governance

So I've been reading some dsmp aus and. I've also started an au

This can only end well :)

I've dubbed it Masked Gods and I am Deeply invested you don't even know, there is already an absurd amount of lore

Rambling and world building ahead, beware

SO

- The dsmp is a town called Malvista, a town of constant change and strange residents, full of eye iconography (and plenty of propaganda for and against the eyes to boot), often eyes of ender will be hovering under awnings and by doorways outside the houses

- Those who find themselves in the town can’t leave, the unsettling mayor (Dream) somehow knows everything that happens in the town and prevents anyone from moving away

- There’s no humans, instead there’s humanoids; Fae, Golems, Lycanthropes/Familiars, and Mobfolk to name a few

Philza Minecraft

- Witch/warlock of Mumza, the goddess of Death

- A sort of were-crow, can appear as more crow or more human

- Chained/Nearly killed by the small town he grew up in for witchcraft, Mumza saved him via divine intervention and shuffled him to a safe place in the snow biome

- Can talk to Mumza but he looks crazy to people around him, one-sided phone convo

- Dad to Techno, WIlbur, Tommy

Technoblade

- Oldest son of Philza

- Drawn to the occult, made a deal with a god of old and got cursed into a boar form for it after going through Philza’s old texts

- Used to be a were-raven

- Serves the Blood God of Old

- Lives reclusively, comes by to visit Philza and Tommy from time to time

Wilbur

- Middle son of Philza, held at arms length by Phil from the family dealings of gods and spirits

- Were-bluejay

- Bard, left home to wander the world and go on adventures

- Liked to/could talk to ghosts from a young age

- Dad to Fundy

Tommy

- Youngest son of Philza, Phil is protective of him

- Lives with Philza, accidentally stumbles upon the strange town while wandering one day

- Were-hawk (Can't shift as smoothly as Wilbur or Phil)

- Can talk to ghosts

- Looks up to his brothers a lot, wants to be just like them

Ranboo

- Corrupted humanoid, half-consumed by the End

- Made it to the End long ago, got trapped there for years before returning to the over world somehow, is now half-enderman from the influence of the Queen’s Dragonfire

- Enderwalk is the influence of the End, making him have periods of acting like an enderman, obeying silent commands from beyond

Dream

- Golem, a sort of vessel/puppet for DreamXD, made from porcelain/marble, meant to mimic mortals

- Sees through effectively infinite number of eyes to keep tabs on its town

- A bitch who toils with mortals for fun, likes to see the cursed people in its town suffer

- Can summon axe/sword from its forearm markings

- Punz/Sapnap are henchmen? Followers of DreamXD?

Sam

- Half warden

- Not blind, but can use vibrations to tell where movement is

- Tall and strong, but slow, relies on heavy weapons to deal killing blows

- Eats souls, uses soul sand as a healthy alternative to killing people/creatures

Fundy

- Half fae, got stranded in the strange town after Wilbur got killed

- Fox-like

- Lots of chaotic energy, absolute goblin

Badboyhalo

- Fallen Angel of sorts, stranded on the mortal plane

- Influenced by the Egg

- The more unstable he is, the more vines curl from under his skin

- Can grow small vines at will

Eret

- Elven humanoid, a blind king of a country that no longer exists

- Capable, fearsome fighter, but tends to stay out of conflict

Skeppy

- Golem/vessel like Dream, made of diamonds and redstone

- Was the reason for Bad’s fall (probably) (somehow)

Antfrost

- Were-cat, Bad’s familiar

Tubbo

- Fae, sheep-like

- Exiled from the fae tribe in the woods for crimes

- An arsonist

Schlatt

- Fae, ram-like

- Trickster god cast out from the fae pantheon for power lust, now tries to take over the town in various ways

- Shit uncle vibes toward Tubbo

Quackity

- Cursed were-duck

- Accomplice/servant of Schlatt, runs a casino in town

- Mugs people, absolutely just insane

Puffy

- Sheep Fae

- Looks soft but will Fuck you up

Earn It

Author: youcantkillamutant

Fandom: Marvel (Black Panther)

Pairing: Erik Stevens/Killmonger x Black!OC

Summary:  Some things have to be earned

Warnings: Cursing (Is ‘hell’ a bad word anymore?)

Words: 1.6K

A/N: Joining in on the Quarantine Writing challenge hosted by the lovely @shaekingshitup & @chaneajoyyy. Thank y’all for getting me writing in this time of corn teen lol. I only own my original characters of course, Marvel don’t sue me I’m broke.

Listening To: Earned It Instrumental By The Weeknd, Earned It by Jasmine Thompson, When I Get My Hands On You by The New Basement Tapes

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Tea, check. KimoyoPad, check. Earbuds, check. Blue-light glasses, check. Kay had everything she needed. The sun was streaming through her office pod in the palace, window open to let in the breeze, but something was missing. Ideas. She needed ideas. After working on this project for a week straight, Kay discovered that she had no more inventive energy. All of her creations had been wrung out of her within the week, and now she sat at her desk, pouring over everything she had imagined, and it just wasn’t working.

She’d bought a few more hours to pull something together to present to Shuri and the board, but the clock was ticking and she wasn’t getting anywhere. Kay pushed away her KPad. Seeking out distraction would only make her feel worse, only remind her of the work she wasn’t doing.

To be fair, Kay had been particularly hard on herself during the work on this project and she knew it. Shuri and the other girls in the lab had noticed it. Feared it is probably more accurate. when Kay asked Shuri for a few more hours on the presentation, she was met with wide eyes and furious nods. And Kay couldn’t figure out why exactly she was wound so tight about this, but it felt important.

It was her first presentation in Wakanda that she’d make without training wheels. No project lead to report to, just her. When Shuri and the Board had approved her initial proposal, she’d been elated. Called everyone back home in the States to report that after 8 whole months working in Wakanda she’d finally scored her own project. It was exciting, even when the work set in she was excited, but now, a month later and three-quarters a preliminary presentation complete, Kay had to wonder why she’d wanted to do this in the first place.

It wasn’t like she had a ton of work to finish for the presentation anyways. But the part she had to finish just wouldn’t come. She’d been brainstorming for the last week on this portion of the project and she could barely string two sentences together for the presentation because there was nothing. Just as Kay was about to go give herself a bathroom break in which she would stare at herself in the mirror for ten to fifteen minutes, the door to her office pod slid open. Crap.

“Shuri, I thought we agreed that you’d give me at least three hours to go over these—”, Kay stopped short when her earbuds were out. A warm breath brushed over Kay’s shoulder, she knew it wasn’t Shuri. Great.

“N’Jadaka. I thought you were on a diplomatic mission with the Jabari.” Clove and honey floated to her senses, mingling with sand and oak; N’Jadaka’s scent wafting through the air.

“Keeping tabs on me Kay? I’m touched.” He huffed another breath over Kayana’s cheek, so close he could kiss it. Kay didn’t bother answering. Blowing out a breath instead, so get N’Jadaka’s smell out of her mouth.

Ever since she’d come to Wakanda N’Jadaka had been…overly familiar. Maybe it’s because they were the only Americans in Wakanda, but Kay didn’t spend five years doubling majoring in architecture and agriculture to be distracted by a lost prince. especially not on her first big presentation.

“Don’t flatter yourself N’Jadaka. I read the daily news blasts.” Kay waved her right wrist, heavy and strong with the kimoyo beads she’d received her first week working with Shuri.

“Everything is easier with these, I promise! It’s synced with your Pad so you’ll never have to worry about lost files. You’ll be able to chat with me, send video messages about the site visits and…”

“She reads! I knew you were smart. Could tell by the way you—” Kay shot him a sharp look then, one brow raised, daring him to go on.

