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timelordthirteen · 3 years

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Desperate Souls 1/?

Mr. Gold/BelleFrench, Explicit

Summary: A broke and heartbroken Belle French comes to an agreement with Mr. Gold to do a little modeling, just for him, in exchange for the money she desperately needs, but it isn't long before they both realize they've made a deal they didn't understand. Based on this prompt.

Chapter Summary: Belle makes a depressing discovery and considers her options.

Notes: OKAY. Here we go. Chapter 2 is almost done, but everything was getting stupid long and in spite of my plan I had to break it up. The entire story is all fully outlined now, but I make zero promises about my ability to keep it updated because I'm the worst. In total it will be anywhere from 10 to 15 chapters.

[AO3]

Belle stared at the paper in her hands.

$37.23

That was all that was left in the account. She staggered and then dropped down onto the old sofa. Her heart was thumping in her chest, her face felt hot, and her vision blurred. The page fluttered away, sliding over the coffee table to fall off the edge and onto the floor on the other side. The corner of the paper fluttered in the air from a heating vent in the floor, and she watched it for a long moment before her head dropped to her hands, palms pressed to her face as tears stung her eyes.

Her heart, her hopes, her money; Garrett Gaston had taken everything.

Well, almost everything. Apparently, she still had thirty-seven fucking dollars and change left. She shook her head and laid back against the cushions, breathing slowly. Calming down was step one, step two was figuring out a logical plan to fix things. Most of the regular monthly bills: car payment, cell phone, and utilities, had already been deducted before Garrett had a chance to clean out their shared account. That left whatever was on the credit card and the rent to pay. She let out a short, humorless laugh, and sat up. There wasn’t much on her Visa, some books she ordered from Amazon last month and her Netflix subscription. Even if there was more she could get away with making minimum payments if she had to and eat the interest until she got back on her feet. The rent was a whole other story.

Mr. Gold didn’t do minimum payments, but he did do late fees and interest.

There was also her promise to her father. Moe French was always just barely making ends meet, and she had agreed to loan him some money to buy extra stock for the flower shop ahead of Valentine’s Day, something she had done last year as well. That holiday always put the shop in the black for a while, and she hadn’t been concerned that she wouldn’t get her money back. Now she was wondering if she would also need a loan of some kind just to keep a roof over her head.

Maybe she’d even have to move back in with her father.

Belle blinked, letting the tears roll down her cheeks, leaving trails through her makeup. Living with Moe was not an option, not if she wanted to maintain any semblance of a relationship with him, which left her with few choices. She pushed to her feet, wiping at her face with her hand as she crossed the small living room to pick up the bank statement. Her eyes immediately went to the top of the page.

Beginning balance…$4,737.23

The statement crumpled in her hand, her fingers squeezing it into a tight ball, digging the sharp edges of the folded paper into her palm before she spun on her heel and threw it across the space. It smacked against the door to the bathroom. She followed it up by yanking the ring off her left hand and flinging it in the same direction. It made a satisfying ping as it careened off the doorknob and rattled to the floor.

Rage fueled her as she stomped through the apartment, snatching up the handful of things her now very ex-fiance had left behind before he fucked off to Mexico with a woman who wasn’t her, taking all of her money with him. She felt like an idiot for agreeing to sign Garrett onto her account before they were married, but in the moment it had made sense to pool their funds. They were starting their new life together, supposedly, and he made a point of saying he wanted to help pay for the wedding.

Belle and her father didn’t have much, and from the outside it seemed like Garrett was far better off financially. He had a decent job selling insurance, a nice car, nice clothes, and his parents were very well off real estate agents in Boston. Or at least that was what he had told her. She had never met them, and that, combined with the fact that he had yet to make any deposits into their now shared account, told her all she needed to know. Garrett Gaston was a lying asshole, and for all she knew his parents could be dead or have disowned him. It was clear he had used her, though she wasn’t sure the year long charade was worth the four thousand-seven hundred dollars he’d stolen from her.

She let out a ragged breath and ran her hands through her hair. A hooded sweatshirt with a rip in the front pocket, a paint splattered t-shirt, a pair of work boots that had seen better days, a phone charger, and a mismatched pair of socks lay in a pile on the sofa. Everything else he’d taken with him, including half the hangers in the closet. He must have crammed it all into the same large suitcase and duffle bag he’d used to move in just three months ago. She wondered if he’d had it all planned before then, or if it was a spur of the moment decision. When had he met this other woman? Had he cared about her at all, ever?

Belle sniffed loudly and rubbed her nose. She refused to shed any more tears over Garrett, and looked around the room for anything she might have missed. A thought hit her then, and she hurried into the kitchen, took one of the chairs from the small table by the window, and used it to reach up on top of the fridge. Her heart sank when she felt nothing but dust. He’d even taken her emergency fund, mostly made up of spare change and small bills shoved into an old jar. She wasn’t sure how much was in it, but it had to be a couple hundred dollars. That brought the total to almost five thousand.

Deflated and exhausted, she climbed down off the chair, and placed it back at the table. Then she walked back into the living room and briefly contemplated setting Garrett’s things on fire. There was a burn barrel in her father’s backyard that he used for yard waste. Maybe she could invite Ruby and Ashely over for a bonfire, and roast marshmallows that they imagined were ex-boyfriends.

That thought made her smile, but a few seconds later, she sighed and reluctantly went to pick up the bank statement and engagement ring. Being angry might make her feel better temporarily, but it wouldn’t solve any of her current problems. Unfortunately, neither would anything Garrett left behind, which were clearly items he no longer cared about and which had no value. At least she’d been wearing the ring when he packed up and left, or he likely would have taken that as well.

She went into the bedroom and sank down on the end of the bed. The mattress dipped and the frame creaked, yet another reminder of her less than stellar financial state. A couple of weeks ago, they’d talked about getting new furniture after they were married, in particular, a bed, and Belle rolled her eyes at the memory. She put the engagement ring back in its box on her dresser, and decided to take a shower. As the hot water ran down over her neck and shoulders, she made a mental list of what she needed to do, and felt calmer after she was done.

After drying off and changing into some comfortable clothes, she shoved Garrett’s belongings into a trash bag and set it by the door to take down to the dumpster in the morning. Then she sat down with the little notebook she kept in her purse and a pen, and started writing out her expenses for the next month. By the time she was done, and after considering the amount of her usual paycheck, the total she would at the end of next month was...fifty four dollars.

She fell back against the sofa and blew out a breath. There was no way to make the math come out any better. Rent included the usual utilities, but there was food, her cellphone, car insurance, and those incidental costs of existing like laundry detergent and toilet paper and probably a hundred things she’d end up running out of next week. It felt like life was out to spite her. The cushion she had worked so hard to build up was gone, as was the paycheck that had just deposited. Garrett probably waited until Thursday just for that reason, to squeeze just a little bit more out of her and make her ruin complete.

She got up and went back into the bedroom. The ring box seemed to be mocking her as she reached for it, and she flipped it open and scowled down at the princess cut diamond. It was about one carat in size, flanked by two smaller diamonds, which gave the ring a total weight of about one and half carats. It was huge as far as engagement rings went, and she supposed that was more of Garrett showing off money he didn’t actually have. The truth was she didn’t care for it at all, the squared off princess cut being her least favorite, and the set of three gems gave it a bulk and gaudiness that wasn’t her style. But it was what he had picked out and proposed with, and because of that she made herself like it. The band was rose gold, her favorite, which was at least one thing he managed to remember about her.

Belle snapped the box shut and shook her head. The ring had to be worth something, and though there was only one place in town she could take it she was confident that Mr. Gold would give her a fair price. He had always been fair, even if he often came off as cold and eccentric. She’d never had a problem with Gold, though she didn’t really know him that well either. A few times she had gone out of her way to try to be nice and talk to him, but he seemed annoyed and eventually she gave up. She was friendly and polite when she saw him, not just because he was her landlord, or because we wielded some strange power over most of the citizens of Storybrooke, but because she sensed he was someone who didn’t have a lot of kindness in his life.

She set the ring down and yanked open the bottom dresser drawer. Inside was a small collection of what could only be described as ugly Christmas sweaters, leftover from the annual holiday parties that Granny would throw at the diner. Those were taken out and set aside. Beneath them was something that made Belle frown all over again, a pile of silk and lace, with a few price tags caught up on each other. It was the pile of lingerie that she’d been reserving for her wedding and honeymoon.

The sting of tears made her blink and she felt her earlier anger bubbling up again. She knelt down in front of the drawer and pulled all of it out, throwing it behind her on the bed. Then she set about separating it, untangling tags and eye hooks, and pairing up the things that went together. She hadn’t worn any of it yet, but the items with tags had been purchased too long ago to return, never mind that she had probably thrown out the receipts weeks ago. It wasn’t designer stuff or anything, but it had to be worth something, so she folded it all into a neat stack and placed it on top of the dresser. Then she set the ring box on top and resolved to take all of it to Gold’s shop tomorrow.

None of it would be missed.

#rumbelle #rumbelle fic #belle x mr. gold #lemon fic #;)#my rumbelle fic #fic #deals and debts #desperate souls

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peppersonironi · 4 years

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Batfam/Avengers Crossover Chapter One: Arrival

Yo, this has been on Ao3 for a while and people seem to really love it, So I thought I’d post it here! Chapter below the cut.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Category: Gen Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types Relationships: Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Natasha Romanov & Damian Wayne, Clint Barton & Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tim Drake & Duke Thomas, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Roy Harper/Koriand'r/Jason Todd, Characters: Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Justice League (DCU), Alfred Pennyworth, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Thor (Marvel), Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Alfred the Cat (DCU), Bat-Cow (DCU), Goliath (DCU), Selina Kyle's Cat Isis, Kate Kane (DCU), Duke Thomas, Additional Tags: Batbrothers (DCU), Avengers Meet The Batfam, MCU/Batfam crossover, Crossover, no beta we die like robins, rated T for Jason's language, I bleeped it out though. Just to be safe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, canon? What's canon?, Deaf Clint Barton,Deaf Character, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Happy Batfamily (DCU), Birdflash and joyfire are implied/referenced,

Summary:

The Avengers find themselves in an alternate universe where none of them exist. Instead, there is a different group of heroes: The Justice League. They decide to work together to get the Avengers home. But not not everything is instantaneous, so the Avengers need a place to stay. The only place available is Wayne Manor.

Que Batfamily shenanigans!

Multi-chapter fanfic, with some one shots that go along with the plot thrown in.

Notes:

This is my first time writing anything with the Avengers - especially a deaf!clint - and the Batfam, so I apologize if anything is doc. Constructive criticism is appreciated!

This is mainly comic DCU with Movie Avengers (Set after the first avengers movie, plus Spiderman, cause I can ;-)

Crack! Bang! There was a flash of blindingly bright light, followed by a huge explosion.

"Wha- where are we?"

Tony Stark looked over to Peter who had been the first to speak. Crap, the kid had come here too. But wherever here was, he did not know.

Tony, Steve, Hulk, Thor, Clint, Peter, and Natasha stood in a loose clump at the center of a smoking crater. The sky was cloudy and dark, and they appeared to be at least five miles outside of a big city, judging from the buildings in the distance. There was also a highway filled with streaming cars a couple of miles to Tony’s right.

“This isn’t right,” He muttered, opening his faceplate. Where were the sunny tropical trees that housed the compound of Anagnorisis - weird name, he knew - who was some D-list villain who thought some slightly advanced tech made them a world-conqueror. But Tony was beginning to think that those guns were a bit stranger and more advanced than he had previously believed.

“Tell me about it,” replied Steve. “Any idea where we are? Was it some sort of teleportation gun that was shot at us? This looks nothing like the Amazon.”

Before anyone could speak, Tony received a notification. Multiple incoming objects were approaching, fast . With the exception of the second fastest, they seemed to be airborne. “Multiple incomings, perhaps hostile. Most are flying. And they aren’t missiles. I think people ? But -”

“Who are you?”

Suddenly the first object arrived, and Stark was right. It was a black haired man in a blue skin tight suit with a red “S” on it and a flowing red cape. It would look ridiculous if he wasn’t glaring daggers at the group while flying .

He was joined almost immediately by another man, this time wearing an all red bodysuit with a lightning bolt on the chest and cowl. He was not flying though. He stopped in front of them swinging his arms as lightning dissipated. He had run there.

Next came a woman dressed in the colors of the american flag, with golden cuffs, tiara, and lasso by her side. She came with a man in a green, white, and black skin tight suit with some sort of symbol - perhaps a lantern? - on his chest. He also wore a green ring and black domino mask with white lenses on his face. They were both joined by another, a split second later. This was by far the strangest arrival. He was completely bald, with green skin and red eyes. He wore navy blue pants and cape, with only a red “X” over his chest. All three were floating.

“Who are you?” The blue and red man repeated.

Tony scoffed. Was this guy serious? “We’re the Avengers, obviously.”

The group shared a look. “Is that some new kind of villain group? I swear to all that is good and holy if I need to deal with another group who think they can rule the world, I. Will. Quit.” This time the man who spoke was the runner.

Steve replied, confusion clear on his face. “We’re not villains! We’re the Avengers; Earth’s mightiest heroes!”

Instead of coming to their senses, the strangely dressed newcomers laughed .

“You do realize you are speaking to members of the Justice League?” The woman spoke, her lips pursed.

“The who now?”

“Be quiet Kid, we don’t know what we’re dealing with.” Tony spoke to Peter. He was getting more worried by the second. Something was seriously wrong.

“Dealing with?” The green dressed man frowned, clearly suspicious of the Avengers. He started to fidget with his ring. “Well, since you don’t seem to know, let me enlighten you.” He gestured to each of his companions. “Superman, son of Krypton. Wonder Woman, Amazonian Princess. The Flash, fastest man alive. Martian Manhunter, well, a martian. And Me, Green Lantern. Member of the Green Lantern Core.”

Well, that explained everything. Not.

“We do not know you, strangers.” Thor spoke this time. “Perhaps you leave us be, our green friend over here gets frustrated easily.” He pointed to Hulk, who was breathing heavily.

The green man - martian, apparently - spoke for the first time. “Not until you tell us who you are and why you are in a smoking crater near His city.”

“His?” Clint clearly did not like the way the martian spoke of this character. To be honest, Stark didn’t either.

This got the most surprised reactions from the five. They looked at each other, and Tony could have sworn there was a hint of fear in their faces.

“Oh, He is so not going to like that.” Green Lantern said.

“Combined with the fact that we ditched Him.” The Flash cringed. Then looked worried again. “Yo, green grape, you okay.

The Hulk’s breathing was growing heavier, his face contorted into that of utter rage.

“Uh-oh,” Steve said.

“I . . . Not . . . GRAPE!” Hulk roared as he charged the The Flash who nimbly dodged. Superman went down to intercede, and just got punched by the Hulk. Though it did not seem to physically bother him, he was clearly angry.

Tony shut his face plate and moved forward, intending to stop the fight, but he only got attacked by the martian. Peter jumped forward to help, and soon everyone was fighting.

Thor was pitted against the Wonder Woman, and they seemed evenly matched. Black Widow was against The flash, and despite his incredible speed she seemed to be almost winning. Both Hawkeye and Captain America were battling Green Lantern.

No one seemed to have the upper hand, which worried Tony. These people were tough. If they couldn’t beat them . . . he didn’t know what would happen.

Peter didn’t seem to share his worry though. He instead seemed to be having fun. Tony could tell the kid was smiling beneath his mask, and his body language screamed hyper and happy. He seemed to get that way whenever they fought together, and a small part of Tony was filled with a sense of parental pride.

The fight seemed endless, no one gaining traction. Until something incredible happened. Thor threw Mjolnir directly at his opponent, and instead of being knocked down like everyone else, she caught the hammer. Every Avenger - even the Hulk - immediately froze, catching the attention of the newcomers.

“This is a very well crafted weapon, though a bit clunky,” Wonder Woman said as she tossed the hammer from one hand to the other. She paused, seeing their reactions.

“You are worthy.” Thor spoke with disbelief and a tint of resignation in his voice.

“Pardon?” Superman spoke, his frown apparent.

“Only those worthy can lift Mjolnir - my hammer. She clearly can, which means that you are trustworthy.”

*****

Five minutes of somewhat confused conversation later, they had reached an uneasy truce. Neither spoke much at first, but they soon began to compare notes. Apparently They both believed themselves to be the protectors of Earth, which brought on a bout of argument before Peter stepped in.

“Woah hold on, calm down. Something is clearly up, so there’s no need to argue!”

Wonder Woman looked contemplative. “How old are you boy, you seem young.”

Peter bristled. “I’m 15, and I’ve been a superhero for a while now, so I’m not inexperienced!”

Green Lantern laughed. “That’s not what she met, kid. We aren’t going to tell you how old you need to be to fight crime. The amount of we work with, and some even younger than you . . .” He shook his head and laughed. Then he realised how he had sounded. “I mean, we don’t force them, it's up to each individual to make that choice for themselves. Well, with the mentor’s approval of course.”

Natasha furrowed her brows. “How young are some of these kids?” Tony knew she had a thing against child soldiers, so he wasn’t surprised she was disapproving.

