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qarl-grimes · 9 months

Note

Hello and omg Ben x reader lover on 2023?!!!

I requesy Ben being thoroughly kissed pinned to the wall of his home library

Sorry this took so long! It’s short and sweet with a little backstory because I can never help myself.

Pairing: Ben Linus x Reader

Warnings: mentions of past abuse (doesn’t go into details), mentions of death, kissing.

It’s only afterwards that you’re able to touch him in ways that you’ve always wanted to.

It took you a while to love him. You were on the plane, on 815, and you lived through the manipulation and the hunting of the Others, if his people, onto yours. You were in the hatch when he was Henry Gale, and he watched you, even then.

You felt it.

And you always seemed to be drawn to him, didn’t you? You defended him weakly, insisting to Jack and Sawyer and whoever else decided to punch him that day, that maybe there were other ways to communicate with Ben Linus, other than a fist to his face.

And then people started dying because of Charles Widmore, and you became a little less sweet and a little more angry. You gasped and cried when Alex was shot, and you hugged Ben once the others had trailed off into the jungle, speechless and deciding that words could not help.

He looked at you, blue eyes wide and mouth a flat line, before nodding once in thanks.

You followed after Locke, Sawyer, and the others, and he didn’t touch you again until you were deciding whether to follow Kate to the helicopter, or stay on the Island. You weren’t…like the others. You were never keen to leave.

What awaited you, but a penniless existence, a dead family and an abusive ex?

He grabbed you before leaving Locke in the Orchid, his shaking hands touching yours. He opened his mouth to say something, but his words were stuck, and you smiled and cried and pushed him toward the exit.

‘You better come back for me, Benjamin Linus,’ you said. For all of us.

And then you were back with your friends, with Sawyer, but you were way back, back in time. You met him, met Ben, when he was little, and you think you understand him a little more. You met his dad, after all.

You knew that kind of abuse. You had lived it.

You remember thinking that if you died there, in the 70’s, you hated what a coward you had been for not kissing Ben before he moved the Island. You now realise that was the wanting feeling you felt whenever you looked at him.

Only Juliet suspected your feelings. In the years you spent together in the 70’s, she found you sitting outside of your little Dharma house, and she kicked your foot and offered you a warm beer. After a while of sitting under the stars, she said, ‘Ben?’

And you knew she knew, so you nodded and snorted and shrugged a little. ‘I don’t expect you to get it,’ you told her, smiling at the woman who had turned from Other to friend. ‘He made your life a fucking misery, Juliet’.

It was her turn to shrug. ‘I didn’t expect James,’ she tells you, love blooming in her smile. ‘And you certainly didn’t expect Ben’.

No, you think. You had not expected him to crawl under your skin. At least, not in the way he had.

And then you were back in your time, and so many more of your friends died. You cried and you ran, and you did it, all of you, you saved the Island, you stopped him from leaving.

And Juliet died, and Sawyer’s screams will live with you forever.

And afterwards, when Hurley asked Ben to be his Number 2 and Ben said yes, Hurley turned to you and said, ‘You’re staying too, right?’

And Ben looked at you, wide-eyed and open in a way that had changed since you first met him, years ago. The manipulation and lying were like an old coat he had shrugged away. You smiled, cheeks dry with tears. Somewhere in the distance, you hear a plane leave the Island.

‘I’m staying too,’ you agree, and Ben’s shoulder sag. ‘Where else would I go?’

You take the house next to his. Next to Ben’s.

It’s the one he just kept insisting was the best during rain season. You’re sure it has nothing to do with the fact that your bedrooms face each other, a little apple tree sitting between the windows.

It’s two weeks after the end, after burying Jack and hearing from mainland that Kate, and Sawyer, and Claire, and all of them made it home okay. There’s a lot of graves on this Island, but Jack’s hurts to dig the most.

Live together, die alone. And he had made sure that you’d lived together.

Hurley stayed behind for hours after Jack’s burial. You didn’t see him walk back into the barracks until the early hours of the morning.

You’re a little braver after…after everything. Before, you were a mouse. People stomped all over you, and you let them. You rarely took what you wanted, because you so rarely got what you wanted.

Now, though, you knew. You wanted him. You wanted Ben. You wanted him, knowing his past, knowing his faults - but thats’s what this Island is, isn’t it? It’s a second chance.

And you’re quite sure he wanted you back.

You’re not sure why you suddenly decide to do it that night. Perhaps it’s the relocation after nearly two weeks of knowing it’s all over, that no longer will you be flashing through time or struggling to survive or mourning new deaths. Now, there is only mourning those already lost, in making a new life for yourself. You were young, you had all the time in the world.

You were starting to find you loved the Island, and that made you happy. Finally, a home you enjoyed, that you respected.

It’s a Thursday night, and the Barracks are quiet. Hurley’s house was dark, and you slip out of yours after spying from your bedroom window the lights still on at Ben’s.

You were nervous, but dizzyingly so. It felt good.