Around Kayana, N’Jadaka Udaku had a knack for saying the wrong thing. Well in her opinion. All the girls she worked with in the lab and in the field utterly adored the man, but to Kay he was a pompous, arrogant, admittedly smart but incredibly irritating Golden State Warriors fan. Another glance at Kay told Erik to move onto another subject.

“I thought I told you to call me Erik?”

“I thought I told you to call me Ms. Benton.” Another gust of air, this one followed by a kiss of his teeth. Kay could just barely see it in her periphery. Pink tongue caressing his pearly whites before being swallowed by gleaming gold canines.

“Fine Ms. Benton. What are you working on then, Girl Wonder?”

“That’s your cousin’s name.” Erik rounded the table and pulled a chair out smoothly, settling into it and gazing at her expectantly. “I’m working on the proofs for a few smaller eco-house concepts. We’ve got the ecology of it down, solar panels, self venting spaces, and recycled fibers are easy enough to incorporate, but it’s just the…size.”

“What about it?” Kay ignored the way her stomach flipped when N’Jadaka’s face scrunched together in confusion. She’d been doing that for weeks.

“Do you know how difficult it is to turn a 20 meter space into a fully functioning apartment? I mean, sleeping quarters, laundry, kitchen, and living area. Not to mention it should all be ‘mod-chic’ or whatever brief T’Challa gave to the Board. Shuri was supposed to send someone from product development to help me but—” Kay caught sight of Erik’s grin. Her stomach flipped again and she backpedalled. “But I’m sure I can handle this. I probably don’t need help anyways.”

“Now come on Ms. Benton, you were practically begging for help.”

“I can’t imagine why Shuri would send you.” Any time the two had to work in the same vicinity, Erik spent most of his time trying to distract her and no time on whatever it was he was meant to be doing. After her first week, she’d actually never seen Erik in the lab again. According to Shuri, he wasn’t allowed in anymore.

“I’m the last one to say men and women should be separated, but my cousin…well he’s not helped his case much. Besides, T’Challa’s been gunning for his own lab near the top of the palace, this’ll make things easier for everyone. For now at least.”

N’Jadaka had found his way to Kay outside of the lab; sliding into the seat across from her at lunches, and always suspiciously on her off-site trips, trying to play tour guide. Initially she felt annoyed, she didn’t need a tour guide to do her job. Now-a-days, she was feeling a little different anytime N’Jadaka found her. He was getting to her, as much as she hates to admit it.

“Because I’m probably the only person who’s lived in a 20 meter apartment in this country. Seriously, I know how to live small Kay.” Kayana shot him a glare for the nickname and tried to ignore how genuine he sounded. Erik smirked at the way her lip curled in annoyance. He’d always found that cute.

Kay wasn’t stupid, she’d heard the stories about King N’Jadaka. Ruthless, power-hungry, practically foaming at the mouth for control. It was why she’d avoided him in the first place. But this N’Jadaka was nothing like the stories. He was kind of nice. Still cocky and arrogant, but surprisingly sincere. At least he was with her.

“The key to this is to break up the space. That and you’ve got to use any and every piece of furniture as storage. Hell, use the space under the steps as storage. If something in the space doesn’t have at least two functions, it doesn’t belong.”

For the first time since she’d started working in Wakanda, Erik had brought something useful to the conversation. Not that he wasn’t smart, the guy was brilliant and everyone knew it, especially him. It just seemed that every time he came around Kay, all he could spew were cocky remarks and nicknames he hadn’t earned.

“Are you telling me you’ve found more than one use for a pillow?”

“Ms. Benton, there are plenty of uses for a pillow.” Erik waggled his eyebrows and Kay rolled her eyes, but something in his expression felt wicked and her face heated. “But in all seriousness, yeah. If you get a large enough pillow, they can be used as couch cushions. Hell you could turn the whole bed into a couch and transform the sleeping space into the living space.”

“Do you think we could turn them into curtains instead?”  

It went on like that for two hours, Kay and Erik brainstorming. Mostly Kay was questioning how something could serve more than one function and Erik answered back with three different ways to transform the singly-functional to multi-functional.

“I’m impressed.” Kay was loathe to admit it, especially with the way Erik’s full lips pulled up into a smirk. By now they were both standing, they’d both paced the circumference of the office pod ten times. N’Jadaka approached Kay arms wide in victory.

“And the Girl Wonder begrudgingly admits I know what I’m talking about. You flatter me Kay.”

“Ms. Benton. And I never said you didn’t know that you were talking about.” At least not out loud.

“Seriously? After all that help I still can’t call you Kay?” This time N’Jadaka was a few steps away. “What is it with you and nicknames?” His gaze was calculating and Kay met him head-on.

“Names have power, you of all people should know that N’Jadaka.”

“Bullshit.” N’Jadaka took a step closer. “I’ve heard the girls call you Kay.” Another step. “You even let mean old Mrs. Oyinke call you Kay.” N’Jadaka had made it right in front of Kay, close enough to touch. Kay stood her ground.

“Nicknames have to be earned.” Erik’s brow shot up in surprise. Then he leaned in. Close and closer. Between one breath and the next he was so close that Kay could see his golds glinting through barely parted lips.

“And what exactly do I need to do to earn it then?”

_______________________________________________________________________

A/N: Hi everyone! I hope y’all are doing okay in Quarantine and staying safe. I obvi haven’t been writing much, but I’m hoping to change that once I finish a few more projects. 

I started a new job last month and somehow get to work from home so there’s really no reason why I can’t keep working on The Advocate after I fix a few things around the house. I’m excited about that! 

I hope y’all liked this one. Pretty sure I’ll never write smut but I like to tease the possibility of the chance of a kiss like an 80 year old victorian spinster lol

I was inspired by the Youtube channel Never Too Small. Even if y’all aren’t into design you should check out a few videos because what people can do with small spaces is literally ingenious!

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Let me know if you’d like to be added or taken off the taglist :)

Taglist: @princessstevens @muse-of-mbaku @k-michaelis@queenamaniii@dreadedphilosphy@killmongurl@thelovelyliterary@elaindeereads @thedom223 @muse-of-mbaku@bidibidibombaclaat@panthergoddessbast @writingmarvellousimagines@someareblindtoitsbeauty@jozigrrl@iamrheaspeaks @purple-apricots@thadelightfulone@janelledarling @killmongersgurl @fd-writes 

Rooted Friendship

Note: Yay, a new character! Maybe you can already tell who it is by the very punny title. Anyway, onto the fic!

Handplates belongs to: @zarla-s

Requested by: Anonymous

Summary: While alone in the Lab one day, Sam meets a new friend who has a lot of LOVE to give! What secrets could their new little buddy reveal?

     Sam didn’t know what was wrong with them. They were suppose to be happy with the recent developments but now everything was too much to take in. It had actually been a couple of weeks since Gaster completely abandoned all of his plans and experiments with 1-S and 2-P, or as the two are called now, Sans and Papyrus. The names were fitting according to the scientist and even though the Human didn’t quite understand what that meant but they liked the names so they chose to not question it.

     Recently, Gaster had been telling Sam about how he introduce the two little skeletons to Asgore and Alphys. They knew that it must’ve been nerve-wracking since the scientist was worried about Papyrus saying something and exposing them, which would’ve led to more disaster if the scientist was prodded for more answers. Luckily it didn’t come to that and the meeting went by smoothly. Although the King did have a few questions on how Gaster was able to get the brothers so well-behaved. Sam had to laugh at how offended their boyfriend sounded when he told them this. The couldn’t say the King was exactly wrong in saying that though. Not that they were going say that to the skeleton. But as much as Sam wanted to happy for their skeleton family, they were having problems of their own now:

     Sam had been walking towards the office after a long day. They let out a yawn as they passed by the Lab’s door, which led into the upper-level Lab and into the Underground. The Human stretched their arms when they suddenly heard a voice...