Green Lantern looks to the Flash. “How old is Robin at this point? 9?”

Flash laughed. “Naw, that little devil is 11. He was very adamant on that fact when he threatened me with his katana.” He shook his head.

Green Lantern laughed. “Yeah, most of the others are teenagers. Robin is the youngest, and I’d say most deadly, but Red Hood . . .”

“The Dark Knight really does have a problem,” Flash said.

His last comment made Green Lantern freeze. They both looked at each other then turned to Peter.

“Kid, stay away from The Dark Knight.” Green Lantern says.

“Yeah, if He sees you, there’s no way you’ll ever leave.”

“He’s the most dangerous man on earth,” Green Lantern adds.

“Guys, stop. You’re scaring him.” Superman looks disappointedly at the two heroes who Tony pegged as the trouble makers of the group. This idea was further cemented in Tony when they started laughing. Despite this, he decided to keep Peter as far away from this supposed Dark Knight as possible.

“Speak of the devil, he’s on his way.” Superman says this with a smile, then he cringes. “And we’re going to get an earful alright. Ten minutes ahead of him is a big deal apparently.”

In a moment. Tony got an alert that something was approaching. Fast. Soon he saw a large black military type armoured car fly down the highway from the city and off the road. It zoomed toward them.

It was a sight indeed to see the menacing black car swerve and expertly stop a few yards from the group. The top opened and a dark form shot straight up before landing in a kneeling position in front of them. The figure rose, and Tony got the first good look at him. He was a tall man with a broad chest and shoulders, dresses in complete black. There was a bat-like symbol on his chest, also in black. He wore a cape that flowed around menacingly. His face was covered by a cowl with pointed ears, like that of an owl, or perhaps a bat. The only part of his costume that was not black was the dark gold utility belt at his waist. Altogether, he was utterly frightening.

Tony took a step forward, effectively blocking Peter, who scoffed.

“Batman,” Superman said, a smile on his face.

Batman fixed the most impressive and terrifying glare upon the man that Stark had ever seen. “You broke protocol by going ahead of me. You are in my territory Superman. And you know that I cannot fly or run at the speed of sound.” He fixed his glare on the rest of his group who all reacted with either flinches or sheepish shrugs.

Batman grunted before looking at the Avengers. He sized each of them up, staying longest on Stark. Tony felt as if his entire being was being stripped away under the scrutiny.

“Alternate Dimension jumpers, not by choice I’m assuming.”

He spoke so simply that it took a minute for Tony to react. Even then, the man was already on his way back to his car.

“We’re near Gotham, let’s regroup at the Cave.”

Tony didn’t know what this Cave was, but he wasn’t sure he liked it. “Are you the Dark Knight?” He asked, before he lost his nerve.

The man looked immediately at the Flash and Green Lantern, who looked both scared and amused. Their sheepish smirks and chuckles dissipated when Batman looked away and back to Tony.

“The Dark Knight, The World’s Greatest Detective, The Caped Crusader, The Batman. All are titles I have earned. See you at the cave.”

And with that he hopped in his car and sped off back toward the gloomy city beyond.

#Avengers Meet The Batfam #MCU/Batfam crossover #Batfam/Avengers Crossover #batfam #avengers #bruce wayne #tony stark #steve rogers #clint barton #natasha romanoff #bruce banner #thor odinson #peter parker #justice league #batman

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jadynrosetta · 4 years

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Okay so I may have caught COVID (not sure I’m going to the doctor tomorrow) so to occupy my time I got a prime account and decided to FINALLY watch Promare.

This movie has been on my Watch List since I first heard of it, which was before 2020 started. I just never got around to it, till I realized I was going to be stuck in my room to avoid people :(

So I watched it... twice. I probably will watch it again cause it’s the only movie I bought and I am not buying anything else. So here’s a little review and my thoughts about the movie. (Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen it)

So the plot I thought was very interesting. For those who don’t know, the story starts with introducing “The Burnish”, a group of people who can create and control flames. These people seemed to come out of nowhere and it started a whole movement for Burnish rights and it caused a lot of problems for society. It ended, but The Burnish were labled as terrorists and do not have the same rights as humans. (Harsh)

Our main character is a part of a group called the Burning Rescue. Which is a group of fire fighters that deal with emergancy flames caused by The Burnish.

The team includes: Lucia, Varys, Remi, Aina, Ignis the leader, and Galo Thymos.

Now as I said, this himbo (Galo) is the main protagonist. He’s a rookie in the Burning Rescue, and has a “Firey Spirit”. He always goes off on some random speech and enjoys his job being a fire fighter and takes pride in saving people. He keeps this mindset and energy throughout the whole movie.

He gets sent up a building to save people on the roof and meets a terrorist group called the Mad Burnish. There aren’t many of them out now, but the top generals and the leader are still at large.

(This was the first and only image I saw from this movie and I was so confused I had to see it... months later)

After a tense fight with the generals (Both noting that Galo is an idiot) he defeats them and takes on their leader. The leader isn’t so easy to defeat, not backing down easily and even pinning Galo, but ultimetly he was taken down by the whole Burning Rescue squad. Their leader is actually a very small young man who goes by the name of Lio Fotia.

(I specifically wanted this scene so I looked hard for it)

Lio, who was mistaken for a child, is shown to be one of the strongest Burnish alive and takes pride in it. Wanting nothing but rights for his people and will never stop fighting for that.

He’s actually a good foil to Galo for many reasons and why I like them being the protagonists for the story. Galo is loud, over the top, and loves to show off his skills. While Lio is more on the quiet side, and doesn’t really show off, more on the reserved side.

But the two are very alike. Both feel the need to protect their people (Galo with humans and Lio with Burnish), but they don’t hate the other. Galo wants Burnish rights while Lio vows to never kill humans. They also share a god damn brain cell and 90% of the time neither of them have it.

So yeah, Galo gets a medal from his hero, Governer Kray, impressive prison break and all that. We cut to Galo and Aina having a moment, which Galo realizes the Burnish had escaped prison. He finds them in a cave and thus we learn more about the Burnish from their very leader, Lio, who remembers Galo, but Galo forgot him.

(Fire go pew)

Lio explains to Galo that the Burnish are people too, even showing how disgusted he is by Galo thinking otherwise (some very racist viewpoints). There Galo witnesses the death of a Burnish, turning her to ash. Lio explains to Galo that the Burnish can hear the flames, they speak to them, wanting to burn more. He also learns that his hero, Kray, was using the Burnish for human experiments, and calls Galo an idiot and to believe what he wants. Then the Burnish run away and leave Galo tied up...

Galo’s whole view changes on the Burnish and see that Kray is conducting human experiments on the Burnish, even though they’re people like them. The reason being that the Earth is gonna become a dead planet and everything is going to shit. So Kray is going to take 10,000 humans to another planet and use the Burnish as fuel. (Fucked up).

Galo goes against this and gets arrested. Meanwhile Lio and the other Burnish are found and taken as fuel, but Lio’s loyal generals get him to safety (much to Lio’s disagreement).

Lio goes into a full on rage and uses his full power to attack the city and Kray. Telling him to free the Burnish, or watch the city burn.

He takes the form of a dragon and damn near destroys the whole city. He almost succeeds too, getting to Kray. But of course Galo cuts in and fights Lio in an effort to calm him down. Aina decides to drop them off by the frozen lake to “cool off” and discover a lab under all the ice.

They meet Professor Deus, the man responsible for all the cooling gear. He wanted to help the Burnish, but was killed by Kray for disagreeing with him and his viewpoints. Deus, who is now a living computer, tells Galo, Lio, and Aina about the “Promare”, A group of aliens from another dimension who connected with a human, Burnish. However the Promare feel what their human host feels, even extreme pain. If Kray’s plan succeeds, then the Earth is gonna blow up due to all the pain the Promare feel.

It’s up to Galo and Lio to stop Kray from his evil plans (cause they happened to be there) by piloting the Deus X Machina. Later on the suit gets a name change, Lio de Galon.

A suit powered by a firefighter and a Burnish. Both Galo and Lio work together to stop Kray. Along with their allies they succeed in stopping the ship, but Kray was not finished. He reveals himself to also be a Burnish, and kidnaps Lio, saying he was going to be the new core to the ship. He then attacks Galo and sends him flying in flames. But Galo was saved last minute by Lio’s flames, and now he plans to save Lio, with the help of his team, and goes into the core to save his new friend.

He makes it, stopping the ship a second time, and sees Lio is dying, turning to ash right before him. Kray was ready to fight, but could not harm Galo due to Lio’s flame. Galo punches Kray and says he’s gonna save Lio, stop the magma, and even save him. Then we get the scene. The scene.

The “Kiss of Life” some like to call it, or just CPR. Either way, it’s a pretty romantic scene. Galo brings Lio to life and the two have a new plan. Save the Earth. Lio says the Promare want to burn out, so with the help of Galo, and all the Burnish, they create Galo de Lion

This behemoth of a mech saves the Earth and everyone on it. As well as burning out the Promare, sending them home. The movie ends with everyone being okay and the end of the Burnish. Thus the next plan, to clean up the mess they all made. The End

Longer than I thought, sorry... So what’s my thoughts?

Well let’s start with the animation. It was done by Trigger (if it wasn’t obvious just by looking at it), and they go ALL out on it. Everything is stylized and looks gorgeous. The colors just pop out at you, nothing in this movie looks dull. Action scenes are very fast pace and intense, and their calmer moments are beautiful and let you relax with the gorgeous scenery, everything is gorgeous in the movie.

The characers are pretty good, one complaint is that we don’t get to know some of them well, like some of the Burning Rescue. We only get to know Aina out of the Burning Rescue team. Plus a few other side characters, like the two Generals, Meis and Gueira, don’t get enough screentime, but I guess they weren’t the focus.

Galo and Lio, again, were really good main characters, who play off each other well. They both open each other’s eyes and see things in a different light, especially Lio who showed Galo what the Burnish are really like. They do tend to argue and seem to disagree, but they are an amazing team. We see that when they pilot Lio de Galon and together create Galo de Lion. I do believe they fell for one another in the end, but I cannot say it’s canon since I don’t know for sure.

Voice acting was also great. I watched it dub, don’t kill me, and I actually think the dub was better than the sub, and this is coming from someone who watches subs more and is very biased. Billy Kametz played Galo well, just giving off so much energy and really selling his performance. I’ve heard people not liking Johnny Yong Bosch playing Lio, but he was perfect for the role. Enough sass and emotion for Lio, I don’t think anyone could have done it better. Everyone else did a great job as well, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld as Aina, Crispin Freeman as Kray, and Steven Blum as Ignis. Just... everyone did amazing.

Do I need to say anything about the soundtrack? It’s beautiful and I love every song in this movie, I am listening to is as I type this review. From upbeat songs like Inferno, to the saddest like Ashes. Each song that plays puts the whole scene together, music makes the scene after all. Gallant Ones is the most memorable example (plays during the scene) and it really sets the mood on how the characters feel about one another. Ashes is really good in my opinion since it plays during the death of a Burnish. But they all are good, if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t plan on watching it, go listen to the soundtrack, it’s worth it.

Overall I adore this movie, it’s over the top and super entertaining, keeping my attention the whole time. It has helped me relax during this pretty scary time for me ^^; I highly recommend this movie. It’s got way too many good points that I dare say it’s one of my favorites. It sold me on the plot and I stayed for the great and entertaining characters. If you haven’t seen it (which I would be surprised) then go check it out. If you want to see the sub then it’s on Youtube, but if I sold you on the dub then it’s on Amazon Prime, (you’ll have to pay for both and I’m too lazy to find it for free).

That’s all, thanks for reading my overly long review of this movie.

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marvelsdc22 · 4 years

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Have You Seen My Sister?

Intro: Hello, lovelies!! I hope you guys are having a good day/night!! This was requested by an anon, hope you enjoy!! :)

Note: Ehhhhhh, mostly fluff?

Word Count: 2083

Hello! I love reading your stories! I was wondering if you would please write one where Diana Prince’s younger sister left Themyscira to look for her but got lost trying to search for her sister and met Kara whether bumping into her or helping her save civilians? Kara decides to take care of her and help her find Diana(since Diana doesn’t have a last name on the island) and hopefully there’s romance and an eventual sister reunion? Thank you!

You had left, you wanted to be with your sister Diana, it felt weird on Themyscira without her since she always was with you, so you packed your things and escaped with the help of one of your friends who was usually keeping an eye out for people at night some nights, so you used that route to escape and found yourself traveling aimlessly.

When you made it to a large city, ‘National City’ you thought you saw on the sign as you entered it, you saw the place in complete chaos and you looked around as you tried to decide what to do when you saw some people seeming to be trapped in a building due to debris “Hold on!” You told them as you ran over, you stronger than most being an Amazon and whatnot “Come on” you muttered, lifting a piece of what seemed to be building but only getting it so far when you felt the other side of it being lifted, which helped you get the piece moved out of the way so the civilians could escape.You collapsed on the ground, exhausted due to all the traveling and lack of eating correctly “Are you okay?” A blonde woman in a blue and red suit asked, kneeling down and looking at you “I’m fine, just exhausted” you said, fighting to push yourself up only to collapse back to the ground but the woman helping to dampen the fall by catching you under your arms “Come on, lets get you somewhere safe” she said, that being the only warning you got before she picked you up and the next thing you knew you were in the air.

Apparently you had passed out during the time it took her to get you somewhere safe since when you woke up, you were in an unfamiliar room which caused you to panic and try to stand “Easy there, you need rest” a red-headed woman said, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder to keep you on the bed “I can’t rest, I have to-“ you said until the door opened and the blonde woman appeared once more, her giving the other woman a nod before she looked at you with a worried look “You okay?” She asked, walking over to your bed as you nodded “I’m fine… Where am I?” You asked, looking at her and rubbing your head with a wince “You’re in National City… Did you walk here?” She asked, looking like she wanted to place a hand on you to comfort you, but she held back “Kinda” you said, shaking your head some and looking between the two of them.

“I’m looking for my sister, Diana… I left our island in search for her, but as you can see… I’m having no luck” you said, knowing you could trust them since they wouldn’t be helping you right now if they weren’t at least somewhat trustworthy “And where is this island?” The red-head asked, looking at you with a raised eyebrow “Themyscira” you said simply, looking at them and watching as the red-head’s brows furrowed “The myth island full of Amazons?” She asked, now starting to think you were crazy “That’s the one” you said, keep your face serious and watching as she shook her head and opened her mouth before the blonde stopped her “Okay, do you know where your sister could’ve gone?” She asked, looking at you and you shook your head “No, all I know is she came to this general area” you said, looking at them and sighing “Look, I know I sound crazy, but-“ “We’ll help you” the blonde interrupted, causing you to look at her with wide eyes “Really?” You asked, looking at her and feeling your heart flutter at the smile she gave you “Of course, I’m Kara by the way and this is Alex, my sister” she introduced, knowing that you would find out one way or another who she really was by helping you so she needed to get that out of the way “Y/N” you said, smiling at them.

After about a week of resting and eating well, you were sitting with Kara in front of her laptop “How will this thing help me?” You asked, you having not seen most of the technology they seemed to have here in National City “I can run some searches of your sisters name and see what we can come up with” Kara said, giving you that smile that made you want to melt “Oh” you said, trying to fight back the burning of your cheeks as you looked over her shoulder “What’s your guys last name?” She asked, looking at you and frowning when you shook your head “We don’t have one” you said, looking at her and watching as she sighed a bit “This just got ten times harder” she said, going to searching with what she had.

Later that night, you guys had searched all day but came up with very little since there was a bunch of Diana’s around here, so you printed all the names off so you guys could go down the list in an attempt to find your sister “I’m sorry I wasn’t much help” you apologized, fidgeting with your hands some and averting your gaze when you felt her eyes on you “You have no reason to be sorry, we’re just getting started, we’ll find her” Kara promised, reaching over and giving you arm a small squeeze, giving you a smile when you finally met her eyes “Thank you, Kara” you said softly, returning her smile and her nodding before she stood up and headed into the kitchen to get you guys some dinner started, her having told you that you’d stay with her and you had no say in the matter, leaving you to sit on her couch in silence.

A few weeks later, you guys seemed to be making some progress on finding your sister, that is until of course there was another attack on National City and you were standing in a room at the D.E.O. with Alex, Kara, and some other agents as they discussed what they were going to do, you watching from your seat by the door and waiting quietly until the split up and headed for the door “Hey, Kara” you said, standing up and gently grabbing her arm “What’s up?” Kara asked, smiling softly at you and you feeling your heart stutter “Just, uh… Be careful, okay?” You asked, reminding yourself to breathe when she beamed at you “Of course I will” she promised, pressing a kiss to your cheek before she headed out, leaving you to be a flustered mess.

After what seemed like hours of worrying and pacing the room that they had left you in, you’d had enough since while you had asked to help before and they said no, you couldn’t just sit there and not do anything, so you ran out of the room and out of the D.E.O., dodging out of the way when debris flew towards you “Holy shit” you muttered, getting up and dusting yourself off before you went to go see if there were spots you could help with like you did your first day at National City.

