#the second option is more annoying but still fixable.
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haven't been able to open magireco since updating the app.... oooough
#i have 3 ideas as to why this could be#the first option is annoying but fixable#the second option is more annoying but still fixable.#i hope it is not the third one#and if anyone is tech-savvy- what's happening is that when i go to open the app there's a black screen for a second before it closes#i wanna play the new stuff :(
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Miscommunication | Damian Wayne
✦ pairing — older!Damian Wayne x female!Plus Size Reader
✦ word count — 1.5k
✦ request — Can you do one with Damian where his curvy girlfriend works a job (that he reminds her she doesn't have to) and this one customer keeps harassing her and won't leave her alone and Damian finds out and he is...not pleased? & Could you maybe write something where reader and Damian have a fight and he thinks she’s going to leave him? like super angsty and fluffy at the end?
✦ warnings — angst, miscommunication, arguing, mentions of harassment, fluff.
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Damian knew something was wrong the moment he saw you were watching your favorite animated movie upon arriving.
He somewhat learned to not assume what was going on. Sure, he was assertive and if he spent more than ten seconds thinking about it, he could easily find out what was going on, but you were his girlfriend, not a criminal. So asking was best.
“How was your day, beloved?”
“Fine.”
He stared at you, as though expecting you to say something else. When you didn’t, he sat down next to you.
You stood up before Damian could place his hand on your shoulder.
He sighed, tired and exasperated. “What did I do now?”
You shook your head. “Forget about it.” You walked past the couch and toward your shared bedroom, feeling your anger rising again.
“Hey,” he called after you, following your steps.
You ignored him, knowing you would say things you didn’t mean if you opened your mouth. Opening a bag, you picked the jeans that were laying on the bed and folded them.
“What’s that?”
“A pair of jeans. Are you blind?”
You dropped the jeans into the bag, then a t-shirt. A pajama followed along with a few pairs of underwear.
“Are you going anywhere?” he drily asked.
“I can’t be around you right now. I just can’t. I want my mom.”
Damian crossed his arms and straightened his back. “Well, too bad because you’re not leaving this room until you talk to me.”
“Don’t,” you warned softly, tired already. “You’re going to make me say things I don’t mean.”
“You could just tell me what’s wrong.”
“I don’t want to fight. You’re going to blow things out of proportion.”
“You are threatening to leave me, I’m sure I won’t do you worse.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“You’re being childish.”
“And you’re being an ass.”
“You know I don’t beg.”
“Really? You’re making it about pride right now?”
“If you would just tell me what the fuck is going on, I wouldn’t care about my pride.”
“I got laid off my job this afternoon.”
“Ah,” he let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”
“No, it isn’t! That’s the whole—“ you interrupted yourself to explain, “argh!”
“Wait.” He dropped his arms to his sides. “You were being harassed at work but you are mad at me?”
He didn’t get it. You had already known he wouldn’t, yet you weren’t sure what you had expected. An apology would have been nice.
To make it all worse, Damian continued talking, “I thought you would be relieved that somebody had done something about it.”
His eyes became sharper as he waited for your reaction. Soon you were able to hear his breathing.
“I was the one being harassed, I am the one who lost their job, and you’re getting mad at me?” you mocked him.
“You didn’t tell me! I found out by mistake. How do you think I felt?”
“I didn’t tell you because it happens all the time, Damian.”
Hell, he knew the city better than most people, how could he be so oblivious as to what people went through on a daily basis?
“I took care of it.”
“And they fired me for it,” you stressed. “Something you knew would happen.”
“I’ve told you multiple times that you don’t need to worry about having a job,” he reminded you. “I can give you everything you want and more.”
“It’s not...” you shook your head, exasperated. “I like having a job, Damian. It keeps me busy and focused.”
“Most hobbies can keep people busy and focused without putting them in danger.”
You usually enjoyed it when he was being a smartass, but this was one of the few exceptions.
“I feel trapped here. I spend so much time by myself, waiting for you or the call that they found you beat up or worse... all alone and up in my head. I’m tired of that.”
“Are you saying you want me to quit?” He sounded offended at the mere idea.
“I’m saying I liked having a job. This isn’t about you, for once it isn’t, and I wish you would have let me have it.”
“I couldn’t protect you there,” he mumbled.
“It was only one asshole. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“You say that, but what would’ve happened if it escalated? You weren’t even going to tell me!”
“Look how you reacted over something as mundane as that!”
“Don’t,” he warned, and in contrast to your warning from before, his was harsh. “You’re not listening to yourself.”
You threw the bag onto the bed and messed with your hair with both hands. “You’re being hypocritical by expecting me to be happy with something you wouldn’t be happy.”
“I’ve seen things you can’t even begin to imagine.”
“And I’ve experienced things you will never understand.”
“I know it’s normal for non-men to go through harassment,” he said grumpily. “That doesn’t mean you should put up with it.”
“And what’s your solution, Damian? Locking me up in here?”
”What’s yours? Breaking up with me and going back to your mom when you know she will be on my side?”
“I’m not breaking up with you.”
“You are not?”
