#juno steel and the man of the future part 1 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

genderbinaryisforlosers · 3 years

Note

everyone on the carte blanche for the ask meme

everyone? oh boy this is gonna get long ajfhdsf

JUNO

First impression: i, like a lot of people who get into the podcast without knowing a great deal about it, was expecting at most an ambiguously bisexual angst machine with a closely-guarded heart of gold. juno being an explicitly bisexual genderqueer angst machine is perhaps the most pleasant surprise of my life. the angst machine heart of gold characters were kind of my type at the time, so i loved him right away

Impression now: every time i think about juno’s arc from depressed mess held together by bad coping mechanisms, safety pins, and a few good strong puns into someone who can talk about his feelings, feel comfortable about being happy, and recognise when he needs to change, i want to cry about it a little bit. the depth of my love for juno steel has only grown along with him

Favourite moment: juno has a lot of great one-liners and i’m still a big fan of the “on the other hand i wasn’t wearing a watch” bit and who can forget such classics as juno finally deciding to stop moping over nureyev and move on only for him to open the door to his apartment and find nureyev sitting in the dark dramatically, but honestly nothing will ever hit me harder than his sudden, pissed-off declaration of “i can’t die yet, i still have shit to do!” in promised land. god.

Idea for a story: oh i have so many and i want to write most of them so no spoilers, but juno accidentally kidnaps a baby during a carte blanche heist and shenanigans ensue

Unpopular opinion: obviously we all know he’s dummy thicc but i feel like a lot of people forget he’s an actual genius, like the stuff he notices and how he strings it together is sometimes so obscure and he’s almost always right. oh, also juno is not skinny and i will not be taking criticism on that

Favourite relationship: this is so tough because every dynamic is so good, but i think it has to be juno and rita. those two are so good! the best best friends in the world!! i’m really a sucker for any dynamic that’s ridiculously in-sync so i loved these two as soon as juno saw rita’s notes in prince of mars and went “makes perfect sense to me” (which it probably didn’t, because rita, but he trusted that she knew what she was doing which is the important part)

Favourite headcanon: this isn’t really a headcanon but i still think about how juno is (was?) deathly afraid of heights but when he heard rex glass coming he still attempted to climb out of the window. either his aversion to working with dark matters/other people in general was so strong is overrided his fear, or his office was actually on the ground floor. not sure which of these is funnier.

NUREYEV

First impression: we’ve all seen the memes about nureyev knowing juno steel for one (1) day and deciding to Risk It All by leaving him with his name, look at this Hopeless Romantic, this utter DISASTER of a homosexual. the fact the very next time we hear from nureyev (at least directly) he’s patiently waiting in juno’s dark apartment to surprise him with a heist definitely supports this image.

Impression now: even after literally being inside peter’s head, i feel like we didn’t get a real sense of who he is until man in glass, where we find out he aggressively compartmentalises everything that causes him stress. he’s also distinctly someone who’s had his heart broken before, i think, which makes those first appearances of his very strange. but it does remind me of what juno says about diamond, and how he decided to provide the trust first and wait for the trustworthiness to grow in (only to get severely hurt), and i think that’s exactly what nureyev did. i am also... very uneasy with how suspicious he’s behaving this season because obviously i want to believe he’ll sort it all out and not betray the crew but... oof

Favourite moment: the beginning of what lies beyond pt1 where he’s affectionately bullying juno into taking care of himself? cleared my crops watered my skin etc etc etc

Idea for a story: i’d love to hear more about his past as a young thief idolising buddy and vespa (i can’t actually remember if that’s canon or fanon but anyway i wanna read it!)

Unpopular opinion: i think people often cling to an image of him that more resembles his first impressions in season 1 instead of seeing the depth that we’ve been given about his character in season 3

Favourite relationship: him and juno but honestly it’s a close call between them and his budding friendship with rita. even though she learned it by accident, his name is still a point of intimacy and it’s one less secret to keep around her which has to be a weight off his shoulders, at least a little? they seem like they could be really good friends once ultrabots is out of the way. juno steel love (and also bullying) zone activates whenever they’re together

Favourite headcanon: i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again - nureyev has never done a household chore in his goddamn life. he doesn’t know the water needs to be hot when you wash dishes.

RITA

First impression: honestly i’m not sure? i don’t remember having a big awareness of her in murderous mask but i remember loving her “note-taking” in prince of mars, i thought she sounded really fun and cute

Impression now: rita is really fun and cute, she’s also an extremely hardworking and dedicated woman who had the guts to throw in with a detective fired from the force and then invest all of her time and money into helping him help people.

Favourite moment: Rita Gets A Knife. enough said

Idea for a story: i don’t know honestly! i really struggle to write rita because her thought processes are so wild and i don’t think any story i could come up with would match mega ultrabots of cyberjustice.

Unpopular opinion: this shouldn’t be unpopular because juno steel himself shares this opinion but all future-jupeter headcanons are incomplete without rita also being a huge part of their lives

Favourite relationship: rita + franny 4ever obviously.. jk it’s juno & rita have you heard rita minute 3 they’re too adorable for this world. im still Soft over their conversation at the end of soul of the people when he said he couldn’t stay in hyperion anymore but he wouldn’t leave with the carte blanche if rita wasn’t coming because he was done leaving her behind, and she threw out all her hesitations on the spot and said call the big guy. speaking of, rita & jet are a close second. instant best friends i love them.

Favourite headcanon: i think this is basically canon now but rita being literally half the height of jet is so good

JET

First impression: “haha lorge funny man puts juno in the trash”

Impression now: jet sikuliaq is one of the dearest characters to me out of anything ever. he is a huge, menacing, polite, kind, sincere man who i would very much like to give me a hug. he’s the best aro ace in outer space and while being generally very levelheaded and straightforward, also takes every opportunity to fuck with juno because it’s very easy and very hilarious to him personally. he is everything my autistic acearo ass needed and i’m so glad to have him

Favourite moment: all of them every single one. him putting juno in the trash is of course a classic and every moment jet chooses to be funny makes my heart happy, but also every piece of genuine advice he gives. i’m a particular fan though of buddy recounting her years in the lighthouse and him saying he became concerned when she didn’t come downstairs at the usual time. “you took the door off its hinges.” “i was deeply concerned.” king of understatement

Idea for a story: again no spoilers for you but..... tools of rust time loop au

Unpopular opinion: this isn’t “unpopular” as much as it is unknown but jet is buddy’s queerplatonic partner and i will keep saying it until everyone believes it

Favourite relationship: jet and buddy,,, just everything about them. the way he suspects when she’s lying, the way she makes tea for him when she expects him to drop by. the fact he comes to check on her when she is 41 seconds late to the family meeting because it’s unlike her to be late and the last time she was late for something her brain was turning to radiation soup. but most especially the way she snaps at him to stay out of her business and he said he could not because he made her promise eight years ago to never stay out of the business of her health, no matter how many times she asked. they r literally in a qpr

Favourite headcanon: i don’t think this is true but i still think it would be funny if the ruby-7 used to be painted red but when jet got it he had it painted green because he Just Really Likes Green (as evidenced by his hovercycle). it’s very funny to me.

BUDDY

First impression: it’s been a minute since i relistened to time gone by but i’m pretty sure the first thing she ever says in the podcast is sliding up to depressed accidental whiskey thief juno and say “that’ll be ten million creds,” scaring the shit out of him, so needless to say i was in love instantly.

Impression now: my love for buddy aurinko has only grown and if it sounds like i already said that in this post it’s because i did about juno and it’s appropriate because the parallels are astounding. the heart of it all gave us such depth to buddy’s internal monologue and why she always sounds like she knows exactly what to say and what that’s like and honestly will i ever be over the heart of it all as an episode? unlikely. i think i’m gonna have a little piece of it in MY heart forever.

Favourite moment: everything she’s ever said is iconic as hell i especially like “in an impressive fit of hubris i’ve decided not to prepare my words for this vow” which made me laugh out loud but once again i must give it up for her iconic “I WANT TO LIVE” moment. honourable mentions to her taking rita out for ice cream and giving juno shooting lessons while she’s in her actual wedding gown. i love her

Idea for a story: buddy and vespa as sun/moon dieties.... that’s all

Unpopular opinion: stop drawing her with a fancy high-tech eye like the theia!! it canonically looks like garbage and it’s described in detail, please, i’m dying, also don’t minimise her scars you bastards

Favourite relationship: buddy and vespa invented romantic love and the entire carte blanche crew’s relationship to her is great but you know by now i’m a slut for buddy & jet out-of-this-world queerplatonic partners. the way she checks in on him during tools of rust to make sure he’s not relapsing and he comes to find her when she is 41 seconds late in the heart of it all to make sure she’s not having a heart problem!! it’s the trust,, the devotion,, the mortifying ordeal of being known

Favourite headcanon: she can sing. absolutely tears it up at karaoke. i’m right

VESPA

First impression: knife lesbian goes STAB. she will heal your wounds but she will be threatening to give you more the whole time

Impression now: she is extremely strong, heart-rendingly tender, and despite being in the older half of the carte blanche crew somehow has unmistakable little sister energy which makes her downright hilarious. i’m so glad she got to marry buddy and they’re official space wives now they’re so good for each other

Favourite moment: both from shadows in the ship, either “GUN!!” “KNIFE?!” (iconic) or when she clocks the dark matters drone pretending to be juno because it called her crazy and juno wouldn’t call her crazy. i’m always a sucker for “shapeshifter fails to fool mark because they Know Each Other Too Well” and it was just *chefs kiss* so good

Idea for a story: i really want to write something about when she was first staying at the lighthouse with buddy post-reunion, and getting to know jet and stuff. i think it would be cute

Unpopular opinion: i know vespa doesn’t canonically have lots of scarring but people who don’t draw her with scarring? cowards.

Favourite relationship: once again, although buddy and vespa invented romantic love, i just love the dynamic between vespa and juno so much. they’ve come so far with each other and their weird sibling dynamic gives me life. at the end of what lies beyond when juno says “we’re not gonna kill her, vespa” and instead of sounding full of Rage and Suspicion she’s like “whyyy notttt?” and he’s like “because i said so!” and that’s just good enough for her even if she’s a bit grumpy about it. i love it.

this took.. a hot minute to do! jshkfjsdgsa thank you dyl ily <3

#michaelburnnham #riley replies #be gay do crimes in space #the penumbra #juniverse

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ernmark · 4 years

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Juno Steel and the Tools of Rust (pt 1) Reaction

This episode was a really great one.

Also, this episode is a microcosm of this show’s affect on me: things have been really rough for me lately, but when I started listening to it I was immediately drawn in, and it gave me so much to think about and connect to and feel for. This episode was so much of what I needed at this moment in my life.

Beyond that, spoilers under the cut.

There’s a lot for me to talk about, to the point that I’ve got a notepad next to my laptop for subjects that I feel will need posts of their own later on.

But let’s start with Jet.

Holy shit, Jet Siquliak.

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.

I was in platonic love with him already, when he was this beautiful giant of a man who is patient and quiet and wise and gentle and wonderful. And now we’ve seen inside his head, and I didn’t even know I could love him so much.

Because he’s not patient because it’s his personality, he’s patient because he works really, really hard at it. He’s quiet because he’s making an effort to listen and be mindful. He’s wise because he’s done some shit and he’s hit some serious lows and he’s grown and regretted and learned from it all. He’s gentle because he knows exactly how destructive and cruel he can be, and he has made the choice to do otherwise.

I’m so glad he’s got Rita around, because I want to hug this man a thousand times.

That piece of wisdom, he shared? That takes on a thousand times greater significance now:

JACKET: We may look backwards only to ensure we have not come this way before. (Soul of the People)

God, he’s had a lot to look back on.

This is a man who was a serious, serious addict, it sounds like. And now he doesn’t use anymore. Not even caffeine.

JACKET: It means I am thirsty. It is large because I am very thirsty, and decaffeinated because I have a predisposition to addictive— (Time Gone By)

And despite that, he was working as a bartender during Time Gone By. Not just being in the same room as some serious drink, but actively handling it and mixing it and everything. I know not everyone’s recovery is the same, but I’ve heard enough people talk about theirs that I know that’s no mean feat.

And not just in the lighthouse, but on the Carte Blanche, Buddy talks about both herself and Juno taking liberally from their supplies, and Jet flatly assures her that he’s not partaking. It’s implied that they’re talking about alcohol (maybe that’s the only thing she can really consume for calories?), maybe it’s coffee, who knows, but she’s concerned and non-judgmental, and he’s steadfast.

Seeing that man that we know-- even if we didn’t know him nearly so well-- as he used to be? The Unnatural Disaster? That chilled me to the bone. That hysterical laughter, that intensity in his voice, that utter glee at the thought of mass murder.

And he’s still haunted by it. He refuses to be any part of that, even slightly, but it’s still there, and still a part of him, and he’s got to work with it and fight against it every day.

And right now Rita’s going to help him with it.

Let’s talk about her, shall we?

Because Buddy knew exactly what she was doing, just like she knew what she was doing when she put Juno in a shiny ballgown and had Peter pretend to be his husband.

Because Rita has the patience of a saint, but also she’s got fifteen years experience dealing with Juno and all his mood swings, all his self-destruction, all his angry outbursts, all his enemies, and even beyond that, she’s incredibly competent and interested.

She’s an incredible stabilizing element. She’s seen it all before, and she’s not going to judge, she’s not going to get mad, she’s not going to be weird about it. She’s going to be gentle when she needs to be, but otherwise she’s going to just be Rita.

And this episode really brings it home: she knew Jet’s name the instant she heard it. He was the clear subject of not one but two streams, at least one of which involved him committing mass murder.

And her reaction right away was “and I’m RIIIIIITA!” over and over again, and then she gets on Jet’s bike with Juno. “If she was scared,” Juno tells us, “She didn’t show it.”

The first time she shows any sign of fear is when he takes her and Juno to an empty stretch of desert in the middle of nowhere, and not unreasonably so:

RITA: You, uh, ain't gonna kill us, Mista Jet, are you? Cuz it would be really super easy to right now, there ain't any witnesses and all that, and-- (Soul Of The People)

And then the ship lands and she gets on it anyway.

And when she digs deeper into him, she doesn’t see a killer who might revert back at any moment. She sees him as so fundamentally different from who he once was. He’s not like that anymore. She acknowledges and understands the worst of a person, but still chooses to see the best in them, even during a backslide.

When he slams a door or breaks a reactor, she knows exactly what he’s capable of doing to her. And yeah, you can hear some trepidation in her voice. But she doesn’t run. She’s still right there, soothing him. Talking him through it, bit by bit. When he fucks up completely, she assures him it’s wonderful timing that it got broken while they’re still able to resupply. When he starts stalling, she eases him back into motion.

She is really, really good at bad mental health days.

And Buddy knew this would be a bad mental health day. She warned Jet ahead of time that this mission was going to be full of triggers. She gave him time to figure himself out, she gave him space, and then when he started self-isolating, she sent him back inside to do simple mechanical tasks with the one person who’s most qualified to help him through this patch.

It’s just really nice.

I’ve also spoken in the past about the shape of this season, and I think we’re finally starting to see that shape unfold.

We’ve now got Juno, who’s finally left behind Hyperion City, dealt with his mother and the death of his brother, and decided to work on his depression.

We’ve got Peter, who thought he could freeze himself in one state of being forever (”in glass”, if you will) and finally decides to be a part of his own future, starting with all those things he’s filed away.

We’ve got Jet, who’s so frightened of his past self that he gives it its own name and cages it behind a calm facade.

We’ve got Buddy and Vespa, both of them legends, one imprisoned and one enslaved, neither of them the woman they used to be.

We’ve got Rita, who’s so mysterious she doesn’t even let Juno speak her name aloud.

And yes, that means I sincerely believe we’re going to get POV episodes from Buddy, Vespa, and Rita before the season’s end, and I am absolutely thrilled.

Beyond that: we’ve got Nova Zolotovna, who was rendered unrecognizable by a magnificent haircut.

We’ve got our current mark (I don’t trust myself to spell their name without a script in front of me), who seems to be trying to change, too.

Hell, even Dark Matters seems to be in a period of transition.

Right now we’re all about transformation, about coming to terms with the past and allowing yourself to be grow and change beyond it.

That’s just so cool, you guys.

#the penumbra podcast #100

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scarletfish · 4 years

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don’t worry, you will

Summary: Two weeks ago, Juno was engaged. Now he's quarantined with a complete stranger who can't operate a microwave and has no sense of personal space. And they were quarantined (oh my god, they were quarantined!)

Pairings: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel, background Vespa/Buddy in future chapters Word Count: 3000 Chapters: 1/5 Warnings: canon-typical alcohol abuse, depression AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24016468/chapters/57779629

A/N: Thanks @space-city-traffic for the prompt, and @pipis-pods for the suggestion that Juno and Vespa communicate and become friends

Chapter 1

Diamond paid you $1520 . Your Venmo balance is now $1520.

