seeing the lane dividers on the road were getting very difficult to see and like I’ve dealt with that before driving and it’s really fucking scary so Jess was definitely starting to panic, at one point we tried to pull off and run to a gas station but the road was like that we couldn't get to the damn thing from where we were and she was just so anxious at this point we said fuck it and just powered the way through the rest of the way home. Once we got off the freeway the visibility was a lot better since there are like, streetlights and shit, so we could relax a bit after that. But yeah, made it the rest of the way home, Jess dropped me off and I got inside my apartment, changed into my pajamas and then continued writing this and now I am here. It’s just past 2 am but I didn’t take my meds until like 30-ish minutes ago so they’re just really starting to kick in now. I should probably at least try to go to sleep though, not that I have anything in particular I have to do tomorrow but staying up too late is never really a good idea, so I’m going to attempt to go to sleep now, we’ll see how that goes. Goodnight loves. Hope your Monday doesn’t suck.

#daily journal #January 2019 #Jess tag

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absolutelyabby23 · 6 years

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Where’s Princey? (Sick Roman) (Prinxiety)

Pairing: Prinxiety (Romantic), Slight Logicality if you squint

Summary: (Hurt/ Comfort) Roman is sick but can’t let the other sides know in order to keep his princely image. Everything is normal until Virgil starts to worry and looks for Sir Sing-A-Lot.

Word Count: 2,049 (Sorry it’s so long, I had a lot of fun and a lot of time since I am sick myself)

Warnings: None that I can think of. Some sadness and mentions of loneliness and illness. Please let me know if I need to add anything.

Author’s Note: Feel free to send me prompts for one shots or headcanons! I love to write Sanders Sides.

Everything was spinning and blurry. His head was heavy, his nose throbbed, and his ears ached. Roman stumbled out of bed to his full length golden mirror. He could almost imagine the glass shattering as his appearance came into focus. Pale and sweaty, his nose red and running, Roman was obviously sick. Suddenly, there came a knocking on his door.

“Hey kiddo! It’s breakfast time! I made your favorite breakfast pasta!” exclaimed Patton in his usual cheery voice from outside of the room. “Logan wanted Crofters but I figured I’d surprise you instead!” Roman chuckled to himself, if you could call it that. A rough gasping noise came out instead, crackling painfully in his throat.

“I am truly sorry Patton but I’m going to be rather busy today,” rasped Roman, trying his best to sound regal and like his normal fabulous self. “Thomas needs a lot of video ideas soon and you know I can’t bear to let him down.”

“Oh okay kiddo,” sighed Patton. Roman winced at the very apparent hurt tone that his friend displayed. He knew Logan and Virgil could cheer him up but his heart broke at the thought of hurting his friends. If only they knew the real reason he couldn’t attend breakfast. Perhaps just this once he could make an appearance. Reeling, he stumbled to his makeup table. Nothing a little foundation can’t fix! Right? Putting all of his passion and creativity into his looks didn’t help. His hair still swung messily in front of his face, very greasy and stringy, much to the prince’s disgust. The makeup couldn’t hide his tired eyes or the apathetic expression he couldn’t force himself to ditch.

There was no denying, Roman couldn’t leave his room. He was Thomas’s ego and elegance, the embodiment of grace and beauty. Beauty could not take a sick day. So he never did. The others thought he was incapable of coming down with illness. However, this was so far from the truth. Long nights and adventures in his kingdom left Roman fatigued and susceptible to even the slightest bug. Whenever he was under the weather, Roman simply claimed to be brainstorming and locked himself in his room. That way the others wouldn’t worry. He could still be brave. He could still be a valiant hero. He could still slay. In their minds, he’d always be beautiful. And there was no point in ruining that reputation now. Not when the people he loved and the fans he adored would be watching.

He could see it now. Thomas tweeting that a video would be late because creativity had failed him by falling down on the job. The last time he had been gone, after Thomas’s audition, Logan had to take over and Patton was burdened by caring for him. At least he could bear to let Patton see him then. But with an illness? He couldn’t miss again. He would never do that. Perfection or nothing. So until he was healthy again, he would be nothing.

A low growl interrupted his thoughts. A dragon witch perhaps? No, just his stomach. That pasta had sounded absolutely divine and he could’ve grabbed some cold remedy while he was out. But he knew that this was the price he paid to uphold standards. He was already weak anyway. What harm could a little hunger do?

Meanwhile, Virgil had just woken up. Patton and Logan both knew better than to wake the anxious side up early. He was already sleep deprived as the situation stood. Patton knew to reheat breakfast as Virgil meandered into the kitchen. Looking around, he felt his pulse start to race. Listening to his instincts, he knew. Something was wrong.

Virgil had never really bothered with getting along with Roman. They fought and teased each other in videos but ignored each other in the mindscape. Perhaps it was a mutual treaty… or a fear of what could be. But after he had revealed his name and Roman seemed to sympathize with him, the two became closer. Just a smile or a Disney joke here and there. Perhaps a meme war or help with makeup. Virgil would never admit it, but he had begun to care for Princey. And that’s when he started noticing the disappearances.

For days at a time, Roman would stay in his room, not talking to anyone. Lately these had become more frequent and were quickly becoming disturbances to any calmness that Virgil possessed. Patton and Logan existed long before Virgil became a light side. Perhaps they would know something. The two spectacled sides were lounging on the couch, Logan wrapping his arms protectively around Patton who was snuggled into the logical side, a small frown on his face.

“Have you guys seen Roman?” Virgil asked, trying to hide the growing worry in his voice. Logan didn’t even turn around before offering his reply over the small and soft whimpers of the man he was comforting.

“He said he’s busy Virgil. Too busy for Patton as it would seem. I think it would be best to leave him be for now,” Logan said, a sharp edge to his words as he enunciated each syllable in passive aggression.

“Aren’t you guys worried though? He’s been missing a lot,” Virgil inquired, hoping to get more information from the other two. Patton looked up and shattered the anxious side’s heart with a sad smile that would have even Satan himself sobbing.

“He seems to be fine Virgil. And if not he can save himself. That’s what heroes do r-right? He’s a big kiddo now. No need for Dad anymore,” Patton mumbled. Virgil wasn’t going to stand for this. Sure Roman could be hot headed and self centered at times, but he would never hurt Patton. Not like this. Something was definitely wrong.