    “Şค๓...”

    ‘*...?’

    “thē lค๖ ໓໐໐r, Şค๓...“

    “*What?”

    “ງēt ໐นt คຖ໓ fiຖ໓ ๓ē, Şค๓. i'งē ๖ēēຖ ຟคt¢hiຖງ ��໐น...”

     After the voice finished speaking, Sam suddenly grabbed their head as pain began to roughing pound as if someone was taking a hammer to it. The pain was so intense that it brought the Human to their knees and caused them to start crying. They also felt something drip from their nose and soon saw blood drip onto the Lab’s floor. The extreme headache lasted what felt like hours to Sam but then as fast as it came, it quickly stopped. It took Sam a while to collect themselves with Toby having ran over upon hearing his owner’s cries. The Human sniffed and looked in horror at the red liquid on the floor before quickly rushing to the bath to take care of it.

     The Human had promised themselves to immediately tell Gaster about what happened. Unfortunately, the skeleton and the brothers were unable to come in today.

     Speaking of the brothers, the two little skeletons were now living in Snowdin Town with Gaster instead on down in the True Lab. The first thing they did when they got settled was call Sam. The two took turns excitedly talking about how cool everything is and how they wish Sam was there to see and experience it with them. It always brought a smile to the Human’s face when they heard the boys’ voices. However, when everyone had to eventually hang up for whatever reason, Sam would always feel...lonely. The Lab would feel empty and the silence was deafening. Sure, Toby was still there with them and Gaster, Sans, and Papyrus came to visit them and make sure they didn’t starve to death. But somehow, it just made their SOUL ache. And it was only made worst when nobody was able to come even for a short visit that morning.

    “*You ask Gaster if he’s sure he and the brothers can’t come down to see you...”

    “-sigh- I’m sorry, Sam. I still have to get Sans and Papyrus settled in and introduced to everyone. But tomorrow will be a different story, I promise.”