As you were helping people get into a secure building, you turned around to go help elsewhere when you saw some debris flying at you a bit too late, causing you to duck down and try to prepare for what was going to happen when you noticed there was no pain like you thought there would be, causing you to look up and gasping when you saw a lasso wrapped around the debris, watching as it dropped harmlessly on the ground and looking over when you heard her “Y/N, are you okay?!” Diana asked, rushing over to you and her having been worried out of her mind when she saw you about to get hit “Diana!” You said, quickly standing up and pulling her into a tight hug “I’m okay” you promised, sniffing some since you were happy to see her and also since you thought you were about to die “Thank goodness” Diana whispered, running her fingers through your hair before pulling back “Go get safe, we’ll talk later, okay?” She asked, you nodding and giving her one last hug before running off.

After Diana and Kara took down the villain, you all were gathered in a room at the D.E.O “You left to find me? Are you crazy, Y/N?” Diana asked, looking at you after you explained everything to her “Maybe I am, I missed you, Di… I’m sorry” you said, looking down at your feet and her shaking her head before she went over to you “You have no reason to be sorry, just promise me you won’t worry me like that again” Diana said, cupping your face and smiling when you nodded before pulling you into a hug, looking at Kara and Alex after she pulled back “You two have been watching my sister?” She asked, smiling some when they nodded “Thank you for keeping her safe” she said, bowing her head slightly “It was no problem” Alex said, looking at Diana while Kara kept her gaze on you, she was worried this would be the last time she saw you since you had accomplished what you wanted, but she couldn’t fight back the want for you to stay there, for you to stay… With her.

The next day, you were sitting in the living room of Kara’s apartment having a hushed conversation with Diana when Kara came in “Oh, hey Kara” you said, smiling at her but the smile dropping when she didn’t smile back “I’m gonna go get my things” Diana said, her having stayed here with you for the night and kissing your head before she headed towards your room, you standing up and heading into the kitchen where Kara had vanished.

“You wanna tell me what’s bugging you? You’re usually not this frowny in the morning” You said, looking at her when you spotted her at the table and going to sit down next to her “You’re leaving” Kara said softly, her gaze hardening on you when she heard you laugh “What gave you that idea?” You asked, looking at her and watching as her face filled with confusion “You found your sister, so you’re going back with her, aren’t you?” She asked, trying not to get her hopes up but they shot up more when you laughed and shook your head “No, this is my life now… I belong here, with you… If you’ll have me, of course” you said, looking at her and watching as she grinned at you before tackling you to the floor in a hug “I guess that’s a yes” you laughed, looking at her and her not saying anything, just closing the distance between the two of you, you melting into the kiss until you heard Diana clear her throat, causing the two of you to jump apart “Seems like you two are cozy” she teased, smiling some at the two of you while you rolled your eyes and Kara’s face turned bright red “I approve, don’t worry”.

After a bit, you hugged Diana and sighed “Promise you’ll visit?” You asked, looking at Diana when she pulled back and her giving you a smile “Of course, you have to come visit me as well, little one” Diana said, looking at you then looking at Kara “You as well” she said, causing Kara to smile and nod before Diana focused on you again “Be good and call me, okay?” She asked, making you laugh and roll your eyes “Yes mother” you laughed, giving her one last hug before you pulled away and she looked at Kara “You take care of her, if you don’t…” She said, trailing off but the silent threat there as Kara nodded “Of course I will” she said, looking at Diana who nodded before grabbing her bag “Love you, Diana” you said as you walked her to the door “I love you too, Y/N” Diana said, giving you a smile before she headed out and you waited until she got into her car before you shut the door and turned towards Kara “So-“ you said, getting cut off by Kara kissing you, which you eagerly melted into and smiling at the thought of this being your life now… And you were truly happy.

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things2mustdo · 3 years

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Last year I gave up my Krav Maga self-defense training when I was in the middle of changing jobs. I never picked it back up.

While I stay quite busy splitting my time between my three main sources of income, last month I began to feel like something was missing. I was getting too comfortable with my daily routine– bored, too.

So I decided to start training in martial arts again, this time signing up for a Muay Thai gym. It’s already reinvigorated my sense of drive across other areas of my life. Here are the top 5 reasons you should start a new hobby today.

1. It breaks up your current routine

As humans we search for a sense of regularity. We often find it in our daily activities.

For example, my days typically consist of working from home in the morning, primarily on my computer, lifting weights, and then training a few clients in the late afternoon and evening. I enjoy this routine, but flying on autopilot has its dangers.

You aren’t as sharp. Everything is too calculated and expected. By training in Muay Thai every other day I have something new to look forward to. It also has changed my lifting routine, to accommodate for the added exercise and fatigue.

2. It pushes you outside of your comfort zone

When I stepped into the Muay Thai gym for the first time I didn’t know what to expect. It was a lot different than the place I used to train Krav Maga at– more serious, less friendly even.

The seasoned fighters looked at me with a sense of superiority. And they were superior. But rather than backing down, being nervous, and quitting after one day– I took this as a challenge.

I was far from comfortable training that day. I wasn’t able to execute crisp Thai kicks or jump rope like a boss. But being too comfortable can be a bad thing. You’ll cease to explore new opportunities and your growth with falter across the board.

By throwing yourself at something new, that you’re inexperienced at, you’ll be pushed outside of your comfort zone. This is a good thing. You must stay accustomed to living at the edge of your comfort zone to ensure steady growth and progress.

3. You’ll learn new skills

This point is obvious. By taking Muay Thai, I’ll learn a host of new fighting skills.

4. It gives you a new area to set goals for

The habit of setting and achieving goals is the most important habit a man can build. By entering into a new hobby, you now have a whole new area of your life that where you can practice setting and accomplishing goals.

For my Muay Thai experience I’ll start small. My first goal is to be able to execute a Thai kick with my left and have it feel as natural as with my right. I’ll work my way up to bigger goals as I improve.

This is the beauty of starting at something from scratch. At first you’ll set one small goal after another. This cycle will build momentum, and before you know it, you’ll no longer be a novice. More importantly, this momentum will carry over to other areas of your life and give you the confidence to crush more and bigger goals.

5. You’ll meet new people

Another obvious point. When you try something new, you’re bound to meet new people. Whether these turn out to be man friends or cute girls depends on the hobby you choose, but either way meeting new people is always a positive thing.

Potential Hobbies

I’ll leave you with a short list of potential hobbies for you to try today:

1. Martial arts/self-defense: Muay Thai, Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, Krav Maga 2. Cooking 3. Salsa Dancing 4. Lifting weights (you should already be doing this) 5. Yoga 6. Writing 7. Mountain Biking

Check out my new #1 Amazon Bestseller, The Book of Alpha. It’s full of direct, actionable advice for the man who wants to better himself.

Read Next: 5 Reasons To Learn Krav Maga

Krav Maga is a self-defense system created based upon the street fighting skills of Hungarian-Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld. He used it to defend the Jewish quarter where he lived against fascist groups in the 1930s. Later, in the 40s he moved to Israel and began to offer combat training lessons to what later became the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). The IDF has used, and continued to develop the system to this day.

The basic principle of Krav Maga is inflicting maximum damage to the opponent(s) in order to end the fight as quickly as possible. Brutal counter-attacks using your most effective tool (knees, elbows, weapons, etc.) to target your opponent’s weakest area (neck, throat, eyes, knees, ribs, solar plexus, groin, etc.) are the focus. For this reason, it is not a competitive martial arts, like Brazilian Ju-Jitsu or Muay Thai, because people would die.

When I heard that Jason Bourne uses Krav Maga (which I later found out was, in fact, not true) and that it teach gun defenses (i.e. the most alpha technique ever), I immediately signed up. I just finished 6 months of training. It is indeed awesome. Here are the top 5 reasons you should sign up for classes today:

1. You will become a badass.

Nothing boosts confidence and testosterone levels like knowing you are legitimately prepared for whatever. Very few people have any formal self-defense or fight training. As a result, in tense situations where most people lose it, you will keep your cool. If something ever does go down, you’re ready.

2. It is practical and intuitive.

Most martial arts are strongly based in ritual, and as a result often incorporate different forms or strange techniques. Krav is different. Brutal efficiency is the only concern. For this reason, many of the strikes and defenses utilize the same basic motion (e.g. the straight punch and many of the defenses against punches and knives). Moreover, all of the techniques are built upon the body’s natural instincts (e.g. bringing your hands to your neck during a choke defense).

3. It is great exercise.

Between the drills themselves and the conditioning, you are guaranteed a hell of a workout. Three minutes of throwing punches or knee strikes is exhausting. So is three minutes of burpees. Side note: The level 1 Krav test was the single most intense physical event of my life. Seriously. Three hours straight of punches, kicks, choke defenses, and groundwork is no joke. I consider myself to be is great shape and I almost vomited on multiple occasions.

4. It relieves stress.

Sure, so do most workouts, but pounding a kicking shield, or throwing your partner to the floor is a whole different ball game.

5. It is the perfect hobby.

I came to my first class with no idea how to throw a proper punch. After a couple weeks I thought I was Jason Bourne. After a couple months I realized that I wasn’t. After 6 months I look back and I am amazed at the progress I made. Experiencing this progress is extremely satisfying.

Clearly taking up Krav Maga has many benefits. One word of caution – make sure you train somewhere with certified, experienced instructors. I have seen locations that turn it into a strictly cardio exercise experience, with little focus on technique – not good. So go take advantage of that free first class, now.

Check out my new #1 Amazon Bestseller, The Book of Alpha. It’s full of direct, actionable advice for the man who wants to better himself.

Read More: The Only 2 Things A Man Can Depend On

I was born alone and I will die alone. I’ve got to do what’s right for me and not live my life the way anybody else wants it.

– Curtis Jackson

If life were a board game, you’d be the game piece.

In reality, life isn’t much different from a game. There isn’t a defined end goal, however. You get to choose it. It could be power and respect. It could simply be happiness. Or it could be more specific: money or women, for example. Whatever it is, you choose.

In a board game there are strict limitations. In life, we’re encouraged to follow laws and social norms, but for the most part we’re free to do as we choose. There are infinite paths that will take you to any goal imaginable.

Along the way you’ll deal with many people. Some will help you, others won’t. You can grow to depend on the ones that help you, but that always incurs a risk. A family member can die. A close friend can betray you. Your girl can leave you. How will you react when one of these things happens?

Playing with others is a necessary part of the game. But never depend on them. Doing so will ultimately lead to failure and disappointment.

Accept that the only two things you can ever count on are your body and your mind– your game piece. You must tend to these things like a gardener tends to his plants. Focus on improving them and facilitating their health and growth and you’ll always put yourself in the best position to win.

If some tragedy befalls a dependent man, he may sink into depression. He might feel like he’s lost all hope of accomplishing his mission in life. He might give up.

A truly independant man, however, will not. He’s prepared, on some level, for each of these tragedies. He doesn’t have a specific game plan for when his best friend betrays him, per se. But he’s put himself in a good position, both physically and mentally, that he can weather the storm. Not only can he weather the storm, but he can keep his cool and make the fine adjustments needed to get the ship back on course.

Below I’ll offer the basic tasks one must do to protect his game piece, and see it thrive.

1. Your Body

If you take care of your body, it will be strong and healthy. It will also help foster a potent mind. Yes, there’s always the rare risk of contracting some form of cancer or another deadly disease, but if you follow the steps below, you all but rule these things out.

1. Eat good food

I won’t go into specifics, because everyone’s diet will, and should, be different.

But if you focus your diet around meat, fruits, and vegetables your body will flourish. Meat provides the protein and amino acids your body needs to grow. The fruits and vegetables provide the fiber and vitamins you need to function over the long run. A man with a solid diet will respond better to stress, and therefore be more self reliant.

2. Lift weights

In short, lifting weights develops a strong nervous, muscular, and skeletal system. These are the three main systems that run your body. An efficient body is like a strong ship– it will weather the storm better and be far more dependable in your journey.

The most brutally simple and effective lifting program is StrongLifts 5×5. It focuses on building strength across the five most basic movements humans are meant to do (squat, deadlift, bench press, row, and overhead press).

2. Your Mind

You must also foster a capable mind. One that can stand on it’s own two feet. The strongest body won’t accomplish anything without an equally impressive mind.

1. Read books

Reading a book is like absorbing another man’s lifelong wisdom. The more books you read, the more you’ll know and the wiser you’ll be. Blogs are okay, but the average quality of a blog post is decidedly lower than what you find in a book. People simply put more time, effort, and value into books.

The knowledge you acquire in books also contributes to your self reliance. It offers quality wisdom and advice– that can’t be taken away from you.

2. Meditate

Meditation is the act of being comfortable being alone. When you meditate, you remove all of the outside noise. All of the thoughts, gossip, music, news, women, men, business, sex– everything. You are left with only yourself.

Many men can’t stand meditation because they’ve grown dependant on all of this external stimulation. They aren’t comfortable in their own skin. And thus they’ve lost their edge, their self reliance.

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roofcell83 · 3 years

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gumnut-logic · 4 years

Text

We’ll Be Home For Christmas 3.4

Title: We’ll be home for Christmas

Day Three - If not for the courage of the fearless crew – Part 4

Prologue | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3

Author: Gumnut

29 Dec 2019 - 4 Jan 2020

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: The boys can’t fly home for Christmas, so they have to find another way.

Word count: 4342

Spoilers & warnings: language and so, so much fluff. Science!Gordon. Artist!Virgil, Minor various ships, mostly background.

Timeline: Christmas Season 3, I have also kinda ignored the main storyline of Season 3. The boys needed a break, so I gave them one. Post season 3B, before Season 3C cos we haven’t seen it yet.

Author’s note: For @scattergraph. This is my 2019 TAG Secret Santa fic :D I hope you enjoy it.

I’m probably posting this before it is ready and I’m not happy with the ending so may change where it ends when I start writing the next part, but I really need a little cheering up today, so here be the next 4000-odd words of this fic. I hope you enjoy them :D

Many thanks to @vegetacide and @scribbles97 for cheering me on and their wonderful support through this craziness. And to @onereyofstarlight for geeking out with me over the setting.

Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.

-o-o-o-

They stashed their luggage in the hostel, a large white and wooden building that had obviously seen many residents over the years, but was well loved and maintained.

Melissa gave them a quick tour of the compound. It consisted of series of buildings similar to the hostel but of varying sizes over looking the ocean and the adjacent Oneraki Beach. The island was basically a triangle with the encampment on the north facing side high up on Fleetwood Bluff. There was something about a Flagstaff but Virgil missed it...mainly due to the conversation Gordon and Sam were laughing over behind him.

Whatever it was called, the view was magnificent. Far below in the bay, A Little Lightning was a small white smudge on the blue of the Pacific.

Melissa ran them through the rules of conduct on the island. No one was to venture anywhere on the island outside the compound unaccompanied by a DOC employee. Please keep your luggage inside the hostel. All life is protected on the island and in the waters. It was illegal to damage or remove anything. No littering. The list went on.

It was a long one.

Apart from being a cetacean biologist and a loud talker, Sam was also apparently the resident cook on the island. Melissa put no claim to any culinary skills, so had left it to Sam.

The man had baked a cake.

A Christmas cake.

In their isolation on the boat, despite their aim to be home for Christmas, Virgil had forgotten it was the day before Christmas Eve. December twenty-three.

It wasn’t the first time he had forgotten Christmas. Three years ago he had spent Christmas dragging survivors off the Amazon flood plain when the river engulfed an entire city. Christmas had been obliterated. As had the two months after due to the damn fever he had caught from those flood waters. It hadn’t been a great start to the year.

But this year it was different. They were on vacation. A forced vacation, but a vacation nonetheless, of which the whole purpose was to get home in time for Christmas. Yet the decorations and the tree in the corner of the communal hall had taken him by surprise.

The cake was very nice. He had to hold Alan back from grabbing seconds. But it got him thinking about the day after next and what they would be doing as a family.

“He sang to the whales?!”

Virgil jumped at Sam’s exclamation somewhere behind him.

“Yeah, he did. You should have heard it. It was incredible.” Virgil’s eyes widened at the pride in Gordon’s voice.

“They didn’t pay any attention, though, did they? All previous attempts have failed.”

“Ho, Sam, I have to show you the recordings. They responded alright. Virg may not speak whale, but he knows how to speak emotion. Mamma whale definitely understood something.”

Virgil buried his face in his coffee. The experience was still raw. He wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about it and it was inevitable that he would be asked.

“What did he use?” And the conversation dropped to normal levels. Virgil’s name was mentioned several times along with John’s. Sam was eager and excited.

Virgil felt dread.

“You okay, bro?” Alan was frowning at him while hoovering the second piece of cake Virgil had already told him he couldn’t have.

Why did he bother?

“So I guess we’ll be hauling in extra food supplies for these people after you’ve finished with them.”

“It was one piece of cake.”

“It’s the only cake, Alan.”

His brother’s eyes widened in realisation. “Oh.”

“Yes, oh.”

“I’ll bring them something before New Years.”

“Yes, you will.”

“Or maybe Scott can. He might want to visit.”

