#the server shut down for maintenance so now it's time for me to log off my computer soon and go to sleep

[vitamx]

the iron door: chapter 1

[ Also read on AO3! ]

---

 grian had made quite the first impression when he had entered the hermitcraft server.

 carrying a body bag that clanked whenever it moved in the slightest- some hermits even said it moved by itself- it was obvious as to why that was.

when xisuma had asked, he had simply grinned and laughed, saying it was an incomplete project he couldn't possibly leave behind.

 what kind of project? a redstone one.

so that bag is filled with redstone parts? not exactly.

then what is in the bag? i told you- an incomplete project. nothing dangerous, don't worry...

there might have been a day or two of suspicion, but the minute that body bag disappeared somewhere unknown, no one really seemed to question it.

especially not when he had started a chain of events that led to a chaotic game of tag, a pickle shop with no exit, and after that came prank after prank after prank... and after that, there was the prank war, and the architechs, and sahara, and the build-off...

 needless to say, with such a chaotic server, it was easy to forget something as minuscule as a large bag with, most likely, iron and redstone parts in it.

however, one fateful, chilly afternoon mumbo had received a flurry of messages from his good friend grian.

  grianmc: do you remember the bag i brought with me into the world?

 mumbojumbo is typing...

 mumbojumbo: why yes, i do!

mumbojumbo: you said it was an "unfinished project" right?

grianmc: yes yes

grianmc: this may sound a bit odd but can you,

grianmc: keep an eye on it while im away for the week? like... just some regular maintenance checks

grianmc: nothing too difficult, promise

  curious as to whatever (likely horrid and broken) contraption grian had been working on over the season, mumbo agreed without much thought.

  mumbojumbo: sure i can!

mumbojumbo: where are you going?

 grianmc is typing...

 grianmc: just to an old server. to check up on things

grianmc: and thanks. i mean it

grianmc: i also made some recordings and stuff to help, uh

grianmc: guide you through the maintenance checks and stuff

 grianmc is typing...

 grianmc is typing...

 grianmc: the, project, is in the sunken ship- the one that was my starter base.

 grian mc is typing...

 grianmc: dont freak out when you see it

  the last message made mumbo pause, his fingers hesitating over the keypad of the communicator as he typed out his own response to it.

  mumbojumbo: why would i freak out?

  > grian has left the world.

 mumbojumbo: grian?

  ---

  that night, mumbo had flown over to the sunken ship-in-a-bottle, as grian had instructed.

although his clothes got quite damp from the trip down, which left him in a sour mood, the comforting, almost rustic atmosphere calmed him down greatly and nearly instantaneously.

 the plain, simple garden in front of the ship was also still well taken care of, even after nearly a year and a half of the season starting.

 wringing out his tie and hair, mumbo quickly shook the water off of himself, hugging himself to warm up as best he could.

 as he entered the actual shipwreck itself, a strong scent of wood filled the room. although it was cramped and rather small, was very cozy and welcoming.

entering the next room over, mumbo's eyes landed on a sign that was placed above an iron trapdoor- on the wooden floor in front of it was a stone button.

  mumbo

(or whoever might have come here instead):

push the button and go down the ladder

to check on the project

 placing his foot on the button, mumbo pressed down and quickly climbed down the ladder, which seemed to go on for quite a long while. the pathway down was dark and cold, unlit and chilling to the bone.

by the time he had reached the end, he could see void particles rising through the floor and felt the familiar, faint tug of the void.

  in front of him was an iron door.

  the iron door's windows were blocked with stone, and there seemed to be no button or lever to open it.

 the room he himself was in was hardly decorated and was made entirely of stone and gravel and dirt.

the only light source was a redstone torch placed in the corner of the room- how there were no mobs that had spawned, mumbo did not know.

 but as he stepped closer to the iron door, he began to hear a faint noise.

ignoring the unease he felt, mumbo pressed his ear against the door...

  and he heard breathing.

  whirred, raspy, and heavy breathing, pressed against the other side of the iron door.

the breathing came out in near gasps, the breathing seemed desperate and hysterical.

 mumbo quickly stepped back, uncertainty swallowing him whole and leaving him with nothing but dread and unrelenting unease.

 stumbling backwards, mumbo nearly tripped over a small device that lay clattered against the floor.

upon closer inspection, he saw the faint outline of a communicator, a dim red light overlaying the screen.

upon the darkened screen was a simple audio file, titled "MCHECK_01.mp3".

 with only a few seconds of hesitance, mumbo opened the file, and turned the volume up.

  "um... hello, hello? is this thing on?"

  grian's voice echoed throughout the empty room.

  "ah, good! so, erm... hello! this is grian, though i hope that's obvious. thanks for taking on the job, um- whoever it is that accepted."

  mumbo slowly sat himself on the cold ground, gaze unwavering as he stared at the iron door.

  "now, i know it's super dark and all down here, but... think of this as rule #1. DO NOT! i repeat do NOT! put any more light sources in here than there already is. he- i, i mean it doesn't like bright lights. at least not in this state."

"its just a simple NPC, so it shouldn't be too dangerous to maintain. if you go through the door, which, uh, you'll have to make your own button or lever- two of them actually, it should be slumped against the corner all broken-machiney like."

  mumbo paused the recording, slowly pulling out a button from his inventory.

 grian said it wouldn't be dangerous- plus, what were the chances that grian would make some sort of dangerous machine that would harm him? close to none, he'd say.

he firmly pressed the button aside the door until it was fully mounted on the wall, and held the palm of his hand over it, reluctant to press it.

  he pressed his ear against the iron door once more, hand slipping away from the button on the wall.

  the breathing was gone; the room was dead silent.

  letting out a breath he was unaware to have been holding, mumbo picked up the communicator on the ground and firmly pressed the button, stepping inside of the other room.

 the door shut with a clink, and once again he was met with a dark room with a single redstone torch in the corner.

the only difference he could see was that the room was made of spruce wood and logs, and was much more narrow than the previous opening.

  the floor creaked beneath him as he reached out to grab onto the redstone torch propped on the wall.

  so far, he did not see any machine- though it was more likely that said machine was just in the other corner, which had no light reflected onto it.

bringing the torch closer to the other side of the wooden room, mumbo stalked forward with caution, squinting his eyes to try and make out any outline of a machine.

  what he stumbled across was more complex than any redstone contraption he'd ever seen.

what he came upon was a disturbing sight that sent shivers up his spine.

  collapsed in the corner of the room was a replica of grian.

  the side of its face was sprawled open, revealing its internal metal skeleton, and oil and redstone were bubbling down the side of that skeleton's mouth, staining its iron teeth.

 its eyes were cast downward, dull and black, and the bottom half of its shirt was torn off, revealing an iron ribcage with missing bolts and cut wires, burn marks and scratches.

 its right leg up to its knee was missing entirely, red and blue uneven wires sprawling out across the floor. its hands were missing a few fingers.

  it was hard to look at an NPC replica of your close friend and call it an... well, "it".

especially in the condition it was in.

  shakily leaning down and placing the torch upon the floor, never looking away from the machine, mumbo pulled out the communicator and continued playing the audio file.

  "...so, you probably saw it, and freaked out a little bit, am i right? well. i guess it's pretty normal to do that- sorry for the scare. i guess we can just move along with the maintenance check ASAP, huh?"

  the head of the machine creaked ever so slightly, turning to look at mumbo the minute his eyes looked downward.

  "for now, you can just push any parts of its body that have... popped out, so to speak. sometimes it's its face, sometimes it's its arm... i think its locks are kind of broken. all you gotta do is push it back into place until it clicks. after that, just make sure it's powered down all the way- the power button is on the back of its neck. if it's green, press and hold until it turns red."

  the recording ended; the communicator shutting off by itself.

 looking up at the NPC, he froze up, eyes locking instantly with black and empty eyes.

hadn't it been facing towards the ground...?

  no, no, he must have just been imagining things, there's no way the broken down and tattered machine in front of him could have moved.

it was as still as a stone, unmoving and unwavering.

  swallowing a lump in his throat, mumbo reached his hand forward, pressing against one of the three sections of the NPC's face, and clicked it back into place.

reaching both hands out this time, he swiftly pushed the other pieces of its face back, retreating his hands the minute the pieces clicked into place.

 why was he so nervous? there was nothing to be nervous about.

it was just a broken machine, nothing more and nothing less.

 pushing its head forward, mumbo peered behind the NPC, a chill running down his spine as he saw a bright green button on the backside of its neck.

recalling grian's instructions, mumbo quickly pressed the button, holding it down for one second, two seconds, three seconds, and finally-

  "HELLO, MY NAME IS NPC GRI-AN- NPC GR- NP- N- N- N- N-N-N-N-N-"

  jumping back with a scream, mumbo fell onto the floor, scrambling away from the NPC fearfully, its voice screeching loudly and its body twitching sporadically.

his heart beating loudly in his chest, and he locked eyes with the reddened irises of the machine before him.

 after a few more seconds of jittering and glitchy screaming, the NPC seemed to shut down completely, its eyes flickering back into nothingness.

  mumbo heaved, stumbling up to his feet once more. after quickly and skittishly checking to see if the power button was red (which it was), he quickly ran to the iron door, slamming a button down and opening the iron door immediately.

elytra equipped and rockets in hand, mumbo flew upwards and out of the sunken ship as fast as he possibly could.

  even as he reached his base, he could feel his heart racing still.

 ---

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft au #hermitcraft fanfic #hermitcraft fanfiction #hermitcraft fanart #mumbojumbo #mumbo jumbo #npc grian #npcgrian #grianmc #hc grian #grian #the iron door

[fuwafuwamedb]

.Hack//Gilfection Pt 2 (Gilgamesh, Siduri, Rin Tohsaka)

.//Chapters//. – 1 –

___

The next day, he found that Enkidu had been hospitalized.

He’d rushed to the hospital, but they wouldn’t even let him see them.

It was stupid, to think that those idiots wouldn’t let someone like him go forth to see his friend. He owned half their stocks. He had investments with half of their stockholders. At the flick of a pen, he could ruin them.

Gilgamesh glared at his computer, debating on what to do.

Siduri had told him to take some time and do something mindless.

“Fish. Mountain climb. Go get some women and gamble,” Siduri had growled, shoving him from his office.

“They have Enkidu-“

“We have surveillance on the being. They’ll be okay. They’re in a coma, not dead. The being shouldn’t have been playing so many damn video games. I’m guessing it was a flickering lights thing. I’ve heard that can mess with people.”

