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heartfulofsighs · 3 years

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Nice Things…

Hello All! Coming back with little writings here and there as my inspiration comes along. A little episode inside of the Something to do with Jackson sphere (1, 2)

Let me know what you think! @negrowhat you know I gotta tag you in everything lol

Jackson decides you both are in need of a little rest and relaxation. Nothing is better then a nice beach house complete with a gigantic bath tub.

About 4k words; Warnings: Very light smut like its super light, but I’m obligated to say it includes fingering a praise kink and a bathtub.

Laundry shouldn’t be difficult. Well in retrospect it wasn’t difficult at your old apartment. The laundry room there was stocked with 5 very old very worn washing and drying machines. They were faithful and predictable. They only had about 3 options and 2 dials. Simplicity at its best. You missed them every time you had a load to wash and dry. You had been living in Jackson’s apartment for months and you still couldn’t figure out his machines. For one thing they were sleek and black, very modern, apparently super efficient. They worked via a touch screen and the breath of options that appeared every time you fired them up made you nervous. Twice you had shrunk a favorite article of clothing. You had also ruined your running shoes, the washing machine seemed incredibly aggressive to you. But today was going to be different. This was your only task. You could do this. The touch screen lit up, you took a breath, the beeping started and an array of options appeared. Water temperatures, agitation speeds, your finger hovered over the first option- “BABY, THIS IS WHERE YOU WERE!?” Jackson’s voice boomed in the laundry room. You turned, frantic that all his noise would upset whatever fragile understanding you had. “Jackson!” You hissed, “shush!”

His hands snapped to cover his mouth. He looked around his brows knitted, “what’s going on?” He whispered. “I’ just,” you turned back to the machine but you didn’t feel the same confidence, “I’m trying to figure out your stupid space aged washing machine.” You confessed, “everytime I put something in here I ruin it.” “Maybe you’re thinking about it too hard.” He walked up behind you and looked down at the same screen. “Baby?” He began slowly, he touched the screen flicking left twice until he got to a place that said ‘presets’. “Why don’t you just use these instead of trying to pick through all those other settings? This is what I use.” “You’ve got to be kidding me.” You muttered softly. There were easy to understand presets displayed proudly. “You didn’t know about these?” He asked, “I could have sworn I showed you the last time you shrunk your sweater?” You rubbed your face in continued disbelief. All this time. “The dryer has presets too, did I show you those?” He kept talking because of course to him this wasn’t a big deal. You had made it one, once again, something tiny had become huge to you. “You want me to help you with your laundry? Since I’m home today I wanna spend it with you ok?” When you took your hands away from your face he was beaming like the sun at you. You wondered how he could look so worry free. His job was so stressful, he barely got time for himself or you yet he was always beaming. You wanted to be a bit more like him. Just enough so that inanimate objects stopped irritating you for no reason. “If you want to help sure, but this stuff is kinda boring. You sure you don’t want to nap? Or I could make you something to eat?” You offered. “We can do that after, this won’t take long.” He pointed out. He wasn’t wrong. You selected the ‘delicates’ option since you wanted to wash your undies and bras first. “Ok, delicates first then.” You looked in his direction expectantly. The two baskets of laundry were already separated. “Just pass me the stuff in the blue basket.” You instructed, “I’ll do them first.” He dutifully began to hand you clothes. Some things he stopped to look at. “When did you get this bra?” He asked holding up a flowery bra that you had bought a few weeks ago. “Like two weeks ago?” You guessed, maybe three. Your hand was outstretched waiting for it. “Oh,” was all he said before he handed it over, “I haven’t see you wear it.” He said softer. “Well, it’s a bra Jackson…” You tried. He handed you a few pairs of underwear which you put in. He was a touch less cheerful as you finished loading. He helped with the detergent and softner before he got the machine started. “I feel so dumb,” when you turned to him he frowned. “I really wish I had remembered about the presets. I’ve been having a battle with this machine since I got here.” You confessed. “Baby...I really don’t think it’s a big deal.” He leaned down and pecked you. “You can ask me questions you know? Before you make a mountain out of a molehill.” “But I’m so good at that.” You pointed out. He kissed you again. His hands trailing down your arms. When you pulled away he pouted. “Let me at least finish the chores, I have a few things more I wanna clean.” You complained. He accepted this and let you go, “I’m gonna have two weeks off...do you have a lot of work?” He asked. It took you a moment to think about what you had to do, some things could wait and really only one required you to finish immediately. “I just have to finish one job then I think I can take some time off.” You stretched and looked at him with curiosity. “What did you want to do?” He pushed some of your hair behind your ear, “can we go on vacation?” “Where did you want to go?” You spoke as you tied your hair up. “Someplace warm?” You asked. He nodded, “an island!” It seemed like a solid idea. You thought it over, Jackson in his usual fashion grew impatient. He tapped his feet and poked out his lip, “we can have a private beach house…” He edged closer. “That sounds...isn’t that a little extravagant?” You often wondered when you would be able to accept Jackson’s penchant for spending on you. There was something that always made you cringe. “I don’t want you to spend too much-” He frowned and you snapped your mouth closed, “you deserve…” He began. You sighed, “nice things.” He accepted you finishing his sentence quietly before he went back to trying to convince you. “It’ll be private...no cameras...just you and me.” He had basically backed you against the machine. He leaned forward and set his hands on it, caging you in. You couldn’t look away. “We live together but I always miss you,” he kissed you and it was mostly soft. “I’m gone a lot and I feel horrible about it,” he kissed you again nibbling on your bottom lip. “Do you miss me when I’m not here?” “Like crazy.” You whispered. His eyes were on yours, pupils wide. His breathing picked up as you snaked your arms around his neck. “So let me take you to the beach, let’s spend a week....please.” His kiss was less soft more insistent. He pushed until your back was pressed to the machine, the hum seemed to burn through your blood. You kissed him back, hands gripping the hair on the nap of his neck. The time apart always made the time together feel like a single point in the universe. There wasn’t a whole apartment, a whole city, there was just you and Jackson. Starved for each other, hungry to touch and feel. He was so good at making you melt, so good at making you desperate for him. You tasted him and whimpered. The beach was suddenly a fantastic idea, more time alone for more of this. He ground against you and his moan made your knees weak. “Ok,” you managed to say against his lips. He pulled away and beamed at you. The unmistakable look of getting his way. “So we’ll go the day after tomorrow...I actually may have set it up already.” “Jackson.”

You had never been swept away before. In past relationships you had lacked the time and your partners seemed to lack the motivation. It hadn’t bothered you truly because how can you miss something you didn’t have to begin with? You thought about it as you packed and he buzzed around the room with excitement. “Don’t forget bathing suites!” He warned, “and sunscreen!” “I have both.” You answered slowly, “and something nice for dinner...right?” When you looked up he was zipping his bag up. “Yes, and then...not much else…” He raised his eyebrows quickly suggestively and you giggled. He stopped to touch his hand to your leg, “I love you in anything.” “If it was up to you, I’d just walk around naked all the time.” You said slowly. He considered this then said, “only if you want.” Then he was moving again, his energy nervous all throughout the room. “Are you almost done?” He asked. “The car will be here soon.” You just needed to decide on your one nice outfit. It had been a while since you had really gone out. He had seen you in just about everything you owned...except.... At the back of your closet you had hung a tropical print skirt and top set. It was out of your comfort zone but the print would really work. “Hurry hurry baby.” He chided. You had just enough time to grab it from the closet and stuff it into your bag. He took your hand and led you. The smile on his face relaxed yet you could feel the excitement bubbling out of him. He kissed you in the elevator before the doors opened, then led you to the long black car idling at the apartment building’s entrance. He opened the door for you and waited till you were settled before he put the bags in the trunk and got in next to you. Then his hand was back in yours like it belonged there. “Do you think you’ll get recognized at the airport?” You tried your best not to sound nervous but the thought of screaming fans made your stomach heavy. “I don’t think so, we’ll be in then out.” He brought your linked hands up for a kiss. “Don’t be nervous, it’ll be fine.” You settled into the seat and tried your best not to worry. The media in a way wasn’t very interested in you and Jackson’s story anymore. When they did happen to catch photos of you two together it wasn’t big news but most of the comments were still pretty awful. It was better for your mental health to not read them but every so often you saw yourself online and couldn’t stop yourself from looking. The general take was that you were literally a weight dragging him down. It never seemed like a good idea to comment back, better to just read it all in silence, and really it wasn’t all bad. There was a spattering of people who liked you. Who said nice things and said they were cheering on the relationship. People who pointed out that Jackson was happier with you in his life. You weren’t sure if you would give yourself that much credit but you hoped that he felt how you did. He leaned over, “what are you thinking about so hard?” He planted a kiss on your cheek startling you out of your own head. He had a way of knowing when you were thinking yourself down a rabbit hole. He redirected you gently and patiently. His hand squeezed yours again. “Nothing, just the work I left...hopefully I did enough.” You said. He knew it wasn’t that, but he didn’t push.. He kissed you on the cheek again, “don’t worry about it, just try your best to relax.” He whispered. It took you a moment of second guessing, but there was no real use in fighting with Jackson. Especially since you actually did need a relaxing vacation. There would be no worries on the beach, that’s all you had to tell yourself over and over and over again.

There weren’t any cameras, no reporters, no mobs of fans. He had his mask pulled up and dark sunglasses on. You were wearing one of his caps and your own mask pulled up. The two of you looked like any couple on their way to a romantic trip. He only let go of you to pass through security. Once his hand was out of yours there were new worries. An airplane. The last time you had flown you were forced between a grumpy office worker and a woman who seemed to have bathed in perfume. You remember distinctly how the office worker had complained about her perfume and how she called him lonely and sad. It had been for the most part very unpleasant. Suddenly all you could think about were all your worse flights. You fumbled through security, including the awkward second search. Taking his hand on the other side calmed you down a little bit. “You’re making a mountain again.” He said into your ear. “I can’t remember ever having a good flight,” you squeezed his hand and almost missed a step. “Every flight that lands safely is a good flight baby.” He chimed happily and just like that you relaxed a bit. He was right of course. Bad seatmates didn’t make a bad flight. Small things didn’t have to be big. Once again you tried to calm yourself, to convince yourself that you were on vacation. You were being swept away and it would be great if all your extra thoughts could be swept away too.

“This is the house?” After a flight you slept through, and an ok trip through the airport that involved a car rental associate who was star struck, here the two of you were. The house was directly on the beach. From the outside it didn’t look like much which made you feel a bit better. If he had rented a beach mansion or something along those lines you would have worried the whole trip about how much all of it had cost and...and if you were really worth all the trouble. But this,...this was so quaint and so cozy. “This is it.” He pulled into the driveway and then put the car into park. You got out admiring the house’s slightly cracked white paint, the green ivy underneath the two small windows on either side of the weathered wooden door. The waves sounded incredibly close and you guessed the beach was literally right in your backyard. Jackson was behind you with your bags. “Here,” when you turned he was holding the key towards you all smiles, “open her up.” He instructed. The key got stuck for a moment in the lock. You panicked per usual but it gave when you pushed your shoulder against the heavy wood. “Be careful,” he clucked his tongue at you but you ignored him. You were stuck looking at the inside. Everything was so bright. You sucked in a breath because of all the light. There were huge skylights all throughout. The entryway was neat, a small blue weathered table held a bowl where Jackson dropped the car keys. He pressed his hand to the small of your back and your feet automatically started to shuffle step forward. The entryway opened into a small kitchen with white tile and teal cabinets. The appliances didn’t look new aged or terrifying like Jackson’s. The big white well loved looking stove was comforting. Through the kitchen There was an open airy dinning room and living room. The living room ended in two gigantic glass doors that opened onto a hedge enclosed patio. The bricks were weathered but still a good red. There was a round picnic table with a few shelves, a rack with two surfboards, and what looked like a hot tub. He wrapped his arms around your waist and kissed your cheek, “let’s look at the bedroom.” It was through a doorway off the kitchen, past a half bathroom. The bedroom suite seemed to be all windows. There were three huge windows with breezy white curtains. The bed was gigantic four poster deal, piled high with pillows at the head. The comforter was white like everything else. “There’s one of those clawfoot tubs,” He led you a little further in, towards the doorway of the bathroom. The tub was huge. There was a shower head on the wall above it. Another two windows, more light. “This place is beautiful.” You finally got out. He squeezed your hand, “I know you like simple things and I thought this place would be nice. The beach is right down a back path and-” You tipped your chin up lips pursed asking for him to dip and kiss you. “Thank you so much for bringing me,” you spoke against his lips. He wrapped his arms around your waist. “You’re welcome.” His smile was triumphant. He only let you go to help unpack but beamed the entire time like a happy child. You knew this look, his eyes were centered on yours. He licked his lips before he kissed you. “I picked this house because it’s cozy and…” He trailed off to kiss you again. “And?” “And you never wanna have fun in my bathtub so I made sure that this house had one that was so big you couldn’t argue with me about soaking together.” He explained. “Jackson.” He beamed again his face back to innocence, “don’t you want to soak with me?” He asked. “You don’t just want to soak,” you pointed out. He shrugged, “humor me.” In truth he had begged to soak with you plenty of times but the tub in his apartment made you nervous. You had this vision of the two of you settling in and getting stuck or getting in and overflowing the tub in an embarrassing splash. Well maybe it wouldn’t be embarrassing to him but in your mind it was motifying. You bit your bottom lip and considered the big claw foot tub in the house again. “I guess there’s no harm in a nice soak.” You said softly. He could barely contain his excitement, he moved deliberately trailing his hands down your waist then squeezing. He searched your face before he broke out into a grin that made you laugh. “Jackson,” it was hard not to laugh at him. “Jackson right now? You don’t want to eat first?” He cocked his head, “I do, but let’s do that later, my back hurts from the flight.” You made a ‘sure’ face but didn’t argue. It was better to humor him, he gave your bottom another not so gentle squeeze before kissing the top of your head. “So a nice bath, then I’ll make you food,...” he trailed off and took your hand.