You knock on his door and he answers quickly, and you wonder if he had been watching you already. You wonder if he had seen you hurry from your house to his, his face hidden behind the curtains of his home.

The thought doesn’t bother you as much as it should.

‘Y/N!’ He greets, smile polite and cheeks a little red, and you grin, because you can’t really help yourself. You step forward and he watches you. ‘It’s late, are you-’

And you kiss him, because it’s all you’ve wanted to do for years, now. After the shit you’ve been through, all of you, you deserve some good.

He makes a huffing sound, one of surprise, and then he’s kissing you back, arms around your waist and mouth solid against yours.

And you push, because you were a mouse before, but you refuse to be one now. You push until his back is against his bookcase and your hands are grasping the buttons of his shirt. And you like this - this control, because it’s something you’ve always lacked, isn’t it?

You wonder if Ben might quite enjoy relinquishing his control, just for a moment.

You make a noise and he rumbles in reply, holding you all the tighter to him as your mouth moves to his jaw, and then he does make a sound - a low, needy one that has you surging forward to kiss him harder, with more warmth.

You feel the last slot of your happiness fall into place. Yes, you think, you could imagine a life in this Island more fully now. With him.

You would bicker and discover and live.

You stop after a few minutes of grabbing hands and sharp groans, and you realise with a flush that you’d unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt. Ben gapes at you, flushed and breathless, and you giggle a little at the sight.

You’d figured out, then, what drew the man speechless.

‘Sorry,’ you said, a little bashful. ‘Been wanting to do that for a while’.

Ben blinks and, finally, shuts his mouth. His smile is a little teasing. ‘Don’t let me stop you from doing what you want to do, of course,’ he shoots back, mouth quirking a little at the corner.

‘If you insist,’ you tease.

So, you kiss him again, shorter this time; sweeter.

You figure they’ll be room for plenty more.

#qarls talking shit #lost #lost fic #Ben linus x reader #Ben linus

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get-lost-in-fanfiction · 5 months

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I have been rewatching Lost and I love your writing! Can I request a soft Ben fanfiction, maybe where the reader is tending to his injuries? Thank you!

Ask and you shall receive <3

Because You're Injured

Paring: Ben Linus x F!Reader Word Count: 943

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The Island's night held an eerie calmness as you carefully tended to Ben's injuries. His usually confident demeanor was subdued by the pain etched across his face. The flickering light from the campfire painted gentle shadows on his features as you cleaned the wounds with utmost care. You didn’t speak about how he got injured like this, it scared you too much to think about what it would mean for you, your friends, and the Island.

"Does it hurt?" you asked softly, your voice carrying concern., distracting yourself from your thoughts of impending doom. However, the feeling still swooped in your stomach.

Ben winced slightly but managed a faint smile. "I've had worse, believe me."

Your fingers traced over the bandages, making sure they were snug yet not too tight. You had a lot of practice, helping Jack for all that time. It’s not like you had no medical training; you had taken some classes before the crash. Not that it mattered anymore; it felt like a lifetime away. His gaze met yours, gratefulness shining through the pain, making your heart ache almost painfully. "Thank you," he whispered, his voice barely audible above the rustle of the trees.

"You don't have to thank me," you replied, brushing a strand of hair away from his forehead with shaking fingers. "We take care of each other here."

Silence fell between you, the crackling of the fire filling the space. In moments like these, the barriers came down, revealing the vulnerability hidden beneath Ben's usually guarded exterior so few got to see. You felt a powerful emotion rise up in your chest, so you busied yourself with fussing over his bandages again to distract yourself. If you were being honest, you were scared of the attraction you felt for Ben. You didn’t begin on the best of terms, but now? Now he had become an ally and a trusted friend, at least to you; the others still didn’t like him as much. You couldn’t help to trust him, though.

"You're good at this," he remarked, his eyes fixed on the side of your head, which was the only thing he could see.

You smiled, feeling a warmth spread through you at his words against your will. You decided to take a chance and look at him. "Just practice,” you try to shrug as noncommittally as possible, “I've patched up more scrapes and bruises than I can count too."

Ben's hand found yours, a silent gesture of appreciation and perhaps a touch of vulnerability. Despite the impending doom that clouded your thoughts about the Island, in this intimate moment, it felt like the two of you were the only souls existing in that universe.

"You should rest," you suggested gently, noticing the fatigue weighing down on him.

"I'll be fine," he insisted, though his eyelids betrayed his weariness.

"You can be stubborn, you know that?" you teased lightly, earning a small chuckle from him.

Moments like these brought an odd sense of tranquility amidst the chaos. After all that had happened recently, you didn’t think you get another moment of peace like you did during the Dharma Days. As the fire crackled, painting dancing shadows around you, you remained by Ben's side, watching over him with a mix of concern and an unspoken affection.

The night deepened, the stars sparkling above like distant beacons, their serene light a stark contrast to the turmoil of the island. You adjusted the blankets around Ben, ensuring he was as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. His breaths came steady, hinting at the slumber that beckoned him, despite his stubborn resistance.