Fiancee. Rent. They’re the first and last things on Juno’s mind. He realizes he’s been sitting in the parking garage for over ten minutes, idling and staring at the alert on his cracked phone screen. He turns the car off.

His car with a long crack in the windshield. Everything is goddamn broken. He gets out of the car, pauses. Gets back in the car.

This calls for a detour.

***

Twenty minutes later, Juno is ready to take his newly acquired liquor to his room so he can introduce it to his newly acquired headache, but he still has one more stop to make.

Hyperion Apartment Complex twists eight stories high, and the tacky light grey brick facade is almost reflective at night. Semi-nice rooms in a mostly bad part of town. Hyperion city makes cheap look beautiful, the way fast-food commercials brush up plastic meat with shoe polish and glue. Diamond had always hated it.

Juno shoulders into the leasing office with two large grocery bags. The front desk is empty, and everything is fading or peeling. He rings the bell and sits on a peely, faded chair to wait. Might as well put the whisky to good use.

Taking a swig, he looks out the floor-length windows to the filmy outdoor pool. (Rita swears security fished a body out of it a couple years ago. Juno told her she needs to stop watching so much Law and Order.) For the hundredth time, he wonders if this is even worth it. She's going to ask questions, it's inevitable, and he doesn't know how to answer them. Doesn't know the answers himself.

He starts poking holes in the plastic grocery bags with his thumbnail. Takes another swig. Then a couple more-

“Boss!” Rita bobs into view with her tablet in hand, Cheeto dust on her bright purple jacket.

Since the police force scandal, Juno runs a small PI business from a shitty downtown office, which is where he met Rita. To this day Juno’s not sure how or when she wormed her way into a position he wasn't even offering. He’s also not sure when she sleeps. As far as he knows, the part time leasing office representative is her third job- she also does... something with computers.

“Rita,” swig, “I need a favor.” The shorter woman has already started talking, anticipating their usual back and forth.

“And I know I ain’t supposed to call you that here, but you are my boss, and I don’t think my other bosses-- wait, huh?” Confused by the change in script, Rita eyes the half-empty bottle of whisky in Juno’s hand. Her eyes jump to the clock.

“Mista Steel, are you okay?” One pro of hiring Rita: she’s very perceptive. Con of hiring Rita: way too perceptive.

“Fine. I need you to check someone out for me.” Rita’s eyes immediately light up.

“Oooooh, boss, another case already? Is it gonna be as exciting as the one with Mista Prince Julian? Are we gonna get to travel? I’ve always wanted to go somewhere exotic, like Maine, or Florida-” Juno cuts her off before she can get going.

“He was a dramatic politician with a cheating husband who ended up dead, Rita. Not everything is a Netflix rom-com.”

There's a bitterness in his tone that might not have been there a week ago, but the smaller woman doesn't notice. She's already sunk into her desk chair, head propped in both hands, sighing dreamily as she swivels back and forth. Time to bring out the big guns.

Juno reaches into his shopping bag and pulls out the chips, dangling them in front of Rita’s heart eyes. She snatches. He raises them just out of reach.

“Focus. It’s not a case. There’s this guy I need you to find. I’ve got name and place of employment. Can you do it or not?”

Rita pouts. “But boss,” she whines, “you don’t even need me for that, you can just Google his name like I showed you. I thought we were gonna do something exciting.” Juno pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, well, Google isn’t gonna cut it this time, because,” I wasn’t really paying attention when you showed me that, “because, he’s highly secretive. And, that’s potential name. And potential place of employment, my source isn’t very,” he almost chokes on this last word, “reliable .”

The gears start turning. “Secretive… hang on Boss, is this another high-profiler? Have you been holding out on me?” She lowers her voice (not much). “Boss, this is about a case, right, you just can’t tell me because they might have tapped the phones!?”

What… who does she think they are? Juno drops his head into his hands to rub his temples. When Juno doesn't immediately contradict her, Rita continues in her stage whisper.

“Don’t worry Boss, Rita’s got your back! I’ll have this secretive criminal tracked down before they even know we’re on their case!”

“It’s not a case.”

“I’ll be as quiet as… as those monsters in The Quiet Place! Except they ain’t so quiet when they’re attacking people, but neither are we when we’ve got the bad guys cornered and we’re ready to take them out-”

Besides the recent political debacle with Julian and his missing husband (that one was a high-paying scrap tossed Juno’s way by an old friend), most of the cases he’s hired for are affair investigations and insurance fraud.

He’s certain neither he nor Rita have “taken anyone out” ever ... unless you count that time he tried to teach Rita to drive stick shift. Or the Hot Tub Debacle. But those were accidents.

Juno slings the bag of snacks onto her desk. “Just find out whatever you can about the guy, okay?”

“Fresh shrimp flavored?” Rita squeals, “Aw, you’re the best Mista Steel!” She digs into the large bag and talks around a mouthful of orange crumbs while Juno tries not to vomit in his mouth.

“Shipping ish ‘aking fore’er wi’ this crathy thirus thing goin’ gon,” she swallows, “speaking of, have you been watching the news Boss?”

“Every morning with my sunrise yoga. Listen Rita, I’ll check in with you tomorrow, okay?” Juno’s limbs are… heavy, suddenly. Maybe it’s the alcohol, maybe it’s because he hasn’t slept well in that last, oh, ten years... or maybe it’s the weight of that single text, sitting in his phone for almost a week now. Looking at Rita, he thinks of telling her everything. Just spilling his guts right onto the scuffed linoleum floor.

The engagement. The text. The Craigslist ad. The man he’s supposed to be meeting tomorrow.

Rita’s still chattering on, and her voice cuts through the haze. “-but you never told me the name of Mister Criminal?” She happily shoves another handful of chips in her mouth. “Oooo, or is it so secret you need to write it down on a piece of paper and then I can read it and eat the paper-”

“Peter Ransom. Might’ve done a job for Vallas Vicky’s hotel recently.” That’s all he knows. “And he’s not a criminal Rita, he’s just a normal guy.”

Rita’s dialogue wanders around to closing borders and something about Italy, but Juno’s already moving towards the door (it shuts a bit harder than he intended). He doesn't know why he's so upset with Rita, when all she's done is try to cheer him up and offered her help. He makes his way back to the parking garage elevator. It smells like cotton candy vape and something vaguely mossy. A group of ragged kids is flying down the incline around the corner on penny boards.

Juno takes another swig of whiskey in front of the chrome doors and jams the elevator button about twenty times before he remembers.

Of course the fucking elevator is down for the weekend.

He wants to sit at the bottom of the stairwell and drink himself into oblivion. He want to wallow in this feeling for a moment, the feeling of the universe kicking him while he’s down.

Instead, he drags himself to the stairwell, drudges down the second floor hall, and practically collapses through the door.

An eager chittering greets him from the cage in the living room. “Hey, Smallfry.”

Diamond wouldn’t go near the ball of fluff (“It’s so dirty Juno,”) so when they moved in together eight months ago, the rabbit was a launching point for multiple arguments. Juno drops his grocery bag of Timothy hay and carrots by the cage, not bothering to stash it in the kitchen.

He pointedly doesn’t look in the smaller second bedroom that Diamond claimed as an office space. He doesn’t look at their shared bed either, because the sight of the rumpled sheets will just wrap around his ribcage and squeeze and squeeze until he can’t breathe again and everything is spinning-

Juno takes another swig and collapses on the couch. And then, because he wants to hate himself a bit, he thumbs through his phone to his fiancee’s most recent text. No matter how often Juno reads it, it never changes.

3:56AM: Diamond

Juno. I’ll forward my part of two month’s rent before the month is over. That should be long enough for you to find a temporary roommate, at least until the lease expires at the end of the year. Do what you’d like with the furniture.

Ex-fiancee.

***

Juno bolts upright, disoriented and confused. The decorative couch pillows left lines on his cheek, and he’s nursing the beginning of a monster headache. He gropes around for his phone. 7PM. It’s only been a few hours.

It feels like days. Months. Years.

Juno shivers. He left the door to the porch open, and a cool fall breeze is raising goosebumps on his arm. A nearby screen door slams, and heavy boots tread the balcony next door. “Hey piss-bucket, you been day drinking again?”

The green-haired nuisance next door is only loud when she chooses to be, so Juno knows she's hoping to stir him out for a cigarette or two. He wonders briefly when Buddy will be back. Vespa only gets this chatty when her partner is gone for long periods of time on work trips.

He toys with the idea of stepping out. Hey Vespa. How're the axe-throwing students? (She refuses to tell him what she does for work, so Juno assigns her a new job every night.)

She’ll respond with something like, Great. If your failed PI business finally tanks, we could always use some new targets.

Maybe if Juno gets drunk enough, he’ll tell her why he’s not planning on ever being sober again. Tell her that he’s such a fucked up human, his fiancee ghosted him three weeks before the wedding with no forwarding address. Over text.

She’ll have to laugh at that. It’s the goddamn joke of the century, and Juno’s the punchline.

He jumps violently when his phone starts ringing. “I know you can hear me, Steel,” Vespa sneers from her balcony.

Juno groans at the name lighting up his screen. He was wrong- he’s not the punchline. Fucking Mick Mercury is.

He almost sends it to voicemail, but at the last second he crosses to the balcony door, wrestles the screen closed as Vespa flips him off (“What, too busy getting wasted alone?”) and finally slides the door shut with a bang.

He leans against the wall by Smallfry’s cage.

“Whaddya want, Mick.” Juno’s brain struggles to keep up with the excited babble streaming out of the phone.

“Juno! That hit we got on your listing? The Peter guy? He messaged again!”

No one’s outright asked Juno, “Did your fiancee ghost you three weeks before your wedding over text?”, so he’s not lying to his friends, per se. He just isn’t ready for the inevitable string of I-told-you-so’s from Rita and Vespa, who have hated Diamond since the moment they waltzed into Juno’s life ten months ago and stomped all over his heart with their designer boots.

Mick, bless him, is blissfully ignorant of Juno’s recent string of unfortunate life events. He’s blissfully ignorant about most things, actually, but his unending stream of well-intentioned business ventures mean he knows how to advertise.

Juno isn’t sure who Craig is, or why he keeps lists of random shit online. All he knows is that he can't afford rent on his own, and Mick owed him a favor. A lot of favors.

“Let me guess, he's found something better and he's not interested anymore.”

Fuck Diamond for putting him in this situation. Even if he deserves it. Even if he should’ve known better.

“No, Juno! He says, and I quote,” he clears his throat and reads dramatically, “‘Juno, would it be possible to move our rendezvous sooner? Due to personal issues I find I’m in need of accommodations a bit sooner than expected, and your ad did say the room was available post haste.’” Mick drops his voice back to normal. “He wants to meet sooner!”

“Yeah, I got that Mick. ‘Post haste’?”

“I went for a 'trustworthy but not desperate' vibe, ya feel?” Juno is quickly wishing he read and approved the ad before Mick posted it across the internet in his name.

“All right Mick, whatever, sure, just let me know when you set it up for.” There’s a long, telling silence. “...Mick?”

“Okay so here’s the thing,” and with that, Juno knows the universe is screwing with him again, “I kinda already told him you could meet him tomorrow morning? At eight? And I gave him the address of the apartment?” His words get faster with each blow.

“You gave him the address? Goddamn it Mick, I thought we were meeting for coffee somewhere first so I could make sure he’s not some wackjob who wants to hack me to pieces and wear my skin as a suit!” Juno’s less worried about becoming a potential skin suit and more worried about waking up before noon with the spectacular hangover he’s got planned, but he’s not going to tell Mick that.

“Oh Juno, you’re so,” he chuckles, “you’re hilarious! Skin suit. Ha! You’ve been watching Law and Order with Rita again, haven’t you?” Juno resists the urge to slam his head into the wall and end it all.

“Anyways, get some sleep tonight and make a good impression on our friend tomorrow! I’ll pass him your number. And hey, maybe you could mention my new Hair-in-a-Can line? One good turn and all that. The recall went real smooth with the last one!”

“Mick, hang on, listen to me-” Juno’s cut off by a loud crash in the background.

“Sorry Juno, gotta go, the cans are a bit more,” a high-pitched scream, “uh, high-pressured than we expected, good luck pal, don’t be a stranger!”

The line goes dead. Perfect. Juno eyes Smallfry.

“Not like I have anything worth stealing, huh? Unless he deals in small, neurotic rabbits.” He restocks Smallfry’s hay before he’s too drunk to remember. Vespa's convinced that a hungry rabbit might be inclined to chew through the apartment wall and go on a carnivorous hunting spree.

“My last roommate had a rabbit. It got mad when their sister’s rabbit got a nicer cage, so it chewed straight through the bars and,” she snapped her fingers, “chomp chomp. Nothing left but rabbits feet.”

“Bullshit.”

“What are you Steel, the rabbit whisperer? Okay, maybe it was a gerbil! Whatever, same difference.”

Then he grabs an extra blanket from the hall closet (it really is starting to get cold), two bottles of liquor, and the TV remote and settles onto the couch for another long night.

***

The best mornings are the mornings Juno wakes up still drunk and pleasantly fuzzy. This is not one of those mornings.

His alarm is playing quite loudly, meaning it’s probably been going off for quite some time, and two things happen in quick succession as his brain painfully struggles towards consciousness.

He rolls over in bed to grab at his phone and realizes the bed is actually a narrow couch. He hits the floor with a heavy thump . He's blindly swiping at the floor trying to turn the damn thing off, ignoring the nagging anxiety that he’s forgotten something important... There!

Blearily, he reads the alarm label… “SOUR CREAM.” What?

There’s a sharp knock at his door. His tipsy brain stumbles around in tight circles. He set that alarm weeks ago while cooking… never bothered to re-label it.... that doesn’t explain…

A second set of knocking, more forceful this time, accompanied by a muffled voice.

It’s 7:50AM and he honestly can’t remember why he’s supposed to be waking up or who could possibly be at the door. No, wait… he vaguely remembers…

Mick. The phone call. The desperate roommate.

All at once, Juno’s certain that he doesn’t need a roommate. It’s only four months after all, and the idea of a complete stranger snooping around his stuff, asking questions about his life, getting tangled up with his job, makes Juno’s skin crawl. It’s not worth the money. He can figure that out… somehow.

It’s decided. He’ll ignore the knocking. This Peter guy will eventually give up, he’ll tell Mick to take down the advertisement, and he’ll figure something else out.

Then a noise outside the door makes his blood run cold. He knows that giggle.

“Sorry Mista Criminal, lemme just, ngh-hungh, try that key.” Rita, traitor secretary and ex-best friend, is using her spare key to let this man into Juno’s apartment. The stranger’s muffled voice leaks through the door. “Could you maybe...?”

There’s no time to think. Juno’s only on the second floor, there are bushes underneath the window. If he can get out quick enough, he might be able to avoid a meeting altogether-

“Thank you Rita, you are an absolute gem, and twice as beautiful if I might add...” the door clicks open.

Might’ve been able to. If he’d moved a little quicker.

“Hello! Juno, I presume?”

Fuck.

#peter nureyev #juno steel #jupeter #the penumbra podcast #quarantine au #omg they were roommates #this turned into a Whole Thing #multi-chapter #Juno Steel and the Series of Unfortunate Life Events

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runeofthenord · 4 years

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I was not aware Post modernism had so many definitions so this article was certainly an interesting read. The article mentioned Damien Hirst who is certainly one of my favorite artists that I've been writing a research paper on recently. I identified with the mentioning as I see a bit of myself in Damien Hirst as an artist personally as I’m always looking at random objects and going “how can I incorporate this into art.”

To me post modernism was defined well by the Young British Artists, some of which were mentioned here such as Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin. The YBA’s sought to create shocking and raw art from non art materials. Traditional materials of high art are considered things such paint, pencil, and canvas. Things that fit neatly in a gallery setting. Post modernism seems to look at things and go “this is art because I say it is” or “this is beautiful because I say it is” or perhaps “maybe art doesn’t have to be beautiful to be enjoyed.” It takes us back to the roots of Marcel Duchamp and his Fountain. Proclaiming something is art because the artist looks at it and says that it is so. This denotes that the artist has a lot of power in their title. Post modernism challenges the tidy structure of the gallery or sometimes fits the bizarre into the gallery without the usage of paint or pencil.

1. Escaping the Confines of Museums: Lightning Field, Walter De Maria, 1977, Pointed Steel Rods: Although this is considered an earth work it is certainly post modern in the way it escapes the museum. It is breath taking union between land and sky that pushes the boundaries of what man can make into art.

2. Collapsing Boundaries Between High and Low art: Girl with Hair Ribbon, Roy Lichenstein, 1965, Oil and Acrylic: This painting certainly reflects cutting the boundaries between high and low art due to the fact that is produced in a traditional high art medium, but reflects the low art style of cheap comic books. Combined, it creates something new.