     And with that, the skeleton hung up, leaving Sam in silence once again. They weren’t sure what to do for the rest of the day when Toby’s whining got their attention. The poor pup sounded hungry and the growling from the Human’s stomach signaled that it was time for breakfast. They motioned for Toby to follow them and the two walked off into the kitchen, neither of them noticing a little plant watching and listening.

~~~~~~

     Sam hummed as they stood at the stove, cooking up some eggs and toast for them. Toby was nearby quietly eating from his food bowl. However, when the Human scooped the food onto a plate, the dog suddenly looked up and ran back into the common room barking. Sam was confused by this and turned off stove before following. When they found Toby, they saw him barking at a little yellow flower. The Human didn’t remember the small plant being there but maybe they just overlooked it.

    “*You gently shoo Toby away and tell him to go finish his breakfast.” ‘*He gives the flower a small growl before going back to the kitchen...’

     After the little dog left, the Human bent down to examine the little golden flower. Suddenly, the little plant sprouted a face, smiling cheekily at them. Sam jumped a bit as it began to speak.

    “𝙷𝚘𝚠𝚍𝚢! 𝙸'𝚖 𝙵𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛! 𝙶𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚢, 𝙸'𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍! 𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎?“

    ‘*A talking flower? Now you have seen everything...’ “*You cheerfully tell him that your name is Sam.”

     Flowey beamed brightly at this. He already knew who Sam was, this was just his first time meeting them face-to-face. Ever since the yellow flower found out about them, he made sure to always keep tabs on them and their apparently close relationship with the Royal scientist. Flowey had been wanting to introduce himself earlier but those pesky skeletons were always around and he could never find a good time to get the Human alone. But now that they’re practically alone everyday? A perfect time to try and gain their trust. A few questions should help to get started.

    “𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎! 𝚂𝚘 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏? 𝙸𝚜𝚗'𝚝 𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚕𝚢?”

    “*You tell Flowey that Gaster won’t allow you to leave the Lab, but he won’t tell you why...”

     The little plant pulled a sad expression, petals slightly drooping. He knew why the skeleton was doing it though. Flowey knew there were plenty of monsters out in the Underground that would take delight in ripping this small human to pieces. He couldn’t tell Sam that though. Not yet anyway. He just continued to ask them questions about themselves. Soon the flower was able to the Human talking nonstop about not only their personal life, but about their skeleton family as well. That was when Flowey quickly found out how talkative Sam was, having to fight back to urge to tell them to shut up. He had already made a lot of progress and he wasn’t about to lose it. So instead he decided to jump straight to the point.

    ‘*You’re about to tell Flowey another joke when he suddenly interrupts you.’

    “𝙷𝚎𝚢 𝚂𝚊𝚖? 𝙸 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚖𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛...𝚊𝚗 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚛, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚞𝚖, 𝚍𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜?”

     Sam looked extremely surprised by this. A new friend? They thought Flowey would’ve gotten bored with them but apparently not. They happily accepted his request for friendship and the two continued talking for a while. After a couple of hours, the golden plant asked the Human to give him a little tour of the Lab, which they agreed to. Sam was a bit confused on how they were going to carry the flower since there wasn’t any planting pots around, but Flowey quickly helped them with that problem.

    “𝙷𝚊𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚗, 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚖𝚎...”

     Flowey gently wrapped a vine around Sam’s wrist to hoist himself up onto their shoulder. He also took extra precautions by wrapping more vines around Sam’s torso. And with Flowey safely hanging on, Sam began the tour. They showed the plant the whole Lab, especially Gaster’s office. The Human noticed that Flowey seemed really interested in that particular room, wanting to linger in there more than any other room. But when they questioned him, the yellow flower gave the excuse that he was just tired and wanted to rest on the office’s couch for a little bit. Sam obliged and sat down, allowing Flowey to move from their shoulder to their lap. The Human cooed and started petting the little plant. Flowey recoiled a little but ended up just letting it happen. The mindless petting only stopped when the Human decided to ask a question of their own.

    “*You ask Flowey if you can tell him something.”

    “𝙾𝚏 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎, 𝚂𝚊𝚖! 𝚆𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚕𝚕. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐!”

     Sam then went to talk about what had happened to them the other day. As they talked, Flowey’s expression quickly changed from pretend interest to legitimate fear. After the Human was finished, they noticed their new friend’s expression change and questioned him about it.

    “𝚄𝚑...𝙸 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍! 𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚋𝚞𝚍𝚍𝚢! 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝! 𝙱𝚢𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍!”

     Before Sam could stop him, Flowey quickly got down off their lap and disappeared into the floor. Now they were alone once again save for Toby who came into the office and plopped down on the couch to get a good night’s sleep. The Human decided to call it a day as well, but not before texting Gaster to say that they needed to tell him something tommorow. Sam then picked up Toby and got settled on the couch, eyes already growing weary from their busy day. They didn’t know why but Sam had a feeling that Flowey would come back to see them soon. They had faith in their new best friend.

(The Next Day)

    “I’m sorry ,Sam, but I’m afraid I can’t find anything wrong with you.”

     Sam looked shocked when Gaster told them this. They had texted him yesterday and when he arrived this morning, the Human told him what had happened the other day. The skeleton quickly took them into his medical room to give them a check-up. He had taken their temperature, heartbeat, and their SOUL just in case. Gaster even took a blood test much to Sam’s chagrin. But after all of that, the scientist came back with negative results.

    “*You ask him that if there’s nothing wrong, then why did you have that episode...” ‘*He gently runs his fingers through your hair.’

    “I’m sure it was nothing, Sam. You were probably working yourself too hard and not getting enough sleep.”

     The way Gaster had sternly said it made Sam think that they were just imagining the voice. Like they were going crazy. Sam decided not to question the scientist about it anymore. He had already confirmed that he couldn’t find anything wrong so why bother? The Human just agreed to try and get more sleep that night as they spent the rest of the morning and into late afternoon hanging out with their boyfriend. The two lovers mostly spent that time playing video games on Sam’s phone. They were in middle of their favorite game when the skeleton got a text from Alphys asking him for help with some reports. Before he left, the scientist promised that he and the brothers would be back that night for dinner. Sam said their goodbyes and Gaster left. Not long after he left, Flowey popped out of the ground beside them.

     The Human noticed that the flower looked more apprehensive than yesterday. He also looked a little guilty about something. He said his usual greeting but he sounded worried.

    “𝙷𝚘𝚠𝚍𝚢, 𝚂𝚊𝚖. 𝙳𝚒𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕?”

    “*You tell Flowey that you did but he sounds tired. Did he get enough sleep?” ‘*He looks surprised for a second, but then it’s gone...’

    “𝙰𝚑, 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚎, 𝚋𝚞𝚍𝚍𝚢! 𝙱𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚜, 𝚠𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚞𝚌𝚑 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚔 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝.~”

     Sam looked confused by what the plant meant by this as he hoisted himself onto their shoulder. Flowey had that cheeky smile on his face again as he began whispering in their ear. Things that sounded like thinly-veiled threats.

    “𝚂𝚘, 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚆𝚒𝚗𝚐𝙳𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚠𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙻𝚊𝚋?~ 𝚆𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚑𝚢?~”

     The Human quickly nodded. No matter how many times they begged and pleaded with him, Gaster would never tell them the real reason why they weren’t allowed out of the Lab. And now their new friend was willing to tell them. Now Sam can finally know the truth.

    “𝙷𝚎𝚑𝚎𝚑𝚎.~ 𝙸𝚝'𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙻𝚊𝚋, 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚕𝚕 𝚍𝚒𝚎.~”

    “*Die?!”

    “𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝!~ 𝙼𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍, 𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚞𝚝!~“

     Sam was speechless. Monsters wanting them dead? That didn’t sound at all like how Gaster described his fellow monsters. Maybe Flowey was talking about more hostile monsters? The Human had a million thoughts racing through their mind as Flowey continued speaking.

    “𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕, 𝚂𝚊𝚖?~ 𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚍?~ 𝙰𝚗𝚐𝚛𝚢 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗?~ 𝙰𝚗𝚐𝚛𝚢 𝚎𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚘...𝚔𝚒𝚕𝚕?~”

    “*You shake your head as you tell him no...”

    “𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚛-𝚆𝚊𝚒𝚝...𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝?!”

     Flowey’s expression turned angry. Did this idiot actually say no?! He just told them that their lives are in danger and they’re still refusing to hurt anyone?! The yellow flower knew that Sam wasn’t the brightest, but he didn’t think it was this bad! The plant was practically sputtering with anger as Sam began to explain themselves.

    “*You tell Flowey that even there are monsters who want to kill you, there’s a chance you and them can make peace with each other!”

