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atthebell · 4 months

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this may become a sort of rant but i realised after reading your post about qcellbit that I kinda wish purgatory wasn't canon to the events of the qsmp ... like I thought purgatory would be The Event that brings everyone's individual lore together by forcing them to work together to save the eggs while also making them confront each characters association with the federation... which is why its called purgatory.

but the purgatory we got was lowkey minecraft punishment for 2 weeks. It was fun to watch! I just wish none of it was canon/had anything to do with the disappearance of the eggs

who are the eye workers? hows this relevant to everything we previously knew about the island? i wanna know if the eggs are real and alive outside the island but instead we got egg attacks with these eye fuckers which was happening with the codes anyway. sooo many unanswered questions and purgatory brought even more confusion

you are preaching to the choir nonnie lmao i don't want to be overly negative on here so ive tried to keep my complaining to a minimum but narratively i hated purgatory and yes it felt like two weeks of pure punishment. there were little to no rp opportunities, the lack of player agency was exhausting, and it felt like they were playtesting an event on server members rather than creating an event that would work for lore and be a fun event itself. two weeks was far too long, what does this have to do with the regular island, why did it have to interrupt so many people's lore, why the actual hell did cucurucho save the eggs and not the players (this one ill give some grace to bc so many people were on break and frankly i just needed the eggs back period. but it is one of the most disappointing story choices for me). i liked people getting to play together in new ways, but i wish it hadn't been so long and had been a non-canonical event in the first place. similar to the eggs going missing, i think the rp that has come out of it has been brilliant, but i think it did not need to happen this way.

for a while now it feels like players are no longer the main characters and in an attempt to make overarching lore make more sense and be more cohesive, there's been too much focus on federation npcs and the eye and cucurevil-- there's too many parties at play, and none of them should be the actual focus of the story. this is livestreamed roleplay. the server members should be the main characters. it is less entertaining and less meaningful narratively otherwise. i wish players had more agency again and there were more small, character focused bits of lore going on that weren't so focused on making sure everything is interconnected. i DO have faith that this could be the case again, i there's just been a rough patch for a bit that hopefully gets better.

also listen i do not call myself a cellbit main for a reason i watch a lot of different people and i think that's a better way to go at this type of medium. however, i think im allowed to acknowledge that for my preferred POV, which is cellbit, this has been torture. ive been avoiding talking about it because it felt like idk selfish or whatever or like I'm whining on his behalf which i don't need to do, but i think it's fair to be upset by how much this has fucked his lore because as a viewer it's been disappointing as hell (and not just for him but for other RP & investigation focused people). they helped him plan out the whole murder spree arc that was going somewhere before purgatory and then interrupted it entirely, they took away his best friend who he, atp, spends most of his time either building or investigating with and doesn't really want to play without, they did not provide any clues for finding the eggs nor any kind of investigation (until the minimes which. i don't need to tell you how that went but i can assure you it was the most negative cellbit has ever been about the server and he was still very polite about it).

i know he talked about the server moving from investigation centered storytelling to more pvp/conflict-centered storytelling, but, frankly, i don't think that's working out, especially not for him. and considering the break he's been on in part due to fatigue from purgatory i think this whole period of time has just not worked for what he wants to do with his character. i have faith he'll make it work, and i think the admin team is really good at addressing players' needs (especially cellbit who will just tell them all the stuff he wants), so i have faith in them as well. it's just frustrating considering how much it has sucked to be a qcellbit viewer for the last. idk two months if im being generous four if im not. it's hard bc im not a person who deals in idealism so i don't want to be like "i wish it all had never happened from this exact point" and i do like some of things that have come from rp post-eggs disappearing and even during and post-purgatory. so idk where im going with this anymore anyway i think there are ways to go about fixing this and making the narrative less clunky and focused on players again and allow for individual lore again, i just wish that that had remained the case continuously. sorry for the rant ill try to tag this appropriately

#asks #anons #neg #crit #idfk #i have wanted to complain about this for ages though so like. im happy to actually say all this #i keep seeing posts that come across to me as major copium and im like okay i get not wanting to be negative but we dont need to do all that #you can dislike things you just dont need to fet nasty about it #also i do not want to harp on this so dont send a bunch more asks about it #also this is me being as nice as i possibly can be despite how miserable it has been i hope that's clear #this is my ONE post where i get to kvetch as much as id like. maybe unless i decide to talk about it more

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reconditarmonia · 4 years

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Dear Chocolate Box Author

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3. I have anon messaging off, but mods should be able to contact me if you have any questions.

Dishonored | Fullmetal Alchemist | Machineries of Empire | The Penumbra Podcast | Simoun

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

Smut Likes: clothing, uniforms, sexual tension, breasts, manual sex, cunnilingus, grinding, informal d/s elements, intensity; stories whose resolution isn’t the sex scene.

A note: if we matched on an / ship, I generally don't require you to include a kiss, sex, or overt romantic language if you feel that you'd have to shoehorn it in. I'll trust that you wrote it with shippy intent.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships.