3. Rejecting Originality: Estate, Robert Rauschenberg, Oil and Silkscreen ink on canvas, 1963: I Think this work reflects objecting originality well because instead of inventing things purely meant for the purpose of aesthetic the work draws off of images one might see daily. Therefore drawing from everyday culture much in the way pop art would.

4. Jouissance: Rhythm Zero, Marina Abramovic, Performance art, 1974: It was hard to really grasp the term and the meaning of it. The most I got out of it is that it is on the verge of something so pleasurable it grasps the threshold of pain. I think Rhythm 0 portrays this well as Abramovic left people in control to do as they pleased with her. This performance brought out the true animalistic qualities of human beings with the allowance of such freedom.

5. Working Collectively: Rrose Selavy, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, 1920-1921, photograph,: This is a good example of artists working together on a project. Two early pioneer’s of Dada came together to shape Duchamp’s alter ego. Duchamp posed and Man Ray snapped each and every photograph of the female alter ego.

6. Appropriating: Campbell’s Soup Cans, Andy Warhol, 1962, Screen printing on canvas: a very well known master of appropriation, Warhol would draw artistic inspiration from pop culture, mass consumerism, and advertisement culture.

7. Simulating: You’re In, Andy Warhol, 1967, Spray Paint on glass bottles in printed wooden crate, With this category we see Andy Warhol again as he uses ordinary items to mimic a large chunk of consumerist culture and present it as art.

8. Hybridizing: Char Nuptial Japon, Felix Armand Heullant, 19th Century, Oil on Canvas,: a strong example of hybridization is with the art movement of Japonisme. In this painting we see a very French impressionist style that is reflecting a very Japanese cultural atmosphere.

9. Mixing Media: Monogram, Robert Rauschenberg, 1959, Oil on canvas, paper, wood, stuffed Angora Goat, tire : This work is a prime example of mixing medias as it combines several different elements together to make something between a painting and a sculpture.

10. Layering: Golden Future, Sheppard Fairey, 2018, Color Screen Print and Multimedia Collage, : A prime example of layering many different images to create a singular piece.

11. Mixing Codes: Power Washer, Banksy, Spray paint and Stencil, 2008, : This work mixes codes by the washing of what would be considered priceless parts of historical and cultural history in the form of cave paintings. The work offers a commentary on what we see as art vs. what we see as vandalism.

12. Recontextualizing: The Golden Calf, Damien Hirst, 2008, Vitrine, Formaldehyde, calf, gold, gold plated stainless steel, marble, : this work represents the taking of something mundane and giving it new meaning with added materials and a title that denotes mystical and mythological qualities.

13. Confronting the Gaze: How much Life is Enough?, Juno Calypso, 2018, photograph, :

14. Facing the Abject: Blood Piss Blues Series, Vincius Quesada, Blood, urine, blue paint on canvas

15. Constructing Identities: Alvin Baltrop, Navy Sailors, 1969--72, Gelatin-silver print

16. Using Narratives: After the Prom, Norman Rockwell, 1957, oil on canvas

17. Creating Metaphors: The Scream, Edvard Munch, 1893, tempera, pastel, oil paint

18. Irony, parody, and dissonance: The Treachery of Images, Rene Margritte, 1929, oil paint

#art #artists on tumblr #artmajor #famousart #postmodernism #ybas #collage #earthworks #art for art's sake

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phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess · 5 years

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A brief list of other podcasts to look into:

1) Adventures in New America A world gone mad, in many formats and viewpoints.

2) Aftershocks A young woman placed in an institution must escape.

3) ALICE ISN’T DEAD A lonely truck driver must search through supernatural mystery and chaos to find her missing wife.

4) Archive 81 Literally someone paid to listen to found footage, strange and bizarre found footage... and goes on a journey of their own, down a dark, bizarre path.

5) The Adventure Zone The mcelroy bros take on DnD and it’s as chaotically hysterical as it sounds.

6) The Archivist An artificial intelligence looking into CM-001. But what... is it?

7) Attention Hellmart Shoppers! Working retail... on the hellmouth. Literally.

8) Audiodiary of a Superhero The rise, fall and mediocrity of being a superhero... and how it came about.

9) Beasts of Bardon College Anthropomorphic animals and the trials and tribulations of entering college.

10) The Behemoth From the ocean comes a towering behemoth that does not speak, he walks across state after state, on a direct line to the coast on the other side of the continent. A small human being feels a calling to save the behemoth in the only way she knows how. [Additional podcast in this series, is IZZY, which gives another perspective]

11) The Black Tapes Follow down a path of mystery, lead by your host Alex... and Dr Strand, as they take on the supernatural elements of the world.

12) The Blood Crow Stories Human suffering creates energy, dear subject. For this reason, you hear the echoes of history in three different yet unique time periods, follow the lives and deaths of humans that were touched by a dark entity. Season 1 follows the SS Utopia, trying to hide certain rich persons from the war. Season 2 Blackchapel joins a posse of avengers on a ride, trying to stop a mystery from killing again. And Season 3... well, ongoing, but the Neon Lodge is a world set in the future where humanity still isn’t safe from the darkness.

13) The Box Addison Gilmore found a lockbox... and her life hasn’t been the same since.

14) The Bridge A big transcontinental bridge, now falling into disrepair, hides horrifying secrets that are carefully puzzled out through each episode.

15) The Bright Sessions Dr Bright provides therapy to some unique individuals.

16) Critical Role A DnD podcast that will knock your socks off.

17) The Earth Collective Humanity’s last historian details how they adapted to a hostile world, by always moving along. And never looking back.

18) The Elysium Project A chemical that can make you superhuman... but what cost must you pay?

19) End of All Hope An Alien Invasion. Follow three survivors trying to get the hell out of the targeted zones...

20) The Enoch Saga Humanity found a way to become immortal... now imagine being the only person allergic to the cure to death.

21) GONE Waking up alone, with no understanding of what happened, one woman strives to keep her mind together. Where has humanity gone, and why did she get left behind?

22) Heretic A young man, disabled and excommunicated by a certain cult, has to investigate the sudden series of bodies turning up in his life.

23) IMMUNITIES Aliens, they take ahold of you with a single glance. Some people are carriers, others are just pawns... and yet a third, rare subset, are immune. The world has changed, and survival is as much mental as physical now.

24) Inhale Tamara Tracer was a hero, and now she wants nothing more than to bury the past.

25) KAKOS INDUSTRIES For all your evil needs, including research into doing evil better, try Kakos Industries!

26) King Falls AM A big-time radio host. A small town that sees nothing supernatural about its ghostly, demonic and crytpid inhabitants... what could go wrong?

27) Lake Clarity A mystery of five teens going to an abandoned camp grounds in the woods, and only one returning with a story no one believes.

28) Lesser Gods Humanity is down to six teenagers, all bred to be the ‘saviours’; ironically, born to hopefully naturally conceive a child amongst the small pool, and save the human race. Except... perhaps they’re not conforming as they should.

29) Limetown A whole town disappeared, something happened there, but the information has been buried. One reporter strives to find the truth, and avoid being killed for it.

30) MARSCORP Imagine waking up in the future... a lot further than intended, to find the world you were meant to terraform is run by idiots who won’t listen to common sense.

31) Marsfall A crew tries to survive on the Red Planet... what could go wrong?

32) Organism Not human, an Other. Trying to understand.

33) The Orphans Teenagers, a crashed ship, a hostile planet. You know what comes next.

34) Paralyzed Sleep paralysis is terrifying... but what happens if the creature you see, is slowly invading the real world? And is now threatening the lives of your friends.

35) The Penumbra Podcast Join Juno Steel, a futuristic detective on multiple mysteries. Join the Second Citadel for kooky, fun adventures!

36) The Phenomenon Forgot to put this on the FAVES list, actually. Something happened. The warning says do not look outside, do not look at the skies. Do not make noise. Do not make any more heat than you must. You will die... and what exists up there, is only the beginning.

37) Raising the Dead Again Necromancy in the modern age is a little more complicated than you’d think!

38) ReMade They died. All they had in common was death, and this strange rebirth. What have they been returned for... and why?

39) SAYER You are on a new world, part of an intergalactic workforce, in a station run by the AI SAYER. SAYER says jump, and you must... woe betide those who refuse.

40) The Strange Case of the Starship Iris A human adrift in space is saved by an unlikely crew...

41) Supervillain Corner A podcast by supervillains, for supervillains... no superheroes allowed!

42) Tale - A KNIGHT ADRIFT Join the lady knight fighting evil to defend her kingdom.

43) The Thrilling Adventure Hour In the style of old-timey radio hour, and with the occasional guest cameos, the most unique serials you ever will hear! Sparks Nevada the Marshall on Mars, Beyond Belief supernatural mysteries, and so many more!

44) Tunnels Find out what lives down there... and then regret it, for the rest of your short life.

45) Uncanny County Imagine the audio equivalent for the Twilight Zone. Enjoy yourself.

46) We Fix Space Junk Follow the insane adventures of space smugglers, and try not to get shot!

47) Welcome to Night Vale A normal little town, where we never question anything, and angels do not exist. If you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.

48) We’re ALIVE! A zombie-survival story, and how the survivors coped in a world where flesh-eaters run rampant.

49) Wormwood A supernatural murder mystery, definitely engaging and exciting.

50) 2298 Profiles, as the network refers to humans, are cared for and raised for certain roles. Never deviate. Never.

#podcasts

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dungeonqueering · 4 years

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The Tragedy of Tiphareth and Nureyev.

Third post in a row bay beee

Too bad this one's sad.

During the second arc of this campaign, when the players were still trying to find special magic items to let them pop the magic bubble they'd lived their entire lives under.

It turned out that one of them was the price (a tiara) for winning a race. So first they had to secure a sponsor (They got fantasy Budweiser) to basically give them a spot in the race.

Plot conveniently, they needed 3 people. We have 3 players. They already had a driver, too!

His name was Tempest. I had already picked his personality out, and then realized I had basically made an Aasimar version of Peter Nureyev from The Penumbra podcast's Juno Steele and the _________ line of stories.

That image stuck with me, as you'll see. I even did my best to do his voice.

So, the day before the race... Tempest, who had already been flirty towards Tiph, the Paladin, asked him on a date. Tiph blue-screened for a minute, and had to go call his older sister on a stone of far speech to say like "Hey what do I do if I like a boy and a boy likes me and he asks me on a date and I want to go?"

So their date mostly consisted of Tempest doing cool driving tricks, and claiming to be from outside the bubble, but then laughing about it. They had a cliffside picnic, and they shared a brief kiss before Tempest ominously insisted that "No matter what happens after the race tomorrow, all of this was real. These feelings, these moments, that kiss."

I should note at this point that I had NO IDEA where I was going with this character at this point, just that I knew he would be tied to the main plot.

So they do some cool whacky racers stuff, and win the tiara. Tempest takes it, and dives off a cliff. When they look after him, they see a portal close, and nothing else.

BUT dun dun dun, turns out the tiara he stole was a fake that they bring to the physical race. The real one is back in a vault for safekeeping, specifically to keep ppl from stealing it like this.

So they go to the vault, and find a note that just says "I know it was a fake" along with the real tiara. Which means he intentionally stole the fake. Why????

SO during the next arc, it turns out that Tiph's family has some dealings with these artifacts. That his family is trying to stop the party from collecting them, and they have 2 out of 3 now. The track the third to an auction house. It had been sold. Who else could be there investigating but Tempest. They ask him, "Like, what the fuck?" And he basically says "Tempest? Never heard of him. My name's Defiance." And he grins and I ended the session.

Next session, while Tiph was busy losing all his trust for everyone and everything and blue-screening, The Warlock cast Suggestion and basically made Tempest/Defiance leave for the rest of the arc.

They track down the item, it turns out Tiph's family are drug dealers and popping the bubble will interfere with their business plan. See, they have a deal with someone on the outside. They basically push a cart full of supplies through every now and then. No sapient life can go through, but cart's full of Fantasy Meth can.

So Tiph doesn't hardly trust ANYONE now. But then Tempest/Defiance shows up. He says that he was working for Tiph's family to help the party. He says they won't believe him without proof of what he has to say next. So they pop the bubble and, at Tempest/Defiance's word, go to a town further from home than they've ever been.

They are looking for a book, one that doesn't exist inside the bubble. A history test. A specific history text. On the way, Tiph and Tempest have a moment. Tiph basically says "Look, I really liked you, and I've never liked anyone like that. So for you to go and just disappear, to not tell me what's going on... I can't trust you. I don't even know your real name."

And that's when Tempest just sighs and says "Nureyev. Peter Nureyev."

Tiph laughs and says "That's a horrible name."

Nureyev laughs and says "I know, that's how you know I'm telling the truth."

So they go to a library, kill some devils, and find this 400 year old history book. It's written by....... Peter Nureyev. And it has an illustration of the four of them, labeled something like "The heroes who formed the bubble"

Dun dun dun....

SO, Nureyev is like "OK, now that you know that you have been to the past, and that I met you then, and that I am 400 years old, I really have no more secret. I will answer all your questions."

Of course, this absolutelt SHATTERED what little trust Tiph had left. He was a very broken man for a while. The only details important from this next part are that

1. Tiph and Nureyev had been at least sort of dating when they met before, the degree to which they were together was not clear.

2. Nureyev had just wanted one more day with Tiph, because he knew he wouldn't likely get more. That's why he was shady about it at first. It was the best explanation I could give since I didn't really plan at all, I just opened my mouth and plot came out.

So the three of them travel back in time. They meet young!Nureyev. Unlime his future persona, he is a timid priest of Torm. He is a huge need, and he specializes in monster lore. He's awkward and shy and, if I may say so, very cute.

Tiph and him do grow closer. It takes Nureyev literally six months to work up the courage to ask Tiph on a date. That went well, but I OOG ruined it by making a small joke and then ugly laughing about it for 10 minutes (which I hated.)

They go through a lot together. About a year in, when Nureyev has already fallen painfully in love with Tiph (I'm skipping a lot here), He finds out that Tiph is from the future. They argue just a little bit, but ultimately, Nureyev is fine with it until the moment Tiph says something about how they'll never work out because of it. He knows that Nureyev has to spend the next 400 years doing spy shit, and becoming a very very different person. And he's right. So Nureyev reluctantly leaves. They continue to work together for 4 years, until they form the bubble and accomplish all their goals in the past (Including acquiring the Book of Exalted Deeds). They go back to the present.

It had been about 15 minutes for Old!Nureyev. And he looked like he hurt so much more. He just simply said "I'm glad you're back." But the pain, the love, the longing in his eyes was clear.

So they had two weeks before the final attack on the Lich's tower. Amidst preparations, which Nureyev was gone for half of since he had to go rally the armies, Tiph and Nureyev finally talked. It was the night before the assault. Nureyev wanted to ask, one more time, if it could ever work between them.

Tiph assured him that it could not. Nureyev nodded, and switched to talking about tactics and such.

It's going to be really tough because in one of the games, which I will eventually detail the rules for, you see multiple copies of "The person you love most".

For Tiph, that's probably his older sister.

For Nureyev.... His family has all been gone for centuries. Tiph is the only person alive he loves at all.

And at this point, I'm wondering if it's better to complete the tragic arc and kill Nureyev in the final session, or if he really can go back to his quiet coastal home town, and just be a priest and a nerd for monsters again. The party has known him both when he was too afraid to lift a sword, and when he was prepared to ramp a fantasycar off a rock to do a sick flip in the air. They knew him when he shook at the idea of seeing a Beholder in person, and at a time when he isn't even flyinching in front of a lich.

I guess the question is... Does Nureyev even know who he is anymore?

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ao3feed-jupeter · 4 years

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the fiery exit towards reality

by peterspregnancies

Peter Nureyev is man who knows himself better than anyone else, but then again, does he? Sure, he might tell himself he's informed well, but has it been all a lie since the beginning?

