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apollos-son · 3 years

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✎ . . . ❝Sail Away,❞

Rating ; 15+

Pairing ; eventual poly ot8 ateez

Genre ; adventure, fluff, heavy angst, fantasy

Tags ; ateez pirate au, violence, blood, magic, mythical creatures, au of the past

A/N ; some events in this series will be based loosely on events that have occurred in ateez mvs that go along with ateez's story. I say loosely because I'm not reciting what happened in the mvs, I'm taking some of the events and twisting them in an interesting (I hope) way. There are tags that will be added later on, and in specific chapters there will also definitely be trigger warnings, however if there does happen to be anything triggering in chapters that I have mistakenly not labelled with a trigger warning - please let me know so I can add a warning.

Summary ; Kim Hongjoong is a hero reborn, brought back from a war he inevitably died in to defeat the darkness that once left his home, his family and the rest of the world in ruin. It's up to him and his companions to prevail over the most challenging of evils. Will they be able to do it? Or will everything crumble to pieces?

I know this is unlikely but I do ask that you do not copy my work under any circumstances. Do not repost, translate or use my work without permission. Thanks :)

-> The origin chapters

<- previous chapter • next chapter ->

Chapter 1 ⇢ ❝The World Left In Ruin.❞

It was a disaster. Everything that could've gone wrong.. it went wrong. They thought that this would be an easy battle. They thought they would emerge victorious. The preparations, the plans. It all meant nothing now.

There were too many dead bodies to count. Some were scattered individually, showing a soldier who danced alone, on their own paths. Others were in groups, clusters, showing soldiers who were afraid of this beast. Deeply afraid. Rightly so, she thought as she gazed over them. A battle had been lost. Not just a battle, the war had been lost.

。

She wiped the dirt off of her face as she collapsed to her knees. This was the temple, the place where she watched over the humans. Those old walls that had cracks etched in from years gone by, the overgrown plants that were evergreen. Beautiful. Sitting here now, with these eight bodies, the bodies of the heroes, she finally realised something. Destiny realised that it wasn't over yet. This world and that which remains within it was not yet doomed. Her fingers clenched around the cloth cloak that draped over her small body. Yes, she was weak and yes, using the last of her power would prevent her returning to Earth but it was the only way. Her eyes met the cold, dead ones of Kim Hongjoong and she heaved a long, defeated sigh.

Her only hope. Their only hope.

。

[three years later]

Soft brown eyes slowly flutter open, a sense of dreariness and haziness flooding over his body. Everything ached. It felt like hell. His limbs hurt, his head hurt. It took him a while to really see over his surroundings. Where... Where was he? The place was huge, ancient and yet it had a sense of charm that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He wipes his eyes with the palms of his little hands and he tries to stand up. He couldn't remember a thing. Why he was here, what happened before this point, he couldn't even remember his name.

Clumsily, he made his way over to a little pool of water that sat in one of the four corners of the room. He gazed down into the liquid and saw a faded reflection of a pretty boy staring back at him. Blue, fluffy hair, clear skin and beautiful brown eyes. His hands made contact with the cold stone that sealed the water off from the rest of the temple. A voice called something from the distance. Calling out the name of someone.. "Hongjoong"

Reluctantly, he followed that voice, down one of the corridors that the temple had. He observed the walls, every little crack and every little dent. That voice grew louder "Hongjoong, Kim Hongjoong," it sang, as though the name were a sweet melody. "who is that?" he thought "who is this person? Who is Kim Hongjoong?"

The corridor came to an end abruptly. His eyes widened at the sight before him. There were pillars towering over him and gaps between each of them. The fresh smell of air and salt wafted through as he finally got a look at the outside. It was beautiful, but.... it was also nothing but water. Water that stretched as far as the eye could see. No matter which way he looked at the openings,, no land was in sight.

Then, a piercing light came from the centre of the room, causing the boy to shield his eyes away hastily. A mosaic that was stretched across the floor in the centre also lit up. "Kim Hongjoong," the same voice chimed. "Kim Hongjoong, you must hear my call," it repeated.

"Kim... Hongjoong?" The boy replied croakily "I don't know anybody by that name," he said. The voice paused "who are you?" it asked. The boy's brows furrowed and he spoke unsurely "I have no clue,, I just woke up here, I don't remember anything,"

That was the big question, who was he? The light in the room seemed to only glow brighter at his response. "fallen hero,,," it insisted "you are our only hope... the fate of the world rests in your hands,"

Stubbornly, the boy shook his head "m-me? A fallen hero?? But I have no recollection of my past, how can that be?" he asked In desperation. His white button down flowed in the slow breeze and his tongue ran smoothly across his cold lips. The aching that overcame his body had subsided, but only by a short amount.

His eyes drooped closed, his head hurting still yet the pain blossoming through it seemed to slowly but surely fade with every inhale and exhale. His arms extended from each side outwards, taking in the wind and the sun from the outside. Embracing it. Nothing hurt anymore. He was truly alive. It was a feeling like no other. To feel every part of his body again. To feel like himself again. But, who was he? The person standing here, inhaling the vast ocean's salty scent was not the hero the voice called out for. So why did he follow? Questions without answers. Questions that needed answers.

He felt his eyes flicker open again, and the light was gone. Like it was never there. In its place, however, fluttered a golden butterfly. A small creature that held innocence and beauty within its being. The little butterfly perched upon the boy's finger when he reached out to touch it. Its perfect glistening glow was captivating. Warm brown eyes inspect the little insect carefully as it's pretty wings twitched. "what's a small thing like you doing in a place like this?" The boy asked in a soft tone, obviously not expecting an answer.

Wait.. Was it just him or was the butterfly twinkling more than a butterfly should..? Then, before his very eyes, the butterfly seemed to fade away; almost as if it was melting. Now nothing but sparkling dust remained on his fingers. As he rose his hand up to inspect the glittering powder, his hand was set ablaze. With a small gasp, he shook his hand vigorously but the flames merely danced around his fingertips, burning with passion.

。

This new power that surged through his body, he couldn't quite understand what it was. He had spent a while experimenting with it, creating flames, creating plant life, creating light and, perhaps less excitingly and more concerningly, destroying certain things that he touched. It seemed that he had the power of creation and destruction at his fingertips, yet he couldn't quite use it at his will. That was evident by the amount of flowers blooming around him and the amount of plants hugging at his feet. How curious.

The sun's bright light soon fell as the boy experimented continuously with this strange oddity now available to him. It was entertaining, sure, but he felt lonely. The moon's silver luminescence shined down on him as he sat between one of the gaps of the sturdy pillars in the room that was open to the ocean. It was too dark to see a thing elsewhere so it left the small boy to gaze up at the stars.

He still had no idea who he was or how he got here. "Kim Hongjoong" was the only person he knew of but,, he wasn't certain if he was Kim Hongjoong for sure. For now then... Until he gets a solid answer, he'll call himself "Hong"

Hong kicked his legs out a little bit and shivered lightly. His thin clothes weren't really shielding him from the night's cool air. He glamced at his left hand and pressed his lips together, until a flame shortly blazed over his palm. The warmth of the flame soothed him, as his eyelids grew heavy, calling for him to enter a slumber.

Slowly, Hong lowered himself until he was flat on his back, his hands up in the air so he could watch the red and orange embers flare at his fingers. Something then came to mind, what was he to do in this place? Eventually, he'd starve to death, correct? So... He had to figure out how to escape, there must be land somewhere else. For that moment, though, he let himself fall into a slumber. He let those thoughts and those worries drift away for now.

。

Startled, Hong awoke with a start. Something had hit his face. And it was more prominent then a bug or a drop of rain. He sat up and stretched his arms out above him and looked around. To his left, a small scroll of paper sat. That must've been what hit him.

His small hands twitched as he reached for the crisp piece of paper. It was rolled up precisely and wrapped in a red ribbon. Maybe,, just maybe, this could explain to him what was going on. He hastily unravelled the paper and scanned it. His look of hope quickly faded into something that resembled confusion. Words were etched into the paper elegantly, though most of it appeared in a language Hong couldn't quite recognise. Only one part stood out to him. The name. "Park Seonghwa," he whispered. His index finger traced the name in the italic handwriting and sighed. Two names, without meaning.

He stared at the writing for a while, trying to decipher what it was saying. But he could never get past the first sentence, which was clearly written in Korean. "We were written in the stars, by Destiny herself,"

His mind seemed restless, but the sun had not even come up yet. He was using the small light source that the moon gave off. His eyes lifted to stare at the many stars. "written in the stars... what does that mean?" he asked himself solemnly. A small crackle of fire came to his attention and he looked down again only to realise that he was burning the aged paper. "No!-" he squeaked in desperation but before he could do anything, the paper had burnt to a crisp.

Not long after though a figure appeared beside him. A gasp left his lips in shock and he moved himself back, away from the figure that was laying unconscious on the floor. Did,, did he do that? Surely not, that couldn't be possible. He looked over the figure for a moment, his eyes twinkling with curiosity. "Park... Seonghwa?" he queried quietly.

When the figure's eyes opened abruptly to reveal a pretty blue, Hong gasped again. He had the urge to reach out and touch the person's face, but restrained himself from doing so. "who.. are you?" The figure, that upon closer inspection seemed to resemble a man also, asked with a sense of weariness in his voice.

"I.. don't really know,"

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Lil taglist:

@atiny-piratequeen @ningnings-plushies @btsheadquarters7 @catboy-dia

#Aaron-James writes #finallyy #first fic #I'm so happy with myself #and how this came out #and I hope that other people like it too #because I really enjoy it myself #:D #origin chapter #ateez #Adventure #this is a filler chapter that had to be established before I can move on to the more interesting stuff #there will be more fluff in the next chapter ;)#I know that this isn't going to get much attention but that's just how it goes #Sail Away

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offbrandtoaster · 3 years

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Higurashi Gou spoilers episode 17 (and Umineko spoilers, honestly just a lot of word vomit lol):

So, I don't think Rika and Satoko are the only loopers. I also think Takano is looping, OR she at least remembers what she did in the last series of loops.

Takano not specifying why she changed her mind is what makes me believe so. If she's like Keiichi and Rena, then she only has vague memories of her worst actions. She knows in another world she would carry out that plan and kill them. But I think in order for the BIG mastermind (most likely Featherine based on the opening?) to properly set up Satoko as the piece mastermind, they had to have Takano step down.

But of course, this isn't Featherine's gameboard, but Lambdadelta's. So she has specific rules she has to follow. So Takano can't simply have a change of heart, she has to achieve it on her own. By allowing Takano to remember the evils she commits, maybe it allows her to back out before she goes through with it. She realizes how horrible her actions are before she's in too deep (again, similar to Rena, Keiichi, and Shion who all dive further into their delusions because of their first murder. They're in too far and they feel they have no other recourse.)

One thing I'm not sure about, however, is Bern and Lambda's relationship. Satoko and Rika are mirroring Lambda and Bern right now, even down to the romantic subtext. This implies THIS series of loops is actually the game between Lambda and Bern. Orrrr maybe the game was never over to begin with? Rika never actually escaped, the loop where she lives until St. Lucia was part of the game, but because Lambda abandoned the board she THOUGHT she won.

Now Featherine is poking and prodding, which has started triggering the loops once more. Maybe her death in St. Lucia's was one irrelevant to the loops. And she remained dead until Featherine came in again. Regardless, I feel like this is still a part of the original series of loops. Kind of like how despite Lambda, Erika, and Battler taking over for Beatrice, it ultimately was still Beatrice's board with certain patterns and rules it had to follow, regardless of how wild everything outside of those got twisted.

Furthermore, we know Bern was Featherine's miko.

SO, Satoko fucked up bad here, and I think this will trigger Rika to pursue a higher truth, to fully win the game of Hinamizawa. Like Beatrice's game, there was always a particular truth. I think for Hinamizawa, Satoko is SORTA right about it being to "never leave Hinamizawa," but her own trauma over the events that have happened have distorted it. It's not "Never leave Hinamizawa" but "Remember the goodness of Hinamizawa." Hinamizawa is cursed with tragedy, but also some of the best times of Rika's life. But with how much she had to live through it all, she began to resent it. We see this all the time, despite how positive Rika tries to be, she's very cold, distant, and arrogant. And who can blame her?

My guess is when she went to St. Lucia's, she cut all contact with her previous life in Hinamizawa. This probably isn't so bad for Keiichi, Rena, Mion, and Shion because they would be adults living their own lives by that point.

But Satoko literally only has Rika. The small glimpse of St. Lucia we got showed Satoko with Rika there, but I wonder under what circumstances?

My guess is Satoko follows Rika without Rika's permission. Rika begins to resent Satoko, because she is a constant reminded of Hinamizawa. Perhaps Satoko's Hinamizawa Syndrome flares up (maybe they thought they found a "cure" but it only weakened the disease, maybe she stopped taking treatments, maybe her stress got so bad it just didn't matter), and she kills Rika.

So now Featherine takes advantage if this moment. She offers Satoko a deal. You can return to Hinamizawa and have your peaceful days, buuuut... and this is where I stumble again. My guess is maybe Satoko understands tragedies trigger the loops, so when when she realizes she's in a losing loop she intentionally triggers it, unlike Rika who would usually just go passive and allow it to happen relatively naturally?

Basically, I don't think Satoko is purely evil in this. She's like Rika, hurt and broken. But where Rika's hurt took the form of apathy, Satoko's is taking the form of aggression.

#higurashi #higurashi spoilers #higurashi gou #higurashi gou spoilers #lotsa word vomit #but goddamn I love this series so much

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toysoldiers-rwby · 3 years

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[CS] 3. Chill

Cutting Strings

Characters: Penny, Winter, Aro, May Word Count: 3k

Penny’s first real out of lab experience uncovers a small… glitch.

Read on Ao3

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Approval Rate: 74

The Military Robotics Event took more than a block and that did not including the firing range displaying the various of weapons. From the entrance Penny could see the Paladin-290 march up and down the street. Another set displayed the mech’s strength, pulling two armored trucks. It strained the mechs but thanks to her Aura, Penny would be able to pull a third one with little stress. The new Atlesian Knight-200 were sparing with the old Ak-130 to show… improvements.