“What? Why?” But Alan was gesturing with his head in the direction of their eldest brother.

Deep in conversation with Melissa Fisher.

Virgil raised an eyebrow.

-o-o-o-

“So by claiming for twenty one instead of twenty volunteers we get just that extra bit of funding.”

“Clever move.” Scott had finished his cake and was drinking tea. Virgil had shot him an incredulous look when he asked for it, but if there was one thing Scott remembered about this place, it was the herbal tea. Melissa knew how to brew a great drink...even if she had to threaten him and his father to try it the first time.

“Are you still using Jack Dunning?”

“Oh, yes, the man is brilliant. And he does all our work pro bono which saves us so much. Thank you for the recommendation.”

Scott was not going to mention one Gordon Tracy jumping up and down in front of him one afternoon several years ago. His aquanaut brother had been apoplectic and at the end of a very sharp conversation, Scott had been more than willing to call in their lawyers to act on behalf of the DOC Kermadec Expedition. The fishery megacorporation challenging the validity of the Sanctuary hadn’t known what hit them.

And if Scott wanted Jack to send him all the bills, that was his prerogative. Melissa didn’t have to know everything.

“So how is Virgil?” It was a quiet question as she picked up her own cup of tea.

He eyed her a moment. He was well aware of her attraction to his brother. Gordon had made a point of stirring Virgil until his quiet brother had clapped him around the ears.

“He’s recovering. I’ll be happier when he is home.”

She eyed him as if considering whether she should breach a topic or not. Something flickered in her eyes. “How goes Tracy Island? Is the regrowth flourishing as we hoped?”

He thought back at the tracts of native vegetation his father had planted all those years ago, mostly on the other side of the island, though some covered scars from the IR excavations.The pōhutukawa and palm trees seemed to be okay, but his mind was usually on other things when he ran past them.

He shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t know. You could ask Gordon?”

She peered closer at him. “Are you okay?”

He straightened where he sat. “I’m good.” He stretched. “Got any recommendations for a good place to run? Need to stretch my legs.”

She swallowed the last of her drink. “I can show you.”

“No need, just point me in the right direction and I’ll find my way.”

A snort. “You’re not on Tracy Island, Commander. No visitors go unaccompanied on Raoul, remember. You’ve got a choice between me and Sam.” A smirk. “And you won’t get much distance out of him unless you prefer swimming.”

Internally he groaned. He had been looking forward to time alone.

“I can show you around the crater rim. You’ll get a great workout.”

The thought of finding the physical relief was just too tempting. The hike up the hill had been a teaser and he wanted more. He sculled the last of his tea. “Fine. Lead the way.” He hoped she could keep up.

Her smile was a challenge in itself. “I’ll go grab my running gear. Meet you out front in ten.”

“FAB.”

-o-o-o-

Gordon watched as Scott stood up, brushed past Virgil and said something, before following Mel out the door.

“Do you think Virgil would be willing to talk about his experience?”

Gordon glanced at Sam and then eyed his brother. His linen shirt was tight across his shoulders as the man hunched over his coffee. “I don’t know.”

“Can you ask?” Sam was all eagerness. It was understandable. The surfer had made cetaceans his life’s work and this was a fantastic opportunity.

A sucked in breath. “Leave it with me, I’ll see what I can do.”

-o-o-o-

John, drink in hand, had taken the opportunity to find himself a vantage point on the cliff. The island was very quiet, even quieter than Tracy Island was at times and considerably bigger.

He appreciated the solitude.

Of course, the boat hadn’t exactly been loud or even crowded. He truly enjoyed the time with his brothers. But it was nice to step away, even if only for a little time.

He parked himself in the long grass at the edge of the bluff and stared out into the blue of the Pacific.

An idle thought.

“Eos?”

“Hello, John.”

“Hello, Eos. Status?”

“All emergency calls are being fielded by the appropriate agencies. Mr Lemaire has entombed himself in ice at the South Pole in an attempt to locate Santa Claus. I have advised the GDF. He is safe and secure for the moment.”

John’s thoughts locked up for a second. “The South Pole? Santa Claus lives in the North Pole.”

“Ignoring the fact that Santa Claus is a myth, Mr Lemaire claimed that ‘the North Pole is an ocean and only an idiot would build a house on an ice floe that melts every summer, therefore he must be hidden at the South Pole.’ He planned to be the first human to interview the father of Christmas and used a specialised drilling machine to dig into the ice...which promptly collapsed on him twenty metres down.”

John sighed. “You are sure he is safe?”

“Colonel Casey has sent a specialist team. He and his wife have enough survival supplies to make it through to New Years if necessary.”

“Monitor the situation. Call us in only if there is no alternative.” A trip to the South Pole was something they did not need.

“FAB, John.”

“And how are you?”

“I am functioning well.”

“Do you have any results from the problem I set you?”

“I have analysed three thousand two hundred and twenty-three recordings of humpback whale communications. Unfortunately, many of the recordings are missing the lower frequencies as the equipment used was not sufficient. I do have some translation possibilities, however I am still calculating multiple variables and am hesitant to postulate a theory.”

He had expected as much. She had only been working on it for a few hours. “Are you enjoying the work?” To be honest, he wasn’t expecting a positive result. It did, however, keep a bored AI occupied.

“It is very interesting. Virgil’s response shows no pattern relative to the language he was attempting to respond to, yet he received a result.”

“I suspect there is an element of synergy in the language that enables it to become more than a sum of its parts. Perhaps that is what Virgil was able to tap into.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, John.”

John sucked in a breath. “You are a computer program, yet you are more than lines of code, you are a person. Correct?”

“Yes.”

“Perhaps this language is a step beyond simple complexity. Perhaps the elements combined create a new level of communication? One that is not entirely on the conscious level.”

His daughter was silent for a moment. “How does interpretation differ between the human conscious and subconscious? The literature claims a lack of cognitive recognition of events created or observed subconsciously. How could Virgil create something he is not aware of?”

“There is much we do not yet understand. The human subconscious is well known for gathering multiple observed factors and combining them into instinct, all without conscious control. Perhaps you should explore that region of research?” Come to think of it, Virgil’s instincts in the field were very sharp. There were multiple examples of his brother acting against orders and ultimately saving lives that otherwise would have been lost, including those of his brothers.

“I will, John, thank you.”

“You are welcome.” His lips curled into a smile. “Enjoy yourself.”

-o-o-o-

It was amazing to finally get his feet moving.

Scott’s shoes pounded volcanic dust and rock so familiar it was almost as if he was home. A regular thud-thud-thud, the sea breeze, the rock, the vegetation...energy flowed through him and was used, muscles firing, skin tingling in the afternoon air. God, it was so good to get out.

Melissa said nothing to him beyond directing which path to take. She had removed her DOC uniform, reducing her clothing to a tight crop top, shorts and running shoes, and if he was honest, he had to admit he was appreciating the view.

The woman was all slim muscle. Tight waist, lightly browned skin. Her pale hair bounced behind her in a hastily tied ponytail and he found himself following it as she leapt from path to rock and over logs.

She had no trouble keeping up. In fact, it was more the other way around. He had to work to keep up with her, despite the difference in stride. She knew exactly where she was going and she was offering no handicap.

They pushed up a steep incline for some time. She had taken them off the main track and deep into the forest. Birds sung all around and the wind rustled through the blossoming trees. The pōhutukawa were in their brilliant crimson Christmas flowers, festooning the island as if to decorate for the season.

Grandma loved the pōhutukawa trees on Tracy Island and was in fact the only reason he knew the name of the plant. She cut flowers every year for their Christmas table to acknowledge the beautiful piece of land they lived on.

They reminded him of home.

This whole island reminded him of home.

Melissa ran around a particularly large tree and he followed only to come to a screeching halt as the path suddenly changed direction. A huge crater appeared in front of him.

Melissa was running on the spot. She nodded down at the lake at the bottom of the volcanic bowl. “Blue Lake.”

And it was.

A stunning, almost unnatural cobalt blue. He stared down at it, panting from his exertions. His thin grey tank top clung to his sweaty body.

She grinned at him before darting off along the crater rim.

Hmmm. An indrawn breath and he took off after her.

The crater wasn’t massive on a volcanic scale, but it was impressive nonetheless. The late afternoon sun shadowed the mountain, emphasising the extremes of the landscape.

“The far lake is Green Lake.” Melissa had stopped and was running on the spot again. A fine sheen of perspiration glistened on her skin.

He did know the geography, he had flown over the island often enough, but this perspective was considerably different. “It’s beautiful.” Not unlike its caretaker.

The random thought shook him out of contemplation and forced himself to look out at the smaller green lake in the distance.

Where the hell had that come from? A sideways glance in her direction and he found her gaze caught on the spectacle before them, her love for the island obvious.

Well, he had to admit that he did have his own island love. Just not this island.

“C’mon, slow poke, let’s up the pace.” And she darted off into the forest again.

Really?

Thighs pumping, he followed her under the trees, down the slope a little before he found himself climbing again.

She called back to him from several metres in front. “Got a full body workout coming up. I hope you’re up to it.” Her grin bounced down the mountain and off his head.

She was challenging him? Well, he had been known to hang off rocket ships and climb vertical cliff faces. Bring it on.

She did.

The path dissolved. There was no other real word for it. It became a mass of black jagged volcanic rocks, interspersed with tree regrowth.

“This was dumped here last time Virgil yanked us off the Island.” Her words were interspersed with harsh breathing as she clambered over the obstacle. As he climbed the crater once again came into view and the scar in the side of the mountain became clear.

Wow.

There was a swath of dead forest dotted with regrowth. He remembered Virgil’s report. The footage had involved billowing smoke and steam, but his brother had confined most of his readings to the encampment, his concern more for the lives endangered than any geological happenings. Brains had taken readings and read GeoNet’s reports as he did for any activity on the Kermadec Ridge, but he had reported it small and unremarkable.

Looked far more remarkable in person.

Melissa reached the top of the pile of rock and finally stopped.

He was grateful. The woman knew how to push it. He clambered up the last few and stood next to her.

The view was magnificent.

“She risks our lives, but I have to say she is beautiful.” Her love was there again, in her eyes. It was a similar expression to what he saw on Gordon’s face when he stared out across the ocean.

“You love this island, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.

She turned to stare at him and he realised that her eyes were a startling multicoloured grey. “I love this place. It’s mountains, its plants, its ocean, its everything. It is one of the truly saved places on our planet. There aren’t many left.” She shrugged. “I’m just lucky to be able to experience it and contribute my little bit of help.”

He snorted. “Even I know what you are doing is anything but little. You’ve expanded the Sanctuary by hundreds of kilometres since you’ve been here.”

Her gaze turned back to him. “You’ve been reading up on me?”

Half a grin. “I like to know who I am dealing with.”

She arched an eyebrow. “And what did you find, Commander?”

His smile spread. “Someone remarkable.”

-o-o-o-

Virgil hid for the rest of the afternoon. He slunk away to the hostel, found himself a bed and curled up. At some point, he heard a brother open the door to the communal room and another brother, Alan maybe, mutter something, but they went away and he was glad for it.

The wood of the building creaked in the sun and birds squawked almost continually, but despite, or perhaps because of the soundscape, he fell into a much better sleep than he had had the entire week. Deep and complete.

The sun was heading towards the horizon when he woke, yellowing rays cutting across the hostel windows, turning the white paintwork gold.

Gordon was in the room, fossicking through a bag. “G’don?” He blinked and screwed up his face.

“Hey, Virg! Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No. Don’t think so?”

“How are you feeling?”

Virgil rolled over and pushed himself up, sitting on the side of the bed. He rubbed his hands over his face. “Okay, I guess.”

His brother snorted. “I’ll ask you again in half an hour after coffee and brain activation.”

The grunt he sent in the aquanaut’s direction only proved his point.

“Sam is very interested in what you did today.”

Crap. Another grunt.

That earned him a querying look. Virgil had no idea what his brother expected. If a simple question about how he was feeling was a stumbler, the complex concepts involving what had happened earlier in the day were a complete brain frier.

“You up for dinner?” Gordon was suddenly sitting on the bed next to him. When had he moved? “Sam’s dragged out the barbecue. Claims he wants to test the theory of ‘throwing a prawn on the barbie’. Apparently, as an Australian he’s never cooked a shrimp on a barbecue before.” As if to punctuate the statement, the smell of cooking meat wafted in through the window.

Virgil stared at his brother.

“They had to import the shrimp for Christmas.”

The staring continued.

“They’re throwing a party because we’re here and using their Christmas supplies to do it...why the hell are you staring at me like that?”

Virgil didn’t answer him. He just wrapped an arm around him and hugged Gordon to his side.

His brother didn’t resist, but did look at him strangely. “You okay?”

“I’m good.”

Gordon didn’t say anything further and for a moment they sat there together.

Virgil’s stomach rumbled.

Gordon snorted. “C’mon, bro, food awaits.” He slipped Virgil’s hold and, turning around, offered him a hand up.

Without another word, Virgil took it and stood up beside his brother, his hand landing on his shoulder and squeezing.

That earned him another questioning look, but he ignored it.

The grassed central area of the compound had been transformed both by the golden sunlight and the lights strung between the trees. Sam was standing in front of a sizzling barbecue, someone Virgil didn’t know, laughing and holding him close. Alan and John were deep in discussion with another new person. All three of them had drinks in hand. John’s hair flickered about as if it was on fire, the sun catching it as the breeze tossed it around. And Scott...

Virgil stared.

Scott was laughing his ass off.

With Melissa Fisher.

The two of them sat beside each other in a couple of deck chairs. His brother appearing more relaxed than Virgil had seen him in a long time.

“What happened?” It came out without thought.

“They went for a run. Came back friendly as can be. I think Scott may have fallen for her charms.”

Charms? The woman was a handful. Virgil wasn’t afraid to admit he found her a challenge. Her gratitude the last time he had airlifted her and her squad of staff and volunteers off Raoul had been...exuberant.

If Kayo hadn’t escorted her out of his cockpit, he wasn’t sure what he would have done. As it was, Gordon had ribbed him until he cracked and thwapped him one.

But Scott seemed almost enthusiastic. Despite himself, Virgil broke into a grin.

Gordon echoed it. “Yeah, it’s great to finally see him relaxing.”

Quiet. “Yes. Yes, it is.”

Gordon grabbed his arm and nudged him in the direction of a table piled with food and drink. “Let’s get you fuelled up so I can introduce you to Liam and Elspeth.”

Coffee, as always, solved a lot of problems and, hugging his mug like the lifeline it was, Virgil was introduced to Sam’s husband.

Liam turned out to be a meteorologist. Raoul was not only important as a wildlife sanctuary, but also supported this corner of the Pacific’s meteorological station, providing atmospheric readings crucial to both weather and climate studies.

Having no shortage of interest in weather conditions, both as a pilot and a rescue operative who often found himself in the extremes of all kinds of those conditions, Virgil fell into in a very interesting discussion regarding navigating tropical cyclones.

In appearance, Liam was taller than Sam, blond and much more reserved than his husband. Hell, it was almost like someone had grabbed John and Gordon, thrown their physical characteristics in a blender and then assembled Liam and Sam. Liam even had a similar flick of blond hair on his forehead that John had in his red hair.

Almost in contrast, where Liam was pale and tall, Elspeth was dark and petite. Long plaited black hair hung to her waist, her features in shades of sepia. The artist in him was quite drawn to her.

But not as much as his two starbound brothers, because Elspeth was an astronomer. She and Liam had been on the other side of the island earlier in the day collecting readings from the observatory. Something about a rogue object passing through the Solar System. Virgil lost the discussion at some point between the Oort cloud and the orbit of Jupiter. He kept getting distracted by Scott laughing.

Virgil hadn’t heard his brother laugh so freely in a long time. Melissa appeared to be enjoying herself. It was as if a bubble had surrounded them and cut them off from everyone else. Stuck in their own happy little world.

An irrational spark of envy and the inevitable smirk at his brother deploying his well played charms were all completely smothered by the happiness he felt seeing Scott finally relaxing and enjoying himself.

As the evening became night, Virgil continued to hover on the edges of conversation, more Gordon, Sam and Liam than John, Alan and Elspeth. The latter group’s discussion had dissolved into equations and while Virgil loved a good piece of math like any engineer, theoreticals were more than he was willing to think about right at the moment.

The food was delicious and he complimented Sam thoroughly. Liam smiled and waxed poetic about some of the meals his husband had cooked in the past. Sam blushed appropriately red on several occasions, setting Gordon off into ribbing the poor man.

A thumb in Gordon’s direction. “Ignore him, he’s just jealous. There are days on end where we don’t get time to cook a decent meal.”

“You don’t have a cook?” Sam was frowning.

“We have Grandma.” Gordon was smiling ruefully.

“She’s a good cook?”

Virgil cut in. “Grandma is the backbone of International Rescue.”

“Your grandmother works with you?”

“Often, yes.”

“A truly family business.”

“Yes, it is.”

The conversation fell quiet a moment and Virgil took a swig of the beer in his hand.

“So, how did you become a cetacean biologist?”

Sam’s eyes widened. “Oh, um, had an encounter, fell in love, now devoted to them forever.”