Words: 1646, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 3 of Peter's Pregnancy Adventure

Fandoms: The Penumbra Podcast

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death

Categories: Multi

Characters: Peter Nureyev, Juno Steel, Buddy Aurinko, Vespa (Penumbra Podcast), Rita (Penumbra Podcast), Jet Sikuliaq, Original Characters

Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel

Additional Tags: Character Death, Drugs, Bombs, Coma, Near Future, This Is Not Going To Go The Way You Think

Read on AO3 at https://ift.tt/2ZnwQ3P

#jupeter #jupeter fics #tpp #IFTTT #AO3 Feed

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swordbreakerz · 4 years

Note

✨ for all of them, 🎥 for treasure planet and guardians of gahoole, 🍀 for 9-1-1 and penumbra, 📃 for unicorn chronicles, 🏳️‍🌈 for howls, treasure planet and legend of zelda, and 💎 for any ones you have facts for lol

you spoil me uwu

🎥 - ok for treasure planet, gotta be the 12 years later scene in the beginning and the zoom in to the spaceport, the way it transitions from jim reading under the blankets to him flying on his solar surfer is so chefs kiss, and just like. everything about to the spaceport lmao, fr guardians definitely the scene where soren flies through the fire and then blows up the pulley system to get rid of the flecks energy, bro when hes flying above it all holding the lantern before he dives down to save them? chills

🍀 - you know im on that projection shit w/ juno steel, ive truly never like connected with a character like that before and he’s really really helped me thru my recovery and transition lol, fr 911 uhhh ig buck or eddie? i havent Thought About It or like consumed it enough times yet to rly settle on someone but fr now,,, they

🏳️‍🌈 - ok for howls, Everyone Is Bi/Pan, howl is trans and autistic and i will die on that hill, fr treasure planet jim and cpt amelia are both trans and both of them + doppler are autistic, fr loz link is trans, autistic and semi nonverbal and communicates primarily with asl, post twilight princess zelda says fuck it and finds a way back into the twilight realm and she midna and link hang out, most of these boil down to everyone i love is trans gay and autistic because i say so lmaooo

📃 - OK SO. without like, spoiling too many plot points, our main character is cara and she lives with her grandmother. her mom is dead and dad is out of the picture. one day theyre getting chased by these people that her grandma knows and cara gets thrown into an alternate realm full of fantasy creatures using her grandmothers amulet. she meets a unicorn named lightfoot and a bunch of other rad people and basically, starts a journey to save that world from the Hunters. the Hunters are an organisation who specifically hate unicorns and want them all dead, led by Beloved, and cara and her friends have to try and stop them from entering the world and wiping them out. its sooo so so good and i highly recommend it cause i have no one to talk to about it please god

✨ - oh boy uh, well. im just gonna like list them out lmao

unicorn chronicles: i loved unicorns as a kid and read it when i was in elementary school, and over the years its remained just as compelling and well written as i remember and like. god the whole concept is so godamn cool and all the subplots that get introduced are fuckign fantastic and like all the different creatures are amazing i literally cant sing its praises enough

howls moving castle: must i have a logical reason? is it not to vicariously live my fantasy of running away to the countryside with a wizard boyfriend, his demon and his apprentice?? for real though, its such a fantastic story with beautiful visuals in the movie and wonderfully compelling prose in the book, and esp in the movie the whole time travel subplot with sophie seeing howl and calcifer in the past and then howl finding her in the future makes me go feral

penumbra: gays in space. need i say more? im a huge slut for gay found family and especially in futuristic space, and im a huge big fan of the lgbt utopia its created. like yeah capitalism sucks but at least im not gonne get misgendered in space starbucks, u kno? all the writing and dialogue is so incredible and the SOUND DESIGN GOD, alex i know u specifically can relate when i say i would kill a man for sophie and her incredible sound design skills, like dude the dance scene in man in glass p2 you can hear every single individual step they take and every swish of junos dress and i jusT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! god its so good, plus the whole the characters help me work through my trauma and repressed anger haha

911: this one is entirely your fault. so obligatory horny on main everyone on that show is so hot i want oliver stark to cradle me gently in his beefy arms oh my god. other than Men, the way it drives home the whole ‘you can’t save everyone, and it will kill you to try, so just focus on what you can do and keep living’ makes me so emo. the way it tackles big bureaucratic issues as well as closer to home interpersonal ones is amazing and i love how it shows people going through and dealing realistically with trauma.

treasure planet: again, who doesnt want to live in Cool Steampunk Space Travel Future? i really really love jims story and his arc, the way he deals with his trauma is uhh very familiar lol and his relationship with silver is like the ideal. the story is just the coolest concept and i love all the wonderful character design and animation, plus the soundtrack SLAPS and everything is beautiful

legend of zelda: ive been associated with this series from a very young age due to my name and as soon as i gave into my fate and looked it up for real i just kinda fell into it lol. i cant really tell you exactly what draws me to it besides ‘wow fun game!’ and ‘god i wish that were me,’ but like the absurd amount of detail thats put into each installment and the creative ways they retell essentially the same/similar story over and over is incredible

guardians of gahoole: so i had the same experience with this and treasure planet which is i remembered ‘oh hey this is a movie that exists and i cant clearly remember watching it, ill look it up :)’ and then it consumed my life for a solid 3 months. firstly this movie is absolutely gorgeous, the animation and framing is fucking stunning and the way they handled owls talking like people as far as the movement of their very inflexible beaks was amazing. it sort of has the same draw for me as warrior cats? secret animal society ft incredibly traumatic experiences and the characters dealing with it. like, the whole concept is just so fuckign wild and it works so well, i rly enjoy this niche genre.

💎 - alright trivia time, so guardians of gahoole is based on a book series and the movie only covers part of the first arc i think idk, BUT theres another series set in the same universe called wolves of the beyond that i devoured when i was younger! i didnt know they were connected for the longest time and when i found out i was :000, i still rly love wolves of the beyond and wanna reread it, as well as read the actual gahoole books. in the howls books, sophie is a redhead! also, markl is named michael and like a fully functioning young adult who ends up marrying one of sophies sisters. treasure planet is, obviously, based off treasure island but its so much better than the book dont bother reading it lol i tried and it was boring. there was plans for a treasure planet sequel that was fully scripted and cast but it was cancelled cause disney sabotaged treasure planet from the start with the shitty release and advertising and tldr we were ROBBED, also amelias concept was much more octopus like and while that wldve been rad im p glad she was switched to a cat for. several reasons lol. uhh i dont have a lot of Fun Facts abt the unicorn chronicles but for the longest time i thought there were only 3 books and then last year i found the fourth book by chance in a kitsch store and nearly had a breakdown i was so happy, like full on i started shaking and crying cause there was so much joy in my body i cldnt contain it.

thats all i can think of tysm ily, to anyone who read all of this bless u please watch guardians of gahoole and read the unicorn chronicles i will love u forever

#IM LOVE U #friendos #alex #and z answers #astrallouis

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welcometothepenumbra · 5 years

Text

JUNO STEEL AND THE MAN OF THE FUTURE (PART ONE)

SOUND: RAIN. TRAIN ARRIVES, CREAKS TO A STOP. DOOR CLANKS OPEN.

CONDUCTOR: Ah, good evening, Traveler. And welcome… to The Penumbra.

SOUND: DOOR CLANKS SHUT.

Take your seat, please, take your seat.

MUSIC: STARTS.

The junction lies ahead, so if you’ll allow me just a moment.

SOUND: TRAIN WHISTLE.

We are now passing through Newtown.

SOUND: TRAIN MOVING.

Our next stop?

SOUND: TRAIN BRAKES.

Juno Steel and the Man of the Future.

SOUND: DOOR CLANKS OPEN, RAIN.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

***

VOICE 1 (FROM TV): (FADING IN) Only forty-eight hours remain until the gates to Oldtown open, and town hall remains completely silent on this issue. Though some protestors have called for city officials to remove Mayor O’Flaherty from office completely, no such motions have been put into effect.

RAMSES O’FLAHERTY: (OVER THE BELOW) Time, time; just give me time. This will work. (SIGHS)

VOICE 1 [REPORTER] (FROM TV): (OVER THE ABOVE) Victories in the mayoral race by as large a margin as between O’Flaherty and former Mayor Pereyra are extremely rare, and it’s likely that a removal from office so soon would lead to rioting in the streets.

RAMSES: It has to.

REPORTER (FROM TV): The whereabouts of Pilot Pereyra remain unknown. The HCPD’s investigation into their disappearance continues—

SOUND: ELECTRONIC CHIME.

—but with funding to law enforcement cut so radic—

SOUND: TV CLICKS OFF.

THEIA (FROM SPEAKER): Mayor O’Flaherty. You have an appointment. With the citizen known as:

JUNO (FROM SPEAKER): —ey, get your metal-claw-gun-things off her, you lousy—

RITA (FROM SPEAKER): Mista Steeeeeeeeee—

THEIA (FROM SPEAKER): Would you like me to send them in?

RAMSES: Just Juno. Thank you, Theia.

SOUND: ELECTRONIC CHIME.

(SIGHS, GRUMBLES) A difficult conversation… an important conversation. But you’ve had those before, Ramses. And you have the most important advantage: you’re right.

SOUND: DOOR OPENS. STUMBLING FOOTSTEPS.

RITA: HEY you give me back my Mista Steel right now you nasty old robot or I swear I’m gonna fill you with so many viruses you’ll—

SOUND: DOOR CLOSES.

JUNO: (PANTING) Rita!

SOUND: DOORKNOB RATTLES, BANGING.

RAMSES: The door is locked, Juno.

JUNO: (PANTING)

RAMSES: She’ll be perfectly unharmed. I hope you know that. My goal is not to hurt either of you, and… whatever you think of me now, I hope you still know that good is what I’m after. I couldn’t possibly lie about that. Not to you. And it was always my plan, my honest intention, for you and I to work together in making that good; if you hadn’t run off like that I would have explained. You would understand.

(AFTER A PAUSE) Are you just going to stand there and stare at me, Juno? Say something!

MUSIC: STARTS.

JUNO (NARRATOR): I can’t take any credit for how well my silence was riling O’Flaherty up, because… honestly, I was shouting the same thing at myself. Say something, Steel; say… anything.

I had plenty to say – the whole way here, dragged by a huge spider-legged enforcer bot that called itself the Theia Peace, I’d dredged up a few thousand things I wanted to throw in Ramses-O’Flaherty-slash-Jack-Takano’s face. And now, standing in front of him… I couldn’t get a single one of them to come out.

My name’s Juno Steel. I’m thirty-nine years old, and, I don’t know how the hell that happened; because I still feel like a scared little kid who needs his heroes to keep sane in a galaxy that doesn’t give a damn.

That’s why I couldn’t speak. Ramses O’Flaherty was still my hero, and, at the same time I wanted him to drop dead, and the two incompatible thoughts were crowding out my one small brain and I just couldn’t. Move.

But I’d spent months by then doing things I just couldn’t do, and the secret was this: you just do ‘em anyway.

RAMSES: Juno…?

JUNO: So.

“Newtown,” huh?

RAMSES: (CHUCKLES) You make that dramatic an entrance, and you want to criticize my branding?

MUSIC: ENDS.

(LAUGHING) Oh, it is good to hear that wit again, Juno. It’s good to see you well.

JUNO: What’s goin’ on here, Ramses?

RAMSES: Going on? You and I are just talking. A reunion. I’ve found my partner in good again, and Juno… I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is. I can’t tell you how worried—

JUNO: You know what I mean. Newtown. Those giant… Theia-things outside. The closed borders, you, all of it, what in the hell is going on?

RAMSES: We’ll… get to that, I promise you. I have a lot to catch you up on, but first… let an old man be sentimental, won’t you? Because there’s, um… something I have to tell you… about our– well– …our acquaintance. How I found you… eh, well, uhm… although, it is a fact that—

JUNO: I can count on Jack.

RAMSES: What?

JUNO: (SIGHS) I know, Ramses. I know a lotta things now, and I suspect even more. For example: I know who you really are, and I suspect that’s why you hired me in the first place. Must have been spooky, setting up a big real estate con like that and then finding out the thorn in your side is the kid you screwed over thirty years ago? Must have been real spooky.

RAMSES: You… know.

Of course. You figured it out. Nobody else has, but, if it was going to be anyone, it– it would be you, wouldn’t it?

JUNO: Don’t think that’s why I came here to talk to you.

RAMSES: Ah that’s why you left.

I can’t possibly tell you how sorry I am, Juno. Everything that happened to your mother—

JUNO: Listen to me.

RAMSES: You have to understand that I had it all planned out. Her deterioration, Benzaiten, neither of them was supposed to happen. I didn’t want to steal from her; I just wanted to help the company, the people who worked there. And I was always going to send her the profits from Andromeda, every cred, but she never accepted a single payment—

JUNO: I said listen!

This is not about us. You messed up. Bad. And I’m never going to forgive you for it, no matter what you say, so don’t bother. I’m not here to talk to Jack. I’m here to talk to Mayor O’Flaherty about what he built, so drop it. Now.

RAMSES: (SIGHS) Fine, then. We’ll just talk business.

JUNO (NARRATOR): I realized I needed a drink worse than I had in decades. My throat was begging for the cold knife of it, the burning embers left behind, and… I knew Ramses probably had one of my favorites in those desk drawers – a bottle of Crater Moonshine, maybe Europa Black.

But I wouldn’t ask for it. I knew and feared and respected Ramses O’Flaherty, and– I knew it was gonna take every neuron I had to keep up with him. We weren’t shooting or brawling: we were talking. That meant I was fighting in his element.

RAMSES: You’re a citizen of this city. I’m your mayor. If you have complaints, say them.

JUNO: You shouldn’t have built all this. You shouldn’t have destroyed Oldtown.

RAMSES: Why?

JUNO: Because you kicked people outta their homes!

RAMSES: And gave them all new ones. Homes that don’t leak. Homes that run on government electricity, electricity which costs a fraction of what they paid the monopolies in the rest of the city. Homes with security.

JUNO: Security! It-it’s a police state out there, Ramses!

RAMSES: It isn’t.

JUNO: It is. I had my head out of the sewer for two seconds before a Theia stuck a cannon up my goddamn nose.

RAMSES: Because I knew you were coming to me through the sewers – a fact that the Theia Orders told you directly. There are not guards on every street corner. Only where I knew you would need an escort.

JUNO: An escort!

RAMSES: And besides, it was not a cannon. It was a stun blaster. Large, so that it cannot be concealed, but less forceful, even, than the stun lasers on your own gun.

JUNO: Like I believe that.

RAMSES: You don’t have to. I can show you, in hard numbers, the force of those bots’ firepower. The voltscanners we’ll use to do it were confiscated from the police office we closed – terribly corrupt. The very office responsible for the multiple robberies perpetrated upon your childhood home, which led Sarah to—

JUNO: Stop it.

I mean it. I’m not here to talk about her, or you, or us. I’m here to talk about my city.

RAMSES: Our city.

JUNO: You can’t just buy a town, you lousy—

RAMSES: So go ahead. What complaints do you have with Newtown? All ten minutes you’ve seen of it.

JUNO: (AFTER A PAUSE, GROWLS)

RAMSES: You’re on quite the roll, Juno, but may I interject a question into this litany of complaints?

JUNO: Fine.

RAMSES: What is wrong with Newtown?

(AFTER A PAUSE) I asked, “what is wrong with Newtown?”

JUNO: I heard you.

RAMSES: Let’s grant, for a moment, your assertion that I should not have evicted people from old, broken-down, dangerous buildings. That I should not have wiped the slate clean in Oldtown, the sector of this city with the most armed crime, the most murder, the most fatal drug use, the lowest graduation rates, the most egregious police corruption, the least access to clean water and healthy food. Though I find the assertion absurd, let’s grant that I should not have done that.

What now?

JUNO: What do you mean, what now?

RAMSES: ‘Shouldn’t have’ is useful for determining long-term policy and strategy. If you and I decide that my actions were at fault, I will write into action a slate of laws that ensure they never happen again. But no matter how many laws I write, Juno, none of them will reassemble Oldtown from its ashes. Oldtown is gone.

So what would you have me do now?

JUNO: “What would you have me do now?” “You and I decide?” I know when I’m being taken for a ride, O’Flaherty.

RAMSES: I said I wanted you as my partner in good, Juno. Discussions like this were always my final step. I trust your ability and your moral compass more than any other person, including myself.

JUNO: (SNORTS) Funny way of showing it. If you trusted me more than you, Ramses, the puppet and puppetmaster would’ve been switched.

RAMSES: You’re talking about the Theia Spectrum.

JUNO: You’re damn right I’m talking about the Theia Spectrum. You picked me up and tossed me around like a doll, O’Flaherty—you used me. You used me to kill Pilot—

RAMSES: You did not kill Pilot.

JUNO: And your Piranha-faced goon—

RAMSES: The Theia controlled you to avoid exactly that end, Juno, but you insisted—

JUNO: And who cares what else! I don’t give a damn about your excuses, O’Flaherty, because the fact is: you reached down and plucked my mind and muscles like a goddamn harp. You used me. You used me just like you used me when I was a kid, just like you used my mother—

RAMSES: Your mother—

JUNO: Sarah Steel! You used her—

RAMSES: Well then. Juno, is this conversation personal, or isn’t it?

JUNO: You goddamn—!

(BREATHES) Fine. It’s not about us. I’ll drop it.

But your point is still bunk, Ramses. If you trust my moral compass better than yours, why the hell aren’t you listening to me?

RAMSES: Because you’ve yet to make a single coherent statement for me to listen to, Juno. Not one.

I return again to my question. Oldtown is gone. So: what is the good thing to do now? Give them new homes? I’ve done that, and better ones. Treat them well, give them freedom to build the lives they wish, reimburse them for their pains? All these things, done, and many of them out of my own pocket so that the city still has plenty left for everyone else. What would you have me do now?

JUNO: Let them all go. They aren’t free; you have them locked up in here.