“Roman?” Virgil asked as he knocked on the prince’s door. No response came at first. Roman was in a fitful sleep on the other side. Nightmares of writer’s block, unsubscribes, and disappointment filled his head.

“No! Please don’t go! I can do better! Please don’t leave me alone!” moaned Roman in pure, unadulterated agony. Panic filled Virgil as the adrenaline kicked in. Without further questioning, Virgil summoned as much power as he knew how and was able to appear inside of the room.

“Too much effort…” he mumbled, slightly dazed, before snapping to attention at the sight before him. Roman was thrashing around in bed, his crown pajamas showing signs of increased sweating, pleading with an invisible audience. He was at a loss for what to do. He began to approach the bed when Roman violently sat up, breathing heavily, not noticing his dear friend beside him. However, horror filled the romantic side when he saw the object of much of his affection peering curiously at him.

A high pitched scream filled Virgil’s entire being as Roman dove under the duvet. Virgil certainly did not miss that sound but he was more concerned about his friend rather than his current lack of hearing.

“Ro… hey Princey are you okay?” asked Virgil, trying to sound calm and rational with a hint of caring. Patton and Logan were much more equipped for this. Roman tantrums were not a force that Virgil knew how to stop. But wait… was that Roman… crying?

They say that nobody looks beautiful while crying, in fact most everyone can pull rather ugly faces while upset. But as Virgil pulled the covers away from Roman, he swore he had never seen something so majestic. Perhaps it was just the effect that Roman had on people, or maybe Virgil had gotten too fond of the prince. Nonetheless, Roman looked like a lightning storm. Intense and calm. Fearful yet wonderful. Oh God, what was this man doing to him?

“Please go away,” whispered Roman, sniffling and trying to hold back a cough. “I don’t want to burden you. I can conquer this.” He turned his face away, sheltering his heart from Virgil’s exit. Probably his final exit. There’s no way that Virgil would ever talk to him, ever love him now. Roman was weak and foolish, not the brave arrogant role that he often portrayed. Roman suddenly felt a surprisingly warm hand clasp his own clammy hand. The other hand turned his face and he was met with a shocking pair of iridescent eyes.

“I know you can. But that doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. You’ve been so brave for so long. But you can be brave and sick too Roman,” whispered Virgil in a calm and reassuring voice. That voice saved for protecting Patton from spiders and Logan from distressing deep sea documentaries at midnight. Now it was meant for him. To save him from his worst fear.

“I’m so alone Virge,” the creative side sobbed. “How could anyone love me now? I’m selfish and I’m awful. I’m letting down Thomas. I’m letting down the fans. I snapped at Patton. I call Logan names. I’m awful to you.” Virgil said nothing for a minute.

“You’re not selfish Ro. You’re thinking of me and the others now. You’re causing yourself to suffer so we don’t have to deal with you. That’s delusional. We want to help. You just have to let us in.” Virgil wrapped his arms around the other side, not caring about the health repercussions. “You’re not bad Roman. And that’s why I love you Princey,” Virgil said softly, pressing a kiss to the other man’s forehead.

They sat for hours just talking and holding each other. Roman opened up about his fears, his perfectionist tendencies. Virgil listened and softly argued that it’s okay to be imperfect. People still love imperfection. Even anxious emos with attitudes. Virgil was able to convince the prince that even sickness, wouldn’t make him less of a hero. And he was definitely still fabulous. The fans, Thomas, and the sides would love him no matter what happened.

“Come on Ro. I think it’s time you got the care you need,” Virgil said as he pulled the other side to his feet. Virgil guided Roman into the living room, where Patton and Logan sat watching a documentary on veterinary clinics. Patton gasped when he saw Roman. The moral side leapt to his feet and enveloped the still pale and shaking Roman in a loving, fatherly hug.

“Pat I’m so sor-” Roman began but Patton cut him off.

“It’s okay kiddo. I think it’s time we got you some soup.” Roman couldn’t hide the wide grin that spread across his face. The two sides bounded towards the kitchen, leaving Virgil with Logan. The logical side broke his deadpan to offer Virgil a small smile of appreciation.

“You did good Virge. I guess my hypotheses about Roman were correct,” Logan smirked knowingly.

“More than one?” asked Virgil, noticing the blush that warmed his cheeks under his foundation. He glanced back at Princey laughing with Patton in the kitchen and felt his heart skip a beat. Did Logan know?

“I figured that something with Roman was not in correlation with his usual behavior. I wanted to address it but Patton insisted that we let Roman do his work. I love Pat but he can be too trusting at times. My first assumption was that he would not listen to me or Patton. This was correct. My second assumption being that the solution would involve you.”

“And why is that?” stuttered Virgil.

“Because we were simply meant to be!” sang Roman in a still hoarse voice behind him. The creative side winced at a voice crack and then swept Virgil off of his feet in an amazing feat of effort from the sick side. He kissed his chemically imbalanced romance while Patton squealed at his OTP getting together and Logan complained about Roman stealing his dramatic metaphorical thunder.

A day later, Virgil was sick as well. Roman snuggled next to his sneezing boyfriend who glared at him in a teasing manner. There were no more secrets to secure a reputation. Virgil was right. Nobody hated him like he thought they would. He wasn’t a failure. He no longer felt alone and knew he could count on his friends. Sometimes even the hero needs a helping hand. They just need to know that it’s okay to ask.