Winter gently cleared her throat. Penny looked up at the Huntresses to see May with a large smile while Winter had a fist to her mouth. A very poor attempt to to hide any evidence of enjoyment. She couldn’t hide her eyes though, they seemed… brighter, lit up with entertainment.

The Specialist made sure to take a slow and deep breath before returning that hand behind her back. She had that stoic frown on her face. Penny greatly enjoyed how Winter’s voice struggled to match it, “I take it the new Atlesian Knights does not meet your standard?” Winter asked.

“Really? It’s so bad you have to re-Focus to control your mouth?” May ask.

Aro only rolled her eyes. The words came out far to smooth despite light frown on her face, “Officially, the Ak-200 is the current pinnacle of robotics.” Penny made an odd strangled noise, barely stopping her synthetic vocals in time.

That statement wasn’t correct- or, it was. Officially, as in what to what the public had access too, it was correct. But Penny was far superior to the Spider Droid, Knights, and Paladins combined. Across all boards: intelligence, durability, and strength. Her father poured his soul, quite literally, into Penny’s construction. She was proud of her capabilities. The young women had to take a deep breath and let go of her hands. She nearly tore the skin off her joints.

Winter noticed the fidgeting. The two huntresses glanced at each other. The look of realization and amusement happening across their features at the same time. Like they were able to communicate in an instant.

“Penny?” Winter asked, her voice a little lighter than before.

“What do you think of the AK-200?” May finished with a grin. Arms crossed at the younger pair.

“It… is an improvement of the previous model. Hic.” A glitch jolted her system. Her Aura flared across her wires and hardware, code scrambling for action with no parameters. All three women stared at her with various level of shock and amusement.

Amusement was a positive emotion, it should be good but for some reason it made Penny feel inadequate. She willed her processors to correct the glitch but it didn’t detect what had happened in the first place.

“I- I mean…” Penny bit her lip. The Aura was stirring wildly again as she started to form the words in her mouth, “The AK-200 base line performance well exceeds the Ak-130, hic.”

Winter shook her head and for a moment Penny’s power unit sank in efficiency. That was until a slight smile pulled at her lips. Then her processors tried to correct the conflicting information. Just a second ago amusement directed at her was bad. Now it was good?

“Fine!” Aro’s aggressive sigh shocked Penny out of her thoughts. She caught those blue eyes flickering again. The mechanic’s lips pressed into a tight line. “We’ll tell you the truth but later,” Her voice… wavered. Her eyes wandered from the Huntresses to the crowd. With so much visual and audio information much of it was sent to her background processors, but now that she was focused on them there were so many people looking at the group.

Penny froze under the eyes of so many business people, military Huntsmen and Huntresses. Her facial recognition program was triggered no matter where she looked, until Winter stepped in, so close her torso encompassed most of her view. When she looked up Winter was glaring furiously. Oddly the negative display was comforting, seeing it directed at the crowd. More conflicting information to be sorted through.

“I can see why you and Aro get along so well,” Winter whispered to her. Tilting to the side Penny saw May comfort her future teammate as well. Her hand was firmly grasping the back of her neck and she was signing a few things. Aro’s eyes were flickering again. “What’s the point in a day off if work follows you.” Winter growled under her breath.

“That’s… a good point,” May muttered rubbing her chin in though. She finished calming Aro, who seemed more withdrawn, eyes glowing brighter than usual. “I can put a Field around us, after we duck in somewhere. But we’ll have stick to the sides.”

“An adequate plan,” Winter nodded.

Penny looked at the ground, her hands intertwining. She could feel the ball joints, hear the crowd whispering conspiracies and theories. The hum of Aro’s cybernetic legs. Footsteps, footsteps. Metal screeching-

“The General must have Schnee and Glade on a leash. To have them in public like that.” Someone whispered. Penny was unsure if May and WInter heard it. Aro did. From the way her shoulders tensed, everything was just as loud.

“If Schnee can win back Glade they’d be unstoppable.” Another said. Louder, closer. Winter scowled, strides longer and faster.

“The Paladins must not be finished if Glade’s on site for repairs.”

“Has Schnee finally convince Glade to join the military?”

Finally the group was able to duck into a quiet alley. Almost immediately May’s Aura flared around her hands. A translucent dome of Aura rose up around them.

“Glade is on a leash,” Aro sang mocking tone. Her eyes flashed a bright red, “Glade will bite your head off- Ow!” Her yelling died down to a yelp when May headbutted her.

“For the last time,” She whispered harshly, almost like a growl. May pressed her head hard to Aro’s as if it would directly transfer data, “Invisible! Not inaudible.” Aro grumbled and pouted. Faunus ears twitched out from hiding, flicked around as she leaning back as much as possible. May kept pressing forward.

“Okay, yes, ma’am,” Aro huffed. May finally relented.

Winter lead the small group off the main street. May dropped her Field when the crowd was no longer pressed shoulder to shoulder. The Specialist slowed her strides, looking down at the group. “Penny, what kind of food do you like?”

“Oh! Um…” Penny paused, wide eyes up at Winter. Then Aro who raised a brow. Her future teammate must have noticed she didn’t touch any of the food Xanthic had stolen. Several lies her processors spat out caused her aura to flare in her chest again. “My body doesn’t… agree with most things.” She said the last part quickly. The odd glitch didn’t occur.

“Think your body can agree with something cold?” Aro asked, “Ice cream, bubble tea, smoothies… My legs are running a little hot.”

Penny thought about that for a second. Liquids might be plausible. She checked her blueprints. Her father mimicked the human anatomy where he could. Her throat housed her synthetic vocals, chest cavities fans and radiators that chilled the liquid coolant running in her body… as long as it’s mostly liquid, her filtration system should be fine.

“I have never tried bubble tea.”

“I know we all can go to,” May said. Penny saw Winter’s eyes flinch towards Aro for a second. “Not far either.”

“Chocolate!” Aro cheered following.

Penny found herself near the rare of the group, watching everyone interact. Specifically Winter. From the conversation, Penny deducted that Winter doesn’t take a lot of breaks, so this was a rare opportunity to observe her nonprofessional behavior. Though Penny suspects it wasn’t very different from her current behavior. And that it largely depends on who was in her immediate proximity. Winter’s attitude harden whenever Aro would do something a little to rash, such as running up to a strangers dog. Thankfully May was close enough to grab the quick women.

“You out of everyone should know not to touch strangers without asking,” May scolded, pulling the goat ears once. This time Aro grinned and giggled shaking her head out of the grip.

Penny labeled the information as important. With a small side note questioning when people were no longer strangers- Her analysis programing quickly recalled what Winter said a few hours ago, questioning how close they were. An accurate statement with that women. Was… Aro truly her friend?

Suddenly Penny’s wires were in knots. Why? Was she defective? There was so many things she didn’t understand and new information conflicted with her pre-installed data. The odd glitch-

“Penny,” Winter’s voice snapped her out of her spiraling thoughts.

All her functions focused inward she didn’t notice they have finally arrived at the restaurant. They were seated outside in the corner. Through the window she could see Aro and May ordering their drinks. May’s hands were behind her back, Aura glowing softly. She looked in their direction but her eyes couldn’t exactly focus on their precise location. Penny was familiar with her body language, her father had a similar expression for worry. She was seeing it more and more and didn’t like it.

“You… stopped responding,” Winter said. With no other witnesses, Winter was truly gentle. Her hands gently squeezed Penny, her sensors barely registered any pressure or warmth through the leather gloves. It was an affectionate gesture and Penny smiled in appreciation. She couldn’t look at Winter’s face for long, every time she tried to decipher what emotion Winter was displaying, her processors were overwhelmed. Pre-installed data saw Winter as cold and professional, but this Winter was far from it. “How can I assist you?”

“I… I don’t know what’s wrong with me-”

“There is nothing wrong.” Winter said quickly and easily. As if she had to do it many times before. Her grip tightened. Penny still had trouble looking at Winter’s face so she looked at their hands. Winter quickly let go, “My apologize. It helped my sister and a few others…”

Weiss Schnee, her mind quickly registered. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, talented singer, skilled combatant, currently attending Beacon. The others was Aro, Penny suspected. Possibly May but the only thing Penny knew about them was that they were familiar with each other.

“So… this is a common problem?”

“As much as people hate to admit it,” Winter said with a deep scowl. She shifted so their bodies were no longer grazing each other. Penny missed the contact and comfort but it was easier to look at Winter now. That raw emotion Penny was scared of was dulled by the frustration so obvious on her face. Blue eyes glared at the stone ground, “If working with Dr. Polendina causes such anxiety, tell him. He is an extraordinarily kind man and wouldn’t want to harm you.”

“I know father is-”

“What?! E-Excuse me?” Winter’s head snapped to her. “Aro speculated that Dr. Polendina wanted a child but…” Penny shrunk in on herself. There was something wrong with- “No, no, don’t- damn it.” Winter took a breath, finger on her temples. “I am merely shocked. I expected a child, around the age of five, not a teenager.”

Penny frowned, “I am, by all means, a young adult.”

“You sound like Weiss,” Winter rolled her eyes. Then she noticed May and Aro heading out of the shop with a few drinks and some food. The Specialist slipped back into professional-mode too easily. Like it wasn’t a just a mask.

But before the others returned, Penny took her hand and squeezed it softly, “Winter… Thank you.” Winter squeezed it back and smiled briefly. She didn’t answer, Aro’s aids would pick it up now that she was outside.

Aro had a better sense of where the pair was, eyes never drifting to far from their mark but her worried face instantly changed to relief once she could see them.

“Penny! I’m so sorry,” Aro said quickly taking a seat at Penny’s side. She let go of the drinks in her hand- Penny’s hands flew out to grab them from falling but it just floated. Gravity Dust, Penny reminded herself. Then she engulfed in a tight hug and lift ever so slightly. “I didn’t think- I won’t drag you into Menagerie size crowds again.”

“I’m stable, with Winter’s help,” Penny said, patting Aro’s head. It took a few seconds for the mechanic to let go. By that time May had taken a seat and set the floating drinks on the table. “I wasn’t aware I had… anxiety.”

“Therapist Schnee saves the day again,” May laughed. Aro sat next to her, elbowing the Huntress a little too hard.

Winter reached for the drink labeled ‘Knight Commander’ and gave Aro a tired look. It wasn’t effective with the small smile on her lips. She then gave May a much more serious stare, “Being an older sister with a man like my father looming over us doesn’t make me a therapist.”

“Makes you better than most Atlesians,” Aro grumbled. Her own drink was labeled ‘Weaponsmith’. The last two was ‘Spymaster’ and ‘Squire’. With a small giggle and a look at Aro, Penny took the one labelled Squire. Aro gave a brief grin, ears happily wiggling out of hiding for a moment before tucking back under her hair.

“Alright so the thing with the Paladins and new Knights?” Aro paused, taking a deep sip of her drink and chewing on the boba. “They’re complete shit. They refused Xanthic’s code so her bulterbots are smarter than those toys with guns. They didn’t consult me on any changes with the Paladin and I don’t think Dr. Pietro even looked at those designs.”

“I can confirm the last statement,” Penny said with a nod. She held her drink close but didn’t take a sip yet. “My father has been busy with other projects-”

May’s fist slammed the table, another hand covering her mouth as she desperately tried not to choke or spit her drink everywhere. Winter made a face and casually slide over to Penny’s side, pressing shoulder to shoulder until Penny shifted and allowed Winter to escape.

“F-father?! You’re Pietro’s kid- When?”

“Since 240 days ago.” Penny said with a cheery smile.

“May, I just she recently disclosed this information to me as well.” Winter said holding her hand up to stop the yelling. May glared at Aro who shrugged, but had a smile wrapped around the straw of her drink.

“I met her yesterday and helped her take down a Spider Droid.”

“Spider…” May looked ready to burst with how much information she was taking in. Winter looked surprised eyes wandering to Penny- then it cut back to Aro with an accusatory glare. “Aura.” May demanded. The look on her face was scary intense and slightly worried, “Did you have your Aura up?”

“Uh…” A shimmer went across Aro’s body. Her eyes was wide and she shrank under the gaze of Atlas’ most elite Huntresses. “… Yes.” May looked ready to feint. Some humans do feint under intense emotions but she wondered if they could feint from experiencing too many emotions. Penny looked up a few procedures in case she does.

May seemed to settle on exhaustion and defeat, but the panic drained a lot of color from her complexion. “Aurora Glade!” May let out a frustrated sigh and held her head. “You’re going to be the death of me.”

“At least you’ll die loving me.”

Winter flinched ever so slightly, a hand gently pressed to her lips as she struggled to maintain her dignified composure compared to May’s outburst. The Huntress was now bright red, very worrying for how pale she was a moment ago. Just as Aro was about to see it May ripped the plastic off her bubble tea and threw it at the mechanic’s face.

Penny looked at her drink for a moment. This was recreational liquid meant for consumption. She was starting to have second opinions on how safe it would be for her system, after seeing two Huntresses choke on it and it being weaponized. But Winter’s soft chuckle set Penny at ease.

Aro took everything in stride. She was laughing again, twirling her hair and squeezing the drink out of it while May stuttered for a moment. Winter was content- almost happy.

Penny finally took a sip of her drink and pressed into Winter. The pair slide back to Winter’s side of the table, a little further from May and Aro as the pair started to playfully wrestle. She’d be okay, even with the glitches, Penny decided. She has 240 days of evidence, one friend Aro + May Marigold, and an uncategorized Winter Schnee to help her.

Approval Rate: Unnecessary

#Penny Polendina #fic #cutting strings #pre-fall of beacon #may marigold #winter schnee #aurora glade #apcx

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kiruuuuu · 4 years

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I had the pleasure of talking this through with you, @cerosin, and the end result is.... definitely unhealthier than your initial request, but I hope you’ll like it anyway :) I also certainly took my time with this, thank you for waiting and thank you for the request 🖤🖤 (Kapkan/Glaz, Rating E, angst fluff + smut, ~4.6k words)

He can tell when it gets bad again.