     Sam sounded so optimistic that Flowey was rendered speechless. He honestly couldn’t believe what he was hearing right now. The flower remained quiet as the Human thanked him for telling them the truth because now they have a new goal in mind. His petals drooped as they continued to thank him profusely and even hugged him out of gratitude. Flowey was actually at a loss of what to say. No snarky remark or insult was coming to mind.

    “*You ask Flowey if he wants to stay for dinner to meet Gaster and the brothers.”

    “𝚄𝚖, 𝚗𝚘. 𝚃-𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚘𝚔, 𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙸 𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚘...”

     The Human nodded as they said goodbye and skipped away to prepare the food. Flowey just watched after them, unsure of how to feel. He shouldn’t be worried right now. Not only is there no way for Sam to get out of the Lab, but he should just kill them and take their SOUL right now. But, curiosity was getting the best of him. He wanted to see how Sam would react to the Underground and how they’ll go about trying to gain every single monster’s trust. Flowey almost felt sorry for them. Reality was going to hit them like a sack of bricks and they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. It honestly amazed him how someone could be so naive.

     Well, nothing he can do now. Sam had made up their mind and nothing could change it. The Human was going to die because they believed friendship could change the fate of monsters, leaving behind a nice family in the process. At least their death won’t be in vain as their SOUL will be taken to that old king. There was no more to be done here so it’s time for Flowey to take his leave. Before he left however, the flower had one more thing to say.

    “𝚆𝚘𝚠, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚘𝚝, 𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚗'𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢?”

Note: Wow Flowey...that was mean. Well I hoped you all enjoyed reading this fic! It was really fun to write! Thank you everyone for reading! Requests are always welcomed! I love all of you! Stay tuned for more.

Thoughts on ToG

 OK, so @nickjgoodsell asked me why I don’t like this series anymore, and I promised I would write a post because how I feel about it is pretty complicated. I used to wholeheartedly love this series - I read Sarah’s blog religiously and even met her a couple of times (I think, I don’t remember, but it was at least once). However, some time after I read QoS, I stopped liking these books, for a multitude of reasons:

So basically, I thought that ToG was just OK. I liked Celaena well enough even though I didn’t think much of her assassin skills, but I liked the mystery parts. Nehemia and Dorian were my favourites, but I though Chaol was kind of dull, but I didn’t like Celaena with Dorian because it kind of felt like she was stringing him along and looked down on him throughout the first book and the second.

I thought CoM was way, way better - at first, which I’ll get into - because I thought the writing and plot was better, and the world was opening up. But I hated the way Chaol and Celaena treated Dorian, and I was devastated that Nehemia died because 1) Badass, magical, female character of colour that tricked all the other people into thinking she was an idiot while secretly spying on them and she’s the one who died? 2) Dorian/Nehemia would have been far superior to those other two. Imagine if they had killed King Haviliard and then just went around restoring magic and looking fine af.

But, whatever, I was intrigued enough to read the next too, and I loved HoF.  Before I read that I read TAB, which I thought was a brilliant way to explore Celaena’s backstory. When I read QoS, I was still excited about it - or so I thought. When EoS came out, I read the first couple of pages and was inexplicably bored. Whatever. I thought maybe it was exam stress preventing me from concentrating. But then over the next few months it kept happening, until suddenly ToD was coming out and I still hadn’t finished it. Then KoA came out and I still hadn’t read it, so I decided to reread QoS again so that I could sail smoothly back into it. So I did. And then I realised that even though I thought I’d enjoyed QoS, rereading it made me realise that something in that book killed all my desire to read the next one. Which I will explain when I outline my reasons in detail:

1) Story

OK so remember when you read Prisoner of Azkaban, and Sirius turns out not to be a fink and the whole mystery surrounding the Potters’ deaths gets turned on its head and you realised that JK Rowling was a genius who put her all into her story? I originally thought that about Sarah, because you could see that she was thinking about her story from the very first story in TAB (obviously because she wrote this story when she was sixteen and then split it). From TAB to HOF, I could clearly see that she was building Celaena/Aelin into an epic hero/Chosen One, who had to go on this quest of discovery and accepting her past mistakes, before picking up allies and defeating the evil whatever it was. Right?

Except, when you get to QoS, it’s like the entire thing gets derailed. Arobynn Hamel, after being built up to me one of Celaena’s most complicated adversaries, is dispatched offscreen by a character that we’re not even introduced to in the main series (Lysandra). Instead of a clear goal and obstacles that derail them, the story is just a series of plans that Celaena/Aelin is keeping us in the dark about, so we don’t know until she’s won. The sense that we’re building to something is kind of lost, because we pick up new objectives every few chapters. What felt like an epic journey sort of tapered off into a bunch of scenes where everyone was up against it...until Celaena revealed that she’d been planning this all along.

Also, the retcons that apparently happened. Elena sent Aelin to Rowan for “happiness”. Maeve tricked Rowan into thinking Lyria being his mate because reasons. Elena and the gods have been manipulating everything because they had a spat a few hundred years ago.

I think that the reveal that Celaena was Aelin was planned from the beginning, but I think QoS was almost the start of a new series - and not just because of the name change. It’s like she just took the story in a completely different direction. I remember in an interview Sarah mentioned that she likes to see where the story takes her as opposed to planning, and even though I still haven’t read past EoS, what I’ve heard, the story ended up in a completely different place than where it was going.

2) Characters

Like I said, there was no one I hated - at first. In fact, by the time HoF was over, I was loving all the characters. I thought Sarah had rendered them so well that I couldn’t wait for all the different personalities to meet and all the banter that would ensue when they all realised they were working at cross purposes.

But then QoS happened.

Celaena, who underwent some incredible character development in HoF, turned into an absolutely horrible character in QoS. She was arrogant, violent, impatient, cruel, and selfish - with none of the redeeming qualities.  She detested her old self even though that self got her where she is today. She treated her so-called allies like idiots or like downright enemies. She threatened to kill everyone who didn’t agree with her.

Rowan, who went from a misanthropic douche to loyal friend to Celaena, spent QoS completely obsessed with her and with growling at every man (sorry, male) who gets within spitting distance of her. I hear he got worse.

Chaol went from a well-meaning if not naive guy who loved his friends to an unrelenting douche who argued with Celaena for reasons, and then apparently disappeared.

I’m not even going to talk about what happened to Dorian and Manon.

And therein lies the reason I didn’t want to read EoS - because QoS had effectively made me hate all the characters. Not only that, but it starts with Celaena hanging out with Rowan, Aedion, Lysandra and Evangeline - four characters who were only introduced the book before, and who spent so long either basking in their own brilliance or being territorial over Celaena that they never got to form meaningful bonds with any of the characters that we did know before then. I couldn’t get through the first chapter because I literally couldn’t give a shit about a bunch of people I just met.

And then there’s the Chaolaena thing. I didn’t particularly care for them one way or another. I thought they were a well-written and well-matched couple, but I personally found Dorian way more interesting. And they were written like they were destined to be together. Even when they were talking about the fact that Celaena might not pick him when she became Aelin, there was none of the vicious antagonism in their relationship when they met again. OK, I expected her to be mad at Chaol for leaving Dorian, but to drag it out so long? And every other argument they had was artificially lengthened to justify them never getting back together so she was free to get with Rowan, where the two people from the last book would have worked it out like adults.

And this takes us right back to the retcon thing. I specifically remember an interview right before QoS came out where I noticed that Sarah was talking about Rowan a lot. So much so that he almost felt like a deuteragonist. When I read the book, I realised it was because she’d decided to torpedo Celaena/Chaol in favour of Rowan/Aelin - which I have no problem with. I just wish it had been done with more grace. Aelin and Rowan went from having a great platonic bond to suddenly wanting to rip each other’s clothes of whenever they saw each other. Aelin went from accepting that Chaol and her were over to wanting to kill him whenever she saw him. Rowan basically wanted to lick her whenever they shared a room, and turned into a giant baby when another guy got near her. The emphasis that their platonic bond was given was traded for them lusting after each other like horny teenagers.

3) Writing

Look, I’m just going to say it - QoS felt like fanfiction. There was just an abundance of similes and metaphors, and her writing got to be so overblown and dramatic that it was eyeroll-inducing to read. But that’s not even the worst of it.

I read ACOTAR when it came out. I liked it, but I really hate Fae/Faeries, so I wasn’t going to continue. Then when I read QoS I realised that all the guys in that and all the guys in ACOTAR are essentially the same character - territorial Fae males who constantly thought about the main female character, sex, or sex with the main female character. Aedion and Rowan were the same character in different colours. And all the girls were the same too - badass but vulnerable and always ready with a snarky comment. The similarities between the two were just too much.