The fragrance from the bubble bath he found was making your head feel dreamy and relaxed. His back was against one side of the tub and yours was on the other. He insisted on massaging your feet and there really wasn’t any huge point to arguing. He rubbed away while you sighed slowly to yourself. “You have the cutest little feet.” He murmured. “They’re so gross.” Your response was automatic, years of having being told they were flawed in some way meant that you were use to parroting back the words when you were complimented. “They’re perfect on you.” He dug deep into the sole of your foot and you couldn’t help but groan. “Always say nice things about yourself.” He murmured. “Yeah I know.” You sunk lower into the water and he took the invitation to work his hands up your leg. It was hard for you to say nice things about yourself all the time. You were use to your self deprecating jokes. But he was quick to redirect them, he always told you to make it nice instead. His hands were steady on your body focusing your mind back into the moment. It was never gonna be just a soak, but you didn’t do anything to stop him. He felt the back of your knee and a shiver ran up your body. His eyes were focused on your skin, “you’ll let me do this at home now right?” He pulled himself a little closer so his hands could go further up, “a nice hot bath, foot massages.” “You’re very good at them,” your voice was barely above a whisper. His eyes seemed to darken. He leaned farther forward, upsetting the water and bubbles so he could kiss your forehead. Under the water his hand had made it all the way up which meant his fingers were in a prime position to rub you where you were most sensitive. He kept the pressure light, teasing you. A whine broke past your lips. He ducked his head and kissed you. “I want you to relax,” he said softly against your lips, he dipped his fingers inside of you. It was so hard not to squirm, he pulled them back and forth slowly before he stopped. You gripped the sides of the the tub and tried to urge him to move. His eyes were mischievous. “Jackson,” You tried to roll your hips to get him to do anything but tease you. He cocked his head, “say something nice about yourself.” The command confused you. Your brow furrowed and for a moment you were confused, “what?” He pulled his hand completely away and touched your face instead. “I read that it’s nice to hear compliments from others but reinforcing it with words you say to yourself is even better.” His voice was earnest his hand dipped into the water again and found your breast. “Something nice…” He played with your nipple and you whimpered. Your mind was reaching for something, any sort of compliment that would make sense. “I like my thighs.” He beamed, triumphant, then pinched your nipple lightly, “what else baby? You’re so beautiful there’s a million things to compliment.” You were so use to his praise that it was hard to give yourself the same attention. He switched to your other nipple and kissed your forehead again. “One more.” He encouraged. You swallowed, his hands sending pleasure and want all throughout your body. You willed your brain and your mouth to talk, to say something so he would give you what you needed. “I have nice skin...the cream you gave me makes it so soft.” You admitted. He liked that, he kissed you harder. He had both hands involved now, tickling the sides of your tummy. The giggle that escaped your mouth made his smile even wider. “The most perfect skin.” He spent the rest of the bath praising you. Cooing all his favorite compliments while he played with your body. It didn’t take long before your hands gripped the side of the tub and you called his name. Your body locked and then the pleasure ripped through your limbs in what felt like a blaze. Dimly you knew you had splashed water and maybe that would have embarrassed you, but there were more important things. Like the way you still shook while he kissed you everywhere he could reach. If you felt dreamy before your mind was downright foggy now. “You liked that baby?” He asked, finally pulling away to look at you. Your bones felt like jelly, thank god the tub wasn’t too deep. There was no doubt in your mind you would have melted further into the water. It took you what felt like hours to barely nod your head and indicate that yes you had indeed liked it. “It’s so cute when you say my name like that.” he went back to sitting across the tub from you, a smug smile on his face. You didn’t know what face you were making but hopefully it was satisfied. “Let’s just spend the rest of the time here.” You finally got out. He didn’t argue with you, just rested his head on the rim of the tub, “as long as you’re happy that’s all I care about.” You sat up a little, “I’m the happiest I’ve been in forever.” “Perfect.” He spoke softly and maybe it was more to himself than you but he was right. The feeling was perfect.

#jackson wang #team wang #got7 jackson wang #jackson wang smut #jackson wang fanfic #jackson takes you on vacay #and it was magical times #tub time #who doesnt love a good soak #kpop fanfic #something to do with jackson universe #say nice things to yourself

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hood-ex · 3 years

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Dick stares at the ceiling of his darkened bedroom for what feels like forever before the alarm on his phone starts going off. The Backstreet Boys song that Babs had set as his default alarm fills the room with a chorus of, “Everybody! Rock your body right! Backstreet's back alright!”

He normally tries to shut the obnoxious song up as soon as it goes off, but, well, there isn’t really anything normal about Dick’s current situation, and he figures that letting the song play out for a little longer than usual might curb his feelings of homesickness.

It fades into background noise as he flings off the covers and rolls out of bed, wincing as his bare feet meet the chilled wood floor. He blindly turns in the direction of the Alexa device and—wait. It’s called Cora in this universe, not Alexa.

Right.

“Cora, turn on Dick’s bedroom lights,” he says to the small white device that’s sitting on the bedside table. Cora glows green to indicate that she heard the demand, and the lights flicker on immediately.

Dick squints at the sudden brightness and stumbles his way into the bathroom for a piss and a quick shower. It takes him all of ten minutes to finish. After he dries his hair with a towel, he heads to the closet and surveys the small selection of clothes that are all in his size but aren’t actually his. That’s made obvious by the fact that all the shirts are neutral colored, many of the pants are ripped at the knees, and any form of outerwear consists mostly of hoodies.

At 27-years-old, Dick can’t imagine himself wearing ripped jeans. He knows from what Alfred told him when he arrived here that this universe’s Dick is only 19. Still, even when Dick was that age, he’d been wearing outfits that were considered more fashionable.

He figures the casual wear has something to do with the fact that this universe’s Alfred and Bruce are way more laid back in both manner and appearance than his own. Just yesterday, Bruce had been wandering around the kitchen in nothing but briefs and a t-shirt, something Dick's Alfred would definitely not have been pleased about.

He grins at the memory and surveys his options one last time before pulling on some light wash jeans and a beige colored Stussy shirt. He goes for a watch next—this Dick is apparently a watch guy because he’s got like six of them—and while he’s in the middle of fastening it to his wrist, he’s startled by Cora suddenly glowing green and emanating the sound of a bell ringing.

Alfred’s pre-recorded voice then comes through the speaker and says, “Breakfast is ready. Please make your way downstairs before it gets cold.”

Dick has to admit that out of all the things that are different about this alternate universe, having Alfred take full advantage of Cora’s abilities is one of the most amusing. Also, weirdly convenient. He’ll have to see about teaching Alfie how to use Alexa when he gets back home.

The Backstreet Boys are finally silenced once Dick turns off the alarm. He shoves his phone in his pocket before following the heavenly scent of food towards the kitchen.

The first thing he sees when he walks in is Bruce is sitting at the table with a tablet, no doubt reading this morning’s news. He’s already dressed in a black polo with the Wayne Enterprises crest embroidered on the breast. It’s tucked into a pair of gray trousers that are nicely tapered and draw attention to his suede penny loafers. Bruce’s hair is already neatly styled into place, and as Dick takes a seat across from him at the table, the smell of spicy cologne hits his nose. He can’t help but feel a little sad that the cologne isn’t the same as what his Bruce wears.

Bruce sets the tablet to the side when Dick finally settles in his seat. His soft blue eyes roam over Dick’s face in a way that Dick’s come to be familiar with since landing in this universe. He figures it’s because he looks a little different than 19-year-old Dick and that Bruce is probably curious about what his boy will look like in eight years. Either that or he just misses his kid in the same way Dick misses his Bruce.

“Morning, Dick,” Bruce greets with a smile, his tone rather chipper.

Bruce’s upbeat attitude and smiles had thrown Dick off when he’d first arrived in this universe, not having seen his own Bruce act like that since it was just the two of them against the world.

“Good morning, Master Dick,” Alfred greets while he gathers two plates from the marble island in the middle of the kitchen. He’s decked out in his white apron which looks pristine as always.

“Morning,” Dick says. He reaches for the carton of milk in the middle of the table and carefully pours it into the glass that’s been preset next to his placemat.

Alfred swoops in with the two plates and places one in front of Dick and the other in front of Bruce. Dick nearly curses in excitement when he sees what it is.

“A full English breakfast, Alf? Aw, you shouldn’t have,” he says, and his stomach rumbles loudly as if telling him to shut up and just eat. “But I’m so glad you did.”

“Me too,” Bruce says, having already taken a bite out of a sausage. “Thanks, Alfred. This is great.”

Dick hums in agreement and quickly works on lathering his bread with some of the beans, meat, and eggs.

“Thank you, sirs. I figured Master Dick might like it, seeing as he mentioned it’s something my counterpart enjoys making.”

“You figured right,” Dick says after he finishes swallowing a mouthful. “Back home, I’d eat one of these plates so fast that Alfie would get all Shakespeare on me.” With a switch in accent and tone, Dick imitates Alfred and says, “‘He hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his!’”

Something like pride fills his chest when both Bruce and Alfred’s faces scrunch up in laughter. Bruce’s eyes crinkle at the corners, and Alfred covers his mouth with his hand to hide his amusement.

Dick’s just glad they have something like Shakespeare to relate to even though he knows that this universe's William Shakespeare only wrote half the number of plays that are in Dick’s universe. Not seeing the recognition on Bruce and Alfred’s faces when he had quoted Romeo and Juliet at them the other night had broken his heart if only because it’s quoted frequently in his family.

“Sounds like Alfred alright,” Bruce grins.

“I’ll have to save that for when our Master Dick returns,” Alfred says, looking both fond and sad at the reminder of his missing boy.

“He’ll get a kick out of it,” Bruce nods, looking equally as wistful.

Dick shifts uncomfortably in his seat at the blatant display of affection for his counterpart. He can’t help but wonder if he’s being missed just as strongly back home. If he is, he’s sure it’s not being expressed as openly as this. Well, he likes to think that Babs, Tim, and Damian might have something to say about it in their own ways.

Alfred clears his throat to dispel the sudden quiet that falls over them. “Excuse me, sirs. I’ll be eating my own breakfast in the other room.”

“Going to catch up on watching You Just Got Served?” Bruce asks knowingly.

“What’s that?” Dick asks.

“A morning gossip show in the UK,” Bruce says, taking a sip of his coffee to no doubt hide his smirk from Alfred’s piercing gaze.

“Gossip,” Alfred practically scoffs as if offended by the idea that he could ever find such a thing enjoyable. He grabs his plate and cup of tea from the counter, and before he leaves the kitchen, Dick hears him mutter, “If I wanted to be entertained by gossip of all things then I would spend my days reading tabloids with your face plastered across them, Master Bruce.”

“Ohhh, burn!” Dick cackles while mentally high fiving Alfred and his quick tongue.

Bruce cocks an eyebrow. “Burn?”

Right. Universe differences.

“Where I’m from it’s something you say when someone else gets mocked or teased but, like, in a playful way.”

“Oh,” Bruce says quietly, eyes raised to the ceiling like he’s thinking. “I don’t know if we have a word like that here. I’ll have to ask Dick when he’s back.”

Dick hums in acknowledgment and falls quiet. His mind is a little occupied by all the food that’s still sitting in front of him, and he can tell that Bruce is the same way. Both of them are happy to sit in comfortable silence while they finish off the majority of their meals.

It’s only when Dick is washing most of it down with his milk that Bruce suddenly asks, “You sleep okay, Chum?”

Dick pauses at the question. Not because Bruce refers to him by the same nickname that his own Bruce calls him on occasion, but because the nickname is said with a soft look that Dick hasn’t seen on his own Bruce’s face in god knows when. He’s not sure what prompted the question, but he guesses he must look a bit rough for Bruce to bring it up.

“Kind of,” Dick admits with a shrug. He places his glass back on the table and then continues to dig into the scraps on his plate.

“Nightmares?” Bruce prods after chewing a mouthful of baked beans. His eyes are trained on Dick, and they’re unguarded in a way that his Bruce’s rarely are. It’s obvious he’s concerned, and Dick feels slightly touched that this Bruce who isn’t his dad is worried about him.

Dick’s fringe flops in his face when he shakes his head. “Nah,” he says. “My mind just wouldn’t shut up.”

Bruce hums. “Thinking about home?”

“Yeah,” Dick sighs. He crosses his arms over his chest and leans back in his chair. “Mostly just thinking about what I’m going to do if things go wrong in my universe and my Bruce isn’t able to implement the protocol.”

The protocol in this particular situation, as Dick had explained to Bruce the first night he showed up in this universe, involves a ten day wait period. He’s to standby and wait for his Bruce to get either Zatanna or Doctor Fate to open a dimensional portal to take Dick home. If they don’t come within the first ten days of Dick’s arrival, Dick is supposed to seek out the closest thing this universe has to a magic user.

On one hand, Dick is lucky that he ended up in a universe that has a non-hostile Batman who’s willing to help him. On the other hand, he’s completely fucked in that this universe’s Zatanna is on a deep space mission and isn’t due to return for another month. The League is also apparently not on good terms with Doctor Fate here, and while it’s not out of the question that they can eventually get him to help, Dick’s been told that it will be extremely difficult.

Dick knows that Bruce has already been looking into other options, desperate to get his own Dick Grayson back. For now, they’re mostly relying on Dick’s Bruce to make a successful swap.

“We’ll figure it out, Chum,” Bruce says with a comforting smile. “Worst case scenario, we wait a month for my Zatanna to get back.”

Dick bites his lip. “And if she dies on the mission?”

Bruce’s face shifts into a closed off expression that’s familiar to Dick but looks weirdly out of place on this Bruce's face. “Like I said… we’ll figure it out.”

Dick's mouth twists into a frown at the answer that is, frankly, not good enough for him. The only thing that keeps him from pushing the issue further is that he can tell Bruce isn’t satisfied with his answer either.

Dick decides to back off… for now.

#Dick Grayson #Bruce Wayne #Alfred Pennyworth #dimension travel #my fic

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years

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Survey #303

“if i can’t be loved, then i’ll be hated”