There hadn’t been flickering lights. There’d only been-

Sitting down, he pressed the power button on the computer. His eyes drifted to the headset and the nerve connections for the game. The midday light was casting a glow on them, no doubt creating a warmth on the devices that would send Enkidu into a frenzy.

You can’t have your game stuff in direct sunlight! It’ll fade the colorings and may overheat the software!

Perhaps it would.

He dropped the window blinds, rolling down the curtain over that to block out the residual light. The headseat now had a light coming out of it, the soft glow reminding him of that beast from before.

…He’d find that thing and kill it.

If nothing else, it would soothe his nerves.

[Message: Server Problems]

We apologize for the inconvenience due to problems with our servers. Currently we are investigating the occurrences and have restricted user access to Delta and Theta servers. Thank you for your understanding.

[CC Corp]

Such a terrible message.

What kind of game company would just shut down part of the game? Shutting down the whole game for a few hours for maintenance and offering some incentive was far better. It ensured a beta testing of the areas affected.

At least, that was how it worked for his phone game.

Computer games needed better logic like that.

He fixed the other parts of the game devices to himself again, hissing a bit at some of the soreness underneath. His hands grabbed for the controller, logging in from his personal email drive on the game.

[LOG IN] [MESSAGE BOARD] [EMAIL SERVER]

…Message board?

Gilgamesh clicked there, opening a new thread.

[Friend in Coma]

My friend fell into a coma playing this game. Have any other people had this occur with their friends or family?

[GilGaMesh]

It was a long shot, but Siduri had mentioned lights being the cause of trouble. If it turned out to be something else, then he could take that information and demand treatment to heal the being faster.

The other messages on the board were useless in comparison to his. There were complaints about difficulties, luck ratings in some item gachas, areas for leveling up, myths and lore from the game; he glanced through the areas with vague interest, opting to leave the message board and go to-

[New Message!]

Gilgamesh frowned, going back to his inbox.

[Ple{*( ]

To t*e ^%* w*! +ol%s /:e book. +<6it% is lo8$in! f>r M|.

T+/&e I, ^o time.

Ple}se. Hel? 3e.

[Au]$]

“…Is this some kind of joke?”

He didn’t have time to decipher drivel from some spammer.

He went back to the menu page and logged in.

The scene was the same as before. Large buildings in the glittering afternoon sun, cobblestone pathways that led away from a large spinning disk that gleamed a deep blue color; people came and went around him just as they had when he had been waiting for.

Except one.

The woman was dressed like a flimsy stereotype of female fighters: bikini armor and a big weapon. She clicked around on her heeled boots, looking around with her eyes narrowed and her twin tails flicking this way and that.

“WHAT?”

Gilgamesh paused, noting the woman coming up to him.

“DON’T YOU KNOW THAT THE REAL WORLD AND THE GAME WORLD WORK THE SAME WAY? YOU DAMN PERVERT! STOP OGLING MY AVATAR!”

“Don’t flatter yourself.”

The woman glared harder, looking him over before huffing. She turned, running for the rest of the city.

The whole encounter was maybe a minute? Half minute?

“…My stupid friend, that woman looked like that idiot in accounting,” Gilgamesh breathed, heading to get some healing items and equipment before heading back to that area from before.

Vendors looked at his armor and clicked their tongues, trying to tutorial him. He lifted his headset to grab a snack while that occurred. He noted the foul woman from earlier lingering nearby, scaring off a few other people in the area as he made his purchases.

Enkidu had talked about Fortune Wires before. Something about traps.

He got a few of those as well as mappers for the areas.

Once Enkidu woke up, they’d be doing a lot of this game. The being had an amazing capacity for forgiving things that hurt them. The selection of dogs now under Siduri’s care were a good testament to that.

He rushed back to the gate, the spinning disk greeting him with interest.

“Wait!”

Gilgamesh groaned internally, glancing back.

“Yeah… I know some interesting keywords. If you come with me, I’ll tell you.”

“Why would I want to bother?”

“You’re a newbie, aren’t you?” The brunette grinned, brushing her hair over one shoulder. “Naturally, if you go anywhere without some kind of company, you’ll end up dying.”

…

How the hell had he forgotten that?

Setting down his controller, Gilgamesh rubbed at his temples, attempting desperately to relax.

New players were a low level. Enkidu had been a higher level and they’d been taken down by the bastard enemy they’d encountered. What he would need in order to fight that monster was a party of some size.

“Hey! Hey! Are you listening?”

“Unfortunately,” Gil growled through the mic.

“HA! Good. I happen to be an expert! If you come to the area with me, then I’ll allow myself to maybe, occasionally join your party.”

Why did that sound more menacing than going alone?

The woman didn’t seem like she was well experienced with parties, but then again…

The attitude.

It was so much like that damn Ishtar. She’d probably end up being decent at the damn game, but useless at any kind of social interactions.

“So?” The woman prodded.

“Fine. What’s your area code?”

“Party member first!”

He fixed his headset and controller back, glancing at the woman a second before he opened his menus and connected his hand to the woman’s.

[Added RinTohsaka to Party]

“Perfect!” Rin cheered, “It’s Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground!”

He already disliked this.

Still, there wasn’t much else to do other than to type in the information and hit enter. The world morphed around them, changing and altering until they warped from one location to the next. Where the walls of several buildings had met around the gate, now there was a large and illustrious cathedral. It’s spiraling towers on the sides threw reference to castles. The cobblestones were worn and faded in color, showing a hint of green here and there where age had caught up.

At the height of this cathedral’s days, it may have been beautiful. With the graphics in the game, it was quite breathtaking, but…

“…Cu… You were going to bring me…” Gilgamesh glanced over at the woman nearby, frowning a second before the woman shook her head. “Well? Come on! Aren’t you supposed to be escorting me like a proper gentleman?”

“If you want that, go find your damn boyfriend.”

He moved on though, interested in the architecture.

He could hear the clicking of Rin’s heels behind him as they ran through the bridge to the cathedral, their eyes glancing up at the various angels and demons that lined the exterior.

These were strange demon designs, he thought, running his gaze over the broken shapes.

The first reminded him of sorts of that enemy that had killed Enkidu.

“Um…” A hand grabbed him just short of the door. “You’re going into the Cathedral?”

“This is an event area, isn’t it?”

The world around them had no real enemy dots or landscape like the last area he’d gone to. It meant that this was a special location. If that was the case, he could get some kind of welfare power or maybe a special item. Anything like that would help him fight that bastard from before.

Rin let him go, nodding.

Without any further delay, they entered the grand room of worship.

#drabble #drabbles

[aire101]

Ferrum Chapter 1

His first moment of awareness struck him like a tidal wave of sensory input—the sound of thousands of voices chattering; an alien smell of dust and ozone, as if someone wasn’t quite sure what air should smell like; the feel of a breeze caught in a wind tunnel, and the warmth of hundreds of bodies standing together.  

And then Tony opened his eyes.

All around him were thousands of people in various fantasy garb, some with swords hanging from their waist, others eyeing daggers, rapiers and axes at stalls along the side streets. People shouted to one another, smiled and fist pumped in fits of elation.  The whole city plaza was filled with an energy of excitement and anticipation.  

Tony had no idea where the hell he was, or what was going on.

The last thing he remembered was… a meeting.  With that Argus Head Developer, Kayaba.  But the harder he tried to focus on the details, the more he felt them slip away…

“Holy Shit!  Your avatar looks just like Iron Man!” said a man who Tony was pretty sure had not been standing next to him a couple seconds ago.  “How did you manage that?  I know the character creation module is super detailed but that would have taken forever to work out.  Does that mean you were you in the beta test?”

“Uhh…” Tony said, scrambling to make sense of the jargon he had just heard.

Avatar… character creation… beta test…

“Anyway, excellent work on it!  I’m an Iron Man fan too, though I guess most people are these days.  See ya ‘round, mate!” And with that the man left, leaving Tony still scrambling to comprehend.

As he stood there, he listened in on nearby conversations for more context clues.

“Oh my god this is amazing!  The visuals are so gorgeous!”

“You can feel the breeze!  The amount of sensory input just to achieve that—”

“Do you smell that?  It smells like fresh baked bread.  I heard that the taste and smell sensory was the hardest part in the coding development.”

Visuals… sensory input… coding development…

“That’s it, Full Dive has won me over completely.  I’m going to sell all my other games starting tomorrow.”

Holy.  Fucking.  Shit.

The meeting with Argus and Kayaba.  It was over his consultation on their new Full Dive gaming technology and their AI systems.  But it was still years away from completion.  And besides, there was no way in hell he would ever consent to having his brain plugged in to someone else’s technology.  That was in fact exactly what he had told them in that meeting, and the primary hold up on developments on his end.  

But this was way past pre-alpha or even the alpha phase… if he understood this right, this was a stable release event.

Which meant he was currently plugged into the Sword Art Online servers, and had lost years off his memory.

His chest tightened as his breaths started to come in shallow gasps.  His vision began to gray around the edges.  

In spite of his situation, he had to give Argus an applause for their work— this panic attack felt exactly like one in the real world, only less physically painful.  

Just as he felt his knees hit the ground, someone came up beside him.

“Hey, I don’t know what’s wrong, but its going to be ok,” said a voice.  They sounded young.  “Take deep breaths with me.  After every number I count, we’ll breath together, ok?  So… one,” the kid took a deep breath and slowly released.  Tony tried to breath along with them, but didn’t quite manage it.  “That’s ok, we have plenty more you can do.  So here we go.  Two…”

Breath in, breath out…

“Three…”

This reminded him of that time he’d missed a week of meds during a mission.  Peter had been over to do some necessary maintenance after he had gotten back, and next thing he knew the kid was walking him through the storm.  Apparently his aunt had some problems after his uncle had died.

“Ok, you backslid a bit there on four, lets try again.  Five…”

Peter… the kid had been so excited about this game concept.

“That’s great, you’re doing great.  Six…”

Was he out there in the crowd somewhere?

“Seven…”

He needed to find out what was going on.  He needed to get in touch with game support.  He needed to log out.

“Eight…”

His breaths were coming deeper and the tightness was releasing.  Now with a plan of action, he felt marginally more in control.

“Nine…”

He could do this.  Memories or no memories, his mind was still his own.

“Ten… You look like you’re doing good there.  How are you feeling?”

Tony finally took a moment to look at the one who had helped him.  Given that what he was seeing was an avatar, there was no telling the real age or gender of the person.  But the character depicted was a young man with long blond hair, blue eyes and built like a wall.  He looked strangely like what Tony imagined a young Thor would have looked like.

