#little bit of unnecessary clarification for this work:
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office encounters [l.jh]
⇒ woozi x reader
⇒ word count: don’t know sorry.. i typed half in my notes and half on tumblr bc i got inspired ☠️ let’s say 4k?
⇒ warnings: just some insults but nothing too crazy
⇒ content: rivals to lovers; some kissing yadda yadda; little bit of girl bossing
⇒ note: hello pls don’t @ me about how long it’s been i already know.. didn’t think this would mark my return bc i wrote this almost a year ago but lowkey i kinda cooked with this one so i thought i’d share.. also side note PLEASE come to my inbox if you find an error bc i literally proofread like 14 times looking for this one error i saw before but it just disappeared or smth idk so if you find it i’ll give you a brownie!!! anyways 시작해볼까요
“You look pretty today.”
Jihoon from corporate communication usually has a sarcastic quip for you when you cross paths in the copy room. Where humor comes easy for him, annoyance comes easy for you the same. You both seem to get on each other’s nerves in all the right ways; never enough to report the other to HR, but enough that you’d steer clear of him the entire day if he said something that got under your skin. Something like, “Why’s marketing’s posters suck so bad?” He’ll ask, and subsequently answer himself with, “Oh, that’s right. ‘Cause you’re the one making them.” Either he doesn’t know you spend so much time figuring out which design looks best, or he knows and purposely wants to get you riled up. It works, because you’re an emotional person and if someone criticizes your work, it feels like a personal attack.
This time, though, you’re making flyers for the office yard sale slash fundraiser, and he’s making copies of coupons for the local stores. Since there are about forty floors in your building, you’ll easily be occupied for at least two hours, hanging multiple flyers on each floor. Jihoon has his hands full as well, he makes one hundred copies for each store, with there being four stores total in the area. Luckily, you go to the copier first, so when he walks in, you quickly rest with a smug smile on your face.
“Hey,” he says casually. You’re waiting for him to tell you to hurry your ass up on the copier but he doesn’t. Hey?
Instead, you respond, “Hi,” and turn back to the copier to see how many sheets are left. Still sixty five.
“You look pretty today.” He tries next. You almost hit cancel on the print job right then and there. How can he say something like that. You look pretty today? Try again, Lee! It’s not gonna work!
You don’t immediately thank him for his compliment. You just think that somehow, he’ll add in a “—pretty ugly!” and then laugh it off. That’s the Jihoon you know. Not this “hey” man. Usually when you walk into the copy room, he groans and rolls his eyes. He always has a dig ready, too. “Didn’t realise it was loser day at the copy machine.” He’d say. You always have something to come back at him with. “Must be why you’re here.” It doesn’t seem like he’ll bicker with you today at all.
The display on the machine says there’s still forty sheets left. That means you can either pretend you left something at your desk and quickly exit the room until it’s done, or you can brave it and see what this guy is up to.
The second one. “I look pretty today? What are you up to?” You narrow your eyes at him, assuming there’s either a catch or some sort of joke hidden in his praise.
“No gimmicks,” he shrugs. “I just call it like I see it.” Oh, okay.
He’s standing on one side of the machine with you at the other. The polite smile stained on his face drives you up a wall. You feel like if you reciprocate it, it’ll be overkill. Him complimenting you doesn’t change the fact that you are office enemies. His team and your team often clash, as they’re the ones that share your team’s ideas with the higher ups, only after an intense filtering which often strips your ideas down to nothing. It always sucks because he acts so smug about it when your ideas don’t get pitched how you envisioned them. “Get some better ideas then,” he’d say. Of course, you can’t go out like that, so you tell him “Tell your team to think of one idea to begin with. You get your rocks off by stealing ours, your department would be helpless without us.” It’s mostly true, but sometimes, Jihoon has good ideas. When you two are having a good day, you’ll show each other ideas and give helpful feedback. But that usually doesn’t happen if either one of you has a quip locked and loaded already.
“Didn’t realise your mouth was able to produce compliments when it comes to me.” Twenty two sheets left. He reaches over you for the mini scotch tape. “You know, usually when someone compliments you, you just say thank you and forget about it in five minutes.” While he focuses on his task with the tape, you stare at the display on the copier and watch the number of sheets remaining go down, just so you don’t have to look at him.
He’s never called you pretty before. You need everyone to understand this. The only times he compliments you are rare and they’re always work related. Nice job during that tug of war. Those prints look great. These tchotchke designs would surely sell well. The dessert you brought to the potluck was delicious.
New to the list: you look pretty today.
You’re not sure how to feel internally, but externally, your mind is already made up. You’re annoyed. How could he say something like that with such a serious face and not be joking? Why couldn’t he be joking?
“I would say thank you, but I don’t know what this is.” He raises his eyebrows at your comment. “This? I don’t know what it is either because I can’t figure out what you’re talking about.”
The copier chimes to tell you the print job is finished. You log out of the machine and move aside to collect your sheets. You’ll definitely have to make a second trip—and perhaps with a box of some sort to hold all of the sheets—but you just want to leave this room.
Jihoon starts to grab a stack of the sheets as well. “Where are these going?” He asks, sounding nothing but sincere.
“Don’t know yet. I have to put them on each floor, though. I’ll find something to put them in in a little bit.”
“D’you need help?”
You set the sheets down. “Okay, listen. I was fine playing that game three minutes ago, but I don’t get it. Every day you look at me like the bane of your existence. You tell me my designs suck, you only fill my tea mug halfway when I ask for some, and you hog the copy machine whenever I need to use it. What gives?”
It would be hard to refute the fact that Jihoon is very handsome, and you have imagined an alternate universe where he was nice to you and even flirted with you, but nothing past that. You’ve never thought of what it would be like to be his girlfriend, to wake up in the morning beside him, to have him fill your tea mug up until it’s full, to meet in the copy room to steal a few extra kisses—okay, maybe a couple times you’ve thought of this. But it almost always gets overshadowed by his behaviour towards you. He is rude to you. He doesn’t like you enough to give up the act, but he also doesn’t hate you enough to ignore you completely. He has some sort of balance that only works with you. He playfully fights with other coworkers, but only as a stand-alone. Your feud is cemented into the very foundations of the building you each show up to every morning at seven o’clock on the dot. It’s ritualistic. It’s familiar. It sucks.
Jihoon leans against the wall and crosses his arms. “What gives? I just think you look pretty today. Can’t a man compliment his pretty coworker once? It’s really not that unheard of, but if you think something else is going on, you’re right. I like you. I never said it before because I assumed you also liked me which is why we do what we do, but I’m getting the feeling you don’t feel the same way which is fine. We can just go back to how we were and forget this ever happened.”
You take the stack of copies you were holding before and quickly leave the room. Once they’re placed on your desk, you awkwardly make your way back to the copy room and get the next set of sheets. Jihoon hasn’t moved from his position against the wall even after you’ve signed off of the machine and relocated the copies out of the way.
Truthfully, you just didn’t know what to say. Him confessing this way was not only unexpected, but also a bit annoying. To think, he’s liked you all this time but consistently and routinely found enjoyment in belittling you. Granted, you also took part in it against him, but only as retaliation and defense for yourself. The whole reason this rivalry started was because he made a comment against you. Why would you be mean to someone you like?
The week goes by slowly without Jihoon’s teasing. He comes by your cubicle once to offer you a mini cupcake from the convenience store on the fifth floor. You decline. He doesn’t come back again.
You thought of pulling him aside to really unpack and discuss everything, but then you consider how much worse it could get if you do that. Things are already pretty bad if neither of you have spoken or even just said hi to each other.
By Friday of the next week, though, you’ve had it with the silence. Your cubicle conveniently is in view of the copy room so you slyly watch the door waiting for Jihoon to go in there. He always prints to-do sheets on Friday for everyone in his department for the following week. At eleven on the dot, you see him disappear in there and you make your move immediately, booking it for the room.
You casually walk in and shut the door, but not before making sure no one was coming. No one really likes it when the door to the copy room is shut because people have been caught doing … things in there, but this shouldn’t take you long. Definitely not enough time to do … things with anyone.
“Hey,” You try, in the same tone as he used with you last week. He looks up from the machine and gives you a confused yet tired look. “What are you doing?” He sighs.
“You look pretty today.” You smile, hopping up on the counter and swinging your legs. He finishes signing in on the printer and runs his print job. He turns around to face you fully. “If you’re here to make fun of me for being nice to you, I think it’s best you stop now because I don’t find it amusing.”
You grin at him. “The opposite actually. I think it’s cute that you like me, but I really wish you would’ve asked me on a date first. And maybe just been nicer to begin with?” Both your eyes dart to the door as a polite knock is heard from the outside. You jump down from the counter and place your hands on Jihoon’s shoulders from behind. Your head rounds the side of his face. “Walk me to my car later?” And he agrees.
You go to let the person in and see yourself out. It feels a bit elementary, that proposal. Walk me to my car? gives the same energy as walk me home from the bus stop? and if you weren’t already getting some twisted wave of déjà vu, you definitely are now.
You didn’t know Jihoon until last year when he started working for this company. The previous person in his position suffered an extreme illness that forced them to resign so he promptly had to fill their position. He wasn’t trained that well, but he’s done the best he could thus far. You don’t know what you would do if he wasn’t in the office. Of course, some of your coworkers are also people you get drinks with from time to time, but Jihoon feels the most… familiar. Despite having never met with him outside of the office, he feels like the most grounding person since he doesn’t put on any front or act with you. You wouldn’t let him either. That’s why his confession feels so out of left field on the one hand, but normal on the other. He doesn’t hide how he feels from you, but he must have if he’s liked you and hasn’t said it until now.
Later comes. It’s 3:42 PM when you finally wrap it up for the day. Jihoon usually leaves earlier than you, but it appears he waited to clock out so you two would leave at the same time.
Okay, you’ll admit that’s sweet. You don’t think you’d do the same for him, but only because you don’t like your job enough to stay any later.
He meets you at your cubicle. “All done?” He asks, moving into your space to help you with your things. “Yep. If you could just carry this bag for me, that would be great, thank you.” He takes the bag from you with no qualms and waits patiently as you gather the rest of your belongings.
You were sadly unable to finish all the work you meant to get done today, so you’re leaving with a bit of homework—namely designing some flyers for part two of the yard sale slash fundraiser. The first fundraiser didn’t go as planned, so the upper level management suggested a second instalment.
Jihoon probably has the same amount of work too, so you wonder how he’s leaving the office empty handed.
On the elevator ride down, neither of you say anything. All you do is stare at the bright red floor descent display and wait until it gets to 1. Upon this happening, Jihoon lets you off first and you lead the way to the parking garage.
“I take it you didn’t get a lot done today?” He wonders, surveying the various items you’re carrying. “Sadly. Honestly, if Claudette hadn’t announced the second fundraiser, I’d be as carefree and empty handed as you.” You meant to come off as nonchalant, but judging by the way Jihoon completely stopped in his tracks upon your completion of the sentence, it was everything but that. “Carefree and empty handed?” He parrots in disbelief.
“CC is scrambling to get Q3 numbers up before having to report to corporate and nothing is working. Honestly, if Claudette didn’t conjure up another fundraiser, you would’ve had to find another sad sap to carry your things to your car because I wouldn’t be here right now.” He explains, which makes you laugh a bit but otherwise frown. You didn’t realise the company’s numbers were so far down that the fundraiser is essentially a double edged sword, but you figured it couldn’t have been for no reason.
Jihoon has always been very efficient with his work, even if about two months ago (maybe even less) you would’ve scoffed and said otherwise. “You’ll figure it out. You always do.” You say, meaning to be encouraging but not entirely sure if it came off that way. “Thanks. You too.”
With your hands full, you couldn’t grab your keys to unlock your car so you have Jihoon do it for you. “Where is this bag going?” He holds it up just in case you forgot which bag it is. “Uh, you can just throw it in the backseat. Well, don’t literally throw it but um—”
“I got it.” He chuckles at your disorganised thoughts.
Once all of your things are settled in the car, you close everything up and stand face to face with Jihoon. “Thank you for the help, I really appreciate it.” You say. “Anytime. I hope you get all your work done.” You reflect the wish back to him. Sadly, you guys just awkwardly stand there for a bit before realising this conversation is not going anywhere else.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, hm? You have my number, right?” He nods and bids you goodbye. You get into your car but don’t start it. Instead, you watch through your rearview mirror as Jihoon turns the corner to the staircase. Had you known his car was on a different level, you would’ve offered to drop him off since the parking garage’s elevator is out of commission. However, in hindsight, the conversation was already awkward enough.
Later that night, you two text back and forth for multiple hours. All the way until 2AM you guys were exchanging messages. He’s really a sweet guy even over text.
At 2:19, he texts you goodnight and says he’ll see you in the morning.
In the morning, like you expected, you see Jihoon milling about the office floor. He sends you a wave, but his hands are full so it’s nothing more than that. You try to catch him to offer your help, but he disappears in an instant.
The flyers you were supposed to make were only half done because most of your time last night was spent talking to Jihoon. You’re extremely guilty, and you feel horrible because you know all the work you have will carry into the weekend, but you made your bed.
Eventually, Jihoon visits you at your cubicle and apologises for keeping you up last night. “It’s not your fault. I wanted to talk to you.” He smiles at this and gives your shoulder a supportive pat. “You’ll get it done.”