What color are your glasses, if applicable? Black. Candy corn or conversation hearts? They're both gross, don't make me pick between garbage. Do you own a lot of earrings? Not really after I weeded them out before moving. What did your backpack in high school look like? I dare say I had the dopest backpack of them all. It looked like a massive Ouija board, and the zipper was the planchet (sp?). Have you ever been to a rave? Nah. What is your favorite art medium? I have a particular fondness of oil paintings. They tend to look so smooth, and you can achieve incredible realism with them. How far away is the nearest hospital from you? Not even five minutes, I think. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital? My mom. What is your favorite car color? Pink, duh. How did you learn to type? We actually had a class specifically for typing in middle school. What style of wedding dress do you want? I don't have that set in stone yet, but I really do love ballgown dresses with long trains as well as a-lines with a moderate train. I love a lot, except really for mermaid dresses. Do you fit into any stereotype, or are you non-stereotypical? I don't know if I fit perfectly into any and really don't care. Would you want your first child to have your hair color? ???? I don't care about their hair lol?????? It would depend on the hypothetical father, in which case I'd probably find it cute, but this is so, so unimportant. Do you enjoy writing in cursive? Yeah, it just feels good and flowy to me. What is your favorite hair color? Natural? Probably blonde with natural darker undertones throughout. I like blonde hair because it's far easier to dye, haha. Now, if we're including DYED hair, rose gold or pastel pink is *chefs kiss* What is your favorite eye color? Sapphire blue, probz. Would you put your birthday on a different day if you could? Nah, it's fine where it is. What holiday is your birthday closest to? Valentine's. Do you vent on social media a lot? NOOOOOOOO. I barely post ANYTHING about myself on social media because I feel like I'm being annoying, self-absorbed, find anything I do actually interesting, or don't want people to think I'm a whiner. All I ever really do on social media is share or reblog funny shit, things I love, stuff I find relatable or inspirational, educational, important for whatever reason, etc... Do you have abusive parents? I am very thankful to say no. Is your house haunted? Doesn't seem like it. What's your favorite thing to watch on YouTube? I'm in a real WoW-related phase lately... Watching my favorite streamers, gold farming guides, and other various aspects of the game. What are five health problems that you have? I talk about the mental issues enough, so I guess I'll talk about physical stuff here. Uhhh I have very low blood pressure (it's a med side effect), I have extremely weak legs following muscle atrophy, I have bad tremors, especially in my hands (amplified by medication once again), maybe TMI but we're adults here and it's a legit issue that I have chronic and severe conspitation, aaaand then of course I have hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) to a fucking outrageous and also humiliating degree. Ooooonce again as a prescription side effect. This answer made meds sound kinda bad, I know, but really, I'd rather have the will to live and just have to deal with these than want to die everyday and not. Do you have surgery coming up? No, let's keep it that way until I lose enough weight and when I am 110% getting loose skin removal. Which family member(s) do you look the most like? My sisters, ig. People say my mom also, but I honestly don't see it. Have you ever cried while watching a YouTube video? Yeah, usually just in let's plays, but it's happened for other reasons. Are you missing a website that just shut down? Nah, none that I know of. NO. FUCKING WAIT. So, when my laptop was fixed, a LOT of shit was wiped from it, and that included all of my goddamn Lightroom editing presets. The site they were from no longer exists, so I had to use a different, pretty sub-par one to install at least a few because it helps me get a start on editing the photograph and leaning towards the "vibe" I want before spending like 15+ minutes tuning it myself. Would you be a barefoot bride? No. Which would you rather name your daughter: Eliana, Echo, Emerald, or Ellery? Ohhh, I like these. I think I prefer "Eliana," but "Echo" is a close second. "Ellery" is nice, but it sounds too much like "celery" to name my kid that lmao. Which would you rather name your son: Maverick, Matthew, or Moses? Ugh, none, honestly. But "Matthew" wins. When was the last time you gave a speech? Like a *legit" speech? Probably not since uhhh... I guess when I argued my disability case at court? Does that even count? Have you ever been in a stampede? Well, never seen this'n in a survey before, so good job, lol. No. If you were a fairy, what color would you like your wings to be? It would depend on what I wore, really. And my hair. But probably light pink. Would you rather name your son Storm, Skylar, Sorin, or Solomon? "Sorin." "Skylar" is SO Southern, and "Solomon" sounds like the creepy kid all his classmates avoid and I ain't putting my kid through that. Did you read a devotional this morning? Not my jam. Would you rather be named Arizona, Alaska, Cali, or Georgia? Hm... "Alaska" is actually kinda cool???? And I'm white as fuck so lol????? I wouldn't mind to nickname of "Ally," anyway. Are you repulsed by ugly reptiles? lololol bro get out Did all your friends know about your first crush or was it a secret? I was definitely secretive and shy about it when I first started getting crushes. Do you ever feel insecure about going out without makeup? I feel insecure either way, so... How many different natural hair colors are there in your immediate family? So, this is a hard question to answer. My mom was born with brown hair, but it darkened to almost black; only her daughter Katie inherited that. By some genetic magic, Dad had blond hair as a kid, but it also turned black. Like... how?????? I was born with dirty blonde hair like him, and mine turned an average brown with age. My immediate sisters have always had brown hair. What is your favorite online game? World of Warcraft is ballin'. Would you ever want to be famous and sign autographs? Ha, the idea of signing autographs is awful... I can't physically write very long without my carpal tunnel flaring up. Do you like your shirt to be loose or tight? LOOSE. Especially as a bigger person, tight shirts are just really uncomfortable. What is your favorite Spanish name? I don't know nearly enough to answer this. Would you rather visit Asia or Europe? I think Asia is, in general, more interesting and prettier as a whole, but I guess I'm drawn to European culture being more like my own and there are specific locations I'm interested in, like Germany or Scotland. So to answer the question, I guess Europe wins. Are there any Asians in your family? I don't believe so. Have you ever had colored braces? Haha yeah, I did that when I had them. Do you take birth control pills? Yes, just for period cramps. Without them, they can be immobilizing for me. If you live in the USA: do you feel free and safe? Ha, no. Well, not *entirely*. Have you ever been sick on your birthday? I was recovering from the stomach virus, if that counts. As in I still got sick the day before and felt iffy on my actual bday. 17th, I think? Is talking about your past painful for you? Yes. Are you a member of any support groups online? I'm a member of The Mighty site, if that counts. When I'm feeling very, very sound of mind and helpful without all the negativity being a detriment to myself, I do like going on there and trying to help or comfort people. Have you ever called a suicide hotline? Yes, and the line was busy, and that's when I decided I was a goner. Do you ever fantasize about revenge? I uhhhhh... sometimes. What's a movie you would recommend to someone who never watches movies? Ohhh, that's hard. I don't really watch movies either, and I'm trying to think of one that essentially anyone would like, so hm. Oh, Coco is absolutely a possibility. That movie touched me so, so deeply and is high on my favorites list. It's impossible to not feel the emotions. Do you want to have grandkids? Hell, I don't want kids. Do you want to be an aunt or uncle? I already am one, and I love being an aunt. Who was your favorite Spice Girl? I don't remember their names or characters in general. Did you make a lot of home videos growing up? I mean *I* didn't, but Mom filmed quite a few. Do you enjoy babysitting? NO. What's an unpopular opinion that you have? Avoiding some political ones, uhhhh. OH. HERE'S ONE. THE SCENE AESTHETIC IS FUCKING CUTE AND NOT CRINGEY AND YOU CAN FIGHT ME ABOUT IT. Are you attracted to the opposite gender, same gender, or both? Both are A+. Was your first crush on someone of the same gender or opposite? Opposite. As a kid, I didn't even fathom the concept that women could date women. What is something you'll never eat again? Why? Brussel sprouts. Fucking disgusting. What is currently happening that is scaring you? Besides the very obvious answer of "Covid," I worry about my mom a lot. She's so weakened after all the chemo and meds and can do literally less than I can without heavily breathing and sweating. I just worry a lot that cancer will return sooner than we hope; I don't want it to EVER come back, but doctors say it is very, very likely at one point or another because she was so very close to Stage 4. What would be your personal hell? Being completely and entirely isolated forever while somewhere hot and humid, lol. And play one of my trigger songs on repeat eternally. What made the "weird kid" at your school weird? There was this poor guy named Alfred that was VERY clearly depressed out of his mind, and I heard him speak maybe once through all of high school, and the entire class couldn't believe it. He always sat way in the back and never smiled. I wonder how he is nowadays. What is a word you personally find offensive? "Retarded" personally offends me the most when misused and spoken as an insult. What instantly puts you to sleep? Now that is HARD to do; I have a ridiculously hard time going to sleep. The easiest way though would probably be me being drained from an emotional breakdown. That is so exhausting that I'm capable of crashing pretty fast and hard. What song is in a language you don't speak, but you love it anyway? I adore Rammstein, so there's plenty. I'll probably say "Donaukinder" is their best. What is something you would like to do if you weren’t judged for doing it? I keep that I RP a complete secret in my "real" life for this reason unless it's like, pried out of me. What's a movie you think everyone should watch? Why that one? Johnny Got His Gun. See how goddamn disgusting war is. What was the most unexpected good thing that's ever happened to you? Ha, realizing I was bisexual after once being homophobic. What is the funniest fact you know? Oh man, I know a lot of random trivia shit, really, so it's hard to say. Maybe that quokkas throw their offspring at predators to distract and escape from them... As awful as that is, c'mon, you gotta admit it's funny and shocking with just how adorable they are. What was your 'mic drop' moment? Oh, I don't know. Possibly when I publicly came out as bi on Facebook and made it abundantly clear that I gave no shits about some homophobic friends and family & I was beyond willing to let anyone's ass go over it. What's the kindest way a stranger has treated you? I remember as a kid at McDonald's, the woman in front of our car paid for our food; apparently seeing a mom, dad, and three kids in a van was enough that she wanted to just be kind and give us a smile. We have no idea who she was, never saw her face or anything, she was just a sweet woman. What is the biggest design flaw of your body? Okay, I'm going to let go of all hatred for my body weight-wise and just think of this as from a strictly natural design perspective, in which case I'd say my toes are too small. What age are you afraid of turning and why? 30, because I'm terrified of getting there and seeing I've possibly gone nowhere. What is the strangest thing you have ever felt? I'm keeping this question in just because I think there could be some interesting answers for others, but I'm witholding my answer because nobody wants or needs to know lmao. What makes someone immediately unlikable? Acting better than others and belittling. Who's a villain you sympathize with and why? D A R K I P L I E R because of his origins and overall purpose and just simply existing. What is something you regret to NOT have done? I have this oddly weird regret of not going like, all-all the way with He Who Shall Not Be Named????? Idk why though????? Considering I loved him way too much and I was a reckless and impulsive person who probably at some point would have wound up accidentally pregs????? What a fuckin trip that woulda been. What movie changed your life for the better? None have really "changed my life." What book you think should be directed as a film? Oh, idk. Most I can think of have been. Of all the decades you've lived in, which one have you liked best? The 2000s, probably. A carefree kid. How are you doing today? I'm exhausted. While out with Mom and my sisters yesterday, we got behind a van whose driver was obviously drunk or high off his goddamn ass, and he was swerving EVERYWHERE, nearly shoving so many cars off the road. Mom called 911 to get in contact with highway patrol to report his dumb fucking ass in. I was having an absolute panic attack and cried quietly like the entire 45 or so minute drive home. I was just so, so upset because this is why I don't fucking drive, and I felt like I'd made my sister (who was driving) mad because she had to firmly tell me I had to calm down (I was hyperventilating and talking to myself to try to calm down) if she was going to focus and keep us safe. She later ensured me she wasn't mad, but I still wasn't the same the entire rest of the day. Anyway, I slept hard last night but had two nightmares, so I'm still really tired today. I'm trying to keep myself really distracted. What's something your relatives don't know about you? A whole lot really, considering beyond my very immediate family, I see almost nobody because they live many states away. What's something your parents did, which you have sworn never to do? Mom would spank us or slap an arm pretty hard if my sisters or I misbehaved or "disrespected" her by "talking back." I'm not having kids, but I would never, ever, ever, put my hands on them in any way that isn't loving. You do not teach children via inflicting fear. I also have this probably overly strong aversion to beer because that's what Dad always drank as an alcoholic. I'll probably never try it, not that I really want to because it smells awful. What's the most annoying thing your pet does? I feel like "annoying" is the wrong word for this, but Roman (my cat) can be incredibly demanding of attention and to lie on me when I'm on the laptop in bed, and sometimes I just want space and be able to clearly see the screen, haha. He will legit meow like a baby and gently swat my arm sometimes if I try to keep him back. Heeee usually gets his way. As for Venus (snek), she does nothing "annoying" either, but rather a bit concerning to a snake mom: she is usually very slow to find and strike her food. I feed her frozen/thawed mice, and she will first slither around her entire cage, tongue flicking and clearly looking for her food, even though I always place it atop the same spot on her hide, and she can have her head RIGHT beside it and still do nothing. She ultimately generally eats (as a ball python though, she's a picky eater and will occasionally reject a meal), but I of course wonder why she's odd about dinnertime... As a champagne, she does have the notorious "spider gene" in her, which can cause neurological issues, but idk if something like this could be related.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''rise rebel resist'' by otep

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theaceofgrapes-blog · 5 years

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Restoration (Defender part 3)

"Princess. Do you honestly think this is a good idea?"

"No. Not at all, Coran. But it's the only thing we can do. I don't care what he did, we're not murderers, we can't let him bleed out like a dying beast here on the ground. He's not a threat anymore."

"But he will be if we let him heal! He'll try to kill us like he did back in the Rift!" Coran stomped his foot, furrowing his eyebrows. "He's a Galra, the son of Zarkon nonetheless, and as it has been proven, they cannot be trusted!!" The Gorgeous man was fuming with indignation, both towards the Princess, and the Galra Royal bleeding out on the concrete. Nonetheless, the Crown Princess of Altea did not heed to his words and lifted the man off the ground, carrying him inside Blue. "If his restoration will be my undoing, so be it. I already gave up my life once, don't think I won't do it again if we have even the slightest chance at peace. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an healing pod to prepare, whether you're going to help me with it or not."

That was three weeks ago, at least on the planet they were. Being in a different time pocket made days on Earth go by like doboshes in there. She remembered texting Lance in what she thought were two different days, yet the messages on his device were barely five minutes apart. -This is good- she thought. -this way, we have all the time we need.- to do exactly what though, she still had no idea. Allura had been staring at the man in the pod for what felt like ages to her now, a raging storm of conflicting emotions deeply distressing her. Her torturous stream of conflicting thoughts were brought to a grinding halt by Kolivan and Krolia entering the room, drawing a surprised gasp from the Princess. They bowed, and Allura absentmindedly gestured them to stand up as she turned her head to look at the fallen Prince.

"What news do you bring? Anything that may hint towards the circumstances of his exit from the Rift, or how he survived?" Asked the Princess apprehensively. The man before her eyes was a mistery, wrapped in an enigma and tied with a pretty ribbon of misdirection. He claimed to abhor violence and was shown to be suave, elegant and respectful in his ways. Yet. He killed. This man had his hands soiled in the blood of Alteans, and he kept such an information from her! How could he, how could he do such a vile thing, to someone as innocent as her people, as Romelle! It was that name that was uttered by the two Blades.

"We found news regarding Romelle. Rather... disturbing news, may I add." It was Kolivan speaking, his deep voice echoing lightly through the otherwise empty room. "After raiding Lotor's various hideouts, we found an encrypted datalog, that, once we cracked the code, revealed a series of video diaries dating back to when the Colony was first founded. And.. well, We believe it's better if you look for yourself."

While taken aback by that statement, the Princess couldn't call herself reluctant to comply. She would've done anything to learn more about the mysterious man that so inadvertently entered into her life, completely turning it upside down. She eagerly grabbed the device from Kolivan's hands and waited for the two to leave, before sitting down on a chair by the desk and turning the contraption up. She was greeted by a list of video files, all dating back thousands of years into the past. She clicked on the first with trembling hands and almost gasped as Lotor's face showed up, looking slightly younger than he was now. Unlike his current counterpart, the Lotor of the Diary had a much more emotional approach, given away by the weak smile and weary eyes he sported, she wondered what could have ever happened to turn that soft visage into such an unreadable facade.

"Hi! Uh.. I really don't know how to start this- but here we go. I guess introductions are in order. I am Prince Lotor, son of Honerva and Blood Emperor Zarkon. During the following years, I shall document the development of our colony through these video diaries. I.. I currently am in exile, on a planet beyond the Quantum Abyss. The wildlife is pacific and most of the flora and fauna is edible, so rations won't be an issue. The lakes and rivers are also devoid of any dangerous pathogen, although the construction of a water purification station is underway. The First Altean who joined me, Petrullius, he's extremely happy to be here. Currently, he's briefing the others on what the life on here will be like, away from the grasp of the Empire... no need to hide, to constantly change appearance... no running away. Not anymore. This is our new Altea, brought forth from the ashes of the Old one."

Allura wasted no time and immediately clicked on the next one, captivated by the apparent innocence of the young Prince.

"Entry number 2, officially marking three years since the start of the colony. Everything proceeds smoothly, and the empire is seemingly unaware of our existence. Our people are thriving, and apparently, they begun working on... some sort of monument. Project Lazon is still in its drafting moments, but it looks more than promising. If the pacing of our progresses remain stable, we may be able to restore our past back to its former glory. The universe will soon remember the might of Altea."

"The might of Altea..." Allura muttered, biting the edge of her sleeve and rapidly moving on to the next entry. What was shown did not make any sense to her, none at all. If the man was so enamoured with Altea and Altean culture, why exploit them for Quintessence? She hoped that this data may harbour within its cybernetic walls the answer to her doubts. And so, entry after entry, recording after recording, Allura fell deeper into the rabbithole that was Lotor's psyche, into the labyrinthine depths of the Emperor's mind.

"Entry number 16, this day marks eight full centuries since the Colony's creation. Project Lazon, the plan to create an elite force of Alteans piloting Quintessence-powered robots, has been put on hold for the time being due to a fallacy found in Alfor's writing. But I'm sure it must have been a translation error, which will be sorted out the soonest possible. Other than that, the Colony's population has been at its all time peak, to the point we actually seemed to have skipped one person during the latest census! Haha, those sentries can be... rather unreliable at times. Said person, Romelle, she's Bandor's older sister. God she's such a sweetheart, so interested in the functioning of our Galra and Altean tech... it's refreshing to see someone willing to learn with so much animosity and glee. Oh? I think they're calling me, I better get going."

And with that, the vlog ended. She then noticed that the next entry was way closer to sixteen then all the other ones were to their previous ones, hesitant, she pressed the display to the following entry and immediately held back a shocked gasp. The man in front of her looked utterly devastated! What could have happened to bring his morale down in the span of mere weeks?

"Entry Number 17: Dark, Darker, Yet Darker. Grim is the future I see, and even after pondering all my options, Grief seems to be the only constant. It's as if the Universe itself is mocking me, reminding me of my constant failures and shortcomings. My mother- no, she's unworthy of said title. Haggar, that witch, she's found out about the Colony! About us!"

Young Lotor slammed his fist on the table, making the camera wobble.

"Romelle is a spy, a treacherous snake acting as her eyes and ears behind my back! Oh how foolish I was, to let myself trust again! The Witch has given us an ultimatum. I am to provide her with the most gifted Alteans of our Colony for her to further her sickening experiments.. failure to do so will prompt her to reveal the Colony's location to Zarkon, thus marking the extinction of Alteans as a whole. For now, I shall comply. I.. I can't let my race be wiped out because of impudence.. I'll find a way to turn this around, I have to! Oh sages help me!"