RAMSES: They will be let go, in forty-eight hours, when it’s safe to go—

JUNO: Safe! So you’re saying it’s dangerous! You’re putting them in danger!

RAMSES: If you wish to know what’s happening in Newtown, do not interrupt me.

It isn’t dangerous for the residents here. They are safe. But you can’t just drop a new neighborhood, a new way of life, into a pre-existing city and expect the transition to be flawless. We allow individuals across the border first; anyone may leave, but only Newtown residents and select guests can enter until the city adjusts to our idea.

JUNO: What idea? You keep saying that, but what—

RAMSES: The idea that a place can solve the big problems for us. The myth for too long has been that if we all just behave ourselves, paradise can be ours. But our surroundings have never allowed that. Now they do. In Newtown, there is no more crime, no more suffering. These things only happen when people want what they can’t have, and that does not happen here. The city itself solves it.

JUNO: That’s… come on, Ramses, that can’t be true.

RAMSES: You see? Even you are reluctant to believe it. What’s the rest of the city going to do to Newtown if we don’t acclimate them first?

JUNO: I don’t know, Ramses, but, it’s hell out there. People are scared. Really scared.

RAMSES: Well. What should I do about it?

JUNO: And the sewers – the rabbits, really? You had to kill them?

RAMSES: We… tried letting the rabbits up here. It… didn’t work. They just can’t understand. Yet.

(CLEARS THROAT) It’s, uh… horrible. I asked for them to be relocated, but with our remaining resources… so much had been put into Newtown itself, and projecting costs to the rest of the city—

JUNO: It’s awful, Ramses.

RAMSES: I know. But the human good is so massive, Juno. What would you have me do?

JUNO: Just… f-fix it!

RAMSES: Fix it! And what would that entail?

JUNO: I don’t know! That’s not my job!

RAMSES: You’re right. It’s mine. And yet you seem intent on not listening—

JUNO: Give up the job. Alright? That’s what I want you to do. You’ve only made people miserable with it, so step down and let somebody else pick this place up.

RAMSES: Like who? Is there anyone you trust with that, Juno? Is there even anyone you trust to choose someone like that?

JUNO: Y’know, O’Flaherty, you keep saying that you trust my opinions then tossing ‘em out when I give ‘em. If you’re gonna drag me in here to advise you I don’t know why the hell you’re treating me like a goddamn misbehaving kid!

RAMSES: Because I’m disappointed, Juno! You ask for everything and you don’t care if you contradict yourself and you don’t care if what you’re asking for is possible. You are acting like a child!

No, worse than that. When you were a child, you understood that a small, harmful act was acceptable if it led to greater good in the future. You understood that lying to your mother meant saving your brother, meant saving every job at Northstar! Do you think they’d still have jobs if Sarah—

JUNO: Saving my brother?! My mom?! They’re dead, Ramses, and it all started that day!

RAMSES: Because she wouldn’t just take the damned money! It all would have been fine if she just took the money I gave her!

Instead, she obsessed over what I should not have done for years, until it turned to rot inside her. Until she killed her son. When all the while, the opportunity for a better life was begging to be taken.

Don’t make the same mistake, Juno. Please.

JUNO: I’m not Sarah Steel.

RAMSES: You are certainly not.

JUNO: I make my own mistakes.

If you think they look like hers, that’s on you, but I’m a different person, in a different time, with… a different life, talking to a person she never met named Ramses O’Flaherty.

And I’ll admit it; I don’t know what’s wrong with this city, but I don’t know what’s right with it, either, ‘cause… here’s the thing, Ramses: I can’t talk about what’s going on in Newtown because you haven’t said a goddamn thing about it.

RAMSES: Hah. If I told you now, you’d accept every detail you liked, and accuse me of lying for the rest. That’s what happens when you go in with your conclusion already determined.

JUNO: You’re dodging the question. What is Newtown, Ramses?

RAMSES: This is a waste of my time.

JUNO: It’s not a hard question. No crime, no want, no suffering – how are you doing it?

RAMSES: If you want to know so badly then go out there and find out!

Yes. Yes, I think that may be the answer after all.

JUNO: What is?

RAMSES: I concede to your point, Juno. You’re right. It was unfair of me to engage you in a debate on a topic you knew nothing about. I cannot create good merely because I want it; it must exist without me. And Newtown is built to do just that. I am certain of it.

This is what we’ll do. With the time we have.

JUNO: I’m listening.

RAMSES: You assert that Newtown hurts people. That there’s something nefarious at work here. I assert that everyone in Newtown is happy, healthy, safe. Therefore: I will give you twenty-four hours to roam Newtown to your heart’s content. And if you find a single person suffering within these walls – even one person – I will call an end to this. I will resign as Mayor of Hyperion City. I will donate everything I have left to whatever causes you choose.

JUNO: Twenty-four hours isn’t a very long time.

RAMSES: I know. Believe me, Juno, I know. But Newtown opens in forty-eight hours, and there are… processes I must follow in order to close it.

JUNO: You could delay it.

RAMSES: And keep all those people at the gates without their families for how long? Another day, week, decade? It is agony to hurt them even this long. No. I cannot delay it.

JUNO: You talk a big game about givin’ me a fair shot, Ramses, but when I tell you what one looks like you got a lot of excuses.

RAMSES: You want what I can’t give. It’s no more complicated than that. (SIGHS) What do you want? What can I give you to help this investigation, Juno? A direction? Suggestions?

JUNO: Sorry, nope. Don’t take leads from the enemy.

RAMSES: You are the only one of us who sees it that way.

JUNO: Yeah, well. You have a census or anything like that? List of names, addresses, comms coordinates?

RAMSES: I do.

SOUND: ELECTRONIC BEEP, SCROLLING, BEEP.

I’ll send it to your comms immediately. Is there anything else?

JUNO: Not yet. But I’ll keep in touch.

SOUND: THUD.

The hell?

RAMSES: Your associate, I believe. I tried calling her several minutes ago, but, by now I’d imagine she has my Theia wrapped around her little finger.

SOUND: DOOR OPENS.

THEIA: The door is open. Yippee.

RITA: HA! Mista Steel, I saved you! Rita’s here—

SOUND: RUNNING FOOTSTEPS.

—and she ain’t leavin’ until we get what we—

JUNO: I’m done. Come on, Rita, let’s… get the hell out of here.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS SLOW TO A WALK.

RITA: …Oh.

And you! Don’t you ever bother Mista Steel ever again, you…! You…!

(BLOWS RASPBERRY)

SOUND: RUNNING FOOTSTEPS.

RAMSES: Try not to break my town, will you?

SOUND: DOOR CLOSES.

(SIGHS)

JUNO (NARRATOR): I expected Ramses to excise, or– conveniently forget the name I was looking for on that census, but, there he was: name, address, everything.

I didn’t want to call his comms ahead of time because I didn’t want anyone to know where we were heading. On the way there I tried to keep track of what parts of Oldtown we were passing through, but… with no recognizable landmarks it was pointless. This was a new city on old land.

The place was on the fourteenth floor of a new skyrise. We passed a crowd of people leaving the building as we entered, not a single stitch of fear or hunger in their faces—

SOUND: DISTANT CROWD LAUGHTER.

—they seemed… content.

I felt sick watching them; and it just got worse when I felt how clean and clear the air was, and… when I realized I hadn’t heard a single shout or threat or slur since we got here. Sick like Ramses might’ve been right; sick like I was standing in the way of his progress. I tried to slow down. Desperation was just gonna make me jump to conclusions. If Ramses wanted a fight, I had to be better than this.

RITA: This is the address, boss.

JUNO: Seems like it.

SOUND: DOORBELL RINGS.

RITA: D’you think everything’s okay?

JUNO: Not sure yet.

SOUND: TWO DOORBELL RINGS.

MICK MERCURY: (THROUGH THE DOOR) Uh, just a second! I-I’m coming! I’m—

SOUND: MUFFLED CLATTERING.

Whoa! Oh! Oof!

JUNO: (SIGHS) Yeah, it sounds like everything’s… as okay as it ever gets with Mercury.

MICK: (THROUGH THE DOOR) Ah, just a minute! I just gotta… clean up, I guess…

JUNO: Yyyyep. Typical.

SOUND: MUFFLED CLANKS.

MICK: (THROUGH THE DOOR, OVER THE BELOW) Owww!!! Ah, c’mon, stupid…! (GRUNTS) Ahh!

JUNO: (OVER THE ABOVE) Listen… we don’t know what kind of trouble Mick’s in, alright? Even if he’s actin’ weird, we can’t ask why; we—

MICK: (THROUGH THE DOOR, OVER THE BELOW) Yeow!! Ow! Ow ow ow! (SIGHS)

JUNO: (OVER THE ABOVE) —we don’t know who might be listening and it could just put him in more danger. Alright?

RITA: Yeah, yeah, I know, boss, I been with you on a few cases now, I get it. I get the pictcha—

SOUND: MUFFLED HAMMERING.

—the pictcha is mine—

MICK: (THROUGH THE DOOR, OVER THE BELOW) There! That’s more- yeow!

RITA: (OVER THE ABOVE) —I own it the pictcha now. So give it a rest already, willya?

JUNO: …Okay.

SOUND: DOOR OPENS.

MICK: Sorry, sorry! I was just uh, doing some, uh, jazz redecorating and I…

Jayjay!

SOUND: THUD.

JUNO: Oof! …Mercury.

MICK: Oh man, it’s you, I can’t believe it’s really—

RITA: So what kinda trouble you in, Mista Mercury? Are you bein’ watched? Listened to? Smelled at?

MICK: Whuh?

JUNO: Rita…

RITA: How many bad guys you got hidden in there, huh? How many? Four or five in the closet, sixteen all balled up under the sink? Spill, Mercury!

JUNO: Or don’t, please.

MICK: I– is this what this is all about, you guys? You think I’m in trouble or something?

JUNO: (SIGHING) To be fair, Mercury, you’re usually in trouble.

MICK: Well! Yeah, I used to be. But not anymore!

JUNO: And you usually sa—

MICK: I know what I usually say, but not anymore to that too, alright? This is real, Jay, this is the real deal!

JUNO: What is?

MICK: Newtown, buddy! It’s amazing here! I’m back on my feet in a big way, and I got a great apartment, and a bunch of friends, and, my life hasn’t been in serious danger since the last time I saw you! Which, y’know, is maybe cause for alarm for me right now, but I’m willin’ to let bygones be bygones.

JUNO: Bygones?!

MICK: And I’m gettin’ cultured, Jay. I’ve got culture like they write about. I’m so full’a culture that if you squeezed my stomach fine wine would spray—

JUNO: Y’know, maybe don’t finish that thought, ‘cause I feel like it’s just gonna hurt your point, actually.

MICK: Then here, look, I’ll prove it to ya. (CLEARS THROAT) Would either of you ladies like… some tea?

RITA: Not really—

JUNO: Yes. Yes, we both want tea, just… so bad.

RITA: (WHISPERING) But boss, you don’t even like—

JUNO: (WHISPERING) Maybe not, but– I have to see him try to make some. I just… it’s been a rough couple of days; I need this.

RITA: (WHISPERING) That’s kinda mean, Mista St—

MICK: Alright! That’s two teas for Club Whispers over here. Now why don’t you two come inside and have a seat on my furniture. Ha!

SOUND: DOOR CLOSES.

(WHISTLES)

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

RITA: He’s got a nice place, Mista Steel.

SOUND: DISTANT DOOR OPENS, CLOSES.

Slidin’ door out onto the balcony. Soft sofas. It even smells nice, like… like… well, not like Mista Mercury, is I guess what I’m sayin’.

JUNO: Yyyep. Real nice.

So the question is who the hell Ramses must be screwin’ over in order to afford to keep up such expensive apartments for everyone.

RITA: Huh? They ain’t expensive, boss. Probably cost less than yours, and yours is a real dump, which don’t make any sense ‘cause y’know, as your financial advisor, I’ve been meanin’ ta tell you ta start spendin’ some of the money comin’ in ‘cause it ain’t like you’re usin—

JUNO: Not expensive? How?

RITA: Oh, um, I mean, they’re all mass-produced, Mista Steel. Like an assembly line. Except, if all the parts of the assembly line were bots with that same creepy lady’s voice.

JUNO: You mean this place was built by Theias? The ones with cannons for arms?

RITA: Nah, but they know how to. The ones I hacked into so far know how to do everything, Mista Steel, or at least everything any of the other ones know how to do. It’s weird ‘cause they ain’t got no security—it’s like they all got copies of the same one mind, y’see, except it ain’t a real mind, not an AI or nothin’, just a pretty simple cause-and-effect pipeline that knows how to put the solutions to formulas into new formulas, but it ain’t like it can learn or make new formulas from scratch or– OH! Maybe that’s somethin’ kinda weird an’ interestin’!

JUNO: Uhhh, yeah. I think so.

(MUTTERING) If only I knew what the hell it meant.

SOUND: DISTANT DOOR OPENS.

MICK: Here he comes, with some tea for his houseguests.

SOUND: CHINA RATTLING.

And he only burned himself twice.

RITA: Uhh… maybe, Mista Mercury, but that burn on your neck looks pretty bad…

JUNO: Burned his neck. (SNICKERS)

MICK: Hey, I’m still gettin’ used to this place, alright? Never had a toaster oven before.

Anyway, anyway, enough about me! Sit down, come on, make yourselves comfortable. You like couches? ‘Cause that couch over there is made from one hundred percent…

…couch.

JUNO: Sure, we’ll s– we’ll sit, Mick, but… you’re actually who we’re here to talk about. You and… Newtown.

MICK: Me and…? Oh, what, did I already do something wrong? Ohhh, I knew I shouldn’t’ve switched those two chairs when I moved in! They said this place was gonna be fit to my specifications exactly, and then I came in and saw the chairs and I went, “hey, maybe they’ll look better this way,” and then they didn’t! And now they’re gonna kick me out of Newtown, aren’t they?

RITA: No, Mista Mercury. We ain’t gonna kick you out. An’, we can help you move the chairs back if you really want.

MICK: (SOBBING) I already diiiiiiiiiid!

JUNO: So… h-hang on a second. This is exactly what we’re looking for!

RITA & MICK: (IN UNISON) It is?

JUNO: Yeah, it is! I– I knew there would be a catch. So, Mick, you’re saying that Newtown has these weird, inscrutable rules, right? And if you don’t follow them they kick you out?

MICK: Well, no, I didn’t—

JUNO: Ha! So much for a brand new world order, O’Flaherty; that’s got Fascist Renaissance written all over it!

MICK: Hey, Jay, listen—

JUNO: Fascist Renaissance, Fascist Renaissance…

SOUND: SNAPS FINGERS.

Torture devices! Executions! That must be what the carnival in the town square is all about—they open the doors… then public executions, to show Hyperion he means business.

MICK: Jay, quit it! There aren’t torture devices or whatever in the square, okay? I helped build some’a those. It’s just candy stands, and hologram light shows, and– I don’t know, just fun stuff!

RITA: That really does sound like fun stuff, Mista Steel!

JUNO: But– you were so worried about getting kicked out of Newtown. That must mean… y’know, that you’re scared here, right?

MICK: No way, man, this place is just great, and I don’t want to lose it. I’ve been waiting for the catch for a while now, but I can’t find it! This place is catch-free!

JUNO: You mean besides the whole completely-sealed-off-from-the-rest-of-society thing?

MICK: Well, they gotta do that for now, don’t they? I mean it’s competitive housing for now, sure, but, once they open this up and start expanding it, I mean, everybody gets a place like this. And it’s huge, Jay! And built just for us! People who can’t do heights get the first floor and—

JUNO: So where’s the liquor?

MICK: And… and… and… and… and…

RITA: Uh… Mista Mercury?

MICK: Uhhhhh, wh-what?

JUNO: You want to stay awake for like two seconds, Mercury? This is serious: the booze. If you got a place based on what you’re interested in—

MICK: I just, uh… I haven’t felt like drinking lately, I guess.

JUNO: You? Really?

RITA: That’s not such a bad thing, boss. Healthy, actually.

JUNO: What about your hovercycle? I didn’t see it coming in.

MICK: Who needs it? The buses here—

JUNO: I didn’t ask about need, Mick.

RITA: Mista Steel…

JUNO: You love that bike, Mick. Where is it?

MICK: It was busted. Dangerous, like… ughhh!

JUNO: Dangerous like what, Mick?

MICK: I mean… ughhh!

RITA: Mista Mercury… are you okay?

MICK: Yeah, I just… feel a little outta sorts. Headache or somethin’…

(CLEARS THROAT) I’m gonna get some more tea. That’s supposed to help you feel better, right? You just drink so much tea you feel like you’re gonna barf?

JUNO: Think that one through. Then you tell me.

MICK: Maybe I’ll think about it after I drink it… gotta take somethin’ for this headache…

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS DEPARTING.

RITA: Feel better, Mista Mercury!