For the rest of the day, he leaves you alone—other than bringing you a mug of tea—and honestly, that was for the best. You do manage to catch up on and finish all the work so you text Jihoon the good news. He suggests ice cream after work to celebrate and you agree.
Your manager stops by your cubicle to compliment your hard work. “And I saw you being extra smiley with Jihoon. Good luck.” Before you can refute her statement with any type of defense, she disappears.
Extra smiley. Hm.
At the end of the day, Jihoon meets you at your cubicle once again and this time, you don’t have anything for him to carry except your comically large tote bag that you bring into the office everyday. Before you two leave, you grab your heels from under your desk that you change out of everyday upon arrival to the office. You attempt to put them in your bag, but Jihoon shakes his head. “Put those on.”
“Why?”
“We’re going out to dinner. As a date.” He reveals. You drop the heels back on the floor. “You really are a sad sap.” You remark, sliding one of your sneakers off. “Not for everyone.”
“So you’re saying I’m special?”
“Something like that, yeah.” He speaks nonchalantly. Coming from him, though, these words mean a lot to you. Ever since his initial confession, you can tell not all of his confidence is there. But it’s your goal to show him that he doesn’t have to try as hard, he’s already got you.
As you struggle with getting your sock off, Jihoon groans. “Hurry up, the reservation is for six o’clock.”
You raise an eyebrow. “Reservation? Wow, you must really like me.” He watches as you slip the other heel on. “You know that already. Come on.” He grabs your hand and leads you to the elevator. You press the down button and wait for the elevator to come up. In that time, Jihoon takes your bag from you and fixes the wrinkles in your dress.
The two of you step into the elevator and after hitting 1, the doors close and it begins its descent. In the reflective doors, Jihoon stares at you. “You’re so pretty.” He says. “Am I?” You respond. He nods. “Thank you, my sad sap.” You add, pausing for dramatic effect.
“Okay, you were pretty until about five seconds ago.” He clarifies, but holds your hand tighter all the while. He thinks maybe you’re right, he is a sad sap. But only when it comes to you.
[the end]
SIKEEEEE
BONUS
You’re almost giggling on your way to the copy room. As soon as you saw Jihoon go in there, you knew it was your cue. It wasn’t any type of plan or anything, but lately, you guys have only been able to meet in the copy room because everyone has gotten extremely suspicious of you guys and you didn’t wanna say anything.
As soon as you make it to the room, you shut the door and see your boyfriend already working on the machine. You hop up and make your place on the counter while Jihoon does his thing. “Clear?” He asks with his back to you. “Clear. For now. Come here.” You hold your arms out just as he turns to you and he makes his way over. “Missed you last night.” You whisper. He leans in to your embrace and presses a kiss to your lips. “Me too. Let’s get dinner tonight.” All your plans with Jihoon have been spontaneous because the workload has been unpredictable lately. If you both end the day with no incomplete assignments, you’ll go out and do something together, but if not, you save it for another day.
His print job ends and he reluctantly breaks away from you to go grab his copies. There’s only maybe twenty in the stack, but he asks you if you have any to make. You hand him the sheet you’re copying and he starts it up for you while you wait patiently on the counter. You zone out to the sound of Jihoon clicking around on the printer settings, so much so that you don’t hear him when he asks you how many copies you need. He asks again, “How many copies, baby?”
“Oh! Sorry, thirty-six please.” He’s not annoyed you weren’t listening. In fact, he smiles a little bit and is amused.
He inputs the amount you need and waits for the machine to start printing before making his way back to you. “What do you feel like for dinner?” He asks, caging you in with his arms. “Not sure, but not seafood.”
He pouts. “But baby, I love seafood.”
“Then you can go get seafood and I’ll stay home and watch Queen of Tears.” He gasps at this idea. Even though you’re not serious, he fakes being upset for a second.
A moment later, the door opens and your manager Claudette walks in. She doesn’t see you two right away, but once she does, she says “Oh brother,” and walks right out. She leaves the door open and you can hear her call out to someone else and say, “You owe me twenty dollars!”
You and Jihoon exchange a look. “Who do you think she’s talking to?” You ask him. He pauses for a second and moves away from you. “Me.”
“What?” But he’s already on his way out of the room. “See you later!” He doesn’t realise that he’s forgotten his copies so you’ll definitely be seeing him again soon.
The office will definitely be on fire by tomorrow with this news, you’re already aware. On the bright side, though, you can finally celebrate your first public couple activity: getting bullied by the entire office.
[the end (real)]
masterlist
#HELLO CARATDEUL WHATS UP#certainly has been a while#little bit of unnecessary clarification for this work:#i like to be happy so#i purposely didn’t bring up or entertain the idea of the relationship not working out#esp because they’re coworkers#ppl always like don’t date your coworkers#but i wanna be happy#and it’s my return so we’re being happy BITCHES#woozi x reader#woozi fanfic#lee jihoon x reader#woozi imagines#woozi scenarios#lee jihoon imagines#lee jihoon fluff#woozi fluff
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The Käärijä Research Paper (tm)
aka: Error Analysis of the Use of English Articles in Jere Pöyhönen Interviews in 2023
(Before we start, a couple of clarifications: firstly, I am a linguistics student and this research was my final project for my psycholinguistics course, secondly, this was a group research and I have gotten permission from my friends to share these results with y'all so tysm to them, and lastly, the og work is LONG, 50 pages long, so I'm condensing it into the important bits)
Findings and explanations under the cut <3
Before sharing the actual research, i'm going to share some important terms for you guys to understand the overall layout of this work.
Error analysis: kind of self explanatory, it's the process of analyzing errors, specifically in one's speech, more on how we did this later.
Omission: The alienation of a linguistic form in speech (i.e. I go to (the) supermarket.).
Addition: The opposite of omission, putting an unnecessary linguistic form in a sentence (i.e. It's the maybe half and half.).
Substitution: Exchanging a linguistic form for another one (i.e. He admitted to have stolen a wallet. Instead of: He admitted to having stolen a wallet.).
Overgeneralization: Looking at a grammatical rule and thinking it applies to every case with no exceptions (i.e. finding out verbs conjugated in the past end in -ed and creating conjugations like writted instead of written). Also known as intralingual transfer.
Negative transfer: When your mother tongue (L1) seeps into your second/foreign language (L2) (in this case it's foreign language, but I'll still call it an L2 for simplicity's sake), if we're talking about Spanish negative transfer it can look like: the car red (Spanish adjectives go after the noun, unlike in English). Also known as interlingual transfer.
Local error: An error that does not affect the overall meaning of the sentence, making it still understandable.
Global error: An error that affects the overall meaning of the sentence, making it difficult to understand without clarifications.
Okay, with that out of the way, let me explain what we did:
We decided to make an error analysis on how Jere utilized articles (the, a/an) throughout 2023, for this we considered 2 interviews and 1 Instagram live, the interviews were: KÄÄRIJÄ TRIES LITHUANIAN FOOD (uploaded on 12/04/23) and Episode 3: Käärijä and friends (uploaded on 26/12/23), the ig live was the one he did to promote the release of Huhhahhei on 19/10/23, the dates are important for later.
Now, to do the error analysis in itself we followed Rod Ellis’ proposal for error analysis which follows four main steps:
Identifying errors: Self-explanatory, you see what errors one has committed.
Describing errors: Once you see the errors, you describe what exactly the error is, it can be with grammatical categories, or with omission, misinformation, addition, misordering, and substitution.
Explaining errors: After describing the error you need to explain why this error was committed, the two main ways are through overgeneralization and negative transfer.
Error evaluation: After all this, you identify how the error affected the overall message of the sentence being spoken, was it local or global?
We put these steps into a chart and listened to the interviews and identified the errors we found, it’s a really long chart, so if you want to see it fully you can find it here (hopefully). After identifying all the errors and doing our own error analysis we… well, analyzed the data, duh, according to the objectives we set up for the research.
Our first objective was to identify errors Jere has committed regarding articles in the three videos I mentioned. What we analyzed was more grammatical, so what grammatical structure he used the most. He usually omits an article before a noun and with adjectives, like in: “We go to bar with my producer…”, or “Käärijä goes to boat.”, or “I am fine, uh… little bit tired.”. Obviously, this is kind of expected because Finnish does not have articles, but he also adds articles when it is not necessary, like in: “I have the one festival.” Here are the charts of the grammatical trends:
Then we focused on the describing errors part of our analysis. In this part, we found out that he usually finds himself committing omission errors, with 67 in total across the three videos, like I said before, expected, however, the second most common error is addition, this means he adds an unnecessary article in a sentence, and what’s interesting is that he usually does it with the article “the”. Since this is not an actual academic article I will speculate with a full chest: I think he does this because people are usually taught that “the” is the only article in English (only definite one, but not the only one), and that nouns usually have an article accompanying them, so I think that he adds the when he is unsure if an article needs to go there or not. Finally, there was only one case of substitution: “This is the lovely story.”, not really sure why he did this, but it’s interesting that it only happened once. Have the charts and graphs:
We moved to the next step: explaining errors. When we started this research, we thought that we would only have negative transfers since, ya know, Finnish grammar and all, and we were kind of right? He has committed negative transfer errors the most, with 66 in total, but he also had 23 overgeneralization errors, which I didn’t really expect to happen with articles that much. Not much else to say here, have charts:
Lastly, error evaluation. He made mostly local errors, which is what mainly characterizes his speech, we know what he’s saying, he just usually lacks some grammatical form that doesn’t affect his overall meaning. He did have 15 global errors that unless you have the context, it can be a little confusing to understand what he’s trying to say (like in the ig live he said “here tour” when he wanted to say “here in the tour”). Charts!
Our final objective was to see the evolution of these errors, has he made more or less as time went on? Well, since we all can see and hear, he has made a great improvement! You already have the charts above to understand that, but I just have to explain it. In the first interview, in April, he made 50 mistakes in total, by the ig live he had cut those in half, and by the latest interview he gave in English he had cut the mistakes in half again! Have the graphs to accurately see this:
He has improved so much in such a short amount of time! Even more impressive when he hasn’t really taken any formal English classes, just by talking to Bojan and Alessandra. There’s a difference between language learning and language acquisition that was proposed by Stephen Krashen (cool dude, if you’re interested in language learning, go check him out). He says that people usually learn more by acquiring (unconscious) rather than learning (conscious), and you can see that Jere has learnt so much by acquiring English through his friends and his own experiences! And this is just looking at how he uses articles, there is also a distinctive change in how he uses other grammatical forms (but that was too much work for just 2 weeks, maybe I’ll do it later, no promises on anything, though). Even if we’re not talking about his grammatical and syntactical forms, his pronunciation has improved as well! My friends were fascinated by how his accent seemed to develop from video to video, which was very sweet because his accent is one of my favorite things about his speech, but that’s off topic.
The general takeaway from this research is: Jere still has a lot of Finnish tendencies in his English, he has developed his own grammatical structures to communicate in English, and how much he improved in an 8-month period is kind of insane, especially for an adult (who are the age group who have the most trouble learning languages). He’s the it-girl of blowing off a linguist’s mind (me, I’m the linguist)
That would be all!! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! I'm more than glad to answer them
#hope you enjoy reading this!!#anyways i was supposed to work on my slides to present this to the class tomorrow but...oh well#priorities#i also hope this made sense lmao#käärijä
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Today, I’d like to share one of Mark Lewisohn’s most entertaining fucked-up citations. This citation, Tune In 13-23, contains a rare example of Lewisohn almost saying something correct/insightful about Paul McCartney before hopelessly fumbling, as well as a far-less-rare example of Lewisohn correcting Paul on a bit of trivia while simultaneously mangling the source material. Here’s the text of the endnote itself:
In pink, Lewisohn lets us know that Paul, reflecting in the ‘90s on the events of 1960, did not correctly remember the name of the host. This is fine—I don’t take issue with Lewisohn correcting things the Beatles misremembered—but it’s very funny to see him correcting a bit of minutiae in the citation for two quotes he altered or misrepresented.
In yellow, we have what seems, on the surface, to be an actual insight about Paul: “Paul sometimes says ‘we’ in interviews when he means ‘I.’” This isn’t a paradigm-bending revelation—I’m sure my mutuals are all very aware of this habit of Paul’s—but it’s an insight nonetheless.
Or it would be, if this wasn’t said in relation to a quote where Paul clearly means himself and another person. So close, Mark! From Tune In:
Teenage Paul, out of his depth at a college party, pretends to be a singing Frenchman, creating ‘Michelle’ in the process. The first quote, the one where Lewisohn asserts Paul is using “we” in the singular sense, is from the Anthology (2000, p.198):
Do y’all see the problem here? “It was very sophisticated for me and George, so we were trying to hang in there and pretend we knew what was going on.” Emphasis added by me, just in case Mr. Lewisohn is reading and needs a little help.
This is not Paul saying “we” but meaning “I.” This is Paul explicitly stating how he and George felt. And like?????? The “clarification” Lewisohn provides in the endnote is completely unnecessary to begin with. There’s no reason to say Paul means just-him in this quote, unless Lewisohn is worried John will get lumped in with Paul’s loser teenager behavior. In that case, instead of lying and saying Paul actually meant just-Paul here, why not mention that George was at the party and out of his depth as well? Why do this??????