Liam snorted. “He asked about you and whales, not for our love story.”

His husband shrugged. “Pretty much the same story really. Found myself in dire straits off Waitpinga Beach while surfing, dolphin saved me.”

Gordon had obviously heard the story before. He grinned. “For a surfer, you really are crap at surfing.”

“It’s all about the image, Gordo. You know that.” But Sam was grinning as much as Gordon. “But on a more serious note,” and the grin turned into a mock glare at Virgil’s brother, “she saved my life. It was a big, life changing moment. Been saving the whales ever since.”

“I can understand that.” All the Tracys could understand that.

Sam sparked up, all eagerness and bright eyes. “So, you spoke to a whale today?”

-o-o-o-

End Day Three, Part Four

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #virgil tracy #thunderbirds fanfiction #scott tracy #gordon tracy #john tracy #alan tracy

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thegeekyseamstress · 5 years

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Photographer credit: Chez Photo

Oh man, talk about a big project! I decided to tackle this fuku for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve had several commission requests for Eternal fukus over the years, but I’ve never been comfortable making one for a commission without doing some trial and error first. Second, I wanted a big solo competitive piece, so I could use that as an excuse to go balls to the wall with this build and try out lots of new techniques. Third, I’ve had an interest in making several Sailor Moon accessories for my fuku commissions, which explains my rationale in how I approached a lot of these items, especially the smaller resin accessories.

So, let’s get this started!

Wig

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The wig is both fairly straight forward but also time-consuming. I’m not going to write a tutorial here on creating a Sailor Moon wig, since several folks have done that already and much better than I could. I used a Chibi from Arda in Fairy blonde along with 2 long ponytail clips and short wefts.

After fixing the bag hair, I tweaked the bang line, stubbed the ponytails, created the odango and styled the bangs.

Special shout-out to Vickie Bane for giving me lots of helpful tips and keeping me sane when I wanted to chuck this in the trash.

Here are a few helpful tutorials:

Anime Bangs

Bag Hair

Antiquity Dreams Sailor Moon tutorial

How to style wigs with a garment steamer – Note: I ultimately wound up doing this for the bangs.

Wig Accessories

Here’s where we start getting to the fun stuff! As I mentioned above, I went into this build knowing that I wanted to create resin molds so to sell as part of my commissions. With that in mind, I started by creating odango shields in TinkerCAD. I made these as a two-part set: the base white layer and a top layer that I could cast with tinted resin. These are printed on PLA at my work (having easy access to a Makerspace is the best), then sanded and finished by me. Once the lines were SUUUUUUPER smooth, I took the pieces for the odango shields and created molds using Smooth-On products, specifically OOMOO 30.

Once the molds cured, I used Smooth-On 300 to cast the pieces. To create the white pieces, I “painted” white glittery powder from the Jacquard Pearl EX set into the mold, then poured in the resin, which cures in 10 minutes. For the red pieces, I “painted” Cast Magic Red Devil powder into the mold cavity and tinted the resin with a tiny bit of Red SO-Strong tint. I attached the pieces together with e6000.

The hair feathers were super fun! I traced the feathers from some ESM clipart I found online and created a vector of them in Inkscape. From there, I converted the files and cut them off on 2mm EVA foam using my Cricut Maker. I heat sealed the pieces prior, then glued them in a staggered pattern to match the pearl width. For the pearls, I found some flat back pieces on Amazon and glued them on the front and back of the feathers with hot glue. Once the full piece was dry, I glued the piece on a hair clip. This process is essentially the same for the other pearl/feather bits on her sleeves.

Again, here’s a helpful list of resources!

TinkerCAD

Finishing 3D printed pieces

Smoothing the Surface of a 3D printed model using XTC

Creating simple molds

Using dyes and powders with resin

Base Fuku

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Ahhh, the big part of this. Thankfully, I have a lot of experience making fukus, so this part wasn’t too daunting, but there are some big differences between making these and making classic fukus.

Note: I’m going to do a more comprehensive “how-to” tutorial over on Cosmic Coterie for this build (eventually), so my discussion below will mostly detail my thought process as well as trial and error.

One of my big hold-ups with making an Eternal fuku was the sleeves. They’re such an odd shape in how they look like bubbles, but are often drawn clear in the manga. I wanted something that had that bubble shape, but wasn’t *just* gathering. I turned to this tutorial by Angelic Threads as my prototype. This process requires A TON of tulle stuffing (I used nearly 4 yards of tulle in each sleeve), but it’s by and far my favorite way to make the sleeves. In fact, these turned out so well that I ditched my other protype ideas and stuck with this one! For the bottom of the sleeves, I used our glove roll approach at Cosmic Coterie, but just tweaked the pattern so it was 2 rolls instead of 3.

Once I ironed out the sleeve issue, it was time to tackle the belts! Proportions on the Eternal leotards are essentially the same as the classic fukus, so I took the base leotard pattern I normally used and built the pink belt into the leotard. The pink “belt” is my normal hip roll pieces cut on the bias and treated essentially in the same manner as the hip roll for a classic fuku. I will note that you must be EXTRA careful with the bias cut satin to prevent weird pulling. I cut a strip of interfacing and fused it to the top layer of the “belt” and also was extra mindful of my pressing. Additionally, you will likely need to taper the belt in at the center back to prevent puckering (if you care about that and I did).

The gold belt was very similar. I again took my hip roll pieces, cut them on the bias, and interfaced them. Once they were stitched together, I tacked the center front onto the leotard, then used snaps to hold the belt in place. Cutting the belt on the bias helps it curve around the body and lay flat!

The skirts are treated in the exact same manner as the skirts we use over at Cosmic Coterie. I did 3 circle skirts for each layer, basted them together, and treated them as one before pleating and attaching them to the base leotard. Then came the ETERNALLY (I crack myself up) long process of cutting and hemming 30 yards of fabric *dies inside*.

The collar was the most straight-forward part of the base fuku. I used the collar pattern Vickie Bane drafted up for us with my giant person alterations. From there, I made bias tape from my scrap gold fabric to create the stripes.

For Katsucon, I opted to create a standard butt bow since I didn’t want to travel with large wings. I’ll add those on when I get ready to compete!

Helpful tutorials:

Cosmic Coterie Fuku Tutorial

Eternal Sleeve Tutorial

Chest Brooch

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This was another trial and error piece. I had a resin heart mold on hand that I love for my Super senshi. I experimented with some shimmery mixes for the resin casting before ultimately deciding on an opaque design with Cast Magic.

Like the hair feathers, I created a basic vector of the wing shape based on some artwork I found online and played with the sizing until I found the size I was most comfortable with and suited me proportionally. I then converted the files and cut the base shape out on my Cricut. As with the feathers, I heat sealed the pieces prior to moving on.

Once that was done, It was time to mount everything! The heart resin piece attaches onto the base wings with industrial strength Velcro and then attached the pearl feathers to the sides with e6000. For a little extra flair, I also glued a few fluffy feathers onto the base and also added some Swarovski crystals for extra sparkle.

To help keep all this nonsense on my chest, I attached 4 spin clips to the back that are held in place with Black Worbla.

Helpful Tutorials:

Inkscape

How to use the Cricut to Cut Foam

Gloves

Ugh, I hate how inconsistently the Eternals especially are drawn. Sometimes Moon is drawn with the points on her gloves, sometimes not. My preference is with them, for a very specific reason: hand access.

For these gloves, I bought a base pair of white wrist gloves from We Love Colors. I then made arm stockings from the same material as my leotard for the top (the glove rolls were made using our normal approach over at Cosmic Coterie and then adding on the feather clips). To create the point, I made some bias cut satin strips and used the same angle I use for hip rolls (app. 90 degrees). I then treated this as really fancy bias binding and stitched it around the edge of the arm stockings, gluing crescent moons I cast out of resin on the tip.

Once the bias binding was on, I hand sewed snaps on the stocking and the base glove, enabling me to easily remove my glove while in costume without having to take the whole piece off.

Boots

There’s not a whole lot to say on these that hasn’t been approached in other Eternals write-ups. I bought a pair of base white boots, but unfortunately they weren’t quite large enough for my calves. This was a pretty easy fix, thankfully. The boots had a center seam in the back, so I opened it up down to the bottom of my calf and sewed in a wide pieces of elastic.

After cutting the boots at a 45 degree angle, I stitched more pink bias cut satin around the tops and then glued on more crescent moons that I cast out of resin. Easy peasy!

Other Accessories

A few years ago, my Cosmic Coterie teammate Space Cadet Cosplay had plans on making ESM, so she bought a ton of generic molds for this project. When I mentioned I wanted to do this build, she was super sweet and gave me the molds. I used the mold she gave me to create all the stars you see on this build. The crescent moon molds are from MoldsbyMia.

For the heart/moon piece, I built a small model in TinkerCAD and printed and cast them as I described above. These two pieces are mounted on the choker, which is also a piece of bias cut satin stitched at an angle.

Thoughts on this build:

I nearly talked myself out of wearing this build so many times, but its one of my favorites to date! I love how everything came together and how many new skills I picked up, which is refreshing after making so many Sailor Moon costumes. I do plan to add on to this build for competition later in the summer and will absolutely document the process to share with all of you.

In the name of the Moon, make gorgeous things! ❤

Photographer credit: Chez Photo

Costume Notes: Eternal Sailor Moon Photographer credit: Chez Photo Oh man, talk about a big project! I decided to tackle this fuku for a couple of reasons.

#eternal sailor moon #sailor moon #sailor moon cosplay #usagi tsukino

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sassycassie-s-writing · 5 years

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Stray Bird

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood

Rating: PG-11/T- (minor violence)

Original Idea: I dunno. Nothing in particular.

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) This one’s been sitting in my drafts for ages along with a bunch of others that I’ve been sitting on. I’m gonna try to get some of them posted ‘XD @jason-todd-squad @welovegroot @batboys-and-other-messes

^^^^^

Thud! Thwack! Pow! Crack!

Grunting and the sounds of blows and bones breaking filled my ears. I curled up tighter against the wall in the shadows, desperately wishing not to be noticed.

Just as quickly as it begun, it stopped.

One man stood victorious over the others. He was tall and strong powerfully built. There was a gleaming red helmet over his head and a red bat symbol on his chest.

Red Hood. I recognized him from news reports.

He approached me carefully, holding out a hand. “Are you alright, miss?” he asked. I shrunk away from him as much as I could, pressing my side against the bricks even harder. I whimpered. If he’d taken three men down in fifteen seconds, what was he going to do to me when he realized what I was?

He noticed that I was absolutely terrified, because he dropped his hand, but put both of them up, palms out.

“It’s okay, miss. I'm not going to hurt you,” he said. When I didn’t reply, he sighed and lifted his hands. I yelped. “Don’t worry. Just taking this off.” He pressed the jawline of his helmet. Something on the back of it released, allowing him to pull it off.

He was handsome, but intimidating. Strong jawline, intense gunmetal blue eyes, black hair with a streak of white at the front. He knelt in front of me and offered me his hand again.

“C’mon, little one. I'm not going to hurt you. We’ll get you somewhere safe before these bozos wake up,” he entreated.

Steeling my courage, I reached one hand out and took his. He helped me up.

^^^^^

As the girl stepped into the light, Jason almost gasped.

She had wings. Huge and strong. Under the grime and dirt covering them, they might have been white. She held them so tightly to her back Jason was surprised that she didn’t break the joints.

He shook his head to clear it. “Yeah. We’re going to take you somewhere safe. Come with me,” he said, popping his helmet back on. “I promise I won’t hurt you. No one will ever again.” He kept a loose but comforting grip on her hand as they crept out of the alley and onto the abandoned street. It was nearly four in the morning—it was a wonder that there were still lights on in the city. Why wasn’t everyone asleep?

Jason slung his leg over his bike. “Do you know how to ride?” he asked.

She nodded tentatively.

He patted the seat behind him. “Hold onto me tightly. Keep your wings in,” he said.

“You don’t… you don’t think I'm a freak?” the girl asked quietly.

Jason shook his head. “Princess, my two best friends are a wayward Amazon and a faulty Superman clone. My two best friends before that were a recovering alcoholic and an alien princess who had hair that was literally on fire. A girl with wings is not the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

The girl carefully got on the back of his motorcycle, wrapping her arms around his middle and burying her face in the back of his jacket. “Drive careful,” she muttered.

“Of course,” Jason said.

He drove them back to his safehouse—the old bunker under Police Plaza.

Familiar figures were waiting for them.

“Gee. I thought it was Batman’s thing to pick up strays, Hood,” Nightwing said.

^^^^^

I stared. Red Robin, Nightwing, Robin, and Batman were all standing in the bunker where Red Hood had brought me. I could barely see them in the darkness. I wondered if they could see my wings or if it was too dark. I was huddled slightly behind Red Hood.

“She was being attacked, meathead,” Hood snapped at Nightwing. “I took the dudes out.” He turned to look at me, removing his helmet again. “Let’s get you cleaned up, okay? I’ll show you to the shower and then deal with these guys,” he said. I nodded and followed him past Batman and the other vigilantes. I heard Nightwing gasp as I ducked under a spotlight. The other three were silent.

Red Hood took me to the end of the bunker to a small, cramped space with a concrete shower.

“Need a hand washing your wings or anything?” he asked.

I shook my head. “I'm used to doing it alone,” I said.

He nodded. “Holler if you need anything,” he remarked before ducking out of the small room.

“Thank you!” I said as he shut the door.

I stripped out of my clothes and turned on the shower.

^^^^^

“What are you doing here anyway?” Jason asked Bruce, Dick, Tim, and Damian. “I haven’t been causing any more problems than usual.”

“So that explosion yesterday had nothing to do with you?” Tim demanded.

Jason scrunched his eyebrows. “No I wasn’t even in that area of Gotham yesterday. You can check security cameras in the theatre district and see I was there all day. Honestly keeping me in line doesn’t require all four of you to turn up. You coulda just called,” Jason said, keeping his temper in check for the sake of the flighty bird-girl through the other door.

“And what about the stray?” Bruce asked.

“Like I said, she was being attacked. I took out the men who were hurting her—they’re alive—and brought her here to clean up and be safe,” Jason said. “She was terrified and injured and I figured I should give her a hand.”

“She has wings,” Tim said.

“Astute observation, Sherlock,” Jason snapped.

“Jason,” Bruce warned.

“What? You gonna tell me to play nice with my brothers? C’mon, B. You know me better than that.” Jason took a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you all politely to get out. I got stuff to attend to and that girl with wings is at the top of the list. I gotta figure out where she’s from and what help she needs. So, thanks for dropping by. Hope I don’t see you again soon.” He started pushing Dick and Damian toward the door, causing them to bump into Tim and Bruce.

The rest of Jason’s family filed out. Jason slammed the heavy metal door and locked it. He rolled his eyes and turned back to the rest of the bunker.

The shower was still going, so he strolled over to his giant computer and whistled while he set about seeing what he could find on this new girl. She’d shed a feather on the floor just outside the bathroom that Jason scooped up to run through a DNA scan, looking for a name. He also took her fingerprints off his leather jacket.

Was that weirdly invasive considering she was showering in the next room over? Probably. But if he could find out more information, he could find some way to help her.

An Instant Message popped up on his screen.

Nightwing: Good to see you playing nice.

Red Hood: Shut up.

Nightwing: I'm serious, J. You act like you don’t care about anyone or anything. But when we’re out of the frying pan and into the fire, you always give us a hand. Always. I know you care about innocents. Protecting civilians. It’s just good to see you offering the same care to someone as unusual as we are.

Red Hood: Bold of you to assume she’s not innocent just because she has wings.

He quit out of the IM program and went back to running his tests.

Nothing. She didn’t have a name. Nor any DNA in any database he could access. He grunted in frustration—

And quickly closed all the windows he had open as she emerged from the bathroom. Her hair, skin, and wings were all clean, but she was still wearing her filthy clothes. Jason would have to fix that… “Is… everything okay?” she asked timidly, massaging the end of one of her wings between her hands.

“Everything’s fine,” he replied. “You feeling any better?”

“Yes. Thank you for being so kind to me.”

“Of course.”

“I, uh, I don’t have any way to repay you…”

Jason spun around in his chair to look at her. “Kid. You don’t have to repay me for a shower and a ride away from thugs who were trying to hurt you.” He paused. “I never caught your name,” he said.

She shook her head. “I don’t… I don’t have one,” she said. She pushed up her filthy sleeve to reveal a 00319 branded into the muscle of her left deltoid. “I was three-nineteen.”

“Where are you from?”

She shook her head. “A terrible place,” she said.

“If you’re another one of CADMUS’ creations I'm going to level that building and destroy everything underneath it,” Jason muttered. He met her eyes again. “You wanna stay here for a little while? I’ll keep an eye on you till you figure out what you want to do.”

“I don’t want to intrude—”

“You’re not intruding. There’s a cot in the corner. Feel free to crash. And, uh, before you do, here.” He got up and went over to a storage bin. He pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt. “These’ll probably be a little big on you, but they’re clean. If you need to cut holes in the back, feel free.” Jason pulled a pocketknife out of a drawer and passed it to her with the clothes. She accepted them and looked up at him.