Obviously, there are the spontaneous bursts, attacks he can neither predict nor prevent and therefore has to react on the spot, but those have receded: the people around them have learnt how to avoid triggering anything, and Glaz has learnt how to remove Kapkan from these situations efficiently. No, this isn’t about sudden, blind panic, not about shortness of breath or wild eyes. This is about the prickling right below Glaz’ skin; like a constant stream it erodes the sense of safety that’s built up over weeks or, if they’re lucky, months. Erodes the complacency like it’s dust settling in bit by bit, undisturbed and growing. Glaz has stopped minding boring. Because boring implied a routine, and calmness, and freedom from -

From the alternative.

From what’s happening right now.

If anyone asked, he’d reply that he feels safe no matter what. That he’s in control, and even if he’s not, that he knows how to regain it; after all, he senses it coming as it accumulates slowly, yet not so slow he doesn’t notice. He’s safe, even if he wakes up to a sharp jab in the side or a hand around his throat, because he can deal with it. He’s safe, even if temper flares hotly at him like an open flame, because he knows it might lick him, leave a stinging burn, but it will never consume him.

He justifies himself to this non-existent asker, someone on the outside, a concerned citizen. He does this a lot, conducts conversations like he’s Plato writing a dialogue between his teacher, Socrates, and someone unimportant, someone only necessary to play dumb and prompt the next wall of text. Glaz goes into great detail until this imaginary person is convinced. He wonders what this says about him.

So yes. He’s as confident as ever, though he takes the warning signs seriously. He listens to the tone rising in volume with each passing day, powerless to stop it but capable of manipulating it.

“You’ve already asked me twice what I want for breakfast so stop fucking talking about it”, snaps the love of his life, a man who leaves him breathless in so many ways each and every day.

Glaz doesn’t mention how Kapkan has failed to give a straight answer so far, and instead defuses the tension with a bratty: “Guess I’ll just feed the leftovers to the neighbour’s dog then.”

He can basically hear Kapkan perking up at this, even if his back is turned. If possible, his lover would eat meat for literally every meal, and heated up for breakfast, he’s even more unable to say no. “You know I’d eat it out of her bowl if necessary”, he grumbles, the fire having died down as quickly as it reared up. Glaz has gotten extremely good at appeasing him over the years.

“I’ll take that as a yes then”, he summarises and tosses the scraps in question into the microwave. Self neglect is one of the largest red flags Kapkan wears on his back whenever it gets bad, and it’s the one Glaz will combat head on. It’s the one he’s allowed to mention as it doesn’t scream you’re abnormal, you’re ill, you’ve got issues – instead, he can disguise it as stress, something easily forgettable, low priority. As such, it’s easiest to deal with as he can remedy it immediately: suggest taking a bath together, which is something Kapkan never refuses, or he offers to cook, pretends he’s not feeling well and needs company so Kapkan joins him in bed early. Once there, his lover falls asleep quickly, but left to his own devices, he’d stay up till morning.

No, he doesn’t need to babysit him, Glaz informs his imaginary interviewer politely yet firmly. Kapkan can and does take care of himself. But if he can facilitate it, why shouldn’t he? He receives more than enough in return. Kapkan would die for him in a heartbeat, he knows this because it almost happened before, he’d do whatever Glaz demands of him, he’s a reliable presence in Glaz’ life, loving, supportive, strong. Their infatuation is mutual and not diminished by demons which are not Kapkan’s fault.

It’s difficult to predict how this episode will go. Some cumulate in a fight, be it verbal or physical, others peak unnoticeably and then ebb until Glaz nearly forgets about the whole thing, can’t imagine a universe where they aren’t the world’s most perfect couple. People often don’t appreciate their health until they fall ill. Glaz has learnt to fiercely appreciate the days on which every smile is teased out gently instead of requiring heavy machinery to surface.

They met in Spetsnaz, a perceived eternity ago, and by all rights should’ve separated unscathed instead of their lives intermingling the way they did in the end. Glaz’ hand to hand was rubbish and Kapkan consistently disappointed in him, leaving them both frustrated with each other, yet not to the point of memorability. Kapkan should’ve remained that morose instructor with the hard set to his mouth, and Glaz his largely incompetent yet well-meaning student of which he’s probably had plenty. Nothing about him was remarkable – nothing about either of them, really –, until some people fell ill and some others got married, and suddenly Glaz was accompanying his fellow Spetsnaz on an extended hunting trip. As if Glaz had been fifteenth in line for the throne and fate removed all fourteen in between, and now he was at his coronation, not entirely sure how he got here.

It wasn’t the two of them alone, of course, a few acquaintances and curious souls went with them, but overall not enough people to comfortably hide one’s personality for an entire month. This is when Glaz noticed that Kapkan, when talking about his passion, was easy to look at. The glint in his otherwise piercing pale eyes was contagious and Glaz inquired a lot more about hunting in general and Kapkan’s experience specifically than he’d originally intended.

Usually, Glaz falls easily, almost at the drop of a hat. Someone smiles at him wrong, someone does him an unexpected favour, and he’s gone. Lost. If this happens, it’s fleeting. But when it takes him a while to even realise he’s staring and hovering, it means it’s serious.

They require five years to get together.

During that time, they keep invading each other’s life almost by chance, end up assigned to the same place or on the same mission, and the grin he receives when they meet once more is a genuine one. Glaz longs for more and ever more: a laugh, then a touch, time spent alone, time spent alone that’s timeless and neverending in their minds. Every new bit which he almost wishes into existence he treasures and keeps it close to his heart so it warms him during the time between their meetings. This is how he thinks of his days now – either real, actual events, or merely waiting. When Kapkan isn’t there, reality loses its focus.

He doesn’t remember the words leading up the kiss and it’s something he regrets to this day. Vaguely, he recalls words too brazen and brash for his otherwise quiet, timid character, though they probably were nothing but innocent to others. But Kapkan – Kapkan understood, Kapkan who’s known him for years and can tell it’s unusual for him, and he let it happen. Despite nothing coming back, Glaz wasn’t under the impression of his flattery to bounce off the hard exterior, rather he noticed it penetrating the roughness, finding holes in its defence. Kapkan soaked it up. He refused to dance but admired Glaz’ efforts nonetheless. And so they kissed.

Kissed in full gear, the relief of an uneventful mission flooding their systems, perched in the snow next to each other and lost in conversation instead of paying attention to something their colleagues had under control anyway. A routine extraction, no support needed, and Kapkan pulled down the cloth hiding his lower face when Glaz offered him some warm coffee, and then their lips are touching, their breath visible in the icy air and Glaz’ shoulder killing him over this odd angle.

Despite going home alone that day, he got no second of sleep. His heart wouldn’t calm down, and neither his thoughts. I’m the happiest man alive, he thought, clear as day and not a doubt in his mind.

“Strip.”

It does have its good sides. Two, as far as Glaz is concerned: Kapkan sticks to him like Velcro to wool, knowing nobody else can keep him in check the way his lover does. The worse it gets, the more excuses pop up to stay at home, to go out alone, to take Glaz along. He doesn’t mind switching topics and reading body language like a hawk if he can hold Kapkan’s hand in return, witness his dry wit and remarkable patience.

The second positive side effect is linked to the first. Being around each other constantly leads to certain things.

Glaz takes his time because he knows Kapkan likes it this way. He follows their established routine and discards his sweater first without revealing any skin on his torso. The motion exposes his arms, which he flexes subtly – he doesn’t need to cast a glance at his lover to know his eyes have strayed from his face. His t-shirt is next, showing off his chest and the ridges of his abs through controlled breathing and contracting his muscles at the right moment.

It’s slow, this ritual of theirs, deliberate, hides nothing. Glaz feels more and more naked in more ways than one, as if he’s laying his soul bare together with his body. Undressing is too profane a word, can’t come close to denoting what’s happening between them. He bathes in Kapkan’s attention, normally is indifferent about his own body but now takes pride as he’s being desired – a conscious action for its own sake. Kapkan wants him. It’s a state of being rather than a base need.

He isn’t unaffected. The more fabric lines the floor, the warmer the air gets: Glaz is sweating in the cool bedroom, cheeks reddened and his excitement visible, even more so once he’s fully nude. He breathes hard and dares not meet Kapkan’s gaze. This isn’t about him, after all, this is about obeying and allowing Kapkan to let off steam and an exercise in control. This is how Kapkan convinces himself he’s in control. He needs to be, desperately. And challenging him on this is the last thing Glaz wants.

“Lie down.”

The command is sharp yet leaves Glaz’ skin unmarred: he’s used to this, even looks forward to it when he begins noticing the change in Kapkan’s behaviour. Complying is natural, the sheet a cold relief under his heated body. He expected to be ordered to suck him, which is the most common request he receives in moments like these – he likes drawing it out but Kapkan usually can’t wait to be inside him, so he rarely gets to blow him under normal circumstances. Right now, when it’s about showing off the power he holds over Glaz, Kapkan doesn’t mind dragging it out. Quite the opposite.

“Hold these.”

A twitch between Glaz’ legs, he can’t tell from which body part (or maybe both?), because he knows what these words mean. He doesn’t have the peace of mind for this, he’ll fail and it’ll all be over, he already knows this. Not once has he passed this challenge, not once was he able to see it through to the end, resulting in a heavy throb in his crotch for the rest of the night until he could take care of himself without Kapkan knowing. It’s the sweetest torture, but torture it is nonetheless. He’s sure he’ll disappoint his lover.

Regardless, he lifts his hands until he can put his fingers together, letting Kapkan place objects between each pair of fingertips. Tonight, they’re bullets, threatening to slip out and fall onto his belly immediately. Whether or not he’ll be satisfied today relies entirely on his ability to hold them, restrain himself from sudden movements, concentrate until it’s over. If even only one drops, Kapkan will stop.

His tongue is hot, scorching hot, and velvety smooth, and Glaz’ eyelashes are fluttering. He stares at the bare ceiling, praying to an unknown deity for strength and presence of mind, and then he’s enveloped whole. His body shakes with his stuttering in- and exhales, but he keeps the ammunition where it is. For now.

This is what it must feel like when he services Kapkan. Hardly more than teasing, only just enough to keep his pleasure climbing and climbing, however minuscule the progress. Glaz cherishes every centimetre he slips further into the wet heat and curses it simultaneously. His mouth is struggling to produce sound as it doesn’t seem to know what’s appropriate; no moans escape him, his gasps are aborted and all that leaves his throat is a pained gargling, almost unwilling because he wants this so bad, wants to enjoy it yet has to stop himself from losing to the overwhelming pleasure.

Only when Kapkan sits up does Glaz realise how tense he is, that every muscle in his body was painfully taut. Bit by bit, he relaxes consciously, fighting back the memory of how it felt to be touched, licked, loved like this in order to focus. One of the metal objects has shifted, so he corrects it. Just in time before a hand closes around him.

The callouses on their own do nothing for him, but paired with perfect technique and the knowledge of all his sensitive spots, it’s nearly too much. Glaz moves into the motion, lifts his hips in the hopes of a speedier resolution, cursing inwardly when the rhythm slows to a crawl in response. Kapkan isn’t making this easy for him, that’s the whole point. The ministrations cease again for a moment, Glaz’ thighs are lifted, his legs bent, and this time, when he feels a tongue exploring him, it’s further down.

He squeezes his eyelids shut. This is too much. He can’t bear it. His toes twitch with pangs of discomfort, but when the hand returns, the mixture tilts into nothing but pure bliss. With every lick, his hands jolt, and he’s somehow still holding on to the bullets, without knowing how but not caring, not when he’s being opened through nothing but Kapkan’s mouth. He can feel his breath ghosting over his skin.

When he can’t take it anymore, he seeks other outlets. He digs his heels into the mattress, throws his head left and right, moans and whimpers and keens at the digits probing deep while a slick muscle tugs on his rim and a tight grip brings him closer and closer. He’s shivering as if it was below zero, and still his fingers don’t budge. The centre of his universe are these five gleaming items, and fanning out from there is deep elation emerging from inside him. Moving isn’t against the rules, so he writhes and rises and falls, strains upwards and downwards and rides towards his climax with chattering teeth. He can’t lose himself or everything will be in vain. But he wants to, oh does he want to.

His orgasm shatters him. His back curves as soon as the first wave hits him, and there he remains, right on the zenith, the sensations hardly fluctuating – instead it’s a steady stream of impossible pleasure and relief flooding him and his rigid form. He’s so tightly coiled that he presses out the bullets from between his fingertips, the warmed metal falling to his stomach and mixing with the long stripes painted onto his own skin, but he couldn’t care less. It’s monumental and leaves him shuddering for a minute afterwards, still revelling in the intensity of the moment.

Sinking back into the pillows, it’s as if a spell has been lifted. Kapkan regards him with a mixture of pride and smugness, warming Glaz’ heart: gone is the no-nonsense stare, the hard set to his mouth, the roughness in his touch. They smile at each other, a soft palm trailing over Glaz’ hips and thighs, and all he wants is to sleep curled up against this man whom he knows so well.

“Turn around”, says Kapkan. And though there’s a gentle hint in his voice, it’s obvious he won’t accept a no.

He doesn’t ask whether it’s alright for Glaz, because he’d let him know if it wasn’t. They’re both aware Glaz would speak up, meaning his compliance directly implies permission. This unspoken rule makes a lot of things easier.

No preparation needed, Kapkan has worked him open with his mouth and fingers already, so he slides right into the sensitive and overstimulated hole. Up to the hilt. Glaz’ whine is lost in the pillows.

“You’re beautiful”, Kapkan whispers and Glaz feels it in his throat, balls his hands into fists and clenches them around the sheets because he won’t be shown any more patience this evening.