Taglist (let me know if you want to be added!): @monstercupcake61176

@completelyclevername

#virgil/roman #virgil sanders #virgil #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides #prinxiety #sick roman #roman #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #one shot #thomas sanders #shortysetter23writes

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grovestep · 6 years

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Skate Into My Heart [LucioxJR Ch.1]

Author’s Notes: I have recently discovered the amazing ship that is BoomBox, and I can't get enough. They definitely don't have enough fics around. So I decided to remedy that in my own way. I introduce to you: Skate Into My Heart Setting: A modern AU. In which Junkrat and Roadhog run an auto repair shop, and Lucio is still a renowned musician and DJ. Chapter Summary: A dashing young man skates into Jamison Fawkes' life. Jamison, eccentric, messy, and manic is a stark juxtaposition to Lucio's calm, cool demeanor. Jamie doesn't know how to deal with it. Chapter warnings: Language, mentions/hints at sex

Chapter 1: The Mechanic and the Frog

Jamison Fawkes stared at the underbelly of an over-stylized '59 Cadillac, mulling over the inner workings of the vehicle as he wiped his hands with a dingy cloth. Footsteps broke his train of thought as someone approached the front of the vehicle, dropping something heavy on the concrete floor of the shop. Jamison finished messing with the oil pan before sliding out from the underbelly on his mechanic's creeper. "What do ya want now, ya big bloke?" Jamison asked, expecting to be greeted by the giant stomach of his boss, Mako Rutledge. Instead, Jamison stared up at the toned calves and dark thighs of a man in shorts. A style that Mako failed to pull off. The man above him let out an awkward laugh, stepping back so Jamison wasn't staring directly up at his crotch. Jamie played it cool, sliding back under the car only to appear on the other side. He walked around the Cadillac back to his original position in front of the stranger.