“I’m alright.  Thanks for hanging around through that.  You didn’t have to, so I appreciate it,” said Tony, slowly getting to his feet.  He couldn’t help but notice (and appreciate) the lack of pain in his knees from either the fall or the standing.  

Yay for silver linings.

“It’s no problem.  I had… have… family that needed that kind of support,” the boy said, with a glance at his face before he looked away.

“I’m sorry, that sucks.  Not that you have them, but that they have it too.  It sucks,” said Tony, fumbling through his words awkwardly.

The guy smiled and nodded, “I get what you mean.  And yeah, it does.  You doing alright now though?  Do you need me to call a GM or something?”

“Maybe.  I’m probably just going to try and log out though.  You wouldn’t happen to know how to do that would you?” asked Tony.

“I think so.  I read about the mechanics of it at least,” said the boy. “What you need to do is open up your User Interface.  Just swipe down with your hand in front of yourself.”

The boy swiped his hand down and an interface screen popped up like a hologram.

Tony followed his example, bringing up his own interface.

“Thanks kid… Have a name I can call you?”

“I’m going by Tor in the game.”

Tony looked over his interface with a raised eyebrow, “A Thor fan I take it.”

“Like you’re in any position to criticize,” the kid grumbled, with a look up and down.  “Even your robes are his colors.  How did you get robes, anyway?  The default is trousers, tunic and vest.  I haven’t seen anyone run around in a set of robes.  Was it a beta thing?”

Tony looked down at himself.  Sure enough, he was in a set of red robes with gold trim.  That also made him realize… this body was only an avatar, but apparently it looked like himself.

Whatever, him making his avatar look exactly like himself sounded pretty on brand, honestly.

“Would you believe me if I said I honestly have no idea,” said Tony, scrolling through his interface.

“I mean, it’d be weird but considering how confused you look I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt,” Tor said with a shrug.

Meanwhile Tony found two separate settings menus.  One opened up an entire other menu system, and the other at the bottom of the main menu opened a box with three buttons— Options, Help, and a grayed out logout symbol.

“Huh, that’s weird,” mumbled Tor, looking through his own settings menu.  “Talk about a terrible bug to have on opening day.  You’d think that would be the one thing they had working before opening to the public.  As far as I know there weren’t any logout problems during the beta.”

“I guess we’re calling a GM then,” said Tony.

Peter pressed the Help button, prompting a ‘Calling GM’ box to pop up with a picture of an old man in red and gold robes.

“Hey, those robes look like—” Tor was saying.

“Oh shit,” said Tony, wide eyed.  A communication bubble had come up on his menu as soon as Tor had pressed his button, it read ‘Incoming GM Help call from Tor (Player 8476).’

“Uhhh…” said Tor, staring at the window with wide eyes as well.  “Well then, that’s a problem.”

Tony continued to stare at the screen dumbfounded, mouth open and closing like a fish.

As he did, another call request window opened up.  Then another.  Then another…

Tony’s confusion quickly morphed into horror.  

“Dude, how in the world did you accidentally end up with a GM account?” asked Tor.

“I don’t know, but I can’t help these people.  How do I shut it off?!”

“See if there’s a ghost mode or something,” said Tor.

Quickly Tony tapped into the other options menu he had only briefly glanced at before.  Sure enough, the menu was titled ‘Game Master Settings.’

“This is ridiculous,” muttered Tony as he scrolled and tapped through various options.

“About as ridiculous as your facial hair,” said Tor, with a grin.

“Excuse you, everything about my face is a work of art,” said Tony.

“Abstract art, maybe.”

“You know what, kid—”

“Could you maybe not call me that?  Please?” Tor asked, his face suddenly tight.

“Uh, sure… sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry.  It just makes me a bit uncomfortable,” said Tor, looking like he regretted even saying anything.

“No problem.”

Finally, Tony found the GM communication settings.  Currently the mode was set to ‘Available,’ but after clicking on it he found an ‘Unavailable’ setting, with the option to send calls to a voice mail for later listening.

Quickly he switched the modes, and the flurry of call boxes ceased.

“Well, that’s one problem down,” said Tony, scrolling through the rest of the GM settings.  While he heartily approved of the colors, the robes made him stand out like a sore thumb amongst the masses of beige and brown.

But if he really was a GM, he should be able to generate something different…

With a flash of blue static light, Tony generated a red tunic under an average looking breast plate, paired with the usual leather trousers.  

“You just had to make the tunic red, huh?” said Tor with a thin laugh.

“Eh, it’s my thing,” Tony said with a shrug.  

Tor pursed his lips but didn’t comment further.

“Anyway, thanks for your help.  I’m sure whatever bug this is will be figured out pretty quick.  I don’t want to hog your game time though,” said Tony, trying to disengage as kindly as possible and without hinting at just how concerning the current situation really was.  Tor had been helpful, but the person on the other side of that avatar could be fourteen or forty.  Either way, they didn’t need to be saddled with Tony’s issues.

“I don’t mind.  I don’t usually play MMO’s anyway, so I’m not really sure what to do now,” said Tor.  “I have a few hours before I’m supposed to trade off with my friend, but I had only really planned to hang around for a couple of them to check things out.  With the logout bugged though, I might be here for a while.”

“I’ve never played RPG’s at all, so I’m probably even more clueless than you are,” said Tony.  “That being said, the first thing you do is probably to stock up on equipment and supplies.  Do you have any currency right off the bat?”

“We start with 50 Cor, but I’m not really sure what that translates to within the economy.”

“I would say as a GM I could generate more, but if I’m remembering correctly the system was specifically designed to control inflation and it may not like that,” said Tony, flicking through his interface.

“I mean, I guess that would be one way to get someone’s attention,” shrugged Tor.

“Considering I apparently have my brain plugged into someone else’s tech, I would really rather avoid that particular flavor of attention,” said Tony.

“I hadn’t thought about it that way… They wouldn’t do something too awful to a player though would they?  That wouldn’t really be good press for them.  I would think that the worst they would do is boot you out of the game,” said Tor, looking concerned.

“I wish I had the kind of faith in people you do.  As it is, I’d rather not chance it.  That being said, it looks like one of the things I can freely generate are base level swords and armor.  Its not much, but it’ll get you started.”

“Since we’re both stuck here, how about we party up for a while?  Not much else to do to spend the time.  My friend downloaded a text file with some starter tips from the Beta players, so we could go give it a shot,” said Tor.

Tony let out a breath, running his hand through his hair.  He really should be trying to figure out a solution to his predicament, but if the GM call failure was any indicator, the situation may be a lot worse than he wanted this kid to realize.  And at this point he was pretty sure the person on the other side of Tor’s avatar was in fact a kid, perhaps a relatively mature teenager, but not an adult.

And apparently they were attaching themselves to Tony, for whatever reason.  And Tony couldn’t bring himself to kick an obviously anxious kid to the curb.

“Sure, that sounds like a good plan. Send me a copy of the text file and we’ll discuss it while we head out of town.”

. . .

“Ferrum Vir… did you seriously name yourself ‘Iron Man’ in Latin?”

“Pot meet kettle there, Tor.”

#ferrum #aire101 writes #tony stark #peter parker #irondad #irondad and spiderson #marvel cinematic universe #mcu #iron man #spider-man #sword art online #mcu/sao #crossover #crossover fanfiction #fanfiction #marvel #ai tony stark #post endgame #mostly canon compliant #not ffh compliant

[egdocument]

About the EvaGeeks wiki and why you shouldn't trust it, concerning mainly one user.

On the subject of EvaGeeks: Let’s talk about the manipulation of information on the wiki, and perpetuated “nastiness” on the forums that has persisted for several years now. THIS IS A MIRROR OF THIS GOOGLE DOCS FILE. (My twitter post.) You can share this post or the original document freely, use parts of it, etc. I want this document to simply serve as a warning to new Eva fans and those less familiar with EvaGeeks and their history - as well as an update for people who haven’t seen the current state of it.

NOTE: If you can’t read any of these images, these are Imgur albums containing all of the notable ones: https://imgur.com/a/z2mGvvX https://imgur.com/a/oAgufc3

The intent of this document is not to “take down” the wiki or forum, obviously. The intent is simply to inform people of the dangers of trusting this site with their Eva info. It might be the best we have but that doesn’t mean we can’t improve it. I would actually love to see a more community cultivated version of the site with less biased information, but I fear that will never happen. The anxieties of any one (or many) individual(s), which have prevented consistent change until now are well justified, and it is not within reason to blame the outsiders for never bothering to correct the myriad of issues with the wiki. Please extend kindness to other Eva fans and approach sites like EvaGeeks with the appropriate scrutiny, if you aren’t already. We’re divided enough as it is.

Before I begin, I must state: All of the information presented is publicly available, either through main pages, chat logs or history. And yes, the link to join the Discord server and verify the information given in this is publicly available too. I will not link it myself, as I want to avoid any possible harassment of the users I speak about here. Harassment is NEVER the answer in any kind of conflict. This behaviour I don’t believe can go unchecked, but that doesn’t mean the consequences of it should be any kind of conflict towards any user. I will be naming them here so you are aware, but I really do have to advise you, as a reminder, DO NOT HARASS OR ENGAGE WITH THEM. The rule of thumb is that these issues are more systematic than you might think, and blaming or taking it out on a singular person or even a whole group is never justified. Targeted harassment, even with reason, especially never helps to remedy an issue, because it forces the person to double down on their behaviour and beliefs. Causing unnecessary pain to a person is never okay, and the ‘offences�� committed here aren’t deserving of it in the first place. Please also consider the feelings of the people who use the server and EvaGeeks site; not everyone is your "enemy" or your "target" (and frankly, no-one should be) and despite the feelings echoed in this document, EG is not a monolith of a singular opinion or belief.

The purpose of this document is to inform people of the ways EvaGeeks fails objectivity and has existed to push narratives and exclude outsiders for far too long. With new people coming into the Eva fandom (and there of course being others who have been around for quite a while but just aren't aware) I feel like now is the best time I could write this.

As for what prompted this, an anonymous member of the Discord server contacted me regarding the behaviour of one particular user they were concerned about. Said user had expressed considerable bias in the past and was admitting to making large edits to pages on the wiki very recently, and the person who contacted me felt unequipped to bring the issue to light themselves.

A decent amount of this document will be dedicated to presenting said user's contributions - while I feel someone always had to address the EvaGeeks Problem at large, it doesn't help that this user has essentially incriminated himself here to expose the problem in its entirety. 