Allura robotically moved on to the next entry, unable to process anything going on at the moment. In it, Lotor was admittedly more under control, but not less devastated in the slightest, for his eyes betrayed great grief behind his best attempts at a calm and collected expression.

"Entry Number 18: I decided not to tell the truth to the other Alteans, so that panic does not spread like wildfire. It is vital for their survival that the true purpose of the Moon Base is hidden. A medical ward, where I attempt to restore back to health all the victims of Haggar's failures. To the questions that they ask, for the people who do not come back, I tell them that they lost their lives during the exploration of the Quantum Abyss. And so they've repurposed my statue as a memorial, inscribing on them the names of those they 'Lost' as if to scalpel the proof of my failures deep into my soul. Romelle.. she isn't aware of what she did. She's a clone with implanted memories and a preset killswitch. The simple thought of that rotten hag doing something as dehumanising as this.. it sickens me to the core. But perhaps, perhaps I can turn this in my favour. She truly believes her brother is on the Second Colony, and she truly believes that I'm untrustworthy.. but I can plant a seed. I'll break one of the Alteans out, and have him tell her the truth, all the truth, nothing but the truth. I alone cannot fight her, but an organised rebellion with the Alteans, we may be able to subdue her!"

The next entry, nineteen, was nothing but a two minutes video of Lotor crying his eyes out before abruptly cutting the recording. She skipped to the next entry, the last they were able to salvage.

"Entry number twenty.. everything went wrong. As I was trying to break one of the Alteans free, the alarms rang. I managed to send the pod off but the kid didn't know how to properly land. The vehicle crashed into the Holo-sphere where I had Romelle secluded but he was in critical conditions and only managed to spew a few broken words out before I had to take him back to the medical ward. I can't afford other Alteans to die, not if I can prevent it. I let Romelle run off, in hopes she would do the right thing, but she seems all the more convinced that I am the Devil. Project Lazon is to be considered a complete failure.. and, as My Generals are tracking the Trans-Reality comets, my last resort has to be put in place. From this moment on, Project Sincline is officially open."

"And so.. now you know." A feeble, raspy voice beckoned from behind her. She snapped up in shock and immediately turned her head to see the broken Prince just now trying to raise his head to meet her gaze. She didn't think twice before tossing herself in his arms, hugging him tightly and breaking into sobs, apologising profusely. Lotor was shocked, yes, but too weak to fight back. He closed his eyes with a weak sigh and slowly, gently wound his arms around her, his fingers gripping the fabric of her clothes. As the Princess that stole his heart was wetting his bare chest with her warm tears, Lotor felt all the pent up betrayal, anger, and sadness melt away. Lotor cupped her cheeks, calmly lifting her chin so to meet his gaze.

"Allura." His voice was a whisper, a murmur lost to the weakness of his body, The words of a shadow trying to break through the light.

"Your Highness.. you hurt me. You were the first person in my millennia long life I was able to fully trust, the first I could be wholly vulnerable with. After our fight.. the years spent in the rift were spent reliving our last moments together for what felt like an eternity. It's a deep scar, one that will hurt for long. However, you tried to heal me. You tried to bring me back, after finding me again, even going against Coran. You.. you tried to understand me. That, Princess, is more than anybody has ever done for me in my life, and.. it's more than I expected. I would be foolish and childish to just ignore that and focus on the painful moments, for how brief and scarce they were. I won't forgive you, Allura, because there is nothing wrong that you have done to me."

Allura was shocked by Lotor's statement, and suddenly overwhelmed by rapidly resurfacing emotions. She clung onto him for dear life, her body shaking, broken from the outpour of whimpers. Her heart stilled as she felt one of the Prince's hands press its thumb over her altean mark, stroking it with infinite gentleness and care, wiping the tears away from her face. "Your Highness.. you needn't weep. Still those tears, Oh Muse, for I haven't lost what once we shared. I have not rejected the past we lived, I didn't sway from the path we walked. Don't mourn my loss, for you haven't lost me at all. My Queen, I love you." The Altean woman resisted no longer, she couldn't deny her need to share this passion with the man before her, and so she closed the distance between them. Her arms wound around his muscular back and held it tightly, her legs were now splayed over his, straddling him, and just as that, with fierce urgency she claimed his lips for her once more, earning a surprised gasp from the half Galra below her. She breathed his breath, she tasted his lips, but it wasn't enough. She pushed past the barrier of his teeth and brought the kiss on a deeper level, losing herself as her senses faded into the haze. Intoxicated by the coppery taste, and by the incredible softness of his flesh, the Altean royal pulled away after what felt like ages, only to notice that her retrieved lover's face had turned from its classic mauve to a deep red. From her position, she could feel Lotor's heart racing like a wild horse, something that brought a sly smirk to her face. Since the pod had finished its job, she climed down and helped Lotor exit the contraption, guiding him to a pair of crutches so that he may regain motion after such a long period of immobility. As they exited the room together, They noticed Krolia and Kolivan had fallen asleep waiting for the two to exit, nestled into one another for warmth. Chuckling at the cute display, Allura decided to carry a blanket to the two and cover them with it. To avoid embarrassments, the two royals agreed not to question them on the happening after their awakening. The following days flew by with Lotor and Allura doing some much needed catching up and planning the next steps to take against Honerva, especially now that she had several Alteans under her rule.

"And so.. the Alteans in the pods were the secret team that helped you build the portal on the ruins of Daibazaal, and it was the overexposure to the Rift that got them sick?" Asked Allura, looking down in thought. "Precisely." Stated Lotor. "It was basically a race against time. The earlier I could provide free, unlimited Quintessence to everyone, the earlier that filthy, filthy hag would've stopped her barbaric experiments. I lacked the magic of Oriande, and for that reason, I was not able to restore them... I am sorry."

Allura interrupted his apology with a quick peck to the lips, having to stand on the tip of her toes to reach him. "You don't need to apologise, Lotor. You did what you could, with the methods you had. It's me, I should apologise for what I did back then... I should have trusted you, I should've let you explain yourself. I was blinded by my prejudice against your race, by the feeling of having another Altean close to me I abandoned reason completely in favour of a gut reaction. I'm.. oh so deeply sorry, Lotor, for having hurt you to such a cruel extent." Lotor smiled softly at the woman before him, and took her hands between his, holding them tightly. "Allura, my love. Worry not for the mistakes of your past, all is forgiven, and I love you." His voice was low and mellow, his tone was warm, soothing, sweet like molten gold for the Princess' ears. Allura's heart was caught in a deadly grip, threatening to crush it. This man really had given up everything to be with her, and she had shut him down so mercilessly, she wondered if she had actually been the villain all along. She bit her trembling lip and sunk into his arms again, weeping warm tears that trickled down his chest. The Galtean prince then combed a hand through her hair, smiling softly, and sheepishly kissed her forehead. "Shh, it's okay Allura, you don't need to cry. I'm here for you and with you, we will see the end of this together, I promise." Allura replied with a gentle nod, nestling into the man's thick chest and relaxing to the drumming rhythm of his beating heart. As the alien sun settled below the hills outside of her window, she guided Lotor to her bed, and the two spent the night in one another's embrace.

The following morning was wasted in softness and cuddles, with the Princess spoiling her man with chaste kisses and soft caresses, the likes of which he had never felt before. But as the noon came, the two had to rise from their shared bed and make preparations. For that day was the day the team would return to earth and organise the Universe's last stand against the Witch Haggar. Packing their things was a rather quick job, if intermitted by Coran's vigilant gaze and the knowing sneers of the two Blades, which brought a flush of red on the lovers' cheeks more than once. As they boarded the Blue Lion, a little more cramped up than before, the Princess' mind couldn't help but wonder how the paladins would have reacted to the news, in particular, a very clingy sharpshooter. The travel to Earth was safe and free from stops, and, as the Mecha landed, Allura couldn't help but wonder why the Hangar's door were sealed with the armoured blinds.

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grimelords · 6 years

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My October playlist is finished, please enjoy it. From 14 minute 70s acoustic guitar instrumentals, Armand Van Helden bangers and Christian music I’ve had a lot of feelings about this playlist has it all in four hours.

Love Love Love - The Mountain Goats: Posting on the web about Mountain Goats songs you've had a moment with is about as universal as it gets, so here's mine for this month. I woke up one morning with the line about Sonny Liston in my head one day after not listening to this song in years. John Darnielle is perhaps the only person on earth I'd trust to write a song about Kurt Cobain's suicide and he does a very simple and beautiful job of it here. Ben's My Friend - Sun Kil Moon: I discovered Sun Kil Moon way after I probably should have via that guy who was doing parody songs of him last year. This song is fantastic because it takes so long to make its point, and like so much good art is just some middle aged guy recounting his every thought and movement for four minutes. You Were Meant For Me - Jewel: I was trying to remember how Dreams by Fleetwood Mac went and all I could think of was this song, and settled on singing it to myself instead. Sober - Lorde: Sorry to be a normie but listening to Lorde break down this song on an episode of Song Exploder was incredibly good and it definitely made me appreciate the way the brass sounds a lot more. Melodrama really does get better and better as a cohesive whole the more I listen to it. Night Moves - Bob Seger: We as a society need to bring back Power Voice I think. I've been obsessed with this song for months now and as far as I can tell Bob Seger has precisely zero other good songs, which is unfortunate because this one is so good. This also is another song about getting the Lamenting Night Hornies because you heard a thunderstorm that reminded you of the times in your youth that you Fucked and it's, in my opinion, very beautiful. Cairo - San Fermin: This is on the list not only because it's a good song but also unfortunately because of Podasts. San Fermin guested on an episode of Improv4humans and got absolutely roasted about this song so I highly recommend the ep. UFO - Sneaky Sound System: It's unfortunate that Sneaky Sound System's highest played song according to Spotify is the Nicolas Jaar remix of Big (an all time top ten piece of music) because it's really overshadowed the rest of their incredibly good singles. Do you remember 2006? What a time to be alive. UFO (Van She Tech Remix) - Sneaky Sound System: This is my absolute pick of the month and I have been raving to everyone who'll listen but nobody cares, I cannot get enough of it. Do you remember when Justice came from France to bless us all with the secret of bass and we betrayed them by inventing Skrillex not three years later? Van She remember. Charlie Chazz & Rappin Ralph - Duck Sauce: I believe there is a real argument to be made that any song that doesn't refer to the listeners collectively as Party People is absolutely worthless. Duck Sauce's album is a completely underrated classic in my opinion, it's a go-to mood elevator from beginning to end and for some reason has a subplot thoughout about aliens transmitting coded messages to influence human evolution, which is a big thumbs up from me. I Took Your Picture - Cults: Guess what Cults are still really really good. I haven't given this album enough time yet but this bassline has invaded my dreams so that's a good sign. Pavement - City Calm Down: The way this layers and builds into and through the chorus is so satisfying. I love this sort of thick synth production and the contrast between the different registers of his voice is so satisfying as the chorus comes back again. Pogo - Digitalism: Australian electronic music had a real moment around 2007 between Digitalism, Van She, The Presets, Midnight Juggernauts, Cut Copy and all them and I'm realising retrospectively that it was very, very good. Semicircle Song - The Go! Team: The world's best band are back and their new album isn't out until fucking January! This song features big horns and a bridge that's just a montage of children telling you their star sign so that's how you know it's good. The Garden's All Nighters - The Number Twelve Looks Like You: It's a real shame that #12 broke up after this album because it feels like they were really on the edge of something. Over 4 albums they morphed from a straight ahead grind band into some sort of math-prog thing approaching it from a whole different direction to everyone else. I love the idea of writing such an expansive, complex song seemingly just about living in New Jersey. The way it transitions into the groovy latin part is so nice and the solo is just beautiful; and unlike other bands in the same sort of sector they never make a joke of genre switches either, they just keep moving forward with a smile. Paris/Orly - Deux: I forget how I first came across this album but it’s easily the wankiest thing I absolutely love. An 80s French synthpop duo that only ever released a cassette and some singles that got reissued by a label called Minimal Wave a few years ago. It is absolutely the best. New wave mixed with Kraftwerk and synthpop except incredibly french and cool as well. I constantly have their song Game And Performance in my head but this one was my obsession this month. Walking Into Sunshine (Larry Levan 12" Mix) - Central Line: There’s something very authentic about disco songs that are lyrically all about working all week all day every day, and desperately needing a break to perhaps, dance your worries away in a new york discotheque. Cradle In The Crater - The Number Twelve Looks Like You: This is maybe my favourite #12 song because it appears to be about some kind of super child who came from space and perhaps wrought havoc on the citizens of earth, but told in a very real and emotional way like it’s a story about someone they really knew. It reminds me of Mother 3 and the good times I had as a teen playing that game with my best friend, so that’s an added bonus. Under The Ice (Extended Version) - Topo & Roby: Italo disco forever. This song is a duet between a woman and a robot where they relay the story of him coming from a distant planet in a spaceship and crashing on the north pole then getting trapped under the titular ice where he waits to I think murder me. Now that I think of it it’s world similar to Cradle In The Crater. It sounds so good, far better than a novelty song like this has any right to. There’s also a video with someone’s 80s mum dancing with an incredibly shit robot on youtube if you’re interested. Outta The Woodwork - Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett: I really love the covers they chose for this album because they both really make it their own. Outta The Woodwork really sounds like a Kurt song now and I love the strong piano giving the song the harder edge the lyrics deserve and Kurt just lazily soloing to hell any chance he gets Peepin' Tom - Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett: I think I almost like this version more than the original, making it just an acoustic thing but still keeping all the dynamics of the original is so nice. I love specifically the deep bass voice of ‘peepin’ to the high ‘tom’. It satisfies something weird in my brain. Mercury (12" Version) - Bloc Party: I can’t believe i’ve lived this long without ever knowing that there was a 12” version of Mercury out there. The song I always felt was way too short to contain the amount of energy it has has a 7 minute version that well and truly lays it out into a slow intense burn instead. Electric Feel (Justice Remix) - MGMT: Just to get my 2007 opinions straight Electric Feel is not a good song. Kids is a good song but Electric Feel isn’t. That said: this remix comes damn close to making it good. Justice figured out the secret sound and we’re all the better for it. Comin' Apart - Gary Wright: There’s no greater joy than tracking down a sample and finding out that the original song is also a banger. This pairs extremely well with My My My as a sort of extended intro. My My My - Armand Van Helden: I posted that playlist a couple weeks ago of songs mid-2000s bangers with extremely horny videos and this is a highlight from that. I'm always amazed with how much mileage great producers can get out of a relatively straightforward sample because this hums along for almost 7 minutes and only gets better. Laser Life - The Blood Brothers: The Blood Brothers are one of the few bands that scratch the brain itch I have for totally bonkers Mars Volta markov chain lyrics phrases like 'Oh dream machine I'm a pound of flesh inside a drum machine dream'. They're also the only band I think that can get away with having this sort of cabaret swing feel in a song with a lot of screaming and not have it be absolutely unbearable. Camouflage, Camouflage - The Blood Brothers: Where a lot of The Blood Brothers early songs were just chaotic bursts, they have a few songs that spread out into a long multi movement ideas culminating in very good final lines like 'I couldn't see the love and affection it was camouflaged as a jungle of erections, and I couldn't see the skeletal lightning it was camouflaged as a young machete' 16 Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford: The mistake people make in covering this song is trying to match the extremely grim lyrics to the music, but this version succeeds exactly because it's on some upbeat Frank Sinatra shit with the clarinet refrain sounding like a children's song while still being very much about dying face down in the dirt from arsenic poisoning. Take This Hammer - Leadbelly: On the other hand you have a song like Take This Hammer from a guy who really worked on a chain gang complete with involuntary WAH sounds to time your hammer strikes to, and it's still so much more upbeat and positive musically than it has any right to be looking at the lyrics. San Francisco - Foxygen: There's something about the chorus of this song, and they way the phrases of the two voices line up where if it gets stuck in your head it just goes around and around and around forever and it is absolutely maddening so I thought I'd share that with you all. El Manana (Metronomy Remix) - Gorillaz: This remix reminds me of Studio to a degree with the way it just moves forward with no regard for regular structure. It's gutsy to remix a song and somehow restructure it so the chorus doesn't even sound like it's the chorus anymore but just another small part in a slowly winding up machine. Monkey Gone To Heaven - The Pixies: The way he's screaming that GOD IS SEVEN in this song I feel like if Black Francis hadn't made it in music he'd be running a very successful incomprehensible conspiracy website. This is a song I can get very lyrically involved in when I'm in certain moods, nodding my head like the creature in the sky DID get sucked in a hole and now there's a hole in the sky, and we're all in trouble because of it. Cannonball - The Breeders: I like this song because it feels like everyone in the band is working on their own unique structure. The clean guitar especially just comes and goes at will through the whole song, the lyrics start whenever, the rhythm guitar just keeps strumming along. It all comes together for the chorus and then they just go their own separate ways until it's chorus time again. S.A.D. - Kirin J Callinan: The production on this song just amazes me, especially as it moves into the later choruses the sheer weight of the chords is just crazy. The barest suggestion of guitars chugging in the background but blending into the huge synths chords. Combined with the vocals it's the most threatening pop song I've ever heard. Wrapped up in plastic thrown down the stairs feeling fantastic. Water Coast Blues - Honeyboy Edwards: I feel like Honeyboy Edwards has gotten a raw deal from history. When he died most of his obitaries made a big point of how he was one of the last living people to know Robert Johnson personally. Which is an important detail but it overshadows Edwards contributions in his own right as a guitarist and songwriter who had a 70 year career. The album this recording's from is a really good compilation that gives an overview of his whole career, mixed with interviews with Edwards and Alan Lomax that are just amazing. Anyway just listen to the playing on this song because it is incredible. The bass figure he switches into when he says 'when I had money'? Phenomenal. Another Leather Lung - The Sound Of Animals Fighting: The Sound Of Animals Fighting was a supergroup of a bunch of guys from RX Bandits/Chiodos/Circa Survive and bands like that coming together in animal masks to make the most pretentious band possible at the time. There's a lyrics on one of their other songs where he sings 'the artist! the true manifestation of struggle!' which is quite good. But outside of that they did make some very good music and the second half of this song where it takesoff is really something. Bone Machine - The Pixies: It's amazing Black Francis hasn't been linked to a string of murders in the mid 80s honestly. This whole song feels like evidence. Also the way he says 'I was talking to peachy peach about kissy kiss.. [incredibly long, awkward silence] ... he bought me a soda. he bought me a soda and he tried to molest me in the parking lot hep hep hep hep' is perhaps the most amazing verse ever. Stomping Tonight On The Pennsylvania/Alabama Border - John Fahey: This is John Fahey's best song and I've listened to it probably 4 times a week for the last 4 years. It is quite honestly an eternal mood. Ares - Bloc Party: War! War! War! War! I love the guitar in this, because it's just textural noisemaking more than anything else and mixed with the vocal manipulations in the chorus it's just absolute chaos. It's such a shame that everyone in Bloc Party either left the band or had their brain removed after this album because between this, Mercury and Talons it was truly an incredible moment. Special Rider Blues - John Fahey: I can't believe I only found out this month about John Fahey covering Skip James, and even that it took me this long for me to listen to the full version of his America album. Mark 1:15 - John Fahey: I also learned that on account of cds only holding 80 minutes of music, this 14 minute reissue version of Mark 1:15 is 2 minutes shorter than the original vinyl version and I'm completely riled up about it and demanding a second, definitive reissue to restore them. Regardless, this song is an absolute masterpiece and when it switches into the portion of When The Springtime Comes again about three quarters of the way through it's just amazing. Swim - Nicolas Jaar: Here's another quite long and involved piece of music from the other side of the spectrum. It has a very similar feeling to Mark 1:15 really, so if you liked that persevere through this. It's taken me such a long time to get around to listening to Nymphs for some reason but I'm glad I finally gave it a shot because this song especially is a real masterwork. Crimes - The Blood Brothers: A third Blood Brothers song for you, If you didn't like the other two there's a chance you'll like this one because it's much more sedate. This song is also a good first Blood Brothers song because the way the second vocalist sounds when he finally turns up is really funny if you're not expecting it. This is another on the long list of songs I seem to just always have in my head and sing to myself when I'm walking around. NRG - Duck Sauce: Are you ready for the most powerful 12 minutes of your life? It's the entirety of the NRG single by Duck Sauce. I like to think of it as a purposeful multi-movement work rather than a song and two remixes because that's what it feels like. Starting out we have the original, incredible instant power of NRG. NRG (Skrillex, Kill The Noise, Milo & Otis Remix) - Duck Sauce: and next we have the absolute peak of the work, the fever pitch. See if you can guess which part Skrillex was responsible for. I love the addition of miscellaneous woos and yeahs among the already busy main riff, I absolutely love the bass which sounds like some kind of steel drum pulled down four octaves. I love the distortion on the vocals in the second half as it slowly gives you time to catch your breath. NRG (Hudson Mohawk Remix) - Duck Sauce: The we move into the comedown, the HudMo contribution where the drums somehow sound like they're coming from next door like the party has passed you by and moved on to enliven your neighbours. I love the snare building and then splitting into triplets like it's going to drop before the peace of the synth gives way to the rolling thunder drums hafway in. On The Other Hand Baby - Etta Baker: I don't know what to say about Etta Baker. She's incredible and it's an absolute shame that she didn't really get recorded until she was about 70. This album was recorded when she was about 92 and her playing is still amazing. Crucible - Sleigh Bells: You have to give Sleigh Bells credit for still going strong four albums in if nothing else. Somewhere along the line they adopted this sort of corny rock chick thing that wasn't really there in their first album and I think it works against them but I really can't get enough of the instrumental of this song. The distorted brass and string amongst everything else especially. I feel like there's a much better song buried in here somewhere but I'll take what I can get. Pirate Blues - As Cities Burn: As Cites Burn are another good example of a metalcore band absolutely mellowing out into a indie rock band over the course of three albums, and the result Hell Or High Water has turned out to be one if my favourites of all time. This song especially is an obsession, and I love a band having the sense to no longer make metalcore, but learning enough from it to take a song to a a huge crescendo when they need to like this one does. Timothy - As Cities Burn: Between As Cities Burn, mewithoutYou and a couple of other christian bands I was very nearly converted in highschool and it still informs a lot of my uh theistic thought in a strangely unembarrassing way. This song, from their second album where they were sort of caught between their metalcore origins and the full fleshed indie rock of Hell Or High Water is one of their best. Yelling at god about your dead friend is a massive thing to write a song about but it's done so well and it builds and builds before dissolving into a sparse, thoughtful solo for a good six minutes into a beautiful ending.