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Fandom: Dishonored

Ship(s): Delilah Copperspoon/Billie Lurk; Breanna Ashworth & Kirin Jindosh; Emily Kaldwin & Delilah Copperspoon

I find Delilah such a fantastic and fascinating villain, and I'd love to read more about her relationships with Billie or Emily. I’d love to know more about Billie’s time in Delilah’s gang - what does she see in Delilah, or Delilah in her, beyond using each other to get ahead, what do they want from each other? I imagine it might fascinate and please Delilah to have Billie’s submission and maybe even some level of trust - to do what? It'd be neat to read an AU of the end of KoD where Billie stays in Dunwall, whether she's won or lost against Daud - or even of the end of Brigmore Witches, if you want to AU Delilah's plot into something that doesn't put her into a child's body. Something addressing clothing (given the iconic costumes of both the Witches and the Whalers) and/or nudity? Something in the timeskip or DH2 timeframe? With regard to Emily, I'm specifically interested in adult Emily here - what happens if Emily doesn't escape at the beginning of DH2? (Or is captured at some point, I guess.) Delilah seems happy enough to keep her alive - does she make her a witch, want her in court as her niece? How does Emily feel about any of this as she learns about Delilah's past? Or, does Emily maintain a relationship with her aunt after the end of DH2, whether because there's a way to visit or communicate with her or in an AU where she's defeated differently and sticks around? How might Delilah's art fit into any of these scenarios? The differences in how they fight?

I would also love fic about Breanna and Jindosh's terrible friendship/working relationship. Is their distaste for everyone else enough to overcome their distaste for each other? Put them at a fancy party (Luca's or otherwise) kvetching about other people. Tell me more about the lead-up to the seance, or mutual projects where Breanna contributed more of the magic and Jindosh more of the science - or vice versa! Breanna's got a very scientific mind and career herself and Jindosh isn't above dabbling in Void shit. Get them drunk together one night. If you can futz with the numbers enough for it to make sense, write me an AU where they're in an arranged marriage and end up as a (secretly? idk) platonic power couple. (If you go with this version I'd prefer that you write Jindosh as gay or asexual.)

Fandom-Specific DNW/Exception: Please do not touch on Jindosh's nonlethal option in any way whatsoever. With regard to Delilah/Billie, I have dubcon in my general DNWs but with Delilah’s...everything it seems potentially unreasonable to categorically DNW it here. Billie going along with things because she feels like she should or must is fine (although I’d also be very game for fic about her desiring and wanting Delilah/this), but I still don’t want to read anything involving altered or removed ability to consent such as mind-altering magic, sex pollen, drugs, etc. Additionally, Delilah/Breanna is an exception to my unrequested ships DNW - feel free to include it in any of these requests.

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Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist

Ship(s): Scar & Original Ishvalan Character(s); Scar & Miles; Olivier Mira Armstrong & Miles & Briggs Soldiers

One of the things that really hit close to home about canon was the Ishval plot; I like that it’s important and not just backstory or setup for other stuff, and that there are multiple characters who are Ishvalan or of Ishvalan descent, rather than a genocide plot being a convenient reason to have one or no Ishvalan perspectives in the story. I’d really be interested in reading anything about, well, what do you do during or in the wake of a genocide: Miles’s seemingly increasing identification with his Ishvalan background; one or both of them in the post-canon rebuilding; what is is to be Amestrian *and* Ishvalan; what Scar (or OCs) are able to keep from their culture and community and what was lost (and what evolves), whether that’s in “Amestrian” cities and towns during or after canon, or in post-canon Ishval; saving the testimonies or the culture. Doesn’t need to be angsty if that’s not what you’re into; indeed, surviving/building a new life/finding joy/celebrating one’s culture and heritage after that kind of thing are meaningful too.

Or, Briggs and its mixture of heartwarming and id-satisfying loyalty kink. (The watch! Buccaneer handing Olivier a clean pair of gloves after she kills Raven! Constant and deeply sincere saluting! And Olivier's lack of patience for anyone's shit.) Either ordinary or extraordinary circumstances - daily life in the fort, a battle with Drachma where they work together seamlessly, surviving a storm or the typical winter cold - would make me happy, but I especially love those shows of loyalty. Entire Briggs Is Gay would also non-ironically be neat, as would other ways of exploring the idea of Briggs being a united wall made up of people with a lot of secrets and/or racial and gender differences.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Please don’t give Scar a name; I personally am fine eliding any narration issues with “how would he refer to himself in his own POV?” in my brain. I would also prefer that Ishvalan culture be worldbuilt rather than borrowed wholesale from a real-life culture.

—

Fandom: Machineries of Empire

Ship(s): Ajewen Cheris & Garach Jedao Shkan; Ajewen Cheris & Original Mwennin Characters; Ajewen Cheris/Neshte Khiruev; Moroish Nija/Shuos Feiyed; Vauhan Mikodez & Zehun

I've just recently gotten into this fandom, and I love the loyalty kink and the worldbuilding so much - I just want more! I'm partway through Revenant Gun now, so my prompts are somewhat unspecific, but I expect to be done with Glass Cannon by the time of reveals, so don't worry about spoilers.