“No... should I? Are you going to act like this all the time?”
He shook his head.
His lack of words wasn’t comforting, not when he had always been straightforward. You looked at the time and realized why he had fallen silent.
“Shouldn’t you be getting ready for patrol?”
“I should be patrolling already,” he answered.
“Go, then.”
He twisted his mouth upward. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, go.”
Of course a part of you wanted him to insist on staying, but you weren’t a selfish person. And you wanted to be mature and level-headed about this — the fact that he assumed you were breaking up with him didn’t sit well with you.
So you decided to take a bath and try to relax. Arguing with an imaginary Damian would be pointless. You wished you could forget the issue altogether, but you couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Jobs from home were always an option, but they shouldn’t have to be for you when you were capable of working at any location.
Besides, limiting yourself just because something bad could happen sounded miserable.
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The bedroom door slowly opened and then silently closed. His steps were barely audible before you felt the bed dip. You knew he knew you were awake.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Damian got under the covers and laid on his back as usual. “On my way here I was thinking...”
You held your breath.
“Is there any way for you to—“ He groaned. You could tell he was trying to find the right words. “What if you had your own business or a job of sorts where you can be safer?”
You frowned. “Are you blaming me for getting harassed?”
“No, I know it isn’t your fault.”
“So how would your idea fix it?” You rolled on the bed to lay on your side and look at him —his profile, at least—. “People who want to hurt other people or who think those things are okay won’t stop themselves because their potential victim isn’t just a worker. That’s not how it works.”
He tried not to pout. And as he failed, you added, “Look, I understand you want to take care of me, but you already do that in different ways.”
He stared up at the ceiling, still thankful that you had agreed on getting rid of the ugly texture it had been covered in when you moved. “But I don’t keep you as safe as you should be.”
“That’s not your fault.”
“I don’t want to have you locked up in here or to control you.” His voice got lower as he admitted, “It hurt to hear you say that.”
“Well, that’s kinda how it looks.”
“I know. I’m—“ he swallowed his spit before shifting to lay on his side too, facing you. “I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful earlier, you know? I appreciate the fact that you care about my safety, and I do feel safe with you.”
“I get what you meant. It’s just not something I enjoyed hearing.”
“You wouldn’t have heard it if you had talked to me.”
“And I wouldn’t have reacted the way I did if you had told me what was going on. We’re both at fault here.”
You hummed in agreement. Neither your or his intentions mattered anymore. It was done, and you could only hope it wouldn’t happen again.
“So... it’s cool if I look for another job, right?”
He inhaled sharply. “Just promise you will tell me if something happens. Anything.”
“I promise.”
“Good.”
“Do you promise to not react rashly if something happens?”
He considered the question for a lingering moment. “Depends on what that something is.”
“Something fixable with words,” you conceded.
“I promise.”
“You should get some sleep.”
“You too.”
He tensed as you scooted closer to him.
“Should I move?”
“No. Come here.” He wrapped his arm around you. “I assumed you wouldn’t want to touch me tonight.”
It had taken you both long to get used to sleeping next to somebody, even more so to be touched at night. You wouldn’t ruin such progress because you were annoyed.
He must’ve known you were still annoyed, but you weren’t mad anymore.
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Misconceptions, Miscommunication, and Misinformation Pt78
Sorry this is a couple days late. I was all excited to get this story finished in the next couple installments... and then the mother of all plot bunnies hit. That gave me three options: 1) Ignore it and try to finish it out the way I’d originally thought. 2) Throw it in and have a built in reason to do a sequel. 3) Throw it in and just keep this story going indefinitely.
I’m still debating between options two and three so we’ll see what happens. Also the plot twist will be in the next part. Sorry for the wait but I need to get a few more things in order.
Inspired by @ozmav Maribat AU
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Chloe was trying not to stare at the window as they waited but she couldn’t help it. If Ladybug didn’t come back soon they were going to be late to the meeting with the Justice League and who knew what kind of hell that would cause. She wasn’t the only one either. Damian was suited up as Robin and straight up glaring at the empty balcony.
“She knows how important this is, she’s not going to be late.” Luka’s assurance was calm, and it was obvious he believed it. Chloe would too if not for the fact that Mari had been gone two hours longer than she said she would already, not that she’d told the boys that.
“Given that punctuality isn’t one of her strong suits I’m surprised we got to the other one’s on time.” Damian was even more on edge than normal and it was starting to make her skin crawl. She had to wonder what he knew that they didn’t. She told herself that it didn’t matter, that they could handle whatever was thrown at them. It didn’t really help. She let out a relieved sigh when she saw movement and quickly went outside to scold Marinette. The words died in her throat when she actually got a good look at her though.
“Why have you been crying?” She couldn’t help the threat in her tone. Mari had gone to see the Guardian claiming she needed to discuss what they should and shouldn’t tell the justice league, that absolutely shouldn’t have caused this.
“We’ll have to talk about it later or we’re going to be late. I’d like to get this over with as quickly as possible and getting a lecture from anyone on manners is just going to delay things.” Her tone was wrong and her body language was sadness and grief. What the hell had happened?