Onto Many Years From Now (1997):
The quote itself isn’t too altered. Lewisohn fails to mark the omission after “It was” with an ellipsis, but that’s small potatoes for him. The Irritating thing here was brought to my attention be @mythserene: even though Paul mentions three specific influences on his wannabe French style (Sacha Distel, Juliette Greco, and Maurice Chevalier), Lewisohn invokes an entirely different Frenchman, Jacques Brel.
With Lewisohn’s phrasing, he’s not incorrect. If Paul said “Joey Fatone and Justin Timberlake were huge influences on my choice to get frosted tips in 2001,” it wouldn’t be wrong to describe his appearance as “Lance Bass-esque.” But if you’re writing a musician’s biography, and that musician has named specific influences on their music or presentation, why would you not invoke those influences when the opportunity arises? Isn’t it more work—and less informative—to dig up some fourth French guy to slot in here instead?
Lewisohn thinks it’s worth the readers time to know that Paul forgot who hosted a party he attended as a teenager, at the same time putting in effort to avoid mentioning Paul’s stated influences.
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Prince’s Holiday - Adult Theme Party Epilogue
Not 100% accurate. Cybird owns everything.
Alternate translations are marked as ///
Translations notes/clarifications are notated at the bottom of the post with ***
On the last night of the year.
The dinner party, with the fate of the world at stake, should’ve been heading towards a smooth finale.
Gilbert: I can’t stop eating your food, it’s delicious.
Emma: Thank you, it’s makes me happy to see you eating non-stop.
Emma: I have a feeling that you’ve already had about 30 servings.
Gilbert: That’s not enough.
Gilbert: But it’s a dinner party, and I feel bad that I’m the only one eating all the food.
Gilbert: Clavis, can you bring enough glasses and rose liqueur for everyone?
Clavis: Haha, enough for everyone?
Licht: !
Clavis: What if I say no?
Gilbert: The country will be destroyed, okay?
Clavis: Your jokes are so lame that I’m tired of hearing them.
Clavis: But, even if you kneel and bow to me, I won’t even think about doing it.
Luke: Look, I’ve brought it for you!
Licht: ?!
Clavis: Luke, why are you always such a slacker, but only at times like this are you so diligent?
Luke: Just to get the dinner over with, so I can relax. That’s it.
Gilbert: That’s my Luke. Thank you, you’re very thoughtful.
Yves: Prince Gilbert, if you want a drink, I’ll pour you one.
Gilbert: Do you mind not doing anything unnecessary?
Yves: There’s such a difference in treatment with Luke.
Gilbert: I want to thank the little rabbit for the food, and everyone who served and entertained.
Gilbert: It wouldn’t make sense if you poured it?
Gilbert: I should tell you, it’s not every day that the Prince of Obsidian, pours some one a drink is it?
Gilbert: Here you go.
Licht & Clavis:………
Gilbert: Guys, don’t tell me you won’t drink the alcohol that I’ve poured for you?
Luke: Oh, well. I’ll take it, thanks.
Yves: I’ll have one too. There’s nothing in it, right?
Gilbert: I don’t like you, you know.
Yves: Eh!
Gilbert: If I’m going to poison you, I wouldn’t so it in such an obvious way, idiot.
Yves: I’ll have a drink.
Clavis & Licht:………..
Gilbert: Hey, what’s the matter? I’ve got one for each of you, take one.
Clavis: Prince Gilbert, what a joke.
Licht: It’s hard to believe that a man of your stature could be so ignorant.
Emma: His eyes are fixed.///He is determined.***
Emma: Are you saying that Licht and Clavis can’t drink alcohol?
Clavis: No, I didn’t say I couldn’t drink. I just don’t feel like it.
Licht: As if.
Gilbert: That’s not going to work in a diplomatic setting.
Gilbert: It’s the last day of the year, right? If you don’t take off now, when will you take off?
Luke: You’re thinking bad thoughts again, aren’t you?
Gilbert: Hm, I don’t know about that….
Gilbert: I don’t lie. I told you before, I’m just showing my gratitude.
Clavis & Licht: ……..
Gilbert: Little Rabbit, as the hostess of the banquet, I’ll let you give the toast.
Emma: Oh, yes! If I may be so presumptuous…
Emma: I very satisfied with this year’s results. So much has happened…I am happy that we all were able to celebrate together in such a lively manner.
Emma: There have been many exchanges across national borders this year, and next year I hope we can deepen our bonds.
Emma: Cheers!
Gilbert, Luke & Yves: Cheers!
Clavis: Licht.
Licht: Can I go home?
Clavis: No, look. Gilbert’s entourage is blocking the way.
Licht: …………
Clavis: At least you’re with me. Let’s have a drink together.
Licht: Oh, no.
Clavis: Do you think Gilbert will overlook this?
Licht: I hate this.
Clavis: It’s alright. Look, there are plenty of rose liqueurs here with lower alcohol content.
Luke: Mm, this alcohol is good, but isn’t it a bit strong?
Yves: Yea, it’s strong. Tasty though.
Licht: Clavis, I really want to go home.
Clavis: Wait, wait, wait. Don’t leave me alone. Stay with me.
Licht: …….
Clavis: This is for diplomacy. Let’s do it.
Clavis: Ready, go!
Licht & Clavis: Ah…….
Gilbert: Wow, you’re great at drinking.
Emma: Clavis, Licht, you don’t have to do this.
Clavis: Don’t worry, who says I can’t drink?
Licht:…….
Yves: Licht, you’re already red in the face.
Licht: Yves.
Yves: What?
Licht: Give me more.
Yves: No, no, no. Why would I do that?
Licht: Yves got mad at me.
Yves: Hey, don’t make it sound like you’re gonna cry…your brother will cry.
Yves: I’m going to get you some water for now.
Licht: Yves.
Yves: What now?
Licht: Don’t go anywhere. I’ll miss you.
Licht: Please.
Yves: What’s this, my little brother?
Luke: Chaos broke loose early.
Clavis: Luke.
Luke: What? You don’t seem that different from usual.
Clavis: I’m sorry…that I’m such a bad brother.
Luke: What a lie!
Clavis: I’m the bad brother who’s always pestering you…..I just want to be friends with you.
Clavis: How incompetent….am I that I can’t do just that?
Clavis: That’s why I’ve been dishonored with the title: “The Perpetual Chevalier’s Lackey”.
Luke: I’ve never heard of such a title.
Clavis: Luke, you’re always so cold to me. Don’t tell me you don’t like me? You don’t like me?
Luke: Oh, man, what pain in the neck! Hey, Gilbert! This is your fault, so do something about it!
Gilbert: It was Luke who brought the booze wasn’t it?
Emma: Huh?
Gilbert: What’s wrong, Little Rabbit? Putting your nose to my glass.
Emma: This isn’t alcohol.
Licht & Clavis: !!!
Gilbert: Oh my, I’ve been found out.
Emma: Perhaps, Prince Gilbert also has a drinking problem?
Clavis: Alright, Emma. Pour Gilbert a glass.
Licht: I won’t let you get away with this.
Yves: Oh, you may be drunk, but you sounded cool there!
Luke: Look, I brought you a new glass.
Gilbert: It’s certainly not fair that I’m the only one not drinking.
Gilbert: I couldn’t refuse the drink she pours me.
Gilbert: Bon appétit.
Luke: Whoa, you drink like a normal person.
Licht & Clavis: ……
Yves: Are you alright, Prince Gilbert?
Gilbert: I’m totally fine.
Licht & Clavis: Hah……
Yves: Wow! Both of you went against the Prince of a great country. Right?
Licht: I don’t like him. I don’t know him….goodnight.
Yves: Wait, Licht, where are you going to sleep?
Clavis: Hah, I’m no match for Chevalier, let alone Gilbert.
Clavis: I’m all alone, Luke.
Luke: Hey, wait! Don’t bang your head against the wall like that! You’ll become even more crazy!
Gilbert: Hm, come on Little Rabbit. Now, there should be no one to stand in our way.
Emma: Huh? No way, that’s why you suddenly served alcohol?
Gilbert: I told you, didn’t I? We’re gonna have one last over-the-top trick this year.
Gilbert: What will they think when I take advantage of the chaos to bring the little rabbit home?
Emma: !
Gilbert: So, then-
Emma: Then I’ll hang on to the desk!
Gilbert: Aw.
Emma: I will never, ever leave!
Gilbert: By the way, that thing you call a desk is a pillar right?
Emma: What?
Luke: Emma, even you’re drunk.
Emma: Is there such a thing…?
Emma: I’m going to go outside to cool off for a minute.
Licht: No, don’t go.
Emma: Licht, when did you…? If you could let go of me please.
Clavis: Emma, why are you trying to run away? Am I really such a bad man?
Emma: What?! Please don’t lean on me Clavis!
Yves: Hey, I don’t care how drunk you are, I won’t let you get away with this!
Luke: You’re irresistible, Emma.
Emma: Don’t talk like that. Help me, Luke!
Luke: Gilbert is more likely to kill me if I do…
Luke: But he’s being quiet. Huh?
Gilbert: ……..
Emma: Gilbert?
Gilbert: ……
Emma: Is he asleep?
Gilbert: ….Not……..asleep.
Luke: Hey, don’t tell me you’re drunk too?
Emma: You’re not a strong drinker, are you?
Gilbert: …Mmm….
Gilbert: But…Little Rabbit….you want to deepen the bond, don’t you?
Emma: !
Gilbert: So….I….drank it…..only for you.
Luke: Hey, don’t forget that you’re a bad guy type just because it’s the end of the year.
Gilbert: Well then…..lap pillow.
Clavis: Oh, that’s not fair. The lap pillow is mine.
Licht: No. it’s mine.
Yves: You are all too drunk to be doing that.
Luke: Oh, the bell rang. It looks like we ran over time.
Yves: How can we start the New Year in such a mess!?
Emma: Hm, but it’s fun and lively isn’t it?
Luke: You seem to be having a tough time with it.
Emma: Yes, but I think it’s good that we have time to relax and have a drink.
Emma: That’s how peaceful it is. Without peace we can’t get along with each other.
Emma: I hope we can have a lot of laughs again this year.
Luke: Well, there’s no difference.
Yves: Really.
Yves: Let’s help Emma in the meantime, so we can laugh together in peace.
Luke: I guess so.
Emma: I look forward working with you again this year…
***Definitely not correct. Even the alternate t/l is inaccurate. But I feel that it means Licht is determined not to drink alcohol.
Previous Epilogue Both Ends Bonus Card
Translating this chapter was difficult solely for the fact that it was hilarious‼️
Everyone, but Yves and Luke are lightweights. I’m not playing the current CE - So I can’t say for sure since I don’t have Gilbert’s Drunken Love story - but I don’t think he’s as bad as Licht and Clavis. It seems like he can hold out a bit longer after chugging alcohol. I’ve seen him in other events (i.e. his Anniversary epilogue), where he’s sipped alcohol and he is fine. Whereas, these two poor souls typically don’t stand a chance whether it just a sip or chugging it 🤣
#Drunk Ikémen princes#Drunk Clavis#Drunk Licht#Drunk Gilbert#Drunk Emma#ikemen prince#Ikepri#ikepri translations#cybird translations#clavis lelouch#ikepri licht#ikepri clavis#licht klein#luke randolph#ikepei Luke#yves kloss#ikepri yves#Gilbert Von obsidian#ikeprince gilbert von obsidian#ikepri gilbert#ikepri gil#Sulky Clavis#Sulky Licht#Sleepy Gilbert#Clavis Confessions#Licht’s soft side#Banter banter banter#Love them all!#story event#epilogue
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davey! whats your favorite novel?
Something in David’s eyes lights up a little, his stance shifts so he’s standing a little straighter, he’s visibly attempting to restrain himself.
“I know you asked for one. But I don’t think I’m able to narrow it down to just one.”
He shifts his paper bag on his shoulder.
“You’ve heard of Edgar Allen Poe haven’t you? I got his collected works a few birthdays ago. The Tell-Tale heart is my favourite. It’s just. The complete contrast between the details of the murder and the lack of details about how and why beyond the narrators own anxiety. There’s so much to dissect. Sometimes I think about it when I’m trying to sleep, the short story, and I know it’s just my heart beat in my ears but I really have to consider whether it’s coming from under the floorboards or not.”
He half winces as he hears his own words, like they hadn’t come out quite how he intended. He’s aware that this arguably makes him sound, maybe a little more paranoid than he’d prefer. He attempts to fix it.
“And I know it’s ridiculous because I haven’t dismembered a body and hidden it under the floorboards-“ he continues , and then stops abruptly, before almost reluctantly opening his mouth again, as if he has to finish the thought now that he’s started it. “but maybe it’s something to do with being. Wary. of the police after the strike. I know I avoid them as much as I can when selling anyway.”
He coughs, a little awkwardly.
“Anyway. I liked The Yellow Wallpaper too, it’s another short story, about a woman whose hysterical, although. Sarah says she not hysterical and she’s right, it’s sort of. Psychological again. Creepy, a bit. Sometimes when les is being annoying I tell him there’s a lady in the walls watching him.”