Anyway, as I said, I love loyalty kink, including platonic loyalty kink - trust, gestures of loyalty, the times that trust or willingness to follow/lead is put under severe situational strain and holds, or the places where these things get thorny instead of straightforward because one character has to betray or hurt the other for the larger goal that they both believe in and work towards, or to keep the other safe. Some of the things I like in canon along these lines are Mikodez's showing Zehun the contingency plans in Raven Stratagem, and everything with "I'm your gun" (which I'm vaguely aware that I'm going to love even more by the time I'm caught up). Any story for Cheris & Jedao, Cheris/Khiruev, or Mikodez & Zehun that involved these tropes would be wonderful.

I'm also interested in the Mwennin subplot. I would love to know more about Cheris, Mwennin culture, and other Mwennin at any point before, during, or after canon. I also like the idea of Nija and Feiyed staying in touch after Feiyed rescues/recruits Nija, and Feiyed gradually learning about Mwennin culture as they start/continue a relationship - we know it can be adoptive, so does she even at any point start to consider herself part of it? (Or have them work together on a covert mission, no reason we shouldn't get loyalty kink in here too.)

Fandom-Specific DNW: I have dubcon in my general DNWs and would like to reiterate that I don't want to read formation instinct playing a part in a Cheris/Khiruev relationship.

—

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Ship(s): Miasma/The Proctor

What can I say? Criminal older female academics would be a GREAT ship. I'd love to see their first meeting at some conference or academic event (or criminal thing), or their first date, or the two of them working together on some scheme - does Miasma "consult" the Proctor, or does the Proctor want to create an exam based on Miasma's field of expertise, or are they both going for the same goal? What do they like about each other, or find frustrating about each other? (If you need to fudge the timelines to make it work, that's fine, but I'm definitely interested in the characters as middle-aged or older. Also fine by me if you want to somehow AU their fates to get them together in the "present" timeline.)

—

Fandom: Simoun

Ship(s): Any (Aaeru & Neviril & Paraietta & Rodoreamon & Floef & Vyuraf; Aaeru/Neviril; Mamiina & Neviril; Mamiina/Neviril; Neviril/Aaeru & Neviril/Paraietta; Paraietta & Neviril; Paraietta/Rodoreamon)

This is a perennial request for me and anything (other than, I guess, the slice-of-lifeiest slice-of-life) would make me very happy, but I'm particularly interested in the military side of the canon - how the war changes all the characters and their relationships with one another, how Everything is Beautiful and Then Shit Gets Real but amidst the war-is-hell there’s still the creation of bonds of trust and loyalty and chances to do what’s right (the bits with the Plumbish priestesses, for instance). Every character gets a chance to develop and make choices that are all brave in different ways. I'd love loyalty kink here, but I'm also up for Magic, for an exploration of the characters' adult lives on the other end of the series's coming-of-age, or nearly anything.

Some ideas - what happens post-canon if Neviril and Aeru make it back to the main world when war is brewing again, but Neviril has no one from the old cohort to lead because they can’t fly anymore? What does she do, or see her role as being - a leader for peace, for war? How do she and Aaeru interact with Paraietta, Rodoreamon, Floef, and Vyuraf?

What happens if due to magic or time weirdness, Mamiina is brought back? What happens between her and Neviril late in canon or post-canon? How do they see or value each other as fighters and leaders?

What's Paraietta and Rodoreamon's post-canon relationship like? They're building a life together and finding purpose in helping the war orphans, but they're also both veterans and neither of them is the other's lost love. Or I'd also love to see a during- or post-canon look at a situation where Neviril has relationships with both Paraietta and Aaeru, how she maybe needs different things from them, and how they also work together differently on the battlefield - or just a story about the relationship of Neviril and her long-loyal second-in-command Paraietta.

#dear author letters #dishonored #fma #machineries of empire #juno steel #simoun

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throughtheglassdarkly · 5 years

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Roadblocks, part 1

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” – Anne Lamott

Hey, you’re back. Welcome to hell.

So, after Pam got the note from Cassi, we all settled into our usual routine for a couple of days, but all of us were on edge. Bella ended up going back to work but asked us for some space. I started doing a little digging into some questions I had about what happened after I was taken. The others focused on getting their own projects done.

Our next big adventure started on an otherwise lazy Sunday morning. After the blowup with Day’s and Bella’s Fetches and hearing from Yova how her Fetch went bonkers, I realized I couldn’t ignore my Fetch anymore and I needed to track it down. My Facebook page gave me a few hints. Before I was taken, I had posts set to private, but check-ins and some photos were public. My Fetch hadn’t changed the security settings, so I was able to see that it was still doing things. I figured the best way to look for it was to simply re-trace my steps and go to the places I used to go before I was taken.

I ended up striking gold at my old apartment building. I was waiting around for about twenty minutes, trying to see some sign of life (the fading “O’NEILL, D.” sticker next to the buzzer at least let me know it hadn’t moved on) and was about to give up, when I saw it coming down the street carrying a couple bags of groceries. As it got up to the front of the building, it dropped its keys and sighed, kneeling down to pick them up. I steeled myself and stepped up, asking, “Need some help?”