There is quite a bit of pretense I must discuss before I get into the subject of the wiki pages themselves. I suggest you read all of it; the start of the wiki section will be in heading text if you’d like to skip to it. I’m sure information on the biased editing of wiki pages is privy to anyone who has used the server or the site itself, but at the server’s current status of 60 entire members, I know not everyone has, or is aware of what the problem actually is. Please note that the person who contacted me has requested anonymity and I will be complying. I will not include screenshots of their conversation with me, and anything I quote from them will be paraphrased so nobody can go full Sherlock and analyse their typing patterns. It sounds silly and it’s probably just paranoia, but they shared my concern here. Any conflict we can prevent is for the best. EvaGeeks, of course, has a culture very much promoting the idea that it’s the “number 1 source for all things Eva”, and for English speaking fans it definitely is - you’d be surprised the amount of people who still, after all these years, think this site is consistently reputable. For the sake of context, I’m going to assume that you are not all that familiar with the site’s history or nature, so I’m going to provide a little bit of information about it for those without any first-hand experience. The forums in particular cultivate a very join-us-or-get-out type community, where those who dare to go against the grain get incentivised to leave the site; they’ll claim this isn’t the case if asked and obviously the site is NOT a hivemind but that doesn’t mean it’s not insular. I can vouch for myself and many others who refuse to go in more than a few threads for fear of discussion turning particularly nasty. Even the server member who came to me about this has stated they feel it “might not be a hivemind but it sure feels that way.” Silencing dissent, even when officially-backed, is part of their culture. You don’t have to personally harass everyone who has an opposing thought to you for it to not feel acceptable, you just need to have a history of mocking those who do. If you want some previous, notable cases of “discussion turning nasty”, here’s some off the top of my head: 1. The AWL Incident - In which ADV VA of Rei and director of EoE dub, Amanda Winn-Lee, joined the forums for discussion and was promptly harassed by a user. Most of these messages have been deleted but you can view what remains of her post history here.  2. Recently brought to my attention: upon beginning translation of the Episode 24 drafts, EG forum user LiLi was subjected to incentive to leave, mostly in the form of homophobic disgust in replies to her thread or others they were mentioned in. Any information that goes against the cultivated narrative, even when it is literally officially licensed content, is only ever considered with a degree of reluctance. The fact these drafts co-exist with other pages concerned with this episode is almost a miracle. You can find plenty of repeat instances of the above if you want to (more to do with homophobia and misogyny than outward hostility, but honestly it’s the same thing.) A look at basically any EvaGeeks thread concerning pairings or the female characters will unearth a variety of awful comments from many other users, not that that would be surprising to anyone who has spent more than two minutes in the fandom. Now, of course, that’s very relevant to the topic at hand even if it doesn’t seem to be. The EG wiki and forum have quite a bit of overlap and circular influence on each other as you’ll see later if you aren’t already aware of it. For a short summary before we jump into things and analyse our subject of the day, this essentially means that anyone with an opinion or information the majority doesn’t like will never get in a position good enough to edit the wiki and keep the edits there. This has resulted in many articles filled with conjecture and fan speculation that serve to shut down other viewpoints, whether it’s intentional or not.

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ON THE TOPIC OF THE EVAGEEKS WIKI

The issue surrounding homophobia and downplaying of references to LGB content in Eva, through proxy of fan-dictated content control and translation is not a new one by any stretch of the imagination. I'm sure you're all very well aware. It’s far from the only issue present in the fandom but it will be our subject of conversation today. Any ‘one instance’ of this persistent behaviour from Eva fans is never going to be enough to summarise how insurmountable it really is, though, so today I instead draw your attention to one user of the wiki who goes by the name of FelipeFritschF and his recent, frequent updates to pages concerning Nagisa Kaworu.

[TOPIC: FELIPEFRITSCHF]

I must reiterate here: although this document is mostly concerned with this user and will contain a number of receipts from various places, it is NOT supposed to function as a hit piece or inspire any kind of mob. Leave this guy the hell alone, just be aware that he’s the one making most of these changes and isn’t a particularly impartial party, to put things lightly.

Now, before we really get into things, it should be stated that the EvaGeeks wiki requires approval to get your edits there, as stated at the bottom of the homepage, here:

This means that anyone making consistent edits to the wiki has in fact been approved, and this isn’t the result of lack of maintenance.  

What you’ll find is that it is consistently Felipe making edits to the pages in question. Kaworu’s bio page, for example, is almost entirely edited by Felipe, which we can see from the “History” tab of the article.

This is barely half of his edits made in the last few days. Take a scroll through it yourself if you’re so inclined. This hilarious bit of waffle was added by Felipe a few days ago and since revised since by him, as shown here. 

(As an added bit of comedy, the man who decided to add in the Japanese in the first place apparently didn’t know the difference between 好意 (kindness, what Kaworu actually says) and 行為 (action). It’s been fixed since but I still think it’s quite funny.) Now, as anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese knows, 好き is not actually a very ambiguous word at all. I think it goes without saying, though, and I’m not here to have an argument about translations with you all (for the record, Kanemitsu’s now scarily infamous translation of this scene is perfectly fine with me in a vacuum, it’s just literally everything else surrounding it that’s the problem. Also, regretfully, I will have to speak about this nonsense later when it becomes relevant.) I’m using this as an example instead, to show how utterly ridiculous this guy’s additions to these pages are. He’s not even making a point here. It keeps going past this excerpt, and I suggest you read the whole thing (Kaworu’s page is linked above.) The point of bringing this up - and when I eventually discuss the Netflix translation when it’s necessary - is not to complain about semantics, although I’d argue that’s what’s happening in these articles, honestly. It’s just helpful when proving the actual point of the editor being incredibly unreliable and biased in how he phrases and omits things.

On the page dedicated solely to Shinji and Kaworu’s relationship (which is basically identical to their section on Kaworu’s page as far as I can tell), we can see that Felipe has also edited this several times, and even credits himself with expanding the version on the Evangelion Fandom Wiki now copy and pasted back to EvaGeeks.

The kind of “discussion” (very much not discussion when added to a wiki page supposedly presented as factual information, is it, frankly?) would be fine if it was happening in the EvaGeeks forum itself (and happen does it ever, but that doesn’t change the inappropriateness of this particular behaviour.) What I find disturbing is that in the past few days, this user has gone out of his way to make some already worrying articles even worse, presumably in an attempt to silence discourse, or add more fuel to the flames, surrounding the new Netflix translation. He has a whole page on that one, too, one which is very up-to-date in some regards and not at all in others, despite only being added a few days before me compiling this information. Frankly, going through this whole page on its own is a huge waste of my time considering how BLATANT it is in its biases, but I’ll do it anyway. It IS only a Theory and Analysis page (which is essentially an EvaGeeks free-for-all), but I think it’s quite bothering that the site even allows Theory and Analysis pages that consider only one viewpoint and are written by one person. The forum, presumably, is connected to the site for a reason. 

I’m just going to link it here, for the sake of brevity. https://wiki.evageeks.org/Theory_and_Analysis:Kaworu%27s_lines_in_Episode_24 I suggest you read this before continuing. For a slight departure, the original theatrical Funimation dub of 3.0 is partially available for viewing online, although the audio is in cam quality so you may want headphones if you have plans to watch what’s there. The home media dub’s major changes are to issues with lore and localisation of jargon. While not directly mentioned in this article, it is implied from the subject that this is what it’s about; it’s been speculated that the very literal translation of Episode 24 in particular has come about due to Khara’s embarrassment with how Funimation’s theatrical dub of 3.0 handled Kaworu and Shinji’s relationship rather loosely. Despite these claims, every instance of the two sharing (honestly pretty awkward and unnecessary) flirtatious back-and-forths are still present in the home media version, barring an instance in the stargazing scene where Kaworu’s dialogue was translated even worse than it is in the final dub. If you don’t believe me, do the comparisons yourself. It may not be conclusive, but I think it puts mostly to death the rumour that “a Khara employee was there and saw how people laughed at the Kaworu and Shinji scenes and demanded it needed to be changed for the final release and now that’s being reflected on the new translation”, which is what it tends to boil down to. 

It also goes without saying that NO ONE PERSON is “the most qualified” (holy shit, is this entry not even bothering to hide how biased it is) to translate an entire TV show, let alone something like Evangelion. Let us not forget that Kanemitsu’s claims that he respects “ambiguity” are not even true to begin with. EvaGeeks itself is a shining example of Eva fans, of which Kanemitsu is one and this is even discussed in the article, not being impartial enough to be tasked with discussing Evangelion! (There is obviously issue with citing the ADV translation as a source of all truth; if you read further into the thread on my tweet [the kitchen scene in EoE], I provide extra context for those interested, which I am aware has been spread around Discord and other places without that context included. Of course, I’m not an unbiased source either as you can probably tell from my tweets nor am I claiming to be, so please feel free to discuss these things in other places if you want. I’ve just got the tweets I have on hand here. Sorry about that.) Next, the repeat claim that this is “Khara’s licensed translation and thus the most accurate version” is pretty obviously nonsense; I’m sure I don’t need to point out to the audience that Japanese companies meddling in localisation has ended poorly in the past, or that Khara uses questionable translations from the dubs of the Rebuild films on licensed merch from time-to-time, or that the translation was fairly obviously not overseen or even QA’d by anyone following Kanemitsu’s translation work judging from the myriad of grammatical errors, missing subtitles and overly literal, poor sounding phrasing present in the final work. (Do I need to source this? Just watch the damn thing.) It’s not even like the ways it was translated have been consistent through different versions on Netflix; some were translated from Kanemitsu’s English to other languages judging from the obvious mistakes being present in multiple tracks, and some were barely even translated at all - the Italian version, the dub of which is mysteriously now missing, was so bad people were commenting that it sounded like Shakespeare or that it was translated word for word from Japanese. I dunno about you, the reader, but something about “Khara only bothered to check very rigorously the English version for their specific requests with the translation” doesn’t sound like what really happened to me. It’s more like they’ve just sent a translator they have worked with before to work on a project of theirs. Apologies for engaging in speculation, but that’s all this whole article is anyway. It’s just something I noticed from skimming through the page, but I find it quite interesting that Felipe makes a blanket statement about the excerpts from Schizo and Prano “being wrongly attributed to Anno” and then the source he provides for that is just someone on the EvaGeeks forums saying the same thing with little proper sourcing, when that was never really the intent of their post anyway. An interview summary exists where Anno has stated he wrote both books himself, and if you haven’t seen it, here it is. It’s obviously flimsy at best, but Tokyo Otaku Mode is an officially licensed Evangelion distributor. If Felipe is going to parade around his love for the Very Official Khara Subtitles Of NGE he can at least extend the same gratitude to other forms of official information; I mean, frankly, this article is about as reputable as anything in the Netflix subtitles are.  Lastly, another thing I found quite interesting is his strange love for the ADV VHS subtitles. I really, really think this is obvious, but subtitles changed in later versions of the ADV release were changed because they were deemed incorrect. I don’t have sources for this so take it with an absolute grain of salt but I believe there’s even a commentary track on the Platinum release where the translator talks in depth about why she translated episode 24 as she did. It’s not exactly a better word than Kanemitsu’s, but if we’re considering translator’s word as law for whatever reason like Felipe is here, we might as well consider hers, too, right? Oh, and actually, have a look at the sources used on that article. Most of the sweeping statements he makes have absolutely no backing beyond what he’s piecing together from old and irrelevant interviews (when discussing the Netflix translation) as well as...linking Kanemitsu’s job history...I mean, sure, the guy is qualified, but do I really need to go over this again?