He’s still so obviously holding onto his self restraint as tight as his hand seems to be gripping his paper bag as he runs his hand up and down the fabric.
“I haven’t killed anyone by the way.” The statement is sudden and unnecessary. “With the whole floorboard thing. That wasn’t me admitting to murder just. I think about that story a lot.”
In retrospect, he’s aware the clarification, makes him seem significantly more guilty.
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One Bad Day
So I told @yetdevout about my little head canon about how Starlight was only in the area where Blake and Avior were fighting because they were angry at their parents forcing them to look at rishta offers. I had a pretty crap day today so I'm just gonna write this.
Some clarification, a rishta is a sort of marriage proposal. It is used in a lot of Desi arranged marriages and it is up to the person to sort through them and find potential candidates to look into.
Warning: Desi Starlight (Still gender neutral tho)
--
"Ami, I get it, but I don't want to have sit down and-" The freelancer was cut off by their mother. They removed the phone from their ear, seeing it unnecessary due to the yelling on the other side of the line.
Part of them was grateful that this conversation was happening over the phone and not in person. Had their mother been in front of them, she would have gone another tangent about the 'disrespectful look' they were giving her. They could just hear the word baadmash rolling from her tongue.
If they were being honest, they would not have minded looking at the rishtas they were receiving. They weren't the type of person to date, being far too busy to dedicate their time to another person. But beyond that, they didn't want to be vulnerable. Not until they knew without a shadow of doubt that this would be someone who will be with them in the long term.
Perhaps it wasn't conventional by some standards, but it's worked for thousands of families in the past.
Starlight knows that it would work for them.
The problem was that they didn't want to deal with this shit right now.
Starlight has always seen compatibility in a logical way.
Do our likes and dislikes match? Do we have a similar moral compass? What beliefs and values are we willing to compromise to make this work?
But Starlight also believed that their heart had to want to make those decisions. Have those hard conversations. There was no point in considering the options available when they couldn't see themselves doing what was required.
It wouldn't have been fair to the rishtas or to themselves to have their heartlessness affect the outcomes. And when it comes to marriage, those outcomes will be dire.
They thought that their parents had agreed to not pester them about this until they were done with their studies at D.A.M.N. They only had a couple of years left and then their parent would have been free to barrage them with potential names all they want.
But no. The fear of Starlight getting 'too old for marriage' had crept in and now they are hellbent on changing their mind.
They understand their parent's fear. They really do. But for once, they just wished they'd look at things from Starlight's perspective. That they weren't ready to make a commitment as grand as marriage while their brains were filled with deadlines and assignments.
Despite the clarity of their mother's yelling through the phone, Starlight elected to let the words pass through their brain. They had forgone their usual sharpness in exchange for blissful ignorance.
"Yes Ami, I know. Can we talk about this later?" Their mother responded with a yes and a goodbye, before hanging up the phone. Her tone indicated that she was happy that Starlight was 'being swayed' by her words.
They let out a frustrated scream, thankful that street they were on was busy. They marched on, with no destination in mind. Their hope was with every stomp that hit the ground, a little bit of the headache that was forming would go away.
It did not.
Starlight continued their anger-filled walk, passing by an alleyway. A man ran out and bumped into them, knocking them both to the floor.
The man - daemon they mentally corrected themselves - had deep brown skin, akin to the bark on a tree. His hair was a reddish-brown, sprawled across the sidewalk.
Out from the alley came out another person. This time Starlight was able to more clearly sense his aura. A dreamwalker. It had seems as though the two magical creatures had been in an altercation.
Just as the daemon was ready to rift away, the dreamwalker let out an attack. It knocked Starlight unconscious, ignorant to how their life would be changed forever.
When they woke up, the were surrounded by red skies and jagged rock. The smoke was so dense in the air that it formed clouds in the skies.
They sat up, observing their surroundings. A myriad of questions flooded their brain.
'Where the fuck am I? How the fuck did I get here?' And the most important question with the most elusive answer.
'How the fuck do I get out?'
"Well good evening, Starlight, but it seems you're going to have to put your weekend plans on pause." They looked up to see the daemon from early, a sarcastic grin finding home on his face.
'All it takes is one shitty day for life to go to hell.'
#Apologies if this is baddd its almost midnight and i am tireddd#*yawn* gonna cue this up for tomorrow#zo writes tingz#this is zo speaking#redacted avior#redacted starlight#redacted asmr
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hello this is my first ask!
i had an fp (im still trying to get over btw) i feel like shes not being understanding at all? she knows i have bpd and one time i got angry at her bc she was being salty with me for no reasons and i said a few things that were sort of unnecessary but the way she is treating me after that is a little too much compared to what i told her? this happened a few months ago btw and shes still acting like shit with me just bc of that
at this point she's literally punishing me oml😭
she is diagnosed with something i won't be mentioning and was always understanding of her case but whenever i overthink and talk to her ab it she gets upset she doesnt take my feelings in consideration at all knowing that she knows quite a lot ab bpd and i told her ab her being my fp
after that we took a break from talking to each other and went back to talking again but i'm starting to realize how much the friendship is becoming toxic??? yesterday i saw something she said and it made me overthink a lot to the point where i split so i ask her ab it and guess what? she was salty... again! like you know i cant control my overthinking
anyways, it feels like shes being forced to talk to me and not because she actually enjoys talking to me.
i was thinking ab cutting her off bc this "friendship" is causing more damage than good and i seriously dont need anymore things. do you have any tips on how i can cut her off?
thanks in advance<33 have a good day/night and sorry if thats messy i cant put everything in it would be super long
Hi anon,
It sounds like you’re in a really tough situation and I can empathize with friends being toxic. I think cutting it off with her is a great idea, and that was going to be my advice, but it looks like you already know that it’s toxic and you want to get out of it, which is great! I’m happy that you can see that it’s a toxic relationship and you want to look out for your own mental health and cut her off.
There are a few ways you can go about cutting off someone who’s toxic. One way is to approach her and straight-up tell her how you’re feeling, if you think it would help her understand where you’re coming from. But considering she hasn’t been very understanding so far, if it were me, I wouldn’t go this route.
What you could also do isn’t as nice, but if you feel like she’s talking to you only because you think she feels like she has to, then what if you stop reaching out to her, and let her come to you instead? Maybe she won’t text you first, and the relationship will fizzle out.
However, if she does text you first, then at least you know that she’s trying to put in a little bit of effort, and she could be receptive if you were to talk to her about how it makes you feel when she gets salty at you all because you ask for clarification. And then at that point, you’d have an opportunity to explain that you don’t want to cause tension between the two of you, and ask if she thinks another break would be helpful.
That’s all I’ve really got (I’ve done both of these methods, and they do work, to a degree. It depends on you and it depends on the person you’re breaking it off with).
If anyone else wants to jump in, please do!
- Mod Hawk
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Author Interview: Geoffrey Robinson
Tell us about yourself.:
For clarification the author headshot was taken walking the Bog of Frogs toward the Bailey lighthouse in Howth, Ireland. I'm retired from two careers and enjoy using my hands. Building things large or small is cathartic. I always come away renewed. I intensely dislike social media in all it's forms. If you don't use your muscles, they atrophy, that includes your brain.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?:
I got taller and grew whiskers in Florida, but it's now where I grew up. The Army taught me there were things more important than me in this world. I learned the value of selfless service. I learned men and women were built, not grown. Tik Tok doesn't build men or women. Being mentored by respectable contributors to society builds men and women.
Influencing my writing, my background, was actually a bit of a problem. In my careers you could never have enough detail, which means I spend lots of time deleting unnecessary narrative summary. I keep thinking readers want as much detail as I do: not so.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I've led a pretty regimented life so I attempt to keep it to a set work schedule of 8 to 5, no weekends or holidays. Sounds a little quirky, but there are others things in life I enjoy as much as writing
What authors have influenced you?
I got taller and grew whiskers in Florida, but it's now where I grew up. The Army taught me there were things more important than me in this world. I learned the value of selfless service. I learned men and women were built, not grown. Tik Tok doesn't build men or women. Being mentored by respectable contributors to society builds men and women.
Influencing my writing, my background, was actually a bit of a problem. In my careers you could never have enough detail, which means I spend lots of time deleting unnecessary narrative summary. I keep thinking readers want as much detail as I do: not so.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never quit. Quitting's like lying, every time you do it, it gets easier. Don't start.
What is the best advice you have ever been given?
You don't have to believe what others believe, but you have to believe they believe it.
What are you reading now?
Trinity, Leon Uris
What's your biggest weakness?
Grandchildren. I'm one of those people parent's love to hate. If it isn't going to harm my grandchild or others, the sky's the limit at my house: and the kids know it. I tried to explain to my own children I wasn't their friend, I was their parent; with all the associated rules and regulations. It ain't so with my grandchildren, we're friends.
What is your favorite book of all time?
A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes, Jonathan Bardon.
When you're not writing, how do you like to spend your time?
Working on art projects like river tables, building tall ships for museums and chasing grandchildren. Cooking is also a passion, but I think my four kids are getting tired of me filling their freezers. I learned to cook for five, but am now single and have no clue how to cut recipes down to one serving.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
White Fang, Caroline Hickey. I became obsessed with owing a dog. I spent years, unsuccessfully, trying to convince my parents to get one. Now I'm older I understand. Kids don't get dogs, they get dogs for their parents.
What has inspired you and your writing style?
Being raised at the knee of great Irish story tellers. I could sit for hours and listen to my Irish kin weave yarns, occasionally sprinkled with the truth. As for my writing style, I read approximately 80 books a year. Being an eclectic reader: Tony Hillerman to Diane Gabaldon, I'm not sure if I have my own style or someone elses. That, most likely. will e determined by readers.
What are you working on now?
Book 2 of Irrelevants: An Uneasy War. It started as a fun project I really enjoyed writing, but 240 pages in it dawned on me, it wasn't going to fit in one book. I'm not James Clavell so, don't see a Shogun size book on my horizon.
What is your favorite method for promoting your work?
I'm pretty new at this so having a favorite promotion method hasn't developed yet. It's really easy to do on-line, but I haven't, and might not, gotten my arms around the whole 'clicks and views thing.
What's next for you as a writer?
Something relevant to the Irish people. There's actually and Ireland between all the sadness she's suffered and the false face of happy wee folk people think their meeting when they visit the island on vacation. The one thing we Irish have in common with each other is an insatiable distaste for anything government
How well do you work under pressure?
After three combat tours; there's no such thing.
How do you decide what tone to use with a particular piece of writing?
I have to be careful about tone. Being Irish and ex-military, I say what I actually think. That approach doesn't lend itself well to enticing readers. I try to develop a tone I think will engage readers. I want them to appreciate a characters approach to the subject at hand. The reader should be comfortable enough with the tone to see themselves in the story.
If you could share one thing with your fans, what would that be?
Be patient. I'll get better at this. One day, you'll tell your friends you have one of my earlier yarns. Be well.
Geoffrey Robinson's Author Websites and Profiles
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WHAT VIBE DO YOU GIVE OFF?
—TAROT PICK A CARD READING—
i apologize in advance for any language mistakes. please pick a pile you’re most drowned to. enjoy and please give me feedback! ♡
do not repost on any other platform without my clear consent. respect my work
LEFT - TEAM 1, TEAM 2, TEAM 3 - RIGHT
TEAM 1
astrology placements: leo, capricorn, aquarius, aries
team 1 are you emo or goth? honestly for me you give off archetype of scorpio vibe. i feel that people notice your darker aesthetic, darker clothes that you wear. maybe they feel/know that in the past you’ve been through a lot. maybe because of turbulent past relationships or emotional past wounds. maybe you have that emotionless face expression or resting bitch face (don’t worry i have one too). for some reason people think that you’re miserable and you worry a lot. you’re not the type of person to start a conflict. you rather avoid it. you’re kinda indecisive. but also you give off king of cups vibe. to me it’s a mommy/daddy vibe. you’re mature, you take emotional care of your loved ones and friends. you might be serious person, but loving and sensitive. some of you may like cars or be interested in car sports ex. Formula1. also people notice your divine aura. you may meditate, do tarot, astrology or at least be interested in. you try to live in harmony and find your place in world. you are in touch with universe so it’s easy for you to manifest. you are wealthy person. money like you. you are bold, not hesitant to speak up your mind. confident, practical, but loving.
angel number: 3 5 4
TEAM 2
astrology placements: leo/sun dominant, virgo, gemini, pluto or uranus dominant
what an energy! whenever you go people see your beautiful, innocent, angelic aura. you are balanced, in sync with nature and universe. you are happy, energetic person, sometimes immature, your mouth works faster than brain (i love it haha). you give off child like vibe. you have that child purity and curiosity. people notice your great fashion sense and grace (are you capricorn/libra rising). but sometimes because of your immaturity and sharp tongue you start unnecessary conflicts misunderstandings. you’re not hesitant to take a lead when things get hard. you might be close to your mom because mine called me when i was doing yours team spread haha so it might be a sign. no matter if you’re boy or girl you have female energy that other people admire. you are so loving, always willing to help other when need. do always 100% and you put your blood, sweat and tears whatever you’re doing. you’re dreamy, etheral, communicative. wherever you go people turn theirs head to see you and admire you.