It looked up at me and its eyes went about as wide as I’ve ever seen. Looking down at it was – unnerving. It was just like looking at myself before I was taken. A couple of years older, but the same messy hair, same beard growth, even the same glasses. The feeling passed after a moment, but for a second it was like I was questioning who I was. The Fetch started freaking out, trying to grab its keys and telling me it didn’t want any trouble.

I let out a sigh and reached out, jiggling the doorknob to the front door of the building in the way it used to let you open it even if you forgot your keys and propped the door for the Fetch. It looked wary but picked up its groceries and stepped inside. “Thanks,” it said, still looking like it was going to bolt at any second. “So why are you here?” I shrugged and said, “I got back. Wanted to see what was going on. If you were still here.” It shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “Well, I’m here,” it said. “You still doing data entry?” I asked. “Yeah,” it said. There was a minute of silence. I exhaled and asked the question I didn’t really want the answer to: “Let me guess, mom and dad haven’t reached out to you at all, have they?” It paused for a second and said, “No. And I feel like I should be pissed about that… but I’m really not.”

I didn’t know how to react to that. I haven’t told you a lot about my life before I got taken, but cliffs’ notes version is that my entire extended family is blue-collar Catholic mill workers and my folks didn’t react well at all when I came out. Not in the “Get out, we’re never talking to you again” routine, but in some ways that would have been easier. They just had a blow up and then refused to ever acknowledge it again. And over time, that turned into not really acknowledging me at all. When I learned that they hadn’t tried to contact me for the entire two and a half years I’d been gone, it… felt like something broke. Like it was just more confirmation that they really hadn’t cared about me at all. They didn’t even notice I was gone because they’d barely even noticed I was there.

My Fetch was waiting for me to say and do something, so I shook my head and told it that it could have my life, that I didn’t want it back. It slammed the door to my old apartment and I heard the deadbolt turn. I turned and started walking off. As I did, I saw a sleek red Mustang across the street, definitely a car that was out of place in my old neighborhood, with a driver wearing a scarf over her head and giant sunglasses, but she drove off before I could get a good look at her. My hands were shaking, so I put them in my hoodie pockets and just kept heading away.

While this was going on, Day was fixing up his office. He’d gotten a new ID and name, Lance Wilde, which I’d helpfully pointed out was also the name of several fine performers in man-on-man pornographic features. His office was nicely decorated, courtesy of Yova, but he’d been having trouble getting clients to come in. He heard a knock at the door and opened it to see Brenda standing there with some coffee. They had banter about his terrible new name and how she’d make a good wife someday. She ribbed him about not having any clients and he said, “Hey, it’s gonna happen! I just need a few high-profile clients!” “High-profile clients. In Albany,” she deadpanned.

It turned out that Brenda hadn’t just stopped by to give him a coffee – Bella’s parents were in town from Chicago and they’d filed a missing persons report. “They say she’s been missing for something like a few days now,” she said. Day took in a deep breath and said, “Oh, shit. That’s a big problem.” Brenda told him that she couldn’t dissuade them from looking for their kid, and that they were not going to just go away.

“Can’t we fake it by sending a note or something, make it look like she’s okay but going to be away for a while?” Day asked. Brenda scoffed and said, “You haven’t met her parents. And there were at least three siblings waiting outside while I was talking to them.” “Man, when things go wrong,” Day said, downing his coffee. Brenda said that she had to go to work and he asked if she wouldn’t mind going out to breakfast with him. “Do you actually want me to hang out with you?” she asked. He scoffed but admitted he missed their banter and she agreed to go get a breakfast sandwich with him. “Yes! You’re paying, right?” he asked. “Dude, I still have your tab from before you got grabbed,” she kvetched as they headed out.

Bella and Yova were having quiet mornings. Bella was at work, selling crystals, sage, and delicate hand-blown glass pieces that were totally not bongs to anyone who was stopping in. Yova was in DIY mode, hunched over her sewing machine and making a very fancy outfit for the upcoming Winter Formal. (She’d shown me some sketches and I told her that Marigold was going to be completely swept off her feet.) Both of them, however, were about to have things turned completely upside down, as were Day and I. And who was responsible for this? Dear, sweet, I-don’t-wanna-be-a-bother Pam.

Pam was having a rare lazy morning, sleeping in well past the time she’d set her alarm for. Changelings have pretty much near-control over our dreams: we can make them just how we want them to be, featuring anyone and anything we want in them. Pam was dreaming about the wonders of space, sitting and watching the stars and the expanse of the universe, while sipping a nice apple cider that maybe had just a touch of brandy in it. And that’s when the trouble started.

As Pam was enjoying her stargazing, she felt a ripple in the air and suddenly saw mossy greens growing up into her dreamscape. The path of stars she was sitting on became a forest floor and the comets started to become vines. She saw a small figure walking ahead, looking confused and walking around. Pam stood and walked toward the figure, closing the distance a lot quicker than she should have been able to, and greeting whoever it was. The hood the figure had on fell back and Pam saw Cassi, an absolute shit-eating grin on her face. “Oh, my God, I can’t believe that actually worked!” she said.

