Finally got my copy of the Dracula Daily book :) once again kind of delighted that my most enduring fandom legacy might turn out to be thirsting after the Gothic cowboy on main

Blossoms on a Bough

Fix-it/filler for the end of episode 36!!!

~

The first thing Wen Kexing notices, once his mind has floated up towards any sense of consciousness, is a bright cool light shining on his face. His brows twitch downwards in irritation, the intensity of it stinging his eyes even while they are still closed. His body feels like lead, and his thoughts are thick and muddy. He just wants to ignore the light and drift back off to sleep.

Wherever he is, he seems to have landed on something relatively soft and warm. It is surprising, since his general ideas about the netherworld involve darkness and cold, but he is certainly not going to complain. Perhaps, given the long list of his transgressions, his soul flew right past the Yellow River and dropped straight into hell, and now he is being fried in a pot just like that chicken that had chased Chengling around the Four Seasons Manor. The thought makes him want to laugh, but there is an odd tightness in his chest, so the best he can manage is an incredibly weak cough.

A faint rustling of cloth sounds by his ear as whatever he is reclining on shifts slightly. There is a vague sense of presence nearby, but he cannot tell more than that. Almost against his will, he cracks his eyes open to see who might be trapped in the stew pot with him, but there is only a dark looming blur surrounded by pale watery light. It makes him think of Zhou Zishu; his face bathed in sunshine, in moonshine, in starlight. He always seemed to glow with something intangible and dream-like. And Wen Kexing -helpless little month- could do nothing else but follow after it.

“Ah Xu,” he exhales in the barest of whispers.

A scent lingers in the air around him, crisp and lightly musky. It reminds him of burying his fingers in long dark tresses. Of the tenderness and care taken combing the tangles out of them afterwards. Of sliding his own hair pin into the carefully twisted knot at the crown of Zhou Zishu’s head. He should have brought him a different one to replace it, he thinks blearily. The key was most likely lost or broken in all of that snow, and now he will have nothing to remember him by.

This place is strange, wherever it is. Soothing and disorientating all at once. Is it some sort of hallucination? Did his soul get lost somewhere between life and death? Is he a true ghost now, doomed to wander the world in hopeless despair, witnessing joys he can no longer take part in? Thoughts spin around in his head in a billion tiny fragments. He cannot quite seem to catch hold of any of them, or arrange them in a pattern that makes sense.

“Am I dead?” he wonders aloud, his voice thin and raspy, not expecting an answer.

“You fucking better not be,” a cross reply rumbles out from somewhere above him.

Wen Kexing blinks. The sun still burns his eyes, but after a few moments of intense squinting, the dark blur leaning over him reconfigures itself into a familiar and beloved face. Zhou Zishu, leaning back against a dusty wall with Wen Kexing pulled more than half way into his lap.

“What…happened?” Wen Kexing wonders, head positively spinning in bafflement. Now that he is waking up a bit more, he is becoming more aware of his body’s aches and pains. It feels like a horse kicked him in the chest and then he fell into a river and drowned. Even wincing hurts.

“Something went wrong with the ritual,” Zishu tells him. His voice is raw and his eyes are bloodshot. He looks as haggard as Wen Kexing feels. “You collapsed. Your heart meridians were severely damaged, and your hair turned white. You must have used too much of your internal force. It has been more than three days since you lost consciousness and…I thought…”

His voice splinters and he trails off, looking away from him for a moment.

“But…it worked?” Wen Kexing presses, trying to feebly grip at Zhou Zishu’s sleeve, “You can hear me talking again now, so that means that it worked, right? The rest is fine, so long as it saved you.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” Zhou Zishu answers, the first traces of a smile pulling at his lips.

“Yes. You are here.” Wen Kexing echoes, as though he still cannot quite believe it, “And…I am here, too.”

“You are.” Zishu confirms, his arms tightening around him, carefully tugging him up until he is all but leaning into his chest. “It was a near thing, though. My medical knowledge is limited, and even with the Yin Yang book, I was not certain that I could heal you.”

“Rong Xuan’s wife allegedly used the teachings in the book to heal his heart meridians and other serious injuries when he was near death several times over,” Wen Kexing hums thoughtfully, casually tilting his head against Zishu’s shoulder, “But she was an experienced physician. You have had no training, and yet you saved me on the first try. You must possess some kind of natural affinity for it. Ah Xu, you have so many talents, I am having a hard time keeping track of them all.”

“It had nothing to do with affinity,” Zhou Zishu huffs, sounding exasperated and perhaps even the tiniest bit embarrassed, “It was pure dumb luck.”

“Eh?”

“The Four Seasons Sect has a special technique that cripples someone’s heart meridians,” he explains somberly, a humorless smirk on his face, “I used it against Prince Jin to keep him alive, but bedridden. My master taught it to me, and as far as I know, I am the only one left alive who knows how to perform it.”

“That is very interesting, Ah Xu, but I am not certain I understand what it has to do with dumb luck,” Wen Kexing says smilingly.

“My master…he also told me how to counter the technique, so that the person’s heart meridians could be healed again and their qi could flow properly,” Zhou Zishu continues, turning his head slightly to directly meet Wen Kexing’s gaze. “I did not have much hope when I opened the Yin Yang book. You were slipping away, and there was no time for in-depth research. But…when I found the section detailing how someone with damaged meridians might be cured, it was obvious that…the techniques I learned from my master were based on this knowledge.”

“So…that means…my parents…?” Wen Kexing looks a bit lost at the revelation.

Zhou Zishu nods.

“It is likely that Lady Yue Feng’Er and your parents shared this precious knowledge with their friends, and possibly even helped my master develop this skill. I was only able to save you because of this.”

Wen Kexing furrows is brows, his thoughts whirling and his emotions complex. He seemingly stares at the dark blue of Zhou Zishu’s lapels for what feels like ages, looking but not seeing, pensive and moody. Finally, he lets out a very tired-sounding sigh.

“And I only managed to save you because that dumb bastard Rong Xuan stole the manual for the Six Cultivation Techniques,” he says, sounding bitter, “But maybe no one would have needed all this saving in the first place if that old monster had never let his idiot disciple leave the mountain to begin with.”

Zhou Zishu frowns down at him.

“I know, I know,” he mumbles, a bit sulky, “The past is past. Zhao Jing was punished and the rest are dead. There is no point stewing on it now. I have just…been angry about it for so long, sometimes I forget that I don’t have to be anymore. Be patient with me, Ah Xu.”

“Hm?” Zishu blinks, as though suddenly coming back to himself. “Oh, it wasn’t about that.”

“Then what?”

“I was just thinking that…it really could not have been anyone else,” Zhou Zishu tells him slowly, intensity burning in his dark eyes. “I said it was only dumb luck, because I never believed in destiny all that much before. If you want to achieve something in this world, you have to be willing to create it for yourself. But…for things to end up this way… It had to be you, and it had to be me, didn’t it?”

Wen Kexing bursts out laughing, utterly delighted.

“I always knew you had a soft heart beneath that tough exterior,” he grins, slightly breathless, with an almost pleasant ache in his ribs, “But Ah Xu, I never imagined that you were secretly a romantic.”

“Shut up,” Zishu grunts, pinching his arm until he yelps, “Who is romantic?”

“Ai, there is no need to be shy about it now, is there?” Wen Kexing says pleadingly, giggling to himself all the while, “There is no one here except us.”

“That’s right,” Zhou Zishu agrees blithely, a truly terrifying expression stealing across his face, “There is no one on this entire mountain except for you and me.”

“Ah Xu, don’t do anything rash,” Wen Kexing cajoles with a hint of genuine nervousness, “I only teased you a little bit, and I am still in such a delicate state of health. If you throw me out in the snow and beat me, I really won’t be-”

Zhou Zishu kisses him then, and whatever he won’t be promptly flies out of his head like a startled flock of birds.

The kiss is softer than he would have guessed, if he had gotten a moment to anticipate it. Clumsy, but tender. Hasty, but sincere. The mouth pressed so suddenly against his own trembles just slightly right before it pulls away. A thousand years too soon.

It is nowhere near the first time they have kissed each other, but Wen Kexing is almost always the instigator. It suits his own preferences to take the lead in most physical forms of intimacy anyway, so he would never complain about it. However, it does make the times Zhou Zishu reaches for him first feel more…something. Something that makes his heart full, and his eyes itch.

It makes him feel as though he is not only being accepted by this man, but chosen by him, too. As his partner. As his equal. As his friend. Lovers and soulmates and all the rest.

Wen Kexing is not certain that anyone else has ever chosen him before.

Not when there were other, better, options on hand, at any rate.

He swallows thickly, gazing up at Zhou Zishu with wide, startled eyes. Little flecks of cold mountain sunlight catch in the dark sweep of the other man’s hair almost like snowflakes. His grin is wide and fierce. Buoyant and hopeful in a way he has never been in all the time they have known each other. He looks impossibly beautiful, and horribly pleased with himself for managing to derail Wen Kexing’s usual babbling. There might be the slightest touch of pink to his ears, though.

“Ah Xu,” Wen Kexing chokes out.

I love you.

But the words get stuck in his throat.

“What?” Zishu laughs, “Do you ever get tired of calling me?”

“No.” Wen Kexing offers him a weak smile in return, shifting out of his hold a little so they can sit facing one another.

Zhou Zishu heaves an exasperated sigh, but his eyes remain bright, his expression one of incalculable fondness.

“Is that all you were saying during the ritual?” he wonders, half joking, “You just sat there calling my name?”

“Huh?”

“You said earlier that you had tried speaking to me, but my hearing had gone,” Zhou Zishu reminds him, “What did you say?”

“Oh, yes, it was mostly just your name over and over,” Wen Kexing nods, “Plus a few embarrassing personal anecdotes I felt like sharing. Once I knew you had no way to stop me, I really couldn’t help myself.”

“Lao Wen.”

“Yes, Ah Xu?”

“After all we have been through together, what could you possibly still have to tell me that you think I would be unwilling to hear?”

Wen Kexing makes a face, caught outright.

“It…is not so much a matter of thinking you would not hear me out,” he admits carefully, “It is more that there are just things that are difficult to say to someone. The more important they are to you, the harder it gets, so between you and me… But when a man feels his end has come, all sorts of things seem to tumble out unwillingly.”

Zhou Zishu looks positively stricken.

“You could tell that the cultivation technique was backfiring?” he hisses out, gasping Wen Kexing by the shoulders, “And you still kept going?”

“What else could I do?” Wen Kexing asks helplessly, “If I had stopped wouldn’t we both die? Would it be better if I had starved to death with your corpse in my arms? Besides, that old monster promised me that this technique could save you, so no matter what the cost was going to be, of course I-”

“So, you knew there would be a cost already?” Zhou Zishu cuts him off, expression like a brewing storm cloud, “You knew this was likely going to injure you, and you did not even think to warn me first? We could have prepared beforehand! You could have looked through the Yin Yang book and point out things that I could use to help you in an emergency! Dammit, Lao Wen, I thought you were supposed to be smarter than this!”

“Was there really time for things like that?” Wen Kexing argues back, “Your senses were already dying out one by one, if we did not try the technique as soon as possible, you might not have been able to complete it! If I told you how risky it is, would you agree to it? Would you still let me try to save you?”

“I deserve the right to make that choice!” Zhou Zishu shouts hoarsely.

“You do!” Wen Kexing agrees just as hotly, “But I owe it to Chengling to save his family. And I owe it to our master to save his teachings. And I owe it to you most of all. I ruined your chance at happiness. To rebuild the Four Seasons with Chengling and the other new disciples. You threw it all away to try and avenge me… The number of people in this world who have been good to me are few enough to count on one hand. I would do anything for them, and you most of all. How could I live without repaying this debt?”

“And what if I hadn’t been able to save you?!” Zhou Zishu demands thunderously.

“I didn’t expect you to save me!”

For a few moments, the words seem to echo of the cold walls of the armory, bouncing back at them over and over. The silence that follows after them is deafening. Zishu’s eyes are red, and his hands are trembling on Wen Kexing’s biceps, but he looks as though he is about to breathe fire.

“Good,” he says finally, his voice low and deadly, “Very good. You feel like you owe me so much, but all you want to do is torture me.”

“What?” Wen Kexing baulks, “No! Ah Xu, that’s not what I-”

But before he can finish the thought Zhou Zishu has already pulled him into a bone-crushing embrace, his breathing erratic, and his face buried in the side of his neck. Wen Kexing makes a pained grunt, his ribs still tender from previous injury. It only makes Zishu’s grip on him tighten, however, holding onto him with a furious desperation.

“In such a short stretch of time, I have had to see you dead or dying before my eyes over and over again,” he mumbles thickly into the silk of Wen Kexing’s robes, “You spent all this time chasing me down, pestering me to let you stay by my side, begging me not to die, and telling me to find things to feel hopeful about. But now it seems as though you are set on leaving me behind.”

“I never wanted to leave you,” Wen Kexing protests, but his voice seems to have lost all of its strength, “I just wanted to keep you safe. Even if I died, and you had to be sad for a while, you have so much left to live for, and I wanted you to have it. I just wanted you to be…happy.”

“Bastard,” Zhou Zishu laughs wetly, “Wen Kexing, you really are…the absolute worst sort of person.”

Wen Kexing sags in his embrace, his heart plummeting down into the pit of his stomach. His head droops, white hair falling across his eyes. Utterly defeated.

“I know.”

Zhou Zishu finally pulls back from him. There are obvious tear tracks down his cheeks, but he still looks fierce, regardless. He takes Wen Kexing roughly by the chin, forcing him to meet his eyes.

“You are also…my happiness.”

Wen Kexing gapes at him, for once in his life completely at a loss for words. Seeing an opening, Zhou Zishu takes the opportunity to kiss him again. Harsher this time. Brief and chaste and biting. It does not seem to help the other man’s sense of bafflement in the slightest. Indeed, Lao Wen looks as though his soul might have just flown straight out of his body.

Zishu smiles at him again, but there is still something sharp and wounded at its edges.

“Eternity would be an empty place without you,” he says quietly, “How could you leave me to bear it alone?”

“I…I’m…sorry,” Wen Kexing sputters, as though he does not know what else to say. He finally reaches back for Zhou Zishu, cautiously taking hold of his wrists. The ache in his chest seems to have spread outward, and he is shaking so badly that he fears he might not be able to sit up straight much longer. “I’m sorry. I just did not… I did not know how else to save you.”

“Mn,” Zhou Zishu nods in understanding, “I suppose I can forgive you for it this time, although some part of me still would like nothing so much as to throw you outside and beat some sense into that thick skull of yours.”

“I will accept any punishment you want to give me,” Wen Kexing tells him earnestly.

“Alright,” Zhou Zishu grins, “Then pay me back with your whole life. Stay alive, and stay with me. Always.”

Wen Kexing blinks in surprise, but the next moment he is laughing. Dizzy with relief and unexpected joy. Marveling at the gifts that fate has blessed him with after so many years of hatred and heartache.

“I can do that.”

~

When Zhou Zishu wakes up later that night Wen Kexing is sitting at the opposite end of their makeshift bed in nothing but his under robe. His back is facing him, and he takes a moment to stare at the snowy cascade of his hair. The living proof of what Lao Wen would sacrifice for him. It looks beautiful on him, as everything else seems to, but Zishu thinks he prefers the rich dark brown that he was born with. This new color comes with a twinge of guilt.

Not that he would ever say so.

“Lao Wen,” he calls softly, “What are you doing?”

Wen Kexing’s shoulders stiffen in surprise.

“Don’t come over,” he replies, “I’m not finished yet.”

“Ai,” Zishu grins, scooting close enough to lightly tug at a few strands of that bone white hair, “But that just makes me want to come over even more.”

“I have a knife,” Lao Wen says coolly, “I will use it if I have to.”

“You left our bed in the middle of the night to play with a knife?” Zishu laughs, not intimidated in the least. “Why?”

“If you stop pestering me for a few minutes maybe you’ll find out,” Wen Kexing snaps. Zhou Zishu is not fooled, though. He had caught the sharp inhale of breath when he had said the words ‘our bed’, and he is all but certain that Lao Wen’s threats are empty.

“But you’ll catch cold,” he coaxes, slipping his arms about his waist and pressing a kiss into his shoulder. He obligingly resists the urge to peek at whatever secret Wen Kexing is fiddling with, though. The other man sighs, but does nothing to discourage him, as expected.

“The next time you accuse me of being insufferable, I want you to remember this conversation,” Wen Kexing says wryly.

“It must be your bad influence,” Zhou Zishu chuckles.

Wen Kexing hums noncommittally, going back to whatever he had been working on before. Zhou Zishu sits patiently behind him, leaning into the warm curve of his back, listening to the steady beating of his heart and the faint scraping sound of a blade chipping away at something. The proximity is comfortable, and the quiet almost meditative, and before long Zishu is already half way back to being asleep.

“Alright,” Lao Wen says finally, carefully pulling himself free of Zhou Zishu’s arms and turning to face him, “You can look now.”

Zishu has to shake himself a little to wake up again, but once he does, he finds that Lao Wen is holding out what appears to be an oddly shaped icicle.

“…What is it?” he asks after a few moments of trying to puzzle it out for himself.

Wen Kexing frowns.

“It’s a hair pin,” he tells him, as though it should be obvious.

“Ah.”

“What do you mean, saying ‘ah’ with such a doubting face?” Wen Kexing huffs in annoyance, “Of course it is a hair pin, what else would it be? You lost the one I gave you before, so now I have to give you a new one to replace it.”

“I lost the one you gave me before?” Zhou Zishu laughs.

“That’s right,” Wen Kexing nods seriously, “But I promise not to be mad about it.”

“Philanthropist Wen is too kind.”

“It’s true,” Lao Wen sighs dramatically, “People are always taking advantage of my generous nature.”

He firmly places the hair pin in Zhou Zishu’s hands. Upon closer inspection, it looks to be roughly shaped like a tree branch. There are two lumpy circles that might be meant to be flowers attempting to bloom from it. The finished product is crude, but the ice is clear and crystalline. Pretty, even despite the skill level of the craftsman.

“It is meant to be plum blossoms,” Wen Kexing admits somewhat sheepishly, “One bloom for each of us. There was meant to be a bud for Chengling, too, but I accidentally broke it off. Hopefully, that is not an inauspicious sign for him.”

“I see,” Zhou Zishu says, because he does see, and just like the morning he had woken up to find the Four Seasons Manor cleaned and Wen Kexing diligently repairing his master’s old painting, he feels very much like he wants nothing more than to pull the other man into his arms again.

“Ah Xu, will you accept it?” Wen Kexing asks, slightly trepidatious at his lack of reaction.

“Of course,” Zishu smiles easily, “But it’s made of ice, after all. If I wear it, it will likely melt or break in a day or so.”

“If it breaks, I will just make you a new one,” Wen Kexing says, his eyes soft. He plucks the hair pin from Zhou Zishu’s fingers, reaching up and carefully sliding it into the loose knot at the base of his ponytail. “I can make you a new one every day, if I have to. With any luck, they will eventually look less ugly.”

He takes Zhou Zishu’s hands in his own.

“There are still things I am not good at saying,” he tells him, “Things that I want to share with you. Things that you deserve to hear. Right now, my skills are not enough, but just like with the hair pin, if I keep working at it every day, eventually I can give you something worth having.”

Zhou Zishu tugs him down into his embrace. He thinks about kissing him. About pushing him down and pulling his robe open and showing him, again, how very much he is wanted. But Lao Wen is still recovering from injuries, and it would be a shame to snap his new hair pin tussling around in the sheets. So, he makes do with holding him close, for now. Tangling his fingers in hair the color of starlight.

“Say them, or don’t say them,” he says quietly against the shell of Wen Kexing’s ear, “Whatever they are, they have no bearing on your worth to me.”

“Doesn’t that seem like my current value is lower than mud?” Wen Kexing laughs nervously.