Despite the discomfort, he likes this, too, the rawness of it and the glimpse he gets of undisguised emotions. In between sharp snaps and hard thrusts, Kapkan compliments him, each of his words melting Glaz below him, and the kisses now and then mask the loud noises. He doesn’t dare reciprocate, keeps his vocalisations garbled and takes it without moving, drinking in the growls and not commenting on the teeth burying into his skin. They’ll leave marks, he knows this.

This is what Kapkan’s composed attitude from before hid, this is what he really feels. Glaz would never deprive him of this, no matter how uncomfortable it is, because it’s one of the purest displays of Kapkan’s love. He can’t get enough of Glaz, doesn’t seem to know what to do with all this affection he harbours, so now and then it spills over. It’s reassuring. Their feelings for each other are this strong.

While Kapkan showers, Glaz gathers the bullets and lines them up on the bedside table. Reflecting the soft light from outside, they shimmer like golden stars.

Glaz is aware they might use them to end someone’s life.

This time, the climax announces itself. Like a freight train, it makes itself known from quite a distance away, whereas Glaz is chained to the tracks; he’s got a date and even a time when he’ll be able to stare into the conductor’s eyes. He realises with horror that he’ll have to ride this one out, no way around it: Kapkan is scheduled for the exercise and found out before Glaz did, eliminating the possibility of approaching Harry about it. His defence would’ve been weak yet honest – in the moment, Kapkan will act and react exactly like his intensive training ingrained in him, no doubt about it. It’s the after which causes Glaz considerable anguish. But re-assigning him would draw his attention and then Glaz would bear the brunt of it personally and not by association.

Kapkan has been getting worse for a while now, his light, restless sleep a good indicator for rising agitation, and as soon as he hears about the exercise, he knows. No way around this either: he knows. Stubborn as he is, he’ll walk right into it expecting a different outcome, will deny any parallels locked in his mind between watching his colleagues go down, not knowing where the shots were coming from, expecting to be next, and experiencing much of the same in a controlled setting. I know it’s not real, he says, and then a different voice must pop up in his mind later: But this was. Remember? Let me remind you.

Glaz is fully aware of what will happen and Kapkan too, and still inaction is his best option. He distracts him with little sessions of having Kapkan describe a mutual acquaintance or friend while drawing exactly what he says and then prompting outraged chuckles when he presents the final result. He cooks every day, either breakfast or dinner, and Kapkan lets him. This is what worries Glaz the most, because he’s sure Kapkan can tell he’s walking on eggshells around him, and instead of calling him out on it, he accepts it quietly. Seems to appreciate the kid gloves. He’s never done this before, and it’s terrifying.

Two days before the scheduled catastrophe, Glaz finds himself in the kitchen, staring at the open cutlery drawer and catching himself wondering where he should stow it all. It takes him a long while to realise he’s crying, and even longer to understand why – Kapkan is in good hands tonight, out with people Glaz knows he can trust, and he’s had a relaxing evening involving a long bath, a good film, and delicious leftovers. He should be feeling better than he did all week, yet it’s achieved the opposite effect: all the pent-up tension is flowing out of him in salty droplets now that he doesn’t need to be painfully aware of his surroundings at all times. His joints are aching and he’s shivering; stress has caught up with him as well as all the thinking he postponed to less rainy days.

He thinks about how eerily calm Kapkan has been. How much he has postponed as well.

Slamming the drawer shut, he heads straight to bed and ignores the icy tendrils curling around his limbs, even though they only recede once Kapkan has joined him hours later.

The next morning, his outburst and physical discomfort become crystal clear, though the newfound explanation does nothing to quell Glaz’ dread. He’s ill.

Neither the first time nor the last he’s dragged himself into work despite a fever, though most of his co-workers care enough to point out his paleness. Staring back from the mirror is an ashen-faced shadow of a man drenched in sweat, and though it’s probably only the flu, the implications are far-reaching. Depending on whether he gets better today or not, he won’t be able to work tomorrow. Or accompany Kapkan. Cushion his fall.

At the end of the day, it seems an impossibility – concentrating on anything requires much more brain capacity than he has to spare, and keeping himself hydrated and fed is a task so monumental he can’t possibly shoulder it twice. Barely does he notice Kapkan shoving him into the shower to wash off the uncomfortable clamminess left on his skin, and the next time he’s lucid, he’s in bed with a jug of water on the nightstand. He must’ve been forced to take some medicine as the aching isn’t as bad anymore, he no longer feels like shedding his own skin and the pounding in his head has subsided. Like this, he can hardly depend on himself.

The air is fluffy snow on his skin, impeding his movements and causing his teeth to clack together as he fights his way to the living room, intent on spending every minute he can in Kapkan’s presence to soothe them both. All he gains, however, is an angry snarl and a manhandling the way he came – his lover isn’t having any of it. Still. He remains by Glaz’ side and he probably has his own pitiful whining to thank for it. Throughout the rest of the evening and the night, whenever he wakes up, there’s a solid presence behind his back. And even if Kapkan barely sleeps himself, he stays right where he is.

Waking up to an empty bed is a blow Glaz could do without. He feels better – marginally –, but what sends him into a full blown panic is the realisation that it’s out of his hands now. However Kapkan reacts today, he won’t be present to absorb the shock, and he can’t figure out the best course of action when he’s ignorant of what happened. Calling someone else to inquire in detail seems messy as it’d get them talking, meaning all he can do is wait.

So he waits.

Waits like someone on death row, barely touches the food Kapkan placed next to the refilled jug and skims the books next to the food listlessly. And waits. Waits for the inevitable jingling of keys, steps which might be soft or loud or disorientated, maybe the calling of his name. Several hours, he waits for it and when it happens, he’s still not ready.

“How do you feel?”, is Kapkan’s only question as he helps Glaz up, wraps him in a spare blanket and changes the soaked sheets.

He takes an eternity to answer. “Better”, he says through the headache and the shivering.

A stern glance. “You’ve always been a horrible liar.” And that’s that.

They spend the evening next to each other once more, Kapkan devouring his dinner while awkwardly perched on the mattress and reading something on his phone, and Glaz still waits. It’ll happen. It can happen any moment now, he knows this, knows the exercise took place as he got a text about it, and so he waits.

He recovers over the weekend and returns to work on Monday. They went for a few walks which left him weak but sharper-minded due to the fresh air, but as much as he scrutinises the mild-mannered man by his side, he finds no indicators of a lurking rage, simmering deep below. He knows it’s there. He knows it will surface in some way, maybe not directed at the environment but inwards.

Kapkan showers without a reminder. He brings Glaz meals and drops a comment about Glaz’ schedule being so messed up he doesn’t even know when to eat anymore. He tries to draw a squirrel for half an hour and only stops because Glaz is dizzy from laughing so much.

Gradually, he stops waiting. Healthy again, he knows he can deal with it whenever it comes, and so he focuses on the present.

And it never happens.

About four months later, Kapkan snaps at a grocery clerk for something insignificant. He leaves Glaz drooling, panting, shuddering and wholly satisfied that night after two hours of rigorous teasing. The next day, he jumps a foot in the air over someone dropping their phone.

A few people ask Glaz whether Kapkan is alright. He just smiles and assures them that yes, he’s doing fine. No, he doesn’t need any support. Yes, he’s got it all under control.

This time, he doesn’t need to justify himself to anyone made up.

That evening, he develops a fierce headache. It turns into a migraine so bad he can barely walk, so he whispers to Kapkan that he’s going to bed early and no, he doesn’t need to join him, he’ll be alright, he doesn’t need anything, and still he’s encased in strong arms not five minutes later and forced to swallow a pill which he instead hides under the mattress. He suggests some ice cream might help, and a shoulder massage, and miraculously, he feels much better the next morning.

When he enters the kitchen, Kapkan is whistling to himself, horribly out of tune and unconcerned who might hear him. He only whistles on good days.

“Better?”, he greets Glaz with a tone implying it’s Glaz’ own responsibility to remain healthy, but pulls him to his chest regardless, carding a hand through his hair gently. He’s soft. When Glaz nuzzles him with his nose, he lets out a low chuckle which reverberates in Glaz’ own torso. He’s never felt this safe.

“Yes”, he mumbles against warm skin. “Much better.”

#rainbow six siege #kapkan #glaz #kapkan/glaz #fanfic #oneshot #this flowed out of my fingertips so thank you so much for the request!#also sorry for taking forever #I hope this works with what you imagine in any case

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pkmnjesus · 4 years

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The 2010s Decade of PokéAni (An overview - Part 2 of 2)

← Continuing on from the first half of this PokéAni 2010s overview....

2015: Serena cuts her hair to chase a dream

February 12, 2015 Serena’s character arc had a rocky start with her not really sure what to do after becoming a Pokémon trainer meeting her Fennekin for the first time. I was really excited when her character was first announced, but I wanted to like her more than just being “that pretty girl who has a crush on Ash”. Maybe it’s because I’m not that shippy of a person, nor a romantic type of guy whatsoever but I didn’t want a main character to just be defined as a potential love interest. With her development slowly leaning towards a clear goal on wanting to become a top Pokémon Performer, I was happy she was finally carving her own path. However it was this specific episode that marked a major turning point for her ambitions, and made me truly invest in the new and improved Serena.

It was finally Serena’s debut as a Pokémon performer competing in her first Pokémon Showcase in Coumarine City, along with her friend, rival, and fellow-performer, Shauna. The performers in this showcase are divided into groups, and only one from each group gets to move on to the next round. Going into the first round, Serena was nervous yet confident. It was a Pokémon styling contest, and Serena put a lot of care and effort into making Fennekin look as cute and gorgeous as possible. But maybe it was a bit too much...

As they walk down the runway showcasing Fennekin’s fashion, everything went well and both were having a great experience in their first showcase...until something terribly went wrong. Fennekin accidentally trips over its ribbon while walking the runway which ends up scattering all the decorations Serena had styled over her. She made a crucial mistake in making the ends of the ribbon too long, thus costing them the round and ultimately eliminated her from the competition. Shauna was able to advance from her her group easily, and all Serena could do now was watch the rest of the competition from the stands. Shauna ended up winning the Showcase and her first Princess Key. It was devastating defeat going into your first performance having to lose like that. On the outside, she tried to put up a good face for her friends comforting Fennekin and even congratulating Shauna on her first victory.

But in the inside, she was grieving and blames herself for not realizing the error she made while styling Fennekin. Even Ash knew that she would be alright all along knowing her strength. The following early morning when no once was watching her besides her Pokémon, she decides to let it all out and break down in front of the ocean. It really broke my heart seeing her crying like that knowing that she really did care about pursuing a performer career. Fennekin and Pancham immediately try and cheer her up as they engaged in a lovely group hug. After understanding the disappointment in defeat, she knew that this was a part of every dream. You can’t be successful without making a couple of mistakes and that it’s okay to cry sometimes to let the bad stress out. No one is perfect, and that same goes for some of Ash’s gym battles or what happened to some of May and Dawn’s contests in the past. It was all part of the process of chasing her newly found dream and Serena finally realized that. It was just the beginning, and she wants to keep going until she gets to Aria. She decides that going forward in this new chapter, there needs to be a change. She got her big scissors out and starts trimming her own hair (for her to do that on the spot without a mirror, she was pretty darn impressive to properly cut her hair like wow lol) as Palermo watches in the distance from her limo. She knew that was the same performer with the tripping Fennekin. It’s possible she saw potential in her that early. Serena rejoins her friends and surprises them with a new look!

If you ask me, I like this new outfit of hers way better (and I think girls with shorter hair cuter ^///^). Also you can’t forget about the blue ribbon Ash gave her prior to this, it was a really cute touch knowing that he helped her get stronger through her personal journey as a trainer. Now that’s fitting ;) You know even though it was spoiled early on that she was going to have a redesign, I’m really happy on how they did it and it wasn’t just random day where Serena decides she wanted to cut her hair. I’m no girl, but apparently (I researched this) when a woman cuts her hair shorter, it symbolizes a change or a major life event that has happened. To Serena, it was a major shift in her character after the embarrassing loss. She eventually went on to win future performances evolving her Braxien, and even got to be friends with Aria! Remember, Serena is MORE than just AmourShipping...she is our Kalos Queen <3

Honorable mentions from this year: There’s a lot to talk about when it comes to 2015 PokéAni. Ash had 4 gym battles that year, including his battle with Clemont which I was very hyped about. To the point of him temporarily leaving the group to prepare himself at the Lumiose gym, that’s how much he cared about being in the best battling shape for Ash. There was that infamous “date” episode that Ash & Serena had, Meowth & Bonnie being stuck together, Cosplay Pikachu everywhere, Trevor trying to get a picture of a Moltres, and the debut of Sawyer, the Treeko trainer who was fascinated by Ash. One of my personal favorites too was when Bonnie wanted to ‘keep’ a Tyrunt/Tyrantrum (matched her pajamas too :3) she helped and befriended but unfortunately already had a trainer </3 It was a year of a couple of catches like Ash’s Noibat, Serena’s Eevee, Clemont reminiscing the time he caught a Bunnelby, and of course the lost Goomy. Within months after Ash caring for the Goomy, he was able to evolve it to a Goodra but had to leave it behind when they finally found its homeland it had to watch over with a Floette. We got two more Mega Evolution Specials before it merges with the main anime the following year, but we did get start of the XY&Z arc where Ash’s (then) Frogadier would fulfill a prophecy to save Kalos from a great danger. When they met up with Sanpei in the Ninja Village, Frogadier would finally evolve into Greninja. It would be the year when Team Flare would initiate their plans, attempting to capture all the Zygarde cores. There was one specific Zygarde core that Bonnie was able to befriend and bring it along with them naming it Squishy/Puni-chan. If you thought 2015 was awesome, wait until what PokéAni does in 2016!

2016: Gym Leaders assemble - the last line of defense

September 15, 2016 The fallout following the Kalos League took a dark turn when Lysandre broadcasts Team Flare’s manifesto to create a new world order, where only the “chosen ones” will join them. Alain, feeling betrayed with Lysandre’s true nature, decides to team up with Ash and the others to take down Team Flare. Lysandre’s gone mad, and even Malva thinks that this is too much. On other side of the story, Mairin with Serena, Professor Sycamore, and Hoenn League Champion Steven, rescued Chespie/Hari-san from Lysandre Labs.