Then there’s the actual structure of the book - like I said, it felt like fanfiction, and like a series of events strung together rather than a book. There wasn’t really any clear structure to speak of, which is why it felt so odd. There was no clear goal at the beginning, so there was no inciting incident, no first plot point etc. It felt like set up for the next book.

And finally, the style. HoF, QoS, and the little chapter of EoS are all completely different. One of the opening chapters has s Fae warrior (I forget which one and also I don’t care) trying to figure out whether a girl with big breasts is a virgin. I think it’s supposed it’s supposed to sound like high fantasy like GRRM, but it just sounds predatory and weird.

There’s actually way more that I now dislike about this series, but I’ve spent too much time on it. I’ll always love the first four (I include TAB) and parts of QoS (”Witchkiller is still the best thing ever), but I’ll never finish it.

Zombie Apocalypse! Chan (skz)

Genre: Mild angst?? Warnings: kinda stressful??? weapon mentions + swearing A/N: Uh, this wasn’t requested, but I wanna finish this series even though it isn’t all that popular asjkhdk hope you enjoy! 

As Chan is the leader of Stray kids naturally he is the leader of basically everything else even during the apocalypse 

Goes on every single supply run because he is in charge and main protector of his family!

Coordinates all of the plans and strategies of how to enter buildings they haven't been to before and how to get gas out of cars as fast as possible 

He organises every supply run to the exact detail and times everything so they can keep tabs on everyone 

When it all started he,,,, was absolutely calm on the outside

They knew it was coming because they’d seen it on the news in other countries but when it got to them

He knew exactly what they needed and how to get it

Went to all the right stores, bought walkie talkies and maps and flashlights 

As well as like 70 gallons of bottled water 

Internally he was screaming and panicking but he wouldn't show it 

He was nearly bitten on the first day it got really bad 

Chan was loading all of the wood for the windows and nails and tools etc into the van he rented 1 week before the apocalypse started (he knew what was coming and knew he had to get the van for big amounts of supplies) 

When an old lady was walking fast but also limping towards her car holding bags full of food and water 

He obviously runs over to take her bags and help her load her car 

As they got to her car and she was thanking him profusely he was grabbed by a zombie who pinned him to the car 

The woman was screaming and trying to pull it away from him

It was lunging and snapping its jaw near his face while some more came round the corner into the car park 

It was then and there Chan snapped into full on leader survival badass mode 

He shoved it off and ran round the back of the car so it would follow him and allow the woman to get into the car safely

After she was gone he sprinted to the van and sped home 

Obviously the house was in absolute carnage with various members running around, shouting at each other and trying to patch up the windows 

He just calls them all into one room and explains the plan

Boarding windows is number one, second is adding more deadbolts and chains to ALL the doors, in case one gets busted in

Counting and keeping record of all weapons and supplies is a must 

A few weeks into the apocalypse and things have calmed down, they are starting to run out of food though so they go out for a supply run

Chan plans the route, maps it out and gives them all maps and walkie talkies and timers

Each member is told that they have 5 minutes inside the building before they have to leave, if they are another 5 minutes late that’s when they set off the car alarm so zombies will go to that and not them

He hands out the appropriate guns, even though he doesn’t condone it he knows its necessary for their survival 

and he’s a great shot

When they go, Hyunjin drives while Chan hangs out of the front window checking the surroundings 

The supply runs go pretty smoothly (apart from that one time with Changbin,,,) 

They do it often enough they have enough food and with all the home grown stuff they are almost self sufficient! 

So when Chan starts noticing signs of other people living in the same area as him he starts leaving supply bags and survival kits out 

Very far from their house but,,, he makes sure there is water, bandages and food. Also sometimes some hygiene supplies

Even in the apocalypse Chan is fair and kind, he never lets his humanity waver 

He’s honestly the baddest bitch ever, he knows his duty, he knows his role and he would die to protect his family 

Also wears a bandanna and a leather jacket cos even in the apocalypse he’s gonna be stylish and keep up that emo king appearance 

The stress does get to him sometimes but he NEVER lets the others see, apart from maybe Woojin

He likes to sit on the rooftop and think,, remember everything before it went to shit

And sometimes he cries, feeling the pain and loss everyone has experienced 

The others hear him and they never disturb him, but when he comes inside Jeongin is there to greet him at the bottom of the stairs with a big hug 

The others always give him affection, they owe him so much and he’s such a strong leader 

Even though he refuses to eat before anyone or take any medicine if anyone else is sick

They find a way to take care of their wonderful leader

Take Flight

For @anon on tumblr

Prompt: jealous/ pining T'Challa

Words: 1,402

T’Challa knew he like Everett. He was smart and tactile and always kept cool under pressure. Of course he wasn’t as suave when in Wakanda. People liked to mess with him simply because he was an outsider. It was cute to watch his eyes and posture change when he was listening to someone, trying to figure out if he was given the truth or just another gag. T’Challa thought it made him even more adorable than he already was, and found himself enjoying Everett’s company. Unfortunately he rarely got to spend time with him outside of their business ventures. They traveled a lot together to other countries, mainly the U.S..

Those were interesting flights. They talked over business on them, about Wakanda’s transition. But they also talked about their personal life too. T’Challa liked hearing about Everett’s family and friends back home. He made sure they had a few hours free time in the states for Everett to relax or visit his family.

“I cannot imagine a life away from my family.”

T’Challa told Everett one day on their flight. Everett shrugged.

“Lots of people in my line of work do it. It’s a part of the job. It makes seeing them more special.”

T’Challa knew Everett had a sister he liked to visit, and nieces and nephews. He didn’t have any children himself or a partner. That upset T’Challa somehow. At Everett’s age, it was probably too late to start a family. And family was everything to T’Challa.

T’Challa realized more and more as the weeks drew on that as king he couldn’t always be out of the country, so he was sometimes forced to send Everett off alone. This meant a risk, so he assigned a dora milaje member, Jamia, to protect him on his solo trips. Though already a member, she was much younger than the rest of the women, and the least trained. She did however pose the right skills to act as a personal guard for certain members of importance. T’Challa would have liked to send a more skilled member, but he knew he couldn’t convince Okoye to do it and Jamia needed to get more experience, being one of the youngest members..

“You don’t send her when we go together. Does that make you my bodyguard?”

Everett had teased as he sat across from T’Challa on the jet. T’Challa hadn’t thought of it that way before, but it was a good thought to have. Not that Everett couldn’t handle himself, he knew what he could do with a gun.

“I guess so.”

Back in Wakanda T’Challa called Jamia into his office. She came in wearing her dora milaje armor.

“Yes, my king?”

“Have you had any encounters with Everett when in London?”

There wasn’t a standard of debriefing regarding Everett’s safety outside of Wakanda, so T’Challa decided he should start one. Everett hadn’t said anything about threats to his life or strange situations, but T’Challa hadn’t seen him much all week to bring it up. He watched Jamia shift in her stance, and then stand straight again.

“I don’t think it’s the kings business to know that.”

T’Challa’s eyebrows furrowed, catching a light flush on Jamia’s cheeks. He must have missed something.

“I’m starting a debriefing after your trips together in case we need to keep tabs on certain individuals.”

Jamia averted her gaze, laughing breathlessly before giving an apology.

”Of course me King I would tell you right away if anything were to have went awry.”

She left the room shortly after that. Their awkward exchange stuck with T’Challa. She had thought he meant encounters of an entirely different kind. It could have been an innocent mistake in miscommunication, but T’Challa hadn’t even caught it until she became defensive. Of what? He couldn’t think nothing of it.

He was scheduled to attend a meeting with Everett the following weekend and decided to invite Jamia to escort them, just to see first hand if their interactions were more than just professional. On the plane he sat across from Everett, and Jamia sat to the side, studying. It was a commercial plane despite them being the only passengers, and at some point a flight attendant came out with a couple glasses of drinks.

“Gentlemen.”

She spoke, leaning over to hand the men their drinks. Everett gave a curt thank you and T’Challa gave a nod. Everett took a sip from his drink, seeming to appreciate it with a loud exhale.

“That is good.”

He looked to T’Challa, who suppressed his large grin at Everett’s satisfaction.

“I’m surprised you remember the taste.”

Earlier that week they attended a small formal dinner where the drink was served along with desert. Everett obviously hadn’t had it before, and he practically got drunk off it.

“It is isn’t it? Delicious. Barrel it out of Wakanda and you’d make a fortune and a half.”

T’Challa laughed at Everett’s unusual cadence. Just then he winked at T’Challa, so quickly and smoothly T’Challa thought he imagined it. He parted his mouth to say something when Everett began shifting in his chair. T’Challa held his breath.

“Jamia, come here.”

T’Challa’s face fell. Jamia set down her book and looked over to them, not quite understanding. Everett held out his glass. She looked from T’Challa to Everett.

“We’re not permitted to drink when on duty.”

The Dora Milaje. The nations esteemed warriors. Everett’s face contorted, glancing to T’Challa for some part of explanation. He decided not to give one.

“Nonsense have some.”