SOUND: DOOR CLOSES.

Mista Steel, how come you’re bein’ so mean to your second-best friend!

JUNO: Because he’s a chump, Rita. I always knew he was a chump but it’s still disappointing to find out just how true that is.

RITA: Oh, come on, boss—

JUNO: You ‘oh come on!’ (GROWLS) Sorry, I’m just… disappointed. I really thought that he’d have the answer, or at least that… Ramses wouldn’t sucker him, too. Like he did me.

RITA: Aw, boss…

JUNO: Either way, I don’t think Mercury’s gonna help us with this one. And, we only have… twenty-one hours left. We gotta keep movin’.

RITA: But first…?

JUNO: But first nothing! All of Oldtown, hell, all– probably all of Hyperion’s on the line, and you want to ‘but first’ about my loser friend? No. Hell no.

Yeah, wow, that sounded pretty bad, huh?

RITA: Mmmmm-hm.

JUNO: I should probably just… apologize.

Fine. But, then we go.

RITA: Okay, Mista Steel.

SOUND: FOOTSTEPS.

JUNO: Hey, Mick… Rita and I’ve got to go in a second, but I just wanted to say I’m…

SOUND: DOOR OPENS.

Sorry…

Uh… uh… Mick? Where’d you go?

RITA: (DISTANT) Maybe he’s in the bathroom or somethin’?

JUNO: There aren’t any other doors back here. Just an… open window…

SOUND: RUNNING FOOTSTEPS.

What the—

RITA: What the what, Mista—

JUNO: Rita, duck!

MICK: (YELLS)

RITA: (YELPS)

SOUND: BIG CLUNK.

RITA: M– Mista– Mista Steel, what was that?!

JUNO: That was… Mick?! Rita, get over here. Quickly.

RITA: O- okay!

SOUND: RUNNING FOOTSTEPS.

MICK: What the…

Hey, my couch is upside-down!

SOUND: HEAVY SCRAPING.

Are you guys havin’ a party in here without me?

JUNO: Hands up, Mick.

SOUND: GUN COCKING.

MICK: Wh-whoa, there, buddy, be careful where you point that thing, alright? Rough-housing’s one thing, but—

JUNO: I said hands up!

MICK: (NERVOUS LAUGH) I think I mighta twisted my ankle, Juno. Can you help me up?

JUNO: Rita, don’t go any closer.

RITA: But why, boss?

MICK: Yeah. Why?

JUNO: This. Your voice. What you just did. This whole creepy apartment, it’s all wrong, Mercury, it’s all—

MICK: Me finally having my act together is wrong to you?

JUNO: That’s– not what I said.

MICK: After all we’ve been through? That hurts, Jay. That really hurts.

JUNO: What the hell is in your hand, Mercury!

MICK & THEIA: (IN UNISON) What happened, Juno? I thought we were buddies.

JUNO: When you jumped at Rita you had something in your hand! Tell me what it was right! Now!

SOUND: POWERING UP, THEIA BEEP.

Mercury!

RITA: M-m-mista…

SOUND: GRUNT & THUD; RUNNING FOOTSTEPS; BLASTER SHOT; GRUNT; TWO BLASTER SHOTS; GRUNT.

Steel…?

JUNO (NARRATOR): It… (SIGHS) It all just happened so fast. At the time I thought it felt like that because I wasn’t expecting it. Because I never thought– I-I mean… it never actually seemed possible that he would—

(SIGHS) First he jumped clean over the couch.

SOUND: GRUNT, THUD.

Then he started to run at me.

SOUND: RUNNING FOOTSTEPS.

Fast. It was faster than I’d ever seen him or… anybody else run. Ever. And in his eyes, I swear, in his eyes, I saw… absolutely nothing. So I fired.

SOUND: BLASTER SHOT.

It should’ve been enough to take him down. A stun blast in the shoulder from that close could’ve taken down anyone, it had taken down goons twice as big as Mick and three times as angry, but– he kept running. All it did was push him off-balance a bit, just enough… for him to miss when he swung at me.

MICK: (GRUNTS)

JUNO (NARRATOR): It wasn’t a punch. It looked like a slap, but there was something small and metal glinting in his palm. I panicked. I— (SIGHS) I wasn’t thinking. He didn’t feel like Mick Mercury anymore; just some… monster, and that’s why… I shot him again.

SOUND: BLASTER SHOT.

And again.

SOUND: BLASTER SHOT.

Which all went this fast:

RITA: M-m-mista…

SOUND: GRUNT & THUD; RUNNING FOOTSTEPS; BLASTER SHOT; GRUNT; TWO BLASTER SHOTS; GRUNT.

Steel…?

JUNO (NARRATOR): …and ended with Mick, on the floor, motionless as a doll.

No, I noticed. Stiller than a doll.

Dead still.

And that’s when I realized what I’d done.

JUNO: Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh n…

SOUND: RUSTLING.

RITA: Is… is Mista Mercury okay?

JUNO: Get over here, Rita. Please. He-help me find his pulse.

RITA: His pulse?!

JUNO: It’s supposed to be a billion-to-one chance, Rita. A-and it gets worse with more stuns but still, I didn’t think it would ever– but-but I stunned him like three times, Rita, and I can’t find his pulse. Rita, goddamn it, I can’t find Mick’s pulse!

RITA: His heart?

SOUND: RUNNING FOOTSTEPS.

I’m comin’, boss!

SOUND: RUSTLING.

I– I can’t find his pulse either!

JUNO: I gotta… uh, I-I gotta try CPR or something. But– but I barely remember, it’s been since the Academy, and… (BREATHES) Th-this is a nightmare, a billion to one chance, oh god damn it, this is a nightmare!

RITA: I can do CPR, Mista Steel. You just tell me when he’s breathin’, okay?

JUNO: You know– r-really?

RITA: ‘Course I do! Rita knows a lot of stuff. Just gotta find the right spot on his chest…

SOUND: RUSTLING. ELECTRIC SPARK.

JUNO: There! His heartbeat! I can feel his heartbeat again!

RITA: What? But I ain’t even start—

SOUND: SPARKS.

Ahhh!

JUNO: What happened?

RITA: It’s hot, Mista Steel! He’s got somethin’ on his chest and it’s really really burnin’ hot!

JUNO: He has… oh, no. Oh, hell no.

SOUND: FABRIC RIPS. RUSTLING.

RITA: Mista Steel you can’t just rip your friend’s shirt without askin’ unless this is just a thing for you two– oh my god what is that?!

SOUND: PULSING BUZZ.

JUNO (NARRATOR): It looked like a… computer chip. It looked like a little computer chip, with metal brackets rooted into Mercury’s chest. I could see it had something written on it but I couldn’t make it out: it was so hot, it was burning red, the skin around it was sizzling, and blistering, and cracking.

And then Mick’s hand moved. Just a twitch in the knuckles, but… enough that I knew we were almost outta time.

JUNO: Rita… we have to tie Mick up. Now.

RITA: Tie him up? But just a minute ago we wer—

JUNO: We don’t have time for this, Rita. Look at his hand!

RITA: Computer chips! Like the one on his chest!

JUNO: And he was trying to stick them on us.

MUSIC: STARTS.

(SIGHS) They say Theia on ‘em, don’t they?

RITA: I’m not sure, boss. I can’t—

SOUND: THEIA BEEP.

MICK & THEIA: (IN UNISON) The Theia Soul is now online.

RITA: Ooooooooh!

JUNO: It’s too late to tie him up. Hide, Rita!

RITA: Where?!

MICK & THEIA: (IN UNISON) Jay! Rita! You’re leavin’ already?

JUNO: The balcony! Get out on the balcony and we’ll see if we can find a fire escape or somethin’.

RITA: But boss—

JUNO: No time!

MICK & THEIA: (IN UNISON) Stay there.

JUNO: Come on!

RITA: (MOANS)

SOUND: PANTING, RUNNING FOOTSTEPS. DOOR OPENS.

RITA: He’s still comin’!

SOUND: DOOR CLOSES. WIND HOWLING.

JUNO: Hand me that chair, quickly!

MICK & THEIA: (IN UNISON) Give up.

SOUND: SCRAPING, CLINKS.

MICK: (CALLING, THROUGH THE DOOR) Juno! Rita! Come on, guys! You really gonna lock me out of my own balcony?

JUNO (NARRATOR): I tried to get a read on our surroundings, but it didn’t look good. No fire escape; the apartments were big, and– that meant the balconies were far apart. Nowhere to go, and, even if we managed to get out of here, it’s not like we had anywhere to hide—we were trapped here. Trapped in Ramses’s City of the Future, and Newtown liked it that way.

MICK: Come on, I don’t think this game is super fun. Why don’t you just give it up?

THEIA: (OVERLAPPING WITH ABOVE) Give up.

JUNO (NARRATOR): Was this really supposed to be O’Flaherty’s ‘good’? I didn’t know how to make sense of it. I didn’t know how to make sense of the fact that the chip that had turned my best friend into a monster had probably just saved his life, too. Ramses had decided that what we were all missing was a soul – and, I didn’t know how to make sense of the fact that so far… his plan seemed like it was working.

RITA: Mista Steel, what do we do?

JUNO: I… I don’t know, Rita. I don’t know.

MICK: Hey, I’ve got an idea! Why don’t you just give up.

THEIA: (OVERLAPPING WITH ABOVE) Give up.

RITA: (WHIMPERS)

MICK & THEIA: (IN UNISON) Give up control to the Theia Soul.

MUSIC: ENDS.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

***

SOUND: TRAIN MOVING, MUSIC.

CONDUCTOR: If you’ve enjoyed this tale, please consider donating to The Penumbra on Patreon. Our artists work tirelessly to bring you these stories, and if you have the means, we hope you will support our efforts. Every dollar helps. You can find that page at patreon.com/thepenumbrapodcast. If you support us on Patreon at the $10 level or higher, you’ll receive access to commentary tracks like this one, from actors Joshua Ilon, Kate Jones, and Stefano Perti:

SOUND: TRAIN STOPS, DOOR SLIDES OPEN, RAIN.

STEFANO: …totally flip-flopped the script on me, one time a dentist called me trying to set an appointment. And, for like laser– free laser whitening. I was like ‘oh. Well hey, I’ll trade ya appointment for appointment.’ And the woman said ‘I dunno if we can do that.’ And then I said, ‘why don’t you put me on the phone with whoever can?’ And then she, uh, clearly faked putting her manager on the phone, and I said ‘hello?’ And then she just kinda got all befuddled and hung up. And s…

SOUND: DOOR SLIDES SHUT.

CONDUCTOR: You can also support The Penumbra by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter @thepenumbrapod, following us on Tumblr @thepenumbrapodcast, telling your friends about us, telling your friends to tell their friends about us, and especially by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. Every rating, comment, and kind word spreads our stories further and inspires us to keep creating more and better tales to come.

We would like to give special thanks to all who support us on Patreon, but especially to Minchowski, Camille Blanton, Garrett M, Atha Lang, Kim Zeugin, Jaimie Gunter, Fiona Parker, Jay Iannuzzelli, Ko, Canteloupe, Christine Kim, Regan, Charlie Spiegel, Karin Z-H, Ota Arcana, Rowan Collins, and Demi for their incredibly generous contributions per episode. Thank you.

Did you know that The Penumbra has merchandise for sale? It’s true! The Penumbra has partnered with DFTBA to bring you the posters, shirts, and pins your heart desires. Just go to dftba.com and search for The Penumbra Podcast.

This tale, Juno Steel and the Man of the Future, was told by the following people: Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel, Matthew Zahnzinger as Ramses O’Flaherty, Kate Jones as Rita, Stefano Perti as Mick Mercury, and Sophie Kaner as the Theia.

The Penumbra is created and produced by Sophie Kaner and Kevin Vibert. If you wish to know more about our ever-expanding, infinitely-creative team of artists, musicians, editors, designers, and managers, you can read about them in the show notes of this episode.

I’m afraid this is the end of the line for today, dear Traveler. We hope you will ride with The Penumbra again soon.

ALL SOUNDS: FADE OUT.

#juno steel

21 notes · View notes

callunavulgari · 4 years

Text

Scrapbook 2020 | Pt. I

Reminder:

Normal font - Indifferent/Neutral Italicized font - Enjoyed bold font - Loved with an asterisk* - All time favorite (bracketed titles) - Re-watches/Re-reads strikethough - Disliked

Goals are: read seventy-five books, finish five video games, write something novel-length and write something original. These last two goals CAN be combined. So you know, nearly the exact same goals from last year.

MOVIES

January

My Neighbor Totoro

(Matilda)

(The Mummy)

The Pacifier

(Moana)

Lion King (2019)

February

Hereditary

(The Lion King 2)

Kiki’s Delivery Service

March

(Tangled)

(Zootopia)

(Lilo and Stitch)

(The Swan Princess)

(The Swan Princess: Secret of the Castle)

(The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom)

April

Onward

(Your Name)

(Frozen 2)

Happy Death Day

Promare

May

(Free Willy)

(Star Wars: The Last Skywalker)

(Free Willy 2)

(The Road to El Dorado)

(Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron)

(Prince of Egypt)

BOOKS

January

The Secret Commonwealth | Philip Pullman [Fin]

The Great Hunt | Robert Jordan [Fin]

Wanderers | Chuck Wendig

The Dragon Republic | R.F. Kuang

February

Wanderers | Chuck Wendig [Fin]

The Dragon Republic | R.F. Kuang [Fin]

Runebinder | Alex Kahler [Fin]

The Book of M | Peng Shepherd [Fin]

Call Down the Hawk | Maggie Stiefvater [Fin]

(The Diviners | Libba Bray) [Fin]

(Lair of Dreams | Libba Bray) [Fin]

(Before the Devil Breaks You | Libba Bray) [Fin]

King of Crows | Libba Bray [Fin]

Gods of Jade and Shadow | Silvia Moreno-Garcia [Fin]

The City of Brass | S.A. Chakraborty

March

The City of Brass | S.A. Chakraborty [Fin]

Legion | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

Taproot | Keezy Young [Fin]

Mooncakes | Suzanna Walker, Wendy Xu [Fin]

Loki: the God Who Fell to Earth | Daniel Kibblesmith [Fin]

The Lost Future of Pepperharrow | Natasha Pulley [Fin]

The Hazel Wood | Melissa Albert [Fin]

The Black Tides of Heaven | J.Y. Yang [Fin]

Gideon the Ninth | Tamsyn Muir** [Fin]

Loki: Where Mischief Lies | Mackenzie Lee [Fin]

American Royals | Katharine McGee [Fin]

River of Teeth | Sarah Gailey [Fin]

We Are Okay | Nina LaCour [Fin]

Where the Crawdads Sing | Delia Owens [Fin]

A Memory Called Empire | Arkady Martine [Fin]

April

The Dream Peddler | Martine Fournier Watson [Fin]

The Dragon Reborn | Robert Jordan [Fin]

The Glass Hotel | Emily St John Mandel [Fin]

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous | Ocean Vuong [Fin]

The Unhoneymooners | Christina Lauren [Fin]

(Captive Prince 1 | C.S.Pacat) [Fin]

(Captive Prince 2 | CS Pacat) [Fin]

(Captive Prince 3 | CS Pacat) [Fin]

The Flatshare | Bath O’Leary [Fin]

A Study in Brimstone | G.S. Denning [Fin]

May

Sky In the Deep | Adrienne Young [Fin]

House of Salt and Sorrows | Erin Craig [Fin]

The Sparrow | Mary Russell [Fin]

Here and Now and Then | Mike Chen [Fin]

Burn for Me | Ilona Andrews [Fin]

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms | N.K. Jemisin [Fin]

Mister Monday | Garth Nix

PODCASTS

January

King Falls AM, Eps 35-75

February

King Falls AM, Eps Live Special-84

The Penumbra Podcast | Juno Steel and the Tools of Rust

(Zero Hours - Ep 7)

March

King Falls AM, Eps 84-100

April

(The Magnus Archive, s1)

The Magnus Archive, s5

Welcome to Night Vale

The Bridge

The Adventure Zone

May

The Magnus Archive, s5

TV SHOWS BY SEASON

January

The Great British Baking Show, s7, s6

Lost In Space, s2

The Magicians, s3, s4

The Untamed

February

The Untamed**

The Terror, s2

March

Guardian

Haikyuu

Westworld, s3

April

The Great British Baking Show, s6

Westworld, s3

Jeopardy

The Guardian

May

Motherland: Fort Salem

(Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Buzzfeed Unsolved: Supernatural

Buzzfeed Unsolved: True Crime

Watcher Entertainment

She-Ra, s5**

The Guardian

(Avatar: The Last Airbender)

VIDEO GAMES

January

Pokemon: Shield (30 hrs) [Fin]

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (10 hrs)

February

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (30 hrs)

Transistor [Fin]

Plague Tales: Innocence (15 hrs)

Civ VI (France- FIN, Victory)

Assassin’s Creed: Origins (20 hrs)

March

Kingdom Hearts 3

Luigi’s Mansion [Fin]

(LoZ: Breath of the Wild)

April

(LoZ: Breath of the Wild)

The Outer Worlds

Oxenfree

May

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Shadow of the Colossus

DELIGHTFUL FIC

January

A Miracle in Thunder by LazyBaker | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 4.5k | Christmas morning, Steve’s pulling into a nearly empty parking lot to open Family Video on his own.