angel number: 2 4 5
TEAM 3
astrology placements: sagittarius, cancer/moon dominant, virgo/mercury dominant, pisces, pluto, libra moon
you’re cute. but your face fool people. in reality you’re strong, decisive, authoritive, cutthroat person. you voice your opinion, nobody dare to mess up with you. you’re not hesitant to cut off what’s not serving you. its not easy for people to get to know your cute, loving side. but once they do, you’re amazing, soft friend that always give best advise. even though you have little bit cold exterior, you never chose anger and violence. are you spiritual? angels are close to you. people subconsciously know that you’re guided and protected by higher powers. wow. you are compassionate. you have capabilities to be good businesswoman/businessmen. you really like studying money related things like economy, stocks, business as i said earlier. you look pretty, you wear nice clothes. but something is making you overthink. you wait for something. as a clarification i got the lovers and the magician. maybe you’re waiting for your divine lover or your manifestations coming true. i see that you’re in charge of your reality and you’re focused on achieving goals. i also feel that people you’re close to love your hopeless romantic side. father figure is important to you.
angel number: 1 5 6
hi beautiful! how it’s going? did you like today’s reading? let me now and message me with your honest opinion. i really appreciate any feedback! i noticed recently in my tarot spreads that many people out there are very spiritual and in sync with universe! wow! that makes me so damn happy! please, spread love. xoxo
#tarot related#astro notes#tarot deck#astrology#tarot reading#free tarot#tarot pac#kpop tarot#tarotscope#pick a card reading#pick a card#spirituality#tarot#astro observations#tarot requests
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hi! your post abt the translation change for kageyama’s line made me curious, so i just looked up the original (i speak japanese and am working towards becoming a pro translator) and i think i can answer your questions! kageyama literally says “he probably has a fever”, so the first translation is much closer to that. there isn’t shock or hesitation in his line, just straightforward fact. why they changed it to the second translation is beyond me. kageyama isn’t addressing hinata directly, and yeah, while it basically conveys the same idea, it’s an unnecessary and kind of odd change. the only reason i can KIND of see them using hinata’s name is due to the pretty common manga technique in kageyama’s line. when a character is speaking, there will sometimes be kanji in their speech bubble with a different phonetic reading right next to it. the phonetic reading is what the character is saying out loud and the kanji is to give clarification/insight to the reader. the kanji for hinata’s name is in kageyama’s bubble, with the reading of そいつ (he) next to it. kageyama is saying “he” out loud, with the kanji clarifying that he’s talking about hinata. it’s weird that they took it literally and changed the whole translation to revolve around that when he didn’t even say hinata’s name.
Aah, omg thank you!! First of all, super cool that you're working toward being a professional translator, that's awesome!
And yes, seriously thanks haha, this is exactly the kind of info I was curious about!! The literal translation being "he probably has a fever" makes a lot more sense to me not only in context but also with just Kageyama's usual speaking style.
My personal interpretation of him being like shocked or coming to the realization in the moment was based entirely just on the fact that his speech bubbles are separated, and the pause that creates for me in my mind. The way it's drawn with the "I think..." at the top before you really start to digest the actual drawing implies to me that he said that bit first, then everyone turns to look at him and then he continues to say "he probably has a fever."
And that little pause just gave me more of like a slow, coming-to-terms-with-the-situation type vibe, like he's almost putting to together as he speaks, than if it was all said in one bubble, if that makes sense.
That breaking up of the speech bubbles is also part of what made me feel like the newer translation was a bit off, because it feels more like Kageyama is addressing Hinata directly and then like, deciding if he wants to say his assumption about the fever or not. I'll see if I can take an okay picture with my phone to show the differences.
All that being said though, that really is just my interpretation based on the panelling and placement of the speech bubbles, etc, and isn't meant to be a commentary on what's like the "correct" way to interpret the scene lol—just the way I read it and felt like it made sense. Plus, if the original Japanese doesn't have the "I think" bit in there then that means the implied pause is in a different spot anyway and could be interpreted differently because of that too lol.
Also, I wanna say that the info about how they clarify to the reader who is being addressed vs what is being said out loud is so interesting to me!! Languages are so cool and I just find it really interesting how that all works haha so I really appreciate you explaining it! I'm also guessing that you're right about that being part of why they changed the translation, even though he's not saying Hinata's name, they had to put something in the top bubble, and because in English we often to subject first, maybe they just changed it to be "Hinata" instead of "he" for like grammatical clarification? Idk haha either way I'm with you and I think the first translation feels more authentic to me too.
#sorry this was such a long answer lmao#im serious though thanks for sending! this is super super interesting to me!!#hq#hq manga spoilers#ask#anonymous#x#hq!! manga spoilers#long post#i guess lol
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the day isym said: i'm gonna fuck shit y'all up
So this is how it ends. I guess I won't be able to let this go sooner, or not ever.
Following the lives of these incredible characters since 2014 had been an astonishing journey for me. And now, we reached the end of one of the most-loved mangas, Attack on Titan/Shingeki No Kyojin—probably the only masterpiece that will touch my heart like this in this lifetime.
What an awful timing it was that chapter 139 arrived at the time I was supposed to be celebrating with my mutuals on exoltwt lol. While, overall, I rate AoT as 11 out of 10, I can't eschew that the culmination has left me qualms and questions unresolved.
Let's start with Armin thanking Eren for his sacrifices for Paradis—which equates to thanking him for committing a global genocide (bro, wtf???). This did not sit right with me, but I'm taking into account that Armin could see there was no easy way out, and that he believes achieving peace requires sacrifices, notwithstanding his altruistic nature and efforts to not completely throw away his humanity.
And I'm also considering the fact that, with the reality Paradis had, bringing off peace without lives being taken was a wishful thinking.
His idealistic worldview clashed with Eren's, and he wasn't able to present a solid resolution 'til the windup. And yet, Armin was still willing to talk things out with his best friend so they could come up with a better plan, without further casualties.
Up until the very end, he wanted PEACE.
I think, this is what makes Armin admirable, contrary to what other readers paint him out to be—weak and useless. He's one of the strongest and skilled characters in AoT imo. He didn't need to be a Titan or an Ackerman. He's innately whip-smart and a natural tactician, making himself a consequential character despite his lacking combat skills.
Weighing up Armin's burdens and the mental load he carries, it hurts to be in his shoes, especially since he's the commander. He's torn between his friend's life and the rest of the world. He took the responsibility of the Rumbling aftermath to shoulder Mikasa's burden and let her live in peace.
And in the end, conflict dragged on, and he ended up with a large obligation to the people.
There were little appearances of Historia, which I initially found a bit absurd since she's among the important characters in the whole series. She didn't say anything, and her pregnancy was for what again? I was disappointed. Her bearing a child held no importance and was a random subplot.
Conversely, amid a slew of readers demanding her clarification on knowing Eren's plans from the get-go, her explanation on the matter would be unnecessary. It seemed to me she has done her part on how the story would play out. And if there was an epilogue or a succeeding set of panels, Historia might've made her comeback since her role as the queen is expected to hugely partake in peace propositions.
And over and above these, the final chapter seemed...rushed? I feel like some panels need to be fleshed out more, such as the whole of Founder Ymir's feelings towards that bitchass abuser Karl Fritz. I was appalled that the root of the sufferings that prolonged for two millennia was because of her martyrdom and servitude to the king and the royal family, which she described as love.
But in reality, without having to chew this over, Ymir didn't really know what true love is. She was a slave since birth, her family was massacred by Karl Fritz, and was impregnated thrice by this murderer who never gave a shit about her. She lived a wretched life, manipulated and abused, and died after jumping in front of the spear to protect the king.
Brought by fear of losing the power of the titan, he made her daughters eat Ymir's flesh and told then to bear many children. Sick fuck.
Then Ymir discovered Mikasa, who she deemed a mirror of her own. The difference, however, is that Mikasa's love for Eren isn't one-sided. And so her greatest desire to be freed from an abusive relationship was accomplished after discovering what real love is through EreMika.
Speaking of Eren, I can understand why plenty of readers condemned him. The guy, who masked himself as a peak tsundere, cold, temperamental bastard, exterminated almost the entire global population, and when asked by Armin his reason, he said he didn't know why, so from here we can assume he neither had a goal behind that warped undertaking nor did it for the greater good.
But Armin is smart, and Eren's silence was a tacit answer. The predicament seemed unsolvable, and wiping 80% of humanity is his last resort to hold off the rest of the world from attacking Paradis.
Taking also into account that he didn't mean to have his mother killed by Dina after rerouting her from Bertholdt. If he didn't, Bertholdt wouldn't end up as the Colossal Titan and Armin wouldn't have eaten him and died along the way.
Bear in mind that Eren believed Armin would save the world, but if he kicked the bucket—and had Eren, who was obviously enslaved by his destiny, altered anything in his memories—would unravel another reality unknown to Eren that could pose a bigger risk.
And the fact that he let the familiar fate dictate him meant opening a door to another door of possibilities of achieving world peace, with Armin taking the lead.
By making himself the bad guy in his story to make his friends be the heroes, the ending suggests that harmony would work out in the end.
In 139, Armin, Reiner, Pieck, Annie, Jean, and Connie were planning to make peace negotiations. And through this, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Levi finally bidding farewell to his comrades bawled my eyes out—this is probably the saddest shit ever AoT has ever done to me, next to Erwin's death. Levi is the last one existing among his original comrades, and it sent a pang to my heart when he did his final salute, wearing a faint smile while wrapped in bandages.
It was not indicated what he'd been doing post-Rumbling. The end of Titans' curse also put an end to the Ackerman bloodline's "awakened power" and above-average human strength, so he's probably a military consultant or mentor, given his amazing contribution as humanity's strongest warrior.
It was also shown he remained in the capital and is with now-grown Falco and Gabi, who both have shown their potential for a military career.
Meanwhile, unlike Levi, Mikasa chose to retire and live in her hometown. While others remark her ending as tragic (I'm guilty of this tbh), her former comrades were on their way to see her and visit Eren's grave next to the tree from their childhood, making her not entirely lonely. I wished she and Armin were in the same multiple frames of the latter panels of the final chapter as they both grieve losing Eren. But given Armin's new and bigger responsibilities for humanity, it's impossible.
EreMika may not be endgame, and I may be bound to perpetual frustration of them never getting the chance to wear their hearts on their sleeves, I am satisfied with the ending—imperfect but fitting. It's actually funny that my feelings got the best of me upon reading the last chapter, and cursed at the story for not ending in absolute peace and bliss, forgetting that AoT had always been a poignant, anxiety-induced, existentialist story, and hinted at a bittersweet finale from the start.
#Hajime Isayama#Attack on Titan#Shingeki No Kyojin#AoT 139#attack on titan#snk#SnK 139#AoT ending#SnK ending#Eren#Armin#Mikasa#Eren Jeager#Eren Yeager#Armin Arlert#Mikasa Ackerman#Levi Ackerman#Levi
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caught between goodbye and I love you
DickKory | Pining | Eventual smut | Two shots | Post season 3 AU
Chapter 1: My heart is a sad affair
Nobody could say he didn't have been trying. Well, they could but it wouldn't be true.
Even though Bruce had made sure Dick knew how to attract the female attention, nobody told him what to do when it didn’t work as planned. Or how to stanch the wound.
Hell, Bruce made sure he could seduce anyone that could be seduced. "It is a very useful skill to have in your utility belt, Chum" he said then. But it didn't mean Dick didn’t pray for the sweet release of death back then when he was being forced to have seduction lessons under Alfred's or worse, Selina's tutelage.
He should have payed more attention to when they broke up, not that he’d have learnt something useful. They always got back together. He and Kory on other hand…
Well, been taught how to seduce someone for ulterior motives didn’t mean he knew what to do when his goal was not mission oriented. Usually in a mission, after the seduction part was over, even if he had to date the person for more than one night, he had a script and a clear goal. But what if there was no mission? What if he had hopes instead of goals? What to do without no script to follow? No set of rules to guide him?
And he was especially bad when he genuinely cared, never being able to judge if he was trying too hard or too little, usually finding himself overcome with anxiety which resulted into pushing the object of his affections away in the long run. That happened to Dawn, to Babs, hell, despite being a completely different kind of relationship it almost happened with Rachel and Gar too. Thank goodness his children were way more forgiving.
Since Dawn was gone for good and he and Babs had broke up again after deluding themselves for a whole five minutes that their childhood trauma bonded romance could have a last hurrah. He was back to reality. The depressing reality that he, to his absolute despair, cared for Kory, so much, too much, more than he had thought that he ever could for anyone.
Read on AO3
Despite all his overthinking tendencies, all his overplanning, all his precautions, he really didn’t see that coming. Of course, he was aware he was attracted to her from day one, it was nothing alarming back then, at least in the beginning. It hurt when she told him she needed to find out who she was before it got too serious, but he understood, and it was fine. They had time. And time they had, after their reunion, raising a household together, his physical attraction to her remained, and new set of feelings started breeding from their partnership. Something way more aggravating than the constant desire to fuck her brains off every time she entered the room, something deeper.
It took a while, because he was known for being stubborn as fuck, but he knew that a good detective can’t cherry pick evidences, and eventually, he admitted to himself that he wanted to be with her forever. Which not only was a scary thought by itself, considering how much time he spent running from everything serious and true, but it made his insides twist in fear.