listen here

#playlists

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annaleslibriscrapbook · 6 years

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Sim Profiles: Étienne Duchamp

Sim Name: Étienne Duchamp

Nickname: É

Gender: Male

Traits: Geek, Good, and Creative

World: Willow Creek

Occupation: Start-Up Genius

Hobbies: Modeling, Chess, Woodworking, Fishing, Bowling, Playing Guitar, and Painting

Marital Status: Married

Spouse Name: Amélie (Durand) Duchamp

Children: 3

Children’s Names and Ages: Micheline - Teen; Antoine - Child; Marceline - Toddler

Parents: François and Adrienne (Marchant) Duchamp

Sister: Charlée (Duchamp) Ritter (married to Derrick Ritter, 1 child Quynne)

Half-Brother: Stéphane Marchant (Girlfriend - Jillian Freeman)

Étienne’s Story:

Étienne has known Amélie most of his life and has always had a special place in his heart for her. They have always been close and he has never looked at another girl the way he looks at her. They started dating in high school and eventually Amélie ended up pregnant with Micheline. Even though he finished high school, married Amélie right afterward, has made it to the top of his career (Start-Up Genius), and has been an amazing father and husband, Amélie’s parents, especially her father, have not fully forgiven him. This despite Amélie finishing high school, university, and medical school. Étienne’s kids are closer to him than they are to Amélie. However, right now, they are making life challenging for him. Micheline recently came out as bi to Étienne and Antoine is going through a mean streak. To top it all off, É and Amélie just had their third child, and the kids were less than thrilled about it. Now Amélie’s married sister, Élise, is throwing herself at É every chance she gets. And now É’s long-lost half-brother Stéphane recently found his birth parents and let’s just say that things are starting to get complicated... Through it all, Étienne maintains his sense of humour and generally keeps his cool. Don’t let the RBF fool you, he really is a nice guy.

Why I Love Him:

Étienne is my favorite Sim and I play him the most (however, I do not write as him). He is the first Sim I made when I got Sims 4 back in 2014, so I am quite attached to him. He is essentially the first Sim that popped up when I went into CAS the first time. Until recently, he was largely unchanged except for his eye color and skin tone. He’s unique because his eye brows are no longer a preset option in CAS, and I reserve his original hairstyle (not pictured) just for him. I recently updated his Everyday/Party hair to the style pictured. I also updated his Formal hair to a different style for each outfit. Since updating his Everyday/Party hairstyle, he now sports his original messy hair only for sleeping. I have now added eyelashes, eye bags, body hair, facial hair, full-body freckles, and correct anatomy. I also updated his wardrobe from suit jackets over polos and khakis to button downs over t-shirts and jeans. I have kept his layered style, but made him look more like a skater boy and less like a computer geek.

WCIF:

LumiaLoverSims for Étienne’s skin, body hair, and necklace (you can’t see it but it is there).

Kitty25939 @MTS for Étienne’s eyes.

LittleDica @MTS for Étienne’s teeth.

Screaming Mustard @ MTS for Étienne’s pose (Pose 6)

Olesmit for Étienne’s shirt and jeans.

NataliS @TSR for Étienne’s nails.

Severinka_ @TSR for Étienne’s single left earring.

S-Club @TSR for Étienne’s eyelashes.

Raizon for Étienne’s Celtic knot tattoos

SimsOnARope for Étienne's freckles

Tamo for Étienne's eye bags

Necrodog @ MTS for Étienne's feet

Étienne’s hair, eyebrows, glasses, skin tone, and boots are EA.

#sims 4 #simblr #sims 4 simblr #sims 4 story #ts4 #ts4 simblr #ts4 story #my favorite sim #scrapbook

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beneathmyboughs · 7 years

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Yuji Final 30 Facts!

[TW for mentions of child murder/Slenderman, PTSD, animal death, emotional manipulation and endgame spoilerish stuff! Wanted to get this out while we still had time, read at your own risk!]

All of Yuji’s Part 1 Endgame posts are lyrics from his character theme, Sakura Nagashi.

The symbol on his jacket is obvious, but the red symbol on his pants is very reminiscent of the slenderman symbol--a figure notable for taking it’s preferred victim, children, and pinning them to trees.

Piney was stated to be a Japanese Black Pine. Black Pines tend to have their weaker sibling, the white pine, grafted onto them for ensured survival. No guesses about who the white pine is to Piney’s black pine.

Yuji Matsumoto never had a fear of thunder. What he DID have was a crippling fear of loud noises, specifically explosions. He also had claustrophobia and aversion to heat like smoke or steam.

Murders or deaths of Parelthon classmates were all extra hard for him, but specifically Yuka Kagome’s death struck VERY close to home and at times threatened to render him immobile in fear or flashback.

During Yuji and Chou’s times getting to know each other she made a point of establishing her dominance from the very start, including eating whole unskinned pineapples while making eye contact to scare him. It worked.

Yes, they did use DDR to learn how to drift with each other a la Evangelion. Yes, they wore the matching 80′s dance leotards for it. Yes, with the neon spandex tights.

Yuji’s Paranoia (Including rigging his room with indicators in case anyone got in and messed with stuff, his mini traps any time he went into a new room, his general paranoia) predate his Mastermind status. He’s been toting that around since before Hope’s Peak even, having become Piney only due to said paranoia.

The reason Piney even exists in the first place is due to Yuji trying to outrun Yakuza enforcers, thus his immediate fear of anyone related to Yakuza business that he knew of, like Yuka.

Piney lived so lightly, from hotel to hotel with no discernible home address, because he was consistently on the run from both home (so no place to go) and Yakuza (despite them probably having long given up chase). Yep. THAT paranoid.

Yuji took in and cared for Mimi, Ryouji’s cat, after the class’ deaths. She passed away peacefully at a ripe old age while Yuji was grunt soldiering for the Collective. She was a well known and liked fixture of the barracks, with soldiers often feeding her when she came around.

Many of the stranger editions in the second half (The Overwatch statues, the updates to the student logs, ect) were a result of Yuji actively committing to portraying the character of the Collective’s ‘mascot’ as viciously as possible, and keeping the programmers busy coding in new and useless resource drains as opposed to active framing. Making him look like he was actively trying not to be caught was just a bonus.

Yuji genuinely did not know any of the codes aside from his own notebook’s code, nor did he himself have access to the monitoring system Topside had. Figuring out the MM room code was a genuine effort both ooc and ic, though he felt like shit getting congratulated for it.

Yuji’s habit of rubbing at his face with his hand when stressed is in fact him covering up what he reflexively knows is a giant scar over his eye, as if to conceal or massage it.

The tiny scar on the left side of his face where Ryouji’s shot grazed him in-game matches his real life scar on that exact same spot where a fellow soldier was shot and killed trying to drag him off the field when he had a flashback and couldn’t move. It further enforce’s Yuji’s belief that ‘These are not Accidents, it’s Fate.’

The giant v scar across his eye and nose, along with the smaller scar on his left cheek, are meant to look like the roman numeral 6 for a DA6 easter egg!

Yuji’s strong rose-tinted nostalgia mixed with the reality of seeing their actions in the murder game after 6 years split his opinion right down the middle. He used Piney to portray his fondness, and his class logs to vent his simmering disappointment. By the time he was shedding the suit the opinions had balanced out, portrayed by Yuji himself, though he still laid it on thick in the logs for the sake of the ‘character’ he was trying to portray.

While circumstances made it so that the room was not used as much, the sim in the steak house had Charmayne as a preset but included everyone on the Parelthon roster with applicable data. Yuji’s spent his steak-night ‘evenings’ pre-death game with hologrpahic Tomokas, Hanakos, Ryoujis, Tadashis, Ryans and more, all with a friendlier tint to them than reality to honey trap Yuji into continuing his resolve to start the killing game.

Should just note this: no account of Yuji speaking to having a crush, in his self narration or otherwise was real in this game. At most he may have had a crush on them back in the day, but Yuji’s level of affection would have been seen as odd for someone without an express reason (like the fact they’d all been his cherished classmates for a year). Crush was used as a stand in, but Yuji’s only nostalgic and not interested in anyone in this class. As he’d say “I’m a Mastermind, not a creep.”

Many of Yuji’s likes and dislikes from his 30 facts are direct references to military superstitions that he started to hold in his 6 years as a Collective soldier.(Numbers 8 and 9)

The exceptions are disliking Elvis (Club Elvis was the Yakuza run bar he went to to make his payments), hair (he just thinks it’s neat that people can have natural beauty like that despite income), and bugs (he lived with em fine being poor, and grew to like them with Chou’s influence)

Piney starting to act weirdly just before merge was a result of Chou having started communicating with him after getting out of her side of the sim, and making him laugh with their communications that he checked out inside his suit to avoid being seen. Father and daughter bonding time!

Yuji will continue to insist Piney had nothing to do with the Mastermind business. Often times, AS Piney, he’d flat out forget he was the Mastermind for bits at a time. Yuji didn’t have as much of a luxury once he got out of the suit, since that was by that point the turning point in him believing in the system.

Yuji’s ‘friend fiction’ was a direct continuation of his self-therapy he was using before the killing game went live, where he wrote down either memories or edited daydream versions of said memories to record his time spent with his classmates.