“It means you are treasured,” Zishu corrects him firmly, “There is no price that I would sell you for.”

“I suppose that means I can stop living in fear that you would truly try and sell me to a brothel.”

“You really are a brat.”

“Ah Xu?”

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

critical missive

dedicated to @cryptovexillologist

oh boy arent we in a fine pickle now?

usually i enjoy talking openly and bluntly about my opinions on whatever the last thing i read is, safe and secure in the knowledge that the author will most likely never stumble on my measily 700 followers tumblr blog, so i am free to express my opinion to my heart’s content knowing that no feelings will get hurt. 

mission critical would be no different except i talked with the author and read their acknoledgement and the AMA they did on discord after writing the story and they have endeared themselves thoroughly to me so my language will have to be neutered, at least for the first half of this excercise. afterwards things will get a bit harsher but i’ll try to rest at ease in the knowledge that we seem to be kindred spirits and i would be delighted in hearing any kind of criticism of my work either positive or negative. 

ok, enough coaching done, lets go on to what i thought of this novel.

it is a delightful romp, as i said before, the worldbuilding is understated and realistic with enough glimpses of depth and detail to suggest a much larger picture. this world feels inhabited, lived in, like it was well chewed on for long by the author before putting pen to paper. consequentially the characters that arose from this world feel like they belong, they feel like real people with real lifes. by far the strongest sections of the book were the flashbacks to their lives before the plot started. their voices, regretably, do sound very similar when interacting with each other but in their own sections the characters shine in their charm and cleverness. every time one of their flashbacks ended i was left with the intrigue and the desire to know how their particular story would continue.

the terra ignota influences are very noticeable, the world and its people carry the same kind of almost childlike positivity and innocence, the same kind of cheerful, happy go lucky trust in human progress and the great project of humanity for the future with the same sobering forlorn attitude towards the horrors of the past.

on top of that its silly, gosh in heaven it is silly. it has moments of cringe, in the best of ways. strange slapdash bits of flavor, immature non sequiturs, small indulgences from the author’s own weird interests and dumb meme humor. i do love me my awkward corners in a book, after all it is those that make something unique. there is a clear personality poking through and it is a delightful personality to meet.

i cant help but like this almost more for the context in which it was written than for the content itself, it was done during quarentine as a way to both stave off cavin fever and to process the author’s feelings regarding their gender identity. as someone who also wrote a story where i almost deliberatly tried to trick my self into breaking my own egg and who turned madly towards creative endeavors to survive the pandemic i can sympathize strongly with this. i am really happy that the author got to do this and kickstarted a project towards a big, possibly decades spanning trilogy.

so, yeah, those were the nice things i had to say, if you are content enough with that you can stop here but if you are curious to know more, well... you can

in short: it is a bit of a mess. again, im willing to be lenient, considering the way in which this was worked on, this is very much a really early first draft. the second half of this story was a very slow and very boring trudge towards a sudden end.

first, the fact that the flashbacks and the worldbuilding bits are the strongest part of this story means the actual plot itself suffers from being fairly boring and generic. “astronauts explore alien planet, find spooky stuff there” was already old hat by the 50′s. it is a plot so worn down and archetypical that it really cant survive if that is literally all you are going to do with it, and that is kind of all that this book does. i did mention moments of flavor and strange self indulgence. we needed way more of those. yes thats right, im saying that this story was not self indulgent enough. when you have such a well trodden plot such as this, worn down to the point that it becomes paint by the numbers, we need quirky, we need cringe, we need strange excess and personality. the author mentioned that they would love to see some of the weirder alexandria fan fics, well so do i! be the miracle you want to see in the world! the moments alexandria debated if wether identifying as a trilateral were amazing but they were not enough. we have a great structure here but lets put some proper meat on these bones, some proper fat and skin, some clown make up and a weird novelty hat and outrageous clown shoes. im getting carried away here, lets get back to the point.

the other problem is  there is not a clear trajectory for the story here, no well defined moment of climax and the emotional beats tend to fall a bit flat or to come out of nowhere. there are emotional crisis which i sort of missed or didnt get where they came from. the characters act in ways that are hard to relate to  that come off as stilted. the way they conduct themselves through the mission felt at times weirdly unprofessional and like it didnt follow much of a logical throughline, and when i say logical i dont meant “i wanted the characters to act hyperrational at all times” i mean i want the characters to act in ways that make human sense. ironically the one character that acted a bit too human for my tastes was the AI. alexandria is an interesting character but i feel that the place to explore that idea is not in the middle of an incredibly important mission where having your mainframe experience a crisis might not be the most practical thing in the world.

the ending was jarringly sudden, i didnt feel there was a proper resolution and finishing it off with flashbacks to the time the characters were training was... odd. i reached the last line and it felt like the story had just decided to stop without ever having reached anything that came even close to the third act. all of this can be easily fixed with some concientious editing and a complete rearrangement of the different sections of this story.

all in all a great first step in what i hope will be a long career as a writer.

The Michigan Fleet authors posted their AUs so here are mine

theunvanquishedzims: I have SO MANY Boat Boy ideas but I'm sitting on them because I came up with a bunch halfway through the book and they got jossed by the end rollerskatinglizard: Hah! Uhhh, sorry? I think?? theunvanquishedzims: (i.e. Basil gets sad and weepy over Rich and Liam flirting at a party, Trimmer plays fairy godmother a la ripping half his shirt off, giving him a pep talk, and sending him back out there to Win Back His Man) rollerskatinglizard: *whooping* theunvanquishedzims: Jossed so hard rollerskatinglizard:Okay, that's DELIGHTFUL rollerskatinglizard: Trimmer is the most terrifying fairy godmother rollerskatinglizard: Anything else? :Dc theunvanquishedzims: Lemme get my notes rollerskatinglizard: *gleeful wiggling*

theunvanquishedzims: Okay so I stopped reading when the Sympatico grabbed Rich during the storm and it took me a month or so to get back and finish, so I was under the impression that the ship was still being fixed in drydock and not, y'know, actually being crewed and sailed. (Trimmer yelling "just let her sink" hits reeeeeaaaallly different when you know that) rollerskatinglizard: Ahaha oh dang theunvanquishedzims: So the big idea was the gangsters needing something from the Sympatico. Not the general thugs and delinquents crewing the Sympatico but the actual organized crime of the Fleet, who were getting pretty used to using ships like the Sympatico to run their dirty deeds through. Except it's basically impossible to get what they need out of it, even when they drag out one of the old IST guys. He finally tells them Rich was the one who did the heavy lifting for the past few years rollerskatinglizard: Ooooh! rollerskatinglizard: What an interesting idea! theunvanquishedzims: Hang on I need to restart rollerskatinglizard: Ah yes, computers theunvanquishedzims: Sorry, that turned into a dinner break and running errands During which I came up with a couple new AUs theunvanquishedzims: Okay, back to mafia: they track Rich down, probably snag him after he's been out boarding. Off work, not expected back on the ship, tired from all the exercise, etc. They're not overtly threatening, just pick up his skimmer and politely suggest that he comes help them, and he probably goes quietly because there's like, six of them. I'm thinking only one of whom was actually posted on the Sympatico theunvanquishedzims: So they get back to the Sympatico. She's been temporarily decommissioned until the Fleet can fix her broken processes, but that's also a cover story by the mob. They want to clear out all the smuggled goods and information, but she's basically a ghost ship, silent and empty, and even the other IST guy couldn't get more than a few blinking lights. She's sulking basically, she knows they're not there to fix her so she's digging in her heels and playing dead. Like a toddler going ragdoll when they don't want to go to bed. theunvanquishedzims: They explain to Rich that they can't get a response and want him to take a crack at it. "Has she said anything?" "Who?" "The Sympatico." "...we didn't talk to it." "Well that's half your problem right there." theunvanquishedzims: At this point you should watch Show Yourself from Frozen 2, and the crystal scene from Atlantis the Lost Empire. Stepping into the place you've been called, making your presence known, and having a greater power reach out for you. Shiny lights, chasing the spark of life to its source, and having the power consume and embody you. Rich is used to it but it's probably pretty freaky from the outside, and way less magical-looking than a Disney movie. Probably more like when Magneto activated the machine in the first X-Men movie. Step up, turn it on, and suddenly it's sucking the life out of you, making you a living battery theunvanquishedzims: In my head I am picturing the glowing blue eyes, lights cracking along the skin like lightning or circuit patterns, the implants glowing in his temples, standing at a terminal like a star trek deck, maybe a faint breeze-like movement of the hair and clothes to indicate the sheer power radiating off of him. In reality it's probably more like he falls down, gets up, stumbles along to a good spot out of the weather, and curls up in a secluded defensible spot to stare emptily at the wall for a few hours while lights randomly go on and off around the ship theunvanquishedzims: Just being trailed by six very wary mafia dudes who have probably never seen someone mind-meld a ship, and definitely not solo. He's like a zombie, and when he does talk it's very clear he's talking for the both of them theunvanquishedzims: If any of them are in sync with the ship they definitely feel the !!!Rich you're back!!! vibe theunvanquishedzims: No idea how that resolves, I guess it depends on how powerful the mafia is. If they're the kind of entrenched criminals who are ongoing characters, then they have Rich scrub out what they need then dump him back on his skimmer to face the fallout alone. He might report it to the spooks? Or at least try to tell Basil and Mitch theunvanquishedzims: If they're not recurring characters then they were definitely being tracked by the spooks, who move in once the Sympatico comes back online. Rich has to answer some very tough questions but he cooperates fully and winds up digging up a LOT of dirt out of the Sympatico, now that the mafia showed him where to look. It's another one of the super traumatizing moments that makes him look cool and heroic. Oh yeah, totally got kidnapped, single-handedly piloted a ship, and helped bust the mafia, please stop talking about it, I need a nap, and also someone to go with me next time I go boarding. theunvanquishedzims: (And then I finished reading the book and found out that the Sympatico had a new crew and was out on the water with her AI still fried and broken, how did no one notice that)

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theunvanquishedzims: Okay I don't have Trimmer's voice well enough to write this fic so I'm feeding it to you raw: Trucker AU theunvanquishedzims: Rich is a long-haul trucker, much to the disappointment of his elder sister Angela, who is in law enforcement and thought he had a decent future in it too. Athena is a pro wrestler and totally down to support her brother traveling the country (and hopefully being in the same city as him sometime, she wants him to see her kick ass!) Rich wants to pursue a degree in [tech or engineering] but college is expensive, and trucking is a good way to make money, on top of which you don't have to pay rent when you're on the road. So he's saving up for school, probably listening to a lot of audiobooks, podcasts, and training guides while chugging along. theunvanquishedzims: Not nearly as bad or sketchy as the Sympatico, but life on the road can get pretty sketch sometimes, especially when you're alone. Enter Trimmer. Or rather, enter Rich into the middle-of-nowhere trucker stopover bar where Trimmer is getting his ass kicked. theunvanquishedzims: (Gonna go ahead and say the bar is called the Sympatico, and this is a very bad night to be there, which is saying something because any night at the Sympatico is a bad night to be there.) theunvanquishedzims: Fortunately, Rich is not trapped there by the cold uncaring waters of Lake Michigan, he can just turn around and leave when he sees the nightly fight brewing. Unfortunately, he has a weakness for cute twinks, and no matter how much the guy is insulting their mothers four on one is really not fair, so he winds up wading in, scooping Trimmer up, and murder-stalking to the exit theunvanquishedzims: [At this point I pause to stare out the window and wonder wistfully what their canon meeting was like, who approached who, if Trimmer just straight-up used his lunch to hire a bodyguard or if Rich did the "are you gonna finish that" puppy-eyes and Trimmer realized how easily he could be bribed, etc etc] theunvanquishedzims: In the Trucker AU Trimmer waits until they're outside to go feral goblin on the arm that's holding him, Rich drops him, and negotiation commences theunvanquishedzims: I don't have Trimmer's backstory nailed down, the "teenage runaway" archetype doesn't really suit someone with a large loving family, but safe to say that whatever lead him to hitchhiking across the Midwest he is determined to see through out of sheer bullheaded stubbornness. The only thing worse than calling your parents to bail you out with bus money home is calling your grandma. It might have involved stabbing a college advisor when the guy got rapey, he's technically not on the run from the law, he DEFINITELY is not on track to getting his degree. Halfway between college dropout and missing person. If he was wealthy he'd be backpacking Europe for a semester, but he's not, so he's hitchhiking America. And getting molested by truckers, because Trimmer can't have nice things. theunvanquishedzims: He is really not interested in getting molested by Rich! But, as Rich points out, he did just save him from getting stabbed, Trimmer doesn't seem to have any exit options for this backwater town, and holy #&$^ the bar's on fire. (The Sympatico burns to the ground that night, to the betterment of the world at large.) rollerskatinglizard: You have no idea how much I'm enjoying this But you should totally post it Splick and Roach would both scream in glee theunvanquishedzims: Rich and Trimmer get out while the getting is good, and it's nearly dawn before they finally hash out details. Rich offers to drop him off at the next town, but they're still pretty close to the epicenter of the mass exodus so the next few hundred miles are probably not going to be safe for Trimmer. By this point Trimmer has found a bunch of the old textbooks Rich bought secondhand to study in his free time and come to the conclusion that [this nerd is a nerd] his story checks out. Just a college kid trying to scrape together the cash to get an education and make a decent living. Reminds Trimmer of Trimmer. (Reminds Trimmer of Joey.) rollerskatinglizard: ;u; <3 Beautiful theunvanquishedzims: So now Rich has a little traveling buddy! Helps him stay awake on the long hauls, lets him use the carpool lanes, even reads to him out of the textbooks sometimes, with commentary. Trimmer is really smart and surprisingly easy to get along with. They nap in the cab, eat in diners, and share motel rooms. Trimmer unclenches a little. Rich is good about not asking personal questions. They definitely watch Athena's fights on tv more than once, much to Rich's chagrin and Trimmer's loud encouragement. He started fanboying over it to annoy and embarrass Rich, but it is surprisingly cathartic to watch someone get trash-talked and respond by just BODYSLAMMING their opponent. ("Why are you rooting for her, you're the biggest trash-talker I know," Rich mutters into his beer, face bright red as Trimmer whoops and high-fives the waitress he got to change the channel in the sports bar.) theunvanquishedzims: ("She would wipe the floor with me," Trimmer responds with a smirk, watching smugly as Rich tries to figure out if Trimmer is having impure thoughts about his baby sister) theunvanquishedzims: (They have already established that Trimmer does not have impure thoughts about Rich, that Rich DOES have impure thoughts about Trimmer, but as long as he stays in his own motel bed that's fine.) (Trimmer still sleeps with a knife under his pillow but doesn't bother in the cab, where their co-naps occasionally verge on snuggling.) rollerskatinglizard: <3 <3 <3 *perfect* theunvanquishedzims: They finally reach their destination. It has been [days to drive a rig between NJ and CA] and they make it there slightly ahead of schedule. Rich drops off the delivery, Trimmer comes face-to-face with the reality of the trip ending. He'd been hitchhiking for months and felt like he was going nowhere, and now a few days and suddenly he's crossed the entire country, and almost kinda maybe had fun doing it! And California's as good a place as any to stay, at least he won't freeze to death if he doesn't find a place to crash for the night. theunvanquishedzims: Then Rich comes back and hands him a wad of cash, pocketing a stack of his own. "Got a cash bonus for finishing early! And since you're the reason I made it here this fast, I just figured part of it is your share..." he peters out, trying to explain his reasoning. They sit in silence for a while, both thinking about Trimmer in California, far away from anyone who would want to hurt him, with a few hundred dollars in his pocket. theunvanquishedzims: "...Let's get lunch," Trimmer finally decrees, and Rich can't keep the relieved smile off his face. They renegotiate some things over lunch, and then go to pick up the next load to haul cross-country. Together. rollerskatinglizard: AWWWWWW!!!! *YES,* I love it!!! theunvanquishedzims: And then eventually they go to college together, and get their degrees, and good jobs, and meet the families, and Trimmer absolutely drags Rich to as many of Athena's fights as they can manage on the road. It's just to save money, things are cheaper when you split the rent, Trimmer hollers on the phone. You put a ring on that boy's finger, y'hear?! Hellbender hollers back. I am so glad the word moirail exists rollerskatinglizard: YES God yes Also this AU pleases me greatly rollerskatinglizard: Blessings upon you for it theunvanquishedzims: ...technically the Michigan Fleet takes place in a post-Homestuck world, so theoretically it could have time to enter mainstream lexicon. It's better than "bromance" theunvanquishedzims: JUST THROWING THAT OUT THERE >.> rollerskatinglizard: Yeah, totally different feel than bromance!