Everett smiled, and with no reservations from T’Challa, Jamia leaned over her seat and outstretched her arm. She took the glass into her strong but delicate fingers, and brought it to her lips, her eyes locked with Everett’s. She returned the glass and Everett downed what little was left of it. It was the only indication throughout the whole trip of a relationship between the two, but T’Challa could see in that one exchange that there had been something between them, something still there. He sent her with Everett on more trips after that, only going himself when absolutely necessary. After a month of this he realized his absence was taking a sour toll with Everett, who confronted him about it one day.

“Is it always going to be like this?”

They were in T’Challa’s office, after a debriefing.

“I have more important things to do than attend meetings with you.”

T’Challa realized he must’ve sounded like a complete jerk, but he had other frustrations on his mind and couldn’t help how his words came out. Everett paced around before finding a response.

“I thought you liked our trips. Why the sudden change in attitude?”

T’Challa sighed. He hadn’t had a decent conversation with Everett outside of work in weeks.

“Is that what you thought? ‘Cause I thought you’d appreciate the gesture in my giving you time to spend with Jamia. Like your wingman.”

Everett raised his brows in surprise, scoffing.

“She’s a young girl. She deserves to have fun while she still can.”

T’Challa wanted to explode.

“Everett. I understand. I suggest you stop talking.”

“No I don’t think you do.”

T’Challa could see Everett getting angry and he just wished for it to stop. He looked at Everett with a soft defeated look. They both calmed down. Everett spoke fondly next.

“She reminds me of myself. She’s skillful, driven and smart. She has a lot of potential. And when I was around her age I dove into my work and didn’t get a lot of chances to be young and have fun. I’m sorry if that undermines what you’re doing here.”

T’Challa couldn’t believe Everett’s words. He was so blinded by his jealousy, he couldn’t see that their instant connection was because they were the same.

“I am sorry for lashing out on you. You didn’t deserve that.”

And then a pause as T’Challa hesitantly continued on the subject.

“How can I fix this?”

Everett stared back at T'Challa for a few seconds before grinning ear to ear.

“I know one way.”

T’Challa couldn’t say he regretted the transpiring events, but somehow getting drunk with Everett Ross wasn’t the worst way to end a month long period of heartache.

Epilogue: T’Challa suggest Jamia get more training and she quickly becomes one of the fastest learners in the dora milaje, upgrading from a lower level guard to a fierce warrior like Okoye.

Corporate Event Benefits in the Disney Years Chapter Eleven Part Two

Corporate Event Benefits a lot of people. Any job that deals with employees would always need some kind of stress reliever, a way of knowing each other, getting the interest of the crowd, etc.… Everybody needs an event to make jobs more interesting and manageable. So to continue on with part 2 of chapter eleven, so Peter and I became fast friends as we were both functional beverage consumers. When our schedules allowed (which was about every day, mind you), we would meet up in the Monorail Bar to discuss our events of the last twenty-four hours and maybe have a fruit juice or something. It was a great way for us to get to know each other outside of our jobs, but it could also get pricey fast (our monthly bar tab was scandalous, as I’m sure some of the others we worked with could attest to). Back then everyone drank a lot, and especially with clients. It was simply a way for professionals to be sociable, even if it meant you got a little sideways from time to time. That sort of culture doesn’t exist these days, at least not in the same way: you might be got out for drinks with coworkers once in a while, but if you did it every night it’s a safe bet that someone is losing their job. But it was simply different then, and I can remember making my rounds being a little happier than I should have been on more than a few occasions. Fortunately, I was the kind of imbiber that could not show to what extent my happiness ratio was. Back then we worked incredible hours. My average day would normally be from about 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM and mostly to 10:00 PM, especially when we had shows or clients in-house. With hours like that, it also helped as a way to unwind.

We had purchased a very large inventory of audiovisual equipment to meet the needs of our incoming groups. Back then, the king of projectors was the Kodak Ektagraphic Projector. With producers lining up to create presentations with as many projectors in use at the same time as possible, a lot of presentations were shifting to video. While I can’t remember who the top producer of these projectors was back then (it was, after all, about 45 years ago), they cost between $45,000.00 to $60,000.00 dollars each, and any AV service worth its salt needed at least 6 of them in inventory. I’m sure anyone in the business back then could tell you who the primary manufacturer of these projectors was. With today’s technologies, a lot of these providers have long gone out of business, especially with the introduction of laser projectors commonly used today (I could write a book on this subject, and in fact, there probably is one out there). You can buy a state of the art presentation video projector for about $15,000.00 to $20,000.00, which is still a lot for an individual but not a company. I mention this only because any audio-visual equipment rental business back then would have to spend almost all their profits each year just to keep up with the technology. We at Disney did everything we could just to keep up ourselves. From time to time we would have to outsource equipment from outside providers just to meet the needs of clients as well as our own events, and sometimes doing just that could be a struggle.

Just as an aside, I’d like to take a moment to drive a point home. Disney as a company is thought of like a giant, well-oiled machine, and that reputation is well deserved. As I mentioned early on, the modern event planning industry owes a great deal to the Walt Disney Company. But Disney, like every other company on the planet, is comprised of people just like you and me. If it ever seems like Disney is on top, it’s not because the entity itself is incredibly powerful. It’s because of the people who are willing to make sacrifices and think fast in order to get all the pieces in place. This doesn’t stop being true no matter how successful you are. Part of this is accepting that you can’t always do everything yourself, or even in-house. These days I’m sure Walt Disney World is filled to the rafters with all of the equipment they could ever use, but if something unexpected happens I doubt they’d be too big on their reputation to get outside help. It’s all about flexibility.

In Orlando back then, there were only two sources for audiovisual rental equipment, the largest being a company called Photo Sound, and another one in Winter Park which was quite small and at the time did not deliver to Disney due to the distance from its office. Photo Sound, on the other hand, was not open after 5:00 PM and would only deliver to Disney on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It also was not open on Sunday. So if you needed something, you would have to drive to their office to pick up what you needed.  If Photo Sound would have recognized how huge Disney’s needs for equipment would have been back then, they would be huge today.   I was glad they were not so accommodating as it gave me an idea that ultimately made me a fortune (but not, of course, when I was still at Disney).

Sorry to have spent so much time on the AV side of Technical Services equipment needs and challenges. But it will become perfectly clear in future chapters. Obviously, all this equipment is important to what happens at Walt Disney World. That said, let me get back on track.

Once the Contemporary, Polynesian and other live venues were open and conferences were coming into the properties, we took delivery of the corporate themed events that Reid Carlson had designed and we were ready to go. As I mentioned before, I knew Reid from my Pasadena Playhouse days. The only way we could attract Reid to join us was to get a little creative in how he was compensated. We did it by making him work a tremendous amount of, shall we say, over time. We also got some clearance from the Entertainment Division as well as some blessings from WED. Reid and I became close friends for many years until I made a change which will be the subject of another chapter about a different era.

But even with all of these things going smoothly there were some challenges, as we needed to get the stagehands and technicians to support the production and themed event installations, presentations operations, and removals. This goes back to my real problem, which was to get enough qualified personnel to support our volume of activities. We also needed trucks and vans on top of the personnel issues. Being in the Facilities Division and not the Entertainment Division was creating some problems, especially in the area of operator compensation versus what was being paid to some, like classifications in the Facilities Division. In short, our people were being grossly underpaid, making it difficult getting the qualified personnel. We needed to support our growing responsibilities, and while we had a crack team of volunteers to build the grand opening event, that simply wouldn’t be sustainable on a full-time basis (nor would it be legal, I’m sure). Getting talented hands on board and on payroll was the key to solving many, if not all, of our labor issues. It may surprise you to learn that Disney was union, and at the beginning had set up a union council. It came up with a compensation schedule for all job classifications and all the various unions represented in the park, and together they came up with an agreement that would be binding for a five year period and then renegotiated at that time. While the pay may have been good for some departments, the amount of labor required in some didn’t meet the expectations of people we wanted to hire, putting us in something of a bind. Burnout was a real risk with those we did have and with labor spread thin as it was, we couldn’t afford to lose those we already had.

The next chapter of the Disney Years will address how we ultimately solved these challenges.

The post Corporate Event Benefits in the Disney Years Chapter Eleven Part Two appeared first on Ray.

from Ray https://rayramsay.com/corporate-event-benefits/

Atlantis

*flop* Night human, hello! Hello I'm just beat I know the feeling. ...And it might be impeccable timing! Looks like the site is down. Awwwww, no We could... watch a movie instead? Did I somehow manage not to miss anything? A movie sounds excellent. Any suggestions? Hmmmmmmmmmmm let me check my list How about... Atlantis? Works for me! I have no objection.