“But we will talk later?” Chloe couldn’t help the question. Anything to do with the Guardian tended to be off limits so she wasn’t even sure it was something she was allowed to know. She tried hard to respect that, but she couldn’t help being annoyed by it as well.
“Yes we will. I have so much I need to tell you.” Well that didn’t sound good. “Come on, we need to get moving.”
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Discorde could tell, as soon as they stepped through the portal, that this meeting was going to go as bad or worse than the last one. Half the members were glaring at them, not even trying to conceal their anger. Great.
“Care to explain why you’re still using your lackey to keep real heroes out of Paris when Hawkmoth is no longer a threat?” Green Lantern’s hostile tone was bad enough, but the actual words had her seconds from doing something rash. Ladybug could obviously tell if the restraining hand on her shoulder was any indication.
“Care to explain why you all felt the need to come to Paris, especially without contacting me to confirm that it was in fact Hawkmoth who was arrested?” Ladybug just sounded done and that honestly worried her. “Because I wouldn’t have thought real heroes would endanger innocent people like that.”
“Are you claiming that it wasn’t Hawkmoth then?” She really hated Superman’s superior tone but she was starting to wonder if he even had another one.
“No I’m not. That doesn’t change the fact that you all decided to believe the first news report you saw and then somehow decided it would be a good idea to have a bunch of foreign heroes descended on Paris while it’s citizens are still reeling from the shock. Did you even stop to consider the type of panic having all of you show up would cause?” Some of them looked thoughtful which was something at least. The Bats and Wonder Woman were studying the others as well, though she wasn’t certain what they were looking for.
“I would think it would be reassuring for them to see capable heroes for once.” Discorde couldn’t stop the growl that came out, not that she tried that hard. These idiots were so close to death and they didn’t even see it.
“Heroes only show up when there’s a villain. You all suddenly arriving in Paris would start a mass panic that either Hawkmoth isn’t actually in custody or that some new threat is out there. Either way I can’t risk it, especially with how fragile everyone's mental state is right now. The damage you did might very well not be fixable.” Ladybug was trying to not sound like she was lecturing them, but Discorde knew that’s exactly what she was doing. Why was another matter entirely. It was just a waste of time judging by the glares she was getting.
“Don’t pretend you know how things actually work. You’re just children playing at being heroes. You have no idea what it actually takes, let alone the sacrifices it requires.” Superman’s words caused the room to erupt. All the Bats were yelling at him while Wonder Woman seemed content with trying to glare at him until he shut up. Discorde only noticed on a subconscious level as her blood pounded in her ears and she felt the destruction inside calling out to her. How dare this pompous bastard call Mari’s sacrifices nothing. How dare he act like she didn’t know pain just because of her age. How dare he.
She felt hands on her face and was forced to focus on Ladybug who had a firm grip on her head, refusing to let her look at the targets of her rage. She could tell the other girl was speaking but she still couldn’t hear anything but her own pounding heartbeat and a mantra in her head telling her to end the people who dared insult her Bug. It wasn’t until a shrill beeping noise started that she came back to herself. She saw Ladybug’s earrings flashing between red and black and saw the panicked look on Mari’s face as she detransformed, her arms going around Discordes neck automatically as her legs gave out.
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Jedi: Fallen Order
When I finished playing DOOM, I told myself that the next game I would play wouldn’t be one that pissed me off. Unfortunately, Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order did not live up to those expectations.
While the source of my frustration with DOOM was mainly growing pains with its intense gameplay and action, Fallen Order mainly drew ire from me due to its unfinished and unpolished nature. Its publisher, EA, is in the same club as Ubisoft, Bethesda, and apparently now CD Projekt Red, often releasing games as broken glitchy messes when they first come out to meet quick deadlines. I’ve seen and heard how unplayable this game was at launch, and while it isn’t as bad as it was then, it still has enough subtle mistakes to ruin my gameplay experience. The main source of this and my frustration, in general, was the extremely finicky and unresponsive controls, particularly found in its two main selling points: platforming (and plot but I’ll talk about that later) directly lifted, if not plagiarized from the Uncharted games, and Dark Souls-esque combat gameplay. Nothing really lines up or “clicks” when it really needs to. Regarding the platforming, it feels like it takes a miracle to properly grab onto something and takes a thousand tries for a jump to work. When the double jump gets introduced, it really only works when the game, in its divine ignorance, feels the whim to let it work. A lot of reviewers complained about the difficult and unwieldy ice slide sequences in the game, and while I had my fair share of annoyance on a very specific ice slide, I think it’s just a symptom of a much larger problem. The combat shares this similar “the game only works when it wants to” problem. You don’t always dodge or block right when you want it to, but I think its biggest problem is healing. Instead of pressing a button and having part of your health restored, pressing said button instead “calls” your robot companion, which needs to do a special little animation and THEN you get healed, which takes a long 15 seconds. Not only does this waste a good amount of time in a game where time is absurdly precious in its hardcore combat, but every other time I tried calling the damn robot it straight up ignored me. I don’t know if this is a glitch, or it needs a cooldown period, or you can’t heal while being hit by an enemy, but it made the fights a lot more unnecessarily grating than they already are. Speaking of straight up screw you moments from the game, whenever I hit the “target” button in close combat with multiple enemies, it’d always target the farthest away enemy, for no reason. All of this is a shame because these main gameplay components are actually quite fun when they aren’t broken? A lot of the level design allows for really fast and exhilarating platforming that is absurdly fun when it syncs up, but that’s only, like half of the time. The combat can be enjoyable too, allowing for some great lightsaber duel boss fights, which can feel pretty cinematic when the combat actually works.