Yuji’s ‘ulterior motive’ for the game, sans getting his classmates back for admittedly his own sake of mind, was tied in/hinted at with his shrine to the dead in his room. Yuji’s spiritualism is heavily balance and karma based, a give or take, and while usually it’s only supplemental to his way of living the deaths of all his classmates kicked it into overdrive. He considered such a farce as himself surviving an event that had killed everyone else he’d ever grown close to some act of destructive ‘fate’ he’d have to be selfish to attribute to only himself. While he knew the belief would never be accepted as solid science by any of the project team, he was deathly fearful that not addressing the matter would only result in the kids getting revived just to die off again should the matter not be addressed. Therefor, trying to find out what made each of the kids tick and from there pinpoint what element may have played into their deaths wound up being Yuji’s OWN experiment while the death game was being planned. This quickly fell to the wayside as the true intentions of the game became clear, but it has been addressed at least once by Morishige in her videos as she herself utilized the belief he revealed during their therapy sessions to further spur Yuji into accepting the full blame for the murder game.

Yuji’s original name was Yuiji Hatsumoto, but when it was checked with my IRL Japanese friends it was vetoed as ‘just plain not a real name.’ Yuji Matsumoto, however, is so utterly common it’s almost laughably plain. Just the way I wanted it.

Azura sent me over half of the music I have on Yuji’s playlists. My music taste is trash, guys. I’m sorry I never returned the favor Azura, you probably knew all the songs since middle school already.

There were lots of hints thrown in about Yuji being MM, subtle things about how when he panicked he’d start to feel choked and too hot, or the phrasing on the very first post. Going back and reading it all over is an ADVENTURE and what I’m currently mid doing, my dudes.

The FULL list of Yuji’s inspirations are Vincent from Catherine, Shaggy from Scooby Doo (down to the theory of him being a veteran) and Adachi from Persona 4. The last was too much of a spoiler to say, but ‘Lanky and questionable loser’ pretty much chalks it up. His Mastermind/Collective Mascot persona, specifically, was Adachi based.

I only made it this far and did this well thanks to the wonderful mods, back up mods, mini mods and unknowing support of fellow players. I’d been looking your stuff up and admiring like a fan researching a movie franchise for a year before all this, and it was an unbelievable honor to both enter your world and get to be your guys’ Mastermind. I hope you guys had as fun of a game as I did! You guys rock, and I’m so glad I met you all. Take a breather everybody!

#ooc #save #Been holding onto these babies since day 1 my friends #child soldiers \\#child death \\#slenderman \\#ptsd \\#animal death \\#emotional manipulation \\

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pixelonline · 7 years

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(I am so sorry, mobile users. This is really long.)

My Mass Effect Andromeda thoughts:

1. I was gonna stream the trial, but proceeded to use almost all 10 hours at once because I couldn’t stop playing. I suppose this is a good thing. I’m definitely streaming it once it’s actually out.

2. I hate the character customization. Mass Effect has always been ugly as fuck when it comes to making characters, but my dudes it is 2017 what is going on here.

2a. Side note but I laughed for like 15 minutes that there is only one “White People” face and it is honestly the ugliest thing. Cool feature (sorta not but I’m viewing it as a positive) is that there are designated skin tones with each face set. Speaking of sets, all facial features are stuck to a specific preset face. You can slightly move them, but there’s no changing. I’m hoping this is just for the trial, as other things in the game were locked off until it’s official release.

2b. so many pony tails. no undercut. despite reports saying that hairstyles would be less militaristic as you’re not a soldier, they’re more or less the same. let me be the woman i want to be dammit. There were braids, but only one style. Still double the representation compared to previously I guess? I have very much so white people hair so I don’t feel comfortable having an opinion on that subject. I will say that the braids are exclusive to fem!Ryder and m!Ryder gets 2 different textured styles. I, personally, cannot wait for the beautiful mod community to fix this hair travesty, both with representation variation and all these fucking ponytails. Maybe they can make something happen with the faces, but I hold little hope. They had “alt” hair colors, so it’s already way better than ME Original Trilogy. My Ryder has blue hair, because of course she does. There’s not much shade difference in the colors available, and some of the unnatural colors were, in fact, so unnatural looking that it was hard to accept as a hair color. dyed hair doesn’t reflect light the way it did in game and it didn’t look like much shade variation between the strands so it occasionally looked like the hair hadn’t actually finished rendering. The color selection suggested a more soft ombre look than was actually present.

3. I like that you can customize your twin also, but limits on the CC still drives me crazy. Male hair diversity isn’t super, like I said before, but it just felt like more than the female counterpart. I just really, really hate ponytails you guys.

3a. In your CC options, you can pick story bits. The only options that connect to the previous games is a selection between your Shepard having been male or female. I suppose that’s so pronouns are correct later on.

4. Prologue: I feel it takes too long, the tutorial is honestly not that great. SAM, your AI, is down for most of it, so you have no idea what anything is. It was fine at first, adding to the worldbuilding and urgency and whatnot but it got irritating by the 30th “unknown” enemy.

5. The Omni-Scanner is a neat addition, but it felt sort of...forced at times. More on that later.

6. The prologue story is okay. The ending of it, and the beginning of the actual game, was actually pretty dramatic and I didn’t expect it given the hype around certain characters that Bioware has tried to generate.

6a. Dad Ryder seemed really one dimensional with his kid. Like, never referred to them affectionately even at the last bit. This is sort of explained when you go to his room later, but it felt really hollow to me as a whole. Cool dad fact: CC of your Ryder and their twin decides what Dad looks like. Mine had obscenely blue eyes but grey hair.

6b. Evil dude looked really sad during his introduction and I wanted to be friends with him. This feels like a failed attempt at showing off the ominous silent bad guy, as I immediately started rooting for him. You go, evil dude, touch the stuff and let your dreams be true.

7. I hate the weapon interface. Inventory functions like ME1, allowing you to see the items you’ve picked up (both upgrades and actual weapons) but you cannot equip them. I couldn’t until the first mission after getting my ship. Which is terrible, as I got a sniper rifle I wanted to use and couldn’t for the prologue portion.

8. The Hyperion’s travel system is awful. There’s very little instruction about it. The tram looks as if it’s a one way thing, from the ark to the new citadel-like port, but in actuality you use it to travel around the ark itself too. Didn’t notice until my camera turned slightly to the right and another thing on the board was selectable.

8a. Not travel related, but you do get more info about the ending of the prologue and a new ongoing mission on the Hyperion. It felt like a bit of a slap. It’s all “Here’s this cool new power and a friend BUT ALSO FUCK YOU JON SNOW YOU KNOW NOTHING and you’ll never find out until you go look for these things randomly around. But not around here! Fuck you twice!” It was clearly created to push the story more later on, which is all fine and good, it just ticked me off at this moment.

9. The new Citadel is a goddamn mess. I’m not a huge fan of it right now, though what I’m 100% sure will happen is that as you make more homesteads, the place gets nicer until you’re at endgame and have a fully functional hub. I’ll like it more once it starts changing. It looks like it has really good potential. I hope it functions more than the keep in DA:I, and your choices really DO have an effect on what is opened up and how the society there builds itself.

9a. The Original Trilogy made each race very distinct, with their own speech patterns and everything. I didn’t really get that from this game’s other races. The Salarians didn’t speak in fast bursts with lots of words jammed together, and the Turians more often than not didn’t have that robotic twinge to their speech, and weren’t all that hostile. It seems unlikely to me that there wouldn’t be any left over anger as they left for Andromeda seeing as it’s possible some actually fought in the first contact war. It is about 30 years apart. It was something constantly prevalent in the previous trilogy, which every NPC lived during (at least ME1)

9b. I do, however, love super not Krogan Krogan lady. She’s perfect and I wish I could romance her. You do talk about the genophage. Sucks that she and her clan have no idea that there’s been a cure for over 500 years now.

10. The ship, Tempest, is really nice. I always felt like Normandy was very irritating to navigate around. ME1 especially, but 3 wasn’t so hot either. This one isn’t as large, but it has a really nice flow that I liked. Pathfinder quarters were way better than Shepard’s.

10a. It has a system like the Dragon Age: Inquisition war table where you have timed missions that NPC complete for materials, items, and intel. Seems interesting, but I didn’t see one to completion. They’re still running.

10b. the R&D table is interesting, and I like the separation between the two, but it didn’t feel like a huge asset so early in the game.

11. The traveling system is beautiful. Visually it gets 100% approval. However, it’s extremely slow paced. any selection of a new planet or system takes you back to where you were originally, lets you stare at it a moment, then flies you to the next place where you zoom in for another moment before zooming out and then FINALLY getting information about it. It’s nice, but by the 12th time I was incredibly tired of it.

12. Your Salarian pilot is cool. Not especially Salarian-like, but still I liked him. Cannot kiss. I tried.

13. Material gathering is kind of limited. You scan a whole system, and you have the option to scan planets, but there’s not much point to it as SAM tells you if there’s something worth scanning there. Usually it’s a single deposit of a mineral.

14. I hated the MAKO in ME1, but this one isn’t so bad. I think it helps knowing that I can customize it later.

15. Speaking of customization, you can change the colors of your casual clothes and your armor. It’s the same color selection tool as in CC, so it’s awful. The dial to change the color overlaps with the bubble to select the actual shade so there’s a lot of trial and error involved. Once again, no indication that [SPACE] is necessary to confirm your color choices. I hate the whole design of it.

16. You do meet some companions that you’ll pick up, but you barely interact with them. Good intros though. Really gave them personality right off the bat.

17. ROMANCE: Being fem!Ryder is rough at the start.

17a. Gil is one of the ship’s crew. He’s one of the few genuinely attractive males in all of Mass Effect’s history. As a woman, you can flirt with him, but he turns you down solidly. He’s kind, but firm. He states that he’s interested in men. Which is awesome, because now I have a reason to play a male Ryder after my first play through is done. Female Ryder apologizes, nothing is weird (unlike other interactions) and it actually made me like him more as a character.

17b. Liam kind of blows off your advances but it definitely felt like a rejection. As he wasn’t very clear, I don’t know if he’s a bi character that you have to develop a friendship with first, or if he’s gay and just doesn’t want to come out to your Ryder. I didn’t like the wishy-washiness of the interaction but we’ll just have to see what’s what when the full game is out.

17c. Doc. I forgot her name, so now she’s Doc. I knew this interaction wouldn’t go well, as I’ve read articles about it. She definitely turns you down because you’re a patient. I’ve read that she has a crush on the Krogan that joins you, so is he not a patient too? Either way, she’s very professional about it and as with Gil it made me appreciate her character. Knowing that it’s Natalie Dormer and I’ll never hear her tell me she loves me hurts me deep in my soul though. Why does the world hate me like this???

17d. Blonde biotic woman with the goddamn hair that I want on my Ryder. Cora. I don’t like her. You have the option to hit on her early on, and her reaction felt really awful to me. She gets kind of hostile and all “I already told [person you never met] that I’m not interested in women and I’m telling you too.” Like, ok. Damn. You aren’t my type anyways. I just wanted to see the option play out. 0/10 poor way to handle the interaction. I’m not super fond of the Asari commando thing either. Jack was a kickass biotic too and she was treated like a monster. This woman gets to take part in something very culturally specific like it’s nbd? jnasdlfknasdivhbna, not a fan of her. She looks somewhere between confused and murderous all the time. Also, she walks like Stretch Armstrong. It makes me laugh.

17e. Vetra. The only individual that actually reacts positively to fem!Ryder flirting with her. Even then she really only takes it like a compliment. But, as I love Vetra and much like Garrus I would die for her from first glance, I’ll take it. I think it’ll be a beautiful relationship. She’s also really tall. And pretty. One thing I thought was strange with her is that it always looks like she’s posing when she’s just standing around. One hip is thrust out and her arms are crossed. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they rigged her to always be in mysterious seductress pose.

17f. I couldn’t flirt with the pilot. Let me kiss the Salarian, damn you Bioware. Also, our nice Scottish friend Suvi can’t be flirted with, but she sounds really soothing to talk to. I’m def a fan of all these non-American, thicker than previously heard, accents on the ship. The Original Trilogy was full of light British accents or full on American. Sort of hard to believe the Alliance was multinational when everyone spoke like they were from the US.

18. Combat: I mostly use the sniper rifle and the pistol. Pistol was nice. I love the sniper rifle in this game. Other ME games it was hard for me to confirm headshots but this one was a clean and clear animation. Very nice. The companion AI was strange at times, as they’d just use their abilities but in odd places so the skills would get stuck in corners or just go off to nowhere. There was combat stutter on the first planet you can visit but I think that’s more my graphics card. The update refuses to finish so I’m stuck 2 updates behind where I should be.

I have, like, an hour I think left so I’m gonna try to rush through a male Ryder play and see how companion reactions differ. I’m really only in this for the romance, you know.

#hail the platypi #mass effect andromeda #pixel plays andromeda #pixel talks gaming

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cometladyicarus-blog · 7 years

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Character Sheet - Dragon Age Marian Hawke

Name: Marian Revka Amell Hawke

Nickname(s): Mari, Sister, Sweetie, Daughter, Varric calls her Hawk

Codename: Hawke, Champion, Boss

Race: Human

Gender: Female

Age: 23 at Lothering's Destruction/Ostagar

Faction: Ferelden; Templar supportive;

Class: Apostate Mage

Weapon(s): Sword and Shield

Armor: Heavy Armor

Place of Birth: Honnleath, Ferelden

Parent(s): Malcolm Hawke (Apostate Mage) (d. 3 years before Act I), Leandra Amell Hawke (Former Noble) (d. Act II)

Sibling(s): Bethany Hawke (sister) (d. Lothering Escape), Carver Hawke (brother)

Spouse/Significant Other: Fenris “Wolfe”

Other Relatives: Uncle Gamlen Amell, Cousin Charity, Cousin Solona Amell, twin children Jayme Cullen Wolfe and Aveline Bethany Wolfe

Magic-Using Relatives: Father, Sister, Several Amell Cousins

Mentor: Father, Ser Berkley

Friends/Allies:

Carver Hawke

Guardswoman/Captain of the Guard Aveline

Guardsmen Donnic

Varric Tethras

Merrill

Fenris

Captain Isabella

Sebastian

Grudgingly, Anders

Knight Captain Cullen Rutherford

Knight Lieutenant Thrask

Knight Templar Kerran

Warden Captain/Knight-Enchanter Solona Amell

Alignment: Neutral Good/Lawful Good, something around there, though the mages would be more inclined to think of her as Lawful Evil because she keeps sending them to the Templars as according to the law.

Warrior/Peacekeeper: She's more inclined to use humor to defuse a situation, but when the potential fight involves something that offends her "Ferelden Peculiarities," she is more likely to be on the Warrior side of the spectrum.

Torture/Healer: She knows some healing spells, but she's not an expert at them, but even without magic she's better than most of her Company back at Ostagar, so was trying to help the makeshift infirmary by providing bandages and health poultices. If blood magic/slave trade/kidnapping is suspected to be a part of the situation, however, Hawke has had years of learning at her father's side all the bones that can be broken in a hand, and knows how to break them. If blood magic is not involved, she does have a scary looking sword she can swing around and terrorize answers out of people if just asking isn't working.

Range/Melee: Melee, sword and shield; (Inq-Era) Range Magic Staff

Rusted Knight/Greenhorn: Ostagar survivor, she went in idealistic and independent, came out of it scrambling to hold on to those she cares about and still has nightmares about. Hawke develops into a more "rusty knight" type of person as people keep coming to her with their problems they wants fixed.

Cynical/Optimist: She believes Kirkwall is a cesspool and a disaster, where no one should ever live. She does believe it is possible for conditions for mages to be improved, but that the common people will always fear magic and likely attack magic out of that fear. But Hawke is also very good at drowning her private thoughts into whatever best suits her situation at the moment. By Act II, Hawke has been "outed" for being a broody drunk in the Hanged Man once most of the group has left by Varric and Isabella.