INTERMISSION: Speaking of sources, you might have noticed from perusing these articles yourself that EvaGeeks has a very low standard for sourcing to begin with, which is likely partially to blame for how things like these articles can even exist in their current forms in the first place. A site that doesn’t have such a lenient policy on sourcing, though, is Wikipedia. Felipe, of course, cannot stay within the confines of the fandom and has decided to have a go at providing some information to Kaworu’s actual Wikipedia page as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kaworu_Nagisa&action=history Felipe is far less to blame for the state of Kaworu’s Wikipedia article, which is honestly pretty bad to begin with. There have been plenty of other people editing this one and the rather homophobic “Relationship with Shinji” part of the article has been present for a while before he started editing it. (The fact this article literally uses someone being explicitly homophobic as a source is not surprising for Eva fandom, but holy shit, am I disgusted every time I reopen this page. I'm not even going to bother figuring out who added that one.) I do wonder if his reasons for not desecrating this page the same way he has on EvaGeeks is because he knows it wouldn’t stay up for particularly long. Reminder that he is also the main editor of the same pages on the Evangelion Fandom Wiki, which is essentially a copy and paste of EvaGeeks. Of note is this little tidbit I found:

This is what Felipe then deleted, as this is apparently not relevant, despite literally being about Kaworu’s relationship with Shinji. I mean, I’m sure this could have been put in somewhere else and perhaps phrased a bit better, but why the hell would you outright delete that kind of information? It’s supposed to be a wiki, not your own personal opinion chamber. BTW, this is the thread post he links as a rebuttal to that person adding it, and it’s probably for the best it’s presented here with context: https://forum.evageeks.org/post/886380/NGE-Ep24-Script-First-and-Second-Drafts/#886380

He clearly thinks he has a point here, but I’m not sure what exactly he’s going for. Basically everything he’s saying is conjecture, and while I can kinda see where he’s coming from it sure does completely fail to address the intent as explained in this interview. “Read the whole interview” is very dismissive, especially when the interview in full doesn’t exactly contradict the initial point. It does say quite a bit, how he will disregard official information when his wiki articles themselves are full of nothing but rambling.

Here’s another relevant and quite funny Discord screenshot:

Felipe is making a pretty hypocritical statement here. I’m sure he does have a point - there’s probably been quite a bit of vandalism happening to these pages which isn’t exactly surprising (again, Eva fans are not often rational people, please be honest with ourselves). That being said, I think there’s a particular irony to the man who has written many very, very long paragraphs on the wiki pages he has control over trying to stop people from thinking there might be anything but “ambiguity” between a pair he doesn’t like.

In the case anyone reading has forgotten: the purpose of a wiki should be to provide unbiased information on the material it discusses. Obviously the repeating of “innocuous” statements about how “ambiguous” it all is, in the vain of EG’s now made fun of ‘we don’t know what he really meant by that’ and ‘why Kaworu is so intent for Shinji alone to have happiness remains a mystery’  are pretty obviously intended to downplay the very, very obvious “subtext” and leagues of official information provided.

It kinda goes without saying that WE CAN INFER THESE THINGS FROM THE ACTUAL INFORMATION ON THE WIKI, you don’t need to add a disclaimer to everything going “well we just don’t know what it means!” (even in instances when we do know what it means, but that’s almost besides the point). You don’t need to add in these statements, unless you’re trying to sway people into ignoring what's presented by the show. If you want people to draw their own conclusions, you are in fact capable of presenting information without commentary - in fact, that's kind of the whole point of a wiki. Yes, Eva is ambiguous at times, but talking down to people like they need this reminded to them constantly is an absolute waste of time and energy. It’s almost as if the editor has been trying to cultivate a narrative and has been getting away with it because you can’t really prove these statements are biased unless you do the research. (I mean, you can from context, but it certainly hasn’t done much to get them removed, has it?)

You can view the editing history of any given EvaGeeks article on their own pages if you want to see just how many times these things have been added in by Felipe. And obviously, no, it isn’t just his fault - there are other users, several, in fact, credited with the editing of these pages, many of the edits serving the same point as Felipe’s paragraphs on “ambiguity”. He’s just the most concrete example of a biased editor. Also, yes, I do recognise this has all happened within the few days post the release of Eva on Netflix and that it was likely prompted by that. But we know at least one of the mods is aware of it given how Felipe talks about it in the EvaGeeks Discord server. It’s also quite funny I’ve seen people linking these pages like they're some kind of "gotcha" in response to tweets discussing the new translation, as if they haven’t been invented out of thin air in the past few days.

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Now, frankly I’m sick of staring at EvaGeeks, and if you want any more information on these articles and others with instances of the same thing happening, you can have a look at it yourself.

Originally, this document contained far more screenshots from Felipe. My desire for this to not turn into a hit piece has lead me to remove a great deal of these messages. I do suggest, if you want to, you join the server and make your own conclusions. Even beyond what the member told me about I found myself agreeing with him fairly frequently when he was being reasonable - this doesn't change my concerns regarding the presentation of information on the wiki, though. The anonymous member was mostly concerned about this user having basically all the control over Kaworu's wiki articles, seeing as he has far too high of a stake in everything. Not all of these messages are inflammatory or even necessarily bad or wrong, but I find that to anyone privy to the “revelations” about the EvaGeeks Wiki here, they paint an interesting story, to say the least.

It’s starting to sound like he perhaps has just had some bad experiences. The following few messages are part of the same conversation.

I find it interesting how he flipflops from not understanding anything about the whole Eva Parallelism Theory Thing to suddenly being all for it when it concerns things not about the gay stuff.

Comments on how ‘manipulative’ Kaworu is

Because Kaworu is very pro instrumentality, and this definitely isn’t just a theory, I mean, it’s even talked about on the wiki, guys! (And I’m not even touching on the yes-men in this server.) Oh.

Oh no.

For the record, this page is clearly still under construction, and to point out any one thing about how bad it is would be essentially just poking a stick at a beehive. At least this one is so absolutely poorly phrased it’s doubtful anyone could mistake it for any kind of proper information. I also find it incredibly funny whenever pages on the wiki use the forum as a source. Relevant: Qmisato’s post on his defending of Shinji sexually assaulting Asuka: https://qmisato.tumblr.com/post/183082754484/yesterday-i-was-invited-to-evageeks-official

In response much later. I really can’t see it as being framed as “fun teenage romance”, also why is the word romance suddenly being used to talk about Asuka and Shinji after the whole debacle with Kaworu? He’s said before he doesn’t see Asuka and Shinji’s relationship as romantic, either (and GOOD! It’s not!)

(Also - it’s not sexual assault when Shinji tries to kiss Asuka in her sleep, but it IS when Kaworu does the exact same thing to Shinji? Make up your mind, dude.) Turning this sort of thing into Shipping Discourse is frankly not the right way to go about it, but it is perhaps notable that despite what Felipe says, he is in fact an Asushin shipper. (I don’t feel the need to post all these images in the document as its cluttered enough as it is.) At this point it’s rather adhom and I feel irrelevant but I do think it’s relevant that through all of Eva fandom, those who have the most issue “understanding” (more like accepting, I suppose) LGB subtext, are those who also are really attached to a fairly morally grey het pairing themselves. Again, seriously, there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of this and assuming the worst of someone because of the pairings they like isn’t my intent here, it’s more that I find this pattern has always been prevalent and it’s bothering me I’m seeing it STILL in 2019. ESPECIALLY from a wiki editor who inserts so much of that into his work on the site. 

  You’re probably sick of reading all of this (and I’m getting sick of writing it), so I’ll wrap up the part on Felipe quickly: Yes, I just dedicated several pages to screenshots of mostly innocuous (when considered out of context) stuff one guy had to say. I feel more obsessive than I’d like to admit, and frankly I have no business with this person. We’ve spoken twice on EvaGeeks threads if you can even call it speaking. This task was given to me by a member of the community who was concerned about his behaviour but didn’t want to publicise it themself and I feel a little out of my depth here. I at least hope we can come to the conclusion I wanted to here, that I fear may have been lost in this whole great mess of language - no one person should have THIS much sway over the state of a wiki that’s supposed to be impartial, especially when they have not been quiet with their biases in the first place, and it is the failure of everyone involved in the maintaining of the wiki itself that this sort of behaviour has been allowed in the first place. 

The guy can have whatever opinions and theories he wants, obviously. I don't give a shit; he's not even that bad compared to the grand majority of Eva fans to begin with. Don't think this document exists to "cancel" him or thoughtpolice, I truly, genuinely, do not care what is said inside this server anymore. It doesn't concern me. I mean, it's a fucking cartoon, for god's sake. This only becomes an issue when opinions are expressed on a wiki, for reasons I have reiterated many times now. EvaGeeks lacks the objectivity required to function as a wiki and I'm trying to make that clear. 

[ON THE TOPIC OF THE EVAGEEKS WIKI AND COMMUNITY IN GENERAL] As for who can edit the wiki and what they’re allowed to say: As you can see from the nature of people’s posts in this thread, you’re given access to do very specific things, and although I haven’t bothered going through the process myself (as I find it would be quite redundant, trying to fix such an inherently broken system), I’m guessing it’s very easy to get your edits reversed if you post anything they don’t like. Take that as conjecture of my own.