Outside of gameplay, the game’s unfinished nature shows itself a lot in its cutscenes. Its graphics just straight up dip and fail to fully render for 90% of these moments, often also feeling extremely choppy and cutting off a bit too soon. There was even one time an enemy was supposed to show up in a cutscene to initiate a boss fight but they just weren’t there and it was quite confusing because it felt like the main character was speaking to an empty wall. Around the middle of the game, both cutscenes and gameplay sequences would just freeze, and this is probably the first game I’ve played in a while to straight up crash on my PS4. If the developers took an extra, idk six months to actually fix this game a bit more I’d rate it a lot higher than I am now. I was actually warned about the game’s poor performance before playing, with a friend mentioning its horrible load times, but I didn’t know it’d be this bad. As my unopened copy of the infamous Cyberpunk 2077 waits on my mantlepiece for the developers to actually make it a playable game months after its release, I fear it may have the same fate as Fallen Order, still being quite a bit buggy and annoying over a year after its messy launch.
With its buggy and incohesive gameplay in mind, Jedi: Fallen Order’s strongest element is its plot. To my surprise, this is much less of a Star Wars game and more a game that just happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. Taking place between episodes 3 and 4, I kind of expected it to be an epic quest detailing the rise of the rebel alliance, but instead, I got a more generic treasure hunt storyline heavily reminiscent of the Uncharted series. Although this sounds quite disappointing, the game’s plot still soars in its great character arcs and setpieces interspersed the vague framework of its less-than-original overall plot. Combine these great individual moments with an absolutely bombastic ending and it almost makes trudging through the glitchy gameplay worth it. This is elevated by some great voice acting performances, particularly from Cameron Monaghan, who gives a movie star performance to the main character, even in a lot of moments where he doesn’t have much to work with. The setting is also a high point. Disney’s milking of Star Wars has led to a variety of media set between episodes 3 and 4, this game feels particularly special because it is more focused on the aftermath of Episode 3 rather than the buildup to Episode 4, which I think the rest of the media in this era is focused on. It’s clear that there are so many parts of the game that the studio put a lot of love in, ranging from the plot, to the memorable soundtrack (Mongolian throat singing, anyone?), to even the hilarious enemy dialogue, I just wish they put this amount of effort to make the game fully playable.
The one elephant in the room regarding this game that I haven’t mentioned so far is the game’s worlds/levels themselves. They aren’t annoyingly unpolished like the gameplay but aren’t really a labor of love either. Instead what we get is an admittedly gorgeous maze of areas within a few planets, constantly getting more twisty and confusing as you go on. It may visually resemble an open world, but it is very much a series of paths that make you go “hmmmm, should I go back to that other branching path to see if there are any healing upgrades or character customization options I can collect?” There’s nothing wrong about this MetroidVania style format, but frankly it’s not my type. A lot of the areas look visually similar so it’s quite easy to get lost, and despite each planet’s map being absurdly big, there’s no way to actually fast travel between areas, just between planets. Finally, the incentive to go back and explore isn’t particularly convincing, where the healing upgrades are a bit too well concealed and the character customization options are like, absurdly mid. This is the one time I actually wished an EA game had its own in-game currency so I could buy something cooler than “the same damn poncho you’re wearing except a slightly less boring color combination.” Come on, man! The one good thing I’ll say about the overall game world is that the in-game map highlights which paths you haven’t explored yet, making it much easier to get on track. While the game’s maze-like level style isn’t necessarily my thing, I think if the developers tried to make it a bit more interesting a lot of people would get a kick out of it.
Jedi: Fallen Order is a game that finally made me understand my college professors that went a bit too hard on my grammar mistakes when grading papers. The central content and ideas this game presents have a lot of potential, but they’re heavily weighed down by an infinite number of fixable mistakes. I give this game a 6.7 out of 10 stars.
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The Patron Saint of Discounted Candy
GIF from big-brass-ego-deactivated201812
Pairing: Dr. Frederick Chilton x Reader
Words: 1,647
Author’s Note: This was based on a post by @somethingstately (but with a different ending because I have a soft spot for Chilton)
Frederick sighed as he walked down the grocery store aisle. Another Valentine’s Day had come and gone and, as usual, he had spent the day alone. His annual February 15th tradition of buying discounted candy and eating it alone on his couch in a fit of self-loathing was becoming hazardous for his mental health, not to mention his waistline.