Because nothing that good could last. When the love of you life quite literally fell from heaven, heaven can take her back whenever. And the thought of losing her at any moment pushed his anxieties to the roof. Her behaviour haven’t been exactly helping. Despite of not having anything substantial of proof, Dick could feel something was wrong with her, something that she wouldn't talk about no matter how many times he tried to approach her.
Maybe it was his fault, maybe he put himself in a position in which she felt responsible for his wellbeing but not trustworthy to be relied upon after the mess he had made with Slade and with Jason.
Besides, what claim did he have to demand any clarification from her? They weren't together.
But it still hurt. That feeling of uselessness, of having nothing to offer when she gave so much just being by his side.
They lived in the same house and were currently raising super powered teenagers together, everybody outside their tight circle assumed they were a couple, married even, hell, her sister thought they were together. And Kory hardly flinched when they dined out and the waiter called her “Mrs Grayson”, she joked about it, that also hurt, because it wasn’t true. Yes they used to have sex, and yes he was trying to make his grimaces of pain to look like smiles on regular basis to hide how much he wanted her, but they are not together.
But it wasn't by Dick's choice.
It was Kory's.
And the rejection hurt, especially when he didn’t expect it.
From all his many faults, Dick wasn't that kind of guy, it wasn’t as if he didn’t think that her rejection was impossible or insulting due to some high opinion of himself. But it just didn’t make sense. He wasn't deluding himself, although he sometimes had no choice but doubt, wanting to believe and respect her choice, but when it had such dissonance with her actions…
Because, as much as he sometimes wanted to take the easy way out that his internal self-hatred provided – that he was crazy, pathetic and there was no way in heaven or hell such woman would have feelings for him – Dick had also been trained in reading body language and micro expressions.
Everything about how Kory interacted with him felt like an invitation. Unless he had been suffering from a very serious case of psychosis (again), he couldn’t have been imagining the longing in her gaze. Sometimes, even when he thought she wasn’t in the room, he could feel her eyes in him. And it wasn’t just the hot looks he was used to get from people that only thought he was attractive – even though Kory would give him plenty of those too, his skin had been reaping the benefits of all his ice cold showers. But, sometimes, especially when he was giving attention to their children, or just doing something mundane like reading or meditating, he could feel her watching. A gentle smile on her face, eyes like pools of warmth and endearment. Nobody ever looked at him like that, with such unadulterated fondness.
Or the way she found excuses to touch him. He always loved the feeling of falling, doing unnecessary stunts so he could only feel that special kind of rush. With Kory around to catch him whenever he needed, he had been doing that even more often so he could feel her strong arms around him, and she never denied him.
When they fought enemies, or trained, she always found a way to make skin contact, throwing him at their mark to give him an extra boost, instead of shouting for him to clear away from danger, she’d physically pull him away in very unnecessary and unfortunately fast hugs.
She’d lean on his shoulder for no reason at all, even after her powers returned and she told everyone she was not feeling tired all the time anymore. In the mornings, while they washed the dishes together – since Gar banned them both from cooking – she’d bump him with her hip to make him move out of her way, and her hands always lingered when handing him an utensil.
Kory was always pressing away invisible wrinkles on his clothing, and picking things from his hair, so much he could hear muffled giggles from the children every time she did that.
And how could he have been imagining the way her face lit every time he entered the room, or when someone mentioned his name? He couldn't have made anything like that up. Didn't have the self-esteem necessary, or the self-hatred necessary to imagine such torture.
Dick did wonder, though, if living with a woman that looked like what poets sang about, that had the personality correspondent of the most golden of summer’s day, and flirted with him mercilessly, but yet dismissed every attempt he made to turn their relationship into something romantic was just karma. In the past, he had abused his own good looks and knowledge. Hearts had been broken because of his folly, and now the universe was punishing him or something.
Yeah, right, as if the universe cared that much.
But then, when his bitterness and confusion were not settled at all, and he was getting ready for another night of delicious horrible dreams about the woman that did not want him, something weird happened.
Kory Anders, knocking on his door, with a bottle of tequila, just a few days after he finally asked her out and she destroyed his heart and made a mess of his head by saying no. Not only no, she said she didn’t like him like that. That she loved him as a friend, and didn’t want to make things more complicated.
What a bunch of garbage.
For a fraction of second he wondered what she'd do if he closed the door on her face. But he'd never be able to do that, so, wordlessly, he gave away the space she needed to enter his room.
“Can I help you?” he said when she just stood there, looking everywhere but him, as if his room were a great novelty.
Kory bit her lip and he wanted to die. He didn’t want to believe she did those things out of malice, but sometimes one cannot help but being angry over such carelessness.
“Kory?” he asked in that bitchy impatient way of his.
“I lied,” she finally said in a puff of breath.
“What you mean?” His heart was racing, it couldn’t be. Was he asleep? Most of his dreams began with some sort of flashback of their first night. Terrible, terrible dreams that always ended too soon.
She looked away, searching for something, his heart shrank when swayed her body aside, thinking she was about to leave, but Kory placed the bottle and the cups on his dresser and turned back to him, the look she gave him making his throat feel raw. In two powerful strides she was all over him, firm elegant palms cradling his head as she tilted his face to the angle she wanted for their kiss. It was like if time went back.
He pulled her closer carefully, afraid she’d disappear in the smoke of his lust filled memory if he went too hard or too fast, but even when she remained solid, warm under his touch, her teeth pulling his bottom lip mercilessly, then spreading licks and soothing kisses, her perfume making him dizzy, he let her lead. It was easier, which considering his tendency for always taking the most tortuous path, added a layer of pleasure in a luxury hardly ever taken.
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Notes:
I started writing this before season 3, because I wanted to write a fic in which Dick was pining, and also I wanted it to be steamy and smutty. But since the smut part is taking forever to finish and the pining part became bigger than what I planned, you get a two shot.
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Preview:
“Please don’t this. I don’t want to pretend. I’m so tired of lying to you and I’ll have to pretend to the rest of my life. This might be the last night I will ever have to be myself, to be with you. I need this to be real.”
Kory took one of the hands off his hair, bending her arm backwards so she could rub him trough his trousers. Dick let out a moan and she used the opportunity to make a wet path of kisses across his cheekbones, until she reached his ear. She whispered something in her native language and licked his earlobe.
What else could he do? She wanted real. He’d give her real.
Dick pulled her up as his lips claimed hers again, her powerful legs crossed around his hips. He held her up like that for a while, just enjoying the feel of her body pressed flush against his. His hands giving her support by moulding her round butt with his palms.
Dick he walked backwards until his chins hit the bed and he fell sitting with Kory on his lap. She stopped her ministrations to pull her hair from her face and look down at him.
“Hey,” she said, her eyelashes were still wet, but her tears had stopped falling, she looked so… No wonder she belonged to the heavens, no being in the planet could be so perfect.
#dickkory#dickkori#starfire#nightwing#robstar#koriand'r#dick grayson#kory anders#kori anders#teen titans#titans#my fic#caught between goodbye and I love you#this is a ridiculously long title#complain to Miss Karen Carpenter#well to her shitty brother Richard#Richards *shake a fist*#a bunch of their sad songs are DickKory anthems to me#Where Do I Go from Here and Love Me For What I Am#(I'm Caught Between) Goodbye and I Love You#that gave this fic a name and I Can Dream Can't I? that gave this chapter a name always make me cry#they make me think about Kory in the end of NTT and the infinite crisis#I hate you DC#but this is set in Titans universe#and Anna's Kory shall not suffer the same destiny as CB Kory#or I swear to god I'll commit a crime
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Common Language, pt. I
(This is the beginning to a bunch of Fallout 3 works I have knocking around my brain. I’ll post bits and pieces here and then post the full work to ao3 once it’s done)
(pt. I) / (pt. II)
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Charon realises very quickly that he does not understand his new employer very well.
In the first instance, this is very literal.
Not many words were exchanged during her introduction as his new employer and him subsequently blowing Ahzrukhal’s brains all over the walls of the Ninth Circle. It’s not until after they make a very rapid exit and they are out in the quiet of the museum atrium catching their breath that he really pays any attention to her. Not much about his employer’s appearance immediately seems wildly unusual – she looks pretty healthy for a wastelander, if somewhat pale, and probably one of the youngest people to come through Underworld in several years. Her face is grubby with the expected dust and dirt of travel under her mop of short curly brown hair, slightly pink from sunburn across her nose and a clean strip of pallid skin around her eyes from the goggles that now hang around her neck (the look of it reminds him briefly of some small animal from before the war, though he can no longer recall its name). Although they look relatively well maintained, her armour and rifle have clearly been scavenged at least third-hand, and a faded red bandanna is tucked around the collar.
Charon takes all this in with a practiced eye, trying to evaluate what kind of person he is now bound to – as satisfying as it is to know that Ahzrukhal’s head is now spread all over the Ninth Circle, it has come at the cost of knowing his opponent. The girl in front of him does not look wealthy to be spending the number of caps he knows Ahzrukhal would have asked for his contract, nor hardened enough to have carried out whatever unscrupulous task he would have accepted as alternative payment. He can’t quite pinpoint it, but something doesn’t seem right. When she opens her mouth, his instincts are proved right.
“Well, fuck. I came to Underworld to cop a flop and a sling and hang loose for a while, maybe zee out for the night, and buddy up with you. I was not expecting to have to beat feet with a dead body behind us.”
Her accent is like no wastelander he has ever heard, and he doesn’t understand half the things that come out of her mouth. Charon can’t claim to be up to date with young people (as so few of them come through Underworld and most of Ahzrukhal’s associates were people who should absolutely not be allowed anywhere near children) but even among the various communities in the Capitol Wasteland there is usually a fair amount of common ground. This – whatever this is – is something else entirely.
His well-practiced poker face seems to keep his confusion hidden at least up until she turns to him with an uncomfortable smile on her face – she certainly has cleaner teeth than a lot of wastelanders, and not even any missing that he can see – and sticks her hand out in his direction.
“This isn’t how I was expecting to have this go but, uh, I’m Billie. Nice to actually meet you properly, Charon.”
He stares at it. A lot of people would avoid unnecessary physical contact with ghouls, even if they weren’t outright ghoul haters, and certainly none of his previous employers have ever tried to engage in something as cordial as a handshake. When he doesn’t react, she leans in a little sheepishly. “…I think you’re supposed to shake hands when you meet someone new, right?”
His stare moves up to her face. She looks about as confused as he feels. What rock has this kid crawled out from?
“What?” It’s hardly the first thing that he means to say to his new employer now they have time to talk, but this whole interaction is leaving him feeling entirely unfooted. She tilts her head at him and looks even more awkward, her outstretched hand dipping slightly before she withdraws it entirely and starts to comb it through her hair instead.
“Uh…I’m not used to meeting new folks? A couple of people have told me what passes for manners above ground but honestly, I’ve not had so many chances to try it on people who weren’t trying to vent me first.” Her face twists in an embarrassed grimace. “Is it the accent? I’ve been told it’s a little hard to understand. I can try, uh something else,” She drops her hand, brushes some stray curls out of her eyes and clears her throat. She offers her hand again and manages to take him by surprise yet again: saying clearly in an almost perfectly pronounced pre-war Transatlantic accent “Hello Charon, my name is Billie Morgan. Pleased to meet you.”
The sound hits Charon like ice cold lead in his stomach, a noise he hasn’t heard in decades beyond the occasional old holotape. It rings in his ears as fresh as it was then with all of the other memories he’d tried to bury - the cloying surgical smell of the lab in his nose, the claustrophobia of the sim pod – Scanning vitals… Welcome subject: 2875, identifier Charon. Beginning training simulation in 3, 2…
A hand touches his arm and the tension in his body spikes – Charon finds himself staggering backwards into a defensive stance. His hand, still moving on instinct, gets as far as the handle of his combat knife before his conditioning kicks in with a short shock of pain – the subject cannot harm the employer – and the opposing reactions form a strained stalemate and force him to a standstill, buzzing with adrenaline, as his presence of mind returns. His employer is now a few feet away, her brown eyes wide as she raises her hands.
“Woah, okay. Won’t do that one again. Sorry.” The artificial enunciation is gone and her original accent has returned, but she is speaking more slowly and clearly than before. He can’t tell if she’s just doing it to try and pacify him or if she is consciously trying to make herself easier to understand. Now that he has the frame of reference for it her natural inflection definitely has something pre-war about it, but it’s hard to pinpoint. “Easy there, big guy. I’ve got no scrap with you and I’m not gonna hurt you. Okay?”
Charon has at least a full foot of height on this kid, and while she looks healthy she does not look strong – the idea that she would be able to hurt him in a close quarters fight is almost laughable. Slowly, he forces himself to let go of the knife handle. The tension in his shoulders stays where it is.
“I am unable to harm my employer. Physical violence on your part invalidates our contract.” The default line gives him something to fall back on for a moment while he straightens back up to his resting position.
“That’s…something.” She doesn’t look reassured, but she drops her hands. “So we’re shiny? Cause you looked real ready to stab me for a second there.”
“I am unable to harm my employer.”