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theunvanquishedzims: Speaking of Homestuck! Wanna hear the Helmsman AU? :3 rollerskatinglizard: YES PLEASE theunvanquishedzims: Okay gimme a minute to get my notes, it's not based on One of Our Submarines but I can't remember the fic title. Have you read the one where the kids redesign the helmsrig and use that to garner support for Feferi as Empress? Lots of political drama, Sollux-centric, [spoiler], and in the end they win *but at what cost* (((If someone knows what fic I'm talking about please link me, I can't find it.))) rollerskatinglizard: No, I haven't theunvanquishedzims: It's good, if you like the nitty-gritty of rebellions. The piece I'm cherry picking is the new Empress introducing a new way of helming that allows more freedom. Instead of a single enslaved lowblood being hung up in tentacle wires until they drop dead, it's something you can unplug from, allowing psionics to swap out, take shifts, etc. So Empress Clearwater (yay seadweller name) is dead, long live Empress Clearwater, and she shakes things up by introducing her new helmsrig and orders it implemented Fleet-wide theunvanquishedzims: I don't think this universe is as bad as canon but it's still pretty rough on the bad ships, and the Sympatico is a very bad ship theunvanquishedzims: Angie is still a security officer, probably fairly high-ranking as a greenblood. Athena is a pro wrestler. Sports are probably a bigger part of life in a Fleet that doesn't center around conquest. The three probably grew up in the same neighborhood, maybe dabbled in quadrants before settling on hatefriends. Oooh, or ash, Athena setting them up to talk out their issues over lunch and then heckle each other over their other quadrants could fit in that quadrant. theunvanquishedzims: Rich is, of course, a helmsman. It's rare for someone that close to jade to be so powerful, he was actually planning on a career in tech, but when he got called in for psionic testing he basically crushed it. Possibly literally. And olive is still technically a lowblood, so off to the helm with you. theunvanquishedzims: His first posting is the Sympatico, and it's a nightmare. The one bright spot (dark spot? How do trolls even. *insert rant about Kanaya being pastel goth not goth-goth*) theunvanquishedzims: The one bright spot is Trimmer, a technician whose survival method is to lock himself in the helm dock and stab anybody who tries to mess with Rich when he's piloting. It's basically how things work in the superstorms, but 75-90% of the time instead of a few times a year theunvanquishedzims: Rich can barely talk most days, they communicate via chat client, and even that requires a lot of brainpower so they can't do it when the Sympatico has to fight something or do difficult maneuvers in space, which is pretty frequently. But Rich keeps an eye out for Trimmer, directing him through the ship to help him avoid people and fights, and tweaking things like hall lights when things get hairy. I think at least once he turned off the gravity, it cost him but it got Trimmer out of a really bad situation and gave him an excuse to hole up in the helmsdeck for a few days until things cooled off theunvanquishedzims: But all that is in the past! There's a new Empress, a new crew, and a new way of helming! theunvanquishedzims: The Sympatico is one of the flagships to roll out the new helmsrig. The original crew was disbanded, culled, reassigned. Trimmer was allowed to stay (at Rich's request) to ease the transition. It's a big day, lots of media attention documenting the new helmsmen, and Rich is doing his best to keep calm. He had to do some physical therapy to stand upright and be able to walk from the big speech to his shiny new helmsrig, but as a fairly young recruit he's not nearly as bad off as some older helmsmen whose bodies have atrophied. He's still pretty skinny though, especially when compared to Angie and Athena, who he reunited with (for the cameras) #helmsmenaretrollstoo, #greenc3<green, #omgishipit, see things are much better now, people can reclaim their lives and quadrants, helming is something to be excited for not scared of, etc. Lots of propaganda, lots of attention, lots of pressure to get this right theunvanquishedzims: And then he walks into the helm and Trimmer is there. Rich would probably have had a meltdown if he hadn't been, but no one can tell because they're so calm and professional. They're both cleaned up and impeccably uniformed, the plugging in goes smoothly, and the Sympatico comes to life and lifts off into the sky into a sunset that would make a Hollywood director weep. The cameras turn off, great job everybody, and things return to normal. Except Rich and Trimmer have no idea how to handle normal. For the first 8 hours it's fine, it's good, it's a little weird that Trimmer looks so tidy and that Rich is sitting in a padded chair instead of being flesh-jacked by tentacles, but it's fine. They chat over text, a little stilted but plenty to catch up on theunvanquishedzims: Rich spies on the new crew and gossips about how boring they are and how weird the ship looks with everything cleared out and well-lit, and wow where did that section of storage come from? Oh right that used to be a hidden smuggling nook. Haha nook. See they're fine, they're laughing at the same old jokes. DEFINITELY weird that Rich is physically laughing. And then their relief shift comes on, with the new 2nd shift helmsman, and it's time for Rich to get unplugged for the day and go. Go to his room, which he has now, or to eat, which he can do now, or any one of a million things that normal trolls do, because he's a normal troll now. (This is turning out a little different from in my head but I like it.) He makes it about two hallways, walking silently side-by-side with Trimmer, before he breaks down. Or rather Trimmer breaks down. Or maybe they both simultaneously break, there is a lot of breaking happening, and it's not great that it's happening in the hall where anybody could walk by and where the new helmsman is almost certainly seeing them and possibly reporting them, and Trimmer's flight instincts are to run back to the helm where it's safe but Rich isn't there, RICH was the reason it was safe and he's not at the helm, he's right there in the hall. Rich, I know not how, picks up Trimmer and gets them to him room. It' close by, thank goodness, and it has a lock on the door, how weird, and Trimmer is there. He missed Trimmer so so much. rollerskatinglizard: ;u; <3<3<3<3 theunvanquishedzims: [The following scene contains content too graphic for wigglers under the age of seven sweeps] rollerskatinglizard: *laughing* Hardcore conciliation!!! theunvanquishedzims: From Trimmer's POV: Merrill requested him to remain a tech on the Sympatico. Makes sense, he was the only one who treated the guy like an actual troll and not a drooling mass of computational power. They got caught up, it's weird how clean and quiet the ship is, no fights to report beyond a spat in the cafeteria that turned out to be pitch flirtation. His shirtcuffs itch and he wants to roll them up but it's day one of the new empire and he doesn't want to get culled for being untidy on the Empress's pet project ship. There's so many other things to get culled for, anyway. And then shift is over. (Weird, he's used to working 16-hour days and sleeping in the helmdeck half the time.) And he has to unplug Merrill (double weird, he's not used to touching Merrill unless it's for a physical repair. Very aware of Rich as a physical person, especially when he's standing up and not obscured in a mass of tentacles.) And then they leave, together, which is WEIRD, because for sweeps Trimmer has been sneaking out of the helmdeck to go on a food run with Merrill texting him directions, and there's no Merrill on screen providing guidance to avoid fights, but there's not gonna BE any fights, and everything is the same but different and looks weird and shiny and there's a giant troll right next to him, stalking him, why didn't Merrill warn him?! rollerskatinglizard: Oh NO, ahaha, oh these poor doofuses theunvanquishedzims: From Rich's POV: he's been seeing these hallways for sweeps, but not from this angle, the ship is so familiar but so foreign to him, and he can't hear her, can't feel her, and he keeps reaching out for her even after all that training he did to get used to the new tech, there's still an absence and some part of his brain that says not being linked to the ship means something has gone catastrophically wrong and everyone onboard is going to die, TRIMMER is going to die, Trimmer is freaking out and hyperventilating next to him, Trimmer's running out of oxygen and the ship isn't responding to him to tell him what's wrong with the oxygen, and then Trimmer goes to bolt back to the helm but that's full of strange trolls and a new helmsman, and that knowledge is enough to shake him back to the situation at hand. He doesn't know where he finds the strength or the presence of mind, but he manages to grab up Trimmer and get them back to safety. It's just that safety is now his berth, not the helm. They're alone in his berth. And Trimmer is still freaking out. Sh-shoosh? Shoosh. Shooooooosh. theunvanquishedzims: Everything is diamonds and snow and beautiful shining crystals (in the movies that will someday be made about this day.) In the moment there's a lot more hyperventilating and snot. Basically, culmination behind the entire fic: do they actually have feelings for each other, or was it just about mutual survival the whole time? rollerskatinglizard: INCREDIBLY ADORABLE AND INTIMATE COMFORT, *YESSSS* Thank you yes, I'll have a dozen God that's splendid theunvanquishedzims: And they're both freaking out, Rich is hungry and physically tired and needs to do a lot of stretches, Trimmer is not used to Rich being huge and mobile and right next to him, and they both have crazy big trust issues, but...yeah, they're pale. They're so pale for each other, and it was so hard during the transition not seeing each other and not knowing how the other felt, not knowing how THEY felt, if they really had feelings or if it was all a bad situation. And now they know. They have feelings. And because they're trolls and not humans, they can flop on a pile and talk about those feelings in a non-platonic way, and Rich can pet Trimmer's hair and tell him how pretty he is and how Rich is glad that Trimmer got it properly cut instead of just hacking it too short for someone to grab, and how much he worried in the hall about not being able to see farther than his own field of vision to keep Trimmer out of harm's way, and how this whole thing is so weird and Rich is so scared but he's just really, really happy that Trimmer took the posting on the Sympatico, because he pities Trimmer and he wants him around and he was so glad that Trimmer wanted to still be around him too theunvanquishedzims: The media always depicts piling as either the traditional fairytale highblood freakout, or an extremely mellow ASMR-ish chillout with lots of hairpetting and horn polishing. Not two midbloods looting a mostly-empty room for enough junk to make a large enough pile to sit on, shrieking at each other about their feelings and how weird this is and why didn't you SAY something, me?! why didn't YOU say something?! Three SWEEPS we've been dancing around this! Well I didn't know if you felt the same way or if you just needed me to survive! Etc etc etc. Lots of getting up and stomping around , pacing the floor while ranting, trying to scavenge more stuff to throw on the pile. Rich owns basically nothing and it's the first time he's not judging Trimmer for keeping his room a garbage heap, even empty pizza boxes would be better than trying to make a pile out of two sweaters and a toothbrush. rollerskatinglizard: XDDD TuT aaaaah, YES theunvanquishedzims: Rich definitely rips off a wall panel and pulls out some wires, Trimmer doesn't even question it, they've lived and breathed this ship long enough to know what every wire does and which are nonessential to ship functioning. And with the wall panel crunched up they can pile stuff around it to make it seem less sparse, and wow it doesn't even matter that he pulled a panel down, this is HIS wall in HIS room now, he can "redecorate" as he sees fit, cue more yelling about how he doesn't know what to do with himself or his newfound freedom. The whole thing is just yelling and cussing and grabbing and shaking. It probably looks black from the outside, but they are swimming in palest cream. theunvanquishedzims: Eventually they give up on the pile. They go through Rich's entire perigee of snack rations to avoid having to go to the cafeteria, halfheartedly make fun of Rich's chewing, then crawl into the recuperacoon together. Thank goodness there was such a big push to show off how great helmsmen's lives will be, Rich scored a blueblood-huge 'coon and he's still skinny enough that they can both fit in it together. They sleep together, in sopor like proper trolls with proper lives as opposed to surrounded by pink tentacles and misery. Tomorrow they'll have to venture out for food, and do Rich's stretches and physical therapy, and head to their shift like the galaxy hasn't flipped upside-down, but they're handle that together. rollerskatinglizard: Oh help, my heart!! TuT It's SO CUTE, AAAAAAAH theunvanquishedzims: Okay my computer has been trying to shut down for the last three paragraphs so I think it's time to log off for the night, but I hope you enjoy the AUs, I will tell you more tomorrow rollerskatinglizard: Thank you so much!! Have a good night! theunvanquishedzims: (In the original version Rich and Trimmer came face-to-face for the first time since the Sympatico was busted up and Rich pulled out for rehab, and basically had a giant pale meltdown right there against the wall. There was purring, and crying, and confessions, all caught on film. Athena and Angie definitely saw. It had to be censored out of the broadcast. Someone uploaded it to Troll Pornhub and it won a Troll Pornhub Emmy for Truth in Journalism, which was not a category the Troll Pornhub Emmys had before, so congrats Merrill and Trimmer) rollerskatinglizard: *dying* oh my GOD Rich would blush so hard he'd keel over

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theunvanquishedzims: I woke up to the idea of Rich as Fezzik and Trimmer as Inigo Montoya (book version.) rollerskatinglizard: Hah! Oh man, delightful theunvanquishedzims: Soft-hearted giant and stabby little friend rollerskatinglizard: Yesss theunvanquishedzims: Only problem is Trimmer's grudge seems to be against the entire world, not any particular murderer theunvanquishedzims: But they could definitely take on the Zoo of Death together rollerskatinglizard: It could be both, in the AU! Specific grudge and also he hates everyone theunvanquishedzims: Instead of not being left-handed he pulls his feet out of his boots and surprise! More hands to stab you with Makes the acrobatics on top of the cliff more exciting rollerskatinglizard: *dying* YES Perfect! theunvanquishedzims: I don't know who the Man in Black of most beautiful woman in the world would be, but Rich catching them jumping out a window to whisk them away on horseback is lovely rollerskatinglizard: *strokes chin thoughtfully* If Rich is Fezzik, I think Basil might as well be the beautiful love interest, and Mitch is his farm boy turned dashing rogue theunvanquishedzims: Mitch and Trimmer sword fighting rollerskatinglizard: YES theunvanquishedzims: Mitch going through hell and back to save his lady love, then Rich shows up with the horses and says "hello pretty lady" and Basil is just swooning over him rollerskatinglizard: Mitch is pretty chill with Rich by then, he can handle sharing Rich didn't try *hard* to kill him, after all theunvanquishedzims: He even made it a fair fight instead of ambushing him He put down the rock and Mitch put down the sword and they tried to kill each other like civilized people rollerskatinglizard: *laughing* Yes, exactly theunvanquishedzims: Rich even helped bring him back from being mostly dead rollerskatinglizard: They're practically best buddies now! theunvanquishedzims: Which I imagine is 1000x funnier because Trimmer hates this guy and doesn't want to help him but he has info Trimmer needs rollerskatinglizard: Rich just being reprovingly like Come on, buddy, he's cool really I KNOW you bonded over your sword fight with him Don't lie Trimmer: HE'S STILL A DIPSHIT theunvanquishedzims: Trimmer: It was a little fun to take the boots off I guess, I don't get to do that often rollerskatinglizard: Hahaha yes theunvanquishedzims: Downside of being the best swordsman in the world, nobody can touch you. UNTIL NOW. Trimmer: I killed the guy but now I have nothing to live for. Mitch: Have you considered piracy? Stabbing people all day and all the rope ladders you can climb rollerskatinglizard: *dying* theunvanquishedzims: Now Trimmer's life goal is to reclaim his title of Best Swordsman, which means fighting Mitch a lot rollerskatinglizard: Which they both enjoy Sometimes Trimmer wins, sometimes Mitch does rollerskatinglizard: Roach points out that Liam would be Miracle Max theunvanquishedzims: I was just about to type that! rollerskatinglizard: Heee! Good brain wave theunvanquishedzims: You need a cure for death? Nope, sorry. You need to it humiliate my mortal enemy? Coming right up! rollerskatinglizard: YUP theunvanquishedzims: Slipping Rich the holocaust cloak "because it fits so nice" rollerskatinglizard: Pfff yes theunvanquishedzims: Which is said with a million more winky faces than the movie rollerskatinglizard: XDDD Naturally Liam is a much higher-libido mad scientist-substitute theunvanquishedzims: He doesn't have a wife he has like six boyfriend minions hanging around in various states of undress. He got fired for banging the king when he was the royal miracle man, he did a good job but the prince found it icky. rollerskatinglizard: *dying* YES theunvanquishedzims: Basil as Buttercup tho. Basil: Mitch is a good friend. :) Just a great buddy. :)) Kind of smelly but a nice boy. :))) Someone: *might possibly find Mitch attractive* Basil: What? Why. No. Why would she. I mean yeah he's smart and muscular and tan and broad-shouldered and has perfect teeth and his sweat glistens in the sun as he does his chores shirtless, but c'mon, he's not THAT much hotter than her middle-aged husband. No way. rollerskatinglizard: *snickering* rollerskatinglizard: My cowriters very enjoy this AU concept, btw, thank you theunvanquishedzims: Excellent theunvanquishedzims: Trimmer: I told him I was there to kill him and he just...ran away? Mitch: Who does that? rollerskatinglizard: *snickering* theunvanquishedzims: Basil being a slobby peasant until two minutes after Mitch leaves, then realizing he has to take care of himself if he wants to keep Mitch's attention, and only then starting to regularly bathe and brush his hair and work on his figure. rollerskatinglizard: Snirk! Sounds about right, doofus nerd that he is theunvanquishedzims: Then he becomes a princess and has two servants per limb to keep him clean and shining, so when Mitch sneaks into the wedding announcement crowd his first view of Basil is 1. clean 2. shiny hair 3. dressed like a queen

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General book chit-chat, no specific AU

theunvanquishedzims: I saw the post about the Sympatico crew having a very different view of Rich than his friends and now I am consumed with the idea of Rich being seen as scary by anyone who knows him for more than a single minute. Like, he flinches at the sight of a uniform, he can't stand to be in a room with more than one other person in it, and he's so busy working he doesn't really have time to go around carving out a territory rollerskatinglizard: Right? You'd think it'd be tricky, but apparently no theunvanquishedzims: And now there's video of him covered in kittens, and doing cool board tricks, and pretending a little barbel is too heavy to lift, and also he might be in the news for taking down a murderous conspiracy at the Mall. rollerskatinglizard: *laughing* Indeed theunvanquishedzims: Where did big scary monster Merrill go, who is this marshmallow rollerskatinglizard: What scam is he trying to run?!? theunvanquishedzims: Oooh, I pity the fool who is assigned to a boat with Officer Merrill. Double flinch response rollerskatinglizard: RIGHT? *OH SHIT, THERE'S ANOTHER ONE* And she's ARMED theunvanquishedzims: Try to blow off some steam by watching some wrestling, A THIRD ONE rollerskatinglizard: Some poor dumbass who sneered at Trimmer once ends up hiding out on a penny boat bc there's MERRILLS EVERYWHERE, IT'S NOT SAFE OUT THERE theunvanquishedzims: *dying laughing* I imagine a non-terrible Sympatico crew member meeting reformed Rich is like those Very Special Episodes where the hero's high school bully or childhood bad influence friend comes to town, and they're so nice and friendly and apologetic about what happened back in the day rollerskatinglizard: We actually have an encounter something like that planned! theunvanquishedzims: The hero's friends are all charmed and the hero can't convince anyone that it's all an act, he's secretly still terrible, look I'll prove it *does something that makes the hero look bad and the reformed guy look like a victim* Yaaaaaaaaay!!! Outside perspective is the BEST rollerskatinglizard: Rich and this random dude, both acting like the other one is a total menace Meanwhile, anyone who's known either of them since is like ....No?? He's a fine guy, perfectly reasonable Merrill, stop growling theunvanquishedzims: Two Spider-Men pointing at each other rollerskatinglizard: Hah! Yes theunvanquishedzims: Also the fact that Rich has gotten BIGGER since leaving the Sympatico is probably a shock rollerskatinglizard: OH yeah theunvanquishedzims: Richard "Cranky Because He's Slowly Starving To Death" Merrill rollerskatinglizard: I mean, it's a shock to Rich When he hits another growth spurt So it's definitely a shock to anyone else theunvanquishedzims: Oh yeah, he was like 17 when he was first assigned there, nowhere near done growing yet Richard "My Shirts Rip When I Flex Wrong" Merrill rollerskatinglizard: *snickering* He'd look so sheepish and disgruntled if someone gave him that "I flexed and the sleeves fell off" shirt theunvanquishedzims: I am so glad Trimmer got to him before, like, a gang could figure out he's easily bribed with food. Things could have gone so much worse, corruption-wise rollerskatinglizard: YUP theunvanquishedzims: I just finished Athena and the Midnight Chicken and WOW Rich was actually kind of close to giving in to peer pressure there, if Athena hadn't thrown herself towards the proverbial sword he might have let himself be talked into something he really didn't want to do. rollerskatinglizard: It's possible! Baby Rich is very weak to peer pressure theunvanquishedzims: If they had been smart and manipulative and laid the groundwork first it would have been even easier, not just "here's a knife let your ingrained killing instincts do the work" rollerskatinglizard: Yeah! It could've gone much worse theunvanquishedzims: In the wrong hands Rich would make a very good, very sad soldier But like, deep down inside sad where no one could see it. rollerskatinglizard: That was actually close to his original story when I came up with him

[I’ll check with Skates to see if it’s okay to post that bit]

theunvanquishedzims: I'm already nervous about those two Horrible Old Men rollerskatinglizard: Which two? theunvanquishedzims: My face went D: at the idea that there's more than two rollerskatinglizard: *pats u gently* theunvanquishedzims: The werewolf guy with the boys on leashes is the one that makes my instincts scream KILL IT WITH FIRE, but there's also the one with the scar on his face? I wanna say Arthur Carroway rollerskatinglizard: >u> Gosh, Zims, idk WHY you'd be worried about him Just bc my tablet keyboard knows how to spell Carraway That's no reason to be concerned! rollerskatinglizard: Maybe Splick made him the [tarot] Devil bc he's devilishly handsome! Did you think of that?? theunvanquishedzims: I am terrified of him showing up, I know I'll be cringing too hard to keep reading right away. Men who abuse positions of power are so squicky, I couldn't even stand to watch the Office and Michael Scott is like, the most benign example of the trope But yeah a guy like that getting to Rich as a younger more mallable person, fresh-faced and eager to please. Ugh. Such a bad ending. rollerskatinglizard: YUP theunvanquishedzims: William Sandgren is the other one, I think rollerskatinglizard: Fortunately Rich did get rescued originally! I don't do sad endings theunvanquishedzims: He looks cool, I don't immediately want him dead for my own safety rollerskatinglizard: <u< theunvanquishedzims: ...I will ignore that face and continue to think of him as the lesser of two evils for now rollerskatinglizard: Absolutely feel free! ^u^ theunvanquishedzims: When I thought about this earlier I imagined Liam actually being the one to start a pissing contest with Arthur. Rich guy vs criminal guy, my grandmother bedazzled the skulls of her enemies, your teeth would make a lovely necklace, etc etc "Well I'd love to get them around your throat" ;) rollerskatinglizard: You know Liam QUITE well theunvanquishedzims: I'm a visual learner, so all the illustrations are helping me flesh out characteristics. Liam smiling like a psycho while his face drips blood is very telling. rollerskatinglizard: Hah!!! Right? God, he's SUCH a little firebrand theunvanquishedzims: (Also, AU where Liam is the babydoll heir and Rich is the soldier mod bodyguard he climbs like a tree) rollerskatinglizard: We have definitely discussed that AU thoughtfully >u> It's good, v tasty theunvanquishedzims: Rich is all THIS GOES AGAINST THE RULES and Liam is all oh you like being told what to do hmm? >:3~ rollerskatinglizard: Rich: God this is SUCH a bad idea, I'm gonna get so fired Liam: Not if you're good enough at it! theunvanquishedzims: I imagine without a pregnancy they'd be able to keep it under wraps slightly longer than grandma Beaker rollerskatinglizard: True! theunvanquishedzims: "Under wraps" like everyone in the house can't hear them rollerskatinglizard: Pffff YUP theunvanquishedzims: Ugh now I'm remembering Trimmer being scared of Rich getting drunk and pushy and I'm sad again rollerskatinglizard: No one likes Rich's drinking except Rich rollerskatinglizard: It's okay tho, Trimmer trusts Rich more after that theunvanquishedzims:I think he'll figure it out given enough time. Rich: Well everyone drinks because work sucks. Basil and Mitch: Nope! Rich: Well I'm a soldier mod so it just LOOKS like I'm drinking a lot. Angie and Thena: Nope! Rich: Well I have trauma from the Sympatico so I need alcohol to deal with that. Trimmer: Nope! Rich: ...well I guess I have a problem then. :< Everyone: Yep! rollerskatinglizard: Indeed theunvanquishedzims: I am so curious about their origins, how the relationship developed, how apparently they had half a handjob between them and went NOPE NEVER AGAIN, how they wound up co-sleeping, if they ever cried on one another, etc etc rollerskatinglizard: I'm 100% certain that Rich cried on Trimmer at least once, while Trimmer awkwardly patted his hair and gently called him a wuss or something If Trimmer ever cried it would've been in the middle of the night, and none of them would ever mention it in the light of day theunvanquishedzims: Was that Trimmer's first posting? I know it was Rich's, so he kiiiind of didn't know any better, but Trimmer is older by a bit rollerskatinglizard: It definitely wasn't Trimmer's first, no, the latest in a long string of postings that went from okay to bad to worse theunvanquishedzims: Oh nooooooo No wonder he finally said screw it and got a solo boat rollerskatinglizard: Yep

what's DFZ?