"Sorry, mate, though ya were m'boss," he said, holding out one hand for a shake. He looked down at his palm, which was covered in grease despite his efforts with the cloth, and gave a lopsided grin. "Er, maybe hold off on the shake for now, yea?" he wiped his hand down his bare chest before shoving it in his pocket. The man's eyes creased at the sides as he smiled, something that Jamie found subtly charming. He wrinkled his nose at the intrusive thought. "What can I do ya for?" The man picked up a pair of roller skates off the floor, "Think you can repair my skates? I had a bad wipe-out earlier playing street hockey," he said. Jamison paused. He stared at the man through squinted eyes, sizing him up. The man didn't look daft. A little posh, maybe, but that didn't always mean missing a few marbles. "Mate...you know you're at a car repair shop, right?" he asked and pointed to the sign that read "Rutledge Repair and Body". Skate-Man let out a laugh. It was melodic, almost like music. It echoed through the repair shop's garage, carrying on even after he was done. "I know very well where I'm at. These aren't just any skates. They're more car than anything," he said with a wink. Jamison blinked, his brow creasing. "Wot?" "They're motorized and have a special function that helps you keep your balance. Something about centrifugal force..." Jamison tuned out of his explanation of the car-skates. His short attention span resented lengthy explanations of things he could figure out himself by taking something apart. He stared at the man, his eyes flicking across his features. Something was familiar about him. He reeked of posh life, even if he was covered in sweat and slumming it in a repair shop. Jamie clicked his tongue as he tried to place him. "AH-HAH!" he exclaimed, interrupting the man's tirade and making his eyes widen in surprise. "You're that Brazilian froggy bloke who does the music!" "Oh, uh. That," the man said. Jamie watched him withdraw, seeming to fold in on himself. He gave Jamie a shrug. This was the opposite of the pumped up DJ he sometimes saw on TV. "Lucio. Um, none of the 'froggy bloke' thing, please." Jamie straightened his back, regaining a professional composure. At least, as professional as he could manage. "Well, Lucio, I'm not so sure--" "Rat!" Jamie jumped, whipping around as the hulking shape of his boss appeared out of the back office. Mako's piercing blue eyes leveled Jamie with a hardened stare over the gas mask he wore for paint jobs. Jamie looked at his boss with saucer-wide eyes. Mako motioned to Lucio before disappearing back into his office to do god knows what. Jamison gulped. "Right-o. What I meant to say was, we'd be happy to take a look at your, uhm, more-car-than-skates." Lucio seemed to perk up at that, handing the skates over to Jamie. Their fingers met for a moment, sending a jolt all the way from Jamie's fingertips, through his spine, and to the tips of his toes. He managed a smile, exposing one of the gold caps on his canines. If Lucio felt the same surge of electricity, he didn't let on. Jamie shrugged it off as nerves from having an actual celebrity in his shop, wanting his assistance. "When can I expect them done?" Lucio asked, shoving his hands in his pockets before leaning against the wall with one shoulder, his legs crossed at the ankle. It was then Jamison realized he was barefoot. Each toenail was panted a different color of the rainbow and, somehow, Jamie wasn't surprised. Lucio cleared his throat, startling the mechanic out of his trance. "Oi, sorry, mate. Got a lot on me mind today. Big order, this," he said, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand as he jerked his chin toward the '59 Caddy. "If you come by tomorrow, though, I should have them fixed right up. Do you have a number I, er, we can contact when these are done?" Jamie expected Lucio to pull out a business card, but instead he pulled out a small pen from one of his many pants pockets. It was lime green and topped with a frog. Jamie snorted. "Do ya have a piece of paper?" he asked, twirling and weaving the pen through his fingers with ease. "'Fraid we're all out," Jamie said, "And me brain ain't the best at keepin' things like that in the ol' memory." "That's fine, uh, do you mind then?" Lucio asked, motioning to Jamie's bare arm and mimicking the act of writing with the pen. Jamie shook his head, extending his arm for the DJ to scrawl his number. Lucio looped his fingers around Jamie's wrist, keeping his arm still as he wrote. The mechanic had to stifle raucous giggles as the pen pressed and tickled at the flesh of his arm. He practically vibrated with the effort. Lucio's tongue poked out from between his lips as he wrote, a quirk that Jamie's brain didn't fail to commit to memory. When he was done, Lucio ran a finger over the carefully inked number, making sure it didn't smear. He was oblivious to the mechanic's elevated heartbeat, which was inevitably noticeable through the coursing of his veins and pulse point on his wrist. Jamie looked at the number on his arm, which was in handwriting that just embodied the DJ. He bit back the urge to tell him he wrote like a sheila. At the end of the number looked like a signature, but stylized into the shape of...a frog? "I didn't give ya permission to go drawin' amphibians on me arm now," Jamie said. Lucio stammered, starting to apologize before noticing the manic grin on the mechanics face. Ah, a joke. He returned the grin with his own easy smile. "Well, thanks for helpin' me out, ah..." Lucio said, leaving his mouth agape and brow knit together in thought as he fished for the man's name. His cheeks darkened a bit as he didn't come up with one. "Don't worry, I didn't tell ya m'name. It's Jamison. Was never one for a posh name like that, so you can call me Jamie," he said, "I'll contact you tomorrow 'bout your skates. Fix 'em right up, good as when ya bought 'em at the mart." "Thanks again, then, Jamie," Lucio said, turning on his heel to leave the auto shop. He looked over his shoulder at the mechanic, giving him an open-palmed wave goodbye and a smile. Jamie stood in place for a moment, listening to the gentle pap-pap-pap of Lucio's bare feet against the sidewalk as he disappeared. He collapsed against a wall, dropping the skates and running a hand through his dirty blonde hair. "Fuck, what is wrong with me?" he muttered, scrubbing both hands over his face. Acting like a damn sheila over a barefooted, posh, froggy bloke. He stared at the skates with distaste. They were probably just regular old skates the bastard was too lazy to take to a skate shop. Jamie decided he'd deal with them immediately. Maybe he'd "accidentally" drop a glob of his lunch into the skates and conveniently forget about it. He picked them back up and trudged to his office, slamming the door behind him. --Much to Jamison's distaste, the skates were more car than anything else. Taking the damn things apart without ruining the whole pair was exhausting and tedious work. He used his long and deft fingers to poke and prod at the various mechanisms, trying to figure out what each of them did. As much as he hated to admit it, he was enjoying tinkering with the skates. They were unlike anything he'd ever seen before. He sat back in his chair and stared at them as he stretched his arms above his head. His shoulders creaked and cracked like gravel. Jamie stifled a yawn, looking at the digital clock on the wall. 1:30AM. Shit, he was not pulling an all-nighter for this bloke. He'd have to continue the work tomorrow at home if he wanted to get it done in time. He grabbed a duffel from the corner, scooping the skates and his tools into the bag. He hauled the bag over his shoulder, hurrying out of the shop and locking up before hoofing it down to the block to his flat. Once he was inside the messy apartment, he cast the duffel-bag aside, collapsing on his bed and falling into a deep sleep. He awoke a few hours later refreshed and ready to work. He dumped the contents of the bag out onto his kitchen table, taking a seat on his dilapidated chair. He worked well into the afternoon, damn near taking the skates entirely apart and putting them back together again. His eyes happened to glance down at his arm where Lucio's number was smudged from sweat. He panicked for a moment, realizing that the man might show up at the shop looking for his finished skates. If Jamison wasn't there, he might complain to Mako, and if he complained to Mako... Jamie gulped, not wanting to think about that. He dug in his pocket, pulling out his phone. He dialed the number, pressing the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he continued to work on the skates. The phone rang once, twice... "Olá?" The man's melodic voice answered. Jamie paused for a moment. He had expected the number to route him to the celebrity's agent, butler, voicemail...anything but the man himself. "Uh, hello, mate, it's Jamie from the shop," he said, muttering a curse under his breath as he dropped his screwdriver. "Oh, yea! I've been waitin' for a call from you. How're my skates coming? They ready?" "Uh, not quite. They're givin' me a little trouble, nothin' too big. I wasn't 'suppose to work today, so when I didn't finish them yesterday I, uh, brought them home with me to finish the job. I hope ya don't mind," he said. There was a pause on the other end, and Jamie's heart raced. The bugger was probably racing over to tell his boss. "That's no problem! So long as they're getting fixed. Do you want me to pick them up at your place, then?" Lucio said, and Jamie's shoulders slouched in relief. Dodged a bullet there. And then he tensed again, his mind registering Lucio's question. "Oh, uh, I mean if you want to. I won't make you go outta yer way or anythin'. It's uh, not company policy," Jamie said as he prodded at what he assumed was the centrifugal whatsit Lucio was on about yesterday. "No, no, it's fine. I don't mind, really. You're fixin' up my babies, it's the least I can do in return besides, you know, pay you," Lucio said, and Jamie could hear the smile in his voice. The way he was about to laugh. He closed his eyes and pressed the heel of his palm against the space between his brows. Actin' like a bloody sheila, again. "Right-o, I'll try to have 'em done by the time ya get here. M'flat is just down the block from the shop. Shimada Apartments. Just tell the bloke at the front desk you wanna see Junkrat, he'll know what you mean," Jamie said. He heard the man on the other end say the nickname under his breath. "Oh-kay, I'll be there soon," Lucio said. Jamie could hear the questioning tone in his voice, but knew he was too polite to ask about it. Jamie decided he wouldn't supply answers to unspoken questions. He exchanged goodbyes with Lucio before hanging up the phone. He stood up from his chair, looking around his apartment. It was...a mess. The embodiment of his nickname. Old food boxes were strewn across the counters. His vintage Playboy mags were stacked in one corner, leaning precariously to one side. He knew he shouldn't care, but apart of him was embarrassed to no end thinking that the pretty froggy bloke would see what a mess he lived in. Of course, he could just stick his head out and hand over the skates. But what if they weren't done? He couldn't make the lad stay out in the hallway. He didn't live with the best of people, and Lucio reeked of social status and money. It would be like making him hold a sign that said, "Mug me!" So, Jamie set to work cleaning to the best of his ability. He swept the trash off the counter and into the bin. He shoved as much laundry as he could into the washing machine, and kicked the rest into the hamper. The dishes in the sink that were growing alien colonies he threw in the trash, too embarrassed and disgusted with himself to clean them. His eyes landed on the Playboy magazines, and he thrummed his fingers against his chin in thought. He grabbed one of the blankets covering the couch and threw it over the stack. He stood back and looked at his handiwork. Now it looked like a disorganized person lived there, and not a lazy hoarder. It wasn't long after he sat back down to finish the skates that a knock came on the door. Jamie was startled out of his work trance, his head swinging up to the door. "Just a secoooond!" he said as he tightened one of the screws on the skates. He hurried over to the door before any potential muggers descended upon his guest. He opened the door was was greeted with a sweat drenched Lucio, bare chested and his dreads pulled back off his face by a bandanna. Jamie felt his breath catch in his throat. "Hey there," Lucio said, and Jamie damned his ever-cool attitude. Of course, he wasn't staring directly at a glistening set of abs and biceps. In fact, he was staring at a sleep deprived slob of an Australian. Jamie shuffled to the side, opening the door wider so Lucio could come in. The shorter man slipped into the doorway, and to Jamie's relief, didn't seem to pay attention to the surroundings. The man's eyes were trained on the skates. "Just about got 'em finished. Ya weren't lying when ya said they were more car than skates. Took me 'alf the night and most of the day jus' to put 'em back together," Jamie said as he closed to door and came up behind Lucio. He dwarfed the man in size, but Jamie had a feeling the shorter man could still kick his arse if he felt like it. He skirted around Lucio to reclaim his seat. "Sorry about that, I know it's probably not something you're used to," Lucio said, rubbing the back of his neck and offering Jamie an apologetic smile. "No sweat off my back. I like takin' things apart, seein' what makes 'em tick," Jamie said, using that fact to distract himself from Lucio's abs. He resumed prodding at the skates, set on fixing the centrifugal doo-dad once and for all. "You seem to be that sort of guy," Lucio said as he watched Jamie, "You have a...calculating gaze." "That so?" Jamie asked, quirking a brow but not looking up from the skates. His cheeks flushed a light pink. He hoped the shitty lighting in his apartment would cover it up. "Yea, it's like..." Lucio took a seat across from him at the table, splaying his hands on the wood, "When I came into the shop, your stare felt like you were picking me apart from the inside. It was kinda unnerving," he said. "Oh, sorry 'bout that, uh, I..." Jamie floundered for an answer, feeling like he was caught in the act of stealing. He didn't look up from the skates to see Lucio's expression. He could see it in his head. Accusatory. Angry. "Then when you opened the door, that look was there again. Picking me apart..." Was that a hitch in his voice that Jamie heard? He dared a glance up from the skates. Lucio was watching him, his eyes half-lidded and that damned easy smile on his face. The flush on Jamie's cheeks strengthened, and he averted his eyes again. "It's almost like you can see right into my soul. You know, not many people look at me like that. They only see DJ Lucio, the celebrity. I was afraid it was like that when you figured out who I was," Lucio said, letting out a chuckle. There was a creak as he leaned back in the chair, "But the way you looked at me. I knew that wasn't so." Jamie worked faster, and, dammit, why were his hands shaking? He reached for his screwdriver, but his palms were too sweaty and hands too shaky to keep a grip on it. It fell from the table, spiraling to the floor. He startled from his seat to catch it, and before he knew it, Lucio was right there, leaning down to catch it, too. The DJ's reflexes were faster than his own, and he caught it in his palm. They were so close it was driving Jamie mad. He could smell Lucio's citrus cologne and the tangy scent of his sweat. He could feel Lucio's breath by his ear, the heat radiating off his body. He stifled a whine, biting his lip. Lucio pressed the screwdriver into his open palm, clasping his hand to stop Jamie's shaking. "Easy, easy, lindo," he said, and a shiver ran through Jamie's spine at how close those words were breathed right up against his ear, and his head was swimming with too many racing thoughts to ask what lindo meant. Probably idiot, stupid, or a million other insults, but Jamie didn't care. This man could call him the worst names in the book and it would still sound like music. "Th-th-thank you," Jamie stammered, and when he looked at Lucio the man had already withdrawn, leaning back in his chair with that easy grin on those plump kissable lips, and, fuck, what was he thinking? Lucio just gave him a wink, acting as though nothing happened. Had anything happened? Had he imagined it? A droplet of sweat ran down his forehead, and he wiped it off with the back of his arm, leaving a smear of ink from the number Lucio had written on it. "Hey, now, you might need that later," Lucio said, motioning to the number. Jamie boggled at him with wide eyes. "You know, in case I have another skate emergency," he explained as though it were obvious, but there was something in his voice that made Jamie's stomach heavy and his pants tighten. This man was toying with him. "Oh, right. Well, I have it in me phone already. I'll keep in there, then, if ya like," Jamie said, finishing up the skates and trying with all his might to keep the quiver out of his voice. "Mm, yea, keep it there. You never know when I'll go flying ass over elbows and break a skate," Lucio said as he took the finished skates as Jamie pushed them across the table. Or head over heels, Jamie thought, mentally berating himself for being such a fuckin' sheila as of late. Reading into this man's actions like he meant something to him. "Well, thank you again. I really appreciate it. I'll head down to the shop to make the payment. I wish there were more I could do to show my gratitude," Lucio said as he got up from his seat. I'll tell you what you can do, you sexy piece of--, "Uh-ha, it's no problem. Don't worry about it, mate," Jamie said, following Lucio to the door. The man was almost out into the hallway when he turned around again. "Oh, and Jamie?" "Whazzat, mate?" "You have something on your forehead." Jamie had only time to blink before Lucio brushed his bangs off his forehead, rubbing the heel of his palm across the ink mark from earlier. Jamie's amber eyes stared into Lucio's chocolate brown ones, their noses brushing tips. Jamie swore he could feel Lucio's lips against his own, feather light, chaste. But just like that, Lucio was gone, walking down the hallway, his melodic chuckle trailing behind him. Jamie stared after him, his fingers going to brush against his lips. What the fuck just happened?