"You're not invincible, you know," you murmured softly, a gentle reminder.

A faint smirk played on Ben's lips, he opened one of his eyes. "You'd be surprised," he quipped, his voice barely above a whisper. You just laughed.

The tension that usually hung between you both seemed to dissolve in the night's quietude. You found solace in the shared silence, a language of understanding that didn’t require words. Despite the uncertainty that loomed over the island, here, under the canopy of stars, a fragile sense of peace enveloped you.

"I'll keep watch," you offered, your voice low but resolute.

Ben's gaze met yours, a hint of gratitude glinting in his eyes before he finally surrendered to sleep, his features relaxed in slumber. You sat beside him, keeping a vigilant eye on the surroundings, the fire crackling as the night deepened. As much as you were tired, you weren’t really sure what could happen in the cover of the night. While considering Ben's injuries, you planned to find the others in the morning. It would be difficult to trek through the jungle with the state he was in right now. But you knew that god healing sleep would help any soreness ben had greatly, even if he was sleeping on the ground.

At this moment, with the weight of the Island's still looming mysteries bearing down on you both, you found a strange sense of unity. Perhaps it was the vulnerability shared, the unspoken trust forged through adversities, or maybe it was simply the solace found in companionship amidst the unknown. You thought maybe something more could happen between the both of you, despite the idea scaring you beyond belief. Intimacy wasn’t your strong suit, after all.

As the night drifted on, you remained steadfast, a silent guardian in the shadows, watching over not just Ben, but the fragile semblance of peace that enveloped you both. You steeled yourself for another day, another fight, another journey. You would be ready for whatever would come because you had Ben by your side.

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Please let me know if you'd like to be tagged for oneshots!

#ben linus x reader #benjamin linus x reader #oneshots #reader oneshots #fic request #anon request #lost fanfiction #abc lost #lost tv series

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plutoswritingplanet · 2 years

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MASTERLIST

My AO3 Profile (there’s a lot of old cringey stuff there btw)

Stranger Things

Peter Ballard (Henry Creel/Vecna/001)

White Rabbit (x Fem!Reader) PART 1 , PART 2

Ptolemaea ( x Fem!Reader oneshot)

Peter Ballard and Child!Reader (requested, oneshot)

The Skin (x AFAB!Reader requested, oneshot)

Moon Knight

Jake Lockley

Release (x Fem!Reader oneshot)

Arthur Harrow

Knives Out (x Fem!Reader oneshot)

The Black Phone

The Grabber

Stop, Hammer Time (x AFAB!Reader oneshot)

Peter Pan 2003

Captain James Hook

Lady Disdain (x AFAB!Reader oneshot)

Arcane (League of Legends)

Silco

And I’ll Be Like Sugar (x AFAB!Reader oneshot)

Attack On Titan/Shingeki No Kyojin

Zeke Yeager

Cross The Line (x AFAB!Reader)

Far Cry 3

Hoyt Volker

Moon River (x Reader)

One Piece (Live Action)

Dracule Mihawk

Taking What’s Not Yours (x Reader)

Buggy The Clown

You Started It (x Reader) - Part 1. Part 2.

Mortal Kombat (games and movies)

Shang Tsung

Unpunishable (x F!Reader)

The Saw Franchise

Mark Hoffman

Enabler (x F!Reader)

Supernatural

Lucifer

Ring Of Fire (x F!Reader) - Part 1. Part 2.

Dune (Villeneuve movies)

Feyd Rautha Harkonnen

It’s A Special Death You Saved (x F!Reader) - Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.(finale)

Strip Me Down And Paint Me Black (x F!Reader) - Part 1.

Fallout (Amazon TV Series)

Cooper Howard/The Ghoul

Hand That Feeds (x F!Reader) - Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

Lost (2004 TV Series)

Benjamin Linus

The Secret of Drowning (x F!Reader) - AO3 link

#masterlist #my writing #peter ballard x reader #henry creel x reader #001 x reader #jake lockley x reader #arthur harrow x reader #stranger things x reader #moon knight x reader #captain hook x reader #silco x reader #zeke yeager x reader #hoyt volker x reader #buggy the clown x reader #dracule mihawk x reader #feyd rautha x reader #ben linus x reader #cooper howard x reader

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viviennevermillion · 1 month

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Losties of Tumblr if I start writing for this fandom again would anyone read it? Drop some characters in the comments you wanna read about and which of these you want:

headcanons

reader-insert oneshot

playlist

introspective oneshot

poem

#lost #abc lost #benjamin linus #ben linus #jack shephard #lost sawyer #james ford #james sawyer ford #sayid jarrah #kate austen #charlie pace #desmond hume #juliet burke #claire littleton #sun hwa kwon #jin soo kwon #daniel faraday #lost x reader

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convolutedblasphemy · 15 days