DFZ! DFZ! DFZ!

Okay, so, the DFZ series(es?) is kind of a catchall name for a couple of series by Rachel Aaron that take place in the same urban fantasy universe, the DFZ books and the Heartstriker books.  Urban cyberfantasy?  You could throw a lot of adjectives into that descriptor if you wanted to.

The general premise is that once upon a time Earth had magic.  A lot of magic.  Absolutely god-creating levels of magic.  And then, mysteriously, it all drained away some thousand years ago, leaving humanity to forget all about it while the creatures who needed it to live either withered away completely (spirits, gods, etc) or went into hiding and hibernation (also some spirits, dragons, etc).  And then, like a switch being flipped, it all came back at once in 2035, and suddenly humanity had a lot of magic to throw around and no idea what was going on.  That was a few decades ago at the start of the Heartstriker books, which are a couple decades before the DFZ books.

(Incidentally, I really like that choice.  It would have been very easy to write a novel about humanity getting magic back and running around like chickens with our heads cut off, and don’t get me wrong I would have read and adored that book, but setting things a little later means that magic is just Part Of The Deal and it’s so much goddamn cooler.)

Which brings us to the DFZ proper, also known as the Detroit Free Zone.  When magic came back, a lot of shit woke up really fast, chief among them A, dragons, and, B, Spirits of the Land.  Like the Lady of the Great Lakes, Algonquin, who was really, really not having it with every city in a hundred mile radius dumping pollutants into her water by the metric ton.  So she wiped most of the Great Lakes states off the map, and took over the ruins of Detroit to make the Detroit Free Zone, where the only laws worth mentioning are:

No murder

No dragons

No polluting the water

Anything else is pretty much free game.  So you can imagine that the DFZ gets to be a pretty interesting place pretty goddamn fast--the most magical city in the world, where anyone can do anything without fear of the law coming down on them, under the iron hand of a goddess who doesn’t much care for humans.

Anyway, if that sounds cool and you like any of the following, you should actually just trust me and go read these books without bothering with the rest of this post:

Immaculately well-constructed magical worldbuilding--the entire second book of the DFZ trilogy is basically “how to out-litigate a curse and the consequences of doing just that”

Humans Are Special trope, but in the “if you could all just slow down on the innovation we’d all be a lot safer” kind of way, which is a personal favorite

Dragons!  Lots and lots of dragons from all over the world!  This is an absolutely spectacular series for dragons, despite Algonquin’s best efforts!

Sentient cities!  The DFZ takes a while to get moving (magic takes time and big magic takes big time) but once she does, oh boy do I ever love her so goddamn much, get wrekt Algonquin

Magic Is Normal tropes coming out your goddamn ears, mixed with a healthy dose of Technology Is Magic (AIs can project stuff straight into your brain by hooking into your natural magical field and y’all...I’d kill for it...that’s so cool)

Really genuinely likable characters--Julius, Marci, Opal, and Nik are all completely fantastic and I would get drinks with any of them, and also the main romances actually enjoy each others’ company in non-romantic contexts, which is remarkably refreshing

Seers, and the finicky game of making the future jump the way you want it to jump while someone else who can also see the future is trying to make it jump the other way

Doesn’t that sound rad?  Yes, it does, I’m telling you that these books are amazing, the first DFZ book is called Minimum Wage Magic, and the first Heartstriker is called Nice Dragons Finish Last, go forth and read.  Either series is a great starting point, I actually liked reading the Heartstriker books after the DFZ books because I loved seeing Opal meet Julius, Main Character Boy for the Heartstrikers, as a competent and universally respected adult, and then getting insight into his brain which is just that one gif from Community with the pizza and the fire, all the time.

As per usual, more details under the cut.

So, magic comes back and Algonquin wreaks destruction and the DFZ happens.  Smash cut sixty years into the future for the Heartstriker books, starring Julius Heartstriker, the youngest and most regrettably tenderhearted dragon in the massive Heartstriker clan.  Julius’ primary problem in life is that he does not enjoy lying, scheming, manipulating, threatening, murdering, or power tripping, which means that his entire family pretty much takes carte blanche to kick him around like a soccer ball.  This comes to a head when his mother, Bethesda Heartstriker, puts a curse on him so that he can’t access his draconic form and dumps him unceremoniously into the DFZ, where dragons are executed on sight, with strict orders to find something to impress her, or else die quietly out of the way.

Julius, to his credit, throws himself into trying to become a Real Dragon as best he can, but he’s just so goddamn nice, he goes out and saves lives and makes bargains and enforced democracy instead of unilateral dynastic rule and falls in love with a human (hi Marci) and makes a name for himself as “the dragon you go to when all your other options would kill you or laugh in your face.”  It’s absolutely delightful to watch.  He’s doing such a good job.

Basically, the Heartstriker books go like this: Julius doesn’t like the way his world works!  And fuck you for telling him that he needs to be less kind in order to work in the world!  He’s not changing himself, he’s going to change the world instead, and because he’s very, very nice, he’ll even let you live there once he’s done!

Next up, the DFZ books, twenty years later, star Opal Yong-ae, who moved to the DFZ from Korea for reasons that become apparent later but mostly boil down to “freedom.”  Since Julius’ first arrival in the DFZ, a lot’s changed--Algonquin is gone, the Spirit of the DFZ is a sovereign entity who has her own motives and desires, and what was once a no-dragon zone is now a neutral territory governed by the Peacemaker, who you might remember as a twenty-four-year-old baby desperately out of his depth and is now a straight up force to be reckoned with, feared and respected around the world.  (I’m so proud of my son.)

Opal’s problems are that she’s a mage who hits like a tank when she’s desperate but can’t handle even the most basic tasks, and she’s scrambling to pay off a massive debt to her father in order to prove that she should be allowed to remain in the DFZ.  These are both old news.  The dead body she finds in an abandoned apartment that she’s been hired to clean out and get ready for renting, on the other hand, that’s a new, kicky, fresh kind of problem, especially once someone starts shooting at her about it.  

She joins up with another Cleaner named Nikola Kos, who she mostly knows as “that scary guy in black” and is an absolute tank who is also secretly very soft.  Their dynamic is so much fun, very intensely “Small Chaotic Drags Big Exhausted Into Drama” with the added bonus that Nik is a very cool cyborg fighter type.  Opal is so determined that it verges on being completely unhinged and I would read 15 books about her.  Also, the third book is out, so that brutal cliffhanger at the end of Half Price Gods is a problem for Eight Months Ago Me, rather than Present Day You.

@hodgehegposts gift for @cookidoughlilac

Surfing prompt for @cookiedoughlilac

Gravity had never been John’s friend. As a kid, he had been the slowest of the five Tracy boys to learn to stand and subsequently walk, despite being the fastest to learn other, arguably more complex, skills such as reading and talking. Once he had picked up on those skills that required basic motor function, he set about mastering them in true John-esque fashion, not resting until he could stand, walk, run perfectly. Of course, this had been when he was still an infant, before two of his brothers had even been born, and it was rare now that he had any trouble with… well, anything. Sure, he was often wobbly on his legs when coming back to Earth from space, but when you spent most of your time floating around in zero gravity, such instability was to be expected. 

His brothers- specifically Alan and Gordon- used to tease him about his sudden faceplants into the floor during the first few days of any trip back home, but such teasing had ceased the moment they had gone up to Five to complete their first training rotation with him. The experience of floating through air had been so disconcerting, and the grace with which John moved through the space station seemed so miraculous compared to their flailing limbs, that they had relented on the merciless ribbing John would receive each and every trip back to Earth, much to the astronaut’s relief. It wasn’t that he minded it, per se, but he had a much quieter nature compared to his siblings and the combination of hurricane Alan and Gordon could be extremely overwhelming after the quiet and solitude of space. Lucy Tracy had been the most understanding of John’s need for solitude within such a boisterous family, and it had been generally accepted that he would be the only one of the five brothers to have their own room as opposed to sharing before the move to the island had made any potential room-sharing redundant.

John was desperately wishing for that solitude now. He was at the island visiting, International Rescue having been shut down for two weeks to allow its members some much needed rest and recuperation. It was a difficult feat to suspend operations for that long, with various meteorological and geological calculations taking place to ensure that there was an absolute minimal possibility of a natural disaster occurring whilst they were offline, which also had to coincide with the GDF stepping up and taking over any human-made disasters. There was something slightly unnerving about the absence of alarms that usually punctuated every waking- and unwaking- moment. However, it was currently the fourth day of the family’s ‘staycation’- because honestly, they lived on their own tropical island, where would they vacation to?- and John had finally started to relax.

Until now.

The Gruesome Twosome had managed to cook up a plot that seemed essentially to be a method with which to mock poor John. It was hot, swelteringly hot, and it had been decided, unanimously yet without discussion, that the whole family- Kayo, Brains, Lady Penelope and Parker included- would take a day trip to the tiny stretch of soft white sand that made up the island’s only beach on the northern most point. A picnic had been packed, and between the ten of them enough blankets, deckchairs, umbrellas, frisbees, volleyballs, boogie boards and spades had been ferried down to the beach that John was sure that if money ever started to run low, they’d be able to sustain themselves for several years selling beach related paraphernalia in some coastal town or village. Not that they would ever get to that point, of course; Scott was remarkably good at finance administration and all five of them had inherited their grandmother’s frugality that characterised her generation. Tales of skyrocketing house prices and claims that avocado toast led to debt and poverty had seared themselves into the minds of the young and impressionable Tracy boys, regardless as to how true such claims actually were. As a result, despite Jeff Tracy becoming a billionaire following his retirement from NASA, the Tracy family continued to live much the same as they had before their mother died- that is, comfortably well off- with the added bonus of incredible machinery and their own island home that had only been bought in the first place to provide cover for their operations. But all the money in the world would not be able to save John from his younger brothers. He wasn’t sure how, or where from, but somehow two surfboards had been unearthed and Alan and Gordon were currently dragging an increasingly reluctant John to the sea’s edge, despite John’s increasingly frantic resistance. 

“Come on, John, it’s fun!” claimed Gordon from one side of the frogmarch.

“But-”

“And it’s too hot to be sitting reading your book all day,” chimed in Alan from John’s other side. “Plus, it’s supposed to be a vacation, you can’t just sit around doing stuff you do all the time on Five anyway.”

“I don’t spend all my time reading on Five,” John protested. “I have a lot of work to do up there.”

“Yeah, like programme evil AIs who like to torment your younger brothers,” Gordon grumbled.

“EOS is not ‘evil’ Gordon, she’s just… highly spirited, that’s all. Once she gets to know you properly she’s delightful company. And a bit too good at chess,” John added suddenly, face frowning. Alan snorted.

“Yeah, that’s ‘cos she plays against MAX when everyone goes to bed.”

John didn’t even know how to respond to that, but it didn’t really matter because Gordon had dropped his vice like grip and was clapping his hands together.

“Alright! Surfing time! We only have two boards so I figured that you could use the body board, John, until you’ve got the hang of it and then we can take it in turns.”

“I still can’t believe you’re making me do this” John mumbled, even as he fastened the Velcro strip around his wrist to avoid the board drifting out to sea.

“Oh quit complaining, it’s fun. Now, we’ll have to go in pretty far because the waves are better out there,” Gordon explained, and the three of them waded more deeply into the ocean until it was up to John’s shoulders, the buoyancy and waves causing them to rock up and down in the water.

“Now, you want to face the beach… yeah, like that, and hold the board here… good, now on the next big wave, jump onto the board and it should take you back to shore.”

“Hmm…” John remained unconvinced, but narrowed his eyes at the shore in concentration. There was silence as the three of them waited and John could feel the hot sun on his bare shoulders, causing him to fret over whether he had put enough sun-cream on them. It wasn’t really fair that he burned with SPF 50 whilst his brothers got away with SPF 20 and a nice golden tan, but before he could pursue that line of thought any further Gordon shouted, prompting John to jump onto his board as instructed.

It did not go well. John didn’t jump far enough onto the board and it slipped, the buoyancy causing it to rear up and smack John in the face. As John opened his mouth in shock and pain the wave crashed over him, and he came up spluttering, his hair plastered down by water. Ahead of him Alan had managed to get upright on his board, the same balance and core strength needed for his space board on display. Gordon was not as close to the shore as Alan now was and was facing John, speechless with laughter. John shook his hand and attempted to wipe the sea water from his eyes, taking the time to catch his breath whilst Gordon waded back over to him.

“Yeah… you might want to try jumping a bit further onto the board,” Gordon suggested, his laughter mostly under control save for the odd chuckle here and there. John glowered at him. “Ah, come on John, everyone is like that the first time. Look, another wave is coming, if we’re quick we can catch it.” They faced the shore again and this time John jumped high enough that the wave caught the board, washing it up towards the shore, Gordon whooping in his ear in delight.

The cycle continued until John was able to get it right every time, finally relaxing into the activity and allowing a broad grin to grace his face, before Alan approached with his surfboard.

“What do you say, John? Fancy proper surfing?”

John cast his mind back to all the times that he had had difficulty with remaining upright whilst on Earth and his grievance with gravity, before shaking his head.

“…no. I think I’ll leave the surfing up to you guys.”

Written in the Stars (3)

Characters: Bodyguard!Bucky Barnes x reader

Summary: You’re the type of woman who is headstrong and fiercely independent. Heiress to a fortune and one of the most brilliant minds of the 21st century. Until you’re forced into witness protection. Your “Protection” turns out to be 220 pounds of dreamy, sassy, delightful Bucky Barnes. Whatever could go wrong?

Warnings: A tiny bit of angst if you squint and TW: panic attack.

A/N: This was a hard chapter to write damn! A routine is established, Bucky feels bad for you and you make a big mistake which leads to him yelling at you.  There’s a little angst and some more soft!Bucky! if ya wanna be kind and throw me a pretty comment and a reblog? I’ll love you forever.

This was generously Beta’d by my beta @suz-123 as always, forever grateful!

Tags: Hit me up in my ASK box!

Links are being an asshole so you can find other chapters of this fic in my WIP masterlist in my bio!

Thunder rumbles across the city as you step onto the curb, Bucky is immediately at your side, umbrella in his hand as he shields you from the drizzle that has begun to fall. Multiple flashes go off as you descended the steps of the courthouse, you feel numb for some reason.

You see a sea of faces before you, reporters, photographers, police officers, but it's like you’re deaf to all of them. You numbly let Bucky guide you towards the Mercedes parked on the curb, his hand is on the small of your back, the only thing you feel at that moment.

A photographer gets too close, shoving his camera in your face and yelling at you,

“How does it feel to be made a fool of on the stand?”

“You’re ruining peoples lives!”

You blinked rapidly as the flashes go off and raise your arm to shield your face from the glare of it, stumbling slightly. Bucky catches you by the arm and halted both of you, he turned to look at the photographer and the look he gives him is pure venom, if looks could kill Bucky Barnes would have murdered the guy where he stood.

Immediately, the photographer backed away from the two of you, but Bucky doesn’t ease up. His grip on your arm tightens a little, his gaze moving across the many people around the two of you. He doesn’t like this at all, there’s too much openness for something to happen. This crowd is beginning to bug him,  

“Arcas, Achilles, switch to defensive mode.” He ordered and almost immediately the two other agents appeared as if out of nowhere and surrounded you. Their black tactical gear creates a barrier around you and, somehow, you feel a sense of security all of a sudden. They block you from the public view and walk you to the armored car.

As soon as you slid into the seat and Bucky shut the door, you heaved a sigh of relief. The outside silenced by the armored car and your brain didn’t feel like it was swimming anymore.

The trial had started today and it had been grueling, the questions they fired at you had you feeling emotional and dredging up things you had wished could be left alone, but you put your brave face on and spoke directly to the doctor when you answered.

The Avengers stood at the back of the courtroom, your eyes occasionally meeting Bucky’s and there was pity in there for some reason. That just made you feel worse when you were finally able to get off that stand, you were emotionally drained by the end of it and wished nothing more for this torrid trial to be over. But it was just the beginning.

You closed your eyes and leaned your head back against the cool leather seat, the rain started pelting down harder, its steady thrum against the metal of the car is sort of calming to you. Bucky finally slipped into the seat beside you, signalling the driver to start the journey back to the new safe house they had you in.

It wasn’t your apartment, but it wasn’t that shitty one in Brooklyn either, it was an apartment in the Upper East Side that had apparently belonged to Tony Stark. It was beautiful as it overlooked the East River, it was two bedrooms and beautifully decorated. Bucky had allowed you to return home and bring some of your belongings to the apartment, making it a little more homey.

But it wasn’t homey, it was the opposite, for all its beauty the place was a fortress. Bullet proof windows, a security system that rivaled the god damn Pentagon, cameras everywhere and that AI FRIDAY always watching.

You didn’t complain though, it was the compromise you had come to with Bucky. For all your fighting and resisting his orders, he had finally agreed on this one thing.

You had come to learn that when Bucky Barnes gave an order there wasn’t a single person who disobeyed it. Aside from you of course, and this frustrated him but today you didn’t feel like arguing anything.

You just wanted to curl up on the couch, drown yourself in a bottle of wine and pass out.

“How are you doing?” Bucky asked softly.

You opened your eyes and turned your head towards him, “Take me home, and let me lock myself in my room.” You said your voice breaking slightly.

Bucky nodded understandingly, he doesn’t say anything further. The two of you sit the rest of the trip in silence, the sound of the rain on the car and the traffic outside all you hear and you were thankful for it.

~~~

In the weeks since Bucky had begun your protection detail there were a few things you learned about him.

Bucky hates when you air quoted things, it made him argue with you. He always sat on your left side for some reason, you’d never asked him why. He drank his coffee black with simple syrup in it, a combination you’d never encountered before, and it was disgusting. When you pointed this out to him, he shrugged and chugged it just to piss you off.

Bucky always carried a weapon, whether it was a knife or a gun he was never unarmed. He always carried a book with him, and every day it was something different, you weren’t sure if he was reading these books or just carrying them around.

You’d also come to realize he was smart, like really, really smart.

He could answer any general knowledge question or math equation given to him with practiced ease. Of course this annoyed you, because for all his brawn Bucky was really brainy too, and when he was in your lab he would comment on some of your equations or formulas telling you how to better them. And, sometimes, he was actually right.