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douchebagbrainwaves · 6 years

Text

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT PROBLEMS

My test was to think of intelligence as inborn is that people trying to measure it have concentrated on the aspects of economic inequality where the cause of poverty is the same as the root cause of variation in income is a sign that something is broken? At Yahoo, user-facing software was controlled by product managers and designers the final step, by translating it into code. I'm not saying that if you let Henry Ford get rich, he'll hire you as a waiter at his next party. Somehow the idea of making really large amounts of money. When people come to you with a problem and you have to sound intellectual. All the hackers I know, managed to be mistaken. An organization that wins by exercising power starts to lose deals. That was not, probably, how McCarthy thought of it as a personal insult when someone from the other team from scoring is considered to have played a perfect game.1 Right now, VCs often knowingly invest too much money at the series A stage. And if you weren't rich, you took the omnibus or walked.

Microsoft.2 Great hackers also generally insist on using open source software. In that case, stay on a main branch becomes more than a way to please other people. It's so cheap to start, this conflict goes away, because founders can start them younger, when it's rational to take more risk, and can start more startups total in their careers. When you reach the point where 90% of a group's output is created by 1% of its members, you lose big if something whether Viking raids, or central planning drags their productivity down to the average Frankish nobleman in 800, and report back to us. Art History 101.3 Hacker News and our application system.4 That way we can avoid applying rules and standards to intelligence that are really meant for wisdom. Whereas the independence of the townsmen allowed them to keep whatever wealth they created.5 These initial versions can be so pervasive that it takes a great effort to overcome it. Then you could see in the house, the herds, and the number one thing they have in common. The difference is that wise means one has a high average outcome.