Appearance: Default markless Hawke preset without makeup– Light grey/blue eyes, dark near-black hair that often looks like she cuts her hair with a dagger herself instead of going to someone else to keep it short, she's a little shorter than Carver who seems to tower over everyone else,

Disability(ies)/Health concerns: None

Scar(s): Various battle injuries have left scars

Tattoo(s): At certain points, she will have smeared the blood on her face into the iconic image of her wearing the mark that went into her "official" image in The Tale of the Champion's portrait of her; The blood mage tattoo was carved into her arm during the fight with Danarius and she hasn't been able to make it go away;

Accent: Ferelden, fades a bit into Kirkwall over the course of the story

Prized Personal Possession(s)*: Malcolm's Staff; (Post Act II) Her mother's note;

Pet Peeves: Her mother's blaming her for Bethany's death despite the apology after getting the will back; People always going to her for help with their problems no matter how small or big; Being reminded about "her" Templar problems; Owing debts (money or otherwise); Varric not having a nickname for her (He does, but it sounds exactly like her name); Being pulled into the Mage-Templar conflict; "Ferelden Peculiarities" as Kirkwallers would call it – slavery, a lack of personal independence to choose who one wants to be, a lacking of dogs, Andraste in the Chantry wearing armor and holding a sword, the political song and dance before getting to the point, overheating instead of always being cold;

Likes: Keeping her family and friends safe and provided for; Magic being treated as a dangerous weapon and helpful tool and then being respected as such; dogs; reading; (Act III) learning languages; dancing in the Hanged Man; Going to the Chantry for lessons on the Chant; exploring the lands outside of Kirkwall; (Inq-Era) Exploring Thedas; the trail of dead slavers between herself and Fenris;

Dislikes: Blood magic; demons and spirits; power abuse; the fact she often actually sympathizes with Gamlen; kids being used as tools; Fereldens being abused by the Kirkwallers who are more wealthy; The stuff elves deal with and how she never quite has enough political pull or power to make the Alienage safer in general; Gamlen's asinine comments; Her mother clearly having favorites among the Hawke siblings; Her mother trying to reclaim lost glory in the name of the Amells; Being alone without someone she feels she can confide to; Being "other" in groups (Ferelden, Apostate, not Templar-hating being the major reasons); Spiders

Vice(s): Approval seeking from Leandra, though she likes approval from people in general; Validation that she's not a "bad person"; Roaring rampages of Revenge once provoked enough; Her desire to keep people she feels responsible for safe; She enjoys tweaking noble people's sensibilities of 'proper';

Natural Abilities: Magic, has little to no trouble learning magic and mastering it; a knack for picking up languages;

Trained Abilities: Sword and shield combat; Using humor to defuse situations; herbalogy;

Understand Language(s): Common; Chasind; (During Acts I and II) A smattering of Qunlat; (During Acts II and III) Learns Tevinter;

Communicable Language(s): Common; Chasind; (As of Act II) Some Tevinter; (As of Act III) Tevinter fluently

Signature Outfit: She is famous for her Champion of Kirkwall bronze segmented armor she was given after being declared Champion; In reality, she was seen, before and after becoming Champion, most often wearing medium or heavy plate armor that was less fancy until she needed her Champion gear.

Formal Attire: Champion of Kirkwall armor; As Scion of the Amell family, she wears a set of nice robes with the Amell crest, or a custom dress made to slightly resemble a hawk in pattern and some feathers to be worn in her hair

Fallen Attire: She'd be drenched in the blood of her enemies she had used in combat against them; or wearing ornate and incredibly fancy clothes [Not sure really, I mean, Hawke isn’t a Warden and wouldn’t become Tainted, and it wouldn’t be in her to become a bloodmage either, so “Fallen” is sort of a placeholder term for “if goes evil or something”]

Lazy Attire: A tunic and breeches with leather boots

Catchphrase(s)/Famous Quotes: "Hawke this, Hawke that. Why does everyone come to me?"; "Hey! I tried to fix it, they just broke it!"; "Woah, is killing them the right choice right away?"; "WHERE DID THAT BLOOD MAGE GO?"; "Eh, he deserved to die."; "It wasn't my fault!"; "I have a role. I defend Kirkwall."; "Seriously?"; [In response to something crazy] "Oh. That sounds like every day to me."; "You do realize that if they send me, things are going to bad, right?"; "I really don't have time for this."

War Cry: "For Ferelden!"; "GET OUT OF MY KIRKWALL!" "And here they come again."

Nightmare(s): Failing to save Bethany; Failing to save her mother; failing to save Carver; failing to save her friends and others who depend on her; Templars discovering she's a mage; being made Tranquil; Never regaining her mother's approval after Bethany died; The blood mage tattoo activating and turning her into a blood mage regardless of her wishes; Blood magic; The Battle of Ostagar; Her name being used in the rallying cry of mages breaking Circles everywhere; Her role in the Mage-Templar Role; The Dead blaming her; Blighted Spiders that were the first wave of Darkspawn invading Lothering and killing those who were last to flee;

Hope/Goal(s): Not being responsible for a constantly growing number of people;

Secret(s): She doesn't realize that she places too much responsibility onto herself and she's enabled her mother into essentially holding her down into a live she's miserable in out of "duty"; She wishes she could just give everything up and turn herself over to the Templars to join a Circle; She hated the idea of being noble; Her feeling about always putting on a show of being "responsible," "kind," "respectable," and "dutiful"; She hates being the Champion of Kirkwall when it seems like the Viscount doesn't actually do much of his job by handing most of the stuff onto her; She has a weakness towards being called “pretty” and “beautiful” by people whose opinion she values, but has a hard time believing it because she’s used to people calling her sister and mother beautiful and her just “strong” or something, so when Fenris first calls her that, she freezes and flees from him;

*Story behind this/these:

Malcolm's Staff – When Hawke refused to use her magic after burning a neighbor's barn down, Bethany inherited their father's staff and used it while the Hawkes escaped Lothering. When Bethany died, Hawke carried the staff with her anyway and only used one spell after Beth's death before going to Kirkwall to disguise the staff as a walking stick for Leandra. When they arrived in Kirkwall, the staff was stashed out of Gamlen's potential reach while in his home, and then placed above the mantel in the Amell Estate with the spell removed. Everyone knows the staff is there, everyone knows Leandra married an apostate and that Templar Hawke and Serrah Hawke are the children on an apostate, but neither have touched the staff except while moving it to one residence to another. When Hawke flees Kirkwall, she takes the staff with her. She uses it during her time with the Inquisition

Leandra's note – When Hawke lost her mother to blood magic, Hawke had felt she had failed another in her family – Bethany who died, Carver who left to join the Templars because he felt he didn't have a place, their father who had died years before, and now their mother who had also died. Hawke also had a less-than-positive relationship with Leandra because of the Bethany Death Guilt Card that had been used often enough for Leandra to keep some semblance of control over her own fate – as she likely thought of it – and then Hawke's general failure to assimilate into Kirkwall noble life. Overall, Hawke had felt that she was Leandra's greatest failure since Bethany was the ideal daughter despite being a mage, and Leandra was closer to Carver as a non-mage. This letter was in an envelope filled with similar letters. Hawke keeps the letters in a pocket of her belt or robes, and flees Kirkwall with them.

#Character sheet #Dragon Age #DA2 #Marian Hawke

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canyouhearthechurchbellsringing · 7 years

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#43: Beyond the Doorway

02/19/17

FTP: This is one that I could have posted right after #42 if I wanted. I chose to not post it because, revisiting it after months of my recovery, it sounded completely insane. Then I remembered I lost six months of time and had tense relations with my subconscious. It was already crazy. Even still, this is something I don’t remember writing or experiencing. Darek could have made this all himself to throw me off the trail or to confuse me even further.

It’s all I have to go on for the past six months. I guess I got through the doorway. And when I did, it left a vacancy on my side that Darek happily filled. Additionally, if I accept the premise that this is an honest recollection I no longer recall, it has some valuable answers. Part of me wants to go back there… but looking at the consequences, part of me does not.

Assuming this entry is my own words, it begs the question of when I wrote it, of how I wrote it. It’s not impossible that Darek granted me the chance to write then erased the memories. What else during those six months did I forget experiencing? Do other logs exist somewhere recounting the time I lost? It seems no matter how many answers I find, I know less and less the more I dig…

(No date given)

I first became lucid by accident, actually, in a dream of a memory from the third grade. I was shuffling off the bus after school behind a kid named Justin who was a year ahead of me. As we passed by another kid in his year, Greg, the latter made some smart remark about the former. In a blur of motion Justin spun intent on decking Greg, but I was standing too close and took the blow straight to the face.

My nose felt numb and tingly. It seemed to be runny but when I put my fingers to my face they came back dripping red. It was about then that my perspective shifted to a third person overhead view. I remembered the words as Darek uttered them.

Just let go. Let me in.

This was one of the first times I had heard Darek’s voice whispering in the back of my head to just let my emotions go freely, to give himself a little hold over me. I didn’t have to cry. It didn’t really hurt that bad. But I let it go and I let him in and I did anyway. I made myself look like a victim, look weak, when that little nagging voice in my subconscious knew it was not weak. It was a little foothold on its way to full control.

As I watched myself burst into tears, I looked out the window to my childhood home. I gave the building an initial cursory glance; even knowing this was only a dream, it all appeared natural to my disconnected eyes. Then I did a double take. The front door to the house had been a flimsy, dirty, white contraption that clung loosely to the frame. Here I saw the doorway, the same innate pressure pounding behind it. It’s solid finished wood set it apart from the rest of the house.

My heart rate went up and everything but the doorway fell out of focus. The raucous jeering of the school kids became a distant buzz, distorted to near-demonic proportions. The walls of my old house fell away; the very earth fell away, leaving only that void of ethereal mist and that doorway. This was my only chance. I had to make a break for it.

As I ran in that place, threads of colorful light danced around me. Any moment I was certain one of them would errupt into an explosion and consume me, or jump out and pull me away, or call out my name and freeze me in my tracks. The closer I drew to the doorway, the stronger that certainty became. I cheered myself on despite my growing paranoia. As soon as it was close enough to make out the little details(cracks in the wood that had been repaired, scuff marks to show its age), I put on an extra burst of speed.

In the moment my hand made contact with the knob, my fears became absolute certainties. Darek would stop me right this second, was in fact right behind me with a cocky expression and ready to grab me by the throat. That moment never came though. It took me a minute to register that. What was the blinding white light I was seeing? Finally it clicked. I had opened the door successfully. This was my first glimpse at what lay beyond.

As the buzzing faded from my ears, the light receded as well, revealing a vast, rolling field with a tree line on the horizon. I turned three hundred and sixty degrees to take in the entirety of my surroundings. The doorway stood behind me, alone, surrounded by grass and sky. On the horizon opposite the trees, the consistency of the earth shifted from lush grass to what appeared to be sand. This didn’t feel like a dream anymore. Even while lucid, my dreams always had a bit of a hazy feeling about them that persistently reminded me of their illusory quality. When my vision adjusted beyond the doorway, it felt exactly like I was wide awake. This was distinctly different from dreaming.

Something about the forest called to me, invoking memories of walks through forest paths taken in my troubled youth. As I crossed the field, a gentle breeze blew across it, lifting my hair from my face. A calm serenity fell across me. Something about being here felt right, as if I belonged in this realm.

I stepped across the border between the two environments and a wave of zen fell over me. The sunlight filtered through the tree tops. Birds chirped in the distance. There was a strong sense of life emanating from this place that I could not explain. Should not this world within a dream feel vague and hollow? Wasn’t this a creation of my mind?

Going deeper into the forest, moving branches from my way and skirting between tree trunks, I seemed to follow a preset path absentmindedly. I walked like I knew exactly where I was going. I was certain that I had been here before and Darek had merely stolen my memory of it. The pervasive feeling of familiarity had no other explanation.

“So this is the Outer Layer…” I mumbled to myself. I brushed my hand against one of the many tree trunks around me. It felt rough and sturdy and real. As a slight shudder broke out through me, a stronger breeze followed; it seemed to be summoned by my body’s involuntary action. Looking ahead, I could make out a small clearing. Something told me this was the destination my subconscious sought.

When I stepped through the shrubbery into the clearing, the nagging familiarity of this place finally made sense. It was something from entry 15, a vague reference of the Outer Layer that made no sense to me at the time. I had been here before, quite often in fact, and every time Darek stole the memories away to keep me out.

The clearing was perfectly encircled by the forest. Clouds had briefly covered the sun, blanketing it in shadow. There, in the center of the circle, stood a stone statue, undamaged by time. It depicted a woman in a robe, her face solemn, hands clasped in prayer, head slightly bowed. I approached it slowly, a strange anxiety building inside me. Above, the clouds parted to cast sunlight on the statue; its shadow stretched out over me. I crept closer to it. At the base words were engraved on a plaque.

“In loving memory of a fallen angel.” I read, my voice breaking with emotions. Tears welled in my eyes. The clouds returned to hide the sun.

This was Alice’s shrine.

I fell to my knees before the memorial. My arm extended to brush the writing. As my hand crept closer, I heard church bells ringing in the back of my head. The sound seemed to vibrate through the ground. Visions danced through my head: a sorrowfully smiling figure standing at a distance in the woods; a girl with angel wings plummeting from the sky; a young woman with tears running down her face, knelt on the ground by a lake’s edge.

“Welcome back, Mathew.”

My hand jerked away from the statue. I spun around and stood up to face the one who had addressed me. She stood at the edge of the clearing, her hand resting on one of the tree trunks. Her hair was the deep blue of spring water, her eyes the lighter shade of the sky. She was clad in a dress of earthy green, lined with snow white. On her back, neatly folded against her, I could make out a pair of wings like that of an angel’s. I could already recognize her as one of the three figures from the strange visions. Numbness rolled through me. Could it be…?

“I’m sure you must be confused.” She began making her way towards me. “I can see the questions behind your eyes.”

“Are you… Alice?”

She smiled knowingly and nodded. “You’ve forgotten again.”

“Where am I?” I spluttered. “Is this real?” My heart was racing and the sun was beating down on the scene. A thousand things were running through my head in that moment. I wanted to believe. I really wanted to, but I also did not know where I was besides somewhere in my mind, or where Darek was and what he was planning. Besides that, there was an undefinable tingling in the world around me of which I had slowly become aware. It had been there since touching the statue, probably when she first appeared. The sun was so hot and bright all of a sudden. I felt a little dizzy.

“Your consciousness has been living and dreaming inside… a chamber, in a manner of speaking.” She told me. “In a sense this place is as real as the one you came from. Maybe even more real, at least to you.”

“I… don’t really follow…” I said, trying too hard not to think too hard.

“It’s your soul, a place you created to escape that other, cursed place. And I am the personification of Alice, the ghost of her that lives on inside your head. I’m the part of her she left you.”

“And… and I’ve been here before?” I whispered, gears turning in my head and entries popping up one by one. Darek had said investigation would open doors and invite in things I didn’t want. If everything he was worried about came down to this place, this manifested realm, could there be any darkness in it so great I would not brave it to be with Alice again? “Why would Darek take this from me?”

Alice looked up to the sky, like she was expecting something. “It is never a simple answer when it comes to him. In his head, he had his reasons. He thinks in a greater magnitude than any other I know when it comes to his actions. He is very…”

“…complicated.” I finished. The strange feeling in me had grown to be impossible to ignore. Maybe it had nothing to do with Alice. Maybe it was something else, something approaching.

“We have to go. Now!”

Alice’s eyes locked onto mine for a moment before she darted off into the forest. Of course I was right. A shadow slowly spread itself across my vision, prompting me to look behind me.