~~~

“Hey can I ask you something?”

You sat opposite Bucky, the two of you in the building canteen. You never ate here, in fact you hated it and thought canteens were a center for germs and bacteria but Bucky Barnes managed to convince you to get off your high horse and get some ice cream from there.

“Shoot.” He replied through a spoonful of chocolate ice cream.

“What’s with the code names all being Greek gods?”

Bucky paused and licked his lower lip for a second before he answered you,

“Tony’s idea, he’s into all that crap and, honestly, I don’t mind it.” He shrugged, “They’re cool code names better than the ones we had.”

“So what’s yours?”

He contemplates it for a moment, then a slow smile spread across his handsome face. “Ares.”  

“The god of war? Huh. Seems fitting.”

“I know, right.” Bucky Barnes grinned at you.

~~~

The two of you never discussed anything personal, it was always work, protection and the trial. Most of the time it was you venting about the trial and how much you regretted doing this and he would sit there and listen with a stoic expression, but it was still something.

Bucky was a closed book, he was very private with his personal life you knew nothing about him. And, even with an extensive google search, you’d only come up with the surface stuff. Name, age, height, where he was born etc etc.

Some of the stuff you’d read about him however gave you chills, there were things done to him and things he’d done that left you slightly afraid of him.

“Bucky?”

“Yes?”

He doesn't look up from the book in his hands, dark hair falling into his face as he sat on one of the chairs in your living room concentrating on reading his book.

“Do you remember any of it?”

Your question caught him by surprise. You rarely asked him anything personal, if you were not berating him for saying you can’t go somewhere or hurling insults at something in your life that upset you, you were kind of an ass.

“Remember what?” He looked up from his book.

“The things…” You hesitated, “The things Hydra did to you?”

“I remember all of it.”

The hardness in his voice was an indication that he wasn’t going to speak about it, and you dropped the conversation, quietly going back to reading your own book.

~~~

Bucky Barnes was a machine, he would arrive every day at 6:45am in the morning at your door, ready to escort you to your lab. He was never a second early or late, he always arrived wearing black from head to toe, whether it were jeans or tactical gear, Bucky always wore black.

“Geez are you ever late?” You grumbled as you met him at the front door. 

“Never.” Was all he said before he walked out out of the apartment, his hand on your arm again. 

Every trip to the courthouse, he wore a black suit but never bothered neatening his hair, he looked completely and totally devastating in a suit. You hated just how much you thought that when you saw him for the first time in one. His expression was always hard and cold when he walked you up those courthouse steps and the moment it was over for the day, and he put you in the car his expression softened and he always asked you the same question.

“How are you doing?”

And every night before he left your apartment he would walk it in its entirety, and then give you a curt nod before bidding you goodnight and turning on the security system for you.

You couldn’t say that Bucky Barnes didn’t make you feel safe, because he was so thorough in his job it felt like he left no room for error.

Until Saturday night,

“I am going out,” You stated as Bucky opened the car door for you, letting you get out.

“No.” His response was simple and firm and of course it made you bristle.

“Excuse me?”

“I said no.”

“Well, too bad, you can’t tell me what I can and can’t do.” You snapped, Bucky didn’t respond immediately. He led you towards your apartment building, one hand hovering near you as it always did the other on the hilt of his gun on his hip.

As soon as you’re clear of the street Bucky halted both of you, turning to face you he looked down at you with determined eyes.

“You can’t go out, not tonight.”

“Why the hell not? I haven’t seen my friends in weeks, I need some normalcy in my life, Bucky.”

“Because I won’t be around tonight.”

“Well can’t Achilles just come with me?”

“No.”

“But you said he’s the next commanding officer if you’re not around, and I want to go out.”

“Once again, it’s a hard pass. You can go out another day, when I am around to take you out.”

You huffed exasperatedly, Bucky was beginning to get on your nerves. All you wanted was a night out with your girlfriends for even a couple of hours, it had been weeks since you’d done anything normal and you were beginning to feel a little stir crazy.

“I am going, and that’s that.” You stated matter of factly before you whirled around and marched off in the direction of the elevator.

Bucky clenched his first so tightly at his side at your open defiance to his protection orders, that he thought he might crack a few knuckles. He takes a deep breath and shakes the anger from his eyes before he started after you.

God damn it, you worked on his fucking nerves sometimes.

The evening is dark and cloudy, Bucky tugged off his t-shirt dropping it onto the nearby desk in his bedroom. He hasn’t bothered to turn on the lights yet, he needs a quiet moment of darkness. The trial was beginning to take its toll on him, he knew this much. His mind was plagued with dreams of his past horrors, he found himself waking at night gasping for air more regularly now.

Today’s session was particularly brutal they had openly showed the pictures of the experiments, the bodies, the children taken. Bucky had experienced years of Hydra horrors and it always put a bad taste in his mouth whenever he saw it.  he lets his mind wander back to earlier that day in the court house.

                                                             ~~~

“And were you aware of these experiments?” The defendant's lawyer asked you on the stand.

Bucky watched you take a shallow breath before answering, you seemed nervous, more nervous than you had been in the weeks since it had begun. He wondered why for a moment, you were always so tough, so defiant, so strong, but today you seemed smaller, meek in comparison.

“No, I was not aware.”

“But there were files stored at your facility which contained the experiments in them, so how do you explain that?”

Again, a shaky breath your eyes dart across the room and you swallowed thickly.

“Like I said previously, I was not aware of these files. I am in R&D which does not allow me access to every file on the Hydra database. I do not have clearance.”

This line of questioning went on and on with each slow passing moment, Bucky watched the defendant’s try and poke holes in your testimony. They were chipping away at every story you told, and every piece of evidence presented. The jury watched unmoving, betraying nothing on their face but Bucky felt as if this trial was not going to go in their favor, all of a sudden.

Finally, the judge called a recess and he almost sighed with relief, he watched as you got off the stand and immediately make a beeline for the exit. He starts after you in an instant, the moment he pushed out of the brown courtroom doors, he sees your figure disappearing into the nearby ladies bathroom.

Bucky quickly walked over to it and knocked gently on the door, when he receives no response he pushed it up and walked in. There is a woman who wanted to walk in but Bucky stopped her and shook his head motioning for her to go elsewhere. She immediately listened.

He turned and locked the entrance to the bathroom before tentatively walking towards the stalls, then he hears it.

The unmistakable sound of you crying in the nearby stall, Bucky froze for a moment unsure of how to navigate this situation but then his training kicked in and he walked over to the stall.

“Hey,” He said softly, he hears you immediately stop crying.

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” You exclaimed.

“You move, I move, remember?”

You sighed behind the door, and Bucky waited a moment before he hears the door unlock and you push it open. His eyes take you in for a moment, red nose, blotchy face, mascara smudged, visibly upset.

“You okay?”

“No. you?”

“No.”

“Bucky?”

“Yes?”

“I lied…”

“I know.” His reply is quiet and sad, he could tell you were lying on the stand the moment you opened your mouth.

Both of you were quiet for a moment before Bucky moved to the sink and grabbed a tissue off it, handing it to you with a small smile.

“Let’s go home, shall we?” His voice is soft and calm and he sees you relax when he suggests it. For all your hardened sass and demanding defiance, Bucky saw the soft side too and it made it a little easier for him to want to protect you.

                                                              ~~~

Sighing deeply Bucky dropped down onto the bed, he wanted to sleep, but he knew he couldn’t. His feelings were conflicted, he was to protect you but you were lying on the stand, it could cost them everything if it were revealed that you had lied. You were Hydra whether or not Bucky wanted to see that, he was protecting someone who was part of an organisation that caused him decades of pain.

Defected or not, it was conflicting.

He just wanted to sleep, but he could already feel sleep evading him, he wasn’t going to get any, not tonight anyway, tonight was different, it marked a memory for him that haunted even the oldest parts of his mind.

A soft knock on his bedroom door brings him out of his mind, propping himself up on his forearms Bucky looked at the door for a moment before responding.

“Come in, it’s open.”

Steve pushed open the bedroom door and stepped in. His massive frame practically encompassing the entire doorway, flooding the room with light from the hallway.

“Hey, Buck.” Steve said quietly, Bucky already knows why he is here. Steve knew what today was, how could either of them forget. It was the day that had set them both on the path that they were today.

“How…” Steve hesitated, it’s a stupid question.

“It’s okay Steve, I’m fine.” Bucky sat up and smiled forlornly at Steve. He doesn’t want this to affect him but it does, it always does. What Hydra did to him all those years ago changed him irrevocably and no matter how many years he lived as a free man, those decades he spent in their captivity being tortured and brainwashed will always stick with him.

And this trial, being in front of doctors who were doing to others what had been done to him, left him with a sour taste in his mouth and a scar on his mind.

Steve walked over to the bed and took a seat on it beside Bucky, the two soldiers saying nothing for a moment.

“How’s the assignment?” Steve asked changing the subject.

“Exasperating.”

Steve chuckled, “She is something, that one.”

“You have no idea.”

“Are you sure you can do this, Bucky?” The concern laced in Steve’s tone draws his friends attention toward him.

“What do you mean?” Bucky asked quizzically.

“All this Hydra business, I don’t want you to be put in a situation where you’re compromised, especially not around her.”

“Yeah, Steve, I can handle it. I know myself, and I am good.”

“I just want-”

“Stevie, I said I am good and if I am not, I will tell you. Drop it.” Bucky’s response came through gritted teeth, and Steve stopped himself from saying anything further. He doesn’t want to push him unnecessarily but he knows what this kind of thing does to his friends head.

For all his intentions to do good, Bucky sometimes gets lost in his mind and Steve knows this.

~~~

“Ma’am you can’t-” Achilles tried to speak but you cut him off with a dismissive wave of your hand.

Adjusting the annoying watch Bucky had given you weeks ago, you slipped on your heels and checked your appearance in the mirror. You looked sleep deprived and gaunt, of course you did, it was this fucking trial it was sucking the life out of you.

Which is why you were doing this, you needed to get out of you head even for one night. Behind you the current protection in charge, Achilles, clears his throat and looked at you nervously, he’s pretty much begged you not to do this and you feel bad for the poor guy, but only for a moment.

“Look, Achilles, I am not trying to make your job hard so I’ll compromise with you,” You said turning around to face him, “I’ll let you escort me to the club, and you can wait outside until I am done and drive me home?”

“I have to alert Sergeant Barnes-”

“No, no, you don’t. Let's just keep this secret between us, okay?”

“It’s against protocol, I have to let my commanding officer know.”

“But you’re in charge remember? Bucky’s not around, so you are the boss?”

“That’s not-”

“So how about it then? We good? Ok.” You cut him off before he can say anything further. Gathering up your purse and phone you head towards the front door where your friends are now waiting for you.

~~~

Loud blaring music pumped through the air, flashing lights and sweaty bodies coveted the room. The club was packed with people, voices are drowned out by the drum and bass music, but people still talk to one another.

You were tipsy, three drinks in and at a table with your friends. Laughter rings out through the group and Achilles stands nearby his eyes laser focused on you. You tried to explain to your friends why you needed a bodyguard but none of them seemed to care, they thought he was hot and it gave them some sort of VIP status having a bodyguard hover over your group for the night.

“We should dance!” Lola said loudly grabbing your hand, almost pulling you out of your seat,

“Yes and get more shots!” Kate shouted excitedly.

You looked at the dance floor which is filled with people, everyone is almost on top of each other. It would be so easy for Achilles to lose you in that crowd, the rational part of your brain is telling you that you should stay put, or even go home, but with the alcohol coursing through your system you ignore that thought.

“I’m up for it!” You said equally as excited before you downed your drink. Without sparing Achilles another glance you see the panic in his eyes at your agreement, you let Lola and Kate guide you to the dance floor where the three of you are swept up with the crowd, bodies moving together to the sound of the music.

It was less than a few minutes of you dancing when, suddenly, there was an arm around your waist, holding you flush to their body. It’s hard, muscular, strong, stronger than you and suddenly you can’t move. They pin your arms to your sides and no matter how much you struggle you can’t break free.

Panic rises within you, your eyes darting around to find your friends but it seems you had been separated. You struggled against the person holding you trying to twist to see who it was, your panic increasing with each passing second.

Your heart begins to hammer in your chest, it feels as if it's going to explode out of your chest at that moment. But then suddenly the world stills as whoever holds you lowers his mouth to your ear and whispers,

“Hail Hydra.”

Those two words send a chill down your spine, it’s like ice is injected into your veins and your panic takes you. Every rational thought in your mind flies out the window and survival is all you can think of.

Using every ounce of force you had in you, you shoved the man away from you whirling around to face him but all you catch is a glimpse of blonde hair and a figure disappearing into the crowded dance floor.

You had to get out of there, you had to find Achilles, you had to get to Bucky. In your panicked state you had forgotten about the watch, and began to shove your way through the stifling crowd.

The air in the club suddenly feels thick, every breath you tried to suck in felt like you were breathing in tar and it strangled you.

Have to get out. Have to get out. Have to get out. Your  mind screamed at you.

Suddenly a pair of strong hands gripped your shoulders and you screamed out, but in the loud club it came out as soundless terror. Assuming the Hydra thug had come back, you whipped yourself around in an attempt to get away from your assailant only to be met with those familiar starlight eyes.

Relief flooded through you when Bucky’s metal arm curved around your shoulders and pulled you closer towards him, practically dragging you out of the club. His face was murderous, eyes hard as he shoved people out of the way, you stumbled beside him huddled against his large frame as he led you out of there to safety.

~~~

The burst of cool air that hits your barely clad skin as you and Bucky stepped out of the club is eternally refreshing. You sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, trying to steady your heartbeat, Bucky’s arm is still around your shoulders as he holds you steady to your feet and keeps you walking in the direction of the car park.

“Sergeant-” Achilles approached the two of you he has a wild panicked look about him and Bucky stopped short, glaring daggers at him.

“One job, agent. One fucking job.” Bucky said, his voice is commanding and harsh.

“I am sorry sir, she wouldn’t let me call you.”

“Not good enough.” He snarled at the man.

“Bucky-” You began to say, but he doesn’t let you finish, he ignores you and gave further instructions to Achilles.

“Report back to command, I’ll deal with you in the morning.”

Achilles just nodded and turned around back towards his car. Left alone with Bucky again, he guides you towards the car once more, his grip never relenting on your shoulders.

As you approached the car you noticed It’s not the usual car, its an Audi, its black and sleek with a red stripe down the side. Bucky practically ripped open the car door and waited patiently for you to stumble into the seat, before slamming the door, ferociously. The sound makes you jump slightly, a gust of air blowing into the car from the force.

Bucky climbed into the drivers side, his jaw is clenched and there is anger plastered all over his face.

“Put your seat belt on.” He growled, and you immediately obey his order. Fingers fumbling drunkenly with the belt for a few moments before Bucky sighed irritably and reached over, yanking it from your hands and jamming it into its clip.

He then kicked the car into gear and sped out of the parking lot, you sit in silence for a few minutes. The car is absolutely silent as it drives, the interior is gorgeous, rich Corinthian leather, it smells like new car and expensive perfume in it. If it were under any different circumstances, you would have loved being in this car.

But the look on Bucky’s face was keeping you quiet, you had done a very very stupid thing.

“Bucky,” You said quietly, and it’s almost as if the sound your voice breaks the dam that is holding back his anger and Bucky straight flips his shit.

“Are you fucking insane?” He bellowed, his sudden outburst startled you and you whipped your head towards him with wide eyes, “Do you have a fucking death wish? Is that it?”

“Bucky-”

“Do you have no sense of self preservation? Do you know how reckless this was?!” He keeps yelling, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, eyes on the road.

“Bucky, I can’t-”

“I am trying to keep you alive, why can’t you fucking see this?!”

“S-stop the car.” You gasped, suddenly unable to breathe, your vision was swimming and your heart felt like it was about to explode out of your chest. The gravity of the situation hitting you like a ton of ice bricks, panic and anxiety creeping across your skin, making it prickle.

“I can’t protect you if you-”

“Bucky! Stop the car!” You exclaimed, half yelling at him. Your breaths coming out in ragged heaves, you gripped your chest as you struggled with the crippling anxiety that now raged through you.

Bucky finally looked at you, and his entire mood shifted, he immediately realizes what is happening. The anger draining from him in seconds and it is replaced with fear and concern as he looked over at you struggling to breathe.

“Fuck!” He exclaimed immediately pulling over on the side of the road. The second he stopped the car, you kicked open the passenger door and practically fell out of the car on all fours onto the graveled road, scraping open the skin on your palms and knees.

Pain lanced through your limbs but you didn’t care, everything was spinning again, your breath escaping you like a wild animal trying to break free from its cage.

Bucky is suddenly at your side, he slipped his arm around your waist and pulled you against him rising to his feet.

“Hey, hey, breathe. You’re okay, just breathe.” He said in a soft calm voice.

His metal hand touches your cheek as you squeezed your eyes shut, trying to fight of the panic that is crawling up inside you.

“I can’t, I...he...there…” You choked out unable to form a sentence, ragged breaths torn from your lungs as you clung to him.

“Yes, you can, hey, look at me.” He forced your chin up and waited patiently until you opened your eyes. His starlight blue eyes soft as he looked down at you,

“I got you, you’re okay now. Just focus on me, hey.” He gripped your chin a little harder when you close your eyes again, “Keep your eyes on me, and breathe.”

Slowly but surely as you looked into his blue eyes, your breathing returned to normal and your heart rate slowed down. When you’d finally calmed down Bucky released you from his grip and lifted your bleeding hands toward him, he sighed deeply, but doesn’t chastise you for it.

“Come on, let’s get you home and cleaned up.” He said softly, you nodded and let him help you into the car again.

~~~

Back at the apartment, Bucky wordlessly led you to one of the bathrooms and makes you take a seat on the edge of the bath while he rummages around under the sink for a moment. Once he finds what he is looking for, the first aid kit, he came back over to you and knelt before you.

It was only then that you noticed he was wearing grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt, it was the most casual you had ever seen him dress.

He flipped open the kit and took out the rubbing alcohol along with a cotton swab, dipping it into the clear liquid before taking your hand in his.

“This is going to sting,” He muttered and of course the second he touched the swab to your cuts you hissed and pulled your hand away from him.

“Fuck sorry.”

But Bucky is patient, he doesn’t say anything. Instead he waited a moment until you placed your hand back in his and then continued to clean out your cuts.

Once he is done Bucky stood up with a sigh and placed his hands on his hips, regarding you for a moment before he spoke.

“There is no protection detail here tonight,” He said, “I’ll have to stay over, Arcas is on another assignment and so is Dionysus.”

You just nodded, too tired to speak at that moment.

“Do you need anything before bed?”

“No.”

“Okay, do you want me to walk you to your room?”

“Yes.”

Bucky held out his hand toward you, and helped you to your feet. The two of you walk in silence in the dark hallway since neither of you turned on any lights, to your bedroom door. You paused for a moment resting your hand on the handle,

“Thank you, Bucky for tonight.” You said softly,

“Of course, I’ll always protect you.”

Pushing open your bedroom door, you stepped into the dark space and closed it quietly behind you. Immediately sagging against it the moment you shut it and let out a tired exhale.

In your moment of panic the only person you wanted was Bucky Barnes, what the fuck was that.

Here‘s a list of all the books with queer protagonists I’ve read this year. While I do actively seek those out, there are several books on here that I didn’t know had queer themes when I picked them up from the library and then I was pleasantly surprised by lesbians. I‘ll avoid spoilers except when discussing trigger warnings.