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Being used to being in big active fandoms makes me wish I had more people to talk about Lost with but on the other hand it's nice to not have to see "Ben Linus x Reader Domestic Violence Headcanons" on my dash along with the worst possible misinterpretations of Sawyer's character and also someone trying to cancel Richard

#lost #lost abc #benjamin linus #ben linus #james sawyer ford #james ford #lost sawyer #lost ben #richard alpert

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rumpykamon · 4 years

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To the nonny who asked for Ben/Reader, here you go:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27523903

#Ben linus #Benjamin Linus #lost #lost abc #fanfic #fanfiction #RUMPYKAMON #Ben linus x reader #Michael Emerson

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slythergirlimagines · 6 years

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Because I Love You Part 1

Summary: The reader is kidnapped and tortured by Ben. Sawyer comes to her rescue, causing a certain doctor to be jealous.

Jack Shephard x Reader

Sawyer Ford x Reader

Requested: Yes! Hope this fulfills your hopes for this story! I may do a part 2 if you like it!

Warnings: cussing, mentions of torture, mentions of wounds, panic attacks and anxiety, also possible heart attacks if you love the gif below like I do.

Also: Does not follow cannon or time line exactly

Because I Love You Part 1

You woke up with a pounding headache and no clue where you were. It was dark and cold, and it smelled faintly of cleaner, a fake lemony smell mixed with bleach. You figured you must be inside somewhere if it was cold, the Island never got to be this cold, even at night, and that would also explain the smell. You were tied to something, and you were sitting upright... a chair maybe? You couldn’t quite think straight with your pounding head and uncomfortable position. You tried to calm down and think. What was the last thing you remembered?

You had been gathering fruit with Sawyer. It had been normal, nothing out of place. Both of you had been trying to out snark the other, when you had heard a noise. Nothing overly suspicious, but out of place enough to make you both stop and listen. You had seen the guy first, and had barely enough time to open your mouth when the man swung the butt of the gun down on Sawyer’s head, knocking him out. Only seconds later there had been a burst of pain in the back of your own head and your vision had gone black.

So some asshole had knocked you out too? But what for? And where was Sawyer? Panic gripped you again, but you pushed it down again. You had to keep control, it was the only way you’d get out of here.

You opened your mouth, trying to call out to Sawyer, but your mouth was like cotton and your tongue felt heavy in your mouth. You swallowed trying to get some moisture, and tried again.

“Sawyer?” It came out as barely a whisper, cracky and unsure. You swallowed, determined to try again.

“Sawyer?” You said. It was louder but your voice still sounded strange, echoey almost. Then the lights came on.

You were momentarily blinded by the extremely bright lights. The same kind you’d find in a hospital. The thought made you queasy. You were still trying to make your eyes work when you heard a voice. The most annoying voice in the whole goddamn world.

“Hello, y/n.” Said Ben Linus. Your eyesight was slowly returning, and you were starting to be able to make out the room. You could see him, or rather the outline of him, through some glass wall. You jerked against your restraints, desperate to strangle him.

“What the hell is going on you bastard!” You yelled, venom and rage dripping from each word. You had always been a fighter, and you sure as hell weren’t about to let a little weasel like Ben Linus intimidate you.

“That’s not very nice y/n. Didn’t your parents ever teach you any manners?”

“Did yours?” You snarled, jerking against the restraints once more.

“Touché.” He chuckled, a nastier sound you’d never heard. You swore in that moment that you’d rather go ten rounds with the Smoke Monster than ever see Ben Linus again.

“You took something of mine. And I want it back.” He said, realizing that the time for playing games had passed.

Instantly you were pissed. What the hell was he even talking about?

“Oh I think you know exactly what I’m talking about, y/n.” So you had said that out loud great. The pounding in your head intensified. “Three days ago, you ran into a couple in the woods, did you not?”

You blinked for a moment, before you were pulled into a memory.

The jungle was dark, but not oppressive. Your wet hair hung around your face, and you felt completely at peace. Showering in the hatch did wonders for your soul. Your pleasant thoughts about the shower were broken by people speaking.

“It’s ok Karl, just rest a minute. It’s ok.” A female voice you didn’t recognize was speaking.

“Alex we should keep going, I’m fine.” A male voice responded. You definitely didn’t know them. Your blood ran cold. What if they were Others? Your heart beat picked up slightly. You heard the male voice gasp and groan, as if in pain. You hesitated. Should you even approach them? It could be dangerous. The man groaned again, and you sprung into action. If you abandoned your morals now, you’d be just like The Others.

You pushed apart the trees separating you from the couple. The girl was a whirl of movement as she turned quickly and pointed a gun at you. Her eyes were as wild as her hair. You stopped short. Berating yourself for even getting involved. Her hand shook as she pointed the gun at you. Young, you noticed, she was young. Your eyes quickly flicked over to the man. He was young too. You couldn’t see the wound, but you could see the blood staining his thigh.

“I can help you.” You blurted without thinking. For a second, hope flashed on their faces. And then the girl spoke.