Pam gave Cassi a huge hug and told her how good it was to see her. Cassi squeezed back and said, “You would not believe the crap that’s been going down. There’s not a lot of time to explain, I don’t know how much time I’ve got here. Crap, where do I start? Quick, ask me a question.” Pam was a little startled, but asked, “How’s everyone doing?” “I’m fine, I think Adrian and Luca are fine, Belle’s probably not fine, but she’s never really been fine, so that’s not new. But yeah. Amberleigh’s still a bitch and everybody else is just trying to keep her happy, as far as I know. It’s been a while since I’ve been at the keep.”

“And you said you’re working on getting out, right?” Pam asked. “Yeah, actually, that’s a work in progress,” Cassi told her. “It’s more I’m trying to bust them out. When you guys left, Amberleigh went, like, shit hit the actual fan and she wasn’t too happy about us letting you guys go. I managed to get away, but she’s got the others locked up somewhere. I don’t know. I can’t get in, they shut off that cave entrance. There’s not a lot in the way of safeness for one changeling in the whole of Arcadia. So, I’m working on it.”

“And how did you find out about your dad?” Pam asked. “Well, I’m not exactly good at getting things in, but Adrian’s good at getting things out,” Cassi said with a sly smile. “He finds a way. I don’t know how he finds me – well, that’s not true, psychic, but that’s not important – the thing is I need help.” Pam promised to help and asked her what she needed. “I need people here. I need some sort of allies or tools or something to be able to get back in, but I don’t want – I can’t actually get back here if I leave. It’s weird, like only the fae know how to get back to Arcadia. Or only the people they let know. So, any way you guys can try to get back here would be great.”

Pam thought for a second and said, “I think Yova might know something about this.” She told Cassi about the Summer Court and its ideals, which Cassi thought was awesome. “But I don’t have a lot of time. I bought this dream teleporter thing off some weird guy and it’s probably going to blow up if I use it too much.” She told Pam to tell the rest of us she missed us and that when we got in, she was hiding near the border between Scáthach’s and Lamashtu’s territory. “Amberleigh’s been doing what Scáthach did, trying to snap up whatever she can. She’s actually doing a lot better job of it than Scáthach ever did.” With that, she vanished.

While Pam was dreaming a little dream of Cassi, Yova got a text from Marigold, asking her if Brenda was free for the interview she was hoping for that day. She signed off as she always did, “Best regards, Marigold.” Yova cooed a little over that, then told Marigold she would check in with Brenda. She called Brenda, who was halfway through Day eating the restaurant they were in out of house and home. Brenda told Yova that she could meet Marigold around dinnertime because she had a long shift ahead of her.

While Yova was on the phone with Pam, Pam sent out a group chat message to all of us, giving us the skinny on what her dream had been about. I was a few blocks away from my old apartment when I felt my phone buzz, pulled it out and stopped dead in my tracks, my head feathers sticking up and out in every direction. Day got the message and swallowed a sausage roll whole, making his way over to Pam’s quickly. Yova grabbed her work clothes and sped over in her new car (RIP her crappy Jeep, which met an ignoble end after it wouldn’t start in the Arby’s parking lot). I decided to run, burning up the pavement as fast as I could go. Day saw me coming down the street and started saying, “Hold up there, I don’t see a coyote.” I was in no mood, so I just kept going straight at him and jumped with all my force, barely clearing his head and continuing on up to Pam’s door. Yova pulled up just after this. Day seemed nonplussed.

You might notice that there’s one of us who didn’t react much to what was going on. Bella was at work and just kept going about her business, not responding to Pam’s text. It wasn’t long after this that she heard the bell chime and saw two uniformed police officers come in. Trying to play it cool, she said, “Oh, welcome! Can I offer you something from our selection of frankincense or sage? They’re very good at warding off malevolent spirits.” The cops looked like they wanted to say something snarky, but one of them said they wanted to talk to her about a missing person. Around this time, Professor Fauxlawney came in and asked what was going on. The cops filled her in and Fauxlawney asked Bella on the DL if she needed an immigration lawyer. Bella managed to keep from punching her in the face, suggesting that she spread some lavender. One of the cops asked Bella if she would be willing to come down to the precinct to answer some questions about a missing person she resembled. She agreed to go if they would let her call “her roommate.” She dialed Day’s number.

Back at Pam’s apartment, she was finishing up telling those of us who made it over what Cassi had told her. I would really love to say that I was keeping calm and collected, but I’d needed a paper bag to breathe in and out of since about halfway through her story. Yova and Day both came up with the idea of going to the Summer Court and asking them for help, though Yova also pointed out that Aurora could be a way to get back into Arcadia, and that we had the list of locations Buck had provided us about where she might be. Day’s phone rang and he got the call from Bella, who was trying to let him know how much shit was about to hit the fan. He got her to describe the cops and realized he knew one of them from his time on the force. “Okay, listen to me. You are obviously not who they are looking for, so just go along with them and we’ll figure some way to get you out of this,” he told her. They hung up and she agreed to go along with the cops. We all piled into Yova’s car and drove off to the station, putting a pin in our rescue planning for the moment.