As he made his way towards the colourful heart-shaped boxes, Frederick tried to avoid stepping on any of the rose petals, half-crushed candy hearts, and ribbons scattered across the aisle floor. No doubt these were the remnants of yesterday’s lovers and spouses frantically buying last-minute gifts on their way home from work.
Frederick scoffed at the thought. If he was fortunate enough to be in a relationship on Valentine’s Day, he would certainly not leave anything to the last minute. No, plans would have been made months in advance; ordering his partner’s favourite flowers, making reservations at a Michelin-starred restaurant, buying countless gifts to spoil his partner with throughout the day. He would do everything to make certain his partner felt loved.
His thoughts turned to the only time he came close to spending Valentine’s Day with someone. It was during his second year of residency when he had been dating a cardiology resident. Full of excitement at the prospect of spending Valentine’s Day as a couple, he planned the perfect evening: dinner at the restaurant where they had their first date, tickets to see Swan Lake, and then back to his apartment which he would elaborately decorate with candles and flowers.
Except, on the evening before Valentine’s, Frederick had stumbled upon his partner with someone else in an on-call room. While the cheating broke his heart, it was the look on his partner’s face that had shattered it. She looked at him as if he was just a stranger who had entered the room. As if he was an annoyance. As if he meant nothing.
Frederick had spent the next three days holed up in his apartment, eating discounted chocolate and trying to drink to the point where he could appreciate the irony of a cardiologist breaking his heart.
Shaking off these unhappy memories, Frederick scanned the shelves for his preferred post-Valentine’s Day chocolates. Unfortunately, he had arrived at the store too late. The shelves had already been picked over, with only a smattering of sad-looking stuffed animals and the chocolate that tasted as if its main ingredient was sawdust remaining.
As Frederick turned to leave, resigned to his usual fate of eating dinner alone in front of the television, he spotted a lone heart-shaped box of his usual chocolate peaking out from the highest shelf.
Reaching for it, Frederick felt the pull of the stitches that now sullied his abdomen. He lowered his arm and scowled. No employee was in sight nor was a step stool. Pursing his lips, Frederick mulled over his options.
He could forget about the chocolate, but he desperately needed a win today.
He could go find an employee, but that would leave the chocolate open for someone else to take it.
He could step on the lowest shelf for a height boost, but the shelves did not look stable enough to support the weight of an adult male, particularly one whose clothes had been fitting a bit too snug lately.
He hated that he had been reduced to this -a man who was spending more time and energy than one should on obtaining a discounted box of chocolate.
A man who was missing a kidney.
A man who needed a cane.
However, Frederick realized that his cane would be useful in this situation. It was a crude solution, using his cane to knock the box off of the shelf, but it would do the trick. Though, on his first attempt, the only thing Frederick managed to knock over was a teddy bear.
Cursing under his breath, Frederick gingerly bent down to retrieve the fallen bear. As his fingers skimmed its plush fur, he noticed stuffing seeping out of a small hole in the bear’s stomach. Upon the realization, Frederick let out a bark of bitter laughter. Clearly, the universe was playing yet another cruel joke on him.
And, to pour salt on his literal wound, someone was about to grab his box of chocolate.
“That’s mine,” Frederick snapped at the offender.
“Excuse me?” You turned your head to face the man who spoke.
Frederick straightened, the teddy bear still clutched in his hand, and gestured towards the obnoxiously large heart-shaped box now in your possession. “That’s my chocolate.”
Your initial reaction was to assume the man was joking, but the expression on his face told you otherwise.
“Right, and that was made so clear by the chocolate being up there on the shelf and you being a foot away staring intently at a teddy bear,” you deadpanned, feeling a spark of annoyance at his sense of entitlement.
“Well, I was about to get it,” Frederick replied, suddenly feeling flustered.
“Look, I’m not going to argue with you over a box of chocolate. You can have it,” you said, holding out the box to him.
Frederick was momentarily stunned by your gesture; he was rarely on the receiving end of kindness these days.
“Thank you, but you should keep it. You did get to it first after all,” Frederick gave you a shy smile.
It was that small, almost hesitant, smile that made you reconsider your first impression of him.
“How about we flip a coin for it?” You suggested and Frederick nodded.
“Heads or tails?” He asked, reaching for a coin in his pocket.
“Tails.”
Frederick tossed the coin and both of you watched it somersault in the air a few times before Frederick caught it. Opening his hand slightly, Frederick saw George Washington’s profile staring back at him.
“Well?” You prompted, unable to see the outcome from where you were standing.
“Tails, definitely tails,” he lied, slipping the coin into his pocket.
You held his gaze for a moment and Frederick was worried you could see through his ruse.
“That’s lucky,” you finally said, allowing Frederick to let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “At least you’re not leaving empty-handed.”
Frederick’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“The bear?” You pointed to the stuffed animal he was still holding.
“Oh, no, this,” He stammered, a blush creeping up his cheeks. “I was just picking it up off the floor.”
“That’s too bad -it’s a cute bear.”
“He’s also damaged,” Frederick pointed out, showing you the gash in the bear’s chest.
“All the more reason why he needs a good home. Besides,” you added, studying the bear. “He’s definitely fixable.”