While all the chaos is going on outside, Clemont reclaims the Lumiose Gym from Xerosic at the cost of terminating his good ol’ Clembot/Citroid assistant he invented for the Gym. I can’t remember how sad I was on robot’s death and nearly cried on it...they really made this scene heartbreaking for Clemont to push that shut down button. You can see the bot’s loyalty towards him volunteering to sacrifice himself for the greater good. But thanks to their bravery, Team Flare no longer controls one of their Zygarde (Z2). Squishy was also able to show its true form (50% so far) when it called upon the other Zygarde cells under Team Flare’s control, but thanks to Bonnie’s bond with it, she was able to breakthrough that mind control by singing Puni-chan’s song (don’t think the dub has an actual name for their version) she often sings when they’re together. The development Bonnie had with Squishy throughout this whole arc was fantastic, because it gave her more responsibility and sense of friendship even after Squishy was under the control of Team Flare destroying every thing. This was her own trial to prepare her for what’s to come when she eventually becomes an official Pokémon trainer and own an overpowered Zygarde in the future xD. Squishy also trusted Bonnie as a human it can rely on.

With Team Flare looking to be defeated, there was one more threat looming over Kalos. What was that threat? A ROCK. But no ordinary rock, it was The Giant Rock (Meaglith) that Lysandre created based off Primal energy form a beast like creature similar to Zygarde’s 50% forme. It was his last ditch effort in creating a new world, and we have never seen anything this catastrophic from an evil boss since probably Cryus. The Zygarde-like rock beast even absorbed Mairin’s Chespie which makes it even more difficult for them to stop it. It’s destination was the Anistar City Sundial to trigger a massive explosion that could destroy Kalos and the world! Everyone joins up to stop this calamity from happening, but is their strength with Mega Evolution enough to bring it down?

Then, the epic back-up finally arrives! The whole Kalos crew is here with Champion Diantha uniting all the Gym Leaders (minus Clemont/Clembot) within the region. They even got their own solo introductions. This never happened in the previous regions of the anime, where the Gym Leader would just appear once battling with Ash, but in here they interjected themselves to the Zygarde’s story arc. This really reminded me of what happened during the climax of the Black & White games, where the Gym Leaders joined forces to stop Team Plasma. But this isn’t Unova, this is Kalos, and this is their last line of heavy defense against Lysandre! With 2 League Champions, a Blaziken Mask, Ash-Greninja, Z2′s army of cores, and 7 Gym Leaders, this Giant Rock wont stand a chance! When Zygrade finally reached its 100% forme, it uses Core Enforcer to end Lysandre’s evil plot once and for all (RIP him btw). From Steven Stone’s assistance, to Clembot’s sacrifice, to Team Rocket’s aide, and Diantha leading the region’s top gym leaders, this was an epic way to end the XY&Z saga with. For them saving Chespie, and bring back peace to Kalos.

Honorable mentions from this year: The closing year for the Kalos ended in epic fashion before taking flight to Alola. Who could forget the episode where Serena wore or should I say cosplayed as Ash? She even almost got to a dance with him during Monsieur Pierre’s party. She wasn’t able to, but at least got to evolve her Eevee into a Sylveon! Clemont also had a new bride that Bonnie wasn’t too fond of (despite her asking multiple ladies to ‘keep’ for him) when her jealousy kicks in. Ash’s Noibat also evolved into Noivern, and briefly reunited with Goodra. Serena got all her Princess Keys needed to compete in the Pokémon Showcase Master Class, and even went head to head with Kalos Queen Aria for her title! She was unsuccessful, but it still won’t stop her from getting better. It was also the official birth of Ash-Greninja when he had a battle with the Kalos Champion, Diantha! Ash finally meets our Mega Evolution protagonist Alain and gained a new rival for the League. Before the Kalos League, he struggled a bit with getting his final badge from Wulfric eventually perfecting Ash-Greninja. In the Kalos League, he had a great battle with Sawyer (who can now use Mega Evolution), but came up short against Alain in the finals. It was a loss everybody was bummed about, and it would take another 3 years for him to compete in another league...we’ll get to that :> But the farewells were unforgettable. Greninja had to be let go in order to destroy the reappearing roots with Squishy and Z2 protecting Kalos from further calamity. And I know y’all can’t forget about the ‘kiss’ heard around the world when Serena leaned in for her parting gift to Ash <3 Him and Clemont have one final battle (just like how the XY series started) before heading back to Pallet Town...”And to our own way”. But 2016 had to end on a happy note, where we see Ash finding a new home in Alola enrolling in their Pokémon School program. Upon arriving, he was blessed with a Z-ring from Tapu Koko, an Alola deity, because he saw something in our boy. Through his class he made 5 new friends, got a Rotom Dex, a little Rowlet birb chilling in his backpack, and meeting a feisty Litten. WHAT. A. YEAR. !!!

2017: Stoutland’s final days with Litten

April 6, 2017 In possibly one of the most depressing and emotional episodes the Pokémon anime has to offer, the wild Litten that always stole Ash’s food finally gets to be apart of his team. But what made this little kitty finally gave Ash a chance to train it after escaping him so many times when he tried to reach out to it?

Ash tried to help the loyal Stoutland Litten was living with after following it from stealing his groceries, but due to Stoutland’s old age and declining health, there wasn’t much Nurse Joy could do. The tree shots with the falling leaves throughout the episode pretty symbolize the time Stoutland has left.

Litten, bringing back his mentor to their old spot after spending the night at the Pokémon Center, still wanted to spend as much time with Stoutland and master the Fire Fang move it was trying to learn. Then the leaves were out, and the finals days of this Stoutland were up. Litten slept with his friend one last time, and even had a dream of Stoutland attempting to chase after it going off in the distance. This symbolizes Stoutland’s departure from being under its care.

It wasn’t directly shown, nor mentioned, but it is clear to me that the Stoudland had passed away. *sobs* The gloomy rainy weather, and the dark tone shown during this part of the episode signifies the sadness and mourning every character that was involved during Litten’s struggle to find help for its good ol’ friend, not immediately realizing that Stoutland was gone for good. Meowth tried to communicate with his fellow feline to understand what it was feeling, while Ash even spends the entire duration of the rainfall with Litten even though it refused his food offer many times and didn’t want his help. This definitely took me into a feels trip because it is rare for this anime to even do an episode about a death of a Pokémon, even though it was indirect with how they presented it. Not mention, every time I was on my Stoutland ride Pokémon when playing Pokémon Moon (to help detect hidden items), ridding the big doggo always made me think about this particular episode. ;_;

Eventually the rain stopped, and a rainbow bloomed in a distance that made Litten feel better remembering the good memories it had with Stoutland. Finally, Litten decides to give Ash a chance, but didn’t want his pity over what happened. Litten was a tough little cat and wanted Ash to earn its respect through battle. Litten finally joins Ash’s team after battling with Pikachu and successfully catching it. Ash was also able to feed Litten after accepting it as its trainer. This was probably what Stoutland would have wanted for Litten.

Stoutland knew what kind of trainer he was and wanted Litten to go with Ash to finish the training they started. Besides mastering Fire Fang, they did a lot more in the future to come. When Litten saw the rainbow and familiar cloud formation, both smiled in peace. Stoutland knew that Litten was in very good hands. The memories learning and training with Stoutland are never forgotten, as Litten embarks on a new journey with brand new friends and a caring trainer.

Honorable mentions from this year: The first fully fledge year of Alola! Ash owning the first discovered Dusk Lycanroc in the anime verse, Lana getting her own Z-ring and how can I not forget Brock and Misty’s (especially MISTY) big return to the anime when the class went to Kanto! We had new Pokémon caught added to the main cast such as the birth of Lillie’s Snowy/Shiron, James’s touchy Mareanie and Kiawe’s Alolan Marowak. It was Gladion’s debut year becoming Ash’s new rival. Ash’s Z-Crystal collection kept on growing bigger through his adventures in Melemele and Akala Islands, and even clears its respective grand trials. We were also introduced to a little Cosmog turned Solgaleo, Nebby. The bad guy in Faba to steals Nebby however to summon, an Ultra Beast (Nihilego) that would eventually consume Lusamine (just like in the games, only she is less obsessed here). Thus, a Z-Powered ganbaLilie was born to save her mom! With the help of her brother and friends of course. We had family matters like Sophocles thought he was moving a way for good, and fun little fillers like the pancake and Charjabug races, or raving with an Alolan Dugtrio blonde wig. A personal favorite of mine was when Rowlet, Litten, and Popplio had mini-adventure of their own, and outsmarted Team Rocket nasty schemes. Speaking of Team Rocket, we got a short glimpse of them versus a trio of Team Skull members. Kukui’s class activities like the baseball teams, camping outdoors, switching Pokémon partners with fellow classmates for the weekend, and sleeping over at the professor’s house were awesome too! Their field trip seeing the beautiful white-colored Aether Paradise, and traveling through the mysterious Ultra Space were treat as well. We got to see the development of Kukui and Burnet’s pre-married relationship, which wasn’t featured in the games…AND WE GOT A PROPOSAL AND WEDDING OUT OF IT! There’s a reason for the animation change, and to be honest I’m happy that they did! The art style definitely fits the tone and theme of the jolly Alola region. In conclusion, 2017 was a pretty cool year if you ask me!

2018: The People of Alola vs. Necrozma

September 13, 2018 The conclusion to the Poipole/Necrozma arc is probably the biggest highlight for this year. In Japan, this marked a major end of an era because this was also the final episode on a Thursday night (for 20 years!) since the series was officially moving to Sundays starting with the episode after this (~pika ;3).

From Gladion joining the Ultra Guardians, to Team Rocket’s Matori Matrix attempting catch a fused Necrozma, to Nebby returning to assist with the mission, to rescuing and healing a weakened Lunala, to visiting Poipole’s home world and hear a Naganadel talk in their minds…I’m at the edge of my seat! The Masked Royal’s identity was first exposed here too when Faba fought alongside Kukui to ward off the Matori Matrix. Luckily Faba can keep a secret. The whole time this arc felt like it could be one Pokémon movie. This should probably make-up for why there really isn’t an Alola region based Pokémon movie for this series specifically. But going back on topic, the entire region of Alola was still in crisis as Necrozma absorbs all the Z-Power the Ultra Guardians tried to strike back with. At this point, Nebby was already fused with the Necrozma and they knew that they had to separate them just like what happened with Lunala. So what does everyone do in a time like this? UNITE! Not just the Guardian deities, not just the Ultra Guardians, not just the Aether Foundation, not just the Kahunas participating in the Manalo Festival, but Alola as a whole teamed up in various locations where citizens swarmed together and gave their “light” by doing Tapu Koko’s pose to bring Necrozma back to its original form, The Blinding/Radiant One! Nebby has been freed, and rejoins the Ultra Guardians.

In one last Ultra stand, Nebby (with Ash holding Solganium Z) and Lunala (with Gladion holding Lunalium Z) gave one final blow to Necrozma with some Ultra Aura. After unleashing the combination of Z-moves, Ultra Necrozma rises from the light and uses its power to restore all the damage that has been done to Alola, thus ending the chaos ensuing in the region. The Matori Matrix did try to go to Ultra Space when an Ultra Wormhole opened, but Tapu Koko was like “not so fast!” eventually forcing this Team Rocket unit to retreat.

Not only did they save Alola, but also brings back light to the Poipole home world. Of course the most emotional thing out of all this was saying goodbye to our little sticky Poipole friend who had remain in its home world. It left its home world to find a better home, and it did when Ash gave Poipole a spot in his team and is even an official member of the Ultra Guardians squad. Now that the home world has been restored, Poipole knew it needed to stay and protect its original home from further threats. As the Ultra Wormhole closes with Nebby and Lunala accompanying the Ultra Guardians back to Alola, Poipole painted Ash & Pikachu’s face as a sweet goodbye gesture. The flashback scenes, and the music in the end was absolutely magnificent to top it all off! This teary goodbye even had me tears. We’ll forever “like, like, love” you, Poipole <3 Maybe Ash will see it again one day...oh who am I kidding xD If you’re up to date with the anime, you know already what happens in the future ;]

Honorable mentions from this year: The year of Ultra Guardians! They’ve had multiple missions in bringing back the Ultra Beasts to where they came from. Anime debuts of Ilima, Mina, and the long-awaited Hau make their respective appearances. We also got to see James “fighting” a Toxapex, Lana & Mallow’s childhood past, Lillie getting her first Z-Crystal and even Rotom Dex joining the set of Detective Laki. There were significant evolutions like Ash’s Litten evolving to Torracat starting its rivalry with Masked Royal’s Incineroar (while Burnet fangirls over them) and Mallow’s Steenee evolving to a Tsareena. And how can I forget Sandy/Nagisa? Those Eevee mini-specials ultimately led it to Alola for our great Lana to catch! The Ula’ula trials were highly significant too when Ash trained with Acerola and tested his strength against Kahuna Nanu. Specials include Mallow’s big brother visiting home, and the 2-parter with Dia and his Zeraora in the mysterious Ultra Ruin. For Team Rocket, they temporarily get an Alolan Meowth, but got a permanent family member with a Stufful later on (Bewear’s child!). I’ve gotta mention the fun ones too like Ash dressing up as a female nurse the class helping Nurse Joy at the Pokémon Center, the class making their own school play, and Faba accidentally shrinking Ash, Lillie & Sophocles. Finally, in another emotional themed episode, Molayne showed everyone the beauty and sad reality of the Minior Pokémon at the Hokulani Observatory. Such a strong theme of having precious memories with a sad outcome due to the nature of that certain Pokémon :( Just look at the variety! I could still go on, but in summary was 2018 one heck of an ULTRA year!