 Kaleidoscope Song by Fox Benwell

Neo, a South African teenager, is obsessed with music of any kind. Her love of music brings her together with the singer of a local band and they have a passionate relationship that they must keep secret. The descriptions of Neo‘s life and her tendency to hear music in everything are beautiful and dynamic. The author included a list of the songs Neo is listening to throughout the book, so I was introduced to a lot of cool music from South Africa and other places. TW: Corrective rape and Bury Your Gays. This is a book by a queer (albeit white British, rather than black South African) author writing about a very real problem that exists within our communities, so it feels different to when a cishet author kills off a queer character just for shock value. I still can‘t help feeling that he could have made the same point without having the character die – just have her be injured. Still, I loved pretty much everything else about the book, so it gets a tentative recommendation from me.

The Mermaid’s Daughter by Ann Claycomb

25-year-old opera student Kathleen tries to cope with the constant pain in her feet, nightmares about having her tongue cut out, and desperate yearning for the sea. With the help of her girlfriend Harry she delves into her family history to uncover the secret of a curse spanning generations of women. What’s nice about this book is that Kathleen and Harry’s relationship is accepted by all their family and friends without question, so if you want to read a nice wlw fantasy story with no homophobia, this one’s for you. TW: Some discussion of suicide, but nothing too graphic.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

A teenage lesbian is sent to conversion therapy by her religious aunt. This is basically a coming-of-age story as the title character comes to terms with her identity and the death of her parents. It’s considered an important work of LGBT YA literature, so I really wanted to like it more than I did. Most of the first half of the novel deals with Cameron’s everyday life in her small town in Montana, which was, to be honest, rather boring to me. The pace of the story picks up a bit once she gets sent to conversion therapy, but even then it’s slower and less eventful than I would have liked. But since it is a popular book, that’s probably just me. I did like that the two best friends she makes at the therapy camp are a disabled girl and an indigenous boy, two types of people that are not often represented in queer fiction, so that’s something. TW: Conversion therapy and self-harm.

Proud by Juno Dawson

This is a collection of poems and stories about queerness aimed at a YA audience, and each one is a pure delight! These stories detail moments of joy and pride that make you feel happy and hopeful about being queer. They include a high school retelling of Pride and Prejudice with lesbians, a nonbinary kid and his D&D group on a quest to disrupt the gender binary at their school, a magical phoenix leading a Chinese girl to find love, and gay penguins. All stories, poems and illustrations are by queer writers and artists. Seriously, I cannot recommend this collection enough!

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moïra Fowley-Doyle

An Irish magical realist story about three girls who perform a spell to find things that they have lost. The spell appears to have wider consequences than they expected, bringing to light things that should have stayed lost. This book has three narrators, two of whom are wlw. It treads a nice line between fantasy and reality, and has some pretty good plot twists. Also, there’s a crossword at the end, which is awesome. More books should come with crosswords.

Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

A space opera trilogy set in the distant future about the embodiment of a ship’s AI who seeks revenge against the ruler of a colonialist empire who destroyed her ship and killed her beloved captain. This is not beginner’s sci-fi, as it is very complex and intricate, but if you’re fine with a bit of a heavier read, you’ll be rewarded with some very interesting concepts. What makes this series queer is that the Raadch empire has no concept of gender and uses female pronouns for everyone. This makes every romantic relationship queer by default, whether we are aware of the characters’ sexes or not. I found it particularly enjoyable when Breq, the protagonist, tried to communicate in different languages that have gendered pronouns, which she had to navigate carefully in order not to offend people. She tries to look for outward clues of gender, such as hairstyles, chest size, facial hair or Adam’s apples, but even then often gets it wrong, because these things are not always consistent. That is just a great depiction of how arbitrary ideas of binary sexual characteristics tend to be. Also, I guess technically Breq is aroace, but since she’s not human, I’m not sure if she can be considered the best representation, though she is a very likeable character that I enjoyed following.

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

These books are a lot of fun! They’re historical adventure stories with a bit of fantasy thrown in, featuring disaster bisexual Henry Montague, his snarky aroace sister Felicity and his best friend Percy whom he is secretly in love with. In the first book, the three teenagers are sent on a tour of Europe for various reasons, but they quickly abandon the planned route when they get embroiled in a plot involving theft and alchemy. The second book details Felicity’s further attempts to become a doctor, which leads her to reunite with an old friend and chase a tale of fantastical creatures.

The Spy with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke

Technically I read this one late last year, but whatever. I just wanted to put it on the list to have an excuse to talk about it. It’s about two Jewish siblings with magic powers who are recruited during World War II to take part in a secret project to fight the Nazis. Both siblings turn out to be queer: the brother is gay and demisexual, while the sister is bisexual, and they each have a love interest. This book is an independent prequel to The Girl with the Red Balloon, which takes place in East Berlin during the time of the Wall, and is just as good, albeit not as gay.

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

This book tends to be classified as fantasy, because it takes place in an alternate, Latin-American-inspired world, with a distinct history, culture and religion, but there’s no magic at all, so I’m not sure it counts. But I digress. The country of Medio is built on classism and acute xenophobia. But by hiding her status as an illegal immigrant, Daniela, a girl from a poor background, manages to rise to the top of her class at her elite finishing school and become the first wife of one of the most powerful young men in the country. But her new comfortable status is threatened when she is pressured to join a group of rebels who fight for equality. At the same time, she also finds herself falling for her husband’s second wife. Obviously, this book’s political message is very topical, but beyond that, it’s just a very good story, with a well fleshed-out fictional world and great characters. This is the first in a series, with the sequel, We Unleash the Merciless Storm, coming out in February.

All Out: The No Longer Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages by Saundra Mitchell

A very nice collection of short stories about various queer teenagers in different historical settings, from a medieval monastery to an American suburb on New Year’s Eve in 1999. Most of the stories are realist, but there are a few ghosts and witches to be found in-between. What I found particularly notable about this book is that it featured several asexual characters, which you don’t often see in collections like this. I definitely recommend it.

Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta

This is a thoughtful, heart-warming life story about a woman growing up during the civil war in Nigeria. After Ijeoma, a Christian Igbo girl, is sent away from home, she finds her first love in Amina, a Muslim Hausa. Even after they are found out and separated, Ijeoma doesn’t quite understand what’s so shameful about their love. Still, as she grows older, she attempts to fit into a heteronormative society while also connecting with the things and people that make her happy. TW: Homophobic violence, including an attack on a gay nightclub. The novel makes up for this by having a remarkably happy ending.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley

A young man in Victorian London finds a mysterious watch on his pillow, with no idea how it got there. This sets into motion a strange series of events, which leads him to a lonely Japanese watchmaker, to whom he finds himself increasingly drawn. This is an unusual novel that treads the line between historical fiction, fantasy and sci-fi. Most of the characters are morally grey and have complex motivations, but are still likable. I just really enjoy stories that take place in this time period, particularly when they are this thoughtfully written and don’t just take the prejudices of the past for granted.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

A YA book about a transgender teenager, written by a transgender author. After her mother decides that she is not safe in her hometown anymore, high school senior Amanda moves in with her dad in a town where nobody knows her and she can try to go stealth. But even as she is making friends and experiencing romance for the first time, she constantly worries about what will happen if her secret comes out. It’s a fairly standard story about being transgender, really, but as it comes from a trans author, it feels a lot more personal and less voyeuristic than these stories tend to be when coming from a cisgender perspective. Amanda is a sympathetic and compelling character. TW: This book deals with a number of upsetting themes, including transphobic violence, being forcibly outed and suicide. There is a flashback to Amanda’s pre-transition suicide attempt, which I found particularly triggering. I also wish she could have come out on her own terms, instead of being outed in front of the whole school by someone she thought she could trust. It is still a pretty good book, but it can be very upsetting at times.

As I Descended by Robin Talley

A loose retelling of Macbeth that takes place in a boarding school in Virginia and involves two queer couples. The supernatural elements of the play are amplified in a wonderfully creepy way, and the characters are complex and realistic, so you understand their motivations, even when they do bad things. TW: Out of the five queer characters in the novel, three die, two of them by suicide.

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss and EG Keller

A charming picture book about the Vice President’s pet bunny who falls in love with another boy bunny and wants to hop around at his side for the rest of his life. This book was written as a screw you to Mike Pence, but even so it is a genuinely nice kid’s book that deals with homosexuality and marriage equality in a way that is appropriate for young children. The illustrations are incredibly cute as well.

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

A very strange, surreal tale about four people (most of whom are queer in some way) exploring a magical city that you can enter in your dreams by sleeping with someone who has been there before. I wanted to like this one more than I did, because I really love Catherynne Valente’s Fairyland books for children. But while some of the dreamlike imagery is cool and pretty, I found a lot of it weirdly uncomfortable, along with the frequent sex scenes.

The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein

15-year-old Julia is home for the summer at her parents’ ancestral mansion in Scotland and gets involved with a plot about theft, disappearance and possibly murder. She also has her first crushes – on a man working at her parents’ estate and a young Traveller girl, respectively. This is a prequel to Code Name Verity, which has the same protagonist, though her bisexuality isn’t really alluded to in that, which is why I’ve kept it off the list, even though it is an excellent book. The Pearl Thief is pretty good as well, though it is a bit strange to read after you’ve already read Verity and know that this carefree teenage character is going to grow up to be a spy in World War II and be tortured in a Nazi prison. Do read both books, though. They are great.

Gut Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson

A young scientist falls in love with the wife of the man she’s having an affair with. There’s speculation about quantum mechanics and interconnectedness, all wrapped in very poetic language. To be perfectly honest, I really didn’t get it, so I have no idea what any of it means. But at least the main character is bisexual and polyamorous (and possibly genderfluid – I’m not sure).

Queer Africa by Makhosazana Xaba and Karen Martin

A collection of short stories by queer African writers, discussing themes like love, sex, marriage, family and homophobia. The attitudes towards queerness in these different countries varies. In many of them, homosexuality is illegal, even though same-sex relationships used to be respected before the interference of Western colonialism. In any case, these stories are an interesting and oftentimes beautiful examination of queerness from a non-Western point of view, some joyous and some tragic. TW: The second to last story is about incest.

Hung with care

This was written for the 25 days of Christmas Challenge that is hosted by  @panicfob .  The Day 23 Challenge prompt was Stockings over the fire place

Warnings: Fluff, hints of sex and a special guest appearance 

Pairing:  Tony Stark x OFC (Belle Porter)

Summary: There is a history behind almost every tradition 

“We’re missing a decoration” Belle called through from the living room 

“What” Tony called back from the bedroom where he was currently losing fight with the tie he had chosen.  Belle rolled her eyes before heading back in his direction.  She leant in the doorway fro a moment watching him get frustrated with the tie before moving in to help him 

“I said” she brushed his hands away. Smoothed down he tie and then started to fix the mess “We are missing a decoration.  An important one at that” She ran her hands down the rest of the tie smoothing it as she lined up the knot properly

“Really and what pray tell would that be?”

“The stockings were hung, by the chimney with care”

“Well baby we don’t need a chimney, and the burning of fossil fuels is ineffective and generally considered to be environmentally unsound”

“Not the chimney you ass hole” Belle gently slapped Tony on the chest getting a smile from him

“Look if you want more decorations then you should get what ever you want.  Honestly this is the most I’ve decorated up here - well ever”

“Well ok, I mean I guess maybe one of the others can come with me” Belle wast sure that Tony was really happy with her adding more but she knew she had to trust him

“Sounds like a plan, I trust you.  If you want to turn up here into something that looks like Christmas vomited its contents then you should do it. I mean I will be spending more time in the lab, but if that’s what you want then you should have it” Tony strode to the kitchen where he found a travel mug already filled and waiting for him 

“Tony that’s not how relationships work, there needs to be balance in all things, that includes the decorations”

Tony was mid swallow so held up his hand  “Thank you for the coffee. I understand what you were saying about balance but I want to work on that with the important things, not the Christmas decor”

Belle nodded “Ok I can accept that.  I will make sure that it doesn’t look like Christmas vomit” She moved over to kiss his cheek “Have a good meeting and I’ll see you later”

Belle took her time drinking her own coffee and checking the news for any updates that she would need to highlight before heading down to her office.  There was a pile of reports that needed analysis and categorizing before risk assessments could be undertaken.  Pulling her hair back from her face and tying it back into a ponytail she pulled out her seat and started with the first file

FRIDAY let Belle know when it was an hour before lunch so that she could take a brake and grab some water.  

“FRIDAY which members of the team are in the compound today”

“Everyone is currently out or booked in meetings until 3.30 when Captain Rogers will be free until 4.30 when he has a scheduled gym session”

Belle puffed out a breath “OK thanks. Can you let me know if that changes at all please”

“Of course.  Is there anything that I can help you with Snowflake?” Belle rolled her eyes at the AI’s use of her nickname

“No thanks - I guess I’ll just look online or head out myself”. Glancing back at the reports she squared her shoulders and went back to work.

Seeing as there was no one around Belle grabbed lunch from the canteen and brought it back to her desk.  Looking over the images on her web browser she thought about how else she could refine her search, she needed less glitter and something more adult and refined.

“It is interesting to me that even here on Midguard you still observe some of the same traditions from my home”

Belle gave a squeak of surpass as she spun her seat to find a large, dark skinned, gold eyed man staring at her.  Her breath caught in her throat.  How on earth had someone gotten this far into the compound.

“FRIDAY, initiate breach lockdown protocol “

The man stepped back his hands raised to shoulder height.  The learning lights blinked to red for a handful of seconds before going back to green

“What the fuck! FRIDAY initiate…”Belle didn’t get a chance to complete her command as a more familiar voice spoke over the top of her 

“My Lady Belle, there Is no need for alarm. We simply came to deliver Yule gifts”. Thor strode into the room, clapping the other man on the shoulder “Ah Heimdall I see you have met the wonderful Lady Belle.  She helped me learn a great deal about the customs here.  She is the one I told you about”

“Snowflake! Whats the problem, where are you, I’m going to head your way” Tonys voice burst through the speakers, the panic clear

“It’s fine Tony, Thor popped in and brought a friend, he just didn’t introduce him” She raised an eyebrow at the blond God who seemed largely unbothered

“Just a flying visit Stark, no need to worry” he chipped in 

“”Snowflake, I’m going to have FRIDA monitor things, any problems and I’ll be there in second.  You hear me ?”

“I hear you Tony, and thank you” the crackle of the speaker died and she knew that Tony had rung off but that his AI would be keeping an eye on her 

“My apologies Mr Heimdall was it?”

The tall man smiled.  He had, she thought, a nice smile, it was war and welcoming “Just Heimdall”

“Ok Heimdall.  You are a friend of Thor’s”

“He is a good friend and the gatekeeper of Asguard. He sees and knows all” Thor seemed very proud to know the man 

“Please sit” she gestured to the chairs she kept when some of the others came to visit in her office “So things are good at home?” 

“Oh yes, the people have liked many of the new ideas I brought back, the food and the snowballs especially”. 

“It was interesting to see how you all celebrate here, but it looks like some of the traditions you follow are as on Asguard” Heimdall’s voice rumbled deep and low

“Yes you said but I am afraid I don’t understand.  Would you be willing to share?” 

“Of course” the smile she received could have lit a room, Heimdall’s golden  eyes seemed to sparkle and his joy seemed so genuine that Belle was set right at ease

Leaning forward he pointed at the images of the stockings she had on her screen “Those look a lot like the boots that we have the children place out by their fires at Yule.  They would fill them with carrots, sugar or straw as an offering for Sleipnir  the mighty war horse of Odin.  He would be sustained by the kindness of the people.  Odin was a generous ruler and would reward his people for looking after the mighty beast and would fill the now empty shoes with candy and gifts”

Belle was sure her eyes were the size of saucers as Heimdall shared the information. “That sounds just like the tales that we have about Father Christmas!”  She settled in and began to tell them about the beliefs that earth people held, being sure to explain that Father Christmas did not in fact actually fill the stockings.  Heimdall had been delighted that in the Earth version of the tale, Father Christmas also received a treat 

“That would be something Odin would be most enchanted by.  Can you imagine” he looked at Thor “How full the old man would be at the end of the trip” 

Thor had roared with laughter and clapped the other man on the back “Indeed he would.  Mother would be most displeased”

“Why is it that you are looking at these fake boots?” Heimdall still seemed bemused by the fake part.  They had debated for some time was to why actual boots were not practical

“These are called stockings, like you would wear on your feet inside your boot.  I guess they are a cleaner prettier option.  I wanted to get a couple for Tony and I, but everything I have seen is too much”. Heimdall nodded in agreement

“You will give us a few moments and I will make sure you will have something far more fitting.  As a thank you for sharing more of your customs”

“Heimdall no! It was an honor to share traditions with you - this isn’t something you repay!”  Belle was mortified that he would think he had to 

“Perhaps payment is the wrong word.  A gift of thanks perhaps.  I have enjoyed our visit and perhaps at another time I could visit again and we could share more”

Belle nodded “I would love that”

“Excellent, I will look forward to it.  Now we will be back soon” He held up a hand “Remember my lady I am the seer and I have already seen you accepting” 

“I think you use that as an excuse to get your own way, but I will see you both soon”. She accepted a hug from Thor and an arm clasp from Heimdall, and then both men were gone as easily as they had appeared to start with.

Belle paid no attention to the time as she settled back into work quickly becoming absorbed. When she next sopped fro a break it was nearly four and she was surprised that the Asguardians had not been back. 

“FRIDAY where can I find Steve ?”

“Captain Rogers is currently in the gym.  Mr Stark also wanted me to let you know that he will be back by 6 this evening”

“Thanks FRIDAY - please direct any calls to me when I’m away” Belle left her office and headed to see Steve.  She was surprised to find him still dressed in his suit from earlier meetings that had been on his docket, usually he was out of it as soon as he was done

“Hey Belle, I heard you had some visitors today” 

Belle returned his smile “I did -  it was surprising but a lot of fun.  How did the meetings go?”

Steve shrugged “They were the same as always, long and resulting in me saying no I won’t do that.  Your visitors stopped by a few minutes ago - I was actually going to come and see you before I got changed.  There was some kind of issue coming up at home so they had to hurry back, but they left this for you” He turned and picked up an unassuming box handing it over.

Belle grinned at him before peaking into the box. Inside were two beautiful stockings, embroidered with gold, each with a small eight legged horse charm hung from them.  Taking the lid off fully she turned to show Steve who looked impressed

“Are those from….”

Belle nodded “I think so, they look handmade, and they feel like they’re made of some kind of soft pelt”

“You must have made a hell of an impression”. Belle just looked at him wide eyed “It’s a good thing Belle, relax”. He clasped her shoulder before moving to shrug out of his jacket

“I’ll let you get back to getting ready.  Thanks for holding these for me” She held up the box 

The stockings looked amazing in the lights of the Christmas tree hanging from the mantle above the gas fire.  Belle found it hard to look away from them.  She adjusted the belt on her gown and smoothed her hair. 

She heard the door open and the tap of Tony’s shoes, turning she greeted him with a smile

“Hey baby, FRIDAY and Steve said you had an interesting day.  Is everything good?”

“Yeah everything is great actually” She watched as Tony’s eyes scanned her body, his tongue coming-out to lick his lips 

“It certainly is”. His gaze moved to the mantle “Ah and this is your godly gift”. He moved to look more closely at the stockings his hand softly running over the “Now aren't they something special”

“They most certainly are” She agreed. 

Tony’s eyes were back on her “As stunning as they are they don't hold a candle to you” His  touch was as reverent when it ran down her arm.  His wonder was just as pronounced.  

“It seems that there is more than one type of stocking on display tonight, and these are my favorite type - silk”

Belle laughed as he pulled her into him lips claiming hers. 

Later that night a second pair of stockings graced the mantle

How Artificial Intelligence is Shaping the Customer Service of the Future

Artificial Intelligence or AI is an important innovative technology that will revolutionize the future. At present, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being deployed in customer service to both augment as well as replace human agents – with the primary aims of enhancing customer experience and optimizing customer service costs.

The technological breakthroughs in AI are poised to take every industry by the storm. AI powered services have picked up its fastest pace. The advanced systems powered by automated solutions have enabled the users to make a restaurant reservation, book a movie ticket, hotel room, order a pizza and even make an appointment at a clinic. Artificial Intelligence is reimagining customer service industry by automating processes, and disrupting how we work.