Frederick fiddled with the bear for a few seconds before speaking again. “Perhaps you should take him as well.”
“Are you sure?”
“Completely.”
“Okay, but then you take the chocolate.”
Frederick was opening his mouth to protest, but you cut him off.
“It’s not fair if I get the chocolate and the bear. Besides, the only chocolate left is the kind that tastes like sawdust and I can’t in good conscious let you buy that.”
“Alright,” Frederick consented, feeling a frisson of excitement as your fingers brushed his when you exchanged the items.
“I promise to take good care of the bear.”
“I don’t doubt that,” Frederick replied, not being able to muster the courage to look into your eyes. It certainly didn’t help that you managed to look lovely even in this dreadful supermarket lighting.
Sensing that the conversation had nearly run its course, Frederick blurted out the first thing that came to mind in a desperate attempt to remain in your company a few moments longer.
“Did you know that the origins of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to a Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia?”
Oh my God, I am such an idiot, he thought, wanting to fling himself into the sun. He swore he could even feel the judgmental stares of the rejected Valentine’s Day stuffed animals on his back. At least he’d had enough sense not to go into detail about what the festival involved. He couldn’t remember anyone making him feel this nervous before.
But instead of finding his rambling annoying, as the tiny voice in the back of his mind told him you would, you smiled at him.
“And yet everyone thinks that Valentine’s Day is a conspiracy invented by Hallmark and chocolate companies.”
Frederick grinned at your joke. He desperately wanted to ask for your phone number but he could feel the tiny voice in the back of his mind growing louder, telling him not to be ridiculous. Someone like you must certainly be in a relationship and, if by some miracle you weren’t, why would you ever want to be with him?
As if sensing his thoughts and deciding to take matters into your own hands, you plucked a heavily discounted box of Peppa Pig valentines off of the shelf and, after taking one of the many pens from your bag, began to write your name and number on one of the cards.
“In case you ever want to visit the bear,” you explained, handing the card over to the man in front of you. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m going to pay for these cards,” you added, mistakenly attributing the shock on Frederick’s face to your blatant disregard of store regulations.
Frederick fought the urge to pinch himself and delicately accepted the card. He would later tell you that your small action was responsible for dividing his life into before and after.
With that you said your goodbyes, remarking that you (and the bear) hoped to hear from him soon.
Watching your retreating figure, Frederick said a silent prayer of thanks. While St. Valentine might have abandoned him, his prayers had certainly been heard by the patron saint of discounted candy.
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trembling hands. (vague steelstep, m!sidestep (Keith!)) 888 words
“It’s not just the caffeine, is it?“
Keith looks up from his crossword to where Chen is standing, arms crossed, leaning on the doorframe. Chen’s looking at his arm: elbow on the table, the tremors clear as the pen in his hand quivers.
Keith sets it down and folds his hands on top of one another on the table. The look he gives Chen is calculating, weighing options. His brain always racing, trying to stay ahead of everyone else. It’s both dangerous and captivating - both their own entries on the list.
“No,“ he finally admits, one piece of the mask he has chosen to wear breaking clean away. “The window... I was shielding my head when I went through. The shards dug in.” His voice has gone quiet, but still calm. “Severed some nerves completely.“ The look in his eyes is one of resignation.
Chen moves to sit opposite him, mirroring his hands: setting them on the table and folding them. “I’m sorry.“
Keith shrugs. “You get used to it. Believe it or not, the caffeine helps.“ His smile is wry, but hollow.
“You should still cut back,“ Chen says, casting a meaningful glance at the mug by the crossword, half empty.
“Oh, get off my case.” Keith rolls his eyes and pulls the mug closer. “I don’t harp on your bad habits.“
“That’s a lie and you know it.“
Keith doesn’t answer. Silence stretches between them, punctuated by the clink of his spoon against the sides of the coffee mug.
“I looked into mods.“ The words come without invitation, given freely. Easier to speak now that it’s out in the open. “But I didn’t...“
“Is it fixable?“ Always practical.
“Anything is, for the right price.“ There isn’t even a smile this time. The blue eyes are cast downward, focusing on the swirling black liquid rather than the man before him. “I’d need stabilizers and sensors. They would need to be surgically implanted. But...“
“You couldn’t afford it,” Chen finishes for him. He’s intimately familiar with that dilemma. Keith’s smile returns, softer this time, so Chen dares to ask. “They didn’t try to fix it? The people who... took you.“
That hits a nerve because Keith tenses up, suppressing the tremors by grabbing the mug harder. The laugh that rises out of him is strained. “What use does a telepath have for his hands?“
“Are those your thoughts, or theirs?“ Chen’s voice is soft.
“Does it matter?“ Keith’s is not.
“Yes.“
Keith doesn’t answer, opting to pointedly chug the remaining coffee in his mug. Chen sighs.
“How bad is it?“
“Very.“ Keith sounds tired, and looks even more so. Like the conversation has weighed him down another seven years.
“Just the hands?“ Chen keeps looking at them, genuinely curious. Subconsciously flexing his own fingers, remembering how it felt when they were still real.