“Who are you?”

“I’m y/n. I mean you no harm. We have a camp not too far from here. Please, come with me. We have a doctor. He can help you.” The girl thought for a moment and then helped the boy up.

“I’m Alex.”

The realization must’ve showed on your face, because Ben spoke up seconds later with a smug look.

“So you do remember.” You wanted to punch the smile right off his stupid face.

Alex had told you that her and Karl were running away from The Others. Alex said that they had been threatened and had no other option but to run. Jack had welcomed them in and fixed Karl up. Jack. The thought of him caused your heart to constrict. Did he notice you were gone? And Sawyer, where was he?

“No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You said, succeeding in keeping your voice neutral.

Anger flooded Ben’s face. “I’m talking about my daughter!” He snapped. “Did you or did you not encounter her and her precious boyfriend?!”

“Daughter?” You mumbled surprised to yourself. Shock momentarily overpowering your self control.

“Yes daughter. She didn’t tell you?” He sneered, anger a little more in check.

You didn’t respond. Silence was safer. You didn’t trust yourself to say anything right now.

“One of my men saw you helping them. He reported it to me immediately. Asked if he should take you out or follow you to camp and take you all out. But I decided I’d let you have them. Let you all take care of them a while, and then I’d have my fun. Show Alex what happens when she disobeys me. Show her how her bad decisions affect others. But I’ll make it easy for you. Tell me where exactly they are and I’ll let you go. No harm no foul.” He smiles the fakest smile you’d ever seen.

For a moment, you thought about telling him. But then Alex’s face as she told me her story flashed across your mind. Her desperation to save Karl. She wanted to get away from here, start over. You couldn’t take that away from her. She was just a kid. She didn’t ask to have Ben as a father. And why didn’t Ben know where she was? Didn’t they know where the survivors camp was?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You repeated, firmer this time.

The vein in Ben’s forehead popped out. “I’m gonna give you one more chance..”

“No need.” You interrupted. “I have no idea what you’re talking about and I have nothing to say to you.” You finished your speech by spitting in his direction.

You watched in nervous anticipation as his face went blank.

“Fine. I didn’t want this to happen, but it appears that there is no other option.” You watched him move his arm and hit something on the panel in front of him.

The door that you hadn’t noticed before slid open, and in walked two men. They were carrying various items in their arms. You broke out into a cold sweat, but fought your hardest to look bored.

“Is this supposed to intimidate me?” You sassed. Stay in control, you reminded yourself. Stay calm. Panicking is what they want.

“These men will get the answers out of you, and they will do it by any means necessary. Last chance.” Ben’s voice flooded the room, but you were too busy staring at the knife one of the men had just pulled out to give him an answer.

If you had been able to pull your eyes away from the knife, you would’ve seen the pleasure flushing Ben’s face when he told them to begin.

*************************

You had blacked out from the pain a while ago. That much you were sure of. The beatings had been hard to take, and finally one of the men had hit you too hard. Blacking out was never something you had previously considered a blessing, but now that something was waking you up, you were desperate to feel the blackness again. To be free of pain.

Speaking of pain, your body was starting to feel it in waves. Every time your heart beat, the pain would grow steadily stronger. A groan tore out of our mouth. You could taste metal on your tongue. Blood. Then you heard it. A noise somewhere far off in the distance. A voice.

You couldn’t make out what it was saying. It was so echoey, so far away. Your ears were ringing. You heard it again, louder this time. The tone, it was familiar to you.

“..you ok? Can you hear me? Y/N? Shit.” You finally could hear. You were so out of it that you had no filter.

“My last name’s not shit.” You said with a groan, it hurt to talk.

“Oh my god! You’re awake. Alright sweetheart I’m going to get you out of there don’t worry.” You still couldn’t open your eyes, but you knew the voice now. Your thoughts were still hazy, and you felt a bit like puking.

“Sawyer?” You asked. You were beginning to feel more and more lightheaded by the minute. “How did you get out?” You wondered out loud.

“They never had me darlin’. Knocked me out cold and left me to rot. When I came to, I realized what had happened and came to break you outta here. Do you know how to open the door?” He questioned you, but none of that information really registered with you. You were too out of it to care.

“Darlin’ you hear me? You know how to get this goddamn door open? Those sons a bitches are gonna come back real soon if I don’t get you outta here fast.” He said. His accent was so funny to you, the words all ran together. You were so caught up in how funny his voice sounded that you failed to notice that it was getting far away again.

“Fuck. Alright. I’m gonna get you outta there ok? You’re gonna be fine.” You heard the loud noises, gunshots, you thought faintly. Then the crunch of glass, but it was fading faster now. You were getting what you wanted. You were gonna be pain free soon.

“Hold on sweetheart. Hold on. I’ve got ya. I’ve got ya.” You felt hands on you, gentle this time. Then the world tipped under you, and you were flying. You opened your eyes one brief second.