I have it in decent faith that the approval process involves whoever of the mod team is there at the time coming to an agreement based on people’s applications. Obviously this is a decent idea for a system, and I’m sure there are legitimate reasons as to why EG has to be locked down as much as it is; judging from the state of other fanon wikis I’ve seen there’s likely to be a decent amount of vandalism, especially in a fandom as passionate as Eva’s is. However, I think it’s fair to say that the complete restriction of updating these pages to those approved by a mod team who, while I’m sure are very reasonable people overall, certain individuals of which have displayed concerning behaviour and biases of their own in the server during my brief look around. I won’t be naming anyone in particular from the mod team as I don’t feel like I need to add any more targets of shame to this already horrifically negative document, but I have gotten the general impression (in case it needed confirmation, following the remaining of these specific changes on the wiki) that some mods, not all, aren’t the most nonpartisan individuals themselves. I do happen to be decent acquaintances with at least one of them so, again, please don’t consider this a personal attack.

My concern here plainly is that I don’t think a group of mods who have routinely failed to prevent events like the ones mentioned earlier, nor seem to have much of an issue with the myriad of examples of people being openly homophobic and misogynistic on their own forum are really in the position to be choosing who of the Privelleged Few get to control the Eva meta-narrative here. As I was writing this, I was alerted to the state of the primary Japanese Evangelion wiki as a source of cross referencing for what these things can look like if done right. If you take a moment to browse it, even if you don’t speak any Japanese and have to use an automatic translator it should be very obvious how something like this differs greatly from EvaGeeks. Kaworu’s page, for a relevant example, doesn’t have present any of the nonsense statements about ambiguity or overwritten descriptions of everything. The wiki respects the reader’s intelligence enough to know that it is, in fact, a wiki, and thus tries its best to be factual. His page is fairly decent in size and states things we know are fact rather than theory. There’s no attempt made to influence or confuse.

Oh, and just in case you think the mods aren’t actually active or present enough to know what Felipe is doing, his particularly awful page on Kaworu in episode 24 got a shoutout from the official Twitter account two days ago.  

If you are going to join the Discord server to verify things yourself* or do further digging, again, please be cautious of other users inside and do your best not to start anything. I am an occasional contributor to the forums and I’d prefer not to get my account flagged or to experience harassment myself, if any EvaGeeks members are still reading this document and disagree with my conclusions. I may not have posted much since I joined earlier this year, but despite everything I find the forums to be valuable for connecting with other fans and have enjoyed the positive feedback to my SIRP translation! Those who have spoken to me there have been very kind (including Felipe himself), and I must reiterate that this is not targeted at the whole site, or even at just Felipe. I simply believe there is more than enough evidence to suggest there have been consistent, systematic failures to recognise and correct the utter lack of objectivity present. I seriously don’t have any personal issues or beef with this guy, either. I wouldn’t have done this if it wasn’t someone else who came to me about it.

*It should be noted that the person who spoke to me has pointed out certain members have been concerned about outsiders joining and screenshotting the chat. They may remove the public link to join if this document were to cause a huge issue. I will leave the server following the publication of this document and I have no plans to join again. I can’t speak for those who may join of their own accord but I do hope people have heeded the disclaimer I made initially.

Thankyou to all the people who have extended their own kindness and support during the creation of this document, to the anonymous person who tipped me off and the lovely Eva analysts I know for offering their own experiences with EvaGeeks and further supplementary information. If this whole document reads like the product of a bad mental health day, I guess it is. Also yes I know how hilarious it is that I’ve spent all this time creating what essentially amounts to an EVAGEEKS CALLOUT POST but I mean. Someone had to say it. Why not make an utter buffoon of myself in the process?

#Mirroring this for the sake of people concerned with their privacy when accessing google docs #reading this back theres a lot of bad wording but whatever. itll do

[anachronicwriting]

The 007!AU No One Needs (13/?)

#Taekey #The 007!AU No One Needs

[some-rfa-imagines]

hii!!!! can i please request an angsty hc with rfa and their reaction to where the bomb in rika's apartment actually goes off cuz some burglar tries to break in and they only found out about it thru ur goodbye messages in the chatroom before u die?? thx thx and hope youre having a night day or night!! :D

yikes apparently you want to see me cry, okay i see how it is lolol

lets do this;;;;

p.s this is v long (rest under the cut) and anything [in square brackets] is a text.

NOTE: OMG IM SO SORRY YOU ASKED FOR HDC BUT I MADE A SCENARIO INSTEAD IM AWFUL PLEASE TELL ME IF YOU’D LIKE THIS CHANGED INTO HDCS I FEEL TERRIBLE. 

tw: bomb, guns, death.

 PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

It was cold. The clock had just hit 2:30 am. The faint sounds of the city filled the silence of the apartment. You sat at your desk, polishing up some minor details for the party. Only a few more days until you got to meet everyone and you were incredibly excited. While you were still concerned about the bomb and the hacker, you trusted Seven and V to deal with it - and if they couldn’t do it, Jumin was incredibly reliable. So you put your worries to rest and all of your efforts went into the RFA party.

Besides, if anything did go wrong (which you doubted would happen) you had a will and letters to go to all of your loved ones, both of which were safely kept in your own home. But everything would be fine anyway, so they really weren’t necessary.

You quickly emailed the rest of the details to Jaehee, answered some guests and bid goodnight to Yoosung who was complaining about LOLOL server maintenance. Shutting your laptop, you stood up to brush your teeth and prepare for bed. Eventually, you turned off the lights and crawled under the warm covers, listening to the bustling city with excitement as you drifted off.

Something isn’t right. 

The red LEDs of your alarm clock read 4:41 am as you startled awake. It’s too cold. Slipping out of your bed, you grabbed your phone from the nightstand and unlocked it, opening the RFA chat. No one’s online.

[Guys, something’s off.]

You had just hit send when a voice rang out.

“A stranger has been located.”

Your heart leapt into your throat. Scared for your life, you frantically texted the chat, your thoughts as chaotic as your messages.

[SVENE]

[HLEP]

[ETHERES SOMETHING HRRIBLY WRONOG]

[SOEMONES HERW]

“Sensed location of stranger… adjusting target…”

[THE SYSDYEMS BEEN AC TIVATESD]

You desperately tried to phone Seven- anyone. No one was picking up. Your chest heaved. I can’t breathe. Panic spread like wildfire and you sprinted out of your room to try and escape the apartment-

Your heart stopped beating and your feet froze in fear. A shining, silver barrel was pointed straight at your heart.

It’s freezing.

“Don’t. Move. A muscle.” Whoever was behind responsible for breaking into your apartment, well, he clearly had a death wish. “What is that?!” 

“Backing up all information… After the back up is complete, the bomb will be activated. 20 seconds backup remaining.”

“What is going on?!” He screamed, lowering his gun for just a second. He had a weak point, in your range. You had to make a decision; would you let him steal not only the information but your life or would you save something?

…I can’t let him get his hands on that information.

“15 seconds backup remaining…”

You took your chance. Adrenaline rushed through you as you hit the gun out of his hand. “Wh- HEY!” You punched his side with all your strength. Then, bringing your knee up, you kicked him in the groin as hard as you could, sending him crumpling to the floor. “You bitch!”

No one will come.

“10 seconds backup remaining…”

You lunged for the abandoned gun, your fingers, slick with sweat, failing to pick it up. “Oh no, you don’t!” The intruder seized your ankle, pulling you down to the floor. You yelped in shock.

“Let me go!” I’m scared.

“5 seconds backup remaining…”

Your tears overflowed as he began to stand. With the remainder of your energy, you kicked him off you, finally picking up the gun. Pushing yourself off the floor, you rushed into your room, slamming the door behind you.

I can’t think straight.

“Backup complete. Relocating target.”

You fumbled with your phone, texting whoever you could. Your family, your friends, and of course, the RFA. Three simple words; usually said to fiances, parents or children. Never in your life would you have believed they’d be said in this circumstance - especially not by you.

“Bomb will detonate in T minus 5…”

Outside your room, you heard the robber curse. Your heartbeat crushed your chest and your tears streamed down your face.

The information is safe. Ĭ̶̗ ̴̢͌͂ä̶͖́m̷̠͒ ̶̜͠g̴̛̜̯̐̓ồ̷̱̽i̶̯̤̮͐n̵̬̝̑g̸̦̺̈̂͂ ̷̘͈̻̒̅̉t̴̛͔̖̣͆̆ọ̵͝ ̸̘̆̿d̴̺͗͜i̶̖͐e̶̬͇̦͑.

“4…”

Your lungs were on fire.

I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you. E̵͈̒̃̾v̸͎̗̠̍̓̉e̵̡͖͗r̵͍̗̼͝͝y̷̜͓͍͗͌̒t̵̙̪͕͝h̸̥͆͜͝i̵͕̱͚͊̃͂n̸̜͈̥̏g̸̮͐̐̿'̸̛̰̖͎͌̽s̶̪̦̉̋ ̶̯̋̔ẉ̷̦͌r̷̦̜̉o̴̼̔̚n̸̝̒͌ǵ̴̖͇͌.

“3…”

Your head was light.

Please don’t blame yourselves.I̵͉̹̎̀ ̷͓̈́a̸̢͎͒m̴̭̋̏ ̷̤͕̾̓̅s̷͚͔͚̔ǫ̷̖͖̎͆̇ ̷̼̂â̷̘̜̝̎l̸̦̦͚̉o̸͔̒̅n̸͇̑̔̃e̴͚̒͋.

“2…”

You braced for impact.

I love you all. I̵̥͙̺̓̉t̶͓̣͒͠'̷̥͐̃͒s̷͙̺̉̂ ̵̩͔̀̌͋s̷̨̲̙̃o̵̧̗̗͛ ̵͒͜c̵͓̥̍ỏ̵͙͓̪͂̉l̸͎̖̱̾͝d̵̡͇̉.

“1…”

Thank you for everything. H̵͍̙͉͐e̴͉͖̔̔͂l̵͐̚��̥̰p̴͔̣̓̎͆ ̶̨̍̐̈́m̶̙̤͕͊̍̋e̷̡̪̺͐̂.̸̱̟̈́̓

“Detonating.”

You screamed.

They didn’t learn about it until the morning. The whole country knew. Soon, the whole world.

The apartment building had exploded in a fiery haze, collapsing one half of the building into the inferno. It was attended by every fire station in the city. There were four dead, twelve injured and two in critical condition, at that moment. The source of the blast was floor fourteen. Your apartment. That’s what they knew. That’s what was reported by every news broadcaster in the city.

You were dead.

That’s what they knew.