On the way over to the station, the cops were trying to talk to Bella about who she was with the usual gentle coaxing they do to try and convince you that you aren’t in trouble. She managed to stay clammed up the entire time, so they just escorted her inside. And then the trouble started.

Bella saw her oldest brother, Antonio, arguing very heavily with one of the beat cops. And Bella, beautiful idiot that she is, immediately cracked. She called out to him and he ran over, scooped her up, and gave her a huge hug. She started crying. He asked her where she’d been and she pulled the classic little sister move by crying so loud the glass in the station windows started cracking. Through her hiccoughing and crying she asked him if they could go somewhere else and he practically dragged her outside.

In the car, we were discussing the various ways in which we might try to get Bella out of this mess. And it was around then that I heard my phone ding. I looked at it and saw a message from Bella. “Hi, Derek! I’m with my brother outside the station right now!” along with a couple of happy emojis. I paused, staring at it for a few minutes. Then when Yova came to a stop at a red light, I said, “Hey guys? I just got a text from Bella. She’s hanging out with her brother right now.” All the oxygen got sucked out of the car. Yova wordlessly reached over to the Bluetooth and changed the song playing to “O Fortuna.”

I texted back, “Just stay where you are, don’t say anything crazy, and try to stay calm so that when we get there, we can strangle you properly.”

Antonio and Bella ended up sitting in a park outside of the station and he asked her what the hell happened. “Why did you guys freak out so bad?” she asked. He told her that she’d dropped off the face of the earth and hadn’t posted on Facebook or Instagram for two days and wasn’t answering her phone. “If you’re getting second thoughts, that’s one thing, but you can’t just leave and not tell anybody,” he told her. This, combined with the ring, finally made the synapses in her brain connect and she realized her Fetch did get engaged.

“No, I don’t want to get married,” she said. “Oh, thank God,” he said. He told her that he could cover for her until she broke things off with Carlos, but that they should get dinner that night and that almost their entire family was in town. “What? Why are they all here?” she asked. “We were worried,” he said. Bella wasn’t sure about dinner and was particularly worried about her dad, but Antonio told her that their dad was probably going to just be glad she was alive. “Carlos wasn’t… hurting you, was he? Because if I need to break some knees…” he said. She cut him of at the pass and said absolutely not, that she just realized she was not ready at all to get married.

“I’m just glad you decided on things a month in and not right before the wedding,” Antonio told her, much to her relief. He realized she needed some space and said he would head out, but made her promise to call him later that day. “I’ll talk to mom and dad, but you know we’re not getting out of dinner,” he said. “Maybe I can postpone it a couple of nights, but they’re going to want something for coming all the way out here.” As he was about to leave, he took a second look and asked, “By the way, when did this goth look happen?” She shrugged and said, “Well, it’s kind of always been in there, but when you have to be a certain way for everyone else…” He gave her a hug and told her he’d call her later before he made his way off.

We’d pulled up outside the park shortly before Tony left and Yova was the one to take the lead, heading up to Bella and sitting down next to her, asking if things worked out okay. Bella was still shaken but realized things worked out better than they might have. “And apparently she got engaged to somebody,” she told Yova. Yova gently tried to remind her that we told her about that the night of the rave. “I don’t remember any of it,” Bella said. She squared her shoulders and told Yova how Tony wanted her to go have dinner with her family. “Do you want to go have dinner with them?” Yova asked. Bella started crying, talking about how much she missed her family, and Yova hugged her, suggesting they go back to Pam’s and talk about something else so she could get her mind off it. Bella agreed and we all got back into Yova’s car, heading to Pam’s.

Our first order of business was trying to figure out who, if anybody, we could call about getting backup on storming the castle. Pam reiterated what she’d told Cassi about the Summer Court and Day and Yova both agreed that it sounded like something along the lines of what the Summer Court was all about. “Do you think the Autumn Court might also be able to help?” Pam asked me. I thought for a second and said, “I’ll try calling Stella. She’s not going to want to come, but she might be able to tell me who can help us. Or who can help us crack the riddle about getting them out. And I’m going to call Evain, too. He’ll definitely be on board.”

I stepped out onto the balcony for some privacy and called Stella’s number. It rang and rang and just as I thought it was going to go to voicemail, she picked up. “It’s Stella, state your business,” she said with her trademark warmth and sympathy. “Hi, Stella, it’s Derek. I was wondering if maybe you could help point me in the right direction of anyone in our Court who knows how to deal with a couple of things that might seem completely unrelated at first but actually have a lot more to do with each other than it looks,” I said. “Speak,” she told me. “First, anyone who might be able to help us get back into Arcadia and break out some of our friends who we had to leave behind when we escaped, and second, anyone who might know how to untangle contracts and agreements with the True Fae.” There was a single beat of a pause. Then she said, “As to the first inquiry, are you insane? And as to the second, possibly. I will look into it and call you back within the hour.” I got out, “Thanks, Ste-” before I heard the *click* on the other end.