“Sawyer.” Was the last thing you mumbled before the world went back.

A/N: So this is part one! I’ve written out the whole story, so expect chapter updates sooner!! I’m really excited for this one:)

Tag: @flowercrowns-goodvibes

#lost fanfiction #lost #jack shephard x reader #sawyer ford #sawyer ford x reader #jack shephard #kate austen #ben linus #slythergirlimagines #fanfiction

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viralhottopics · 7 years

Text

Inside Chrome: The Secret Project to Crush IE and Remake the Web

Chrome development team from left, Mark Larson, Brian Rakowski, Darin Fisher, and Ben Goodger Photo:Joe Pugliese

Brian Rakowski walks to the whiteboard in a small conference room in Building 41 on Google’s Mountain View campus. A lanky, gregarious man in his twenties, Rakowski is the product manager of a top-secret project that’s been under way for more than two years. The weekly Monday meeting of managers or “leads,” as Google puts it in its nonhierarchical way will be one of the last before the upcoming launch. Rakowski writes 12 items on the board with a black dry-erase marker. The first is “State of the Release.” It’s late August, and the release in question is called Chrome, Google’s first Web browser. Since a browser is the linchpin of Web activity the framework for our searching, reading, buying, banking, Facebooking, chatting, video watching, music appreciation, and porn consumption this is huge for Google, a step that needed to wait until the company had, essentially, come of age. It is an explicit attempt to accelerate the movement of computing off the desktop and into the cloud where Google holds advantage. And it’s an aggressive move destined to put the company even more squarely in the crosshairs of its rival Microsoft, which long ago crushed the most fabled browser of all, Netscape Navigator. A Google browser has been rumored for so long that most people have stopped talking about it. But the folks in this room know that the talking will soon begin again. Chrome is due to rock the Web just 16 days from this meeting. It turns out the state of the release is … not so bad. At Release Build Minus One ideally, the last version before the public beta hits the streets there are only five “blocking” bugs, all of which Rakowski and team deem fixable. “Things are looking good,” says Mark Larson, one of the tech leads. “What are we missing?” asks Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management. “What’s keeping you up at night?” “It’s not Chrome,” says Darin Fisher, an engineer who coauthored the first prototype. That gets a laugh because everyone knows he’s got a 10-week-old at home. Rakowski takes a red marker and puts an X next to the State of the Release item. The Google browser is one step closer to reality. Why is Google building a browser? A better question is, why did it take so long for Google to build a browser? After all, as Pichai says, “our entire business is people using a browser to access us and the Web.” “The browser matters,” CEO Eric Schmidt says. He should know, because he was CTO of Sun Microsystems during the great browser wars of the 1990s. Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin know it, too. “When I joined Google in 2001, Larry and Sergey immediately said, ‘We should build our own browser,’” Schmidt says. “And I said no.” It wasn’t the right time, Schmidt told them. “I did not believe that the company was strong enough to withstand a browser war,” he says. “It was important that our strategic aspirations be relatively under the radar.” Nonetheless, the idea persisted and rumors percolated. After a 2004 New York Times article quoted “a person who has detailed knowledge of the company’s business” saying a browser was in the works, Schmidt had to publicly deny it. But behind the scenes, the subject remained a running argument between Schmidt and the founders. As a kind of compromise, Google assembled a team to work on improvements for the open source browser Firefox, spearheaded by browser wizards Ben Goodger and Fisher. (Both had worked with Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind Firefox.) Another hiring coup came when Linus Upson, a 37-year-old engineer whose pedigree includes a stint at NeXT, signed up as a director of engineering. “This was very clever on Larry and Sergey’s part,” Schmidt says, “because, of course, these people doing Firefox extensions are perfectly capable of doing a great browser.” Sure enough, in the spring of 2006, the Firefox group began talking among themselves about designing a new app. They loved Firefox but they recognized a flaw in all current browsers. When Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and the codebase at the heart of Firefox were originally conceived, browsing was less complex. Now, however, functions that previously could be performed only on the desktop email, spreadsheets, database management are increasingly handled online. In the coming era of cloud computing, the Web will be much more than just a means of delivering content it will be a platform in its own right. The problem with revamping existing browsers to accommodate this concept is that they have developed an ecology of add-on extensions (toolbars, RSS readers, etc.) that would be hopelessly disrupted by a radical upgrade. “As a Firefox developer, you love to innovate, but you’re always worried that it means in the next version all the extensions will be broken,” Fisher says. “And indeed, that’s what happens.” The conclusion was obvious: Only by building its own software could Google bring the browser into the cloud age and potentially trigger a spiral of innovation not seen since Microsoft and Netscape one-upped each other almost monthly.

Chrome: Here’s What Shines

Google wanted a browser optimized for cloud computing, with a design emphasis on simplicity and speed. Key features:

Speed Blazing fast JavaScript engine opens the door to more advanced Web applications.

Navigation The “omnibox” combines the search and address boxes, and pop-up thumbnails show your most-visited destinations.