The White Wolf by norgbelulah | Castlevania | Alucard/Trevor/Sypha | 6k | Trevor and Sypha travel back to the Belmont Estate and Castle Dracula, unsure of what they will find there.

Stainless by Fahye | The Untamed | Lan Zhan/Wei Wuxian | 6.5k | "I'm starting to feel," says Lan Xichen, "that this was a counterproductive suggestion."

sleep in your bed by copperwings | The Untamed | Lan Zhan/Wei Wuxian | 12k | or; Wei WuXian has a tendency to fall asleep in places where he shouldn't. Lan WangJi disapproves.

by the grace of a ride along by brawlite | The Witcher | Geralt/Jaskier | 5k | They shouldn't so often find themselves in situations like this. And yet.

this line bisects by adspexi | The Queen’s Thief | Attolia/Eugenides/Costis | 1k | The rumors around Costis' status as a royal favorite haven't quieted down. The king doesn't seem to mind.

Be kind by longnationalnightmare | The Magicians | Quentin/Eliot | 10k | It was absurd how much Eliot meant it— you’re cute—so cute Eliot wanted to swallow him whole.

Reclaimed by betts | Star Wars | Reylo | 14k | Or: After the passing of new legislation, Rey and thousands of other omegas are rescued from the abusive grasps of their alphas. She gets adopted by a new alpha and braces herself for the cruelty she’s grown used to. But Ben isn’t like other alphas, and Rey slowly warms to his kindness.

Make a list of things you need by longnationalnightmare | The Magicians | Quentin/Eliot | 10k | “Whose wedding?” he asked, and only stopped assessing the room when Eliot failed to answer. “El, who’s getting married?”

seldom all they seem by Fahye | The Untamed | Lan Zhan/Wei Wuxian | 24k | or, one hundred and thirty-three principles of the Gusu Lan, pertaining to the state of marriage

love is touching souls (surely you touched mine) by ToAStranger | Harry Potter | Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | 34k | Voldemort is dead. It's Christmas, and Harry's just opened a gift from Fred and George Weasley.

back to back by serenfire | The Witcher | Geralt/Jaskier | 13k | (Or: If Yennefer gets to be improbably naked in canon, then I am making Jaskier equally, if not more, naked. It's equality.)

You're a Story (I Can Follow) by Page161of180 | The Magicians | Queliot | 20k | The Monster's been defeated, Quentin is dead, and Eliot has a quest of his own--if he can trust himself to complete it. An Orpheus and Eurydice remix.

Lover's Touch by Rizandace | The Magicians | Queliot | 25k | Q gets cursed, and Alice can't help. Magic forces Q and Eliot to cuddle and talk about their feelings.

Possession by yaskween | The Magicians | Queliot | 9k | “Honestly? I don’t mean to be rude,” Eliot started, having trouble meeting Quentin’s eyes again. “But I don’t think I can handle being this close to you right now.”

You In My Head by stele3 | The Magicians | Queliot | 5k | Apparently, the Monster hadn’t cared much about hydration. Eliot hasn’t been this parched since Ibiza 2012.

fall through by sarcasticfishes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan/Sara | 8k | “Sorry man, our flights are grounded because of some freak storm. Waiting to see if we can get one out tomorrow,” Shane reads aloud, and Sara pouts down at the screen.

with them indiana boys (on them indiana nights) by ToAStranger | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 5k | The thing is, when Billy first saw Steve Harrington, he knew.

The Genius of the Western River by Siria | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 14k | Shane’s totally working on being flippant about all those times he joked about Ryan’s godlike physique, never suspecting how true those jokes might be—the two of them just have to defeat a supernatural serial killer first.

I was born to blanket you in flowers by MyFandomCausesHanaji | The Untamed | Wei Wuxan/Lan Zhan | 5k | “I have folded a thousand paper flowers for you.”

A Temporary Favor by oxymoronic | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 30k | It’s barely three days since El closed the gate when Hopper tells him he wants to rip a hole in space and time to rescue Billy Hargrove. Steve thinks it’s the dumbest thing he’s ever heard.

February

it’s a long way forward (so trust in me) by suzukiblu | The Witcher | Geralt/Jaskier | 25k | “Does that stop heat?” Jaskier asks curiously, absentmindedly tuning his lute as he speaks. He hadn’t thought anything could, but, well . . . witchers and their potions.

Love as You Are by thisgirlsays22 | The Witcher | Geralt/Jaskier | 16k | Jaskier didn’t want to marry just any noblewoman--no matter how comely she may be--he wanted adventure and many loves, but most importantly his biggest, greatest love of all.

GERALT'S A SOFT BOI send tweet by relenafanel | The Witcher | Geralt/Jaskier | 2k | WIP | “Hey, so this is where you ended up,” Jaskier said, sliding into the chair across from Geralt in the sad truck-stop diner 50 kilometres outside of the backwater swamp-dump reporting an infestation of drowners.

The Rule Of Opposites by entanglednow | Good Omens | Aziraphale/Crowley | 6k | In which they are opposing forces, not designed to touch, anathema to each other. Crowley refuses to accept it.

have you noticed I’ve been gone? by suzukiblu | The Witcher | Geralt/Jaskier | 12k | Jaskier is a very good kisser, and almost kisses Geralt often enough, which is a damn sight closer than most people get. Even when he’s paying for it, he doesn’t get kissed enough. Jaskier gets close, though.

Chattoter Trending by DragonBandit | Pokemon | Leon/Raihan | 2.5k | Neither Raihan or Leon have told the greater public about their relationship. Then Raihan posts the wrong picture to Chattoter.

from me to you by Ceta | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 14k | Wei Too Cool ✓ @wei-wuxian correct me if i’m wrong but i’m pretty sure that’s a love song @LanWangJi #AtFirstSight

Do it Again by thisgirlsays22 | The Witcher | Geralt/Jaskier | 7k | By the twentieth time Geralt has gone through the loop, he decides to just throw himself off the cliff’s edge after Borch.

March

The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: A Manifesto in Many Parts by aubreyli | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 20k | “Love?” he croaks, then clears his throat and tries again. “Lan Zh— uh, Hanguang-jun, in love?”

bend all the rules by brawlite | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 14k | Billy knows that it’s a bad idea to hook up with his old high school rival and certified Straight Guy™, Steve Harrington -- but Hawkins is real bleak during the holidays, and Billy’s just trying to make it through winter break without dying of boredom.

April

Probability Engine by @kaikamahine | The Watchmaker of Filigree Street | Keita/Thaniel | 22k | The worst part about knowing you will have to shove Merrick Tremayne into the path of an oncoming cannonball is that you genuinely enjoy the man's company. Unfortunately, this becomes something of a recurring theme.

rare the man who'll hold to faith by Fahye | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 13k | "There is the mark of our bargain, and here is the challenge," said the Yiling Patriarch.

a stone to break your soul, a song to save it by rikke | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 180k | When the entire cultivation world turns against Wei WuXian, Jiang Cheng comes up with a plan to save him and arranges a marriage between his brother and the Second Jade of Lan, Lan WangJi.

a prize for rotten judgement by sarcasticfishes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 10k | “You’d drive each other crazy. You sit together at your office all day, and then you’d be commuting home together, eating dinner together, watching TV together, going to bed — well, not together, but you get it, right?”

Linger in the Sun by etymologyplayground | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 39k | "Tell Lan Zhan that I'm weeping uncontrollably," Wei Wuxian says to the juniors. "Tell him I'm truly pitiful and he needs to do everything I say until I'm well again."

Every ridge hand-picked by the late sun’s slant light by wildestranger | The Guardian | Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan | 7k | “Long time, no see,” he says.The Black Cloaked Envoy blanches.

If Life Was A Movie We’d Have A Better Soundtrack Than This by galaxysoup | The Guardian | Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan | 46k | The first time Shen Wei meets Zhao Yunlan is when he innocently steps out of his Monday morning office hours and is immediately slammed into by 180 pounds of cop pursuing a suspect on foot.

Sex, Science, and True Love: A Rigid Analysis of the Practical Applications of Dual Cultivation by aubreyli | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 24k | WIP | “The Lans are far too boring and repressed for something like this,” Wei Wuxian said, with the authority of one who had been resoundingly ignored by a Lan for the past month. “Can you imagine Lan Wangji dual cultivating?”

and so my heart beats wildly by lily_winterwood | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 106k | “You know, you’re the one to beat this year,” Jiang Cheng offers helpfully, having seen the glare from right next to him. “Hanguang-jun’s been through juniors with the rest of us, he knows all of our tics. You’re an unknown variable, since he’s never competed against you before.”

Weird and/or Wonderful by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 12k | Or: During the filming of an episode of Weird and/or Wonderful World, Ryan tosses a shoelace and a wish in an ancient magical wishing well. Mistakes are made.

one good thing by Yuu_chi | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 26k | Wei Wuxian has been haunting his childhood home for three years. He's perfected the fine art of scaring away all the tenants, and has grown used to living with the dying flowers in the garden as his only company.

stay with me, go places by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 16k | “Never have I ever,” Shane says, feeling his way delicately around the syllables, making nice with all the consonants and vowels, “hooked up with a friend at a wedding.”

once more with feeling by sarsaparillia | Oxenfree | Alex/Jonas | 26k | Alex, stumbling through the time-stream.

hey boy, take a look at me by weakspots | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 17k | Ryan is 27, for Christ’s sake, and he’s not exactly hideous, so there’s really no reason to spend his money on a dude — a dude — whose face he’ll never see but whose livestreams he’s been jerking off to for roughly 4 months now.

Warm Blanket by surveycorpsjean | Promare | Lio/Galo | 19k | He wonders if Lio remembers.

spend some time with me (i really like your company) by fencer_x | Promare | Galo/Lio | 73k | Galo Thymos is the worst hostage ever, and Lio regrets kidnapping him with every waking breath.

times that are broken can often be one again by sarcasticfishes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane/Sara | The moment the lights come on, Shane senses that something is wrong.

my age has never made me wise by idrilka | The Untamed | Wei Wuxian/Lan Zhan | 63k | “We hear that His Excellency might be married by summer’s end,” the merchant’s wife says and Wei Wuxian freezes, his heart in his throat. “The Gusu Lan sect has been buying enough red silk and brocade that the merchants in Caiyi can’t satisfy the demand.”

May

The Shops on Morning Street by mikkimouse | Castlevania | Alucard/Trevor | 7k | Trevor Belmont, former monster hunter and current florist, is tasked with looking into the proprietor of the new tattoo parlor across the street, much to his annoyance.

Sarva by rageprufrock | Guardian | Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan | 5k | Or, 一切. At work, in public, Shen Wei is meticulously, seamlessly polite. In bed, he's something else.

Heartbeat by quackers | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 66k | So the guy Ryan sits next to at work is a vampire. That's no big deal, right?

Soup-pocalypse and The Great Curry Cataclysm by SquadOfCats | Harry Potter | Draco/Harry | 104k | Eleven years after the war, Draco Malfoy leads a quiet, boring, and perfectly respectable life, thanks very much. Or, at least he does, until a sudden and very unexpected veela awakening causes him to throw soup all over Harry Potter in the middle of the Ministry cafeteria.

until you fit beneath me (and you’re breaking like a wave) by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | In which Shane Madej succumbs to the mortifying ordeal of being known—but not before being a real butthead about it for many thousands of words first.

there is no such thing by gh0stly | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 10k | A simple investigation turns serious as Ryan suspects the black dog of Hawthorn road isn't the only demonic entity to have followed him home.

oracle bones by orphan_account | Avatar: TLA | Zuko/Katara | 3k | The foreign, pictorial characters that bracelet Zuko's left wrist have never been covered in any of his lessons. He cannot read them.

Third Time's A Charm by quackers | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 31k | Shane can't help but fall for the hot young lifeguard that stars in his Baywatch inspired daydreams, but he has a secret that no one can know. Not even Ryan.

Milk and Honey by quackers | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 18k | Sure, the fae were real. Everyone knew that.Ryan being fae? As likely as ghosts existing.

Technically-Terrestrial by quackers | Buzzfeed Unsolved | 60k | Nearly forty years ago, the disgraced group of an alien race found refuge amongst the population of Earth.And now Shane Madej, who is more-or-less human, kind-of-actually-an-alien, has to convince his terrified best friend Ryan that he's not about to abduct him.

play me like a love song by sky_somedays | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 10k | Shane is Ryan's beleaguered history TA. Ryan won't stop suggesting insane theories.

one word from you by mme_anxious | The Untamed | Lan Zhan/Wei Wuxian | 5k | Wei Wuxian manages to get himself cursed and Lan Wangji just wants to be helpful.

DELIGHTFUL FANVIDS

January

A Tribute to 2019 Cinema

Geralt & Yennefer | Wicked Game

chaos | Yennefer of Vengerberg

Yennefer of Vengerberg || SURVIVOR

The Multifandom Mashup 2019

Multifandom Mashup 2019

Natural ][ Multifandom

Yennefer Of Vengerberg | Here I Am

destiny [The Witcher]

star wars || war pigs

THE WITCHER || IN THE END [Happy New Year!]

Sucker [Jaskier & Geralt / Humor]

The Witcher || War Pigs

Lee Scoresby ][ Rebel Just For Kicks || HDM

Jaskier & Geralt || Hold on

February

The Art of Cinema

Jaskier & Geralt || Hold on

Jaskier || Oh No!

The Witcher || River

Geralt Of Rivia || Old Town Road

Multifandom | Glitter & Gold

Everybody knows | Multifandom

Merlin | Survivor

March

xue yang & xiao xingchen (the untamed MV) | hold on

Wei Wuxian | The Yiling Patriarch

The Untamed | Devil from Heaven

陈情令-The Untamed (2019) | but I'm only human | Yiling Patriarch

wei wu xian & lan wang ji (the untamed MV) | they don't know about us

Wangxian || Us Against the World (The Untamed)

Wei Wu Xian & Lan Wang Ji | A Thousand Years (The Untamed FMV)

hannibal || the way you are

Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji | Bury our Love《陈情令 The Untamed》

The Untamed FMV | Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji | 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁𝓎

The Untamed MV - Rule the World

𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘴𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘺 || wei wu xian 陈情令

陈情令 | The Untamed - I Will Carry You

wei wu xian & lan wang ji (the untamed MV) | beautiful mess

The Witcher | Geralt Of Rivia

Kylo Ren & Rey | I Know You

Miles Morales | Whatever It Takes

EGO - Wei Wuxian

Wei Wuxian | Rebel Just For Kicks

Geralt of Rivia // Glitter and Gold

Glitter & Gold ][ TUA

Eliot Waugh - Let It Happen

Jaskier ❤️️ Everybody Loves Me

April

DJ Earworm - YouTube Sings Dance Monkey (100 COVERS)

Khan ][ Believer

Roman Sionis | Black Mask ][ Bad Guy

(Star Wars) Kylo Ren | Redemption

(The Witcher) Geralt of Rivia | The White Wolf

Sirius & Regulus | Black Flies

The Marauders | HOME

(Marvel) Thor | The New Path

(Marvel) Tony Stark | My Legacy

A Song of Ice & Fire

(GoT) Daenerys Targaryen | My Reign is Over

Harley Quinn ][ Feeling Good

Multifandom II You'll Always Be A Monster

Haru & Rin || Deep Blue

Star Wars - Anime Opening 1 (A New Hope Arc)

It's hard

Severus Snape

Marvel || BLUE MONDAY

never surrender

May

[AMV] In The Name of Love [Yuri!!! on ICE]

Catra & Adora | I love you, I always have (+S5)

Sherlock ][ Bohemian Rhapsody

(Marvel) Avengers | Catastrophe

DELIGHTFUL MUSIC

January

There She Goes - Sixpence None the Richer

Don’t You Forget About Me - Simple Minds

Devil Side - Foxes

Medhel an Gwyns - Anna Dudley

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square - Tori Amos

Toss A Coin to Your Witcher - Witcher OST

Smile For the Camera - UPSAHL

Fail We Must Sail We Must - Unloved

It’s Not You, It’s Me -Unloved

Bill - Unloved

Cry Baby Cry - Unloved

Sigh - Unloved

Teeth - 5 Seconds of Summer

My Dear - The Castros

Us - Regina Spektor

Houses - Great Northern

Beautiful Dreamer - The Magicians Cast

Graveyard - Halsey

Imperfections - Celine Dion

Premonitions - Vaults

Jagwar - Shells

Nice To Meet You - Niall Horan

Handsome and Wealthy - Migos

Thunder - Shaed

6 Underground - The Sneaker Pimps

February

Land of Yesterday - Anastasia Original Broadway Cast

You’re Somebody Else - Flora Cash

Masterpiece - Vargas & Lagola

Everybody Knows - Sigrid

Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra

Cringe - Stripped - Matt Maeson

Black Out Days - Phantogram

You Don’t Get Me High Anymore - Wakey!Wakey!