2019: Ash wins the Alola Pokémon League 🏆

September 15, 2019 In the last highlight of this 2010s decade, it may probably be the biggest one. Ash vs. Gladion. Pokémon League finals to determine the first ever champion of Alola. I’ve already made several posts about this (maybe one too many) in my blog, so let me quickly reiterate the significance of this special event one last time. First thing I have to mention, is that Ash’s rivalry with Gladion has been amazing from the get-go. From their first meeting at the beach by Kukui’s place with a feisty Rockruff that wanted to battle, to the Manalo Stadium battling for a prestigious championship title with Ash’s Lycanroc fully controlled over its rage with dirt. It wasn’t a traditional full 6-on-6 battle, but the 3-on-3 showdown still gave us one heck of battle! It may not be considered the best battle of all time, but it was still an amazing and fun match between two trainers who promised each other to meet in the finals of the big stage since the start of the League.

The laugh they shared, the flashbacks that was shown to us (with the awesome Type: Wild! music playing in the background), and their storytelling on who wants the W more makes you invested, and cheering for Ash all the way to finally win a major Pokémon League. Ash’s newly evolved Melmetal showcased it’s new strength but still wasn’t able to beat Gladion’s Silvally. Then, when Zoroark and Pikachu knocked each other out, it was the 1v1 Lycanroc battle that really put this friendly and competitive rivalry full circle.

Ash has NEVER defeated Gladion…until this moment. He’s been training for this, and it finally paid off. The two Lycanroc’s took no prisoners and went back and forth with one another. In the final blow of that match, Gladion’s Lycanroc used Counter against Ash’s Lycanroc that was charging towards it, but then our big brained hero fights back with their own Counter attack.

Never have I heard of countering a Counter in the Pokémon universe, but using it in this one moment nobody expected, was a perfect opportunity to swerve fans with Ash almost losing the match but ultimately gave the hypest and sickest counterattack ever that would knock out Gladion’s Lycanroc to the wall. And for the first time since the Orange League, Ash is a Champion. Only this time it is a way bigger deal! Mostly because this is a game-based series which has more meaning when it comes to the Pokémon League. He proved non-believers wrong thinking that the Kalos League was the closest he’ll ever get to victory, but I always knew he would win this one since this League started. If you look at my Twitter, I predicted it since last July and this is speaking from a person that DIDN’T believe he would have won at Kalos (I must be good at League predictions then lol). But even Ash himself couldn’t believe it. The moment his named was announced the victor and everyone cheering him, it took a moment for him to process it all until he realized he won the whole shabang. Old fans, new fans, and casual viewers a like were buzzing within 24 hours after this episode released in Japan that caught mainstream media attention. People who have never seen a Pokémon anime episode in their life (or a subbed episode for that matter) past the original series, wanted to see how this episode went down to see a childhood hero achieve a major trophy.

This is how big of a pop-culture icon Ash & Pikachu was among many generations of fans since the show’s launch internationally. To me personally, it was the reason why I’ve always watched this anime for years since 1998 as a kid and NEVER stopped watching (took a few breaks here and there growing up but still have been consistent and up to date! Never grew out of it whatsoever ...why would I even made this decade post?). I was waiting all that time for him to win the big one and he finally did it in 2019. The long journey was worth watching all those episodes (NEVER skipped a “filler”). I doubted at times, but deep down I know I always believed. I grew up with Ash and he feels like an imaginary brother. Seeing him hold that trophy felt like my childhood had closure. He became the FIRST EVER champion in the Alola anime-verse and no one can take that away from him. BUT, the journey isn’t over yet. Remember, his dream is to become Pokémon MASTER, NOT a CHAMPION which people often treat the two as the same. He probably still wants to go to more places, so he can get stronger and be friends with even more Pokémon. Finally, I’m glad that it was Gladion who was Ash’s opponent in order to get the title. The boys and the doggos shake hands in the end as sign of respect for one another. Unfortunately, Guzzlord had to ruin the closing ceremony afterparty…but our Alola Champion and his friends were able to take care of that properly :)

Honorable mentions from this year: Another marked an end of an era, but a start of a new one too! From overcoming his final Grand Trial and gathering his Z-Crystals, Ash was ready for the League. If you ask me, this was one of the best Pokémon Leagues ever because of how much importance each competitor played a role in that tournament, and the match-ups were good. It wasn’t just filler characters or last minute rivals. Alola had a lot of great characters! I couldn’t stress that enough. But besides the historic Alola League, we also saw the continuation of Brock & Misty’s trip to Alola, the class’ crash-course golf lessons with none other than Kahili! Ash catching a rare Meltan that appeared out of nowhere, Guzma’s debut that EVERYONE was excited about, Ash challenging Ryuki’s Kantonian Gym, Lana’s fully evolving Primarina (thanks to hooking a Kyogre mind you!), Mallow’s meal for Tapu Koko, and Matori’s unexpected visit to the Team Rocket base in Alola. Ash even time-traveled to the past and met Kukui when he was little. It would ultimately build up to the actual final full 6-on-6 battle between Ash faces Kukui (just like in the original Sun & Moon games), and it was a 5-STAR BATTLE in my book for this 5-PARTER battle. Seriously, they didn’t had to make an exhibition match that good but they did, and Ash WON that too! Ash’s Incineroar evolved and Pikachu finally defeats Tapu Koko in a battle. For the feels portion of this year, Mallow briefly reunited with her mom and getting a Shaymin to care for in the process. The whole side-arc with Lillie, Magearna and a missing Mohn had a huge impact on our young miss. She got a Z-Ring out of it, just like everyone else in the class with their respective focus. And, the final episode of Sun & Moon was probably the most emotional farewell episodes in the anime’s history similar (or even greater) than Brock & Misty’s goodbye in Johto for you nostalgia fans out there. Everyone in the Alola crew knew what to do post-League, but for Ash, he wanted to explore the Pokémon world more, which transitions to the new on-going series today. 2019 of the Pokémon anime will never be forgotten!

LET’S GO to the 2020s and beyond!

We already got a taste of what the new series brought us late 2019, from Pikachu’s pre-series background story to our newly appointed research fellows, Ash & Go. It is was Lugia brought these two together, and are now living under the same roof. And with Go having his newly caught Scorbunny by his side after that Gigantamax Snorlax incident, it shows us a little taste of the cool new adventures await them when traveling in the Galar region. It’s also refreshing to see updated animation within Kanto where they’re home base is at, and I absolutely cannot wait for them to go back to other past regions with this fresh new art style. With Go’s goal to catch every Pokémon there is for him to index, he’s bound to meet Mew again one day! He’s literally every Pokémon games’ protagonist and I’m glad we have a main character like him who actually focuses on catching them all. As for Ash, he’s still our Ash carving his own unique path on his continuing journey to become a Pokémon Master because it’s more than being the strongest trainer and more than just catching Pokémon.

Some people may not be invested in this series yet, but it’s okay as it is still new! Everyone has that “pacing is slow” excuse from EVERY anime series, or it may not just be your cup of tea. But, I’m sure it will definitely pick up the pace sooner or later especially with the upcoming episodes announced (as of this posting) getting a Koharu-focus episode and the debut of Galar Champion Leon facing off against another League Champion...the return of Lance! Now that’s hype...and that’s what I’m looking forward to in this series more returns and cameo appearances hopefully. They gotta make it special of course and not just some fan-service to please series-specific fans. Oh, and Ash competing in the Galar gym challenge too of course! In addition to that, we can look forward to the new movies in the 2020s! We already got a preview of the 23rd PokéAni film, Pokémon the Movie - Coco...so we Tarzan now?! and it looks like they’re still continuing the AU-verse Ash instead of using the canon series’ universe. I mean if The Power of Us was great, you gotta give this movie a watch too! This is what I love about the anime because it separates itself from their game counterparts. The anime is doing its own thing with their original stories to tell.

WOW! What a decade. I’ve put in a lot of time reminiscing my experience watching the anime this past decade on these 2-part posts, and I had a lot of fun. From being a high school student all the way to being a full-time working adult...time truly flies by quickly. If you’ve read everything I had to say (I’m sure there are a few typos I probably missed), then thank you for your time (and sorry for the dash spam lol)! Feel free share your own favorite PokéAni moment decade in the replies if you choose to do so. Also, check out the strawpolls I made for what you think the best Pokémon anime battle and movie is in the 2010s. Now, it’s time for us to GO to 2020 and the next decade of PokéAni to witness multiple generations of new Pokémon series to come (hopefully they’ll still be making them by the end of 2029...and your boy P J will still be watching as a 30+ year old adult, heh). Alrighty, let’s have some fun! ϞϞ(๑⚈ ․̫ ⚈๑)∩

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yesfiredoor1blr · 4 years

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The Law on Maintaining Fire Doors

The two main types of are those that are intended to prevent the early payment of ember and those that are used at ember escapes. Additionally specific doors can be fitted to tall risk areas in a building, where twinge substances or equipment are housed. درب ضد حریق

Fire doors operate to slow or end the go ahead of fire. They should be fitted when seals that prevent the early payment of smoke, which is the main killer in fires. These doors arrive similar to substitute specifications taking into account most standard models offering a 30 or 60-minute sponsorship time for make off or rescue. For ache or tall risk areas of a building 60 minute doors are usually recommended. For this type of place it may be sensible to fit locks to restrict entry to nominated staff. Doors offering 30-minute protection are customary for corridors, offices or additional general areas of the building, where the majority of staff or clients compulsion access. all doors offering ember sponsorship undertaking in a completely easy habit by restricting let breathe to a ember and slowing its progress. Left entrance they become useless! For this reason, automatic entrance closers are usually fitted to these doors and they should all feature signage to identify them. further automated systems put in shove button doors that unaided entre subsequently activated and close automatically.

Fire doors should be located to prevent the build up of fire and smoke to break out routes. Those located upon break out routes from buildings must approach outward to allow for easy escape. Internal blaze doors can open in both directions if essential for example; those in long corridors can legally entry either way. external doors that are for make off can be locked, however the regulations declare that they must be easily opened by anybody in an emergency. There are various ways to reach this. An internal push bar can be fitted allowing anyone in the building to unlock the fire log on and escape quickly. Electronic systems are user-friendly which unlock doors afterward the fire alarm is triggered or alternatively a key can be kept in a glass box next-door the door.

By far and wide the most common defense for the failure of ember doors to put on an act is comprehensibly that they have been propped open. Automatic doors can back to avoid this, but are not fool proof. alternative systems adjoin get into retainers, which are systems that automatically near the admission if the blaze alarm goes off. oscillate systems will be tolerable for oscillate buildings or situations and often a engagement of the types of fire approach will be required. There are strict legitimate regulations governing the use of ember doors and ensuring that your premises agree is not single-handedly essential to avoid prosecution, but most importantly can keep lives.

Lynette Holroyd: A immersion of ember doors is a easy and committed pretension to limit broken and keep lives in the event of fire. Ensuring that commandeer doors are fitted to swap areas of a building is essential.

Fire doors are probably one of the most important elements in the blaze containment strategy of a building design. However, in the use of a building they can be overlooked in terms of precise use and atmosphere manage within the context of the fire safety risk assessment.

The comport yourself relating to flare safety in non-domestic premises requires that UK building owners ensure their properties assent like fire safety legislation. Building owners are requested to carry out annual risk assessments on their premises including ensuring that flame and escape doors are of the truthful specification, have the right hardware fitted and are properly maintained. They must then be skillful to develop the documentation showing the products are suitable for their application. Contractors are at risk of fighting if ember doors are not correctly specified and maintained.

Buildings are separated into compartments divided by fire resistant walls and doors. These promote as a building's passive means of ember protection as they help suppress a fire by restricting the flow of oxygen as competently as the expansion of ember through the building. blaze doors permit people to break out from buildings. when a buildings ember risk assessment is carried out, these doors are tested as a utter assembly that includes the frame, seals, hardware and glazing. The routine assessments are done to ensure they will get their job in the matter of a fire. They are tested and next unconditional a rating based on how long they can preserve their integrity in a fire. Ratings range from 30 to 120 minutes.

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journeysintowebcomics · 5 years

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Worm Liveblog #102

UPDATE 102: Working in the PRT Cuts Your Life Expectancy

Last time the Undersiders and the Travelers managed to kidnap Director Piggot in a move that not only attacked the heroes at the Protectorate, but also surely will enrage them further and make them take further action towards the villains. Let’s see what happens now that they have the Director in their clutches!

Or not. It’s an interlude, apparently because he received enough donations for it. I guess...it’s an okay point to do this? It’s not in the middle of the action, after all. I suppose it may have been the best spot if Mr. Wildbow couldn’t wait for the end of the arc.

I already see a couple names I don’t recognize, and the date says this is the past. I’m not sure who is the narrator, and it seems this is far enough in the past the containment foam is still a new invention and only a few parahumans are authorized to use it? Hm.

I’m not entirely certain what’s happening here. From what I’m understanding here, they’re trying to find out where a person is, most likely a villain. Whoever they’re hunting can adjust his body size, body shape and apparent powers. This specific power doesn’t sound familiar to me; it must be someone who hasn’t been introduced yet or is a rather minor character.

“So what happened?”

“Got downsized. Stayed at home for something like three weeks, then the bills started rolling in and he realized he wouldn’t be able to pay them all. He sent out job applications, dozens by email, but he didn’t have the references. Faced homelessness, a disruption of his boring, lonely life. We think that was his point-zero.”

“His trigger event,” Lady answered.

Huh. It’s a pretty bad situation, admittedly, but compared to the other trigger events I’m aware of it’s much milder. I suppose the intensity of the trigger events needed vary from person to person. So, this person got the trigger event by an unsurmountable obstacle in his lifestyle, and once he got his powers he turned into crime. That’s where the heroes I’m reading about now come in, they’re trying to stop him. Must be a pretty crafty criminal, if they need all these heroes and helicopters, as well as the foam.

Podunk town? So this likely isn’t Brockton Bay. I also read something about Toronto earlier, I think, this may not even be the same country Brockton Bay is in. Maybe that’s why I had never heard of these heroes before, they’re from another country. Canadian heroes!