The second call I made was to Evain. Like Stella’s call, it rang for a few times before he answered, saying, “Hey, Derek, what’s up?” I said, “Hey, buddy. Wanted to let you know we’re about to break back into Arcadia to try and bust Cassi and our other friends out and I was checking to see if you wanted in?” A full thirty seconds of dead silence went by. Then he said, “Yes. Yes, I do. Holy shit. I would be insulted if you thought I didn’t want in.” We talked for a few minutes about supplies or anything we might get and he told me that he’d ask around, but things were probably going to be difficult to find outside of the Goblin Markets. “Oh, and just so you know, Cassi says she’s punching you in the face when she sees you,” I said. He paused for a second and said, “Yeah, that’s fair. I deserve it.” “You totally do. Catch you soon, dude,” I said.

While I was doing this, Yova was calling the Summer Court. She only had the one number to contact and was hoping to get Cahir and not Dania on the line. However, she ended up hearing a new voice she hadn’t encountered before, a woman’s voice that was inviting and oily all at the same time. She introduced herself as The Red Lady and asked Yova what she could do to help. Yova explained the situation and the Red Lady said, “Interesting. I’d love to hear the story, but I’m frankly not sure what the benefit to our Court would be and the resources spent would be extreme, to say nothing of the risks.” Yova was grinding her molars by this point, but she had to admit The Red Lady had a point when she said, “We’re here to keep the Fae at bay, not to pick fights.” Yova did her best to schmooze The Red Lady by asking if there was any information or advice she could get, which The Red Lady seemed to think was fair enough. She thanked Yova for passing the information along and hung up.

Yova joined me out on the balcony, where I was white-knuckling the railing. She pulled out a cigarette and asked me if I wanted one. “No thanks, I don’t smoke, even though I would look so grown-up doing so,” I said. She gave me a look and held it out. I sighed and said, “Fine,” then took it and put it in my mouth, chewing on it. Pam, Bella, and Day came over to the frame by the balcony and we tried to figure out what our next step was going to be. “I hate to say it, but I think it’s time for us to pay an old friend a visit,” Yova said. “Yeah. She is definitely overdue on hearing from us,” I said. “This whole thing is freaking nuts,” Day said. “But what choice do we have? We can’t leave them there. We already left them there once,” Yova said.

I straightened my back, looking out over the city and thinking about what had happened that day. From the queasiness over talking to my Fetch to Bella actually managing to get her life back to the possibility of getting everyone – especially Adrian – back, it had been a complete roller-coaster of a day. “Yeah. We’re not leaving them there. I’m not going to leave them there,” I said.

And that’s as good a place as any to stop for now. Next time, war preparations and other shenanigans. Until then, stay safe and may you never get snubbed by your doppelganger.

#Changeling: The Lost #ctl #changeling #ic #recap #the answer is yes stella we are completely insane for even attempting this

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Review: Weber Genesis II LX Grill

Durk Rion

A few nights after I got the new Weber Genesis II LX grill on my roof deck, I texted my buddy Ted, proposing beer and burgers at my place. I’ve reviewed Weber’s grills before and fully expected this one, the latest addition to its line of sturdy and well-made propane grills, to stand out as a high-end weekend warrior.

Weber Genesis II LX Grill

4/10

Learn How We Rate

Wired

A big, beefy grill with quality components that will likely withstand years of use.

Tired

Seemingly untested by Weber, this grill struggles to nail the grilling fundamentals. At a whopping $1,400 (and up), its almost impossible to make a strong case for this grill.

Buy It Now | Weber

How We Rate

1/10A complete failure in every way

2/10Sad, really

3/10Serious flaws; proceed with caution

4/10Downsides outweigh upsides

5/10Recommended with reservations

6/10Solid with some issues

7/10Very good, but not quite great

8/10Excellent, with room to kvetch

9/10Nearly flawless

10/10Metaphysical perfection

Oh, hell yes! Ted replied less than a minute later. Gentleman that he is, he even brought the beer.

I crisped up buns on the hot grate and grilled thumb-thick patties, giving one side more time than the other in order to brown them while avoiding what my dad would call “cooking it into a coma.” They made for some pretty fantastic weeknight burgers. But after more rigorous testing, the grill proved to have some serious weaknesses. This thing is built like a tank, but it’s surprisingly underpowered.

Next in Line

The Genesis II follows Weber’s hallowed three-burner Genesis line, and theres some nice thinking here. Along with the quality youd expect from Weber—these are the guys behind the famous Weber kettle grill, the highly lauded, gas-powered Spirit line, and exciting newer models like the kamado-style Weber Summit Charcoal—this grill comes with a fancy new “grease management system.” Laugh if you will, but anyone whos ever gone after a long-neglected grease pan with a putty knife or accidentally lit a grease tray ablaze while preheating will appreciate a grill that funnels grease toward a disposable drip pan.

I reviewed a grill in the LX series, which comes with a few more BTUs of heat and some additional bells and whistles. (The Genesis II line includes eight models altogether.) There’s a stainless-steel grill grate, a storage cabinet beneath the grill, and a light that attaches to the lid handle to illuminate whatever youre cooking. You can find similar features in other grills or buy them as after-market add-ons, but having them built into the model is a nice touch.