Apparently we are watching Jeepers Creepers, and we are going to like it. Hmmm. Hmm, it's opening just fine in another tab. Here, try this instead https://www.watchcartoononline.io/atlantis-the-lost-empire

Atlantis: The Lost Empire | Watch cartoons online, Watch anime online, English dub anime Watch Atlantis: The Lost Empire online free with HQ / high quailty. Stream movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire.A large tidal wave triggered by a distant explosion threatens

watchcartoononline.io

Oh, watchcartoononline, why don't I ever refer to you first? Just, uh, ignore the ads. I forget they're there, having blocked the hell out of them long ago There we go! Beautiful! The end. That is not really a warning. hello! Hello! Whoop, glowy eyes of foreboding! And then they drowned. Shoosh. Uranium! Either that, or we forgot another relic on Earth. Earth is like a gosh-darn magnet for anything you carelessly shoot into space for some reason It may be due to Unicron being the core. He attracts chaos. Is that a shrine probably Oh my gosh Oh my gosh he's like Linguistics Mulder He does not realize this is always a setup to being murdered. At least he's being delightful about sending Milo off to almost-certain doom They really go all out on every facial expression. They do! I do not trust this weird human. omg kity This little human's adorable. Does he have a match in his mouth Hello main villain, probably That's not a trustworthy chin. No indeed. Exactly. Why was he crossing his digits behind his back? Oh my god what .... Apparently Milo's body belongs to the crew and they'd like to make that clear right off the bat. It's like everyone on this ship stopped giving even a single shit. Serpents do not have limbs. Not with THAT attitude, they don't She taunted Murphy. Well, that man is dead. And now they all die. oh, yeah, this movie has an incredible body count Excellent. Fun! This thing sure is... crabby. Good to get the cannon fodder out of the way early. That way no one misses them. yeah, it's really put them in a pinch Something something... shell? How fortunate they are that the air is still breathable down there. That's nothing, don't you remember Treasure Planet Treasure Planet had 'space technology' as a cheat. hahahha Awwww. dude, ASK qué es esto Wheeljack! Red! Hello, hello same ... Fireflies. Of course. Uh Oh What about, uh Their explosives And then they died. Heh. i like this guy Well Convenient power in the short term, but overuse will give you cancer. uhhh Shhh, shhh, that's definitely how language works. The surface dwellers also introduce new viruses into the local population. why is that human magnus Called it We don't trust his chin. I'm pretty sure that's going to turn out to be an enormous slur on Magnus GOOD Peaceful explorers, with lots of explosives I do not like the king's voice. Does this story really require the little ratman? heh. that's a man???? Who wouldn't want a story with a bizarre earth-fetishist rat-man Without the ratman, who else would grind in the obnoxiousness? i feel like my boy the explosives guy could give us everything beepbeep How does the linguist fail at pronouncing a name given to him? i think humans have a tongue swelling thing when they see someone pretty Less Ratman and Dr. Touches, more explosive human. more explosions general bring on the booms A convenient history of Atlantis. And then he died of the bends. Tragic. Shoosh, the bends don't exist, just like there's magically fresh air down here oh frag Whoop damn Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, Magnus. Indeed I'm tellin' ya, the mech's gonna turn OH a BIG STATUE Or maybe, uh literally in his head His eyes DO look kinda crystally yeah so do mine Well, that looks safe ...Oh. It's because he looked This is probably not a good sign. Ohhhhhh my This is probably fine. Huh. It was fine. ALSO probably fine W What flowers why Smoke up what air they have left. That's helpful. Nobody we knew I love explosives human. How are they planning on getting back to the surface? OH HEY Oh great there goes alpha trion He sounds like Sentinel. I dislike it. He got that story out pretty smoothly for someone half a minute from death. He died on purpose, to get out of dealing with this mess. explosives guy is high all day every day Truly your spirit human. i love him They just so happened to bring tiny planes with them. Just in case. apparently! You never know when you're going to need tiny planes under the ocean. HA ohhh brutal How is she alive after that She did not survive that fall. damn magnus hahahaah his face oh scrap hahahah wow Nice wow Here comes Magnus! now magnus can't talk scrap about me bein' on crystals Hah! And they flood Atlantis with lava. Perfect. Well then They have known each other for about two hours. But it felt like three. ha GIVE HIM A HUG. Now wash that hand. That hand will never be clean. oof seaspray used to crack my spinal strut over his leg if i whined about it enough Nice. "But we WON'T say that, because it's SECRET" how did humans put magnus and me in this so well Dumb luck. There's apparently an awful sequel. technically it's actually three episodes to a tv show that got canned before it made it to air, and they thought they'd flog it direct to video Can we go about our lives, without suffering through the awful sequel? technically it's actually three episodes to a tv show that got canned before it made it to air, and they thought they'd flog it direct to video Can we go about our lives, without suffering through the awful sequel? Or will knowing it is out there haunt us relentlessly? uho h I'm up for it if you folks are. Welllllllll... Sure, I have not been tormented enough. Sure, why not watch something to viciously mock It probably is not worse than the pig sequels. Nothing could be worse than the pig sequels. Gotta run, Red. Thanks for the party Always a pleasure! See you! Behold! Atlantis on a tenth of the budget And then they died. Remember those beautiful shots from the first movie? None of that here! Lava whales. Lava whales. Of course. So it heals rock, too? I should know better than to ask why, and yet, it is the only question. Wasn't that thing... bigger? You probably aren't. Oh, it's crying His rock looks upset at what his city has become. their smiles look unnatural She looks weird OH JOY. A PET MASCOT The lava tubes. And a giant crab. No. Not allowed. Ew. I hate their relationship. All the food is just, like. Bowls of dyed pasta. You live in Atlantis, you eat noodles. Forever. Oh, Kida, what have they done to you? That's ridiculous They live UNDER THE OCEAN Surely they're familiar with, like, swimming, floating, drowning Yes, make sure you bring the animal with you. Where would they be without their mascot Perhaps less drowning. The real kraken is that grim faced weirdo. Gettin' a little Shadow Over Innsmouth here ewwww, don't touch it t's like watching animatronics Why do they even have an inn if they hate visitors so much what's with her FACE . . . She cannot actually focus on anyone. Will-o-wisps? Heh Rat-man's grimace will follow you to your dreams I despise everything about Rat-man. W...what Maybe he just has one of the magic life-extending crystals I hate that Rat-man is contributing more than he ever did in the good movie. He should never move the plot forward. and yet, he is "Ha, now you can't complain that he's useless!" I will complain regardless. Kray-ken. It like... patted him gosh, maybe he's not the one in charge here I never thought a story about a tentacle monster could be so unappealing. Stop moving the plot forward, Rat-man! How dare he contribute? And they crush their friend with roof debris. Gasp. Uh... ... Ominous. I thought there was going to be a twist where it was a tiny tentacle monster they do not get paid enough for this Also I feel like nothing was really... explained Of course it wasn't. Milo who showed up three weeks ago knows more than her, of course. Are they just planning on investigating nonsense around the world? Why not use the magic healing crysta on him Too much work. gosh it's ALMOST like the coyotes are MADE OF SAND, animated by some magic force Jinkies! ... This bit is older than I am. Oh, Kida... So there's no theft in Atlantis, huh Had not been invented yet. Well, HE'S evil Because you know the writers of this nonsense wanted to be timeline accurate. Him? No! Every problem is going to have a spooky old man. I keep expecting to see Wile E Coyote and the roadrunner in this landscape This seems offensive to someone. You think? I can't get past how weird everyone looks I mean, Rat-man took a lateral move, but still Gosh, who's surprised Wait, did Rat-man just contribute to the plot again More than old man Kakashi. Because surely he won't just go to the cave and steal everything. Rat-man's carrying the plot and I'm not okay with that. ... oh wow. He's the most important character in this story It's, like, all about his dirt-eating Oh so it's a big museum The adventures of Rat-man and friends. wow his voice will just never stop cracking, will it Stop touching each other. And then he killed them. WOW who would have GUESSED Of course we have to have silly implausible knockout gas. Why even bother tying them up? Just kill them while they are unconscious. Likes gloating? Please, please kill them while they're unconscious. I don't like Milo's little pantaloons or shapely calves. Someone had to draw them. Guess SOMEbody's about to get sandblasted But for the pot they broke, they must die. Don't do it, Kakashi! Tell me your secret. "well if I told you it wouldn't be a secret, would it" "We love you, old man Jicama." ... Did Odin broke into his house. Did Odin break into this guy's I mean I sthis where theis is going What even is this premise? I mean I guess he can have it None of this could have less to do with anything. Oh dude you are WAY off they wanted to do a multi-season tv show like this ...Or, uh. Maybe not Then he is simply an insane man who is good at training birds. Dead. Pffffff . . . . . . . "The cum filling?" ...What I also heard that. And again, ratman is essential to the plot. ....Ewwwwww, he dressed her I think he is very confused abou this mythos, also I feel concussed. ...Did anyone else just see the explosives human disassociate out of his body? They've all been doing that The image bleed has been very prevalent. I haven't seen it get quite as bad as that. Uh... huh. So they're like boiling the ocean That's a little grim Rest in peace, fishermen. Or not. Rejoin the world, just in time to participate in a World War. Excellent plan. Wait there's a child? And contract polio. Was she like born DURING the thousands of years under the sea? Not quite as bad as the pig sequel, but still too reliant on the ratman. well that was... underwhelming That was wretched. I'm on the cusp of powering down, but thank you all for coming and enduring this. Thank you for hosting this terrible assortment of bad ideas. Well. It's what I do! Good night! Thanks for the stream. Good night! Good night! Thanks for the stream. Good night! Thank *you* for the movie suggestion, night human!