I think I may have misunderstood. The people I’m reading about may be normal PRT agents instead of capes, because one of them asks where the capes are. Interesting, reading from the perspective of a normal non-powered person who has to deal with superpowered villains would be really fun. It’s a bit of a shame this is in the past, it won’t feature anyone from the present, most likely.

Nobody evacuated from the town the villain they’re looking for is in, for some reason. Some kind of mind control, perhaps? The squad is going to find out, and I have a feeling that, given what kind of things happen in this world, it won’t be pretty at all.

It’s like a ghost town in here. One of the stores was ransacked, and the thermal sensors aren’t showing anything anywhere. Even if it’s raining a person won’t get so cold they’re not distinguishable from the environment unless they’re dead. There aren’t even any animals or bugs around here. Something really is going on here, and it’s starting to feel very eerie. Nice atmosphere, Mr. Wildbow.

Ah, the found someone. It’s their target, most likely.

Rinke? As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could make out a figure dressed in a jester’s motley, two contrasting colors predominating, blue-orange or purple-yellow. The mask a patchwork cloth that covered his face, with only two dark holes for his eyes. But most daunting of all was the man’s size. He was obese, bloated, ten feet tall and nearly as wide, advancing at a glacial pace as he lurched down the middle of the street. His arms were drawn behind his back by the weight of the sack and the cloth he carried.

That’s quite grotesque. Ten feet is three meters and half, more or less, no? That’s enormous. Not only that, he’s clad with some god-awful colors in a jester’s costume. It’s like this guy went out of his way to make himself be as horrifying as possible.

Speaking of horrifying, in that sack there’s something that used to be alive, so I suppose that means this guy killed everything in this town. Not only people, he also killed the animals and the bugs. Just what kind of power does he have? No wonder the plan is to contain him with the foam and then incinerate him. Heck, if the Birdcage existed by now, it’s possible he’d be too dangerous to leave there. You know, it’s still pretty amazing this was the result of a trigger event that’s milder than most of the events seen this far.

They don’t try to make contact, all they do is start shooting as soon as Rinke sees them. Rinke didn’t mind the bullets, so the incendiary grenades came afterwards. No effect yet, either he doesn’t feel pain or he has a lot of resistance to this kind of thing. At least the containment foam is effective, and the fire is burning away the cloth. They’ll need as many advantages as they can get.

Ah, there are three squads. They’re all informed Zinke is currently burning and presumably dying. I sure hope so!

The bloated stomach split with the weight of the upper body, tearing across one of the recesses of a roll of fat. A slurry of half-dissolved bodies spilled out around him.

Ew. Ew ew ew ew ew ew. Was that thing eating everything? Pretty nightmarish, that! Not giving it a moment of reprieve, the squad keeps using fire, until it’s completely burnt. That...went easier than I expected, for something that consumed everything in the town.

Ah, there we go, nothing is easy. One of the other squads is being attacked by something. Maybe Zinke wasn’t the only hostile thing around here. I wouldn’t be surprised if Zinke’s attacks caused someone else to have a trigger event, maybe the result of one is what’s attacking another squad now.

I wasn’t entirely wrong. It doesn’t look like it’s another parahuman because there are two that are exactly the same, instead it is...here, this will explain it well.

“He’s not a Changer!” Evan bellowed, clicking the button of his radio to inform the capes and squad three. “Master-class cape!”

They’re minions. Zinke’s minions, most likely. Just like Skitter does, I suppose Zinke can control them. Does that mean they’re also made by Zinke? No wonder he’s such a threat. More and more minions come out from everywhere, due to the lack of thermal presence nobody had noticed they were surrounded all the time. Now that the attack is on, all the minions are attacking. It’s a cornucopia of minions.

Retreat! The retreat leads the squad the narrator – still unnamed and with no indication who it is, so my guess is that it’s a normal squad member who is still alive in present day, nobody that’s likely to appear again. This is worldbuilding! – is in to a place with more minions, where they describe what they see.

His team ducked back into a storefront through the shattered display window. Bursts of fire took down the creatures that had been hidden within, a skinny faceless woman with blades for fingertips, a trio of what looked like babies with spider legs, a half-dozen waist-high people with deformed features and mismatched clothing that they’d clearly scavenged from nearby.

Strange mixture of minions, this one. I can’t seem to find a common element except that they’re humanoids. Not completely human, but mostly human elements. They may be actual people, deformed by Zinke, this possibility causes some conflict into the narrator. Hmmm...what matters here is if they’re still mentally residents of this city, if they really are minions made with residents of this town.

Golly, if I hadn’t already heard about who’s responsible for all this I’d have thought the squads were hunting Bonesaw. This all reminds me a lot of her creations. If this Zinke guy’s power is anything like that, gunning them down is a mercy.

One of the squad members is attacked in what’s most likely a fatal caustic goo attack, forcing another of the squad members to shoot him. Speaking of mercy kills! A flare is fired into the sky, signaling they need to get out, as there just isn’t anyone in this town they can save. Well, Zinke may be around, no? If he’s controlling all these minions then maybe he’s nearby? Someone with this kind of power would be really dangerous, leaving him unchecked would be a pretty bad idea.

I didn’t need to read the sentence “Holler gunned the mother-thing down before she could finish or spew more abominations from between her loins”. Thanks. Really made my day, that line. Also, sarcasm.

Things were clicking into place. It made sense, now, how the situation had gotten out of control so quickly. How Rinke had seized the city so totally and absolutely. It wasn’t just that he was a master-class cape who could make monsters with abilities of their own. He could make monsters that bred, monsters that gave birth to more monsters.

That’s rather messed up. Still, I wonder why there were no remains of anything in this town, human or animal. Did these monsters consume everything that was alive? There’s a pretty good chance Zinke used the people as the base for the monsters, but I find it unlikely he would be able to handle as many people are there are in a town. The most likely scenario I can think is that he messed with a few, then the results went and killed a few, using the remains to make more monsters by themselves.

What the hell do you mean the capes vacated the scene? Did the capes really just leave these squads to handle an extremely dangerous parahuman all by themselves? I mean, these squads are highly trained people, but this threat is horrifying. I suppose everyone underestimated just how dangerous Zinke was, but seriously, what do you mean the capes left?! This is ridiculous!

See? Another one of the squad members is dead and two of the helicopters were destroyed, one must be left since there were three squads. This all went to hell in a handbasket pretty fast. At least they still have the containment foam as support, they’ll need everything they can get their hands of to get out of here alive. I admit part of me is doubting the narrator is even alive in present day.

In middle of the panic and the fight, one of the three remaining squad members hears a laugh coming from not too far away. The person who laughed is a man who’s dressed similar to the first minion they killed. Rinke, there he is. Also, I just realized I had been writing ‘Zinke’ all this time. Oh well. Learn by making mistakes, no?

Shooting Rinke is pretty effective, Rinke falls down and the creatures nearby gather around him immediately, no doubt to help him. Rinke stands up, so...I suppose the shot didn’t hit any fatal points. Goodbye element of surprise.

“You would shoot me!?” Rinke roared. If anything, his voice was all the more terrifying because it sounded so small, so human. “I create life! I am a god, and this is my garden!”

Evan could see flesh billow into existence in the man’s hands, embryonic sacs with the shadows of something forming within them. They burst, and two struggling, childlike figures dropped to the ground to disappear in the midst of the stirring crowd.

That’s unspeakably gross. I can imagine it and it’s not a pretty picture at all. That aside, looks like he doesn’t need anything in exchange to being able to make flesh out of nothing but his hands. It doesn’t seem like he requires raw material or use anything in his body to do it, he just...makes weird life out of nothing.

This small demonstration is all the remaining squad members see before they’re attacked further. Not even all the foam they use stop them because the minions are using long-range weapons, so pointy and strong they penetrate even the armor the squad has. Heck, this all ends with the narrator dying. Pretty grim interlude, this one. I wonder what’s the point, though...it feels kind of random so far.

Oh, nevermind, someone survived! The one whose last name – I suppose – was Lady. She wakes up in a hospital and is greeted by someone else who survived the incursion in the town.

“I’m Thomas Calvert,” he introduced himself. “Squad three. We’re the only ground forces that got out alive.”

Only two people out of three squads. Won’t lie, they’re very lucky to be alive. After all the horrors described I had expected everybody to have died.

Lady here will now find out about the prognosis, it’s not good. Rinke’s monsters ate her legs, crippling her. Looks like they also got her kidneys, she’ll need dialysis for the rest of her life. Calvert must have suffered similar damages too because he’s not going to be part of any squads in the future either. Then again, after these experiences, most people would retire from being in a squad, no? The PRT agents must see a lot of awful stuff and have to endure it, but this particular adventure seemed particularly awful. I for one wouldn’t blame Lady or Calvert for getting out of the job. Oh well. Lady’s injuries leave her with no choice.

“Rinke?”

“You mean Nilbog.”

“Huh?”

“That’s what he called himself. He’s alive and presumably well. I saw out the window as the chopper pulled us out, Nilbog retreating to hide in some building, his creatures were returning to their hiding places. I expect the man will be alive for some time.”

Doesn’t sound familiar. This must be the first time Nilbog is mentioned in this story. Once another major threat. With this situation, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Slaughterhouse Nine tries to get in contact with him, they have gotten in contact with people who did much less than Nilbog did. I’m sure Bonesaw would love to study the monsters and how they come to exist.

The reason why Nilbog survived the bullet is that he’s wearing one of his own creations. Ah, is that why he looked a lot like the first minion the squad encountered? Also, he’s making monsters that multiply when they’re set on fire, no doubt something he decided to do after a few of his monsters were incinerated in the attack. Live and adapt, they say. Well here he is doing that. Capturing him just got much more difficult now.

“He may have other countermeasures for other courses of action. You’ll get your chance to talk to the Chief Director, but last I heard, they’re planning to wall the city off. They’ll let the motherfucker be the god of his own little town, so long as he doesn’t try to expand any further, which they’re saying he won’t. I almost envy him.”

So instead of killing or apprehending him they’ll make the cell all around the city. Should I take this to mean somewhere in Canada there’s a walled city, possibly with a dome all over it because no way they’ll risk creations escaping via air? They think Nilbog won’t try to expand any further and what I really want is see what kind of proof they got to conclude such a thing. Nilbog already proved to be extremely dangerous. I’m surprised they’re just letting this go on. Maybe it’d all have been different if the capes hadn’t bailed out at the first chance.

Calvert sighs and wishes he had gained powers during the excursion, while Lady vehemently disagrees. She sure has her reasoning set in stone, no doubt due to what happened:

“They’re monsters. Freaks. Lunatics. They fight only because they have the impression that they’re stronger than their opponents, and when they aren’t they run.” She thought of the squad of capes that had accompanied them. “They abandon the rest of us.”

To be honest she has very good reasons to be royally pissed off. The capes just ran away! Like cowards. Who wouldn’t despise all parahumans, both heroes and villains, after such a stunt? Maybe it’s for the better she won’t have a career in the PRT anymore.

All this amuses Calvert a lot. This man needs better bedside manners. He doesn’t waste any time explaining why this is so funny to him.

“It’s ironic. When the doctor and the Chief Director were talking to your sister, the Chief Director assured her that you still had a position in the PRT. Some of it is probably to keep you quiet, a cushy desk job and fat paycheck to make up for the fact that they sent you into a deathtrap and killed your teammates.”

“A desk job?”

“Director. You’ll manage the local teams, handle the PR, convince everyone else that they aren’t freaks, monsters, lunatics and bullies. I suggest you fake it, pretend you really do believe it. You might start to believe your lies.”

Oh, she still has a career. Now she’s in charge of the kind of people she loathes, dealing with the power of PR. Huh.

...

Is Lady the last name or a codename? Because the strangest thought just crossed my mind but I don’t see anything in the interlude that confirms or denies my thought. Is this Director Piggot? Was it ever commented Director Piggot used to be a normal squad member? I think it was the part about PR what made me think of her. So much has been said in the story – and I have commented about PR so much when it’s about the PRT – I just made that connection and now I really want to know if that’s right or not.

Calvert isn’t getting cushy desk jobs even though his circumstances were similar to Lady’s. He’s going to jail because he shot his captain so he could escape. Well isn’t that a coldhearted move. Was the rope ladder so short both of them didn’t fit, or was their combined weight enough to make the helicopter unable to fly away, or what. Really, what reason was there to shoot the captain? Methinks there may have been personal history there. A crime of passion, if you will.

This confession disgusts Lady and she says she’d have never done such a thing if she had been in his position. Calvert says it’ll be a few years of his life in jail, he’s really calm when with the prospect of being in jail. Doesn’t such a thing usually ruin your life even after you’re out? Maybe after Calvert is free the PRT will try to keep him happy so he won’t talk about what happened. He may not be employed with them anymore, but he’d still be a person of interest. Gotta keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t speak more than he should.

The interlude ends in a sudden manner, with ‘It’s like the world’s gone mad, and I’m the only sane person left.’ being the last line. Kind of jarring, this was. Oh well. What would be a bit of a letdown of an ending is compensated by what’s directly underneath. The tags are usually a good way to remind yourself what characters took part in a chapter, so I went ahead to check.

This entry was posted in 16.x (Donation Bonus) and tagged Piggy by wildbow.

She really is Director Piggot! Most likely. Suddenly, having her hostage is looking like a pretty bad idea. She may not be fit and as trained as she used to be, but she must know a trick or two, no? Goodness gracious, I hope the Undersiders and Travelers’ plan of capturing her doesn’t bite them on the rear later.

Anyway, I think I’ll stop for now.

Next time: in two updates

#worm liveblog #worm #webserial #webserial liveblog #liveblog

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scifigeneration · 5 years

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Did ancient supernovae prompt human ancestors to walk upright?

Did ancient supernovae induce proto-humans to walk on two legs, eventually resulting in Homo sapiens with hands free to build cathedrals, design rockets and snap iPhone selfies?