Availability The open source software was launched in over 40 languages, but Windows only; Mac and Linux versions are in the works.

Reliability Tabs run in isolation, so if one crashes, no others are affected. Also, you can drag tabs to create new windows.

Privacy Browsing history is now searchable and editable; incognito mode offers private surfing.

One key change they had in mind was something called a multiprocess architecture, the system that helps the computer keep going when an application crashes or freezes. Why not extend that idea to browsers, so if something crashes in a tab, the other tabs are unperturbed? Also, for that matter, why not set things up so that you can drag an existing tab to create a new window? Starting from scratch had other advantages. You could design it to look cleaner and run faster, the twin dogmas of the Google corporate religion. Around June 2006, Goodger, Fisher, and another former Mozillan named Brian Ryner cooked up a small prototype. Their first big decision involved the choice of a rendering engine, the software that processes the HTML code of a Web page into the stuff that appears on your screen. The two major open source options were Gecko, used by Firefox, and WebKit, which powers Apple’s Safari browser. The word was that WebKit (which had already been adopted by the group developing Google’s Android mobile operating system) could be nasty fast three times as fast as Gecko, in one example. In a few weeks, they had a simple application running WebKit on Windows that kept going even when a Web page crashed a tab. Early on, Goodger recalls, “our prototypes had a picture of a little tab that was unhappy, and if a tab died you’d see that. It was the first piece of personality in the product.” Not long after that, Brin and Page came by to check in on the furtive beginnings of their browser. “I remember sitting at my desk, which at the time had a stuffed snake running along the back of it,” says Pam Greene, an engineer on the team. “Sergey was bouncing on one of those exercise balls, watching Darin give a demo, and petting the snake.” No one will say exactly when the browser project got the official green light. Pichai recalls an executive meeting when Schmidt no longer seemed as opposed as he had been. If Google did go for it, the CEO said, the team had to produce something very different from Explorer and Firefox. In addition, a Google browser would have to be fast, and it would have to be open source. Which, of course, was exactly what the team already had in mind. In any case, by the autumn of 2006 the line between unofficial concept and formal project had been crossed. “One Friday, there was a meeting called with like an hour’s notice,” engineer Brett Wilson says. “We were told, ‘The management is thinking about doing our own browser what do you think about that?’ Everybody was a combination of excited and freaked out.” Part of the freak-out was they knew full well that building a competitive browser was a massive undertaking. There were also mixed feelings because of the group’s attachment to Firefox, an icon of open source development and a hedge against Microsoft’s dominance. “The fear was that people were going to read this as sabotaging Firefox,” says Erik Kay, an engineer who joined the team in October 2006. The Googlers were mollified by the fact that their browser would be 100 percent open source: Google’s innovations could potentially find their way into the Mozilla codebase. “We really want to make Firefox successful, as well as other open source browsers,” Upson says. As part of Google’s Firefox effort, Pichai had been meeting with Mozilla head Mitchell Baker, and at some point he told her about Google’s project. Baker now says a Google browser is a mixed bag for Mozilla and Firefox. She sees the effort as a vindication of Mozilla’s belief that browser choice is essential. “If Google comes up with some good new ideas, that’s really great for users,” she says. “Competition spurs the best in us.” But she also understands that many of her users will download Google’s app. “We expect people will try it and come back,” she says. “Mozilla exists because independence is important.”

The Illustrated History: To introduce Chrome and its development team, Google asked noted artist Scott McCloud to create a 32-page comic (available online) that depicts the browser’s two-year gestation and special features.