Less necessary are little LEDs that light up the dials. I turned them on and the button immediately got stuck. As far as I know, it’s still stuck and the lights are still on. Theres also an LED that indicates how full the propane tank is, but its right around the corner from the manual tank scale that tells you, at a glance, how full the propane tank is. So, there are two fuel gauges right next to each other, which display exactly the same information.

The grill is also iGrill 3 Ready, which is to say, you can buy an iGrill 3—a type of remote thermometer—and stick it in the spot where the LED gas gauge goes. But I wouldnt. iGrills can monitor the temperature of a couple things at once—say, the interior temperature of a thick cut and the temperature inside the grill—and deliver that information to an app on your phone via Bluetooth. The problem is that iGrill 3 has no built-in readout. That means if you’re standing in front of the grill, you’d have to open an app just to read the temperature on the thermometer directly under your nose. Apps and Bluetooth connections can be great additions to cooking hardware, but in cases like this, they also get in the way. The iGrill 2 has an easy-to-read LED on its base that displays temperature; having no readout on the iGrill 3 is straight-up dumb.

Blown Away

One of the best ways to test a grill’s capabilities is setting it up for two-zone grilling. Indirect cooking relies on getting the temperature to hold at specific points, whether its just to cook a chicken breast through or the hours-long process of cooking pork butt. Youre not searing—just using the grill like an oven to cook the food the way you want it. If you can create a hot zone of direct heat above blazing burners for searing and a cooler indirect zone to to cook food through without scorching, you know you’ve got a grill worth its burners.

I started with an empty, closed grill, trying to reach that indirect zone heated to two benchmark temperatures: first 225 degrees Fahrenheit, then 325 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a chilly 40 degrees outside with winds blowing 14 miles per hour—not ideal conditions, but nothing that a well-made grill can’t handle.

The Genesis II line offers grills with two, three, four, and six burners. I tested one of the three-burner models, which made for an odd two-zone grilling experiment: I had to choose if I wanted the heat coming from one or two burners, taking up one- or two-thirds of the grill.

Using only the left burner, I tried coaxing the unlit right two-thirds up to a consistent 225 degrees, after letting the grill preheat for 15 minutes. I had centered a temperature probe on the indirect side, allowing me to keep the lid down for consistency in testing.

Try as I might, I couldnt get the temperature to stabilize. Full-blast was too much; if I backed off, the temperature quickly dipped. I spent 25 minutes fussing with the burner knob every few minutes, at which point I gave up, feeling like I was driving a boat that just didn’t have the power to sail upwind.

Next, I lit the center burner for backup. I found a sweet spot after a few minutes with half power on the left burner and a trickle in the center, which seemed acceptable considering the wind. I nudged up the heat, trying to get up to a steady 325 degrees on the indirect side, but it needed constant adjustment to get anywhere close to consistent temperature. With two of three burners going on a windy (but not that windy) day, this is a big flop.

A few days later, when it was warmer and less breezy, I tried again. It took took 20 minutes post preheat, but I finally hit my 225 degree benchmark using just the left burner. More than that, though, was too much to ask of just one burner. Two burners could reach higher temps quickly, leaving just a third of the grill available for indirect grilling. On the grill grate of the three-burner model I tested, which is just over 500 square inches, that’s probably enough space to cook for a family of four, but not much more than that.

A Searing Disappointment

The other gas-grilling weak spot I hoped this Weber could overcome is obtaining a good, hard sear. I picked up a ribeye and let the grill preheat for 15 minutes, which left the heat deflectors glowing orange. I patted the steak dry, salted and peppered it, then set it on the grill and let it rip for five minutes on a dial setting Weber calls High+, the LX line’s version of going to 11. It came out pleasingly caramelized yet not overdone in the center. Decent for a gas grill, but still nothing exceptional.

Grill companies are starting to get the hang of better searing capabilities, even adding little “sear burners” for the task. Webers leaning in that general direction with High+, but the burners are almost six inches from the top of the grill grate, which is simply too far away to get a hard sear. I could get a better, more even sear in my cast-iron pan sitting on the grills side burner.

Id discover in later tests that while the conduction heat–where the food is in direct contact with the grill grate–tended to be quite good, it wasn’t enough to make it into the spaces between the grates for effective browning. Only by hopscotching the food around the grill grate could I come up with something close to an even sear. This grill’s burners go to 11, but thats still not high enough.

Overall, the Genesis II LX is well-built, comes with a great warranty, and will doubtlessly last a long time. But Id happily trade many of the bells and whistles of the LX line for a grill that can give me a blistering sear and enough power to keep the indirect cooking temps dependable.

With those weaknesses and–have a seat–the $1,400 price tag on the three-burner model, I just cant recommend it. Results might vary slightly between the two-, four-, or six-burner models, but even still, it’s just too much money to spend on something so surprisingly underpowered.

Food writer Joe Ray (@joe_diner) is a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of The Year, a restaurant critic, and author of Sea and Smoke with chef Blaine Wetzel.