Pep Talk - Judah & the Lion

Ag Bruach Dhun Reimhe - Eithne Ni Uallachan

Grave Digger - Matt Maeson

Hidden Lakes - Shearwater

Maker - Anjimile

The Untamed sountracks - vocal and instrumental

Cut My Lip - 21 Pilots

Cancer - 21 Pilots

Strawberry Fields - The Beatles

March

Infinity - Jaymes Young

Chadelier - Sia

No Time to Die - Billie Eilish

South of the Border - Camila Cabello & Cardi B

Moondust - Jaymes Young

April

2020 playlist

May

2020 playlist

POSTED FIC

January

a different kind of danger in the daylight | Shades of Magic | Kell/Lila/Holland | 6,930 words | Sleeping with Holland was never part of the plan.

February

love will have it's sacrifices | Teen Wolf | Sterek | 7,719 words | “So,” Allison starts, biting her lip. “You’re telling me that you think your roommate is a werewolf.”

March

Teeth | The Witcher | Jaskier/Geralt | 2,368 words | “You wrote a song about my teeth,” Geralt says.

April

Lithium | Kingdom Hearts | Axel/Roxas | 378 words | The grass is cool and faintly damp, still springy under your palms.

the thrill of knowing how alone we are | Stargate Atlantis | Rodney/John | 1,077 words | “Right now, I really don’t know if I want to kiss you or shove you off the damn bridge.”Rodney, who is, in fact, on a bridge right now, has never had the best sense of self preservation, because he snaps right back, “Oh good, can I pick?”

i hope you lose your way | Kingdom Hearts | Sora/Riku | 1,725 words | The last summer that he and Sora were together, truly together, before the inexplicable pull of adulthood drew them further and further apart until that thread finally snapped, they went on a road trip.

ephemeral | The Untamed | Lan Zhan/Wei Wuxian | 2,353 words | “Composing is what suits me now,” Lan Wangji says, his voice like a shrug. “In a year, it may be dancing.”

May

fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 4,108 words | As Steve watches, the man arches one of those eyebrows and asks, “Are you trying to get eaten by a shark?”

WIPS | UNPUBLISHED | ORIGINAL

January

N/A

February

N/A

March

N/A

April

The Untamed, ephemeral, 2148 words

May

Untitled Mermay Fic | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 3.367 words

FANMIXES/GRAPHICS

January

All the 8tracks imports

February

N/A

March

N/A

April

N/A

May

Writing Playlist

#heather says what #heather writes #scrapbook #2020

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seratlantisite · 5 years

Text

Juno Steel and the Prosthetic Eye

A post about the mechanical aspects of fake eyes because I am a Nerd. The important thing is that if you can imagine it, Juno can wear it.

[A] Writing resources about dealing with loss of an eye, short and long term consequences

[B] Surgery, and what happens immediately pre- and post op

[C] More on post-op, and prosthesis information FAQ

Specific prosthesis talk under the cut, with more links, and what I think is going on under Juno's eye-patch. not long, and not gross unless you follow links

Current glass eyes have two parts; the ocular implant and the prosthetic eye

the Implant is the large orb put in the socket to fill up the space. inserted during the initial eye surgery. an Integrated Implant is attached to the muscles in the eye, so it can move [1,2]. Non-integrated implants still move ish and have lowest risk of infection [2]. You cannot see it because a layer of pink tissue grows over it. Implants are important for growing children, and in adults it keeps everything from looking sunken [3]

[1] glossary

[2] types of implant

[3] overview and history (gross pics warning)

the Prosthetic is a large contact lens with a fake iris drawn on it, that can be popped in and out. hey you could probably get one with the entire script of the bee movie printed on it. it sits on-top and/or attaches to the implant so it will move. can be worn continuously and slept in, but should be cleaned every few months [4]. you get this 4-6 weeks post op. cannot see with this

[4] general and care

[5] care of the thing

[6] how it's made

the Conformer is a temporary prosthetic, like a big clear-plastic contact lens, worn post surgery until you get the prosthesis [B]. meant for comfort, because doctors pull tissue over the implant and stitch it closed [7]. needs to be cleaned.

[7] Adjusting to loss of an eye, piece by piece overview

a Bionic eye plugs into the brain and lets you see. I have a link about some current technology in the field [8]. bionic means tech that copies nature. the THEIA Spectrum would be a cybernetic implant because it’s a mix.

[8] Bionic eye implants

What Juno’s got going on: people usually go into surgery with a detailed plan, but Juno got rushed to the ER so they hadn’t discussed options yet. So my guess is the doctors just put a plain plastic ball in there to keep the shape up as it heals, until he decided what to do. I definitely see him not getting around to the prosthetic since it wouldn’t help him aim and the eye-patch is more dramatic.

When he gets the THEIA they would swap it out with the non-integrated implant. Integration might be weird after so long, but it’s the future, they can probably handle this easily enough. For a lot of cash. Ramses is loaded it’s fine.

As of Man of the Future, it depends on how well stocked Hanataba’s clinic was or how prepared Jacket was I guess? So Juno might be back to plain temporary implant or might have nothing in there at all but I hope to god he has Dark-Matters level band-aids on because he went sewer crawling again far too soon after surgery

More resources:

Eye care FAQ, cleaning, fyi tears ducts still work

History and FAQ

More detailed history

Artificial eyes resources

Ancient history of glass eyes until now

That 6 foot ancient chick with the golden eye just because.

disclaimer, I have both of my eyes and am not a med student, just a bio nerd. my thing is cognitive science, so you’d think i’d have more on the bionic eye, huh?

#the Penumbra Podcast #Juno Steel Meta #writing resources #says Ser #this is a lot of research just bc i was working on a scene of juno and peter cuddling at night and i had one (1) question #and now i have a research paper #THEIA Spectrum #Prosthesis

17 notes · View notes

goodeveningtraveler · 5 years

Text

constant as a northern star

by LadyRaincloud

After everything he's had to push himself through over the last - too long, he's losing count - Juno Steel really, really needs a rest. There's just one more thing he has to do first. If he's been given a second chance to go back for Peter Nureyev, he's got to take it. Even if it means forcing himself through as long as it takes. Even if it means taking options he doesn't want to. He owes it to Nureyev, and, maybe, he owes it to himself.

Words: 3315, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of Love Is Touching Souls

Fandoms: The Penumbra Podcast

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Juno Steel, Rita (Penumbra Podcast), Peter Nureyev, Jet Siquliak

Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel, Rita & Juno Steel

Additional Tags: is this could it be, Hurt/Comfort, IT IS!!!, the comfort is not that comforting and quite painful, but it's CATHARSIS of a sort, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, specifically canon divergent after Man of the Future, Nureyev got himself stuck with a Soul and terribleness ensued essentially, Graphic Descriptions of Injuries, specifically broken bones and burn scars, canon typical levels but still tread carefully, Juno loves Rita so much you guys, he's in awe of her everything, Jet is Sir Only Barely Appearing in This Fic, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, embarrassingly tender, no beta we die like men

from AO3 works tagged 'The Penumbra Podcast' http://bit.ly/2I6qz63 via IFTTT

#The Penumbra Podcast #Penumbra Podcast #Penumbra fan fiction #Penumbra AO3 #AO3 feed

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ernmark · 5 years

Note

Does Rita actively try to help Juno through his depression and intrusive thoughts? If so could you please show us some instances where she does?

She definitely tries to make an effort at it.

We don’t see it much in Season 1, in part because we don’t see all that much of Rita in general, and in part because Juno’s depression isn’t quite as major of a theme, and partly because Juno’s got something that he’s actively working toward during the entire season that keeps him too busy to get too preoccupied inside his own head.

In Season 2, though, he’s so much worse than he was before.

RITA: Boss, you been different since your eye blew up, realdifferent— You’re cranky all the time now! I mean, you were always cranky, but thisis different! (Kitty-Cat Caper)

And right away there’s evidence that she’s tried to help him through it, spinning a pretty horrific physical mutilation into something more lighthearted and at least somewhat positive:

RITA: ...you justshowed up with an eyepatch one day and after I was so worried about you cuz youdisappeared but you said it was okay so I thought okay maybe we can dress upand buy a little beakmonkey like all the pirates get in the movies—

Rita’s been giving him his time and space for six months without pushing him for an explanation or even to act beyond his capabilities. And that’s her trying to help him with his depression.

And this scene itself? When he gets physically violent and smashes her stuff, she doesn’t cower-- she calls him on his bullshit and holds him accountable, and that also is her helping him through it.

And she is holding him accountable, not rubbing his face in it. She’s calling him out because she’s hurt, but also because she cares. And she’s not blaming him for not trying hard enough or whatever. She understands that there are extenuating circumstances. She’s not taking it personally, which is... just so very nice, I gotta say.

JUNO: Rita…It’sjust a dry spell. That’s all.

RITA: That’s theproblem, Boss. You always get like this when you don’t have a case.

And once he concedes, she forgives him and immediately suggests that he get some sleep, and offers to help him get back on his feet.

JUNO: I…yeah, sure. I guess.

RITA: Well, I’m gladyou seen the error of your ways. Now go take a little nap in your office andI’ll call you just as soon as the next case comes through the door.

When he’s anxious about his abilities, she builds him up and encourages him:

RITA: Boss, you can do it! I know you can do it! You’re Juno Steel, remember? The winner of the HCPD’s Sharpshootin’ contest three years in a row!

When he’s caught in a spiral, she tries to help him logic his way out of it:

JUNO: Hey, Rita?Cancel that order for a new case. I’m feeling under the weather today.

RITA: What! But MistaSteel, you can’t! You gotta take a new case! You gotta helppeople!

JUNO: They don’twant the kind of help they’d get from me, Rita. I haven’t done anything goodfor anyone in months.

RITA: Of course youhave! You got Mick outta all that trouble with that shark!

JUNO: Thatwas a loan shark, Rita. I paid him.

RITA: Well,you got Cassandra Kanagawa off Mars, didn’t you?

JUNO: Thatwas you.

RITA: Well, it wasyour idea! And… and… hey, because of you, Billie Navarro is dead!

JUNO: That’ssupposed to make me feel better?

RITA: She was a realmean lady, Mista Steel. I’m sure it makes… someone feel better?

And again at the end of the episode:

RITA: Hey…what’s the matter, Boss?

JUNO: Nothingyou can fix.

RITA: But… we won!It was just the case you were waitin’ for, exciting and life-threatening, andit even ended with some real nice fireworks! It’s everything you coulda askedfor, and Ms. King is safe now, ain’t she?

JUNO: I’llsee you tomorrow, Rita.

RITA: Well… alright,Mista Steel. You’ll feel better after you sleep a little. You gotta. I know youwill.

Notice how it just doesn’t get any footholds?

We keep seeing her do this stuff throughout the season, but it never really takes, does it?

She’s not the only one who does this stuff, either. Mick and Peter are also pretty awesome at being supportive of their depressed little lady, but more often than not it doesn’t land. When they offer him space, when they offer him positivity, when they offer him solidarity, when they offer him reality-- sometimes they can derail his spirals, but there’s only so much that they can really do to help him.

And that comes back to a sad reality that’s talked about at the end of the season:

But it never worked -- none of the people he'd ever helped had stayed helped -- because you can't force someone else into it. Because getting better's always on you. It has to be. And that doesn't mean you're alone, doesn't mean you can't lean on others when you get tired or ask for directions when you get lost, but... Getting better's a long road. And if you want to go down it, you have to start walking. (Man of the Future)

Juno has to make that decision over and over again: in the FreeDomer’s compound, in the desert, in the Cerberus Province, and inside his own head.

And after he’s made that decision, Rita keeps doing the exact same stuff she’s been doing, but for the very first time he’s actually responding to it.

When she calls him out (via the THEIA bot) for leaving her behind, he realizes and acknowledges his wrongdoing and apologizes.

THEIA: Cuz maybe then she should disappear for weeks instead. Not say anything. Cuz that would definitely make you less worried. And not way more worried. Ain't that right. Boss?JUNO: Oh. I… What did I do? Rita, I’m… sorry. I’m so, so sorry. (Long Way Home)

And just like before, after she’s aired her grievances, she hugs him and forgives him.

JUNO: I... Uh... I'm sorry, Rita. I'm just... So sorry. It won't happen again... Rita?

SOUND: RITA TACKLE-HUGS HIM.

RITA: I missed you, Boss. I was real worried.

JUNO: I know. I hear you. For once. And I missed you too, Rita. Really.

And when he does misstep, she reassures him that she’s still on his side, even after he’s been called out.

RITA: And besides, Boss...(SHE HUGS HIM)JUNO: (GETS HUGGED)RITA:I ain't goin' nowhere. (Man of the Future)

And she keeps calling him out.

RITA: Mista Steel, how come you're bein' so mean to your second-best friend!JUNO: Because he's a chump, Rita. I always knew he was a chump but it's still disappointing to find out just how true that is.RITA: Oh, come on, Boss--JUNO: You "oh come on!" Sorry. I'm just... disappointed. I really thought that he'd have the answer, or at least that... Ramses wouldn't sucker him, too. Like he did me.RITA: Aw, Boss...JUNO: Either way, I don't think Mercury's gonna help us with this one. And we only have... Twenty-one hours left. We've gotta keep moving.RITA: But first...?JUNO: "But first" nothing! All of Oldtown, hell, probably all of Hyperion's on the line, and you want to "but first" about my loser friend? No! Hell no! ...Yeah, wow, that sounded pretty bad, huh?RITA: Mmmhmm.JUNO: I should probably just... apologize.

I’d like to point out here that she’s not being mean or nitpicky here-- she’s helping him not be an asshole and push his loved ones away. She’s recognizing that this is a behavior pattern that he falls into when he’s scared and self-loathing, but it doesn’t excuse him being cruel to the people around him.

And because Juno’s in a place where he wants to get better, he’s accepting this as constructive criticism, rather than a personal attack or evidence that he’s a terrible person.

Rita also acts as a point of calm to ground Juno through his own panic/depression spirals:

JUNO: This is a nightmare… A billion to one chance... oh god damn it, this is a nightmare…!RITA: I can do CPR, Mista Steel. You just tell me when he’s breathin’, okay?

And again:

JUNO: A bad spot! Me? After all the times I've scraped you off the sidewalk, Mercury, you're really gonna stand there and tell me that you were worried I was gonna put you in a bad spot?!RITA: Mista Steel.JUNO: What?RITA: I'm almost there. Okay? It's almost done.JUNO: Right. Right, almost... done. Thanks, Rita.RITA: No problem, Boss.

And again, when he’s starting to voice some intrusive thoughts:

JUNO: I told you I'd change. Hell of a lot that was worth. Maybe the Theia was onto something. One bad choice and all your progress is gone. Maybe the reason it was so terrifying was because it was right.RITA: No, Mista Steel, I think it was probably scary because it brainwashed your best friend and then threw him through a door at you.

Notably, she also helps Mick calm down from a panic spiral:

MICK: Me and...?! What, did I already do something wrong? Ohhhhhh I knew I shouldn’ta switched those two chairs when I moved in! They said this place was gonna be fit to my specifications exactly, and then I came in and saw the chairs and I went, “hey, maybe they’ll look better this way,” and they didn’t! And now they’re gonna kick me out of Newtown, aren’t they?!RITA: No, Mista Mercury. We ain’t gonna kick you out. An’ we can help you move the chairs back if you really want. (Man of the Future)

Also notably, even now, she’s powerless to help Juno if he’s not in a headspace where he is willing to be helped. Which is why she’s ineffective when THEIA Mick gets under Juno’s skin:

MICK: One weak day. That's all I'm saying, Jay. Your punishment for one weak day could be to lose fifteen years of progress. You could go back to feeling how you did after you were booted out of the HCPD. You might feel fine now, but...

RITA: He wouldn't! You don't have to listen to him, Mista Steel, you're better'n that now in a million ways, and I wouldn't letcha anyway, and--

And again here:

MICK: Puck Falco, that's right. Where are they now?

JUNO: I don't know. We... fell out of touch.

MICK: Heard that one before, am I right?

RITA: Mista Steel, this is all wrong! Diamond was gone before you left the HCPD and Detective Falco just transferred to another planet and--

I’ve gotta say, she’s really good at handling him when he lets her. I suspect that she’s developed a lot of these skills over the course of fifteen years being his friend, and this latest dark period is largely her exercising every skill she’s got in her arsenal to try and help him.

#the penumbra podcast #penumbra meta #depression #thesquidydude

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