“Thank you,” she offered.

“It’s no problem,” he replied.

She slipped into the bathroom.

^^^^^

The sweatpants were way too long on me and the sweatshirt the same. It bagged on my short torso but the holes for my wings were perfectly sized in a way I didn’t usually get with normal clothing that fit me.

The clothes were comfortable though. Soft and warm. The clothes I’d worn with the doctors were stiff and scratchy. I’d gotten used to the feeling, but these clothes made me want to fall asleep.

I went back out into the rest of the bunker. Red Hood was still sitting at his computer, typing away. I didn’t say anything to him, just walked over to a cot in the corner. It looked different from the cot I used to sleep on in my room—my cell. That one was mesh suspended between the metal frame. This one had a… what was the word? Mat? Matter…? Mattress! This one had a mattress on it. I glanced back at Red Hood as I put my old clothes at the foot of the cot.

“I never got your name,” I said. “I know you’re Red Hood but that’s all.”

He turned and just looked at me for a moment. “I'm Jason,” he finally said.

I nodded. “Thank you, again, Jason. For everything.”

“You’re welcome. Get some rest. We’ll get you a name and anything else you need in the morning,” he said.

I crawled under the blankets covering the cot. It was softer and more comfortable than anything I’d ever slept on. I sighed with pleasure and relaxed for the first time in… a long time. I released the tension in my wings and let them relax too. No one was going to hurt me in the middle of the night.

I wasn’t sure why I trusted this Red Hood—Jason—as much as I did, but I couldn’t help it. Something about how genuine he seemed made me believe that I really was safe. I hadn’t felt safe since Dr. Evans left. She used to keep the other doctors from pushing me too hard.

With a sense of security, I pulled the blankets up over my shoulder, and fell into the deepest sleep I’d ever had.

#Stray Bird #Jason Todd #jason todd imagine #jason todd fanfiction #Red Hood #red hood fanfiction #red hood imagine #DC #DC Imagine #DC FanFiction #BatFam #BatFam Imagine #BatFam FanFiction

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spidersmiceandeverythingnice · 5 years

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Gonna write my scatterbrained Spicy Hot Takes on Agartha before the news is stale and I delete this annoying and boring chapter from my mental landscape, so bear with me:

I think Agartha’s main issue was just straight up poor writing. The Japanese direct translations being as downright offensive as they were is one thing - but overall, the chapter is just one plot contrivance after another. It tries so, so hard to go for a certain tone but can’t seem to stick to any one thing or idea. Disregarding themes about sexuality probably would have been the very best way to go about this chapter, since I think the most interesting part was the theme about storytelling and in-authenticity - we all know that That Line was annoying af in a game like FGO, but it CAN work in a series like Fate as a whole. I had a helluva long day at work so allow me to explain in the least scatter-brained way I can manage right now:

Here’s what I’m thinking: Scheherazade, whose name I guarantee I will spell wrong/differently every time I write it even though I’ve been able to pronounce it properly since I was thirteen (I was in a speaking competition and told some of the Thousand and One Nights using her framework as the opening monologue, long story short ANYWAY -) is traumatized by her ordeal with the king. This is a really good and interesting thing to explore! Fitting it in with the theme of storytelling - Scheherazade is deeply afraid of dying and will do whatever it takes to live, so she makes a fantasy world and fills it with legends, and feeds their energy to a Holy Grail. With this, and the power of a Demon God at her side, she plans to reveal magic to the human world in the most destructive fashion possible, allowing the fantastic to become ordinary, and destroying the Throne of Heroes itself in the process. Fate is a series were stories have power - but Scheherazade survived basically by telling the most fantastical, interesting tales she could and never finishing them. She always would pause in the middle, and say, “That’s all for tonight.” I think this is the kind of thing we can run with in terms of setting.

Dahut is the weirdest example because it’s the one story in the chapter that I know next to nothing about. At one point it’s mentioned that Dahut is impossible to summon as a Servant, and so Drake was “forced” into the role of the Pirate Princess. Ys is probably the weakest part of the chapter for that, but I did like the idea of her being “Drake Alter,” where Drake vibrantly pursues her goals and desires but takes nothing for granted; Dahut gives into her every whim and takes absolutely everything for granted. The conflict between “Drake” and “Dahut” should have been emphasized more instead of having the player/Da Vinci dismiss her as “Oh, it’s not Drake, except when she conveniently comes back to delivery us the MacGuffins Ex Machina in the eleventh hour.” Dahut has little connection to Drake - it’s not her story, but a role she was forced into because Scheherazade was building a very specific kind of world. Therefore it is inauthentic. Perhaps that’s all it needs to be in this context.

This can also work with the Amazons. Scheherazade never told stories of the Amazons, but she has access to basically all stories in the world through her Noble Phantasm - she learns that they are a society of warrior women who live without men, and so decides that they will be a society which oppresses men due to her fear/bitterness towards men after the ordeal she suffered through. The “oppressing men” plotline was honestly dumb all around but using the Amazons as a mechanism to explore Scheherazade's trauma would’ve been more interesting than just having them be the Big Bad before the Big Bad Columbus Reveal: Scheherazade doesn’t like fighting, but wishes that she had been strong enough to protect herself. Because she views herself as a coward and her ordeal with the king has complicated her view of sexuality - “I’m better suited to a bedchamber than a battlefield” - she uses the Amazons of Agartha as a mechanism to cope.

This brings us to Wu, whose design I’m still not happy about even though I think the in-story justification is somewhat fair. (Let Helena and Wu be gray-haired grannies together or so help me!) Wu was absolutely an authoritarian ruler who did, in fact, invade and conquer several nations and institute a terrifying network of secret police. In her later life, she was given to decadence - but her tenure on the throne showed her to be a highly competent administrator. Notably, she ruled over an era of religious tension and balanced matters quite well, and though she was accused of undoing meritocracy to put her supporters into power, many of the men she appointed held positions in government long after she’d died because they were actually good at their jobs. Wu has been heavily mythologized over the years - later Tang emperors and Neo-Confucian scholars wrote her off (Wu founded her own dynasty under her own name, so they kind of had to legitimize it somehow), she became associated the nine-tailed fox spirit thanks to a few popular novels and poems, etc., etc., etc. The crazy thing is that Wu actually left very few records of herself behind, apart from some poems. Even the inscription on her tomb is blank! People can say whatever they want about her - it’s extremely difficult to know the full truth of the matter without any objective observers in the field (and without Wu’s own words to give context/another story), especially if you don’t read any Chinese.

BTW - the first thing I learned history class is that when you’re dealing with primary sources, you must always remember that translators have agendas. Every word is a deliberate choice, and it changes the meaning from the original text. When dealing with historical documents, this is not always a good thing.

Scheherazade reads some, but not all of these stories, and integrates Wu into her world as the sadist empress with an iron grip on her decadent mythical city.

Do you see what I’m getting at here? It’s a lot, but I’m not done. Now we have to deal with Columbus - there’s “In Defense of Columbus” video is floating around in the Agartha tag, but I haven’t watched it in full and haven’t done like, any intensive research on Columbus in particular, so I’m going to apologize right now for any historical inaccuracies/misconceptions that I’m about to write. The point I want to make here mainly is that Columbus, like Wu, has been heavily, heavily mythologized for both good and evil at various points. The thing about Columbus that is also interesting is that the authenticity of his journals is or was apparently a subject of debate. The man who published most of them actually happened to be Bartolomew de las Casas - one of the founders/first vocal supporters of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The reason de la Casas supported this is because he believed that using African labor would be an improvement over enslaving the native populations of the New World. Soon after, he had a change of heart and devoted the rest of his life to fighting against slavery in all forms. De la Casas went on to be named a saint, and was possibly the first person in history to propose the idea of universal human rights - which is how I had heard of him until literally just this afternoon; I had no idea he’d ever supported the slave trade until I was looking up basic info about Columbus’s writings so I could write this long-ass post. History is full of complicated people.

But as I mentioned in Wu’s bit, it’s very important to note that in many ways, Columbus is literally just whatever people decide he is. Like, he never even set foot in any land that would become the United States, and yet he’s a huge symbol here! Along these lines, his amnesia would fit the theme of inauthentic storytelling, choosing what to read and what to believe in. Columbus regaining his memories was an understated moment, which is actually fucking fantastic because it could be used to really emphasize the choice that is being made here. He’s a Heroic Spirit who can choose to be whatever he wants. He can choose to be the simple hero-explorer that schoolchildren sing about, or he can choose to be the Big Bad, the first and perhaps most infamous conquistador. And he chooses to be the bad guy. That is so fuckin’ fantastic, y’all! I honest to God love that not only did FGO portray Columbus as a villain of history but that the bad reputation is something he chooses to maintain! I can write a list of Servants who were less than stellar people and got a makeover for Fate. Nero is probably one of the worst examples but like - Ozymandias absolutely owned slaves in his life as a pharaoh. Hercules and Medea murdered their own children. Asterios literally ate humans as the Minotaur. Gilles de Rais exists as a playable character. Jack the Ripper is your daughter. Hell, Nobunaga burned temples with the monks still inside - but she feels bad about it now! Enough digressing but I a hundred percent get why Japanese fans found Columbus “refreshing” at his introduction. He owns his cruelty, his desire to exploit others - he challenges the narrative that everyone is redeemable because he doesn’t even want to be redeemed, he just wants to get rich and famous, and he doesn’t give a shit who he steps over in the process! Like, Columbus said, “I’m just doing what comes naturally,” at one point when he still had amnesia, so when he got his memory back and turned on the player, I really would’ve liked for him to say is something like, “You’ve already decided that I’m the bad guy, right? You know my story, and I’m nothing if not a man of my word.”

These kinds of questions/debates could have been used to emphasize the themes of Agartha. Legends are what people decide they are. People make choices and history decides whether they were good or evil or important retroactively. Can you know what someone is like by reading a translation of their poetry? Can you judge a king’s reign by the words of their successors or their rivals? Does the context of a story matter? This all could have been super interesting to explore!

Like I said, the main theme of Agartha being “inauthentic storytelling” could have been hella, hella good considering that this is a world created by Scheherazade’s fears and trauma feeding into her escapist desires. But Minase’s incompetence as a writer made everything so hamfisted and awkward that everything just suffered under his desire to insert his fetishes at every moment. It was so obvious that he didn’t read any material for old Fate characters - like Astolfo you poor sweet thing, you deserved so much better! - and even the new characters that he clearly did research on, like Columbus, fell flat because he couldn’t figure out what he was trying to say beyond mildly-to-extra offensive sex jokes.

#i'm tired so i may not reply to any responses but i had to get this out of my system because it's been nagging at me #like... it could've been good #it could've been at least decent if minase just... knew how to deal with a theme and read up on some fate character materials #but he didn't do that and so now we have This Mess #fate grand order #agartha nonsense #also disclaimer i did the baaaare minimum of research for parts and didn't even dig up my Empress Wu Research Paper docs #but like now that i've got this off my chest i'm gonna be done wasting time thinking about agartha since it was just so....#not even like that it was especially bad it was just... lifeless and insipid #thank goodness holmes told us it wasn't even canon lmao

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momentumgo · 5 years

Text

Jennifer Schlichting

Animator + Illustrator https://www.jenniferschlichting.com/ Seattle, WA Age 32 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I always knew I wanted to do something with computers and art. I've always loved drawing but didn't know how to marry the two. When I was 8, Toy Story came out and it immediately captured my imagination. As I grew older and realized what it took to create something like that I dreamed about working at Pixar one day. Long story short, I went to The Art Institutes of Minnesota and got a Bachelor's in Media Arts & Animation (which is now closed it was such a joke of a school). While I was there from 2007-2009 we had a few classes that dabbled in 3D Studio Max and Maya. I got to dive into 3D which was great, but it was such a painful user experience it put a huge damper on my desire to create 3D animation work of any kind.

After graduating in 2009 I moved back to my hometown in Iowa and had a hard time finding creative work of almost any kind (shocker, it's IOWA haha). I took a job as a bank teller to pay the bills and married my "high school sweetheart." A few years later I landed a job at one of Nordstrom's photo studios as a photo retoucher and lived in Photoshop all day making models and clothes look impossibly perfect. I also took the odd business card or logo design gig that came my way and fed my soul creatively by taking up painting with watercolor.

After six years in an abusive marriage, living paycheck to paycheck, having a toxic work environment, and my creative soul dying more every day I finally got up the guts to put an end to all of it. I divorced my husband, quit my job, and took everything that could fit in my SUV (including my cat) on a three day road trip across the country to move out to Seattle. I only knew a handful of people and had no job lined up, but I had a place to live for free for two months while I figured out what the heck I was going to do with my life next. That was enough for me.

I landed a contract job at Amazon doing basic graphic design work for the next 7 months and the pay was (just barely) enough to land my first studio apartment in Seattle. Knowing my contract would be coming to an end soon I was keeping my eye out for my next gig the entire time. Not knowing many people in Seattle (let alone the motion design community) made it really difficult to get in anywhere at first. I found a local Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D meetup group and started going every month to meet some of the community and pick their brains on how to break in. I started doing YouTube tutorials in my free time and revamping my portfolio.

One of the art directors at Amazon heard I was looking for my next gig and after she went through my portfolio with me she suggested that I read The 2 Hour Job Search. It gave great advice on how to get out of the black hole of submitting your job application online and never getting anywhere. I started going directly to people. My LinkedIn search began and the emails were flying out the door. I made a spreadsheet of all the studios in the greater Seattle area, what kind of work they did, the contacts I was making, what kind of jobs they were posting for, and got to work creating projects to put into my first reel since 2009.

People were slowly starting to respond to my emails and accepting my offers to buy them coffee. I met so many lovely and helpful people (and a couple oddballs too haha). I asked what kind of work they were doing, how long their contracts usually were, what it was like to do animation work all day every day, what they were getting paid, and how tailoring their reel got them in the door doing the work they want to do.

One guy I met up with in particular (while I didn't know at the beginning of the conversation) was looking for a motion design intern to bring onto their small but mighty agency. By the end of our conversation he offered me the position! He had a passion for teaching and he could tell I was hungry to learn. While it didn't pay much, and was only a couple days a week I was able to put "motion design intern" on my resume while also working part-time doing graphic design work for a shoe and apparel company. I had just turned 30 and accepted an intern position, but was so thankful for company that didn't discriminate against age!

A few months later I heard back from a corporate telecommunications company I had applied to several months prior. They were interested in starting up an internal studio instead of outsourcing out all their work to agencies in town. I would be the first full-time creative on the team and had to be a unicorn. I knew a little video editing, some storyboarding, some motion design, some graphic design, and that was enough for them to offer me the position.

Fast forward two years and the team has grown to 20+ people and I've done everything from t-shirt design, graphic design, motion design, video editing, storyboarding, and deck design for massive conferences. It's not always fun or exciting animation work, but it pays the bills and afforded me a house in the crazy Seattle market.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

There have definitely been times when there are late nights at work but they seem to be fewer and farther between now that the studio is more established and they are working through better processes. I'm in by 9am and leave by 5pm most days. Weekend work is rare. We get two weeks paid vacation each year (and more the longer you stay with the company) as well. There is definitely more fun animation work in Seattle than what I'm doing currently but it's nice to have a steady paycheck and have time for personal projects on the side.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I'm a white female born into a Midwest middle class family in the United States. I have a Bachelor's degree which was paid for in-part by my parents but I carried student debt until 2018 (thanks to my abusive first marriage-my ex refused to work for several years and insisted his "business ideas" would make us millions one day). I got out of debt myself by pulling myself up by my own bootstraps. The college I went to was not a great one and have learned so much more on my own since graduating than I ever did in college. I went to college full-time and year-round to graduate faster while also holding down three part-time jobs to help pay for college. It also saved me a ton of money every month after moving in with my now husband and paying only partial rent in Seattle.

I've always had gumption and a stubborn, never-give-up attitude. I was taught at a young age that I had to take responsibility for myself and my future and took that seriously. My parents weren't thrilled I wanted to go to an art college (and they had two more kids to put through college as well) but made a deal if I wanted to go I had to pay my own way. They took out the loan for me, but I paid it all back. I didn't have any scholarships but I made it work. I think it helped that I attended community college for two years before I transferred to The Art Institute and that lowered the tuition bill because of all the general education classes I took beforehand.

If you are a caretaker, how do you arrange your life so that you can achieve your professional goals while being responsible for others, (parents, children, etc.)?

My husband was a package deal and came with twin 9-year-old boys. We have them for a full week every other week. I'm not going to lie – it's a lot, even having them for an entire week haha! My husband and I both work full time but he has more flexibility when it comes to start/end times for his day and working from home. He drops the boys off and picks them up from school/daycare/camps/appointments/swim lessons/ etc.

The weeks we don't have the boys we spend our nights and weekends taking care of housework and building our portfolios (he's a creative as well). We are also trying to be more aware of how we spend our time and shift more of it towards self-care and doing more fun things together vs. the never-ending "to-do" list all the time.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

This is something I'm still working on, haha! My husband does a great job reminding me to take time for myself, and we love to go out to eat, go to the beach, go for a hike, get massages, or paint and draw together. I've also recently swapped my hour+ commute to work where I would drive myself through Seattle traffic with now taking a corporate shuttle in. This has given me so much of my time back where I can read, draw on my iPad, or catch up on my favorite YouTubers.