A dark, billowing cloud of smoke crept across the sky from the distance. All the other clouds had been swallowed by it. It spread across the sky like oil, blotting the sun out and threatening to engulf me. All that tension in my body seemed to explode. The whole world lost its color. I didn’t even have time to consciously register my body turning and running. That dark cloud was sentient; somehow I was certain of this, and I was convinced it was coming after me.

Suddenly the forest was not so serene. Running and darting through a wood characterized by shades of grey left a foreboding fear festering in my chest. The trees seemed to shift and twist within my vision, inducing a claustrophobic panic that only worsened as the fauna thickened around me. I had seen Alice’s shadowy form in the distance at first, but now she was nowhere to be found. She might have been mere feet from me but I could not see even that far ahead.

It definitely wasn’t just in my head. The trees were moving. Twisted, leafless limbs dropped down into my field of view like gnarled hands. As I tried to duck between them, the hands snatched at me viciously. One caught me roughly around my shin. I cried out in terror, shaking my leg free. In response, the trees in the immediate vicinity seemed to turn to face me. Though I freed myself, I could not stay standing. As I scrambled to regain my footing, I caught a glimpse of the horror behind me. The dark cloud had descended like a grim fog upon the forest, rolling along between the trees with great ease.

Now I was jumping and ducking between tree limbs all vying for my capture. Overhead, leaves were withering and turning to ash as they drifted to the ground. I didn’t even make it ten feet before a root snaked up and snared my ankle. I tumbled face-first into the dirt and foliage. The leaves lining the forest floor crumbled to dust on impact. Dark tendrils of smoky blackness snuck along the ground to surround me. Unable to free myself despite desperately struggling against the imprisoning root, a black fog fell around me as ashes rained from the sky. I had been caught.

An emptiness fell over me like a blanket. I wasn’t calm or at peace like earlier. I was numb. The feeling could best be described as a coldness snaking through my veins. I shut my eyes and held my breath to avoid taking in any of the smoke that had engulfed me.

Time passed. The apathy I had become faded into the background, not quite gone but not imposing on my psyche. I opened my eyes to something unexpected.

I was no longer on the floor of the forest. The place I was in was comparable to that ethereal mist that I had run across to reach the doorway, except all the color had been completely taken from it. I appeared to be on a solid surface invisible to my eyes. All that surrounded me were tendrils of smoke in various shades of grey. With no other choice, I started walking.

I didn’t walk for all that long. Despite it, I felt time flowing around me at an exponential rate. I experienced days of torturous monotony in what must have been the span of moments. Surely it hasn’t been that long. I didn’t have a phone to check and wouldn’t trust one to tell time properly here, but the fatigue that set itself through my body reflected intense lengths of time. By the time I finally fell back in exhaustion, an intense disorientation had clouded my senses.

How many weeks had passed? How many months? I will never be able to quantify the time I spent wandering that surreal landscape, devoid of stimuli, just myself trapped with my increasingly maddening thoughts. I started to lose pieces of myself there. Before I got out I started to feel like I had never lived a real life, never been anywhere except this void of apathy and monotony.

I did escape, though. It started when I spied that doorway again, still but a tiny speck in the distance. I felt compelled to approach it. After eons of unchanging grey ether, anything was a welcome distraction to me. I can’t grasp the specifics of what ran through my mind as that doorway slowly grew larger. I think I probably went insane in that span of time. I can remember general impressions; the things I was thinking were running like blood from a wound, splattered onto my mind with violent lunacy.

Going through that doorway lifted the crimson haze that had temporarily blotted my sanity, but it did not invite release from my prisonic spirit world. I found myself occupying a space with a single source of light, a television set displaying static. It illuminated a wooden chair with a figure sitting in it. I stepped forward tentatively, calling out over the television’s hum.

“Hello?”

The figure turned in its seat to face me. I gasped when I recognized the face. It was Ben, but the hair was much longer than when I’d last seen him. Something was off about his eyes, too. The way he stared at me felt hollow. Ben was always hard to read, but I’d never looked into his eyes and seen nothing before. Alarm bells were going off in my head. This wasn’t Ben. This person wasn’t safe.

So I turned and ran back through the doorway. Instead of returning me to my familiar ethereal eternity, I was running down a twisting, winding corridor lined with framed images. I recognized all of them as things Chameleon had hidden in my entries. As I raced down that passage, insane roaring laughter echoed out all around me. I threw my hands to my ears to try and maintain my focus. I needed to get the hell out of this dark twisted place!

Images started repeating on the walls. Cracks formed in the pictures and they started crashing to the ground in front of me. Desperate, terrified, I cried out for help hoping my mind would answer me. Instead, the floor started to collapse from beneath me. All I could do was scream as I fell forever, down into oblivion, not even the monochrome ether to keep me company. I was surrounded by nothing in all directions. Eventually even the corridor above me vanished from view entirely.

I didn’t fall as long as I walked, but time stretched on until my body started to acclimate to the constant downward motion. When my voice grew hoarse from the screams, I accepted my new fate in silence.

It started as a pinprick of white light below me. Then, slowly, second by second, it grew, until I realized I was plummeting towards it at terminal velocity and it engulfed my vision. For one blissful moment I thought I had finally died. Then feeling slowly returned to my body and I felt the coarse forest floor against my face. I was back. After what must have been months I was back.

Slowly, sorely, I got to my feet. The forest had changed. Where once mighty trees had obscured my view of the sky, withered deal limbs now gave a clear view of the surroundings. The grass had died as well. Where once new life had bustled now rested the chilly glaze of winter.

I rose shakily, the horrors I had just experienced fading like a dream. The sensations still lingered strongly. I had just lived lifetimes and experienced horrors that were not easy to shake off. What the hell had I just been through? The strangest thing was that even though I remembered feeling so empty inside, now that I was back I felt like I was missing something. Somewhere in my raving thoughts near the end of my long walk, I had come to some conclusions that had given me some sort of higher understanding. I couldn’t remember anymore what had triggered this, but I was certain I had solved the puzzle of my life and forgotten. This left a small piece of me yearning to return despite the costs.

I had no wish to suffer that dystopian fate again, though. I cast a wary eye to the overcast skies and walked through my new world. This forest had definitely reacted to my fear before. It made sense, given this was inside my head. My perceptions affected the environment directly. As confirmation, the sun peeked out behind the heavy clouds to cast twisted shadows across the woods.

There was no snow on the ground but there was a chill in the air. This frigid coldness likely stemmed from the change in my mental demeanor. At first I had been filled with the wonders of new discovery. Now I was dulled from the torture I had received inside that dark cloud.

Something caught my eye through the trees that juxtaposed the wintry woods. It was another clearing, much larger than the first, and a perfect circumference of lush green summer grass marked it plain as day for me. Curiously, I meandered towards it.

The clearing contained a small lake. I had seen this lake before. It was the same one I had been dreaming about the night before I entered the doorway. I’d seen it other times in my dreams, too. It seemed to be a recurring constant and solidified my certainty that I was meant to find this place.

At the lake’s edge, a figure knelt. I recognized her as well, though I couldn’t quite place where from. She seemed unaware of me entirely as I stepped into the green circle. Her face was entirely obscured, but her sky-blue hair cascaded down her shoulders visibly. She was clad in tattered articles with an earthy red shade to them. Her feet were bare but not very dirty.

“Um…” I paused awkwardly, unsure of how to get her attention. However I had no need to.

“Mat…” it sounded like she was crying.”I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”

“Why?” I asked hesitantly.

“You came here looking for Alice, right? You always do. But you won’t find her here. I’m so sorry, Mat. Alice is dead.”

Dead? I stared at this girl in stunned silence. She lifted her head upright and turned to face me, knees still on the ground, eyes misty and watery and green. She looked like she might be sixteen. Her face was covered in little freckles. She kept talking to fill the silence.

“I’m sorry. Every time you vanish for a long time and come back you always forget and I have to tell you again. I can’t hide it from you; you’ll eventually find out either way. I just hate to see the hurt it causes you over and over every time and I’m just so sorry.”

“But… Alice… I saw her in the forest. There must be some mistake.”

“No.” Her expression darkened and her words took on a bitter sharpness. “That is not Alice. She’s an imposter, a pretender.”

“Then who-”

“It’s her sister, Mat. It’s Gwen.” The girl explained, pleading up at me to make her stop telling me these things but continuing to speak anyway. “She wanted to be Alice to make you happy. She wanted me to help her convince you, too, but I can’t do that to you. It’s false, false happiness, and you deserve the truth. I tried to warn you that she was a fraud but I guess you really didn’t remember either of us so-”

“Okay, okay.” I cut her off. “So, then, if that wasn’t Alice but Gwen, and she sent that message in the capitalization errors claimimg to be Alice, then you sent the other message… but who are you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Her cheeks flushed bright pink. “My name is Anna. I’m… sort of… Alice’s daughter, I guess…”

“Her what?”

“Not literally, I mean. Just…” She hiccuped softly. “When you were younger and you came here, she was like a parent to me. We were sort of like a makeshift family, you know?”

I nodded, my heart yearning to remember the days she spoke of but my mind unable to conjure anything. “So… what is this place?” I asked her.

“It is where all of us Figments live.” She explained. “The way Alice explained it, we are born as extensions of your heart, to help you. This lake is my home. I’ve been here since you created me, but the Outer Layer is not just my home. All your friends’ Figments live in this realm where your souls intersect. Except for Darek, that is. He comes from… somewhere else.”

I recalled my meeting with the Ben-like figure inside the dark cloud. “And… that cloud thing… is it also part of this world?”

“The dark cloud exists in the Outer Layer as a manifestation of the disease that afflicts you all. It’s a mark of chaos in your created safe place.” Fresh tears came to Anna’s eyes and she blinked them away. “It only appeared after Alice left. I’m so sorry. It must have terrified you, and-”

I put my hand reassuringly on Anna’s shoulder. She looked up into my eyes with a guilty glimmer of sorrow. “If you knew Alice, if you thought of yourself as her daughter…” I said carefully. “Then you have a piece of her with you. Maybe it was you I’ve wanted to find all along. So stop apologizing to me please? It isn’t your fault she’s gone.”

“You don’t understand,” Anna whispered, breaking eye contact. “Alice… I… she…” suddenly the scene around me started to fade, becoming translucent. “What’s happening?” I asked urgently.

“I think you’re being called back to the other plane.” She said. “I hope you can find your way back soon. I hope you finally remember.”

I wanted to thank her, but the world around me faded like a shimmering ghost, leaving only darkness behind. At first I feared I had fallen back into that cloud’s little torture realm, but I quickly figured out that the black was from the inside of my eyelids. I opened my heavy lids to the real world once more.

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hottytoddynews · 7 years

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The End of All Music in Oxford.

There’s a magical little record store called The End of All Music, one of the greatest gems this town has to offer. The minute I walk in, I am greeted with the aroma of old records, a smell I’ve come to appreciate in my years of collecting.

The blue walls have rare and new releases all across them. There are rows of record crates always changing, so every trip, there is a new adventure. I am greeted every time by owner David Swider.

Since the day they opened the store, Swider has been most helpful with every question I have. This time I asked about the vinyl record revival.

One day, I walked into Urban Outfitters and noticed a small collection of vinyl records. My mind was totally blown. I could not believe a “cool” and “hip” store was carrying vinyl records, something I thought were near obsolete for people my age.

As I continued to shop there, their collection grew. It grew so much, they started carrying turntables. I noticed records by modern day pop artists, and even musicians you would never think to find on vinyl.

Urban Outfitters is now known for their selection of new pop and classic remasters. Thus, my curiosity about “vinyl revival” soared.

David Swider, owner of The End of All Music in Oxford.

One of my favorite questions to ask anyone my age (or around my age) that has a vinyl record collection is about how they began collecting. When I walked into The End of All Music, I knew exactly what my first question was going to be for David: How did you get started with vinyl records?

The answer to this question is something David and I have in common. It started with our parents.

“As a kid, just listening to my parent’s records,” he said. “They always had records and a turntable when I was a kid, you know. They had classic rock stuff and Beatles records, and that’s what kind of started it all.”

This was interesting, considering the first vinyl record I ever laid hands on was a Beatles record – Abby Road, to be exact.

David Swider has always been a collector. He collected baseball cards and comic books in junior high, then vinyl. He made mixed cassettes with his parents’ records and played them on his Walkman.

“I just loved the look and the feel of records,” he said. “I bought a lot of CDs too, but I bought more records than I probably should have.”

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What makes vinyl more appealing than other forms of media? From a personal standpoint, there is nothing that beats the crackle sound it makes when I place the needle on the record. Vinyl is a true listening experience.

“From a sound standpoint, I think any time you have an analog source of music, it’s going to sound better than a digital,” Swider said, “and that’s just the way humans are programmed, and their ears are programmed.

“I always think an analog sound wave is going to have a warmer sound, and I think the best way to get that sound is off a vinyl record.”

You know how in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Cameron talks about his dad’s Ferrari being his most prized possession? I have records that I feel the same way about (although, that’s a bit of a stretch comparing it to a Ferrari). Point is, records keep their value, and you can always find one on eBay for some obscure amount of money.

“It’s something that retains its value really well,” Swider said. “So, from a collector’s standpoint, it’s a perfect medium. The combination of the tangible aspect of a record and the beauty of a record, and the fact that it looks cool on a shelf, combined with the sound quality – you can’t find a better way to listen to music or own music.

“When it comes down to it, owning music in 2017 is a pretty interesting debate, and I think that vinyl is easily the best way to do that.”

So, did vinyl ever really go away? My answer is yes and no. I think people just forgot about how magical vinyl really was. We had an influx of new technology that was more appealing and convenient.

“I’m in the camp that argues that it never really went away,” Swider said. “There are more people buying it now than 10 years ago, but 10 years ago, you still had good record stores, and you still had good records coming out on vinyl.”

Swider said we’ve now “gone through that era of the first big wave of digital music,” referring to iTunes, Napster, and so on. “People have caught on to the fact that those are not finite. I think people are realizing this digital way of owning music is never going to be the same as owning records.”

And it’s not … at all. I hardly ever listen to music on my phone, unless I’m using Spotify. I never get on iTunes to even look at new releases. Furthermore, I can’t even tell you where my iPod is.

At The End of All Music, you will find a plethora of newly released music. From Katy Perry, to Kanye West, they have it all. They also have a cool event called Record Store Day that’s kind of like Christmas to me.

Record Store Day is when artists release limited numbers of albums or unique albums only on that day. A good bit of these albums are numbered, and you can bet they will sell on eBay for twice what you paid for them, or more.

Swider said Record Store Day is a huge day for record stores. “This year will be the 10threcord store day,” he said, “and you could definitely go back 10 years and notice a direct correlation of vinyl becoming as popular as it is now because of Record Store Day. They did a good job kick-starting a vinyl revival.”

Many popular artists, such as Katy Perry and James Bay, release limited albums for Record Store Day. This is a fantastic way to include the younger generation.

Some of the many amazing records at The End of All Music.

My dad is 70 years old and remembers when the Beatles became popular. He attended one of their concerts and passed down his fondness for their music to me. The first record he bought was a 45, and it was Jailhouse Rock by Elvis.

Growing up on a farm in a small town, the closest record store to him was in Vicksburg. “I guess what really got me interested in music in high school, beyond the Elvis and Paul Anka era, was a classmate,” he said. “He brought a radio to school with him, and we would listen to his radio on the way home. He introduced me to music by The Beatles.”

My father didn’t discover his love of music until college. They always played music at his fraternity house, and his roommate had a nice collection of albums and a nice stereo system. My father thinks modern music is “latching on to the popularity of vinyl that was started from classic rock.”

Good music never goes out of style. Vinyl will never go away. I think this “vinyl revival” is here to stay. Every artist has evolved and taken inspiration from generations before them. The same is true for music formats.

When it comes down to it, people want something timeless. All the new technology loses its appeal over time. With vinyl, we are running back to the start and seeking music in its original form.

By Marlene Middleton. Read More Stories Like This on OxfordStories.net.

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