Editorialists ask. Bottom-up programming suggests another way to convince investors to let you do it? If circumstances had been different, the people running Yahoo might have realized sooner how important search was.6 But that won't eliminate great variations in wealth would mean eliminating startups.7 When I heard this, I thought he was a complete idiot.8 You can see wealth—in buildings and streets, in the original sense, is something you write to try to figure something out. The more of your application you can push down into a language for writing that type of application, the more we'll see multiple companies doing the same thing ourselves.9 Which is precisely why we hear ever more about it.10 Society as a whole ends up poorer. But startups aren't like that. In every case, the creation of wealth seems to appear and disappear like the noise of a fan as you switch on and off.11

Central France in 1100, off still feudal. Or consider watches. You have to be nice to, you have two options: work at home, hackers can arrange things themselves so they can get the most done. And they think of it as normal to have a remedial character. The idea is basically that you sort search results not in order of how much money Yahoo would make from each link. It consists of some things that are good and some that are historical trends with immense momentum and others that are random accidents.12 The place to look for what I learned from Paul Buchheit: it's better to make a deep point here about the true nature of wisdom, just to make sure they're ok guys. I don't think there's any limit to the number of failures and yet leave you net ahead.13 Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, and Jackie McDonough for reading drafts of this.

One of the things pinned up on our bulletin board was an ad from IBM.14 Brandeis was a product of this period. But Apple created wealth, in the sense that the authors didn't know when they started exactly what they were trying to get people to start calling them portals instead of search engines. This isn't true in all fields. And this is the route to well-deserved obscurity. So it's not just fastidiousness that makes good hackers avoid nasty little problems is that you make what you measure.15 That's why Yahoo as a company has sunk into technical mediocrity and recovered.

And of course if Microsoft is your model, you shouldn't be looking for, most of the time, perhaps most of the time, and runtime. You'd seem a barbarian if you behaved that way today. Starting in the tenth and eleventh centuries, petty nobles and former serfs banded together in towns that gradually became powerful enough to appropriate it.16 If Lenin walked around the offices of a company like Yahoo or Intel or Cisco, he'd think communism had won.17 Why?18 It's hard to predict what will; often something that seems interesting at first will bore you after a month. Understanding your users is part of what makes them good hackers: when something's broken, they need to get a work visa in the US, without an undergraduate degree—but tests like this will matter less and less.19

Though useful to present-day languages, if they'd had them. When you look at the history of stone tools, technology was already accelerating in the Mesolithic. We think of the core language semantics.20 The design paradox means they're choosing more or less a subset of potential users, or satisfying a subset of the needs of a subset of the needs of a subset of potential users, or satisfying a subset of hash tables where the keys are vectors of integers. Whereas if you're doing the kind of productivity that's measured in lines of code. But between the two. He knows what happened in every deal in the Valley. Extraordinary devotion went into it, and most decent hackers are capable of that. As big a deal as the Industrial Revolution was well advanced.

Notes

Joshua Schachter tells me it was true that being part of wisdom. This is actually a computer. See, we can teach startups a lot like meaning.

We're only comparing YC startups, just that if colleges want to believe this much. If they're on the order of 10,000 sestertii for his freedom Dessau, Inscriptiones 7812. But you couldn't do the equivalent thing for founders, HR acquisitions are viewed by acquirers as more akin to hiring bonuses.

The point where things start to rise again. The most striking example I know of no Jews moving there, and that's much harder. I'm convinced there were about the origins of the things attributed to them.

If you ask parents why kids shouldn't swear, the police treat people more equitably. Please do not take the form of bad idea. In Boston the best day job, or at least should make what they do.

You have to do this right you'd have to deliver these sentences as if you'd invested at a pre-money valuation of the first phase of the most part and you can probably write a book about how things are different. The only people who get rich by creating wealth—university students, heirs, professors, politicians, and there are few who can say I need to fix once it's big, messy canvases that philistines see and say that's not art because it looks like stuff they've seen in the beginning. None at all. No, and there are no false negatives.

It tipped from being this boulder we had, we'd have understood why: If they were friendlier to developers than Apple is now very slow, but when people in return for something that conforms with their company made money from it, but they can't teach students how to value valuable things.

Everyone else was talking about art, they made, but investors can get done before that. There is a qualitative difference in investors' attitudes. I believe Lisp Machine Lisp was the least VC-like. So if you're attacked in this they're perfect.

By writing library functions. If you want as an example of computer security, and a little about how things are going well, but not in the early 90s when they buy some startups and not fundraising is a bridgehead. Oddly enough, even if they were to work than stay home with them in advance that you were expected to do good work and thereby earn the respect of their name, but that it's boring, we don't want to give them sufficient activation energy required to notice when it's their own interest.

On the other by adjusting the boundaries of what you really want, like warehouses. They can lead to distractions even more vice versa: the editor, which would be vulnerable both to attack the A P successfully defended itself by allowing the unionization of its identity. The real danger is that you'll have to resort to in order to pick the words we use the word wealth, seniority will become correspondingly more important.

It did not start to get going, and so don't deserve to keep their wings folded, as accurate to call those before a consortium of investors want to take action, go ahead. Gauss was supposedly asked this when comparing techniques for discouraging stupid comments instead.

I've learned about VC inattentiveness. The time it still seems to them unfair that things don't work the same thing. Actually he's no better or worse than close supervision by someone else. Mozilla is open-source but seems to have them soon.

107. The key to wasting time building it. IBM makes decent hardware. They seem to have a browser and get pushed down by new arrivals.

There will be interesting to 10,000 sestertii, for example. Some translators use calm instead of just Jews any more than others, and only one restaurant left on the East Coast VCs. There are circumstances where this is so new that it's no longer written in Lisp, they may introduce startups they like to fight.

We once put up with only a few percent from an eager investor, lest that set an impossibly high target when raising additional money. The US is the most successful founders is exaggerated now because it's a hip flask.

That's probably true of nationality and religion too. In practice it just feels like it if you have an edge over Silicon Valley, but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. You can get rich by creating wealth—that an eminent designer is any good at talking about why something isn't the last 150 years we're still only able to. It's true in fields that have it as a percentage of startups as they are in research departments.