“…Right.” She appears to wait a moment for clarification that does not come before continuing. “So about your contract – it’s kinda hard to read and I didn’t really get the full shakedown before you greased Ahzrukhal so I don’t know what your rates are. I’m a little low on caps at the moment but I can pay you some upfront and then I can earn a bunch back from whatever scavving we do in the next few days to get you the rest of your cut, then we can work out an arrangement. Sound okay to you?”
“I do not require payment.”
“So what, I keep you watered and fed and breathing and we’re square? Seems like a pretty cheap deal to me.”
“I do not require protection and you are not required to provide for me, though several previous employers have chosen to do so.”
“Wait.” Her brow creases. “What does the contract say?”
“The holder of my contract is my employer.” The words come readily to his tongue after many decades of repeating them. “My employer has my services in combat and in any other duties as they see fit and I am honour bound to do as they command for as long as they hold the contract. The contract prevents me from harming my employer while I am in their service. Physical violence by the employer against me invalidates the contract.”
She stares at him hard for a long moment before she speaks again with horror in her voice.
“You’re a slave?”
“I belong to no one.” The response is automatic, the only protest he is able to make. The words taste sour in his mouth.
“You’ve just told me that you don’t require payment of any kind and that you have to do what I say. If that’s not being a slave, I don’t know what is.” She turns away and pulls on her curls for a moment while she paces before turning back to him, her face stormy. “If I’d know that skeezer was a slave owner on top of everything, I might’ve taken a pop at him myself before you ventilated his face. Fuck.” Her eyes widen again. “I bought you from him.”
“If you find the terms of my contract objectionable, you may pass it on to another.”
“I object to you being bound to the contract. Passing it over to someone else doesn’t fix that.” Pulling a face, she pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs, then pulls his contract out of her pocket. She looks over the worn paper for a moment, then a takes a single step closer to him and thrusts it in his direction. “Here.”
The ebbing tide of the adrenaline rush in his veins suddenly leaves all at once, and he is left staring at his employer’s hand again. There must a misunderstanding here. Again.
“You wish me to…hold the contract for you?”
She rolls her lips together before making deliberate eye contact with him.
“I want you to have it. Permanently, free of charge. The contract belongs to you - no more employers to boss you around.” Turning her eyes skyward for a moment, she takes a deep breath. “I’m hoping that greasing former employers of yours isn’t like a tradition or something, cause I kinda like being alive out here in the fresh air despite everything. And I have someone I really, really need to find.”
He stares at her for a long moment, stupefied. She stares back, with an expression that is perhaps supposed to be comforting despite the fact that her hand is shaking slightly. After the events at the Ninth Circle, she doesn’t have much reason to suspect that anything else will happen apart from her apart from the inside of her skull being spread all over the atrium.
“I cannot accept.”
At the sound of his voice she seems a little calmer, and gives him a warmer smile.
“Sure you can. No charge, no nothing, just like I s-”
“You misunderstand. I am physically not able to accept.”
“What?” The look of confusion is back.
“I am not able to hold my own contract. It is stated clearly in the contract terms.”
“You didn’t say that thirty seconds ago!”
“The contract terms are long. I paraphrased.”
“You paraphrased.” With a furrowed brow she pinches the bridge of her nose again with the hand holding the contract dropping to her hip, though her mouth pulls up at the corner – whether it’s from amusement or concealed frustration, he’s not sure. She takes in a breath, then drops her hand. “Right. Okay. And if I destroy the contract?”
“I am compelled to stop you from doing so, through any means necessary.”
“Even if you harm me? I thought you said you couldn’t do that.”
“Preservation of the contract takes priority over the life of my employer, though I must also take all possible actions to preserve your life.” Comforting people is not a talent Charon considers to be in his skill set. From the look on his employer’s face, he evaluates that this is still true.
“There must be a section in the contract for how it ends though, right? Surely no contract is gonna be able to hold you forever.” The naivety of the comment grates on his nerves more than he expects. Maybe it’s the aftermath of the adrenaline rush and the bewilderingly abrupt turn that this already baffling interaction has taken, but Charon’s response come out with more of a bite than he means it to.
“It’s not that simple, smoothskin.”
“But you don’t want to be bound by it, right?” Seemingly undeterred by the epithet or the warning in his tone, she continues earnestly. “If we just-”
“I said -” His voice is sharper than he would ever dared let it be speaking back to Ahzrukhal, louder than he has spoken in so very long, and he wrests control of himself back too late – his voice echoes back to him from the polished granite walls so that it rebukes him as much as it does the kid in front of him. Her eyes are wide, shoulders bunched up to her chin level, and he realises that he has unconsciously drawn up to his full height. The echo hangs in the air for a moment, and when it dies his words are back to their normal volume, even if the tone is strained: “ – it is not that simple.”
The moment continues to stretch out thin and the young woman doesn’t move or answer – just keeps staring at him. The silence leaves him feeling as unbalanced as the conversation did - worse now that he feels exposed in the wake of his outburst. Charon takes a rattly breath and fills his ravaged lungs to their full extent as he winds himself back under control – shoulders down, arms by his sides, he reverts to his typical guarding stance. When he speaks again, it in the direction of the young woman’s clenched hand rather than to her face
“For good or ill,” Charon says towards the faded scrap of parchment “I am in your service.”
#fallout 3#fo3#charon fo3#lone wanderer#oc: billie morgan/hundred dollar bills (lone wanderer)#very excited to start getting this out there#nom writes stuff#common language
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How to edit and color manga-caps
This is a tutorial on how I personally color and edit manga caps in photoshop. I’ve done my best to explain my editing and coloring process but English isn’t my native language so please excuse any grammatical errors! Anyway, let’s get started💛
Clean-up
First of all you need a clean manga cap to work with. Start by erasing the parts of the image that you don’t want to keep and redraw parts if necessary. In this case I erased the speech bubble and redrew parts of the sparkles surrounding Komurasaki. Try to stay consistent with the artists original style If you redraw parts of the image as it will be very noticeable if you’ve strayed too far from the original style. I recommend that you study the line width especially and try to emulate that!
Then level the image as seen in this tutorial by @aldiwali, by leveling the image you erase some of those grainy dots surrounding the line-art. I’ve also found that it helps darken the line art! When you are done with clean-up separate the line art from the background. I’ve already made an in-depth tutorial how to do that (and erase more of those grainy dots) so I’ll link that here: X.
Once you’ve cleaned your manga cap and separated the line art from the background you can start putting down your base colors and flats!
Coloring process
Start with a simple base color for the skin, I usually go for #9e7e7d as that will give the skin a nice warm tone once your done! Then make a copy of your base layer. Go to your copy of your base layer, right click and create clipping mask and color it with something more akin to an actual skin tone. Combine the clipping mask and the copy of your base layer, then lower the opacity to your liking, I usually go for around 85% opacity.
This step is very unnecessary and you don’t need to actually do this (just a normal skin-tone as a base) but I do it out of habit. If you look at some of my older stuff it’s way more noticeable (see example down below).
If you use this method please be aware of that it does tend to lighten colors so I don’t recommend that you use this method for when you’re using darker colors.
BONUS TIP for when you’re coloring: Make a color palette! I try to keep track of what colors I use for different characters but it’s easy to get a bit lost so I actually made a little color palette as a reference for myself. That way I can easily keep track of what colors I like to use for a base and for shading.
Anyways.... back to the actual tutorial! Time to color the rest of the image! Try to get some good reference pictures of the character/characters (preferably something that was colored by the actual artist) if you’re going for canon colors. I usually play around with hues for a bit before I’m happy with results! For example I gave Komurasakis red dress more of a purple/pink undertone to make it work better with her fan and the flowers in her hair.
Try to divide your colors into different layers to make the shading process easier but don’t make to many separate layers as that can get a bit confusing! I try to divide my layer based on color and placement!
If you’re not using a reference for what colors you’re going to use I recommend that you at least follow a color scheme. Try to find colors that work with each other but still contrast each other. A lot of people will be looking at your graphics trough their phone and a lot of details will be lost so by making your colors contrast each other you keep some of clarity! I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use colors that are very similar but you should keep the format which your graphics will be looked at in mind.
Anyways now that we’ve colored everything we need to add color to the parts of the line-art that aren’t supposed be black, in this case we need to add color to the hair, lips, fan and dress. Go to your line-art layer, right click, make a clipping mask and then you can color the line-art. Your layers should look similar to this:
Make a base which you can work off later as seen below.
I usually color everything first and then I refine the outlines with the help of the eraser. Try to keep the width of the outline consistent with the rest of the line-art, otherwise it won’t be as seamless. (I did’t outline her hairline as it’s very “feathered” and I wanted to keep that feeling, but I usually outline the hairline too)
You don’t have to separate each color into its own clipping mask as that isn’t going to make any difference when you shade everything later. Now time to add the line-art to the hair!
Line-art
I do recommend using some sort of drawing tablet to make your new line-art. It’s not that isn’t possible to do it without one but it’s a bit tedious to it with a mouse or touchpad.
If you use a drawing tablet use a brush that allows you to control the stroke weight of the brush. I usually go for one of the default brushes but I’m sure that there are a tons of fun brushes out there to play with!
Create another layer just above your manga-cap, this is where we’ll draw the new line-art! Try to follow the “flow” of the original line-art. In this case it’s fairly easy for me to see where line-art would fit naturally thanks to the way Oda choose to illustrate the “shine” on Komurasakis hair!
Look at the area that I’ve encircled, it’s easy to imagine that that’s where Oda would have chosen to add the line-art if he hadn’t colored the hair black. If you can’t find any of these spots try to find a few references for how the original artist does the line-art when it’s in full color. For example I used the cover of volume 92 to get a feeling of how I wanted my line-art to look.
Basically try to find what makes the original artists line-art distinct and copy that for your own line-art!
After I’m done with my line-art I go back to the black base and fill in some of the empty spaces that were left by the artist for clarity. Like the gap between the line-art and the deep purple parts of the her fan. When your happy with your base and line-art you can start shading!
Shading
(Before I start shading I generally color in all the stuff I left out like her eyes, makeup and the shine on her hair. I also decided to outline her eyebrows.)
Let’s start with shading the flats! Add a clipping mask to your layer and set the layer style to multiply. The amount of layers I use differ from color to color but I tend to stick between two our four layers of shading. When you’re shading use a color that is soft but with enough contrast to your base so it doesn’t blend into it. I generally use a color with a warmer tone to shade but the you can play around with colors and tones to add different effects.
Create a clipping mask and set the layer style to overlay or soft light to highlight certain areas with a lighter color. I tend to play around a bit with the opacity before I’m happy the results. When you’re finished with shading the flats you can start shading the base!
It’s basically the same thought process as before, just add a clipping mask your base layer and set to multiply! Your layers should look like this:
And that’s it! We’ve shaded everything and we’re basically done! There’s just a few more minor things to do.
Details / Coloring the line-art
I like coloring the line-art as it gives the graphic some extra color. To add color to your line-art just do as we did before. Make a clipping mask and color the lines, simple as that! Try to use colors that are dark enough that the line-art isn’t lost.
I did some finale clean-up, colored the sparkles surrounding Komurasaki, added som motion filters to that, fixed the background and that’s that! We’re done! That’s how I edit and color manga-caps! I hope this helps! I might have gotten lost on a few tangents so please feel free to ask questions if you need clarification on anything💛
#gahhhh I hope I spelled everything right#anyways I hope you guys enjoy this#this isnt the only way to color#and edit manga caps its just the way I do it!!! and im not a professional or anything I simply do this because it's fun!#tutorial#coloring tutorial#coloring#manga coloring#manga#one piece#op#shonen jump#opgraphics
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A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova.
2.5 stars.
“To this world. To the next. To the people we meet between and the bonds we share.”
I saw a lot of hype about this book, how many people loved it and I tried to like it equally... But I just couldn't, or didn't completely. I will frame the good and the bad, in no specific order.
My thoughts before reading A Deal with the Elf King.
I read many opinions, without spoilers, about how this book was too good and everything about it amazed you. I had high expectations about something refreshing and a retelling of Hades and Persephone Elf version. For the record, I am a die-hard fan and disgraced by the myth of Hades and Persephone, so the expectations were much higher than even I thought.
Thoughts during the reading.
I didn't like the beginning very much, although I'm not referring to Luella herself, but to Luke. I consider it to be a partially well-constructed world, even though it has several gaps and makes me really wonder: how does the Veil, the Fade and all the other worlds work? It doesn't have as much info dump as in other books, which spend two or more pages explaining the magic system, or the construction of the world, or the filling itself.
Thoughts at the end of the reading.
As I said, I had high expectations of this book, as I read good reviews, as well as some that said it didn't quite convince them. And now, I can understand exactly what they mean by this. I read an extra chapter from Eldas' point of view, which was about his daughter and the powers she possesses, and at the same time, how perhaps the next book will be introduced... In any case, I expected it to be less... predictable? Yes, that. I guessed at least seven or eight scenes and I knew how it was going to end. Besides, the only "action" scene we had was the abduction of Harrow, who wasn't such a bastard at the end, or so I want to think. It was very slow and I devoured it quickly in order to finish it.
I wanted to hit both Luella and Eldas for not realizing their feelings. Also, I feel that the fact that Rinni and Eldas tried something didn't add up to much for me and didn't have any meaning or relevance to the story. Some may feel that this could have given context and history to their friendship, but for me it was unnecessary.