A paper published today in the Journal of Geology makes the case: Supernovae bombarded Earth with cosmic energy starting as many as 8 million years ago, with a peak some 2.6 million years ago, initiating an avalanche of electrons in the lower atmosphere and setting off a chain of events that feasibly ended with bipedal hominins such as Homo habilis, dubbed "handy man."

The authors believe atmospheric ionization probably triggered an enormous upsurge in cloud-to-ground lightning strikes that ignited forest fires around the globe. These infernos could be one reason ancestors of Homo sapiens developed bipedalism -- to adapt in savannas that replaced torched forests in northeast Africa.

"It is thought there was already some tendency for hominins to walk on two legs, even before this event," said lead author Adrian Melott, professor emeritus of physics & astronomy at the University of Kansas. "But they were mainly adapted for climbing around in trees. After this conversion to savanna, they would much more often have to walk from one tree to another across the grassland, and so they become better at walking upright. They could see over the tops of grass and watch for predators. It's thought this conversion to savanna contributed to bipedalism as it became more and more dominant in human ancestors."

Based on a "telltale" layer of iron-60 deposits lining the world's sea beds, astronomers have high confidence supernovae exploded in Earth's immediate cosmic neighborhood -- between 100 and only 50 parsecs (163 light years) away -- during the transition from the Pliocene Epoch to the Ice Age.

"We calculated the ionization of the atmosphere from cosmic rays which would come from a supernova about as far away as the iron-60 deposits indicate," Melott said. "It appears that this was the closest one in a much longer series. We contend it would increase the ionization of the lower atmosphere by 50-fold. Usually, you don't get lower-atmosphere ionization because cosmic rays don't penetrate that far, but the more energetic ones from supernovae come right down to the surface -- so there would be a lot of electrons being knocked out of the atmosphere."

According to Melott and co-author Brian Thomas of Washburn University, ionization in the lower atmosphere meant an abundance of electrons would form more pathways for lightning strikes.

"The bottom mile or so of atmosphere gets affected in ways it normally never does," Melott said. "When high-energy cosmic rays hit atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they knock electrons out of them -- so these electrons are running around loose instead of bound to atoms. Ordinarily, in the lightning process, there's a buildup of voltage between clouds or the clouds and the ground -- but current can't flow because not enough electrons are around to carry it. So, it has to build up high voltage before electrons start moving. Once they're moving, electrons knock more electrons out of more atoms, and it builds to a lightning bolt. But with this ionization, that process can get started a lot more easily, so there would be a lot more lightning bolts."

The KU researcher said the probability that this lightning spike touched off a worldwide upsurge in wildfires is supported by the discovery of carbon deposits found in soils that correspond with the timing of the cosmic-ray bombardment.

"The observation is that there's a lot more charcoal and soot in the world starting a few million years ago," Melott said. "It's all over the place, and nobody has any explanation for why it would have happened all over the world in different climate zones. This could be an explanation. That increase in fires is thought to have stimulated the transition from woodland to savanna in a lot of places -- where you had forests, now you had mostly open grassland with shrubby things here and there. That's thought to be related to human evolution in northeast Africa. Specifically, in the Great Rift Valley where you get all these hominin fossils."

Melott said no such event is likely to occur again anytime soon. The nearest star capable of exploding into a supernova in the next million years is Betelgeuse, some 200 parsecs (652 light years) from Earth.

"Betelgeuse is too far away to have effects anywhere near this strong," Melott said. "So, don't worry about this. Worry about solar proton events. That's the danger for us with our technology -- a solar flare that knocks out electrical power. Just imagine months without electricity."

#science #science news #Astrophysics #space #earth science

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 5 years

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SUPERNOVAE ZAPPED EARTH 2.6 MILLION YEARS AGO — RESEARCHERS WONDER IF THEY PROMPTED HUMAN ANCESTORS TO WALK UPRIGHT Did ancient supernovae induce proto-humans to walk on two legs, eventually resulting in homo sapiens with hands free to build cathedrals, design rockets and snap iPhone selfies? A paper published today in the Journal of Geology makes the case: Supernovae bombarded Earth with cosmic energy starting as many as 8 million years ago, with a peak some 2.6 million years ago, initiating an avalanche of electrons in the lower atmosphere and setting off a chain of events that feasibly ended with bipedal hominins such as homo habilis, dubbed “handy man.” The authors believe atmospheric ionization probably triggered an enormous upsurge in cloud-to-ground lightning strikes that ignited forest fires around the globe. These infernos could be one reason ancestors of homo sapiens developed bipedalism -- to adapt in savannas that replaced torched forests in northeast Africa. “It is thought there was already some tendency for hominins to walk on two legs, even before this event,” said lead author Adrian Melott, professor emeritus of physics & astronomy at the University of Kansas. “But they were mainly adapted for climbing around in trees. After this conversion to savanna, they would much more often have to walk from one tree to another across the grassland, and so they become better at walking upright. They could see over the tops of grass and watch for predators. It’s thought this conversion to savanna contributed to bipedalism as it became more and more dominant in human ancestors.” Based on a “telltale” layer of iron-60 deposits lining the world’s sea beds [https://news.ku.edu/2016/04/01/proof-ancient-supernovae-zapped-earth-sparks-hunt-aftereffects], astronomers have high confidence supernovae exploded in Earth’s immediate cosmic neighborhood -- between 100 and only 50 parsecs (163 light-years) away -- during the transition from the Pliocene Epoch to the Ice Age. “We calculated the ionization of the atmosphere from cosmic rays which would come from a supernova about as far away as the iron-60 deposits indicate,” Melott said. “It appears that this was the closest one in a much longer series. We contend it would increase the ionization of the lower atmosphere by 50-fold. Usually, you don’t get lower-atmosphere ionization because cosmic rays don’t penetrate that far, but the more energetic ones from supernovae come right down to the surface -- so there would be a lot of electrons being knocked out of the atmosphere.” According to Melott and co-author Brian Thomas of Washburn University, ionization in the lower atmosphere meant an abundance of electrons would form more pathways for lightning strikes. “The bottom mile or so of atmosphere gets affected in ways it normally never does,” Melott said. “When high-energy cosmic rays hit atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they knock electrons out of them -- so these electrons are running around loose instead of bound to atoms. Ordinarily, in the lightning process, there’s a buildup of voltage between clouds or the clouds and the ground -- but current can’t flow because not enough electrons are around to carry it. So, it has to build up high voltage before electrons start moving. Once they’re moving, electrons knock more electrons out of more atoms, and it builds to a lightning bolt. But with this ionization, that process can get started a lot more easily, so there would be a lot more lightning bolts.” The KU researcher said the probability that this lightning spike touched off a worldwide upsurge in wildfires is supported by the discovery of carbon deposits found in soils that correspond with the timing of the cosmic-ray bombardment. “The observation is that there’s a lot more charcoal and soot in the world starting a few million years ago,” Melott said. “It’s all over the place, and nobody has any explanation for why it would have happened all over the world in different climate zones. This could be an explanation. That increase in fires is thought to have stimulated the transition from woodland to savanna in a lot of places -- where you had forests, now you had mostly open grassland with shrubby things here and there. That’s thought to be related to human evolution in northeast Africa. Specifically, in the Great Rift Valley where you get all these hominin fossils.” Melott said no such event is likely to occur again anytime soon. The nearest star capable of exploding into a supernova in the next million years is Betelgeuse, some 200 parsecs (652 light-years) from Earth. “Betelgeuse is too far away to have effects anywhere near this strong,” Melott said. “So, don’t worry about this. Worry about solar proton events. That’s the danger for us with our technology -- a solar flare that knocks out electrical power. Just imagine months without electricity.”

#space #science #Astronomy #physics

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scribbledwriting · 6 years

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“Show, Don’t Tell!”: Using the Five Senses in Writing

This is an extended piece to my ‘Show, Don’t tell’ post. When writing the senses, I like to imagine the scene as if I were watching a movie. It’s the simplest way for me to picture and write when it comes to descriptions. You don’t want to overload the reader, but you do want to paint the picture instead of telling them. Staying aware of the five senses in your writing will dramatically improve your skill. It not only helps the reader be a part of the story but helps the writer set important scenes, without having to outright state what is happening. In this post, I will explain how I use the five senses in my writing. As always, my advice is subjective and only to show what I personally do. Whether you keep the senses in mind as you write, or you edit them in later, making sure you pay attention to keywords will help eliminate the stress of going back later to figure out what (maybe!) went wrong.

SEE: On Sight

One of the easiest ways to go about elaborating sight is to eliminate words related to vision (look, saw, gazed, peek, etc). It also helps to stay aware of items, colors, sizes, etc. Do the same thing you’d do with words related to sight, eliminate them. Of course, don’t erase every word or phrase, but being proactive, keeping them in mind, and avoiding them will help you avoid overloading your reader with too much purple prose. (Granted, I would die for purple prose, but I understand that’s not everyone’s thing).

Examples:

Jill saw Jack running. He carried a silver pail. He tripped and fell down the hill.

There are a lot of sight-words in this example. As the writer, it is your decision to choose what you want to elaborate on, whether it is one thing, or all of them. How much of the story you want to paint is up to you—

Jack’s feet blurred against the green grass as his toe caught his ankle. He rolled on his side, his silver pail flying into the air and reaching Jill first.

Jill craned her neck to find Jack staggering down the hill. Water sloshed from the sides of the bucket, swinging and glistening in the sunlight. He stumbled and grabbed for the handle with his second hand as the pail threatened to leave his grasp, and then he slipped, toppling down the hill.

In both of these scenarios, the reader can “see” that Jack is running and tripped without specifically stating that Jill saw it. They also “see” he had a silver pail and dropped it.

Being more visually descriptive is also very important for facial expressions. It takes a simple mood and elevates it. Describing the expression also gives the reader the chance to “feel” that way too, almost like a mimic, which helps them visualize and empathize with the character.

Example:

Maxine made a disgusted face.

Think of what a disgusted reaction looks like; usually, it involves frowning, pinching your nose, sticking out your tongue, etc. Sometimes, it can help to look in a mirror and write what you’re seeing, too.

Maxine flared her nostrils and stuck out her tongue.

In the latter example, the reader is able to infer that Maxine is disgusted by how the writer described her reaction.

HEAR: On Sound

Describing sound can be tricky. It’s also hard to remember when to use it. We tend to think of sound in terms of music or voices—okay, okay, sometimes we sprinkle in animals howling or the wind blowing, too!—but sound can be incredibly important in setting a scene and is often under-utilized. Sounds let the reader know their surroundings without pulling from what is going on and adds intensity!

Examples:

Manuel sat nervously at the coffee table.

Again, as the writer, you can decide where to incorporate the use of sound. Here are a couple of suggestions, based on the above example:

Manuel’s fingers drummed against the table and drowned out the low whistle escaping from between his teeth as he exhaled. All around him, there was cheerful chatter, through which the barista’s loud voice occasionally sliced.

Manuel’s thoughts whirred and hummed, a dull grinding and the clinking of glass broke through the constant thump of his knee against the underside of the table.

In both of these examples, the reader was able to gather that Manuel was nervous (tapping knee, drumming fingers, low whistle). They are also able to gather he is in a coffee shop (or a restaurant of sorts) without explicitly saying so.

TOUCH: On Sensation

The best way to handle touch is by imagining whatever it is you are describing and what it feels like. If you don’t know how something feels, google it. Don’t describe a snake as slimy just because its scales are shiny and gives it a slime-like effect. That said, touch doesn’t just deal with what your character is physically touching. It can also deal with emotions and help to express them without saying outright how your character feels.

Example:

Opal touched the silk blanket. She felt sleepy and closed her eyes.

Here we can elaborate on what the blanket feels like when Opal touches it and how she feels to indicate she is tired:

The supple fabric slid between Opal’s fingers like water. Her tired muscles sagged and sharp, tiny pinpricks pressed against her heavy eyelids as she lay back.

The reader knows the blanket was very soft and also that she is tired without specifically stating she was sleepy.

TASTE: On Flavor

Taste is a fun sense to mess with. It can show the reader so much more than how delicious the bread is (or how gross dirt is). I like to play around with taste in the weather/air, the taste of fear, the taste of cat hair in your mouth because there is always cat hair in your mouth… all right, maybe that’s a personal thing.

Example:

The sun rose over the city.

What do you use for taste here? A city can’t taste, the sun doesn’t taste, but your character does!

Yellow light spilled over the streets, soaking the grit from the rainbow puddles into the air. The bitter grease lingered and settled in his mouth, strengthening every time he scraped his teeth against his tongue.

Experiment with taste in your writing. Describe things you wouldn’t normally think to taste, like crude oil*. The internet is a good resource when it’s something you don’t want to try yourself, like crude oil**. Chances are, someone out there has already tried it and explained what it tastes like online.

SCENT: On Smell

Ahhh, smell. Smell lets the reader know so much: they can figure out where a character is, what they’re doing, where they are, etc., just from a few scent-related descriptors thrown around. Smell is also useful in triggering memories or past events.

Danny walked through the forest.

You can use so many of the five senses here! But since we’re focusing on scent, let’s zero in on that:

A crisp hint of pine lingered in the air and blended with the pungent decay of the brown needles underfoot.

Without stating anything about a forest, the reader has an idea of where Danny is. You can also use smell to show emotion!

Danny was in love.

How do you smell love, K? Well, you’ve got me there: you can’t. But as a writer, you can think of what love means to you and of things you associate with love, and work from there. Personally, I imagine it would have a sweet smell, maybe too sweet.

A rush of flowery sweetness filled his nostrils as the handsome young man walked by.

There you have it. Of course, there’s a lot more to writing the five senses, as there is with anything, but this is to give you a basic idea of what I do when I’m writing. Being proactive and keeping the senses in mind while writing can be tough and exhausting, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. And you don’t leave it all for editing! Remember: the most important thing is to keep practicing.

Happy writing!

* Please do not taste crude oil. I can’t believe I have to type this, but some people want to eat Tide Pods, so here I am.

** Do not taste crude oil. You will die.

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