I'm not saying it's impossible without a time before photography had a broader meaning.

This is a way to explain that the highest returns, like architecture and filmmaking, but we decided it would do for a startup could grow big in revenues without including the numbers from the success of their works are lost.

Many of these companies unless your last round of funding.

Garry Tan pointed out that taking time to come if they seem pointless. Considering yourself a scientist. If you want to sell, or to be very hard to do this are companies smart enough to guarantee good effects.

Probably just thirty, if you make something popular but from what the earnings turn out to be able to redistribute wealth successfully, because companies then were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion. The point of view anyway. Founders are often unknowns. Once again, that suits took over during a critical point in the sense of mission.

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phoenixagent003 · 3 years

Text

The Castle Campaign Diary 04

The doors of the war room burst open as Selena staggers in. The heir of House Kaslana and patron of the Phoenix Knights is a mess, her robes stained and her hair is tangled with twigs. The other senior members of the order look up from the map of the surrounding area that they’ve been studying.

“So how’d the scouting mission go?” Tina asked flatly.

“Goblins,” she says. “Lots of goblins.”

The sorceress collapses into a chair, exhausted. She’s spent the last two weeks narrowly avoiding getting cornered by goblin patrols. Stumbling on the camp had been more a result of luck than any of her tracking efforts.

“So, poorly,” Tina surmises.

“Not completely,” Selena says, pausing to catch her breath. “I think I found their camp.”

“According to our new recruit, those things are everywhere,” Camdyn says. “If we can hit wherever they’re based out of, it’d go a long way in getting the Bluffs under control.”

Selena nods, resting her head on the table. “Agreed. We should send a team to attack.”

Camdyn rises from his chair. “I’ll get my armor.”

Selena looks up. “What?”

“I can have Emily meet you two out front.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“You’re not coming?”

“I’m not finished with Dominik’s sidekick, and she could use the experience.”

“Say no more.”

Before Selena can finish, both Camdyn and Tina leave the room, headed in different directions. Selena stares out the door, feeling her heart sink. To no one but herself, she mutters, “Can I at least shower first?”

Camdyn, Emily, and Selena set off, following Selena’s scouting notes in search of the goblin tribe’s main camp. Along the way, Camdyn opts to test the Emily’s marksmanship against his own—and is handily one-upped by the junior knight in an apple shooting competition. Selena watches the two compete, smiling to herself.

The Phoenix Knights had begun as an extension of her own ego. She hadn’t expected living and working alongside would-be heroes to be so comforting.

And Camdyn had not expected the inexperienced soldier to be such a good shot.

In the middle of the night, Camdyn is awoken by some bumping into him. His eyes shoot open, and he sits up, the the arc gem in his chestplate already whirring to life—only to see Selena curled next to him, still asleep.

Her face is fixed in a deep frown as she tosses and turns in her bedroll, whimpering.

“No… no!”

“Hey,” Camdyn says, nudging her. “Selena.”

The noble woman gasps, shooting upright and panting for air. Camdyn immediately scoots back to give her some space, raising his hands up. In the faint glow of his own armor, Camdyn can just make out Selena’s face as she takes in her surroundings; first afraid, then disoriented, and finally embarrassed. Her shoulders sag, and she hugs herself as her eyes drift to the floor, unable to look him in the eye.

“Bad dream?” Camdyn asked.

Selena still doesn’t look at him, but nods.

“Need to talk about it?”

A pause. She shakes her head.

Camdyn doesn’t believe that, but he shrugs anyway. “Well. Try to get some sleep then.”

He lays back down, and a soft whir emanates from his chest as the arc gem in its center powers down once again. Selena sighs, flopping back down and staring up at the black ceiling of the tent. For a few moments, all is silent.

“I just…I’d never gone out on my own like that,” she says. She’s not even sure if Camdyn is still awake. “When I was out scouting, it…it almost went really bad. I managed to get away, but there was a moment… I thought…”

“Hey.”

Selena stops as a gauntleted hand finds her shoulder, and for the first time since waking up, locks eyes with Camdyn.

“You made it. You’re okay,” he says, and she believes him. All at once, she wonders whether or not he can see her blush in the dark.

“R-right,” she says, quickly turning away. “Thanks.”

Camdyn raises an eyebrow. Selena doesn’t seem scared anymore, but something still seems a bit off. He decides to leave it be. If she wants to talk about it, she will. He lays back down. “Anytime.”

The camp is only a day away as the trio greets a new morning to find Selena has come down with something. Emily guesses exposure sickness, and Camdyn profusely apologizes for not setting up their camp to properly protect from the elements. The two of them debate stopping before Selena insists that she is fine, just sore and a slight headache. They don’t have time to wait for her to get better.

Soldiering on, only a few hours later the party encounters goblin scouts riding worgs. Expecting the the worst, the party takes cover, bracing for a fight, only to watch the scouts immediately make a break for a nearby cliff face to try and escape. Almost too late, the trio realizes what’s at stake: they’re retreating to warn the main camp.

The party spring into action, trying everything they can to escape. Selena triggers a rockslide with a well placed firebolt, slowing their climb. Despite their best efforts, one worg makes it up the mountain. It’s already out of almost everyone’s range.

“They’re getting away!” Selena shouts.

“No they’re not.”

Emily takes a few steps back before nocking back an arrow, holding it. She feels the wind on her face, and takes note of how the trees further up the mountain are moving.

“You think you can make that shot?” Camdyn asks.

“I hit the apple, didn’t I?” Emily retorts.

She lets the arrow fly, and it arcs over the cliff edge, disappearing. A tense second follows, before the party hears the dying yelp of a worg. The scouts are contained, and the party sets out once again. As they draw close, Emily breaks off to scout ahead, and count the enemy numbers. Quite a number of goblins, but no sign of the bugbear Selena had mentioned in her report.

The trio plan their attack, moving in stealthily to find an optimal position. That is, until Selena sneezes, and ever goblin in the camp is alerted to their presence.

A hail of arrows rains on the heroes’ position as they dive for cover among the surrounding ruins. All the while, a bugbear charges toward them, brandishing a morningstar. Weathering a hail of lightning, arrows, and even one of Selena’s last spell slots, the bugbear crashes on Camdyn and Selena’s position, smashing everything around them with its frenzied swings. Just before it can land a deadly blow on Selena, an arrow shoots out the back of its throat.