If I'm honest with myself and with others, I expected a lot more from this book.
As I said above, the beginning. The "love" that Luke and Luella swore to each other only lasted three chapters and almost at the end of the third one he basically hates her, and if he doesn't tell her it is because he still has his sanity. Both are hurt by what happened: Luke tried to hide her with a necklace that covered her magic; and Luella because he never told her, he was her best friend and "loved" him... I didn't feel a spark between them from the beginning, where our protagonist claimed she had been in love with him since... always? It didn't make sense to me and I felt more like Luke served as a stepping stone for Luella to feel determined to stay and not go with him, than as a romantic interest.
I felt virtually no connection and/or empathy for Luke to think that what happened to him was unfair. He did it for a reason, didn't he? For example, Luella later tells us that Luke wanted to keep her in a cage, but watch out, she doesn't think about him often, as she swore she would before. And, she never mention Luke again or he appears again, which takes me back to think that he was unnecessary too.
I disliked the fact that Eldas forced Luella to marry him, using his magic. Although I understand why he did it and apologized, that is still a thorn in my side. It was a bit obvious that we knew Luella would fall in love with Eldas and vice versa, wasn't it? Exactly, I didn't see it as an enemies-to-lovers, although I don't know if it's my thing or what, because at no point did I feel that Eldas hated her, not really. There's also the fact that he controlled her against her will and well, that would bother anyone.
It's a relationship that happens little by little, although sometimes I felt that everything was happening very fast,
and I didn't understand where some feelings started and others ended. Luella found herself hating the place she was in at first, Midscape, where she didn't want to go beforehand. She begins by feeling a dislike and apathy for Eldas, who in some ways corresponds.
But over time, this changes. Both change. Luella leaves behind some of her prejudices when she sees the little bits that Eldas has, which she says she hides under that cold marble mask. Little by little, and with their treatment on top of each other, both begin to get to know each other and discover that they are different from what they thought at first. They fall in love, without knowing it and denying it.
It was obvious that she was going to get back to Midscape and feel like she didn't belong to the other world.
I think what disappointed me the most was that Luella denied it and pathetically excused herself, as Rinni said, that she confused things having them so clear, but, I shouldn't be surprised of an YA character.
Although I did love the fact that Luella is very close with nature, plants, etc.
Clarification.
This is my first book by Elise Kova, although I have her other two sagas, my punctuation and review does not mean that I will not read her other books. On the contrary, I liked this book 50% and the narrative is clear, concise and simply charming, so I am totally encouraged and tempted to read her other books, because I am sure they are excellent.
#a deal with the elf king#elise kova#edit#mine#edits#2.5 stars#fae#high fantasy#fiction#fantasy#retelling#romance#young adult
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Could you do Fort Max and First Aid for the oxygen loss?
Seriosuly loving it, angst and comfort/fluff is the best combination lmao
It is the best combination and those are two of the best boys so I am ON IT! Fort Max is in part eight listed below, but here's First Aid!
Part One: Here!
Part Two: Here!
Part Three: Here!
Part Four: Here!
Part Five: Here!
Part Six: Here!
Part Seven: Here!
Part Eight: Here!
Part Nine: Here!
Part Ten: Here!
Part Eleven: You're Here!
Part Twelve: Here!
First Aid
·Ever one for new experiences, he'd been quite enthusiastic to have a human join the crew, and perhaps it was his penchant for thoroughly appreciating every unknown he came across that had led to your fast paced courtship. The bot had simply demonstrated an almost overwhelming fascination towards you from day one, and in short time the connection between the two of you had been discovered through his efforts. Now you were nearly inseparable. Off days and breaks are always used for bonding, and today is no exception. Atop his lap as he sits comfortably, you happily listen to his enthusiastic and commentary filled reading of a Wrecker's Declassified, loving how he has the most obvious and adorable starstruck look while doing so. You could listen all day just to see his schoolboy crush play out before you.
·For him, having someone who listens and values his opinions without hesitation is enough to get his spark humming. He's rather accustomed to being passed over for bots with more experience and fame, so seeing your eyes focused on him with such rapt attention is... well, it's just nice. Finding you exceptionally adorable doesn't make it any less sweet. Being human also means a great deal of his favorite topics are new to you, so he gets to introduce you to all the wonders of the Wreckers, something that he loves every moment of. It's also not unpleasant to have your tiny body close to his, practically snuggling against him... Cuddling is something more or less new to him as well, so having it at all is yet another wonder you've brought to his life. There's a vague hope in the back of his processor that he'll be brave enough to suggest sharing a berth someday, just for a nice nap together, as he's not yet been brave enough to ask such a thing of you.
·Unfortunately, the universe has very little respect for his plans. Accustomed to interruptions as an always on call medic, he can't help but be a little frustrated when Ratchet starts comming him out of the blue, but he knows better than to show it. Something serious must be going on if their CMO needs assistance. Still in your partner's lap, you watch as he answers the communication, quite used to sudden messages like this pulling him away. It's a part of dating a medic; but nothing about this seems standard. First Aid shifts his expression to one of concern as the voice comes through the comm in broken static, though he's experienced enough to put together what little there is. A warning of failing systems gets him moving on instinct, his arms scooping you up as he moves to stand, and the instructions to head to his emergency stations is almost unnecessary when the line goes dead.
·You're surprised but not offput by the sudden change in your position, if only because being swept into his arms is... very nice. That doesn't prevent you from knowing something is off though, and thankfully he is just as aware of you as he is his responsibilities as a medic, more so of you to tell the truth... A calm visor reflects your face as he lifts you close to relay the situation. Something is wrong with the ship, he explains, and it's bad enough that Ratchet made a preemptive call for medical bots to get moving. That means he needs to get to the medical bay, and before you can ask he brings up the possibility of you coming with him. Worry is just perceptible on his face as he hesitantly expresses that having you there would be safer, and thus he'd feel better... The bashful look is so cute you momentarily forget the danger to give him a reassuring kiss on his faceplate while accepting the proposition.
·Ignoring the stars you make him see with a tiny smooch, he gets right to work, securing you in one arm and ensuring his room is locked before heading out. He can't help but feel protective as he does so, almost like your guard against the threat that feels omnipresent in every hallway. You feel the same, and he can tell by how you hold him tighter in his grasp, something that stirs his spark with almost overpowering affection. It's enough to make him certain he'd fight like a Phase Sixer to protect you... For your part, a similiar drive to keep him safe is present, despite the difference in size between you. Hopefully you help him feel a little more secure as the two of you move through the eerily quiet hallways.
·The protective instincts First Aid has honed in his career as a medic give him a half second warning that danger is inbound, but all he is able to do in that time is curl around you protectively when the world seems to shake itself asunder. Hard floors meet his back in a painful rush, and you're similiarly jostled against him, though thankfully the worst of the blow is softened by his reflexive brace for impact. Tremors continue to rock the ship once you both realize you're on the ground, but a great cacophony of noise fails to die down when the shaking does. It's not a noise you've ever heard before; though you can compare it to metal being torn, the echoing and overbearing sound is at a scale you can't even comprehend.
·First Aid, having a natural coolness under pressure, is able to collect himself even as the situation continues evolving. The alarm begins to go off as he gets himself off the floor, and he notes that had it not the entire crew would probably still be mobilizing. There was no way anybot didn't feel what he just happened to be a front row spectator towards. While being on a ship of soldiers meant backup would soon be available, he had a few concerns that just couldn't wait for the guards to be scrambled. With one path to the medical bay now inaccessible, and you being so vulnerable, he needs to get somewhere safe to plan. He holds you close as the first open room becomes a makeshift shelter.
·Still reeling from the shock of everything, you find yourself atop a table in one of the Lost Light's many maintenance rooms, watching as First Aid attaches a portable operating flashlight to his helm. Before you can ask a single question the light is covering your body as he looks you over, asking for clarification on your basic functions while checking for injuries at the same time. Only when he's satisfied you're stable does the opportunity for speech present itself. Half expecting another massive tremor to hit at any moment, you ask what on earth made the ship move and sound like it had hit a Titan sized can opener, and his visor darkens with worry. You take hold of his hand to reassure and encourage him.
·The explanation is a bit rushed, but understandable; the ship has been ambushed, no doubt the enemy is preparing to board through the makeshift docking station they just created, and enemies will soon flood in... Also, most of the ship's systems appear to be offline. It's bad enough news that you feel suddenly woozy and need to sit back on your little table. Seeing you afraid drives First Aid into action, his processor working overtime to formulate a plan that will get you to safety, though admittedly the situation is a tough one. It's only when he takes proper stock of his surroundings and notes the monitor station that an idea takes shape.
·Intent on finding a clear path, he lays out his plan as he starts typing, explaining his thought process as he hacks into the virus addled program to get what he needs. Though you find solace in his confidence, the surprise from before is still wearing you down. Exhaustion seems to be the only thing you can truly comprehend... First Aid breaks through the enemy programs holding information back, but his victory proves short lived when the many systems start showing their current status, and his triumph turns to horror at one in particular. Critical to your survival, the atmospheric generators are among the malfunctioning systems. Oxygen levels are dropping by the minute. Without a word, he turns on the spot and begins looking you over again, earning a cry of surprise as he scoops you up.
·Alarmed and confused, you haven't a clue what might have spurred the usually in control bot to act so rashly, and have to sputter out the question when your clouded head fails to settle. Something like an explanation pours out of him, but there's very little you understand due to an increasingly sluggish mind. The growing exhaustion alarms him further. There's precious little time before you reach critical levels of oxygen deprivation, and the hypoxia has already rid you of the ability to process the situation... An ache in his spark is joined by one in his head as he tries to formulate a plan, and when he is left with only a long shot, he's forced to take it for your sake. There's a shake in his hands as he cannibalizes the room for parts, throwing together a makeshift air scrubber that will generate just enough breathable oxygen to get you to the medical bay. You smile as you watch him make it, suddenly too tired to stay awake but wanting to watch him craft, if only because his ingenuity is one of your favorite traits. The pleasant haze is still there even as he lifts you again to bring a makeshift oxygen mask to your face and begin running.
·All he can really do is hope, but there's precious little optimism in his spark as he makes the journey to the medical bay in a blind run, not running into enemies by sheer luck. The countless mistakes he's made so far are all that exist beyond your terrifyingly expressionless face. It's distracting enough that he's surprised when the team of Autobots appears from nowhere, particularly as Ratchet is amongst them, but before the CMO can say a word First Aid is pleading with the more experienced medic for help. He feels like a student on their first bad rotation in a hospital ward, facing the possibility of death for the first time, only a million times more agonized because you're on the line. The older bot is mercifully understanding as he gently takes you and guides him back to the medical bay, where he enters a fog and settles in to his job without conscious thought. He sees everything; Ratchet stabilizes you with proper equipment, wounded bots start to come in with news the battle is over, the systems maintaining the ship all come completely online... None of it registers.
·All he can think of is how he failed. The machine he built could have been more effective, he should have predicted oxygen issues from the start, and had he not been distracting you with his foolish interests to begin with... It physically hurts, but he doesn't allow himself even a moment of reprieve from the self admonishment, and dedicates himself entirely to your wellbeing. Every tiny facet of your recovery is microanalyzed, down to the thousandth of a percent. He won't risk losing you to more of his mistakes. It's bad enough that he doesn't permit joy to show on his face when you finally begin to stir, not even cracking a smile when your beautiful eyes finally blink open and you look into his visor. Your own expression, however, immediately shifts to one of exhausted but emphatic relief. Seeing the bot you love alive after the chaos you remember enduring is more than you could have asked for.
·He can't help but be incredibly gentle as he asks how you feel, his affection too strong to ever suppress in its entirety. But you can see the struggle in his actions, having become so accustomed to his presence that the out of character reservation is as obvious to you as a fireworks display, so you quickly ask if he's okay after everything that happened. The innocent question actually makes him flinch. Not a moment later he breaks and loses the calm air of a medic, collapsing into a nearby chair to confess that your injuries are his fault, caused by a myriad of failures he can't reconcile. Head in his hands, he's caught off guard when you make an effort to move from your little bundle of blankets and tubes keeping you stable.
·Before he can say a word to stop you, he is silenced by a little hand taking hold of his digit, and though the mask is firmly fitted you still speak loud and clear enough for him to hear the firmness in your voice. As lovingly as you can, you insist that he stop what he's doing. Loving him is worth any risk, but because he's as resourceful and brilliant as he is, you had made it through a situation most wouldn't have survived. The rest of the universe may not always see his worth, but you do every time you see him. Growing dizzy from the force of your conviction, you're gently shushed and encouraged to lie back, yet to your exhausted delight First Aid appears anything but pained as he works. Adjusting your blankets and tenderly ensuring your comfort, he doesn't need to say thank you through anything but his actions. As always, you've brought him back down from that exhausting despair he grappled with so often in the past. After all, he must be capable indeed to have earned the love of someone so wonderful and unique. The least he can do is show his gratitude in a gentle brush of his thumb over your palm as you drift back to sleep.
#transformers#maccadam#mtmte#more than meets the eye#lost light#idw#tf#ll#my writing#my asks#requests#prompts#human reader#self insert#first aid#first aid x reader
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asaelfic
asael
super-steffie
Steffie loves girls