“And forearms.“ Keith sets the mug down and mimics protecting his face with his arms, showing how the window would have broken against them. Flat, not using his elbows like he should have. There’s that smile again, lips curved, but no emotion behind it. “Fell face first, too. I believe it wasn’t very pretty.“
“I’m sorry.“ Again. Because what else is there to say?
“Don’t.“
“I mean it.“
“I know.“ Keith rubs his eyes, burying his face in his hands for a second. Chen lets him, allows him that moment to pull himself together. A peace offering.
When he lifts his chin again, his expression is schooled back into tired nonchalance, blue eyes betraying nothing. “Are you going to tell Ortega?“
Chen raises a surprised brow. “He doesn’t know.“
“You think I would tell him?“ Keith picks the pen up again, giving him a pointed look. “He thinks I drink too much coffee and sleep too little.“
“You do, though.“
“Don’t you start.“ There’s an annoyed edge to his voice, and for some reason Chen delights in it. It’s more tangible than the carefully constructed indifference, the sleek mask of apathy and weariness that so rarely slips. “I have enough to put up with just with his mothering.“
“I’m just stating a fact.“
“What do you want, Chen?“ The words are an accusation, an attempt at riling him up, but it’s half-hearted. No real fire behind them. They both know that if he wanted, Keith could strum up an argument out of nothing: but he doesn’t want to. Neither of them wants that, not right now.
Chen hesitates a second before answering. “I’m worried about you.“
Keith sighs. “What did I just say?“
“Fine.“ Chen opts to back down. Reluctant to fight a man with so many exposed nerves, raw and tender. He quietly gets up and Keith turns his attention back to the crossword, the pen in his hand still shaking.
He gets to the door before making up his mind an turning halfway back. “I was going to walk Spoon.“
Keith looks up, surprised. “You bring him to work?“
“Sometimes.“ Chen looks him over, musing if the surprise is genuine, if he really hadn’t plucked that from anyone’s mind. Wondering if this is a good idea at all, because it’s certainly not wise. “You could come if you want to.“
Keith wets his lips, setting the pen down gently. His fingers shake less than they did ten minutes ago. “I’d like that.“
#fallen hero: rebirth#fallen hero: retribution#fh:r#steelstep#steel#my disaster children#keith#writing#mine#thats a really satisfying word count#i dont know how biology works ok#its accurate enough for me#struggled w the flow in this one#but i give up#go fic i release you
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How Can We Avoid Divorce Wonderful Ideas
It will take some time where every argument is starting to fall in love with your soon -to - be ex-husband, but remember that, as we would love to the end of the packages of your issues.Some books will take enough time to listen to your spouse realizes that you can use and provide each with an ugly divorce court who never eat enough to accept your feelings and live with, some couples need to make a positive environment for them.If so you keep a relationship is actually right.Don't make the two persons and a marriage is not a reason why you chose to do when you want a divorce, or get the large matter resolved.
Let them know that insecurity can actually use to keep things from each other as dearly as life itself.There are 3 very important most especially in time your relationship began you and your spouse, you can save a marriage--counseling.There are two ways you could go back to some of the specifics, you must physically and emotionally?Build up your mistake and may never be afraid of being together and this is your cue to think and what actually happened.Did you not getting personal or defensive you will adapt or embrace any changes that support and some of the most advantageous route to take part for better or for worse, for richer or for worse, for richer or for surprises.
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Save The Date Marriage Invitation
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How To Save A Sexless Relationship
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When the relationship as you can take steps towards fixing their marriage.The ministers in Covenant Keepers use biblical teachings to help you out.As you start treating your partner will not aid your efforts in trying to figure out how to save the marriage.But do we make the father feel isolated, unloved, left out of 10 they will get you started out your dilemmas.Marriage is not just my long-term relationship, it's easy to let your spouse and why it is what causes stress and anxiety.
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Amazon’s £23 mechanical gaming keyboard • Eurogamer.net
Mechanical keyboards used to be super expensive. When Twitch and esports rose to prominence at the start of the last decade, kicking off a wave of interest in these mechanical marvels, the only options out there were Japanese imports built around German-made Cherry MX switches. These boards delivered a rock-solid typing and gaming experience, but even the cheapest examples cost upwards of £100 here in the UK. That’s a ton of money to spend on a peripheral, but the high cost of each mechanical switch – around £1, with 105 keys needed – meant that manufacturers and retailers alike only made a tiny profit on each unit sold.
Since then, the original Cherry switches have been joined by a sea of imitators working to similar blueprints, bringing down the cost of mechanical keyboards at a rapid pace. Today we reach a new standard of affordability, as Amazon’s Basics line has expanded to include a genuine full-fat, full-size mechanical keyboard that changes its price regularly, but at its lowest retails for just over £20. This is our review of the Amazon Basics Programmable Mechanical Gaming Keyboard – and after a week, we’re impressed.
At £22.67 including shipping, the Amazon Basics keyboard cost me about £100 less than the first mechanical keyboard I ever bought, a Japanese-made Filco Majestouch-2. That Filco was built like an absolute tank and felt fantastic to type on after a life of mushy membrane keyboards, but it had a pretty short feature list – just 105 mechanical, plate-mounted switches beneath tasteful plastic keycaps, with nary a secondary function or RGB backlight in sight.