Seven found out first. The alarms rang out during the countdowns. His fingers flew across the keys at a speed he didn’t know he could reach. It was too late. The continuous clicking came to an abrupt halt. He wasn’t fast enough. His heart pounded in his ears and he felt faint. His mouth was dry. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. Pain welled up in his throat and tears drenched his skin. Seven couldn’t do anything. He had made that bomb. He wasn’t skilled enough to turn it off. He couldn’t save you. He couldn’t save you. He couldn’t save you. He couldn’t save- he couldn’t- he- save- you…

V was there. Seven had called him as the first countdown began. V, in the area at the time, rushed there only to arrive and watch everything collapse. He watched the fire erupt from the rubble, felt the heat on his entire body. He suffered the shockwave in his chest. The blaze of failure rivalled that of the flames before him. His heart clenched. He had failed yet another person he held dear. V froze in front of the mayhem.

The police asked him many questions; Where was he before the explosion? Did he know how it happened? Did he know anyone in the building? Did he live there? Did he have anywhere to go, anyone to call? V let them check his emergency contacts. Jumin was called.

Jumin arrived on the scene not even twenty minutes later to pick up V. He stepped out of the car, emotionless. The police filled him in. There was no body to be found, however, earwitnesses had overheard a scuffle and shouting moments prior, indicating there was someone else in the apartment. That’s what they knew. Jumin couldn’t feel anything. He comforted V regardless of the growing ache in his chest. He stepped to the side to call Jaehee. He could only manage the address and the words: “It’s MC, come immediately.” In too much shock, Jumin only found himself hugging V tighter.

She pulled up very soon after. “Mr Han…” She didn’t even have to ask. The flames had subsided and were replaced by a heavy sorrow hung which in the air. The sun peaked over the buildings, covered substantially by smoke. Above that, the pink sky glittered with the last remaining stars. Jaehee glanced up. She didn’t know what came over her but she found herself scowling at the sky. You’d loved it. You’d loved the feeling of freedom it gave. You’d loved the colours, how they spread across the sky as though it was a canvas and the sun was the artist. Now it glimmered with a hope that she didn’t know if she would ever get to experience again. Jaehee shook her head and looked back down. She had to make you proud. She had so much work to do.

Zen overheard it only after he’d left his house. It was in shop TVs, the people in the park were whispering about it, even his fellow actors. People he passed gave him pitiful looks and he hated it. Zen couldn’t bear to log into the messenger. He didn’t want to know that he could’ve helped you; that he could’ve made sure you weren’t alone. He didn’t want to think about it. It was too quiet during his rehearsals. His director sent him home early. As he rode home, the wind tore at his jacket and tugged on his hair. It was too cold. Yoosung called him soon after he made it home, in hysterics. Zen agreed to meet up.

They met at Yoosung’s place. Zen knew Yoosung wouldn’t be able to go anywhere else. He was distraught. His tears stained through his shirt. His friends were telling the school that he wouldn’t be in. Yoosung felt so, so, so very alone. You two were close for the fleeting moments you knew each other. First Rika, now you? His heart couldn’t take it. His mind was racing. Was it him? Was he a bad-luck charm? Was it his fault? Why did you have to leave him? Why now? Why? Why?! His thoughts cluttered, his emotions in pandemonium. He could do nothing but cry and hold onto Zen. Yoosung didn’t want to be alone. You made him feel less lonely. 

You made them all feel cherished. Feel wanted, feel heard, feel loved. But you were gone.

That’s what they knew.

Whoo boy did i make myself sad or what

I promise I’ll write more. And I’m not just saying that this time. I promise.

anyway, hope this is what you want! Just tell me if you’re unsatisfied and ill rewrite!

bye bye! *poof*

#wow who keeps forgetting tags this girl #mystic messenger #mysmes #mm #v mystic messenger #mystic messenger 707 #mc mystic messenger #707 mystic messenger #mystic messenger zen #mystic messenger imagines #mystic messeger scenario #minific #puffle writes #imagine #scenario #mys mes #mysme jaehee #jaehee kang #jumin han #mysme jumin #mysme #mysme zen #hyun #hyun ryu #v #jihyun kim #mysme jihyun #yoosung #yoosung kim #mysme yoosung

[fanfic-screenplays]

Batman Rebirth Part 6

EXT: ICEBERG LOUNGE - NIGHT.

Loud music BLARES. The frontage is covered in floor to ceiling screens, FLASHING, showing images of the people dancing. It's ABUZZ with people, all on a night out.

TERRY and DANA appear at the end of the alley. THEY walk down the alley, towards the lengthy LOUD queue into the Lounge.

EXT: ICEBERG LOUNGE - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS

TERRY and DANA slide into the queue, next to MAX - SHE's dressed up.

                MAX:        Terry, you know, this is the first        time I've actually seen you since        you started working for Bruce        Wayne.

                TERRY:        Max, I know... I'm sorry, Bruce        works all-hours and I need to be        ther...

                DANA        Terry, it's just a job... we must        be more important than that.

                TERRY        Believe me... you are, it's just...

TERRY's phone RINGS, interrupting the conversation. The caller ID states Bruce Wayne.

DANA looks down, TUTS loudly.

                DANA        Terry, don't you dare answer that!

TERRY pauses, looking down at the phone. HE glances back up at DANA, struggling...

TERRY SUDDENLY answers the phone.

                TERRY:        This had better be good...

TERRY turns to DANA, mouths 'sorry'. DANA has a face of thunder, absolutely FUMING.

                BRUCE:            (V.O)        Oh... it is, we finally have a lead        on Warren.

                TERRY:        Really? What?

                BRUCE:            (V.O)        Sasha's on the way, I'll tell you        when you get here.

BRUCE hangs up. TERRY slowly turns back to DANA.

                MAX:        WELL?

                TERRY        ...I'm really sorry...

Behind TERRY, a classic Rolls Royce cruises to a stop. DANA looks over TERRY's shoulder at it - at SASHA, who's driving.

                DANA            (frustrated)        Just go, this is clearly more        important to you.

TERRY's shoulders slump. HE makes HIS way over to the car.

TERRY opens the car door. TERRY pauses, turns back to look at DANA.

                TERRY        Dana, I'll make this up to you... I        promise.

TERRY ducks into the car.

                DANA        You better...

INT: BRUCE'S CAR - MOMENTS LATER

It's a classic, luxury, well kept Rolls Royce.

TERRY slides into the backseat. SLAMMING the door.

                SASHA:        Trouble in paradise?

                TERRY:        Just drive, will you?

EXT: ICEBERG LOUNGE - NIGHT.

MAX and DANA stand there, watching the Rolls Royce pull away, into the road.

                MAX:        I can't believe he bailed on us        like that...

                DANA:        Yep... I hardly see him now...

MAX pulls DANA into an hug - comforting HER.

                MAX:        I'm sure it's nothing...

                DANA:        I hope so, he can't go away again.

                MAX:        I'll find out. I promise.

INT: BATCAVE: MAIN CONCOURSE

The cave is now all lit up. At the far end, we can see a computer desk, surrounded by servers and screens. They are showing camera feeds and constantly updating web-chats.

BRUCE is sat at the desk, working his way through WARREN's chat logs.

TERRY enters - walking down the stairs.

                TERRY:        You know that Dana hates me now        right?

BRUCE does not look up, or turnaround - carries on reviewing the conversation.

                BRUCE        Unfortunately, you'll need to get        used to that.

TERRY makes his way over to BRUCE.

                BRUCE:        When I was young, women used to        throw themselves at my feet all the        time.

                TERRY:        Really, what did you do?

                BRUCE        Step over them...

                TERRY:        Real smooth.

                BRUCE:        I thought so.

INT: BATCAVE: MAIN CONCOURSE - MOMENTS LATER

TERRY'S reached BRUCE. TERRY stands next to BRUCE, looking over the screens...

                TERRY:        What's all that?

BRUCE looks up at the screens.

                BRUCE:        Oh... All of the security apparatus        of this city; gunshot sensors,        facial recognition cameras,        internet searches...Feed into these        servers.

BRUCE points at the servers surrounding the desk - cables running everywhere.

                BRUCE:        I call it Brother Eye.

                TERRY:        What about privacy?

                BRUCE:        If you are not doing anything        wrong, why should you worry?

                TERRY:        Yeah, but...

                BRUCE:        Terry, if you want to find out what        happened to Warren, we're going to        have to use these methods.

Pause for a few beats.

                BRUCE:        Now did you want to find what        happened to Warren?

                TERRY:        Yeah, of course.

BRUCE taps a key and the security cam footage from Noonan's Bar pops up across the screens.

                BRUCE:        Good... now, what can you tell me        about Harry Tully?

                TERRY        Oh, he was Dad's work best        friend... Why?

BRUCE gestures - enlarging the footage, zooming in on WARREN and HARRY.

                BRUCE:        He convinced Warren to steal a        project from Derek Powers. It was        called Blight?

TERRY leans closer, watching them talk.

                TERRY        Really? Did they say what it was?

                BRUCE        No, they were worried about Powers        having access to it though.

                TERRY:        Why?

                BRUCE:        I have no idea, seems Powers's        keeps all files offline... The best        way to keep secrets.

TERRY turns to BRUCE.

                TERRY        So, what do we do?

BRUCE stands, and starts to walk towards the escalator down to the platforms.

TERRY watches him.

                BRUCE:        Well, you're going to pay Powers a        visit.

TERRY starts to follow BRUCE.

                TERRY:        Sorry to disappoint, but I don't        think he's going to talk to me...

                BRUCE:        No, not dressed like that.

TERRY stops, confused...

                BRUCE        This is what all the trainings been        for...

                TERRY:        You mean?

BRUCE turns, POINTING at the bat-suit.

                BRUCE        Suit up.

INT: BATCAVE: MAIN CONCOURSE - MOMENTS LATER

TERRY presses his hand against the glass cabinet holding the batsuit. A red ring appears on the glass, reading his fingerprints.

The ring turns green. The cabinet HISSES open. The Batsuit slides forward - UNFOLDING, opening up. It's one sleek suit of armour.

TERRY steps backwards into the suit. It folds around HIM. CLANGING shut. An ELECTRICAL WHIRL as the suit powers up - running through it's start up procedure; Spikes SLIDE in and out of the arms, Leg armour FLEXES...

                TERRY:        This is epic!

BRUCE smirks, ever so slightly.

                BRUCE:        Oh, There's more, come downstairs.

INT: BATCAVE: PLATFORM LEVEL

It's the platforms of the station, underneath the concourse. The whole area has been turned into a maintenance and garage bay - workbenches scattered about, cranes etc.

BRUCE steps off the escalator. Followed by batsuited TERRY. TERRY'S holding the helmet in his hand.

TERRY looks around, impressed.