The rapid implementation of AI can be accredited to innovations such as machine learning and natural language processing. AI-powered digital solutions are gradually becoming a part of the customer service interactions. Experts believe that AI has the capability to enable real-time self-service for customer service platforms.

According to a study by Zendesk, 42% customers are more likely to purchase after experiencing a good customer service, whereas 52% could stop being a customer after a single negative customer service experience. Thus, customer service still remains a decisive factor in customers making the purchase.

According to a recent report by Gartner, nearly 55% of well-established organizations have either started making investments in the potential of AI or are planning to do so by 2020. With customer service assuming far more importance, companies are turning towards artificial intelligence.

AI in Customer Service

Automation let’s you deliver the next-level of responsiveness that’s not humanly possible. Al is also currently being implemented to replace human agents at some levels and augment them. AI assists the human executive in having a smooth conversation with the customer. The machine listens to the discussion in real-time and feeds information to the representative for a better response. By 2020, 85% of the customer support interactions are expected to be conducted without any customer services representatives. According to Oracle, 80% sales and marketing leaders either use or plan to use chatbots in the near future. ValaAfshar, Chief Digital Evangelist at Salesforce predicts that, “The line-of-business that is most likely to embrace AI first will be the customer service – typically the most process oriented and technology savvy organization within most companies.”

The AI embedded systems are capable of monitoring an infinite amount of website as well as in-app activity to spot distress indicators, identify customers experiencing issues/concerns and what those issues are. These systems can respond in real-time and offer support via virtual service agents or FAQ’s across devices and platforms.

By resolving customer service issues before they arise you can significantly lower the customer abandonment rates in the buying cycle, reduce customer complaints and enhance customer satisfaction.

AI has not reached a stage where it can completely replace the entire human customer service system. However, it is possible that perfectly human-like, AI could become a reality in the near future. Currently, AI is heavily incorporated to improve the customer service and customer experience. Studies prove that organizations can improve compliance by 30% and agent satisfaction by 90% by integrating AI.

Let us look at some of the present uses of AI in customer service.

AI-powered messaging

Messaging has changed tremendously in the past few years. Studies show that 90% of the customers today want to use messaging for communicating with businesses. Interestingly, 86% of customers also look for an option to transfer to a live person to resolve their query. This complex need puts companies in a difficult position where they have to ensure the best of both worlds to provide a delightful customer experience.

The success of the AI-powered bot largely depends on the available data and intuitive features provided to the customers. At Conneqt, we provide AI augmented messaging where an AI bots assist the agent. So the basic information is provided by the bots, whereas the customer has the option to talk to a human representative as and when desired. The complex tasks are undertaken by the human, whereas the repetitive tasks are taken care of by the bots.

AI in Email

No customer wants to wait for 48-72 hours for receiving a reply to an email query. So, it becomes difficult for companies to read thousands of emails manually and reply to them within a given timeframe. AI-powered email can help the team to speed-up the process reducing the number of customer requests waiting for the reply. AI-powered technology can direct the email to the concerned department and also provide past responses to ensure a faster reply. To successfully implement the AI in an email, a huge amount of monthly data should be available for the machine learning.

AI in Research

It is certain that AI will make self-service interfaces a reality in the near future. However, AI can also be used in capturing and analyzing data for achieving excellent customer service experience. Al can help in identifying customer issues, determine preferences based on past choice, and respond with a most-suited solution. Studies hint that personalization will be the key in the future and AI is a perfect solution to offer personalized offers, solutions, suggestions, and even resolve queries before they arrive.

While implementation of AI may appear to be a complicated process, the benefits can easily supersede the efforts. Let us look at some of the significant benefits.

Cost Efficiency

According to a Mckinsey report, about 29% of work done by customer service representatives has the potential to be automated. So by implementing AI companies can save a huge amount of money on training and hiring staff. On an average, it can cost $4000 to hire an agent and over $4800 to train them. With attrition and expansion, these costs are only going to multiply.

On the contrary, AI needs to be trained only once. If there are any changes down the line, the software can be re-configured. AI will also free the workforce of routine and repetitive task that they are tired of doing, thereby reducing the attrition rate and improving the employee engagement.

24*7 Customer Service

Public holidays or leaves of absence do not constrain automated services; AI is available 24*7. This enables your company to deliver excellent customer services and resolve queries as soon as they arrive.  The customer would no longer have to wait for a day or two before seeing their query answered.

Chatbots are also free from any bias, or they do not take matters into their own hands. Unlike humans, chatbots can be programmed to never argue with customers and escalate the calls to managers in a customer query is not resolved. Artificial Intelligence and NLP technology work in conjunction to listen to customer interactions in real-time.  This will reduce the average resolution time. Also, the agents won’t have to build expertise in all products and processes that makes it easy for enterprises to shuffle workforce across teams where the need arises, which in turn results in improved customer experience and enhanced brand reputation of your organization.

Self-service options

72% Millennials believe that phone calls are not the best way to resolve a customer service issue. Millennials want to solve the problem themselves by reading FAQs, researching on the internet, asking on forums, or messaging a bot. This changing trend will only grow stronger as the next generation would become even more self-reliant and expect automated self-service options. It is paramount for businesses to adapt early before the customer journey begins getting negatively impacted AI-powered the business’ bottom lines.

Panacea for all Customer Problems – No!

AI-driven models use the cognitive representation as the basis to understand the customer intent. It’s unrealistic to expect that a canned AI application can fit into your organization’s processes and take over the customer support. Enterprises need to tune and train the AI models to drive unique business cases relevant to their business verticals. Companies need to begin building data repositories, processes, and mechanisms which can assist AI models learn quickly. It’s equally important to build workflows that allow queries and complaints come to human service agents before the simulated interactions begin to annoy customers.  So, the success of Artificial Intelligence powered customer service is much a function of technological advancement as of a firm’s abilities to train AI models for specific tasks with massive reliable data-sets. Customer service is getting bigger and better than ever. Most of the transformation is an outcome of Artificial Intelligence that paves the way forward for organizations.

Artificial Intelligence in customer service offers a wide array of benefits ranging from reliability to cost-savings. Conneqt offers automated customer service solutions that will enable real-time problem solving for your customers. The customized AI will fit the specific needs of your business ensuring that the customer is always delighted with the customer service.

Finished reading Use of Weapons - finally - as most everyone I know who were reading Banks did so years back, before he passed away, and most of the online forum discussion dates from then as well. I’m trying to decide how much I liked it. It absolutely delighted the formalist in me, but the formalist in me also saw the general outline of the thing coming a mile away**, even if the specifics still shocked (neat trick, btw, to present a Thing so beyond the pale that readers fail to guess out of sheer paucity of imagination, but also doesn’t come off as ridiculously edgelord in execution). And seeing the outline, one can’t help notice it’s fifteen filigree variations on a theme of Whomp and Manpain, even the first time through... War sure is Hell, I mean... I guess I’m making an argument about the Culture series (thus far) that I’ve seen made about The Left Hand of Darkness, which is that maybe, they would be more fun to read if less grounded in the POV of a (consciously positioned by author as) relatively un-evolved and therefore more “relatable” male protagonist. Would it be impossible for some, like, blue-haired fanfic-writing furry enby useless MOR-for-Culture person to stumble into a Special Circumstances mission like Gurgeh and actually pull it off? I mean, obviously something like that could be Badly Written, but anything could be Badly Written. It could be hella fun for a Banks-type to execute at a Banks-level. 

Alternately, it could be all comedy cocktail party scenes with quippy AIs, all the time.

(Alternately-alternately, Banks solved this in ensuing novels, as he hardly seems into treading old ground for the heck of it.)

One wishes Banks were still around to speak for himself in these trying times; and the more so going forward, one suspects, now that Musk’s naming rockets after Culture ships and Bezos is buying up the TV rights. (As with The Expanse’s Amazon pickup, there should be a word for the odd mix of comfort and fury that comes with any reminder that Jeff Bezos was, in a distant past, a dweeb who sold books on the Internet. But it could be worse! He could be obsessed with the lives and works of Roman emperors! Anyway, these books would make great big-budget streaming series. Banks is the best SFF author I’ve ever read at designing action set pieces with massively physical CGI-logic, and as for the backwards timeskip parallel narration or what have you, we’re in a post-Lost/Westworld/Homecoming era now.)

** OK, straight talk: I wondered if Use of Weapons had been an influence on Final Fantasy VII. (I never wonder this sort of thing about Squeenix games other than FF7. But I was shook(tm), the first time I saw Metropolis, by how obviously it had influenced FF7, in the level designs and spatial conception even more than in plot.)

How Augmented Reality Travel Is Changing the Tourism Industry

With its ability to enhance the real world with overlaid digital components, augmented reality (AR) is fast becoming the tourism industry’s favorite tool. While AR was invaluable in helping companies that rely on tourism keep their customers engaged during worldwide lockdowns, the innovative technology was already gaining traction even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Augmented reality travel is also likely to experience a boom in post-COVID-19 times. 

The reason the travel industry has always been interested in adopting AR is simple: AR is one of the best ways to supplement travelers’ experiences, and with more than three billion people owning a smartphone, no tourism brand can afford to overlook augmented reality travel apps if they want to stand out from the competition.

Here are some examples of augmented reality travel experiences available to any tourism brand.

1. AR portals 

One of the best ways to promote destinations, AR portals, which serve as an entrance to new and exciting virtual worlds, can transport customers to completely different environments. In this way, users can explore the world without having to leave their own space. Although similar to virtual reality, AR portals don’t require expensive equipment. Rather, individuals can explore the entire world with their smartphones.

For example, recently, TAP airlines took its customers to a famous square in Lisbon to promote the city as a destination. Users could step off a virtual TAP plane, look around the famous European city, and even take pictures of themselves there as if they were touring Lisbon. This experience is beneficial in two ways. One, it’s a way for TAP to let its customers know that it flies to Lisbon without bombarding them with annoying ads. Two, engaging users with a holiday destination in this way can promote bookings and sales.

Culture Trip did something similar. To promote their first original film, The Soul of Soho, Culture Trip partnered with Poplar Studio to design Facebook portals that brought users to three iconic Sohos of the world in Hong Kong, London, and New York. Individuals could walk around the different Sohos and even “try” the food sold at the various stalls and restaurants. 

2. AR guides

When visiting popular locations and tourist attractions, it is commonplace for visitors to hire a tour guide to show them around. However, depending on the season, getting a guide may not be so easy — or visitors may be put off by the price. One way around this is to offer the services of a virtual AR tour guide. 

Virtual tour guides can offer a far more personalized experience to users. Depending on the destination, augmented reality travel guides may be historical figures, fictional characters, or real lifelike humans that provide one-on-one interactions and an immersive journey. 

For example, in 2018, visitors at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum were greeted by a hologram of Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to explore space, who took them on a tour of the Space Shuttle Enterprise and walked them through the history of space in general. 

Also in 2018, London’s Natural History Museum worked with Microsoft to create a holographic David Attenborough, Britain’s most famous natural historian, who shared stories with visitors about some of the artifacts on display.

AR tour guides are not limited to cities or museums, though. In 2018, to promote the launch of its new cruise ship, the “Celebrity Edge,” the luxury cruise line Celebrity Cruises created an AR app with the intent of delighting and exciting passengers by showing them the most innovative spaces on the ship as well as giving them a peek at restricted areas. The tour included holographic versions of some of the company’s most important figures who acted as tour guides and dancers that were part of the ship’s live performances. 

3. AR maps

Whether they’re exploring a new city, navigating a busy airport, or wandering around a theme park, navigating a novel environment or making sense of the information on a physical map can be a real challenge for first-time visitors. Augmented reality travel maps, which use image tracking technology, can make information on a map come to life by adding digital components, such as arrows and other details that point users in the right direction.

For example, American Airlines’ app offers an AR overlay that directs users to important areas, such as the check-in desk and security checkpoint, as well as restaurants and cafes. The app can also display additional information, such as wait times at specific security checkpoints and available security lines.

Similarly, The Hub Hotel from Premier Inn located in London’s Covent Garden displays a map of the city of London in each room, which guests can point their iPhones at to see points of interest overlaid on top of it and receive orientation before they go out exploring. 

4. Gamified tours

Even though voyaging can be fun all by itself, one approach to make it much more captivating is to offer guests area-based gamification for expeditions and difficulties that include gathering rewards. 

Gamified visits normally include clients examining various pictures to enact expanded reality travel encounters or scaled-down games, and are particularly interesting to kids. 

For instance, in 2016, the Ohio-based carnival Cedar Point, otherwise called "The Roller Coaster Capital of the World," incorporated "The Battle for Cedar Point" insight into its application. After entering the recreation center, guests could join various tribes and contend with different visitors by checking ride signs, game images, and shirts spotted around the recreation center, which set off an expanded reality experience. Thusly, visitors never became exhausted, regardless of whether they needed to hang tight in line for a ride. 

As well as keeping visitors engaged, the application additionally improved abide time at places like eateries and marketing stores, accordingly expanding spend, and assisted the recreation center with creating footing via web-based media. 

Beginning with increased reality travel 

With no chance of venturing out from home, commonality and solace with virtual and increased reality travel have developed immensely during the pandemic. Nonetheless, although the world is rising out of lockdowns and things are gradually opening up, that doesn't imply that increased reality travel will slip into haziness. The travel industry brands were utilizing AR sometime before the COVID-19 pandemic made travel unthinkable, and they will keep on doing as such long get-togethers are back. Although traveling can be fun in and of itself, one way to make it even more engaging is to offer visitors location-based gamification for treasure hunts and challenges that involve collecting rewards. 

Gamified tours typically involve users scanning different images to activate augmented reality travel experiences or mini-games, and are especially appealing to children. 

For example, in 2016, the Ohio-based amusement park Cedar Point, also known as “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World,” integrated the “The Battle for Cedar Point” experience into its app. Upon entering the park, visitors could join different clans and compete with other guests by scanning ride signs, game symbols, and t-shirts dotted around the park, which triggered an augmented reality experience. In this way, guests never grew bored, even if they had to wait in line for a ride. 

In addition to keeping guests entertained, the app also improved dwell time at places like restaurants and merchandising stores, thus increasing spend, and helped the park generate traction on social media. 

Getting started with augmented reality travel

With no way of leaving home, familiarity and comfort with virtual and augmented reality travel have grown tremendously during the pandemic. However, even though the world is emerging from lockdowns and things are slowly opening up, that does not mean that augmented reality travel will slip into obscurity. Tourism brands were using AR long before the COVID-19 pandemic made travel impossible, and they will continue to do so long after travel is back. 

Viitorcloud is one of the leading companies in Ahmedabad, Gujrat. The company deals in all technological services like blockchain development, machine learning, AI development, augmented reality, virtual reality, etc. You can hire an expert from the company that solely works for you.

A LOT OF RESEARCH AND DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES HOW VALUABLE YOUR TECHNOLOGY WAS

We Getting a Divorce? Ditto for PayPal. For example, after Steve Wozniak built the computer that became the Apple I, he felt obliged to give his then-employer Hewlett-Packard the option to produce it. It was more like the high school trick of breaking up with someone before they can break up with you. There was a brief sensation that year when one of the main ways investors judge you. You may have as many. Unless you're planning to disprove the Pie Fallacy. Strange as it sounds, that's the real recipe. The pointy-haired boss right, for example, have been around 7-10x. This can be a good startup idea. They're tricked by misplaced ambition. The cost is enormous for the recipients, about 5 that I got serious about and did a bunch of guys who get together to go hunting.

Another advantage of bad times is that there's less competition. In either case, repulsive or idiotic as the spam seems to us, please stay on the line, do you know why? The unusual thing about Lisp—is that it makes your life a lot simpler. So you shouldn't start a startup, and it's usually the invaders who win. One heuristic for distinguishing stuff that matters usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter. And in particular, how intrinsically horrible it is. Except this is not a lot of the worst experiences that can happen to a startup we'd seed funded. I might as well have sat in front of a blank page for days without writing anything. So as spammers start using c0ck instead of cock to evade simple-minded spam filters based on individual words already works so well.

A large part of YC's function is to accelerate that process. Startup investors all know one another, you're better off taking a class on, say, silver, which you can then trade again for anything else you need. We delighted in forcing bigger, slower competitors to follow us over difficult ground. In fact, I know it must be badly designed. If a startup gets into real trouble, instead of only in the most hospitable environments. I wanted no part of them. 047225013 mandatory 0. It's easy to measure how much revenue they generate, and they're usually paid a percentage of it. But they are not enough to consider your mind a blank slate. The saddest windows close when other people die.

If so then we can put some faith in it; ITA's software includes a lot of ways to get rich for hundreds of years. The aphorism you can't tell a book by its cover as well. But they'd be bad at picking startups. What I found was that recognizing that last few percent of spams got very hard, and no one who did the opposite. It's kill or be killed. The problem with starting a startup—becoming the sort of AI I was trying to learn in college and those you'll use in a job, it may not be permanent. If you use this method, you'll get roughly the same answer I just gave. Suburbs are deliberately designed to exclude the outside world, because it doesn't feel like procrastination. What I found was that recognizing that last few percent of the wealth. And after having spent their whole lives doing things that are rational, and believing things that are arbitrary, and believe things that are obvious, and yet he knows what language you should write it in Java.

But in a typical American school, standards for coolness are so high or at least, if they don't buy you now, you'll be able to do at least $80,000 per year. The market doesn't give a shit how hard you work. So the fact that if their parents had chosen the other way, they'd have used it voluntarily. The usual way to avoid being taken by surprise by something is to be able to get investors into an auction for your series A round. The all-or-nothing aspect of startups was not something we wanted. The manual should be thin as well. The tactics you encounter in M & A in the first six months is that it wouldn't work to. You know how you can design programs to be debuggable? 116539136 california 0.

But everyone knows that's important. But getting bought is also an art in its own skin. If a company considers itself to be in a race against your competitors, and they'll be your horse. Children of kings and great magnates were the first investors in Google. Unnecessary meetings, pointless disputes, bureaucracy, posturing, dealing with other people's mistakes, traffic jams, addictive but unrewarding pastimes. Ask any founder in any economy if they'd describe investors as fickle, and watch the face they make. In fact there are limits on what programmers can do. The Defense Department does a fine though expensive job of defending the country, but they want to drive down salaries. It's hard to predict in advance which startups will succeed, but increasingly they'll have to think you could grow a local silicon valley by giving startups $15-20k each like Y Combinator, that's because it is the cool, new programming language. If we use filtering to whittle their options down to mails like the one above, that should pretty much put the spammers on the legitimate end of the race he has to stop and pant for a while to recover.

Chinese tea culture and the influence

The Chinese people, in their drinking of tea, place much significance on the act of “savoring.” “Savoring tea” is not only a way to discern good tea from mediocre tea, but also how people take delight in their reverie and in tea-drinking itself. Snatching a bit of leisure from a busy schedule, making a kettle of strong tea, securing a serene space, and serving and drinking tea by yourself can help banish fatigue and frustration, improve your thinking ability and inspire you with enthusiasm. You may also imbibe it slowly in small sips to appreciate the subtle allure of tea-drinking until your spirits soar up and up into a sublime aesthetic realm. Buildings, gardens, ornaments and tea sets are the elements that form the ambiance for savoring tea. A tranquil, refreshing, comfortable and neat locale is certainly desirable for drinking tea. Chinese gardens are well known in the world and beautiful Chinese landscapes are too numerous to count. Teahouses tucked away in gardens and nestled beside the natural beauty of mountains and rivers are enchanting places of repose for people to rest and recreate themselves.