I also love painting in my downtime (http://www.jenniferelizabethstudios.com/) which gives me a wonderful break from all the screen time and let's my hands do something tactile. There's no undo button with watercolors and I've accepted that and turned it into a more "zen-like experience" where I try not to control everything haha.

Just getting outside and into nature can be so refreshing. Even if it's a ten minute walk outside on my lunch break can do wonders for my mood. That, and getting 7-8 hrs of sleep/night! Oh, and making sure to take lunch breaks AWAY FROM MY DESK.

And snuggling with my purring cat never fails to make me feel better no matter what's going on in my life.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Being happy and fulfilled with the life you're living. I've always liked the quote "Create a life you don't need a vacation from." Which, may be difficult to do but I think it's definitely something to aim towards.

Success isn't all dollar signs, but getting paid what I'm worth is definitely a win for me. Plus it's always nice being able to take people out to dinner and buy them nice Christmas presents. :)

On another note, I always feel successful when other people reach out wanting to chat and hear about my experience thus far. Whether it's people looking to shift gears slightly or change career tracks entirely it always makes me feel happy and successful when I can help someone out with any lessons or things I've learned along the way.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Take advantage of all the resources online! There was almost none of that ten years ago when I was starting out.

Don't be afraid to reach out to people. You never know where it'll lead. :)

Leave your ego at the door and don't be a jerk. Nobody wants to work with a jerk.

Never stop learning.

Look for jobs with titles other than "motion designer." Currently my title is "Communication Design Manager". LOL . Read the job descriptions to see if there will be animation work involved! Sometimes companies don't know what to call us.

Some great inspirational and informational resources to check out:

-Design for Motion: Fundamentals and Techniques of Motion Design by Austin Shaw

-The Freelance Manifesto: A Field Guide for the Modern Motion Designer

-The 2-Hour Job Search

-Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins

-Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

-Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in that order) by Bridget Quinn

-The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

-In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney

-Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

-Creative Pep Talk by Andy Miller

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bixgirl1 · 6 years

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Five Books

Tagged by @julcheninredand @writcraft to list five books that made a deep impression on me at different points in my life. Not necessarily your top five favourite books ever, nor even books you’d recommend to someone else now, but five books that were important at the time, whether you loved them or hated them.

Thank you, guys! (Also, I hate this because I have like 70k books and it made me cry that I couldn’t pick all of them. *snort*)

Taking a cue from Writcraft and going into detail under the cut because it gets long. lol

In no particular order:

1. Phantom – Susan Kay 2. Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson 3. The Harry Potter series – JK Rowling 4. Firestarter – Stephen King 5. The Captive Prince series – C.S. Pacat

Honourable mentions (don’t huff at me, you guys asked me about books! Just be glad this list isn’t 200 deep lol):

Shopgirl – Steve Martin Bastard Out of Carolina – Dorothy Allison Second Nature, and Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman The Stand, and Carrie – Stephen King Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot

Notes on the top five below the cut:

1. Phantom, by Susan Kay

“She wanted an Angel of Music . . . an angel who would make her believe in herself at last. I'd been the Angel of Doom for the khanum. There was no reason in the world why I could not be the Angel of Music for Christine. I couldn't hope to be a man to her, I couldn't ever be a real, breathing, living man waking at her side and reaching out for her . . . But I could be her angel.”

This book. God, this book, guys. I’ve read most of the books on my list more times than I can count, but I may have read this one the most. Told from different perspectives (Erik, his mother, his mentor, his friend, Christine, and Raoul), it follows the story The Phantom of the Opera, from birth to postmortem. It shows humanity at its ugliest and most broken, and the heights it can achieve, and does it all surrounding this one brilliant, exceptional man who eventually descends into madness over his love for someone he knows he can’t have. But it’s a redemption story, too, and so bittersweet I can’t, to this day, read it without crying and feeling immensely satisfied. Erik is the perfect anti-hero — maligned at first for something he can’t help, and then later for what people have turned him into, but nearly always sympathized with, and loved by the reader. Until reading this book when I was, I think, twelve or thirteen, I didn’t know writers could do that, tbh.

2. Written on the Body, by Jeanette Winterson

“When I say ‘I will be true to you’ I am drawing a quiet space beyond the reach of other desires.”

I cannot stress what an impact this book had on me. I first picked it up because I’d read a book of Winterson’s short stories (The World and Other Places) and I thought she had a really cool style and wanted to read more. She lived up to her short stories in style, of course, but what really blew me away about WntB — what really stole my heart and made me think — was that she wrote it in such a way that you never know if the narrator is male or female. I was around sixteen when I first read this, and still heavily involved in the church, and struggling with being attracted to girls as well as boys, and when I read this, the narrator was wholly female to me. I was reading lesbian love affair. I was stirred by it. When I think about the things that have influenced my coming to terms with my bisexuality, with me accepting who I was (though it took me longer to accept that it was okay to be who I was), this book is definitely on that list.

It’s also gorgeous, like everything she writes, so there’s that.

3. The Harry Potter Series, by JK Rowling

“Harry saw Voldemort's green jet meet his own spell, saw the Elder Wand fly high, dark against the sunrise, spinning across the enchanted ceiling like the head of Nagini, spinning through the air toward the master it would not kill, who had come to take full possession of it at last. And Harry, with the unerring skill of the Seeker, caught the wand in his free hand as Voldemort fell backward, arms splayed, the slit pupils of the scarlet eyes rolling upward. Tom Riddle hit the floor with a mundane finality, his body feeble and shrunken, the white hands empty, the snakelike face vacant and unknowing. Voldemort was dead, killed by his own rebounding curse, and Harry stood with two wands in his hands, staring down at his enemy's shell.”

I feel like this one doesn’t really need much explanation behind it. Lol. But I will say that I came into the HP series a few books in, around the time the first movie came out, and I was in an odd place in my life at the time. I was…listless. I’d always been a big reader, but it had been a long while since something had so captured my attention and focus, or had riveted me with its world building in such a way. I fell in absolute love with Harry, with the surrounding characters, with the social and moral parallels drawn. I kept asking myself “this is a kids series?!” There are things, in retrospect, that one can criticise about the Harry Potter series, plenty of valid problems to discuss and deconstruct. But I will never not be loyal to it, for its creativity, for its surprising depth, and for its heart.

4. Firestarter, by Stephen King

“It was amazing how time got by, how quickly a child could change, change in front of your eyes with an unobtrusiveness that was nearly terrible.”

Many apologies to @julcheninred because I know this one was on your list too, but Firestarter meant so much to me as a kid. I dove into King’s depiction of Charlie, and the simplicity of the writing and plot blended with the complexity of the characters and their relationships. I loved the idea of a young girl with so much power — frightening and potentially deadly, but hers. And though I was too young, when I first fell in love with this book, to understand the (actually pretty overt lol) sexual metaphors, I didn’t need to. It’s not a book that requires you to figure everything out while you’re on the ride — it’s a book that makes you want to, even if that means reading it a hundred times and wearing out several copies. (Which, ahem, I may have done.)

5. The Captive Prince series, by C.S. Pacat

“He thought of Laurent's delicate, needling talk that froze into icy rebuff if Damen pushed at it, but if he didn't--if he matched himself to its subtle pulses and undercurrents--continued, sweetly deepening, until he could only wonder if he knew, if they both knew, what they were doing.” (Book Two: Prince’s Gambit)

Okay, I know I blog a lot about this series and as a drarry shipper/writer/blogger, it’s easy to assume my reasons. And to be fair, drarry is what initially attracted me to the series. It was first recced to me by @magpiefngrl, then by @l0vegl0wsinthedark and @o0o-chibaken-o0o (thank you guys!!!!!!!) and finally I was so wound up about by them that I checked Amazon for a sample. Upon reading it, I immediately ordered copies, then read all three books online while I waited for the books to be shipped, they’re that good.

And I found it’s not about the similarities to drarry. (There are a few, but only in the most basic of ways.) It’s about the writing, which is so beautifully taut, I genuinely doubt I’ve read anything like it before. It’s about the characters, who are sharp and perfect in their imperfections, and dialogue and tension and subtly intricate plotting that thrills me anew every time I read it. It’s about a love story that feels fantastical and wildly relatable, a happily ever after that you need — and get, like a stunningly wrapped gift you never expected. The way Pacat manages to pivot an arguably hated and hate-worthy character into someone you would give your life for reads like a dream, and I’m not exaggerating when I say these books changed things in me. Maybe all small — an appreciation for simplicity in writing; a jadedness that seems to surface sometimes about my ability to immerse myself in a story — but all fundamental, and all appreciated to my bones.

Idk who’s been tagged so my apologies in advance, but @jadepresley , @lqtraintracks, @camael-fanart, @femmequixotic, @noeeon, @o0o-chibaken-o0o @agentmoppet and anyone else who wants to partake! <3

#five books #fave books #(yes I know I didn't have to list faves but I have a lot of faves okay?)#reading life #book life

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alice-julesb · 2 years

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Week 3- 1st of November

Bespoke Systems

After I had settled in, due to everyone being so friendly and lovely I had felt like I had worked there so much longer than two weeks. I quickly adapted to the daily routines of JulesB head office.

This was the time for me to start my training on the computers, the other side of packing the parcels in the Dispatch office. The two major systems they use are called VS3 & RMIS. It took about 3 full weeks of learning this. There was a lot to take in with shipping rules and the EU and international orders, sending things duty paid or unpaid, making sure I was sending things with the right couriers and that I wasn't going to do it wrong and charge JulesB a fortune. I loved learning new systems because I love it when you first are shown something and it all looks like so many random numbers and letters jumbled all over the screen and all different buttons that you don't know what any of it means, and then when you look back after learning it not being able to even remember how it all looked so confusing at first.

VS3

VS3 is the program we would use to check the daily order count and begin processing the order and the start of dispatching the parcel. Firstly, after the lists have been ticked off so you know you definitely have all the correct items in your box, you would work your way through the list.

I would start by scanning an items barcode in the search bar, and then it would bring up all the orders for that item. Each order would be marked as several different options such as Payment Received, Order Dispatched, Order Refunded, Order Cancelled etc. The orders with the status of Payment received would be what I would then need to filter my search for. I would find the order for that item and I would grab the order number for it and then copy it into RMIS.

RMIS RMIS is the internal stock/tracking system to locate the status of any order. Once I copied an order number into it I could then see everything that is supposed to be in that order. If there were things missing that I didn't have on my list, I would then go to locate where they are using this. Places they would be are either in the waiting area - where items were held whilst waiting for the rest of its order, we could be waiting for it be sent to us from the Kendal office or store as we could have part orders been allocated coming from there, or we could be waiting for it to be picked from our Jesmond store in the shop run.

Whatever the case of where the rest of an order might be, I would then make a note on the system and update any progress I might have made. Id grab the extra items out of the waiting area for that order, add it to the waiting area if it was waiting on more stuff or be able to go ahead and send it.

The next step would be to scan the items off for the order on RMIS so everything aligns with stock control and then it would be on the system that it has been scanned out and dispatched. This is so vital in case anything does go wrong later down the line if anything has been sent wrong or there is any confusion- dispatch can come back to this and trace what's happened. It also ensures that I have the exact right product because the system wouldn't let me scan it if it was even the wrong size for example. Then I confirm everything so it all goes through on the system and then return back to VS3.

Following on, once back to VS3 I print the invoice, check all the shipping details match and are right for whichever country its going to, and then I print the shipping label.

Then I build a JulesB box and put the order, shipping label and invoice in and for the last time check everything matches, its the right invoice and the order number matches the shipping label ready for it to be packed.

Every order can have something different to do with it such as if its been cancelled, if its been brought off Amazon or Ebay its processed differently for example. It was just a case of everyday getting used to it, I had the best manager and supervisor who helped me with any problems that would arise.

The rest of the time there would be minor things that would come up that I was still learning and would have to deal directly with warehouse or creative department about when stock would be used for shoots etc.

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e-namor-a · 6 years

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Masked pt. V

I am so sorry it’s taken me so fucking long to update.

I really fucking am.

School was kicking my ass and my mini-mester was hellish. I’m hoping that now that my school schedule is going back to normal, that I can update sooner.

Let me know if you want to be added to the Tag List, that’s still open. Lemme know if your tag doesn’t work, as I’ve currently two that don’t. And let me know what you think, pretty please, I live to hear your lovely thoughts.

This chapter is somewhat of a character development chapter. I need to flesh my story out so my arc makes sense? Does that make sense? I hope so. Anyway, this chapter also somewhat skips POV between Y/N and Tony.

CW: Emotional Shit, Death, Angst (also no Bucky but lots of Tony)

Again I really am super fucking sorry for the delay xx

Masterlist

pt.i/pt. ii/pt. iii/pt. iv

You held your breath waiting, staring at the lit up screen  

“Y/N?”, a concerned voice came out of tiny speaker sounding tinny. “Y/N, honey, hello? Please tell me something babe, I’m panicking here.”

  You stuffed your hand into your mouth to stifle the sobs that you couldn’t swallow back anymore. You wanted to tell him to help you. To tell him that you missed him and that you were sorry and that you needed help but you couldn’t get the words out. You couldn’t breathe. You were suffocating and you needed him.

  A small sob escaped you, and you heard him inhale sharply.  

“Don’t worry Y/N, I’ll be there soon. I promise. Hang on babe. I’m on my way.”  

You stopped muffling your sobs. He was coming for you.

  It took longer than Tony wanted to get to your location. You were nestled in a hidden corner of the Amazon jungle, tucked away so hidden that even with the jet at full speed the journey took several hours.

The entire time your sobs echoed in his head. He had only heard you cry one other time, and as he flew he was drawn back into the memory.

He remembered seeing you from his bench by the entrance, your twin braids that extended halfway down your back, the way you gripped your suitcase so tightly that your knuckles shone white, and the intense way your eyes looked over the school.   He remembered the man who stood beside you in a grey suit, and the curt nod you gave him before you walked into the building, never once turning back, back ramrod straight.

You had given the headmaster a dismissive glance and had walked up the stairs to the dormitories. He had gotten up and silently followed from a distance, strangely fascinated by you. You walked up to your dorm room door, taken a quick glance to each side before letting out a deep breath and almost deflating, your suitcase hitting the marble floor with a sharp smack.   Tony had seen the exhaustion and the sadness in your body, in the way that you gently pressed your forehead against the door, and your shoulders drooped. He stood watching, brown eyes knowing, as your shoulders began to shake and your knees wobbled. He saw your hands go up to your mouth and he heard your muffled sobs.

He had the urge to run up the remaining stairs and hold you, just comfort you, but he knew better. Tony looked down at his shoes, fighting his instinct to comfort and instead quietly walked back down to his book, deciding in that moment that the two of you would be friends.

Tony never told you he had seen you break down, and you had never volunteered a reason, though he had tried to get the answer out of you at several times during your long friendship. You were the most stoic person he knew, never revealing deep emotion, never letting people through the barriers in your mind.

Tony thought about everything that happened in those months you were gone and though he didn’t want to admit it, your sobs had shaken him to his core. He steeled himself for what he might see as he touched down in the jungle, taking care to cloak his plane and hide his features as best he could in the hot humid climate. He strolled out, calmly, and walked up the streets to the little house he had traced your phone to.   

He knocked on the door loudly, noting that the blackout curtains were still drawn and no lights seemed to be on. The worry he had managed to quash on his way to your house started to grow again.

He knocked again, even louder than before, before tucking his hand into his pocket letting his armor coat his hand and asking F.R.I.D.A.Y. to read your house for heat signatures. Friday whispered in his ear that she detected one in the back corner of the house and Tony knew he couldn’t wait any longer.   He peeked over his shoulder, making sure that no one was watching, and broke the door lock quickly and quietly pushing his way into the house. He lifted his hand, the repulsor illuminating the dark. He saw a pristine living room and kitchen, nicely decorated but lifeless and untouched. Tony could tell that those rooms were just for show. He continued down a small hallway to the one closed door at the end of it.

He opened the door and faltered at the smell that hit him. He saw piles of dresses, wigs, and shoes spilling out of the closet. The bed was bare except for one pillow, one torn stained sheet and a hunting knife he recognized was Barnes’. There were bottles of liquor, the rough biting moonshine kind, all over the place. Broken glass, torn paper, and plastic bags littering the room. He continued towards the back of the room, seeing the light coming out from the bottom of, what he assumed was, the bathroom door.   

He pushed the door open and he almost choked on the thick steam hitting him in the face. He looked around and saw the grimy white bathroom with a broken mirror, and at the back, the only contrast in the room, in the bathtub with water pouring on you.   Your hair was plastered to your face, and you were sitting down with your knees tucked under your chin wearing an oversized black long-sleeve and shorts. Tony rushed towards you, hands extended, ready to pull you out before cringing back in pain. The water was scalding hot but you were sitting in it without flinching. He turned off the shower and gently reached in and scooped you out. You didn’t even react, and Tony could feel his panic rising even more than before.