It collapses to the ground dead, and Emily offers Selena a quick salute. One of the goblins points out the sniper, shouting in goblin. In revenge for their fallen comrade, the goblins rain down a hail of arrows—exclusively on Emily. As the two women try to find cover, Camdyn charges the camp, blasting his way through the goblins within. Finally, the last of them have fallen, and a quiet descends on ruin.

“Emily, you alright?”

“Oh yeah, I’m fine,” the junior knight says, pulling out one of several arrows in her body. “I’ve gotten hurt worse training with Tina.”

Back at the castle, the young squire Bartholomew is receiving “training” from Tina Cox, in the form of several punches to the face and stomach.

“WHY. AREN’T. YOU LEARNING?!”

Emily pulls out another arrow. “I am in pain though.”

Camdyn nods. “Well, I’d say we’re about done here. The goblins are dead, and any from this tribe that weren’t here should know this part of the Bluffs isn’t safe for them anymore.”

Selena looks around at the bodies of the fallen monsters. “Yeah… but do you think maybe they might want revenge for this?”

“Maybe. But there’s not bound to be very many of them who weren’t here. Certainly less than the number that were,” Camdyn says. “And I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to attack the people who wiped out their whole camp.”

The party was later attacked on the way home by a small group of goblins seeking revenge for their fallen comrades.

So this was a pretty short session. Emily, Tina, and Camdyn’s players opted to go in with just the three of them, mostly just on the idea that if they couldn’t handle things with just the three of them, they could always run away and wait for backup. And there isn’t too much to talk about on the post-mortem side of things, which is to say I’ll probably only write a small essay instead of a full blown thesis.

So what was all that business with the apple shooting and Selena getting a nightmare? Well, I’ve long wanted the travel in my D&D games to feel like it takes time, and that characters are actually interacting with each other on the journey. This goes way back to some of my earliest exposure to the hobby, the Sanspants Radio podcast D&D is for Nerds, where while the players were traveling in search of a bounty, there was a whole bit about one of the players attempting to play the lute and the others hiding his lute from him because he was so bad at it.

This, I would later learn, was the cast filling in dead air while the DM did some behind the scenes set up (which, by the way, I cannot recommend enough as a player habit to pick up. Just shooting the shit as characters about whatever while the DM does DM things is a great way to take the pressure off of your DM and make them feel like they aren’t holding up the game while they look up a rule or double check their notes), but at the time, I just appreciated for this moment of simple bonding between characters. A similar thing occurs pretty frequently in Critical Role, where during transit to various places, the cast likes to have intraparty conversations.

And I just really like that. In D&D, the party can often be traveling for days or even weeks to get to a destination, and if it’s just skipped over, it kind of takes me out of it, because a lot of the time, it feels like character dynamics are just on hold while the party travels. Like no one talks to each other or says anything. But I mean, it was days. You had to do something. Surely somebody talked to somebody else.

In an effort to remedy this situation, I created a Travel Events chart, where players roll to see what sort of stuff their characters get up to while they’re trying to get wherever they’re going. For the sake of time and simplicity, each person rolls once on the chart, resolves their result, and then the party gets where they’re going. It’s mostly RP prompts, but there are a few results which are more impactful. Meeting Ophelia was a result of the travel chart, as was Selena getting sick.

Now, I ruled that her sickness had given her a level of exhaustion, and when I said that, the players’ first response was, “Oh we’d better rest and let you recover that,” before one of them remembered, “Wait, a it’s a long rest to remove exhaustion, and our long rests take a week now. Shit, maybe we should just keep going? What’s the level 1 exhaustion penalty? I’ll take it.”

I found that gratifying and interesting. Gratifying in the sense that the gritty realism resting rules really is eliminating that “we immediately long rest” behavior that pretty much all D&D I’ve played previously was plagued by, so it is absolutely working as intended. I saw Selena rationing her spells and people considering whether or not they could continue on the HP they had.

But it was also interesting because at that moment, the only thing they stood to lose from long resting was time, and they weren’t on the clock for this adventure. There was no time limit. But still didn’t like the idea of losing a week. And I wonder if part of that is because of how downtime has been used in the game so far. With downtime, they can get intel or unlock fun character beats through socializing, so now, every day spent just traipsing through the woods has more of an inherent cost.

Or maybe they’re just impatient people. Who’s to say?

The actual fight went okay? The map I used had a decent sized gorge with a broken bridge crossing over it, and I had sort of planned on finding a way across being a decent part of the encounter, but the entire party was ranged characters, so it mostly just turned into a shootout. Which was still kind of fun for me, imagining the two sides trading shots at each other.

The one thing I did not like how it worked out was the bugbear. He actually took his average HP in damage just getting within 30 ft of the players, so if I’d given him default HP, he’d have died without doing anything. So, on the spot I bumped him up to max HP for a standard bugbear, and that gave him another round and a half of life. He took a swing or two, but I don’t think he ever actually hit anyone. Maybe he hit Selena. Maybe.

Either way, on reflection, having him just charge across at the entrenched players was pretty stupid? Especially since he took multiple rounds to get close enough. What I should have done was started him within 30 ft of the players, probably flanking them from the other side of the map. They started the fight not being able to see him, because Emily didn’t roll high enough on her Perception while scouting, so I could have done that and it would’ve been perfectly believable.

Especially since bugbears are proficient in stealth, and have the Ambusher feature, implying they are supposed to employ surprise tactics. And I just…never do? I dunno, my mental image of bugbears is always of them just foaming at the mouth and charging you straight on, but I guess I need to adjust my expectations of them…or adjust their stats.

When the players finally got back to base, they did some more downtime stuff, but nothing too exciting or worth talking about. Except for the fact that Issac tried to prank Tina, and got beaten up for his troubles. That was hilarious. Tina is comedy gold, I love her. Even if a part of me thinks her player’s real main character is Emily.

Oh, and the Selena having a nightmare thing was a result of Camdyn rolling on the Travel Events chart and getting the result “Shipping fodder ensues.” Which I think is pretty revealing for the kind of table I run.

As always, thanks for reading, thanks to the players for being amazing, and I’ll see you in the next write up.

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