A less weighty issue was what to dub the product. After considering some ridiculous codenames (Upson says they were so awful that he took the un-Googly step of a top-down veto), the project borrowed its moniker from the term used to describe the frame, toolbars, and menus bordering a browser window: chrome. One more hire was key. Because Chrome was supposed to be optimized to run Web applications, a crucial element would be the JavaScript engine, a “virtual machine” that runs Web application code. The ideal person to construct this was a Danish computer scientist named Lars Bak. In September 2006, after more than 20 years of nonstop labor designing virtual machines, Bak had been planning to take some time off to work on his farm outside rhus. Then Google called. Bak set up a small team that originally worked from the farm, then moved to some offices at the local university. He understood that his mission was to provide a faster engine than in any previous browser. He called his team’s part of the project “V8.” “We decided we wanted to speed up JavaScript by a factor of 10, and we gave ourselves four months to do it,” he says. A typical day for the Denmark team began between 7 and 8 am; they programmed constantly until 6 or 7 at night. The only break was for lunch, when they would wolf down food in five minutes and spend 20 minutes at the game console. “We are pretty damn good at Wii Tennis,” Bak says. They were also pretty good at writing a JavaScript engine. “We just did some benchmark runs today,” Bak says a couple of weeks before the launch. Indeed, V8 processes JavaScript 10 times faster than Firefox or Safari. And how does it compare in those same benchmarks to the market-share leader, Microsoft’s IE 7? Fifty-six times faster. “We sort of underestimated what we could do,” Bak says. Speed may be Chrome’s most significant advance. When you improve things by an order of magnitude, you haven’t made something better you’ve made something new. “As soon as developers get the taste for this kind of speed, they’ll start doing more amazing new Web applications and be more creative in doing them,” Bak says. Google hopes to kick-start a new generation of Web-based applications that will truly make Microsoft’s worst nightmare a reality: The browser will become the equivalent of an operating system. Google also brought in reinforcements to implement the multiprocess architecture that allowed each open tab to run like a separate, self-contained program. In May 2007, it acquired GreenBorder Technologies, a software security firm whose technology was designed to isolate IE and Firefox activities into virtual sessions, or “sandboxes,” where malware intrusions couldn’t mess with other activities or data on your computer. When the deal was announced publicly, tech pundits wondered whether it meant that Google was going into the antivirus business. Only after the acquisition did GreenBorder’s engineers learn that their job was to construct sandboxes for the tabs of a new browser. “It was confusing,” says Carlos Pizano, one of the GreenBorder hires. “They would not say what they wanted to sandbox.” The team was growing, but the process never got bogged down in bureaucracy. In the project’s early stages, Chromers would all have lunch together at a table in one of the Google cafs. Soon even the largest table couldn’t accommodate them all. Working in an open source spirit, every engineer was free to check out any piece of code and tweak or improve it. Rakowski always tried to keep things light, one day awarding tins of chrome polish to the best bug catchers. As the plumbing aspects of the product fell into place, activity focused on user interface. From the beginning, the Chrome team hoped that its visual presentation would be so understated that people wouldn’t even think they were using a browser. The mantra became “Content, not chrome,” which is sort of weird given the name of the browser. (“We’ve learned to live with the irony,” Mark Larson says.) The clearest expression of this comes when you drag a tab containing a Web application like Gmail to its own separate window and specify that you want an “app shortcut.” At that point, the tabs, buttons, and address bars fall away and the Web app looks pretty much like a desktop app. Welcome to the cloud era.

Any tab in Chrome can be dragged out to start a new window.

When deciding what buttons and features to include, the team began with the mental exercise of eliminating everything, then figuring out what to restore. The back button? No-brainer. The forward button? Less essential, but it survived. But if you’re a big fan of the browser status bar that meter that tells you what percent of a page has loaded you’re out of luck with Chrome. And then there was the bookmarks bar. At first, engineers thought they could kill it. Chrome introduces several new navigation methods, including one where the browser figures out where you want to go next with no typing required. And when you do type something in, you use the “omnibox,” a combination of address bar and search box: Just tell it what you’re thinking and it delivers a Web address, search results, or popular destinations that fit your query, all in non-intrusive text underneath the box. It’s a bulked-up version of “I’m Feeling Lucky.” Still, user tests showed that some people just love to navigate by clicking on the bookmark bar. The compromise: If the user has previously configured the bar in IE or Firefox, Chrome will import the setup. Otherwise, users won’t have a bookmark bar unless they choose to. It’s incredible that something as potentially game-changing as a Google browser has stayed under wraps for two years. It wasn’t until mid-2007, about a year into the project, that the team let employees outside the group even see what they were doing. At the first of a series of Tech Talks featuring the current prototype (events designed, in part, as a way of recruiting internally for the ever-growing team) the reaction was volcanic. Googlers broke into spontaneous applause when various features, like dragging a tab into a new window, were demo’d. As the number of people who knew about Chrome increased, the inevitable occurred word did leak out to a blog or two, yet nothing came of those stray items. No reporter put it all together. “I think it was because rumors about Google browsers have been around so long it’s like sightings of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster,” Upson says. On the eve of the launch, Pichai shares some of his ambitions for Chrome. How many people will use it? “Many millions,” he says. “I want my mom to use it. I want my dad to use it.” The Google imprimatur doesn’t assure success, but Pichai believes that even if Chrome doesn’t snare huge market share, its innovations will improve the landscape. “We benefit directly if the Web gets better,” he says. As launch approaches, the team has just moved into new space in a freshly renovated building on the Google campus, and there’s another all-hands gathering in the biggest conference room available. It’s standing room only. Milk and cookies are provided. After some initial business, Rakowski hands the floor over to Goodger. The rumpled engineer talks about the benefits of making Chrome an open source product the code will be publicly released and a community will emerge to determine the browser’s evolution. “We’ll be able to scale our testing efforts,” he says. “It’ll enable people to do things we haven’t thought of. And it’ll generate trust that we’re not doing something evil.” As the meeting breaks up, the energy level is over the top, and not just because of the sugar rush. The Chrome team is close to unleashing the product that Google was destined to create. First, though, there are five bugs to swat. Senior writer Steven Levy ([email protected]) also writes about Jay Walker’s in the October issue of Wired.

Infographic: Chrome Enters the Battleground of Browser Development

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