He went and sat you down in your pristine living room, pacing in front of you unsure of what to do. F.R.I.D.A.Y. as though sensing his disquietness, offered suggestions ranging from calling Dr. Banner, to singing, to trying to use pressure to get you to snap out of your catatonia.   

Tony faltered, remembering that young girl from all those years ago, before kneeling down and, pressing his hands on your thighs trying to get a reaction. He let out a sigh and delicately, reached up to grab your face and try to get you to focus on his. Grabbing your face must’ve jolted something in you because almost instantly Tony found himself face first on the floor, arm painfully pinned, snarling accented Russian insults being hurled at him.

  “Y/N? Honey? Please? Let go of me. You’re hurting me babe. Please let go”, Tony plead.

  He tried flexing his hand, trying to catch your attention and desperately starts singing a lullaby he had heard you sing before. Much to his surprise, his arm was loosened. He turned around and saw you kneeling on the floor, hands curled into claws and face frozen unseeing. His heart ached when he saw the pain etched in your wide unblinking eyes, now streaming tears.   Hesitatingly, he reached out and pulled your body towards him. He hugged you tightly, tucking your head under his chin, and settled you in his lap as he softly rubbed your back and crooned your lullaby.  

It had been several hours since Tony had sung that lullaby to you. You were still curled in his lap, the tears had finally run out. He had stopped singing, and rocking and was now merely stroking your hair. Tired as you were, you could feel the fear and tension in his body and you knew you owed him an explanation. He had flown hundreds of miles and saved you as best as he could.

Yes, you owed him an explanation.   

But you couldn’t bring yourself to move. To speak. To do anything but let the vast ocean of loneliness and pain drown you. It kept dragging you down and frankly and you didn’t want to resurface. You could feel yourself nodding off, blackness closing in on you when you heard Tony speak.

  “You know, I saw you arrive, that first day at boarding school. You carried yourself like a proud queen, regal and proud. I saw you.”   

Tony shifted underneath you, turning your body towards his. He put his hand under your chin to try to lift it up, and succeed despite your stubborn attempt to keep it down.

  “You were beautiful and you intrigued me. I followed you that day. I was going to be smooth and charming and try to sweep you off your feet. I followed you up the stairs towards your dorm room and I saw. I saw you.”   

The embarrassment that went through was swift and harsh, you flinched as your pale sallow cheeks flushed. You hadn’t known that anyone had seen you. No one had ever seen you cry and the fact that Tony had seen you twice, made you feel even more embarrassment.   You knew Tony felt you flinch when he wrapped his arms tighter around you. He didn’t stop talking, even though you desperately wished he would.  

“I saw you break down”, he repeated, “And I’ve never brought it up till now. Because now, now I’m more worried than I’ve ever been. More worried than I was that day. I’m fucking scared Y/N. I want to help you, I love you. You’re my sister and I can’t help because I don’t know what’s going on. So talk to me Y/N. Please. Please don’t run from me, babe. Just let me in Y/N, please.”   

Tony’s voice was quivering and his eyes shone with tears but still, you couldn’t get the words out of your mouth. They were ringing in your ears, they never stopped but you couldn’t get them out. You needed help.

Instead of answering him, you looked away and stood up. Wobbling, legs unsteady, you walked to your room going to pick up one of the liquor bottles lying around. You put it to your lips and drunk deeply, knowing it was finally time to let someone in.   

You walked back to your living room and sat cross-legged across from Tony.

  You took a deep breath and whisperingly said, “Ok. I'll tell you.”

You swung a bit more alcohol and looked deep into Tony’s eyes. You could feel fear rising in you but fuck, you had to say it or it would kill you. Everything would change the second you told him. You knew it. No one wanted someone as dark and twisty as you. Still small irrational stupid part held out hope that he wouldn’t see you differently. That he wouldn’t treat you differently. He didn’t know the whole story. He didn’t know what had happened to you, what you had had to endure. What you had had to survive.   

Maybe he would be different. Maybe he would stick by you and make sure that you were ok despite the horrors that littered your past.

God the fear and panic were coating you, you were so fucking scared but fuckfuckfuck, you had to do it. You had to.   So you took a deep breath and let it out.

 “On the morning of my fifteenth birthday, I killed my sister. I picked up a gun and shot her between the eyes in the middle of the living room. I picked her body up and buried it next to the open hole that would be my mothers grave in the rose garden at my family’s compound.”

You thought you were going to keel over from the pain, and the relief you felt. You wanted to cry and scream but one look up at Tony’s face kept you from reacting. Your old training kicked in and you pulled yourself back because on Tony’s face was a fear, mixed with disgust and pity. He was looking at you, just how you had hoped he wouldn’t. You had lost the last person in the world who loved you.

You smiled grimly and lifted the bottle to your lips again. You were a stupid foolish woman. What did you think would happen? You deserved nothing less.

You could see Tony’s mind going a billion miles an hour. Probably questioning every moment of friendship with you. You had killed your sister, clearly, you were unstable. A dark and twisty monstrosity. Why had you hoped Tony would be different? Fucking foolish.   

Your face betrayed none of your internal turmoil, you just sat there staring back at him evenly, while he gaped at you.

  Finally, he let out a horrified, “You did what?” 

His question cut you. Your last bit of hope died. You just wanted someone to fucking ask you if you were ok. You wanted to let it all out, to comfort. Goddammit, you should’ve known better than to trust him. You were too fucking much. Too much.

He was just like-  

You stopped before your mind conjured his name up or worse, his image. Neither man was ever truly going to be there for you, you should’ve known better.

Your father was right.You could hear his voice in your head now, ‘To trust is to lose. To love is to lose. And losing is unacceptable.’  

You hadn’t wanted to admit it, you thought you could have a different life. You thought you could’ve had something more than what you were given at birth. Clearly not. You were done trying to fight it. The world had predetermined that you were to be cold, brutal and unfeeling.

Why fight it?

  “I killed my sister. Shot her right between the eyes.” You smirked, cold and cruel, “Like I was trained to. ”

You finished the remaining alcohol and stood up.

“Now get out. I don’t need you, or your pity or your friendship. Trusting you was a mistake, and it’ll never happen again. I’m going to pack and when I’m done, I expect you to be gone.”   

You turned and walked back to your dark room, closing the door. You stood in your bedroom for a moment letting rage and pain roil inside you, begging for an outlet. But you knew better now, you controlled your emotion, not the other way around.

  Centered, you began moving around the room, grabbing what you needed.

Tony still sat in a dazed shock. You had murdered your sister? Had he heard you right? He wanted to ask you to repeat yourself but he knew that he had heard correctly, it wasn’t a misunderstanding. His Y/N, his little sister, had killed her sister.

His mind couldn’t move beyond that, even as he saw you slide your mask into place, even as he saw you drink deeply.

The only thing his mind could come up with to ask was a strangled, “You did what?”

It was a stupid thing to ask, he knew it as soon as the words left his lips but he couldn’t help it. He had to know what happened because his mind couldn’t understand what you had told him.  As soon as he heard your answer he knew that if he didn’t act quickly, you were going to pull away from him. He wasn’t going to let that happen.

  He watched you finish the alcohol and he saw the cold fury in your eyes, and the cold cruelty, as you smirked told him you wanted him gone. Once you turned to walk away, he shuddered. He couldn’t recognize you anymore. You were transforming into someone else.   

His mind went into overdrive, he was losing you and there was no way he was letting that happen. He ran to your room, breaking down your door.

  “No Y/N.”

You were standing by the empty bed, still as a statue with some scraps of fabric in your hands. He walked slowly to you, voice firm.

“You’re not leaving. We’re family. You’re all I have left. I’m not letting you leave. You can push everyone else out but not me. I will not abandon you.”  

He saw you flinch at his final declaration. If he hadn’t been looking, he would’ve missed it. It was almost imperceptible, and in that moment he knew what he had to say. He realized what you needed to hear.

How could he have been so slow in realizing it?

  He reached out and grabbed you, turning you towards him.   “I will not walk out on you. I will not leave you. I am your brother and I will never, as long as I live, abandon you. I care about your past because I can see how it is killing you. But no matter what you tell me, I won’t walk out.”

You could feel yourself reaching your breaking point. God fucking dammit. Why couldn’t he leave you be? You wanted to cry. Tony had just said what you wanted to hear all your life. What you had wanted to hear since you were a child. But now you didn’t know if it was worth it. Could you trust him?

  Again you heard your fathers voice in your head, ‘To trust is to lose. To love is to lose. And losing is unacceptable.’

You stood, still as a statue throughout Tony’s declaration. You so desperately wanted to give in but you didn’t know if you could trust him. No one stayed for you. No one. Not your mother and not your sister. Could you trust him with your past and be assured that he would be there by the end of it. 

Tony was holding you, and it felt so good to be cared for. You were going to break. You knew it. You couldn’t hold it in.   

Again, your father's sneering voice entered your head, ‘You are pathetic. I trained you better. You are cold. You are unfeeling. You are unbreakable. This is a failure. This is unacceptable.’

Tony was shaking you, trying to bring you out of your head.   “Y/N, babe, trust me. Please. I’m here through it all, I swear on my life. Please Just let me in. Please, I’m begging you. Let me in.”

And suddenly you really couldn’t hold it back anymore. And with a great gasp, your mask finally broke.

You collapsed into his arms letting out a heartbroken wail, you sobbed, “I killed her. I killed her. Oh, God. Please make the pain stop. I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. Tony help me. He told me to and I killed her. Why God? Why? Help me. Please help me.”

__________________________________________________________

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How To Prepare Soil For Vegetable Gardens | The Tiny Life

Having taught people to garden for years, many people want to know how to prepare their soil so they can start a vegetable garden. If you talk to people who have been growing for years, you’ll notice they spend a lot of time building the soil in their garden beds.

You're reading: How To Prepare Soil For Vegetable Gardens | The Tiny Life

For first time gardeners I always recommend to start small and because each patch of dirt is different, I recommend starting with a raised beds, which is nothing more than building a bed of soil on top of the ground instead of in it. You can add sides made out of wood, edging or other materials as a side wall, but it isn’t required, mounded dirt works just as well if you’re on a budget.

Building A Raised Bed Frame

For most people they want to have the tidy look of a wooden frame and it can be done quickly for little money. Start with three 2×6’s and cut one of them in half. This will form the four sides of the bed and create a bed that is 4 feet wide by 8 feet long.

This is an ideal size because it minimizes the number of cuts (pro tip: big box stores will cut it for free for you) and at four feet, you can reach to the middle from either side without having to stretch too much. A few screws will make a solid frame for you to fill in the dirt with.

Turn The Soil Below

Even though we are going to build a bed above the ground, we want to break up the soil below it so that our plant’s roots have an easier time of penetrating the ground as they grow. Ideally you would shovel off the top layer if it is grass, but I’ve done it both ways. Removing the grass below will help reduce weeds coming up later, so it’s often worth the effort.

If the soil is pretty bare, what I’ll do is rake the top then go buy a gallon jug of white vinegar to douse the little bits of weeds or grass with the vinegar to kill a few days before I build my bed. White vinegar will work well to kill the weeds in spot treatments, but if you have more than 10% coverage, I’d just scrape the top off completely.

The last part is take a “digging fork” and just break up the top few inches of soil, it can be pretty chunky because we’re going to cover it all with our soil bed mix soon anyway. Don’t get too tied up in making it perfect, this is a really a rough pass that we do quickly and move on.

Read more: 8 Natural & Homemade Insecticides: Save Your Garden Without Killing the Earth

Garden

Like A Pro

Learn How With Our

Beginner Gardeners Guide

Mixing The Perfect Soil To Grow In

First off, there are many different options here and if you ask 100 people you’ll get 101 recommendations. So understand that if someone uses something different, that’s fine. For most people just starting out I try to make it really simple and we can get into more of the nuances later. So use this mix to start and in a few years, start to try different things. We want to get you to gardening as quickly as we can and if you get caught up in what mix is the best, you’ll never actually start gardening.

So I use a mix of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss. Typically I buy for a single 4 foot by 8 foot bed that’s around 6 inches deep the following:

10 bags of compost (one cubic foot size bags)

1 bale of compressed peat moss (three cubic feet size)

1 bag of vermiculite (2 cubic foot sized bags).

1 small bag of Bone Meal

1 small bag of Blood Meal

If you don’t know what these are, just print this post off and bring it with you to any big box store, they’ll know exactly what you need from this list. If the employee doesn’t know these items, it’s best to find someone else because these are gardening 101 supplies.

Compost

For compost you’ll find a lot of different options, my favorite is “mushroom compost” which you can find bags at any big box hardware store. A close second is “Black Kow” compost. I’ll often grab a few of each to make up my 10 bags for my bed.

If you can’t find these specific ones, it really isn’t a big deal, use whatever compost you can find at your local store or garden center. Compost provides a lot of nutrients to your plants and serves as the base for seeds to root into.

Vermiculite

Vermiculite is essentially rock dust crushed up, it provides a lot of minerals for your plants, but it’s main function is to act like a sponge for water. Be sure not to get confused with perlite, it’s not the same. This one might take some calling around to find, if there is a local gardening group they might have some good leads.

I will also add a note here that if you start searching around about vermiculite, you’ll inevitably run into an old timer that will make the point about asbestos in vermiculite. This is something that we had to worry about 40 years ago, but today there is no source allowed in the USA or Canada that doesn’t carefully screen and test for this. The myth still persists today, but you should have zero concerns because the industry has long made changes to prevent this.

Often garden centers or seed/farm supply places carry it. I’ve even seen it in small bags at your big box hardware stores. If you can’t find it consider purchasing a few bags off of Amazon, while it’s a bit more expensive locally, you can buy a few of these bags of vermiculite and be good for a 4×8 bed.

Read more: What Is Dolomite Used for With Plants?

Peat Moss

The last part of the soil mix. This fluffs up the soil, allows for good oxygen infiltration and also acts like a sponge to hold in moisture until plants need it. This can be found anywhere and they type or brand doesn’t matter. The only thing I’ll suggest is make sure you get it from the soils section where you’d find your bags of compost or near the bags of mulch section. Sometimes they sell small bags that are meant for growing orchids, these are often expensive, but the ones in the bagged compost section is usually sold “compressed” for very cheap ($10-$20 for 3 cubic feet compressed).

A common question that comes up around peat moss are concerns about if peat moss is sustainable. It is true that 10 years ago peat moss was harvested from natural wet lands, but today it is done in a manner that is regenerative. If you are still concerned, consider sourcing coconut coir which is a material similar to peat moss but made from the waste product of coconut husks. In the end, I suggest you don’t get too caught up in your first year or so, just get your first year under your belt and then work on improving in later years.

Bone And Blood Meal

I prefer to use bone meal and blood meal, but there are many options. Obviously from their names, they are a animal sourced product. Those wanting a non-animal source can try seaweed meal or fertilize, you can buy seaweed fertilizer here. Bone and blood meal are organic sources of the major nutrient (NPK: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium).

Since we are starting out with such good ingredients, we don’t need much of these. If we were starting with the soil in ground, there may be need for more as directed from a soil test, but since we are building our own soil we don’t need a soil test for our first year or two. I start out with one large handful of each, mixed evenly across the whole 4×8 raised bed.

Mixing It All Together

Some people will use a tarp to mix the soil together, I just skip that and dump everything in a pile in the framed bed, then mix with my hands or a shovel. If you choose compost that is moist, but not sopping wet it will mix easier. Sometimes this means pulling off the top few bags at the garden supply place so you get to a lower layer of bags that haven’t soaked up any recent rain.

Here is my basic approach:

Take your peat moss bale and place it in the bed

With a shovel stab the plastic in a line to break open the bale

Turn it over to dump the peat on the ground and remove the plastic

Shake out half your vermiculite on top of the peat moss, set the rest aside

Grab one large handful each of bone meal and blood meal, sprinkle across the bed

Place a bag of compost in the bed, stab with shovel to dump on the pile

Repeat with compost about half your bags

Using the shovel and hands, mix it all up until it’s well mixed

Add remaining materials and mix it all up

smooth out the top and give the soil a brief water

How To Water Your Garden

You want to water it a few days before you plant if you can, this will let all the water to absorb into the peat moss and vermiculite. Water for a count of five and then stop. Again, counting to five, if the water fully absorbs into the soil so there is no sheen on the dirt from the water, water again for a count of five. repeat counting to five until the water doesn’t absorb all the way in five seconds. This is a good indicator that the soil is nicely saturated with moisture, but not soaking.

In the end building your soil will set you up for success for years to come. Following this formula and starting small, you will have a better drastically easier time because we’re not trying to fix our existing soil or battle weeds. Start with one 4×8 bed, then next year go a little bigger. The number one thing I see is new gardeners burning out their first year because they took on too big of a garden.

Your Turn!

What are your garden plans this year?

What tips have you learned?

By Ryan Mitchell on April 24, 2020 / Gardening, Homesteading

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

source https://livingcorner.com.au/how-to-prepare-soil-for-vegetable-gardens-the-tiny-life/

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