China is a country with a time-honored civilization and a land of ceremony and decorum. Whenever guests visit, it is necessary to make and serve tea to them. Before serving tea, you may ask them for their preferences as to what kind of tea they fancy and serve them the tea in the most appropriate teacups. In the course of serving tea, the host should take careful note of how much water is remaining in the cups and in the kettle. Usually, if the tea is made in a teacup, boiling water should be added after half of the cup has been consumed; and thus the cup is kept filled so that the tea retains the same bouquet and remains pleasantly warm throughout the entire course of tea-drinking. Snacks, sweets and other dishes may be served at tea time to compliment the fragrance of the tea and to allay one’s hunger.

The formation and development of Chinese tea culture

China is the hometown of tea, is the world’s first discovery of tea, tea and the use of tea cultivation countries. The origin of tea at least the main Qi Wannian history. Tea was found and the use of human, about Siwuqiannian history.

 In accordance with “The Book of Songs” and other relevant documentation, in the pre-history, “Tu” refers to all types of wild plants bitterness of food raw materials. Fresh medical unity in the history of the times, the Zhike tea vegetable oil, the Qing God, Xiaoshi, in addition to Zhang, the medical function is to facilitate wait until it is not difficult for people found. However, the general medical practices for the development of an exclusive drink often, there must also be some special factors, namely, real-life people in a particular need. Bashu region, to the multiple for Jiyi “Zhang smoke” land. “Barbarian people living with tea, the lack of will.” (Ai Qing weeks of “Zhu Guo Travels” Volume II) is often vulgar Bashu people eating spicy side, thousands of habit, still. It is this natural geographical conditions and the resulting decision of the people’s dietary practices, making Bashu people first “JIANCHALING” Apart from taking to Zhang Qi, antipyretic drugs. Jiufu-Xi, a medicinal purpose gradually Subduction, tea has become a daily drink was. Qin-Ba-Shu is likely to see this as a daily drink tea customs.

Tea from the medicinal drink into a regular habit, the strict sense of “tea” would then have its typical signs that “tea” (cha) the emergence of sound. Guo Pu Note “Yi-release”, “Jia”: “small trees such as gardenia, Dong-Sheng Ye, can be boiled for soup to drink. As early as today called for the mining, tea, who was admitted late Ming, a Chuan, Shuren of the TU. “Clearly, the Han,” Tu “has been specifically beverage word” tea “in pronunciation,” tea “from” Tu “isolated, and embarked on the” independence “road of development. But “tea” the emergence of the word is accompanied by the development of the tea things and commercial activities have become increasingly frequent, until later in the Tang Dynasty, is also in line with the new symbol of a people’s social life after such a text change in the law.

China will start from the tea, There are different theories about, the Western Han Dynasty, tea drinking has been a matter of the official literature, drinking tea when the starting time earlier than some. Tea appears to cultural characteristics, in the Han, Wei and Jin Dynasty, Northern and Southern Dynasties period.

Tea Culture Broadly speaking, the tea at the natural sciences and humanities tea in terms of both human society is in the process of the historical practice of creating and tea-related material and spiritual wealth combined. In a narrow sense, focusing on the human sciences tea, tea mainly refers to the spiritual and social functions. As the science of tea has become an independent system, which now often say the tea culture emphasis on the humanities.

The influence of tea culture on Chinese civilization

1、the three countries before the tea culture of the Enlightenment

Many of the books found that the tea set for 2737-2697 BC, its history can be pushed to Sanhuangwudi. Eastern Han Hua, “The Fresh”: “Kucha for food, meaning benefits” of the medical records of the value of tea. Western Han Dynasty tea to the country of origin named “Tu-Ling”, that is, Hunan Chaling. To San Guowei generation “-Blair” has the earliest documented the method of tea cakes and drinking: Story of the Pakistani Inter-for cake, a pie-old man leaves to a paste of rice. Tea in the form of material and infiltration to other human sciences and the formation of tea culture.

2、Jin Dynasty, the seeds of the Northern and Southern Dynasties tea culture

With the rise of the literati tea, the tea poetry Gough increasingly available, tea has been out as a general form of eating into the cultural circles, will play the spirit of social role. Jin Dynasty, Northern and Southern Dynasties period, Menfa system has been formed, not only the emperor, nobility amassed a wave of officials and scholars generally proud boast, multi-effect Plaster Liang Hou Wei. In this case, some people of insight to “Yang Lian.”

Thus, there is satisfied that the land, Huanwen to tea and wine at all. South Qishizuwu emperor is a relatively enlightened Emperor, he did not Hei Yu Yan, under Yi Zhao before his death, he said after the funeral to be thrifty as possible, not to Sansheng for offerings, only put more Ganfan, fruit cake and Chafan can. And to “the world Guijian, with such a system.” Satisfied that the land, Huanwen, Emperor Wu Qi, where tea is not only refreshing to quench their thirst, it began work in a community, into a tea hospitality, to worship and that a Kind of spirit and sentiment of the means. Tea has not entirely the use of its natural value used by the people but entered the spirit of the area.

Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties period, the world disorder, all kinds of ideological and cultural exchanges collision, supernaturalism very popular. Metaphysics is the period of the Wei, Jin, a philosophical idea, mainly糅合Confucian thinking of the Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi-yi. Xuan Xuejia most of the so-called Fellows, the first to the door, the face, the instrument only, Hyun-loving nothingness from the light. Eastern Jin Dynasty, furans North Korea, the affluent Kangnam Scholars to be temporary to meet, hang around all day in Qingshanxiushui between the light winds to continue to develop, resulting in many light homes. Initially, there are more than idle talk Jiutu home, and later, talk of the wind gradually developed to the general literate.

Xuanxue Jia-speech, also general-talk rhetoric. Liquor make people excited, but drinking more would be stricken manner, nonsense, failed Yaguan. The tea-drinking and may be Jingri always clear, it is clear thinking, calm attitude. Moreover, the general terms of the literati, the whole day dealing with Jiurou, of the economy, will not allow. Days, many Xuan Xuejia, talk to wine home from the village. In them, where tea has been treated as a mental phenomenon.

   With Buddhism, Taoism up, and have tea and Buddhism, Taoism linked. In Taoism, the tea is to help Lian “inner alchemy” or-down muddy, light-weight-for-bones, Xiu Changshengbulao a good way to the body in Buddhism, the tea is a brooding meditation required of Of the show. Although this has not yet formed a complete religious tea ceremony and the ideological principles set out tea, tea has been divorced from the diet as a form of state, has significant social, cultural functions, the Chinese tea culture clues.

3、the formation of the Tang Dynasty tea culture

780, Lu Yu, “the tea,” tea culture of the Tang Dynasty is a landmark. Tea has summed up its natural and human sciences double content of the tea arts, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism into the three tea, the pioneering spirit of the Chinese tea ceremony. After tea and a large number of books, poems tea, “tea in”, “JIANCHALING water”, “Cai Cha”, “16 soups.” Tang tea culture and the formation of the Zen on the rise, the benefits of tea is refreshing thought, spermatogenic Zhike function, the temple advocates tea, tea trees planted around the temple, the development of the tea ceremony, a tea appear, the first election of tea, The matter was tea activities. China’s Tang Dynasty in the form of tea ceremony at the palace tea, the tea ceremony of the temple, the literati tea ceremony.

4、 the prosperity of the Song Dynasty tea culture

Song tea has been a great development, and promote the development of the tea culture, the literati in a professional Tea Associations, an official of the “social soup”, a Buddhist, “1,000 clubs.” Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin tea is an of disabilities, in court and authorities in the establishment of tea things, the court has been using tea grades. Tea-ceremony system has become, thanks to the win over Secretary of tea has become the emperor, with relatives an important means, but also give foreign envoys. As for the lower social and vitality of tea culture is more lively, some of movement, the neighbourhood to “Xiancha” You Ke, to respect the “gold ingot tea”, when engaged to “tea”, the time of the marriage to “the tea”, when roommate “A tea.” Cha Doo civil wind has brought Preparing cooking point of a series of changes.

  Since the Yuan Dynasty, the tea culture has entered a period of twists and turns. Song expansion of the tea culture and the social dimension of cultural forms, tea things are booming, but the tea to complicated, trivial, luxury, lost the Tang Dynasty tea culture profound ideological connotation, too delicate tea flooded the spirit of the tea culture, lost Its noble profound nature. In court, nobles, scholars there, drinking tea became a “drink at the child” and “drinking style,” and “Play tea.”

5、 that the universal culture of Qing-Cha

At this point there has been steaming green, Chaoqing, Hong Qing, and other tea, tea drinking has been changed to “minority bubble”, many of the Ming Dynasty scholar Aston handed down the left for, such as snow star “Pengcha picture,” ” Tea map “, Wen Zhengming’s” Huishan tea party “,” Lu Yu Pengcha plans, “Tea plans. ” The increase in tea, tea art is different, the style of Tea Ware, texture, pattern Qianzibaitai. Tea exports to the Qing Dynasty have become one of the official sector, the tea, tea, tea countless poems.

6、 the development of modern tea culture

  After the founding of New China, China’s annual output of tea from 1949 to 7500 T development in 1998, more than 60 million T. Tea a substantial increase in material wealth for the development of China’s tea culture to provide a solid foundation in 1982, set up in Hangzhou, the first to promote tea culture for the purpose of social groups – the “tea house”, established in 1983 in Hubei ” Lu Yu Tea Culture Research Society, “1990” were the Federation of Chinese tea “was set up in Beijing, 1993,” the China International Tea Culture Research Society “in the establishment of Island Lake, in 1991 China Tea Museum in Hangzhou West Lake Township officially opened. 1998 China International Tea Cultural Exchange Peace Museum completed. With the rise of tea culture and tea houses throughout the run more.

International Tea Culture Symposium has been opened to the fifth sector, has attracted Japan, South Korea, the United States, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong and Taiwan has participated. The main provincial cities and counties in the tea production in the host “Tea Day”, such as Fujian’s Wuyi Yancha section of the city, Yunnan’s Pu’er tea festival, Zhejiang Xinchang, Taishun, Hubei and Britain Hill, the Tea Festival in Xinyang, Henan abound. To have tea as the carrier, to promote comprehensive economic and trade development.

Chinese tea culture and tea culture in Europe and America or Japan, a great difference. Chinese tea culture has a long history, profound, not only contains the material and cultural level, also contains a deep spiritual level. Tea by Lu Yu of the Tang Dynasty in the history of Chinese tea culture and sounded the horn. Since then, the spirit of tea permeates the court and society, into the Chinese poetry, painting, calligraphy, religion, medicine. For thousands of years, China has not only accumulated a great deal about tea cultivation, production of material culture but also accumulated rich spirit of the tea culture, which is unique to China’s tea culture, a cultural study area.

FinTech + SME Automation Solutions

When Fintech first started providing automation solutions to

SMEs and MSMEs

, they started with the basic processes, i.e., documentation of all transactions and financial bookkeeping. Both these processes had always been manual and were prone to errors. Fintech not only reduced the margins of error but also freed up the time consumed in preparing these reports and statements. It brought down costs to a great extent and it was then that SMEs started embracing fintech into their flanks.

But Fintech is not only the SME sector's ticket to financial automation, but also is it's the ticket to greater financial freedom. By providing quick and easy loans to small and medium enterprises,

Fintech has helped this sector flourish

to a great extent.

Handling finances efficiently is one of the most crucial factors for business success. Hence, SMEs that can manage their finances efficiently, have a higher chance of achieving success and exponential growth.

Fintech can aid SMEs with this matter. With financial automation solutions of various kinds, Fintech can help SMEs save money, time, and optimize available resources; three things that are crucial to any business’s success.

In this article, we look at the types of SME automation solutions that Fintech has brought about to make handling finances easier for them.

Point-of-Sale (PoS) Management System

While small and medium enterprises do have some free and regular software at their disposal to handle sales and accounting, like MS Excel or copybooks, they do realize that these methods of accounting are not only error-prone but also resource consuming. Fintech then brought about a cost-efficient automated solution, with an intuitive user interface, that would make using it easy and error-free. Thus, the new generation of online

PoS management system

came into being.

Here’s a look at the different ways automated solutions can be used by SMEs in the retail industry:

1. Gathering employee performance details and carry out employee analysis

2. Monitoring and stocking its inventory movement

3. Customer database management (purchase history, contacts, preferences, and loyalty)

4. Feedback collection & analysis (multichannel)

5. Strategizing marketing campaigns

6. Developing loyalty programs

7. Creating automated advertising, for example, through SMS ads

8. Handling bookings and reservations (service industry, specifically)

9. Selling through e-commerce channels and via social media

Every time the cash register dings, SMEs can collect valuable data relating to the customer, finances, stock, employee performance, and consumer behaviour, all at one go, using automation software. They follow an entire domino sequence, with every bit of information working together to give the business a look into the larger picture that will help them create winning strategies to help grow their business further.

Tablet-based cash registers

Gone are the days of the bulky cash registers that would scan prices, open up the drawer for change, and print out the receipt. SMEs now understand the importance of both aesthetics and functionality when it comes to the cash register. This important business tool should be easy to manage and should also perform more functions than just securing the cash and printing receipts. Not only are these old cash registers less efficient, but they happen to be more expensive, too.

Fintech automation solutions thus brought about the tablet-based cash register. Sleek and super functional, these cash registers are based on tablets and run on a completely different system altogether as compared to their older counterparts.These new-age cash registers use cloud-based SaaS and have the ability to save a copy of every transaction for future reference. Also, these are scalable, which means that SMEs can easily control how much bandwidth they need and pay as per usage. This feature makes it extremely attractive for SMEs, as it allows them to pay for only the amount of service they are using and not getting overcharged during low sales periods.

The older cash registers were mainly cash storing devices. With digital and online payments, that is not much required a service anymore. But what is required is to be able to extract and store information which will help in creating marketing and sales strategies that will help boost sales further and also attract new clients. The new generation cash registers help SME entrepreneurs do that by storing customer preference data, aiding inventory analysis, and boosting overall employee productivity.

Mobile Point of Sale solutions (mPOS)

The newest form of cash registers come with inbuilt card readers. This software helps SMEs in the following industries:

Cabs & transport – Drivers can easily help customers pay for their trips using their credit cards if they do not have access to digital wallets, for any reason.

Restaurant – mPOS help waiters save time on going back on forth with the bill and the card machine to realize payments every time.

eCommerce and delivery – eCommerce these days see a barrage of cash on delivery orders where the customers would prefer to pay via card. mPOS is a great way for small delivery and couriers to realize payments for such purchases, thereby speeding up the entire process.

Some other automation that has aided payment processes for the service and eCommerce industry are:

Automatic bill split – which helps multiple customers sharing a service, split the total amount and pay using their cards.

Custom invoicing software

– This feature allows SMEs promote their brand instead of that of the banks. The software also provides the following benefits to SMEs:

• Mobility

• Safety

• Low cost

• Functionality

• User-friendly interface

• Ability to edit easily

Here

are some more reasons why SMEs should consider customized invoicing.

Tips directed straight to the employee’s account – Instead of receiving the payment, recording it and then transferring it to the employee, automation solutions can help customers pay tips directly to the employee’s bank account.

These examples of SME automation software not only make receiving payments easier for SMEs but also help in

collecting vast amounts of data, which fintech has been using to create better and more focused solutions for the future

.

Loyalty innovations solutions

In this fast-paced, competitive market, customer retention is key to continued growth. The cost of gaining a new customer is too high, as compared to the cost of retaining one. Still businesses, in the search of new customers, often forget to delight and retain the present ones, thus losing them to competitors.

Fintech being a visionary in the space of financial modelling has recognized this flaw and addressed it with new-age loyalty solutions. These automated solutions use technology such as AI, ML, gamification, and digital labour to provide ultimate loyalty solutions which can help SMEs retain their clients in the long run.

Making the collection of complaints and redressals for the same easy and quick is one of the best ways to ensure customer loyalty. With quick responses and solutions to their issues using coupons, benefits, or easy refunds, SMEs can retain their customers who might be on the verge of leaving.

Automating interaction is yet another way to boost customer retention. By using chatbots to answer initial queries until a customer care representative takes the call, helps address the basics of the customer query, without them waiting at the other end of the AVR.

Whether a business is planning to boost referrals or trying to get their current customers to extend their subscription using promotions such as ‘Buy 1 Get 1’ or ‘Get 20% off,’ fintech automation solutions have made these task as easy as just clicking a button for SMEs using fintech-based software.

Fintech helps SMEs move to the digital space

SMEs that want to win the market in today’s date need to realize the importance of establishing an online presence. Millennials and Generation Z are comfortable shopping online. Whether it is a service or a commodity; apps and browsers are the go-to places for them to find out the same.

Many SMEs that have been working out of a retail space or brick and mortar set up might be wondering how to get their current customer base to move to their online setup. One of the best ways to do it is how Tesla did it. Turn stores into experience centres and let customers experience the products at the showroom. They still have the option of buying the product right there. However, if they buy the product from the online store, they will get a certain amount of discount. This will slowly push current clientele to the digital space where it will become easier for the SME to handle sales and automate all related processes that are currently being handled manually.

Conclusion

SMEs form 90% of the businesses worldwide

and contribute to 50% of total employment, globally. It is important that such a crucial sector is nurtured and is benefitted by the best there is to boost their growth further. Fintech automated solutions have helped them achieve that and there’s still a long way to go. The sooner more SMEs come into the Fintech fold, the sooner they will realize the benefits of optimum resource utilization, i.e., getting a lot more done with a lot less.

Work Futures Daily - Resurfacing

After being under the weather for a few days, it feels like starting over

2018-04-24 Beacon NY – I actually looked up the expression ‘under the weather’ since it doesn’t make any sense, linguistically. I mean, we’re always 'under the weather’ meteorologically, right?

Turns out it’s a throwback to the old sailing logs that captains kept (and still keep, I guess). In the standard British Navy version, there was a section where the captain would note the affairs of sailors, their joining and leaving the ship, and including their health. If there were too many entries – like when there was a bout of yellow fever on the ship – the captain might run out of space in that sailors section of the daily log page, and they would have to instead add additional entries 'under the weather’, which generally had additional room.

…

I’ve skipped so many days that I thought I would catch up with a newsletter with one-liners, so I can start with a clean slate.

Links, Links, Nothing But Links

My friend Byron Reese has released his newest book, The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity. I haven’t read it yet, but look forward to it.

McKinsey has released Sizing the potential value of AI and advanced analytics, which I plan to read soon.

Oliver Staley takes aim at the resumé of the future, which may mean no resumé at all.

Menno Schilthuizen reports on the evolution of intelligence in urban birds. He describes how tricks – like poking holes in milk delivered to people’s porches to get at the cream – spread through bird communities. Big surprise: It’s passed through networks of friends. But before these tricks can be learned, as Schilthuizen says, 'certain faculties are essential.

First, the animals need to have a kind of problem-solving intelligence; the kind that helped blue and great tits understand that breaching an aluminium top on a bottle would give access to delightful cream underneath. Secondly, they need to have neophilia – an attraction to unknown objects; when the first glass milk bottles arrived, some tits were not freaked out by them, but instead began exploring them for possible nutritional benefits. And, finally, they need to be tolerant of angry milkmen, tea-cloth-wielding home-owners, and close proximity to people in general.

[…]

Problem-solving was key trait number one. But for an animal to even approach a problem to be solved, it needs to be less than circumspect about new and unfamiliar objects in its environment. Preferably, it needs to be neophilic: keen to approach and investigate anything that is out of the ordinary. In other words, it needs to be curious.

So, on top of problem-solving ability, they need to be curious and fearless. Words to live by!

Jerry Z Muller comes out Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires. Have yet to read it, but I’m inclined to agree.

Andrew Ross Sorkin reports on new research that finds at least one place where the wage gap is closed: in the corner office.

Bryn Nelson looks into automation of garbage sorting, which is one of the most dangerous jobs for people.

I published two older posts of mine over the weekend, part of a Web Culture series I am unearthing again:

A Well-Ordered Humanism And The Future Of Everything

Web Culture: Individuality, Belonging, And Scalar Freedom

A few more to follow.

I’ll be more loquacious tomorrow, I promise.

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