                TERRY:        Oh... Wow...You really took over a        whole station...

BRUCE stops in the middle of platform. Looking at something...

TERRY slowly turns and sees...

INT: BATCAVE: PLATFORM LEVEL - CONTINUOUS

The Bat-Jet. Imagine an armoured, armed stealth fighter jet. Matte black with dark grey trim - invoking a Bat.

                TERRY:        You had a jet?!

                BRUCE:        It's yours now. Get in.

TERRY approaches the jet. The canopy slides open as HE approaches. The slats on the side of the fuselage fold out, into a ladder.

TERRY clambers up into the cockpit, SLIDING on the helmet.The panels of the helmet CLANK together, forming the iconic helmet.

INT: BATCAVE: PLATFORM LEVEL - MOMENTS LATER

The EYEs of the HELMET activate, GLOWING BRIGHT WHITE light SHINES out.

The canopy slides back and CLICKS shut. VTOL jets activate, HEAT HAZE below the jet...

The Bat-Jet lifts of the ground and hovers for a few seconds...

THEN it ROARS up the TUNNEL.

INT: BATCAVE: SUBWAY TUNNEL

It's your standard subway tunnel... There's occasionally lights illustrating it's unfinished nature.

The Bat-Jet ROARS along the tunnel.

EXT: GOTHAM ABANDONED TRAIN YARD - NIGHT

It's a large empty, destitute train yard, overlooking Gotham Bay. Filled with broken up/broken down trains.

The Bat-Jet ROARS out of the subway tunnel. Wings EXPAND from the side of the Bat-Jet as it flies UP, ARCING over Gotham.

INT: BAT-JET: COCKPIT - NIGHT

The front of the cockpit is made up of an holographic Heads Up Display, projecting the various instruments onto the canopy.

TERRY/BATMAN watches the various displays.

                BRUCE:            (V.O)        Remember, easy gestures, let the        suit do the work...

EXT: GOTHAM - NIGHT SKY

The afterburners on the Bat-Jet fire - SPEEDING it across the night sky.

INT: BAT-JET: COCKPIT - NIGHT

TERRY pulls back on the throttle - increasing SPEED.

The night sky flies past QUICKER and QUICKER.

                TERRY:        WOO-HOO!

                BRUCE:        Mind not doing that?

                TERRY:        Sorry...

TERRY throttles down - decreasing speed.

                BRUCE:        You scratch it, no allowance.

EXT: GOTHAM - NIGHT SKY

The Bat-Jet HURDLES across the night sky. Upper Gotham below - The skyscrapers RAPIDLY come into view. We can see Power Tower just off in the middle distance.

The logo GLARING like a green lantern.

INT: BAT-JET: COCKPIT - NIGHT

The HUD goes DARK - holograms cut out.

                BRUCE:            (V.O)        Ready?

                TERRY:        As I'll ever be...

The canopy CLICKS and slides back - WIND HOWLS

The ejector seat FIRES,THROWING BATMAN up into the murky Gotham night sky.

#batman #batman beyond #rebirth #science #science fiction #cyberpunk #cyperpunk #the dark knigth rises #the dark knight rises #the dark knight #bruce wayne #fanfic #fan content #fan fiction #screenplay #batman begins #batman fanfiction #batman fandom #joker

[ruffledplumage]

Helpful Tips and Tricks for Intersession Dating

(Archivist’s note: It’s been a while, so before I get the queue set up, here’s a little something something. 

Dating in the Game can be really fucking hard, but this ended up pretty useful. Originally posted as a bait thread on Pits by hypedRiposte, logs snagged by me. It’s probably since been buried or deleted.)

So you want to do the romance thing...

[hypedRiposte] : boy do i have some advice for you.

1) be prepared to run into aliens. also be prepared to get phished by aliens, because you never really know what’s what until you get a picture, and even then... rip, who knows if they’re real or not.

2) trolls can and will eat your fucking face off

3) other aliens make literally zero sense. don’t bother with any of them, honestly. romance in the game doesn’t work and especially not with people outside of your species.

4) it just doesn’t work, okay? the farther away you get from someone, the worse things become. you’re a whole universe away in a separate session. you’re not going to stay together and you’re never going to meet again. it’s garbage. people who try to date in this mess are idiots

[botanicalFantasy] : Who shat in your cereal dude

[berensteinParadox] : Probably got shafted by some troll and needs to vent. me too buddy, me too. don’t go into spades with a seadweller. just trust me, they’re high maintenance as fuck and rip your arms off.

[xoXo] : play nice. there’s actually a lot of ways for dating to work in the game!

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~yeah, there are so many ways things can work out. it just requires some actual thought, which hypRip obviously doesn’t seem capable of~

[xoXo] : no, no. they’ve just been hurt before. i can tell.

[aaaaaaAaaaaa] : Wow, what a bleeding heart :p

[hypedRiposte] : well what the fuck do you recommend tidmoo. there’s too much distance between us, you and me and everyone else. how are you supposed to  have a relationship knowing you’re never going to roll with that person you love again. 

and trolls are stupid. trolls are stupid and awful.

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~be careful who you say that to. you’re talking to one~

[hypedRiposte] : eugh, get off my thread

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~nope, get fucked. my thread now~

[asthmaticMatriarch] : Ooo mama, mutiny. *grabs some popcorn*

[xoXo] : actually this seems like a good idea. hypRip, i know things are hard and trolls are confusing sometimes, but there’s a lot of ways for things to work out. 

i know that it’s hard that you will probably never roll with the person you’re dating again, whether human or troll or something else entirely, but the game is founded in distance. you were always going to be apart from everyone else. the person you love is still there. you’re still connected. if you’re on a server, you can talk to them just fine. sometimes relationships don’t hold up under the distance, but more often than not they do.

we all know how it feels. we were all separated from our friends in the beginning, and more often than not we’re not going to see them again. ever. but does that make the memories less worth having? does that make the relationships moot? not seeing them is sad. not talking to them is worse.

dating is sort of similar. you just have to keep talking to them. i know not being able to see them is hard, but it would be worse if you just stopped trying. the person you love is still there. distant, unseen, but still there. please don’t give up. just talk to them.

as for trolls... they’re not all bad. they’re just like humans, different all the time. don’t lump them all together because you had a bad experience.

[aaaaaaAaaaaa] : Tfw xoXo gives you emotions. Wtf dude, this is a bait thread, why are you being so serious

[xoXo] : relationships are serious. they’re the only thing we’ve got.

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~well said. better than i could have done, but maybe that’s because i’m blinded by how fucking prejudiced op’s first post is~

[berensteinParadox] : I mean. trolls are kind of fuckered. they have an entire romance just based on hate.

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~oh great. another hideously prejudiced post~

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~sit down and shut up so i can learn you good~

~that’s not even close to the full extent of what a kis is. it’s not just about hate. it’s about driving each other to do better, be better. your kis is supposed to make you want to best them, and in doing so, be the best you possibly can.~

[berensteinParadox] : Sounds stupid to me. i got an arm ripped off dude. trolls are fucking savages.

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~ugh. then you were in an abusive spade. stop insulting my entire race~

[berensteinParadox] : What are you gonna do about it? ban me? this is an open thread.

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~no but i’m going to block you~

[xoXo] : that’s really nice tidmoo! thats a great way to describe a kis. i mean of course you’d know it better. i’m not a troll.

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~yeah, not that this sorry lot is going to learn anything from it~

[hypedRiposte] : i didn’t ask for your stupid advice! 

[asthmaticMatriarch] : Honey, you posted a public thread on Pits of all places. That’s asking for advice if I ever heard of it *munch munch*

[hypedRiposte] : ugh. fine, i shouldn’t have made this post. i didn’t mean to attract a bunch of naive morons who don’t know what they’re talking about. it’s stupid to date in sburb, okay? the relationship just stops working after you’re apart.

[xoXo] : i really, really disagree. there’s so many things you can do for your so over servers. link them things you know they’ll like. write them something. make them a meal and turn it into an .ali. sing for them! dance for them. just talk to them, let them know how things are going, and they should do the same for you. that’s the way it should work.

[hypedRiposte] : but that’s not the way it IS! what are you, native light?

[xoXo] : blood, actually. and that’s not the point. i’m sorry your relationships aren’t working out hypRip, and i’m sorry you were hurt. you just have to try. if you’re not trying to make it work, of course it’s not going to.

[tidelessMoonsoul] : ~yeah, basically. xoXo, we should talk more. i like the way you say things, and goddamn if you aren’t stupidly good at dealing with idiots~

[xoXo] : oh, sure, i’ll send you a pm.

[aaaaaaAaaaaa] : And then they started dating, and it was hilarious

[hypedRiposte] : UGH

#replay value au #sburb glitch faq #archive #quality of life

[tinypigeonlord]

A nice and peaceful week in FLyFF

day 1 of activating a week’s worth of expensive premium stuff in FLYFF to level up in peace and quiet and reach the max level cap this week: AFTER activating all my stuff gets told there will be several quick server maintenances, which could POTENTIALLY cause the servers to disconnect you. Of course I get disconnected during every quick maintenance, causing my character to die several times while in the middle of a battle. During the final maintenance that day, which should have lasted 20 minutes, it takes me 2 hours to finally get online again as I kept getting a network connection error. It is late in the evening when I finally level in peace for an hour

day 2 of still-active premium items which count down even when logged off: Actual game maintenance is today. Half of the day is wasted as I wait for the game to come back online so I can start leveling.

day 3 of by now already partially wasted premium items: Family drags me along to do a bunch of errands, i.e. grocery shopping and acquiring other things. Finally get home and ready to level up 4 hours later than intended. Issues with some of the game files, causing me such massive delays in the game that it becomes impossible to level. (game doesnt register my location correctly, monsters ignore any attacks I throw, healer randomly stops healing in intervals, etc) Leveling that day is HELL

day 4 of Drama: a player decides that it is the perfect day for hacking and duplicating valuable items into the game, causing massive crashes and everyone getting booted out every 5 minutes. Of course I am in the middle of battle when this happens and almost at my level up, and end up dying during the crashes, losing my party which I have to re-create, and am now starting to get pissed as the Game Masters have shut down the game temporarily to prevent further spread of duped/hacked items

day 5 of never-ending pain:  more emergency maintenances, JUST as I was about to get started on leveling for the day OTL

#CAN I LEVEL IN PEACE AND QUIET FOR A DAY??? ONE FUCKING DAY???? 1 ?!?!?!?!?! #I JUST WANT TO REACH MAX LEVEL. I AM SO #SO SOOO CLOSE