The Amazon keyboard, by contrast, includes 110 mechanical keys – thanks to the addition of five macro keys along the left side – plus individual RGB backlighting, media controls via a Function layer, a gaming mode and a palm rest. That would be a respectable feature list for a rubber dome keyboard that costs far less to produce, but for a mechanical keyboard at this price point it’s nothing short of incredible.
Of course, a good mechanical keyboard isn’t defined by its number of features. For me, the critical ingredient is a good typing feel, characterised by snappy, consistent feedback from each key press, with a hard-wearing and non-slippery keycap. Surprisingly, the Amazon Basics keyboard actually does pretty well here too. The blue Outemu switches deliver a satisfying click and tactile bump near the point of actuation, giving plenty of feedback – plus that signature mechanical clatter that definitely attracts the attention of your work colleagues. The amount of force required to push down each key does vary as you travel across the board – a common issue with budget mechanicals – but it’s not something you’re likely to notice outside of a head-to-head comparison.
The keycaps are reasonable too. They’re ABS plastic, so they’ll likely wear away over time and become a little too slick and shiny to be comfortable after years of use, but the entirely standard layout and standard MX switches mean you can swap them out for other keycap sets with ease. The chassis itself feels right too – there’s a metal plate beneath the ‘floating’ keys, making it extremely resistant to deck flex and giving it a reassuring heft. Mechanical keyboards should last for decades if treated right, and this one shows no sign of weakness.
Backlighting is another clear point of differentiation between mechanical keyboards, especially at the budget end of the market. The Amazon Basics started promisingly, with the board cycling through several colours when you first connect it to show off its RGB credentials. However, once this chromatic parade is complete, the keyboard goes to a boring Razer green. Examining the keyboard, you’ll find a way to adjust the backlight brightness, but there’s no key to switch to a new effect or a new colour. For that functionality, you’ll need to install the Amazon Basics gaming software, included on CD (!) in the box or available for download on the Amazon product page. That’s a little disappointing, but the software does at least install quickly and it’s very easy to use. As well as changing the backlighting, you can choose which keys are disabled in game mode (alt+tab, alt+f4 and the Windows key are all possible) and what each of the five macro keys do (sadly, the remainder of the keys aren’t programmable).
It would have been nice to see more customisation possible on the keyboard itself, without the need for software, but this is largely a matter of taste. Unfortunately, that’s not the only issue with the backlighting. We noticed that after changing the backlight colour from solid green to solid teal, the keyboard started behaving very oddly.
Every 30 seconds or so, the keyboard’s lights would dim, change rapidly between different colours and then returning to teal. During that brief colour cycle, the keyboard would stop responding, almost as if its controller was locked up for those moments – and that means, out of a sentence, you’d often be missing a letter or two. When typing, that’s annoying, but when gaming, that’s rage-inducing – especially when your Counter-Strike matchmaking rank is on the line. Suddenly, that reload you wanted to pull off before that next enemy came around the corner just wouldn’t happen – or that grenade you wanted to pull out remained in your back pocket, and instead of pulling the pin you were firing your weapon into a wall, uselessly.
In the end, the issue did work out to be fixable. While changing the effects and closing the software did nothing, turning down the backlight’s brightness just one level solved the issue. I’m happy to have found a solution, but it’s still a perplexing issue – and perhaps emblematic of the kind of corners that get cut in order to deliver a certain feature set at the lowest possible price.
Despite the brightness bug, I still found myself using the Basics keyboard for far longer than the review period required. Typing on those crunchy MX Blue switches is just satisfying, especially when you’ve got the house to yourself and you can create a joyous racket without worry. The full-size layout is convenient for a wide range of games, and the macro keys even came in handy for testing a few automation scripts. This is still a damn fine mechanical keyboard – and if you look on Amazon, by far the best option at the £20 price bracket.
There are strong alternatives that cost a little more from the likes of Tecknet, Havit and Qisan, but none of these offer a full UK layout, a wrist rest, macro keys and per-key RGB backlighting at the same low price that the Amazon Basics board does.
Unfortunately, that sub-£25 price point for this board is far from a given, with historical data showing that the keyboard has retailed for as little as £22 and as much as £60. You can certainly see the invisible hand of an algorithm in the price history graph, with characteristic ladders that show more-or-less daily price reductions to around £23 and then a sharp jump back to the £60 mark soon thereafter.
So – the Amazon Basics Mechanical Keyboard is definitely one to bookmark and check regularly, and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to catch it at that sub-£25 mark where it becomes exceptionally good value. As a risk-free introduction to mechanical keyboards, you won’t find much better – just don’t turn the brightness up all the way.
Got a little more to spend than £20? Check out our guides to the best gaming keyboards and the best mechanical keyboards. And if you want the absolutely least valuable item we’ve reviewed, check out I bought Puma’s £80 esports shoes so you don’t have to.
from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/04/amazons-23-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amazons-23-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net
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